Bloodthirsty Liberal

The European Spew-nion redefines inalienable rights:

Statement by the Spokesperson of High Representative Catherine Ashton on the case of Bassem Tamimi

The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:

“The High Representative is very concerned by the conviction of Bassem Tamimi in an Israeli military court on 20 May 2012 on charges of taking part in illegal demonstrations and of soliciting protesters to throw stones.

The EU considers Bassem Tamimi to be a ‘human rights defender’ committed to non-violent protest against the expansion of an Israeli settlement on lands belonging to his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The EU attended all court hearings in his case and is concerned at the use of evidence based on the testimony of a minor who was interrogated in violation of his rights.

The EU believes that everyone should be able to exercise their legitimate right to protest in a non-violent manner.”

“Non-violent” thusly:

Note rear-facing car seat.

Alas, the late Asher and Yonatan Palmer could not be reached for comment:

But they look like reasonable people. I’m sure they would understand the High Representative (what she was high on has yet to be revealed):

PS: Let me leave you with a smile!

Three stories (vaguely related) in one, just to get rid of some open windows on my desktop.

Story number one:

An Egyptian court has sentenced 12 Christians to life in prison and acquitted eight Muslims in a case that is likely to stoke religious tensions in the country’s south.

The Christians were found guilty of sowing public strife and shooting dead two Muslims in April of last year in Minya province after a scuffle with Muslim protesters.

The eight Muslims on trial in the same case had been charged with possession of illegal weapons and burning down dozens of Christian-owned homes and stores after the shooting.

Egyptian rights researcher Ishak Ibrahim called the verdict “faulty and unfair.”

Yeah? So?

Story number two:

A Toronto native living in Jerusalem literally got away with his life when Arab school students smashed the windows of his car and tried to attack him Monday morning.

The near-deadly rock-throwing attack occurred as Ephraim Silverberg was making his annual pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives Cemetery for the anniversary of the death of his grandfather, who was brought to Israel for burial after he died in Toronto.

He was driving from Mount Scopus to the Mount of Olives via the A-Tur Arab neighborhood. Silverberg, armed with a hand gun, took the precautions of locking his doors and turning on his mobile phone.

“About midway through the trip, there was a traffic jam, and the traffic slowed to a halt near the entrance of a boy’s high school with the pupils just arriving for a day of studies,” he told Arutz Sheva.

“A few yards beyond the entrance to the school grounds, I heard a boom and immediately realized that a rock had struck my side of the car. At that point, I called emergency services on my cell phone and reported that I was under attack,” he related.

“The first rock was followed by many others as well as youths coming up and kicking the car. The traffic jam started to ease and I managed to move slowly forward. I informed emergency services that I was not attempting to exit the car but rather move forward as best as I could … I heard the sound of shattering glass and realized that the rear window and perhaps others were gone.”

What’s a country to do when surrounded by countries hostile to itself and any ideology different from its narrow interpretation of Islam?

Thank G-d for Israel:

The Knesset plenum on Monday passed in second and third reading a bill to amend the Income Tax Act, by which those who donate to settlements will enjoy tax benefits.

The initiator of the bill, Coalition Chairman MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), said that it aims to make amends for the lack of legislation that supports the settlement enterprise, although the government declared it as a top national priority.

“Organizations that wish to construct new mosques – like the Islamic Movement or other charity groups that funnel money to Hamas – receive tax breaks, while organizations that want to settle the Negev and Galilee fall between the chairs,” he said.

“The bill,” MK Elkin explained, “wishes to make amends for this injustice.”

There you go, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Stephen King—you want to pay more taxes? Here’s your chance. I’ll join you. For once, I’ll agree with Joe Biden: paying taxes is patriotic.

Bringing us one step closer to war

Iran is dedicated to annihilating Israel, the Islamic regime’s military chief of staff declared Sunday.

“The Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel,” Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said in a speech to a defense gathering Sunday in Tehran.

His remarks came on the day International Atomic Energy Agency director Yukiya Amano flew to Tehran to negotiate for inspections of Iran’s nuclear program. They were reported by the Fars News Agency, the media outlet of the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

While many within the Islamic regime, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have often stated that Israel should be annihilated, until Sunday no one in the nation’s leadership has announced Iran’s determined intention to carry it out. (RELATED: Iran rattles sabers: ’11,000 missiles ready to launch’ at Israel, US targets)

Josh Block, a Middle East expert and former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, told The Daily Caller that it’s unwise to shrug off the threats of a top Iranian military commander.

“When they say it, they mean it,” Block said. “That is the lesson of history. We had best heed that reality. You can be sure the Israelis already understand it.”

Block is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute who worked in the Clinton administration’s State Department. He told TheDC that the U.S. should be concerned about “an Iran that could give nuclear technology to their terrorist allies, including those like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah.”

Who knows? Maybe Israel will tolerate this, but I wouldn’t be shocked to wake up some morning to war.

- Aggie

To paraphrase Anita Bryant, breakfast without humiliation is like a day without sunshine:

Egyptian forces on Saturday seized two vehicles in the Sinai peninsula with fuel destined for the Gaza Strip, security sources said.

The vehicles had broken through a checkpoint between the city of El-Arish and Sheikh Zweid before Egyptian security fired at their tires, bringing the vehicles to a halt.

One of the vehicles was carrying 1,100 liters of fuel in nine barrels and 10 jerrycans. The other vehicle contained 900 liters of petrol destined for sale on the black market.

The drivers admitted to police that they were delivering the fuel to smugglers who would transport it into the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Egyptian security forces seized four vehicles transporting unlicensed fuel in the northern Sinai.

In early May, security forces confiscated a truck in the Sinai carrying 10 thousand liters of fuel headed to tunnels under the border with Gaza Strip.

Egypt moved in February to shut down fuel deliveries to Gaza via the tunnel network — used to bring goods into the blockaded coastal strip — sparking a fuel shortage that caused widespread blackouts.

Officials have already agreed to stave off the electricity blackouts by upgrading the sole power plant, a project due for completion this month.

Odd that a so-called friendly country, Egypt, is restricting access to fuel when there’s a shortage.

How does a hostile country handle such a situation?

These deliveries and transfers are made every week, week after week, except when the crossing points are under fire, or so threatened. Let me drop the coy act: Israel is described as an occupier of a god-forsaken (fly) strip it turned judenrein seven years ago, yet has seen fit to supply since that time.

And Egypt is, well, Egypt.

Any questions?

Today, it’s a two-fer!

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, on Saturday, slammed the recent decision by South Africa’s trade and industry minister to issue a directive forcing importers to remove “Made in Israel” tags from products originating in West Bank settlements, calling it an “essentially racist decision.”

“This isn’t a case of political opposition to the settlements, but rather of singling out a country by special labeling, according to nationalist-political criteria,” said Palmor, according to Walla News.

“It is shocking to think that South Africa of all countries is showing such obtuseness and treading down the slippery slope towards racism,” added Palmor.

Another account of this story claims that South Africa will become the first nation to implement this “trade apartheid”. But, of course, who would know better?

I wonder if they have applied similar boycotts to goods from Gdansk, Poland (Danzig, Germany)? Or Alsace-Lorraine? Or Cyprus? Heck, there are territory disputes all over the world, many of them in—you guessed it—Africa!

Even South Africa is involved in a couple têtes-a-têtes. I’m sure you’ll join me in boycotting the very fine wine they produce there. (Seriously!) We wouldn’t want to reward a people who deprive the Namibians and the Swazis of their just territories by an unjust occupation, would we?

PS: If Israel would just go ahead and annex Judea and Samaria (see below), this would no longer be a problem.

Those of us looking for lasting peace in the Middle East (the kind that doesn’t require the elimination of every Jew in the region, that is) look beyond the daily headlines of this so-called settlement or that white phosphorous-laced Qassam rocket.

And we see a way, if only people would follow us:

Two weeks ago, US Congressman Joe Walsh published an op-ed in the The Washington Times in which he called for the US and Israel to abandon the two-state solution.

After running through the record of Palestinian duplicity, failed governance, terrorism and bad faith, he called for Israel to apply its sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. In his words, Israel should “adopt the only solution that will bring true peace to the Middle East: a single Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is the only country in the region dedicated to peace and the only power capable of stable, just and democratic government in the region.”

That is precisely my view, as I’ve stated here explicitly for maybe two years now. It makes sense geographically, culturally, historically, and, not least, for reasons of security.

Given the abject failure of the two-state paradigm, it is abundantly clear that for all the complications that may be associated with the application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, it is a better option for Israel than Israeli surrender of the areas.

Walsh’s op-ed is not his first statement of support for Israeli annexation. Last September, ahead of the UN general assembly, Walsh authored Congressional Resolution 394 supporting Israel’s right to annex Judea and Samaria in the event that the Palestinians asked the UN to recognize a Palestinian state outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel. Forty-four other congressmen co-sponsored the resolution.

And this makes sense.

But American Jews, motivated more by liberal orthodoxy than religious orthodoxy, are apoplectic.

It is hard to know where to begin a discussion of this assault in which Jewish Americans attacked one of Israel’s strongest supporters simply because he had the temerity to recognize reality and call for the US to support an Israeli victory against our enemies who seek our destruction.

First, it is important to consider the claim that Walsh went against the grain of American ideals by suggesting, “Those Palestinians who wish to may leave their Fatah- and Hamas-created slums and move to the original Palestinian state: Jordan. The British Mandate for Palestine created Jordan as the country for the Palestinians. That is the only justification for its creation. Even now, 75% of its population is of Palestinian descent.”

A quick correction: initially, a Jewish homeland was to be permitted in the entirety of the British Mandate. So stated the Balfour Declaration:

According to the Peel Commission, appointed by the British Government to investigate the cause of the 1936 Arab riots, “the field in which the Jewish National Home was to be established was understood, at the time of the Balfour Declaration, to be the whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan.”

Only later—the first step in a long march toward ghettoization—did Britain and the League of Nations amend the intention to establish a Jewish homeland from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Which is all Walsh et al are asking for.

The demands of the Arabs and the “international community” today are not only dangerous and bigoted, they repudiate recent decades and distant millennia of history.

Yes, “bigoted”:

The fact of the matter is that the two-state paradigm rests on the assumption that the Palestinian state will be ethnically cleansed of Jews before it is established. Whereas Walsh somehow stands in opposition to American ideals for suggesting that the Palestinians may voluntarily immigrate to Jordan, Kampeas, Ben- Ami and their cohorts have no problem with the concept of a Jew-free Palestine and the forcible expulsion of up to 675,000 Jews from their homes in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem simply because they are Jewish.

Those seeking peace—real peace, not a hudna (strategic ceasefire)—must first recognize the lay of the land.

From the practical impossibilities:

A Hamas leader said Thursday that if his militant group came to power in a future Palestinian state, it would not abide by any previous Palestinian peace deals with Israel.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, the Islamic militant group’s number two figure, said any potential deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, even if ratified in a Palestinian referendum, would be considered only as a temporary truce.
“We will not recognize Israel as a state.”

To more existential threats:

Following are excerpts from an interview with former PA Mufti Sheik Ikrima Sabri, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on May 11, 2012:

Interviewer: Do you agree that in Jerusalem, there are places that are holy to the Muslims, the Jews and the Christians?

Ikrima Sabri: No, not to the Jews. I didn’t say to the Jews. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab didn’t find any synagogues of the Jews. There weren’t any.

Interviewer: So in your opinion, today there are no places whatsoever in Jerusalem that are holy to the Jews?

Ikrima Sabri: No, none. They build new synagogues, but there are no archaeological remains [pertaining to the Jews]. For many years, they have been digging for archaeological remains, but they haven’t found anything. How can we acknowledge something when they themselves admit that they have found nothing?

I would ask what he thinks the Temple is, but I’m sure I don’t want to know.

I encourage all our readers to reject the racist ideology of the Arab nationalists and their liberal Democrat (and sometimes Jewish) enablers. Israel is a pluralistic, Democratic state (larger may it grow, long may it live), offering more rights to Arabs than any other country in the region. The Arab enclave of Gaza is a human rights septic tank and a burial ground for religious liberty. It is free of Jews, yet full of hate.

Which side are you on?

I mentioned yesterday that the “Palestinian” “Authority” was more corrupt now than ever, and that I’d find the citation for you.

Do I really have to bother?

Muhammad Rashid, the former economic adviser to Yasser Arafat who is wanted by the Palestinian Authority for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, revealed on Thursday that the PA had provided financial aid to Arab parties during general elections in Israel.

He also demanded an investigation into the source of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s wealth.

Rashid, who is currently in London, said that Abbas used to “take millions of dollars from the Palestinian Authority and the private sector under the pretext of helping Arab parties in Israeli elections.”

This may surprise some of you ignorant types (who do stumble into our enlightened space from time to time, attracted, like moths, to the brilliance of our colloquy). Arabs run for and serve in the Knesset. Some of them are as hostile to the Zionist entity—from within—as any Hamass or Hezbollah blowhard. I’m not sure how healthy it is to the body politic, but that’s Democracy, baby.

But to learn that they are receiving money from outside Arab sources, bent on Israel’s destruction? That would be like learning—oh, I don’t know—that Democrats like Clinton, Gore, and Obama received illegal contribtutions from Chinese communists. Can you imagine?

The PA’s Anti-Corruption Commission, which issued the arrest warrant against him, is itself very corrupt, Rashid said.

He pointed out that two ministers in Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s new cabinet have been accused of involvement in corruption scandals, but the commission did not take any measures against them.

The former adviser, who is considered one of the wealthiest Palestinians in the world, launched a scathing attack on Abbas, holding him and his two businessmen sons responsible for corruption.

“When Mahmoud Abbas returned to the Palestinian territories [after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993], I gave him $25,000 at the request of the late president Yasser Arafat,” Rashid claimed.

“Today, he and his sons have palaces and property estimated at 15 million Jordanian dinars [approximately $21m.] in Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia and other places.”

Rashid said the timing of the arrest warrant against him was linked to a series of interviews he gave to Al-Arabiya and to the PA’s fear that he would expose various corruption scandals.

Ah, they’re all rats as far as I’m concerned. Let them gnaw on each other. Just leave Israel the hell alone.

*Post title courtesy of W. Somerset Maugham, who coined it for Monaco, I believe, though it serves well here. One of the pithiest comments in all English.

Make Samaria and Judea (J-U-D-E-A) judenrein!!!

Win valuable prizes!

If you had unlimited resources, how would you bridge the gap between Israeli and Palestinian societies?

By answering that question in less than 500 words, an iconoclastic Harvard graduate student from London won the first Avi Schaefer Peace Innovation essay contest. Joel Braunold, a 26-year-old whose background includes a stint at a hesder (Modern Orthodox) yeshiva in Israel and as a leader of the international pro-peace group One Voice, argues that Palestinians and Israelis should “unilaterally take steps that are in their own self-interest that further the chances of a Two-State Solution, rather than lessens them.”

Braunold proposes that Israel build empty towns in the north and south of the country – with housing, schools, and rail lines to reach major population centers – into which the approximately 30,000 West Bank settlers who will likely be left out of a final peace deal can be relocated.

Okay, show of hands. How many of you are uncomfortable about “final” solutions involving the mass deportation of Jews from areas where they are deemed unwelcome?

Just one hand, please, Saul…. Okay, that’s everyone.

And they gave him a prize? (Oh, it was Harvard.)

Why are some Jews considered kosher and others not? Why do some Jews enable their own worst detractors? This college student sounds about as lucid as most others, habitually toasted on dope as they commonly are:

As for the Palestinians, the Harvard graduate student believes they need to remain focused on the building of state institutions and infrastructure.

“Building a state is not a gift to the Israelis – it’s purely in the Palestinian self-interest,” he says. “But a positive side benefit of it is that it demonstrates to Israelis that they have neighbors who are serious about building a sustainable civil society.”

What part of Nakba Day (the 64th occasion) did this guy not get? Since when have the Palestinian Arabs demonstrated the least interest in a civil society? They name their parks, squares, summer camps, etc., after dead terrorists (the only good terrorist), not civil servants. Didn’t I just read (in the last couple of days) that corruption in the PA is worse than ever? (I’ll add the citation in a comment when I find it.)

Why do all “solutions” to Middle East peace involve Israeli suicide? Please, someone, name me one step the Arabs have made toward peace. One. Please.

Last week, we reported that one of Obama’s human rights posse acknowledged the obvious: the UN’s Human Rights Council is so discredited by institutional antisemitism, it might as well try another name-change (having once been the Human Rights Commission).

May I suggest the Wannsee Conference II?

Geneva, 14 May 2012

Dear Madam President,

Following the March session of the Human Rights Council, I wish to formally inform you of Israel’s decision to suspend its relationship with the Human Rights Council and with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, both in Geneva and in Jerusalem.

This decision was reached in light of the ongoing, unrelenting singling out of Israel in the Human Rights Council, which has been persistent since its inception in 2006, continued through the review process, and exists to this day. The Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, respectively, have become a political tool and a convenient platform, cynically used to advance certain political aims, to bash and demonize Israel.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Aharon Leshno Yaar
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

Good for Israel, and long overdue. It is shameful enough that the American regime sees fit to do business with these jackals. Israel doesn’t have the luxury of lying down with dogs.

Let’s see, silver is for 25th anniversaries, gold is for 50th.

What do you suppose is for 64th anniversaries? In this case, chicken [bleep] seems appropriate:

Zionist activists confronted Arabs and leftist sympathizers in Israeli campuses Tuesday for the second straight day as Arabs marked “Nakba Day,” in which they mourn their failure to annihilate the Jews in the Land of Israel in 1948.

Arabs in the Har Hatzofim campus of Hebrew University waved PLO flags and chanted the PLO battle cry, “with blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.”

They were confronted by activists from the grassroots Zionist Im Tirtzu movement, who handed out copies of their booklet – Nakba Harta – which dispels Arab lies about the 1948 War of Independence.

On Monday, hundreds of student activists and protesters showed up in Tel Aviv University to protest the radical left’s attempt to mark “Nakba Day” on campus. The demonstrators were led by MKs Michael Ben Ari and Aryeh Eldad (National Union).

The nationalist activists succeeded in disrupting a leftist ceremony honoring Arab victims of the war in 1948. MK Ben Ari denounced the “hypocrites in the university,” which itself sits upon land that belonged to an Arab village, Sheikh Munis. “They dare to lecture us on occupied land? I wish our enemies many more Nakba days,” he declared. “Happy Nakba Day.”

According to your lot, it’s all “occupied land”, right? So what’s the difference?

Regardless, Happy Nakba Day, indeed, to all our Arab readers! As if every day isn’t Nakba Day to them.

Like May 9th:

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the break-up of the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature, which was being held in the ancient al-Bahash Castle in Gaza City, by Palestinian security forces on Wednesday, 09 May 2012. PCHR stresses that this measure constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to peaceful assembly, which are ensured under the Palestinian Basic Law.

And May 7th:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the prevention of the al-Quds satellite channel’s crew from carrying out their work at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and their detention by the security officers of Shifa Hospital on Monday, 07 May 2012. PCHR calls upon the Palestinian police in Gaza to respect the press freedom and the freedom of opinion and expression which are ensured under the Palestinian Basic Law and relevant international standards.

April 7th, man, that was a real Nakba (especially if you were one of these guys):

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the implementation of death sentences against 3 Palestinians by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza this morning. These death sentences were implemented without the ratification of the Palestinian President. PCHR reiterates that the ratification of death sentences is an exclusive power of the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) under the Code of Criminal Procedures (3) of 2001; the implementation of any death sentences without the President’s ratification constitutes a violation of the law and constitution.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza, on Saturday morning, 07 April 2012, three men were executed by hanging.

And how does that little Arab ditty go? “With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine”?

One objective met, the other incomplete:

Arab terrorists attacked southern Israel with a Kassam rocket early Tuesday and attacked Jews in the Hevron area with two firebombs overnight as “Nakba Day” began. No one was injured.

Like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo, however, Nakba Day has degenerated from whatever historical truth it intended to remember into just another day of loutish behavior:

A freelance journalist and blogger, Richard Millett, was assaulted and subjected to abuse Monday evening at an anti-Israel event at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

Millett was attacked after he refused to stop filming the viciously anti-Israel meeting, which was organized by the university’s Palestine Society and the General Union of Palestine Students.

The speakers included Karma Nabulsi, a professor at Oxford and former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) representative, and Abdel-Bari Atwan, a ‘Palestinian’ journalist who revealed his deep-rooted desire to see the obliteration of the Jewish state when he stated, “If the Iranian missiles strike Israel — by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square, and dance with delight if the Iranian missiles strike Israel.”

Oh, shut the [bleep] up and pass me another green beer, you Nak-kneed Arab bigot.

Iranians want peace and prosperity—it’s just this regime (now 33 years old) that stands in the way.

Okay…

In the high-stakes international discussions surrounding Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, Iran’s 80 million people are often forgotten. So I, along with a small team of Israelis, decided to explore the driving forces of Iranian society. There have been signs, on the streets and over the Internet, of a battle raging between the country’s Islamic fundamentalists and the proponents of freedom. The question we set out to explore is where the majority of the people stand.

Soon we were joined by leading experts in the fields of social psychology, cross-cultural research, the Shiite Muslim religion, statistics, and dozens of Farsi-speaking volunteers.

Circumventing Iran’s “electronic curtain”—as President Obama described the Iranian government’s efforts to control contact with the outside world—our research team conducted telephone interviews in late 2011 and earlier this year with nearly a thousand Iranians. The latter constituted an accurate representative sample of Iranian society, including all of Iran’s 31 provinces as well as a representative distribution of all ethnic groups, ages and levels of education. The interviews were conducted anonymously and the country the calls came from was concealed in order to ensure the safety of the respondents.

…

An analysis of the Iranian sample showed that alongside conservative values, such as conformity and tradition, Iranian society is characterized by strong support for pro-liberal values such as a belief in the importance of self-direction and benevolence. For example, 94% of the respondents identified with the sentence “freedom to choose what he does is important to him,” and 71% of the respondents identified with the sentence “being tolerant toward all kinds of people and groups is important to him.”

Israel could not be reached for comment.

Actually, it could:

Iran upheld on a death sentence against a man convicted for assassinating a nuclear physicist two year ago, and 13 others may face the same fate after having been found guilty on Sunday for working for the Israeli Mossad spy agency.

The Tehran prosecutor said on Sunday that Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted for assassinating nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, will be executed as planned, the Tehran Times reported. The death sentence reportedly will be carried out on Tuesday.

We would all love to see Iran transition to representative democracy. It’s just that Israel (recently likened to a “mosquito” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) doesn’t have all the time in the world to wait.

Our findings demonstrate that Iranian society as a whole is characterized by a pro-liberal value structure that is deeply at odds with the fundamentalist regime. This presents considerable potential for regime change in Iran and for the development of liberal democracy.

We know there are at least a few Iranians who fit the ACLU, Coexist, Dissent-is-the-highest-form-of-patriotism model—or were. I don’t know how many survived the purges after the last round of protests. There’s an old football saying: you are who you are. Your record, your level of play—results matter. After almost two generations of ayatollahs, isn’t Iran what it is? Why should we assume otherwise?

PS: Is “mosquito” an improvement over “black and filthy microbe”? And “cancer cell”? Is this an attempt at reconciliation, or does he still believe Israel should be “wiped off the map”?

I don’t pretend to understand Parliamentary systems, and let’s face it, no one can truly understand Israel , but this is an interesting explanation.

First, a quick reminder of the 6 Day War.

n May 1967, in brazen violation of previous truce agreements, Egypt ordered U.N. peacekeepers out of the Sinai, marched 120,000 troops to the Israeli border, blockaded Eilat (Israel’s southern outlet to the world’s oceans), abruptly signed a military pact with Jordan and, together with Syria, pledged war for the final destruction of Israel.

May ’67 was Israel’s most fearful, desperate month. The country was surrounded and alone. Previous great-power guarantees proved worthless. A plan to test the blockade with a Western flotilla failed for lack of participants. Time was running out. Forced to protect against invasion by mass mobilization — and with a military consisting overwhelmingly of civilian reservists — life ground to a halt. The country was dying.

On June 5, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on the Egyptian air force, then proceeded to lightning victories on three fronts. The Six-Day War is legend, but less remembered is that on June 1, the nationalist opposition (Menachem Begin’s Likud precursor) was for the first time ever brought into the government, creating an emergency national-unity coalition.

Everyone understood why. You do not undertake a supremely risky pre-emptive war without the full participation of a broad coalition representing a national consensus.

And today:

Forty-five years later, in the middle of the night of May 7-8, 2012, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked his country by bringing the main opposition party, Kadima, into a national unity government. Shocking because just hours earlier, the Knesset was expediting a bill to call early elections in September.

I think we all know where Krauthammer is going with this analysis. I toss in the obvious. Israel cannot trust the United States, or anyone else, to help her deal with Iran. She is led by grown-ups who get this. And so she’s taken steps to make whatever decision is made with as much cohesiveness as possible. Or, to put it another way:

Such a fateful decision demands a national consensus. By creating the largest coalition in nearly three decades, Netanyahu is establishing the political premise for a pre-emptive strike, should it come to that. The new government commands an astonishing 94 Knesset seats out of 120, described by one Israeli columnist as a “hundred tons of solid concrete.”
…

Those counseling Israeli submission, resignation or just endless patience can no longer dismiss Israel’s tough stance as the work of irredeemable right-wingers. Not with a government now representing 78% of the country.

Netanyahu forfeited September elections that would have given him four more years in power. He chose instead to form a national coalition that guarantees 18 months of stability — 18 months during which, if the world does not act to stop Iran, Israel will.

And it will not be the work of one man, one party or one ideological faction. As in 1967, it will be the work of a nation.

- Aggie