World leaders need to act on Gaza

It is almost as if the world is begging Israel to go into Gaza with a full scale invasion. How else can one interpret the international silence and inaction in the face of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's escalating rocket assault on Sderot, the production of more long-range and sophisticated rockets by Hamas, and the continued smuggling in the huge quantities of weapons and materials to the terrorist regime.

The international community has been surprisingly good, overall, in refusing to deal with the Hamas leadership until it recognizes Israel and halts terror. It has been far less good in helping Israel address the daily rocket barrage on Sderot and environs. Where are the public statements of condemnation by world leaders? Where are the UN resolutions condemning Hamas for attacking the Jewish state from Gaza long after Israel pulled out? Where are proposals for international forces -- UN, NATO, the Quartet -- to intervene and place themselves in Gaza to prevent the rocket attacks and make it unnecessary for Israel to have to consider reentering Gaza as the only way to change the dynamic and protect its citizens.

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After the NIE: where do we go from here?

There are many caveats to the screaming headlines that the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has declared that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The caveats not only reinforce the fact that the medium-term threat from a nuclear Iran is still very much before us, but also should call into question the conclusion of many that any immediate sense of urgency should be removed from the discussion.

The caveats involve both the language of the NIE report itself and interpretations of the meaning of some of the NIE statements and conclusions.

First, despite the implication of the headlines that Iran stopped its nuclear program in 2003 until the current time, in fact there is ambiguity in the NIE as to whether Iran has continued to halt the program. Carefully using words like "high confidence" meaning quite sure based on confirmed quality sources, and "moderate confidence" which suggests plausible sources but not fully corroborated, the NIE attributes "high confidence" to its judgment that Iran halted its weapons program in 2003; and "high confidence" that this "halt lasted at least several years"; but only "moderate confidence" that Iran had not restarted its nuclear program as of mid-2007.

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