FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Recently I suggested that the Arab League ‘peace’ initiative is being presented as an ultimatum: accept it as written, or face war. Now the Syrian information minister states this about as clearly as possible:

“If Israel rejects the Arab League peace proposal, resistance will be the only way to liberate the Golan Heights,” warns Syrian Information Minister Muhsen Bilal, at a press conference in Damascus Monday.

The minister explained that Syria had an interest in renewing talks with Israel with support from America and Russia. “Syria wants to reach a fair, comprehensive peace,” he added. However, he also stated that “any nation living under occupation has the prerogative to resist. In Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, we must liberate all occupied Arab land.” — YNet

Technorati Tags: Israel, Syria, Arab League initiative

By Vic Rosenthal

The current issue of the New York Review of Books contains an article entitled “On Israel, America and AIPAC”. It’s notable not for its contents, which are a rehash of popular pro-Arab positions, attacks on AIPAC, and a swipe at Alvin Rosenfeld’s article on left-wing antisemitism, but for its author: billionaire George Soros.

(more…)

Bill Clinton, with all due respect, needs to think before he speaks:

Former US president Bill Clinton said that peace between Israel and Syria could be achieved within 35 minutes, if Iran would stay out of the matter.

In an interview with London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Clinton said that the two states were on the verge of reaching a peace agreement in 1998, adding that negotiations behind closed doors and without media intervention, such as those conducted in Oslo in 1993, were the only way to solve the conflict. — YNet

This may well be true in the sense that if there were no Iran, Israel and Syria could reach an agreement. But no matter what Iran does in the future, Hezbollah and the Syrian military buildup are facts that won’t go away quickly. Today it would be suicidal for Israel to give up the strategic advantages of the Golan.

The US is anxious to make this happen, hoping to gain influence with Syria so that she will tighten up her border with Iraq. I’m not sure that the leverage will work in that direction.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Syria, Iran

My ability to employ irony is getting severely strained:

Abbas and his associates presented a deployment plan for Palestinian presidential guards along the Philadelphi Route, as part of the effort to prevent weapons’ smuggling to Gaza via Egypt.

The plan was derived as part of an effort to increase the strength of the presidential guards, using US support, in coordination with Israel, Jordan and Egypt. — YNet

Keep in mind that the EU and Egyptians had little success at this. I suppose the idea is that the Egyptians and EU had no interest in preventing smuggling which strengthened Israel’s enemies, while Abbas has a real interest in weakening his enemies in Hamas.

There is something profoundly disquieting in the idea of Israel being forced to put all its eggs in the Fatah basket, when this organization is no less hostile to the Jewish state than Hamas.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Gaza, Abbas