Sorry, **Marley **et al. I shouldn’t have said that.
Well, I guess the whole US-Israel relationship will continue on-with Us and Israeli politicians continuing to act like they know nothing. We will continue to have expressions of “surprise” and sincere “apologies”-and then things will continue on.
So don’t expect any changes from Obama-this little “incident” is really nothing.
The only problem-$3 billion here, $3 billion there…pretty soon it adds up.
Pretty soon the US taxpayers are going to wonder why we have crumbling roads and bridges, and why nothing ever gets fixed…but that is OK, we can point to those brand new condos in Israel!
What responsibility does the Israeli public, or government for that matter, have in regard to the problem, then? You don’t mention any. But you surely can see that those attitudes, and the actions based on them, have some severely negative consequences.
What are your views on South Korea, Ralph?
I think you know by now that Finn opposes any peace negotiations not based on “the other side’s” a priori unconditional surrender.
Sorry - I don’t fully understand your question.
Awww Elvis, that’s cute, would you like to imagine anything else and pretend I said that, too? Come on, really go nuts, why stick to small bits of imagination? Why not “Finn drinks baby blood!” or “Finn wants to release anthrax into Ramallah!”
Come up Elvis, if you’re going to imagine something, imagine something really shocking.
Hence it’s OK for Israelis to piss on the VP?
Sorry, but my mom taught me to treat my friends with respect, even if I secretly think they’re stupid.
Is that somehow too much to ask of our Israeli friends?
In fairness, that could have been just extreme stupidity. That can happen anywhere, ya know.
You seem to place all the responsibility for “understanding” Israeli attitudes on the Americans, and none on the Israelis for having those attitudes, or for recognizing and accepting their consequences, or for understanding anyone else’s attitudes in response to those Israeli attitudes.
Maybe your question there reflects the problem.
Finn, perhaps you could give Dick a response? An adult one, if you can manage it.
Oh, you won’t find me supporting Bibi Netanyahu. The man’s an incompetant fool- an empty suit who can’t even control his own government and has no plan beyond surviving another day in office. Unfortnately, it’s this very lack of ability that indicates - to me at least - that the snub wasn’t intentional, if only because he lacks the ability to do this kind of thing on purpose.
Calculated, years long, extreme stupidity?
The time comes when you have to stop cutting them slack for stuff like this. They’re harming American interests:
The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story
Which Israeli attitudes? My post described several - which were you referring to?
There are only two issues for Israsel, security of the state folowed by security of the people - in comparison, nothing else matters. Ever.
The creation of a Palestinian Stae serves neither and potentially harms both - it ain’t gonna happen. Ever.
The rest is just noise.
Oh, that’s rich. You invade Iraq for no damn reason, strengthening Iran and creating tens of thousands of new terrorists (who will turn on us as soon as you leave), and *we’re *destabalizing the region?
All of them. Including the implicit ones I made explicit for you.
Do you *really *not understand?
Then there will be no peace - ever. And it won’t be all their fault.
That we don’t simplify complex situations?
Sorry - we’re not Americans.
Not true. By the end of Clinton’s time, they were very, very close to an agreement that would have seen two states with peace and security. There’s no guarantee that a Palestinian state would serve as a threat to the Israeli state or the Israeli people. After Clinton, for obvious reasons, things got very sticky and the Israelis weren’t about to trust the PA again any time soon. Hamas’ election victories and the situation in Gaza reinforced that issue. But Abbas seems to be holding his territory in line and has clamped down on violence.
Enough time spent on that and a peace treaty is quite possible.
Come on. Some of us care more about history, facts and current events than rhetoric and some of us can even differentiate between factions and agendas. Don’t judge all Americans by our less impressive and louder specimens.
I don’t care if it’s rich, I care if it’s the truth. It is.
Besides, without Israeli ‘help’ we may have never obtained all that great evidence of the threat posed by Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
Tell us now how Israel was a voice of sanity in the run up to conquest. That’d be pretty funny!