MirYam’s Commentary
I am neither a Republican nor Democrat, nor American. I am an Israeli. And when it comes to the matter of Israel only, I prefer the Trump treatment to the Obama doctrine. Finally, Israel's leaders have the space to think strategically. Now it is imperative that they do so for the common good of our country and her future.
Current mainstream thinking on negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians rests on a significant fallacy. Those arguing for talks with the Palestinians based on the 1967 Green Line as the future border between Israel and a State of Palestine do not take into account that as far as the Palestinian side is concerned, this position only fuels their desire to continue the conflict.
Though not often discussed outside military circles, the Israel Defense Force’s secret weapon for successfully protecting Israel against an array of threats is not an F-16 fighter jet or Merkava Tank or even the Iron Dome system. Rather, it is the IDF’s set of core values that have been developed and refined since Israel’s birth.
A dream has come true for Prime Minister Netanyahu, the emergence of a Republican President, backed by a Republican senate and house. There will be need neither for maneuvering back and forth between the White House and Capitol Hill, nor, at times, working with Congress against the preference of the president.
The dust is now settling from the stormy and dramatic US election campaign. Donald Trump is the President-elect, and from this moment onward, Trump and the administration he assembles will be engaged with preparations to take power, seeking to heal the wounds in a deeply divided America, and formulating a new foreign policy, which remains unknown at this time.
The European Union is facing the largest challenge in its history, in the form of mass migration and significantly heightened security threats.
As a result, it is engaged in a fateful quest to reconcile a growing clash between its values and interests, scrambling to preserve its liberal and free spirit and, at the same time, meet unprecedented terrorist challenges.
The Middle East, as we know it, is crumbling. Civil wars rage across the region, millions have become refugees, and hundreds of thousands are dead. Borders that have existed for over a century are ripe for reshaping. All of this has given rise to a major threat to western democracies: The Islamic State.
