June 13, 2012- Report on Turkish Flotilla, South Sudanese Being Deport, Pollard and Syria

State Comptroller Lindenstrauss issued his report today on the maritime takeover of the Turkish Gaza flotilla. It was scathing in its criticism of the Netanyahu government and the decision process. It is not the first time that Israeli government and Prime Ministers have been criticized for their failure employ a systematic process in making fateful decision for the country. Whatever one might think of the actions themselves it is clear that plan for taking over the ships was fatally flawed, and it seems not because there was a failure of intelligence, but rather as has happened in the passed a failure of the decision makers to properly access that intelligence. Lets hope they finally learn before fateful decisions are made on Iran

Israel has started arresting and deporting South Sudanese workers who entered the country illegally. These actions were taken against the South Sudanese only after an Israeli court declared that based on international law, now that South Sudan is free, (and not considered a war zone), it was legal to return the migrants to their homeland. The South Sudanese only make up a very small percentage of the illegal workers/refugees. Furthermore, at least until the border is sealed it seems the number of migrants who are being arrested and deported equal the number who enter the country every day.

Later today Prime Minister Peres will receive the Medal of Freedom Award from President Obama. The story of the meeting, however, has turned to be about the petition Peres is carrying requesting the release of Jonathan Pollard. President Obama is expected to reject the request, (as have all his predecessors.) Why Pollard remains in jail remains a mystery- as is the answer to the question why he was sentenced to the life term he was, for spying for a friend. Despite the time that has elapsed, and the fact that as he has remained in jail for all these years it becomes ever more clear that his sentence was not proportional to the crime, American Jews remain ambivalent about him. While most Jews will agree he should be set free, very few are willing to come out and work actively for his release. They are uncomfortable with Pollard's story, and they do not wish to remind anyone about it. I guess despite all of the successes of American Jewry, it is still the operates under the functions of a diaspora mentality- never truly confident of one''s place.

The killing continues in Syria and seems to be getting worse. One of the key problems in dealing with Syria is the connection between Syria and Iran. Trying to bring about regime change in Syria makes it more difficult to get the Iranians to agree stop their nuclear program (that not implying that they will ever agree). The simple fact is that if the Syrian regime falls, the Iranian regime will feel all that more threatened and believe that only nuclear weapons can protect it. At the moment, the stated goal is to get the Iranians to negotiate and end of their nuclear program. However, the worse the situation looks in Syria, the less likely the Iranians will be willing to agree to give up their nuclear aspirations. The solution is to push for regime change in both places. Unfortunately, doing so will only make the Russians and Chinese more reluctant to help.