The Week That Was

1. The resignation of John Bolton as US Ambassador to the UN. From the Heritage Foundation, the words of Anne Bayefsky:

"In the midst of this display of visceral hatred of the Jewish state and the Jewish people, inimical to everything the UN was created to oppose, came a singularly powerful voice for reason, dignity and honesty – Ambassador John Bolton. The crowd assembled in the General Assembly hall was hostile to the man and to the country he represents. But Ambassador Bolton took the podium and spoke with no rancor and no double-talk. Here is part of what he said: 'This problem of anti-Israel...is endemic to the culture of the United Nations. It is a decades-old, systemic problem that transcends the whole panoply of UN organizations and agencies.... The consequences of this persistent, unconstructive, biased approach are painfully clear - not one single Palestinian is helped and the United Nations continues to be discredited by its inability to confront...the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a serious, responsible manner.' Nobody clapped – in contrast to the applause which the same crowd had lavished on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when he referred to President Bush this past September as the devil. John Bolton, however, wasn't looking for accolades. In a room where the US has one vote among 192 states, he simply spoke truth to power. 'We believe that the United Nations is ill served when its members seek to transform the organization into a forum that is little more than a self-serving and polemical attack against Israel or the United States.' The strength of his conviction and the veracity of his message reverberated around the room. Ambassador Bolton used his role to explain what America stands for and what it does not. This is exactly what makes an ambassador great, and United States UN Ambassador Bolton one of the greatest."
—Anne Bayefsky, Hudson Institute, 11/20/06

2. The admission by incoming US Secretary of Defense that Israel , breaking the convention that Israel has an ambiguous nuclear weapons policy, and the US doesn't interfere with this. From Ha'aretz:

Incoming U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a Senate committee on Thursday that Israel has nuclear weapons, and that this partially explains Iran's motiviation to acquire nuclear weapons.

"They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons - Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he told the Senate committee during his confirmation hearing.

This was said during a confirmation hearing where the nominee is normally extra careful with his/her words.

3. The Iraq Study Group released its findings. One of the main recommendations was to coopt the Syrian and Iranian terror masters in an effort to reduce terrorism and chaos in Iraq (keywords "fox", "guard", "chicken coop"). Now I am wondering if the US will handle the Iraqi security keys to Maliki, or to Ahmadinejad and Assad.

Further down in the recommendations, the realists propose that a peace agreement between Israel and its neighbours - Palestinians and Syria - will solve the problems of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. The Madrid Conference all over again. And they are the realists.

Part of the peace agreement will include considerations such as Israel returning the Golan Heights and negotiating on the "right of return".

Jerusalem Post here:

... the Iraq Study Group report released Wednesday that called for a Madrid-style peace conference as well as direct Israeli-Syrian negotiations that could lead to a return of the Golan Heights.

ABC News Online here:

"This report is worrisome for Israel, particularly because, for the first time, it mentions the question of the 'right of return' for the Palestinian refugees of 1948," the [senior Israeli] official said, who declined to be named.

Others disagree with the idea, including a blogging US soldier:

The Iraq Survey Group’s findings or rather, recommendations are a joke and could have only come from a group of old people who have been stuck in Washington for too long. The brainpower of the ISG has come up with a new direction for our country and that includes negotiating with countries whose people chant “Death to America” and whose leaders deny the Holocaust and call for Israel to be wiped from the face of the earth. Baker and Hamilton want us to get terrorists supporting countries involved in fighting terrorism! If I am the only one who finds something wrong with that then please let me know because right now I feel like I am the only person who feels this way.

I guess this soldier will never be a politician or part of talkfests like the Iraq Study Group. Which itself is not a criticism.

On the bright side, however, the report was welcomed in some quarters, as Ha'aretz reports:

Syria welcomed the Iraq Study Group report on Thursday, praising its emphasis on the need to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict and reiterating that Syria's priority is to regain the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
...
The Syrian official said the report was "positive in dealing with the role of Iraq's neighbors in helping to bring about security and stability in Iraq," the agency said.

I look forward to next week.