Robert Lewis, the editor of Arts and Opinion has an excellent short editorial on the situation in Gaza, which contains the following passage. It summarizes nicely the sheer imbecility of Hamas and the good people of Gaza who voted for them.
Let us hypothesize a small man, weighing 150 pounds, who is unarmed. Facing him is an Arnold Schwarzenegger type, 250 pounds of sinew and muscle, who also has a machine gun slung over his broad shoulders. Since the two don’t like each other, you would expect the smaller man, as an act of self-preservation, to act in such a way so as not to rile the bigger man.
But instead, throwing caution and IQ to the wind, the little man begins throwing rocks — some of which are sharp enough to lacerate — at the bigger man. He repeats the rock throwing the next day and then the next, seemingly intent on making a rite of a wrong. A neutral observer would conclude that only someone intellectually deficient would expect his bigger and more heavily armed adversary, now bleeding, to do nothing indefinitely, that at some point the big man is going to say enough is enough and pick up the little guy and hurt him bad, which is what he is doing now, in Gaza – without apology.
This bizarre contest of mindsets in the valley of Elah begs the question, what prompted the little man to act so irrationally? What does he hope to gain by irritating to the point of violence the self-evidently more capable and stronger man? Based on the thus far unequivocal results of the encounter, one must conclude that the little guy was not in his right mind and/or someone else had already got hold of his mind, like Iran et al, and bade him do his dirty work.
Read the whole piece.
take the analogy a step further, how would one want to help the little man whom you perceive (rightly or wrongly) is being bullied? would you spend all your time criticizing the strong man or would you advise the little, mentally incompent man to try to agree to some sort of compromise that would get the strong one to stop pounding his face to a bloody pulp from time to time?
when you are dealing with someone who is willing to die for his rights, what can be said to him? if no price is too great to pay (even paying that price, to him, is a privilege), why even get involved? stipid is as stupid does, and if someone wants to get the life beaten out of himself because of stupidity, let him. and the danger is that the more you get involved in trying to help, the more likely you’ll be on the receiving end of the little man’s foolishness.
sorry, but i’m not really seeing what the problem is here. palestinians are playing the world like a fiddle, but they know the west loves self-flagellation and only wants to gratify all involved.
Comment by abuyussif — January 2, 2009 @ 1:54 am
I think all those who criticize hamas don’t understand it at all, because they cannot conceive of what they are and don’t want to.
hamas has a very clear goal, opnely and clearly declared, an extremely effective means of achieving it and it is the winning side. to us their cost and death looks like too much. to them it does not. which is why they win.
a while ago there was a muslim demonstration in ft. lauderdale which turned violent. the police got scared and offered to take the jewish pro-israel counter demonstrators home. if this can happen in america, it’s all over.
civilization has no defense against barbarism.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 4:22 am
Iran and its friends must be laughing all the way to the Mosque – and why not? They get to fight their sworn enemy without consequences. Which makes the Palestinians the world’s easiest dupes ad extremis since they alone are paying the ultimate price
But is not just Iran and its friends; it is also Western Europe and the US who have gone along as spectators.
Actually until 1950 the Brits did a lot to try and destroy a Jewish lifestyle in the region.
They could have done something 60 years ago to stop the use of “permanent refugees” as canon fodder by the Arab League.
They permitted the creation of UNWRA which serves no other purpose than to sustain the grinding machine.
They have poured billions of $ into the extremist camp over the years and have done nothing about this logistical support that the PLO and Hamas have received.
And the stupid public cannot see that the Emperor is naked.
Comment by Cynic — January 2, 2009 @ 6:59 am
Krauthhammer has a similar piece in the WaPo, even after giving them Gaza, Hamas and the Palestinians are even worse. I am not optimistic - it looks like it will be turned into another Lebanon. Israel loses. Maybe they just have to go after Iran and damn the consequences because the consequences will only get much worse.
Comment by Lorenz Gude — January 2, 2009 @ 8:58 am
Right now Israel has 1 friend in the world; in three weeks she’ll have 0. Hopefully. she has laid in a good supply of munitions and won’t be needing a resupply from the USA for the next eight years.
On the other hand, aloneness confers great freedom of action. Nobody to say, no, you can’t wipe out Iran. Nobody to positively forbid you to depose the Saudi regime and seize the oil wells. Command the oil and suddenly you have lots of friends, particularly if you’re not a whacko and can bring to the rest of the world stable prices and steady deliveries.
Israel’s problem is that internationally nobody needs her. So, Israel, become the Knights of Malta of oil.
Comment by igout — January 2, 2009 @ 9:31 am
Solomonia Gaza Roundup…
Rather than put down innumerable individual headline links, here’s a collection of commentary and news about what’s going on. Haven’t been following things so closely? Here are some good places to start: Charles Krauthammer: The Necessity of Israel …
Trackback by Solomonia — January 2, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
Richard Landes’ articles are excellent.
The commentary by posters is too cynical to be useful.
Thank you Solomonia for the links to articles on Gaza.
Comment by shriber — January 2, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Israel’s problem is that internationally nobody needs her. So, Israel, become the Knights of Malta of oil.
this is incorrect. the world needs israel badly, but it is ignorant, decadent, cowardly and stupid enough not to realize it. if they supported israel, it would do the dirty work for them and save their ass.
they will realize it if and when israel goes away, by which time it’ll be too late. and as far as i am concerned, they deserve nothing but to be dhimmis under sharia.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 5:21 pm
The commentary by posters is too cynical to be useful.
i don’t think you have a clue what cynicism is.
when reality is grim wishful thinking and hope is much easier, psychologically, then recognizing it.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch says it best:
One grievance: Israel’s very existence. One raison d’etre: the eradication of Israel. Such language would seem to bring a cauterizing light to the rot of moral equivalence heaped on Israel in its dire and just cause to survive amid genocidal neightbors.
But this explanation, like so many others like it, wholly omits the reason Hamas and its allies strive to destroy Israel. It omits the Islamic context.
Hamas is waging a classic, Islamic jihad against the Jews, a non-Islamic people who have returned to their native land not as dhimmi but as warriors equipped to defend themselves from the Muslim armies massed around them. Like children in a potentially fatal game of blind man’s bluff, though, most people are intellectually, morally and/or intestinally unprepared to recognize this. As Robert Spencer noted a couple of days ago, Israeli President Shimon Peres is also clueless on this count, telling Haaretz on December 30: “Nobody in this world understands what are Hamas’ goals and why it continues to fire missiles. This shooting has no point, no logic, and no chance.” […]
Krauthammer is correct to write that Hamas does not conceal its strategy. But far too few of us in the West are willing to articulate that strategy or even take note of it. This must change if we are to stop the jihad anywhere–and everywhere.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 5:56 pm
Correction: I meant Krauthammer on Spencer.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
An exact replica of Lebanon war and the march to Israel’s destruction:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1230733137803&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Is Glick a cynic too, shriber?
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
And if you want evidence of the collapse of the west and why EU will do everything it can to eliminate israel, here’s a major reason:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024191.php
They are scared to death of and incapable and unwilling to deal with their violent islamic populations. They are rapidly losing control.
This happens in the US at a slower pace. See the riot in Ft. Lauderdale the other day.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:22 pm
yet our so-called philosphers and thinkers accuse the west of being too obsessed with islam:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024188.php
it’s over, folks. the west does not deserve to exist.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
i guess eiland is a cynic too:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733138752&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
At Commentary:
Dan Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:22 PM
The wider PR battle has been well and truly lost.
The process whereby Israel is increasingly isolated proceeds apace.
As more and more mohammadens enter Europe, THERE’S NOTHING ISRAEL CAN DO TO ALTER the hardline that Europeans are going to take regarding Israel.
And the United States, increasingly reluctant, then ultimately unwilling to stand alone in support of Israel, is going to slowly but surely embrace the line of the Europeans.
It’s already happening.
The process is unstoppable.
The Left, the massive movement of mohammadens to the West and lastly the Democrats eagerness to court the black muslim vote, in lieu of their old Jewish constituency, ——————————- it’s a confluence of forces that all lead to Israel’s increased isolation.
Westerners began subscribing to the Arab narrative out of abject fear, fear of skyjackers, fear of terror, fear of seeing their cities detonated.
But now, out of fear and intellectual confusion, in some Stockholm syndrome kind of way, Westerners are actually espousing themselves to it.
We won’t have to wait very long now before we start seeing Westerners start to convert to islam.
Not long now
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:43 pm
“i don’t think you have a clue what cynicism is.”
vowel man
I used to know kunikos, kunikos was a friend of mine and vowel man is no kunikos. He is a mere sophistical commentator.
Comment by shriber — January 2, 2009 @ 6:45 pm
Another cynic: David Pryce-Jones:
http://pryce-jones.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzZWFjNDM1YjRjMzYxODZmYjlkOGI2ZGJkNjA2OTk=
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:48 pm
Here goes the US too:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rosner/48782
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
shriber,
I’m sure you include your own comments in your above remarks.
Or should a precautionary “sometimes” be added?
I don’t agree with all posters all the time. And while each is entitled to her/his opinions and interpretations, we sometimes argue. It can and sometimes does get hot. But it’s challenging, as most if not all posters try to avoid being offensive and personal (except of course for congrats and others shticks), and the option of agreeing to differ is always there.
A bit of Derech Eretz never harms.
Comment by E.G. — January 2, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
more cynicism on the fall of europe:
http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2009/01/andgang-rampage-in-london/index.shtml
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
I used to know kunikos, kunikos was a friend of mine and vowel man is no kunikos. He is a mere sophistical commentator.
it’s no surprise that I provide ample evidence for my position, while all you have to offer is personal dismissal. are all the others I post here cynics and “sophistical commentators”? looks you are assigning to other what you yourself are.
if you want to be taken seriously, PROVE that that my posts are cynical. until you do you’re grinding water.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 7:28 pm
e.g.,
personal verbiage is an indicator of inability to deal with the substance.
incidentally, when I state “you have an illusion” and then provide evidence, it is not a personal attack. but if I call names without substantiation, it is.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
oao,
David Pryce-Jones is exquisitely sarcastic. How boorish of you to even think of cynicism a-propos this fine writer!
Can you even distinguish a tomâto from a pomodoro?! ;-)
Oh, and happy new year to you too. Don’t mind my good manners, I can handle a “cheerfully gloomy to you too” reply. But only from you.
Comment by E.G. — January 2, 2009 @ 7:50 pm
“Another cynic: David Pryce-Jones:” vowelman
Pryce Jones and Glick have something positive to offer they are not indulging in mock-thinking.
They are professional writers you are just a fear monging little sniveller.
‘Oy vey, it’s all over,’ pace vowel man. ‘Israel is already defeated!’
if that were the case why bother reading Richard Landes? Why should Professor Landes take the trouble to point out the media manipulation by Hamas and its supporters?
Israel doesn’t need you to defend it, thank you. Go start your own blog.
Comment by shriber — January 2, 2009 @ 7:51 pm
It’s sarcasm with a purpose, EG.
Pryce-Jones:
“And that is what the likes of Sarkozy and Brown ought to realise in turn: Either send in the troops or shut up and let others get on with it. Why, they and their likes can’t even set anyone dancing.”
He is not saying all is lost, he is saying lets get in with the fight.
Vowel man is more like Sarkozy and Brown (but without the authority) preaching defeat than he is like Pryce- Jones or like Glick.
What does it matter if the defeatists be of the right or the left?
Comment by shriber — January 2, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
shriber,
My reading of Pryce-Jones is that we’re again the audience of a well rehearsed and reprised show. Call, state, and meet and talk, and strut and fret upon stage and newspaper… That’s all for home public and, media willing, some Intl. PR.
The moment of honesty is not as yet set: UN Sec. Council and its resolution. The delay itself is telling.
Comment by E.G. — January 2, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
Vowel man is more like Sarkozy and Brown (but without the authority) preaching defeat than he is like Pryce- Jones or like Glick.
You, however, have a lot of authority for your wishful thinking.
And it’s not me who is a defeatist. I am only demonstrating that the wishful thinkers in the west — like you — are the ones who are defeatist.
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 10:46 pm
Here’s another cynic:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733137744&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Comment by oao — January 2, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
Where’s Cynic? S/he’s the real McCoy!
shriber - what’s the right word for some of RL’s titles (like the one below)?
Comment by E.G. — January 3, 2009 @ 6:29 am
To leave the cynics to duke it out and return to the subject, if the Pals of Gaza deserve 1st prize, Israel deserves 2nd place for continuing to play this endless cat and mouse game. Time is not on the mouse’s side.
Comment by igout — January 3, 2009 @ 9:36 am
#30
Sitting this one out and letting all the other cynics have a piece of the cake :-)
Comment by Cynic — January 3, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
To leave the cynics to duke it out and return to the subject, if the Pals of Gaza deserve 1st prize, Israel deserves 2nd place for continuing to play this endless cat and mouse game. Time is not on the mouse’s side.
uhuh. now THAT would be a very productive use of one’s time. certainly more productive than documenting reality and making people realize their wishful thinking and suicidal behavior.
Comment by oao — January 3, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
more cynicism:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDFhMDNiODExNGM3ZTE3NmRiMWU5YTM1NThhZmQ1MzQ=
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/Eradicating-the–Little-Satan–13900
Comment by oao — January 3, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
Sorry, can’t write anything intelligent now. Especially with my fingers, crossed for the IDF soldiers.
They must crush the Hamas. And seem ready to bear a heavy toll of lives lost. Will 48 hours be sufficient?
Comment by E.G. — January 3, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
They must crush the Hamas. And seem ready to bear a heavy toll of lives lost. Will 48 hours be sufficient?
I doubt they can, and not because of their own limitations. It’s because the failed leadership has allowed for years for a situation to develop around israel that has become impossible to solve for both internal palestinian and external international reasons.
arafat was a shrewd politician. he knew what he was doing when he agreed to oslo and was explicit in private about what will happen to israel in the process. he may have not envisioned hamas, but he knew where the thing was going.
i hope to be proven wrong.
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 3:05 am
oao,
Mark Steyn wrote:
After all, when President Sarkozy and other European critics bemoan Israel’s “disproportionate” response, what really are they saying?
Why don’t those Juice just accept what we want for them and just lie down and be raped!
Comment by Cynic — January 4, 2009 @ 9:42 am
As for Ms. Rice (the M.S link), she may know music and Russian literature but she falls flat when up against the known knowns and unknowns. Especially if she thinks she knows!
Maybe somebody should send her a copy of Andrew Bostom’s book The legacy of Islamic AntiSemitism
Nah! It is all because of the checkpoints that stop the Palestinians from indulging in:
This is an educated population. I mean, they have a kind of culture of education and a culture of civil society.
Comment by Cynic — January 4, 2009 @ 9:54 am
Why don’t those Juice just accept what we want for them and just lie down and be raped!
this is excruciatingly obvious. and it comes from whom: the big western hope sarkozy who, I always knew and said, when you look up the definition of “asshole” in the dictionary, you should find his picture there.
he’s pathetic in his desperation to make himself relevant somehow.
here’s kramer’s analysis of israel’s strategy. i find it all wishful thinking and denial. what kramer recognizes as problems is exactly what is likely to happen.
http://sandbox.blog-city.com/linkblog/jump/?i=507848
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
As for Ms. Rice (the M.S link), she may know music and Russian literature but she falls flat when up against the known knowns and unknowns. Especially if she thinks she knows!
this is what i call “american ignoran arrogance”, the streak in american culture that says everything is a matter of opinion, preference, interests. you don’t need to seriously learn/know anything, part. how to reason. you can figure things out by common sense and assume everybody is like america or wants to be like america.
it is a very significant factor in america’s decline and is well demonstrated by the rise of the likes of bush and obama to the presidency. they DO represent america.
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
where are those who were suggesting there is some sort of hope — the israeli arabs — who prefer israel to the PA?
“Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said 600 Arabs had been arrested within Israel over the past week, and 230 are still behind bars in connection with violent demonstrations against the Gaza operation. 50 police officers were injured in the rioting by Arab citizens of Israel.”
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
here’s the take of egyptian blogger sandmonkey. there are several flaws in his analysis — after all, he’s an arab — but i tend to agree with him on the general pattern:
“Get Your War On! Today is a fantastic day, ladies and gentlemen. Today is the day Israel decided to finally prove that it already forgot everything it had learned from the Lebanon War, and repeat its mistakes, with fantastic percision and exactness I might add. Today, Israel went into Ghaza with ground forces, proving yet once again that the people running the IDF are still complete and utter morons.
To spare you the news watching for the next couple of days, here is what will happen: For the first week or so, support for the War amongst the Israeli public will remain mostly high, because everyone will tell them that this time is different and that the casuality rate isn’t as high this time, with only 15 dead and 80 injured. But with every passing day with news of another soldier dead, and the media doing its duty of giving you the funeral and the pictures of the crying widowed wife or grieving mother or sister, the people’s resolve will melt like a a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of Natalie Portman’s hot little body, and the left will start saying that there is no exit strategy and that it’s time for this war to end before Israel loses some more.
On the Hamas side, things will be different, because they don’t give a flying hoot how many of their own die in exchange of killing one of the Israelis. Not to mention, the dead will give them a chance to engage in their favorite past-time of starting funerals and parading the deadbodies around, a tradition that-if you believe the crap AlJazeera broadcasts and you shouldn’t- “strengthens their resolve”, whatever that means. But what we do know is that Hamas’s definition of victory is not completely getting eradicated, which will be very hard for the Israelis to do, because the Qassam brigade alone is 15 thousand soldiers, who once they get shot magically turn into innocent civilian casualties. And as usual people around the world will run around saying that Israel is conducting another “Holocaust”, like they do with every military action Israel intiates. Of course, it will help that the Israelis will eventually bomb a school or a kindergarden or a children’s hospital by mistake, and then appear preplexed in front of the world’s angry public opinion, excusing their mistake by blaming the evil palestinian’s insistence on not writing “This is a school filled with innocent children” on top of the building in Hebrew. And thus the eventual shamefull withdrawel, and thus the eventual Hamas celebration amidst the devestation, followed by a whirlwind of aid in both money and food that Hamas will seize and distribute to its supporters, right in time for the “Presidential elections” in Ghaza, where only Hamas members will run and win, because by then every Fatah supporter will be dead or shot , you know, to stop them from voting against the venerable heroes of the resistance. Oh look, they are already starting. How awesome is that?
Oh boy, this is going to be a fantastic exercise in stupidity. Should be a blast. I am excited. You excited? Sweet. Get your War on!
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
everybody was referring to the czech’s support in EU of israel. well, this is how strong it is:
The Czech EU spokesman is now ’sorry’ for calling Israel’s action in Gaza defensive (Hat Tip: NJDhockeyfan via Little Green Footballs).
The apology came after Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg described the original comments as “a very serious mistake” but sought to draw a line under the affair.
Jiri Frantisek Potuznik, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s EU presidency spokesman, issued a statement that was published on the website of the Czech presidency of the EU.
“I would like to apologise for the misunderstanding which occurred on January 3, 2009 about the reaction of the Czech Presidency to the actions of the Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip according to which the operations were seen as an act of self-defence,” he wrote of his comments the day before.
Libya’s Kadhafi Foundation had warned it would press Tripoli to cut ties with Prague unless the Czech official withdrew the remarks and made a formal apology.
The group, headed by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the influential son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said Potuznik’s remarks “represent an insult for the (Palestinian) martyrs and wounded.”
Seif al-Islam, a reformist who is widely seen as Kadhafi’s successor, was in contact with Arab countries to put pressure on Prague to apologise, the statement added.
On Saturday Potuznik had said: “At the moment from our perspective we do understand that the action is part of the defensive action of Israel (…) we do understand that it is more defensive than offensive.”
That first statement was hastily followed by another from the Czech foreign ministry, swiftly changing tack. It said: “Even the indisputable right of the state to defend itself does not allow actions which largely affect civilians.
“We call for the facilitation of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and … for the establishment of a ceasefire,” Schwarzenberg said in that statement.
On Sunday, Schwarzenberg told reporters the Czech Republic had nothing to apologise for: “It was a personal error, it happens to everyone, that happened to me too when I was young.”
Potuznik “has accepted responsibility, which is right. Full stop,” he added.
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 5:20 pm
barry rubin:
http://www.gloriacenter.org/index.asp?pname=submenus/articles/2009/rubin/1_4_10-54.asp
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
just what i keep saying:
http://www.gloriacenter.org/index.asp?pname=submenus/articles/2009/rubin/1_4_10-13.asp
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
here’s explanations of gordon brown and sarkozy:
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/18m-foreigners-move-to-londonstan-as-britons-leave/
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/01/top-ten-cars-to-burn-in-paris.html
the rest of europe is the same.
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 9:32 pm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5439608.ece
Comment by oao — January 4, 2009 @ 9:42 pm
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024242.php
Comment by oao — January 5, 2009 @ 1:16 am
to those who urged israel to improve pr, remember when I claimed it won’t make any difference?
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/01/polls-are-open.html
Comment by oao — January 5, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
oops, wrong link. correct link is:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-israel-winning-media-war.html
Comment by oao — January 5, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/trager/49142
which i doubt israel’s troika will achieve.
Comment by oao — January 5, 2009 @ 11:33 pm
Gaza and the Palestinian Hostile-Dependent Adolescent…
Richard Landes* linked to an editorial by Robert J. Lewis that should be enlightening to those who profess to support Hamas and express sincere anguish over the plight of the Palestinian people. THE REIGN OF CAIN falls mainly IN THE……
Trackback by ShrinkWrapped — January 6, 2009 @ 10:57 am
ShrinkWrapped,
Is there something wrong with your ste’s comments link?
All I get is a mauvish coloured page.
By the way Robert J. Lewis writes:
To that end, they are naturally attracted to the idea of achieving that outcome without having to bloody their hands.
He should have included the Europeans and many from the US (especially Foggy Bottom) who have sat on their hands these passed 60 years watching and waiting to see how good the grinder is.
Had the Europeans and Americans really wanted they could have stopped this years ago. Especially the French who saw in a European/Arab alliance a force to counter the US pole even as the Yanks covered their back against the Russians.
It has become very obvious recently with the lack of any comments from the moralists about Israeli towns being rocketed and mortared even after leaving Gaza entirely to the Palestinians.
I cannot even think of an American objection in the UN to Hamas and its behaviour over the last three years since Israel withdrew entirely. But the dollars were there to keep the explosives rolling. 1.4 billion in 2008 I believe.
Comment by Cynic — January 7, 2009 @ 9:29 am
To add to the above from Solomonia’s link to a Sharansky article in the WSJ
How the U.N. Perpetuates the ‘Refugee’ Problem
I met with the ambassador of one of the West’s most enlightened countries. I asked: Why are the Palestinians not willing to help their own refugees? “I can understand them,” he answered. “After all, they don’t want the refugee problem to be taken off the agenda.” ………….
………..
For decades, the international community has actively assisted in building the terrorists’ unique system of control — over where Palestinians live and in what conditions, and over what they think — by allowing terrorists to turn the refugee camps into the center of the Palestinian war machine. Instead of working to relieve the refugees’ misery, the United Nations has dedicated an entire agency, UNRWA, to perpetuating it.
QED?
Comment by Cynic — January 7, 2009 @ 10:23 am