Dennis Ross presents a framework for renewing the peace process, which he apparently lifted directly from the Israeli PM's hard disk - including de facto recognition of permanent Israeli control over eight percent of the West Bank.  Veteran U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross had a full page op-ed in The New York Times this weekend, in which he presents a 14-step program that is supposed to establish a framework for renewing the diplomatic process. The piece includes a lot of talk about peace, but the action items are lifted from Netanyahu’s policy book, demonstrating again why the Palestinians were right when they refused to meet Ross –…

How the British Board of Jewish Deputies and its allies are smearing a decent critic of Israel as an anti-Semite - and the success they're having. The view in Israel of British Jewry is that they're cowed by traditional British anti-Semitism and running scared from the "Muslim takeover" of the country. They're not as chutzpahdik as the American Jews, supposedly. But I think Israel is selling the British Jews short, or at least their leaders. For the last month, the country's Jewish machers have been smearing a member of Parliament as an anti-Semite with the sort of cynicism and relentlessness that could…

In an interview to the Israeli daily 'Yedioth Ahronoth,' the former neoconservative diplomat criticizes Hagel for his 'I am an American senator' remark. Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea has today a short interview with Elliott Abrams on the issue of Chuck Hagel’s nomination to secretary of defense, which various Israeli advocacy groups have opposed. Abrams opens by explaining why he believes Hagel is an anti-Semite, referring to Hagel’s past remark on “the Jewish Lobby” (by the way, this is the term Israelis use too, including most of the press. Examples: here, here, here, here, here, here). Abrams: “I don’t hate him (Hagel).…

American comedy writers are discovering the wonders of the pro-Israel world. After this Onion piece, comes Saturday Night Live's version of the Chuck Hagel Senate confirmation hearing, which ended up not being part of the show, probably because the real-life event turned out to be just as absurd. Related: The Chuck Hagel affair and the American 'pro-Israel' litmus test The Washington witch trial of Chuck Hagel

It is true that many in the U.S. Jewish community are not happy with current Israeli policies. But in the face of countervailing trends, it is not clear this will change the community’s overall levels of attachment and support. By Brent E. Sasley In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, Bradley Burston argues that U.S. Jews are moving away from Israel because of the government’s illiberal domestic politics and intransigent foreign policies. He believes that by 2013 they may just “secede” altogether from a country doing things they don’t want done in their name. There are certainly signs pointing in that direction. Peter Beinart…

In the controversy over Obama's candidate for the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, the right-wing American Jewish elite has once again asserted that the term 'pro-Israel' is a code word in Washington for, among other things, a belligerent foreign policy on Iran and enabling Israeli occupation.  The sheer volume of articles that have appeared in American media over the last few weeks surrounding Obama’s potential appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as next U.S. Secretary of Defense is astonishing. Everywhere you turn, there are reports, op-eds, features and blogs about Hagel. It almost feels like the issue is making more noise…

A page has emerged from Haaretz's daily op-ed pages, printed before the murder but never distributed; strangely enough, the coverage of GOP-Likud relations in a piece in the page remains as relevant as ever. Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin's right-wing assassin, a law student from Bar-Ilan University named Yigal Amir, shot him at close range following a peace rally in Tel Aviv. It was Saturday night, at 9:42 p.m. Papers print many of their pages in the afternoon and early evening, as did Haaretz that day. Naturally, when news of the…

Some of you may have noticed the drama surrounding an ad that first appeared last month in several New York City subway stations that looks like this: Sponsored by the fanatic, Islamophobic, hate-mongering American Freedom Defense Initiative headed by Pamela Geller, the ads were initially rejected for being incendiary. But the AFDI sued on First Amendement grounds and won in a federal court, so the ads went up. The question of where the limits of free speech should be drawn is an interesting and important one - but what I'm consumed with is how this ad is being described in the…

Israeli exceptionalism continues. Iran is not allowed to go nuclear but it is perfectly okay for Israel to remain nuclear: that's the message Israel sends the world as it opposes a U.S.-backed conference about a nuclear-free Middle East. Here's what I wrote in March about the issue in The New York Times' Room for Debate: Might Israel attend the meeting about a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East in Finland? Certainly. Just like it has "participated" in the peace process — with no real intention of making concessions. In both cases, there are no consequences for Israel sticking to its agenda. So why would…

In some of the articles covering the visit to Israel by the presumptive Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Israeli and international media suggested that Romney suggested (yes, lots of suggestions happening here) Israeli culture was somehow superior to Palestinian culture.  I read and read and re-read the articles, including the one to which I linked above by Barak Ravid of Israel's publication Haaretz, waiting for a quote proving that these were Romney's comments. However all I found was a stretch of the imagination in an apparent jab against Romney (who I imagine won't be getting Haaretz's endorsement any time soon).…

The campaign to get American citizens in Israel to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections claims it is nonpartisan, despite its candid agenda of electing the most 'pro-Israel' president, its refusal to divulge its donors and a campaign manager clearly identified with the right. A newly released video inciting against Arab-Americans makes it even more difficult to believe they are neutral. As some readers may have noticed, I have been following a campaign called "iVoteIsrael," which is essentially a well-funded nonprofit initiative lobbying American citizens living in Israel to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. The Times of Israel…

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the most senior Republican woman in the House and an avid supporter of AIPAC/Netanyahu, has a great piece in the Washington Times against the occupation and settlements. As even the conservative readers of the Times noted (in the comments), all you have to do when reading is to replace Turkey with Israel. More than 40,000 heavily armed Turkish soldiers are occupying the northern part of the country, with one Turkish soldier for every two Turkish-Cypriots. The presence of this overwhelming force cannot be justified by the claims that they are needed to prevent any renewal…

Israel and its Washington lobby have never dragged the U.S. into a war it didn't want to fight. Iran would be a first. And if today's talks fail, the countdown begins. I never went along with the argument that the Israel lobby, taking its directions from Jerusalem, pushed the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. Israel wanted the U.S. to knock over Saddam, of course, but it didn't make a lot of noise about it, and neither did its Washington lobbyists because Israel and AIPAC knew they didn't have to push against an open door. The Bush administration wanted to go to war against Saddam as…