The New Normal in the Middle East

What would the day be without another article from the Self Hating Jew Joe Klein on his wishes for the demise of Israel? Don’t worry Joe. Iran will soon have it’s nuclear bomb, your hero, Mahmoud, will then use it and what you have been dreaming for your since 1948 will come true. Now if he could only kill all of the rest of the world’s jews you would be in ecstasy.

Wow, the hate came quick on this one.

I’m quite sure most younger American’s can’t find Israel on a map (“south of America somewhere?”) and don’t know what it’s relation to anything is except its chief export, its population as of 1990, and something to do with Moses. If it’s not on the standarized test it’s not worth the knowing.
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Everything old is new again. The Middle East as a whole does not change. Israel as a whole does not change.

centfan: I wonder whether the pre-occupation with israel is a beltway issue. I have not heard any serious table chat about Israel where I live, which is a few miles away from New York.

I’m not saying Israel isn’t important and doesn’t have a unique position geopolitically and within the voting blocks of the US but… I mean… have things ever changed?
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Syria and Egypt aren’t gunning for them right this minute but now it’s Iran… maybe… in the big picture it’s same old same old in that part of the world. Ten thousand years of same with nukes thrown in. When that issue hits a balance there will still be people blowing up in marketplaces.

Don’t misunderstand me. I take your point. My thought: we have too many problems here at home and Israel is not a great worry for us, outside the well known beltway groups. Indeed we found some resentment at a local dinner the day after Obama won the nomination race. AIPAC was his first stop the next day!. Why?why?why? asked my in-law.

Please. Criticism of Israel a self-hating Jew makes not.
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Israel has problems and makes mistakes just like every other county, and should be accountable for them just like everyone else. Why should the US be Israel’s yes-man?

If Iran gets a nuclear bomb (or warhead, for that matter), why would they immediately use it against Israel? I never could understand this argument.
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When the Soviet Union developed a nuclear delivery system capable of hitting the US, did they use it immediately? Did either India or Pakistan use it when once they became nuclear powers? Why hasn’t South Korea been turned into a radioactive heap by the North Koreans?
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I truly hope that Iran makes the right decision and does not become a nuclear power (having one in the Middle East is already one too many), but I’m not going to wet my pants if they decide to get a nuclear weapon.

Israel will always be a geopolitical issue as long as radical islamics are resorting to terror tactics. Politically correct liberals want to blame anyone but muslims for the terror and Israel is the 1st place they look. The Middle East does change but it’s often slow and subtle although there isn’t anything subtle about Iran or hezbollah or Hamas. Israel is important to the political right as a democracy and will always be defended.

It’s not time for Israel to understand the new normal. It’s time for liberals. One gets the sense Joe and his fellow libs think the USA supports Israel because Ameircan Jews have decided it be so. That’s preposterous. It’s clear Israel has turn right and done so in response to the failures of Clinton at Camp David and the resulting infatada. It’s equally clear they didn’t ask American Jews for their permission. That young American jews, largely far left and secular, would distance thenselves from Israel is shardly surprising or meaningful. The trade-off for Israel is gaining the broad and deep support of American conservatives, especially christians and evangelicals. I’m sure Netanyahu would prefer to have the support of young liberal jews but if it were a choice between that tiny minority and conservatives it’s rather easily decided isn’t it?

Charlie,

The Iranians are religious fanatics AND loose cannons. They’ve made a series of aggressive threats against Israel and others. Further they are known to be active supporters of terrorism the world over. They by definition make the region less stable. One of the reasons Israel has a collection of nuclear armed subs is a warning to the muslim world the cost of trying to erase Israel will equal the losses of WWII. Centered of course on the Islamic world. The major cities of Iran, Syria, Southern lebanon and much of the rest of the muslim world would almost certainly cease to exist. Why would you want to move the world closer to that point? That doesn’t begin to address the response by Turkey, The Sauds and the Egyptians to persian/shite dominance.

On this issue I am SO sick of the politics.
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I say let there be a war. Let it kill millions. Let it restructure the Middle East. Screw the Muslims on this one.
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Not a popular thread of thought I know. But I hope this turns into WWIII. So we can get rid of the Mullahs that run Iran for good.
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I have nothing against Muslims (atheist here) , but I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that John from Cincinnati was right “Those f__king ragheads are gonna get themselves eradicated!”
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Here’s the simple facts of this whole deal: We will either deal with radical elements from the middle east (including Iran) in a quick manor, or we won’t and WWIII will ensue where the western nations will be forced to kill a lot of non-threatening middle easterners as collateral damage.

“Lean into peace, show more restraint than is comfortable, win the battle of the Internet and the cable news networks and talk radio because that is the one that is most critical to restoring the political support of the kind Israel needs”
Isn’t leaning intake is what Israel did in early nineties and ended up with a terror war launched against it by the terror brigades it let in together with their chieftain Arafat?
And it cost Israel not less than 1500 killed (to scale up to the USA population – 75,000, more that the Vietnam war). And Israel got no credit for it in terms of radio talks. The wise guy – and there are quite a number of them – is suggesting Israel should “lean into peace” again. He should put a “price tag” that is suitable to his mind – i.e. how many Jews he is expecting to be killed for Israel to finally have a favourable radio talk of three minutes before the ads interrupt.

“Lean into peace, show more restraint than is comfortable, win the battle of the Internet and the cable news networks and talk radio because that is the one that is most critical to restoring the political support of the kind Israel needs”

Isn’t” leaning into peace” and “showing more restraint than is comfortable “is what Israel did in early nineties and ended up with a terror war launched against it by the terror brigades it let in together with their chieftain Arafat?

And it cost Israel not less than 1500 killed (to scale up to the USA population – 75,000, more that the Vietnam war). And Israel got no credit for it in terms of radio talks. To some minds it was not uncomfortable enough. The wise guy – and there are quite a number of them – is suggesting Israel should “lean into peace” again. He should put a “price tag” that is suitable to his mind – i.e. how many Jews he is expecting to be killed for Israel to finally have a favourable radio talk of three minutes before the ads interrupt.

So, genius, you think Muslims are limited to the Middle East?

When we compare radical element to radical element, radical Israeli’s, Beni is PM, remember, there is a higher percentage of radical Israeli’s.

Israel has been the aggressor in each conflict, always claiming “proactive self defense”. The US has backed everyone, the US has both armed and defended Israel, yet Israel does not support the best interest of the US.

Enough is enough, TELL Israel to get in line or pull the plug. The US economy may just pull the plug anyway but wait till the “baby boomers” realize that the Medicare and Social Security cuts could be eliminated by pulling the plug on Israel.

Now tell me why I’m going through ridiculous searches by TSA so they can keep building in Jerusalem and starving the Palestinians.

One of these days someone will be able to close the Pandora’s box these crackheads keep climbing out of.
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Joe, I think the article was great for the most part, but he still puts too much blame on the Palestinians. They aren’t exactly a powerhouse, you know. This business of Abbas’s weakness is a circular argument. To wit:
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Abbas is weakened by two effects, not just one.
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1. His willingness to negotiate with Israel. Palestinians are split over this. After 40 years, two intifadas, things in the West Bank are worse.
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2. Israel’s unwillingness to give him anything that shows the average Palestinian that such an endeavor will be productive.
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It appears that Israel wants Abbas to be weak. Unfortunately, this may eventually cause more grief for Israel by keeping the ground fertile for extremists.
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Another issue is the old “missed opportunity -> inflict more punishment” angle. This is partly maintained by the above, as Palestinians become polarized over negotiation issues and, without any encouraging signs from Israel, will become more and more trenchant in what they believe they should or should not give up.
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In short, it’s still shot though with that old “You better negotiate my way or else” mentality that pervades most American and Israeli thinking.
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Keep in mind, Joe that when the difference between life and death isn’t very great, the idea that there is nothing to lose by trying more extreme avenues becomes more and more attractive.
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It is time to put down the stick. Israelis, their supporters here, and their supporters there are decidedly not any more superior to the average Palestinian and it is time to take that to heart.
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There will be serious consequences if Israel does not do this…

“ultimately the Palestinian will cede the moral and political high ground in this fairly easily given their chronic dysfunctionality”

That holds for all the Muslim world including the so called “moderate” Muslim countries in which beneath the westernizing elite Muslim brotherhood and other brotherhoods of same kind are simmering.

“The Israelis are in denial and the clock is ticking”

The clock is sure ticking, but who is in denial? One can justly question if it is not Obama and his administration given a series of serious and meant to be very deadly terrorist attacks on American soil. Luckily, most of them happened to be unsuccessful – but only technically unsuccessful, – i.e. no credit is due to the administration. And that is while the administration excluded the terms like “Islamic extremism” and such from the lexicon, additionally to Obama’s bowing to that desert prince – the Saudi king – the personification of women stoning, mutilation, world-over spread of Wahhabism, to mention just a few of the man’s credits.
As to Israel, being right and telling truth even when everybody else is caving in to the Islamo-fascist pressures as a result of misconceived interests or by inadvertence due to one’s inadequate world view – is quite an honorable stance, and by the way likely to be more advantageous in the long run. (As the saying goes, there are times when a decent man’s place is in jail.)

Unfortunately for Israel, the way Rothkopf wants Israel to get the “Moral High Ground” is to let others shoot at them. Since the Arabs usually miss, the Israelis will become more popular with the American youth if they just take more hits.

The alternative, responding to Gaza rockets with Operation Cast Lead, and responding to rockets and shells from Lebanon with the 1982 invasion, makes Israel unpopular.

So the plan is that Israel should just lose. As much and as often as possible. What could go wrong?