Israel in the News

The eyes of the whole world seem to focus on a tiny sliver of land in the Middle East.

Selected Articles - Click on the underlined title links.

Benjamin Netanyahu - selected articles

Christian Zionism and the Jewish Restoration

America does not want a new terrorist state to emerge. How to prevent it.

There is only one way to establish a humane Middle East.

The motivating force behind terror is neither desperation nor destitution - it's hope.
 

Multimedia presentations illustrating the geographical
and historical context of Israel:

History in a Nutshell

Graphically illustrates Israel's modern geopolitical position amongst her Arab neighbors. It statrts with the 1920-1946 British Mandate period and continues through the 1947 United Nations particion plan, the 1967 Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and into the present.

Nutshell Too

Illustrates the population issues and the peace process between Israel and her Arab neighbors.

Imagine

Graphically illustrates life amidst unrelenting terror attacks.
 

A Practical Guide to Middle East Peace Plans and Grassroots Initiatives, By Ellis Shuman
 

Americans are asking: WHAT IS THIS "HOLY WAR" WE'RE IN?, By Christopher J. Patton
 

Arabs' choice: The 'road map' or Israeli fury, By Sidney Zion
 

A Wall - and a Way Forward, By Mortimer B. Zuckerman

In light of the much-misreported Sharon- Bush meeting, here's a little quiz to put the event in a perspective that eluded the media.
 

David Dolan's Monthly Commentaries from Jerusalem
 

Egypt, Israel, U.S. Sign Partial Free Trade Deal, Reuters 12-14-2004
 

ElBaradei calls on Israel to give up nukes,
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, has called on Israel to relinquish its nuclear weapons as part of a general peace agreement in the Middle East. In an interview with Haaretz, ElBaradei said Israel should follow the path taken by South Africa, the first and only country to part from its nuclear cache, when its weapons were destroyed under IAEA supervision in 1989.
 

Ex-Ambassador:
"Most Europeans Think Israel Conquered an Independent Palestine"

The publication of a European Union-sponsored survey showing the extent of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe has many people in Israel quite worried. The poll surveyed 7,500 people, 500 in each of the 15 EU member states. They were presented with a list of 15 countries, and were asked if these countries present a threat to world peace. Israel was rated "yes" by the highest number of respondents, almost 59%.
 

EU Parliament Member:
Intifada is European Proxy War Against America, Dec 23, '03

 "The Europeans," explained MP Schroeder, "supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor, and through this challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power.

"The primary goal of the EU is the internationalization of the conflict in order to underline the need for its own mediating role," she argues, warning that renewed European calls for a multinational force in the region - heard most recently by the head of the largest political bloc in the parliament - combined with heightened levels of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Arab world, could spell disaster for Jews everywhere. "The Palestinians are playing the ugly role of being the cannon fodder for Europe's hidden war against the U.S.," she adds.

"There is no difference in the consciousness of an average member of the European Parliament and an average German peace demonstrator, and I consider this to be a mixture of naivete, moralism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and an altogether serious danger," she said during her U.S. speaking tour.
 

From Churches, a Challenge to Israeli Policies, by Jane Lampman, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Some may wield an old financial tool - divestment -
to register concern about peace prospects.

A vote by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to use economic sanctions against certain companies doing business with Israel - namely those that profit from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza - has set off a quiet firestorm within the American religious community.
 

A Historic Shift, By Jonathan Tobin 4-23-2004

By stating last week that the United States does not support the notion that Middle East peace is predicated on a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territory it won in the 1967 Six-Day War, and by spelling out that the United States rejects any Palestinian refugee "right of return," Bush has substantially altered the starting point for any future talks.

While Palestinians lament that what Bush has done is the equivalent of the 1917 Balfour Declaration - which set in motion Britain's commitment to creating a Jewish national homeland in Palestine - are hyperbole, they're not completely crazy. Bush has thoroughly debunked the idea, nourished for decades by muddle-headed American policies, that the United States would eventually deliver all of the territories, including Jerusalem, to the Palestinians on a silver platter.
 

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Holy Land: Whose Land?, By Chris Heeb
 

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Headlines
 

Is a 'Holy War' Quickly Evolving in the Middle East? - Bill Koenig 4-26-2004

Two major things have happened since President Bush endorsed Ariel Sharon's Gaza/settlement plan: The Arab's hate for the United States has increased substantially (also due to the Hamas assassinations) and the situation in Iraq has worsened considerably with the twin sieges of Falluja and Najaf, presenting the Bush administration with its worst crisis in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

The Bush endorsement of Sharon's plan and the necessary heavy-handiness in Iraq has the Arab's boiling. In Iraq the Bush Administration can't "win for losing." If they sit back they are perceived weak, if they are too aggressive the Arabs and the world community chastises them. Also, once they go forward aggressively the "thugs" call for cease-fire talks. Once the cease-fire is agreed to, and after a short time, there is another terror event, which is followed by another aggressive and forceful response. The pattern repeats itself over an over.

Now, the United States is experiencing what Israel has had to face for years. The main difference is Israel's enemies live within their country, on the borders, or a short distance away.
 

Is Ariel Sharon about to be "stung"? by Reuven Koret,  December 19, 2004

In recent days, several U.S. Congressmen have written to President George Bush, asking him to explain the recent developments in the FBI investigation of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization.

In short, the stage is set for Ariel Sharon either being made expendable, and replaceable, or at least being played as an increasingly constrained and uncomfortable puppet. The cascade of concessions he is now making relative to his initial unilateral disengagement reflects this, but represents a small down-payment on the massive concessions to be extracted later. In short, an outmaneuvered Sharon has placed Israel on the fast-track to an imposed solution which promises to look far different than his original vision of a Palestinian state "in formaldehyde." Indeed, it is the Prime Minister who is being pickled.
 

Israeli Lawmaker Announces New Christian Caucus in Knesset,
By Julie Stahl, CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief, January 06, 2004

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Because conservative groups, particularly Christians, have emerged as some of Israel's closest allies during the last three years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a handful of Israeli lawmakers have formed what they are calling the Christian Allies Caucus. "We see more and more support on the Republican side, we see by the way in America more and more Jews joining the Republicans and we hear stronger and stronger voice[s] of evangelical but also some other Christian communities on behalf of Israel...

"All of a sudden we wake up in the world where liberals are against Israel, where the Left [is] deeply against Israel, and conservative groups...they are the strongest supporters. They understand the real fight that is taking place now," he added.
 

Israel's population on Independence Day is 6.8 million, By Itim 4-25-2004

On the eve of Independence Day, Israel's population stands at 6,780,000, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Of these, about 81 percent are Jewish - 5,180,000 are registered as Jews and 290,000 are immigrants who are not registered as Jews with the Interior Ministry - and 19 percent of the population is Arab.
 

Israel's Red Flag on Iran, By Jim Hoagland

Live by the sword ..., The Ottawa Citizen, March 23, 2004

Whether yesterday's assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was a good thing depends on the answer to two questions: 1) Is the world better off without Sheik Yassin? and 2) Was it in Israel's strategic interest to kill him? In both cases, the answer is yes.
 

Malaysian PM´s Speech Also Outlines Plan To Destroy Israel  

Mideast instability? Bring it on, By Mark Steyn 4-26-2004

Ariel Sharon has decided that one cannot negotiate with a void, a nullity - and even sentimental European Yasserphiles might, in their more honest moments, acknowledge that the only way the Palestinians are ever going to get a state is if they're cut out of the process. So the Israelis are building their wall, and what's left over on the other side will either be a new state, the present decayed Arafatist squat, or an ever more frustrated self-detonation academy. But it will be up to the Palestinians to choose because they'll be the ones living with the consequences.
 

Mideast Realism: Why the prez backed Sharon, George Will, 4-19-2004

The United States government is not a speed reader, but after 37 years of reading U.N. Resolution 242, the government finally read it accurately on Wednesday. The government saw what is not there - the missing definite article, "the."

Passed after the 1967 Six Day War, 242 required the withdrawal of Israel "from territories occupied in the recent conflict." Not from "the territories." Israel insisted on deletion of the "the" because it implied, as Arab and other powers acknowledged by vehement opposition to the deletion - withdrawal from all territories. This was strategic ambiguity. On Wednesday ambiguity was abandoned. In his letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush said:
 

New processor by Israeli company computes at speed of light

By Reuters: Israeli start-up Lenslet has developed a processor that uses optics instead of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light, the company said. The company said its processor will enable new capabilities in homeland security and military, multimedia and communications applications.

"Optical processing is a strategic competitive advantage for nations and companies," said Avner Halperin, vice president for business development at Lenslet.

NOT JUST TERROR, By Yaffa Ganz

The Palestinian-Israel War Gains a French Dimension, DEBKAfile, October 29, 2004

 Exactly ten years ago, the Palestinian leader made a triumphal entry from Tunisian exile to lead the Palestinian Authority created under the 1993 Oslo peace accords. He rode in on a pledge to honor the peace, a pledge he lost no time in violating.

A certain amount of jostling for position greeted the first hours after his departure. The first to step forward were the former and current Palestinian prime ministers Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia. Abbas is Arafat's Number 2 in the PLO executive; Qureia, the senior Palestinian Authority official. A third was Salim Zaanoun, head of the Palestinian Legislative Council. A fourth was the ambitious Mohammed Dahlan, former Gaza Strip strongman.
 

PM Sharon Presents Vision of Condensed Israel, 4-13-2004

Sharon presented his vision of the future of Judea and Samaria - which includes no more than five blocs of Jewish presence. The five areas that are to remain Jewish are Ariel and satellite communities such as Kedumim and Emanuel; Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem; Kiryat Arba/Hevron, south of Gush Etzion; Givat Ze'ev, north of Jerusalem; and Maaleh Adumim. Everything else, presumably - including such areas as Kiryat Sefer; Beit El-Ofrah; Dolev-Talmon; the southern Hevron Hills; Elon Moreh; and more - is to be abandoned, according to the Sharon vision.
 

 Sanhedrin Launched In Tiberias, October 14, 2004

A unique ceremony - probably only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years - is taking place in Tiberias today: The launching of a Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish-legal tribunal in the Land of Israel.

The Sanhedrin, a religious assembly that convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers in Jerusalem, comprised 71 sages and existed during the Tannaitic period, from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E. Details of today's ceremony are still sketchy, but the organizers' announced their intention to convene 71 rabbis who have received special rabbinic ordination as specified by Maimonides.
 

Sharon's Master Move, Sidney Zion, April 15, 2004

Israeli leader outflanks the Palestinians and gets Bush's okay. Never did an American President give them anything like George Bush delivered on the day after Passover.
 

TARGETED KILLING SPARKS UPROAR, Dave Dolan, March Report

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued to boil in March as Israeli helicopter missiles struck and killed the Jewish State's most implacable Palestinian Muslim opponent, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The March 22 targeted killing ignited angry demonstrations in many places around the turbulent Middle East.  It also prompted Hizbullah militiamen stationed in southern Lebanon to shoot rockets into northern Israel-pointing to the next probable flashpoint in the ongoing regional conflict.
 

Tel Aviv Professor: No Such Thing As Occupation, March 18, 2004

Law Professor Talia Einhorn clams that all of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) is not 'occupied territory' because it was never taken from any sovereign country.
 

The War Against G-d in Israel, by Shifra Hoffman

It is an open secret that the best efforts of 'experts' in the Israeli government have not been able to stem the increasingly downward spiral of the pariah-like status in which the Jewish State finds itself today in the world arena. For believing Jews, however, this is not a mystery, since it is clearly evident that the source of the Middle East conflict, as well as its solution are to be found in the eternal 'road map' for the Jewish people - our holy Torah.

[Reference is to Psalm 83- read it all!]
 

Yanqui Go Home, By Jay D. Homnick, March 17, 2004

To examine this thought from another angle, we might say this: the impulse of the American academic and the European epidemic is to seek a secular view of history. The problem is that the enemy is Islam, which is self-consciously squaring off against Judaism and Christianity. Thus, we are forced into fighting a war whose logic is determined by the Biblical view of reality. To counter the Moslem vision, we help Jews resettle their land after a two-thousand year hiatus - so, despite ourselves, we are compelled to guarantee the function of the most amazing prophecy in history.

You call that a prophecy? In fact, it was an outlandish and doomed prediction. How absurd to prognosticate that the land would lie in waste and desolation for thousands of years! How ludicrous that it could be made to bloom again! How ridiculous that a nation could survive in dispersal! How insane that they could return! How irresponsible to claim that they would be strong again!