Armistice Day is approaching, 11 November, the day that guns fell silent marking the end of the First World War in 1918. As we know, that was not the end of all wars, as much as the millions who suffered from it might have hoped. Wars did not even end after World War II and…
As Members of the Peacemaking Reflection Group (PRG), composed of former UN civil servants, we are alarmed by the crisis situation in Israel and Gaza. We unequivocally reject and condemn the heinous attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the taking of civilian hostages. We welcome and support the approach the UN Secretary-General…
The carnage in Israel and the Gaza Strip seems to have no end, with hundreds if not thousands of fatalities on both sides and a region ready to explode. Who is to blame and how can this end? Peace or justice first, under whose interpretation and on what terms? For people like me who have…
Geography and history, modern and older, internal fault lines as well as external interventions, have given rise to a perfect storm in the Eastern Mediterranean. In an arc of fire that stretches from Libya to Syria and can be extrapolated further North, all the way to Russia and Ukraine, a series of conflicts have made this an area of particular instability, for the world as a whole and more immediately for nearby Europe…
On Netanyahu’s use of history to deny the Israeli-Palestinian conflict its political status and history’s consequences for the European Union’s involvement in the region
If it hasn’t been clear already that the Israeli government often exploits the Shoah for political purposes, Netanyahu’s recent speech at the 37th World Zionist Congress provided additional first-hand evidence.
After 18 continuous days of talks, major world powers and Iran reached a historic deal on 14 July in Vienna. The arduous discussions mark the end of 13-year old gridlock over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and will provide sanctions relief for Teheran’s battered economy
The Spanish Foreign Minister, the Latvian Foreign Minister, and the EU foreign policy chief co-hosted an Informal Ministerial meeting with representatives of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, who declared their support for fighting terrorism and curbing irregular migration, two top priorities of the EU’s collaboration with its neighbours south of the Mediterranean Sea. The meeting was part of a series of consultations that the EU initiated with European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries to review its strategy of collaborations.
Shlomo Ben-Ami is an old hand in Israeli and international politics. He has been Minister of Internal Security and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and now serves as Vice President of the Toledo International Center for Peace in Madrid. This is a summary of a 30-minute discussion with him following the 17 March 2015 Israeli election. He talks about Mr. Netanyahu’s reelection, the state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and possible steps by the international community to move things forward under the current circumstances.
