Fareed Zakaria at Washington Post:
The chief threats to Israel are from new technologies — rockets, biological weapons — and demography. Its physical existence is less in doubt than its democratic existence as it continues to rule millions of Palestinians in serf-like conditions — entitled to neither a vote nor a country.
Further evidence of the smartest line in the last week, Peter Beinart's assertion that Americans and Jews are losing their ability to shape the destiny of the Middle East, because all they've given rise to is a "mindless land grab."
The bit about biological weapons is nonsense. To be able to manufacture biological weapons one needs both knowledge and equipment. Some Palestinian scientists may have the knowledge, but there are no appropriate labs able to produce what Zakaria is propagandizing about.
In addition, biological weapons are highly controlled by states. And since Israel’s Mossad is not concerned about Iran’s (nonexistent) biological weapons, Palestinians have no other Middle Eastern bogeyman from whom they can purchase said weapons.
Besides, on a more practical level, playing the devils advocate here, how does Zakaria propose such bio weapons will be used, by infecting both Arabs and Jews in the region? By targeting Ashkenazi European genes, thus leaving all the non-European Zionists alive?
He should focus on what he knows and spare us the bull. It will serve him better as well, instead of embarrassing himself.
In context, I don’t think that statement references Palestinians. I read it as a general statement directed at “surrounding” Arab(?) countries who do have that technology.
My comment addressed both possibilities.
And neighboring Arab states do not have that technology. It was unfounded speculation on the part of Zakaria to do so. In addition, biological weapons are useless in a region like the Middle East for reasons already mentioned.
Someone posted a link here (credible, I believe) that an Israeli lab had developed a weapon that would effectively sterilize the Palestinian Arab population to deal with the demographic problem, despite the problems posed by shared genetics. Can you verify that link?
So in three years, an Israeli prime minister’s position has gone from “minor corrections” to “dramatic changes.” Netanyahu’s quarrel, it appears, is with himself.
…
And Netanyahu will be remembered only as a person before the person who made peace, a comma in history.
it would appear he is a comma chameleon
proton, that’s the same segment that stood out for me. more context:
the whole article is worth reading. thanks newsweek.
“Why did Netanyahu turn what was at best a minor difference into a major confrontation?”
Naive (or dishonest) question. Anyone could answer the question by spending about 30 seconds searching for an answer (that is about all the time it took for me).
Here is a link to a 10 minute You Tube video of Ben Nitay (Netanyahu)
link to youtube.com
It is, all things considered, a genuinely magnificent performance. I am not being sarcastic. It is a highly condensed distillation of right wing Zionism, given by its’ most articulate spokesperson (at least since Abba Eban.)
And it is truly appalling.
Proton, that “comma chameleon” really stood out for me, too!
Ugh. It’s like one bright bulb above the bathroom mirror with the other three being burned out. Israel’s chief threats are from NEW technologies? And who in the region is using weapons newer than Israel’s? Tell me, has Israel EVER been the target of a biological weapon? Because I’m thinking if Israel had, we’d be hearing it in every other post by Witty and jon s. and hophmi the way we get spammed about Hamas’ twenty-pound bottle rockets (and those are supposed to be new technology? Really?)
Unless I missed something and Zakaria is referring to Israel’s own abusive deployment of new military technologies and threatening its own existence, this is an example of one arrow striking the inside ring of the target and the rest are sticking out in the bales of hay behind it.
What’s truly amusing about Zakaria’s contention is that from a technological standpoint he picked (almost) two extremes of the spectrum. On one end you’ve got the crude, primitive and archaic bottle rockets and on the other end, highly sophisticated millions-of-dollars-in-R&D biological weapons. Incidentally, how can anyone label bottle rockets as “New” technologies when more advanced weapons were used in WWI?
“New” technologies when more advanced weapons were used in WWI?”
Judging from our national anthem, there were comparable weapons being used in the War of 1812.
The Chinese invented them, and used them in battle in 1232.
Back in 2002 Zakaria stenographed about that year’s biggest threat to Israel- Iraq. The man has form.
Surely serfs were workers bought and sold with the estate, which they were not allowed to leave. An ironical word for the Palestinians who have been forced to leave large areas and are pressed all the time to leave more. But ‘neither a vote nor a country’ is good and goes to the heart of the matter. Why such a scandal is so little to us in the West I don’t know.
I just came back from 10 days in the Florida heartlands. While there, I never heard a single word about the Palestinians. FOX Cable TV, which was on here and there, was relentless in how Obama sold Israel down the river. On it, I saw our congress give Bibi a dozen standing ovations. I saw Obama stare intensely at Bibi, and Bibi’s forehead was sweating. Nobody cared.
“Surely serfs were workers bought and sold with the estate, which they were not allowed to leave.”
But from which they could not be legally expelled, either.