Our World: Israel's balance of delusion

[bemildred]

I generally consider Ms Glick to be an idiot, but I snipped out the interesting bits about Bibi and Zippys negotiations.

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Last Friday it was disclosed that on Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu had reopened coalition talks with Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. Those talks had ended weeks ago after Livni demanded that Netanyahu agree to share the premiership with her through a rotation agreement, give her full control over strategy for dealing with the Palestinians and adopt the establishment of a Palestinian state as the primary goal of his government. All of Livni's demands were nonnegotiable and all of them, both separately and together, were unacceptable for Netanyahu. And so, he rejected them and for the past two and a half weeks has been concentrating his efforts on building a governing coalition with the right wing and religious parties.

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN's Israel Beiteinu with its 15 Knesset seats is set to be Likud's main coalition partner. Lieberman has been the most outspoken champion of a Likud-Kadima-Israel Beiteinu coalition. This makes sense from his perspective. Lieberman is viewed both by the West and by much of the country's leftist elite as a racist. Due both to his legal worries and to the fact that his actual policy preferences of surrendering the Galilee and the Negev to the Arabs are far left of center, Lieberman cares deeply about what the Left thinks of him. In his view, the only way to be accepted as legitimate in leftist circles is to compel Likud to move to the left by bringing Kadima into the government.

In part to satisfy Lieberman - without whom he cannot form a government - and in part because he remembers that it was the National Union which brought down his government 10 years ago, Netanyahu began his coalition building talks with Kadima. They collapsed only because Livni made demands that he could not meet.

In the current round of talks, Livni has reportedly maintained her demands, but now Netanyahu is reportedly accepting them - at least partially. The question that needs to be asked is what has changed in three weeks? Why has Netanyahu decided that Livni's previously unacceptable demands are now acceptable? The only reasonable answer is the National Union. Last week Katz scuttled negotiations with Likud because it refused his demand for the Construction and Housing Ministry. On Thursday, he joined hands with Habayit Hayehudi chairman MK Daniel Herschkowitz and announced that neither of the two parties would join Netanyahu's government if he doesn't meet all of their demands, including the Ministry of Education for Herschkowitz. Without the two parties, Netanyahu lacks a parliamentary majority.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1237114843484&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[bemildred]

1. No Holds Barred: Why the silence when AIPAC is attacked?

This one seems to go here too ...
Another "Help! Help! I'm being suppressed!" piece.

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But what really puzzled me about the fracas was how few public figures both inside and outside the Jewish community stood up to respond to the smear on the heroes in the Israel lobby.

I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED with AIPAC for 15 years. Its leaders are great Americans who lobby our elected officials not for an auto bailout or to rescue a bank which wants to buy a $30,000 toilet or have Sheryl Crow sing to its shareholders, but for the support and protection of America's most trustworthy ally and the only democracy in the Middle East. If Israel flourishes, then American-style democracy triumphs in a critical region that controls most of the world's energy. What the 9/11 attacks taught us is that Israel is a canary-in-the-coal-mine for the United States and attacks against Israel presage imminent dangers to the US.

To know the leaders of AIPAC - David Victor, its president, Howard Kohr its executive director, and its many dedicated professionals - is to come into contact with men and women who subordinate ego and influence to a cause much larger than themselves. The same is true of Morton Klein of the ZOA and so many others who constitute "the Israel lobby." Theirs is a thankless task because all who despise Israel - and it's amazing, although no altogether surprising, to discover just how many do - end up despising them for advocating on Israel's behalf. So let me count myself among those who publicly salute them.

I LOVE AMERICA. It's a country whose commitment to goodness, however imperfect, is without parallel. And America's greatness is demonstrated in its commitment to a tiny country that struggles to be free, despite the fact it has no natural resources that are of use to the United States. As an American I identify with a country that fights for its liberty, has a press so free that it regularly exposes the corruption of its leaders, and whose politicians are utterly beholden to the people. And I therefore am extremely proud to support and identify with the guardians of the American-Israel relationship. There is no shame to count myself among those who champion AIPAC, only immense pride.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237114843454&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Jefferson23]

2. LOL, I guess he didn't get the memo that AIPAC is not the reason Freeman dropped out.

I wonder if the "heroes" in the Israel lobby will publicly say, shush, in response to this gentleman's candid piece.

[bemildred]

3. So many nuggets, so little time:

"has a press so free that it regularly exposes the corruption of its leaders, and whose politicians are utterly beholden to the people"

[azurnoir]

4. Apparently Freeman denies Israels "right to exist"

or so Mr Boteach insinuates here

I realize that there are other Chas Freemans out there who disdain Israel and subscribe to a belief that a Jewish cabal of pro-Israel activists controls the American government and has hijacked its foreign policy. To those of you who are still rational on the subject, I ask you this. Suppose that the Jews could be persuaded that Israel is a failed experiment and they ought to completely disband and be absorbed in friendly countries like Australia, Canada and the United States. Would good times suddenly come to the remaining inhabitants Middle East?

Thankfully some of us are still rational too rational for this tripe

[bemildred]

5. Hey:

"But it was the only the Jews whom he decided to attack when he withdrew. In his official statement Freeman, sounding unhinged, wrote that the "tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods and an utter disregard for the truth." Heavens. Can no one stop those lying Jews?"

Now right there he makes Mr. Freeman's case for him, unintentionally, in one sentence.

[Jefferson23]

6. Oh yes, he most certainly does makes Freeman's case for him, and does

so quite forcefully, as you well point out here. Take a bow AIPAC, you've earned it.

[azurnoir]

7. LOL yes he does n/t