Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu meeting at the United Nations in New York, September 2011. (Photo: Reuters) Closer than ever: Yet another attempt at letting diplomacy work has failed . Read More »

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaking at the United Nations. (Photo: Reuters) How to Talk Down Tehran’s Nuclear Ambitions Richard Haass and Michael Levi in the Wall Street Journal outline how best to maximize Iran’s recent readiness to engage in negotiations over its nuclear program. Read More »

Head to head: Obama and Romney (Photos: Reuters) For quite some time now, our Israel Factor panel has seemed to believe that of all the GOP candidates Mitt Romney is the best as far as Israel is concerned, and that in a race between Romney and Barack Obama , the former is the better candidate for Israel. Read More »

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system in operation near Be’er Sheva. (Photo: Reuters/archive) Israelis fear homefront vulnerable to Iran attacks As talk grows of an Israeli strike on Iran, so do Israeli concerns about reprisal missile strikes on its civilian population, writes Aron Heller for the Associated Press . Read More »

MK Ronit Tirosh Kadima MK Ronit Tirosh, the chair of a new Knesset caucus on the relationship between Israel and American Jewry, discusses the ties between the two communities. Read More »

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Photo: Reuters) Iran Raid Seen as Huge Task for Israeli Jets Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times ponders whether Israel is really capable of carrying out a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Read More »

This occasional feature is just a way for me to respond to what other people write about my work. 1. Sara Wildman interviewed me in an article about the leftie webzine +972 . Read More »

Mohamed Mursi, the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Freedom Party. (Photo: Reuters) A long march The Economist takes a critical look at the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Arab world, as evolve from outlawed extremists to moderate rulers. Read More »

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran (Photo: Reuters) Autocrats vs. Despots Steve Coll of the New Yorker asks why the Arab League member states are really so interested in intervention in Syria. Read More »

Joe Biden in Jerusalem, March 2010 (Photo: Reuters) It is really very early in the 2012 game: We don’t yet know who’s going to be the Republican nominee, we don’t know who’s more likely to win between President Obama and the GOP nominee, so talking about the next administration is premature – but still hard to resist. Read More »

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be leaving office next year – please grade the following candidates to replace her in an Obama administration (all were mentioned in journalistic reports as possible candidates) with a 1-5 mark, 1 being not so Read More »

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be leaving office next year – please grade the following candidates to replace her in an Obama administration (all were mentioned in journalistic reports as possible candidates) with a 1-5 mark, 1 being not so Read More »

(Photo: Reuters) Why Israel should intervene in Syria Writing in the Huffington Post , Nathan Gonzales argues for an Israeli strike on Syria rather than Iran. At some point in the future, Israel must make an effort to become an accepted resident of its own neighborhood, and a Syrian intervention would be the most logical place to start. Read More »

Jodi Rudoren A couple of days ago, I had a conversation with a Jewish official who bitterly complained about the New York Times’ choice for its new Jerusalem correspondent. He didn’t even mentioned the name, as far as I remember, just told me she had no experience in the region and no knowledge of Middle East and Israel matters. Read More »

Professor Moshe Maoz Moshe Maoz, professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, talks to Rosner’s Domain about Israeli policy on Syria. What should Israel’s policy be regarding Syria at the present time? Israel couldn’t do very much. Read More »

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Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. (Photo: Reuters) Hamas of contradictions Hussein Ibish of Now Lebanon looks at the rift between Hamas’ rulers in Gaza and the external leadership – with the two seeming to take opposing sides in a changing Arab world. Read More »

Mourners carry the body of Iranian scientist Darioush Rezaie who was shot dead by a motorcyclist in Tehran, July 24, 2011. (Reuters) Antinuclear Assassinations Whoever is behind the killings of Iranian nuclear scientists should be praised not censured, writes James Kirchick in The Weekly Standard . Read More »

Steven Cohen, the father of “distancing” – a much talked about theory according to which young American Jews of the current generation are moving away from Israel – appeared two weeks ago before the Knesset Committee for Diaspora and Absorption, headed by MK Einat Wilf (you can watch him here . Note to readers: I’m speaking right after Cohen). Read More »

Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the AIPAC conference, May 2011. (Photo: Reuters) 1. Both the US and Israel are getting closer to Election Day. Read More »