corruption showering down on Prime Minister Olmert's head. Stuttering excuses for the munificent financial contributions extended to him by the Long Island-based realtor Morris Talansky, Olmert has had to pledge that if indicted he will resign, and indeed it looks as though his days are numbered. The patching together of any new coalition government in Israel could be a protracted affair.

Meanwhile, US policy in the region has sustained a humiliating rebuff as the government of Lebanon rescinds its efforts to cut back on Hezbollah's communications systems and ability to monitor all traffic at Beirut airport. With Israel in an uproar about missile salvoes on the port city of Ashkelon from within Gaza, no one will forget Hezbollah's ability to launch similar salvoes.

Yesterday, I looked South towards Israel from the Krak des Chevaliers, the greatest of the Crusaders' fortresses, looming above the Syrian coastal plain north of Damascus. TE Lawrence called it "perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world". Despite the efforts of Saladin, the Hospitallers were never dislodged

from the Krak by force. It was eventually the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Baybars, who winkled them out by negotiation in 1271, after they had held it for 162 years.

Standing on the great south tower of the Krak (actually completed by French engineers in the 1930s), I remembered General Peled's remark about Israel and the Crusaders, who held the Krak three times longer then Israel's present span.

Long-term conjecture is futile, but it is certainly true that the hawks, just as Peled and scores of other doves in recent years have charged, have not buttressed Israel's security - they have gravely compromised it. At the same time the balance of forces in the region has changed considerably from the US dominance of a generation ago.

Soon Bush will be gone; Olmert maybe sooner. Just as all new visitors to Israel are given a tour of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, perhaps all politicians pondering Israel's security and justice for Palestinians should also be given a compulsory tour of the Krak des Chevaliers.