The terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: ‘Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.’” (W. Churchill)
Andrew Klavan is a commentator on PJ Media (pjmedia.com), who from time to time does short YouTube videos explaining complex subjects with as much humor as they can bear. His latest is a 2-minute lecture on the BDS movement (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) to destroy Israel, a movement which continues to spread on the left – including, most disturbingly, such “mainstream” “Christian” churches as the Presbyterians.
Not much of a subject for humor, you say? You are correct. Take a look anyway:
Every critic of Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians must (apparently) be reminded of several basic facts.
First, a historical fact: Israel did not start the war. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine between Israelis and Arabs. Israel accepted the Partition Plan and announced its intention to live within its borders, in peace with its Arab neighbors. Those same Arab neighbors rejected the plan, declared war, and vowed to wipe Israel off the map and sweep the Jews into the sea. The borders have changed with every Arab failed attempt to accomplish this, but the aims of both parties have remained the same.
Second, another historical fact: Israel has voluntarily withdrawn from territory occupied by its armies, sometimes unilaterally, several times in the past (Lebanon in 2000, Gaza in 2005). In almost every case, the territory has then been used as a base for attacks on Israel, resulting in the murder of Jewish civilians.
Now, some current facts.
First, Israel is prepared to meet with the Palestinian Authority anywhere, at any time, without pre-conditions, to discuss peace. This offer is frequently repeated by Israel, and consistently rejected by the Palestinians. (See most recent offer here.)
Second, Israel recognizes the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own. In contrast, Palestinian leaders refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist within ANY borders. Here is the Palestinians’ most “moderate” leader, Mahmoud Abbas:
“They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state,” Abbas said in a meeting with some 200 senior representatives of the Palestinian community in the US, shortly before taking the podium and delivering a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.”
If Israel’s critics wish to be taken seriously, they need to admit these facts and explain how these problems can be addressed by Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories. If not, they stand exposed as anti-Semites demanding that Israel commit national suicide.
I have not been a big fan of William Kristol. He often seems to derive too much enjoyment from being different and clever. I have always put great stock in Burke’s commitment to avoid such things: “I assure you I do not aim at singularity.” Kristol sometimes seems to aim for it. (Maybe all pundits have to do that these days.)
But his piece in the upcoming issue of Weekly Standard, entitled “The West Fights Back”, is a cogent and powerful reminder of something that is all too forgotten in America today: Israel and the US are both hated and attacked by the same people and for the same reasons.
The Walt-Mearsheimer hypothesis, embraced by right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats alike, says that Israel and the Jewish Lobby run US foreign policy for Israel’s benefit, to our own detriment. Now this stuff is at least as old as the Zionist movement. It was the thinking of FDR when he suppressed support for Zionism in order to appease Ibn Saud. It was the mindset of the “realists” in the State Department who urged Truman to withhold recognition of the State of Israel. (Their “realism” invariably fell back on the belief that Israel would require 100,000 US troops, “boots on the ground”, for its survival in the first year. The “realists” were wrong, of course, but never acknowledged it.)
And it underlies the thinking of today’s administration “realists”, who think a little “daylight” between the US and Israel will somehow improve things in the world.
Kristol quickly and brilliantly lances the boil of this thinking. The anti-Israel front doesn’t hate us because we support Israel; they hate us because we are LIKE Israel: democratic, respecting free speech and religious freedom, willing to live in peace with our neighbors, modern, and economically successful. Everything the Arabs and Iranians and their allies are not.
Anyway, I suggest you read Kristol’s column here. And let me know what you think: click the “Comments” button up top.
Mister Moleman and his Friends 