Remember when Bush called Ariel Sharon a “man of peace”? Well Mitt Romney is throwing around the same compliments.
“Your service for peace is an inspiration,” Romney said of Netanyahu in a note to the prime minister published in the Times today. What has Netanyahu done for peace?
That Times piece is by Eric Lewis, a Washington lawyer, who is likely Jewish, and he attacks Netanyahu for trying to drag us into war.
Despite all his talk about American power and sovereignty, Mitt Romney seems willing to let someone else decide whether to start what may be the first potential regional war of the new “American century.”
This is the new liberal consensus. David Remnick established it the other day and was followed by Joe Klein and Barbara Boxer too– a highly unusual move by a senator, the JPost says. All these folks are Jewish; and the Times is playing its role. So this is a crucial split inside the new Jewish establishment. And in the next term, they will become Jews against the occupation. Too late to save the two state paradigm.
Romney also praised Rupert Murdoch’s services to scholarship, Madonna’s services to the institution of marriage, Douglas Feith’s services to excellence, Tom Cruise’s services to humility and Zionism’s services to tikkun olam
Remnick, Klein, Boxer… part of the better late than never movement
Diane Rehm just said the Dept of Justice will be investigating the trashy film
does he praise Netanyahu’s espionage against America in the 80s when Bibi helped smuggle out US nuclear triggers to israel ?
Compared to some winners of Nobel Peace Prize, Netanyahu killed fewer people. OTOH, the metric which is often proposed is to divide the number of killed people by the number of people that an organization or a government could kill. E.g. this shows moral superiority of IDF over Hamas. And a president of a country that has thermonuclear weapons is automatically very moral, something that perhaps the Nobel Prize committee appreciated.
Accidentally, this is the chief danger in Iran getting nukes: it could become the most moral country in the Middle East.
The concept is actually pretty old. When I was a wee lad in a far away country, I heard many jokes about Vladimir Il’ich Lenin. One was about Lenin as The Greatest Friend of Children. As a Bolshevik conspirator Lenin was hiding in the apartment of a supporter. One morning he was shaving and the little daughter of his host piped “Uncle Vova!” Startled, Lenin nicked himself and roared “Get out of here” — and mind you, he had a razor in his hand, so his reaction was very, very mild.
My problem with the so-called ‘new liberal concensus’ is that it’s still based on Israeli arguments.
Take Remnick’s piece. It’s couched in ‘what’s good for Israel’ all throughout.
Opposition to mindless wars is good. But until we do it on the right reasons – what’s good for America – it won’t mean much. What if the Israeli security establishment was not as divided on the issue?
What if everyone, from left to right, was united for a strike on Iran?
Would Remnick still oppose it?
I very much doubt so, I think he would either play a role he did prior to Iraq or at the very least get out of the way and give space to the AIPAC propagandists(as he has in recent weeks).
This isn’t progress until opposition to the strike isn’t based on American arguments, not Israeli ones. And until people like Remnick stops giving ample space to the neocons and the AIPAC crowd.
Bibi has overplayed his hand and it’s now hard not to support Obama over Bibi if you’re a liberal. But if Bibi’s hand was stronger to begin with and he didn’t lash out, it’s far from clear of this new ‘liberal concensus’ that you celebrate would be achieved.
Again, that Remnick bases so much of his opposition to the strike couched on arguments on what’s good for Israel -rather than America – is a huge problem and still a sign that fundamentally, we haven’t moved as much as you think.
Remnick shouldn’t be celebrated when he still bases his opposition on Israel’s interests(as he views them), rather than America’s.
In a way, you have made a point: for Americans the election is now between Obama and Netanyahu (Romney acting as Netanyahu’s surrogate).
I think that is a clear choice for the guys in Western PA and Kansas and Central Missouri. it is not for Bibi.
So, Americans , let’s look at the tale of the monkeys: link to stumbleupon.com
If G.W. Bush was astonishing, but… we can understand, Romney is quite out of it.
I wonder who is willing to take for real this dude.
Krauss: Opposition to mindless wars is good. But until we do it on the right reasons – what’s good for America – it won’t mean much.
I have often wondered if politicians ever stop to think what working class Americans sitting in coffee shops in Ohio or western Pennsylvania must think when they see these politicians making embarrassingly obsequious craven remarks when it comes to Israel. Supporting the Likud agenda for Greater Israel has never been a high priority with blue-collar mid-westerners. Most are wondering, I know, why politicians keep talking about Israel instead of doing something about out-of-work Americans.
One can also try to be an extremist and ask what is good for humanity.
The consequences down the road, not the results, but the consequences down the road for Remnick and Boxer are going to be harsh.
Joe Klein has been a straight shooter, peppering his remarks with stuff his mother could cling to at the bridge club, but laying out the issues plainly. Remnick and Boxer have not. They’ve played it too safe. And they will find they hadn’t needed to, and will pay a price with their legacies. Klein OTOH is consistent under pressure.
“the new “American century.” “
That one’s turning into a rather unpleasant joke with remarkable speed. Getting to look like the Romanovs looking forward to their ‘next three hundred years’ at their dynasty’s tricentennial in 1913.
It’ll be interesting. On the one hand, this country’s certainly remade itself at various points in the past. On the other hand, maybe there was always a certain genuine vitality that just isn’t there any more.
The vitality is there, but neither the US Israel 1st or added GOP plan to ignore IRS status quo helps Dick and Jane at all.