Pipes is right on two counts

Submitted by Michael (United States), Jul 28, 2008 at 12:50

Commentators are clearly entitled to comment on events outside their own countries. In fact, for foreign policy analysts it is completely impossible to do otherwise. I'm sure that Schweitzer himself has commented on US policy in Iraq from his 'safe haven' in Israel without dealing with IEDs alongside US national guardsmen.

Pipes was also right that this was a crazy trade. If Israel planned to trade with both Hezbollah and Hamas and truly wanted to help Shalit, it would have made the Shalit trade first. But now, seeing how much Hezbollah received for corpses, Hamas is sure to rachet up the price for a live person. Any negotiator with common sense would.

Strangely, the only negotiators without common sense are on the Israeli side.

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