Israel Harel

Peres' plan will not be implemented because the territorial concessions will not satisfy the Palestinians, and because most Israelis, after the bitter experiences of recent years, have lost faith in the Palestinians.

It is not the IDF but rather the public that needs to object to the widespread evasion of the draft by the ultra-Orthodox and the legitimacy that influential sectors of society grant to secular draft dodgers.

If the government could not rehabilitate 8,500 evacuees, what will happen when the time comes to remove 100,000 settlers from Judea and Samaria?

U.S. President George W. Bush's vision of two states for two nations, which he repeated during his speech early this week, is a messianic vision.

Training, especially that earmarked for senior officers, is indeed insufficient. But the focus on this factor is taken out of proportion, and it ignores the real causes of the poor results on the Lebanese battlefield.

Given the circumstances, the new government does not represent the Palestinians - only Israeli illusions, and possibly also those of the Americans and the Europeans.

When Barak was PM, our ability to stand firm was at a nadir. Barak rode the waves of weakness and led the panicked flight from Lebanon. We can hope that this time he intends not to come to terms with these weaknesses, but rather to overcome them.

Euphoria reigned after the Six-Day War, say the 'forgive-us-for-winning' people. That is not true. There was a feeling of relief; the human joy of victory, pure and simple.

Mazuz's reasoning is that when several ministers, including the prime minister, could be receiving the attention of the state prosecutor, there is a reasonable concern that the cabinet will give preference to a person it thinks would be easy on the suspects.

In 1961, when the JNF's lands were transferred to the ILA's management, not ownership, nobody could have suspected that one day the Jewish state would proclaim the allocation of Jewish-owned land to Jews a discriminatory act.

Olmert is waging the 'decisive battle' for Jerusalem that he announced a decade ago with about the same skill with which he pursued the Second Lebanon War.

In the yeshivas, they always talk about their duty to the entirety of the Jewish community. For many of them, this is a rare opportunity to get to know, up close, that 'klal yisrael.'

For most Israeli citizens, the committee's report is a document that reinforces existing views rather than telling us anything new.

In principle, what has been happening on the Gaza front is worse than what happened in south Lebanon before the Second Lebanon War.

After the attack on the United States in 2001, it emerged that a large number of the terrorists were Saudi. Saudi Arabia urgently needed to be seen as a peace-seeker, and 'the Saudi peace initiative' was one of the means chosen.

Israel's feeble behavior is creating a situation in which every abducted person becomes a strategic asset in the hands of the enemy.

If there is a threat to democracy after the moderate, responsible and dignified response of the orange camp to the unfortunate and infuriating uprooting from Gush Katif and northern Samaria - and in the long term it exists - it will not come from the settlers' camp.

When 15 rabbinic court judges, 12 of whom are ultra-Orthodox, were selected Monday, this was another step - whose significance is difficult to overestimate - toward deepening the rift between the religious and the secular.

Israel is feverishly implementing the lessons of Lebanon. When the Qassam fire resumes - and no one doubts this will happen - residents will be evacuated to beyond the rockets' range.

In the wake of a petition filed by the Israeli Arab legal center Adalah about a year ago, the High Court of Justice ruled that the government must abolish the 'national preference' regions in education.

The demand to reform the Supreme Court stems from a sense that its errors and failures are due, as in the IDF, to the flawed principles by which it runs.

Quite a few Israelis are concerned that the public's aspiration for renewal and catharsis, which they call 'ganging up,' is liable to be realized, heaven forbid.

In three major events he handled as prime minister, Ehud Olmert acted correctly at first. The problems arose when the events required leadership, wisdom, calm and resolve.

For the success of the state's 60th anniversary celebrations, a monitoring committee of intellectuals should be set up, which will consult with all segments of society and establish the content of the events.