MirYam’s Commentary
The lasting legacy and central remnant of the Six Day War is the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, which continues to fester, and to divide Israeli society.
Fifty years after the start of the Six Day War, it is worth reviewing how this seminal event affected Israelis on a personal and a national level, and continues to have a major effect to this day.
President Trump completed his landmark visit to Saudi Arabia and to Israel as well as the Vatican, NATO and the G7 summits, and is back to the intensive political dealing and wheeling challenging him at home. Many words have been spoken and written attempting to characterize and to evaluate Trump’s goals and achievements during his interesting choice for his first foreign visits. Here are some observations that merit attention.
As the UK struggles to come to terms with the horrific attack in Manchester, England, now is the time for a clear-eyed assessment of the unprecedented challenges facing Europe as a whole, particularly at they pertain to the mass migration currently underway, and the difficult, though vital choices that must be weighed.
When one considers the relationship between the American Jewish community and Israel, two different stories emerge. The first is that of a US Jewish community with unusual power – both in its economic abilities and high political involvement – that is able to look out for Israel, and is committed to the well-being of the Jewish state.
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.
