An excellent interview, but...

Submitted by Kenneth S. Besig (Israel), Jun 11, 2006 at 06:38

I thought that Dr. Pipes gave excellent and peritnent answers to most of the questions raised in his interview regarding his university award and his thinking on the Middle East in general.

I say most, because I believe he is mistaken when he states that Israeli government's have opted for conflict management rather than victory over the enemy. I believe that the previous Israeli government led by Ariel Sharon and the present Israeli government led by Sharon's hand picked successor, Ehud Olmert, have instead opted for defeat and made retreat, further surrender, and most importantly, more unilateral withdrawals to the Arab enemy it's most important policy. Indeed, this may be this government's only policy.

Perhaps this defeatist and demoralized mood among the Jewish Israeli electorate which Olmert so cleverly manipulated and that ultimately put Olmert in power will eventually pass, but when and at what cost?

The Israeli Left, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Party, along with the vast majority of the Israeli media, and by now all the top leadership in the Israeli military have been beating the drum of Israeli defeat and inability for years. And they have done so successfully for so long that it is hard for me as an Israeli to believe that somehow and somewhere we Israelis will eventually get our nerve back.

Even now, with up to twenty Palestinian missiles crashing into Israeli Jewish Negev towns from the now Judenrein Gaza Strip every day, with Israeli civilian casualties and property damage, the Olmert government, the Israel Defence Forces, and Israel's media continue to praise the Sharon withdrawal and ignore it's consequences.

This is not Israeli "conflict management" by any means, this is Israeli defeat at it's worst.

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