Lessons of the Gaza Security Fence for the West Bank
As part of the implementation of Oslo, Israel gave up 80 percent of Gaza on May 18, 1994. When we talk about disengagement from Gaza, this means withdrawal from the remaining 20 percent of the area. During my time as Commander of Southern Command in the years 2000-2003, there were more than 400 attempts by Palestinians to cross into Israel, all of which failed. Together with rebuilding the fence, a key security element was the creation of a one-kilometer security buffer zone.
How is Israel’s Economy Affected by the Security Situation?
Defense expenditures in Israel were less than 10 percent of GDP in the 1950s, climbing to 35 percent after the Yom Kippur War. After Israel signed the peace agreement with Egypt, defense expenditures leveled off while the economy kept growing, so the overall share of defense-related spending declined back down to 10 percent. In the 1980s, as a result of exposure of Israeli industries to competition, Israel shifted to new industries – moving from agriculture and textiles to high tech.
The New Iraqi Government: An Interim Appraisal
In the present government there are 10 Sunni Arabs, 14 Shi’ite Arabs, and 8 Kurds, plus 1 Turkoman and 1 Christian. The Kurds are all Sunnis, as is the Turkoman, making 19 Sunnis and 14 Shi’ites, which is very generous toward the Sunnis. Historically, Iraq has been ruled by Sunni Arabs who represent a minority of some 15-18 percent in a state where 55 percent are Shi’ites and 18 percent are Kurds.
Evaluating International Approaches to Security and Aid Following Disengagement in Gaza
The experiment in Palestinian autonomy, as implemented in the Oslo framework, was unsuccessful, with deeply-rooted corruption, administrative chaos, terror, and lawlessness – the characteristics of a failed state. In this environment, international efforts to provide assistance to the Palestinian population have also been ineffective, and have contributed to the corruption and the terror attacks.
Experiencing European Anti-Americanism and Anti-Israelism
Four factors play a role in the increasingly anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe: the attempt to assuage guilt over Europe’s murderous past, rivalry with the United States, anti-Semitism, and the rejection of European concepts of society by the majority of Israelis.
Evaluating International Approaches to Security and Aid Following Disengagement in Gaza
The experiment in Palestinian autonomy, as implemented in the Oslo framework, was unsuccessful, with deeply-rooted corruption, administrative chaos, terror, and lawlessness – the characteristics of a failed state. In this environment, international efforts to provide assistance to the Palestinian population have also been ineffective, and have contributed to the corruption and the terror attacks.
Palestinian Priorities After Arafat: Palestinian Unity or Peace?
Arafat’s death generated new hopes in the international community that a "window of opportunity" had now opened in the Middle East peace process. Meanwhile, Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who was elected to succeed Arafat as the PLO chairman, faces grave challenges to his leadership. Arafat left to his successors a regime that necessarily – and unlike his absolutist pattern of governing – will be based on a broad coalition between the various political and terrorist factions.
Ethical Dilemmas in Fighting Terrorism
When the IDF updated its military doctrine in 2003, Prof. Asa Kasher, Professor of Professional Ethics at Tel Aviv University, joined me on an ethics committee to craft principles on how to make moral and ethical decisions in Israel’s operational campaign against terror. As we sought to formulate how to fight terror, we understood that the main asymmetry is in the values of the two societies involved in the conflict – in the rules they obey.
From Arafat to al-Zarqawi
Western diplomats may have been stunned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s blatant effort to ward off the newest coalition offensive against terrorist strongholds in Fallujah, but they should not have been surprised.
The Arafat Paradox
The very first time I was sent as an envoy to Yasser Arafat, what seemed most striking to me was the enormous gap between the total unreality of his conspiratorial explanations of political events transpiring around him and the extraordinary skill with which he played his weak political hand in order to advance the hard-line ideological agenda from which he never swerved: the elimination of the State of Israel.
Will a Gaza “Hamas-stan” Become a Future Al-Qaeda Sanctuary?
Vol. 4, No. 7 8 November 2004 In light of Israel’s planned disengagement from Gaza, to take place in 2005, and the termination of Yasser Arafat’s hold on power, the eventual take-over of the Gaza Strip by Hamas certainly cannot be ruled out. Would a Gaza “Hamas-stan” become another al-Qaeda sanctuary in the […]
French Anti-Semitism: A Barometer for Gauging Society’s Perverseness
The ongoing anti-Jewish aggression has created a trend toward mental and behavioral ghettoization of the French Jewish community. Many Jews now feel secure only in a Jewish environment. One result of this is an increased enrollment in Jewish day schools.
Will a Gaza “Hamas-stan” Become a Future Al-Qaeda Sanctuary?
In light of Israel’s planned disengagement from Gaza, to take place in 2005, and the termination of Yasser Arafat’s hold on power, the eventual take-over of the Gaza Strip by Hamas certainly cannot be ruled out. Would a Gaza "Hamas-stan" become another al-Qaeda sanctuary in the future? In the past, al-Qaeda sought to establish itself wherever there was a security vacuum – in remote mountain areas or in economically weak, failed states.
Abusing the Legacy of the Holocaust: The Role of NGOs in Exploiting Human Rights to Demonize Israel
In the wake of the Holocaust, as human rights norms have come to the fore, NGOs have become major actors in international politics in general and in the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular. These organizations and their leaders form an extremely powerful “NGO community” that has propelled the anti-Israeli agenda in international frameworks such as the UN Human Rights Commission and the 2001 UN Conference against Racism in Durban. Through their reports, press releases, and influence among academics and diplomats, these NGOs propagated false charges of “massacre” during the Israeli army’s antiterror operation in Jenin (Defensive Shield) and misrepresent Israel’s separation barrier as an “apartheid wall.”
Iceland, the Jews, and Anti-Semitism, 1625-2004
Jews were only occasional visitors in Iceland from the 17th century onward. Until the 1930s, the Holy Scripture as well as the most recent European trends in anti-Semitism constituted nearly the only knowledge the Icelanders had about the Jews. Jews in the flesh materialized as Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Most of the refugees moved on to other countries, and some were even expelled or deported. In the postwar period, Jews living in Iceland remained an isolated group.
