December 20, 2012

In-depth

The Real Obstacle to Peace: Israel’s Critics

Jonathan Tobin of Commentary Magazine hits back at those condemning Israel's Jerusalem construction, but not Palestinian calls for the Jewish state's end. 

But the real hypocrisy isn’t the fact that all those countries as well as the Palestinians know very well that it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to a two-state solution if Israel built 100,000 new homes in these places or none at all. It is the fact that these countries continue to ignore the fact that it is the Palestinians who refuse to negotiate and who continue to issue statements making clear their intention to destroy Israel without drawing much comment from nations that are supposedly so interested in peace.

 

Syria's Time Is Running Out

The international community must intervene before the Syrian conflict further destroys the country, and the region, writes Frederic Hof for Foreign Policy. 

In these circumstances, time is the enemy of humanity. The longer the regime has to break the Syrian people into combustible categories of sect and ethnicity, the greater the chance that Syria will become a stateless, chaotic and expanding black hole in a region where stability is a challenge in the best of circumstances. Lebanese, Turks and Jordanians already feel Syria's agony — and share in it. Time, in this case, is not the great healer. Time is the deadliest of enemies.

Daily Digest

• Times of Israel: EU joins chorus against Jerusalem building plans, reiterating threat to ‘act accordingly’
• Haaretz: Amman warns: Jihadists hijacking Syria revolution, may target Israel, Jordan next
• Jerusalem Post: Abbas to UN: Let Palestinians in Syria enter W. Bank, Gaza
• Ynet: Terrorist 'practiced' TA bus bombing
• New York Times: Hands Off Germany’s Neo-Nazi Party
• Washington Post: How the Middle East uses social media
• Wall Street Journal: Israel Grapples With Too Much Fashion

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