· Sudan on UN Human Rights Commission. (Free Arab Forum) With splendid understatement, Jonathan notes that “It is very interesting to find Sudan on the UN Human Rights Commission.” The regime that actively participates in rape, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against indigenous Africans has been elected to a three-year tem on that august organization.
· Sharon weighs his options. (Safire) William Safire, channeling Ariel Sharon, foresees the Israeli Prime Minister pursuing a “modified disengagement plan”. By re-negotiating the disengagement plan with his cabinet and taking it to the Knesset later, proceeding “more slowly than [Sharon] had hoped”, Arik can allow his opponents to save face and avoid the stigma of acting unilaterally. Safire expresses his hope that Sharon will indeed choose this course.
· Sharon and the messy divorce. (Clifford D. May) Also on the subject of the Gaza disengagement plan, Cliff May argues that Arafat and other Arab leaders oppose the plan because “it would mean that after all these years, terrorism has failed – and they have failed as well.” The aging Sharon is growing impatient and understands that he must seek “not peace but only security”. This is not “rewarding terrorism”, May maintains, but defeating it.
