Bashar Assad understands the price he and the ruling Alawite minority would have to pay, in a country that is 74 percent Sunni, for a genuine peace with Israel. That is why in this week’s New Yorker, Assad frankly told Seymour Hersh that even if Syria regained the entire Golan, Israel, “cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect.”
The Goldstone Report was born in bias and matured into a full-fledged miscarriage of justice.
Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist? Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet?
In advising that Jewish settlements are illegal, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) went beyond its own mandate from the General Assembly without being asked to do so.
Salam Fayyad, the PLO Prime Minister, claims that he is preparing the non political groundwork of the Palestinian state, while the US is seeing to the political aspects, that is, to making sure Israel ends “occupation.” He doesn’t blink an eye when talking about East Jerusalem being Palestinian territory before 1967, although there was no such entity at the time. This should be a wake-up call for Israel, whose failure to express its legitimate sovereign rights over Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people, plays into the hands of those who would destroy Israel and weakens Israel’s diplomatic position.
Security and Defense: Attacking residential areas which double as enemy command centers may seem cruel to some, but for many in the IDF, it’s a strategy that is necessary until Hizbullah and Hamas change their ways.
Tel Aviv [is] orchestrating a campaign to portray Teheran as a regime hell-bent on starting a nuclear war in the volatile Middle East.
- Iran’s Press TV, January 26, reporting that Russia and China continue to oppose sanctions
Only the mullahs know if Iran is “hell-bent” on starting a nuclear war. Jerusalem opposes Iran’s quest for atomic weapons not only for what the regime might do, but because of what it is - religiously fanatical, violently autocratic and dangerously myopic.
Whatever else may be said about MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al), he cannot be accused of inconsistency or ambiguity. Tibi’s animus towards the Jewish state is unwavering, as is his pugnaciousness.
Lebanon is tittering between political bombast and trembling fear. While Hizbullah deputy-head Naim Kassem threatens Israel with missile attacks, the Beirut politicians including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, hear with trepidation Israeli threats to “destroy the infrastructures” of Lebanon, and not only Hizbullah sites, in the next round of fighting. Israeli Minister Yossi Peled cautioned that the next round after the summer war of 2006 is most likely in the offing during 2010.
Should Arab MKs receive the Vallandigham treatment, exile to a country they apparently love and support more than the one they represent?
Labeling an entire component of Israel’s citizenry as undesirable is at the very least insensitive and deeply divisive. We shudder to think what the reaction would have been were such language used to reject other sectors of the population. Charges of racism would surely be leveled.
One year after his inauguration, the great expectations that Obama set for himself in the Middle East, and that others placed in him, lie largely unfulfilled.
“There should be two states for two peoples. The Palestinians have a state, Jordan, and I will continue my campaign to make sure the world realizes this. The next time the world sees a stalemate in the diplomatic process, they must know that this is as a realistic option.” - Israeli lawmaker Arye Eldad
Until now, Hamas’s dilemma has centered on how to translate its religious rhetoric (Sharia law) into actual policies without alienating its religious and secular supporters. There is a vast difference between religious theory and religious practice. In Gaza, while opinion polls calling for the implementation of Shari’ a law tend to be popular, actual implementation of Shari’a law has not been so well-received.
Current Iranian attempts to destabilize the region through its puppets are unacceptable, as well as allowing those who claim to be defenders of Arabism and Islam to use Palestine to control the future of the Arabs. Iran has been leading the people towards death and destruction, using evil alliances to carry out its vicious plans.
While Israel has made great efforts to move toward a solution, Palestinian leaders, riding the crest of favorable public opinion in the West, are becoming more and more intransigent - and it is Israel which takes the blame.
The “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority looks set to be relaunched. Make no mistake; such talks will be an exercise in futility. It is quite obvious that the core demands of the Palestinian side will prevent any real possibility of progress.
At this point, annexing the West Bank (without the Gaza Strip) would not hinder Jews’ clear majority in a unified state. That does not imply that absorbing the territory immediately would resolve a plethora of security, social and religious issues. But to give the vote to everyone in the West Bank would create both a Jewish and democratic state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, sans Gaza. The question then becomes how the Jewish population intends to preserve that majority.
When the ICC was created in 2002, states were not obligated to submit to its jurisdiction. Understanding that it presented a potential for abuse, Israel deliberately rejected participating in the ICC out of fear that hostile nations would initiate politically-motivated lawsuits.
In the political realm, the relationship between the European Union and Israel went from bad to worse in 2009. But with the appointment of a number of new officials, as well as recognition of the costs of conflict for both Israel and Europe, there may now be an opportunity to shift gears.
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