Ideas Matter

Late night, scatterbrained post. Engage!

I'm one that believes ideas (principles, core beliefs, etc) are the life's blood of the human soul. Even those who proclaim apathy to politics still have views and convictions. Ideas matter. They always matter. So when it comes to Israel, why do the left's support of tolerance, unity and pan-ethnic love take second fiddle to the goals of the Islamists?

If you question a liberal or a leftist on their support of Islamist groups, they'll deny it. They don't support Hamas, they support the people of Palestine. They don't support Iran, but they don't want anyone interfering with its drive for nukes either. Most of the people on the left that I'm friends with are not supporters of Islamism, which is the antithesis to most of their goals, they're just not supporters of Israel. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

Yet, the chorus on Israel isn't strategic, its moral. The Guardian, the socialists and the rest aren't saying they're supporting the Islamist-led attacks on Israel because Israel is a “racist” state and “oppressive”. I'll grant that from a far-left humanism/world love perspective, a nation solely dedicated to Judaism is pretty repulsive (aside from the fact Israel has a very open society and a healthy political culture that spans the entire spectrum). As would a nation solely dedicated to Islam... like Hama's Gaza, Hizbullah-occupied territories in Lebanon or Iran. Yet, we don't hear much about them and their homophobia, their anti-woman ideology or their extra-judicial violence.

It doesn't do the left any good to build it's high ground on sand.

Ideas matter. Your convictions matter. If you believe in secularism and unity and unicorns turning the world's religions into pillows, you goddamn well better have the stones to shoot in all directions at all times. You may fool the media. You may get the handshakes of terrorists and tyrant leaders. You may get your face ironically plastered all over merchandise sold at anti-capitalist fairs. But in the eyes of the the truly passionate and truth-seeking folk like we have here at Generation Patriot and across the anti-partisan blogosphere on all sides, you aren't heroes. Ganhdi was a hero. MLK was a hero. The wannabe shaeed on the flotilla were douches and their Western kin were douches with strings connected to their ideological polar opposites.

What Do Hollywood and Turkey Have in Common?

They're both awesome at creating publicity.

Questions, Questions... No Answers

So, yeah... they "needed" those supplies, eh?

When I yesterday morning drove through Gaza City, I was immediately surprised that there are almost as many traffic jams as there always has been. Is there not a shortage of fuel? Apparently not. Gasoline is not even rationed.

Many shops were closed yesterday, Hamas has declared a general strike in protest against Israel's brutal and deadly attack on the Turkish flotilla with pro-Palestinian activists on board. So it was difficult to estimate how many products were on the shelves. Therefore I went over to the Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp. Here is one of Gaza's many vegetable markets that sell much more than just fruits and vegetables.

I will not say whether, in better times has been a larger product range than there was yesterday. But there was certainly no shortage of vegetables, fruits or any other ordinary, basic foods. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes - mountains of these items in the many stalls.

Notes on Israel

Sorry for the longness between meatier posts, but here one is.

First, the Israeli operation was well within the Jewish State's rights. The fleet of “activists” was not actually bringing supplies to Gaza, as their very oily press releases say. The boats were to break the Israeli blockade on Hamas-run Gaza. This is a national security issue and Israel had every right to intercept them before they penetrated Israeli waters.

Second, the “activists” were not exactly peaceful or caring of human rights, as shown by the Al-Jazzera report from the boats. These folks were chanting war cries and glorifying the terror campaign of the last 10 years against Israeli civilians. Peace activists don't glorify death and wish for death. Hell, they don't attack soldiers with iron rods and grab at their weapons, instigating a firefight. Peace activists annoy mid-day traffic or petition Russia to give up nukes. Word is that the Turkish group that sponsored the fleet has connections to terrorism. Peace, indeed.

Third, the so-called “international community” has proven itself to be anything but. The Arab cartel has hijacked the UN, once again, to pursue its anti-Israel agenda. The West is not helping it self by sucking at the Arab tit, either. France, England, Germany; they are all appeasing their large Muslim populations, specifically the loud and radical Islamist factions. They either are too blind or too corrupt to realize that the more ground they give to the radicals, the more the radicals will ask for. This does not bode well for Israel.

Overall, the raid, while just, has become just another nail in the coffin for Israel. When it does good or bad, right or wrong, the Islamists and their leftist allies will jump upon the little nation and bash it until it cries uncle. Israel, like it or not, is the only base of Western power in the Middle East. We have American bases and American allies, but Israel is the only place where Western culture and ideals thrive. Against it, from the Palestinians, from the Syrians, Jordanians, Iranians and Muslim Lebanese, is the rejection of Western culture and ideals. One can say that its because Israel is on stolen land (I bet you there's an Assyrian Christian petitioning the UN for Syria's return of his land) or because of its tactics or because of whatever reason the big brains in leftist-Islamist land can come up with. But at the core, the reason that Israel was invaded no less than 4 times during its first 30 years, was that it was not Arab, it was not Islamic: it was Western and Jewish. Because there has not been a regional war between Israel and any of the other powers for more than two decades, three decades if you exclude the Gulf War, people have forgotten or purposely dismissed Israel's history and the history of the Arab states that now claim the moral high ground over it. It makes it easier to justify their support of terrorism if they don't remember the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and every other skirmish and incursion by Israel's larger and stronger neighbors. Not to mention the anti-Semetic rheotric that has ruled the diplomacy debate since the beginning.

Strategically, the most important issue of all of this, we are slowly losing to Iran. Israel has lost Turkey, its only real Muslim ally, mostly through no fault of its own. Turkey has been slowly turning Islamist for years now and the sponsoring of a terrorist connected flotilla of weapon-wielding, firearm snatching supporters pretty much crossed the line between ally and rival. The leaders of Turkey and Iran have been working together for a while, the Brazil-Turkey nuclear plan to aid Iranian nuclear ambitions a fine and recent example. With the Western power base in the Middle East slipping and the Iranian/Islamist power base expanding, we are on a course towards regional war no matter what happens. Israel could accommodate up to its eyeballs and there'd be no handshakes between it and its newfound enemies. The Islamists smell the blood in the water and they know that without political and material support from the West, Israel will be vulnerable to attack. I believe that within a decade, if not sooner due to Iranian completion of a nuclear weapon and long-range ICBM (est. 2015), there will be an attempt by Syria, backed by Iranian missiles, planes, as well as Hezbullah from Lebanon, to knock Israel off the regional pedestal. This will happen if the West, most of all the United States, does not increase moral and material support for the beleaguered nation. It will be the largest strategic and moral defeat for America since the Vietnam War.

The anti-Israel left, of course, will not admit to the reality of the situation. It will not admit that Arab nations have been attacking and terrorizing Israel since its birth. They will not admit that the “aparthited wall” (real effing creative, guys) was built to stop sucide bombers from the West Bank... and TADA it has! They won't admit to Iranian sponsorship of Hamas. They won't admit to the egregious violations of human rights by Hamas against women, religious minorities and political enemies. They won't admit the glorification of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority, or its vast corruption going back to its founding with Arafat. They won't admit to pretty much anything that diverts from the narrative that Israel is the new NaziSouthAfricaChinaImperialJapan. Even with video evidence, Israeli solders with bullet wounds, found weapons and military equipment and the chanting of Islamic war cries, there are still papers and government condemning Israel for its unprovoked assault on “peace activists”.

Give me a break.

Israel needs our help. It needs moral backing against the mob of Islamists willing to kill. It needs help in keeping its military strong, modern and able to fend off any Iranian backed assault. It needs help to survive. Lest we forget that while our wars can be debated in length about their moral purity, Israel rarely has such a chance. Since its birth, Israel has fought to stay alive on its own soil. Something America hasn't done in over a century. Does this mean we should ignore real crimes? Absolutely not. Israel's constant use of captured terrorists as human shields is something that bugs me, among other things. It is not a perfect nation by a long shot.

But, at the end of the day, Israel, our longtime ally, deserves our help. It deserves our friendship. It deserves a chance to survive as it sees fit, not survive as knuckle-dragging religious bigots and hypocrites think its should exist, if at all.

The Truth About the Israeli Boat Raid

Don't let the MSM or the far left run this story. This video

and this report spell out what really happened.

Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.

However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.

Israel Needs To DIY

It looks like the President may be attempting to push his own peace plan on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Apparently, David Ignatius of the Washington Post isn’t the only recipient of White House leaks about an Obama peace plan. Helen Cooper of the New York Times chimed in with her own piece this afternoon about the president’s desire to jump into the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

According to Cooper, the trigger for this latest instance of administration hubris was a recent gathering of former national-security advisers including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Samuel Berger, and Colin Powell, who were called in to consult with the president and his adviser General James L. Jones. The consensus (only Powell seems to have dissented) was that Obama must put forward his own scheme that would state exactly what the parameters of a peace deal would be. The idea is that peace can only be obtained by the United States imposing it on the parties. The plan is, of course, along the lines of past Israeli peace offers rejected by the Palestinians, plus extra Israeli concessions. The Palestinians give up their “right of return,” and Israel “would return to its 1967 borders,” including the one that divided Jerusalem, with only “a few negotiated settlements” as an exception. The supposed sweetener for Israel is that the United States or NATO, whose troops would be stationed along the Jordan River, would guarantee Israeli security.

This plan solves nothing other than vanity. The 1967 borders are indefensible for Israel and logistically impossible for Palestine. Israel has stated over and over it will not negotiate on Jerusalem. Hamas and Fatah are still at war. Hamas is still at war with Israel and is supported by Iran. There is so much wrong with this plan.

Israel needs to start making plans do solve this 60 year old problem itself. It has the firepower and the justification to do it. While I personally believe that Gaza should be turned over to the Israelis for a land swap involving Jordan, Israel and Palestine (fantasy, but hey, so is this plan), this conflict is rotting the state as well as providing fodder for terrorists fighting the West. 30 year of peace plans has gotten nowhere. This thing needs to end now, not in another 30.

The Enemy of My Enemy of My...

This article by Efraim Halevy in The New Republic has an interesting idea. Talk with Hamas.

For all their recent disagreements, Israel and the United States share a common view of the Palestinians. They have jointly affirmed their resolve to coax the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) to the negotiating table, while ignoring Hamas. This is a policy that has now lasted close to four years—with, by and large, the support of the international community. Hamas, it is commonly agreed, will only make an acceptable partner for negotiation if it undergoes an ideological transformation, a transformation that is very unlikely to ever occur.

But now might be the right time to reconsider this policy, especially in light of the recent behavior of the PA. To take one recent example: When the Israeli cabinet recently designated two sites in Hebron and Bethlehem to be preserved as national heritage landmarks, the PA joined Hamas in issuing inflammatory statements exhorting the populace to demonstrate against the Jewish appropriation of Muslim holy sites. Stone throwing and violence quickly ensued. Abu Mazen, the self-styled moderate president of the PA, provocatively warned of an impending religious war. Only a stern warning sent by Israeli security authorities brought the “moderate” Palestinian leadership to its senses. And even then, it was only the Israelis who were capable of becalming Jerusalem and the West Bank, with sustained and daily operations in Palestinian-controlled areas. In a time of crisis, the shortcomings of the ruling Palestinians were exposed.

[...]

Before President Obama and Premier Netanyahu proceed to negotiate with their dispirited Palestinian interlocutors, why not reconsider the options? Bringing Hamas to the table could relieve pressure on the Palestinians—who would no longer need to worry about the Islamists attacking their credibility. It might create space for a less ideological approach to peacemaking, and it might allow for the negotiation of a more achievable agreement with Israel. Why not hammer out a temporary arrangement between the three sides that would, say, extend for 25 years with a clause for renewal? Such an agreement would make for a practical second-best outcome--a durable interim understanding.

Current policy, after all, sends Hamas the signal that it is doomed to exclusion come what may and forever. But the more that Hamas is permitted inside the tent, the better the prospects of a modest (yet historic) success. Of course, there will be those who say this is impossible. They will say Hamas is inhuman, and why would the Iranians ever allow this? The answer is that Fatah hardly behaves much better than Hamas. Besides, Fatah has limited ability to deliver any sort of peace without the consent of Hamas. As far as the Iranians go, once you start talking with Hamas, you soon discover how much they hate the guts of those renegade Shiites in Tehran. I could be wrong about all of this. But given the unworkable alternatives, surely this is worth putting to the test.

Efraim Halevy is a former head of Mossad. As soon as I read that, I could see where his thinking is coming from. I don't dare think I'm more intelligent than a man who lead one of the most feared spy agencies on the planet. He'll have a tome full of reasons why this policy may/will work. I simply wish to make a point that bringing Hamas to the table legitimizes it. To legitimize a terror group, like Lebanon has with Hizbullah, only makes it hungrier for power, as Hizbullah has proven. I can see the advantages of bringing Hamas to the table, as Halevy says "this is worth putting to the test", but the risks are high as well.

My idea is to re-legitimize and prop up the PA as much as possible, grind on negotiations with them and have them declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank. This would totally undercut Hamas' legitimacy to the cause of a Palestinian state and, hopefully, create enough schism within Hamas between hardliners and tag-a-longs to allow for the PA to reoccupy Gaza. Risky, yes, but as much risk as I see in making Hamas a real partner for peace. Peace to Hamas has always been the destruction of Israel from top to bottom. Not a very good negotiating position, at least when the goal is to end a war going on for almost 70 years.