How to Handle Hamas (3)

By Daniel Byman
Foreign Affairs. New York: Sep/Oct 2010. Vol. 89, Iss. 5; pg. 45

(Daniel Byman is a Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of the forthcoming book A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.)

Cease-Fire Calculus

If Hamas cannot be uprooted, can it be calmed enough to not disrupt peace talks? Maybe-and the chance is worth pursuing. Although often depicted as fanatical, Hamas has shown itself to be pragmatic in practice, although rarely in rhetoric. It cuts deals with rivals, negotiates indirecdy with Israel via the Egyptians, and otherwise demonstrates that unlike, say, al Qaeda, it is capable of compromise. Indeed, al Qaeda often blasts Hamas for selling out. Hamas has at times declared and adhered to cease-fires lasting months, and some leaders have speculated that a truce lasting years is possible. And although Hamas has refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, its leaders have also said they would accept the UN-demarcated 1967 borders between Israel and the Palestinian areas as a starting point for a Palestinian state. Perhaps the most important sign of pragmatism has been Hamas’ general adherence to its cease-fire after Operation Cast Lead.

How to Handle Hamas (2)

By Daniel Byman
Foreign Affairs. New York: Sep/Oct 2010. Vol. 89, Iss. 5; pg. 45

(Daniel Byman is a Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of the forthcoming book A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.)

The Isolation of Gaza

Israel, Egypt, and the international community have put Gaza under siege to isolate and weaken Hamas. Israel has sealed off Gaza from the sea, and the crossing points into it from Israel and Egypt have usually been closed to normal traffic. Humanitarian aid goes in, but there is a long list of prohibited goods. Ironically, however, Israel’s humanitarian concerns have prevented it from truly pressuring the Gazan people. Israel has tried to coerce Hamas without causing mass starvation, an approach that Israeli officials have described as “no prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.” Although Israeli policies are pushing Gaza closer to the brink, the threat of even more misery simply is not credible.

How to Handle Hamas (1)

By Daniel Byman
Foreign Affairs. New York: Sep/Oct 2010. Vol. 89, Iss. 5; pg. 45

(Daniel Byman is a Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of the forthcoming book A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.)

The Perils of Ignoring Gaza’s Leadership

The biggest obstacle to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians is not the Palestinians’ demand that Jewish settlements in the West Bank be dismantled, the barrier separating much of the West Bank from Israel, or the recent rightward shift of the Israeli body politic. It is the emergence of Hamas as the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians reside.

Israel’s Military Option

Giora Eiland
Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Washington Quarterly, January 2010

(Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Eiland is a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, and was the head of the Israeli National Security Council from 2004 to 2006. He can be reached at giora_eiland@yahoo.com.)

Israel’s Military Option

Washington finally made the offer Tehran has been waiting to hear since 2006: to negotiate a peaceful halt to Iran’s nuclear program without any preconditions. In 2006, Iran was willing to temporarily freeze uranium enrichment for direct negotiation with the United States, since negotiations would have awarded the regime a great deal of legitimacy. Two years prior to that, in 2004, Iran had not dared to enrich uranium and had shelved its military plan. Today, the opening conditions are different. Washington courts Tehran while Iran declares its readiness to talk about any important strategic topic with the United States separately and with the P5 +1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States-and Germany). Nevertheless, it does not consider “its natural right to develop nuclear energy” a topic worthy of discussion and certainly is not ready to freeze any activity during the talks.

Saudis Give Nod To Israeli Raid On Iran

By Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Sarah Baxte
The Times, 05/07/09

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

Innocence, Morality Ravaged in Gaza

By Howard J. Gale
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 02/02/09

“Every bomb ever made falls on all of us.” (Alice Walker)

Israel has dropped tens of thousands of pounds of U.S.-made and/or U.S.-paid-for munitions on one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. Israel has been firing on known United Nations schools, killing dozens of civilians.

‘Hamas would recognise Israel within 1967 borders’

Jang Pakistan, 29/01/09

(Media massa-termasuk Indonesia-seringkali menyampaikan berita tidak seimbang. Berulangkali, mereka sering mengutip sumber info dari Israel bahwa Hamas tidak akan mengakui Israel. Padahal, yang terjadi adalah sebaliknya: Hamas siap mengakui Israel jika Israel keluar dari wilayah yang diduduki sejak 1967. Kini, masalahnya adalah apakah Israel mau melaksanakannya?)

Hamas would recognise Israel if it withdraws to its pre-1967 borders, a French Jewish writer said this week after meeting the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Khaled Meshaal.

“He told me that Hamas was prepared to recognise Israel on the lines of June 4, 1967. He told me so several times,” Marek Halter told AFP on Monday.

Israel and Palestine Can Still Achieve Peace

By Mahmoud Abbas
Wall Street Journal, 19/09/08

(Mr. Abbas is chairman of the executive committee of the PLO and president of the Palestinian National Authority)

This month marks 15 painful years since the Arafat-Rabin handshake on the White House lawn. Palestinian children who started school when the Oslo Agreement was signed in 1993 are now young adults. They have not known a day of true freedom or genuine security in their lives.

Biden: Obama and I will be strong on protecting Israel

By The Associated Press and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent
03/09/08

U.S. Senator and vice presidential nominee Joe Biden assured older Jewish voters Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be strong on protecting Israel, which he said is less secure now than when President George W. Bush took office.

Israel of the Caucasus

By Arnaud De Borchgrave
United Press International, 02/09/08

For Russia, the geopolitical stars were in perfect alignment. The United States was badly overstretched and had no plausible way to talk tough without coming across as empty rhetoric. American resources have been drained by the Iraq and Afghan wars, and the war on terror. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov put it, Washington must now choose between its “pet project” Georgia and a partnership with Moscow.

Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran

Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
By Yossi Melman
Haaretz, 06/03/08

The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of “national security.”

But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm

(Sebuah dokumen lama, tapi patut dicermati. Bagi yang meminati kajian Timur Tengah, mungkin harus membacanya)

A Clean Break:
A New Strategy for Securing the Realm

Following is a report prepared by The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies’ “Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000.” The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated. The report, entitled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” is the framework for a series of follow-up reports on strategy.

Israel has a large problem. Labor Zionism, which for 70 years has dominated the Zionist movement, has generated a stalled and shackled economy. Efforts to salvage Israel’s socialist institutions—which include pursuing supranational over national sovereignty and pursuing a peace process that embraces the slogan, “New Middle East”—undermine the legitimacy of the nation and lead Israel into strategic paralysis and the previous government’s “peace process.” That peace process obscured the evidence of eroding national critical mass— including a palpable sense of national exhaustion—and forfeited strategic initiative. The loss of national critical mass was illustrated best by Israel’s efforts to draw in the United States to sell unpopular policies domestically, to agree to negotiate sovereignty over its capital, and to respond with resignation to a spate of terror so intense and tragic that it deterred Israelis from engaging in normal daily functions, such as commuting to work in buses.

The Third Temple’s Holy Of Holies_Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

Petunjuk Penggunaan:
1. Ganti nama file menjadi The Third Temple’s Holy Of Holies_Israel’s Nuclear Weapons.zip
2. Di Windows Explorer, klik kanan pada file. Pilih Open With lalu Compressed (Zipped) Folders.
3. Double Click untuk bisa menjalankannya.

NB: Mohon maaf bila sedikit rumit. Perlakuan ini semata untuk memperkecil ukuran file sehingga lebih cepat di-upload dan di-download. Terima kasih.

the-third-temples-holy-of-holies_israels-nuclear-weapons.doc

THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND US FOREIGN POLICY

Petunjuk Penggunaan:
1. Ganti nama file menjadi THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND US FOREIGN POLICY.zip
2. Di Windows Explorer, klik kanan pada file. Pilih Open With lalu Compressed (Zipped) Folders.
3. Double Click untuk bisa menjalankannya.

NB: Mohon maaf bila sedikit rumit. Perlakuan ini semata untuk memperkecil ukuran file sehingga lebih cepat di-upload dan di-download. Terima kasih.

the-israel-lobby-and-us-foreign-policy.doc

US Foreign Aid to Israel

US Foreign Aid to Israel