palestinian state - Page 3

Egypt opened its border with Gaza for the second time in a month on Wednesday, giving Palestinians a four-day respite from a closure stemming from friction between Cairo and the enclave’s Islamist rulers.

France will host a meeting of ministers from 20 countries on May 30 to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced on Thursday.

The Times of Israel reports: The European Union (EU) on Thursday blasted Israel’s land appropriation this week of 580 acres near the West Bank city of Jericho, saying it raises questions about Jerusalem’s commitment to the two-state solution. The United

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Wednesday launched efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by this summer, while ruling out “automatic” recognition of Palestinian statehood. Paris will not “automatically” recognise a Palestinian state if a French initiative to host

The Times of Israel reports: Jerusalem on Saturday downplayed its initial rejection of a new French initiative to kick-start peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the disapproval stemmed from France’s ultimatum that it would recognize a Palestinian state

TEL AVIV – The outrage sparked by the European Union’s decision to label Israeli goods made in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank is being voiced in myriad ways. Following the Paris attacks, some condemned Europe for

Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stated that “the two-state solution is no solution at all” and criticized President Obama for creating “some kind of moral equivalency between what the Palestinian thugs are doing in stabbing Israelis, and

A Spanish music festival canceled a scheduled concert on August 22 by American reggae star Matisyahu after he refused to write or videotape a message supporting a Palestinian state.

Israeli defense minister Moshe ‘Bogey’ Ya’alon told a conference Tuesday that there will be no Palestinian state in his lifetime, given the refusal of Palestinian leaders to make a deal. The best-case scenario, he said, would be to manage the conflict in its present form–not to force drastic concessions towards “impossible goals that could cause instability.”

President Barack Obama told Israel’s Channel 2 TV network in an interview that aired Thursday that Netanyahu’s statements on Palestinian statehood indicate Israel has no commitment to a two-state solution, according to The Hill.

On Tuesday, former Obama advisor David Axelrod informed an Israeli television channel that President Obama considers himself “the closet thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office.” Obama’s deep and abiding connection to Jewish identity is obviously rooted in his ethnic background, connected to Jews via (?); his ideological ties to Jews, such as (?); and a profound connection with the state of Israel as evidenced by (?).

A recent misquote of Pope Francis’ words to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shows that the devil—or the angel—is often in the details. In this case, a subtle difference between the indicative and the subjunctive tenses changed the Pope’s words from an invitation to be an angel of peace into high praise—as if the Palestinian leader already were that angel.

From Politico: After Pope Francis moved to recognize a Palestinian state, some gung-ho defenders of Israel suggested the pontiff should stick to preaching and stay out of politics. “It’s interesting how the Vatican has gotten so political when ultimately the

A “global education” workshop for high school students given by a Boston University group and reportedly compliant with the Common Core standards encourages Jewish students to empathize with Hamas and teaches that the United States’ use of military drones is terrorism.

New York Times columnist David Brooks, who has a son serving in the Israeli military, argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not say that he would never accept a Palestinian state on Friday’s “PBS NewsHour.” “The stuff on the Palestinian

The interview in which Netanyahu expressed the much-misinterpreted remark took place with the conservative Israeli publication NRG. It also took place in Hebrew, a language virtually none of the members of the Western press read or speak; most simply took the Ha’aretz report and ran with it. Here is what Netanyahu actually said.

The Obama administration is using Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remark on the campaign trail about the impossibility of a Palestinian state as an excuse to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel for deep concessions at the UN. Though Netanyahu has made efforts to smooth over the dispute, the White House is refusing to forgive him, suggesting that it is pursuing a plan for retribution, regardless. The result will be to deny Israel strategic depth as it faces new threats.

While speaking at Turkey’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Ankara, and addressing members of his country’s Jewish community on Wednesday, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek took the opportunity to use the memorializing moment to attack Israel for the war against Hamas in Gaza this past summer.

The Obama administration might indeed allow a UN Security Council resolution on a Palestinian state to pass, provided some wording could be found that would accommodate the terms of Resolutions 242 and 338, which encourage a negotiated peace.

Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Ambassador Samantha Power are being credited for their efforts in lobbying members of the UN Security Council to vote against a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. Yet if they had been on top of their game, the vote never would have been held.