الفلسطينيون

Operation Cast Lead, initiated in response to resumed Hamas rocket attacks on communities in southern Israel, represents Israel's most furious attack on Hamas since the terrorist group assumed control of Gaza. For the past six months, an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire maintained an uneasy status quo, during which time Hamas smuggled some

The Gaza conflict was born the day Hamas took control of the Strip; the clock started ticking the day the "calm" began six months ago. Unlike all of Israel's other neighbors, save Hezbollah, Hamas is an existential adversary of Israel, not a competitor for some slice of territory or for

This timely collection of brief essays urges the Obama administration to follow three clear guidelines in Arab-Israeli diplomacy. First, do not overreach for a full agreement right away, but launch an effective U.S. peacemaking role -- active, yet patient and incremental. Second, outflank Hamas. This means maintaining the perfectly valid

On December 10, 2008, Walter B. Slocombe, J. D. Crouch II, and Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs (Ret.) addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to launch a new strategic report entitled Security First: U.S. Priorities in Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking. Mr. Slocombe, currently an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale, served

This Washington Institute Strategic Report argues that the Obama administration should focus its early efforts in the Middle East peace process on expanding and improving the U.S.-led program to train Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces so that they are willing and able to fight terrorism. Security First: U.S. Priorities in

Over the past few weeks, Hamas's international financial support network suffered a series of setbacks, most notably the U.S. federal court conviction of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders on charges of providing material support to Hamas. Despite these convictions and the

Thirteen years after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli security officials are expressing heightened concern that a new wave of violent extremism among fringe elements in the Jewish settler movement threatens not only Palestinian civilians, but also Israeli national security and the future of any potential peace diplomacy

Last week, Israeli forces entered Gaza, destroyed an underground border tunnel, and battled Hamas fighters, leaving several militants dead. In response, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired around eighty rockets into southern Israel, including the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Despite this breach of the tahdiya, or ceasefire, both Hamas and

On September 23, 2008, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Eiland and Ambassador Martin Indyk addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. General Eiland is former head of the Israeli National Security Council and currently a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Ambassador Indyk