Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Some 52 Of Israelis Are Skeptical That

Juan Cole 03/01/2003

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

*Some 52% of Israelis are skeptical that Israel’s new rightwing government put together by Ariel Sharon will achieve peace and prosperity. 33% do not believe it will improve the security situation at all. 31% think it might, a bit. In other words, the Israelis are pretty realistic. But question: If they know this, why put Sharon in?

*Jacques Chirac has become the first French president to visit independent Algeria (a French colony 1830-1962) since 1975. His visit signals new cooperation between the two governments. Chirac’s opposition to the American rush to war positions France for new and extended diplomatic influence in the Arab world, and perhaps this is the first sign of the new alignment. How things have changed since Eisenhower made the French get back out of Suez in 1956 and then pressured them to let Algeria go in the late ’50s. (Ike was afraid that too great a repression of the populace in order to keep them in the French empire would push Algeria into the arms of the Soviet Union). Now it is France that is trying to keep the US from adventurism in the region, fearful not of the spread of communism now but of radical Islamism, which is a significant menace to Paris and Algiers.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Regime Change: From Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump
  • War Criminal Netanyahu nominates Felon Trump for the Nobel Prize
  • Why Faith Leaders are standing up to the Largest pro-Israel Christian Lobby
  • Albanese Sanctions: Marco Rubio now Acting just Like Putin, Charging Human Rights Officials
  • Grok's MechaHitler Antisemitic Rant shows how Generative AI can be Weaponized

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved