The fighting in Gaza has led to an upsurge of commentary in the on-line newspapers. Much of it is about who is to blame, but there have also been articles about the possibilities and requirements of long-term peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. This is a summary of some of those articles, with links to the full versions.
First there are several articles on the Gaza conflict (or on the lead-up to it); see Aaronovitch, Freedland, Kristof, Tisdall, Lerner, Altman, Carroll, Shlaim. "The Arabs and Israel: the Hundred Years War" is an editorial from The Economist giving a useful historical perspective. Greenwald points out that the leadership of the Democratic Party is much more supportive of Israel than Democrat voters are.
What can be done now? Agha and Malley
argue
that the present leadership in Palestine and in Israel is not capable
of effecting a "two state solution", and that the time is not ripe for
a push for a settlement. This is also the view of Aaron David Miller
(three articles, “An Israeli-Palestinian
agreement: Forget about
it”, “A Middle East deal Obama
could build on”,
“If
Obama Is
Serious He should
get tough with
Other writers put forward ideas about how progress might still be made. See Haass and Indyk, Dror, Pollock, Klaidman, Scowcroft and Brzezinski, Couloumbis et al. Some of these suggest a peace-keeping force. The requirements for such a force are discussed by Meigs.
Some think that the alliance in the West Bank between Fatah and Israel against Hamas has been going well (at least before the Gaza attack); see Koutsoukis, Yaari, White. Others are pessimistic about Israel's situation: see Morris. Some urge caution on Israel and its allies; see Richter, Kramer.
For some criticism of the neo-Cons (whose plans were designed to safeguard Israel -- see A Clean Break: a New Strategy for Securing the Realm), see Heilbrunn, Cole.
Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Washington Post, 21 November, 2008.
Aaron David Miller, Jerusalem Post, 23
Yossi Alpher, Daily Star, 26 November, 2008.
Aaron David Miller, Washington Post, 27 November, 2008
Jason Koutsoukis, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 November, 2008.
Martin Kramer, Jerusalem Post, 6 December, 2008
Elihu D. Richter, Jerusalem Post, 10 December, 2008
Ehud Yaari, Australian, 10 December, 2008:
Jeffrey White, Real Clear World, 10 December, 2008
Gershom Gorenberg, American Prospect, 11 December, 2008
Theodore Couloumbis, Bill Ahlstrom & Gary Weaver, Real Clear World, 12 December, 2008
Benny Morris, Los Angeles Times, 14 December, 2008.
Simon Tisdall, Guardian, 16 December 2008
Gershom Gorenberg, American Prospect, 23 December, 2008
Yehezkel Dror, Jerusalem Post, 28 December, 2008
David Pollock, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, December 2008
Jonathan Freedland, Guardian, 3 January 2009
Aaron David Miller, Newsweek, 3 January, 2009
Daniel Klaidman, Newsweek, 3 January, 2009
Michael Lerner, Times, 5 January, 2009.
James Carroll, Boston Globe, 5 January, 2009
Avi Shlaim, Guardian, 7 January, 2009
Greg Scoblete, Real Clear World, 7 January, 2009
Juan Cole, Salon, 8 January, 2009.
Montgomery C. Meigs, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 8 January, 2009
Dennis Altman, Age, 10 January, 2009
Jacob Heilbrunn, American Conservative, 12 January, 2009
Hussein Agha, Robert Malley, New York Review of Books, 15 January, 2009
Reviewing: The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab–Israeli Peace, by Aaron David Miller; Negotiating Arab–Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, by Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky; Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, by Martin Indyk
Richard N. Haass and Martin Indyk, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009.