by Barry Rubin *
At the same time, we are getting something along these lines: "Joe [
Let me give two examples and then point out why this tells us a great deal about the Western world's malaise and why
One can always depend on Roger Cohen for a good quote since he never seems able to open his mouth without saying something stupid that he thinks his wisdom. Here's how he begins his latest column:
"I took a short break for my daughter's bat mitzvah,
He couldn't be more obvious. First, he lets us know that he's a Jew (bat mitzvah) and then he let's forth with no less than five anti-Israel points in 21 words:
Killed nine (no mention of the attack on the soldiers) activists (no mention of lots of evidence that they were radical Islamist Jihadists seeking martyrdom), international waters (implication this is some kind of piratical aggressive act and no mention that this is how blockades are conducted, international law experts point out it was legal, see Cuban Missile Crisis, British operation in the Falklands, etc.), bungled raid (it is Israel's fault that it went in without lethal force and faced greater violence than expected), Jewish soul-searching (Oy! Where have we gone wrong! We used to let people beat us up and murder us and now Israel-gasp!-defends itself).
There is an Arab proverb to the effect that the guy hits me and then runs off screaming that he was assaulted.
And so after purveying anti-Israel propaganda that delegitimizes Israel, Cohen then goes on to say that the main threat to Israel is...anti-Israel propaganda
Cohen goes on to say that "Israel is a liberal democracy stuck in the blind alley of a morally corrupting 43-year-old occupation that has made force its reflexive mode of operation." Yet
If anyone can't start from that point they aren't worth listening to at all. But here we come to Cohen's conclusion and it is this:
"What
This sentence deserves the greatest attention. Delegitimization is a real problem for
Where does Cohen's thinking, and a very similar approach by Bernard Kouchner, Franco Frattini, and Miguel Angel Moratinos come from?
--Two of the four authors are Jews, and their view expresses the traditional Jewish Diaspora (or Galut, if you prefer) attitude: What our neighbors think of us is the most important issue. Why? Because lacking their own country, economy, and means of defense, Jews were helpless. The response was that we had to make people like us, we had to prove we were the best citizens of all, and that we didn't have (as the antisemites charged) our own selfish agenda.
And that's why so many Jewish intellectuals criticize
Of course, like Cohen, they are generally ignorant of the facts any way and don't want to know more. And while Cohen pretends to "defend"
--Once you admit the fact that the
And so while there are a few safe targets--bin Ladin, Ahmadinejad--these people can criticize they will never criticize the Palestinian Authority for, as examples, rejecting the two-state peace offers of 2000 or refusing to negotiate at all from January 2009 to May 2010. BUT if you only blame
--And thus those complaining that
--But now we come to the most important point, because it goes far beyond
And yet the idea has taken hold in most Western governments that what is most important is image. If we are nice to our enemies we will win them over. If we are popular we will avoid trouble. If we apologize we will be forgiven. If we tell everyone we are weak we will be pitied. If we sympathize with the underdog, even one that wants to be the overdog and maul us to death, we will be noble and thus succeed.
It is a world in which Senator Barbara Boxer can say, "Our national security experts...tell us that carbon pollution leading to climate change will be, over the next 20 years, the leading cause of conflict, putting our troops in harm's way...." Now even if you believe that "carbon pollution" is an important global problem that needs to be addressed, is this the way to think about it? Forget about the ambitions of
Well, she is from
In short, what we are seeing is the abandonment of realpolitik and in a real sense of the real world itself. No! If a Canadian labor union or a British teacher's union (dominated by leftists) want to boycott
Of course, the concern is that eventually Western governments, staffed by people so indoctrinated, will turn against
The real threat to Israel is not being unpopular in certain circles (and check out U.S. public opinion polls for a corrective there) but Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, the Muslim Brotherhoods, and others of that ilk. And guess what? They are also the real threat to the West, too.
But you know what? In the end, it doesn't matter what people say, what matters is how the real world hits them upside the head. In 2001 an article ridiculed me for warning about a threat of revolutionary Islamist terrorism against the
So what's the bigger threat to
Golda Meir was right. Policy may be adjusted to reduce criticism but interests should not and will not be sacrificed.
[Note: The article by Kouchner and the other two foreign ministers called on Israel to drop the blockade of the Gaza Strip and the UN not to have an investigation that is designed to attack Israel, as happened with the Goldstone report. It also urged
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment