Free Republic

All of the region's concerned parties want to keep Damascus out of efforts to put pressure on Israel and Hezbullah. For a number of different reasons, the governments involved don't want the open battlefield to extend beyond the Lebanese border. Even when President Bush said a few days ago that Syria must pay a price, he never said the price would be a military one. In Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf, in spite of differences with the Syrian government and in spite of suspicions that the Syrians had a role in pushing Hezbollah to get involved with Israel, these governments...

I usually write my own column, but recent events in the Middle East call for voices from that region to be heard among the mainstream media din. Some Muslims promote Jihad while others support democratic reform. It has long been my contention that --contrary to the caterwauling of the American and European left--the forces of the current Islamist Jihad are limited by their preferred method of combat and by one of their main tenets; opposition to democratic institutions. The first is a fact of nature: A movement whose main weapon of choice is the martyrdom of an entire generation of...

why on earth would Kerry tell the Council on Foreign Relations in December that, if elected, he would abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for the "years of mistakes by the Bush administration"? In an article in the March issue of Insight magazine, author Kenneth R. Timmerman described the meeting: "Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his ‘radically wrong' policy, and seek ‘cooperation and compromise` with friend and foe alike." Timmerman cited a seven-page e-mail, "confirmed as authentic...

President Bashar Al-Assad on Thursday underlined Syria's eagerness to strengthen and boost the Lebanese national unity and the significance of consultation and coordination between Syria and Lebanon to serve the two states' interest. This has come during President Assad's two separate meetings with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanese Premier Rafic Hariri. Talks during these meetings dealt with latest developments in Iraq and Palestine and their effects on the region's countries. Speaker Berri presented a book to President Assad for lawyers defending national, human and patriotic issues in Tyre Southern Lebanon. The book contains one hundred thousand signature from...

It's a good thing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict won't be decided by means of a history exam, because if this week's commemoration of Balfour Day is any indication, then the Arabs might just be gaining the upper hand. From Lebanon to the territories, crowds of Palestinian marchers took to the streets on Sunday to protest the Balfour Declaration, in which British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour expressed "sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations" and noted that "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". From the Palestinians' heated opposition to the document,...

The EU head office said Monday it is funding 40 percent of three versions of a 26-part Sesame Street show in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. The Ford Foundation and other organizations will make up the rest of the total US$ 8.3 million cost. "Working with children today will help build peace tomorrow," Michael Leigh, the deputy director for the Mideast at the EU's external relations department, told reporters. The shows blend cartoons and puppetry with mini-documentaries that stress such familiar Sesame Street themes as cooperation, respect for others and self-esteem. American Sesame Street characters have been shown in...

The Foreign Ministry deputy director of communications, Gidon Meir, said Saturday that Israel views countries that provide shelter and assistance to terrorists as legitimate targets. Meir was responding to a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement which warned that Syria would exercise self-defense in case of a repetition of the Israeli aggression, a reference to the Israeli airstrike of an Islamic Jihad training base in Syrian territory last Sunday. "Israel views every state which is harboring terrorist organizations and the leaders of those terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent citizens of the state of Israel as legitimate targets out of self defense,"...

Two years ago, in the days before Sept. 11 2001, we were living in a different state of mind. A state of mind which placed us in a false sense of security. This state of false security was amplified by, among other things, our great oceans, military strength, and sheer size. It was also due to the inaction by the US government, specifically in the years of the Clinton Administration, who, even though saw the increase in Islamic terrorism, chose to sit tight and hope for the best, while continuing its trend of appeasement and inaction when faced by terrorist...

Responding to Hezbollah's fourth cross-border attack in the last three days, which killed a 16-year-old boy and injured several other Israelis, Dore Gold, an advisor to the Prime Minister's office stated that Israel holds Lebanon, Syria and Iran directly responsible for Hezbollah's new wave of terror. "Both Lebanon and Syria are acting in defiance of United Nations resolutions," the former United Nations ambassador, told The Jerusalem Post. "In May 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425 to a physical line that was recognized by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council as a...