The national morale is quite high. Most Israelis are thinking: How good it feels to see our side winning a war. The attack on Gaza is supported by an overwhelming majority of Israelis who are fed up with seven years of rocket attacks from Gaza. This viewpoint is quite easy to understand: We left Gaza up to the international border, we removed settlements, the army left, the occupation ended – if they continue to attack us, it is not because of the occupation, it is because they don’t want us to live.
The Palestinian position is obviously quite different. First, with hundreds of casualties, there is the outrage at what they call the disproportionate use of force. For them each casualty is a fellow Palestinian, regardless of which movement he belonged to or supported. Our reaction as Jews would be the same, if the circumstances were reversed.

How the global economic crisis could turn things around in the Mideast
Michael Hirsh
Newsweek Web Exclusive

Even by the uniquely bleak standards of the Middle East, things are looking pretty grim right now. Iran is still working methodically toward a nuclear weapon—effectively getting a free ride during the interregnum between George Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom are distracted by the global economic crisis. There is no military option under consideration right now: Israel appears to be restrained by Bob Gates’s Pentagon, which is reportedly withholding cooperation, such as supplying Jerusalem with IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) codes. That will no doubt continue into the next administration. “I think all of us have very little time,” Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, said in an interview this week. He said there is still room for negotiation, but only with vastly intensified diplomatic pressure. Otherwise “you could have a catastrophic nuclear cascade in the region. And the time between that moment [Iran getting nuclear weapons capability], which could be very soon, and when nuclear weapons fall into the hands of nonstate actors or terrorists, could be not far off … Are we allowing the genies to go out of the bottle, so that our children will never be able to put them back in?”

The Annapolis conference in Maryland held in 2007 and sponsored by President Bush, fell short of achieving its aim of concluding a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of 2008. Even so, Mr Bush can now leave office knowing that the aims of Annapolis have at least been enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 1850 which passed without opposition on Tuesday.

“What that resolution does,” said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “is to put the international community on record in believing in the irreversibility of the Annapolis process – bilateral negotiations toward a two-state solution, a comprehensive solution, and the various principles of Annapolis and what the parties have established since then.” The peace process has become “the Annapolis process”. What if anything that process will yield in 2009 is far from clear. An international meeting in Moscow is under consideration.

Palestinian affairs expert and longtime journalist Danny Rubenstein came to visit me a couple of evenings ago. He was researching the issue of the transfer of cash to Gaza that Defense Minister Barak had allowed. After clarifying this issue our conversation went on to discuss what Danny called the emerging “bi-national reality” that has developed in the West Bank and has become more entrenched, perhaps beyond the point of no return. Danny is one of the real experts. He’s been covering Palestinian affairs since 1967, has written several highly respected books on Palestinians, their national movement and leaders. He has contacts in every part of Palestine, with all sectors of the society. His conclusion concerning the “bi-national reality” is drawn from observations over the past months after traveling north, south, east and west – all throughout the West Bank, spending hours listening to people and observing the reality on the ground.

Tal is one of three Anglos running for seats on the party’s Knesset candidates list. The other two are Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information founder Dr. Gershon Baskin and Arava Power Company founder Yosef Abramowitz.

Not coincidentally, all three are alumni of the Young Judaea youth movement and credit it with turning them into people who go out and make change.

Frustrated by impasse, New Green Movement will run for Knesset
By Zafrir Rinat
A recently-formed left-leaning environmentalist group on Tuesday
announced that it will be running for the Knesset in the February 10 general elections.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, the chairman of The Green Movement, Eran Ben-Yemini, said the new party will hold a primary election this Friday to determine its list of candidates for the Knesset. Ben-Yemini, cofounder of the student environmental organization Green Course (megama yeruka), founded the new party along with Professor Alon Tal – the founder of Israel Union for Environmental Defense.

The current water crisis is extremely serious. Years of mismanagement and irresponsible water policies are now being investigated by the state comptroller. This is not the first time that the water sector is under the scrutiny of a public investigatory committee. In June 2001 the Knesset conducted a similar investigation and reported on serious dysfunctionality, but it seems that very little has changed since then.

NEW YORK TIMES

Mr. Obama is “into symbolism,” said Mr. Baskin, explaining why he supported the initiative, adding, “We think it is really important that the Obama administration gets involved immediately” in the Israeli-Palestinian sphere.

The energy to lead, by Gershon Baskin (Jerusalem Post)

Since the mid-1970s most of the world has been held hostage by the oil-rich nations, many of which do not share their political world view. In order to maintain energy security most of these oil-dependent nations have capitulated for decades to the whims and wills of the oil-rich ones.
Most of these oil-rich nations have not used their wealth to really benefit their people. It has instead aided their families and tribes to stay in power, usually against the will of their own people. The global political power of these nations far outweighs their real contribution to humanity; indeed, it is solely based on their ability to control the flow of oil, and its price.

Stop the Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance Museum in Jerusalem on top of Muslim Graves
Preventing the construction of the Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance over the Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem
Update on the Construction of the Wiesenthal Center Museum of “Tolerance” in Jerusalem

December 1, 2008