For your perusal, my latest INTO THE FRAY column:
ISRAEL: LOST WITHOUT A MAP?
(Kindly consider “liking”, sharing, tweeting – please use hash-tag #IntoFray)
It is difficult to know what is more disturbing-whether some ministers actually believe in the preposterous policy proposals they promote – or whether they don’t—but promote them anyway
It appears this week on the following sites (in alphabetical order):
ALGEMEINER: https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/03/24/israel-lost-without-a-map
ISRAELI FRONTLINE: http://www.israelifrontline.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=56173&action=edit
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20309
ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE: http://www.israelifrontline.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=56173&action=edit
ISRAEL’S VOICE: http://www.israelsvoice.org/2017/03/25/fray-israel-lost-without-map/
ISRAPUNDIT: http://www.israpundit.org/archives/63622091
MEDIUM: https://medium.com/@martinsherman/into-the-fray-israel-lost-without-a-map-3d6f6e5c0f51#.r9b0y6od0
JEWSDOWNUNDER: http://jewsdownunder.com/2017/03/24/into-the-fray-23/
JEWISH PRESS: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/into-the-fray-martin-sherman/into-the-fray-israel-lost-without-a-map/2017/03/28/
An excerpt:
What I see clearly…is incredible negligence and lack of systematic, long-term planning effort on behalf of Israel’s top political brass…we are facing a deep crisis of political leadership, and a deep disbelief in our power to shape reality. – From insightful Op-Ed, “Defeatism at Its Worst” by former Netanyahu staffer, Anya Zhuravel-Segal July 14, 2014
It doesn’t matter what Trump thinks but what Bibi does. – Richie036 , Talkbacker To Caroline Glick’s, “Trump Embraces The PLO Fantasy” March 13, 2017
The US elections have come and gone. The high hopes for the widely predicted sea-change in official US policy towards the Israel-Palestinian conflict in general, and settlement construction, in particular, which they were purported to usher in seem to be fast eroding…However, not all the blame for what is beginning to look distinctly like backtracking away from previous robust pre-election positions, can be attributed to Trump. Indeed, perhaps much of it should be ascribed to Israel’s lukewarm to chilly post-election reaction to them…Instead of seizing on the chance to abandon the perilous two-state prescription, the Israeli government seemed to reaffirm its unfortunate commitment to that fatally flawed formula, as articulated in Netanyahu’s regrettable 2009 Bar Ilan speech…But now, the onus could not be placed on an inimical White House and the relentless pressures it exerted on Israel. This time, it seems that it was Israel who appeared reluctant to relinquish positions it hitherto claimed it had only adopted under duress…Sadly, with the Israeli government bereft of any coherent alternative paradigm, it is beginning to look like, at least on the Palestinian issue, that Obama was, in fact, little more than a convenient excuse for Israel’s impotence and inaction…
