Free Republic

IN CHESS, THE BEST PLAYERS ARE ABLE to think ahead, recognizing the consequences that their next move could have 10, 20 or 30 moves later. Both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict urgently need to consult with the geopolitical equivalent of such chess grandmasters. The apparent goal of Palestinian extremists, for example, is to push Israel into the sea and take back 100 percent of its land. We can infer this because Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat 95 percent of everything the Palestinian leader demanded, but an uncompromising Arafat rejected this and re-ignited Intifada violence against the Jewish...

PARIS - The French government says Israel's refusal to allow Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to attend Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem "will stain the image of Israeli authorities." The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "The ban on the president of the Palestinian Authority from attending Midnight Mass in Bethlehem is a decision that, unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, a day of unity and peace, stains the image of Israeli authorities." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government banned Arafat on Monday from traveling overland to Bethlehem, insisting that he must first arrest the assassins of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, gunned ...

“Relentlessly and Thoroughly” The only way to respond. By Paul Johnson, a historian and journalist whose forthcoming book is a history of art. From the October 15, 2001, issue of National Review Bold and uncompromising words were spoken by American (and British) leaders in the immediate response to the Manhattan Massacre. But they may be succeeded by creeping appeasement unless public opinion insists that these leaders stick to their initial resolve to destroy international terrorism completely. One central reason why appeasement is so tempting to Western governments is that attacking terrorism at its roots necessarily involves conflict with the second-largest ...