Terje Roed-Larsen

Tal comes down hard on Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen for his "leftist" stance on the conflict in Israel. I had to smile reading the piece, wondering how it would have changed if Tal knew (and perhaps he does know, but he didn't let on) that Terje is the person most responsible for bringing Israel and the PLO together in 1993 in Oslo, which began a peace process that Clinton quickly took over and which died about a year ago, by all accounts, though its skelaton is still on the ground in the Territories.

More on Terje: He's quoted as saying "Israel's operation may have dismantled the physical infrastructure of terror, but this is easily rebuilt. Meanwhile, the mental infrastructure of terrorism is building up, the mentality of hate and confrontation, and this is very difficult to undo." I completely agree. While the high-grade explosives we've seen lately witness a significant terror infrastructure, I don't think Israel is being surgical enough to possibly have a net gain out of this operation: they're hurting themselves in the long run by escalating the violence.