Reading the news today garnered one interesting story about what’s going on in Israel. More specifically with the deal Israel is trying to complete with Hizbullah for the return of Goldwasser and Regev for Kuntar and others.

There is an apparent push by the IDF Chief Rabbi to declare the soldiers missing in action and dead. Why this comes up right now seems to be a mystery as there has been plenty of time to do so beforehand. My guess? Israel didn’t want to prejudice the negotiations with Hizbullah and set the bar too low in terms of what Nasrallah would ask as his price for their return. At least if they gave Nasrallah hope, Israel might have hope to regain their stolen sons. Read more »

I’ll assume you’ve all been reading the papers:

“Israel offers full peace talks with Lebanon” (rejected) With Syria. A cease-fire with Hamas (we’ll see how long it lasts). Talks with Abbas to return the ‘West Bank’ to ‘Palestinian’ rule, whenever that was (hint: never). With all these overtures to loose itself of territory obtained through defensive wars, you’d think Olmert thought the country was on fire and he was just trying to put it out.

The media pushed this down everyones throat as the ONLY solution to piece…I mean peace. This article, by Yair Lapid, is particularly annoying, representative of the defeatist sentiment that seems to pervade the “peace-seeking” reporters in Israel. ‘Israel wants everything but doesn’t want to give up anything.’ ‘Our enemies are right, we are wrong.’ He basically accuses anyone who disagrees with him of “magical thinking”, and the only way to remedy this is to basically give up. THEN there will be peace. Read more »

I dont know if you have been reading the papers lately, but it seems like there is a fire sale going on in Israel in terms of its territory. I can’t say I 100% understand the need to negotiate with your enemies, especially when they approach the negotiations as more of list of demands.

Syria: We wont speak with you unless you hand over or commit to hand over he entire Golan first. THEN we can discuss peace.

Lebanon: Forgetting of course the fake government up there that represents mostly Hizbullah, the refrain is the same. Vacate the territory first (Shebaa Farms)and THEN we can discuss peace.

Gaza: Well, no surrender demands here, though Hamas is trying to make sure that Israel wont stop if from smuggling in more weapons. In fact Israel is actually acceding in part to their demands for a ceasefire.

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