Oh, So Old Ideas Are Good Ones

The Goldstone report may well mark the end of Israel's limited wars against terrorist groups. Israel cannot afford to continue to be drawn into mini-wars against terrorists hiding behind their own civilians to attack Israeli civilians, given that each such conflict inexorably draws the Jewish state one step closer toward pariah status. Limited victories on the battlefield are being turned into major defeats in the arena of world opinion.

That untenable situation may well leave Israel no choice but to return to the post-1967 policy of preventing altogether the presence of terror enclaves on its borders. Better, Israelis will argue, to deal decisively with the terror threat and brace for temporary international outrage than subject our legitimacy to constant attrition, even as the terrorist threat remains intact.

Yossi Klein Halevi
On Second Thought...
Issue No. 15 October 1, 2009
Adelson Institute

The Adelson Institute Conference on Terror

The Adelson Institute, affiliated with the Shalem center, held a conference today.

The conference was impressive, informative, stimulating and enjoyable. Here's the agenda.

It was impressive as regards the personalities taking part, including Benyamin Netanyahu:






and Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon



Informative as regards the insight, facts and background that was provided.

Stimulating as regards the questions posed by the audience and the answers.

One participant, Tawfik Hamid, said that one of the ways to respond to terror is to establish a settlement for every act of terror!!


Here's perhaps two-thirds of the audience and I didn't photograph perhaps a dozen Army intelligence officers who came:



Enjoyable as regards the company I found there and the food:





The Russian, Maj.-Gen. Dr. Vladimir Ovchinsky, former director of the Russian Section of the Interpol and advisor to his country's Constitutional Court basically told us the the best way to fight terror is to kill as many as possible and bomb everything else, civilians or not.

Col. (res.) Daniel Reisner, former head of the international law division in the military advocacy department, sounded good in dealing with the issue of international law but I felt he was being a chameleon, adapting himself to his audience. I later spoke with someone who worked with him and he confirmed that he is not friend of either Yesha or a firm anti-PA (Palestinian Authority) person.

Dr. Liam Fox, MP, Shadow Defence Secretary in the British opposition and former leader of the opposition was very forceful in urging a policy that would relegate considerations of the ideal of a liberal society behind the need for security.

And so on it went.

I hope a summary or more will be published.