Hello!
Here are the most read articles of the last week! Make sure you follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our new YouTube channel, where you can now watch last week’s live panel in full.
Will the Coronavirus End Israel’s Political Paralysis? (New York Times)
A useful explainer of the seemingly never-ending parliamentary deadlock an Israel: “Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz differ in their approaches to President Trump’s proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Netanyahu has pledged to swiftly and unilaterally annex large swaths of the occupied West Bank, while Mr. Gantz’s Blue and White party has said it is opposed to unilateral annexation in the absence of broad international consensus.
The two sides have reportedly come to an agreement on this issue. More problematic was what critics describe as Mr. Netanyahu’s singular goal of ensuring he can remain in office despite his legal troubles.”
The Two-State Devolution (Foreign Affairs)
On the viability of a two-state solution, a piece of international relations debate between Michael S Doran who praises the realpolitik of Trump’s peace plan and Tarek Osman who suggests: “successful societies should not base their security doctrines on their presumed perpetual ability to control others. In Israel, it took an experienced soldier with a strategic vision, Yitzhak Rabin, to see this. His insight was that Israel cannot—and does not want to—permanently control a large population that seeks independence. By the time he became Israel’s prime minister for a second term, in 1992, Rabin saw that Israel’s long-term security required a viable Palestinian state, albeit one that would pose no threat to Israel.”
Abbas in phone call blitz to prevent Israeli annexation in West Bank (Times of Israel)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held a round of phone conversations with Middle East leaders to urge them to oppose Israel’s possible annexation of parts of the West Bank, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said on Saturday.
In a tweet, Erakat said that Abbas spoke with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, the monarch of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the emir of Kuwait, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah; and the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss “the Israeli plan of annexation and the need to prevent it.”
From ancient Palestine to Syria: A treasure trove of incredible Middle Eastern maps is now available online(The National)
American academic Zachary Foster really likes maps. But not just any maps, particularly maps of the Middle East. He has collected them all his life. Now, he has thousands of them.
Foster, who now lives in San Francisco, has just launched a website to share all of these maps – from ancient geographic charts of Syria to a city plan of Beirut in 1909 – with the wider public.
——
Here at Palestine DeepDive, we find the most important news about Israel and Palestine and we share it with you. By presenting a range of articles, we hope that our readers will encounter new voices and perspectives.
Until next time,
Palestine DeepDive