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Israel Cannot Stand on the Sidelines
by David A. Harris
Sadly, Gaza is by any definition a failed state that suffers from chronic humanitarian crises, rampant corruption, armed groups challenging one another for power and wealth and a growing accumulation of weapons destined for use against Israeli targets. Can Israel simply stand on the sidelines? Should it wait - as it did regarding Lebanon, while Hizballah spent six years acquiring missiles, courtesy of Iran and Syria, and building elaborate command-and- control centers, all destined for use against Israel at the right moment? If there is any hope, it lies with those Gazans who understand that Hamas rule is only leading them down a blind alley, and who grasp the essential fact that Israel is there to stay as a neighbor. The writer is exective director of the American Jewish Committee. (International Herald Tribune)
A New Road for Israel
by Avigdor Lieberman
 Israel is where the war on terror started. Sadly, we have had to stand alone for many decades in the face of unrelenting attacks on our Western ideas and values of freedom and democracy. After the terror attacks of 9/11, Madrid in 2004, London in 2005 (and the list goes on), the world knows better. That's why old thinking, regardless of how well intentioned, simply won't work. It is time to go back to the drawing board, re-evaluate the goals of the peace process, and start anew. The writer is Israel's new Minister of Strategic Affairs. (New York Times)
See also The Wrong Partner in Israel - Editorial (New York Times)
Egypt and Weapons Smuggling - Empty Promises to Prevent "Hamastan"
by Ze'ev Schiff
 In the special military agreement between Israel and Egypt regarding security along the border, the overall Egyptian role in preventing smuggling is specified. Egypt must ensure that illegal arms and ammunition are not brought into the Sinai, that illegal arms sales and their transfer to the border do not take place, and that the arms are prevented from crossing into the Gaza Strip. Avoiding total action against the smugglers is a violation of the agreement. (Ha'aretz)
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From Beirut to Gaza: Israel’s Neighbors in the Aftermath of War
by Ehud Yaari
 The perception that Israel failed in its wartime objectives, and that is was internally vulnerable in the face of Hizballah’s attack, was exported from Israel to the Arab world and has been used as proof of the resilience of the muqawama strategy. Muqawama calls for constant combat against one’s adversary. The doctrine holds that, to defeat one’s adversaries, more can be achieved by armed resistance than by political agreement. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Dual Loyalty and the “Israel Lobby”
by Gabriel Schoenfeld
Having thus disingenuously lowered the bar of legitimate criticism - it would be hard to deny that “The Israel Lobby” falls somewhat short of the Protocols - Mearsheimer and Walt may or may not have been prepared for the negative reaction to their paper by those, like the military historian Eliot Cohen, who did indeed brand their work as anti-Semitic, or who judged it (in the words of the strategic analyst Aaron L. Friedberg) as “an ugly accusation of collective disloyalty, containing the most unsavory of historical echoes.” But whether they expected this reaction or not, they were ready for it. The charge of anti-Semitism, they parried, was itself one of the “most powerful weapons” of the “Israel Lobby,” deployed precisely as a “Great Silencer” of objective criticism. (Commentary)
Egypt: Center for the Arab Hate Industry
Egypt continues as a center for the publication of crude anti-Semitic literature encouraging hatred for Israel, the Jewish people and the West, and in effect justifying the use of violence against them. At the International Book Fair in Qatar in December 2005, anti-Semitic texts published in Egypt claimed that the Jews are responsible for all the ills of the world, denied the Holocaust, and used early Islamic traditions to "prove" that the Jews have always betrayed and plotted against Arabs. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies)
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