Tag Archives: israeli

Middle East takes center stage as Obama, Abbas meet

The elusive search for a Middle East peace will be center stage Thursday as President Obama sits down with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The afternoon White House meeting comes one week after Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressed the Israeli leader to halt West Bank settlement activity to create a better atmosphere for peace talks. It also comes only days before Obama is scheduled to meet with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh and deliver a long-awaited speech on relations between the United States and the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt

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Can Obama Change the Game on Middle East Peace?

No one should have been surprised that there was no meeting of minds between President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their inaugural summit on Monday. Although the two men proclaimed a shared commitment to having Israelis and Palestinians live in peace, their views on how to get there remain substantially at odds. Now, as Obama puts the finishing touches on a new peace plan to be unveiled shortly — perhaps when he addresses the Muslim world from Cairo next month — the question facing the Administration is how to pursue its strategy with an unenthusiastic Israeli partner.

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When Bibi Met Barack: A Tougher Line on Middle East Peace

It was an odd choice for a gift. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the White House carrying a book for President Barack Obama, an edition of the American humorist Mark Twain’s travels to the Holy Land. Twain didn’t like the place much; he wrote rudely about the Arabs and thought the Jews should not have their own nation

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Israel warns citizens to beware Facebook spy requests

Terrorism groups are using Facebook and other social networking sites to recruit Israeli citizens as spies, the Israeli government warned Monday. Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, issued a statement warning Israelis about the dangers of trading confidential information for money. “The Shin Bet has gotten many reports about cases where terrorist elements are using the Internet to get in touch with Israelis with proposals to enlist in terror activity or to pass classified information in exchange for payment,” the statement said.

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A Dangerous Deadlock Persists in Gaza

If President Barack Obama had hoped to ease his way in to dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, January’s war in Gaza made the issue an urgent priority for his new Administration. Three weeks of pummeling by Israel aimed at dislodging the Palestinian militants of Hamas had left many thousands of Palestinians living in smoldering rubble. It had enraged the Arab world and enfeebled the moderate Palestinian leadership on which Washington had long relied to deliver peace with Israel

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Christians in Gaza Make Their Appeal to the Pope

The sign outside the door read “Cinema Club”, but inside, a Catholic priest was conducting Friday mass in Arabic for Gaza’s furtive Christians. Many of those Christians bowing their heads before a statue of the Virgin Mary were hoping that the power of prayer might nudge along the Israeli security bureaucracy. Six weeks ago, 250 Christians applied for permission from the Israelis to exit the locked down Palestinian enclave of Gaza for a day to see Pope Benedict XVI as he visits in Israel on his tour of the Middle East

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