More in ‘George Mitchell’

Must be kind of awkward for Joe Biden. The vice president is currently in Israel as a goodwill gesture to reassure Israel that the United States still has its back, as well as to set the momentum for U.S.-mediated “proximity talks” with the Palestinians. And so Israel decided it would be a good time to ...

• After meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Vice President Joe Biden declared, “There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security.” [WP]
• A Reform Judaism task force proposed the establishment of separate blessings for major life events, including marriages, involving non-Jewish spouses. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]
• With U.S. ...

Now that Vice President Joe Biden has touched down in Israel (and the Israeli military’s chief-of-staff has landed in Washington, D.C.), it’s time to take a slightly closer look at those indirect peace talks that, ostensibly, are about to kick off.
The idea: U.S. envoy George Mitchell will shuttle between the Israelis and Palestinians, with the ...

• It looks like indirect peace talks, with U.S. envoy George Mitchell shuttling rapidly between the Israelis and Palestinians in hopes of getting them in the same room, are on, since the Arab League gave its blessing. [LAT]
• The United States drew up new proposed sanctions that would target Iran’s banking, shipping, and insurance. [NYT]
• ...

• Per court order, the IDF is rerouting a portion of the West Bank security barrier, placing 170 additional acres in the Territories. The nearby Palestinian village, Bilin, has been a lodestar of anti-barrier protest. [LAT]
• Mideast envoy Tony Blair will take a more active role alongside envoy George Mitchell in helping facilitate peace talks. ...

• President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly ordered further enrichment of uranium, ostensibly for a medical-research reactor. The move immediately heightened tensions over the country’s nuclear program. [WSJ]
• President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to the U.S. model of indirect talks, whereby envoy George Mitchell will present an offer to the Israelis and the Palestinians and then shuttle between ...

• Israel has a military presence just inside the Lebanon border, protecting over 2,000 citizens who reside on the Lebanese side of the town of Ghajar. The United States and United Nations have asked it to leave; Hezbollah, a U.S. diplomat says, would prefer it to stay—it’s a P.R. coup. [WSJ]
• President Barack Obama defended ...

• The last time global anti-Semitism attained its current level, World War II was still going on, a new report found. Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky and an Israeli minister presented the document. [JPost]
• In an audiotape endorsing the attempted Christmas Day bombing, Osama bin Laden linked it and future attacks on the United States ...

• Israelis are oddly torn over their military’s heroic efforts in Haiti. The government wants the world to take note; the right wonders why the world doesn’t take note more; the left wonders why Israel doesn’t behave similarly in slightly more proximate (and also catastrophic) Gaza. [NYT]
• Plans for a wall along Israel’s Egyptian border ...

In a new, year-in-review interview with Time (yesterday was the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, in case you forgot to buy him a gift), President Obama flatly acknowledges: “The Middle East peace process has not moved forward. And I think it’s fair to say for all our efforts at early engagement, is not where I ...