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Wednesday, January 07, 2009
This guy gets it
Without a doubt the single best article I've read in years on the subject.
Don't thank me... I'm a giver.
[Hat tip to an old high school buddy who has the same name as the journalist who penned the article]
Posted by David Bogner on January 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Agree,the best I`ve read.Maybe the Israeli Foreign Ministry should take note.
Posted by: ED | Jan 7, 2009 10:49:40 PM
Well, maybe just a touch too right wing for me, I'm not by nature a conservative, but I'm lucky enough to be able to afford such a view (for now), though more and more my mind comes back to the thought that I can't deny the sentiment being expressed.
Earlier today Hamas' absent-in-Syria 'leader' said on the topic of a ceasefire that, " We won't consider a long-term ceasefire because it will end in stalemate. We think a six-month ceasefire is long enough."
It doesn't take much to work out that this means long enough to regroup and restock in the short term before starting to fire at Israel again, and in the longer term is simply a restatement of Hamas' charter aim to destroy Israel.
So, when Egypt proposes reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah as part of a ceasefire arrangment, as indeed they have proposed with France, it strikes me that this is no more than another element of the same old thing, since Fatah's avowed aim is already expressed in the article Trep has pointed us to.
Will there ever be an end to it?
Posted by: Ken | Jan 7, 2009 11:49:57 PM
Woah, you mean you went to high school with that guy who was in Breakfast Club and Weekend at Bernie's? :-)
Posted by: Andrew McCarthy | Jan 7, 2009 11:55:57 PM
great article.
Posted by: fred | Jan 8, 2009 1:01:25 AM
Full disclosure: Mr. McCarthy is known for prosecution of the Blind Sheikh, and taught some classes at Fordham. :)
I couldn't agree more with what he says.
Posted by: Irina | Jan 8, 2009 1:30:22 AM
I am now officially requesting a photo Friday to cheer me up. Either that or you need to put the doggie mug shots way up top and leave them there. You know what I'm talking about.
Posted by: Alice | Jan 8, 2009 1:33:55 AM
Excellent, well-reasoned article, and I hope the folks at the top in Israel read it before being manipulated into feeling guilty and slowing down before they really finish the job.
Israel isn't liked in much of the world and may never be -- but Israel needs to be respected. Whether we admit it or not, and maybe at a sociogenetic level, the world at large more readily respects disciplined, honorable, clear-eyed warriors - not diplomats, not academics, not NGO administrators, and not hand-wringers.
btw, mistake, I think, to call it the 'Gaza Op,' - it is, and should be called, the Gaza WAR, so no one can make any mistake about the seriousness of the goals and the necessary severity of the process.
Posted by: AZZenny | Jan 8, 2009 3:46:49 AM
Thank you for the excellent piece, and the most thorough discussion of "international law" and "proportional response" I've seen yet.
My 5-year-old's gan is hosting a girl whose family is taking refuge in Efrat from the South. When the gannenet was introducing her to the class, she asked the girls what was happening in the South. Without a pause, a chorus of voices rang out, "Milchama!" (War!) THEY know what is going on.
Posted by: Shimshonit | Jan 8, 2009 8:35:50 AM
I finally got a chance to read it.
WOW.
Posted by: zahava | Jan 8, 2009 1:28:02 PM
Finally, a well-reasoned, definitive article about the nonsense-mongers and their PC modifications to the Geneva convention. If everyone was as nice as this, we could settle wars with a few rounds of whist or even a soccer match. Heck, we could turn it into an annual contest, something like the Ashes, with the winner taking possession of the spoils until next time. But of course, the whole world thinks just like a Norwegian professor of fine literature (talk about cognitive dissonance!).
What the Geneva convention conveniently ignores is how a country is to react when these same conventions are violated by the enemy. Given that Israel has pin-point targeted only high-value military targets, has warned civilians before attacking and has done everything possible to reduce civilian casualties, by any dispassionate yardstick its performance here is more than commendable. Any other government - especially in the local neighborhood, based on recent history - would have opened fire indiscriminately long ago.
Posted by: Jeremy | Jan 8, 2009 3:52:10 PM
I don't suppose he'd consider running for Prime Min...nah, never mind. But we can dream, can't we?
Posted by: Marsha in Englewood | Jan 8, 2009 4:58:35 PM
"Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac."
Looks like Mr. Zimmerman gets it, too.
And isn't it sad how little has changed in the last 25 years?
Posted by: psachya | Jan 9, 2009 2:58:02 AM
Great Article...thanks for pointing it out.
Posted by: Sam | Jan 11, 2009 4:05:58 PM
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