Despite Jewish Concerns, Obama Keeps Up Pressure on Israel

President Barack Obama has concluded that Israel and the Palestinians are unlikely to achieve peace unless they’re under external pressure to make the requisite compromises. Believing that a two-state solution is in the best interests of both parties and that time is running out for such a solution, the President is stepping up the pressure on both sides. That was Obama’s message at a White House meeting on July 13 with representatives of leading Jewish-American organizations, some of whom have lately complained that the President is unfairly pressuring Israel to make concessions on West Bank settlements, while going easy on the Palestinians.

Share

Fugitive U.S. white supremacist captured in Israel

A fugitive American white supremacist was arrested Monday in Israel, ending an international manhunt that began in 2007, Israeli and U.S. officials said. Micky Louis Mayon, one of the 100 most wanted people in the United States, was taken into custody in southern Tel Aviv after Israel received information from Interpol indicating he was there.

Share

Amnesty: Israel killed hundreds of Gaza civilians

Israeli troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilian adults and children, broke laws and committed war crimes during their winter offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International said in a scathing report released Thursday. The human rights group also pointed a finger at Hamas and other Palestinian militant organizations in its 117-page report. Hamas and other Palestinian groups committed war crimes by firing hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, killing three Israeli civilians, injuring scores and driving thousands from their homes, according to the report

Share

In a Lurch Toward the Center, Netanyahu Backs Palestinian State

If the 300,000 West Bank settlers identified by the American President as an obstacle to Middle East peace were expecting Bibi Netanyahu to support their cherished dream of an Israel stretching from the Jordan to the Mediterranean sea, they were disappointed on Sunday night. The right wing leader instead took a sharp and unexpected lurch to the center and said he’d support a two-state solution, meaning something called Palestine is a step closer to being inked onto their 3,000-year-old Biblical map. To his credit, clench-jawed Netanyahu could have used the re-election of Israel’s favorite bogeyman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran to raise the usual security alarms and resort to time-tested fear-mongering

Share