Thursday, December 19

Tag: West Bank

America Needs a Middle East Strategy
27Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

America Needs a Middle East Strategy

Nearly two months into Israel’s ground campaign, all eyes are on the Gaza Strip. Yet divisions over Gaza point to a disconnect between U.S. policy and strategic reality. The Middle East is headed toward a major war, for which the U.S. needs a strategy well beyond Gaza.Since late November, the Biden administration’s approach to the Gaza war has been to issue generic statements of discontent for domestic audiences absent policy action. Washington and Jerusalem disagree on their visions of postwar Gaza. The administration sees the Palestinian Authority as the most viable partner for governance there. Israel can’t accept this, given the authority’s corruption, incompetence and unpopularity in Gaza and the West Bank. A Palestinian Authority-governed Gaza would relapse into Hamas-style radicali...
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Biden’s Mixed Messages on Israel
14Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

Biden’s Mixed Messages on Israel

President Biden made headlines by declaring on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has to change.” As is typical with the President, his subsequent remarks were hard to follow, but many heard them as a call for a new Israeli government coalition willing to jump-start a two-state solution.It isn’t Mr. Biden’s place to pick Israel’s leaders. Instead, he could try listening to Israelis about the risks of empowering a Palestinian Authority (PA) that has refused to condemn the Hamas massacre. Or he could listen to Palestinians, 72% of whom believe Hamas was right to launch its Oct. 7 attack, according to a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. That figure rises to 82% among West Bank Palestinians, who are ruled by the PA, not Hamas.Copyright ©20...
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Don’t Give Gaza to the Palestinian Authority
26Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Don’t Give Gaza to the Palestinian Authority

By Eugene Kontorovich and Itamar MarcusThe Biden administration wants Israel to bring in Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party to rule Gaza when the war is over. Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority, which governs much of the West Bank. Uniting Gaza and the West Bank under a common government is a necessary step in the Biden administration’s seemingly unshakable goal of creating a Palestinian state sandwiching Israel. The idea behind the strategy has a long history. Fatah is a secular, Arab nationalist party that occasionally claims to want peace with Israel, albeit on terms that would make Israel’s existence as a Jewish state untenable. Yet for many diplomats this makes it an attractive alternative to the terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 attacks. But Fatah is a junior-varsity version of ...
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Israel, Hamas Exchange Fire Ahead of Release of Hostages, Pause in Fighting
22Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Israel, Hamas Exchange Fire Ahead of Release of Hostages, Pause in Fighting

Listen to article(2 minutes)Israel carried out targeted raids in the Gaza Strip and Hamas fired rockets at Israel ahead of implementing an agreed pause in fighting and the release of hostages held by the militant group in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Early Wednesday, Israel and Hamas agreed to free 50 civilian hostages held by militants in Gaza in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and a four-day pause in fighting.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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For Postwar Gaza, Differences Grow Over Palestinian Leadership Role 
19Nov By adminNo Comments
World

For Postwar Gaza, Differences Grow Over Palestinian Leadership Role 

Nov. 18, 2023 11:00 pm ETRAMALLAH, West Bank—As Western and Arab leaders look beyond Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, most agree they want some form of Palestinian government running the enclave, but they can’t agree on who it should include.One emerging point of consensus is that the Palestinian Authority—as it now operates and oversees the West Bank—isn’t up to the job. But there is no easy alternative.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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U.S. Sees Limits for Israel’s Place in Gaza Future
8Nov By adminNo Comments
World

U.S. Sees Limits for Israel’s Place in Gaza Future

Updated Nov. 8, 2023 3:05 pm ETTOKYO—The U.S. on Wednesday outlined its expectations for the postwar rule in Gaza, including Palestinian sovereignty over the territory, days after Israel said it intended to play a security role there after its overthrow of Hamas.Senior officials called for the Palestinian people to be at the center of governance in Gaza—unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described a vision for rebuilding Gaza and a path toward Israelis living side by side “in space of their own with equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Blinken Seeks to Balance Aid for Palestinian Civilians Against Israeli Self-Defense
5Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Blinken Seeks to Balance Aid for Palestinian Civilians Against Israeli Self-Defense

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked to assure Palestinian leaders that the U.S. is committed to helping Palestinian civilians and was met with a demand for an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Blinken’s unannounced Sunday visit to the West Bank, to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, came hours after an Israeli airstrike hit a refugee camp in Gaza, killing at least 38 people according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. Israeli officials didn’t immediately comment on the explosion at the Al Maghazi refugee camp.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Israel Steps Up Arrests in the West Bank in Wake of Hamas Attacks
5Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Israel Steps Up Arrests in the West Bank in Wake of Hamas Attacks

Israel has more than doubled the rate at which it makes arrests across the occupied West Bank since it was attacked by Hamas militants from Gaza a month ago, an escalation that analysts say risks triggering wider unrest. The Israeli military says the arrests are part of counterterrorism measures meant to stamp out Hamas’s West Bank network, in an effort to eradicate the U.S.-designated terrorist group following the unprecedented Oct. 7 assault from the Palestinian enclave. More than half of those held since the attacks are associated with Hamas, said spokesmen from the Israeli military and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service. Palestinians and rights groups say innocent people, including political figures, are being swept up by a broad detention campaign that is politically motiva...
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