In case you haven't heard, President Barack Obama is considering appointing Chuck Hagel, a former U.S. senator from Nebraska and a Purple Heart winner, as the next secretary of defense -- and this has triggered a minifirefight among Hagel critics and supporters. I am a Hagel supporter. I think he would make a fine secretary of defense -- precisely because some of his views are not "mainstream." I find the opposition to him falling into two baskets: the disgusting and the philosophical. It is vital to look at both to appreciate why Hagel would be a good fit for Defense at this time.

The disgusting is the fact that because Hagel once described the Israel lobby as the "Jewish lobby" (it also contains some Christians). And because he has rather bluntly stated that his job as a U.S. senator was not to take orders from the Israel lobby but to advance U.S. interests, he is smeared as an Israel-hater at best and an anti-Semite at worst. If ever Israel needed a U.S. defense secretary who was committed to Israel's survival, as Hagel has repeatedly stated -- but who was convinced that ensuring that survival didn't mean having America go along with Israel's lunatic, self-destructive drift into settling the West Bank and obviating a two-state solution -- it is now.

A breakdown of the myriad of settlement plans being aggressively pursued in recent weeks.

By Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai

The past few weeks may have been confusing for those who try to keep track of Israeli settlement activity. So many plans and approvals, some of which are lethal for the two-state solution, make it clear that the Netanyahu government has decided to push forward as many plans as possible in order to determine facts on the ground before the elections in Israel, as long as there is no "threat" of any renewal of the peace process.

Op-ed: Nabil Shaath remembers Lipkin-Shahak, who told him: 'It's time to stop the killing'

by Nabil Shaath

Some of you are surely wondering why a Palestinian would eulogize an Israeli general. The answer is simple: Amnon Lipkin-Shahak was my partner in peace and remained committed to the cause until the day he died.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to accelerate plans for settlement construction in a sensitive area known as E-1, as well as elsewhere around Jerusalem, is a potentially damaging move for Israel, for Palestinians, and for the United States. The plans were announced in the wake of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's successful bid for observer status at the United Nations. Previously, Israelis have justified building settlements on land the country has occupied since the 1967 war with arguments about the need for a security buffer between hostile states, and for more housing. But the E-1 announcement suggests that settlements can serve a political purpose, as well -- as a tool to punish Palestinians, and as a way to ensure Israel will never have to share Jerusalem with a future Palestinian state.