Nice Speech, Mr. President
Obama said all the right things in Jerusalem, but what next? The visit has offered nothing new on the programmatic side, no plan for going forward.
Israel / Palestine
Obama’s visit to Israel: Embrace the victory of politics over substance
If Obama begins to grasp the tribal, fluid and divided nature of Israeli politics and how to impact Israeli voters and their leaders, then this visit might be worth something after all.
Lost Tribes
The Israeli election on Jan 22 is not about Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. It is best understood as a “Tribes of Israel” election that will take identity politics to a new level and may accelerate Israel's journey towards hegemonic nationalism.
Sanctions: a useful but flawed alternative to war
Sanctions are the EU's sole coercive instrument of power short of military action (Brussels, mercifully, does not engage in warfare). The EU needs to understand their impact so that it can use them more effectively.
The Palestine UN vote and Europe
European countries are split over recognising Palestine at the United Nations, but moving foward, Daniel Levy offers seven points to takeaway from a European perspective.
A European “maybe” for Palestine
Although EU members have not reached a concensus on recognising Palestine at the United Nations, the arguments in favour of European recognition outweigh the arguments against.
Seven takeaways from the Gaza ceasefire
Did Israel's “Operation Pillar of Defense” change the politics of the Middle East? Who are the winners and losers of the Gaza conflict – and what's next after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire?
New world, same old Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to show that nothing in Israel's security situation has changed. But in the wake of the Arab Uprising the Middle East is a different place and Israel needs to reconsider its whole strategy.
Israel: Living by the sword
What was the assessment that prompted Israel's operation in Gaza and what might that tell us about its intended outcome and trajectory? Of course the timing can be explained with the approaching elections in Israel. But that is only part of the story.
Plenty of war clouds but no daylight in Governor Romney’s speech
Mitt Romney's foreign policy speech focused almost exclusively on the broader Middle East region. But what he really advanced was a policy of weaponised Keynesianism.