Israel and the European Union: A Change in Tone? INSS

http://www.inss.org.il/publications.php?cat=21&incat=&read=5873 As expected, the government of Israel’s decision to issue a tender for construction of 1,000 housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem elicited a response from Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative...

What Would a Hamas-Fatah Agreement Mean?

http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/12/28/what-would-a-hamas-fatah-agreement-mean/ There are repeated efforts to forge a unity agreement of some sort between Hamas and Fatah, leading to a new “unity government” for the Palestinian Authority. Such a coalition was briefly in force in...

Obama administration secretly preparing options for aiding the Syrian opposition

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/28/obama_administration _secretly_preparing_options_for_aiding_the_syrian_opposition As the violence in Syria spirals out of control, top officials in President Barack Obama's administration are quietly preparing options for how to assist the Syrian opposition, including gaming out the unlikely option of...

Arab Spring: the revolution has only just begun

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/8980784 /Arab-Spring-the-revolution-has-only-just-begun.html This year, the certitudes of the old Middle East dissolved with unseemly haste. A regional order frozen in place since the death of Egypt’s Colonel Nasser 40 years ago finally thawed. It produced a...

Human Wrongs: The Worst of Amnesty, HRW, and others in 2011

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/human_wrongs_the_worst_of _amnesty_hrw_and_others_in _ JERUSALEM - With 2011 concluding, NGO Monitor today released a list of the most outrageous and absurd NGO actions from the past year, demonstrating the political nature of NGOs involved in the Arab-Israeli...

Sderot residents celebrate rocket-free Hanukkah

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4167403,00.html It is a rainy day in the small, working-class city of Sderot, Israel, located less than two kilometers away from the Gaza Strip. The yellow-painted bomb shelters along with the brightly colored public shelters...

Why do UNRWA & Reuters call munitions tunnels an “economic boom”?

*Noam Bedein is Director of Sderot Media Center, www.SderotMedia.org.il On December 7th, 2011, UNRWA issued an extensive report which lauded the vast amount of cement smuggled through the Gaza tunnels, attributing recent economic growth and...

Hamas Marks 24th Anniversary, Says It Killed 1,365 Israelis

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/14/ bloomberg_articlesLW76DW0D9L35.DTL#ixzz1jZFHeEd4 Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Hamas marked 24 years since its founding as an Islamic movement dedicated to fighting for Palestinian independence, while the group's armed wing said it killed 1,365 Israelis in that period. More...

How Can Israel Please the American Government, Media, and “Experts”? It Can’t

http://www.gloria-center.org/2011/12/how-can-israel-please-the-american-government- media-and-%e2%80%9cexperts%e2%80%9d-it-can%e2%80%99t/ There is a constant effort-especially by the anti-Israel left-to portray those who express mainstream Israeli public opinion and the views of professional analysts as “right-wing” or “Likudnik.” This leads me to wonder what one...

TIMMERMAN: A dubious death in Dubai

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/2/ a-dubious-death-in-dubai/?page=2 It has all the hallmarks of the perfect crime. On the surface, it appeared to be a suicide. The body was arranged peacefully on the floor, with no signs of struggle, a white sheet...