إسرائيل

PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCES With the Middle East as a focal point of U.S. foreign policymaking, a complex array of regional issues now compete for the urgent attention of America's leaders. In preparation for the first presidential succession of the twenty-first century, The Washington Institute has assembled three independent Presidential Task

On May 30, 2008, Natan Sharansky, Itamar Rabinovich, James Woolsey, and Dennis Ross addressed The Washington Institute's 2008 Soref Symposium. Natan Sharansky is a former Israeli minister and human rights advocate. Itamar Rabinovich is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former chief Israeli negotiator with Syria. James

The Syria-Iran alliance predated the rise to power of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, President Hafiz Assad offered Ayatollah Khomeini sanctuary in Syria. Subsequently, Syria was the first Arab state to recognize the Shiite revolutionary regime in Tehran. Increased political pressures, a growing fiscal deficit

President Bush returns to the Middle East this week for the second time in 2008. Initially planned to mark Israel's sixtieth anniversary, his itinerary has expanded to include meetings with top officials from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Saudi Arabia. Except for a trip to Riyadh

Much ado has been made of the Israeli security fence isolating the West Bank. When it is completed in 2010, the barrier -- which runs roughly along the 1967 border between Israel and Palestinian territory -- will span nearly 500 miles. Israelis say the purpose of the structure is to

On March 14, 2008, Ghaith al-Omari, James G. Lindsay, David Makovsky, and Dennis Ross addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. al-Omari is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. Mr. Lindsay is former chief counsel with the UN Relief and Works Agency and a

Qassam rockets -- unsophisticated weapons manufactured in garages and backroom laboratories -- have transformed the strategic equation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These crude rockets give Palestinian terrorist organizations the capability to strike deep into Israeli territory, throwing the security assumptions behind future peace negotiations into doubt. Background Qassam rockets --

It is tempting to view the current violence in Gaza as just another symptom of the greater Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it is not. The Hamas-sanctioned rockets and the Israeli retaliation are actually at the core of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's inability to move the peace process even one inch

In response to the February 12 assassination of chief of operations Imad Mughniyeh, Hizballah has ratcheted up its threats, warnings, and saber rattling. In turn, Israel has locked down its foreign missions, put its military on heightened alert, and deployed Patriot missiles near Haifa. And in Washington, the FBI issued