Living in Israel, I often think about the Palestinian situation. For years, there was talk of a Two-State Solution. It first became a significant discussion in the early 90s during the Oslo Peace Process. That talk has faded, and almost no one in Israel or Palestine thinks it is possible. Frankly, I don’t think it … Continue reading
Category Archives: Middle East
Piece Plan
I read the 180 page Peace to Prosperity plan. The bulk of the plan is in the first 40 pages. The rest are appendixes. I was going to write up a detailed analysis of it but frankly, it is not worth the time and effort. It does represent a fair amount of work on the … Continue reading
Tribalism and me
It has been more than six months since I have posted. One of you actually wrote to me asking me to continue to write. I began this blog in 2006. For several years before, I was struggling to write a book on the history of broadband. I discovered that at least for me, writing a … Continue reading
Jerusalem: It’s complicated
The status of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel has gotten a lot of attention recently because President Trump declared that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital while not saying anything about its status as the Capital of a future Palestinian State. The purpose of this blog post is to lay out some of the facts that … Continue reading
Israel/Palestian Post Obama
I have not written much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for some time. I was busy with the US election. The recent UN resolution singling out Israeli Settlements and then the recent speech by John Kerry at the UN makes me feel that I have to say something about this very complicated situation. Avram … Continue reading
The Iran deal…is it the beginning of the end? or the end of the beginning?
I really don’t know how I feel about the deal with Iran. I tend to look at this situation from the eyes of an American/Israeli and the existential threat that a nuclear Iran represents. Through these eyes, it looks like the beginning of the end. The end of Israel. Once Iran demonstrates that it has … Continue reading
If you don’t like the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, blame Jesus!
Those that are regular readers of this blog, know that I think and write often about the Israeli/Palestine conflict. I thought I had a deep knowledge of this subject and was really surprised when I learned about the importance of the Christian Zionist movement. About seventy million evangelist born-again Christians in the United States believe … Continue reading
We must eradicate ISIS
I was listening to On Point, or better said its podcast, about Sexual Violence under ISIS, and all of a sudden I realized this was not about politics. This was not about war. No, this was about evil. I have been following a lot of discussion amongst my friends and in the media about the … Continue reading
The Syrian Strategy: How the USA, Russia and Israel collaborated to keep Assad in power
More than a year ago, Israeli diplomats engaged the Americans in a discussion about the situation in Syria. Obama had already issued his “red line” warning about the use of chemical warfare by the Assad regime. Then Assad when ahead and gassed his own people in the tradition of his neighbor, Iraq. Obama was not only concerned about this act but also concerned that these weapons could end up in the hands of Islamic Terrorist and be used against American targets and allies. Russia, on the other hand, wanted to keep Assad in power as he was one of the few world leaders over which Russia still had influence. Israel, who knew more about what was going on in Syria than any other country including Syria, did not want to see Assad go. He was the devil they knew.
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The Greening of Gaza: Hummus not Hamas
As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That is exactly what is happening in Gaza now. Israel has no choice, but to defend itself Given the current situation that confronts Israel with Hamas shooting thousands of missiles, building tens of massive … Continue reading