As the government debates how to implement the various stages of President George W. Bush's Road Map for a Middle East Peace, Tourism Minister Benny Elon is preparing for what he believes is the predestined failure of the road map. Son of retired Supreme Court justice Menachem Elon, a former head of a yeshiva, and a resident of the…
In an interview with the Palestinian Authority's television station shortly after he was named prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas was asked how he thought he would be able to make a deal with Israel given what the interviewer referred to as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's anti-peace stand. Abbas responded by explaining that Sharon does not operate in a vacuum. He…
This week, US Senator Arlen Specter submitted a troubling request to the US Justice Department. Specter asked that the US attorney-general request that Israel extradite convicted Hamas terrorist Hassan Salameh to stand trial in the US for the murder of three US citizens. Salameh was one of the commanders of Hamas at the time of his arrest in 1996.…
Hamas's latest offer is to temporarily stop massive attacks inside pre-Six Day War Israel, while continuing with smaller attacks. Massive attacks by Hamas, it says, will be limited during this undefined period to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The offer is contingent on Israel agreeing to stop all targeted killings of Hamas members and releasing all terrorists from jail. Israel's…
With brotherly love and deepest respect, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas Sunday embraced Ahmed Jbarra during his morning press conference in Ramallah. In the shadow of a dawn attack conducted jointly by Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad that left four IDF soldiers dead and four wounded, Abbas lauded Jbarra who on July 4, 1975, placed a refrigerator…
The gravel-paved road to the outpost is lined with olive trees and vineyards. "Some of the trees and vines are saplings planted over the past couple years. Some, as you can see, are older," says 30-year-old Shibi Drori, an agronomist now working towards his doctorate in molecular biology at the Hebrew University, as he leads me up the…
From the beginning of May until last Tuesday, the Palestinians carried out 323 terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. That is an average of 12 per day. These attacks include suicide bombings, penetrations of Israeli towns by gunmen, roadside shootings, grenade and anti-tank missile attacks, mortar shellings, rocket attacks, assaults, and stabbings. The navy's interception last Tuesday of the Hizbullah…
As the world's media and foreign ministries have again trained their sights in on Israel and the Palestinians, a much more significant drama is being largely underplayed. At its meeting next month in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency will address the recent confirmation of reports that Iran is now poised to produce nuclear weapons. Since a consortium…
"I have been in Israel for two years and have never spoken to someone with views like yours." So exclaimed a senior Western diplomat at the end of a pleasant lunch meeting with me on Wednesday afternoon. Surprised, I responded, "That's strange. If the results of the last election and recent polling data are any indication of national sentiment,…
In a meeting with Israeli left-wing political activists and Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns made disparaging statements regarding US President George W. Bush's political supporters in the US, intimating that conservatives, Christians, as well as representatives of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington,…