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Referendums to Put Pressure On Palestinian, Israeli Negotiators
By Daoud Kuttab During the difficult reconciliation efforts between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas, a resolution was found to deal with the issue of talks with Israel, which the latter refuses to recognize. The Hamas leadership conceded that the PLO could negotiate with Israel provided that any agreement reached is put to a public…
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Tweets reveal US double standards on Egypt and 1st Amendment
By Daoud Kuttab Following appeared in various publications. One of the reasons for the success of social media’s Twitter platform is its ability to summarize a major issue in a few characters, while at the same time providing a link to give more details and credibility to the few words. This week a political…
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US Must Sell Peace Talks To Israeli, Palestinian Public
By Daoud Kuttab Peace talks generally require a parallel strategy aimed at communicating and convincing a reluctant public of its importance, value and ultimate benefits to the warring parties. One might think that nine months of publicly stated “secret” talks would require little communication. But the contrary is the case. The United States, which…
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The Kerry Talks: Why the US Needs to Be in the Room
By Daoud Kuttab Students of political negotiations might remember the long and difficult discussions in Paris about the shape of the negotiating table for the talks to end the Vietnam War. In the Palestinian-Israeli context, the discussion is not so much on the shape of the table as it is about the participants at the table. One of…
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Why Palestinians are reluctant to smile
By Daoud Kuttab The body language evident in two recent pictures of American, Israeli and Palestinian officials speaks volumes. The first was of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas along with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli President Shimon Peres. The picture was taken during the World Economic Forum held on the Jordanian side of…
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Signs of Seriousness In Israel-Palestine Peace Talks
By Daoud Kuttab The dinner with US Secretary of State John Kerry on July 29 will be the first face-to-face meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials in more than three years. It is unclear what the agenda of the two days of meetings at the State Department will be, but it is clear that instead of the incremental process…
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My Interview on CNN with Fareed Zakaria
Below is my interview with CNN followed by the opening statement of fareed and the interview with the Israeli ambassador. On air my interview was last but on my home page I can change the order. page We asked their official representative in Washington to join us, but the Palestinians say Secretary of State John…
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Is the Middle East Rejecting Radicalism?
By Daoud Kuttab As thousands of Egyptians hit the streets in response to a call from Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asking for a mandate to crush demonstrating supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, one has to ask the simple question: Is the Middle East turning away from radicalism and becoming more moderate? The signs of moderation in…
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US Appeals Court Rejects ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ on Passport
By Daoud Kuttab The case before the US Court of Appeals in Washington involved whether an American couple could register their son as being born in “Jerusalem, Israel.†Challenging the US State Department in the suit were, in addition to the child’s parents, were a number of major prominent US Jewish organizations — including…
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Leap of Faith Needed For Israeli-Palestinian Talks
By Daoud Kuttab Many analysts and activists are questioning the wisdom of the Palestinian leadership agreeing to preliminary talks in Washington, without having secured the coveted settlement freeze and the declaration by Israel that the 1967 borders are the basis of the negotiations. Palestinians and Israelis have debated whether these issues are considered preconditions to peace talks or…