How do I know if Shoval is hallucinating or not ? Why is his opinion any better than anyone else's ? His opinion never changes, he just adapts it to all circumstances at all times, past, present and presumably future.

Neither you nor I nor any other readers of this site are heads of state or soldiers or anyone else who gets to be right on the front lines. Those who ae bombarded with rockets have no choice, they se the truth and have to believe it. A for the rest of us, we are just bmbardd with information. We have this auhor's oopinion r another author's opinion, we have news from liberal papers and conservative ones, speeches from politicians on one side and on the other, even history slanted in one direction or the other. So in the end it comes down to the question: Whom do we choose to believe. I have at my fingertips a great deal of historical and other information in support of this article, and you can probably give me a similar amount of information in opposition to it. We can probably argue about the reputability of our sources, but almost all second-hand information is of a similar quality. So in the end our argument over ths article is about what we believe. I chooese to believe what right-winger saybcausde it fits in with what I see and with what I have learned. You choose to believe the lierals because it fits in with what you haveheard andwhat you want to believe. So rather han getting drawn into a factual argument I just want to ask you this question: Whydo you choose to believe he Arabs and the liberals over people like the author of this article?

Dore Gold is Dead on in questioning the Syrian intent. They do NOT want the Golan. They want all of "Palestine". So does Egypt. I have MUCH criticism of Gold, but he's right about Syrian motives this time. We need to confront them at their level - that of the Neanderthal of Despot King from ancient days. Assad considers himself the chief advocate of the Iranian regime - playing off the American influence while courting the "Soviets" - sorry - Russian, which are one in the same. Mister Gold - if you read this - remember - you have the POTENTIAL to play a decisive role in the political direction of current ME events and politics - use them for GOOD.

I do not believe anyone who has a political agenda, either right or left wing, since the reality has nothing to do with their agendas. I don't fully trust academics, for they too are subjective (i know that, since i am one). But academics, in academically refereed journals, present a wider range of facts to their reading public, who can arrive at their own conclusions. I don't believe any of the political hacks who write in newspapers. So you go ahead and believe in whatever you want. I read them for my amusement.

People with Shoval's mindset predicted that the Oslo process would turn into a bloody disaster, that the disengagement from Gaza would lead to a rain of rockets on Sderot, Ashkelon et al. and the further empowerment of the most radical trends, and that ignoring the Hizbullah buildup in southern Lebanon would eventually lead to a bombardment of Israel. Nu? The basic perception is that we have real enemies, that they hate and reject us for deep-seated reasons that will not change anytime soon, and that Syria is one of these enemies--all of its behavior attests to this. Is this so complicated?

Acdemics are no different from politicians, who are no different from trash collectors in this regard. Everybody has a political agenda whether they admit it or not, whether they know it or not. When I read someone's article or hear someone's news-cast on any issue of any importance I can immediately tell their political agenda. I can tell your political agenda too (as I'm sure you can tell mine). I learned long ago that I am never going to ind a source of information without a political agenda, and so I am forced to go through many sources and finally turn to my own gut feeling and my moral values in deciding whom to believe. P.S. You didn't answer my question.

You know the goal of Olmert: Stay in power as long as possible, by any means. Why do think assad is much better, moral dude? Unless you think nobody can be worse than Olmert in this world, don't play games with Assad (=Syria) and be ready for war in the spring.

with half a billion of Iranian $