Tagged Israeli-Palestinian peace process

In a dramatic shift, AIPAC gives lawmakers a green light to criticize Israel over annexation

People gather to stage a demonstration to protest against the annexation plan of the Jordan Valley, located in the occupied West Bank and illegal Jewish settlements in West Bank, Tel Aviv, Israel on June 6, 2020. (Nir Keidar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
June 10, 2020 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The leading pro-Israel lobby in the United States is telling lawmakers that they are free to criticize Israel’s looming annexation plans — just as long as the criticism stops there. Two sources — a congressional aide and a donor — say the American Israel Public Affairs… Read more »

White House unveils economic portion of Middle East peace plan

A picture shows the new West Bank Palestinian town of Rawabi, described as the largest privately-funded development project in Palestinian history, just north of Ramallah, on September 29, 2017. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
June 24, 2019 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Days ahead of a workshop where Jared Kushner will seek tens of billions of dollars for his Middle East peace plan, the White House unveiled an outline of its economic portion, including proposals, like a Gaza-West Bank travel corridor, that are sure to rattle Israel’s government.… Read more »

OP-ED Charles Krauthammer: ‘How dreams of peace led to Israel’s biggest mistake’

Charles Krauthammer in his office in Washington, D.C., March 16, 1985. (Ray Lustig/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
June 22, 2018 /

(JTA) — On June 10, 2002, Charles Krauthammer delivered the Distinguished Rennert Lecture upon receiving the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University’s Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies. Below is an excerpt from the lecture titled “He Tarries: Jewish Messianism and the Oslo Peace.”  In the 1990s, America slept and… Read more »

Will Abbas’ explosive comments kill the peace process?

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at a session of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah, in the West Bank, Jan. 14, 2018. (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
January 17, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Oslo Accords? “Killed,” the Palestinian Authority president says, blaming Israel. The Israeli prime minister says the Palestinians are now “unmasked” — but naturally he blames the Palestinians. Notably, the United States is silent. The P.A. president, Mahmoud Abbas, delivered a rambling address of more… Read more »

For Israel and the Palestinians, the peace plans just keep coming

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, looks on at the international summit in Paris to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, June 3, 2016. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
June 6, 2016 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Here a plan, there a plan, everywhere a peace plan. Conditions in Israel and the Palestinian Authority may not exactly seem conducive topeace — Israel just formed what may be its most right-wing government ever, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is aging and becoming less popular. Yet peace plans… Read more »

At Rabin rally, calls to pursue peace and defend democracy

Some of the tens of thousands attending a Tel Aviv rally marking 20 years since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Oct. 30, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
November 3, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Some 100,000 people joined together in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to pay tribute to slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, but they were divided over what exactly they were rallying for. The demonstration, which marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist… Read more »

Symbol of Jerusalem’s progress, light rail becomes terror target
November 10, 2014 / Ben Sales, JTA
A concrete security barrier at a light rail station in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2014. Four people have been killed at light rail stations in two separate attacks in recent weeks. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday and the Jerusalem light rail is packed with secular and religious, Jew and Arab, as it heads east from the city’s Central Bus Station. From there it passes some of the city’s most crowded venues, stopping at the Mahane Yehuda… Read more »

As trip begins, Obama and Netanyahu are all smiles
March 20, 2013 / Ben Sales, JTA
President Obama greeted by children waving Israeli and American flags at a welcoming ceremony at Shimon Peres' residence in Jerusalem, March 20, 2013. (Uri Lenz/FLASH90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s safe to say, haven’t always been the best of friends. The leaders of two closely allied countries, they’ve have had a relationship described more often as tense than anything else. But on the first day of Obama’s… Read more »

Israeli government coalition, after twists and turns, ‘determined by the negotiators’
March 19, 2013 / Alex Traiman, JNS.org
Israel's President Shimon Peres (C, seated) sits next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L, seated) as they pose for a group photo together with the ministers of the new Israeli government, in Jerusalem, 18 March 2013. The new government comprises four parties - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist Likud-Beiteinu alliance, the pro-settler Jewish Home, the centrist Yesh Atid which advocates socio-economic reforms, and another centrist party of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally assembled a governing coalition following nearly six weeks of negotiations, the maximum time allowed under Israeli law. The Knesset approved the new government on Monday by a vote of 68 to 48, with four absent. The Israeli government coalition includes Netanyahu’s ruling… Read more »

Ahead of French elections, Sarkozy makes pitch to Jews
February 17, 2012 / Devorah Lauter, JTA
French President Nicholas Sarkozy addressing guests at the CRIF dinner, Feb. 8, 2012. (Erez Lichtfeld courtesy of CRIF)

PARIS (JTA) – Trailing in the polls and with elections just 10 weeks away, French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to one of his most reliable bases of support — French Jews — to drum up enthusiasm. On the morning of Feb. 8, Sarkozy met at Elysees Palace with released… Read more »