Two years after the Second Lebanon War, Israel is suddenly waking up and pressing for implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, 1701. On Wednesday, Israel’s Security Cabinet convened a hastily arranged discussion about the lack of implementation of the resolution, which called for stemming the flow of arms… More ▸
The IDF must find a way to inspire fear in Israel’s enemies, as in days past, laments Dov Weisglass, a former aide to Ariel Sharon, in Ynet: Once upon a time, when our founding fathers were in power, that same Mossad which [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah now disparages would have eliminated him a long time… More ▸
A recent poll commissioned by Peace Now showed that 73 percent of Israelis have not visited any settlements in the last five years. Peace Now’s reaction? Bus more Israelis to West Bank settlements. In other news from the wild West Bank, a Ha’aretz editorial calls on the Israeli government to do more to ensure the… More ▸
It’s going to take time for the Hamas-Israel cease-fire to take hold, which is why Israel’s military hasn’t responded to the firing of Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip over the last three weeks, Ha’aretz writes in an editorial. Hamas is trying, Ha’aretz says: Hamas’ public effort to fully keep its commitment is evident. The… More ▸
Gilad Sharon pens an angry Op-Ed in Ynet delivering Israeli Arabs an ultimatum: “Do you wish to enjoy all the good Israel bestows upon you? Then be completely loyal to it. If you cannot do it, be prepared to pay the price.” Sharon’s missive was prompted by last week’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem by a… More ▸
A day after the second major terrorist attack in four months by a Jerusalem-area Palestinian, the Jerusalem Post’s Calev Ben David asks how Israel can protect its people against terrorists among the 200,000 Palestinians who live on the west (i.e. Israeli) side of the West Bank security fence. It’s not so easy. More ▸
Sascha Baron Cohen narrates “the running of the Jews” in Borat. The serious-minded former director of Tel Aviv University’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Yossi Alpher, who also is co-editor of Bitterlemons.org, a Palestinian-Israeli Web site, writes about a close encounter of the Bruno kind in his latest column in the Forward. More ▸
Marty Peretz has a piece in The New Republic that echoes JTA’s analysis last week about Israel’s sudden “peace offensive.” Peretz declares the chances of success of an Israeli-Syrian peace deal (as measured by Syria moving away from Iran) virtually nil, and he opposes Israel’s latest cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip (which doesn’t… More ▸
The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto suggests that the accidental killing of American activist Rachel Corrie by an Israeli tractor in March 2003 may have given the Palestinian who perpetrated yesterday’s tractor attack in Jerusalem the idea for turning a tractor into a deadly weapon. Come on. On a related note to my post yesterday… More ▸
Many readers – and some fellow reporters – are questioning JTA’s use of the more general term “Arab” rather than “Palestinian” to describe the terrorist who perpetrated Wednesday’s deadly attack in Jerusalem. A note of explanation: In the aftermath of the attack, it was not immediately clear exactly who the perpetrator was. His name was… More ▸
Opinion
The US anti-BDS bill may be bad, but not as bad as some critics say