Conflict Blotter

Sometimes Wikipedia nails it. This is from the entry on the Annapolis peace conference:
Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is organizing the event, which will be more than a photo op.

[Read more →]

Egypt, facing a $200 million cut in US aid, blames Israeli soldiers for cooperating with smugglers bringing arms and military equipment into the Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian document distributed in Congress asserts that Israeli soldiers cooperate with smugglers in allowing arms and military equipment into the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian document was circulated among congressmen by […]

[Read more →]

The Syrian envoy to the UN said two days ago during a meeting of the First Committee on Disarmament that Israel had bombed a Syrian nuclear facility, or so the UN reported in a subsequent press release:
Moreover, Israel was the fourth largest exporter of weapons of mass destruction and a violator of other nations’ airspace, […]

[Read more →]

Eran Shayshon, an analyst from the influential Reut Institute, writes in today’s Maariv:
There are various radical elements that are also promoting the idea of dismantling the PA for ideological reasons. In their view, dismantling the PA would encumber Israel with the full demographic, economic and political burden of the occupation, and could lead […]

[Read more →]

To mark Condi’s seventh trip to the region this year, I’m going to jot down some thoughts on the nascent peace process and the Annapolis confererence slated for late November or December. First, people still aren’t taking this very seriously by and large, despite Condi’s warnings to journalists on Monday. Palestinians, Israelis, journalists, etc, tend […]

[Read more →]

If we connect a few dots that have emerged over the past week or so, it would appear that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has begun quietly making the necessary political preparations that will allow him to make substantive concessions to the Palestinians on Jerusalem and outposts.
On October 1, the government moved the West Bank […]

[Read more →]

A nice post by Google Earth whiz and virtual life ambassador Stefan Geens on why the Kyl-Bingaman amendment, which gives Israel special protection from Google Earth and satellite pic takers, is bad law.
When it comes to Israel, there is the additional issue of needing to justify the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the US National Defense Authorization […]

[Read more →]

Daniel Levy’s review of the Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer book on the Israel lobby is posted on his blog Prospects for Peace. It’s the most thoughtful, measured, knowledgable, and, in my opinion, spot-on response to the book I’ve yet seen. Here’s how Levy himself summarizes his position, but the whole peice is a must […]

[Read more →]

Ahh, the joys of covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The International Midde East Media Center reported yesterday:
Three Palestinians have been reportedly wounded in southern Gaza after an Israeli shell landed on a local house near the Sofa crossing in eastern Rafah city, media sources said.
Reported the Jerusalem Post yesterday:
A Palestinian boy was […]

[Read more →]

Here’s the lastest on the E1 settlement expansion I wrote about a few days ago.
The Israel Defense Forces recently issued an order expropriating over 1,100 dunams of land from four Arab villages located between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
The land is slated to be used for a new Palestinian road […]

[Read more →]