There is no military option in Iran. If we didn\’t learn this from the Americans\’ ongoing experience in Iraq, we should have learned it from Israel\’s recent experience in Lebanon.
After months of keeping a low profile on Iran\’s nuclear program, Israel has launched an intensive diplomatic campaign to convince the international community to pressure Tehran to drop its efforts to produce a nuclear bomb.
Israeli officials say the campaign, involving the United States, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is focusing on a September IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna. That body has the power to refer the \”Iranian nuclear dossier\” to the U.N. Security Council, where international sanctions could be imposed.
One historic concession deserves another. Just four months after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — the father of the settlement movement — stunned Israelis by pledging to evacuate some settlements, he got his payback from President Bush, who reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Israel\’s claim to parts of the West Bank.
It was compensation, with interest: Sharon had scored perhaps the most stunning diplomatic triumph in the U.S.-Israeli alliance in a generation.
After several years in office that have been characterized by ongoing violence and diplomatic stalemate, Ariel Sharon says he is determined to press ahead with new peace moves that could include \”painful concessions\” to the Palestinians.
The prime minister\’s remarks last week elicited scathing criticism from within his own Likud Party. But opposition leaders and senior Israeli pundits remain skeptical. Sharon has made similar bombastic announcements before, they say, but never delivered.
Worried about getting a parking ticket while you\’re praying for your soul? Don\’t fret.
Early elections may not have been Ariel Sharon\’s first choice, but his decision to go to the polls as soon as possible enables the savvy Israeli prime minister to make a number of political and diplomatic gains.
By calling the shots, Sharon comes across as a powerful leader still setting the national agenda. By calling elections for late January, he makes it difficult for the Labor Party, which left his government only last week, to establish itself as a credible opposition force.
Be honest: ever wake up in a cold sweat these days after dreaming that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman had indeed been elected, after all? Ever look around, while driving to or from work, to see if anyone can tell you\’re listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio — and loving what he says about Israel? Ever given any thought, however fleeting, to voting for Alan Keyes, the vigorously pro-Israel Fox TV host, next time he runs for president?
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but the sudden discovery, and embrace (however hesitant), of outspoken conservative Republicans by lifelong liberal Democrats has been extraordinary. As Israel finds itself increasingly isolated in diplomatic and political circles around the world, we are starting to realize that not only do we supporters of the Jewish state have few friends, but that many of the ones we have are the very ones we ignored, feared and/or disliked until yesterday, it seems.
It\’s one of the oddities of world affairs that the worse things get in the Middle East, the more various countries, international bodies and individuals want a piece of the diplomatic action. The region could use some help, but sadly, recent offers by a number of hopeful mediators are likely only to confuse matters and make U.S. diplomacy more difficult.
The Europeans, the United Nations, even Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan all want to lend a hand.
It\’s after Labor Day, which means kids are back to school, the football season has kicked off and the presidential race is heating up.
Israel this week came out of its shell and launched a public campaign against the trial of 13 Iranian Jews charged in Isfahan with spying for Israel and the United States.
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