Yossi Alpher
By Yossi Alpher
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Opinion Israel Owes the U.S. a Blunt Word or Two on Iraq
Sometime in the next two years, the United States will begin removing its armed forces from Iraq. Whether next month’s anticipated Petraeus report hastens or delays that departure, the rhetoric of virtually all leading presidential candidates appears to ensure the ultimate outcome. Israel, located barely 300 miles from Iraqi’s border with Jordan, is certain to…
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Opinion A Ten-Point Plan for Fostering Arab Democracy
Of all the Bush administration’s failings in Iraq, the one neither officially acknowledged by the United States nor properly assessed by the international community is the fiasco of democratization. True, the administration appears to have abandoned its drive to democratize the Arab Middle East; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice no longer lectures Egyptian audiences about…
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Opinion The Arab Peace Plan: Seize a Diplomatic Opportunity
Sometime in the coming weeks, a Jordanian-Egyptian delegation representing the Arab League will visit Israel to discuss the Arab peace initiative, which was first approved by an Arab summit in 2002 and was recently reconfirmed. This will be the first official contact between Israel and the Arab League. While that organization has never before been…
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Opinion The Winograd Commission’s Sins of Omission
There are some important points missing in the Winograd commission’s discussion of the sources of last summer’s war against Hezbollah and the poor decision-making and warfighting capabilities Israel demonstrated. Failure to address three in particular — prisoners, Iran and 40 years of occupation — could help pave the way for new aggression against Israel. Last…
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Opinion Respond to Riyadh by Convening ‘Consultations’
The smoke has cleared from last month’s Arab summit in Riyadh. The Arab peace initiative, originally ratified in 2002, has been reconfirmed without change. Saudi Arabia, newly-emergent as leader of the Arab world, refused to soften the refugee clause as Israel requested; nor did Saudi King Abdullah invite himself to Jerusalem to present his case,…
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Opinion Authoritarian Rule May Be Iraq’s Only Hope
The only sacred cow left to slaughter in Iraq is the illusion that somehow, if the United States persists, democracy will survive and reign and be good for America and its interests. Admitting that democratization has failed and abandoning the democratization project is the real issue still to be confronted in the course of extricating…
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Opinion Could Israel Make Common Cause With Sunni Arabs?
It is now generally understood among Middle East experts that last summer’s war in Lebanon created a kind of paradigm shift in Israel’s interaction with the region. The threat posed to Israel by Iran, its proxy Hezbollah and its ally Syria was also recognized as a threat by the Sunni Arab heartland. The Sunni-Shi’ite struggles…
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Opinion Sharon Warned Bush
Israel and the United States have a close and vital strategic relationship that constitutes a pillar of Israel’s security. Israeli leaders are aware that any major new regional policy departure not closely coordinated with Washington is liable to be a nonstarter and to cloud American-Israeli relations. Any smart Israeli aspirant to a political leadership post…
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