Current Edition About Subscribe The Jerusalem Center

Daily Alert Archive

Every Daily Alert Since 2002

Search

Search more than 90,000 news items by topic, author, or source.
Use " " to search for multiple words and phrases.

Trending Topics

May 9, 2008       Share:    

Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.israel08may08,0,3021820.story

Israel's Psyche at 60

[Baltimore Sun] Walter Reich - As Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, there's a remarkable spirit and courage here. Despite the rising tide of Islamism that surrounds the country and the constant threats to destroy it, Israel bustles with energy, commerce, science and the arts. And, most of the time, its people display a convinced optimism that Israel is here to stay. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is open about its intention to destroy Israel, however long it takes. And it, like its ally Hizbullah in south Lebanon, has adopted a military strategy that's strikingly effective in this age of television and the Internet: launching rockets at Israeli cities from places inhabited by civilians, provoking Israelis to strike back, and waiting for images of the resulting casualties to inflame world opinion. If Israeli leaders don't strike back, they fail to protect their own people; if they do, they receive global condemnation for using disproportionate force. And the threats from Hamas and Hizbullah pale in the face of the possibility that, after a peace deal, the West Bank, lying alongside the length of Israel's population centers, will become a launching pad for still more rockets. The writer, a psychiatrist, is the Yitzhak Rabin memorial professor of international affairs, ethics and human behavior at George Washington University and former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

View the full edition of Daily Alert

Back to Archive

Subscribe to Daily Alert: