ALERT

Haaretz Analysis: Rivalry among Israel’s Leaders at Root of Row over Cease Fire

“In the current situation, the argument centers on an exit strategy. The defense minister told Olmert and Livni on Tuesday night that Israel needs to consider a 48-hour cease-fire during which Hamas’ willingness to cease its launching of rockets will be tested. Nonetheless, Barak is convinced that Israel should not take any unilateral measures. Rather, it should exploit one of the proposals, including that offered by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, for a two-day lull in the fighting so as to address any pressing humanitarian issues.” Read more

Haaretz Analysis: Hamas Has Its First Diplomatic Victory in Gaza Campaign

“The knowledge that Arab public opinion, as opposed to the Arab regimes that speak with several different voices, may influence policy is new. In a region known for not paying attention to public opinion, or where public opinion is dictated by the regimes, an appeal to the masses has usually been viewed as an act of desperation, not policy.

Hamas can rack up its first victory for its methods as several European countries are already talking about a “humanitarian” cease-fire, and Egypt has been fixed in the public eye as a collaborator with Israel.” Read more

J-Post Editorial: Cease Terror, Not Cease Fire

(While Haaretz, Israel’s liberal daily urges a cease fire rather than the deployment of ground forces, the Jewish nation’s conservative newspaper speaks against a cease fire at this point in the Gaza campaign)

“The air force will soon have done all it can at the present time - yet, frustratingly, Hamas will still retain its capability to lash out. That’s when Israel’s historic capacity for military innovation - for utilizing unexpected strategies against its enemies, rather than following a battle-plan for which the enemy has prepared - should be utilized.” Read more

Incidents in San Francisco & Chicago

“SAN FRANCISCO - Scuffles broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters Tuesday evening in front of the Israeli Consulate, before Palestinian supporters broke down police barricades and marched through downtown, clogging traffic and transit.” Read more

This blog’s friend in San Francisco was present at the event described above and reports:

“It was very chaotic. As usual the police did not keep us separated. They let the Pro-Palestinians come on our side and they did so violently. I was deliberately shoved several times, and, once my handbag was ripped from my shoulder. Twice this guy put the bullhorn right in my face and blasted me.” Deanne Berger-Moudgil

“SAN FRANCISCO - The hands of sculpted human figures in a Holocaust memorial were painted the color of blood Monday afternoon in the Richmond district, less than two hours before a large protest of Israeli attacks against Palestinians started blocking traffic in downtown San Francisco. . .It was the third time since October vandals have attacked the memorial - and city officials said the latest crime was linked to anti-Israel protests in The City.” Read more

“A bottle of flammable liquid was hurled at one of Chicago’s oldest synagogues, catching fire but not causing major damage. No one was injured in the incident early Monday at Temple Sholom of Chicago. . . Officials say they don’t know if there’s a link between the incident and increased violence in the Middle East.” Read more

Existential Threats to Israel Prompted Gaza Strike

MANY Israelis feel that the walls - and history - are closing in on their 60-year-old state, much as they felt in early June 1967, just before Israel launched the Six-Day War and destroyed the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies in Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. . .

Between 1948 and 1982 Israel coped relatively well with the threat from conventional Arab armies. Indeed, it repeatedly trounced them. But Iran’s nuclear threat, the rise of organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah that operate from across international borders and from the midst of dense civilian populations, and Israeli Arabs’ growing disaffection with the state and their identification with its enemies, offer a completely different set of challenges. And they are challenges that Israel’s leaders and public, bound by Western democratic and liberal norms of behavior, appear to find particularly difficult to counter.” Read more

Gaza Strike Is Now Entering Problematic Phase

“This is the stage when the government must decide whether to send ground
troops into the Gaza Strip and begin face-to-face combat with Hamas or make do with threats, seek a cease-fire that will bear the imprint of the bombardments of the first days and announce that the goal had been attained and threaten that if rocket-fire from Gaza continues the next strike will be more painful. . .

Israel cannot expect the world to save it from itself, and it should look for ways to end the conflict quickly. The danger lurking here is a feeling of success that would drag on the action and increase the chances of unpleasant entanglements.” Read more

David Grossman: Israel’s Choices at this Stage of Gaza Strike

“Israel’s leaders know well that given the situation in the Gaza Strip, it will be very hard to reach a total and unequivocal military solution. The lack of a solution might result in an ongoing ambiguous situation where we have already been: Israel will strike Hamas, it will strike and be struck, strike and be struck, and will become unwillingly enmeshed in every trap a situation like this entails, and will not attain its true and essential goals. It might very quickly discover that it is swept up - a strong military power, but helpless to get itself out of the entanglement - into a maelstrom of violence and destruction.” Read more

Arab Elites vs Hamas: Rupture in Arab World

“The Arab elites, comprising statesmen, academics, journalists and businesspeople, may preface their criticism with references to Israel’s crimes, but a significant facet of this class - it would be simplistic to label them moderates - appreciates that Hamas is to blame for what is taking place in the Gaza Strip. . .

These predominantly Sunni elites - whether they sit in Cairo, Riyadh or Amman, in the Maghreb, the Gulf or in the West - don’t want their societies to ape the Taliban or the ayatollahs. . .

The Arab elites need to offer their people an alternative to Islamist extremism. They could begin by redefining what it means to be pro-Palestinian and dissociating the Palestinian cause from anti-Israel rejectionism.” Read more

NY Times Analysis: Israel Reminds Foes that It Has Teeth

“JERUSALEM - Israel’s military operation in Gaza is aimed primarily at forcing Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup. But it has another goal as well: to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.” Read more

Haaretz: Editorial: Define Objectives of Gaza Strike

“The residents of the western Negev, who have lived in fear on a daily basis, petrified elementary school children, and the constant violation of a sovereign state’s territory - these are what provide legitimacy for the operation. But understanding is no substitute for wisdom, and the inherent desire for retribution does not necessarily have to blind us to the view from the day after. The expression time for combat still does not elucidate the goals of the assault. . . It would be best to make do with immediate goals and with measured, calculated accomplishments that could restore quiet, particularly the cease-fire Israel enjoyed for five months, which enabled Gaza residents to lead reasonable lives.” Read more

Haaretz Columnist: Who Speaks for the Gazans?

“Who speaks for the Gazans? Whose is the voice for a million and a half of the most victimized people on the face of our earth, serially colonized, exploited, deprived of work, deprived of food, deprived of basic freedoms, deprived, decade after degenerating decade, of any semblance of a future?

The warfare this week has demonstrated that, rather than coming to the Gazans’ aid, the supposed allies of the people of the Strip have rendered Gazans more vulnerable than ever to military attack, to misrule, and to a world community less likely than ever to seek their rescue.

Just when they need it most, who speaks for the people of Gaza?” Read more

Wartime in Gaza: Anticipating Anti-Israel Charges

“It is, abruptly and again, wartime. Across the globe, the selective pacifists of the left and the recliner Rambos of the right are spoiling for their next battle, the war in Gaza.

They will fight one another in letters to Congress, in cable news sound bites, in raucous talk-radio phone-ins, in the virtual mega-heroics of the online battlefield of the talkback.

They will fight one another in the United Nations as well, unashamedly one-sided in their concern for human life.

Herewith the first in a two-part guide to the 10 most gratuitous, least productive, most resolutely ingenuous claims likely to be hurled in an effort to attack Israel.

The first five are arguments of the anti-Israel left, claims which are, curiously, as tired as they are unflagging.” Read more

Israel Launches PR Blitz to Garner Support for Gaza Action

“The Foreign Ministry launched a public relations blitz Saturday to counter the pictures coming out of Gaza, stressing that the goal of the operation was to strike a major blow to Hamas‚ terror infrastructure and protect Israeli citizens.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and spokespeople from the Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office and the IDF Spokesman’s Office took to the airwaves - including the Arab satellite stations - with the message that Israel has been patient up until now, but could not tolerate the unending attacks, and that Hamas was the party responsible for the suffering that would incur.” Read more

Haaretz: Close to a War between Israel and Hamas

“The events along the southern front which commenced at 11:30 on Saturday morning are the closest thing there is to a war between Israel and Hamas. It is difficult to ascertain (geographically) where and for how long the violence will reach before international intervention forces a halt to the hostilities. However, Israel’s opening salvo is not merely another surgical operation or pinpoint strike. This is the harshest IDF assault on Gaza since the territory was captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.”

“As the situation appears now, Israel has assigned modest goals for itself: weakening Hamas rule in Gaza and restoring a prolonged lull along the border under terms that are more convenient for us following an internationally imposed compromise. Hamas, in its continued strikes on the Negev in recent weeks, erred in judging Israeli intentions and has been dragged into a war that it doubtful wanted. Now, Israel needs to be careful in not falling into a trap of its own.” Read more

Jerusalem Post: The Policy of Restraint Is Over

“The Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday, hugely dramatic in their scope, nonetheless mark only the beginning of an ongoing, potentially lengthy operation aimed at restoring calm to the South, rather than a one-off response to the escalated Kassam rocket fire. The policy of restraint, officials say, is over.”"We are now going to find out whether those lessons from 2006 - on
military preparation, on the need for effective military-political coordination, on operating in an immensely complex regional and global context, and on setting realistic goals for the use of military force - were indeed well learned.” Read more

“The event at (San Francisco’s) Union Square offers a rare glimpse into the breadth of contemporary Jewish identity, particularly its margins.”

Read more about a public menorah lighting.

Relevance of Hanukah’s Texts, Traditions for American Jewish Life

“The Jews have long been known as the people of the book, and how Jews respond to Jewish texts has a lot to say about where they are as a people. In Israel, the Maccabees’ armed struggle against a powerful enemy resonates with the history of the contemporary Jewish state. For Jews in America, the story of the Maccabees is often portrayed as a struggle for freedom of religion. Usually ignored are the troublesome conflicts pitting Jew against Jew and the questions the story raises about zealotry and assimilation.” Read more

Fort Dix Plotters Convicted of Conspiracy to Murder Members of U.S. Military

“Every plotter is an amateur until he pulls off a spectacular attack. This has created a permanent PR problem for the fight against domestic terror plots: If you move too soon, the conventional wisdom comes to doubt that anything serious was averted. But of course, waiting too long means running the risk of another attack on American soil, something we have avoided since 9/11.” Read more

With New Rocket Barrages, Israel’s Gaza Dilemma Returns

“Indeed, the Gaza standoff is part of the showdown between Israel and Iran. A powerful Israeli response will send a strong message to Tehran and its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. A failed action or a perceived retreat could encourage the Islamic Republic to step up its challenges of Israel. . .But there is still no agreement among Israel’s three major prime ministerial candidates on what to do about Hamas in the long term. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and the Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu say the Hamas government should be toppled. Barak advocates the more modest goal of restoring quiet after dealing a heavy blow to the organization’s military wing. . .The way the goal is defined will determine the nature of the military operation and set the tone for the political aftermath.” Read more

Jordanian Students Rebel by Embracing Conservative Islam

“Across the Middle East, young people angry, alienated and deprived of opportunity, have accepted Islam as an agent of change and rebellion. It is their rock ‘n’ roll, their long hair and love beads. Through Islam, they defy the status quo and challenge governments seen as corrupt and incompetent. These young people - 60 percent of those in the region are under 25 - are propelling a worldwide Islamic revival, driven by a thirst for political change and social justice. That fervor has popularized a more conservative interpretation of the faith.” Read more

To Our Jewish Readers—Happy Hanukah

To Our Christian Readers—Merrie Christmas

Arabs Respond to Likelihood of Iranian Bomb

“. . . the threat of Iran’s nuclear programs lies not only in whether it will acquire a bomb. It’s also a question of how Iran’s neighbors will react. The Israelis have said publicly that a nuclear Iran is an intolerable threat, a view many Arab states share privately. If neither Israel nor the U.S. act, they will be tempted to seek their security by acquiring their own nuclear deterrents. A Middle East in which Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt have the bomb — in addition to Israel and Pakistan — is possible within a decade.” Read more

Hanson: Rhetoric vs Reality in Foreign Policy

“As president, Mr. Obama doesn’t want a terrorist attack after seven years of quiet - certainly not of the sort that occurred in Mumbai last month. He may tinker with, but not end, Homeland Security measures. He may better articulate the complexities of a tribal Middle East, but he won’t stop American efforts to foster democracy there.” Read more

ADL: Anti-Semitic Posts about Madoff Flood Web

“The alleged $50 billion fraud by Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff has prompted an outpouring of anti-Semitic comments on mainstream and extremist Web sites, the Anti-Defamation League said on Saturday. . . some of the posts on the highly trafficked sites spread conspiracy theories about Jews stealing money to benefit Israel and suggest that, Only Jews could perpetrate a fraud on such a scale.” Read more

Mumbai: Understanding What Happened & Preventing Future Calamities

“Now that India and the world are over the initial shock of the terrorist attacks last month in Mumbai, efforts to understand what happened and prevent future calamities are being hampered in ways familiar to Israelis like myself, who have lived through far too many such events: pointless efforts to place blame, and a failure to put the attacks in the proper historical context.” Read more

Conor Cruise O’Brien, Irish Admirer of Israel, Dies at 91

“His disillusionment in the 1960s with post-colonial Africa and with Irish Republican Army atrocities led him to distance himself from leftist orthodoxies; he detected beneath the IRA’s universalist pieties a profound and mean-spirited nationalism that led him to champion the rights of Protestants in Northern Ireland. . .Writing about Israel in the 1980s, he similarly refused to buy into conventional leftist narratives about a pristine Arab struggle against a colonial oppressor, and his book about Israel’s founding, The Siege, was clear-eyed in its criticisms of both sides. He argued that Israel’s claim to the land, stemming from a millennia-old exile, was at once compelling and impossible to explain in terms of other peoples; no other nation had held onto a dream of return for so long.” Read more

U.S. Not Prepared for a Major Attack on Vital Computer Networks

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said on Thursday after participating in a two-day cyberwar simulation. . .The game involved 230 representatives of government defense and security agencies, private companies and civil groups. It revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications and other issues, participants said.” Read more

Obama’s Confidante Could Lead Jewish Community’s Foreign Policy Umbrella

“WASHINGTON (JTA) — One of Barack Obama’s earliest Jewish backers is emerging as a front-runner to lead the U.S. Jewish community’s foreign policy umbrella — the latest sign of efforts to strengthen ties with the president-elect and the incoming administration.

Multiple sources confirmed that Alan Solow, a prominent Chicago-area bankruptcy lawyer who also chairs the national Jewish Community Centers Association, was in contention to replace June Walker, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations chairwoman, who died in June.” Read more

Imam’s and Rabbis Vow Joint Stand on Terrorism

“PARIS - An international group of imams and rabbis pledged at the end of a sometimes stormy conference on Wednesday to work together to denounce violence and terrorism and promote understanding between their two faiths.

The World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace, a private group set up in 2005, named a committee to issue joint responses to acts of terror by either side, as a sign that people of faith rejected such violence unconditionally.” Read more

Perhaps Oil Will Be the Desperately Needed “Game Changer”

“Israel, and the West, desperately need a game changer, to use a favorite Obama phrase. Perhaps it will be oil. Out of economic calamity could come a new approach to peace. It’s not much, but it may be all we have left to try.” Read more