Isolating Israel
Through a selective reading of the Palmer Commission report, which focuses only on those portions that go against Israel, Roger Cohen tries to use the report as a weapon to isolate Israel. Yes, folks, that's what appears to be going on. If Hillary Clinton once referred to a 'vast right wing conspiracy' to bring down her husband, it appears that there is now a vast left wing conspiracy - mostly among the mainstream media and the American and Israeli Left - to make Israel appear isolated, and to make the replacement of Binyamin Netanyahu and his government seem like the only solution to Israel's isolation.Here's Cohen's punch line from the first link above.
Overall, the panel finds that Israel should issue “an appropriate statement of regret” and “make payment for the benefit of the deceased and injured victims and their families.”Israel offered an appropriate statement of regret (in fact, it has issued one) and it offered compensation. But that's not enough for the Turks. They want a groveling apology, an admission of guilt that will follow the Navy commandos and their commanding officers from courtroom to courtroom around the world, and an opening of Gaza to any weapons shipments Hamas wishes to receive. Those are conditions that Israel cannot and should not accept, even if one assumes that once those conditions are fulfilled - a tall order at best - Turkey will then return its relations with Israel to where they were before December 2008. That won't happen.
Yes, Israel, increasingly isolated, should do just that. An apology is the right course and the smart course. What’s good for Egypt — an apology over lost lives — is good for Turkey, too.
But Israel is not - or should not - be isolated just because it no longer has decent relations with Turkey. And in fact, if Israel is suddenly 'increasingly isolated' (which is debatable given the establishment of solid relations with Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria over the last few months), that's not a function of Israel having changed or of Netanyahu being Prime Minister as Cohen goes on to argue. That's a function of changes in the Arab world with the Islamists who are replacing the dictators in countries like Egypt making hatred of Israel a much higher priority than it was until now. That's surely not something that can be blamed on Netanyahu.
Instead, locked in its siege mentality, led by the nose by Lieberman and his ilk — unable to grasp the change in the Middle East driven by the Arab demand for dignity and freedom, inflexible on expanding settlements, ignoring U.S. prodding that it apologize — Israel is losing one of its best friends in the Muslim world, Turkey. The expulsion last week of the Israeli ambassador was a debacle foretold.Yes, the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Turkey was foretold, but not because of the Mavi Marmara and not because of anything Israel did. The expulsion of Israel's ambassador was foretold because Prime Minister Erdogan is an anti-Semite - as Israel's ambassador to Turkey warned in mid-2009 - and it was inevitable that once he consolidated his position in power, which he did in the recent elections, he would find a way to dump his country's relations with Israel, just as he has found a way to dump his party's and his government's relations with Turkey's military.
Israeli society, as it has shown through civic protest, deserves much better.And therefore, Cohen would like to see Netanyahu go. In the last 96 hours, we have also been reminded that the Obama administration (through both Stanley Greenberg's relations with the social protest movement and through the release of the Gates statements) and Tzipi Livni would like to see Netanyahu go, and that all of them are suddenly harping on Israel's 'isolation' as the reason why Netanyahu must go.
“We need not apologize,” Netanyahu thundered Sunday — and repeated the phrase three times. He’s opted for a needless road to an isolation that weakens Israel and undermines the strategic interests of its closest ally, the United States.
Would any of you deem all that coincidence? It looks more like a coordinated attack to me.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Roger Cohen's obsession with Israel, Turkish obsession with Israel, Tzipi Livni
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:34 PM
6 Comments:
Hi Carl.
You know how i feel about the 'relation' between Obama and Erdogan, all this shows again i was right all along.The Obama Administration is the greatest threat to Israels excistance as a state in it's current form.
The expulsion of Israel's ambassador was foretold because Prime Minister Erdogan is an anti-Semite - as Israel's ambassador to Turkey warned in mid-2009 - and it was inevitable that once he consolidated his position in power, which he did in the recent elections
How many Turks support Erdogens decision to break ties?
For that matter, how many Egyptians supported Mubarak's decision to have diplomatic relations with Israel?
How many Jordanians support their dictator King's decision to have relations with relations?
Neither Egyptians or Jordanians supported those decisions.
Inshallah, the Jordanian king will be the next to fall after Gadaffi. One by one all these tin pot dictators with allegiances to foreign powers, and whoring themselves to the US AGAINST popular (where the hell is democracy now?) will, and disloyalty to their own people will f*** off into hell.
I am looking forward to seeing how the Danny Ayalons, and Kahanists and Armeggedonites deal with a war against nato backed Turkey.
Before that happens just make sure Robert Spencer, Geller and the rest of the anti Islam brigade are in Israel.
Don't leave it to us, to deal with them.
A Tzipi Livni government would not be able to restore relations with Turkey nor would it lift the blockade on Gaza. And while it might be able to offer the Palestinians a little more than Netanyahu has offered to them, no Israeli government is going to withdraw completely to the pre-1967 borders or dismantle the revanants.
In short, the reason there is no peace has nothing to do with Israeli personalities or policies. No Israeli government is going to jeopardize the country's existence in order to be better liked by the world.
That's the bottom line.
Obama would sell Israel out in a flat minute if the crass cynicism masquerading as pragmatism did not suspect that pushing even a supine Bibi to the mat might engender a backlash in Israel and the Congress that would threaten his incremental war of attrition against the Jewish state--you don't want to turn up the heat too precipitously under the pot of the designated frog.
This calculating cowardice might yet, maybe, protect Israel against an Obama push to get the UDI over the top in the UNSC or a fallback plan to manipulate the UDI as a pretext for a robust Munich-style solution to the Zionist problem.
Cohen is just a pussy's pussy--maybe the German Jewish community apologizing for stabbing Germany in the back would have inspired Herr Hitler to moderate his ire at Jewish "intransigence"--but, y'know, probably not.
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