My wife categorically rejects the proposal to talk to Assad on teritorrial consessions. We, so to say, represent a mirror of the Israeli society ...

Children often "act out" because they simply wish for attention. Attention involves dialogue. Must have been frustrating working in the State Dept. and seeing through the posturing, possibly even seeing further agendas hidden behind the scenes. I have to agree that our foreign policy here in the States is weak and ineffectual, but I will never lose my faith that all people have the capacity to believe and do the right thing. It's just too rainy today to believe otherwise. The alternative boils down to a simple Boolian: if not Peace then WAR To set up a system that immediately goes on the offensive if communications are lost is ludicrous.

The defeatists in Israel only talk and talk and show weakness as they allow themselves to be restrained by the schoolmarm Condi Rice. The enemy knows that the U.S. has Israel on a short leash and will take every advantage of this sad situation.

While the IDF is destroying the Aswan Dam, may they also destroy the Pyramids, and other ancient Egyptian sites.

I live in the same world where you live; simply we have two different visions of it. What be the better, only God knows; but in the meantime, I live a serene, quiet life (no enemy at my door, actual or supposed), and it's enough for me. If you don't agree, it's legitimate, of course; but unfortunately you live worse, and I cannot help you, if you don't want. And let's set apart the historical questions, otherwise I had to ask where were YOU during the WW2: in Santa Cruz? I were, as a little boy, in Italy and I saw what happened, and how many Italians protected Jews, even if it was a terrible risk for us. But at the end of war, all european people sought a way to stop wars in the future, and they resolved to make peace with all their enemies and to found European Union. I hope that your people too will, sooner or later, make a first step in that direction.

Yes, Europe has managed to create peace within much of its borders for quite a while.... but then again, for most of the Europeans, WW2 showed that war is quite a nasty thing and should be avoided. Doesn't this remind you of something... like, say, the aftermath of WW1? You say that you have no enemy at your door, and yet there are millions of people who daily proclaim their desire to kill you for being a Muslim. Are they not your enemies? They certainly seem to think that they are. We, Israelis, fight because we have no other choice. We can want peace all we want, we can do backflips for it and write empassioned articles... won't help. Our enemies are genocidal - their stated desire is our deaths and the destruction of our state. It is useless to prepare for war when you're already at war - and we are, and have been since before Israel was announced. Amusingly, so are you, with pretty much the same enemies.

If you defeated us,then why were we occupying you land till a couple of weeks ago. Our next govt will destroy lebanon and you can have olmert and his regime as compensation.

We have talked to N. Korea and Iran and Israel has talked with Syria, Lebanon etc. Sometime, talking gets you no where and military action and sanctions are the only way to achieve anything.

The best way to distablilize Iran's plans and their second strike capacity against Israel in the event of an American attack on Iran is to destabilize Syria, from where the entire leadership of Hizbollah and Hamas receives its Iranian support. This may also result in an Iranian counter-attack (they have a mutual defense agreement), which would permit America to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities without sanction. It's a lot easier than attacking Iran, it's a lot more likely to be successful, it forces Iran's hand to enter a war that would justify a second strike on Iran from Iraq (forcing Iran to fight on more than one front) rather than force western forces to take the blame for starting a war against Iran and the fallout (could be literally) that could occur afterward, and the disarray that it throws our enemies into would be far greater than if there were an attack on Iran. Operating from this position of disarray, it'd be a lot easier to undermine our local terrorist knockoffs, since they know they won't have any prospect of being rearmed or refunded as their battles deplete their capacities. So, a three prong attack is in the offing if this is true. 1) Syria, especially ammo dumps along the Lebanese border, any place where Syria's leadership might be, plus Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, mostly by air - possibly a pincer move from the east (Iraq) by American ground forces with air support. It'd be interesting to see if Turkey allows an attack from their border to the north. IF they don't, you could expect American/Turkish relations to whither, since their refusal prior to the Iraq war is the primary cause for the strength of Iraq's counterinsurgency. The only problem is who replaces Assad. Expect the next months to be spent strengthening a replacement. 2) Gaza against Hamas - requires expansive ground forces - exclusively an Israeli army effort, while Egyptian forces attempt to regain control of northern Sinai Al Queda insurgents (who threaten the Egyptian government) 3) Hizbollah (again), probably with the covert assistance of other local armies and maybe a foreign armies such as those of France (believe it or not), which with the US's help brought Saniora out of exile and helped put him in government (with Hariri's help, but he's dead now). I suspect that this will begin to happen within the next half year to 12 months, with the likelihood increasing as Syria overthrows the Saniora government of Lebanon and places Michelle Aoun's in its place. Aside from Saniora, the US and France, Jordan and Egypt, and the US's gulf allies, would not be able to countenance Iran's cementing its control over the land line between the Medetarranean and the Gulf. It would destabilze all of the West's alliances in the area. Therefore, the west will take a page out of Iran's playbook and attack where its enemy, the Iranian axis, is weakest. That would be Syria. The real interest will be seeing what Russia does about it over the preceding months, since they are the ones who are backing Syria with advanced anti-aircraft missiles. Will they come to Syria's rescue and send more missiles? Will they provide allied forces with information to overcome their missile defense? Remains to be seen. Stay tuned in about 6 months to 1 year. It won't take more than that. This one won't be playing at war, as Olmert's government did in Lebanon. It's going to be the real thing. It's going to be for all the chips. If it doesn't work, Iranian influence will spread with distasterous consequences for the west. My opinion is that one of the main reasons that the US is not pulling out of Iraq is because they want to be well positioned to play their part in this, and this is why Iran is pulling out all the stops to support the Iraqi insurgency - they know they're next.

brilliant analysis. how right and on the point you are! i just hope we can pull this one off. i expect russia will not mess up with its existing diplomatic relations with the usa and continue to sell arms to syria nad iran. they have their own ambitions, but they are not going to committ suicide for the arabs no maztter how much $$$$ the rfussians make from these arms sale.

I realize the continued issue of whose land is it continues is there any place in the bible that gives details as to whose it is ??? I realize that Syria probably lacks forces to retake it especially if Israel has nuclear weapons but is it no man's land ??? But any Israeli who believes returning it would mean peace needs his head examined terrorists as in Lebanon southern areas would immediately make it a major terrorist base any Israeli leader who would return it would bercome a modern day JUDUS ??? Peace at that price is too high would be a disaster for Israel RIGHT ???THANK YOU... M. Segal