Month: August 2006

One of the strangest terms that is used in modern conversation and writing is the term "service." There are some straightforward uses. For example, you go to a restaurant and a waitress comes up and asks if she can serve you. In that context, the term means the same thing to both of you. But … Continue reading “Are You Being Served?”

While much of the world has criticized Israel for carrying out a "disproportionate" war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, hard-line neoconservatives have attacked the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for timidity. As noted by diplomatic correspondent Ori Nir in this week’s edition of The Forward, the U.S.’ most important Jewish newspaper, the Israeli government and … Continue reading “Hard-Line Neocons Assail Israel for Timidity”

Can we learn anything pertinent from the apparent thwarting of a terrorist plot in Great Britain this week? Probably more than those who consider themselves the masters of the vaunted "war on terror" would like us to know. If we absorbed what seem to me to be the obvious lessons, there would be a hue … Continue reading “Can We Learn Anything?”

Friday evening, the UN unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon; the resolution still awaits approval from the Lebanese and Israeli governments, who will meet over the weekend to address it. Although both countries have said they are ready to accept this version, it was touch-and-go this week as Lebanon rejected the … Continue reading “Sheba’a Farms: Much Ado About Nothing?”

Goran Habbeb had just left his house to get into his car with his brother and his 7-year-old daughter, Soleen, when the armed men opened fire. Taken by surprise because the men were dressed in police uniforms, he just managed to get the white Toyota Previa van into motion and escape. Habbeb was planning to … Continue reading “Civilian Translators in Iraq Thrust Into Combat Roles”

After the arrest of 24 men and women in the plot to blow up 10 airliners on flights from the British Isles to the United States, we may be fortunate that the terror they envisioned was so apocalyptic. With so many implicated, even more being pursued in Britain and Pakistan, the odds of a leak … Continue reading “Were Bush and Blair the Targets?”

A funny thing may have happened to Bonkers Bolton on his way to getting Senate confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations. While Bonkers was busy (a) preventing the UN Security Council from calling for a temporary lull in the killing of Lebanese civilians by Israelis in "self-defense" and (b) strong-arming the Security Council into … Continue reading “Bolton Gets Sandbagged?”

It occurred to me as I watched the story unfolding on my TV of a suspected plot by a group of at least 20 British Muslims to blow up planes between the UK and America that the course of my life and that of the alleged "terrorists" may have run in parallel in more ways … Continue reading “Suddenly, I’m an ‘Islamic Fascist’”

The plot to blow up several American and British airplanes over the Atlantic is merely a taste of things to come. Fortunately, this particular plot was foiled by Scotland Yard and the British counterintelligence people. The death toll might well have exceeded that of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The lesson to be learned … Continue reading “A Taste of What Is to Come”

Today the war entered its fifth week. Hard to believe: our mighty army has now been fighting for 29 days against a "gang" and "terrorist organization," as the military commanders like to describe them, and the battle has still not been decided. Yesterday, military sources in Israel announced that 400 of the 1,200 Hezbollah"terrorists" have … Continue reading “The Buck Stops Where?”