By Evelyn Gordon How effectively Israel’s recent Gaza operation will deter Palestinian rocket fire remains to be seen. Israelis are skeptical: One poll found that a whopping 88 percent think the truce will not last long. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t sound too confident: Visiting an airbase shortly after the cease-fire took effect,
‘Pillar of Defense’ sent strong message to Iran Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — As a confirmed incrementalist, I’m not a great fan of the conventional occasions for summing up, asking where we are, and where we are going. As an Israeli plugged in to international networks, the obvious times for such stuff come as we approach January 1, or א’ בתשרי , i.e.,
2012 was a year of incremental change Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Choosing among 34 political parties is much simpler than it may first appear. The first step is deciding who you are, and what is important to you. The second step is to avoid wasting time thinking about 20 or so parties beyond the edge of reality. It is easiest for the
Deciding how to vote in a multi-party election Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Politics is serious business. It is how societies move from disputes about issues large and small to the selection of their leaders, choices between public policy alternatives, and the actual implementation of what government does. Politics is also theater. It provides the platforms for the best and most bizarre actors
Politics replacing Habima as Israel’s national ‘theatre’ Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –Before Israel sat in the UN dock facing Mahmoud Abbas, a man who denied the Holocaust in his doctoral dissertation and denies the link between Jews, the land of Israel, and Jerusalem, the Israeli government said the Palestinian statehood gambit would not be cost free. The UN pronounced itself open
U.N.’s 1975 disgrace repeats itself Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Should Israelis worry about a lack of public support? For some time now we have not been popular with the crowds of Western Europe. Overall sentiment in the United States remains favorable, but not in the liberal wing of the Democratic party. Thomas Friedman writes about the contrast between Israeli
‘Pushy’ Israelis, assimilated U.S. Jews, and a goat in the tent Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C–Iran has made common cause with similarly nasty countries around the world to promote an anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Western agenda. This includes the transfer of weapons as well as the training of terrorists who return to their places of origin ready and able to blow themselves up. While the U.S. focuses
Those good friends in Sudan of the anti-Israel crowd Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A considerable portion of the world is being nasty to Israel. The list of governments inviting the Israeli ambassador in their capital city to the halls of their foreign ministry for a drubbing includes virtually all of the European worthies, along with Australia and Brazil. The list may be
Will Obama take political revenge on Netanyahu? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By J. Zel Lurie DEL RAY BEACH, Florida — The most important fact about the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is that it was announced in Cairo by an American and an Egyptian, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. The Israeli and Hamas representatives were nowhere in sight. Here is
A short history of the recent Gaza conflict Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East
By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — This time, Hamas launched 1,500 rockets that killed six Jews and injured many more, and Israel retaliated. And, as usual, this deadly exchange of fire ended with a “ceasefire,” mediated by some do-gooders, that allows the terrorists to replenish their arsenals with more advanced longer- ranged missiles,
Gaza cease fire made no military sense Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — A.B. Yehoshua, the renowned Israeli novelist, playwright, and thinker, fiercely independent and deeply rooted in the marrow of Jerusalem, wrote an article Monday for the Op-ed page of Ha’aretz. He declared that the time has come for Israel to talk with Hamas—something whispered about by many people on
Novelist Yehoshua says Israel should negotiate with Hamas Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks is a classic story of a family that opens with a great celebration of wealth and success and proceeds to its downfall. From what we are hearing from reliable sources, that is the model likely to develop after Mahmoud Abbas’ celebrations for achieving Palestinian statehood from the
As P.A. celebrates ‘statehood,’ its assets dwindle Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Scarcely a day after the UN General Assembly voted to name Palestine a state, and Israeli officials said they would not mete out a punishment for their neighbor’s chutzpah, the punishment came. The government approved construction of 3,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and made reference to
What are Israel’s motives in announcing E-1 construction? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel –Twenty-four years ago, almost to the day, in 1988, I stood in a large hall in Algeria and saw Yasir Arafat declare the independence of a Palestinian state. And that was forty-one years, almost to the day, after the UN offered a Palestinian state in 1947. Twelve years ago Israel
The real meaning of Palestine’s ‘statehood’ Read More »
Middle East