All Policy Analysis by David Makovsky

It has been said that the world is still living the seventh day of the Six Day War. David Makovsky offered this look back at the consequential conflict at a 2004 State Department conference.

In 2003, a new debate is underway about the future of Israel. The question is not about whether a grand deal with the Palestinians is possible; now the debate focuses on the political implications of current demographic trends that reflect a sharp increase in the region's Palestinian population. Within a

President Bush's speech about nourishing democracy in the Middle East was received with predictable derision by state-run Arab media. More disturbing is the fact that the speech has failed to attract much attention in this country. It is dismissed by some as mere political rhetoric and seen by others as

During the first half of 2001, a new, fortified fence was constructed in the Gaza Strip, and since that time not a single Palestinian suicide bomber has infiltrated Israel from Gaza. Previously, in December 2000, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had decided to create a 60-square-kilometer security buffer zone around

With Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy frozen, it is not surprising that the world is focusing its attention on the barrier that the Israelis are building in the West Bank. Israelis say it is about security. Palestinians say the "apartheid wall" is about Israeli imposition and land-grabs. For the Bush administration, it is

By almost any measure, the Israeli settlement movement has failed. Despite religious, ideological, and financial incentives, only around 5 percent of Israel’s Jewish population has relocated to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the land was captured in the 1967 war. Moreover, polls indicate a majority of Israelis

Abu Mazen has been essentially boycotted by Palestine Television and Voice of Palestine, stations run by allies and aides of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Yasir Arafat. His nonappearance in the Palestinian electronic media cannot be chalked up to Abu Mazen’s diffidence or lack of public support. Indeed, for much of

The Roadmap was never designed to be a blueprint. Instead, it provides a direction and a set of guidelines for Israeli and Palestinian actions. Because the Roadmap was negotiated not by Israelis and Palestinians but by members of the Quartet -- who are not responsible for implementing its steps—no one

President George W. Bush will be holding three summits next week that will have a strong Middle East orientation. A G-8 summit will followed by a meeting with Arab leaders in Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, and a summit of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Aqaba, Jordan, representing a new phase in

Mahmoud Abbas—better known as Abu Mazen—represents a moderate course of thinking in Palestinian politics and a marked departure from the policy of intransigence and duplicity that has characterized Yasir Arafat's tainted regime. Specifically, he has challenged the premise of emphasizing national unity before national responsibility; in other words, turning a

Peter David: Robert Satloff said he wanted a British ally to be present at this meeting. So in one sense, I owe my presence here to the work of the Seventh Armored Brigade, the British unit that captured Basra. The way the brigade captured Basra was quite unusual. They approached

It has become de rigueur in Europe and the Arab world to proclaim that the problem in the Middle East is that the Bush administration is not "engaged" in restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Yet the United States has been engaged in important ways, and hopeful signs are now coming

After the U.S.-led coalition routed Iraq in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, President George H.W. Bush told Congress that he would vigorously pursue the Arab-Israeli peace process. Indeed, a landmark Middle East peace conference in Madrid followed in short order, which for the first time brought Israel to the same

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented his new 68-member right-center government to the 120-member Knesset today. The government represents four parties with the following allocation of seats: Likud (40), Shinui (15), National Union (7), and National Religious Party (6). This marks the first Israeli government formed since 1974 that does not

As Iraq continues its rejectionist course, Islamic militancy remains strong and ongoing terrorist attacks stoke Palestinian-Israeli violence, expectations in the Middle East have plunged lower than the Dead Sea. Yet amid the gloom there is a glimmer of good news: Jordan. It has been said that Jordan is the quintessential

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon swept to victory yesterday, his right bloc assured of at least 67 seats in the incoming 120-seat Knesset. Indeed, Likud's strength has essentially doubled, rising from 19 seats in the fifteenth Knesset to 37 seats in the sixteenth. The right's gain was matched by the left

On January 24, 2003, Elie Rekhess and David Makovsky addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Dr. Rekhess is a senior associate at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University and director of the center's research program on Arab politics in Israel. Mr. Makovsky is

Earlier this week, Israel's Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna announced that he would not look to resume a broad coalition government with the Likud Party following the country's upcoming January 28 election, a crucial decision that dropped Labor from 24 to 20 seats (according to today's Yediot Aharonot poll) and

The slide in the polls of Ariel Sharon's Likud Party over the last six weeks has been rather dramatic, transforming the character of the campaign from an expected Sharon landslide into a closer contest. In Thursday's Yediot Ahronot-Dahaf poll, Likud dropped from 40 to 28 seats in the 120-member Knesset

Last Friday, while official Washington was still enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday break, the White House stealthily issued Presidential Determination 2003-04, whose first paragraph instructs the State Department to sanction the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for noncompliance with obligations stemming from the Oslo Accords. This was