Israel

It’s pretty remarkable that no Republican or Democratic president since has been willing to put meaningful pressure on Israel. Even as they have learned what the peace process has required, they’ve been less willing to do what’s needed... If you are settling, colonizing territory at the very same moment you are supposedly part of a peace process aimed at giving it away in exchange for peace, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

It’s entirely possible that it [the fighting on the Israel-Gaza border] will spiral into a full-blown war.

Washington has [historically] been pretty inhospitable to Palestinian lobbying efforts, particularly on Capitol Hill where the pro-Israel lobby has focused its efforts. There’s a real stigma in American politics attached to Palestinian activism.