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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
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Nov. 19, 2009
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Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
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JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 16, 2006 / 20 Sivan, 5766

Let them fight it out ... As Hamas and Fatah clash, Israel should stick to withdrawal

By Richard Z. Chesnoff


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Attention! That Palestinian civil war that's been heading our way for months now just pulled in at full speed. And, believe it or not, the best chance of containing the crisis lies with Israel keeping its eye on the ball, withdrawing from the West Bank as it has planned and leaving the Palestinians to cut their own throats or make peace.


Bloody battles rage almost daily now between loyalists of Hamas, the Islamic terrorist party that won control of the Palestinian parliament in February, and supporters of Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "Things are slipping outside of our fingers like sand," says Saeb Erekat, one of Abbas' closest advisers.


Erekat knows whereof he speaks. Last weekend alone, Hamas militants attacked the Gaza offices of the Fatah dominated Palestinian security services. Then Fatah retaliated in the West Bank, attacking the Hamas-controlled Palestinian parliament and burning the offices of the Hamas-controlled cabinet.


And you thought America was bitterly divided?


Not coincidentally, the intra-Palestinian struggle is escalating just as the most radical Palestinians step up terrorist attacks on southern Israel. In the last few days alone, more than 100 crude but deadly rockets have been fired on Israeli towns. Understandably, Israel has responded with tough barrages of its own - including direct helicopter attacks on moving cars carrying terrorists and their rockets to launch sites.


Where does it go from here? Some Israeli politicians warn that, since Hamas has announced plans to unleash full-scale terror on Israel, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is a legitimate target for Israeli hit teams. Some Israeli generals are pushing for a broad military offensive into Gaza.

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All of this comes against the background of two potentially momentous events: President Abbas' decision to hold a Palestinian referendum on a statehood proposal that supposedly recognizes Israel "implicitly" (whatever that means), and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plans to follow up last summer's unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza with a similar move in the West Bank.


Olmert says he is ready to negotiate with the Palestinians. But if there's no one to negotiate seriously with - which looks increasingly likely - Israel, he says, will pull out by itself from most of the West Bank, leaving the Palestinians with enough contiguous West Bank territory to establish a two-part state in the West Bank and Gaza.


Olmert has made it clear that Israel will hold on to several settlement blocs on the West Bank considered vital to Israeli security. At that point, he says, Israel will have established what it deems its permanent international borders.


But Israelis are having their own intense debate. An increasing number of those who favored the parting from Gaza fear that pulling out of the West Bank unilaterally will merely add to Palestinian chaos, strengthen Hamas and build a terrorist state on Israel's eastern borders just as Gaza is becoming one on its West.


I don't agree. The Palestinians continue to appear incapable of making real peace with Israel. The Jewish state must make its own moves to secure its borders and guarantee its safety. Leaving the Palestinians to make their own shortsighted choices now is the smartest long-term move possible.

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CHESNOFF'S LATEST
The Arrogance of the French  

Sean Hannity
This book will open your eyes!

Bill O'Reilly
Why do the French hate America? Richard Chesnoff has figured it out and informs us with entertaining clarity.

Dennis Miller
France sucks, but this book doesn't.

Michael Barone, Co-author, The Almanac of American Politics
Americans-and the French-will learn a lot from this book.

Clifford D. May, President, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Richard Z. Chesnoff insightfully-and entertainingly-explores America's most dysfunctional relationship with America's least reliable ally.

Sales help fund JWR.



JWR contributor and veteran journalist Richard Z. Chesnoff is a contributing correspondent at US News & World Report, a columnist at the NY Daily News and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Demoracies. A two-time winner of the Overseas Press Club Award and a recipient of the National Press Club Award, he was formerly executive editor of Newsweek International. His latest book, is "The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us & Why The Feeling Is Mutual". (Click on cover above to purchase. Sales help fund JWR. )

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© 2005, Richard Z. Chesnoff

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