Category Archives: Israel

Olmert’s Dignified Departure

Israelis are always kicking bums out of the Knesset and calling elections. This is what’s on the cards now that Ehud Olmert has indicated he would resign.

Olmert made a dignified statement in which he said “he had satisfactory answers to the numerous corruption accusations that have been leveled against him, but nonetheless bowed to the inevitable and signaled the end of his hold on power.”

The following was quite poignant:

“I want to make this clear: I am proud to be a citizen in a nation in which a prime minister can be investigated like any citizen. The prime minister is not above the law, but he is in no way below it.”

So why are our Top Dogs never “investigated”—or, better, impeached? How do we institute some of that Israeli magic?

Not possible. As an ex-Israeli I can tell you that Israelis are anti-authoritarian. Left, right: it doesn’t matter; they all seek to unseat their overlords every now and then. Americans are more inclined to genuflect to government.

Who will be next? Likud, like the GOP, has been destroyed, so I don’t know how Bibi Netanyahu will get in again.

So will it be Ehud Barak? Barak is a sort of Israeli Jim Webb, affiliated with Labor, but a highly decorated, tough military man. I like him.

Updated: Poor Baby: CNN Bleats About the Bulldozer Terrorist

Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinian Authority, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Terrorism

CNN’s Jack Cafferty was not happy with the label Israelis aptly applied to the man who barreled down a busy avenue in Jerusalem in a bulldozer, crushing and killing innocent bystanders: “Palestinian terrorist.” I guess that excessively demonizes this demon.

Cafferty, who features on Blitzer’s “Situation Room” with one of those Magic Daily Questions that must wow viewers, registered his displeasure. He wanted to hear more about what would possibly drive an otherwise good man to be so mean. Hey, ever hear of unadulterated evil? Cafferty then reached for that instant exculpatory construct: the so-called “mental disease.”

The of diseasing of behavior is now so thoroughly ingrained it has usurped right and wrong.

Accordingly, when people perpetrate evil, those who’ve habituated to these false categories toss free will to the wind. Since the Palestinian terrorist did a monstrous thing, liberals attribute his actions to causes. To perpetrate evil, one surely must be “mentally ill.” When a person does good things, those of this lax, irrational mindset attribute his actions to choice. They acknowledge free will and human agency if — and only if — adaptive actions are involved.

Read “Evil, Not Ill”.

Update: The contagion is spreading. MSNBC has placed the word “terrorist” in scare quotes, either “to distance the writer from the material being reported,” or “to indicate that it is someone else’s terminology.” Among MSM twits, “terrorist” is clearly a controversial term for a terrorist. It works for me.

Updated: Israel: Role Model For America

America, IMMIGRATION, Israel

This excerpt is from my new WND.com column, “Israel: Role Model For America”:

[T]he majority that dare not speak its name is on the wane.

“A couple of election cycles down the road and [Anglo-Americans] will comprise less than half the population. If mass immigration continues at current levels, predicts the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2050, approximately 130 million people will have been added to the United States, mostly from the Third World. Embittered Americans may still cling to guns and God, as their founding fathers did, but they will no longer decide elections.

Ironically, Bill Clinton has spoken glowingly about the prospects of the demise of the very historical majority upon which his wife’s candidacy now depends. Likewise, Barack Obama would hardly be inconsolable. If his immigration policies are any indication, McCain, to whom Bush has passed the baton, has also embraced this end-of-days scenario.

Israel hasn’t. The plucky Jewish state can teach the US a thing or two about cultural and creedal survival. Israel has endured to celebrate its sixtieth birthday in so small part because it has rejected American style immolation by immigration…”

Comments are welcome.

Update (May 17): To the extent the discrimination accusations come from elements on the American Right, we must take it to mean that this faction denies Israel the selective immigration policy it advocates for the U.S.—one that favors the founding people.

American Jewry is another faction that contradicts itself on Israel. Jews, who generally defend Israel, like to insist that it is a pluralistic, multicultural society. They ought to practice some honesty. If Jews are prepared to acknowledge Israel has a right to retain its Jewish character and choose who will be admitted to the polity, they must concede the same right to the Europeans and to the English-speaking peoples.

Israel Rights Its Wayward Leaders

Israel, Justice

As Israel celebrates its 6oth birthday, it is also conducting an ongoing investigation into the master of ceremonies: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

This is what I admire about the place in which I grew up: No authority is above the law, especially not the most powerful politicians in the land.

Americans think that because their top-tier leaders remain untouched, they’ve probably above board. Not so: It’s just that the American presidency and the cabinet are impenetrable. They’re allowed to take shelter behind the Scooter-Libby minions who take the fall for them.