Interviews
Take The Fayad Plan For What It Is
Gershon Baskin describes Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad’s plan as “one of the most positive and optimistic developments of recent times”.
Insights
The ‘lose-lose’ approach to peace
Obama and the Quartet must now cease the efforts to bring the sides to the table and spend the next six months drafting the plan and the means for providing long-term security assurances for the State of Israel and for the State of Palestine.
Insights
The Center for Israeli Progress (CIP): Progressive Ideas for a Sustainable Israel
The Center for Israeli Progress as a leading think-tank dedicated to improving the lives of Israelis by developing ideas and actions through the prism of a progressive agenda. The focus will be to articulate a clear, pragmatic direction for Israeli politics that will assist in reconstructing the progressive side of the Israeli political map.
Insights
In the land of miracles, let’s get real
Gershon Baskin believes that Palestinian unilateralism might be the best way forward, and a two-year plan for Palestinian statehood, supported by Obama and the Quartet with significant aid and assistance, successfully demonstrating Palestinian resolve for statehood and peace with its neighbour might be the best way to convince the Israeli public that they must allow the Palestinians to gain freedom from Israeli control.
Insights
After the summit – What we can understand from what happened in NY
The Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas summit was a disappointment mainly because of the (perhaps not reasonably) high expectations that much of the world has held for the new US Administration (including me).
Interviews
Getting behind Obama
Dr. Gershon Baskin made an impassioned plea for the Israeli public to wake up and reinvigorate the vanished pro-peace lobby. But it is not only the domestic lobby which needs to get its act together. Our progressive pro-peace friends abroad also need to work on influencing their respective governments, and the US administration in particular, to exert real pressure on both Israelis and Palestinians to implement difficult compromises.
Interviews
Israeli Academic Think Tank Appeals to UN to declare Palestinian state
Gershon Baskin believes the only way to achieve Mideast peace is by having the international community impose a Palestinian state on Israel.
Insights
A progressive new year
Rosh Hashana is a time for reflection, a time to look back while considering the future. Israel is an amazing country. There is so much to be proud of, so many achievements in such a short time. No other country has accomplished so much while faced with so many challenges. Yet with all its achievements, it is difficult to predict if Israel’s immediate future carries the promise of peace, security and prosperity, or a much less happy fate.
Insights
President Obama: Pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace
President Obama should not be deterred by the noise that those who oppose peace on both sides make. The majority of Israelis and Palestinians really do want peace and if these principles are accepted, President Obama will be perceived as being pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian and pro-peace.
Insights
Drawing borders is the first step
If President Obama and Senator Mitchell are serious about resolving this issue first, they will rapidly come to the conclusion that unless they put the map down on the table, no lines will be drawn at all.