Frum: Delink Iran from the 'Palestinians'
With his constant harping on the need for 'progress' with the 'Palestinians' in order to create a 'united Arab front' against Iran, President Obama has set up a linkage between the 'Palestinian' issue and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The implicit threat to Israel is to make 'progress' with the 'Palestinians' or the US will do nothing about Iran. David Frum says it's time to break that linkage. I intended to make a narrower point. If Iran can be stopped from acquiring a nuclear arsenal, taking the action necessary should not be delayed solely in order to extract concessions from Israel on settlements or other issues related to the Palestinians.The irony in all this is that the 'Palestinians' are not front and center on the agendas of most of the Arab countries either. Iran is. The Arab countries - especially the Sunni Muslim countries of the Persian Gulf, are nearly as threatened by Iran as we are. And so are the Europeans, at least in those countries that are within Iran's missile range. And yet, they are so determined not to be seen as taking Israel's side that they remain silent at their own people's peril while Obama continues to pursue his radical Leftist pipedream of a 'Palestinian state.'
Even without explicit linkage of the two issues, in light of the potential lethal impact of Iranian nukes, it is disturbing to see the stark contrast between most political commentators’ sanguine resignation to the possibility of Iran becoming nuclear and the outrage they express whenever Israel merely announces that it will allow the construction of new housing for Jews on any territory that Israel gained in the 1967 Six Day War.
Israel, these wise men say, should not worry about Iran’s possible acquisition of nuclear weapons. Deterrence, or a nuclear standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States, they argue prevented the outbreak of nuclear war between the two superpowers for almost half a century; and, Israel can rely on its own nuclear arsenal to deter Iran from attacking it. But, deterrence only works when a regime is not willing to let large numbers of its own people die in pursuit of its overseas objectives. However, the religiously fanatical Iranian regime is so driven by its hatred of Israel and Jews that it just might be willing to absorb large numbers of Iranian casualties in pursuit of a lethal blow against the Jewish people and its state. The Islamic Republic has used the Iranian people as fodder, ready to accept the loss of hundreds of thousands of its own people in a totally pointless eight-year war with Iraq. This cannot strengthen the Israelis’ confidence in the utility of deterrence. If and until the Islamic Republic actually fires nuclear weapons at Israel nobody can really know whether it intends to use the arsenal that it will soon acquire for a strike against the Jewish state. But why should Israelis be required to live with the constant threat of an Iranian nuclear attack?
It is common for the advocates of humanitarian intervention to accuse the West of not doing enough to prevent mass murders of civilians in Somalia, Darfur, and in other places. If these people are serious about removing all threats of genocide, they should be in the forefront of the movement to stop the Holocaust denier that rules Iran from getting the weapons with which he could threaten Israeli lives.
What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:34 PM
2 Comments:
Caroline Glick this morning paints a disturbing portrait of the state of Jewish activism on behalf of Israel. Let's look at several passages:
"Moral blindness in the face of evil is depravity. But in the upside-down moral universe of our world today, moral blindness has become a badge of honor. If you refuse to call evil by its name, then you are a moderate. And if you stand up to evil, you are yourself an extremist."
Then there is this:
"Again and again, the official Jewish community and pro-Israel students' response to anti-Israel campaigns and often violent onslaughts is to mumble out a protest against their infringement on the freedom of expression. That is, for many US Jewish leaders and Jewish campus activists, the biggest problem with the Red-Green alliance of leftists and Muslims is that they deny pro-Israel students and speakers the right to express themselves."
"The mendacity of the Red-Green alliance's claims against Israel, the bigotry of their increasingly open calls for Israel's destruction, their denial of the Jewish people's right to self-determination or even our right to define ourselves as a people all goes unopposed."
"This is not a sustainable line of defense. This is not even the beginning of a defense - of Israel or of the rights of American Jews. But this state of affairs does explain very well why according to recent polling data, a half of American Jews under 35 would be okay with a world without Israel."
"Some argue that what happens on the campuses is not important. What really matters is what happens in the grown-up world. Unfortunately, today we see that the depraved moral blindness of the classroom has brought about a situation where political leaders cannot recognize the moral depravity of the international community. And sophisticated grownups - and particularly American Jewish grownups -- cannot or will not make their leaders pay a price for their depraved support for evil."
There is the silence of the American Jewish Community. It is not willing to do what is right and just and side with Israel as a matter of principle. While Israel's enemies encircle it, the wise men in the Jewish Community and their children see nothing wrong. Quite a few of their children in fact enlist alongside Israel's enemies to pressure the Jewish State into oblivion.
Such are the times in which we live - in which wickedness and evil run riot over the face of the earth while good men do absolutely nothing to stop it. Its enough to break one's heart and make one fear for the future. It needs to be said to shame the Jewish people - or they will be held accountable for their inaction by a truly wrathful G-d and this time they can't say they didn't know.
They did know and that makes their sin before Him now all the more inexcusable.
The rest is here: Read it all
The foundation of the pipe dream of a Palestinian state did not start with Obama.
Frum asks to de-link Iran from the Palestinians. How easy we forget the sentence,"There will be no peace in the ME until Palestinians have statehood."
Until "Palestinians are released from the daily humiliation of occupation."
Where was Frum not more then 5 years ago??
Words stick like glue. It is almost impossible to shake those words. Most sadly each US president has given his spin on those evil sentences further throwing truth to the dustbin of history. Each president gives his unique push on that train. Each should be held responsible for where we stand today.
First step. understand what "propels" the train. This is not a political issue although it is 'more convenient' to treat it as such. It is an issue which we carry on our shoulders from generation to generation.
Until we shake the political selective amnesia preventing us from really seeing where we came from, how do we know where we are going?
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