BULLETIN No. 191

Talk to Syria By: Dennis Ross:The New Republic To date, the pressure within the Israeli defense establishment to talk to Syria has not persuaded Olmert to drop his opposition to such talks--opposition that stems in no small part from the Bush administration being dead-set against the Israelis taking up Assad on his willingness to sit down with them.
Asia Times Damascus moves to center stage The United States' anti-Syria rhetoric is being replaced by the grudging acceptance that Damascus, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, has a lot to offer on Iraq. - Sami Moubayed
Border Control / The Syrian snowball effect
Washington Times Editorial Diplomacy with the rogues Rice's dialogue with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Friday was at least in part a response to the pounding that the administration has taken for its supposed refusal to talk to rogue states like Syria.
Jerusalem Post Analysis: Assessing Syria's true intentions a tricky taskBy YAAKOV KATZ There is no doubt that both Israel and Syria are escalating the activities of each others militaries.
UN Chief in Syria to 'Post': Assad not preparing for warSays more military activity in Israel than in Syria; Israeli defense officials reject assessment; NSC head: Peace overtures genuine.
NSC chief: Syrian bid for talks with Israel is genuine
America Should Press Damascus to Let Go of Lebanon - Michael Young
Rice Offers Incentive to Damascus
Analysis: Syria-US meet at Iraq conclave
Livni and aides prepping for possibility of renewed Syria talks FM steps up efforts in light of Syrian peace overtures, intelligence Damascus may be preparing for war.
Iranians find tenuous refuge in Syria
Political refugees worry about their fate as ties strengthen between Damascus and Tehran.
Iraqi refugees bring home to their Damascus enclave Former residents of Baghdad, Fallujah or Tikrit can get a taste of home on what has come to be known as "Iraqi Street," stopping by the Baghdady Bakery for a sticky-sweet piece of carrot-pistachio marzipan.
Christian Science Monitor
Iraq's neighbors weigh next steps Participating countries - including Syria and Iran - now face the test of fulfilling promises of security and economic aid.
Debka Despite Syrian military border build-up, Israel has no plans to attack but stands ready to ward off a surprise Syrian strike

Rice: U.S. may force setting up of Hariri murder tribunal Secretary of State: We would push for setting up tribunal under Chapter 7, allow Lebanon to return to normal.
Daily Star Lebanon's future will be decided in Lebanon, not France
Beware the Siren Lebanon For a quarter-century, Lebanon has been the graveyard of Israeli politicians reckless enough to venture there.
Yedioth Ahronoth 'US pressured Israel into war' Hizbullah's Nasrallah tells Iranian TV Americans 'ordered Zionist regime to invade Lebanon last summer to serve their ambitions in region’; says Winograd report contains information on collaboration between Israel, Arab states

Wall Street Journal Move Over Olmert Will Tzipi Livni be Israel's next prime minister? By FANIA OZ-SALZBERGER
Ha’aretz The Winograd report does not address the effect of the Palestinian front on the war. Jerusalem Post
Peres: I'm willing to be PM, won't lend hand to coup
Bradley Burston: Who killed the Israeli left?
Bar’el 'The right of return will destroy us all'
Benn The meeting / Uncomfortable alliance
Rosner Too much Israel: Small, vulnerable and endangered
Editorial Saying 'no' to OlmertDefense Minister Amir Peretz has actually resigned, even if he has not taken the legal steps required to do so officially.
Yedioth Ahronoth 'US pressured Israel into war' Hizbullah's Nasrallah tells Iranian TV Americans 'ordered Zionist regime to invade Lebanon last summer to serve their ambitions in region’; says Winograd report contains information on collaboration between Israel, Arab states
US-Israel disharmony
Israel rubbing US Democrats and Republicans the wrong way, Zalman Shoval writes
Qaeda: Hamas betrayed God
Preparing for the next war
Israel's Exercise in Escapismby Uri Avnery
Lessons from Israel's Lebanon war resonate globally A new report provides a window into an increasingly insurmountable task facing democracies: winning war, regardless of military superiority
Israel's Political Storm U.S. News & World Report - By Larry Derfner
Officials: Israel too unstable to discuss Saudi initiative Int'l leaders briefed on peace plan but hold off approaching Israel until country recuperates from Winograd report's findings.
Egypt: Israeli gov't crisis delaying peace moves
The Winograd report does not address the effect of the Palestinian front on the war. Jerusalem Post
Officials: Israel too unstable to discuss Saudi initiative Int'l leaders briefed on peace plan but hold off approaching Israel until country recuperates from Winograd report's findings.
Yedioth Ahronoth PM Livni? Are we crazy?/ Landau
Hezbollah Prepared but Not Seeking New Israel War
BBC US issues Mid-East security plan The US issues a detailed plan to Israel and the Palestinians for improving security and easing limits on movement.
From Azure, Chaim Gans (Tel Aviv): Is There a Historical Right to the Land of Israel?; Michael Oren on The Second War of Independence: Fifty years later, the lessons of the Suez War are only now becoming clear; an essay on Circumcision as Rebellion: Why Judaism rejected the decrees of Nature, Fortune, and Rome;
A review of Inside Hamas: the untold story of militants, martyrs and spies; Hamas: unwritten chapters; and Hamas: politics, charity and terrorism in the service of jihad.
Palestinians’ hard choice: An interview with Sari Nusseibeh, a leading Palestinian intellectual and political figure.
Israelis call on Olmert to resign
Fatah's Armed Wing Threatens to Hit Targets Outside Territories Unless Economic Embargo Is Lifted –
Ignoring the Chaos By: Avi Issacharoff Haaretz For several weeks now the Gaza Strip has been burning. This is not a matter of fighting between Hamas and Fatah activists or actions by the Israel Defense Forces, but battles between armed groups that for the most part are identified with large clans. Nearly every day for the past two weeks ,men, women and children have been killed in Gaza.

Washington Post September Could Be Key Deadline for Iraq War Congressional leaders from both political parties are giving President Bush a matter of months to prove that the "surge" effort has turned a corner.
Washington Post At Meeting on Iraq, Doubt and Detente Nations Manage to Find a Way Forward As U.S. Meets Briefly With Iran, Syria
Could civil war in Iraq spread? Historian Niall Ferguson weighs the evidence
What's Going Right in Iraq By: John D. Negroponte The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) By now it goes without saying that sectarian conflict and extremism in Iraq cannot be solved by military means alone -- it will take national reconciliation, economic reform and development, and international support as well. And as a former ambassador to Iraq, I know how difficult it is to create an alternative to coercive violence in a country that has lived under these conditions for decades.
Beating an orderly retreat By Francis Fukuyama It is no longer a question of if or when the U.S. leaves Iraq, but how.
Editorial Bring them home Iraqis need political reconciliation, not occupation; and U.S. troops shouldn't referee a civil war.

The case for strikes against Iran Diplomacy alone won't stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. By Louis Rene Beres
Financial Times West open to more flexibility with Iran The gesture comes ahead of an expected meeting this week between Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, and Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, in an attempt to restart the diplomatic process.
Los Angeles Times On Iraq, Gates may go his own way The Pentagon chief's recent comments seem to run counter to the message from the White House.
Republican leader calls for a fall deadline for Iraq plan Rep. John Boehner of Ohio embraces setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government and requiring Bush to provide assessments.
Iran vs. the Saudis By: Peter Brookes New York PostIraq is quickly becoming the latest battlefield in the proxy war between the Middle East's rising powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Reporter: Fall 2007 could see an 'uptick' in US-Iran tensions
Al Ahram An Iranian-Arab Alliance? - Ayman El-Amir
BBC Iran FM attacks US policy in Iraq Iran launches a strong attack on US policy in Iraq, as hopes of US-Iranian high-level talks are dashed.
Time Iran: 'We are Ready to Talk'

Editorial Denial and Democracy in Egypt With so many other things to worry about in the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush also seem to have lost their earlier fervor for Egyptian democracy.
International Crisis Group Sudan Darfur: Revitalising the Peace Process