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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Here is a pretty extensive and damming indictment of Friedman: http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0811/frontpage/irresponsible
The Vikings (the Berserkers) wore horns outside their helmets so that nobody was in doubt of what they represented.
Actually, we never wore horns outside the helmets. We are the masters of understatement ("Yoo tink it's gonna snow?" "Ja, I tink so, yoobetcha...."), and we wear the horns on the inside ... which on occasion accounts for our truculent disposition.
Skoal!
That's true
Folks is just folks
But in truth
My friend
With such deep wisdom
You lend
I think maybe you took
Just a few too many tokes.
You don't know what you are talking about; none of your points are factually accurate.
Hamas won their elections on a platform of providing services and ending corruption. Fatah was, and is, an extremely corrupt organization, and over the years has become increasingly so. Hamas provides clinics, schools, and other elements of security and stability. That they won in the elections was only surprising to people who have no idea what's going on in the occupied territories.
They didn't launch a bloody coup, they repelled one. Fatah started it, goaded by the Israelis and the Americans, who were trying to destabilize and overthrow the legitimately elected Hamas government. A wise strategy would have been to engage Hamas, force them to deliver on their promises, and in so doing, move them away from the path of radical violence. Wise strategies aren't Israel's style. Better to go bull-in-the-china-shop and see what doesn't get broken. When the Israeli-backed Fatah coup didn't quite work out like they hoped--Fatah got their ass kicked in Gaza--The Israelis shut down Gaza and decided on a strategy of slow, strangulated death instead. It is against this backdrop that we currently find ourselves, once again trying an ill-conceived strategy destined to make things worse for Israel in the long run but providing a cheap, visceral sort of satisfaction in the present.
The purges of all things Fatah in Gaza are the direct result of the Israeli/US backed Fatah coup attempt.
The irony, of course, is that by collaborating with Israel against their fellow Palestinians, Fatah has weakened itself and Abbas has lost any legitimacy he had left. Israel has yet to learn that every power vacuum they create in the region is filled by a group that hates them more fiercely and advocates even more radical violence. Eventually, if they keep this up, they will succeed in finally creating an organization capable of destroying them.
Note that I don't mean "wipe off the map". Israel will cease to be a viable state when people begin leaving faster than they immigrate or are born, which will happen if any group ever manages to foment a sufficient level of violence and discord within Israel itself. Violence begets violence. The notion that these "people will learn a lesson", most specifically the lesson that "they are a defeated people", are the ramblings of men who may understand tactics and strategy but understand nothing of war.
The simple fact of the matter is, Moshe Yaalon is clearly delusional, with no grasp of reality. The Palestians are obviously not a "defeated people"; if they were, Israel wouldn't still be fighting them. They haven't been a defeated people for 60 years, and are nowhere near becoming a defeated people. Beaten down, wounded, hunted and persecuted--but hardly defeated. The fact that Israel, 60 years after beginning its conflict with them, has needed to launch two major offensives in the last two years suggests that perhaps it is time for the Israelis to reassess their tenuous grasp of reality, and maybe change strategies. If you haven't defeated your enemy after trying for 60 years--particularly when your enemies use essentially the same technology they started with while you continue to employ state-of-the-art weaponry--you never will. It's time to negotiate as equals.
Note that I don't mean "wipe off the map".
The simple fact of the matter is, Moshe Yaalon is clearly delusional, with no grasp of reality. The Palestians are obviously not a "defeated people"; if they were, Israel wouldn't still be fighting them. They haven't been a defeated people for 60 years, and are nowhere near becoming a defeated people. Beaten down, wounded, hunted and persecuted--but hardly defeated. The fact that Israel, 60 years after beginning its conflict with them, has needed to launch two major offensives in the last two years suggests that perhaps it is time for the Israelis to reassess their tenuous grasp of reality, and maybe change strategies. If you haven't defeated your enemy after trying for 60 years--particularly when your enemies use essentially the same technology they started with while you continue to employ state-of-the-art weaponry--you never will. It's time to negotiate as equals.
It's not about defeating an enemy: it's about occupation, and extermination. It always has been.
Israel was given to the Jewish people, and they just wanted more. So they are taking it. That is what the past 60 years has been about - taking more than they were given.
Sound familair? It seems they "Madoff" with some more land.
Every one of your posts reveal the fact that you are exactly the opposite of what you claim to be.
till the going got tough? Have read all of his books.
But the guy turned and ran when the war got tough. Never forget an article he wrote this past year about how wonderful the airport in china was and why new york didnt have such a great government built airport. How wonderful China was. Thats when I realized this guy is not as smart as I always thought he was. Maybe he is just writing stuff to match the NYT? I dont know, but anyone stupid enough to think the infrastructe in China is superior to that of US should be checked in. I guess old Tom hasnt been to a lot of he airports in flyover country in US or China or he would never make such an absurd statement.
He is still in group of people I would love to play golf with.
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
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
