Story, conflict, personalities, and lessons

The Washington Post news story on the internal deliberations over currrent Israeli policy is extremely interesting: “Sharon’s fierce means to an end.” One disputed issue is the nature of the commitment that Prime Minister Sharon made to President Bush in connection with the “road map” — apparently a commitment to end “targeted assassinations.” Israel therefore appears to have supplied the United States intelligence regarding the imminence of terrorist operations planned by targets such as al Rantisi. If true, this seems like an unwise limitation on the need to destroy the several terrrorist groups whose mission is to end the Israeli occupation of Israel.
John Podhoretz takes up these questions in his column in the New York Post: “The only path to peace.”
Barton Gellman also has an important story on Task Force 20 — the classified military unit hunting for WMD in Iraq — in the Washington Post: “Covert unit hunted for Iraqi arms.”
With history in the making every day in the wars of the Islamofascists against the United States and Israel, Richard Brookhiser’s suggestions for reinvigorating the study of history at the high school level are helpful in trying to decipher the news as well. Brookhiser proposes that the study of history be keyed to story, conflict, personalities, and lessons. His column in the Weekend section of the Wall Street Journal this morning is “Lost in the mists of time.”