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Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen

The Trump administration’s approach to Middle East peace differs from that of previous administrations in that it is based on facts, not narratives.
Tehran takes heart from U.S. domestic affairs, particularly the Democratic Party’s initiative to restrict the president’s military freedom of action regarding Iran.
Most of the conclusions of a recent study recounting the purportedly unknown story of Palestinian Arab volunteers fighting the Nazis during the war are dubious and inconsistent with historical facts.
The U.S. initiative to revive the concept of Palestinian autonomy rather than support the formula of self-determination could be an additional indication of the Trump administration’s distrust of the current Palestinian leadership.
“Peace to Prosperity” has a precedent: the resettlement initiative presented by U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld on June 15, 1959.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy highlights the passage of time and changing circumstances as decisive factors. The realities on the ground can be considered guidelines that affect America’s international policy.
The failed Palestinian Arab attempt to destroy the State of Israel at birth, and the attendant flight of some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, has come to be known internationally as the “nakba” (the “catastrophe”) with its accompanying implication of hapless victimhood.
Any political leadership must interact with its intelligence community to make strategic decisions. The intelligence input must be professional, independent, courageous and apolitical.
Hamas is well-aware that the Ben-Gurion International Airport, as the main venue into Israel, is a spectacular strategic asset.
Israel’s decisions a) to contain Hamas’s continuous provocations rather than use them as a casus belli and b) to refrain from an immediate military response to the discovery of Hezbollah tunnels into Israeli sovereign territory in the northern Galilee highlight the issue of deterrence as a core factor affecting the Israeli image in the region.