Whether Palestinian elections can help or hinder the resumption of talks will depend on the outcome – if the voting actually takes place – and ultimately on Abbas’s posture, or that of his successor.
By ruling that those who undergo Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel should be considered Jews under the Law of Return, the High Court of Justice both took a stand for Jewish peoplehood and upheld Israel’s national commitment to equality and religious freedom. The decision does honor to the country’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.
The past year’s transformational shifts in the Middle East and the launch of a U.S. fund to promote cooperation provide a rare opportunity for diplomatic success by the Biden administration. The Lowey Fund and Abraham Accords offer a new way forward.
The Assad family has ruled Syria for 50 years, but Bashar’s war against the Syrian people has in many ways destroyed the country that he inherited from his late father, Hafez. Syria remains a tinderbox, with potential conflagrations that could affect all its neighbors. The Biden administration should consider a fresh approach to the Syria crisis as it weighs US engagement with the Middle East region.
“If Only Israel (IOI) syndrome,” a term I began using several years ago, is the misguided notion, peddled in the name of Israel's “best interests” by some in the diplomatic, academic, and media worlds, that if only Israel did this or that, peace with the Palestinians would be at hand.