Epstein Secrets

spairing of any possibility for productive negotiations while Yasir Arafat led the PLO, but under heavy pressure to make some move, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned to Gaza, which the old general viewed as a military burden rather than as an Israeli asset. After a grueling political battle that extended

n between our troubles with Syria and Iran is pretty straightforward. The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is Iran's closest ally, and its link to the Arab Middle East. Syria has provided the land bridge for the transport of Iranian weapons and militants to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Without Syria, Iran's pretens

kely see Israeli- Palestinian negotiations as a bottomless pit for diplomatic energy rather than as a priority. If Obama is reelected, he will have no Middle East hands to whom he can turn. Mideast advisor Dennis Ross has left; Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, departed for

ill in all likelihood leave when a new secretary of state is appointed or a few months later. In January 2009, Obama appointed Mitchell as special Middle East envoy on his second day in office. That kind of priority will not be assigned to the "peace process" in January 2013 -- no matter who wins. The ne

isoned him, and there are many more. Still, in the search for a motive to murder Arafat, it is hard to ignore Israel. In 2002, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv that he regretted not having killed Arafat when Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon in 1982. In 2003, then-D

nt Jimmy Carter and in every administration since (except George W. Bush's), Dennis Ross has played a bigger role in setting American policy toward the Middle East than perhaps any other official who didn't occupy the Oval Office. Most recently, Ross was special assistant to President Obama and the National Se

nd bombs on the nearly completed Osirak nuclear reactor at the Tuwaitha complex in Iraq. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon saw the reactor as central to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's quest to build nuclear weapons, and they believed that it posed an existential threa

es that Israel and the US first bring greater clarity to their own relationship. Is the US willing to shed its longtime attempt to be a mediator in Middle East problems by formally supporting Israel in a military attack? And is Israel ready to abandon its post-Holocaust desire for military self-reliance by

the Israeli government nor AIPAC supporters in the United States considered Saddam Hussein nearly the threat that Iran was. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon then warned President George W. Bush privately that he thought an attack on Iraq would be a mistake. After the Iraq vote, to prove its innocence,

to have failed, Israel would go it alone and launch military operations against the Iranian nuclear project, sucking in the U.S. and risking a wide Middle Eastern conflagration.The American assurances were designed to staunch Israeli fears and give diplomacy and sanctions more time. But as Obama has waffled

As the flames mounted, Barak's electoral coalition, much of which he had alienated through careless and dictatorial management, began to crumble. Ariel Sharon, another former war hero who then led the Likud Party, offered to form a national unity government. Barak refused, deciding to take his chances in

s in Israel, he met hardly any politicians still working for a two-state solution -- the solution Germany considers the only viable path to peace in the Middle East. "It was sobering," Klose stated. What, then, should Germany do? Klose says he still believes the German government should refrain from publicly re

its primary function and the integral connection between colonial interests and its own aggressive projects. In Yediot Aharonot on 3 December 1974, Ariel Sharon (the former Israeli premier and the chief executor of the Sabra and Shatila massacre) wrote: "The Americans regard Israel as the bastion they can r

lim. And so the 747 remains in the sky, perhaps to be hijacked or ultimately to crash. Karen Elliott House, a Pulitzer Prize winner for coverage of the Middle East, is the author of the forthcoming "On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — and Future," to be published next week. Artick 3. L

tions, sign the framework agreement and hope that an exit ramp somehow materializes along the way. In short, he could do what the recently deceased Ariel Sharon would never do — let others dictate decisions about Israel's future. To some extent, however, the train has already left the station. Anything les

o longer will a nation that rules over millions of Palestinian Arab, and denies the majority of them full political rights, be able to label itself the Middle East's only true democracy. Relations with the United States (particularly with the Obama Administration) will inevitably suffer. How much? No one can say

GHT_011477 A decade later, the idea would suddenly resurface. In my first meeting, as a newly promoted Major General, with our then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon turned to me and the army’s Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, and said: “Tell me. Why the hell is Arafat still alive?” He looked first at Raful,

ng the conflict with our Arab enemies would almost certainly become more difficult with time. 9 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011480 Iraq, perhaps Iran and other Middle Eastern states, might get nuclear weapons. A violent form of fundamentalist Islam could, over time, erode existing Arab and Muslim states, threatening Israel

GHT_027854 A decade later, the idea would suddenly resurface. In my first meeting, as a newly promoted Major General, with our then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon turned to me and the army’s Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, and said: “Tell me. Why the hell is Arafat still alive?” He looked first at Raful,

ng the conflict with our Arab enemies would almost certainly become more difficult with time. 9 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_027857 Iraq, perhaps Iran and other Middle Eastern states, might get nuclear weapons. A violent form of fundamentalist Islam could, over time, erode existing Arab and Muslim states, threatening Israel