Odds & Ends

1) MSNBC reports that, “EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was time for both Sharon and Arafat to move aside. ‘These two people are both more than 75 years old and have lived this conflict for a very long time – too long if you ask me,’ Solana told (Spanish) radio. ‘It wouldn’t be bad if they step down in favor of other people.'” A) Nobody asked him. B) The unelected-to-anything Mr. Solana is himself surely old enough to know that the elected Prime Minister of a democratic country has no reason to step down when his parliamentary majority is solid.

1) MSNBC reports that, “EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was time for both Sharon and Arafat to move aside. ‘These two people are both more than 75 years old and have lived this conflict for a very long time – too long if you ask me,’ Solana told (Spanish) radio. ‘It wouldn’t be bad if they step down in favor of other people.'” A) Nobody asked him. B) The unelected-to-anything Mr. Solana is himself surely old enough to know that the elected Prime Minister of a democratic country has no reason to step down when his parliamentary majority is solid.

2) The World Tribune reported that, “Sen. Joseph Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called on the United States and the EU to send troops to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to implement a ceasefire between Israel and the PA. Biden said Arab allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia should contribute to the peacekeeping effort.” Oh, no.

3) The New Republic reports that the French film of the killing of 12-year-old Muhammad Dura in Gaza last year – widely but without evidence attributed to the IDF – “was heavily edited–from six minutes to 50 seconds – and the French won’t let anyone see the tape they didn’t air.” A 3/17 documentary on Germany’s ARD television suggests Muhammad was killed by Palestinians perhaps (according to TNR) to create a photogenic martyr. What’s more, TNR reports the PA didn’t allow an autopsy on the boy and never released the bullet that killed him for outside scrutiny. ARD has done its own forensic investigation, however, and concluded that the shot that entered Muhammad’s crouching body could not have come from the location where Israeli soldiers were positioned. ARD’s report has been covered extensively in the German press.

4) Apparently readers appreciated our uplifting list of authors and articles. Try these:

“Accepting Contradictions As A Means Of Survival,” by Zainab Al-Suwaij in the Hartford Courant (3/17)

“Israel has no choice but to defeat the terrorists,” George Melloan in The Wall Street Journal (4/2)

“Spare us from any more Middle East peace plans,” by Michael Gove in The (London) Times (4/2)

Anything by Victor Davis Hanson, but especially “History Isn’t on Palestinians’ Side” in The Wall Street Journal (4/2)

“Smash this Cult of Death,” by Amnon Dankner – Editor, Ma’ariv (4/1)

“A Season of Cynicism,” by David Brooks, senior editor Weekly Standard (4/1)

“Anger and Action,” by Michael Rubin in The New Republic Online (3/30)

“Kill a Jew for Allah,” by John Derbyshire in The National Review Online (3/22)

“A Case for Killing,” by Ralph Peters in The New York Post (4/2)

“Any Means Necessary” by Armstrong Williams in The Washington Post (4/2)