Five Things to Know This Week: Trump Peace Plan, Part One
Trump administration’s Peace for Prosperity, Middle East Peace plan economic part released, Bahrain conference announced yet details and Palestinian cooperation unclear
Trump administration’s Peace for Prosperity, Middle East Peace plan economic part released, Bahrain conference announced yet details and Palestinian cooperation unclear
Nathan Guttman’s “Five Things” Column lists all the issues you should watch this coming week.
Israeli forces yesterday fired on protesters trying to breach the Gaza border fence, killing more than 60 and injuring 2,400.
“Let’s be honest about what occurred: This was a political decision.”
I was at that peace rally in Tel Aviv, 22 years ago, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. And for most years since, I have marked that date by attending memorial rallies in that same square. But this year, I won’t go to the annual rally in the square.
But can President Trump and his special Middle East envoys accept anything less?
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.
What is an embassy? It is an office in which people do their jobs—at times essential, at other times unimportant. It is also a symbol—of friendship, of cooperation, of relations.
This thriller about the Israeli-Arab conflict comes with rare praise from one of the masters of suspense fiction and with a premise that suggests exploration of deep moral dilemmas. The endorsement comes from Stephen King, who says the book is “about the lies we tell ourselves until the truth is forced upon us,” and is “what great fiction is all about.”