The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged palestine

White House Blasts Israel’s New Settlement Construction

By | 11.17.09 | 2:33 pm

Contrary to nearly a year of stern insistence from the Obama administration that Israel refrain from all growth in occupied Palestinian territory — an insistence that frayed with a recent comment by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the administration has tried to walk back — Israel More…

A Clarification on Hamas and Fatah

By | 11.05.09 | 12:10 pm

I said in an earlier post on the Obama administration and the Goldstone commission that Hamas might “benefit if next year’s scheduled elections go forward.” That was poorly phrased. What I meant was that Hamas stands to benefit from the weakening of more moderate factions. Because, as George Washington More…

Abbas Won’t Run for Reelection in Palestine

By | 11.05.09 | 10:04 am

As if to underscore the point made in this post, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he won’t run for reelection. Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian emissaries are trying to get him to change his mind.

The Peace-Process Morass

By | 11.05.09 | 9:25 am

Missing from this otherwise-very good Washington Post piece about the Obama administration’s early and serious missteps on restarting Israel/Palestine peace talks is, unfortunately, the Goldstone commission on Gaza, which is relegated to a single sentence. This is the capsule version: Obama feared that Israel would freak out and foreclose More…

Berman Conferring With Ros-Lehtinen After Charging ‘Inaccuracies’ in Goldstone Letter

By | 10.30.09 | 3:12 pm

After receiving a letter from Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who investigated Israeli and Hamas war crimes in Gaza, to dispute an impending bipartisan House resolution denouncing his report, staffers for Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) are “conferring” with staffers for bill co-sponsor Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-Fla.). “Chairman Berman is More…

House Resolution to Condemn U.N. Investigator’s Israeli/Hamas War Crimes Report

By | 10.29.09 | 8:49 pm

TWI has acquired the text of a congressional resolution that may be introduced in the next few days condemning the findings of U.N. investigator Richard Goldstone’s report into war crimes during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza this past winter.

The resolution — drafted by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Dan More…

Jones Signals White House Support for J-Street Cause

By | 10.27.09 | 4:07 pm

Granting recognition to a new American Jewish lobby group pressing for peace between Israel and the Arab world, ret. Gen. James Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, said that resolving the 60-year conflict was the crisis that the Obama administration would prioritize if it could “solve any one problem.”

Jones More…

Jones Will Speak With Wexler at J Street Conference

By | 10.27.09 | 11:15 am

I’m at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, where at 1 p.m., retired Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, will deliver a keynote speech on the administration’s approach to peacemaking in the Middle East to the first annual conference assembled by J Street, the year-old pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby. He’ll More…

Israel/Palestine Peace Process About to Relaunch

By | 10.19.09 | 10:16 am

Laura Rozen goes through the tea leaves:

“We solved the matter of the settlements with the Americans,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Israeli daily Haaretz cites Zapatero.

“I cannot say more than that. If you are interested in hearing

More…

Fatah Falls Out of Love With Obama

By | 10.13.09 | 10:44 am

The AP has obtained a memo written by the non-Hamas wing of the Palestinian national movement:

“All hopes placed in the new U.S. administration and President Obama have evaporated,” said the document issued by Fatah’s Office of Mobilization and Organization. The department is headed Fatah’s No. 2, Mohammed Ghneim.