On Sober Spirits And Spies

What’s there to debate? Lawrence Franklin, a “Pentagon analyst [who] was charged Wednesday with illegally passing classified information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to two members of a pro-Israel lobbying group” deserves opprobrium, and worse. What I’d like to offer is some perspective. While it shouldn’t be condoned, all governments spy on each other, friendly governments included. “Russians and Americans still spy on each” (Robert Hanssen anyone?); “peeping” is a time-honored tradition (hey, Canada?). Franklin, moreover, has done his Israeli mates no favors, unless he is unaware that some in America now share with Eurabia, Arabia, and “the executive committee of the Third World dictatorships,” otherwise known as the UN, the “perception” of Israel as the greatest threat to American security and world peace. I know; these are not the most sober spirits. While this gang bangs on about the Israeli Influence, Muslim “Charities” across the U.S. funnel money to terrorists; many of the community’s religious pillars preach war on the West from their pulpits, while pretending to promote peace; and crafty —oh so powerful —Muslim lobbying groups privately defend al-Qaida’s capo di tutti capi, while posing as moderates, and whispering sweet nothings in naïve American ears. As a softy from Washington’s Council on American-Islamic Relations put it, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.” (CAIR claims to represent moderates.) Next time you shake in your socks on an American airplane, as Middle-Eastern men strut up and down the isles unhindered, duck into toilets with cell phones and cameras, flout flight rules and intimidate terrified travelers with menacing gestures, remember to thank Muslim lobby groups for ensuring rational profiling remains illegal. (If only El-Al flew locally). There’s another small snag in the theory of Israeli subversives: Israelis didn’t attack the U.S. in 1993, 1998, 2000 and 2001; Muslim terrorists did. Journalists who neglect all the above, yet work indefatigably to depict Israel as the source of all evil, are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Worse; they’ve abnegated journalistic responsibilities.