Home ยป Blogs
By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on March 15th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Over the last several months, Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, and Barack Obama, the US president, have led the campaign praise for Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, despite his extremist views.

Peres, for long Netanyahu's political nemesis and considered the architect of the 1993 Oslo Peace Process along with Mahmoud Abbas, commended the right-wing Likud leader's stance on peace as "brave and real".

The Obama administration spoke in a similar tone, noting and praising Netanyahu's acceptance of the principle of a two-state solution and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, celebrated the unprecedented 'limited temporary freeze on settlement'!

The message from Israel and the US has been clear: Give Netanyahu a chance. He means business. 

Netanyahu, who boasts of knowing US power politics better than most since his tenure in New York as ambassador to the UN, seems to have outsmarted his US counterpart.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on February 23rd, 2010

avigepa2565.jpg

By Alan Fisher in Europe, Middle East on November 13th, 2009
Photo by Reuters

It's all about joining the dots.

The visit of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Paris is the latest step in a process which could bring peace talks with Israel.

The two sides talked last year with the Turks as mediators. The Gaza War brought those discussions to an abrupt halt.

Now in the last 10 days, there's been some significant movement, which in some quarters is inspiring hope of renewed talks.

First, the Turkish foreign minister popped over to Paris. It's understood he was briefing the French on how far things had developed last year.

Then, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu arrived for lunch on Wednesday and stayed for nearly two hours.

Those close to him say he's willing to talk to the Syrians again "without preconditions".

By John Terrett in Americas on November 10th, 2009
Photo by AFP

Binyamin Netanyahu addressed a major American Jewish conference at a big hotel in Washington, DC on Monday and argued there's still life in the moribund peace process.

"My goal is to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians and soon ... it's high time that we stopped negotiating about the negotiations - lets get on with it. Lets move."

At one point, his speech was interrupted by a lone protester. "I have to say I got a better reception at the United Nations," he joked.

Among the rest of his audience, however, there was a far warmer welcome for the Israeli leader.

"I can't say whether they've done enough - enough is a hard word to say - but the attitudes - and I've been there many times - is that peace is what they want," one audience member said.

Syndicate content