Word: israells
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...NEXT: Israel...
...Israel: Little Help from Bibi President Obama believes it is critical to wider U.S. interests across the Middle East to urgently implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, he believes it is vital to Israel's own interest, even as the clock runs out on the viability of such a solution. However, Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sees things differently. Netanyahu has until now resisted the idea of an independent Palestinian state, arguing that the Palestinians should enjoy self-governance but without full sovereignty, because that would put Israel at risk. Anyway, he argues...
Netanyahu says he wants peace with the Palestinians, but he sees the immediate priority as strengthening economic development and the security capability of the Palestinian Authority. Even that, however, is of secondary importance for the Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu sees the overwhelming priority of both Israel and the U.S. as Iran, and he has made stopping Tehran's nuclear program his overarching priority. Defanging Iran, his aides argue, is also the key to any progress with the Palestinians, because the Israelis claim that Hamas is nothing more than an Iranian proxy. And while the Obama Administration has begun unfurling...
...controls all of Gaza following a violent showdown in 2007 that saw Abbas' supporters ejected from power. Hamas may also be even more popular than Fatah in the Abbas-controlled West Bank, where free political activity is suppressed by Israeli and Palestinian security forces. (See pictures of Gaza after Israel's offensive...
...Gaza war made clear to all sides that Hamas could not be eliminated, and that everything from the urgent business of rebuilding the shattered territory to negotiating a peace deal with Israel could not be done without the organization's consent. Hence the current efforts to broker a unity government backed by both Fatah and Hamas. But as things stand, the U.S. wants that government to endorse the same principles it has demanded that Hamas embrace as a precondition for recognition: Recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements. No dice, says Hamas, which has its own ideas about...