PDavidHornik

Robert Spencer: Stop showering $ on Pakistan

It's very interesting for me reading a piece like this one by Robert Spencer, on the futility of trying to change Pakistan with U.S. aid money. I'm not, of course, a la Spencer, a scholar of Islam, but I've lived in the Middle East for a quarter-century, in what could be called one of its flashpoints. Spencer gives a learned confirmation of my own intuitive sense of things here in the "Arab-Israeli conflict" neck of the woods. The societies surrounding Israel are too deeply problematic, and the deepest stratum and main wellspring of the problem--as with Pakistan--is Islam, the dominant ideological and social force in these societies. Western and Israeli attempts at changing and improving this world don't do well and don't stand much of a chance. It's a reality to be coped with, not a problem to be solved.

Sowell scintillates

Scintillating piece by Thomas Sowell on destructive "brilliance" among leaders and intellectuals vs. solid wisdom gained from experience. Ends with some thoughts on Obama.

Ken Blackwell: Stop the peace nonsense, Obama

Ken Blackwell makes some excellent points in reviewing U.S. presidents' irrational fixation on the idea that finagling Arab-Israeli "peace" can boost or save them electorally back home. Regrettably few observers see through the whole nonsense as Blackwell does.

Washington Times: lightweight Obama, brave Bibi

Though I was't happy with all aspects of Bibi's speech to the UN, overall this Washington Times editorial is right on target in pointing to the stark contrast between the two leaders. It's rather worrisome that the weak, waffling, ingratiating, muddled leader is the one who heads the Free World's superpower.

Israeli defense minister raps accursed report

With Ehud Barak one has issues, though there is a certain value to his representing Israeli unity in serving, as a Laborite, in the second-highest position in a Likud-led government. But in this Wall Street Journal piece he comes out strongly against the Goldstone Libel and concludes eloquently.

Bibi lets the UN have it

On Frontpage I note the contrast between the positive, cheerful spin put forth by Bibi and others on this week's events at the UN, and the much more genuine and heartfelt content of Bibi's speech. His harangue will have no effect but perhaps was therapeutic. Beyond the nonsensical pretense of a diplomatic process with Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (unimportant) and the question of how badly the Goldstone Report has damaged Israel's ability to fight terror (important) is the issue of Iran's race toward nukes and whether anyone--but Israel--will do anything about it; of cardinal importance. Both recent and older experience do not foster optimism.

Israel Harel: settlement will continue

Another attempt--which, Harel says, presumably based on inside information, originated with the Israeli Left wielding influence over the Obama administration--to stop Jews from living in Judea and Samaria, to keep it a Judenrein, Muslims-only zone, has failed, as Obama now publicly asks Israel to "restrain" settlement and has dropped his earlier rhetoric about a total stop to this intolerable activity. The turning point came with the demand to stop building in East Jerusalem; Netanyahu had no choice but to finally stand up and say no. Harel says:

Settlement in Judea and Samaria is a solid, permanent and deeply rooted reality. A long and terrible war of terror could not vanquish it, oceans of horrific and cruel propaganda, especially from those within Israeli society who hate it, could not break its spirit. The complete opposite happened. All the more so, external dictates will not rattle its foundations.

Functional arrangements for the future of Judea and Samaria have their place, but the starting point is clear: Settlements will not be uprooted and their size will not be limited. Even the restrained Obama has begun to realize this. So when will the extreme left in Israel also restrain itself and realize it?

They won't; they won't graciously accept that something they did not want--Jews living in Judea and Samaria--has happened and they might just have to live with it. I hope Harel's optimism that "their size will not be limited" is right, but that still seems less than a fait accompli at this point. In any case, the change in Obama's rhetoric is certainly notable and welcome.

Dershowitz: Goldstone Report discourages further Israeli withdrawals

In another perceptive, hard-hitting article, Alan Dershowitz says Richard Goldstone and his mendacious report have indicated to Israelis that if they withdraw from land as we did from Gaza, we won't have international legitimacy to fight back if attacked from that very land. He's right, and it's something the more astute critics predicted already before the "disengagement": fighting back would be very difficult because it would be impossible without harming Palestinians, whom the world seems to care more about than other mortals. Hence, Dershowitz says, Israelis will now see it as even more problematic to withdraw from the West Bank. He's right; but I part company from him on one thing: that, at least, is for the good. An unintended positive consequence of Goldstone's libel.

Insights into the Jewish Israel-bashers

David Gutmann, a psychologist, has some excellent ones here. They're not actually troubled by guilt, but by its opposite--arrogant narcissism, inflated selves that trample everything else.

Straight talk from Benny Begin

Irrefutable facts and logic on the real situation regarding the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza and, particularly, the West Bank.