ARAB SPROING

Some time ago Eternal Optimist commented on a nasty op-ed article in the NY Times in which the author lacerated Israel for casting aspersions on Egypt's democratic aspirations, and generally ranted that Israel needs to make peace.  Read the comment here.

This was before Morsi's ham-handed grab for totalitarian power in Egypt.  Which mushroomed into a military coup. Perhaps the op-ed writer is less outraged over Israel's cynicism about the new, and now newly toppled, Egyptian government.

The Israelis seem to have gotten things about right, and the Times op-ed writer about perfectly wrong.  The Arab Spring turned into the Arab Sprang.  It is now the Arab Putsch and headed toward the Arab Train Wreck.  Let's call it the "Arab Sproing," since "sproing" is the sound your car makes when that metal thingie that holds everything together breaks and flies past your ear, just before the engine throws a rod.

Egypt

The Times is the voice of Colonel Klink on public policy.  Study the Times on any public policy issue, and you will at least know what not to do.  Whenever you are about to listen to the Times, remember that it bought the Boston Globe for about 1 billion and just sold it for 73 million.  That's a loss of about 900 million dollars. Careful there.

Colonel Klink: Dependably Wrong

At least the Times has a great sports section.  (That is irony, for anyone who has not read the Times Sports Section: "Proletarians View A-Rod as Tragic Victim of Capitalism").

Egyptians voted in droves for the Muslim Brotherhood, whose rhetoric on the Jews is Hitler's.  No wonder Israel was less than enthused about the Arab Sproing.  However the Arab Sproing works out for the Egyptians, it looked like a continued cold winter for Israel, surrounded by people who forthrightly declare their urgent need to kill all the Jews.  I'm sure that Egypt's military is not favorably inclined toward Israel, but they appear to be less eager to actively kill Israelis than are the Muslim Brothers.

So by Israel's lights maybe this is an improvement.

Having dealt with genocidal fascists in Europe, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Israelis are understandably suspicious of such folk.  That's why they formed the state of Israel, saying "never again."  I cannot imagine any constructive dialogue with Hamas, which controls Gaza, or a government in Egypt that is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.  The only question that Muslim fascists in Palestine and Egypt want to discuss with Israel is how quickly Israel can wind up its affairs and disappear.  And by disappear they mean "die."

So here's to more snotty pieces in the Times, which keep us both entertained and oriented, in a negative kind of way. And here's to Israel: 65 years of democratic success in a sea of fascist Muslim failure.