Saturday, July 26, 2014

Between Fact and Fiction

Brendan O'Neill nails it.  A couple of weeks old but well worth the read.

Why are Western liberals always more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It’s extraordinary. France can invade Mali and there won’t be loud, rowdy protests by peaceniks in Paris. David Cameron, backed by a whopping 557 members of parliament, can order airstrikes on Libya and British leftists won’t give over their Twitterfeeds to publishing gruesome pics of the Libyan civilians killed as a consequence. President Obama can resume his drone attacks in Pakistan, killing 13 people in one strike last month, and Washington won’t be besieged by angry anti-war folk demanding ‘Hands off Pakistan’. But the minute Israel fires a rocket into Gaza, the second Israeli politicians say they’re at war again with Hamas, radicals in all these Western nations will take to the streets, wave hyperbolic placards, fulminate on Twitter, publish pictures of dead Palestinian children, publish the names and ages of everyone ‘MURDERED BY ISRAEL’, and generally scream about Israeli ‘bloodletting’. (When the West bombs another country, it’s ‘war’; when Israel does it, it’s ‘bloodletting’.)

And it only gets better.  Go read it all.

H/T annie

11 comments:

  1. Those nations are fighting at a distance, so it is allowed. If they were fighting for their very survival -- especially if they were Jewish, then there would be a problem.

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  2. annie linked this in the comments a few days ago. She told me to go read it. I did. I generally do what she tells me to... ;)

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    1. oops, I missed that. Sorry annie :(

      Hat tip coming up.

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    2. I'm sure she's happy it got posted!

      Also: is it just me, or does anyone else think morning Israeli spiced tea when they see Am Yisrael Chai?

      :D

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    3. Tee hee :). I'm delighted it got posted again. No hat tip needed. The more coverage these articles get the better.

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    4. Um... Can't say I ever thought of myself as an exotic cup of tea before. :))

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  3. On the current subject of Sec of State Kerry in Israel and his absurd, actually obscene, proposals for a cease fire....let me remind you youngsters out there...that same man is the one who organized a thing called the "Winter Soldier Investigation" (began it where I live in fact) and declared that it was United States military policy to kill women and children and asserted that those in the field did so with abandon. This all from a man who never once spent one day as an infantryman or any other on the ground combat arms related manner.

    lying and deception is his stock in trade. He was a traitor to his own country, and those men who served her, and no Israeli should be surprised he would do the same to them. You want to make a "statement"...revoke whatever visa he uses to enter Israel....all the while he is there he is plotting against you from within, so let him do so in Gaza rather than Tel Aviv.

    While I dislike Obama and think he is a very poor leader...I hate John F Kerry. He planned to get a "PT Boat" style assignment (JFK style) patrolling the RVN coastal areas in a PBF...but about the time his application for that duty was approved he found himself on the RVN interior rivers and deltas, due to then new CNO Zumwalt's changes made, and much closer to the ground action, right alongside the smaller PBR craft. He promptly got himself three purple hearts for scratches that required not one night of overnight care, and those awards enabled him to apply to leave SE Asian theater and return to the USA. Once back in the USA it was not long when he applied for an early discharge in order to run for Congress....and he sucked up enough to get the early out at 180+ days remaining when the US policy at that time was eligibility for such early separations was less than 150 days. He didn't make it to Congress the first time, but he never gave up until he did. He has no shame now and never has had any. His entire "Winter Solider" campaign was to gain publicity for himself because he knew the public was turning against the war more and more daily....he made it his personally bully pulpit, He really didn't give a shit, and even his supporters acknowledge they believe he shot down a wounded man who was running away.

    There are many fine foreign service officers in the US State Department...one posts here in fact...who would be eminently better than Kerry....Kerry is a malignancy, like Hillary was, and State may not recover...but I'm hopeful because I don't know that much about State, so for me ignorance is bliss.

    Kerry has no morals and no honor. Why he has the job he has now is a crime, literally.

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    1. The CNBC show I watch daily (Worldwide Exchange) covers the conflict in regular segments with Middle East analyst/reporter Hadley Gamble.

      I find it interesting because she (and the host, Julia Chatterly) represent the typical global establishment view.

      Which is, apparently: that John Kerry is an idiot who has done nothing but piss off US allies (forget Israel, we're talking Egypt and KSA here), failed to achieve anything, set back both peace and even ceasefire, and sewed more distrust into an already distrustful situation.

      They've been hammering at Kerry's incompetence for the better part of the segment two nights running.

      Hadley speculated that Obama put Kerry in charge to take the flak for failure and insulate himself. Niice.

      They were scarcely less critical than the Israelis.

      So apparently Kerry has brought the whole world together in consensus. About his idiocy.

      In the meantime, the energetic Chatterly had shut up with her whole "when are we going to get a ceasefire" routine even as the Israelis have ramped up the ground operation. The establishment would appear resigned to an extended operation.

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    2. Kerry=scum.

      I knew many of those things about him in general but am glad to get a more specific idea of what he did in the 60's & 70's. I'm not surprised, in fact it just cements my feelings about him.

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    3. Ketchup Boy is a fraud, and he's always been a fraud. He has utterly failed in his stint as SecState, and is the laughingstock of the world.

      Aridog said: "Kerry has no morals and no honor. Why he has the job he has now is a crime, literally."

      Exactly.

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  4. Somewhat off topic, but only somewhat:

    European cowardice and perfidy is funding Al Qaida.

    When the New York Times calls you out for lying chickenshit behavior, you know you're in trouble...

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