From all outward signs the ‘international community’ is sleepwalking into a disaster. Turkey has laid out a demand for an Israeli apology which the Jewish state is unlikely to even consider. The Wall Street Journal writes “Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S., Namik Tan, laid out three demands for Israel to meet in order to maintain its relationship with Ankara. In addition to the public apology from Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Tan said the Israeli government must consent to an international investigation into the commando operation, in which nine Turkish activists died on a Turkish-flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara. The Turkish envoy, a seasoned diplomat and former ambassador to Israel, also said Israel must take concrete steps to ease its military blockade of the Gaza Strip.”
In the meantime, the Irish-Malaysian ship “Rachel Corrie” has rejected an Israeli request to land its cargo and accompany their supplies into Gaza, declaring it was their intention to break the blockade. This nullified an earlier offer by the Irish foreign minister. Unless the ship changes course, it will enter the embargo zone within two hours after this post is published.
The Irish Foreign Minister, Dr. Michael Martin earlier reached an agreement with Israel, whereby the Rachel Corrie would proceed to Ashdod where its contents would be checked, unloaded and shipped to Gaza under observation of representatives of the activists, the UN and the Irish government. The activists rejected this offer, continuing to insist on sailing to Gaza and breaking the Israeli blockade, but also stated (according to the Irish FM) that they would not resist the IDF, should it decide to board the ship.
The ship is expected to close in on Gaza about 7 AM on Saturday morning. It’s the second attempt this week by the Free Gaza Movement to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza as well as its closure of that area’s land passages to all but humanitarian aid.
This crisis is developing as the President, mesmerized by the oil leak in the Gulf, canceled his planned visits to Australia and Asia. Obama even went on the Larry King show to declare himself “furious”. But the oil leak crisis itself has been in the pattern of the administration’s belatedness. It seems to have little ability to anticipate a crisis, only react to it a day late and a dollar short.
The proximate danger is that the Turkish demands, which are sure to be inflamed by the almost certain repeat interception of the “Rachel Corrie” may escalate into the 21st century equivalent of the July Crisis which escalated into the Great War. It began, ironically as a diplomatic attempt to isolate Serbia. “This Ultimatum was part of a program of coercive diplomacy meant to weaken the Kingdom of Serbia … The program was a failure as Serbia, having received assurances of support from the Russian government, made an equivocal response to the Ultimatum, leading to a conflict which rapidly spiraled into a broad European war under conditions disastrous to Austria-Hungary.”
One of the key miscalculations was the Austrian belief that Serbia had no alternative to an unacceptable ultimatum except diplomatic capitulation. “It was finally agreed by all present except Tisza that Austria Hungary should present an ultimatum designed to be rejected”. It was only the first of a string of diplomatic mis-apprehensions. The story the most tragic days in early 20th century history was a that of too little, too late. Although many statesmen apprehended the danger many were unaware of the secret deals and contingency plans which bound up Austria and Germany, Serbia and Russia. They completely mis-estimated the effect of their clever demarches. Only when the entire picture revealed itself was the monstrous cumulative effect on display for all to see. But by that time the armies were marching. The subsequent collision was foreseen in some quarters and yet no concerted effort was launched to stave it off. The one nation able to defuse the crisis between Turkey and Israel is America. And President Obama has his head a mile under the Gulf.
There was in the July Crisis, in the ultimatum presented to Serbia, a terrible asymmetry of interests. Each party made its own calculation and it was different from the estimates of their counterparts. Russia saw itself bound to come to the aid of Serbia and Russian mobilization as a gesture to its ally triggered an irrevocable mobilization of the Germany Army. The rest is tragic history. For many in the West, Israel is in the immortal words of the French ambassador to Britain just a “shitty little country”. But to those who live in Israel it is the last safe place on earth for a race that within living memory was nearly exterminated in the European gas chambers. Crazy as it may seem — and it may have seen to the Western diplomats of long ago — people will fight for what they regard as shitty little causes.
Charles Krauthammer expressed what is by no means an isolated view of the stakes from a Jewish point of view. Krauthammer argues that Israel is now clinging desperately to the last defensive paradigm that will permit it to survive. If it takes a step back, it will go over the abyss.
But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel’s fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself — forward and active defense.
(1) Forward defense: As a small, densely populated country surrounded by hostile states, Israel had, for its first half-century, adopted forward defense — fighting wars on enemy territory (such as the Sinai and Golan Heights) rather than its own.
Where possible (Sinai, for example) Israel has traded territory for peace. But where peace offers were refused, Israel retained the territory as a protective buffer zone. Thus Israel retained a small strip of southern Lebanon to protect the villages of northern Israel. And it took many losses in Gaza, rather than expose Israeli border towns to Palestinian terror attacks. It is for the same reason America wages a grinding war in Afghanistan: You fight them there, so you don’t have to fight them here.
But under overwhelming outside pressure, Israel gave it up. The Israelis were told the occupations were not just illegal but at the root of the anti-Israel insurgencies — and therefore withdrawal, by removing the cause, would bring peace.
Land for peace. Remember? Well, during the past decade, Israel gave the land — evacuating South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. What did it get? An intensification of belligerency, heavy militarization of the enemy side, multiple kidnappings, cross-border attacks and, from Gaza, years of unrelenting rocket attack.
(2) Active defense: Israel then had to switch to active defense — military action to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (to borrow President Obama’s description of our campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda) the newly armed terrorist mini-states established in southern Lebanon and Gaza after Israel withdrew.
The result? The Lebanon war of 2006 and Gaza operation of 2008-09. They were met with yet another avalanche of opprobrium and calumny by the same international community that had demanded the land-for-peace Israeli withdrawals in the first place. Worse, the U.N. Goldstone report, which essentially criminalized Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza while whitewashing the casus belli — the preceding and unprovoked Hamas rocket war — effectively de-legitimized any active Israeli defense against its self-declared terror enemies.
(3) Passive defense: Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses — a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.
But, if none of these is permissible, what’s left?
What’s left is to watch our opinion leaders deal with an oncoming train. For Helen Thomas the answer to the problem is a throwaway, PC line, followed by a chuckle. Shitty little country. Go back to Europe. Her cocktail party laugh is a reminder, if any were needed, that when you meet people who can blow smoke out of their ass, the wise man declines any proffered proof of the feat in the way of nicotine-stained shorts.
embedded by Embedded VideoYouTube Direkt
The July Crisis occurred 96 years ago, and Murphy, who was then active, has yet not yet retired from the stage of unintended consequences. Let’s hope we don’t hear from him soon.
Update: Helen Thomas, at her website says “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” Her most recent statement can be taken as an update and therefore the representation of her current state of thinking. One problem with the Middle East is that nobody seems to care much for the state table, but they remember every transaction in the log table. Very little is forgotten and not enough is forgiven in that part of the world. In a world where the past is almost as real and perhaps even more real than the present, the “mutual respect and tolerance” that she craves may spring from more from good fences and wariness than it will from genuine goodwill and understanding. That people change their tune, as Ms. Thomas did, in order to live side by side with them, more out of self interest than in altruism, does not cheapen the fact. What does it matter why people live in civility for as long as they do? We should take what we can get. Live and let live is usually better than the alternative.
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Why would the Israelis ever trust Hamas, an organization determined to kill every Israeli? Besides being used as a pawns for this “international hate fest,” I cannot understand why anyone, much less three generations of “Palestinian Refugees,” would continue to want to live in Gaza…I guess I’m just not in love with death and martyrdom
W:
Ouch! What a hard-hitting close. But I’d have to agree. This president is out of his depth, whether it’s a mile deep in the Gulf or a National Security briefing. A perfect storm is coming and Obama plays golf and shoots hoops. Alas, Babylon. F
A beautiful post – only I would say you’ve mislocated Obama’s head, presuming he even has one.
But that’s Obama … what about the rest of the US government, from Biden and Hillary on down … if there is any down from there …
Then what *about* the rest of the “international community” (a phrase that still makes me spit). Is it really only the US, and only Obama (another phrase that makes me spit), that can *do* something?
But the problem isn’t the doing, it’s the seeing, isn’t it, the sleepwalking. Hey, let’s spend another hour Googling stuff. Google – just happens, hey. The world spins on its access, we don’t have to worry about that, or world peace, or terrorism.
Wrong, oh you people who will not see, who will not hear: as the prophet has saith, rust never sleeps.
…
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
So when is enough, enough? Israel had thriving businesses in Gaza. Multi-billion dollar greenhouse businesses that competed world-wide with the Dutch flower market. Communities of settlers had made Gaza home. They built housing developments, roads, synagogues. Yet they gave it all up. Obama must have forgotten about that, he wasn’t President then so it was unimportant. He wasn’t paying any attention when, after Sharon ripped all his countrymen from their homes and businesses to make Gaza Judenfrei for the nomadic Arabs who have recently begun calling themselves Palestinians (about 60 years ago), those same barbarians very first act as landowners was to rip apart all the infrastructure…the greenhouses, the residences, and, of course, the synagogues, left behind by tearful Jews who had been betrayed by their own country. Then they deigned poverty and the world sent them billions of welfare dollars, then they fought with each other PLA against Hamas, barbarians against butchers, and eventually chose for themselves the butchers. Then of course, the butchers began hurling primitive, but deadly missiles into schools and houses of Jews on the Israeli side of Gaza. Israel’s first response was to send aid…10 tons a week.
Obama’s comprehensive desires forgot to mention that the Hamas charter refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. It is stunning to me. How does an Israeli begin a conversation with a person that doesn’t believe he has a right to exist? President Obama has solved his “right to exist problem” by sending drones to blow up houses 10′s of thousands of miles away. That’s ok, save for the fact that no actionable intelligence is gleaned from this maneuver, at least he isn’t water boarding them. The bits and pieces of women. children, and terrorists left after a drone attack don’t make good conversation. But ISRAEL, oh my God, they are the devil personified. The poor piteous “Palestinians” against the big mean Jews. This conflict will end one of two ways. The first and most popular today by those on the left is for Israel to commit suicide. They must give up more land to be left with indefensible borders while Hamas and Hezbollah arm themselves to their teeth ( teeth, if they have any, that are probably cared and paid for by Israelis). This process will end with the nuclear and/or biological destruction of Israel along with tens of millions of Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese, and “Palestinians”. The second is for Israel, backed by a strong non equivocating U.S. President to tell the Palestinians, “You have one last shot at becoming a country and a propel. You must first announce publicly both in English and Arabic that Israel has a sacred right to exist as a nation on the ground that it currently occupies. Then you have five years to prove that you are capable of behaving as a unified people who are willing to take responsibility for your own survival and to create government and institutions that are seeds for sustainability. After that, if you are unable to exist as a country, it will be you who will be dispersed throughout the world. Make nicely nice with your Arab “brothers”, because you may need them to take you in. And no rockets or terror attacks, little boys and girls as that would be your end.”
I personally do not think this amalgamation called Palestinians is capable of governing itself. Without hate, they may be nothing. But it is time to put an end to all of this bullshit and the waffle response Obama gives above will only continue this stupidity in perpetuity.
C
I think the real matter is why stop WW3? Realistically at this point it can’t be stopped history shows that it is all but set in stone the path the players will take.
The real question is will there be civil war in the US and who will win? The individualist(aka the right wing) or the collectivists(aka nazis/commies/leftwing)…
Right now the individualists can still win and take the US back from the nazis/commies…. but in 10 years thats highly unlikely. The US badly needs WW3 for the chance to return to the US Constitution…
Most ppl have known for the past 3 years+ that WW3 was coming anyone with even a basic understanding of WW1/2 could see this thing coming…individualists welcome this war since it really is the last chance the US has of remaining free from the slavery that is collectivism…
Ppl will be forced to choose… individualism or collectivism…
try correction again … world spins on its axis.
cdor @ 5: This conflict will end one of two ways. The first and most popular today by those on the left is for Israel to commit suicide.
“Never Again”
Krauthammer: “But, if none of these is permissible, what’s left?”
Answer: Holocaust 2.0, where the Jews march passively to the gas chambers.
Wretchard: “It seems to have little ability to anticipate a crisis, only react to it a day late and a dollar short.”
To echo something Whiskey might say, perhaps Obama wants a crisis? Suppose he doesn’t want them to defend themselves?
Hey did you just revise and extend to include CK, or did I just miss that before?
It’s some of the best CK I’ve seen in a while.
Analogous to Turkish interest in the geography of Gaza, perhaps the Quandil mountains offer Israel a nice geography for the delivery of “humanitarian assistance” to both Turkey and Iran
It is so strange for me to consider that there are people who hate Jews. I grew up in New York City right near the five towns and understand that the Jewish population in America is largely collected here, but still…how can people who don’t grow up knowing Jews to be no different from the Irish, Italians, etc. kind of people around them really find a reason to hate this ethnicity? It makes me wonder if Jews are the exceptional ethnicity of the human race, and the culture and society they have carried with them for millenia throughout the world is truly the culture and society that humans should emulate for the most perfect pursuit of happiness, liberty and life.
it makes me sick to see that video of Helen Thomas- what a horrible heart that woman has. there are far too many people in this world whose hearts are likewise poisoned. i am so blessed to have had the Jewish eye doctor I had growing up, the Jewish piano teacher I had as a child, the Jewish bakery near my house, and even just the experience of seeing those people out walking around on Saturday afternoons en masse. I can’t understand why the rest of America won’t let itself experience all this; they are only hurting themselves and cheating themselves of a glimpse into the good life. I may not have been born a Jew, and may not have Jewish genetics, but if I can live like a Jew and if I can fight the enemies of the Jews….I will know I’ve lived right.
Does it seem to anyone else that Islam basically takes all the tenets of Judaism, perverts them, and then claims them as its own invention? what a watered down copycat sham of a ‘religion’. instead of trying to live like the jews, these people were determined from the start to beat them at their own game, and that’s what pisses me off most about islamic terrorism. it’s not like it’s even its own religion, culture, etc., like buddhism and hinduism would be if the people of that persuasion were trying to ‘convert’ the world to its side. islamism is only a rip off designed to destroy the original. though i’m not sure how the holocaust and general worldly anti-semitism fits in there…unless europeans have historically had more invested in the arabs than the jews because they are similarly pagan and envious of the jewish moral code?
perhaps someone more knowledgeable can see where i’m going and enlighten the germ of an idea. thanks.
Helen Thomas has no excuse at all.
Outside of senile confusion.
A woman of her generation come here from Lebanon, and I presume of Christian descent, came from a country that had little enmity against Jews to a country that had less. I am not aware that she showed any such behaviors or expressions in her first, oh, 75 years or so. But first the Clintons, and now Obama, have unhinged many.
There has been an epidemic of unseriousness. The favored clients of the left have been allowed to scream, pound their fists on the floor and hold their breath until they turn blue for too long. Now they are starting to break things and threatening to hurt people. It is time for the adults to take control.
Turkey is a NATO member with a large modern military. Somebody needs to tell them to get a grip.
The “Rachel Corrie” has been boarded. All the passengers are reported to be under arrest. No incidents reported.
Update: the JP says “Earlier reports had suggested that the Rachel Corrie had been boarded, but the army and the boat’s passenger’s later said this was not true.” So it is still unclear how this will play out.
thanks for the update, and double-thanks for making it a good one!
Thrasymachus: “It is time for the adults to take control.”
B. Hussein Obama is not one of them.
israelis want to keep their hands clean, so they get what they get. until and unless they are prepared to do what is necessary — for their survival — i won’t shed a tear for them. they have it in their power to destroy every arab city and take as much of the oil as they want, but they don’t do it. so they get what they get.
Helen Thomas apparently doesn’t understand that she could be seen as an “occupier”. She is Lebanese-American, and the last I heard, North America isn’t exactly the native land of Lebanese people. (Her parents came from Tripoli, Lebanon.)
If she is going to take her “nativist” attitude toward Israel, why doesn’t she lead by example and “go home” to Lebanon? Who cares whether she may not know the language or the culture or anybody presently living in Lebanon? Who cares whether she would be taken away from everything she knows in North America? Since her parents came from Lebanon, obviously she would be “going home” by her own standards, wouldn’t she?
Helen Thomas is not merely a racist, but a hypocrite. If she truly believed in “stopping an occupation” and “going home”, she could go to Lebanon and stay there.
A nasty irony of Nazi propaganda is how Nazis whipped themselves into a frenzy to kill Jews by portraying Jews as monsters who look like Helen Thomas. The negative stereotypes of Jews portrayed by Nazis look amazingly like many Arab anti-Jews such as King Fahd, Osama bin Laden, Helen Thomas, and Yasser Arafat. Indeed Arab and Iranian cartoons of Jews are so utterly puzzling when they use warmed over Nazi iconography because it looks as though anti-Jews can’t stand how they look in the mirror.
Now, Helen Thomas has supposedly apologized on her personal blog. The problem with any such apology is that her statement against Israeli Jews doesn’t come out of the blue, but is ideologically consistent with her agenda for at least the past twenty years. Her statement fits a pattern not only for her anti-war activism but also for a woman who may have been highly influenced by either traditional anti-Judaism in Arab society (which was strong during the early twentieth century) or the ideologies of Henry Ford and Father Coughlin (who were quite prominent in Detroit, where Helen Thomas grew up).
I think the White House Press Corps ought to interpret Helen Thomas’s latest remarks as a sign of senility and thus regard her presence as no longer necessary. Indeed, Helen Thomas should not be welcome in the White House at all. If Helen Thomas is still in the White House in 2012, her presence there ought to become a legitimate issue for the presidential campaign.
Wretchard –
Barack Hussein Obama is Black. He is also a man raised a Muslim. He is a Black Nationalist. Combined, this guarantees he hates Jews. Wants them all dead. Helen Thomas is probably to the more sympathetic of Obama vs. Jews.
A man does not laugh at anti-Semitic jokes at Rashid Khalidi’s going away party, and make them (along with his odious Wife Michelle) and not be a total anti-Semite.
You can tell how bad the video is by how much the LAT has suppressed it.
I would not say, of course, that all Blacks hate Jews. But the vast, overwhelming, 90%+ majority do. I know this by Farrakhan’s mansion.
The world has been infected by the Big Lie. It grows in the heart of the West, a million and one strands of little lies flow from it and darken our age. It hollows out the strength of our civilization, obscures the vision that made us who we are, enervates our courage, pries the sinews from the bones, dessicates hope, plunders love and eviscerates knowledge.
When civilizations collapse the bonds of social life crumble, leaving us without the moral mechanisms to maintain cohesion and peace. We are atomized, alienated, we see each other and ourselves as untrustworthy strangers. All those whom we shored up and who looked to us as a model totter and seek a new balance point, but where? Until the West either heals itself or falls and is replaced by another dominant civilization those lesser players will seek a mechanism to restore unity and peace.
Traditionally that mechanism has been human sacrifice. the world is gearing up for a big dose of human sacrifice. Israel may be the chosen sacrificial victim du jour. Until next time. There will have to be another because even the destruction of a nation will not assuage what ails us. The problem was never that not enough blood had been spilled, but that Big Lie has taken possession of the minds of men. Madness follows, and will grow.
Can the West save itself? Will the sight of madness all around shock us back to sanity? Not if history is any guide. There has always been a need for prayer, that need is greater now than ever, and will grow greater still before it diminishes.
What avails prayer? Clarity of vision against the dark. Passion for Truth to confound the Lie. Swelling of courage for steadfastness. Wisdom for incisive deeds.
Win or lose, greatness awaits.
I think Obama will have her White House pass revoked. It’s hard to imagine that he could lose votes by doing so and it might buy him some slack from American Jews who are starting to have buyers remorse. If he doesn’t do anything it means he’s really OK with being a one-term demolition man.
Stephanie:
I regard Islam to be a religious amalgam. It has many aspects of Judaism, Arian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Arab paganism, and ancient Phoenician ritual.
I think one key is opening minds is to publicize early versions of the Quran that are at odds with the modern version. They do exist, but their existence is generally “hush, hush”. Moreover, the present-day Quran is nowhere near as large as the corpus of recitations that are once said to have existed. (Actually, there is no known evidence from contemporaneous sources that Mohammed ever existed. Did he exist at all?)
If you want to understand any religion, look at its rituals. I don’t regard Islam’s rituals to be “knockoffs” of Judaism, but rather ancient (standard Semitic pagan) rituals with some admixture of Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Christian customs.
There is a difference between a monotheist’s monotheism and a polytheist’s monotheism. A monotheist only recognizes one deity. In contrast, a polytheist may seek to kill all other deities so only one god will remain standing. Remember the slogan janjaweed rapists tell to their victims – ”We have killed your god.”
one look at that hideous visage tells you she has already been punished. hate is it’s own reward.
The Turks doubling down may force an Article 5 request. The result would be a flanking move on the US -either we are in the Alliance or we are not, either we meet our treaty obligations or we don’t. If we go with Israel then our word is mud, if we go with Turkey then our word is mud.
Then there is the other shoe: if we side with Turkey, then the Iranians may basically attack with impunity as our hands would be tied.
Our COAs are rapidly diminishing as the constraints and restraints become tighter.
In the immortal words of Han Solo: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”
Where I come from, Murphy is regarded as a “cock-eyed optimist”
Wretchard’s analysis, and similar discussions I have seen around the internet seems based on Tuchman and others who were of the opinion that WW1 was all a big mistake, and this could be a repeat. I commend to them David Fromkin’s “Europe’s Last Summer,” which lays out what I think a much more believable narrative: key leaders in Austria-Hungary and Germany wanted to provoke wars, with Serbia and Russia/France, respectively, because they thought war inevitable and saw the strategic trends running against them. They believed circumstances would never again be as good for them. They were not fools or simpletons who were ignorant or did not understand, they made a calculated set of moves to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity (the Archduke’s assassination). Some in the German and Austrian govts disagreed, even Kaiser Bill got cold feet once it was too late to stop, but Bethmann-Hollweg, Moltke and Hotzendorf got a war that they wanted and had worked to produce—not at all an accident.
They lost, but maybe they weren’t wrong that their chances would only get worse.
Now, consider whether the current provocations are merely tactical and may lead to a “miscalculation,” as some have put it, OR whether there is a conscious calculation that with Obama in the White House and big Dem majorities in Congress, Europe distracted by its sovereign debt crisis and a new govt in the UK, some have decided that now is the time to deal with the “Zionist entity.”
I am not so sure that all this sturm und drang is being engineered from so many places (obviously a worldwide, coordinated effort that didn’t just happen over a weekend) just to gain PR points by people who have all the PR, anyway. Maybe so, but a more logical explanation is that having tested US resolve with the Cheonan incident, and found no resolve there, the people behind the blockade runners know (perhaps by explicit agreement, perhaps implicitly) that China and Russia have their backs, and this is all INTENDED to start a war with Israel. With Turkey, a NATO member, as a new frontline state and maybe some Irish (i.e., EU) casualties freezing any western response (not that Obama would be so inclined, anyway).
If all they want is PR points, one can hope that they may wake up, realize the risk, and pull back.
If they intend to provoke a final showdown, there is no waking up and pulling back, unless different factions take control (if such exist, at all). They may miscalculate how the war turns out, but war is what they want.
Just sayin’.
As for Helen Thomas, my first reaction was, “Didn’t she die, already?”
Confirming that she hadn’t, I recalled she was one of Dr. Krauthammer’s first diagnoses of Bush Derangement Syndrome, way back ca. 2002.
Why does anyone take the senile old fart seriously? Obviously, some do, and it’s my weakness for not understanding, but I don’t get it.
I think we can never fully understand the past. It’s tempting to think that “somebody” knew what happened in 1914. Maybe “somebody” did; and may nobody did. Both the accidental and purposeful hypotheses can be credibly put forward. But put it this way, whether Europe was pushed or fell off the cliff may be uncertain, but that it was near the cliff is less doubtful. Once the system is at the edge; when many emergent events are happening and seem to run together there is a need for special vigilance. That is, if anyone cares to be vigilant.
The interesting thing about the 2010 is a sense of rudderlessness that grows in inverse proportion to the grandiosity of the pronouncements. Was there ever a more ineffective British Prime Minister than Gordon Brown, who boasted he had saved the world from financial catastrophe? Was there ever a more inauspicious start to the Presidency of a man intimated this would be the time the oceans began to fall? After building all those marble Palaces for itself, the mighty EU has been shaken by the Greek crisis. I keep getting the impression that the Emperor has no clothes.
Hmm. And again hmm.
Are we witnessing the return of the Ottomans? And we ain’t talking fancy footstools! These Ottomans will be nobody’s footstool, fool! It is time for other people to be their footstools!
Didn’t they use to run places like, oh, Egypt? And those parts of Saudi Arabia (then known as Arabia) that had, like, water? And didn’t it all have a certain religious justification? And wasn’t it all taken away unfairly?
I wonder what the Arabs will say? Thanks for your help, big brother Turk! Let us know when it is time to bend over and lift our skirts!
Geez, these Arabs. They have been sticking it to the Palestinians for decades, and — after being out gunned by the Turks and the Persians — soon they can say, “We are all Palestinians, now!” And it will be true.
Turns out the way to free Gaza is to enslave Lebenon, Jordan…
Maybe they should cuddle up to Obama? After all, he’s looking impotent. They are less likely to get screwed.
Wretchard,
I don’t think that the new scholarship on the beginning of WWI implies a great deal of determinism. It merely hypothesizes that there were a number of policy makers in 1914 who saw themselves losing a demographic and economic battle with Russia and used the archduke’s assassination as a pretext to start what they saw as a quick and manageable war. They still rapidly lost control. Tuchman’s hypothesis is still a good one. But instead of of events spiraling out of control as dull-witted aristocrats debauched on their summer estates, events spiral out of control as a few scared, cynical men plotted on their summer estates. In my experience, Wretchard, it it almost always the scared little men you will get you in the really big trouble.
I think that Spengler over at Atimes has speculated along similar lines: that the Islamists in Iran (and Turkey) have a surplus of war-age males for only about 20 more years since their birth rates are already below replacement. The next few years are their last chance to fight and win before they run out of surplus males and (in Iran’s case) oil. So Ahmadinejad and Ergodan are in this case the scared, little, calculating men trying to provoke war.
Interesting also that a leading American leftist feels comfortable to state openly what they had previously always gone to great lengths to deny. You couldn’t pay me enough to be in Netanyahu’s shoes right now. His strategic choices are very limited right now.
One source of Bush Derangement Syndrome was that he threatened the elites by ostentatiously siding with the Jews, including the Reagan Democrat Neocons, by promulgating Democracy in the Middle East. Even in Europe there are probably majorities who believe in Western Civilization. The championing of personal freedom, wealth and creativity, a defense of Europe’s heritage and support for the Jews would in most places be welcome among the masses. Why then choose to reject that for the narrow path of impoverishment and submission to the Islamists? Three reasons explain the attitude of the elites;
1. the aristocratic model that manifests itself in treason to the despised local peasantry,
2. the power of oil money that has flowed like blood from the West,
3. cowardice in the face of colonization by Moslems.
Miserable Europe.
…-
“This is a translation of an article from a Spanish newspaper.
The truth must be told! All European life died in Auschwitz
By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez*
I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz.
We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, and talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned. And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have turned our beautiful European cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1531607/posts
Wretchard,
Only a fool of a President forgets the age old axiom – “Do not trample over old friends in your eagerness to make new ones”…
His lack of experience, lack of a sense of history, lack of leadership ability, lack of… Oh hell, pick any lack you like, he has exhibited it to the world and the void is being filled with opportunists. Hard to blame them, if you have no respect for anything but power.
My lowly place in the world must prevent me from understanding the hatred of any one race this much. I must be ignorant of the reason… Surely my betters have the answer and are acting with all of our good at heart. That’s the siren song they have been singing for 40 years. It’s so sweet, how could it be wrong?
Now, with all stupid self-abasement aside, let’s get to the crux of the matter… My inner guide tells me that there will be a price to pay for abandoning the jews. A terrible price that the world seems to be willing to pay over and over for 2 things – Money and Power (oil and oil – in the current state of affairs, they are synonymous). A resource that drives the West and therefore the power. The West is in it’s descension if the path is not righted.
I find it hard to fault the drive for alternative power sources that are proven, or even hair-brain schemes for others as long as there is real data to support the look. They will take that knife away from our throats. The only issue I have with the hair-brained schemes for alternative energy is the left-driven path through stupidity.
The left has the Chinese view – the long one… I wouldn’t have believed it, if I didn’t see it before my eyes. Who would have thought, just 10 years ago, that the survivors of the SDS and Black Panther movement would have a platform to push their beliefs upon the world…
I blame us.
Helen Thomas was stating her true feelings. Perhaps senility has lowered her guard and allowed slips of truth to escape her lips. Her apology is a lie.
***
The world is aghast at an inspection team that was attacked by passengers on a ship trying to break a blockade, that defended against their attackers. What nerve. Self defense is evil. “sarcasm off”
The people of Israel should realize{some already do} that they will be damned no matter what their response. They should allow Gaza to provide a good excuse for Israeli armed forces to do a true occupation, and expulsion of the current citizenry of Gaza. De-populate the area, force refugees to Egypt, Lebanon or Syria, who cares.
Once done, they can do the same for the West Bank, and be done with the charade. The “Palestinians” have shown no evidence of honesty in their bargaining. They never will.
If Israel is to continue to exist as a sovereign state, their only response in the future should be to reward those behaviors they like and punish those behaviors they don’t. So far, they, and the rest of the Western World, have rewarded obnoxious behavior.
If they are unwilling to cause the “Palestinians” to flee, their response in the future should be as if they DIDN’T exist. If they desire your demise, let them experience life as if you were gone. Close all the gates, turn off the water and electricity, stop supplying anything to the Gaza and West Bank.
See how they like a world without Israel, where their very wish has been met.
tom
Helen Thomas is a crazy old bat. A muttering bag lady of a “journalist.”
Re: # 5. cdor
“…the nomadic Arabs who have recently begun calling themselves Palestinians (about 60 years ago)…”
~20-30 (after Madrid + Oslo).
Re # 36. Kevin
Helen Thomas is a crazy old bat. A muttering bag lady of a “journalist.”
True, but bag ladies, bag ladies journalists, crazy bats, as well as crazy old bats all are very attuned to the smell of lynch mob excitement.
grrr,
1964 was the formation of the PLO. Before that, and for some time after, the local Arabs were referred to simply as fedayeen.
Re # 39. Lifeofthemind
“grrr,
1964 was the formation of the PLO. Before that, and for some time after, the local Arabs were referred to simply as fedayeen.”
“Some time after” was numerically ~20+ years when Arafat und Co. was installed there.
grr and LOM. I used 60 as an approx. The point was historically miniscual amount of time. I am sure you both got that. But another aspect is the media’s emphasis on the horrible conditions in Gaza. I have recently had my eyes opened. Having been duped by the media like everyone else, I was shocked to learn that things are not so bad for the poor palis:
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001072.html
Scroll down the article for the pictures. Tom Gross has recently come to my attention. I received an e-mail yesterday using him as reference and now here comes Mark Steyn reminding us of his extraordinary article in 2005, “The other Rachael’s”. That article discussed a number of women named Rachael who were murdered with family, friends, and children by pali terrorists. These women received little, if any, media mention while Rachael Corrie became martyred into sainthood for dying while assisting these very same murderous terrorists.
I received a French post with many more pics if anyone is interested. Marie Claude can translate. I’ll post them when I get back home.
Not sure why yahoo sent me here but I should probably I have been overall entertained by the site conent you have sourced together. How long did it take to get that many arriving to your page? I am very new to all this.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9530
An Open Letter to Turkey
That ship you filled up with Muslim Brotherhood members and Islamist radicals bound for Gaza. Over in your wonderful nation of boundless freedom, reporters have been put on trial for even interviewing leaders of terrorist groups. You sentenced the head of a Kurdish party to six months in prison for calling the head of the PKK, Mr. Ocalan, instead of just Ocalan. He joins the more than 800 Kurdish politicians you imprisoned in the last year alone. And after all that you actually have the nerve to pretend to be “outraged” when Israel intercepts your flotilla full of political terrorists?
….
You talk about stolen land, when your entire country is stolen land, from Cyprus to Istanbul. Your regime is a racist illegitimate entity based on the oppression of the Kurds, the Armenians, the Assyrians, Iranians, and numerous others. You went directly from being Imperialists to Fascists to Islamists, a truly dubious achievement for any nation. Your history is filled with slavery, ethnic cleansing, genocide and invasion. And that’s just in the last century alone.
I have been worried that we are in a phase resembling 1937-38; but it can also be argued that we are also in a time that resembles the summer of 1914 in which tensions in so-called “minor” countries plunged Europe and ultimately the rest of the world into the war that was the start of the decline of Europe and even perhaps of Western Civilization.
After all, the so-called peace after WW I laid the groundwork not only for WW II but also for the Middle East of today. Yes, the Versailles Treaty was the stew pot in which the brew of the German hyperinflation and then the Nazi takeover was simmered. But the Sykes-Picot Treaty also created the modern Middle East by drawing lines for new nations in the wake of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Thus Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, even modern Iran were created as new countries with borders convenient for the French and British, but that also crisscrossed ethnic areas like the Kurds and divided the Shi’ite Muslims between Arab Iraq and Persian Iran, as well as the “fake” aristocracy of Jordan and Syria.
Meanwhile, America is either asleep at the wheel, or — more probably — is intentionally setting up a new world order in which the United States will no longer be the super power that keeps the peace. Under such circumstances Israel’s peril is greater than ever. And also look to the two Koreas, to Taiwan, to Iran, to the Ukraine, to the Baltic Nations, and elsewhere for some major realignments in the next decade or two.
#19 Alexis
Indeed, Helen Thomas should not be welcome in the White House at all. If Helen Thomas is still in the White House in 2012, her presence there ought to become a legitimate issue for the presidential campaign.
There will be no consequences for Helen Thomas. If you take a look at the press coverage, including at the Washington Post which is only second to the New York Times [the official paper of Treason] in its Democratic Party orthodoxy; they are inadvertently revealing. The official line is that it is “right wing outrage”. Apparently the Left finds nothing wrong with what she said, what she meant, and the anti-Jewish bias she revels in. To them, it was the most commonplace of remarks, and totally within mainstream thought. Have you seen any MSM outrage? Or even questioning?
Hearst, her employer, as of a few minutes ago was still saying that what she said did not reflect their corporate stand, that she has apoligised, and that apparently there will be no job consequences. The silence out of the White House itself is speaking volumes. Despite the fact that even a token gesture condemning the speech would cause those few American Jews who are beginning to question their devotion to ‘Teh One’ to come back to the fold begging for forgiveness; there is no comment. Because, probably, what she said fits in so well with what the White House and the Democrats truly believe.
She is safe. If we make it to the 2012 elections … if there ARE 2012 elections; Helen Thomas will not have an effect, because we will have other more life-threatening matters pressing.
#22 Stephen
I think Obama will have her White House pass revoked. It’s hard to imagine that he could lose votes by doing so and it might buy him some slack from American Jews who are starting to have buyers remorse. If he doesn’t do anything it means he’s really OK with being a one-term demolition man.
If he does not do anything, it indeed can mean he has no problem with being a one-term president. However, the length of that term may not be as specified in the Constitution. I seem to remember that Idi Amin Dada of Uganda was “elected” to a second life term in office.
Subotai Bahadur
Re #41. cdor
Thanks for the link. Haven’t seen this one before.
Clean up needed on isle #42! Spammer
Helen Thomas is just the ugly face of leftism/progressivism. Literally. She said what she did in all likely hood to get access to Zero. She most assuredly believes it.
As a side note. It looks like 9 to 13 months to collapse. This can be shortened by adverse action on the part of state and local govts defaulting on their munis. Or by the start of a multi front shooting war. The G 20 came out with the statement that we peons will have to adopt austerity measures en mass. OR we will see a drastic increase in taxes, fees et al. All of which will lead to a 10 to 30 percent reduction in living standards for the middle class in America… We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast. That is all.
A picture is worth a thousand words!
Have you guys seen this video from “The Flotilla Choir”? I laughed my head off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg
While interesting in all kinds of ways, I’m not sure that the build-up to and trigger of WWI or WWII is that important right now.
What is important is that:
1. Turkey has decided, in its wisdom, to join the growing group of nations and peoples that are threatening and planning to wipe out the state of Israel. These include Iran, Syria and Iranian proxies Hezbullah (essentially Lebanon itself) and Hamas. It has also authorized a provocation of Israel, legitimized Hamas by declaring that Hamas, an organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction, is not a terror group, and has warned Israel (in baldly Orwellian terms) that Israel risks losing a friend (Turkey) if it does not apologize to Turkey and end the blockade of Hamas.
2. Turkey is (still) a member in good standing of NATO.
3. The US considers Turkey an ally, has been reaching out to Iran and to Syria, has stated that it’s time to reassess its relationship with Hamas.
4. The US has taken great pains to distance itself from Israel.
And we’re busy analyzing the build-up to and causes of past wars….(?!)
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=177584
It seems that somebody in Israel reads BC. Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has canceled it’s truce with Turkey. Not that it was much of a truce. So I expect to see Israel sending weapons to the PKK. No UAV’s for Turkey. No more tank guns, ballistic computer, laser range finders or any other neat things. The Turkish military will be forced to move, if they can. I think a coup attempt in Turkey is more likely then a war between Turkey and Israel.
And why not? The biggest thing keeping the military from cleaning house yet again is the Generals want to join the EU. Or did. What with the Euro tanking and Germany making noises about dropping the Euro ( If the German people had gotten a chance to vote, they never would have joined in the first place) The Generals might be willing to give up on that. Then there is Cyprus. In ’73 the Turks had quantity and quality advantages. Today they have quantity but NOT Quality.
As far as Turkey activating NATO to help defeat Israel, that won’t happen. Greece will veto if the USA doesn’t. We all watched the NATO response to the WTC attack. It was much more robust then the NATO response to a legal blockaded by Israel will be. So that means If Turkey goes wild, they will face Israel alone.
I’ll bet the Turkish military is more concerned about that then losing a coup attempt. One of the major reasons Israel won in ’73 was their targeting and destroying Arab C&C. Cut the head off the snake and the rest just flops around. Doesn’t matter how big the snake is.
The real problem for Turkey is Israel arming the PKK. Them having Stingers and Spikes will make the Turks job very difficult, if not impossible. I doubt that the PKK will give them back after the coup attempt. No matter how that attempt ends.
No kooler heads will deploy and the Jewish diplos will point out that if Turkey is aiding Hamas, there is no reason Israel can’t aid the PPK. Or the Greeks.
Sunday Surprise:
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Volunteers to Escort Ships to Gaza!”
Just talk or will someone take them up on it and will they actually do it? Will this show up Turkey as being just full of hot air? Questions…Questions.
Continuing…
Papa Ray
The Land of Israel
Stephanie – I’m late to the party on this thread but in case you, or anyone else, happens to check back … Antisemitism is not rational. You can point to certain psychological traits that are standards of human nature — that people tend to dislike or even hate outsiders who will not assimilate to the desired/required degree; that they will resent the success of others, esp. if those others are “foreign”; that minorities always make convenient scapegoats in times of national crisis; etc. etc.
But none of these psychological explanations really satisfies when you consider the longevity of antisemitism and the sheer virulence it has taken. To gas, shoot, beat, torture and starve people by the millions and stuff their corpses into ovens?? Really??? To endeavor to wipe an entire country and all its inhabitants off the face of the earth even though it could very well spell doom for your own people by the millions? WTF???
My personal opinion is that antisemitism has a spiritual dimension that goes beyond the human capacity for hatred. To be blunt, I think there’s a demonic/Satanic root to it. The Jewish people have been central to God’s salvation plan for humanity, so it makes sense that they would be in the devil’s crosshairs, so to speak. Antisemitism did not let up after Jesus because the Bible suggests that Israel will once again play a pivotal role in God’s activities in the last days. There are powers and principalities in a struggle here far, far beyond Helen Thomas and even Dinnerjacket. This is not to say that we should consider the Israeli government, which is made up of fallible human beings, as being right in every decision it makes. But a healthy regard for the nasty & powerful pervasiveness of antisemitism through every age and every segment of society, from bums to presidents, should make one appreciate better what Israel is up against. And, therefore, that much more diligent in seeking God’s guidance so that one will not be deceived by Goebbels’ and Streicher’s heirs, nor shouted down by the howling mob.
It is going to get worse. I would say in all seriousness that earnest Christians may want to start putting together yellow stars to wear like the Danes did in WWII. The condemnation and the pressure are going to be ramped up exponentially esp. if Israel finds she must take pre-emptive action against Iran and others.
Because it is a spiritual disease, antisemitism will never be truly eradicated, merely jump from host to host, until you-know-who returns. Again, my personal opinion.
it’s utterly astounding to even be having these thoughts –how did we get here, from where we were only a little while ago? Studying the ugly old things of the past and feeling so relieved that whatever problems we may have, at least we don’t have THAT one anymore.
but we DO –Helen Thomas isn’t just anybody –she’s been the venerated conscience of the left, reliably partisan in her liberal absolutism for decades on end. Then suddenly she leers into a camera and channels Heinrich Himmler, mugging knowingly and intoning out of the corner of her mouth as if a spell was on her, the beginning of the words that she must know are the justifications –in her own lifetime –of a European genocide. it’s as if –what BW says above –a demon –the Nazi demon –has slipped in overnight and possessed her.
BW is right –the time has come to draw that line in the sand –the line europe didn’t draw. could it be the whole thing IS demonic, and that the reason the left braintrust is trying so hard to europeanize USA is not for the medical care social justice long vqcations early retirement fat pensions yada yada, but because of THAT –that line that didn’t get drawn? are we dreaming this? Are we characters in a new chapter of the Odessa File?
update to my #45
Much to my surprise, Helen Thomas resigned from her job at Hearst this morning. This was after an exceedingly mild “rebuke” from “the Mouth of Sauron” … er .. “the Mouth of Obama”; Robert Gibbs. He said that what Helen Thomas said did not reflect the position of the administration.
They are using that as an excuse. The media coverage today is about how “everybody” protested what she said. In point of fact, the party line in the media was, up until this morning, that only the moonbat Right wing was outraged, with no commentary or criticism by the Left.
Perhaps more to the point, the Rabbi who interviewed her and recorded her desire to return the Jews of Israel to Germany and Poland; apparently has at least one other film clip that may be even more blatant in its imitation of say Buraq’s pro-Palestinian party in Los Angeles that the LA Times is concealing the video of, than they thought they could endure. We are waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hope that she is on record implicating the administration.
Our side is learning from Andrew Breitbart. When he had videos of Obama’s minions in ACORN offices conspiring to set up brothels with enslaved, kidnapped foreign women and underage girls [and conspiring to conceal the income from the IRS in return for a cut of the profits]; it was declared a fluke by ACORN and the White House. Which was the same thing that they declared when he released the second video in another ACORN office. And the third from yet another. And the fourth, from an ACORN office where they had publicly claimed that they had turned him away.
Always keep something in reserve to use to tear apart the enemy’s instinctive denials [and the government controlled press's automatic acceptance of that denial's veracity].
Subotai Bahadur