What happened to Israel's legendary ingenuity?

Whenever Israelis take over ownership of homes in east Jerusalem you can be sure that the Israel-bashing forum will have a field day. Viewers and readers of the international media will hear about alleged ugly and violent actions by Israelis toward helpless Arab inhabitants of the homes; there will be reports of household goods being damaged and carelessly cast into the street, and there will be stories of injuries to evicted children and the elderly. And of course there will be pictures and well-chosen sound bites.

No matter how justified the new owners of the homes may be, there is no way that they can take possession of their property without creating an ungodly scene and causing significant damage to Israel's international image.

Donald Macintyre, writing in The Independent, has written about the al-Kurd family from Sheikh Jarrah and their recent encounter with a group of Israelis who have apparently established their legal ownership of the al-Kurd home. Macintyre provides his readers with the whole nine yards, straight from the mouth of Mrs. al-Kurd, including her colorful description of violent, vulgar Israeli owners abusing her family, doors being smashed, a television set shattered, a refrigerator, cushions and household furniture thrown out into the rain, and a tear-jerking account of Israeli barbarism.

Macintyre even embellishes his story with the unrelated account of a distant al-Kurd family member who died from unspecified causes after a similar encounter last August. I don't know how accurate Macintyre's story is, but one thing is sure. There are two sides to it and he is only telling one.

Here's the other side. If the new Israeli owners have a court order establishing their ownership, and if the courts have ordered the eviction of the al-Kurd family, and if the family has not successfully contested the eviction order in court and has refused to vacate the property, then the Israeli owners are within their rights.

But from the perspective of Israel's national interests, is this the smart thing to do right now? There is a popular saying in Hebrew, "better to be smart than right."

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Turbulence ahead for Washington & Jerusalem

Counterpoint to:

Baker's Ghost in Cairo
"It was in the time of the former secretary of state [James Baker], two decades ago, that the United States last had a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Roger Cohen
The New York Times
June 3, 2009

Here's a question for you. Who was the previous prime minister of Israel? Before Binyamin Netanyahu. Many, including New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, will tell you that it was Itzhak Shamir. There was no Itzhak Rabin, no Ehud Barak, no Ariel Sharon, and no Ehud Olmert governments. They never happened.
 
At least that is the impression you will get from reading Cohen's latest opinion column, and those of many others in the world media who are preparing public opinion for President Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday.

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A very one-sided view

Counterpoint to:

A last chance for peace in Israel? 
"It's a sign of how desensitised Israel has become to the violence committed in its name that the potential indictment for war crimes of Livni's main rival, Shaul Mofaz, was barely an issue."

Johann Hari
The Independent (London)
September 22, 2008

Here are four interesting stories. If you bear with me, I will link them later.

The first story is rooted in the Taba negotiations when, in January 2001, the Palestinians rejected peace proposals from President Clinton and from Israel.  Two years later Yasser Arafat lamented his mistake in offhandedly rejecting the offers, but in the intervening time he and his people had launched one of the worst waves of violence and terror Israel had ever witnessed. It became known as the second intifada. 

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