The formula of "full withdrawal for full peace" remains at the heart of the present impasse in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations. Because the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects, presumably on security grounds, the principle of full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the Syrians see no reason to resume negotiations unless a commitment of Israeli withdrawal is first accepted by Netanyahu. To break the deadlock...

The U.S. policy of dual containment of Iran and Iraq has run its course. Given the geopolitical changes that have swept the Middle East since the Gulf War, continuing the same policy would only destabilize our allies and undermine our strategic in...

The primary obstacle that stands in the way of peace between Israel and Syria is the problem of "security, both real and imagined. Indeed, the formula of "full withdrawal for full peace" has gained tremendous public notoriety in Israel and...

Since its capture by Israel in 1967, the Golan Heights has come to symbolize for both Israel and Syria more than an important strategic territory. For the Israelis, the Golan is synonymous with national security, whereas for Damascus its restorati...

The conflict over Jerusalem transcends territory, time and human experience. In real historical time it is primarily a conflict between two peoples who have deep roots in the same space. It is a multi-dimensional conflict involving seemingly irreco...

Maintaining the separate national character of both Israel and the future Palestinian en-tity to be established in the West Bank and Gaza is critical to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These two national identities, however, are...

THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Two thousand years of pogroms and persecutions culminating in the Nazi holocaust contributed immeasurably to Jewish thinking and behavior after World War II. A generation motivated not only by long held religious ideals bu...

For years, the conventional wisdom about the Middle East has been that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was unlikely in the foreseeable future. That judgment, however, does not take into account the dramatic changes that have taken place ...

One of the major problems that continues to haunt the Israelis and Palestinians is the core issue of national identity as it relates to a territorial settlement. The relationship between territory and national identity could have been easily defin...

The avowal of human rights as a political, religious, and moral philosophy, and as an ideal that governs the relationship between groups and individuals, has had a long and mixed history. It includes the history of those who championed human rights ...