Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy book cover with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger laid the groundwork for American diplomacy in the Middle East almost 50 years ago through his efforts to end the Yom Kippur War and his “shuttle diplomacy” with Israel, Egypt and Syria.

In his new book, Master of the Game, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Obama, takes an in-depth look at how American diplomacy operates behind closed doors and how Kissinger’s design for Middle East peacemaking remains key to brokering peace in the region. Indyk is in conversation with former CBS News correspondent and Moment contributor Dan Raviv, coauthor of Friends in Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance.

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Are People Tired of Middle East Peace Progress?

Remember when Donald Trump first ran for office in 2016 and promised that “we’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning”? Well, it’s a matter of anyone’s political persuasion to judge just how much America has been winning in the past four years and whether there really are people out there who are sick and tired of winning.
But to paraphrase Trump’s promise, could people be sick and tired of too much Middle East peace?

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Whose Side Is the U.S. Really On?

As U.S.-brokered negotiations begin–again–between Israelis and Palestinians, both sides want to know: Hey, America, whose side are you really on? After living in Jerusalem for seven years and working in the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I encountered that question on more than one occasion. My answer came after an unexpected ride on a sherut, the 10-person van that shuttles passengers between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. One night out in Tel Aviv, it was well past midnight and I was ready to go home to Jerusalem. The regular buses had stopped running, so the only way to get home was via the Jerusalem sherut. Haphazardly huddled by the side of the road where the sherut picks up its passengers just a few of us were waiting when I first arrived, but eventually a small crowd amassed. Thirty of...

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Is NPR Anti-Israel?

by Symi Rom-Rymer It’s practically impossible for a news organization, especially one like NPR, that is considered left-of-center, to cover the Middle East conflict and not to be accused, by someone, of being anti-Israel. A quick Google search shows that people across the spectrum have taken issue with NPR and its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  In 2000, CAMERA (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), a conservative pro-Israel media watchdog group, called the station’s coverage of Israel hostile, adding that it presented Israel as “morally reprehensible.” In May of this year, it criticized the Diane Rehm Show, saying that Rehm “stacked the deck against Israel” in a segment. Of course, it’s not only pro-Israel advocates who take issue with NPR’s Middle East reporting. In 2001, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), a liberal...

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