Dear Friends and Supporters of Israel Policy Forum:
On behalf of Israel Policy Forum (IPF), including our President Peter Joseph and Chair Larry Zicklin, I am pleased to inform you that IPF is embarking on its next chapter.
As 2009 draws to a close, we are bombarded by the annual litany of commentary features recapping the year in Hollywood movies to the year in international conflict, and everything in between.
When it comes to the Middle East peace process, current conventional wisdom suggests the 2009 recap might go something like this:
Ephraim Asculai, Emily B. Landau, and Tamar Malz-Ginzburg
INSS Insight No. 154, December 29, 2009
Despite the tendency to denote any simulation exercise on security issues a "war game," the recent simulation designed and held at INSS did not focus on the option of a military attack. Rather, it developed the scenario of a bilateral US-Iranian negotiation over Iran's nuclear program.
In his series of meetings with leaders in Europe this week, Benjamin Netanyahu was faced with one issue time and again-the need to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank.
In Netanyahu's meeting with Gordon Brown on Tuesday, Brown called settlement construction an obstacle to a two state solution, saying that a freeze would likely open the door to normalization measures by Arab states.
With the mediation of a German intelligence official, talks are under way to secure a deal to release IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Ha'aretzreports that Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal will fly to Cairo next week to discuss the deal.
Ma'ariv quotes Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Damascus as saying "We trust the German mediator."