united states

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. (File photo by Staff Sgt. Jorge Intriago/US Army)

What Trump’s new UN envoy could mean for Israel-Palestine

Whatever disruptions are afoot in the balance of international power will eventually be reflected at the United Nations. And when that happens, even a staunch supporter of Israel like Nikki Haley may have to yield to a new order. When she signed into law the first state legislation penalizing companies that boycott “based on race,…

By Samer Badawi November 23, 2016

Donald Trump speaks during an election rally. (Max Goldberg/CC BY 2.0)

Trump’s America could end up looking like present-day Israel

Israel is a disturbing demonstration of how far violent intolerance involving ethnic and religious prejudice can go. Americans should be vigilant regarding any signs of this happening in the United States. By Paul R. Pillar One of the more pertinent observations about Donald Trump’s comment this week on what gun owners could do about a Hillary…

By +972 Magazine August 14, 2016

The Long Road to Bethlehem: Part five

As her time in Bethlehem winds down, Mya begins to wonder whether she really wants to move to the U.S with her Palestinian fiancé. But when the Gaza war breaks out, she finds herself being pushed out by people she had grown to trust. And yet, nearly a decade after she arrived, leaving has never seemed so hard.

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat January 28, 2016

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A elderly Palestinian man walks past an Israeli soldier stationed in the center of the occupied city of Hebron, West Bank, October 29, 2015. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

How Americans really feel about equality for Palestinians and Israelis

The Obama administration is only willing to discuss a one-state solution in terms of apartheid and violence. But asked whether Jews and Palestinians should be equal, the vast majority of Americans suddenly become one-state supporters. And then there’s sanctions… Thirty-seven percent of Americans think the United States should respond to ongoing Israeli settlement construction with…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man December 6, 2015

Secretaries Kerry, Moniz Jot Down Notes Before P5+1 Strategic Session About Ongoing Iranian Nuclear Negotiations in Switzerland, March 30, 2015. (State Dept. photo)

The Iranian nuclear threat and other phantoms

The ‘framework agreement’ announced Thursday night in Lausanne is a lot better than no agreement. But an approach to Iran involving no sanctions and no hysteria would have been best of all. NOTE: This post has been changed to reflect the author’s happy surprise that the framework agreement was not the dud he thought it…

By Larry Derfner April 2, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Activestills.org)

Netanyahu on how his old U.S. high school ‘changed’

More evidence that his racism doesn’t stop at Arabs. I’ve never written about a particular comment Bibi Netanyahu made when I interviewed him in the summer of 1993, because as objective evidence of anti-black racism, it’s not exactly slam-dunk. But this weekend Netanyahu accused Israel’s friendliest, most unthreatening Arab public figure, broadcaster-turned-candidate Zohair Bahloul, of…

By Larry Derfner January 25, 2015

Stock photo of French marines patrolling in Paris. (Photo by Kavalenkau / Shutterstock.com)

France needs no one’s advice on fighting Islamist terror

A look at the facts. In Israel and America, France has this reputation of being the ultimate effete, left-liberal country – so politically correct, so multiculti, so morally relativist and scared to death of offending any minority, especially Muslims, that it’s incapable of dealing with the threat of jihadist terror. Israelis and Americans (led of…

By Larry Derfner January 11, 2015

Sign warning of immigrants near the U.S.-Mexican Border. (Photo by Shutterstock.com)

Netanyahu’s xenophobia: Bad in America, bad in Israel

We know what he thinks of Arabs. Read what he thinks of Mexican-Americans. Of all the reasons Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu puts forth for why Israel needs a “Jewish nation-state” law, the most bizarre one is this: “There are those – including those who deny our national rights – who would like to establish autonomy…

By Larry Derfner November 27, 2014

Israelis of Kurdish origin demonstrate in solidarity with the Yazidi community in front of the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, August 13, 2014. The Yazidi community in northern Iraq has recently been attacked by extremists of Islamic State. The protesters called for U.S intervention. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The Kurds must not be abandoned again, this time to ISIS

If there are any people on earth who deserve the world’s protection from slaughter, it is the Kurds. Despite the stereotype of Mizrahi Jews in Israel resenting Arabs because of the way they were treated in the old country, there are plenty of Mizrahim who have good memories of their relations with their former Muslim…

By Larry Derfner October 9, 2014

An Israeli artillery fires a shell towards the Gaza Strip from a position near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on Augost 1, 2014 after the proposed three-day truce that began at 0500 GMT collapsed amid a deadly new wave of bloodshed and the apparent capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas (photo: Activestills)

Hamas: Missing soldier likely killed in Israeli air strike

Israel continued to bombard Gaza overnight, as the Palestinian death toll rose to more than 70 after the collapse of Friday’s UN and U.S.-brokered 72-hour ceasefire that was supposed to lead to negotiations to end the Israel-Hamas war. Rockets continued to be fired from Gaza into Israel early Saturday morning, with the Iron Dome intercepting some…

By +972 Magazine August 2, 2014

COMIC: What if Mahmoud was named Jonah?

By Eli Valley Eli Valley is a writer and artist whose work has been published in New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Gawker, Saveur, Haaretz and elsewhere. He is currently finishing his first novel. Eli’s website is www.EVComics.com and he tweets at @elivalley. More from Eli Valley: Why even god can’t reach a two-state solution The hater in the sky /…

By +972 Magazine July 17, 2014

President Barack Obama at the AIPAC Policy Conference 2011. (photo: AIPAC)

Good news: Obama gives the Palestinians an insurance policy

The president’s high-profile interview with Jeffrey Goldberg will make it extremely hard for the administration to blame the Palestinians for the expected failure of Kerry’s peace initiative. Obama’s interview with the Bloomberg news agency on Sunday, in which he basically blamed Netanyahu and exonerated Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for the intractability of the occupation,…

By Larry Derfner March 4, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on April 9, 2013. (photo: State Department photo/ Public Domain)

U.S. ‘security plan’: Another decisive cave-in to Netanyahu

Once again, the Obama administration hangs Abbas and the Palestinian Authority out to dry. Halfway through the scheduled nine-month Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, there’s been a break in the action, or rather the inaction: the Obama administration, once again, has sought to end the deadlock by backing Netanyahu’s illegitimate demands and hanging the Palestinians out to…

By Larry Derfner December 8, 2013