| Shimon Peres is no Richard Nixon Gregory Joseph Bownik (18 July 2001) I was surprised to read in the Jerusalem Post this past week that Shimon Peres is assuring the Palestinians and Egypt's Mubarak that Israel has no intention of trying to topple Arafat's regime. He also told Mubarak that, "war is not an option for Israel, not with Syria or with any other country in the area." Peres' statements only make Israel appear weak in the eyes of the Arab states and the rest of the world. On the other hand, former U. S. president Richard Nixon would use a much different strategy. The book "Nixon's Ten Commandments of Statecraft: His Guiding Principles of Leadership and Negotiation" reveal how he would have dealt with a similar situation. Guiding principle number VI is entitled "Never let your adversary underestimate what you would do in a response to a challenge. Never tell him what you would not do." This concept is quite contradictory to Peres' goodwill gestures of peace in the face of continued terror attacks on the citizens of Israel. If Richard Nixon had conducted foreign policy 30 years ago as Peres does now, America would not be the superpower that it is today. Finally, there have been numerous complaints about how Israel has handled its public relations in the past few months. However, I think its handling of foreign policy and statecraft need to improve dramatically. Consequently, If Israel is to prosper as a nation in the 21st century it will have to dump its policy of appeasement and rely on the concept of peace through strength (i.e. political strength in this case) if it s to achieve a real and lasting peace. Even a "cold peace" as former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls it, is better than what can be achieved through Peres' policy of appeasement. Sincerely, Gregory Joseph Bownik |
The Case Agianst Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz 
Coming from England and particularly from the BBC, MUST BE SEEN VIDEO! ANOTHER MUST SEE VIDEO |