THE shocking level of the last wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which ended with this weekend's cease-fire, reminds us why a final resolution to the so-called Middle East crisis is so important. It is vital not just to break this cycle of destruction and injustice, but also to deny the religious extremists in the region who feed on the conflict an excuse to advance their own causes.
But everywhere one looks, among the speeches and the desperate diplomacy, there is no real way forward. A just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, but it lies in the history of the people of this conflicted land, and not in the tired rhetoric of partition and two-state solutions.
Although it's hard to realize after the horrors we've just witnessed, the state of war between the Jews and Palestinians has not always existed. In fact, many of the divisions between Jews and Palestinians are recent ones. The very name "Palestine" was commonly used to describe the whole area, even by the Jews who lived there, until 1948, when the name "Israel" came into use.
Jews and Muslims are cousins descended from Abraham. Throughout the centuries both faced cruel persecution and often found refuge with one another. Arabs sheltered Jews and protected them after maltreatment at the hands of the Romans and their expulsion from Spain in the Middle Ages.
#2
It seems to me that what Mr. Qaddafi describes, is really what Israel had initially hoped for. The division was, more or less, a UN debacle and a result of outside meddling on the part of surrounding states.
In short, wow, I am amazed. I think I will go read the whole thing.
#5
Sounds unusually sane for Qadaffiduck, but I've got an idea: He can welcome a bunch of Gaza hard boyz (fellow moslems, ya' know) to permanently live in Libya to show the rest of them how living normally is done.
Or more likely he doesn't want those genocidal losers any more than the rest of the Middle East does them either.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2009 9:53 Comments ||
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#6
"The Jewish people want and deserve their homeland."
Amazing words considering the source.
Maybe with age, wisdom does come
(after a bit of 2000lb skip-bomb prodding a few decades ago from Reagan)
#8
Qaddhafi has had a variety of feuds with the Islamicists over the years. He's quite happy to say things that get their turbans in a twist. Remember his plot to kill one of the senior Saud princes?
#9
The compromise is one state for all, an "Isratine" that would allow the people in each party to feel that they live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one part of it.
This is not nearly so impressive as it seems. The sentence above is the key to the entire essay. Perhaps Colonel Qaddafi was working with a New York Times journalist to so neatly bury the lede beneath a pile of reasonable text that clearly gets the heads of even the most skeptical nodding.
The Arabs have several times put forward the idea of "Isratine." They believe that in a single state the Palestinians would overwhelm the Jews (and the Christians, too) by the combination of greater birth rate and terrorizing the Jews until they left, thus producing the Judenrein land the Arabs have worked toward since 1948. There are plenty of Arabs willing to concede the Jews a homeland of their own, so long as it is not anywhere in Dar al Islam; let the Western nations give up part of their land to the Jews, if they really care so much -- that is their credo.
#10
I agree with the Arabs on part of that. Let us westerners offer the Israelis a nation. If they trade with Mexico, for example, I'd be happy.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/24/2009 15:12 Comments ||
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#11
The Jews will never accept anything except the country containing Jerusalem, Mike N. Before 1948, the U.S. had considered offering Grand Island (in the Niagara River), and the British had discussed a section of Kenya, I believe. The Westerners already gave them a nation. There's no take-backs.
#13
Thank you for your kind words, KBK. I do love Roger Rabbit!
Separately, James Taranto had some pointed thoughts on the essay which he shared in his Best of the Web column two days ago:
In fact, the Germans under Hitler are not the most recent persecutors of Jews. Many Israeli Jews are refugees from persecution in Arab countries since World War II (and Iran since 1979). Aside from Morocco, no Arab land has more than a handful of Jews left--and that includes Libya. Vivienne Roumani-Denn, director of the 2007 documentary "The Last Jews of Libya," recounts the fate of Libya's Jews on this Web page:
By 1941, the Jews accounted for a quarter of the population of Tripoli and maintained 44 synagogues. In 1942 the Germans occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, plundered shops, and deported more than 2,000 Jews across the desert, where more than one-fifth of them perished. Many Jews from Tripoli were also sent to forced labor camps. Conditions did not greatly improve following the liberation. During the British occupation, there was a series of pogroms, the worst of which, in 1945, resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Jews in Tripoli and other towns and the destruction of five synagogues.
A growing sense of insecurity, coupled with the establishment of the State of Israel, led many Jews to leave the country. Although emigration was illegal, more than 3,000 Jews succeeded in leaving, and many went to Israel. When the British legalized emigration in 1949, more than 30,000 Jews fled Libya.
At the time of Colonel Qaddafi's coup in 1969, some 500 Jews remained in Libya. Qaddafi subsequently confiscated all Jewish property and cancelled all debts owed to Jews. By 1974 there were no more than 20 Jews, and it is believed that the Jewish presence has passed out of existence.
In fairness to Gadhafi, he did not begin the persecution of Libyan Jews. But isn't there some rule of journalistic ethics that should have compelled the Times to disclose to its readers that its author is the man who, in his own country, finished what Hitler started?
#14
"But isn't there some rule of journalistic ethics that should have compelled the Times to disclose to its readers that its author is the man who, in his own country, finished what Hitler started?"
What has one to do with the other, tw?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2009 23:12 Comments ||
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#15
Mr. Taranto is, after all, a journalist in his own right, as well as editor of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, Barbara. He has long expressed concern about the liberties the New York Times takes with reality. His Best of the Web column was the first proof I had that my impressions of the NYT's reportage were not a novel form of madness after all... I discovered Rantburg somewhat later.
Now THIS is some rant! I think we found our new KCNA writer!
Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- Governor of Tokyo Metropolis Ishihara's hysteria has gone beyond the tolerance limit.
Recently he made himself busy sending a "letter" to the supreme headquarters of the DPRK requesting it to reinvestigate the "abduction issue" and talked the nonsense that the "best way" for settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is to "annex" the DPRK to China.
What a rude and reckless behavior it is!
Ishihara is a universally recognized political imbecile and crazy ultra-nationalist.
His outbursts are devoid of any propriety and logical coherence.
Once he uttered that China might be divided in the years to come and that would be an ideal time for Japan and its other neighbors in Asia to raise their heads only to lash the countries in the region into fury and provoke derision among them.
The DPRK does not feel any need to comment on these ridiculous remarks as they were made by the psychopathic politician too long ago to draw the attention of people.
But it is necessary to let the world know the reason why he went again into such anti-DPRK hysteria as vociferating about the "abduction issue" and the nuclear issue.
As for Ishihara, he abandoned the life of the third class writer, carried away by his ambition to become chief executive in Japan. But up to this date when he is near 80 his political career has been so miserable as to remain an insane politician keen to make queer remarks just to improve his image.
According to Japanese media, he is employing every possible means and method to establish the sphere of political domination of his family in the Japanese political camp by taking advantage of his present office.
He was reported to contemplate even shifting Tokyo food market, an issue related to the health of people, to a place polluted with poisonous substances where once stood a gas plant in a bid to curry favor with financial businesses including real estate dealers.
Ishihara is no more than a dirty political philistine who does not hesitate to harm the health of people to satisfy his political greed. The above-said ruckus of sending the "letter" and the like kicked up by him is nothing but a ridiculous farce to improve his badly tarnished image. His behavior intended to fish in troubled waters by foolishly challenging the supreme dignity of the DPRK will never be tolerated.
Ishihara's reckless behavior glaringly revealed the hypocrisy of the ruckuses being kicked up by the Japanese reactionaries over the "abduction issue" and the nuclear issue.
The Japanese reactionaries seem to calculate that they can win popularity and manage to make their living only when they trumpet about the "abduction issue" and the nuclear issue. Japan is, indeed, an abnormal country as such political philistine and those more dead than alive are allowed to ride roughshod in the political camp.
Japan is treated as a political pigmy and stands further isolated from the international community than ever before due to such bad guys as Ishihara who is steeped in the hysteric Samurai spirit, carried away by revanchism and national chauvinism.
No one knows that Ishihara may go the lengths of calling for annexing Japan to the U.S. in the future.
In this context, one may say Japan is fortunate enough to keep this guy from assuming its premiership up to this date.
Posted by: Blue Sky ||
01/24/2009 02:30 ||
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#1
If he/she ever decides to defect, DailyKos/HuffPo/insert yer favorite moonbat site will have some stiff competition.
Bravo!!! I would have given it a 10 if Lil' Kimmie would have been invoked, but it is a definite 9. The juche is strong in this one.
#4
political pigmy was a very nice touch. Good, derisive phrase, with self-contained imagery.
There is no mention of juich, or other well worn phrases. This little rant is a ray of hope, the rising of the Phoenix for KCNA. It is more thoughtful and imaginative than the famous KCNA rants of yore.
With a balanced diet and nutritional supplements, this writer will go far. Definitely a 9.072.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/24/2009 13:36 Comments ||
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#5
While lacking in a superior signature (Sea of Fire) it does hold together well, and dast I say it... flows.
#6
No one knows that Ishihara may go the lengths of calling for annexing Japan to the U.S. in the future.
I give it an 8, but only because they contradicted themselves. A "crazy ultra-nationalist" wouldn't call for annexation of Japan to the US. especially if one reads Ishara's previous stuff.
#8
Not a bad rant. The "steeped in the hysteric Samurai spirit" is getting there but needs more alliteration. And I miss the Sea of Fire. Just ain't the same without it.
An obvious cribbing of western polemic: merely replace Governor Ishihara with President Bush, Japan with America, and samurai with cowboy, and you get what has been written tens of thousands of times on the Internet and world press.
We have been so long without a worthy performance from any KCNA writer that it is patently obvious that proper judging standards have slipped down the memory hole. As the originator of the Rantburg KCNA scoring system, it falls to me to remind everyone not to be swayed by the presence of terms such as "juche" or "sea of fire" or even the lack thereof. Terms, words, and phraseology are merely tools. They are the nuts and bolts of a performance whose main goal is the glorification of Dear Leader, DPRK, and the Army. A fine KCNA performance is one of superlative A$$KI$$ING, with the vocabluary a measure of the vigor ofapplication thereto. At the same time, there is artistry as well: just as a world-class athelete strives hard to make his performance look effortless and easy, so a KCNA performance should present the writer as being the most sincere person in all of North Korea, with not the slightest clue, hint, or indication that his job, his housing, family, health, and very life are dependent on him vigorously pandering to a world-class egomaniac. In this, "Army first" was superlative. If there ever is a class on "corporate ladder climbing" offered in any of the big 10 business schools, his columns will be case studies.
#3
Depends on where you live. A lot of Democrats ran as 'moderates' or represent conservative districts. Amazing things can happen when a politician realizes his / her job is at risk.
#4
just FYI - there aren't a whole lotta big projects environmentally cleared, right-of-way secured, final design done, just sitting on a shelf waiting for Uncle Baracky to deposit funds so they can advertise/bid/award and get constructing. However, if you are going to dump money on social projects, they can accept that money at day one. They just won't get people hired, the economy moving.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2009 18:48 Comments ||
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#5
FWIW, I agree with Frank G on this regarding infrastructure projects.
However, many social programs are also slow to actually spend the money. This is especially so if it is a program that only reimburses costs as opposed to front end loading the money.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
