In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

09/04/08: From Zero-Sum to Win-Win —Mara Rudman, adviser, Middle East Progress; senior fellow, Center for American Progress. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
09/04/08: How Progress Is Possible —
08/07/08: How to Deal with Jerusalem —Lt. Col. (Res.) Ron Shatzberg, Project Director, Economic Cooperation Foundation. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Two-State Solution Still Best Option

“In practical terms, we can reach two conclusions: First, a final-status agreement, although its details are known, cannot be secured in the foreseeable future. Second, the time has come to think about other solutions. One of them is a return not to the 1967 borders, but rather, to the reality that prevailed in 1967, when Jordan controlled the West Bank.”
—Major General (ret.) Giora Eiland, “The Jordanian Option,” YNet, September 3, 2008

"On both sides of the green line and, indeed, wherever people think about solutions to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, a lot of old/new thinking is taking place. … Most of these ideas are patently unrealistic. Discussion of them often reflects despair, not pragmatic strategic thinking. … Precisely because there is no such alternative, other options more readily suggest themselves, ranging from temporary conflict management to three states or entities. Nor does failure today mean that tomorrow we cannot try again to arrive at a two-state solution, which remains the best option for all."
—Yossi Alpher, coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications & former director, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University, "One State Definitely Not an Option," bitterlemons.org, August 18, 2008

Middle East Analysis

How Progress Is Possible —Hiba Husseini, chair, Legal Committee to Final Status Negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis; former vice chairperson of the Palestine Securities Exchange (1998-May 2005). Interview with Middle East Bulletin.
Perils of an Israeli Transition —The New York Times, Editorial
The Arabs Will Look Differently Upon America —Ron Pundak, director general of the Peres Center for Peace and former architects and negotiators of the Oslo Agreement (bitterlemons.org)

Strategy and Leadership Needed

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David W. Barno, U.S. Army; commander, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan (2003-2005); director, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, Natl Defense University. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

July 24, 2008

Afghani observes U.S. troops (AP)

"[W]hen we announced in the summer of 2005 that we, the United States, were turning over the military effort in Afghanistan to NATO and then at the end of 2005 we announced we were withdrawing 2,500 combat troops … the combination of those two announcements … sent a very strong message to our friends and our adversaries alike that the U.S. was in some effect disengaging."

[T]here’s a requirement for a unified strategy that includes the military within an overarching strategy for Afghanistan. I subscribe to the idea that in a successful counter- insurgency only 20 percent, give or take, is the military component. The other 80 percent is the economic component, the political component, the education component, the infrastructure component, etc. We have been singularly unable to pull together all of the disparate players to get on the same map sheet with the same mile markers for that strategy. That is an essential as we move forward if we’re going to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. Today, in some ways the whole in Afghanistan with all the international actors is less than the sum of the parts. We need to move it to where the whole is more than the sum of the parts and create some synergy. We have yet been able to get across that threshold. Access the full interview>>