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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 versus
  • “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

    Politics Into Hope

    Steven Erlanger (The New York Times)
    December 15, 2007
    "Mr. Blair argues that with the combination of international support for a final peace treaty, new Palestinian efforts to build a state 'from the bottom up' and a new Israeli vow to ease restrictions on the Palestinians as security improves, the situation is more promising than before."

    Peace conferences like the recent one in Annapolis, Md., were important, [said Special Envoy Tony Blair,] “but these conferences must translate into progress on the ground.” … It is vital “to align the facts on the ground, the reality, with the politics” in order to strengthen the two leaders, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, Mr. Blair said in an interview here. “What will empower Olmert is genuine Palestinian progress on security, and what will empower Abbas is genuine Israeli help, consistent with that security progress, on lifting restrictions and the burden of occupation.” …

    Next Monday in Paris, [Blair] will be a co-chairman of the first meeting in years of donor countries. It is expected that the participants will pledge aid to Mr. Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, an economist who has prepared a 36-page plan of economic, institutional and security reform.

    The three-year plan, called “Building a Palestinian State,” is explicit about Palestinian responsibility for some aspects of the calamitous state of the economy… Guided in part by Mr. Blair, the plan, which was provided by Palestinians to The New York Times, says that “we are now absolutely determined to rebuild the trust of our citizens and our international partners,” including “bringing the rule of law to the occupied territory and combating violence.” Access the full article>>