The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Palestinians

In Gaza, Who Did the Attacking?

By | 06.01.10 | 6:15 pm

Strangely enough, there hasn’t been a great deal of congressional reaction to Israel’s deadly Monday attack on an aid flotilla making its way to Gaza. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been uncharacteristically quiet on the topic, for instance. And More…

Clinton Declares U.S. Bond With Israel ‘Rock Solid’

By | 03.22.10 | 1:26 pm

Setting nearly two weeks’ worth of diplomatic acrimony behind her, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a passionate address to the U.S.’s largest pro-Israel lobbying organization, declaring the the U.S.’ bond to Israel to be “rock solid,” and gently challenging the Israeli government to commit wholeheartedly to a two-state More…

White House Quietly Strips the Word ‘Settlement’ From Its Criticism of Israeli Settlements

By | 11.17.09 | 5:17 pm

Maybe “blasts” was the wrong verb for my old headline on the White House’s response to Israel’s expansion of settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The White House appears to have done some editing.

When the White House press shop sent out its statement criticizing Israel this afternoon — I 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…

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…

State to Palestinians: Don’t Give Up on Us! Or on Yourselves!

By | 10.13.09 | 5:58 pm

As predicted/snarked, not the greatest day at the State Department press briefing. Spokesman P.J. Crowley gets asked about Fatah’s memo expressing disillusionment with President Obama:

Bin Laden Calls For Jihad In Gaza

By | 01.14.09 | 8:40 am

CNN reports that Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape is about Gaza:

The message is “an invitation” from bin Laden to take part in “jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.”

The terrorist leader has attempted to hijack the cause of the Palestinians before, so this was probably inevitable.

Strategically Confused Like A Fox!

By | 01.07.09 | 11:00 am

In the midst of this confused New York Times piece on Israel’s objectives in Gaza — “Mr. Olmert has been far more careful this time to state ambiguous and modest goals for the war,” apparently, even though his defense minister says it’s an “all-out war” to the “bitter More…