BULLETIN No.165

Bashar al-Assad's Peace Offensive Patrick Seale
Why the world loves Syria Asia Times
Shift on Syria, Iran discussed
Rice: Syria Is a 'Dangerous State Behaving in a Dangerous Manner'
Blair urges world to engage Iran, Syria
Syria Comment Why the Barak-Asad, Golan Deal Failed” by Swisher
Diehl How Bush and Olmert Could Help Each Other Imagine Ehud Olmert emerging from the White House to announce that Israel is prepared to explore peace with Syria. It might not turn the ugly tide in the Middle East. But it would, at least, get Israel and the United States back in the fight
Lebanon crisis ignites wider 'cold war' Five Shiite ministers quit Lebanon's government this weekend, ending talks and sparking political upheaval
As Hezbollah Seeks Power, Lebanon Is Feeling Edgy
Talks Collapse in Lebanon as Shiites Vacate the Cabinet
Hizbollah ministers quit Lebanon’s cabinet
Lebanon crisis as Hizbullah quits government
Hezbollah’s missiles back in Lebanon
Israeli general quits over Lebanon war
IHT Southern Lebanon's deadly crop What the Lebanese farmers need most of all is financial compensation for their crop losses this year and until the unexploded ordnance is cleared and they can safely farm their land and resume production.

Editorial International force for Gaza
Rosner The Olmert-Bush meeting / Uncertainty and paralysis
Washington Institute When Bush Meets Olmert: New Political Contexts in Washington and Jerusalem
UPI Analysis: Bush, Olmert, Iran and Palestine
The Times Leader Back to Palestine Only America can move matters forward in the Middle East
Christian Science Monitor Truce with Israel over, says Hamas head after Beit Hanoun deaths Israel's prime minister 'very distressed,' and calls Gaza shelling 'technical mistake.
Boston Globe The agony of Gaza
EVEN BEFORE Israeli shelling killed 19 Palestinian civilians on Wednesday in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, lucid observers on either side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could foresee the inevitability of just such a horror. Until that conflict is resolved with a mutually acceptable sharing of land and recognition of political sovereignty, it will go on producing one massacre of innocents after the other.
Anatomy of an Alliance In New Middle East, Tests for an Old Friendship By STEVEN ERLANGER The Democratic sweep has created concerns in Israel that the administration will turn to compromise with Iran.

Washington Post Defense department to Reevaluate Iraq Plan Pentagon is reviewing the military's strategy to determine "what's going wrong and should be changed" to attain U.S. objectives in Iraq.
Washington Post Panel May Have Few Good Options to Offer Group will meet with president to chart a new course, with the goal of stabilizing the country and possibly withdrawing troops. Bipartisan Group's Plan Expected in Dec.
Zakaria: What the Baker Commission is Ignoring
Time The Realists Take Charge
Searching for an Exit Plan A new team, made up of some old Bush family friends, will try to help the President find a way out of the Iraq mess. Will this family intervention succeed?
Los Angeles Times Democrats to seek phased exit from Iraq Party is set to call for a military pullback within four to six months, part of an agenda aimed at overhauling American policy in the Middle East
Democrats say will push for Iraq withdrawal
Editorial Democrats and Iraq Talking About Iraq By DAVID BROOKS (free)
Weekly Standard Bush's Iraq Legacy What kind of Iraq will he bequeath to his successor?by Robert Kagan & William Kristol
Weekly Standard Doubling Down in Iraq Warfare isn't like business.by William J. Stuntz
New York Times Military Team Undertakes a Broad Review of the Iraq War and the Campaign Against Terror By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Helena Cobban America's Iraq policy after the elections
Democrats, Engaging Bush, Vow Early Action Over Iraq
New York Times Military Team Undertakes a Broad Review of the Iraq War and the Campaign Against Terror By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Financial Times Bush must call for reinforcements in Iraq
President George W. Bush has just over two years left in office - still time to find the successful strategy that will define his legacy, argue Robert Kagan and William Kristol
Editorial A Consensus on Iraq President Bush and Democrats say they want to find common ground on the war. They can.
Monica Duffy Toft: Iraq Is Gone. Now What? Some 3 1/2 years after the U.S. invasion, most scholars and policy analysts accept that Iraq is now in a civil war. But many policymakers have not been willing to face up to the consequences. The key question is how Iraq will be stabilized.
BBC US army 'to suggest Iraq changes' US military leaders are set to recommend changes in strategy on Iraq, America's top military officer says.
Washington Post Tall Afar's Journey On the road to stability, Iraqi city seen as a model in curbing violence continues to face daily challenges
Facing the realities of Iraq Chicago Tribune
The new realism on Iraq The end of the Rumsfeld-Cheney axis in Washington will lead to a decisive change of policy in Baghdad.

Asia Times Iran the key in US change on Iraq A Democratic Congress and a pragmatist in charge of the Pentagon pave the way for a new approach toward the United States' vexing problems with Iraq and Iran. First, though, President George W Bush has to accept that without Tehran, the US cannot win in Iraq. And as important, any Iranian help must be linked to its nuclear program. Trita Parsi
To persuade Iran, back talks with sanctions LEE FEINSTEIN AND MICHAEL LEVI Imposing sanctions on Iran may delay the day negotiations begin, but they will make future talks more likely to contain Tehran's nuclear weapons program.
Daily Telegraph Iraqi terrorists 'are supported by Iran'
Leader Hobbling Iran Can we be certain that Iran would not tip its auxiliaries' weapons with nuclear warheads?Neither Britain nor America can mount an argument to invade Iran, but such steps as imposing tougher sanctions and seizing assets should be taken now before it is too late.
The Times Iran 'must start to fear' Israel if it fails to halt nuclear plan
Minister: Israel must be ready to stop Iranian nukes 'at all costs'
Iran offers to arm enemies of Israel

Democracy and the Middle East: Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia (PDF; 181 KB)Source: UK Parliament Library
Strategy Report Vol.2, No.15: How Do Arabs Perceive the West?Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies
In more fluid Mideast, what now for the US?
Regime-change blowback For at least 50 years, the US has pursued a policy of belligerent regime change in the Middle East that time and again has suffered from unforeseen consequences, or "blowback". The results of the US mid-term elections indicate that the American people have realized that this has happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The result: regime change at home. - Henry C K Liu
Ha’aretz The Lame-Duck Syndrome By: Akiva Eldar It is becoming clear to Bush and his conservative bedfellows that getting out of the Iraqi hell will be a lot harder than getting into it. A U.S. flight from Iraq will likely turn that country into a springboard for Iran - an oil power that brandishes a nuclear and terrorist threat - to encroach across the Middle East. All that will remain of Bush's democratization vision will be a nightmare of the assault mounted by Shi'a religious fanatics, armed with weapons of mass destruction, on the moderate Sunni regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Daily Star The Four Occupations Smothering the Middle East By: Ghassan Arab societies are occupied in four ways: Rulers occupy freedoms, religious authorities occupy the mind, colonialists occupy territory, and local militias occupy the street.
Daily Star Now to overhaul all Middle East policy By Rami G. Khouri