Bloomberg reports
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama’s new Middle East envoy and told lawmakers afterward he won’t back down from positions that divide Israel and the Palestinians.
“The whole region is burning,” Netanyahu said later in a speech to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “We have to unite around common values shared by an overwhelming majority of the nation.”
Among the six principles Netanyahu said would govern any future talks are that Palestinians must recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” Palestinian refugees cannot return to Israel, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided” capital and any future Palestinian state must be demilitarized, allowing an Israeli military presence along the Jordanian border.
When Netanyahu was in Italy he said “there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
Livni said Netanyahu had no right to make such a determination.
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“Who are you to tell the citizens of Israel that they and their children, and later their children’s children, will continue to live by their swords forever? Who are you to bury the chances of a deal and of normal life here, after just a few hours in the room meant for negotiations you didn’t conduct?”
That’s why she is dropping in the polls.
Obama’s Pressure Won’t Undermine Bibi
Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary, 06.15.2011 – 6:01 PM
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As the Obama administration continues trying to pressure the Israeli government to make drastic concessions on territory before those talks even begin, they are hoping that domestic critics will chime in to force Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to give in. But the idea that his resistance to Obama’s dictates will undermine Netanyahu at home has always been misplaced. Today’s special session of the Knesset in which opposition leader Tzipi Livni carped about the prime minister is just another example of why Netanyahu remains in the catbird seat vis-à-vis both Washington and the Israeli left.
The problem for Livni, as well as for Obama, is that Israelis understand two things:
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1. That Netanyahu, like all his predecessors, has accepted a two-state solution and would give up territory in order to achieve one.
2. That the Palestinian Authority, both before and after its unity pact with the Hamas terrorists is utterly incapable of accepting the legitimacy of a Jewish state in a peace accord no matter where its borders would be drawn and will never formally end the conflict.
Palestinian intransigence destroyed Israel’s left and Obama’s brutal attitude toward the Jewish state has only reinforced Netanyahu’s position. Today Netanyahu outlined to the Knesset again the same framework that earned dozens of standing ovations when he spoke of it to the United States Congress last month. [..]
I’m not interested in the enemy’s ‘respect,’ Shmuel.
And I agree with you that those who assert or imply that we should be are either hopelessly naive or maliciously devious.
Ameyn v’ameyn.
Yes, as I’ve said above, I am (and was already) aware of what the Irgun was confronted with in the Mandate administration.
Quite so, in every particular.
And a fact, once again, that needs to be stressed NOT because one wishes to garner British ‘respect’
— but stressed, rather, because protecting civilians (noncombatants) was the right thing to do (independent of ANYBODY’s respect — let alone, the enemy’s).
Agreed. (Whatever else may be said about Patton, there’s no denying that the man understood the nature of his calling, and that he had a helluva way with words.)
Yes, so we are told.
But then, of course, there was never any question of Bin Ladin’s personal culpability.
The boys that Begin hanged had never so much as been accused of specific atrocities; they were deliberately taken hostage and later killed in cold blood. The analogy is simply not apt, Shmuel.
I’m not persuaded that it ‘had to be done.’
As I’ve noted above [Jun 21, 1:40 am], “… you have NO way of knowing that it was the only course of action that would have ‘worked’.”
(Then too, perhaps cutting off the finger of a hostage each day & delivering to the Commandant’s office by courier — and then a toe each day, then the limbs, a joint at a time — might have gotten action also. Then other ‘appendages.’ [The Soviets did it, and it ‘worked.’] Would that have been okay too? How about their families? — are they off-limits?)
Once again, you’ll get no argument from me on this score.
As you’ve acknowledged, I am not uninformed as to the particulars of pre-State (and subsequent) history.
I have no quarrel with your desire to communicate the purpose of armed struggle, and I salute and sincerely appreciate the sacrifices you have made in your own military service, Shmuel. But there is no way that the things you’ve written here can somehow justify the cold, calculated murder of hostages. Right now, even as we write, the Hamas scum are thinking in these same terms in regard to Gil’ad Shalit.
Not that it’s out of character for them — as it would be for us.
Shalom Dweller,
I find you extremely well informed but your postings show a lack of understanding and is at odds with classic warfare.
In the case of the execution of two British soldiers one must correlate that with the fact that the enemy had by then sytematically tortured, executed, (by hanging), and betrayed to the Nazis and Arabs or caused the sinking of refugee ships including many of our people. The enemy chose the type of field of combat themselves.
In our case we did not harm CIVILIANS as the British trash did, intentionally. Our great fighters executed SOLDIERS. I am a former Senior-Fellow Engineer that worked and still do to some limited extent on Military Avionics but I am also a former soldier with field of battle experience.
The enemy is not to “respect” us for our purity of soul, that is a silly propaganda stuffing to keep us from effectively do the military thing. Military systems must train soldiers to be calculating dogs of war. Nasty folk. The rubber bullet and paint ball BS is not part of soldiering at all.
The function of a soldier is to make the other bastad die for his country. To destroy the will for battle of the enemy. The enemy must be in terror of having to enter into battle with us.
The US used and still use flame throwers, inciendiary ordnance, “depleted uranium” shells and nuclear weapons.
The Gurkhas serving in the Brutish military are deadly killers and their Kukri knives is not in their side holders to peel potatoes.
Bin Laden was not lifted to a meeting with human judges. He and several of his folk were executed and dumped.
Those that the Etzel or associated groups that hanged two Brutish soldiers did what had to be done to convey a stern message to their masters.
Nobody normal enjoys war or killing but when forced upon us, war must be fought to minimize casualties by conveying to the enemy unequivocal messages.
Moshe Dayan on his better days commanded a batallion that used shock tactics extensively…
Soldiers are not to be used to destroy Jewish civilian sites but to harshly fight to harm the enemy into termination of hostilities.
The taking of Deir Yassin cannot be compared to the hanging of the sergeants the previous year.
Immediately after the Partition Resolution [UNGA 181, of 29 Nov 47] had passed, the Mufti’s thugs promptly went to work killing their Jewish neighbors. It would be six months till the Brits’ planned date of withdrawal. But they did nothing (surprise, surprise!) to stop Arab troops from cutting the road from Yerushalayim to TA.
The City was besieged, blockaded, nothing allowed in — no food, no water, no fuel. And no communication with the rest of the Yishuv. Deir Yassin was one of two villages adjacent to the road, and a major military stronghold in the blockade — occupied by Iraqi & local Arab [not yet ‘Palestinian’] irregulars of the “Arab Liberation Army” (infiltrated in from Syria & Transjordan betw Jan & Apr ’48 — viz., before the invasion of 15 May). The village was situated on a hill, 2600 feet high, which commanded a wide view of the vicinity; it had to be taken to lift the siege.
It was taken.
The Irgun (with an assist from Lehi) surrounded the village with just over 100 men. Hagana did not actively participate, but their commander [David Shaltiel] made clear that he had no objection; his only concern was that they be sure that if Irgun took the village, that they could HOLD it afterward (so the enemy could not take it over when they left).
A small open truck fitted with a loudspeaker was driven to the village entrance before the attack and broadcast a warning to civilians to evacuate the area.
(As with the King David demolition, Begin usually INSISTED on first issuing a warning to civilians to withdraw — thereby giving up the element of surprise — often at risk of greater casualties to his own forces. The warning was something of a trademark for him; the Begin signature.)
Irgun left open an escape corridor from the village & more than 200 of Deir Yassin’s 750 actual residents left unharmed.
The story was later circulated of a ‘massacre,’ complete with rapes, mutilations, etc. It was the purest BS.
The Arabs who remained in the village feigned surrender, then fired on the unwitting Jewish troops — who then returned fire indiscriminately. This was later confirmed by Arabic-speaking, Hagana troops who overheard some survivors talking among themselves. Some women were killed, because among those who ‘surrendered’ before opening fire were some dressed as women. (How better to hide firearms, or one’s identity, than in a burqa?)
Actually the Jordanian press tells the story clearly enough. Here, it quotes refugees, like Yunes Ahmed Assad, of Deir Yassin (virtually all of whose residents knew each other) -— writing on the fifth anniversary of the struggle over the village, and not only setting to rights the story of that encounter, but also placing the general pattern of evacuation in perspective:
“The Jews never intended to hurt the population of the village, but were forced to do so after they met hostile fire from the population -— which killed the Irgun commander. [Furthermore,] the Arab exodus…was caused not by…the actual battle, but by the exaggerated description spread by the Arab leaders to incite them to fight the Jews…
“For the flight and fall of the other villages, it is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish ‘crimes’ and describing them as ‘atrocities’ in order to inflame the Arabs… They instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and property to the enemy…” [quoted in the Jordanian daily, al-Urdun, 9 Apr 53]
Another villager from Deir Yassin, Mahmoud Assad Yassini, who had pulled guard duty that day, remembers the extraordinary lengths to which the Arab leadership went in its resolve to spin the story of an eight-hour battle —- in a village which was in fact a well-fortified center of operations for Arab military activity, where great quantities of ammunition were found after the battle, and which had served as a base for Arab irregulars & Iraqi troops who attacked the Jewish Quarter of the Old City -— into a deliberate ‘massacre’ of noncombatants, and recounts his experience after the fighting, when he & the other surviving villagers attended an important meeting of the Mufti’s Arab Higher Committee nearby in Jerusalem:
“When we arrived in Jerusalem, we were taken to a hotel near the Damascus gate. We started asking each other who had been killed, who was alive? Then the leaders of the National Committee [AHC] arrived, including Dr Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi. He invited some of us to go to his headquarters. He said, ‘We want you to say that the Jews slaughtered people, committed atrocities, raped and stole gold.’ He said you have to say this, so that the Arab armies will finally make a move and come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.” [cited in Ahron Bregman & Jihan el-Tahri, The Fifty Years’ War: Israel and the Arabs (TV Books, NY, 1998, 1999), p. 36]
The reason for the distortions and exaggerations was subsequently set forth by a Palestine Arab official, Hazem Nusseibeh, who was a senior program assistant for the Palestine Broadcasting Service: “We weren’t sure that the Arab armies, for all their talk, were really going to come. We thought to shock the population of the Arab countries to stir pressures against their governments.”
Again, the Etzel website — and also Eli E. Hertz [Myths & Facts] — can provide more detail, but I’ve offerred enough here to show that the taking of the village was legitimate and the behavior of the Irgun not improper.
There’s just no way anybody can honestly compare the deaths that occurred to Arab troops OR Arab civilians (in the heat of battle at Deir Yassin) to the deliberate, calculated, ‘execution,’ the previous year, of the British sergeants — howsoever worthy, and even desperate, the objective.
Completely different animal.
No comparison, not even close — on EITHER score.
King David Hotel
The Hotel was warned half-an-hour beforehand: by phone calls — in several languages — to evacuate the place, because it was going to be destroyed.
The message: “I am speaking on behalf of the Hebrew underground. We have placed an explosive device in the hotel. Evacuate it at once – you have been warned.”
A similar phone message was also directed to the French Consulate, adjacent to the hotel, to open their windows to prevent blast damage. Yet a THIRD call was made to the newspaper, the Palestine Post (today’s Jerusalem Post ).
It’s important to note that the target here was not personnel but the FILES of the British Military Intelligence Division, whose HQ was located in the southern wing of the Hotel.
The Brits had just recently [29 Jun 46] raided the Jewish Agency [self-governing body of the Yishuv, under the Mandate], and confiscated huge quantities of documents. Many of these files provided the identities, whereabouts & missions abroad of Jewish agents working undercover in Arab countries; their own & their families’ safety was directly endangered. The information about Jewish Agency operations, was likewise taken to the King David Hotel. At about the same time, more than 2500 Jews from all over Palestine were placed under arrest.
A week later, news of a massacre of 40 Jews in a pogrom in Poland [Kielce] reminded the Jews of Palestine how Britain’s restrictive immigration policy [the White Paper of 1939] had condemned thousands to death in Europe’s cauldron.
On 22 July 1946, the calls were made. The call into the hotel was received & ignored. Begin quotes one British official who refused to evacuate the building, saying: “We don’t take orders from the Jews.” As a result, when the bombs exploded, the casualty toll was high: a total of 91 killed, 45 injured. Among the dead were 15 Jews. Few people in the hotel proper were injured by the blast.
For nearly thirty-five years the Brits denied they had been warned.
In 1979, however, an MP introduced evidence on the floor of the Commons that the Irgun had indeed issued the warning. He offered the testimony of a British officer who heard other officers in the King David Hotel bar joking about a ‘Zionist threat’ to the headquarters. (The officer who overheard the conversation immediately left the hotel & survived to tell the tale.)
I’m sure the Etzel [Irgun] website will have more detail for anybody who’s interested, and as I recall, Francisco Gil-White also covered the incident at some length.
But the King David bombing is not remotely analogous to the hanging of the sergeants.
The sergeants were kidnapped; they were held hostage.
They were entirely within the power of their captors and posed no direct threat, at that point, to anybody.
Nor is there reason to believe that they had been personally guilty of anything other than carrying out their general duties as soldiers, and ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ when they were seized.
Lo tirzakh.
The act was cold-blooded murder; there’s no getting round it.
The sergeants were used as a bargaining chip — and when the enemy would not cooperate, the sergeants were murdered.
It was flat-out evil.
And if Hamas kills Gilad Shalit, it will also be evil — murder most foul.
Bogus ‘massacre’ at Deir Yassin
For one thing, Yamit, the taking of Deir Yassin was not part of The Revolt against the Brits.
You’ll note that I had said above [Jun 21, 1:40 am] that the hanging of the sergeants “stands in sharp contrast to virtually everything else about The Revolt.”
But even allowing for that, there is still no comparison. The Deir Yassin incident has always gotten a bad rap — and I’ve NEVER held it against Begin or the Irgun. Deir Yassin is nowhere near as reprehensible as the hanging of the sergeants, which stands sui generis — in a class by itself (and really, I think, thoroughly out-of-character for Begin).
The Deir Yassin action was actually part of the War of Independence: well AFTER the Brits had made — and announced — the decision to pull out (as a result, largely, of The Revolt).
However, I’ll have to discuss it in another post, because this one is already overly long, and if it gets any longer, Ted will have my head on a pike.
No misunderstanding, Shmuel, classic or otherwise.
If you have occasion to read my posts elsewhere on this website, you’ll discover soon enough that I am well aware of what the Brits did during the Mandate period. I have no illusions — none whatsoever — as to what they are capable of.
What I wrote above, however, was not about the Brits as such.
What I wrote above was about an evil DEED.
I said the deed itself (hanging of the sergeants) was — in its very nature, and independent of its target OR perpetrator — evil.
I stand by the assertion — in the hotel lobby or in the field.
King David, Dir Yassin?
Evil as defined by You? You have no scriptural (Jewish , not Christian) to base your apparent concept of evil on. The contrary is true.
(Deuteronomy 28:20)
I call he hanging an exercise of Pikuach Nefesh (JEWISH LIVES)! Niccolò Machiavelli,”…it is far safer to be feared than loved.”
Dweller etal,
We observe here now a classic case of misunderstanding. We are not talkin’ about having an Hotel lobby discussion group about the Brutish and other enemies. The filthy Brutish have had for us since the 1200’s and to be honest with you all, so I had it with that garbage in return.
The Brutish, (no error), not only hanged, tortured Jews, shot at random Jewish trafic on the roads from their Taggart? towers, (one of which is about a km from my living room), but caused the sinking or loss of several Holocaust refugees ships. Begin was benign by hanging only two of that breed. Many would no have then or would now hesitate to sink just as many Brutish as they sunk or caused the loss of Jewish ones.
Did that garbage do it only here? No sireebob, not at all.
In Argentina they stole control of the Railroad system and sent RR carts riding murderers to attack farmers so they would give away to them their crops, livestock, etc. Finally some of the farmers formed self defense teams and in a few cases trapped some of the hit teams. I saw how one team was attended to…
As to “the world”…
Would ya like my view on that?
Yes, you’ve made that rather obvious.
But others WILL think, even if you won’t.
I stand by what I said:
“Some things are intrinsically evil, notwithstanding their success. The hanging of the British sergeants was one such instance.”
You obviously have no understanding of the nature of evil, Yamit.
What makes it evil is not WHO it is that calls it so
— or fails to call it so.
Furthermore, what makes it evil is not who DOES it
— or fails to do it.
What makes it evil is what it IS.
It is INTRINSICALLY — viz., in its essence — evil.
It was evil when the Brits did it.
It was evil when the Jews did it.
Begin crossed the line — quite possibly the only time, so far as I can tell.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Although you have NO way of knowing that it was the only course of action that would have ‘worked.’
But, yes, the Brits were indeed “taught a lesson in humility,”
— and the Jews were taught a lesson in evil.
And judging from its apparent effect on you, nudnik,
it certainly does seem to have ‘worked.’
(That may be the MOST evil thing about it.)
The hanging of the sergeants horribly tainted what had been far-and-away the most worthy and nobly (as well as effectively) fought of all the anticolonial struggles of the postwar era — possibly in all of modern history.
The incident stands in sharp contrast to virtually everything elseabout The Revolt.
Menachem Begin on Hanging of Two British Sergeants – 1947
Say’s The stinking Brits, The left in and out of Israel and YOU!!!!
The Stinking Brits could have save their boys by not executing ours. They were arrogant and were taught a lesson in humility. Which worked.
Up Yours!!!!!!
Man who speaks with forked tongue should not kiss balloons.
Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.
You can lead a fool to wisdom but you can’t make him think.
One of Begin’s few MISTAKES in that war.
Not everything is good merely because it appears to ‘work.’
Some things are intrinsically evil, notwithstanding their success.
The hanging of the British sergeants was one such instance.
A word to the wise:
The above blockquoted words
on a public website
may NOT have been those of an agent provocateur…
but if, in fact, they WERE such,
they could not have been more aptly chosen for such purpose,
nor might they be more easily seized upon by those seeking an opportunity…
I do read it.
I also know that lots of things in HaTanach can be (and have been) used to justify virtually any position regarding any number of matters.
You too should know this.
Ask yourself whether you concluded that “HaShem is w/ Bibi”
BEFORE you found the ‘supporting’ chapters & verses
— or AFTERWARD.
Ken yehi ratzohn.
But not necessarily because ‘HaShem is w/ BB.’
Ilana, you confuse the happy ending with the multiple choices of how we get there. Moshiach can be an hour away (Halevei!) or 200 years away. You have no idea.
And BB is still not mentioned in Tanach but Jewish outlook on our nation’s behavior and its consequences is.
To Yamit,Andrew, Shy Guy and Dweller
I will get back to you.We all need to read the prophets more..they warn us of what is coming and its too late now to stop/change their prophetic statements….Mashiach is very near.Baruch Hashem ! B’ezrat Hashem we will win and take back ALL the Land promised to us….wait and see !
Isn’t the Internet wonderful?!?!?!
Where is BB mentioned in the Tanach? Where in the Tanach does it approve of surrendering a millimeter of the land of Israel to any non Jew for any reason? Go learn what is Milchemet Mitzvah.
I lost most of the respect I had for the religious right because they have elevated the State and the Security arms of the State to a form of idolatry. Those who will not fight for their rights are undeserving of them. In principle I am against Jew fighting Jew unless the greater principle of forfeiting any part of the land of Israel to any foreign sovereignty. It’s also a Halacha and a Chilul Hashem. Fighting over trees and shacks will not save us from BB and Livni. 100 Baruch Goldsteins (Baruch Ha Gever) will do a lot more.
Whenever the IDF and the Police start to harass settlers, whether from Yamit, Gush Katif and Y&S, you can take it to the bank that the Shabak is already planning a violent incident where some Jews or Jew will initiate or be framed for killing (innocent Arabs/ sic,). Every time The government plans to surrender parts of the Land Of Israel to the Arabs they create incidents to create negative Public Opinion against the settlers and the political right in Israel. This is not even patent pending modus operandi it’s SOP.
I would go after first: the commanders of the police and the IDF, find out where they all live who are their friends and relatives and after each incident such as the ones Shy posted, attack them we they live, burning their private cars. vandalizing their homes when they are all out as well as close relatives and friends.
After Begin Hanged Two British soldiers they ceased hanging Jews.
Ted, do you still believe in BB?
Netanyahu is Tzippi Livni
This is what is important to our mutants known as Parliamentarians (MK’s)
To Ilana, I suggest you read the Meshech Chochma’s commentary on Bamidbar 13:30, on the words “Vayahas Calev et ha’am el Moshe”. Get a clue.
To Andrew…HaShem is right. Bibi is doing what HE says.
To Dweller….why be sarcastic? read your Tanach and see for yourself.
Hi Bland Oat Meal, (I like your choice).
We agree except on the perception of military power and its projection. The USSR imploded with Reagan’s help.
Russia is rapidly turning around.
I am a retired US DoD Military Avionics Programs Senior-Fellow Engineer. Also an Invited Consultant to the IMoD. While I do not claim to know all that is needed to be able to ascertain the true doctrine bounderies in place now, we know for certain that having large quantities of aircraft, carriers, submarines, rockets and ordnance do not impress anyone/thing except the cash flow of the military-industrial complex. Israeli military is also infested by the same peresites…(LOL).
Military systems run by political zombies and lawyers usually do not perform.
The theme is a fascinating but hardly one we can expand on here.
Maybe if Ted decides to tackle the subject as a stand alone we could go into more details.
Nevertheless, I enjoy chatting with you all very much.
Certainly both the US and Israel has great soldiers, full stop.
Nu, and HaShem told you this, darlin’?
Hi, Shmuel. You said,
Those are thought-provoking comments.
1. Successes of the US Military and State Department since WWII.
At the close of WWII, the US and USSR were the two most important powers in the world, the others having been decimated by the war. At present, The US has no military rival. In fact, we have to create terrorist “bogeymen” to keep Americans scared. Our security forces spend most of their time harassing innocent Americans at airports, while we spend record amounts on defense. We make so many cruise missles, we have to periodically start mini-wars, just for the opportunity to discharge our stock so we can make more. Moreover, we didn’t need a missile defense system against the Soviets at the height of their power, but we are now, during a depression, spending a fortune to build a “forward defense” in places as unlikely as Taiwan, to protect against an Iranian nuclear threat that, despite every effort on our part to encourage it, hasn’t really materialized yet. We have grown MUCH stronger since the close of WWII. Is that a success? I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.
2. The debt problem: Actually, in terms of National Debt as a percentage of GDP, we are approaching parity with the levels of WWII. Ask me in a year or two, after we’ve skyrocketed to ludicrous, unprecedented highs.
3. Social structures? My, have we got social structures! Name a human activity, and we’ve got a government bureaucracy to deal with it. Is that the conclusion you were looking for? If social structures were a house, ours would have 200 rooms. Of course, we can’t afford the mortgage and are in foreclosure.
4. Are we generating conditions that should lead the Israelis to trust us? I’m an American, and I don’t trust my government to take care of MY interests. Why the hell should Israel think they can trust it? Do they think they’re more in favor with our leaders than US citizens are? That’s fantasy! Besides, when could the Israelis trust ANYONE?
5. Is it suicidal, to fall into step with Obama? Nobody can fall into step with Obama. He doesn’t know where he’s going, which route he wants to take, or how soon he needs to get there. Also, he sometimes skips, polkas and belly crawls, and you never know what he’s going to do next. National leaders don’t fall into step with him: They play “Simon says”. That’s not suicidal; just tedious. I recommend avoiding it; any “lame” excuse will do.
I think Netanyahu will hold. There’s really not much else for him to do — everyone around him, including Hillary and Obama, is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Lets take a look around and find the successes of the US State Department and the military since WWII.
And while at it, how about pondering for a moment about the US internal and external debt load growth since that time.
With reference to the US social structures conditions one may venture some conclusions just as well.
Is the US government system that generated those conditions trustworthy enough for Israel to bend its interests for?
Unless if I am missing the mark wildly, falling in step with the present US administration is simply suicidal.
Mr. Netanyahu before severing the links to Dagan, concluded, judging by what I see happening, that Israel cannot afford any more concessions to the SD and or anyone else.
Should Netanyahu fail to hold, our future is indeed bleak.
I hope and pray that Obama doesn’t turn on Israel in September. “Either accept the 1967 borders, or we will not veto the Palestinian State at the UN” Either way, Israel may be “cooked”
Dear Ilana, I hope and pray you are right. Because the next year or so could bring war with Iran; war with Egypt; war with Syria; war with Lebanon; war with fakestinians in Gaza; war with fakestinians in J&S. “Cometh the hour; cometh the man”. I really hope you are right.
“The whole region is burning,” Netanyahu said later in a speech to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “We have to unite around common values shared by an overwhelming majority of the nation.”
Among the six principles Netanyahu said would govern any future talks are that Palestinians must recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” Palestinian refugees cannot return to Israel, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided” capital and any future Palestinian state must be demilitarized, allowing an Israeli military presence along the Jordanian border.
STAND BY BIBI…HASHEM IS WITH HIM.
Funny comment, Shy Guy, but not true.
In other matters, the PM said,
The state the Fakestinians have now, which includes Gaza and Area A, is “demilitarized”, to the extent that Israel can expect any future state to be: The Fakes have no standing army, and are therefore officially “demilitarized”. If the future includes such a “demilitarized” state, then Tzipi Livni will have to buy herself a large stock of tissue, with which to cry tears over
“(Israeli) children, and later their children’s children, (who) will continue to live by their swords forever”
I imagine she has a much more generous and “humane” proposal up her sleeve, which would include a 9-mile-wide Israel facing off a “Palestine” with a fully equipped military.
Bibi’s demands fit right in with the “game show” ground rules Obama is setting for the “peace” negotiations. The Fakestinians will never accept them (because, for one thing, they can hope to get so much more from Tzipi Livni), so the “negotiations” will consist of photo ops to help Obama get re-elected. Just before the election in 2012, one of the negotiators can stick his tongue out before the camera, or wear mis-matched socks, and the whole thing can die of its own accord. This is the sort of thing that happens, in a world where “truth”,”honesty” and “integrity” are outsourced to the lowest bidder.
Netanyahu is Tzippi Livni.
Bibi sure is an Enigma. Is he Chamberlain, Machiavelli or Churchill? As we say here: “he has more twists and turns than a can of worms”. Does he, as AE thinks, a long term strategy to talk and stall (I hope so} or is he just making it up as he goes along (I fear so)?
Ted, please release my comment.
Tough Netanyahu I
Tough Netanyahu II
Tough Netanyahu III
Tough Netanyahu IV
We’ve become a country of sissies.