Israel Strikes Novel Non-Update

The Jerusalem Post reports on what everyone outside the Davos-Set already knows:  "Israelis and Palestinians want an official separation from one another, but the major political solutions to the conflict do not appeal to them, a new in-depth study by the RAND corporation released first to The Jerusalem Post found.  Overall, the research found that "mistrust, broadly defined, is likely the greatest impediment to peace." Read on and you'll see that young Israelis don't know, don't care, and are interested in other things. We also learn that pundits* have been floating the idea of some sort of confederation. These people learn nothing and forget nothing.

Meanwhile The Jerusalem Post reports that HAMAS, the PLO and other assorted palestinian terrorist groups have agreed on terms for upcoming elections, their first in 15 years. PA president Mahmoud Abbas is in the 15th year of his four year term, so they should probably get on with it. After the last elections way back in the second Bush term HAMAS won a landslide in Gaza and celebrated by tossing PLO operatives off of buildings. 

Given that Israel will face an administration hostile to Israeli objectives vis a vis the palestinians and Iran, and run by a rabidly antiemetic party (henceforth to be known as Angkor), this blog speculates that Israelis will decide Bibi is the man for the moment. He was magnificent against Barry Soetoro. Whoever wins the March elections, Israel will be run by a right of center coalition.

We're going on seven years since the publication of Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea. Jerry Pournelle waited 30 years to publish Mamelukes, the conclusion to his Janissaries series. Wow, we were 17 when the last one came out. We left WOTRS with a cliffhanger and meant to get to it soonish. Back then the Muslim Brotherhood controlled Egypt and we had a vague sense that we'd wright about a massive war on the Sinai. Well, the Brotherhood is out and we've gotten our massive modern war fix in the World War 1990 series. Which sucks for people who want to know what happens next. We got nothin' folks.

*Morons like Tom Friedman, no doubt.

Israeli Victory

An interesting a article by Caroline Glick about Israel's defeat of the PLO. She concludes that the Israeli nation and its' people are much better off and demonstrably happier than they were when the Oslo Process began in 1993.

This seems true to us. 

We suppose the defeat of the PLO began with Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, and ended when Yasser Arafat was forced out in 2004. 

Since then Judea/Samaria has been a PLO run kleptocracy, indistinguishable from the run-of-the-mill Arab crap-hole.

We think the Israelis have convinced the PLO and the palestinians (at least those in Judea/Samaria) that they will never defeat the Jews.

Today palestinian occupied Judea/Samaria reminds us of 20th century Ireland. A land tired, warn out, steeped in tradition and character, utterly lacking economic energy, where each generation loses tens of thousands of young people left for better parts, be they in the Arab world or perhaps the capitols of Europe. 

There's nothing romantic about John Ford's Ireland, or 'the troubles', or Palestine.

If the next generations figures that out the Israelis will be waiting.