August 12, 2006
Government Versus the People

 In the early hours of Friday morning, fifteen jeeps headed out of Tel Aviv toward the embattled north. They were laden with supplies donated by private individuals: Blankets and food, medicine, books and games, electronic equipment, stretchers. All over the country, this phenomena is being repeated. Where is the government of Israel in all this?

August 11, 2006
Olmert Has to Go

 The final chapter in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's demise is now being played out. After the cabinet finally allowed the army to launch the massive land operation that would have encircled southern Lebanon in three days and changed the rules in the region dramatically, Olmert halted the operation. At first, he did so for 24 hours. Then, for another 48 hours. And now, he has extended it for an undefined period.

August 10, 2006
Netanyahu's Comeback

As the anger over the ineptitude of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government grows, Likud Party Chairman Binyamin (Bibi)  Netanyahu's star is on the rise.  He is everywhere. He's fighting the hasbara war in England and in the United States, supporting the government, and doing everything that he can do to help.

August 7, 2006
Time to Pounce

There has been a dramatic escalation in the number of missiles the Hizbullah fired into Israel in the last two days. It jumped from an average of 100 missiles a day to over 200 missiles a day. The results have been 15 Israelis dead - many of them Israeli-Arabs - and nearly 200 wounded, plus major damage to property. The military analysts and commentators foresaw this sudden escalation.

August 1, 2006
Acute Stomach Ache

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, has been hospitalized twice in the last three days for acute stomachaches. Nothing serious is wrong, he simply has a stomach inflammation, according to the spokespeople of the IDF and the hospital. But the uneasy stomach rumblings throughout the country are a sign that something is very wrong in the way that this war is being conducted.

July 28, 2006
Back to the Basics

Nearly two centuries ago, Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz set out the rules of modern military engagement. The attacking force, Clausewitz stipulated, must outnumber the defending force by  three to one. Why? In order to outweigh the three advantages of the defenders: control of the terrain; established defenses; and intimate knowledge of the area. Time and time again, the brilliance of these Prussian rules of combat has been demonstrated - and now it is becoming evident that they also apply to the current engagement in Lebanon.

July 25, 2006
Finance Ministry Versus the North

While Israelis in the Galilee and all over Israel have come together to aid the war effort, it seems as if the Government of Israel, and especially the officials at the Finance Ministry, are on a different planet.

July 23, 2006
A Hush of Determination

For the last week, since the battle in the north started, there has been a kind of hush among the ERETZ staff. It is the same hush that is sensed in the streets of Israel – from the most secure to the ones under fire today. It is the hush of determination, of unity of purpose, of the consensus that Israelis, like other people, are entitled to live a normal life.

July 22, 2006
Hizbullah in Proportion

The Israeli press tends to portray Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah as a strategic monster and a planning genius. The bellicose threats he makes on his own television station are repeated and analyzed in the Israeli media. The pundits panic the public as they debate when and how Nasrallah's threats will be carried out. In the process, the images of Nasrallah and the Hizbullah have grown completely out of proportion to reality.

July 15, 2006
The Shi'ite-Sunni Genie is out of the Bottle

Even though the rocket attacks on the Galilee are still continuing, the Hizbullah is finding it more and more difficult to launch them. The Hizbullah headquarters in Beirut has been destroyed, communications with southern Lebanon have been severed, and this morning Hizbullah centers in Tripoli were attacked. The next stage is to clean up southern Lebanon, ending the domination of the Hizbullah and its supporters - the Shi'ite population.

July 14, 2006
Changing the Rules

For the last decade, the Islamic extremists have set the rules of the game of terror. They are allowed to perpetuate any atrocity that they can come up with, but the free world has to abide by the rules of moderation, proportional actions, and all the shackles that Islam, through the Western world's organizations, can heap on its prey. Israel has finally decided to put an end to the charade.

July 13, 2006
War on the Lebanese Border

Six  years ago, Israel retreated from Southern Lebanon to the international border - complying with all the whims and even wild interpretations of where the border used to be, by the Hizbullah and the United Nations.

Summer 2005
Disturbing Facts

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, 30 different governments have held office. They have encompassed 629 ministers, including 39 ministers of finance, 38 ministers of defense, and 71 ministers without portfolio. Only two of the governments of Israel have managed to survive in office for the full four-year term. The average has been less than two years, which means that 19 governments didn't even make the average.

ERETZ 99
Borders and Frontiers

108 years after the first Zionist Congress in Basel, the exact borders of Israel still have not been determined. The British offered Uganda and, when this was rejected; suggested the Sinai Peninsula. Then, 14 years later in 1947, the Balfour Declaration offered Palestine as the homeland of the Jewish people.