This piece focuses on votes at the UN General Assembly. Later pieces in this series will cover African voting at UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Council. Read the first in the series for an overview of Israel-Africa ties.
For the first time, American Jews and Israelis have a chance to develop a relationship between Jewish grown-ups. We need to recognize each other’s achievements, and understand, if not indulge, each other’s failures (which are often a consequence of geographic circumstance).
At a time when the world is polarized, and our region faces challenges of all kinds, multilateral efforts to achieve common objectives, such as the Summit of the Americas now underway in Lima, Peru, should be welcomed – and called on to deliver results.
Even for a nation quite used to dramatic news, what happened within the span of four days – from Shabbat morning to Tuesday evening – came as a shock to Israelis.
The recent thaw in Israeli-Saudi relations must be understood in the context of the lengthy Saudi Arabia-Iran cold war, and, more generally, the larger conflict between Sunnis and Shi’ites.