A Palestinian State: Where to Draw the Boundaries

July 26th 2011

Dispatch n 8

It is commonly accepted that there are two types of Palestinians, the moderates and the radicals. The former would like to build a Palestinian State extending beyond what they now control, but would accept the presence as a neighbour of the State of Israel, possible within the 1947 borders.

Peace for peace

June 22d, 2011

Dispatch n 7

The true sense of having a State of Israel is having a Jewish State: a State where the Jewish people have the necessary and sufficient means to defend themselves from their enemies should the occasion arise. That is the prime significance of Israel’s creation in 1948 and that is what the Arab world and the Palestinians should understand, accept and come to terms with at every level.

INTIFADA 3.0

18 May 2011

Dispatch n 6

A country that fails to defend its borders very quickly ceases to be an independent state. For that reason, the government of Israel had no other choice but to stop the aggression against its territory organised by Palestinians from Syrian and Lebanese territory and from Gaza. The Moroccan ‘Green March’ ended Spanish rule in the Western Sahara in 1975, and this new ‘Green March’ could put an end to the State of Israel –if allowed to proceed–.

Israel is not the Problem

April 14th 2011

Dispatch n 5

Israel has never had the freedom to choose between peace and war. It is its neighbours who decide for it, and that has been the case ever since its establishment as an independent nation.

Asking the Right Questions

March 11th 2011

Dispatch n 4

At the times of uncertainty it is imperative to ask ourselves the right questions if we want to find the right answers to the problems that might lie ahead. For instance, if prompted to choose between stability and instability, most people would opt for stability, but that is simply not the right question to ask in the face of the changes, unrest and revolts that are currently underway in North Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Friends of Israel - The Coming Challenge

February 11th 2011

Dispatch n 3

The wave of protests in the Arab world that began in Tunisia, and that has spread to Egypto, Jordan and Yemen, has underscored the need to develop a unified Western policy towards these movements.

Christians and Jews under attack

January 12th, 2011

Dispatch n 2

The main threat to the Jewish people today is no longer physical, as it was in the past. Raher, it is directed at the legitimacy and survival of the State of Israel itself, the Jewish State. It is no longer a case of the Palestinians attempting to create a State, but of the shift in the mindset of a significant number of them from a nationalist to an islamist cause.

The next six months

December 3rd, 2010

Dispatch n 1

The Friends of Israel Initiative was formally launched in Paris just six months ago. Since then, we have had no rest in promoting our case: to fight the morally unfair, politically mistaken and strategically risky de-legitimisation of the State of Israel. After Paris, we have presented the initiative in London, Washington, Miami, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Rome... and soon we will be doing the same in Brussels, Mexico, Prague and Poland.

The mistake of recognising now a Palestinian State

Alert n 1

Things are moving, and fast, on the Palestinian side. While the Palestinian Authority (PA) rejects a return to the negotiating table, it is launching a renewed international offensive to garner support for the unilateral declaration of independence of a ’Palestinian State’.

The Palestinian State: The European Union’s Dangerous Muddle

Alert n 3

The EU’s foreign policy has a prime strategic goal: to avoid dissension and present a single common front before the rest of the world, ‘a European voice’ with no distracting cacophony. In the case of the recognition of a Palestinian State following the unilateral declaration by the Palestinian Authority, the aim has been no different.

Palestinian Statehood and the September UN Gambit

Alert n2

A meeting on ‘Palestinian Statehood and the September UN Gambit: A Recipe for Conflict or Consensus?’ was held last September 5th at the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, in the House of Commons in London. At the event, opening the current academic year, FOII’s Chairman José María Aznar spoke on the ‘Implications of the Unilateral Declaration of a Palestinian State’, stressing his conviction that although the discussions at the UN on the recognition of a Palestinian state would have some important consequences, they would not be as dramatic as some think.