Lift the Siege of Gaza
In June 1948, our wartime ally imposed a blockade on Berlin, cutting off and condemning to death or Stalinist domination 2 million Germans, most of whom, not long before, had cheered Adolf Hitler.
Harry Truman responded with the Berlin airlift, in perhaps the most magnanimous act of the Cold War.
For nine months, U.S. pilots flew into Tempelhof, carrying everything from candy to coal, saving a city and earning the eternal gratitude of the people of Berlin, and admiration everywhere that moral courage is admired.
That was an America that lived its values.
And today, President Obama should end his and his country's shameful silence over the inhumane blockade of Gaza that is denying 1.5 million beleaguered people the basic necessities of a decent life.
Time to start acting like America again.
That bloody debacle in the Eastern Mediterranean last Sunday was an inevitable result of Israel doing what it always seems to do: going beyond what is essential to her security, to impose collective punishment upon any and all it regards as hostile to Israel.
Israel claims, and film confirms, that its commandos rappelling down onto the Turkish ship were attacked with sticks and metal rods. One was tossed off a deck, another tossed overboard into a lifeboat.
But that 2 a.m. boarding of an unarmed ship with an unarmed crew, carrying no munitions or weapons, 65 miles at sea, was an act of piracy. What the Israeli commandos got is what any armed hijacker should expect who tries to steal a car from a driver who keeps a tire iron under the front seat.
And the response of these highly trained naval commandos to the resistance they encountered? They shot and killed nine passengers, and wounded many more.
But we have a blockade of Gaza, say the Israelis, and this flotilla was a provocation. Indeed, it was. And Selma was a provocation. The marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge were disobeying orders of the governor of Alabama and state police not to march.
Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade.
Where were these fellows when "Bull" Connor really needed them?
Comes the retort: Israel is a friend and ally, and we stand with our friends.
But is not Turkey a friend and ally of 50 years, whose soldiers died alongside ours in Korea and who accepted Jupiter missiles targeted on Russia, even before the Cuban missile crisis? Was it not Turkey whose citizens were wounded and killed in the bloody debacle?
Why are we not at least even-handed between our friends?
On the trip to Israel where he was blindsided by news that Israel would build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, Joe Biden told Shimon Peres, "There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."
And that is the problem.
America is a superpower with interests in an Arab world of 300 million and an Islamic world of 1.5 billion—interests Israel treats with indifference if not contempt when it comes to doing what she regards as necessary for her security.
While Israel had a right to build a wall to protect her people from terror attack, did she have a right to build it on Palestinian land?
While Israel had a right to go after Hezbollah when her soldiers were shot on the border and several kidnapped, did Israel have a right to conduct a five-week bombing campaign that smashed Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians and creating upward of a million refugees?
While Israel had a right to go into Gaza to stop the firing of crude rockets on Sderot, did she have a right to smash utilities and public buildings and kill 1,400 people, most of them civilians?
Is whatever Israel decides to do in the name of her security fine with us, because there is "absolutely no space" between our interests and hers, our values and Israel's values?
Even with Winston Churchill's Britain, there was "space" between us on strategic goals and national policies.
Israel has a right to secure Gaza to deny Hamas access to weapons, especially rockets that could reach Israel. But that does not justify denying 1.5 million people what they need to live in decency.
According to The Washington Post, "80 percent of the population (of Gaza) depends on charity. Hospitals, schools, electricity systems and sewage treatment facilities are all in deep disrepair."
With our silence, we support this. And we wonder why they hate us.
Obama should tell the Israelis that Joe got it wrong. There is space between us. The Gaza siege must end. And America will herself be sending aid, but will also support Israel's right to inspect trucks and ships to see to it no weapons get through to Gaza.
Let's start behaving like who we once were.
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I agree with Pat approach of Gaza. Let's not forget that the Israeli's will reply to the USA that we still have our native American population on Gaza type reservations dependent upon the federal government for charity. I don't think the parallel is exact but the creation of Israel 60 years ago created a displacement of 700,000 Palestinians who were forced off their lands or fled terrorism. This population has now grown to 4 million.
It is clear that the USA should use all of its influence and money to enforce the establishment of a viable two state solution.......the sooner the better. Otherwise, procrastination will lead to disaster. Israel may feel that the longer time marches on and the more encroachments into West Bank and east Jerusalem solidifies its hold on geography, but time also has a negative effect. The longer the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people are denied, technology marches on. In a decade or less, one terrorist or a small group can devastate Israel through biological, chemical or nuclear means.
Israel may be winning battles of containment but it will lose this war unless it changes its strategies. Unfortunately, as long as the USA supports Israel no matter its policies, it unwillingly will help lead the country to its demise.
Mr. Buchanan,
All of Israel is built on Palestinian land. The so-called Jews stole it in 1948; remember? I am a Christian and Israel kills and persucutes Christians especially in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Israel is a terrorist state and just as bad as Iran!
Paging Dr. Clyde Wilson...re: "kidnapped".
The so-called Palestinians were not forced off their lands or fled from terrorism; they were told to leave and come back after the Arab victory. East Jerusalem is a fake issue. It's OK when Muslims cleanse East Jerusalem of Jews, but not OK if Jews want to go back. Israel kills Christians in the West Bank and in Gaza? What planet do you live on? Muslims daily persecute Christians, killing them and driving them out, and a Christian in the West blames the Jews?!? Are you that disconnected from reality or is this the way that you rationalize your Jew hatred. I never expected to see this kind of rabid Jew hatred on the Chronicles web site.
"It is clear that the USA should use all of its influence and money to enforce the establishment of a viable two state solution"
What money? America is deeply in debt and hemorrhaging money worse than the BP disaster is hemorrhaging oil.
This is only our business/concern to the extent that we subsidize Israel and their dealings with the Muslim world. The "solution" is to wean Israel off American aid and let the mess resolve itself.
FTA: "Comes the retort: Israel is a friend and ally, and we stand with our friends."
Israel is NOT an ally. No formal treaty of alliance exists between Israel and the United States. No treaty between the two countries can be ratified without Israel first establishing what are her territorial boundaries, something she steadfastly refuses to do.
God bless, Pat. Great essay. You're a man of real courage. When this country is gone, historians will reocognize you as one of the last honest conservatives.
I will consider Israel a better friend if they apologize formally for the USS Liberty in a public ceremony and stop treating Jonathan Pollard like he is anything other than a traitor.
Until then, Israel is a nothing more than a temporary ally of convenience.
@4 Arius
The IDF routinely bulldozes the houses of Christians in Ramallah and Bethlehem. Both towns used to be 80% Christian, but not any more. IDF is an ethnic cleansing organization, but don't expect the sold-out American born-agains to denounce Judenstaat for their crimes against humanity, they will do as Fox News tells them to do.
@7 Daniel
For a really good laugh, you must visit the National Cryptological Museum at Fort Meade. Judenstaat has been very active in this field since the War of Northern Aggression. And their women make up more than 30% of the wall of fame. Shocking! The USS Liberty gets the distorted truth courtesy of Mrs Meyer-Graham's Washington Post.
How long before Pat makes the SPLC's 50 most hateful men in America?
I've a very dear friend in North Carolina that makes their list constantly and despite the SPLC getting most things wrong in his biography he still is proud of making their "list".
In another venue, the new right talking heads on the radio are going nuts. To hear them speak, not only is the US not supporting Israel but rather the US is working against Israel in all things. A magic trick is being attempted here folks and I wonder if it is even dawning on the masses? Not only has the magician (the pro-Israel lobbies and speakers) pulled the table cloth out from under the flowers but there was never any flowers on the table..............AND NO TABLE EITHER!!! Israel is all alone again, her virtue shining greater than any known to man.
I spoke with mother McCallum this morning and I asked her about the use of the term "anti-semite" in political discussions through her lifetime. She said it was rarely mentioned as far as she could recall except by some far left wing wackos like Marcuses and the rest of the rabble. It tended to walk hand in hand with the same charge of fascism but something had changed by the mid-80s. Not only had anti-semitism become a standard charge but its volume and frequency has grown steadily. The rise of the slanderous term "anti-semitism" can only be a sure marker of ever increasing Jewish influence in the culture. Mainstream conservatives throw it about in the same pattern that the left throws about the term "diversity". For the clearest of reasons this term is the most feared term in modern America, it is the triple dog dare of the slanders and points one directly to who benefits from this fear.
There will be a reaction. The use of this term will result in an overplay of the hand and a backlash will follow.
McCallum
Mr McCallum: The backlash is already here. They can yell like Chicken Little did the sky is falling all day long and people are tuning them out. Most educated and well read people in this country are disgusted with the Israeli picture. The problem is that little honest debate occurs in the main stream media. Most conservativess are working too hard and supporting their families. They listen to all the bluster of Fox News and the talk show hosts and believe them.
Hitler's invasion of Austria and Poland was a provocation too, Pat. So would you liken our reaction to THAT provocation as being similar to Bull Conners', in moral terms.
I no longer respect Pat Buchanan very much, or at all. He helps to drive the biggest wedge into the biggest rift there is in the conservative world: the canyon between evangelical and secular conservatives in general, over the issue of Israel specifically.
Pat asserting that the liberals are rallying to the defense of Israel is the most absurd thing I've ever seen. The liberal position is to defend Palestine. Trying to convince me that the liberals are defending Israel elicits nothing but laughter.
"And Selma was a provocation. The marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge were disobeying orders of the governor of Alabama and state police not to march.
Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade."
This is one of Buchanan's most eye-opening historical analogies in a long line of them.
This is also one of the reasons why the whole sordid mass of lies that is the "history" of the civil rights movement needs to be torn up and used for kindling. And toss on that fire white guilt, white inferiority feelings, Black History month, MLK day, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, black studies departments - and I'm sure Chronicles readers can add many others to the list.
Contrast the license to kill the Jewish commandos - highly trained elite forces whose hand-to-hand combat training is touted (by the Israelis) as the most lethal in the world - gave themselves to protect themselves from a beating with the record of "white racist" authorities in the South, where, in a 12 month period during 1965-66 in Alabama, 5 civil rights workers were killed. Compare this with the enforced helplessness of American whites in the face of black thugs. And what ethnic group might it be that is the brain trust and financial savior of "liberal Democrats", and is in control of the legal system that physically and morally disarms Americans?
@ #4 What did I write that constitutes Jew hatred? If I see the justice of the Catholic cause for equal rights and justice in Northern Ireland, does that make me a Protestant hater or vice versa? As far as Muslim behavior toward Christians or Jews being used as a justification for Israel's approach to the Palestinian (Muslims and Christians) problem, two wrongs don't make a right. After all, the Israeli's portray themselves as civilized and western oriented with a respect for law. I sympathize with Israel's problems but my point is that the longer the current situation festers, the future does not look positive for Israel.
Good one, Paddy Joe. Israel must decide if it is going to be a country in the Middle East or a Zionist colony. If it persists in the latter, it will go the way of the 13th century Crusader Kingdom and for the same demographic reasons. And the United States should not subsidize Israeli foolishness to the tune of $4 billion a year in taxpayer money.
In response to a radio transmission by the Israeli Navy warning the Gaza flotilla that they are approaching a naval blockade, passengers of the Mavi Marmara respond, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz" and "We're helping Arabs go against the US, don't forget 9/11".
Our government didn't respond to a flagrant act of war when the Israeli government killed 34 sailors and wounded another 170 aboard the USS Liberty, or murdered Rachel Corrie in plain daylight, also an act of war, or shot that Turkish-American teen in the back of the head four times after he fell from a gun shot to the chest. We're an occupied nation doing the beck and call of another. With Americans like K Smith above, no wonder the Israelis and their Fifth Column here operate with impunity. Talk about servile flatterers.
"I sympathize with Israel’s problems but my point is that the longer the current situation festers, the future does not look positive for Israel."
Pat apparently doesn't understand that Israel is fighting for its existence. What other country has been told by enemy states that it will be eliminated and at the same time finds the United Nations siding with the enemy states? The west is doomed because we are such cowards that we dare not say who the real enemies of western civilization are.
"What other country has been told by enemy states that it will be eliminated and at the same time finds the United Nations siding with the enemy states?" - KSmith
The United States,it was called the Cold War!
If the Zionists can't take the heat then,perhaps they should get out of the kitchen?
Israel needs to man up,their incessant whining has long since become tiresome!
"The west is doomed because we are such cowards that we dare not say who the real enemies of western civilization are."
The enemies of western civilization are falafel chefs, elderly mullahs, and burkha-clad housewives? You feel these people represent a threat?
Most of them are known to be terribly incompetent in fighting wars, with fighting units ending up more in arguments of who is to have more authority. Most of them are poor and barely literate people who are either unemployed or running jobs of bare sustenance, in between their heavily demanding religious duties. Most of them prefer to live easygoing lives smoking hashish, sipping their pipes, and watching women dance. I know, because I have experience with them.
All this aside, among all these Muslims, the only ones who were involved in 9/11 were metropolitan youths like Atta and Zaid who grew up among the richer and more non-religious families. That these architecture and engineering students snapped and lost their minds was an isolated situation of angry youth stepping up to a horrendous task.
I wouldn't hold my breath on the U.S. performing another air lift. Can you imagine the backlash from Pat Robertson and John Hagee if we did?
"The west is doomed because we are such cowards that we dare not say who the real enemies of western civilization are"
I'll say it: Westerners.
#22: Touche, Mr. Toddard.
Ah! There is nothng quite like crticism of Israel to stimulate the throats of the chattering classes who can be depended on to leap from all manner of hiding places pouring forth piety and sanctimony in equal measure and everything is sauced with generous servings of finger-pointing dodgy history. And that's just Australians for Pete's sake.
Jonathan@12:
Ordinarily I would not see much hope in answering one who would attempt to compare an aid shipment to a full scale international invasion, but I begin this on Sunday, and the optimism of Mass has not yet been diluted by seven days in the service of Ceasar.
Leaving aside the fact that our "reaction" to the invasion of Poland was not action but words, the irony in Buchanan's comparison to the Pettus Bridge incident (which Jonathan completely misses) derives not only from the fact that the IDF commandos are far more lethal than any forces Connor had at his disposal or even would have used had he had them, but that Jewish leftists were so prominent in the shaming of "white racists" then (and ever after) while they and their heirs defend Israel's categorically more violent tactics today. Tactics directed at a population, it should be noted, that is (excepting the militias, who were not on the aid boats) no more heavily armed than American blacks were in the pre-gun control era of a half century ago.
As for PJB's alleged affronts to the evangelicals, look, somebody needs to wake those people up! United States foreign policy has been quite incoherent enough without the influence of people who want states which won't even abide by recent and relatively clear laws and treaties to conform their international boundaries to a few passages of ambiguous ancient text that aren't even agreed upon amongst Christians. If neither Arab nor Jew will accept the infinitely clearer, more rational, merciful and less burdensome call of the Gospels to accept and follow Christ, who in his right mind can expect them simply to hand over land that has absorbed the blood of their people for generations on the disputed scriptural authority of a religion they both reject?
As someone who loathes Islam but holds no brief for Israel, I can see some merit in both sides of the argument. It is certainly true that the IDF uses excessive force and shows little regard for civilians casualties. It is also true that as the world exists today, the Palestinians and their supporters would like to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and do the same to us. Yes, we have attracted the attention of the Islamic-terrorist world by supporting Israel, but it would be very naive to think that in a world without Israel, Muslims would have no reason to hate the West and the leader of the West happens to be us.
While it is also true that the response to this flotilla was probably excessive, let us not kid ourselves about the intentions of humanitarian aid: It is almost always in the service of ideology or national interest. Repelling this flotilla was certainly a legitimate action for any legitimate nation state. If one says that Israel is not a legitimate state, then, of course, the conversation is over with the American government, which says that it is. (By the way, people who make this argument may just as well not pretend to be objective in assessing any Israeli action.) But if we are dealing with the ordinary world of nation-states that act in their own interest, it is simply nonsense to pretend that the Israelis have acted in a monstrous fashion.
The real problem, as I have said before, consists in the blank check we have given Israel to stir up any hornets' nest and kill anyone they claim poses a threat. We are subsidizing these actions and will continue to subsidize them so long as Evangelicals--who make the false claim to be Christian when they are really renegades who have embraced Zionism--continue to join forces with Jewish Zionists here in the States. I don't see why we cannot treat Israel with at least some of the skepticism we treat other iffy "allies" like China--except China, unlike Israel, is a great power. The problem lies in the collapse of Christianity in the West, the erosion of our sense of national identity, and the take-over of our cultural institutions by a tiny anti-Christian minority who value the United States only insofar as it helps Israel. I applaud the courage and resolution of the Israelis in defending their borders and their interests, as much as I deplore their excessive use of violence. But I deplore even more the servility of the American political class and, worse, of the voters that put these people in office.
Dr. Fleming with all due respect: The problem isn't Israel defending it's borders. The problem is that it wants to keep expanding it's borders and eliminate all the people that it doesn't think worthy to be in their enlarged enclave. This thing could have been put to bed decades ago if Israel would go back to the Green Line and let the Palistinians have a state. There were no suicide bombings until Israel proved that the Palistinians would never be anything but untermenchen to the Israelis. Israel wants piece alright, a piece of Lebanon, piece of Syria, a piece of Iraq, a piece of Jordan, a piece of Egypt and of course all of Palistine. Pat Buchanan had a fine column here with sane suggestions. Yet this column was banned at some sites. The radical zionists both Christians and Jews want a huge Ersetz Israel with the Temple rebuilt, the priesthood restored, and animal sacrifices carried on. They don't care if they have to kill millions of people with nuclear weapons to get it.
First off, I am describing an incident in which the IDF was preventing do-gooding foreigners from entering territory that they have been given authority to supervise. That is a legitimate state action, somewhat similar to an American action in defense of the Virgin Islands.
Second, there is no uniformity of public opinion in Israel. From the best I can gather, there is a basic majority that opposes expansion. I have met few Israelis who are anywhere near as crazy as Jewish and Christian Zionists here in America, and I was once present at a dinner in Tel Aviv, where moderate Israeli journalists--all of whom had served in the military--chewed up an American Zionist leader of some prominence. However, the unholy alliance between Likud and the Palestinian terrorists keeps Israeli citizens in an almost permanent state of alarm. As soon as any reasonable discussion of peace is underway, two things are bound to happen: Israelis will expand or develop settlements and the terrorists will blow up a school bus. With all due respect to my friend Mr. Buchanan, he is on this and so many other subjects, a team-debater, who argues his position very well without considering the merits of the opposition.
Just once try to imagine yourself the son or grandson of a European Jew who made it to Israel in the 40's or 50's. You probably do not practice a religion but do have a vague feeling that this land belongs to you somehow, at least as a place of refuge from Nazis and Bolsheviks. You are not exactly a Zionist and would like to live in peace with the people whose land your people have stolen, but your children are under a constant threat of death from terrorists. You deplore the excesses of Sharon and Netanyahu, but you may end up voting for them out of fear. What are you supposed to do? Follow Helen Thomas's advice and emigrate to America (May God preserve us from more of such immigrants!). Israelis are not monsters, though their democratically elected government is capable of terrible crimes. Think of them as a more violent version of South Africans and you may develop some sympathy for them.
In a multi-ethnic empire, even one as evil and corrupt as the Ottomans, small minorities are often protected by the rulers, but in a smaller nationalist state--whether Israel or Palestine--it would be very naive to expect much toleration, so long as the parties preserve any sense of identity or historic memory. Zionism is indeed racism and when combined with socialist-nationalism it indeed is equivalent to German National Socialism. But does anyone think Hamas is going to provide a safe haven for ethnic and religious diversity? I absolutely oppose the US de facto support for Zionism and find "Christian" Zionists unspeakably repulsive. For them, religion is just another excuse for feeling good about themselves by meddling in places and with lives that do not concern them. But let us beware lest in opposing Zionism we turn a blind eye to the crimes of Middle Eastern Muslims who hate Christians more, ultimately, than they hate Jews.
The first thing we should force on Israel is to cease persecuting Christians. Of course, we might set the example by no longer aiding abetting the Iraqi Kurds in their ethnic cleansing of Christians.
What is happening between Palestinians and Israelis seems to me much akin to what was happening between Germans and Czechs in Europe.
The kind of Czech nationalism, which resulted in persecution and forced resettlement of Germans in Central Europe, resulted in the German nationalism which resulted in persecution of Czechs in those very regions.
And after WW2, the unspeakable things done by those monstrous Czechs against the Germans in re-persecuting and pushing them away from "Czech" lands is far worse than what Palestine and Israel have ever done to each other.
The cynic in me says: We'd be dreaming if peace was a feasible solution. If the Czechs didn't kill the Germans, the Germans would kill them. Much the same way it happens between Israel and the Muslim world.
The sane person in me says: So what? Nobody said that different ethnicities ever had to like each other. But starting to kill each other is a wholly overblown solution. Democratic affirmative action and multicultural integrationism are destructive solutions. So is ethno-nationalist cleansing of minorities.
Ultimately, it's just what Isaiah Berlin said: "Reluctant tolerance may be the only solution."
And why not? When Czechs, Hungarians, Poles and Germans reluctantly tolerated each other in peace, the Germans built universities, railway stations, libraries, industries, roads, and churchs in Central Europe. Peace makes us live a little more comfortably, does it not?
Would that it might be so. One might observe that the dismantling of the German and Austrian Empire hardly served the cause of peace. The same might be said of the British Empire.
I would like to point out that the attack on the flotilla occurred in international waters. Far from defending their borders, Israelis were violating those of the entire civilized world.
"It is also true that as the world exists today, the Palestinians and their supporters would like to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and do the same to us."
What the Palestinians would like to do to Israel is no concern of mine. As for their hatred towards us, it has no practical importance whatsoever. (The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus' considered opinion on the Arabs-that they were worthless either as friends or allies-needs to be re-learnt.) Traditional Jewish hatred for Europe is a far more potent threat to our well-being than anything the Palestinians can muster. Finally, Jews aren't exactly delicate in the matter of colluding with Muslims against us when it's in their interest to do so. (See, for example, Jewish collusion with muslims in Islamic Spain, Jewish support for the war against Serbia, etc.) Why not return them the favor?
I would also remind Christianos that half of the nation's abortionists are Jewish, and the pornographic "industry" is notoriously controlled and dominated by Jews. And of course, we don't have a Palestinian Lobby (yet).
The Palestinians are clearly the lesser of two evils.
The legal situation is not so simple as Sempronius would like us to believe. There are international conventions, cited by Israel of course, that permit a state from preventing an intrusion into its territory by stopping a ship. Whether or not Israel has a right in the case of Gaza is a subject for international lawyers to debate. It is one thing to argue that the Arabs pose no ultimate threat to US security, but quite another to suppose that Muslim terrorists can do no harm to Americans. As for returning the favor, I don't think "he hit me first" is a good rule for grown-ups to adopt. All I have suggested is a restrained and rational approach that avoids demonizing either Arabs or Jews and which takes account both of American interests and American responsibilities.
I should have added that I am not in fundamental disagreement with PJB on the Middle East question, but sometimes columnists feel they must paint in black and white complex situations where the shadings are not without importance. How Arabic, I wonder, are the so-called Arabs outside of Arabia? Iraqis and Syrians seem to me physically to resemble more their pre-invasion ancestors and I have met more than a few Lebanese whom I could immediately spot as Phoenician in the same way that some Tuscan women look as if just stepped out of a Botticelli canvas. It is no more fair to lump all "Arabs" today with the ancient Arabs despised by Ammianus than it is to lump all Greeks together as Homeric heroes.
@33: Thank you; I was thinking that same thing but decided not to mention it, as the Arabisation of many of those peoples has in my observation been fairly thorough. I am not, however, even remotely qualified to speak of Arabs, with the exception of those living in Europe.
As for Israel and its conduct... there are neutral observations I could make but they would not be perceived as neutral by men of bad will.
I am under no illusions about the innocence of humanitarian aidists; I simply wanted to get at the double standard Zionist Jews use when the protesters threaten their real interest, i.e., Israel, as opposed to that of their nominal countrymen in the U.S.
The cocky, eye-patched Moshe Dayan and the Israeli heroics in the face of a multinational, multi- front assault in '67 were an inspiration to this Vietnam-bound Marine, but those days have long passed. Now, the old saw that runs "if the Palestinians put down their guns today, tomorrow there would be peace; if the Jews put down their guns today, tomorrow there would be no Israel", seems decidedly shabby. When the enemy were disciplined Egyptian tankers charging across the Sinai straight for Jerusalem, and the Israeli soldier was all that stood between them and the destruction of Israel, his commanders could give him only Zhukov's option: "fight and die." Now that he is commanded by pasty-faced bureaucrats who have made house wreckers and snipers of the heroes of the Golan, it is not enough to be the enemy of my enemy, especially when the enemies Israel kills are not Arab proxies for the Soviet Union or even Al Qaeda, but groups focussed almost entirely on Israel. Buchanan's article may be imbalanced regarding Israel, but this kind polemic is needed if average Americans are ever to to take notice not only of the pernicious effect our blank check for Israel has in world affairs, but also here at home, in facilitating that erosion of our national identity that allows us to keep signing them.
While I agree generally with Mr. Jacobi's point of view, I must dissent on one thing. I don't at all think that unbalanced polemics serve any useful purpose except to strengthen the reign on earth of the Father of Lies. Political polemics, in general, come down to a shouting match between squads of cheerleaders, but it is no longer clear to me what the team is they are cheering.
@36: At the Rockford Institute, Dr. Fleming, you generally try to create an atmosphere for reasoned discussion between principled human beings on a deep intellectual level. Unbalanced polemics are the stuff of populism, an unfortunate and ineradicable facet of life since the birth of the press and of this thing they call "public opinion." Ineradicable, that is, until the idiotic masses blow themselves up. Just pray they don't take the good ones down with them.
One can not be reminded too often of the wiles of the Father of Lies, which are especially effective on lovers of rhetoric and the well turned phrase.
One can not be reminded too often of the wiles of the Father of Lies, which are especially effective on lovers of rhetoric and the well turned phrase.
More evidence that leftism is Satanic in origin.