Four years ago Thomas Friedman described outgoing Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin as a fanatical moderate:

What I have always admired about Mr. Beilin is that he is a fanatical moderate — as committed to his moderation as the extremists are to their extremism. In a Middle East where extremists tend to go all the way and moderates tend just to go away, the example that he and his Palestinian partners are setting is critical. It shows that civil society in Israel and the West Bank is still alive and refuses to give in to pessimism. But they need, and deserve, courage and help from America now too.

The subject at hand was the Geneva Accord. It was about Beilin, then out of government, freelancing in diplomacy in order to undermine the political standing of the elected government of Israel.

Now Dr. Beilin is moving on a again. He’s leaving the Meretz party and Ha’aretz has pulled out a new oxymoron.

There is probably no one else in Israeli politics like Yossi Beilin - a brave weakling, a leader who never swayed the enthusiastic masses, and yet who still managed to carry away the center of the political map and get it to adopt his political path.

Although Ha’aretz meant that last part in a complimentary fashion, I see it as his condemnation. Who remembers 14 years ago? In 1993 Beilin was way ahead of the curve. He was pushing for a two state solution when even PM Rabin wasn’t. Who would have believed then that what was extreme leftism would become mainstream centrism of 2007?

Beilin has accomplished a lot. But instead of going to the people he’s worked behind the scenes to bring his ideas to fruition. He was almost certainly in contact with the then outlawed PLO in 1992 in a successful attempt to bring down the Shamir government and bring Labor to power. That assured that the Oslo Accords would come to be.

He was in Baltimore in 1996 speaking at Baltimore Hebrew University. Despite his controversial nature, the hosts made sure that he would only take pre-screened questions. (Given that the man is known as an intellectual, it was astonishing that he was too intellectually timid to take unscreened questions from the crowd.) When someone spoke out of turn and asked about Palestinian violations of Oslo he minimized them and emphasized Israeli “violations.” The Palestinian violations, though, went to the heart of the agreement. The Israeli ones were, at worst, procedural. (But even then he wasn’t as extreme as his hosts who were members of APN.)

The Geneva Accord was a somewhat less successful attempt to subvert the government of Israel. But it still put the Sharon government on the diplomatic defensive. Never mind that Beilin couldn’t scrounge up enough votes to stay in power.

Instead of making his case to Israelis. He made it to Europe, to the media, to the diplomatic corps and most damaging of all to the Palestinians.

Yossi Beilin is a very smart man. And he’s accomplished a lot. But he’s done it by evading the rules that govern individuals. He considers himself and his causes to be above the law. He has caused incalculable harm to Israel’s security and image in doing so. But that has never stopped him. Nor has he been stopped by his lack of popularity.

So if you need an oxymoron to describe Yossi Beilin how about an “anti-democratic democrat.” Democracy to Beilin is nicety that need not be observed by those who, like him, know better.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Well Haveil Havalim #145 is UP!

Given that it’s the 3rd anniversary edition you might be interested in some past milestones.

Here’s what the 1st edition looked like.
Here’s the 1st anniversary edition.
Here’s the second anniversary edition

The categories this time include

Channukah
Politics
Israel
Judaism
History
Torah
Humor
Misc
Media

And it features posts on:

The inquisition in the new world

Reporting from enemy territory

Returning to Shechem

Perspectives on Channukah

Criticizing Tutu

Another work accident

and much, much more.

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich reports:

Tel Aviv University has hit the jackpot, with three of its scientists included in the list of 50 of the world’s leading innovators in the coming issue of one of the world’s leading science magazines, Scientific American.Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of TAU’s faculty of exact sciences and his research assistant Dr. Itay Baruchi were chosen for their innovative work in brain research and their success in creating a memory- and information-processing neurochip made of living neurons. Ben-Jacob told The Jerusalem Post he was very happy his and Baruchi’s work was being recognized, especially since when he first sent an article on it for publication to the prestigious journal Nature along with recommendations from three Nobel Prize laureates, it was rejected on the grounds of “not being of general interest.” However, last spring, it was published in the American Physical Society’s journal Physical Review.

Prof. Beka Solomon was selected for the development of a novel therapeutic approach in the form of an experimental nasal spray for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, based on friendly bacterial viruses that are able to overcome the drawbacks of other ongoing approaches.

Israelis have been making the list for the past few years.

This is the sixth year that the journal’s board of editors has selected the 50 top innovators. No other Israelis were included in the 2008 list, and only two Israelis were previously on the list; they were Dr. Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion (2006), Prof. Ehud Shapira of the Weizmann Institute of Science (2006) and Prof. Micha Asher of the Hebrew University (2004).

Science might still take a back seat to Israel hatred and politics.

The Israeli edition of Scientific American, produced by ORT-Israel, is due to publish the list in February, but it isn’t known whether the Arabic version published in Kuwait will choose to omit the Israeli achievement.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Israeli Intelligence Estimate is being previewed by Ynet. Some of the more interesting tidbits:

Israel’s strategic position has improved in the last year- but with it also the military capabilities of its enemies: the Qassam threat has worsened- and a potential hudna will only serve Hamas; Syria is waiting to “get even” but is not expected to start a war; Iran is likely to procure a nuclear bomb by 2009 and the American NIE leaves Israel almost completely alone in the campaign to stop the Persian menace. Ynet reveals the highlights of the Israeli Intelligence Estimate

That’s the overall view, but here’s some very interesting data on the Lebanon War:

The second reason for Israel’s improved capacity for deterrence: Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah have analyzed the results of the Lebanon war and agreed that launching a projectile offensive against the Israeli home front will harm them and their interests more than they will harm Israel.

Iran, for example was surprised by Israel’s ability to wipe out Hizbullah’s entire long-range rocket arsenal in less than an hour, long before the organization could launch even a single ‘Zilzal.’ Furthermore - in a development published here for the first time - the Israeli Air Force was able, with the support of ground forces, to destroy all of Hizbullah’s medium-range rocket launchers (220mm and 306mm) after they were used once or twice.

Tehran had, in the past, provided Hizbullah with an array of heavy rockets, to be used against Israel should Iran’s nuclear facilities be struck. The near-total destruction of this launching system in the wake of the “local provocation” which Nasrallah initiated in July 2006, stirred a great anger in Iran as well as a reevaluation of its relations with Hizbullah.

That’s very good news. And the deterrence capability was only strengthened by Israel’s raid on the Syrian Mystery Plant (a.k.a. North Korean nuke factory). Apparently, Hezballah is now allowed out only with Iranian Guard supervision:

In the end Iran, along with Syria, agreed to replenish and expand the rocket array in Lebanon – but Hizbullah would henceforth have to receive explicit permission from Iran before firing a single rocket. Representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon have now been charged with supervising the execution of these orders.

Tehran, it is believed in Israel, will only grant this permission if they believe it will serve Iran’s strategic interests - highly unlikely in the next year or two.

There’s a but. Go read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the Syrians have registered the extent of damage Israel sowed in the Shiite Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut and on the Lebanese road system during the war and have come to the conclusion that their national infrastructure would likely suffer irreversible damage should they instigate a war with Israel before obtaining a more reliable anti-aircraft defense system.

However, they’re pissed off, big-time, over the loss of the Mystery Plant. It’s that Arab pride thing. Really. The whole culture needs to go home and grow a little.

The third most serious threat, the report says, is Hamas in Gaza. It is the least critical from a strategic point of view and does not necessarily pose an existential threat. However, the intelligence ranks urged Israel to deal with it as soon as possible as – opposed to the other, hypothetical, threats – it is already wreaking havoc on the lives of Israelis in the south.

The rocket threat from Gaza will only grow next year, the officals say, as terror groups work to improve the range and shelf-life of their arsenal.

Yeah, we’ve been writing about that one for a while now.

It’s good to read some hopeful news for a change. But the next year or two is fraught with potential existential threats for Israel. It would be much better to see some of the dictatorships in the region replaced with democracies. Too bad that won’t happen in my lifetime.