Sunday, September 30, 2007

The tide turns?

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune"
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act 4 Sc 2.

At certain moments in history the tide turns, and this may be one of those times.
1. The movement to boycott Israeli universities in the UK has come to a screeching halt with the admission by the UCU union that such boycotts would be illegal and anyway are not the proper role of the Union. The small group of leftist anti-Israel extremists who started this boycott movement have lost!
2. For the first time, the newly appointed President of the UN Human Rights Council has admitted that they are unfair to Israel, and they need to change their policies. The recently appointed Rumanian representative Doru Costea, admitted this in an interview after Pres. Bush made this point in his speech to the UN last week.
3. The charm offensive of Pres. Ahmedinejad of Iran in NY may have scored some points in some places, but he generally failed to convince anyone of any influence in the West of his reasonableness. In Iran, they must know that he is an abrasive and dangerous leader for them and the powers that be there may soon decide to drop him.
4. Part of the reason is the successful raid of the IAF on a reported nuclear facility in Syria. Although this has not been confirmed, the fact that IAF planes could completely evade top class radar must give Iran and Syria pause before they undertake any actions that might trigger Israeli or American attacks.
5. To some extent the deterrent credibility of the IDF has been restored, not only due to this one raid, but also because of new leadership, increased training and reorganization. IDF morale has increased.
6. There was no war this summer as predicted by some, and it doesn't look as if Hizbollah or Syria are prepared to try it again.
7. The Palestinian movement for national liberation has sustained a major body blow due to the schism between the rejectionist Hamas in Gaza and the more "moderate" Fatah in the West Bank.
8. Tourism is a major industry in Israel and the number of visitors this year is now at 2.2 million, the second highest ever, less only than the last high of 2.41 million, before the intifada in 2000.
9. The Israeli economy continues to boom.
10. The projected international conference on the Middle East to be held in Annapolis in November may be the beginning of the end for pan-Arab opposition to Israel. Once such a meeting takes place, whatever "principles" are agreed to, it is tantamount to the Arab world accepting Israel as a legitimate sovereign State in the region.
So sit back and enjoy it, the tide that has been flowing against us for some time may be ebbing.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home