With the Lords' old tunes ringing hollow, it is surely time for reform

The lobbying scandal leaves the case for change as strong as ever. But attempts at wholesale overhaul could backfire

Published in the Guardian

Obama's Middle East policy could take cues from Northern Ireland experience

If Barack Obama appoints George Mitchell as Middle East envoy, he will signal that he sees sectarian divisions in Ulster as relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Published in the Guardian

All the conservative trappings freed Obama to frame a radical message

The inauguration was brimming with tradition – just the platform for a president who could be truly transformational

Published on the Guardian's website

Magical spell that will open a new American era

Published in the Guardian

Why I did not 'rally for Israel'

Operation Cast Lead is not merely misguided militarily; it is misguided morally

Published in the Jewish Chronicle

Amid the horror and doom of Gaza, the IRA precedent offers hope

The Northern Ireland example is instructive. Through dialogue even the most implacable of enemies can make peace

Published in the Guardian

Should Israel be in Gaza? No

From the Jewish Chronicle

Let’s make one thing clear: I write as someone who wants to see Israel not only survive, but thrive. Some people oppose Operation Cast Lead because they oppose everything Israel does, even its very right to exist.

I am not one of those people. My family, even my own life story, has been bound up with Israel.

Nor am I one of those blind to the suffering of Israel’s southern residents. I know that life in Sderot, under constant Hamas rocket fire, had become unbearable. I know how desperate ordinary Israelis are for those rockets to stop.

And yet I tremble at what Israel has unleashed these past two weeks. Even if the pummelling of Gaza does bring an end to the rocket fire, I fear it will have left Israel more, not less, vulnerable — and facing new and broader perils than before.

That will be clearest if Hamas is so battered that it is left incapable of governing Gaza. That will leave a vacuum, to be filled, either by Somalia-style anarchy or, worse, the likes of al-Qaida. Even if a weakened Hamas manages to cling to power, new dangers lurk for Israel.

A generation of Palestinians has been filled with fresh hatred for the Jewish state: they will be bent on revenge for the hundreds of deaths they witnessed this week.

Some will want to return to suicide bombings inside Israel, others will plan to hit Jewish targets abroad. What’s more, Operation Cast Lead has triggered a wave of anti-Israel fury far beyond Gaza, greater even than the anger stirred by the bombardment of Lebanon in 2006. Hamas are now hailed across the region as heroes of resistance; Arab moderates are dismissed as irrelevant or worse.

An early sign of the danger: the prime minister of Jordan this week said that even his pro-western country might now reconsider its
relationship with Israel.

In all these ways, Cast Lead could prove to be a cure worse than the original disease. But, say the operation’s supporters, what else could Israel do to stop the rockets? The answer is plenty. For most of the six-month ceasefire that held until December, Hamas had all but stilled the missiles hurled into Israel.

Those who know Gaza best say that had Israel used that period to loosen the severe blockade that was choking the strip, the response would have been positive. Ordinary Gazans would have seen that providing southern Israel with calm brought real improvement to their daily lives. They would not have forgiven Hamas for jeopardising that by launching Kassams.

But Israel did not loosen the embargo on Gaza. Obviously, it could not make that move under heavy rocket fire: that would have been rewarding terror.

But it could have done it when the quiet held: that would have been
rewarding calm. But it did not.

So now the best Israel can hope for is a robust truce that will end the Kassams and the arms smuggling. But Israel had every chance to negotiate that deal without resorting to war.

Instead, whatever its intentions, it has caused needless death and suffering — and grave harm to its own reputation.

Whatever short-term gains this operation may bring have come at a dreadful cost — one that Israel and the Jewish people will be paying for many years to come.

Jonathan Freedland writes for the Guardian

Talking to Hamas is a step toward peace

Barack Obama's apparent willingness to engage with Hamas is heartening. Peace cannot be achieved without talking to all sides

Published on the Guardian website

Gaza after a Hamas rout will be an even greater threat to Israel

Amid the rubble there would be a leadership vacuum, opening the door for Somali-style warlords or even al-Qaida

Published in the Guardian

Israel has plenty of tactics for war, but none for peace

A leadership dazzled by its own military might ignores the political reality and believes the only solutions lie in force

Published in the Guardian