In May 2000, Israel completed a full withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 from 1978. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, however, the "liberator of the South," did not recognize the new border. His patrons in Iran ordered continued jihad against Israel. The Israeli withdrawal in 2000 did not lead Hizballah to become just another political party, and the belief that this would occur was an illusion.
The U.S.-French draft resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" by the warring parties. It demands the "immediate" halt by Hizballah of all attacks. Regarding Israel, there is also a demand for the "immediate" cessation of military operations; however, Israel is only expected to halt "offensive military operations."
As intense discussions continue on the terms of a "sustainable cease-fire" and a "robust international force" that would end the latest war in Lebanon and prevent renewed conflict, many of the elements suggested appear highly unrealistic. All of the elements envisioned in such a framework are highly problematic, to understate the case.
The campaign to demonize Israel cripples the functioning of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The overt bias against one state undermines its credibility and integrity. The same can be said for the UN as a whole; defeating its bigotry requires exposing and contesting it. The monitoring group UN Watch has recently achieved successes in exposing and contesting the Commission’s abuses.
Although Barbara Tuchman never devoted a book to Jewish or Israeli history, her perspective on these topics can be gleaned from four articles on the subject and from some passages in her other writings.
In one article she sought the historical meaning of the Nazis’ war against the European Jews. The silence of the democratic countries shocked her no less than the crimes themselves.
The article surveys Japan’s attitude toward the Jews and Zionism beginning with the positive phase in the 1920s and 1930s. It describes the subsequent negative effect of the oil factor on Japanese-Israeli relations, and the improvement in these since the fall of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War, and the Madrid Conference. The key change for Japan was the decision by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Gulf States to abolish their indirect boycott of Israel in September 1991. The fact is underlined
Indonesia has faced much the same obstructions in developing its nascent relationship with Israel as have all the other Muslim-majority nations of Asia. While not inherently antithetical to Israel, Indonesia clearly places a higher value on avoiding trouble with radical Islamist elements at home than it does on normalizing relations with far-away Israel.
Indonesia has faced much the same obstructions in developing its nascent relationship with Israel as have all the other Muslim-majority nations of Asia. While not inherently antithetical to Israel, Indonesia clearly places a higher value on avoiding trouble with radical Islamist elements at home than it does on normalizing relations with far-away Israel. The precedent was established by founding President Sukarno, who brushed aside early Israeli overtures and eventually adopted a strong pro-Arab
Jewish Political Studies Review 16:3-4 (Fall 2004) Israel urgently needs a grand strategy toward the European Union. This is all the more so because the two parties disagree profoundly on fundamental issues and seriously misperceive each other. Israel has many strategic assets that it can use to improve its political and security […]
As a commander of IDF combat units, I have never met with even one incidence of refusal to obey orders or lack of motivation. The main problem is sometimes exactly the opposite – my troops suffer from overmotivation. Today, regular units do not devote the same amount of time to training as they did five or ten years ago. They are too busy getting experience in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria on daily missions.
The many classic examples of low-intensity conflict – in Indo-China, Malaya, Algeria, Cuba, and Northern Ireland – are irrelevant to the case of Israel. Not a single citizen in Britain, France, or the United States had his daily routine in his native country disrupted as a result of the low-intensity combat conducted by his country’s army on a foreign battlefield.
A new critique of Israel proposes its elimination and replacement with a bi-national Palestinian-Jewish state. Israel’s new detractors doubt the legitimacy of Jewish statehood, though they say nothing about the validity of dozens of new states that have emerged in the last half century, many of which lack any firmly rooted national identity.
Vol. 3, No. 7 19 October 2003 As long as Yasser Arafat remains the sovereign of the Palestinian entity, there is not the slightest chance for real peace. Peace, for Arafat, means one big Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Iraqi desert – including Jordan, the West Bank, and Israeli Arabs. The Oct. 4 […]
The quest for defensible borders has been an axiom of Israeli governments since 1967 on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 242. Defensible borders for Israel has been explicitly backed by Washington since the Reagan administration. In Rabin’s last Knesset address he made clear that Israel "will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines."
In seeking democratization for the Middle East, the U.S. sees as its models Japan and Germany following World War II, both defeated in war and reconstructed in its aftermath. Let us remember that Israel paved the way for the Americans by halting Iraq’s nuclear plans in 1981, a demonstration of strategic cooperation between Israel and the U.S.
