A few days after Ehud Barak defeated Binyamin Netanyahu in the 1999 elections, my mentor, David Bar-Illan, wrote in a column in this paper, "There is not a great deal of difference between Barak's vision of the final-status agreement with the Palestinians and that of Netanyahu's. Both are committed to an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, both consider…

 This past week, the right of Israel's representative bodies to exercise independent judgment was moved to the top of the national agenda. One month shy of the general elections, the media and the activist legal community launched an unrelenting attack against the members of the Central Elections Committee, indirectly indicting the institutional legitimacy of the Knesset.   The controversy surrounded…

After meeting with the members of the Quartet to discuss the so-called road map a week ago, US President George W. Bush said, "I view the road map as a part of the vision that I described, it is a way forward." A study of the proposed road map suggests otherwise.   Perhaps assuming that Yasser Arafat will reject this…

"If this is how you treat your friends, after we fought with you for 25 years, no one will ever want to make peace with you!"   "We don't want land, we don't want money, we want honor for our blood!"   The above are a representative sampling of the signs that were held by 1,000 demonstrators who stood in…

'Today, mine is the only right-wing party'   MK Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the combined list National Union, comprised of his Yisrael Beitenu, Benny Elon's Moledet, and Zvi Hendel's Tekuma Party, is a man who does not shy away from controversy.   He speaks bitterly of Sharon's policies and yet hopes to join his government. He views the Likud…

Over the past week, the leaders of Europe have been tuning their instruments ahead of today's meeting of the Quartet in Washington. The sound has been lousy.   Last Friday, EU leaders met in Copenhagen for a summit on the Middle East in order to blast Israel. Israel, the European ministers alleged, is responsible for Palestinian terrorism because it dares…

In an interview last year, former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross responded somewhat awkwardly to a question of mine about Palestinian corruption and authoritarianism. I had asked him why the Clinton Administration did not raise an eyebrow when it was clear that the Palestinian Authority was an authoritarian regime and completely corrupt. After a brief pause and an embarrassed…

Since its inception three years ago, the Herzliya Conference on the Balance of National Strength and Security has rightly been considered the most important conference in Israel. Its importance stems both from the conference's ability to engage all the members of Israel's elite political, military, economic and academic — and from the comprehensiveness of the issues discussed during its three…

WASHINGTON On Tuesday night Haifa mayor Amram Mitzna proved that our Labor party has officially decided to march its way directly into the political dustbin. For this he is to be thanked. In his unambiguous message of total capitulation to Palestinian terrorism — I'll negotiate with Arafat and if he won't agree, I'll give him a state anyway — Mitzna…

The Arab world is now enjoying a Ramadan treat, courtesy of Egyptian state television. The pan-Arab celebration comes in the form of the hit mini-series Knight without a Horse, which is based on the anti-Semitic tract Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The fact that Egypt, which receives $2 billion in US aid annually because of its peace treaty with…