Mike Huckabee – erstwhile Republican presidential hopeful – has lost it.

On a junket paid for by a questionable charity run out of New York, the former Governor of Arkansas and Southern Baptist pastor made the following statements while standing in the West Bank:

“The question is s… Read full post »

The United Church of Canada, Canada’s largest Protestant denomination – with roughly 10% of the country’s population describing themselves as adherents – has made another attempt at addressing the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. The General Council Meeting of the church that… Read full post »

Professor Sebastian Gorka of the National Defense University published an article in Foreign Policy magazine yesterday on al-Qaeda’s global reach and what the US can do to combat it. It’s a rambling article with a few good points shrouded with illogical jumps in reason and a shaky hold on/… Read full post »

Interesting piece out of The Daily Beast today: a short article from Benjamin Sarlin who interviews former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk about how Obama can get “back on track” with Israel. At no point in the article does anyone really question if Obama is off track with Israel at/… Read full post »

I recently revisited an op-ed piece Elliot Abrams’ wrote in April for the Washington Post in which he argues that the settlement freeze is a red herring for Arab-Israeli peace. Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and was the deputy national secu… Read full post »

Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli Finance Minister is not just dismissive of the possibility that the US could withhold loan guarantees worth billions of dollars but doubts that the state of Israel even needs them.

"I don't see any limitations on the horizon. It's not time to be concerned… Read full post »

…Obama, on the other hand, has little to offer Israel. There is no effective organ for promoting American interests among Israeli voters like AIPAC does stateside.  Israeli hawks are benefiting from a status quo that has never seen an American President do anything but murmur displea/… Read full post »

Israeli politicians are up in arms at the increasing chorus of international leaders who argue that the proposed settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem should be stopped.

Haaretz quotes…

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Israel will not agree to edicts [American, European, Russian]/… Read full post »

A group of 26 unnamed Israeli soldiers are claiming that they took part in abuses against Palestinians during the Israeli assault on Gaza this past winter. Among the charges levelled in the report include an accusation that IDF troops were encouraged to "shoot first, worry later" and that many civili… Read full post »

I'm giving Open Salon a try after three plus years at www.thewestbank.blogspot.com. Not that I've abandoned that blog - in fact most of my posts will be crossposted - I'm just looking to new structures in which to blog. I'm hoping that Open Salon readers will be more active with their/… Read full post »