Below is my interview with CNN followed by the opening statement of fareed and the interview with the Israeli ambassador. On air my interview was last but on my home page I can change the order.

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We asked their official representative in Washington to join us, but the Palestinians say Secretary of State John Kerry has requested them to keep a low profile so they actually politely declined to come on the show.

So, I am not joined by a very distinguished Palestinian journalist, Daoud Kuttab. He is the columnist for Al Monitor, has written extensively for a number of Arab and Western papers and he joins us now from Amman, Jordan.

Welcome.

DAOUD KUTTAB, COLUMNIST, AL MONITOR: Thank you, Fareed.

ZAKARIA: So, what is it that has made the Palestinian side agree to come back to negotiations?

For a long time, they said, you know, they wanted a settlement freeze. They were unwilling to get back to direct negotiations. What do you think changed?

KUTTAB: Well, I think the persistent of Secretary of State John Kerry, the support that President Obama has given to the idea of a Palestinian state on the ’67 borders and the seriousness that the European Union has shown lately by declaring settlements not part of Israel.

These combined with the fact that the Israelis were a bit more willing to release some of the prisoners that were arrested and detained before the Oslo Agreement.

A combination of these things, I think, made it possible for the Palestinians to be willing to at least discuss the issues of the negotiations.

ZAKARIA: So, let me ask you about some of the thorny issues. And I asked Michael Oren about the — you know, the requirement the Prime Minister Netanyahu has made which is that the Palestinian side recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.

Do you think this poses any obstacle for the Palestinian side/

KUTTAB: Well, the Palestinian side is the PLO and the PLO is seen as a representative of all Palestinians and that includes Palestinians who were left in Palestine when Israel was created.

The Palestinian citizens of Israel are not Jewish and so by declaring Israel a Jewish state, I think it’s a slap to fellow Palestinians who are living in Nazareth or in Haifa or in the Negev.

So, it’s an emotional issue and actually — the feeling is that it would add to the discrimination against citizens of Israel who are not Jewish.

ZAKARIA: Do you think that on something like this there is room for some kind of compromise?

KUTTAB: Well, I think the whole issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one that has to be resolved obviously in private conversations.

If there is serious interest in a settlement that ends this conflict and there is a withdraw of Israel to the ’67 borders, I think the Palestinian side is expecting and willing to make needed verbal and other compromises to allow the Israeli’s to accept the creation of a two-state solution

We are neighbors with the Israelis. We want to be neighbors with the Israelis. This is not an attempt to create a religious war. We’re trying to live in freedom. Forty-six years of occupation is a long time, Fareed, and Palestinians just want to be free in their own country on their own land.

The Jewish people are respected by the Palestinians, by the Islamic faith. There’s no problem with the Jewish people. The question is whether the state of Israel is a state for its citizens or a particular religious group and I think this is where the problem is.

ZAKARIA: What about the issue of the right of return? Where will the Palestinian refugees go? Will they go to Israel proper or will they go to the new Palestinian state?

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By Daoud Kuttab

As thousands of Egyptians hit the streets in response to a call from Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asking for a mandate to crush demonstrating supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, one has to ask the simple question: Is the Middle East turning away from radicalism and becoming more moderate?

The signs of moderation in political leadership can no longer be ignored. Look at Iran, where after eight years of a radical president, Iranians elected the relatively moderate Hassan Rouhani. Look at Qatar, where the emir and prime minister had been intervening in regional conflicts on behalf of hard-liners, but now publicly supports the military-installed interim president of Egypt after its new, young emir, Sheikh Tamim, took over and fired the prime minister.

Al Jazeera, Qatar’s once-dominant pan-Arab TV satellite channel, has been losing audiences who can no longer tolerate its brand of biased and sometimes-inciting rhetoric. The most popular comedian in the region, Bassem Youssef, has become one of the most influential Arabs after cloning the American Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Last month, Youssef hosted Jon Stewart, who spoke openly about his Jewishness in front of a Cairo studio audience and millions of TV viewers. Even relatively moderate rule by Islamists in Turkey is being challenged as the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pressured to be more accommodating to the country’s secular activists. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The case before the US Court of Appeals in Washington involved whether an American couple could register their son as being born in “Jerusalem, Israel.” Challenging the US State Department in the suit were, in addition to the child’s parents, were a number of major prominent US Jewish organizations — including the Anti-Defamation League, Zionist Organization of America, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists and American Jewish Committee — and six members of the US Senate.

In question in Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State was the decades-old practice of registering “Jerusalem” as the country of birth of all Americans born in that city after 1948, whether Jewish or Arab. Specifically, the case questions why the US State Department has chosen to ignore Section 214(d) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, fiscal year 2003, if the citizen or his guardian so requests it. The three-judge appeals court panel noted in its July 23 unanimous decision, “The Secretary has not enforced the provision, believing that it impermissibly intrudes on the President’s exclusive authority under the United States Constitution to decide whether and on what terms to recognize foreign nations.” The court concluded, “We agree and therefore hold that section 214(d) is unconstitutional.”
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By Daoud Kuttab

Many analysts and activists are questioning the wisdom of the Palestinian leadership agreeing to preliminary talks in Washington, without having secured the coveted settlement freeze and the declaration by Israel that the 1967 borders are the basis of the negotiations.

Palestinians and Israelis have debated whether these issues are considered preconditions to peace talks or simply the required framework for which any conflicting parties need to agree on, to establish the relevance of peace talks about a territory that one side continues to occupy and colonize.

Whatever the definitions are, the requirements for peace talks appear to be partially approved by the one mediator who is able — if so choosing — to obtain the required agreement for the end of the 46-year-old Israeli occupation and illegal settlement building in what the world has determined to be the areas of the state of Palestine. Continue Reading »