Ehud Barak
Tel Aviv Journal: The Atrocity in Itamar
It is as clear as daylight, and my particular information with all the caveats and special emphases comes from the most respectable pro- Palestinian journalist there is. His name is Tobias Buck and he writes for the Financial Times where every piece published about the Jewish state--whose capital, in case you didn't know, is Tel Aviv--is jaundiced. Jaundiced as in exhibiting distaste and hostility. READ MORE >>
S.O.S.
Tel Aviv, Israel — There once was a very successful campaign in Israel for road safety. Its slogan was, “On the road, don’t be right, be smart." The day after the flotilla raid last week, more than one pundit in the Israeli press brought up the slogan. We’re right, they said, but why can’t we also be smart? READ MORE >>
Forget About “The New Middle East.” Israel Belongs To The First World, And Its Neighbors To The Third.
Everybody actually knows that. “The new Middle East” is a psychedelic fantasy of the perennially intoxicated peace processors. The dream will go on forever. And maybe it will be punctuated positively a tiny bit by practical arrangements on the ground. But probably not through the “proximity talks,” which the Obama administration has somehow convinced itself is a great achievement, which I have argued in print it is not. READ MORE >>
This is Defense Secretary Robert Gates talking, and he is telling the stark truth to Ehud Barak, Israel’s minister of defense, who presumably already knows. READ MORE >>
Minority Report
Derisionist History
Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations By Avi Shlaim (Verso, 392 pp., $34.95) READ MORE >>
Not This Barack, That Barak
Ehud Barak has served in just about every post to which an Israeli might aspire. That is, he is--along with an intimate friend--the most highly decorated soldier in the country's history and then has served as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, minister of defense and prime minister, besides. He has laurels enough for any person. And any position he holds now is a demotion and, if it were vanity that counted, a blow to his very vanity. READ MORE >>
Bibi's Blunders
In October, when Tzipi Livni, who had won the race to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of Israel's ruling Kadima Party, announced that she was unable to form a governing coalition, you could almost hear the groans coming from across the Atlantic and from European capitals. The reason? Livni's failure to assemble a government means new elections will take place in February. READ MORE >>
