FACTBOX-How rival Palestinian armed factions stack up
Here's how the Palestinian armed rivals stack up militarily:
ABBAS'S PRESIDENTIAL GUARD
With U.S. backing, Abbas's elite presidential guard has grown to at least 4,000 men, up from 2,500 members when Hamas took power in March.
Last...
Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.:Sans Action, Iranian Bomb Just A...
"Without military action, an Iranian nuclear bomb is a matter of time," according to the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
A survey of the strategic balance in the Middle East in...
Commentary on the summit between Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert,...
It was a nonsensical bit of political theater in my opinion, and not much more: The "summit" today at which Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, and PA President Mahmud Abbas...
Israeli Arabs: Emerging as a Fifth Column for Iran?
Among the Arab citizens of Israel, who constitute more than one million Israeli citizens and more than 15% of Israel's population, there is a widespread support for Iran. This has begun to worry the...
Commetary: Post Independence Day Observations
Two pieces have come to my attention that I would like to share. The first is by Michael Freund, who, in "A Broom and a Flag," tells the story of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov, who...
Palestinians can choosea terror state if they so desire?
Remarks: FM Livni with US Sec'y of State Rice
Remarks by Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Communicated by the Foreign Ministry...
Commentary from Arlene Kushner
Posting: September 12, 2007
"There it is!"
Olmert and company exposed with their intentions out front for all to see.
We are not to "play into the hands of Hamas" by going into Gaza, you see. As...
Incisive Commentary
Posting: July 31, 2008
"Just Suppose"
Political predictions are never written in stone, and certainly I make no claims that what I'm about to write here is anything other than a speculation. But I think it's...
Simple Questions for a Complex Situation
The Israeli-Hamas conflict, with its evocative images of human suffering, has engaged the hearts and minds of people the world over. Indeed, the death of any innocent - Israeli or Palestinian - is a...
The Middle Eastern Cold War
There are many cracks in the Arab Street.
A cold war is "the key to understanding the Middle East in the 21st century." So argue Yigal Carmon and three of his colleagues at the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) in a recent study, "An Escalating Regional Cold War."They have identified a major confrontation that the media has somehow missed - and which is the more important for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's just having been re-designated as president of Iran.