Amazing: "I was wrong and I admit it. I wrote three articles in favor of a peace treaty between Israel and Syria. I wrote, based on conversations with senior security officials, that Israel can achieve peace with Assad's regime in exchange for the Golan... I didn't take into account the Damascus regime's tyrannical character. I fooled myself... I believed in peace to the point of being blinded to reality."
I was wrong about Syria by Sever Plocker | Ynetwww.ynetnews.com
"A peace treaty with Assad would have fully collapsed a day after the Assad regime collapsed."
Posted on 29 April 2011
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More donors for dictators in the UK: "The University of St Andrews has received more than £100k in funding for its centre for Syrian studies with the assistance of Syria's ambassador to the UK, Sami Khiyami.... A spokesman for St Andrews said the university would be reviewing the centre's work 'to ensure its high academic standards are maintained.'" Don't miss the center's brochure (pdf):
http://goo.gl/viV4S.
Syrian funding causes embarrassment at British university | Guardianwww.guardian.co.uk
"Funding for the centre was only secured with the assistance of Khiyami, who, according to the centre's head, Prof Raymond Hinnebusch, persuaded Syrian-born British businessman Ayman Asfari to pay for it."
Posted on 28 April 2011
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Head of the Council for Arab-British Understanding: "There has always been an extraordinary curiosity in government about Syria. Eyes that glaze over when you talk about the Israel-Palestinian situation light up when you talk about Syria.… With Syrian cooperation, Lebanon and the Palestinian question become suddenly much easier, [so] it was thought worth the risk." Drive a stake through this idea's heart, now!
Bashar al-Assad's crackdown kills UK hopes of a new dawn | Guardianwww.guardian.co.uk
"The web of personal links created by Bashar al-Assad's British education and his marriage to a British-born woman created a familiarity that ultimately proved deceptive."
Posted on 28 April 2011
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Did David Rothkopf omit a sentence? One linking the analysis ("we know as little or less today about what will happen next in Egypt or in Libya or in Tunisia or Yemen or in Syria as we did when all this started") with the conclusion ("Netanyahu needs to get out ahead of this Palestinian story and offer his own formula for peace")? No one knows if there’s water in the pool, but Israel should dive in head-first?
The two things we know about a Middle East in flux... by David Rothkopf | FProthkopf.foreignpolicy.com
"To get ahead of the issue, Netanyahu must be seen to be offering a fair and reasonable plan to swiftly put into place a Palestinian state that has a chance of succeeding economically, socially and politically."
Posted on 27 April 2011
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Feel free to name the many exceptions, but I've found most professors of Jewish studies to be rather feeble defenders of Israel on American campuses. In California, some of them are actually vicious detractors of Israel, and they have arisen to defend the thugs who heckled Michael Oren. (To fathom the pathology of the perversion, I commend David Mamet's 'The Wicked Son':
http://amzn.to/fYeQ6W.)
Anti-Israel Jewish Studies by Cinnamon Stillwell and Judith Greblya | Arutz 7www.campus-watch.org
"Perhaps such behavior should be expected from those who sign petitions to divest from Israel, call Israel an apartheid state, compare Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto, devote conferences and research to undermining Zionism, and falsely accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing."
Posted on 27 April 2011
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Michael Oren makes the case for Israel as the ultimate ally of the US, at the link. Here are the responses:
• Friends Forever? by Jeffrey Goldberg
http://goo.gl/W0uA3• A Whiff of Desperation by Stephen Walt
http://goo.gl/nUm5M• Our Kind of Realism by Aluf Benn
http://goo.gl/XxQ5o• The Middle East Needs More Israels by Robert Satloff
http://goo.gl/zc9DuI covered this topic way back, here:
http://goo.gl/DSSWC.
The Ultimate Ally by Michael Oren | Foreign Policywww.foreignpolicy.com
"Israel may be one of a handful of countries that fully fits the definition of ally, but its willingness to support the United States unwaveringly makes it the partner par excellence, America's ultimate ally."
Posted on 26 April 2011
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Pew poll from Egypt: "By a 54%-to-36% margin, Egyptians want the peace treaty with Israel annulled." But note: "Attitudes differ by education: 59% of those with a primary education or less favor annulling the treaty, while only 40% of those with a college education or more feel the same way." Interpretation: a dumb idea, most popular with the ignorant, now in play thanks to "democracy."
Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, As Well | Pew Global Attitudespewglobal.org
Results for the survey in Egypt are based on 1,000 face-to-face interviews conducted March 24 to April 7, 2011. The survey is representative of the country's adult population.
Posted on 25 April 2011
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Some Israelis still think what Israel "prefers" or "desires" for Syria matters. "We prefer the devil we know," says Ephraim Sneh. Well, who's "we," and who's asked "us" anyway? Or Uri Sagi, who thinks the US should shore up Asad if he breaks with Iran and Hezbollah. How could the US salvage Asad, even if it wished to? It's not the 1950s. So sit back, watch the show, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Israel in a quandary over turmoil in Syria by Joel Greenberg | WaPowww.washingtonpost.com
"A power shift in Damascus could alter the dynamics of Israeli-Syrian ties, but views differ in Israel on the most preferable outcome."
Posted on 24 April 2011
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A center at Berkeley is sponsoring a smear jamboree in collaboration with an array of extremists, many of them lacking any academic credentials. "The papers presented at the conference will be published in UC Berkeley's Islamophobia Studies Journal inaugural edition Fall, 2011." A classic case of how a few faculty, lacking all collegial loyalty, can hijack a university's brand for their own crackpot agenda.
Islamophobia Production and Re-Defining Global "Security" Agenda | Center for Race & Gendercrg.berkeley.edu
"The conference seeks to document the ideological, institutional and financial interests entangled in the production and dissemination of Islamophobic contents in the US and in Europe."
Posted on 22 April 2011
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Bad idea bites dust? "A war simulation organized by the Saban Center with the participation of former senior US officials found that an international force of 10,000 deployed in a sovereign Palestinian state could not prevent Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli targets despite receiving Israeli advance warning... The presence of the force also served to increase friction between Israel and the US."
Saban Center: Foreign Force of 10,000 Could Not Prevent Palestinian Attackswww.imra.org.il
"The simulation also found that official Palestinian security forces would not act themselves to prevent the attacks, relying instead on the ineffective international forces." As reported by Maariv.
Posted on 22 April 2011
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