Jan 6 2024
​​
Q. What is your take on Israel’s fortunes during the outgoing year?
​
A. Seen from a distance of barely a week, 2024 represents yet more descent down the slippery slope toward a conflicted, non-democratic, immoral, isolated, messianic and binational entity between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. That is one end of the scale. Yet at the other end there had emerged by the end of the year one very significant and positive exception to this dynamic.
​
Q. Start with the exception. It makes for more encouraging reading . . .
​
A. In recent months, Israel’s security community registered dramatic victories over Iran, Hezbollah and almost the entire Axis of Resistance or Shiite Crescent. In a fascinating domino dynamic, the pro-Iran Assad regime in Syria fell and Iraq’s Shiite militias ceased attacking Israel.
​
Only Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, neither a strategic threat, continue to attack Israel. In September, a dramatic IDF commando operation targeting an Iranian missile factory deep in Syrian territory sent yet another message to Iran about the vulnerability of its nuclear project.
​
Note that Israel’s Sunni Arab neighbors, from Egypt to Bahrain via Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, actively assisted it in combating Iran. This means that for the first time in its modern history, Israel was allied with major actors among its neighbors, while those few neighbors that remain openly hostile have been beaten into retreat. Even countries critical of Israel in the West have allied with it in combating Iran and the Houthis.
​
This is very good news for Israel’s overall security, and it happened in 2024.
​
Yossi Alpher's Death Tango: Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat and Three Fateful Days in March
"Anyone seeking to understand how Israelis and Palestinians traded the hopes of Oslo for something approaching hopelessness is well-advised to read this book. With penetrating analysis and elegant prose, Yossi Alpher has told the gripping story of three days nearly two decades ago that continue to haunt would-be peacemakers. Yossi’s faithful readers will not be disappointed with his latest effort."
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Bard College
"A riveting account of the crucial days in March 2002 when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was profoundly changed for the worse. The peace camp has never recovered from those wrenching days, and we live now without any hope of a just settlement. Alpher is a highly respected expert who has spent decades studying this conflict from both sides."
Bruce Riedel, Director of the Brookings Intelligence Project
"A critical assessment of a key period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict never before presented in such detail. The best and most capable players at the executive and political levels proved unable to forge any resolution, final or partial, because both parties continued to maintain an insurmountable gulf between themselves. This is a MUST read for anyone daring to tackle the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of Israel-Arab relations in general."
Efraim Halevy, former Head of the Mossad (1998-2002)
Oraib Khader and Avi Bar-On are youngish Palestinian and Israeli bachelors with security experience, readiness to do business with one another, a shared fondness for women and money, and total cynicism about the lack of peace between their two peoples.
Oraib and Avi can never become true friends: the cultural and political gaps are too wide. But as they confront a failed peace process and a bleak peace future, they readily become business partners: shady business that exploits a lot of naïve international peace aspirations.
As Oraib sums up on a visit to Sarpsborg, Norway, where the ultimately-failed Oslo peace talks were held, “There is a lesson here for those who still doggedly and hopelessly pursue a two-state solution in the Middle East. Get smart. Get out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace business. Step back and let the Jews and Arabs screw one another while making money.”