The recent conference on Iraq, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, and attended by more than 50 countries representing half of the world's population, seems at first glance to underscore the "great interest so many countries have displayed" over the future of that torn country. But, perhaps we should lay it on the line and ask, "Who really cares about Iraq itself?"

However damning Judge Eliyaho Winograd's report may be regarding the Prime Minister's conduct of the second war in Lebanon, it would be far more damning and destructive for Israel if the political leaders seeking to replace Mr. Olmert lose sight of Israel's ultimate national interests. They must seek a national consensus not only in order to deal with present dangers but to seize the opportunity that the Arab Initiative presents for achieving a comprehensive peace…

The Israeli government should accept the Arab initiative because it has a solemn obligation to explore any possibility, however remote, to peacefully end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel can accept the Arab initiative in principle, and as long as it negotiates in earnest, the whole world will listen to its legitimate national concerns…

Historically and theologically, the Jews could be, and to a certain extent were being, trusted by Muslims as long as they were subordinate to the Muslims. Since the beginning of Zionism and the establishment of Israel, the Palestinians have been called upon to trust Israelis when they are powerful.

The flurry of activity surrounding the reintroduction of the Saudi initiative at the Arab League Summit in Riyadh in late March is entirely different from the atmosphere when it was originally adopted by the Arab states during their Beirut meeting five years ago. The convergence of ominous developments…

For the U.S. representative, during the regional conference held in Bagdad on March 10, to actually sit at the same table with the Iranian and Syrian delegates represents, in itself, an important development. The next such meeting, scheduled for early April, and at the foreign minister level, offers the Bush administration a tremendous opportunity to go beyond Iraq's internal strife. With vision, boldness, and careful planning, Washington can open the door to bilateral talks on larger regional security issues…

Administration officials are increasingly talking about the wisdom of engaging with Syria to try to gain its support of and participation in efforts to stop the already chaotic situation in the Middle East from further deteriorating. Although it would have been wise from the first to engage with Syria, talking directly to Syria at this juncture is even more urgent and of paramount importance to the United States and its allies in the region…

It has been famously said that the Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The recent meeting, hosted by Saudi King Abdullah, held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, between Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian Prime Minister…

Current Israeli-Palestinian discord over the final status of Jerusalem offers a golden opportunity to attain a major breakthrough rather than a deadlock in the negotiations. The United States must seek to interject new dimensions into the peace process. Whether the Palestinians raised the Jerusalem question because they must show a substantial gain from the peace negotiations, or because of factionalism in formulating a cohesive policy toward Israel, or as a ploy to gain other concessions, is secondary. What is important is that united Jerusalem has, for 26 years, served as a microcosm of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence that has worked well, even at the height of the Intifadah. Although the Palestinians consistently claim an inalienable right to East Jerusalem, what pushed them to raise the Jerusalem issue now rather than later was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's closure of the territories, depriving them of access to East Jerusalem's health, cultural, and religious institutions. They regarded this as a sign of what they can expect of self-rule if East Jerusalem is excluded.