Bloodthirsty Liberal

If one Caroline Glick doesn’t alleviate the symptoms, try an Arlene Kushner as well:

“Weathering the Crisis”

I do believe that’s what we’re doing. And that we’re stronger for it.

Yesterday we were hearing that Hillary Clinton had said (with breathtaking chutzpah) that Israel has to “prove it is committed to peace.”

There were essentially choices as to how to respond to that. One choice was feeling rage sufficient to send the blood pressure to the ceiling. The other — better for health — was finding it so ludicrous that you laughed your head off, thereby keeping blood pressure safely down.

…

Diplomatic niceties aside, [Netanyahu’s] telling it like it is and refusing to make concessions of any sort to “prove” our position. He insists, as well, that there will be no preconditions — no promises upfront — with regard to negotiations.

There are other reasons Hillary is backing off. Her words were not well received in certain quarters within the States. In particular there was a highly negative reaction from some in Congress. Thus would she and Obama, who is pulling the strings, have seen that a political liability was being created.

Congressmen Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Christopher Carney (D-PA), for example, wrote a letter to Obama, which said in part, “We urge your administration to refrain from further public criticism of Israel…

“A zoning dispute over 143 acres of Jewish land in Israel’s capital city should not eclipse the growing threat we face from Iran.”

Nicely put.

With regard to this, I would like to make a comment. I’ve been reading that we here in Israel must understand that we stand alone in the world. And I think, well….yes, and also no.

Yes. We must do what is good for ourselves, and protect ourselves, no matter what. We cannot rely on other nations to be there for us. Nor should we damage ourselves in order to please other nations.

However…

Years ago, I heard a talk by a magnificent non-Jewish man (very old by then) who had come from Europe and fought to bring the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust to the attention of the Roosevelt government. It didn’t work. Roosevelt turned a deaf ear.

This man said to his Jewish audience, “You think the world deserted you then. But it isn’t true. The governments of the world deserted you. But many people were with you.”

This deeply important learning, which I have never forgotten, applies here. Within the United States we have many good and loyal friends.

Shucks, Arlene, we’re blushing.

Lastly, I believe that the behavior of the Palestinian Arabs has, even if subliminally, helped to make a fiasco of the Obama-Clinton stance. While this administration, courting the Arab world, would never admit it, the only way to make us look like the “intransigent bad guys” is if the other side, at least superficially, seems to embrace “peace.” But the Arabs have sabotaged this pretense, for their behavior has been over the top with regard to incitement and violence. This is something that serves us well as their true nature is exposed.

Here, I must depart from Ms. Kushner. Not because she’s necessarily wrong—but how is it that the “true nature” of the Arabs still has to be exposed? How many missiles, how many suicide bombers, how many mothers blessing their sons after their suicide missions, how many anti-Semitic TV programs, how many virulent sermons, how many stabbings, how many stones, before the true nature of the Arabs stays exposed? And if that is not their true nature, then what is it? Because it’s all fact, documented repeatedly, though barely mentioned in the press and among international organizations.

It is true that Israel has friends. And I am a relatively recent addition (at least in terms of strength of friendship—I was probably more fair-weather before 9/11), so there are surely more out there.

But do not believe that your moral behavior or your enemies’ immoral behavior will change many minds—else why are we (well, you) in this position that you’re in? Where is the morality in the near-universal condemnation of building Jewish homes in the Jewish capital of a Jewish nation (which respects the rights of all citizens of all religions and all ethnicities)?

Engage, persuade, instruct, but most of all, persist.