إسرائيل

On May 11, 2007, David Makovsky conducted a special keynote interview of the Honorable Shimon Peres at The Washington Institute's 19th annual Soref Symposium. David Makovsky is a senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Institute. Shimon Peres is the deputy prime

Talk to senior Israeli military officials, as I have recently, about how the Israeli government will respond to regional threats, and one hears the same refrain: "Wait for the Winograd findings." Well, we now know what they are. The Winograd Commission, established last fall to investigate Israel's war with Lebanon

The just-released Winograd Report, an investigation of Israeli decisionmaking in the 2006 summer war with Hizballah, has put Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a battle for survival. Today, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni publicly called for Olmert's dismissal. Will the prime minister's tenure last beyond this growing crisis? Background The 150-page

Next week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the Middle East, where she plans to meet Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for what has become a monthly trilateral session. The question is whether Rice still believes both parties can actually agree on a

When the United Nations considered a landmark resolution condemning Holocaust denial last month, the media missed a major story: One of the first delegates out of his chair to express support for "keeping memory alive" was the ambassador from Egypt. This was a major breakthrough. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may

As recently as December, Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas refused to back a proposal for a unity government offered by Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member and head of the Independent Palestine list Mustafa Barghouti. That deal was based on the concept of a technocratic compromise under which Hamas officials

On February 14, 2007, Institute senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process David Makovsky testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The following is a synopsis of his testimony. Read the complete text of David

This is the first of a two-part examination of the meaning and implications of the Mecca accord. Read part two. The Fatah-Hamas agreement mediated by the Saudis last week in Mecca revives a long tradition in Palestinian politics of prioritizing internal unity over progress toward strategic objectives. With Palestinian Authority

On January 22, 2007, former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon addressed the Seventh Annual Herzliya Conference on the balance of Israel's national security. General Yaalon was a Washington Institute visiting fellow in 2006 and is the author of the Institute monograph Lessons from the