Free Republic

Amir Peretz, who occupies the Number Three spot in the Labor party's list for the Knesset, mounted an attack on party leader Shelly Yechimovich on Channel 2's Meet the Press Saturday. He demanded that Yechimovich state clearly that she will never sit in the Netanyahu government, and insisted that she spell out a detailed plan for peace with the Palestinian Authority. The presenter, political reporter Rina Matzliah, asked him if it was true that he was considering splitting off from Labor after the election along with six other MKs. He did not confirm or deny this, but said that at...

Actually, no one has shown that a single serious demonstration against Muslims and Arabs, against their beliefs and behavior can be raised in this country. And, if you think Glenn Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial was its equivalent please quote to me sounds of hatred directed from the platform. There has not been a single rally or demonstration in America aimed at Muslim or Arab interests or more likely, to foreign insurgencies and, yes, quite alien philosophies. I suggest that this is largely the case because Americans are so fearful of being accused of bias. Muslims and Arabs do...

There are today several odious attempts by Jewish extremists, like this one by Martin Peretz and this one by La Pasionaria of the Neocons, to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs as opposed to a direct consequence of his insanity. To be sure, extreme religious beliefs and violent insanity are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they tend to track--among fanatics of all religions. There was, for example, the lunatic Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, who opened fire on Muslims praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1994, killing...

Frankly, I don't care that Chicago lost its bid for the Olympics. Really, I don't. But maybe the president's trip to Copenhagen was useful since his top battle commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, traveling from England to Denmark, had the opportunity to meet Barack Obama on Air Force One. Their talking with each other is, after all, a rarity. In fact, Obama and McChrystal had spoken but once since the general took on AfPak as his turf in early June 2009. With whom, then, is Obama conversing? And how independent of mind on military matters are they? Or are...

Dennis Ross, Out As Special Envoy To Iran; Was He Ousted Because He's A Jew Or A Bit Hawkish On Nukes? The news that Dennis Ross, long time State Department strategist and peace processor, is being bounced as special envoy to Iran comes from an article by Barak Ravid in the reliable (at least on these matters) Ha'aretz. The story seems to assume that Ross was declared persona non grata by Tehran either because he was a Jew or because he believes that Iran should not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons. If the Obama administration so readily capitulated to...

Well, almost everyone blogging today for TNR on the president's Cairo speech seems to have been overwhelmed by its power. Forgive me: I was overwhelmed in a more-than-slightly different way. I am writing on the speech and its implications for next week's print edition (which will also be published online). But I wanted my readers to grapple with material other than that of the star-gazers. So here's David Frum who always calls it like he sees it. Yes, he is a conservative. But these are matters that cut across both liberalism and conservatism: The president’s Cairo speech: worse than feared....

Earlier this week, the Boston Globe ran what was virtually an epitaph, a very long epitaph for itself. The author blamed the paper's owner--the New York Times Company--for most of its troubles. There was a lot of nostalgia for the old publishing family, the Taylors, who sold the newspaper to the Sulzbergers. (The Times is actually a public company dominated by the family because of two classes of stock, one with power, one without. The Sulzbergers own the controlling stock. But the family trust is being ripped apart: its beneficiaries no longer are getting dividends.) In any case, the Taylors...

David Brooks, the "House Conservative" of the New York Times, should seriously consider putting his self-description as "conservative" in quotes at all times in order to comply with truth in packaging. I mean how conservative can you be when liberal sources are quoting you favorably, especially when you sound like, without quite saying so, you are endorsing Barack Obama? The liberal New Republic cites Brooks favorably for his almost endorsement of The One: Has David Brooks Endorsed Obama? Not in so many words, but please continue: Well, not exactly. After all, he has one paragraph in his column in Friday's...

Actually, I don't think the right has played as dirty as this. A Times article by Michael Luo this morning unveils a new netroots enterprise, Accountable America, the unabashed purpose of which is to terrify conservatives from giving campaign money to Republican causes and Republican candidates. It's actually ingenuous. You get a list of past Republican donors and send each of them one, two, many e-mails with the explicit warning that contributing to conservative campaigns may be dangerous to the donor's health. Or, as Luo puts it, "The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might...

Former defense minister Amir Peretz will begin a campaign after Pessah, which celebrates freedom, to bring about the release of Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti was convicted of murder and sentenced to five life sentences in prison for killing Jews and a Christian monk during the second Intifada. But he is also a rising star in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah and his likely successor. In a speech at a pre-Pessah toast for Labor activists loyal to him, Peretz said that after the holiday, he would visit the families of Barghouti's victims and ask them to publicly press for...

Excerpt - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday appointed newly elected Labour party chairman and former premier Ehud Barak as defence minister to replace Amir Peretz, an official told AFP. "The prime minister had a one-on-one meeting with Barak today, after which Barak sent Olmert an official request to be named defence minister as soon as possible," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. ~ snip ~

Israel News Agency: Keep Olmert, Fire Peretz (Photo) Israel Defense Minister Amir Peretz, right, seems to be viewing a military drill through binoculars, apparently without realizing the lens caps were left on. The army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is at left. An actor on the right, a professional on the left. By Israel News Agency Editorial Staff Jerusalem ----May 2...... A few have described the present political environment in Israel as one which has been swept up by a tsunami. Politicians, defense personnel, journalists, foreign diplomats, business people and a vast majority of the general public in...

Israel's political and military leaders are facing a crisis of confidence. The consensus view in Israel, as Peter Berkowitz wrote in THE WEEKLY STANDARD just a few weeks ago, is that Prime Minister Edhud Olmert, "and even more his hapless defense minister, Amir Peretz, as well as Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, an honorable man who only two weeks ago resigned as chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces--had proved themselves in the Lebanon war last summer unfit to continue to lead the nation." Hapless indeed. Yesterday Peretz was inspecting troops in the Golan Heights alongside the IDF's new chief...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to remove his defense minister, Amir Peretz, two TV stations reported Thursday. Citing sources in Olmert's office, Israel TV and Channel 2 said Peretz would be asked to resign and take another cabinet position, and if he refused, he would be fired. Olmert's spokesman, just before takeoff from Sharm e-Sheikh Thursday night, denied the Channel 2 report. "Olmert has not decided to remove Peretz from his post and the issue has not even been discussed," he said. Channel 2 speculated that Peretz would not be offered the finance portfolio, currently occupied by Avraham Hirschson...

Excerpt - 07:09 Report: PM mulling Ehud Barak, Gabi Ashkenazi as new defense minister (Army Radio) 07:07 Olmert aides: PM plans to remove Peretz from Defense Ministry (Army Radio

Peretz okays transfer of 5,000 rifles to Abbas [bows to US pressure] Peretz okays transfer of 5,000 rifles to Abbas JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 1, 2006www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378305990&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Defense Minister Amir Peretz has authorized the transfer of 5,000 rifles to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Presidential Guard, Channel 2 reported Wednesday night. [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: According to the report, DM Peretz bowd to heavy pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Rice to approve the transfer of weapons from Egypt and other sources to the PA. It should be noted that while Mr. Abbas swears he will not...

Peretz to Yesha Residents: Leave Outposts Peacefully – or Else 23:32 Oct 16, '06 / 24 Tishrei 5767 by Hana Levi Julian Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced Monday afternoon that residents of unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria would be forced out of their homes, one way or the other. Peretz told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that he has given the Yesha Council leadership two weeks to convince outpost residents to leave their homes voluntarily. After two weeks, he said, the IDF would forcibly expel Jewish residents from their homes in unauthorized communities. During Sunday’s...

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who was one of the early leaders of the Left's "peace camp," rejected one of its most basic tenants on Tuesday when he told a gathering of activists, "It's not the case that Israel has rejected partners for peace. It's more correct to understand that every time Israel sought a partner over the past year, there wasn't one available." The audience, which represented about half of the 100 organizations that compose the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, sat quietly through his half-hour speech in Tel Aviv. It was his first meeting with activists from the left-wing "peace...

Defense minister says that 'every war creates opportunities for wide-scale diplomatic process'; calls on Israel to renew talks with Palestinians, prepare for contacts with Damascus Vered Luvitch Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that "every war creates opportunities for an extensive diplomatic process," and that "we need to hold negotiations with Lebanon and lay the groundwork for negotiations with Syria." Peretz made the statements during a Bar Mitzvah party for 65 IDF orphans that was held in Tel Aviv. Peretz said: "I'm certain that our enemies understand they cannot defeat us. I plan to do whatever I can to restore the...

Israeli Defense Minister and labour party leader Amir Peretz was sued yesterday in Rabat by three well-known Moroccan lawyers for terror crimes in Lebanon. The Moroccan lawyers, Khalid Sefiani, Abderrahim Jamai and Abderrahmane Benameur, known for their activism in human rights, organised a press conference in the headquarters of the Moroccan National Press Syndicate (SNPM) in Rabat to reveal the details of their initiative. “It is not at all a symbolic act. We want Amir Peretz to pay for the war crimes he has committed in Lebanon,” Sefiani told the Moroccan paper Maroc Soir. The lawyers' choice of the Rabat's...