A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

October 23 , 2007 Anniversary of Rabin Assasination/ Iran and Europe

Tonight is the 12th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.  Too much of the public discussion on the assassination has not been on the work and life of Rabin, but on the whether the assassin should be freed.  A study done on how this day is commemorated in schools proved that it depends totally on what school a student attends.  In national secular school students learn about his life and what happened to him, in the national religious and Haredi schools there is little or no observance of the event. 
 
Prime Minister Olmert completed his European trip today with a meeting in London with British Prime Minister Brown.  Brown, like his French counterpart, supported Olmert’s quest for stronger sanction against Iran.  The Europeans and the Americans seem to be working in unison to convince the rest of world to go along with stronger sanctions.  President Bush is making clear statements that indicate that if Iran does not stop he will take military actions.  France and England are hoping that the threat of military action will be enough to convince Russia and others to go along with the sanctions, otherwise the Americans might go ahead with war.  
 
Since we are not sure what the true motivation behind Russian President Putin’s action, it is not clear if this line of reasoning will work.  It is interesting to watch the reaction in the greater Arab world to both the threats against Iran and to whatever happened in Syria, Iran’s one ally in the Middle East, or more correctly the lack of any reaction.  The Sunni Arab world shares the interest with Israel and the balance of the West that Shiite Iran should not get nuclear weapons.
 
A member of the Syrian parliament today claimed that in the next war Syrian missiles will devastate Israel.  He also threatened to destroy Israel’s reactor in Dimona as retribution for Israel’s earlier attack.  This is the first time in decades that an attack on Dimona has publicly been threatened