By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel— Calling Israel “Palestine” is commonplace today. However, the history of that name goes back millennia. First coined by the ancient Greeks for the five-city area in the Philistine confederacy and then adopted by Roman emperor Hadrian, Palestine was more recently copied by former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat in…
By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”— During your first official visit to Washington, DC, you’ll have to choose between two options: *Blurring your deeply-rooted, assertive Israeli positions on the future of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), which would be welcome by the Biden Administration, yielding to short-term political convenience and…
By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel— Decades before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, prompting the widespread use of face masks, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had twisted together his own version of a mask—one that hid his lifelong motives and remade him into a credible world leader. Abbas controls the PA’s Fatah…
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute— Earlier this year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas enacted a decree-law on boosting public freedoms ahead of the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, which were supposed to take place on May 22 and July 31. Article I of the law provides for “establishing an atmosphere of public freedoms in…
By Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations– As Israelis cope with their fourth election in two years, Americans must wonder what U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be under the Biden administration—no matter who wins in the Israeli vote. A State Department memo entitled “The US Palestinian Reset and the Path Forward” gives some…
By Algemeiner— Israel revoked the VIP status of Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on Sunday, reportedly due to his support for the International Criminal Court’s investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes. According to an Axios report, al-Maliki was stopped at the crossing between Jordan and the West Bank because his VIP card had been revoked…
By Hezki Baruch, Israel National News— MK Gideon Sa’ar of the Likud party visited the communities of Amichai and Shilo, in the Binyamin region, on Sunday. The focus of his visit was on ongoing attempts by the Palestinian Authority to seize control over open areas near Israeli settlements. Following his tour, Sa’ar told his hosts,…
By Stephen M. Flatow, Israel Hayom— The common refrain heard from media pundits and left-wing critics of the Gulf kingdoms’ recognition of Israel is that it ignores the Palestinian Arabs. Here is how New York Times’ correspondent Michael Crowley began his article following the recent signing ceremony: “Israel and two Arab nations signed agreements at…
By Elad Benari, Israel National News— The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday started diplomatic steps to hold an international conference at the beginning of 2021 for the peace process with Israel, a senior official said, according to the Xinhua news agency. The PA mission to the United Nations has begun the preliminary steps with UN…
By Jonathan Schachter and Jonathan Schanzer, Jerusalem Post— Last week’s announcement about the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE appears to have put annexation plans on ice. But the debate was revealing. The hand-wringing in America about annexation struck a stark contrast to Israelis and Palestinians, who have been more concerned about the…