Amir Drori was my hero and my friend. Since I met him 10 years ago, Amir had been a rock of stability for me, as he was for anyone who was lucky enough to be close to him. Just knowing he was here, in Israel, on this planet, helped maintain my faith in the justice of the universe. And so…

Common wisdom has it that until Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah launched Tuesday's pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, his terror organization had been more or less on the fence regarding its position on Syria's occupation of Lebanon. This view is belied, however, by a speech Nasrallah broadcast on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television on February 17.   In the speech, which was documented by…

Today the US is on a collision course with Syria. Monday, tipping its hat to international pressure, Syria began a redeployment of its military forces in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley.   The Bush administration reacted to the announced redeployment plan by bluntly stating that it is insufficient. In so doing the US held to what has been its…

In the history of Israel's relations with the US, there has been no precedent for the influence that Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky has had on US foreign policy. While in the past Israeli leaders have worked closely with their American counterparts, no one other than Sharansky has managed to actually influence the way that American policymakers think about foreign affairs or…

"The terrorism is not anonymous. It has a name, it has an address…. It is spearheaded by a country – Iran. Teheran has become the capital of terror. A conclusion must be drawn on how to contain it."   So said then prime minister Shimon Peres in March 1996 after Hamas and Islamic Jihad went on an eight-day murder spree…

Former prime minister Ehud Barak sent a jolt through the political system when on Monday he told a television interviewer: "The Sharon family is corrupt to its very foundations, and in any other normal country, Sharon would have no longer been in power."   The remark was made just after Barak had participated in a meeting of his Labor Party's…

Did the US-led invasion of Iraq restore American deterrence in the Middle East after it had been tattered by the precipitous withdrawal of American forces from Lebanon in 1983 and Somalia in 1993? It is an open question.   On the one hand, the actions of Lebanese opposition leaders and parties since the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik…

Last Friday night, the TV stations were in a frenzy over the right-wing incitement against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria and to expel all Jews living in these areas from their homes and communities. Channel 2 devoted fully a third of its hour-long news broadcast to the issue — super-imposing images of the…

The government's decision to release 500 terrorists from prison raises a number of profound concerns about the direction the newfound friendship between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas – the democratically elected legitimate leader of the reformed, democratic and anti-terrorist Palestinian Authority – is taking.   Abbas is well regarded because he has made a number of statements saying…

On Thursday, for the first time, North Korea formally admitted that it possesses nuclear weapons. In so doing, the Stalinist state made clear that the Bush administration's recent policy of avoiding public censure of North Korea, in the hope of reigniting the six-party talks on its illicit nuclear program, was at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive.   The North…