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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12luttwak.html
It will be interesting to see the extremist Muslim view of Obama, particularly if he shows any favor towards Israel.
George Bush gets 3 chances to convert to Islam. Obama has turned his back on the faith and is already screwed!
Obama on Israel as on most issues is a conventional centrist Democrat. All of his statements on Israel could have been made by any President except Jimmy Carter.
One of the more interesting questions will be how soon will the white leftwingers desert President Obama. Nothing Obama has said, on Israel, Iraq, healthcare, as policy not as atmospherics, is particularly adverturesome.
It will be interesting to see if the left's racism will keep them adhered to President Obama long after he has abandoned their hopes.
The George Washington quote was a master stroke!
I find this especially ironic, given that I've seen right-wingers get all bent out of shape about the tenets of Obama's church, the TUCC (this was before Rev. Wright). See, on the website, TUCC proclaims that it is "A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA." A right-wing blogger I encountered expressed disquiet with the idea that the President might have a non-negotiable commitment to any nation or region other than the United States of America.
Should I laugh or cry? I'm at a loss here.
Has there ever been another country besides Israel to which American politicians are required to vow absolute allegiance?
Well, until relatively recently there was Ireland, but that was specific to Boston politicians.
It will be interesting to see if the left's racism will keep them adhered to President Obama long after he has abandoned their hopes.
And here I was thinking that it was Obama's stated opposition to the Iraq War at its outset that was one of the foundations of his leftist appeal. But silly me, I didn't realize that left-wingers were all a bunch of racists!
... why they don't wear Israeli flag pins. While we're at it, perhaps we should ask how meaningful their American flag pins are when they are obviously more concerned about Israel.
and as a politician myself I am deeply mindful that we are imperfect creatures and don’t always act with justice uppermost on our minds.
Independent of the fact that your particular post is about Israel and will of course bring the predicatble emotional reaction that the act of denial requires, I find it more telling that the hedge that I quote above is exactly the sort of simple truth that idealogues of all stripes will find intolerable.
I'll to avoid jokes about there being two kinds of people, those who beleive that there are only two kinds of people and those who don't.
(or 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't.)
But I think one of the ways we can classify people other than the left/right divide which we all agree makes no sense, is by noting their ability for self-reflection and recognition of their own flaws.
One of the reasons liberals proudly refer to themselves as 'reality-based' is because they avoid the self-inflicted blindness that is necessary in order to be perfect all of the time.
The conflict I'm trying to describe is also the one that leads people to invent the phrase "Blame America First Crowd" The unwillingness to engage in self-reflection and the loud demonizing of those who do is pretty much an identifying tag of the RWA personality.
But I'm curious as to what you think it means, Glenn.
I understand your discomfort with having to swear fealty to the neocon vision of Israel. But I'm not all that surprised that Obama kowtowed a bit (disclosure: I haven't read the interview) given the "Obama's a Muslim who hates Israel" background noise.
The power of the Israel Lobby to get politicians - even someone like Obama who is supposed to be different- to bend over backward to prove their undying devotion for Israel makes me sick.
All this for an apartheid state that practices ethnic cleansing and collective punishment and makes America look bad, real bad in the world!
Sadly politicians with a consciousness get to speak the truth only when they are out of office (Read Jimmy Carter's recent article in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/08/israelandthepalestinians)
Has there ever been another country to which American politicians were required to pledge their uncritical, absolute loyalty?
One would think that "uncritical, absolute loyalty" to the United States and our Constitution would be required, but we've seen over the last 7 years that is not true, even if I would disagree with "uncritical" being a good thing.
Apparently the only absolute and uncritical loyalty required is to getting away with whatever one can and calling anyone that questions you unpatriotic and saying they have something to hide.
Why do you hate the Jews so much?
"Thank you once again, Glenn.
The George Washington quote was a master stroke!"
Watching the "John Adams" series made me think the same thing about other current issues -- the pendulum has swung fully away from our Founder's intent as shown us via the Constitution.
Thanks for all you do -- you are definitely on a roll this month!
is how your long defense of Senator Obama is tainted by your headline. Even after Obama has gone to such great lengths to make his perspective clear, you still must plant the seed of doubt. Are you any better than the neocons?
. . . How devoted to America is Israel? As long as Israel is a recipient of American largess to the tune of several billion dollars every year, Americans have no obligations to Israel of any sort, particularly the president.
that "friends of Israel" is codeword for the hard-core, extreme right-wing Likud and other hyper-religious Israeli political figures and parties. This Netanyahu strain, with other elements such as Shas, Kahane, National Union, National Religious Party, and United Torah Judaism all agree on a few things:
1) there should be no two-state solution
2) there is no "West Bank" and "Gaza", only "Greater Israel"
3) that "Palestine is Jordan"
4) "Palestinians" do not exist. They are the Philistines referenced in the Torah and the mortal enemy of Israel
5) to solve the problem with the Palestinians, they should drive them out of "Greater Israel" and into Jordan. Problem solved.
These tenets are not hidden in the Israeli political dialogue. These are open policy platforms which these extreme factions have adopted. Yet you never hear the "friends of Israel" in the US use these terms or phrase questions such as "Mr. Obama, Do you think all Palestians should be moved to Jordan and the land known as the West Bank and Gaza transfered to Israel?" Yet this is their preferred solution.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
