Category Archives: Israel

Israel's Folly

Christian Right, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Terrorism

The [Pat] Robertson episode demonstrates that Israel doesn’t respond appropriately to its friends or to its enemies. Against the backdrop of Iranian incitement to genocide, with the hard-Left joining that seething cesspool of a Palestinian Street to rejoice in Sharon’s fate; at the dawn of the Age of Hamas and insecure borders, and in the context of a world that has delegitimized the Jewish State and defined it in much the same terms as Ahmadinejad has (‘criminal Zionist entity, colonial occupier’)—Israel still doesn’t know Shiite from Shinola.

The quote is from Israel’s Folly, my new column for this week. As always, comments are welcome.

Israel’s Folly

Christian Right, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Terrorism

The [Pat] Robertson episode demonstrates that Israel doesn’t respond appropriately to its friends or to its enemies. Against the backdrop of Iranian incitement to genocide, with the hard-Left joining that seething cesspool of a Palestinian Street to rejoice in Sharon’s fate; at the dawn of the Age of Hamas and insecure borders, and in the context of a world that has delegitimized the Jewish State and defined it in much the same terms as Ahmadinejad has (‘criminal Zionist entity, colonial occupier’)—Israel still doesn’t know Shiite from Shinola.

The quote is from Israel’s Folly, my new column for this week. As always, comments are welcome.

The Sovereignty of Strangers

America, Christian Right, Islam, Israel

I can’t recall who wrote this or where. All I know is that some libertarian had asserted that the evangelical leader Pat Robertson was a traitor for advising Israel against appeasing the United States of America.
Come again?
Patriots for a sane American foreign policy—myself included—ought to encourage all America’s friends to push back and do what’s in their national interest, not ours.
More so than most, libertarians know the U.S. often acts unjustly. Why then would we want our friends to prostrate themselves before us? Those of us who want the U.S. to stay solvent—and out of the affairs of others—recognize that sovereign nation-states, who resist, not enable, our imperial impulses, are the best stopgaps against hegemonic overreach.
Such libertarians generally concede the U.S. should not override the sovereignty of other nations. That some make an exception for Israel, illustrates how irrational hatred distorts principles and their consistent application.

Director of Premier Israeli Free-Market Think Tank Responds to 'Reality on the Palestinian Ground'

Free Markets, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Terrorism

Daniel Doron, director of The Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress, and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, responds to “Reality on the Palestinian Ground“:

Dear Ilana,

As usual you write brilliantly, and with incandescent moral passion. Two small remarks:

Yes, we should hold the Palestinians responsible for their actions, but we should consider (even when sentencing a murderer) extenuating circumstances.

Palestinian society was destroyed during the 1936-9 “Arab revolt” when the British for their nefarious divide-and-rule purposes established the arch terrorist Haj Amin El-Husseini as Mufti of Jerusalem. He embarked not only on a war against Jews and the British but mostly on his own people, assasinatng many of his political opponents, and making most of the Arab elites flee their country. This is why in 48 Palestinian society, deprived of its traditional legitimate leadership and at the mercy of terrorists and hired hands, could not undertake a project of state building.

The Mufti’s wholesale liquidation of any alternative leadership is also the reason why while all other Arab dictators have an opposition, albeit in exile, Araft had none. All potential opposition was simply eliminated or terrorized.

So was the Arab population. It was not only terrorized but it has been, since Oslo, subject to the most horrendous camapign of indoctrination and brainwashing (with funds donated by Europe and the US). Before Oslo hundreds of thousands of Palestinians worked in Israel, and they could have created mayhem and destruction had they tried to engage in terrorism. But terrorist incidents were far and few between until Oslo brought Arafat and his criminal gangs to the West Bank and Gaza, and until the Arab population was subject to intnese brainwashing. (Consider what three years of Geobbles indoctrination did to a nation that was reputedly very civilized!)

Another factor that is often neglected is that Palestinian factions are usually proxies of Arab nations plus Iran and Saudi privateers. They are financed by them and advance their intra-Arab rivalries. The only factor that unites them is hatred for Israel, which they exploit to advance these Arab imperialist interests, all the while betraying their own people and their best interests.

Best,
Daniel