Aaron David Miller is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations. His latest book is "End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President" (St. Martin's Press). Twitter: @aarondmiller2
Saeb was a unique figure among the Palestinian officials with whom we dealt: Confidante of both Arafat and Abbas, analytical, sometimes inflexible – and one of the few remaining true believers in a peaceful two state solution
Israel's normalization of relations with the UAE and Bahrain is transactional, not transformative. The breakdown of the Arab consensus on Palestine is the really historic change - and it doesn't bode well for the Palestinians
Biden’s overwhelming priority as president will be putting America back together again, not fighting with Israel about the Palestinians. Unless Netanyahu does something really reckless
Rabin was famously, and brutally, blunt: he thought Americans like me were hopelessly naive about the Mideast. But his kind of honest leadership is missing in Israel today
Despite abundant predictions of doom and of Democratic drift, Israel - with all its imperfections and transgressions - remains the only country in a violent, dysfunctional region sharing any values and interests with the U.S.
This time, it will likely backfire.
The Gaza conflict is the poster child for America and Europe’s inability to ‘fix’ the Middle East. Any Israel/Hamas cease-fire deal will at best be an interim one, hostage to the broader impasse in the peace process.
Israelis and Palestinians should give a busy U.S. president reason to play a bigger role in peace: by undertaking serious talks