In mid-May 1967, massive Egyptian forces began entering the Sinai Peninsula, a blatant violation of the understandings reached under the auspices of the US administration after Operation Kadesh. The core of the understandings was that Sinai was to remain a demilitarized zone, in which UN forces would be stationed in order to separate between Israel and Egypt. President Gamal Abdel Nasser went even further than deploying his army in Sinai and at the same time ordered the UN forces to leave Sinai and Gaza. He claimed that Egypt was...
Recent years have witnessed the gradual emergence of closer relations between the State of Israel and a number of “pragmatic” Arab Gulf states, manifested in a growing number of cautious measures of normalization. This process reached a new height with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Oman, the first public visit in 22 years of an Israeli prime minister to the sultanate. To be sure, Israel’s relations with Oman are not new, but the publicity surrounding Netanyahu’s visit – in addition to the official presence of...
Senior officials within the Iranian regime have long been convinced that American administrations have striven to infiltrate Iran’s internal system and topple the Islamic regime, and this impression has been bolstered of late. For its part, even if the Trump administration has not presented a defined position on regime change in Iran, it undoubtedly has a clear interest in this regard. Yet the US administration has no concrete ability to bring about regime change in Iran in the desired direction – not by supporting internal...
Israel, the United States, and the Struggle over the Settlement Construction Freeze, 2009-2010 sketches the long and winding road President Barack Obama took during his first two years in office to bring about an Israel-Palestinian agreement. Based on a wide range of sources and the testimony of senior members of the US administration and the Israeli government, the book describes how US-Israel relations deteriorated to the verge of a severe crisis. The author analyzes the reasons and constraints that kept an agreement from being...
President Trump’s statements during his recent visit to the Middle East reflect a profound commitment to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. To this end, President Trump is demonstrating his desire to avoid the mistakes of the preceding administration, which was not successful in advancing an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Nevertheless, despite the different “spirit” that President Trump brings with him regarding the peace process, it is difficult to understand the basis of his firm belief in his ability to “close...
The Obama administration nears the end of its tenure frustrated by its failure to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and it appears that by the end of its term, it seeks to have laid the groundwork for a new framework regarding the process. The Israeli government should therefore make a concerted effort in the existing circumstances to reach understandings with the Obama administration on questions involving the peace process and the settlements. This would likely assist Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade the American...
On August 5, 2015, President Barack Obama delivered an address that included criticism of Israel’s stance on the nuclear agreement with Iran. Although his specific remarks were particularly poignant, the overall message was not new. Indeed, regular statements by the President, Secretary of State Kerry, and other leading members of the administration since the agreement was signed in Vienna are intended to persuade Congress and US public opinion of the value of the nuclear agreement and why it merits United States approval. The...
The Obama administration’s strong desire to reach an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue, along with the administration’s perceived need to respond to the criticism leveled against it following the Lausanne understandings, have led it to sharpen the rhetoric invalidating the military option against Iran. This position by the US administration requires the advancement of a clear alternative position based on a credible military option that is capable of setting the Iranian nuclear program back many years; senior US military...
Recent statements by President Obama on the Israeli-Palestinian political process include a number of interesting and even new aspects. First, the President demonstrated a clear intention to maintain a balanced approach toward Israel and the Palestinians. Second, his comments reflected his inclination to draw away from his commitment to achieve a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian agreement – a goal he had embraced since his entry into office. Rather, he expressed clear support for measured and limited steps, mainly of an economic...
In his State of the Union address on January 20, 2015, President Barack Obama stated that Iran’s progress toward achieving military nuclear capability had been halted and its stockpiles of materials with nuclear potential reduced as a result of the dialogue on the nuclear issue between the world powers (the P5+1) and Iran. Obama’s sentiments were reiterated by Secretary of State Kerry and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power. This was the backdrop for the administration’s expressed dissatisfaction with Israeli Prime Minister...
After the Israeli elections, the US administration might intensify its efforts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Moreover, despite President Obama’s image as a lame duck, the fact that he is nearing the end of his second term in office may actually stir him to expend greater energy to promote an Israeli-Palestinian political settlement, in part through increasing pressure on Israel to soften its positions. Furthermore, it is not inconceivable that when he brings the weight of his office to bear on...
In his address to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2014, President Obama spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, asserting that the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza Strip “is not sustainable.” An important and even dramatic change reflected in the President’s comments from past addresses was his disengagement from the concept that he and various administration officials had propounded since he entered the White House: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the source of most, if not all, of US troubles...
