Book review: Generals in the Cabinet Room: How the Military Shapes Israeli Policy

"Generals in the Cabinet Room: How the Military Shapes Israeli Policy," by Yoram Peri, United States Institute for Peace Press, 328 pages. Book review in Haaretz by Yagil Levy, 25 August. The book looks at politicians' oversight of the Israeli Defense Force during the second intifada while the the book reviewer used the book to illustrate the balance of power between the army and the political leadership of Israel. Interesting to military analysts and political scientists.

Bloomberg's Peter Robison reported on Israel's security in aviation

What El Al does for airline security. Israeli-Style Air Security, Costly and Intrusive, May Head West. (Aug. 25)

Washington Post's Laura Blumenfeld reported on Israel's targerted assassinations

Interesting insights provided by Laura Blumenfeld, in the Washington Post article, In Israel, a Divisive Struggle Over Targeted Killing, free registration required, (Sunday, August 27, 2006; Page A01) with interviews of generals, a security agency chief, a defense minister and a prime minister of Israel.

New York Times on Chicago's heavily Pakistani Devon Avenue

A feature story, "Pakistanis Find U.S. an Easier Fit Than Britain" , with interviews of Americans of Pakistani heritage and contrasts with British cities' Asian enclaves: "immigrants are not mired in the Devon Avenue neighborhood; many move out once they can afford better. Unlike the situation in Britain, there is no collective history here of frustrated efforts to assimilate into a society where a shortened form of Pakistani is a stinging slur, and there are no centuries-old grievances nursed from British colonial rule over what became Pakistan. Where such comparisons fail, however, is in providing a model to predict why some young Muslims turn to violence, although no religion is immune."

Tiger wins again!

Woods at this year's PGA Championship.

Besides Governor Schwarzenegger and President Reagan, there are others in Hollywood with whom I agree

From a full-page ad in Los Angeles Times, Thursday, 17 August: "We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hizbollah and Hamas. If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

If you believe the month-long war in Lebanon is really about Iran's nuclear reactors

We still have United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696 giving Iran until 31 August to suspend uranium enrichment and open its nuclear programme to international inspections. If it does not comply, the council would consider adopting "appropriate measures" under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which relates to economic sanctions. Don't hold your breath. Remember how many deadlines lapsed before Iraq suffered consequences. Anyway, we'll see.

Politics and control

The situation is worse around Israel; it pretty bad in other parts of the world, too. North, south and east of Israel are Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank (of the Jordan River). Lebanon experienced a lengthy civil war during which American, Iranian, Israeli, Syrian, United Nations and various Lebanese factions had militias, spies and troops operated on Lebanese soil. Most foreign troops have left and home grown Hizbullah (Party of God) of Shiite militias and politicians are now dominant, more dominant than Lebanon's Army. Israel occupied and evacuated from Gaza and various parts of the West Bank. The evacuated parts are "governed" by the Palestinian Authority. Yet the Palestinian police is just one force among many which carry and have access to guns and other weapons; Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) is so strong it garnered the most votes in the last election, formed the majority in the Palestinian parliament and paid its own militias. All the rest of the world, where the governing party governs with a minority of seats in parliament or where the president of the governing party has to live with a parliament headed by a speaker or a prime minister belonging to an opposition party can rest easy, can rest easy--at least the governing party controls the military. Imagine in Gaza or in Lebanon, neither the Palestinian President nor the Lebanese President controls all the police and soldiers in his country. Even so, they are the people who has to face the Israeli Defense Force when Hizbullah or Hamas attacked Israel. Sigh.