Jan 25 2009
Nobody Wants to Come to Israel’s Party
The state of Israel is feeling a little lonely these days.
Rod Nordland of Newsweek reports that the Jewish State is discovering that it has “far fewer friends” in the wake of its highly destructive and controversial military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“Israel has never been more isolated,” Nordland writes. “Its best friend, the United States, had vetoed 41 Security Council resolutions condemning Israel in the past three decades, but was about to vote for the Jan. 8 resolution denouncing the attack on Gaza when President Bush intervened, at the behest of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Still, in the face of unprecedented global criticism, the U.S. didn’t dare veto, but merely abstained. Europe, never Israel’s close ally, erupted in near unanimous outrage over Gaza, with fits of anti-Semitic violence in France, Sweden and Belgium.”
While criticism from historically anti-Semitic Europe is nothing new, the recent actions of the United States has no doubt startled many Israeli leaders, who often take for granted the “special relationship” between their country and the world’s lone superpower – a relationship that dates back to the Kennedy administration.
Tensions flared up between the two allies during the last week of the Bush administration when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bragged to an audience of his countrymen that he had interrupted the American president while the latter was giving a speech in Philadelphia and told him to order Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to vote in favor of the Jan. 8 resolution. This was astonishing in as much as Rice herself had crafted the resolution and promised Arab diplomats that the U.S. would vote for it. A State Department spokesman responded to Olmert’s boast by saying it was “just 100 percent, totally, completely untrue.” The prime minister maintains that the incident really took place.
In any event, this couldn’t have gone over well with the usually pro-Israel Bush.
As far as this Animal is concerned, Israel can kill all the civilians it wants, but her leaders shouldn’t be able to count on the American taxpayer to subsidize their genocidal campaigns. In the name of fairness, I’d say the same about Hamas, but I’m not aware that we give them any aid. And besides, their “army” sucks major ass. Their swords are second-rate hand-me-downs and their shields are made of innocent bystanders.
Let’s hope President Obama turns out to be a pit bull and not a poodle where the Jewish State is concerned. Enough is enough.
loud sustained applause. I don’t want to throw Israel-America relations to the crapper - I just don’t want to pretend what they did was just. I think it’s no coincidence the attacks stopped before Obama got in office. I think Israel knows they can’t order and push him around the way they obviously were able to with Bush.
If Obama takes us in a new direction in foreign policy, ie gets tough with Israel (when it is warranted), gets the troops out of Iraq, doesn’t needlessly antagonize the Russians, and doesn’t do anything stupid in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then I may vote for him in 2016.
I would happily pay for the subsidization of Genocidal campaigns against most of these stinking arabs….You my friend would not because you are a cheap butt zero…..Keep it Stagnant….
Sorry to hear about your small Conservative animal in your Blue jeans….
Just kidding your articles are most stagnant….
Skwguitar was made and paid to be a top lietenant in the Butt Zero leadership….
Uh oh, speaking critically about Israel? Somebody call the Anti-Defamation League, we’ve got an antisemite over here! /sarcasm
Yeah, better call the Zionist Gestapo. Abraham Foxman Himmler will probably make me wear a tether or one of the those shock collars that goes off whenever you have an “anti-Israeli” thought! lol
Actually, I may surprise Oldfart here, but this article I can mostly agree with. Especially since PA threw me that bone at the end about how Hamas isn’t any better in its actions.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and that does closely mirror much of US policy towards the Middle East (not just Israel).
If Obama gets smart and begins dealing differently with ALL the Middle East players, maybe, just maybe there’ll be some change in how things turn out.
Not necessarily better - but at least different!
“Especially since PA threw me that bone at the end about how Hamas isn’t any better in its actions.”
Threw you a bone??? Maybe I haven’t made this clear before, but I HATE Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all those other wacky Arab terrorists. (and Yassir Arafat was corrupt in his day) Yes, I criticize the Israelis more than the Palestinians but the reason why is because we give them $3 billion out of our incomes - not to mention a shitload of military equipment and almost knee-jerk support from Congress on everything they do - and they walk all over us. If we gave all this free stuff to the Palestinians and Hamas, you’d better believe I’d be screaming to the rafters over that. But we don’t.
Do I think we should stop giving Israel all of our aid and moral support? No. But we need to treat them like any other ally and make them recognize that as long as they enjoy our money and support, we call the shots as we see fit, not them.
As far as I’m concerned, terrorism is wrong no matter who does it, be it a state like Israel or a group like Hamas.
Well, I said what I did because the remark about Hamas, however well intentioned or heart felt, was a small mention at the bottom of the article, and most such these days (after the Gaza brouhaha) give Hamas’ actions short shrift. It is popular these days to smack the Israelis around and give Hamas a pass.
I am glad to hear you don’t like them any better, but I firmly believe that ANY article about that situation should make clear how reprehensible BOTH sides’ actions have been. I agree that we should be more balanced with Israel, too, but we should not let Hamas get that well worn pass.
As I said, perhaps Obama will change the way he treats EVERYBODY over there - maybe that’ll shake em up enough to make something different happen.
Why does david rude think I’m a republican lol? LoL - why does poor republican think I’m a democrat???
“Why does david rude think I’m a republican lol? LoL - why does poor republican think I’m a democrat???”
I get the same amusing antics from both extremes. Liberals have accused me of being “rightwing” while conservatives like have accused me of being “leftwing” before. It just means you’re in the center like me. No problem here!