I've had several thoughts I've wanted to get out about the situations in Israel and Ukraine but I thought it prudent to wait a bit for events to unfold. AP News has two great pieces up which summarize the ongoing issues with Russia over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the Israeli operation in Gaza as of this morning.
My first reaction when I heard that the airline was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine was anger. We know what these guys are doing and they are bragging about it as Nikto noted the other day. Shouldn't we work with Ukraine to target these anti-aircraft missiles and take them out? Obviously, the answer is no and it's because we really need the buy in from Europe. This is a regional problem and the EU, in particular, Germany, haven't really shown much of an interest in escalation due to the Russian natural gas supply they need. This sentiment was recently echoed by Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble.
"Economic interests are not the top priority. The top priority is ensuring stability and peace," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Classic double speak. The Germans are more interested in making sure they stay on the Russian energy teat and are hoping that somehow all of this just works itself out. Until they and other EU leaders change their mind and are willing to make sacrifices, we will be largely powerless to do anything. Honestly, they are being tremendously naive
Israel's efforts in Gaza are the exact opposite of naive. They recognize the problem and are moving to eliminate the threat with best possible speed. I make no bones about being fervently pro-Israel and completely support their mission to end the rocket launches by Hamas. No doubt I feel tremendous sadness over the loss of Palestinian children but the blame for that is largely on Hamas who purposefully place their base of operations near innocent civilians to score PR points with anti-Semitic press outlets.
At the very core of Hamas's ideology is the destruction of Israel. They are no different than Nazi Germany and if they are serious about helping their people, they will stop being violent and start advocating within the political process peacefully. That is the one area where Israel needs to be flexible. I've written about this previously but the only way I see out of this mess is a one state solution. There will never be a country of Palestine. Tareq Abbas is right
In the long run, Israel is going to come out much better as a result of this conflict. Vladamir Putin, however, will not. The EU may be dragging their feat but the writing is already on the wall. This was Putin's massive failure and miscalculation and the Russian economy is going to pay dearly for it.
3 comments:
Maybe Obama and Kerry should just shut the fuck up about problems not of their own creation.
Or do we want to spread our great success in Libya? That was your Obamessiah's great moment on the world stage wasn't it?
Marxie's promised more than once to give his critique of Walter Russell Mead (a Democrat), yet somehow could never be bothered. I guess putting up "fake, but accurate" graphics is easier. Somehow I doubt we'll see any response to this one: As Libya Implodes, “Smart Diplomacy” Becoming a Punch Line.
At the very core of Hamas's ideology is the destruction of Israel. They are no different than Nazi Germany and if they are serious about helping their people, they will stop being violent and start advocating within the political process peacefully. That is the one area where Israel needs to be flexible. I've written about this previously but the only way I see out of this mess is a one state solution.
That doesn't even make sense unless you're advocating for the self-immolation of Israel. Do you have even the faintest clue of how non-Israeli Palestinians have been indoctrinated over the last several decades? The Hitler Jügend had nothing on these guys. Full-on hardcore Jew-hatred plus Muslim martyrdom complex. What's not to love? I'll tell you what the end result would be. Either another Arab-run hellhole with a tide of ethnic cleansing that would make the Balkans look restrained, reserved, and mild by comparison; or a re-run of 1948 with the Arabs losing their bid to push the Jews into sea yet again. It's nothing more than a nice happy-sappy opium dream to think that a one-state solution with an Arab majority would result in anything better than civil war. The first thing they'd do is vote Hamas into power just like they already did in Gaza. Either that, or Gaza Hamas would declare internal war on West Bank groups. Probably they'd put that civil war mostly on hold while they worked together to end the Jewish presence. And for some reason, I suspect the Jews would have something to say about that....
Post a Comment