Featured this weekBerkeley Brandeis California State Polytechnic Columbia Haifa Hebrew London - UK Manitoba McGill North Carolina Ohio State Oregon State Oxford Santa Barbara, UC Tel Aviv UC - Irvine UCLA Villanova Yale York | Olmert to Congress: For a Lasting Peace, We Need a Partner Who Rejects Violence
by William Branigin  At a joint meeting of Congress last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the Palestinian Authority to meet his terms for peace talks or face a unilaterally imposed settlement in the West Bank, and he warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would constitute "an intolerable threat" that he said "cannot be permitted to materialize." A day after talks at the White House with President Bush, Olmert acknowledged Palestinians' "national aspirations" and asserted that Israel has no desire to rule or oppress them. He outlined a plan for unilateral "realignment" from the West Bank that would involve redrawing Israel's final borders to include major West Bank settlements and a "united Jerusalem" as the capital.(Washington Post)
See also View Video of Olmert's Speech to Congress (AP)
Additional Headlines Israel Struck by Lebanese Rockets Israeli Troops Arrest Top Hamas Fugitive Livni: Israel Concerned About Darfur Situation | | Abbas Says He'd Put Peace Plan to a Vote
by Greg Myre  Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he would call a referendum on a proposal for a Palestinian state that would recognize Israel, if the governing Hamas party failed to accept the plan within ten days. Abbas seems to be gambling that he can force his Fatah party and Hamas to agree on a broad framework for dealing with Israel, which Hamas now refuses to recognize. But he runs the risk of provoking a political showdown. In the past Israel has strongly rejected two of the plan's provisions: returning to pre-1967 borders and giving Palestinian refugees the right to return to lands they left in 1948. (New York Times)
Ehud Olmert's Vision for Israel
by Gadi Taub  Olmert is well-aware that he must help Israelis sober up: The right has to awake from the biblical fantasy of Greater Israel, as the left has to put aside hopes for easy peace in a "New Middle East." Olmert hinted as much, speaking at the desert burial site of Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion: "Ben-Gurion's greatness was not just his ability to lift the vision of the ages to great heights, but also to limit it to what the circumstances of the time permitted Zionists believe the Jews need to become a self-governing nation. This could only come about in a sovereign democratic state. There was no way to implement the plan unless there was one place under the sun where the Jews are a majority. (New Republic)
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Brandeis: Protests of Playwright Subdued at Graduation
by Shayndi Raice  Brandeis University held its annual commencement ceremony on Sunday, presenting an honorary doctorate to playwright Tony Kushner amidst cheers and boos after some members of the Jewish community asked the university to rescind the invitation because of what they perceived as Kushner's anti-Israel stance. Despite the hullabaloo preceding Kushner's visit, very few Brandeis students decided to protest at the graduation. Julie Frisch, a graduating senior, organized a group of about 10 pro-Israel students to raise Israeli flags as Kushner was called to receive his award. (Jewish Advocate)
See also Prince Says Students Hold Key to Peace (The Justice)
Cal Poly: Speakers Debate the Palestine-Israel Wall
by Heather Posey  Large crowds of students surrounded the University Park last week to hear representatives speak at the campus debate "One Wall, Two Sides." Dr. Nadau Morag, a professor and former employee of the Israeli National Security Council, explained that 3 to 5 percent of the barrier will be a wall. "You have to see the fence as a tool," said Morag. "Part of an overall anti-terrorism policy which the Israeli authorities follow." (Poly Post)
| | UC Irvine: Prime Minister's Brother Speaks about Israeli Politics
by Reut R. Cohen   Yossi Olmert, a top Middle East scholar and brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, discussed the implications of Israel's new government, the Hamas leadership in Palestinian territories, the Iranian threat and the Middle East. The event, sponsored by the UC Irvine political science department and the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, took place the same week as the Muslim Student Union's "Holocaust in the Holy Land" events. (New University Paper)
UC Irvine: College Chief Hit Over Anti-Israel Events
by Rebecca Spence In the wake of recent recommendations by a federal civil rights commission that university administrators should denounce antisemitic hate speech on campuses, the chancellor of a California state campus is facing harsh criticism for failing to condemn a week of "anti-Zionist" activities at the University of California, Irvine. (Forward) |
Point-Counterpoint - Was Olmert's Trip to the U.S. a Success?
Olmert's Big Day
by Nahum Barnea - Ehud Olmert has good reason to feel good. He'll return to Israel with more than half of the things he was hoping to gain.
- The Bush administration is clearly interested in working with Israel on Olmert's ideas. Apparently, the Americans prefer the word "ideas" rather than "program." It sounds less threatening.
- It's not every day that a US president stands alongside an Israeli prime minister who has declared Israel's commitment to moving isolated settlements to large settlement blocs in the West Bank.
- Olmert spoke, and for a long time. He was at his best, speaking warmly, friendly, intimately. He appeared to be trying to win over his listeners all at once.
- Olmert has created great expectations here in Washington. He's passed his audition. Now, all that's left is to show what he's able to accomplish. (Ynet News)
Tough Love from Israel's Friends
by Jeff Jacoby - Hundreds of pro-Israel/anti-Olmert protesters descended on Capitol Hill last week, some traveling hundreds of miles to urge the Bush administration to refuse its support for another Israeli retreat.
- Washington's approval of yet another territorial surrender to Hamas and its allies will signal that we are ``reverting to earlier behavior patterns -- fleeing Lebanon in 1983, acquiescing in Saddam Hussein's destruction of the Kurdish and Shi'ite rebels in 1991, fleeing Somalia in 1993."
- In a democracy, it is said, people get the leaders they deserve. Israeli voters chose Olmert in a free and fair election, knowing full well that he intended to ``disengage" from the enemy by giving more land.
- If that enemy threatened only the people of Israel, perhaps a case could be made for letting them lie in the bed they themselves have made.
- Israel cannot afford to succumb once again to the delusion that retreating in the face of terror will bring safety and peace of mind. Wars are not won by evacuations, as Winston Churchill told his British countrymen in 1940.
- Israelis, weary after so many years under siege, wish to pretend otherwise? Then it is up to their friends to tell them the truth. (Boston Globe)
| | Two Cheers for Olmert in Washington
by Steven Erlanger - Bush hailed Olmert's "bold ideas," but those around Olmert were a little disappointed that the American embrace of "realignment" was so tepid and conditional. Bush insisted first on a sincere effort to restart serious negotiations toward peace with Mahmoud Abbas, and of course Olmert said that was what he wanted, too.
- The U.S. wants to boost Abbas and is therefore insisting that Olmert treat him with respect, as a negotiating partner, rather than treat him with the indifference and contempt shown by the former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.
- At the same time, senior American officials have few expectations that Abbas can deliver. (New York Times)
Olmert Comes Calling
by Tony Karon - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first visit to the Bush White House was a sad reminder of just how little has changed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past six years.
- By urging Olmert to try and negotiate a deal with Abbas before moving ahead on a unilateral basis, President Bush postpones a tricky political choice.
- Even if Abbas were able to negotiate a deal with Israel, it would only be a meaningful exercise if he had the consent of the Hamas-led government. And Bush himself has maintained that Hamas does not constitute a viable negotiating partner.
- There was every indication from Olmert's first visit that he will inherit his predecessor's ties to the Administration. But it is a lot more difficult for the U.S. to endorse Olmert's plan than it was to back Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout.
- No matter what differences they may have, Israel and the U.S. will continue to coordinate their positions on all decisions that affect one another.
- And that means managing the next steps in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship is a burden they'll have to share. (TIME)
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