Thursday 20 August 2009

Israel Matzav: Why not talk to al-Qaeda too?

Why not talk to al-Qaeda too?

In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens asks, if the US is going to have a conversation with Syria, Iran and North Korea, why not talk to al-Qaeda too? His answer makes a case for not having a conversation with Syria, Iran and North Korea:

Imagine an anonymous, virtual association of murderers and rapists who promise, via an Internet manifesto, to desist from wrongdoing altogether in exchange for immunity from prosecution and a yearly stipend of, say, $15 billion, to be deposited in a numbered bank account and divided equitably among the association's members.

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Israel Matzav: Why not talk to al-Qaeda too?

Israel Matzav: Sweden's Orwellian concept of free speech

Israel Matzav: Sweden's Orwellian concept of free speech

DoubleTapper: IDF Women

DoubleTapper: IDF Women

Freedom of Religion: A Precious American Right, an Islamic Capital Crime

Freedom of Religion: A Precious American Right, an Islamic Capital Crime

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Life in Israel: Living with our history

Life in Israel: Living with our history

Life in Israel: Touring in Eretz Yisrael: Summer: The other side of "Latzafon"

Life in Israel: Touring in Eretz Yisrael: Summer: The other side of "Latzafon"

Life in Israel: Stephen Colbert on the Swine Flu Prevention Shofar Blowing (video)

Life in Israel: Stephen Colbert on the Swine Flu Prevention Shofar Blowing (video)

Israel Matzav: Why 'peace' is elusive

Why 'peace' is elusive

There's a great letter in Thursday's New York Times by Queens College Sociology Professor Samuel Heilman in response to the Malley and Agha article that argued that a 'two-state solution' wouldn't solve anything.

If in the face of 61 years of the existence of Israel, which today is home to roughly 40 percent of the world’s Jews, Mr. Agha and Mr. Malley can argue that the definition of Israel as the Jewish state is still an open question, then the likelihood of a resolution of the conflict is as small as it’s ever been.

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Israel Matzav: Why 'peace' is elusive

Israel Matzav: Israel's 'security fence' won't be completed?

Israel's 'security fence' won't be completed?

The Washington Post reports that it's unlikely that Israel's 'security fence' in Judea and Samaria will ever be completed due to cost overruns, Supreme Court rulings and a decline in terrorism.

The last substantial work on the barrier, a network of fences and concrete walls flanked by a military patrol road, was finished in 2007. The construction underway now largely involves moving parts of it off Palestinian land in response to a series of Israeli Supreme Court rulings that found that the barrier had in some cases isolated families and sealed off villages from farmland to a degree that security concerns did not warrant.

A portion of the barrier in the sparsely populated southern West Bank remains unfinished, and the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a recent memo that "for budgetary and other considerations" it did not plan to complete the barrier around Maale Adumim, a major Jewish settlement east of Jerusalem.

That will leave as much as 40 percent of the barrier's 420-mile planned route unfinished. Even with the substantial gaps, Israeli military officials and politicians credit the barrier -- one of Israel's more controversial undertakings -- with a decline in suicide and other bombings originating from the West Bank.

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Israel Matzav: Israel's 'security fence' won't be completed?

Israel Matzav: Why Netanyahu can implement a de facto 'settlement freeze'

Why Netanyahu can implement a de facto 'settlement freeze'

At the left-leaning Washington Note, Steve Clemons points to a Twitter entry by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Tuesday in which Ayalon says

Hopes the rumored settlement freeze is just a rumor, because it hasn't gone through appropriate forums.

Unfortunately, the only thing Ayalon and his party can do if it is not a rumor is to withdraw from the government in the hope of bringing it down. And if Ayalon's Yisrael Beiteinu were to withdraw from the government, you can bet that Kadima would go in, bringing a net gain of 13 Knesset
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Israel Matzav: Why Netanyahu can implement a de facto 'settlement freeze'

Israel Matzav: Video: Rahm Emanumel (a satire)

Israel Matzav: Video: Rahm Emanumel (a satire)

Israel Matzav: Israel courts the Russian bear

Israel courts the Russian bear

After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced that Russia is 'reconsidering' the sale of the S-300 anti-missile system to Iran.

"President Medvedev gave a promise he will reconsider the sales of S-300s because it affects the delicate balance which exists in the Middle East," Peres told reporters via video link from Sochi.

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Israel Matzav: Israel courts the Russian bear

Israel Matzav: Huckabee rips Obama's Middle East policies

Huckabee rips Obama's Middle East policies

Defending his visit to Israel against charges that he is undermining US policy here, former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rips President Obumbler for deviating from his own stated policies on Israel.

President Obama’s unprecedented stance toward Israel doesn’t just contravene the past forty years of American policy, it contravenes his own statements as a presidential candidate.

I visited a planned housing development in East Jerusalem that President Obama is insisting not be built because he seems to anticipate that Jerusalem will be divided and this area will go to the Palestinians. Yet in June 2008, candidate Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (“AIPAC”) that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

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Israel Matzav: Huckabee rips Obama's Middle East policies

Israel Matzav: Russia caught smuggling nukes?

Israel Matzav: Russia caught smuggling nukes?

Israel Matzav: State Department rips Israel over "PA only" visas

Israel Matzav: State Department rips Israel over "PA only" visas
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