Go West Young Man

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is drawing a line in the sand.  Peace talks with Israel will not continue unless Israel continues a 10-month long moratorium on development in the West Bank.  Unfortunately, it appears that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not prepared to budge either out of fear that continuing the moratorium will damage his political capital with the "pro-settlement" crowd.  So what has been accomplished in this 10-month span?  Very little.  In fact, it took until September of this year to get Israel and Palestine into direct negotiations and it now appears that peace talks may break down completely.  If the worst is realized and peace talks are abandoned and Israel continues to build in the West Bank, the consequences could be dire. In fact, Jordanian King Abdullah II predicts that the Palestinians and the Israelis will be at war within a year. 

So what are the chances of sustaining peace?  This depends on both Abbas and Netanyahu.  At the moment, refuse to budge on different aspects.  Abbas has made his position clear on the settlement of the West Bank and has, of course, advocated for a Palestinian state.  For his part, Netanyahu has somewhat conceded to the idea of a Palestinian state but his position is still rather vague.  Any accepted Palestinian state would almost have to include West Jerusalem, which at the moment is over 40 percent Jewish and, as of Monday, open to new tenets.

Islamophobia?

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about the planned mosque and community center in lower Manhattan, which would be located two blocks away from ground zero.  Concerns have been raised about how close is too close for such a center, what the Imam Rauf's intentions are, and where the money is coming from.  In a recent CNN poll, 68 percent of Americans stated that they oppose the community center being built so close to ground zero.  The question is fairly simple in scope, asking:

"As you may know, a group of Muslims in the U.S. plan to build a mosque two blocks from the site in New York City where the World Trade Center used to stand. Do you favor or oppose this plan?"

It does not however, delve into concerns about freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment or people's feelings towards government power over religion.  With that being said, it is obvious that the American people's concern over this proposed community center is specific to the Muslim faith.  While there are certainly different perspectives on why this is, there is no arguing that people in this country view Muslims in a different light than they do citizens of other faiths.  It may be a broad generalization, but these recent events beg the question: Is America Islamophobic?  More to come on this at a later date.