BIRZEIT, West Bank -- Jerusalem, the casus belli of the Palestinian national struggle of liberation and the rallying cry of the Zionist movement for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, was recently described as becoming "a terror hub," a "hotbed" of violent Palestinian neighborhoods and as being "encircled" by "a security vacuum," where going into the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat "is more dangerous than the [northern West Bank] Jenin refugee camp," according to the Israeli former "defense" minister who now holds the transport portfolio, Shaul Mofaz, and the director of Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin, respectively.

One of the first puzzles that new students of philosophy at Oxford University were posed by their tutors was to say what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The answer, of course, is that the words are wrong. The definitions make no sense. If something is irresistible, then it can move any object. If something is immoveable, then the force can be resisted. But there appears to be a growing prospect of such a contradictory experiment being carried out over the skies of the Middle East in the five dangerous months that remain of the U.S. administration of George W. Bush.

It all depends on whether one is an optimist or a pessimist to argue if there will be, as promised, an "outline" for a fair conclusion to the slow-moving peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in six month's time. For a start, the belated talks have been plagued by the presence of three weak leaders at the helms in Palestine, Israel and the United States, all approaching their last days in office.

Since Sept. 11, 2001 the European–U.S. partnership in the counter terrorism field has been overall pretty good. Even countries vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq, such as France and Germany, have been cooperating with the U.S. In fact, John McLaughlin, former CIA Director, described the relationship between the CIA and its French counterparts as "one of the best in the world. What they are willing to contribute is extraordinary valuable." But if Europe is really our Ally, how come al-Qaida is NOT on the European Union's terrorist list?

One would think that Arab leaders would have learned a lesson (or two) after failing to convincingly tell the Arab side of the conflict with Israel since the establishment of the Jewish state on Arab lands in Palestine in 1948, a loss the Arabs describe as the Nakba or catastrophe. Once again the oil-rich Arab leaders are disappointingly unable so far to convince the world of the reasons, as they see them, that led to the skyrocketing price of oil which had more than doubled in one year; now over $140 a barrel.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government has been forced to acknowledge a top-secret meeting held last Friday between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Aviam Sela, the chief architect of Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, after the media got wind of the details.