The Mess in the Middle East
Ilana Mercer, of Barely a Blog fame, has an interesting op-ed posted at World Net Daily. It begins as follows:Israel doesn't lack problems. Iran's Ahmadinejad says the Holocaust never happened, but promises to remedy that by razing Israel to the ground. Or relocating her. He then accelerated Iran's nuclear-weapons program (all unrelated, he assures us).
She could have stopped right there, as far as I’m concerned. That is to say that I happen to believe that Israel, notwithstanding her itchy trigger finger, is not the cause of the historical and current turmoil in the Middle East. Seriously…when was the last time Israel—as a matter of national policy—worked toward the annihilation of their Arab neighbors? That’s right…well before the common era (BCE).
What’s more, it is rather hypocritical of garden-variety Leftists to compare neo-cons in general and Bush et al in particular to Hitler with amazing frequency, while radical Islamist groups that are actively working to achieve Hitler’s most notorious goal are praised as “freedom fighters” and the like.
That said however, I’m not a Zionist, per se. I don’t believe that ethnic (and religious) Jews are above reproach or that they have a “divine right” to any particular plot of dirt…or sand. Regardless, they do have a right to defend themselves from their enemies; and I for one hope they succeed.
The [Pat] Robertson episode demonstrates that Israel doesn't respond appropriately to its friends or to its enemies. Against the backdrop of Iranian incitement to genocide, with the hard-Left joining that seething cesspool of a Palestinian Street to rejoice in Sharon's fate; at the dawn of the Age of Hamas and insecure borders, and in the context of a world that has de-legitimized the Jewish state and defined it in much the same terms as Ahmadinejad has ("criminal Zionist entity, colonial occupier") – Israel still doesn't know Shiite from Shinola.
posted by Robert @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006
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