Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (48066)	9/29/2002 7:16:14 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Good analysis of Israel's withdrawal from the Mukata. Steinberg thinks that the invasion was calculated as part of an overall winning strategy but the timing was mistaken. I would agree, unless there are other reasons we don't know about, like an urgent desire to separate Tirawi from Iraqi-supplied chemical weapons. Rather, this was the continuation of the successful strategy that Sharon's coalition government has pursued consistently over the past 18 months. Following each terror atrocity, the cabinet has closed the noose tighter around Arafat and the Palestinian Authority leadership, holding them directly responsible for pursuing violent attacks. Following the capture of the Karine A arms ship, which sealed the case against Arafat, Sharon rejected the demands to send him into exile again. Instead, he fostered the conditions in which the Palestinians themselves began to realize that Arafat was a liability and would never recover. When the sieges in Ramallah and Bethlehem ended with the jailing of some of his associates in Jericho and the exiling of others to Europe, Arafat's powerlessness was fully exposed. The most recent round was entirely consistent with this approach, and was unanimously endorsed by the cabinet. The problem was that Sharon and the other officials, including the IDF, involved in this decision had all missed the implications of the changes in the environment in the past month. Relying far too much on unreliable instincts and past behavior, the various ministers did not recognize the implications of Bush administration's intense focus on Iraq. Having challenged the UN to take its responsibility seriously on Iraq, this was not the time for the US to cast a veto to protect Israel in the Security Council. It was also not the time to allow the Arab leaders to shift the focus from Iraq back to the old myths of Palestinian "oppression" and Israeli "occupation." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1033131998112