With the government's backing off yesterday from its demand for international monitoring of the NIS 200 million it has agreed to transfer to the Palestinian Authority, we see the first concrete consequence of the IAF strike on Hamas military chief Salah Shehadeh in Gaza which killed 14 civilians in collateral damage. This cave-in is rife with dangerous consequences for…
In the world arena, why is it that "voices of victims" do not include Jews? On a clear day in early May at San Francisco State University, Jewish students demonstrating for peace in the Middle East were attacked by a mob in the campus's central plaza. Describing the events the next day, Dr. Laurie Zoloth, the director of the…
In a week chock full of diplomatic activity regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the calendars of Israeli diplomats have been awkwardly empty. While every Israeli government has maintained its absolute opposition to the internationalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what we have seen this week is that, in practice, this internationalization is occurring. How else is one to assess the fact…
Who's afraid of Aryeh Deri? ——————————————————————————– Jul. 12, 2002 ——————————————————————————– The Prisons Service Parole Board's decision Wednesday to release former Shas leader Aryeh Deri from prison next Monday contained a curious condition. In paroling Deri after he completed two thirds of his three-year sentence for accepting $60,000 in bribes, the board stipulated, "Due to the special circumstances of…
Yesterday was the Fourth of July and we Israelis celebrated US Independence Day in our hearts with a feeling of respect and kinship far deeper and closer than we ever felt before. For the past 35 years, the United States has been Israel's closest, and often only, ally. Yet, in spite of the closeness of our relationship, over the…
There was palpable anxiety nationwide in the hours that preceded US President George W. Bush's speech on the Middle East Monday night. All the talk of establishing a "provisional" state of Palestine, as the Palestinian leadership to the last man is stained by terror and murder, was terrifying and infuriating and demoralizing. So when Bush declared "the Palestinian state…
It must be said: There is no peace process. Yasser Arafat, who is the declared commander of Fatah-Tanzim, the proud perpetrator of Wednesday's kamikaze attack on babies and grandmothers in Jerusalem, and the enabler of Hamas, which perpetrated Tuesday's massacre in the capital, is a terrorist and a murderer. The Palestinian Authority is not simply a regime that "cavorts with…
Israel stands at the precipice of a strategic breakdown. But first, the good news. The Bush administration's determination to topple Saddam Hussein's regime is by definition a good thing for Israel. Saddam Hussein has repeatedly expressed his dedication to the goal of physically destroying the State of Israel. A nuclear-armed Iraq is a threat that Israel cannot tolerate. Clearly,…
Speaking before the Knesset Law Committee on Tuesday, Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein warned lawmakers that the new International Criminal Court, set to start operating on July 1, is liable to indict and try for war crimes any Israeli citizen who moves across the Green Line. According to the Rome Treaty of 1998 which established the ICC, "The transfer, directly or…
Pakistan and India today stand on the brink of nuclear war. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis – the world's previous nuclear showdown – was a walk in the park when compared to the danger emanating from the Indian subcontinent, home to some 20 percent of the world's population. India, with its powerful army, robust democratic society, and enormous population…