A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

May 18, 2008 Decision in Gaza This Week

All signals indicate that a decision is very near on whether or not to initiate amajor action in Gaza. Israeli analysts have stated that either an agreement will be reached this week on a ceasefire or Israel will attack.Israel has turned the tables on the Hamas in the indirect negotiations and the Egyptian intermediary has made it clear that either Israel's positions are accepted or Israel is likely to attack.

It is interesting how differently President Bush's speech in the Knesset has been covered in the US media versus the Israeli media. To the American media, the only concern was whether Bush was attacking Obama, and what the political implication of that could be. The Israeli media, on the other hand, considered the speech a major marker for the next President of the United States, whoever he may be on support for Israel. I recommend reading both Friday's editorial in Haaretz and the column by Yoel Marcus, also from Friday.

It is not clear whether the Lebanese will reach an agreement or not.There is some anger in the Shite world about the role of Qatar and AL Jazerah in empowering Hezbollah, instead of protecting the Sunnis. There are two interesting articles worth reading, the first in today's New York Times, the second by Michael Troten in the online issue of Commentary. Both articles talk about some of the reactions to the Shite actions of last week.