this week, in the form of a guest piece by Dimi Reider and Aziz Abu Sarah, Israeli and Palestinian bloggers respectively, claiming that Netanyahu held “two possible trump cards” in dealing with the protests: “a sudden breakthrough in the negotiations to free the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, held captive in Gaza, or a sudden escalation of armed conflict.”"} 6d:{"position":17,"content":"Some trump cards."} 6e:{"position":18,"content":"Indeed, that claim attributes a remarkably high degree of malevolence to Netanyahu, as if he were not concerned about Schalit until now, and would only bend to Hamas’s demands and free hundreds of terrorists to save his political hide; or that he is willing to spill blood – Palestinian and Israeli – merely to detract attention from protest leader Daphne Leef."} 6f:{"position":19,"content":"There is, of course, another option, one that Reider and Abu Sarah didn’t seem to consider: that he could come up with an earthshattering, hurdle-breaking peace initiative, the type of initiative that also would divert attention from Leef – the same type of initiative, for instance, that Sharon carried out six years ago this month with the withdrawal from Gaza."} 70:{"position":20,"content":"Then, too, there were cynics among us (though their words appeared less often in the op-ed pages of elite US newspapers) who claimed Sharon’s motive was a desire to deflect attention from his mounting legal problems, and to keep his son Omri out of jail."} 71:{"position":21,"content":"Those claims, too, attributed a high degree of malice to an Israeli leader, insinuating – no, actually coming out and saying – that he was willing to destroy living communities, forever disrupt lives and place neighboring towns and cities in constant rocket range, just to keep his son out of prison (something that didn’t work in any event)."} 72:{"position":22,"content":"But so goes the discourse in, and about, this country. Everyone is too smart by a half. Sharon can’t leave Gaza because he bel

Diplomacy: Where demos and diplomacy intersect

The demonstrations of the past few weeks have revealed issues everyone feels, and will not disappear.