In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

08/07/08: How to Deal with Jerusalem —Lt. Col. (Res.) Ron Shatzberg, Project Director, Economic Cooperation Foundation. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.
08/07/08: How to Deal with Jerusalem —
08/05/08: Why Did Maliki Call for a Timeline? —by Christopher Kojm who teaches at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and is a former senior advisor to the Iraq Study Group. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Already Divided

“Even the Arab minority in the city has shown its preference for living under Israeli rule, as many have moved to the Israeli side of the security barrier being built around Jerusalem. Their choice is reasonable, as Jerusalem offers the quality of life of a modern western city while only a few kilometers away the norm is a third world standard of living, chaos and religious intolerance. An undivided Jerusalem is the best guarantee of a better life for all Jerusalemites.”
—Nathan Diament, Director of Public Policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, July 23, 2008

“Those who believe that Jerusalem should not be divided, and mean by that that the Arab neighborhoods should not be separated from the city, should be the first to insist that an active policy be adopted by the government and the municipality to improve the lot of local Arab residents. Barring that, Jerusalem will continue to remain a divided city.”
—Moshe Arens, former Israeli defense and foreign minister (Likud), “A Story of Neglect,” Haaretz, July 28, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Israel Releases 199 Palestinian Prisoners —
Significant Lebanese-Syrian Meeting Overshadowed by Bombing —
The Challenge of Jerusalem —Prof. Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, head, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies; professor of international relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Blair’s Northern Ireland Achievment

July 27, 2007

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

Founding negotiations
Blair helped initiate the peace process between Unionists and Republicans, which led to the Good Friday Agreement by promoting the Framework Documents, the Mitchell Report on decommissioning, and the criteria for inclusion in all-party talks. He also participated in the "final and intensive" negotiations that led to the Agreement.

Implementation of accords
The British and Irish governments signed the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998 but it was not fully implemented until July 28, 2005. Tony Blair played a key role in the execution of the accords: he mediated the transfer of power to the representative assembly in 1999; created supplementary agreements in 2001; and oversaw the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) cessation of hostilities in July 2005.

Mediation of key issues
Blair played a decisive role in managing the conflict in the post-Good Friday period. He managed the decommissioning of paramilitary arms and initiated an inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre of January 1972.