Five Things To Know This Week: AIPAC and Bibi Clash

1. Are Bibi and AIPAC no longer BFFs? As promised last week, the Ilhan Omar controversy has died out and made way for a fresh debate. And yes, once again it’s about AIPAC and once again it’s tearing the pro-Israel community apart. For those who spent their weekend watching Oscar-nominated movies instead of following the news, the controversy, in short, has to do with AIPAC tweeting an unequivocal condemnation of Otzma Yehudit, an extremist Israeli political party made up of followers of Meir Kahane’s racist Kach. What’s the big deal about the tweet? Criticizing a marginal Israeli political movement for its anti-Arab racism is nothing new, even for mainstream Jewish organizations. But this time, it’s the context that matters. Otzma Yehudit had just entered a political deal that will likely ensure its members get elected to...

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Opinion | Should 1967 be Celebrated or Mourned?

Fifty years. More than half of them, many more, have been years of acrimony. Was the Six-Day War just a great triumph—or a triumph whose consequence is grave devastation? Was it worth it? Pick the facts that support your viewpoint: The 1967 war resulted in overconfidence that brought about the 1973 war; the 1967 war convinced some Arab leaders that Israel was no longer weak and that removing it by force was not a realistic option; the war enabled Jews to settle the more important regions of its ancient homeland; the war put Israel in charge of territory occupied by Palestinians.

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Opinion // Why There Won’t Be a ‘One-State’ Solution

Trump’s use of the phrase opened up a debate about its many meanings. by David Makovsky It’s fitting that the Israelis and Palestinians, who cannot agree on how to solve their conflict, don’t even agree on its terms. Take the phrase “one-state solution,” which recently popped up in the news when President Donald Trump mentioned it in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What is the “one-state solution”? It means very different things to different people. Israeli settlers and their sympathizers see a one-state solution as meaning Israel should be sovereign not just over Israel according to pre-1967 lines, but also over the entire West Bank (what some refer to as Greater Israel). To some Palestinians, a one-state solution means no Israel whatsoever, but rather a binational state in Israel and the West Bank....

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