From Ian:
Root causes and red herrings
Root causes and red herrings
Separating 'red herrings' from 'root causes'U.N. Watch: Palestinian pitch
Over the last two decades, Israel has allowed itself to be manipulated into a perilous and potentially tragic situation. To have any hope of extricating itself from this unenviable position, it must be very clear as to what this conflict is really about -- and what it is not.
It must separate the "root causes" from the "red herrings." Mistaken diagnosis will result in mistaken policy choices which are liable to precipitate "terminal" consequences.
It is time to acknowledge the unpalatable fact that the enmity of Arabs towards the Jews and the Jewish state is:
Not about borders but about existence.
Not about what the Jewish people do but about what the Jewish people are.
Not about the Jewish state's policies but about the Jewish state per se.
And not about Jewish military "occupation" of Arab land but about Jewish political existence on any land.
Israel must internalize these truths and undertake a policy to convey them with conviction and vigor to the world. Otherwise Israel may well be "liberated."(h/t Elder of Lobby)
Once again the indefatigable Palestinian Authority is drafting an Israel-bashing United Nations resolution condemning Israel's settlements. What's different this time? The Palestinians' hope that a lame-duck U.S. president, whose relations with Israel are strained, won't use the U.S. veto this time to quash the measure.Alan Dershowitz: Obama owes Netanyahu an explanation
The United States customarily defends Israel and has nixed many half-baked Security Council resolutions that seek a back door to Palestinian statehood. These empty gestures are no path to peace but a short fuse to heightened hostilities.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said President Obama, fresh from his “achievements” with Iran and Cuba, “may try to put a basis for a new era regarding the Palestinian-Israeli issue” by not vetoing the resolution. This latest resolution draft reportedly calls the Israeli settlements illegal and seeks a one-year timetable to reach “a final status agreement.”
A State Department spokesman said it has no position because the draft resolution remains in a “very early stage.”And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it as another attempt to force a Palestinian solution. This, after peace negotiations have been idled since the last U.S. initiative collapsed two years ago.
The Palestinians may ultimately back off. Ineffectual resolutions served cold at the United Nations only further the divide with Israel. That much should be abundantly clear, regardless of Mr. Obama's lame-duck status.
Jewish American jurist Alan Dershowitz last week criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's "interference in British affairs" and the hypocrisy of having reprimanded Israel's prime minister for having done the same.
In an op-ed for Fox News, Dershowitz lamented Obama having defended his prior comments urging British voters to vote against leaving the European Union, following scathing criticism that he was meddling in British affairs.
"I don't believe the EU moderates British influence in the world, it magnifies it," Obama said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday. He later warned British voters that it could take up to a decade to strike a trade deal with the U.S. once Britain leaves the union.
In his op-ed, Dershowitz pointed out Obama's argument that "in a democracy, friends should be able to speak their minds, even when they are visiting another country," and accused him of having a "short memory" recalling how "outraged the same President Obama was when the prime minister of a friendly country, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke his mind about the Iran deal."


















