Tag Archives: Mahmoud Abbas

President Trump’s decision to close the PLO mission in Washington, cancel the visas of the Palestinian Ambassador and his family and order their bank accounts be closed – mark the PLO’s final humiliation for condemning Trump’s proposed peace plan before its contents have even been published. Strangely however the United …

Nose to Nose Assuming 😞 that efforts to persuade deputy head of government of Ireland and Government of Ireland second-most senior officer Tánaiste Simon Coveney to cancel his meeting with Mahmud Abbas fail, what should they talk about over coffee and biscuits?

As Fatah party contenders who hope to succeed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly arm themselves ahead of a looming power struggle, Fatah’s arch rival, Hamas, is making its own preparations to dominate the West Bank. The fundamentalist Islamist movement has already established a de facto state and terrorist …

Next month it will be twenty five years since Oslo and that famous handshake on the White House lawn by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat under the patronage of President Bill Clinton. And a lot will be written about this anniversary. The one undeniable truth over this period has …

Today is Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. A day on which we mourn for the destruction of our Temples, and for the many calamities that have befallen us. One speaker I heard this morning spoke about the fact that this is not our history – it …

I find the Jewish Indigeneity Question fascinating.   I recently published an article thanking native American thinker and activist, Ryan Bellerose for advancing the importance of Israel to the Jewish people from an indigenous rights perspective.   Sarah Tuttle-Singer is the New Media editor for the Times of Israel (TOI) and is no fan of Bellerose and …

Quite a chain of events have been crystallising over the past few weeks indeed. For over 3000 years Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people.  And once again in the third Jewish Commonwealth re-established on the very same Jewish homeland, Jerusalem is of course yet again the capital …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is having a tough time grappling with reality in recent weeks. Ever since President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month, Abbas continues to lash out and reveal his true colors. In a series of public statements since Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, Abbas has propagated …

Thursday is Balfour Day: Marking 100 years since British Foreign Secretary Lord Walter Balfour wrote a letter on behalf of the British government to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain. “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the …

Hamas is deepening its ties with Iran and its radical Shi’ite axis. Iranian cash is once again expected to fund Gaza’s war preparations and arms build-up program. Before the 2011 outbreak of the war in Syria, Sunni Hamas and Shi’ite Iran were united by their goal to destroy Israel. Iran …

Recent events, both here in Israel and in the larger world, have generated in many of us feelings of distress, turmoil, confusion and anxiety. There is a whole lot that is wrong, or crazy, or frightening going on. But as I sat down to write this post, I was able …

In choosing politics over principle, the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party has moved further down the treacherous path laid out by Bob Carr and his ilk.  That path is contrary to the interests of peace for the people of the Middle East and to the values of freedom and …

Lies and hatred and murder. Murder motivated by the hatred that was stoked by the inciteful lies. My friends, I ask that you share this posting as broadly as possible. ~~~~~~~~~~ Friday night, Shabbat, Yosef and Tova Salomon were planning to celebrate the birth of a new grandchild. With them …

Intentions may be good, but it’s not always smooth going. ~~~~~~~~~~ Take this situation, for example: Israel has been supplying a solid percentage (over 50%) of the electricity that was being used by the people of Gaza. Some additional electrical power was secured via one generator located in Gaza. And …

It’s a given that the political scene is rarely static.  But the present – both here and in the US – seems particularly fraught with shifts and unpredictability.  The trick is to identify what’s real and what currents flow unseen beneath the surface. Today I want to take a look …

If there is anything that is not muddled right now, it is the news that David Friedman has at long last been confirmed as the new US Ambassador to Israel.  The vote in the Senate on Thursday was 52 – 46, with Democratic Senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey and …

I have thought about how I would write this for over two weeks now. I know it is important to cover the US Elections in terms of what it means for the world and for Israel and the Jewish people, but given that the American public itself is so divided …

Hope for a strengthening of the US, as Hillary may be headed for defeat.  Hope that America may not implode. I’ve had a suspicion for some time that the polls showing her ahead were not accurate, and that many more intended to vote for Trump than the numbers indicated.  But …

Whilst this opinion piece around PM Netanyahu’s speech to the UN was written before the passing of Shimon Peres z”l it would be a gross omission to not acknowledge the life of one of the most important figures of our time.  A man who did so much for Israel and …

“Palestinian officials rejected a recent US proposal for a trilateral peace summit with Israel, a Palestinian official said on Sunday, amid reports that efforts for possible talks hosted by Moscow were pushing forward. Senior PLO official Wasel Abu Yousef told the Jordanian daily al-Ghad that the US had been informed …