[Speech as prepared for delivery]
What I would like to suggest is, the quiet, the manageability of the Israeli-Palestinian situation covers important dynamics below the surface and to suggest that the Trump administration could play in some way, an unintended role in accelerating those dynamics.
So, I am going to look at five things:
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What to make of this US administration on Israel-Palestine, where is the continuity, where is the change and what is driving it?
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How that impacts Israeli dynamics.
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How that impacts Palestinian dynamics.
The question whether “liberal Zionism” can survive the far right trends that now dominate Israel’s political life was raised forcefully in the
New York Times by its columnist Michelle Goldberg. It was prompted by Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which Goldberg described correctly as “another nail in the coffin of ‘liberal Zionism’.”
While the reactions to Trump’s initiative have not yet fully played out, much is already evident. To begin with, they have exposed the stunn...
It is with much sadness that we note the passing of our International Board member and Senior Advisor Peter Sutherland.
Peter, who absented himself from our International Board meetings in recent years because of his long battle with cancer, made major contributions to many areas of international life. Ending the Israel-Palestine conflict was one of his major concerns.
Peter chaired one of the U.S./Middle East Project’s major projects in 2002, when we produced a study, funded by the Makhzoumi Foundation, that resulted in an important publicati...
With the likelihood of his being indicted and speculation as to his longevity in office reaching unprecedented levels, Netanyahu struck back. In a support rally convened by his Likud Party, Netanyahu accused “the thought police in the media,” together with the left, and supported by the Palestinians, of conducting an “unprecedented, obsessive witch-hunt campaign” against him and his family. Their goal, he claimed, was to stage “a government overthrow” to topple “the national camp.” Both the style and substance of Netanyahu’s fiery...
