by Steve Shamrak

For centuries, with the exception of the Dark Ages, scientists and the intellectual elite have been considered a vanguard of humanity. They are a leading force not just of technical or medical advances, but have greatly influenced and contributed to the political and social fabric of the society. All of this is achieved by dedication of their lives to their chosen fields, usually with no or little personal involvement in politics.

The recent phenomenon whereby celebrities such as Hollywood stars, between drug rehabilitation clinics and plastic surgery, express their unqualified views about anything, particularly politics, and influencing public opinion using their celebrity status, has become contagious. Unfortunately this trend is spreading and seriously affecting Israeli scientists and intellectuals who are craving acceptance and recognition by the wider fatuous politically-correct and generally anti-Semitic international audience. As a result many of them, although some are quite brilliant in their chosen fields of expertise, have joined the Israel-bashing choir, blaming Israel for not doing enough for the peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Strangely, as scientists, many of them do not consider that factual knowledge and understanding of the history and dynamic of the conflict is essential in order to take an educated and qualified position.

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by Steven Shamrak

Only 120 years ago, most parts of the Middle East, including Palestine and entire Sinai Peninsula, were a desolated, arid land mass which did not belong to any country. It was a no man’s land with which for 2000 years Jews had an unbroken spiritual and historical bond.

The creation of a mandate system after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the World War I and the grid of the new masters, Britain and France, laid the foundations of the current Arab-Israel conflict:

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By Barry Rubin

Step right up! Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen! It’s easy, fun, and everybody’s a winner! Just guess which shell the nut is under.

After studying and living with the Middle East for a few decades one sees certain patterns endlessly repeated, though always with a new set of details. Understandably, naive newcomers fall for the carnival con-man’s traps. They should learn after one disaster. Veterans have no excuse.

A con-game is one in which a malefactor gains the mark’s confidence in order to rob him. Conventional examples include selling swampland as vacation homes or the Internet scam of pretending to be a distressed African official who promises rich rewards in return for a loan.

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by Daniel Pipes*

“Listen to me carefully,” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt instructed an interviewer on Jan. 30. “Gaza is not part of Egypt, nor will it ever be …. I hear talk of a proposal to turn the Strip into an extension of the Sinai peninsula, of offloading responsibility for it onto Egypt” but Mubarak dismissed this as “nothing but a dream.”

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by Bill Levinson

What you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Much has been made by the National Jewish Democratic Council about Barack Hussein Obama’s purported support for Israel. Obama’s actions, however, thunder so loudly that we cannot hear his lip service to Israel’s basic security and right to exist. After soliciting the support of the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton, Barack Obama just accepted the endorsement of MoveOn.org. Let’s see what this official MoveOn.org bulletin has to say about Israel and the Palestinians.

MoveOn Bulletin
Friday, June 20, 2003
Noah T. Winer, Editor
noah.winer “at” moveon.org

NTRODUCTION: WHERE DOES THE ROAD MAP LEAD?
In July, 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak broke off talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Camp David summit hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton. That September, Ariel Sharon, chairman of the Likud party, made a provocative visit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Control over this holy site for both Muslims and Jews is contested by Palestinians and Israelis. The visit implied Israeli sovereignty over all Jerusalem, the eastern portion of which is considered occupied territory by the international community. So began the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

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By Jonathan Spyer

The response of Israeli officials to the latest events in Gaza may in essence be divided into two halves. The initial response was one of frustration at Egyptian unwillingness to restore order on the international border. The subsequent sense is that the latest Gaza events have served to clarify, rather than significantly alter, an already existing reality.

As the news began to come in of the destruction of the southern border wall separating Gaza from Egypt, Israeli and western officials demanded that Egypt take steps to re-assert its control. And as the exodus of Gazans began, there was widespread anger at Egypt for its failure to speedily impose its authority.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Startling developments in Gaza highlight the need for a change in Western policy toward this troubled territory of 1.3 million persons.

Gaza’s contemporary history began in 1948, when Egyptian forces overran the British-controlled area and Cairo sponsored the nominal “All-Palestine Government” while de facto ruling the territory as a protectorate. That arrangement ended in 1967, when the Israeli leadership defensively took control of Gaza, reluctantly inheriting a densely populated, poor, and hostile territory.

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By Barry Rubin

T.S. Elliot wrote memorably in “The Hollow Men”: Between the idea/And the reality/Between the motion/And the act/Falls the Shadow

In the case of the peace process and all the great ideas for fixing everything in Arab-Israel relations, the Shadow has been Palestinian leaders’ unwillingness–and now also inability–to make a compromise agreement ending the conflict.

Close examination of the movement’s ideology, organization, and structure shows why this is true. Exactly forty years ago, in 1968, Yasir Arafat and Fatah took over. That same year he laid down two principles dominating the movement ever since.

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by Daniel Pipes*

George W. Bush’s policies toward the Middle East and Islam will loom large when historians judge his presidency. On the occasion of his concluding his 8-day, 6-country trip to the Middle East and entering his final year in office, I offer some provisional assessments.

His hallmark has been a readiness to break with long-established bipartisan positions and adopt stunningly new policies, and by late 2005 he had laid out his novel approach in four major areas.

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By Barry Rubin

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of articles have been written on President George Bush’s visit to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. And not a single one that I’ve seen has mentioned the ridiculously obvious point that goes so far in explaining everything.

To paraphrase the nursery rhyme about circling endlessly, Bush is merely taking us around the mulberry bush once more. Namely, this is an exact replay of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Eight years ago, in his last twelve months in office, Clinton, too, decided that the conflict must be resolved right away. Result: total, humiliating failure and a five-year-long bloody Palestinian war on Israel.

As if this were not enough, whether or not even more violence will follow, Bush, through no fault of his own, is in a far worse position to play this game than was his predecessor.

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by Daniel Pipes*

The Palestinian “right of return” entered the lexicon of American policymakers in December 2006, when the Iraq Study Group Report urged the U.S. government to support Israel-Palestinian negotiations that addresses what it termed a “key final status issue.” That recommendation came as a mild shock, given that the “right of return” to Israel is transparently a code phrase to overwhelm Israel demographically, thereby undoing Zionism and the Jewish state, and so never before a goal of official Washington.

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Ted Belman, Israpundit

Two years ago I explained why “Palestine” will never come into existence. Events since then have confirmed my views.

The Bush trip to the Middle East was over before it began. Or putting it another way, Bush is just going through the motions.

In my opinion, it is Time to apply the Mandate.

The two-state solution essentially was formulated in Resolution 181 otherwise known as the Partition Plan.

Almost from the day after the signing of the Palestine Mandate, Great Britain violated the Mandate and restricted Jewish immigration giving rise to the Partition Plan.

It is time to return to the original mandate which favoured:

“the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

Today, after reading the address by Pres. Bush, I advised, Stop worrying - The peace process is dead, and proceeded to analyze the speech paragraph by paragraph.

And for those who missed a recent poll, Israelis, by margin of 68:29, are against full withdrawal and division of Jerusalem.

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By Barry Rubin

What should President George W. Bush, currently visiting the Middle East, expect to achieve during his last year in office, even as the American people begin to choose his successor?

The answer could not possibly objectively clearer and subjectively more obscure. The gap between the real Middle East and how it is perceived by all too many people in Washington and in the academic-journalistic elite is far too wide.

Three quick examples are useful to underline this point. First, the Annapolis summit was widely hailed throughout America and the West as a big success, even by Bush’s biggest enemies. (That means, of course, it achieved the main goal, which was not primarily about the Middle East itself.) In the region, however, less than one-fifth of Israelis and Palestinians thought it had done any good. People in the region knew better.

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by Steven Shamrak

At the opening of the Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy emphasized the urgency of creating a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. International donors eagerly pledged $7.4 billion, pretending that it will boost the Palestinian economy.

The list of fake friends of the fictitious Palestinian nation is long: the United States pledged $555 million for 2008, though about $400 million has not been approved by Congress; Britain, $500 million; Norway, $420 million; Spain, $360 million; France and Sweden, $300 million each; Germany, $290; Belgium, €86 million; the new Australian government pledged $39 million, almost doubling the intended pledge; and the European Union, €440 million ($650 million) in grants to the Palestinians in 2008.

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By Barry Rubin

Ring, ring, goes the telephone. And of course I answer it.

The voice on the other end says that he is “Joseph” of Reuters. I get many calls from journalists and wire services but never has someone I don’t know introduced himself by first name only. Since he has an obvious Arabic accent it is quite clear that he thinks I am either so biased as to care what his family name is or so stupid not to guess why he isn’t giving it.

So the effect is to achieve the exact opposite of what he wants. It puts me on my guard.

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