When it comes to discussing the Mideast conflict intelligently & incisively, there’s a lot more drivel out there than there is gold. Among the few commentators whom I uniformly admire & always want to hear are Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, MJ Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum and Henry Siegman of the Council on Foreign Relations. They view the Mideast in a clear-eyed non-ideological way. They do not carry water for either the Israeli government or the Palestinian. While some might see them as “doves,” I prefer to call them pragmatic realists who advocate a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For some of Ross’ publications go to http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/ and click on “Publications” and “Articles, Op-Eds, and Papers.” For MJ Rosenberg’s articles go to http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15 If you would like to receive his IPF Friday weekly letter, send an e-mail to list_mgr@ipforumdc.org. Henry Siegman can be found at http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=122. There may be a few other commentators that are equally good (Ian Lustick & Stephen Cohen come to mind); but I’ve seen these three regularly on TV and I’ve never seriously taken issue with anything they’ve said. They always have something probing & incisive to say about the situation in the Mideast.
You can’t go wrong with them.
