Eloquent article that should become a must read by all in the Israeli government and those who share their great passion for the eternal longevity Israel. God must feel uneasy about Isreals lack of committment to security and lack of fear of the future. Remember the book"The Last of the Just"...are we allowing another Jewish massacre to happen? Is this our fate or do we steer our own ship towards total protection of our Israel and let those who threaten or show no fear taste their own blood at their slightest inclination to make war or threaten Israel.

so you want tosayit is stupidity from the first .but surewhen the policy fail you say it is stupidity . but when there is succsess it is not stupidity .. i think the policy failed from the start ,as the israili leaders looking todealwitharab leaders not with the palastinians as people and residents .they denied themand their rights .this is the stupidityfrom the first.and it is not the terminalresult // wait and see

not one should remain in the knesset. they are all idoits/liars/thieves/ if they remain in the knesset turn the knesset into a jail.

The behavioral pattern stated here is a result of succesful psychological warfare over a long period of nearly 40 years. Theleftist doctrine of political warfare - inside Israel - combined with the strategy of the Palestinian revolution can create such irational and suicidal policy.

Brilliant commentary in plain language. Thanks Martin Sherman. As for #26 - have a look at the comments around you, and get off your bloody merry-go-round: "right-wing"..."left-wing"...what do you think this is? a football match? The aim is not to prove you're a more clever debater than the "other team", but to get onto our one and only team, and help us ALL win.

Stability could perhaps be possible with a coalition between Bibi & Barak . This may sound irrealistic these days, but in politics everything is possible.

where are the voters?i do not see any insistence on early elections

I agree with you general analysis, though I think the scope is too narrow. What is happening in Israel is just part of a larger malaise affecting much of the Democratic First World countries, with a few notable exceptions. There is a generalized lack of will that is the consequence of losing major wars (Germany, Italy, Japan), the decolonialization movement (Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands), general trauma associated with major war (all of the above plus the rest of Europe), and most recently, the failure of the U.S. to come to terms with the Vietnam era. In fact, in this latter case, I would charecterize the present election in the U.S. as "pre-Vietnam America" (i.e., McCain) versus "post-Vietnam America (i.e., Obama). Because Israel needs the political/moral support of the major first-world democracies, and the military support of the U.S., and as these latter actors are experiencing an even more severe "crisis of national will", Israel is left in a precarious position, affecting her own self-confidence as this is displayed by her leaders who must interact with other world leaders directly. As the old saying goes: "It is hard to fly like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys." Today, we are collectively under assault by an adversary that has nothing to fight with besides petrodollars and seemingly limitless will, and belief in their cause, this latter quality being the one most sorely needed by the West. If ever there was an object lesson in the importance of that intangible, "national will", the present day provides one. As polities, we are not sure what we stand for anymore, besides being comfortable and making money. We are challenged by seeming primitives who use our hubris against us. There is beginning to be a backlash against what amounts to their civilizational assault, but it is only beginning. Stephen Harper's government in Canada is a good example of this. Hopefully, if Likud prevails this over there and McCain here, we will at least have determined leadership at the top. If this same leadership can be both determined and effective, we can perhaps begin to turn this dynamic around.

Exactly what in the article do you find false? You are quick to label Sherman's article as idiotic but insults are all you are capable of writing. The facts are that Oslo has been an unmitigated disaster. Arafat played with Israel and the govt. of Israel and so many Diaspora supporters refused to acknowledge Arafat's duplicity. While saying nice things in English to people that were desperate for peace, he encouraged Jew hatred and did nothing to help security. His arrests were shams. Captured terrorists were set free after a short time. However, as bad as Oslo was, I felt that Israel had to try and see if the Palestinians really wanted to end the bloodshed. After Arafat's shanmeful rejection of Barak and Clinton's offer at Taba and Camp David and the launching of the most horrific war of terrorism against Israeli civilians, it should have become clear that the Palestinians did not want to compromise and live in peace next to a Jewish Israel. Yet, Israel still refuses to accept that fact despite more evidence that the Palestinians are controlled by and sympatyhetic to terrorist leaders who consider it a religious obligation to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Giving back Gaza has been a disaster as has every possible dealing with the Palestinians. Israelis know in their head that Abbas is a Holocaust den ier, a loyal follower of Arafat, and a figurehead who makes a nice appearance for the western press and yet continue to negotiate with him and are talking of giving back vital land to the Palestinians. So Larry, what is in this posting or in the Sherman article that is not true?

Dear Phil, It seems you have "got the wrong end of The Stick" and ,unfortunately ,totally misunderstood what I wrote earlier.I agree completely with the Sherman article so please spare me the speech about Oslo etc.as you are preaching to the converted and we all know about oslo disaster.I was referring to the criticism of talkback# 15 who called this writer moronic .Please read the talkback again.

Martin Sherman is one of very few who at least tentatively entertain the possibility that it may not be stupidity, but perfidy that's the root of the problem. Well. perfidy it is. Deliberate, cool, and calculated. Calling them stupid only let's them off the hook as innocent, well meaning jerks. They don't mean well, and they're not such mental midgets that they don't know how to stay in power, get away with their corruption, and take down Jewish Israel as we knew it once to be, in favor of a post-Zionist, totalitarian wasteland.

Let's be clear here. The ONLY negative commentary to this article are: #15, who has nothing of substance to say, but took the trouble to record his ad hominim attack; and #26, who loyally supports one side of a debate that he chose years ago, and apparently supports blindly, come what may.... Every other commentator agrees with this author...hmmm...(thinks...).

EXCELLENT article.

Barak, Olmert, Livni and the rest are completely deranged. And the Opposition is just as brain dead for not speaking up. Feh!

Martin Sherman and Pipes flounder when it comes to providing reasonable explanations for the idiotic policies that lead Israel back to the Ghetto. The explanation is simple. Look at the present value of real-estate in TA and environs now, and in 1987, prior to the intifadeh. It has sky rocketed. Double the population, triple the GNP, half the territory. When 20 families hold more than seventy percent of the assets, and those assets are in the Ghetto, the same families see to it, via the politicians they own, that the ghetto stays small, and that the economy stays bottled up inside their fist. Barack knows, he bought his flat in a high-rise own by one of them. There are no politicians in main-land israel, only agents

Start a new political party, find people of your kind with your outlook on the world, and implement your sane and healthy ideas in Israel. If you were a politician or the head of a new party - I would vote for you. My humble opinion is that you can do more good in politics than in mass media. What is the purpose of a great mind and great ideas when you are not implementing them?

Yuval, Sounds a little short sighted to me. Are these money grabbing capitalists so myopic as to purposely make this enormously valuable asset vulnerable to Katyusha/Kassam barrages - which undoubtedly will cause its value to collapse. Surely unless afflicted by terminal stupidity they would be the first to try and thwart such a policy? Surely if they are financially motivated, the far-sighted thing to to would be for them to speculate on the rise in the value of NEW areas allocated for future development - by selling their current real estate at todays highs before terrorist bombardment or urban over-crowding undermine the value of their present assets. If not - perhaps both agree. Terminal Stupidity it is

when you support the same thing all the time may be it is blindly and may be you support the right

Very eloquently written, but like your able politicians, it's time to start thinking outside of the Zionist box.

Outside the "Zionist Box" Hmm ...what does that mean? No nation-state for the Jews? Don't they deserve one? After all by all the accepted criteria which are usually accepted as a valid basis for national self-determination the Jews have a far stronger claim than most nations - particularly the Palestinians. A unique language, a unique religion, and unique script, unique heritage, unique.... Whereas in the case of the Palestinians – nary a unique characteristic in any of these (or virtually any other) areas – except unmitigated and proven failure in establishing a national entity. Perhaps its time to call on the Muslim world to think outside the Jihadi box Would "Outside the Zionist Box" include setting up a secular state of all its citizens – which quickly - and inevitably - degenerate into another Muslim dominated tyranny – see BEWARE OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3505608,00.html Is this the true aspiration of the enlightened liberal world??? Or is it just that appeasement is back in fashion?? Indeed perhaps its time erudite anti-Israelis to think outside the PC box.

So the jews deserve a state, but palestinians don't. I disagree. Moreove, if Israel don't withdraw from the territories, there will be a multinational state, without a jewish minority. Like Livni says, you can't have a jewish democratic state with the territories.

The article's points are beyond dispute. My only question is this; Nobody could be this consistently stupid, Is it possible that behind the scenes,Condi Rice and the US government are dictating these policies?