Monday, December 19, 2011

NYT OP-ED: ISRAEL "CHEESY"

Among many unforgivable sins, Israel is "cheesy," says Roger Cohen in an op-ed piece on Israel in the New York Times. The editorial starts as a complaint about an ad run by Israel , appealing to Israeli expatriates to come back to Israel, but the article quickly turns into an all-around "I hate Israel" denunciation.



Mr. Cohen sniffs that the Israelis offend the Egyptians by being dismissive of Egyptian democratic aspirations.  The Israelis may be dismissive, but let's stop for a moment and consider. The Egyptians just voted the Muslim Brotherhood into power. This is a group that wants to dissolve the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.  Israel should be cheering here?  5,000 people were chanting "we shall kill all the Jews" the other day at a Muslim Brotherhood rally.

Ouch.

Benign Muslim Brotherhood Members.

The Egyptians themselves can be quite dismissive of their recent election: read about the cynicism, confusion, and fear in Egypt during the run-up to elections. I wish the Egyptians all the best, but giddy optimism does not seem prudent.  The Egyptians elected violent Anti-Israeli parties into power.  Just because they were elected democratically doesn't mean Israel has to cheer.

Hitler got elected, for goodness' sake.  A democratic process does not ensure marvelous results.  As I am sure we here in the U.S. are well aware.

See more on the Egyptian elections here.

Mr. Cohen also notes that the Turks are offended that Israeli commandos killed some Turks on a boat in the Mediterranean. These Turks (a) were trying to run an Israeli blockade of the Palestinians (the blockade is permitted under international law) and (b) decided to battle it out with Israel commandos who boarded their vessel to enforce the blockade.  The results, predictably, involved a number of dead Turks.

Lesson learned: a blockade is a military operation.  If you try to run it you risk getting killed.  Don't start fighting with the commandos when they come on board to enforce the blockade unless your goal is to die.  In which case, well played.  Read more here.

BTW, the reason for the blockade is that the Palestinians keep importing rockets, which they shoot at Jewish grandmothers and babies. I wonder how Mr. Cohen would look at things if Canada kept lobbing rockets into Manhattan.

Mr. Cohen, still sniffing, tells us, quoting Leon Panetta, that Israel should "get to the damn table" with the Palestinians. May I ask "what table, Leon?"  The "commit seppuku" table?  That seems to be the only one the Palestinians have set.  Apparently the use of "damn" is unintentionally accurate, as in the "straight to hell with you" table.


This weird talk reminds me of a great song about negotiating with zombies who want to kill you and eat you. The zombie chorus sings "all we want to do is eat your brains; we're not unreasonable - I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes." Watch Jonathan Coulton perform here.

This could be the Palestinian theme song.

The Palestinians don't want land for peace, except in the sense of getting all of Israel (land) and getting rid of all the Jews (peace).  "Land for Peace" has already been tried by the Israelis. They've given up land and still have no peace.

The Obama/Panetta agenda here seems to be modeled on Neville Chamberlain's adroit diplomacy at Munich in 1938, when he fed Czechoslovakia to Hitler on a lovely "Peace in Our Time" platter (watch YouTube footage of Chamberlain's speech at the link).  Chamberlain happily believed Hitler would stop threatening the rest of Europe if England gave him part of Czechoslovakia for breakfast.  Sadly, after occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia in about 18 minutes, Hitler still wanted elevenses, in the form of Poland.  And lunch: Norway and France.  And then tea and dinner: England and Russia.


Just as Hitler had no intention of honoring the Munich pact and stopping with the Sudetenland, the Palestinians have no intention of honoring negotiated agreements with Israel. They want Israel dead and gone.  Israel is an affront to their version of Islam.  We should believe the Palestinians, just as we should have believed Hitler, in Mein Kampf.  

Hamas is the very popularly elected ruling party in Palestine.  Hamas is also a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.   MB just received 37% of the popular vote in Egypt, and may win as many as 50% of the seats in Egypt's Parliament.  MB wants to "renegotiate" the Egypt/Israel peace treaty.  Reflection on Hamas' policy may give us some insight on exactly what Israel finds so distasteful in the Muslim Brotherhood.

So let's take a quick stroll through Hamas' clearly expressed point-of-view on Israel:
  • "Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy." (Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, Future News TV, June 15, 2010, Source: MEMRI.org) 
Hamas, voted into office by the Palestinians in 2006, does not recognize Israel, whose borders were created by UN mandate in 1947. Hamas views all of present day Israel, including the land within the borders established by the UN, as theirs, under Islamic law.


Israel's neighbors have waged multiple wars of extermination against Israel since 1948. Having lost them all, the "neighbors" haven't given up. Give them an  "A" for persistence and consistency.
  • "We do not recognize the Israeli enemy, nor his right to be our neighbor, nor to stay (on the land), nor his ownership of any inch of land. . . We are interested in restoring our full rights to return all the people of Palestine to the land of Palestine. Our principles are clear: Palestine is a land of Waqf (Islamic trust), which can not be given up." (Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas leader and candidate to the Palestinian legislative council, Palestinian TV, January 17, 2006, Newsday)
  • "Palestine is Islamic . . . Jews have no right in it, with the exception of those who lived on the land of Palestine before World War I." (Hamas official Halil Al-Hayya, Al-Hayat newspaper, November 11, 2010)
Here are a few readings from Hamas' charter, to which they have steadfastly adhered:

  • "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
    • "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
    Mr. Panetta refuses to believe what the Palestinians say. What they say is that there is only one "solution" for the Palestinian question: Jihad.  One solution for the Jews.  Where have I heard that before?  I'm drawing a blank here.


    The rest of the world did not believe what Hitler said in Mein Kampf, at least not until he attacked Poland in 1939. A few years later, with 6,000,000 murdered Jews and Europe a smoking ruin, everyone was a little embarrassed they hadn't taken the chap more seriously.

    Western disbelief in Hamas' stated purposes is bizarre, fruit-cake, Halcion and Peyote influenced whacko.  Nevertheless I hear otherwise perfectly sane people uttering this nonsense all the time, as if the Palestinians were spoiled children who won't really set fire to the house, as they say they will.  They just want a little ice cream, is all.


    The Palestinians and Israel's other neighbors have been uttering these deadly threats with perfect sincerity since 1947. They've backed up the threats with actions - with their lives, in thousands of instances.  They commit acts of war on a daily basis.  Hamas is waiting for one of their faithful sponsors, the Iranians, to get nuclear weapons, which should greatly improve Hamas' chances of annihilating Israel.

    Hamas must believe we are brainless and illiterate.

    Mr. Cohen finishes his bitter editorial with this smug comment:
    •  "Here’s a suggestion for an ad campaign that might fly: A smiling Netanyahu shaking hands with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, beside the slogan: Come home to peace. Forgive me for dreaming."
    Since the Palestinians are committed to murdering Israel, Mr. Cohen's happy ad will probably have to wait. I suspect Netanyahu will refuse to snuggle with Abbas until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel as part of its policy of genocide.



    I don't want to presume, but that's my best guess.

    Perhaps the Palestinians could discard genocide as the cornerstone of their Israeli policy.  Maybe that's asking too much.  Perhaps Mr. Cohen could write something sniffy about the Palestinians' genocidal foreign policy.  Maybe that would convince them to stop all that sassy talk.


    Mr. Cohen and Mr. Panetta's fulminations about Israel are morally and intellectually incoherent.  Intellectually, because unless Israel decides to commit suicide, their own self-interest dictates an attitude of complete mistrust and military readiness toward Hamas.  Morally, these fulminations are incoherent because there is no equivalence between Israel's policy toward Palestine - one of guarded and understandable suspicion - and Palestine's policy toward Israel - one of genocide.

    None.  Doesn't matter how fine a gossamer thread of sophism Mr. Cohen spins, zero is the moral content of the Palestinians' brief.  Until Hamas renounces genocide and accepts the existence of the State of Israel, Israel owes them not a thing, not intellectually, not morally, not economically, and certainly not politically.

    So sniff on Mr. Cohen.  No matter how many times you multiply zero, it still equals zero.

    4 comments:

    1. Israel probably should specifically exclude guys like Roger Cohen from their invitation to return to Israel. They have enough problems with Hamas without getting a Hamas loving Jew.

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    2. Wow! What a history lesson. Thanks. I believe that Mr. Cohen is ignorant of evil.

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    3. Another excellent piece, EO. It’s bad enough that most of the world, including many of our closest allies, do not understand our “infatuation” with Israel (the only true democracy in the Middle East – what’s not to like?), but now we have some of our highest government officials bailing on them as well. Shame on them.

      DT

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    4. To Anonymous: I don't know if Mr. Cohen is Jewish, and I doubt he loves Hamas. Whether he is Jewish, Hindu, or Rastafarian, Hamasaphiliac or Hamasaphobic, his views about Israel are widely shared and vacuous.

      ReplyDelete