In the week preceding the Annapolis summit last year, Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat proclaimed, "The P.A. would never acknowledge Israel's Jewish identity," to which outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reacted angrily with: "We won't hold negotiations on our existence as a Jewish state ... . Whoever does not accept this cannot hold any negotiations with me." In other...
The recent Time magazine cover depicting Barack Obama as Franklin D. Roosevelt illustrated the widespread expectation that the new president intends to govern in the spirit of the New Deal. This perception has been reinforced by an Obama spokesman's confirmation that the president-elect is reading Jonathan Alter's book about Roosevelt's first hundred days, as well as Jean Edward Smith's biography,...
Climate change poses a danger to almost every nation. Israel is vulnerable -- to the direct effects of climate variations and, particularly, to the political effects of the worldwide use of oil, much of it from the Middle East, which we are burning at mushrooming rates and which is (thanks to carbon dioxide emissions) the biggest factor contributing to global...
Is Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest cities, and the Arab world's most conservative monarchy, experiencing a change of heart? In a campaign against extremists at home, Saudi courts have now begun to try 991 prisoners held on terrorism charges. A new government initiative targets jihadist detainees for counseling and religious re-education. And, last year, a Saudi mufti, Sheikh...
Learn to Enjoy the Quiet Whenever Israel's Bumped Off the Front Page Historian Michael Oren writes in Ha'aretz ( www.haaretz.com ) on Nov. 9 that no news is good news for friends of Israel: "The good news is that Israel is no longer in the news. And the bad news is that Israel is no longer in the news. For...
Sivan 14, 5773
