All Policy Analysis by David Makovsky

On Thursday, an estimated 300,000 members of Israel's Likud Party will head to the polls and decide whether they want Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as their party leader. This contest has special importance because current polls show that the Likud winner is likely to emerge

A false debate has broken out between those who say a key goal of any attack against Iraq would be the creation of an Iraqi democracy and those who believe the world is ultimately more secure if reliable authoritarians can be found in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East

Tomorrow, approximately 100,000 members of the Israeli Labor Party will vote for their new leader. The winner will serve as the party's standard-bearer for the national elections on January 28, 2003. Barring an unforeseen turnaround, the winner of tomorrow's contest will be Haifa mayor Amram Mitzna. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer—Mitzna's main rival

Nobody should be surprised by the "abrupt" end of the 20-month alliance between Israel's Labor Party and the Likud government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This sort of thing has happened before in Israeli politics. This time, though, there is a difference: The national unity government is collapsing not over

Israel is reconfiguring its government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has established a new cabinet this week. The Israeli-Palestinian violence of the last two years is unlikely to be transformed into a peace process as a result of this week's developments. This is due to a variety of factors ranging

Tomorrow, October 16, President George W. Bush hosts Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Although the two have met frequently in the year and a half since they assumed office, this session is likely to be different from previous encounters. Undoubtedly, they will discuss the situation with the Palestinians; this will

The situation is bleak. But there are some glimmers of hope that are worth acknowledging. These glimmers are significant because they come from within -- from the Palestinians themselves. Ninety-one percent of Palestinians want reform; 83 percent say the Palestinian Authority is corrupt; and, for what might have been one

The intifada is not yet over; thus, the Israeli-Palestinian situation has the potential to deteriorate or to improve. Several key changes have taken place over the past two years, affecting the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians. First, the violence that has been exercised by both sides has reversed the

This week, amid a deep economic recession, the national unity government of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon narrowly adopted a 2003 austerity budget. Given the likelihood of new elections within a year, the time and attention of Israeli policymakers will likely be devoted to political maneuvering on serious domestic problems

President Bush's recent address on the Middle East was a seminal moment for that region. It strengthened the idea that resolution of the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not likely any time soon under the current Palestinian leadership -- and that successful peacemaking will thus depend on

There is a rub-your-eyes quality to the summit that kicks off tonight between President Bush and Russian leader Vladimir V. Putin in Russia. Erstwhile enemies are embarking on a historic new partnership. If they seize the moment, they could parlay their new friendship into solving a problem that has eluded

A spate of visitors have been coming to the United States to talk with senior Bush administration officials about the Middle East. Perhaps the most prominent visitor has been Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler who last visited the United States three years ago. As a

The Saudi initiative for Israeli-Palestinian peace—soon to be presented at the upcoming Arab Summit in Beirut—is in part a tool to address tensions in Saudi relations with the United States after the September 11 attacks. A more important motivation for the initiative, however, is that the Saudi ruling family is

Critics may be right in dismissing the possibility that Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon can conclude a final peace agreement with one another. Each, however, has a unique opportunity and responsibility to break taboos and set principles that will facilitate peacemaking by his successor. There is ample evidence to believe

Recriminations between Israelis and Palestinians on whether Israel sufficiently eased restrictions yesterday on the movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat within Ramallah (in return for the arrest of three Palestinians involved in the killing of an Israeli cabinet minister) have overshadowed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's declaration on Thursday to

How to deal with Yasser Arafat is a serious issue, one that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush once again discussed in their meeting at the White House on Thursday. Sharon has publicly declared that he wants the U.S. to boycott Arafat because of the Palestinian leader's failure

Israeli naval commandos seized the Gaza-bound freighter Karine-A in the Red Sea last Thursday, exposing a cargo hold containing fifty tons of munitions. The seizure took place in international waters some 300 miles off of Israel's southern coast, between Sudan and Saudi Arabia. The ship's captain, Omar Akkawi, later participated

The decision by Israel's security cabinet last night to sever contact with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasir Arafat, declaring him "irrelevant" in halting current Hamas suicide bombings and attacks, marks a new nadir in Israeli-Palestinian relations since the 1993 Oslo accords. Israel is frustrated by how little the PA has

Secretary Powell's November 19 speech did not introduce any new substantive points into the debate. However, it outlined for the first time the Bush administration's view regarding the situation in the Middle East. It also offered some important symbolic points that could provide Yasir Arafat a means of ending the

The Bush administration came to office, seeking to stay as far clear of the Mideast peace process as possible. Who could blame them? President Bill Clinton invested an extraordinary amount of time and energy in a bid for a far-reaching grand deal -- a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and