By Barry Rubin

The big story of the moment is the announcement that there will soon be direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Perhaps, but for the moment Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has merely issued of an invitation to come and talk. Generally, such an invitation would only be issued when both sides have accepted and all the details are nailed down. Nowadays, however, such cannot be assumed.

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By Barry Rubin

Forget about The Onion, The National Lampoon, Mad Magazine, and Saturday Night Live (sorry for all those American cultural references). When it comes to satire nobody can beat a New York Times editorial!

Well, this one is funny because the Times is–sort of–trying to praise the Israeli government and criticize the Palestinian Authority (PA) but you can’t help but laugh at the contortions they go through.

Here’s the first one:

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By Fern Sidman

“Welcome to New York City, Mr. Prime Minister” was the rallying cry of the day as over 150 zealously pro-Israel supporters gathered outside the Council on Foreign Relations on Manhattan’s upper east side on Thursday afternoon, July 8th to greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he delivered an address on Israel’s role in the global community. The demonstration of support for Israel was spearheaded by the campus advocacy organization, “Stand With Us” along with the endorsement of other such organizations as American Friends of Likud, American Zionist Movement, AMIT, Dor Chadash, Emunah of America, Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement, the National Council of Young Israel, the Northern New Jersey Region of Hadassah, the Queens Jewish Community Council, The AISH Center of NY, the West Side Sephardic Synagogue and the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism.

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By Barry Rubin

Every day I wake up hoping to have good news to report about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. There are some positive things-regarding U.S.-Israel bilateral relations-but other than that it is hard to find anything but failure and incompetence.

We are now one-third of the way through the Obama Administration and, regrettably, it has not learned very much at all about understanding the world situation and correcting its mistakes. The time for wishful thinking is over: if it hasn’t made major corrections by now, the Obama Administration is very unlikely to get any better during the rest of its term.

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By Barry Rubin

The question of the day is whether the Israel-Palestinian Authority (PA) indirect talks will make progress in the “peace process” or result in failure. One wonders at this point how many naive people believe that peace is at hand, and how many misled people think that the lack of peace is Israel’s fault.

What is needed to understand the issue is precisely what is not presented by policymakers, academics, and all-too-much of the mass media: The PA neither wants nor is capable of delivering a compromise peace agreement.

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A briefing by Steven J. Rosen*

Steven J. Rosen is the director of the Forum’s Washington Project. From 1982-2005, he was a top official in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Prior to 1982, he taught political science and international relations at the University of Pittsburgh, Brandeis University, and the Australian National University. On 21 April, he addressed the Middle East Forum via conference call on the subject of U.S.-Israel relations.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Things are not always as simple as they seem; the current crisis in U.S.-Israel relations has a silver lining.

Four observations, all derived from historical patterns, prompt this conclusion:

First, the “peace process” is in actuality a “war process.” Diplomatic negotiations through the 1990s led to a parade of Israeli retreats that had the perverse effect of turning the middling-bad situation of 1993 into the awful one of 2000. Painful Israeli concessions, we now know, stimulate not reciprocal Palestinian goodwill but rather irredentism, ambition, fury, and violence.

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By Barry Rubin

The Obama Administration doesn’t understand this but it is signaling the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it can get away with anything, thus further dooming any hope for serious negotiations and perhaps leading to a restart of large-scale violence.

Decades ago, when Middle East experts held views closer to the region’s realities rather than to its propaganda, it was well-known that one of the best ways to mobilize a big demonstration or riot in Arabic-speaking countries was to tell people: The government is with you.

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by Steven J. Rosen*

U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to confront Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Israeli construction activity in East Jerusalem has been greeted by a hail of praise, especially from people impatient to proceed with peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The belief seems to be that meeting this issue head-on will accelerate progress toward an agreement ending a conflict that has festered for generations. The historical record suggests a different conclusion.

The assumption that a faceoff over construction in Jerusalem will advance negotiations has not been subjected to much scrutiny. But the last two decades show that progress has occurred not when this issue was put first, but when it was finessed and left for the final status negotiations on Jerusalem.

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By Barry Rubin

It is important to understand that the current controversy over construction in east Jerusalem is neither a public relations’ problem nor a bilateral policy dispute. It arises because of things having nothing directly to do with this specific point.

What are the real issues involved:

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by Daniel Pipes*

“The stupidest program the U.S. government has ever undertaken” — last year that’s what I called American efforts to improve the Palestinian Authority (PA) military force. Slightly hyperbolic, yes, but the description fits because those efforts enhance the fighting power of enemies of the United States and its Israeli ally.

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By Barry Rubin

For more than four months the U.S. government has been celebrating Israel agreeing to stop construction on settlements in the West Bank while continuing building in east Jerusalem as a great step forward and Israeli concession deserving a reward. Suddenly, all of this is forgotten to say that Israel building in east Jerusalem is some kind of terrible deed which deserves punishment.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Joe Biden’s trip to Israel fits neatly into the context of the Obama administration’s internal struggle over Israel policy.

The far left prevailed initially, as evidenced by Hilary Clinton’s May 2009 declaration that Obama “wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.” But this approach bombed, permitting the center left to take over in about September 2009.

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The International Solidarity Movement expressed motives for wanting peace activist Rachel Corrie dead.

by Bill Levinson

We use the word “murder” only because the International Solidarity Movement has accused Israel of murdering peace activist Rachel Corrie, who died after she knelt in front of an IDF bulldozer. When an accusation of murder is on the table, it is very poor judgment to express motives for wanting the decedent dead, but two members of the International Solidarity Movement and a Hamas terrorist have done exactly that. Let’s begin with Joseph Smith, one of the witnesses who contends that Rachel Corrie was “murdered.”

The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression.

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By Barry Rubin

I’ve been having a dialogue through correspondence lately with someone describing himself as a moderate Palestinian who lives in the United States. What most impressed me in the exchanges–both from what my interlocutor said and how he described the views of other Palestinians–is the total lack of comprehension on their part–those who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip along with those who live elsewhere, both moderate and radical–about Israeli positions toward peacemaking that are easily available on the public record.

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