Yoel Marcus

There is nothing that could create a more positive change in the Middle East than a peace accord between Israel and Syria.

The bombshell about the arrest of a Jewish spy in the United States reminds me of the awful joke about the woman who went to the police to report being raped 21 years ago. When the officer at the desk asked her why she had come forward after so many years, she replied: "It's nice to reminisce."

Olmert's election interviews - half ego trip, half opium for the masses - were premature.

The production of the celebrations is part of a much broader plan from Olmert's workshop designed to erase his responsibility for the failure of the Second Lebanon War and to perpetuate him as the next prime minister, says a senior political observer.

There is no evidence for rape? So what do you call what Katsav is doing to his wife?

In defense drills in the past, which had a different focus, Dan Meridor used to play the prime minister. But this is the first time a government is playing itself in a future hypothetical situation. Is this serious?

Peretz says to Barak: 'You're obsessed with becoming prime minister,' and Barak, without skipping a beat, says: 'And you're just pathetic.' The truth is that they're both right.

Olmert?s eagerness to achieve a kind of mutual defense pact with Bush before his term is up in exchange for a draft agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is not unreasonable.

As Olmert begins the second half of his term, the test will be in taking action and recognizing that when it comes to the peace process, standstill is not an option.

The time is ripe for Israel to invite Syria to join the good guys.

The problem is not Sarah Netanyahu but her husband Benjamin. He loves the good life but when it comes to opening his wallet, he's a regular Scrooge.

Israel's minister of defense has become a minister of war, says my colleague Gideon Levy. He condemns Ehud Barak's actions and expresses his bitter disappointment in the man. Sadly, Israel is not Switzerland.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, a key figure in the history of moderate religious Zionism and the founder of Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, would be turning in his grave if he saw the hatred and fanaticism coming out this illustrious institution.

The presence of a Hamas delegate at peace talks will not make life easy, but it will give hope to a million and a half Gazans who are eating the bread of adversity and drinking the water of affliction.

It is not really clear why the defense establishment has resigned itself to this incessant barrage. If the rockets were falling on Ramat Aviv, the whole country would be on its feet, the embittered Sderot residents used to gripe to the media. And they were right.

Israel is the only member of the United Nations that is being openly threatened with destruction - not just as a country but as a Jewish state.

In a country where elections have rarely been held on schedule, only a handful of leaders have left behind a legacy. What will Olmert be remembered for? His survival skills?

It is important to track down terrorist leaders, but better to keep tabs on them than to kill them.

Olmert's statement at a press conference in Berlin that "the borders between us and the Palestinians is the easiest problem to solve" nearly knocked me off my chair.

When a sensible minister like Meir Sheetrit calls on the government to pick a neighborhood in Gaza and reduce it to rubble, it sounds like he's gone off the deep end.

When the Winograd Report was handed to the prime minister a loud thud shook the government compound in Jerusalem.

Although I have never eaten breakfast with Ehud Olmert, not this week or any other week, as some well-known political pundits and talkbackers have claimed, I would advise them to wait before setting up the guillotine.

The company commanders' letter calling on the prime minister to resign is as close to an attempted putsch as you can get.