There is a special segulah that goes with being a leftist journalist in Israel. You get an infinite number of chances to be wrong and still carry on as if nothing happened. Every third strike gets ruled a foul tip. When some policy you advocated blows up, you get to shake your head in astonishment as if, instead of consequence following cause, some mysterious act of God intervened in the natural order.
But every now and then, one of these guys gets caught flailing wildly at a pitchout in front of 50,000 people. A glorious example of such spectacularly flagrant idiocy is this article by Aluf Benn. Benn is an analyst at Haaretz. He argues in this article, published on July 6, 2006, that what Israel really needs is for the Palestinians to be led by responsible leaders like ... Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah!
Here's just one quote:
Unlike [Hamas], Nasrallah has authority and responsibility and therefore his behavior is rational and can be reasonably predicted.... Hizballah keeps the peace in the Galilee more than did the pro-Israeli SLA.
This is good stuff.
And for balance, Haaretz's token right-winger, Nadav Shragai, hits one out of the park.
posted by Ben at 9:23 PM
3 Comments:
When he was in the army, Ehud Barak took essentially the same stance regarding Oslo I and Oslo II Accords (especially Oslo II accords) that Yaalon, Dichter, and Eiland did on Gaza Disengagement.
Expect Dichter to become the new "bid daddy" bitchonist of the "center" (read: covert left) while Yaalon becomes the new security guru of the "moderate right" (i.e. secure borders plan of Bibi/Dore Gold). Dichter (or someone like him) - or perhaps a bitchonist from the center/right such as Yaalon - will be the one to sell the next round of withdrawals and retreats to the public.
So while Shragai hit the nail on the head 100%, it must be clearly recognized that the Olso Syndrome has sunken deep roots within the Israeli populace. Nearly any voodoo magic plan can be sold to them - with appropriate marketing savy, a bitchonist at the top, and with the appropriate approval of academia, journalism, the legal system and religious leaders.
Saying "I told you so" doesn't seem to be enough anymore. Witness the supposedly "rational" leaders who claimed that the gaza disengagement plan had potential long-term benefits to the State. By 2004-5, a lot of "I told you so's" had already floated under this bridge since 1992. To no avail.
I also see no evidence that the post-Zionist Establishment has learned anything or will mend its ways. I am studying Sefer Shoftim with Abarbanel and I see that on more than one occassion, Am Israel lost its independence totally. Throughout history, the Jewish people have not been able to maintain an independent state for an extended time. It is my firm opinion that the post-Zionists intend to dismantle the Zionist state by inviting foreign forces to "separate" us from the Arabs (they are already talking about this in Lebanon and Beilin's Geneva plan also has it) and which would ultimately rule us (maybe with some sort of separate autonomous regimes for the Arabs and the Jews). This will be a repeat of the British Mandatory regime, so we should perhaps begin teaching our children how to form an underground and to keep the dream alive for the chance to set up a really independent JEWISH state sometime in the future.
See his article today.
Post a Comment
<< Home