How Petraeus could set the record straight
Despite the fact that US Centcom commander David Petraeus supposedly set the record straight regarding his remarks about Israel, there continues to be a lot of back and forth among the pundits over whether what he said that day in New Hampshire really changed what had been reported.I've been following it from a distance, because the argument is among conservative bloggers whose work I enjoy reading (Phillip Klein, Max Boot, Lenny Ben David, Jennifer Rubin and Andy McCarthy among others), but I haven't been blogging it because there have been so many other things to discuss.
However, I had to pass on this quote from McCarthy, who is most vocal that what Petraeus said in New Hampshire doesn't change anything.
In any event, if Gen. Petraeus really does want to set the record straight in a way that reassures supporters of Israel, it is a very simple thing to do. He just needs to say that America's bias in favor of Israel is not a "perception" but a reality; that it will always be a reality unless and until Palestinians and their Islamist backers unequivocally acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and convincingly foreswear terrorism (aka "resistance"); that until those conditions are met, the United States realizes that there can be no resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; and that, if we are truly to "live our values," we have no alternative but to favor a Western-style democracy over a would-be Islamist regime that glorifies violent jihadists, endorses sharia principles, and inculcates anti-Semitism in its people through its control of the media, the schools, and other institutions.Nice idea, but fat chance it will happen. Certainly not with this administration in power.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:32 PM
3 Comments:
You said in the post that McCarthy along with Boot are the ones saying Petraeus' denial didn't change anything.
I'm pretty sure Boot is the strongest supporter of Petraeus out of the bunch. He is the one arguing that the whole thing is the politicization of totally innocuous words by Petraeus.
I don't think he'll say it. I know someone who says in private that they support Israel. I suggested to them that Americans need to actually speak out against specific things that Israel is subjected to by their neighbors... rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon (just as an example) onto Israeli civilian areas. Or maybe bus bombers. This person looked at me very oddly and said that that is an irrational suggestion. I'm thinking that we've got multiple planets occupying the same space today.
RLevitin,
You're right. I changed it.
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