Personally, I’m philosemitic. Jews are cool, and Israel is a pretty cool country with cool people in it. If Israel didn’t have the Palestinians constantly pissing and moaning and making trouble, it would just sit there and not bother anyone.
But the Arab world (and various fellow travellers like Iran) are antisemitic. Duh! Further, these same Arab countries have a worldview and culture that, if we Westerners are honest about it, makes our stomach turn. Let’s cut all the cultural relativism bullshit and just admit that women dressed in black whatevers is sick and that Islam is the world’s worst major religion, which is saying a lot.
I’ve met Arabs and Iranians who were the nicest and most sophisticated people, but, PC nostrums aside, can’t we just admit that the Middle East is home to some of the most violent, infantile, and just plain negative people in the world? To paraphrase Yoda and Rummy, “Dead-enders, they be.”
Then there is this issue: There’s no reason for a “Palestinian State.” There are plenty of Arab tyrannies to choose from–hmm, Egypt, Syria, Jordan (might not even be too bad, this one).
Should Israel ever have been manufactured in 1948? Probably not. It was a typical arrogant British move. Do the Israelis do plenty of mean, unjustifiable shit to the Palestinians? No doubt. So the line is, They’re both bad, slap them both on the wrist, why can’t they just work it out? Oh, and it’s Israel’s fault, anyway.
Bullshit. We return to the point about the Arab countries being infantile trouble makers. Just as you can’t make peace with a 6-year-old shortbusser with ADD and “emotional problems” (remember how those kids were?), you can’t make peace with the Palestianians. It’s just a priori not gonna work.
So the long and short of it is this: Regardless of Israel’s origin and its various sins, it’s just gotta knock Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and whoever on their ass and make sure that they never get up. Israel then won’t bother anyone, and, if we’re lucky, the orgs and countries that got knocked on their ass will go down so hard they won’t bother anyone else, either. No loss to world culture, big gain for world order.
(And no, I don’t support Bush’s war. Afganistan good realpolitik, Iraq bad realpolitik. The point IS realpolitik, not trying to democratize countries that can’t handle it.)
All I can say is, Kick some ass, Iz!