Featured this weekBrandeis Chicago Columbia Florida Haifa Harvard Hebrew Hunter Lafayette London - UK Maryland Minnesota Pennsylvania Stanford Tel Aviv Toronto Vanderbilt Wayne State Yale York | Olmert Wins Israel Vote, Urges Palestinians to Talk  Israel's Ehud Olmert won election to succeed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and challenged Palestinians to restart long-frozen peace talks, saying he will act unilaterally to fix his nation's borders if they don't. (Bloomberg)
Final Tally
Kadima 29 seats
Labor 20
Likud 12
Shas 12
Yisrael Beitenu 11
NU/NRP 9
Arab parties 9
Pensioners 7
United Torah 6
Meretz 5
Additional Headlines Hamas Rejects Talk of Recognizing Israel Palestinians Fire First Katyusha from Gaza to Israel UN Awaits Israeli Officers? | | U.S. Bans Contacts with Hamas-Led Government
by Paul Eckert  The U.S. ordered its diplomats and contractors to cut off contacts with Palestinian ministries after a Hamas-led government was sworn in, the State Department said. The no-contact policy was more sweeping than many had expected because it applies not just to Hamas members but to independents and technocrats in the new government. Contacts will still be permitted with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and non-Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament, officials said. (Reuters/Scotsman-UK)
For a Palestinian Peace Movement
- Editorial  Ehud Olmert's victory speech was given, naturally, in Hebrew and in the middle of the night. Lost in this shuffle was an important statement, a statement that captures Israel's national position as Israel faces the outside world at this critical historical juncture. "The time has come for Palestinians, like us, to come to terms with the partial fulfillment of their dreams, end terrorism, abandon hatred, embrace democracy for themselves and look to a future of coexistence, compromise, and peace with us....If the Palestinians manage to act in the near future, we will sit at the negotiating table in order to determine a new future in our region. If they do not, Israel will take its fate in its own hands." (Jerusalem Post)
|
Al-Quds Prof Goes to Brandeis
by Matt Rand  Yasser Arafat failed to understand Western mentality and Western culture, according to Al-Quds University Professor Muhammad S. Dajani. Along with four graduate students in Al-Quds's American Studies program, Dajani is spending the next two weeks at Jewish-founded Brandeis University. "It's a very courageous type of program," said Daniel Terris, who is coordinating the the trip for Brandeis. Terris heads Brandeis's International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, which includes Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh on its advisory board. Brandeis President Reinharz, who grew up in Haifa, is reportedly friendly with Nusseibeh. (Jerusalem Post)
Harvard Dean Opens Walt/Mearsheimer Faculty Papers to Rebuttal
by Charles A. Radin  The dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government said on Thursday that he has decided to open the working papers of the school's faculty to challenge and rebuttal by other Harvard professors. Dean David Ellwood said that he formulated the new policy after Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz asked to post his rebuttal to the Israel lobby paper in the ''working papers" section of the Kennedy School website, alongside the original article by Kennedy School academic dean Stephen M. Walt and University of Chicago political scientist John J. Mearsheimer. (Boston Globe)
| | Columbia: Dershowitz Calls For Unbiased Talk On Israel Question
by A. L. Gordon  During a talk last week with students at Columbia University, a Harvard Law School professor who is a vocal Zionist, Alan Dershowitz, called for nuanced and unbiased discourse about Israel. "What I want to do is help you find ways to insist that as students at a great university, part of being educated is being taught the complexity," he said. "The best answer to radical anti-Israel rhetoric is not radical, unthinking pro-Israel rhetoric. It's thoughtful, moderate conversation on both sides." (New York Sun)
Hunter: Casting a Vote for Israeli Democracy
by Ahron Shapiro Like many first-timers in the Israeli elections, Ian Sherman still finds himself among the ranks of undecided voters. After yet another political discussion with friends and colleagues from Hunter, he throws up his hands. "I don't know who I am going to vote for," he said. "I am not just saying that. I'm really not sure." What is very different about Sherman is that he lives in New York City, not Jerusalem. (Israel21c)
See also Likud Wins - Among Foreign Jewish Students (Jerusalem Post) |
Point-Counterpoint - What Do the Israeli Election Results Mean?
Israel's Surprise Issue
by E. J. Dionne Jr. - The world expected Israel to have an election on national security, but the voters decided that it was about the economy, stupid.
- The energy in the election was around social and economic issues, and the big winners were a group of parties that ran against Israel's rising social inequality.
- The biggest surprise was the sudden emergence of a Pensioners Party that called for higher social benefits for the elderly.
- The power of economics reflected the strength of the backlash against the privatization and deregulation policies pushed by Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud Party who was finance minister earlier in the decade.
- Domestic social concerns rose to the top of voters' minds precisely because the security situation is frozen. Most Israelis do not see how negotiations are possible with Hamas. (Washington Post)
A Referendum that Endorsed Withdrawal
by Uri Savir - In the end, Israelis were swayed by neither Palestinian animosity nor by the Likud's fear campaign, and the citizens who cast votes gave a vast majority to those ready to relinquish, by agreement or unilaterally, most of the West Bank.
- Even as it backs a plan with larger concessions than those outlined by the Oslo Accords, the majority created in the Knesset after these elections is far larger than the margin enjoyed by late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
- It seems that, after almost a century of bitter debates in our land - debates between those favoring the notion of Greater Israel and those favoring withdrawal from the occupied territories - the electorate has used these ballots to voice support for the latter. The writer is president of the Peres Center for Peace. (Jerusalem Post)
| | Israel's Muddled Election
- Editorial - Israelis went to the polls for the fifth time in 10 years, and what's remarkable is that they emerged more or less as they had entered: leaderless.
- The larger task Mr. Olmert faces is asserting himself as a credible national leader. Most Israeli prime ministers have come to office with some large record of past accomplishments.
- Mr. Olmert has been a professional politician most of his life and his 10 years as Jerusalem mayor were notable for the city's decline.
- Ultimately, this election demonstrated that, in the absence of Mr. Sharon's reassuring presence, Israelis remain uncertain about their future and skeptical of a new generation of untested leaders.
- Mr. Olmert has many doubters and a great deal to prove. He can benefit from the example of his predecessor, who showed what real leadership can do. (Wall Street Journal)
The Economy Took (Temporary) Precedence
by Dore Gold - Even the briefest examination of the election results would reveal that the voting public was primarily focused this time on socioeconomic and other domestic issues.
- Israel and the Palestinians are no longer engaging in "conflict resolution," but rather in "conflict management."
- While the security of Sderot, southern Ashkelon and the western Negev has been increasingly threatened in recent months, the residents of Tel Aviv and Gush Dan were not sufficiently affected by these developments.
- In 2006, Israel's comfort level was sufficient for it to act like the Britain of 1945, which did not need wartime leaders any longer; at that time Winston Churchill was replaced by Clement Atlee, with his mostly domestic agenda. The writer, who served as Israel's ambassador to the UN in 1997-1999, heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. (Jerusalem Post)
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment