|
Will a Palestinian Unity Government Lead to Peace Negotiations?
by Danny Rubinstein
 While Hamas made a few concessions to enable a Palestinian unity government to be established, it is doubtful that these will be sufficient to completely end the embargo that has been imposed on the Palestinian government since February and allow the start of diplomatic negotiations with Israel. In the unity government agreement, the Hamas leadership agrees to recognize "the existing political reality in the region," but evades saying that it recognizes Israel. Regarding the condition that previous agreements be recognized, the new government's position is also vague. On the issue of a complete cessation of violence, all attacks inside Israel will stop, starting with the Kassam rocket attacks, but a green light is given for continued operations in the West Bank. (Ha'aretz)
Western Leaders See the Danger of Islamic Extremism, But Our Public Still Does Not
by Tony Blair
 There is one major strategic question that has changed in the whole of the international community. People everywhere now see this global movement of extremism, they see Iran putting itself at the head of it, and there is a huge strategic interest that includes America, Europe, Israel, and any Arab and Muslim countries that want a modern future...in making sure that that extremism doesn't succeed. I think that there emerged from the Lebanon conflict a clearer notion of how this came about and how Iran and to an extent Syria are pulling the strings and ensuring that there is such conflict. And so I think there has been that greater clarity amongst the leaders in Europe. Amongst the people in Europe and Western opinion there is a big battle to be won. I think there is a desire not to face the fact that we are fighting a global struggle. (Ha'aretz)
9/11 Was a Turning Point: An Israeli View
by Yossi Alpher
 The events of September 11, 2001 altered the Israeli-Palestinian equation both directly and indirectly. With regard to terrorism, this development dramatically upgraded the Israeli-American alliance. Indirectly, 9/11 triggered a chain of American actions and reactions in the greater Middle East region that have profoundly affected our conflict. (Spero News)
Hizballah as a Strategic Arm of Iran
 The Islamic regime in Iran presents a danger to Israel's existence. The regime's ideology uncompromisingly and publicly calls for Israel's destruction, fosters Palestinian terrorist organizations, and systematically strives to attain unconventional nuclear capabilities while thumbing its nose at the demands of the international community. It also clearly presents a threat to American and Western interests in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Much of the Arab/Muslim world is also apprehensive of an Iranian threat. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies)
See also Proxy Terrorism from Iran by Natan Sharansky (Los Angeles Times)
|
A Strategy For Pro-Israel Students
by Gil Troy
 Israel’s war against Hizballah border incursions and Hamas rocket attacks have fed fears of a renewed wave of campus anti-Zionism. This is the intellectuals’ intifada, the trendy posturing wherein coddled suburbanites fancy themselves edgy revolutionaries by bashing Israel and romanticizing Palestinian or Shiite terrorists rather than questioning their own assumptions or risking any creature comforts. Jewish students of all political stripes should learn how to refute the lies, transform the terms of debate and make some delicious, morally enriching, mind-sharpening kosher Zionist lemonade out of the anti-Zionist lemons metastasizing among Western elites. (New York Jewish Week)
Tel Aviv: Lebanon - A Reassessment
by Asher Susser
 A cursory perusal of the Arab press reveals that Hizballah's status in Lebanon has changed for the worse, as many Lebanese come to the realization that the south of their country had been transformed into an Iranian and Syrian launching pad against Israel posing an existential threat to their own country. Hizballah is now on the defensive, trying to protect its political assets against a more assertive Lebanese domestic majority that seems more determined than ever to contain Hizballah's "state within a state" so that they are not drawn again into a destructive war with Israel without a word of consultation. The writer is director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. (Jerusalem Post)
Make Israel's Side Heard
by Mark Isakowitz
Back in the U.S. [after visiting Israel], I see an Israel I do not recognize. The [American newspaper] messages about Israel are clear; the reality from afar is unmistakable. From this distance, from these headlines, Israel is not a resilient, embattled little democracy mixing tears with the will to survive and working through its problems. No, no, no, this is a war zone, top to bottom; an oppressive, dangerous, murderous, reckless, imperial war zone. Any postwar investigation must include whether or not Israel bears any of the blame itself for going from hero to villain a mere three weeks after the kidnapping of Goldwasser and Regev. (Jerusalem Post)
|