i watched Bibi give an interview to Andrea Mitchell today, and he is such a brazen liar that the only person I can think of who can sit there and authoritatively lie like that is Dick Cheney and his bionic heart. He is Bibi several days ago:
aving previously hinted that he would accept a Palestinian state, Netanyahu reversed course on Monday, citing risks that he linked to the regional spread of Islamist militancy. He said that if he is re-elected, the Palestinians would not get the independent state they seek in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
“Whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel,” he told the Israeli news site NRG.
Asked if that meant a state would not be established if he remained prime minister, he said: “Indeed.”
Herzog, leader of Israel’s Labour party, favors reviving peace talks with U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Herzog’s centrist running mate, Tzipi Livni, was formerly a member of Netanyahu’s conservative coalition government and handled negotiations with Abbas until they stalled last April.
Here is Netanyahu today:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in his first American television interview since winning re-election, appeared to back away Thursday from his declaration that he would not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“I don’t want a one-state solution,” he told NBC News in an interview. “I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution.”
You can watch the entire disgusting thing here. My personal favorite was when he stated he wasn’t being racist by sending up alarms about Muslims voting, he was just trying to stem outside interference in the election. GZve him this much- he’s smarter than most Republicans and the ferguson PD and knows not to use the phrase “outside agitators.”
Just a wretched human being. And the White House is pissed. Hopefully we will stop being their permanent veto in the UN. Make Bibi deal with the shitstorms he creates and actually vote in our best interests, not Israel’s, for a change.
Botsplainer
Clearly this criticism indicates that you’re an anti-Semite and worse than Hitler…probably a Heydrich…
You might as well force march people to the ovens…
Cervantes
Why Yiddish and not Hebrew?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I hope Obama’s phone call was the masterpiece of trolling as is being reported, though I would have preferred it to be delegated to Kerry or Biden. I’ve read that Himself also hates Kerry.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
A shonda fur die Goyim fits well.
JPL
John, a few of us were commenting on the Tunch below. You might want to take a read.
Oh and on topic.. f….k bibi
Renie
I was so hoping he would lose just so this could put on Boehner. But I did notice there wasn’t too much being said by any of them. I guess Bibi’s anti-two-state talk goes against their resolution. H. Res 365
mellowjohn
Shorter Bibi (and every Republican): “I didn’t say what you said I said yesterday so don’t pay any attention to that. Pay attention to what I’m saying right now. Until I say something complete opposite tomorrow. Then I won’t have said what I said then, because I’m saying what I really mean right now. Until i say something else.”
cbear
Sadly, we don’t seem to have a George Washington around to tell Bibi to eat a bag of salted dicks–and find his $3 billion somewhere else.
Fuck that right-wing POS.
beltane
The White House is genuinely pissed this time. This goes well beyond the purview of a Sternly Worded Letter. Apparently J Street, the formerly milquetoast alternative to AIPAC, is planning to put Congressional Democrats, and Hillary, on the spot with this issue. Netanyahu and the Israeli electorate have made it difficult for the President to save them from themselves. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.647859
Suzanne
Bibi wants to lead an apartheid state. Fuck that dude. Spiky, acid-tipped dicks and whatnot.
Seriously, though, there is no level of analysis that ends with something other than Netanyahu being a despicable human being.
Unabogie
The word you’re looking for is “chutzpah”
Woodrowfan
“No greater ally” than Israel? The only countries that spy on the US more than Israel are the Russian, the Chinese and, maybe, the Cubans.
beltane
I read that Boehner will be making a trip to Israel. It’s my dearest wish that a deal is struck with Iran while he’s there, just for shits and giggles.
mdblanche
This week the two state solution is a lot like Jesus. Killed by the Jews, then resurrected on the third day, but this miracle has been rejected by Muslim atheist Barrack Obama.
Unabogie
@Woodrowfan:
It’s amazing, isn’t it? In what way is Israel acting like our ally? In what way is Netanyahu earning the trust of our President? If a President’s job is to look out for American interests above all others, then I can’t think of a single way in which Obama should entrust our well being to a weasel like Bibi.
Botsplainer
@Woodrowfan:
Israel is the toady that basks in the reflected power of the bully. It starts a bunch of shit in the assumption that the patron will bail it out.
Mike in NC
What’s the Hebrew term for Tea Party? They reelected this shithead.
Next time Bibi comes here looking for a handout, greet his plane with a surface-to-air missile.
beltane
@mdblanche: What a lovely Easter tale! However, at the rate things are going, the story will end with the second coming of the Emperor Titus.
Mr Stagger Lee
Nothing is going to happen to Bibi as long you have AIPAC and the 700 club/John Hagee/JEEEZUSS is coming crowd who runs the GOP. America’s face is firmly in the buttcrack of Israel
SFAW
@Mike in NC:
Don’t be an asshole.
Hal
Shorter Netanyahu : “J/K everybody! HAHA.” I wonder what all those folks in Israel who decided to turn out specifically because Netanyahu had suddenly scuttled the two state solution think now?
Calouste
@Suzanne: Wants to? He already does. Israel refuses to give citizenship to spouses of Israeli citizens if that spouse is from certain countries (Jordan etc.), but has no limitations for spouses that are citizens from other countries.
mike in dc
The Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement just got a huge adrenaline shot when Bibi got re-elected on a pro-apartheid platform. I think it will become more effective than originally projected, precisely because it no longer looks like a step too far.
chopper
@Cervantes:
yiddish has better insults.
beltane
Oh, and when I hear people speak of “Judea and Samaria”, I just want to say: Well what about the Kingdoms of Lotharingia, Wessex, and Navarre? These are places that existed in the much more recent past. Heck, while we’re talking fairy tales, why not give a shout out to Narnia?
SFAW
@Hal:
They probably think he’s just doing the lip-service thing, and that he’ll put yet another one over on those dumb Americans.
That asshole should be thanking Yoni’s ghost every fucking day.
Kropadope
Yes, if only the Palestinians would accept his reasonable demands, such as every Palestinian individually renouncing all violence, except perhaps against Israel’s enemies.
jl
@Unabogie: The GOP’s main goal was to destroy the Obama presidency. Ain’t happened so far, and doesn’t look like it will. They are desperate for any stick they can find to poke in Obama’s eye. Netanyahu is, or was, willing to help. He might not be so willing to help as long as he feels he needs to be in backtrack mode, though would be funny if he felt he still had to be during Boehner’s visit.
The Congressional GOP are no longer friends of Israel (even on the doubtful assumption that they ever were in any real sense), they are friends of Netanyahu, whom they have dubbed Israel.
beltane
@Hal: Like all wingnuts, they are probably stupid assholes who don’t do much in the way of thinking. Otherwise, they will just blame Hitler Hussein Obama for their troubles.
Kropadope
@beltane:
And leave out Calormen and Archenland?
SFAW
@jl:
“Was” implies he no longer is. Considering how he’s been a dick to Obama for years, I’m guessing it’s not just a “I gotta win this election” expediency.
beltane
@Kropadope: My bad.
jonas
@chopper: Exactly. What’s Yiddish for “the balls on this guy!”
SFAW
@Kropadope:
As long as we don’t place Ankh-Morpork anyplace near his name. I want to keep Sir Terry as far away from that asshole as possible.
jonas
@beltane: Eh, wasn’t too long ago that talking about Lorraine vs. Lothringen could have gotten you in a bit of trouble.
SFAW
@jonas:
Why, is Quiche Lothringen any good?
beltane
@jonas: The appeal to a mythical history does bring to mind a certain other country.
mdblanche
@Mike in NC:
Likud.
@mike in dc: The biggest stick used to beat BDS is that most of its activists advocate a binational one state solution. Bibi has done yeoman’s work this week neutralizing that line of attack.
Renie
Can someone explain to me what the benefit is to the US in having Israel as an ally? I can see their benefit cuz of all the $$$ we give them but we do we get in return?
jl
@SFAW: I’m sure Netanyahu still would like to poke Obama in the eye, and he would like to be as nasty has he can. But, he might feel that he has to do some fancy dancing to swivel away from his campaign statements.
I think Netanyahu does what he feel he needs to do reach his goals, not what he wants to do.
I think definitely a better liar and smarter and more disciplined than the likes of Cheney.
beltane
@mdblanche: Nick Kristof’s new column advocates for that one state solution. He is someone the other Villagers listen to. The idea is now guaranteed to gain a certain amount of traction and will now be mainstreamed.
PeakVT
The sad thing is, something approaching a majority of Americans (or at least American voters) believe this.
Please forgive us, Canadian and British friends.
RaflW
@efgoldman:
I’d start by letting the voters in Israel pick up progressively more and more of their own defense tab.
The F-35 won’t look like such a great deal if they have to pay for those bloated disasters them selves. $3Bn a year in military aid to get repeated pokes in the eye as thanks? Time for that “deal” to wind down.
beltane
@PeakVT: The only reason Americans believe this is that they have the idea drummed into their heads for decades. No “serious” person is allowed to go on TV and say anything else. If Americans were exposed to a wider range of opinion, they would certainly have a wider range of opinions themselves. For as long as I can remember, Israel is the one subject for which the “both sides do it” rule is never applied by the media.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
C’mon, Yiddish doesn’t use Hebrew characters, and you know it.
Or, if you don’t, you should, with a nym like goldman. Maybe you should change it to efgoyman? (Sorry, couldn’t resist. It’s a character flaw of mine.)
Tommy
@beltane: I hope so. I have a lot of Jewish friends. Every boss I had. I would take a bullet for a Jew. It is hard for me to put into words how Bibi’s words are just really ugly.
mdblanche
@Kropadope:
Of course. They’re dark skinned pseudo-Muslims.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@cbear: Damn. Did it again ⊠been on Facebook too much. LIKELIKELIKE
SFAW
@Tommy:
Tommy, I know you’re being sincere, but do you realize you sound like “Some of my best friends are …”? As in, the old standby of racists and anti-Semites everywhere.
mai naem mobile
I used to be strongly pro-Israel but just can’t support them any more. This was one of the few disagreements.i had with my dad politically. My dad would ask me how I would feel if somebody came into my house and took over half of it and told me to stuff it. Ofcourse I would reply that these were the Jews from the Holocaust etcetera. i kind of agree with my dad.now.
PeakVT
@Renie: I think that as far as strict utility goes, Israel is currently America’s biggest strategic liability. (One could argue for Taiwan, but I think that situation is stable for the moment.) Sure, Israel could potentially help America in military action in the region, since it has a fairly well-trained and well-equipped military force (courtesy, in part, of America). But, recently, that has not been the case, since Israel is terribly unpopular amongst the population of America’s Muslim allies in the region. So, basically, at this point what America gets is a way to funnel more money to American defense contractors, since a lot of the aid to Israel boomerangs.
Of course, the situation has changed over time, and one can make the argument that America should not make allies for strictly utilitarian reasons. But, as of now, we get less than nothing out of the present relationship, IMHO.
RaflW
@efgoldman:
I’m pretty sure the two political operations share several of the same key advisors. The tactics just look way to similar.
Certainly from things I’ve read from credible sources in recent days say Sheldon Adelson is a money conduit in Israel, and we know he gives big bank to the US cavalcade of Republican nutbags.
The Israeli voters may not be paying enough attention to realize this, but the gloss of bipartisan support for Israel is ending, and it’s because of Bibi, Boehner, and all the misguided Obama hatred.
Viva BrisVegas
@efgoldman:
Who was head of Irgun when they blew up the King David Hotel in 1946, killing 91 people. But he wasn’t a terrorist, because he wasn’t an arab.
What the Palestinians learned about terrorism, they learned from the likes of Begin.
Tommy
@SFAW: Well maybe but not what I am thinking/saying.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I imagine Bill Kristol’s emails would be of some interest
Peale
@Kropadope: I believe that second state is to be empty of Muslims and filled with Jewish settlers from France.
beltane
@Tommy: I am half-Jewish, which I have been told by many Likudnik types means that I am some kind of racial abomination. Any society founded on notions of ethnic nationalism will struggle to avoid sinking into fascism. Jews, like everyone else, are not immune to this phenomenon. The thing that makes me the most angry is that our country helped nurture these tendencies in Israel.
Citizen Alan
@beltane: I always ask those religious loons who talk about returning Israel to its biblical borders if they feel the same way about finally complying with our treaties with the various Native Tribes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@beltane: I got an office where J-Street can start
SFAW
@Tommy:
Understood. That’s why I led off with “I know you’re being sincere.” If I thought you were bullshitting, I would have said so.
beltane
@Viva BrisVegas: Americans think the Middle East has been in a continual state of war going back to Adam. Not so. Nor were Middle Eastern societies less tolerant than European ones. In fact, all those ancient, obscure sects under attack by ISIS right now would never have been tolerated in the pre-modern West. Maybe that part of the world didn’t go to shit all on its own, maybe it had outside help.
BBA
I’d say “dismantle the settlements” but the problem is that both Likud and Hamas consider Tel Aviv to be a settlement, and I don’t know how you dismantle a 100-year-old city of 3 million people. But that’s their problem, not mine. I never wanted my fellow Jews to build Rhodesia on the Mediterranean.
wasabi gasp
@Tommy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1xIjtutqI
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And I would expect that unicorns will appear on my front lawn tomorrow. (Well, if the snow were gone.)
Tommy
@SFAW: I have this rule where this isn’t a topic I don’t comment on. Just saying.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Giving the Israelis the green light to continue stealing land and dignity from the Palestinians is actually the most “hostile” action one could take towards Israel. If your acid tripping friend says she can fly, do you open the window for her?
Renie
@PeakVT: So you are saying the money we give them goes back to our defense contractors in making arms for them? Unbelievable how much power these defense contractors have in our country.
beltane
@BBA: Dismantling the settlements outside the ’67 borders would be a good place to start. Or just declare a Palestinian state using the ’67 borders and hope the partition is a little less bloody than India’s was.
SFAW
@Tommy:
What’s “this” and what is the topic? Sorry, but I’m not clear on it/them.
Valdivia
@SFAW:
actually it does use Hebrew characters, it used to break my head as a kid seeing my grandmother’s Forward in Yiddish and trying to read it when the words made no sense in Hebrew.
ETA: I don’t know if my snark-meter is off and if you were snarking, apologies for the correction ;)
It is true that insults are better in Yiddish. The best Hebrew insults come from Arabic.
But yes Chutzpah thy name is Bibi.
SFAW
@wasabi gasp:
Pretty interesting PSA, never saw it before. Thanks!
beltane
My great-grandmother had a saying in Yiddish that translated as “He should go shit in the ocean.” In my opinion, this is the message Obama should convey to Netanyahu in their next conversation.
BBA
And I do think Rhodesia/Zimbabwe is a better analogy than South Africa. The Jews need a deKlerk and instead they’ve doubled down on Ian Smith; Abbas may not be half as bad as Mugabe but he’s far from Mandela.
beltane
@BBA: The Joint List’s Ayman Odeh shows a lot of promise. I hope nothing bad happens to him.
PeakVT
@Renie: The defense money is not the only reason for the alliance, nor even close to being the primary one. But it’s the only “benefit” American currently gets from the relationship as far as I can see – some of the money sent over there comes directly back to create relatively high-paying jobs.
Obviously, the money would be better spent on either more deserving countries (Haiti? Guatemala? Or, heaven forbid, Gaza?) or just about anything at home (the frost heaves I encounter during my commute are just ridiculous right now, for instance).
YMMV
Tommy
@wasabi gasp: At times you people here blow my mind. Why I said they welcomed me into their house as Jews was they welcomed me in for Jewish holidays. I was a long way from home. No family around. I got invited over. Just saying.
Valdivia
@beltane:
:)
I know of this saying and approve its message.
I loathe that man, and what he is doing to Israel. Most depressing to read today an article of interviews with first time voters. Totally brain washed, scary. Long gone is the socialist dream of Ben Gurion.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Aw, crap. That’s the rep for our new neighborhood. I miss Adam Schiff, our previous rep, very muchly at times like this.
SFAW
@Valdivia:
I guess we could debate as to whether it’s a Hebraic language, or a European language which sometimes uses Hebrew characters. German certainly isn’t Hebraic, and Yiddish isn’t that far from German, in terms of words used, pronunciation, etc., hence my original comment to efgoldman.
catclub
@Valdivia:
Ignorant son of a spavined camel ?
beltane
@Valdivia: The young people are the scariest, so full of hate and so lacking in hope. By some irony, they have also had to deal with less terrorism and fewer credible external threats than the older generations. Something went dreadfully wrong in that country, and I’m not sure it will end well for them or the Palestinians.
SFAW
@Tommy:
What exactly does that mean? As in: what message does your use of that phrase intend to convey. Because, as a certified old fart, I have no fucking idea.
Valdivia
@SFAW: indeed very close to German linguistically but spelled out in hebrew characters (you can see the e version of the forward here). Most of the people of my grandparents generation read yiddish this way, not spelled out in our alphabet, they were Polish Jews who didn’t really speak German, this is how they read and wrote in Yiddish.
Apropos of nothing, the person who created modern Hebrew was a German. Very religious Hasidim refuse to speak Hebrew if they can because they think it is a holy language for prayer and prefer yiddish. That always makes my head turn a bit.
Valdivia
@beltane: I lived there for many years and I don’t recognize these people. I don’t understand it, but as you say, something did go dreadfully wrong. I was thinking today that it is a shame that Bibi will now have surpassed Ben Gurion as being the person to be PM the longest. Probably rolling in his grave in the desert.
@catclub:
:)
much more, um, colourful than that to call it something.
SFAW
@Valdivia:
Yeah, and I can write putonghua in pinyin and Wades-Giles, but that doesn’t make it right, it’s just convenience.
I know, I know, that’s not what you’re saying/arguing. But it blows my mind that they do it that way, and what they do ain’t right.
ETA: However, I can understand why it is. putonghua and guangdonghua speakers can communicate through writing, not so much by speaking.
Tree With Water
Here’s an example of the caliber of people (and their political party) to whom Netanyahu has irrevocably allied the state of Israel. So be it:
“..Republican businessman and donor David Humphreys released a signed affidavit saying Republican consultant John Hancock, who later was elected head of the party, told him on Nov. 24 that Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich wasJewish.
“The meaning I took from Mr. Hancock’s statement and tone of his comments was clear: He (Tom Schweich) isJewish â in case you didn’t know â and that being Jewish is a negative attribute for Tom Schweich’s gubernatorial race,” Humphreys said in the affidavit.
Humphreys is the first person to publicly attest to hearing such comments from Hancock..”.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
@SFAW:
So, ef –
My apologies. Based on Valdivia’s comments, I was obviously wrong.
I guess I should have known better. What a putz.
I can’t promise I won’t fuck up again, of course.
Bobby B.
Andrea Mitchell…whenever I see a rightwing asshole, there’s some NBC “personality” in thrall. Look for Bibi on Meet the Press this week.
Valdivia
@SFAW: maybe wrong linguistically but it makes sense since most of the jews who spoke yiddish didn’t have access to formal educations and they wrote it and spelled it how they could, the tools at hand if you will.
Very interesting to talk about this since Yiddish to me is visually the hebrew letters, always was, it would have never occurred to me that it could be written any other way. Wonder if that is the experience of others that grew up with it, seeing it and hearing it.
eta: I don’t think you are, as you say upthread, a putz for your comment, I am really kind of illuminated by this conversation! :)
wasabi gasp
@SFAW: It was in heavy rotation during television programming for kids in the 70s. That youtube chopped off the most earwiggin’ part, the beginning, when the kid says “Grandpa.”
This one has the grandpa, but also lots of noise.
Tree With Water
“Netanyahu: US has âno greater allyâ than Israel”.
That for us to decide alone. That arrogant SOB addresses the American people in much the same vein as does FOX “News”.
SFAW
@Valdivia:
Yeah, my “ETA” was an attempt to acknowledge that idea, in an indirect way.
By way of a boring illustration: a number of years ago, I was in Hong Kong on business. Turned on the TV, some movie on, the characters were speaking un-dubbed Chinese – I think it was Mandarin/putonghua, but my memory is fuzzy – but the sub-titles were also Chinese. I concluded that the sub-titles were for the Cantonese/guangdonghua speakers, since apparently most couldn’t understand Mandarin.
Which is fairly similar to your point, I think.
beltane
@Tree With Water: If they’re our greatest ally I’d hate to think of what our enemies are like. I cannot think of any other leader who has treated a US president with so much disrespect.
SFAW
@Valdivia:
Thanks, but I’m a putz for being so arrogant as to try to correct efgoldman, when I was (as you have very tactfully pointed out) pretty close to totally fucking wrong.
wasabi gasp
@Tommy: You’re ok, Tommy. I don’t need an explanation.
SFAW
@beltane:
Fixed.
Valdivia
@SFAW:
I think this is also the case with ladino, but on that I would have to do research…
eta: http://www.mishkan.com/ladinoalefbet.html
looks like it was!
beltane
@SFAW: Yes, that is an important correction.
SFAW
@beltane:
Well, I knew it’s what you meant/intended, just trying to be helpful.
Mike in NC
@SFAW: Eat a bag of circumsized dicks, you Zionist apologist.
SFAW
@Mike in NC:
Hey, fuck off, you murderous prick. You want to propose assassinating Netanyahu, you get that kind of response. You want to re-think it, you’ll get a different response from me.
Not that you care, but I think Bibi’s an asshole (and one of the two biggest reasons there won’t be any agreement for a long time), and the voters who re-elected him are little different from the Tea Baggers.
“Zionist apologist”? Right.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
Nice reply to a shitty comment.
Villago Delenda Est
“US has no greater ally than Israel?”
Um, no.
Britain, France, Japan and Germany are infinitely more important than the pathetic little racist, militarist state that wants us to spill our blood to protect them from their own folly.
ANY NATO country is more important an ally than Israel.
Zinsky
Conservatives around the world are the same – selfish and shameless liars who are only interested in themselves and in accumulating as much money as they can.
chopper
@beltane:
“Gai kocken offen yam” IIRC. one of my favorite Yiddish insults. it just rolls off the tongue.
SFAW
@Zinsky:
I think it’s more power than money that drives them, but maybe that’s just splitting hairs. (Because they use that power to get, among other things, more money.)
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: Not to pile on, but more generally, there isn’t really a strong connection between the genealogy of writing systems and that of languages. Writing systems are often lifted from somewhere else.
Most Germanic languages (like English) use an alphabet borrowed from Latin, which they are not descended from, though English does have a lot of Latin and French loan words. Urdu is a Hindustani language but it uses the same script as Arabic (a Semitic language, like Hebrew); same deal with Persian, an Indo-Iranian language. Some Slavic languages use Cyrillic, some use the Latin alphabet.
The Japanese writing system is partly built on Chinese characters, which have both phonetic and semantic aspects in Mandarin, but in Japanese (a basically unrelated language, aside from loan words) they’re largely divorced from their phonetic context.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I don’t know enough about Israel’s politics to have a whole lot to say. But having said that, well, what the hell, I’ll say something anyway…
I, like most people, I guess, have a strong sympathy for Jewish people having their own country, after all the shit they’ve had to deal with for the last 2000 years. But, damn, it seems like Israelis hell bent on turning people against them. I think we’ve become far too unquestioning of Israel over the last, what, 30, 35 years? I don’t want to see them get fucked by Iran or Saudi Arabia or anybody else, but it seems like they’ve become so used to having us always come to their side and settle things down whenever they do something awful, that they don’t think they have to worry about treating Palestinians like people. (I’m not saying that all Israelis think this way, but the conservatives sure as hell seem to.) I think it’ll be good for Netanyahu in the long run to have to learn not to hide behind us whenever he steps out of line, but I don’t know if he can learn that.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Matt McIrvin:
This is true. Our Latin alphabet came from the western Greek alphabet, which in turn came from Phoenician, and Phoenician was a Semitic language, and Greek, Latin, and the Indo-European languages that use the Latin alphabet aren’t Semitic.
And also, too, Hungarian, Estonian and Finnish are Uralic and Turkish is Altaic. Lots of African languages use the Latin alphabet and are unrelated to Indo-European or Semitic, and the same goes for a lot of American languages .And Indonesian is Austronesian, I think, and they use our alphabet, too.
Matt McIrvin
…And if you think about it, it’s actually not hard to see why Yiddish ended up written in Hebrew characters. The use goes back to the Middle Ages. Who were the most literate people in medieval Europe? Religious scholars. They script they used to write the vernacular was the same script they used to copy the Bible. If they were Central/West European Christians, it was Latin or some variant; if they were Jewish, it was Hebrew.
Matt McIrvin
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Does that remind you of anyone? Maybe they figure we can sympathize because the US is so similar.
And it works to some degree. I’ve heard it said that Americans basically think of Israel in old Western-movie terms, a frontier drama with Jews as the sympathetic white settlers and Palestinians as the hostile Indians.
Sherparick
@Unabogie: Whenever I think of the Israel being an U.S. “ally,” I think of the U.S.S. Liberty and the 1967 war or the Jonathan Pollard spy case (Pollard spied for Mossad, but the Russians had an agent in Mossad who pass to them everything Pollard gave Mossad). There is really a very thin record of Israel supporting the U.S. as a useful ally in any meaningful sense (for example, even with all the disputes with France and Germany over the Iraq War, both France and Germany continued to support NATO operations in Afghanistan for most of the last decade). I can’t think of a single example where Israel gave the U.S. support (except in the negative sense of refraining from self-defense actions in both the Gulf War and the Iraq war when Saddam fired Scud missiles at Israel), but I can think of many where the U.S. provided support for its client. Bibi’s cynicism is breathtaking, but at least the Obama administration now seems to realize that he is just playing Lucy with the 2-state football to their Charlie Brown. Like a broken clock, Tom Friedman is right, Bibi has put himself in the history books as regard to Israel, likely similar to the role Raynauld of Chatillon played in deciding the fate of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
And yet, here we are.
debbie
@Unabogie:
No. Chutzpah is too small for what this man is doing. He’s playing into every stereotype that’s been perpetrated over the centuries.
chopper
@debbie:
chutzpah means shameless and ballsy but bibi is to a degree that it requires a better word. chutzpah, goniff, momzer. don’t know of a good word that combines them all.
KXB
Today’s NY Times has an article about how Bibi’s re-election makes life difficult for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic base is livid about Bibi’s actions at what they see as disrespect towards Obama, not just a policy difference. They want her to speak out against Bibi. But, the party is dependent on Jewish fundraisers to a much higher degree than the GOP, which has a more varied fundraising base. For a number of these donors, like Haim Saban, Israel is their most important issue, and the party fears what happens if they close their checkbook.
To put it in old fashioned urban voting terms – the Dems need a heavy turnout of black and Latino voters to win the presidency, but need money to run a campaign – and for that, the Jews are the go-to group.
My own opinion is that plenty of the Dem Jewish donors are pretty pissed about Israeli gov’t behavior. As Americans, they do not want to be put in a position to explain Israeli intransigence, but that is what Bibi is doing to them.
Ian
@Renie:
We get to see how effective our newest gadgets are. That benefit was better for us in the 90s, since we have spent the past fifteen years in a perpetual war for perpetual peace.
Neldob
It’s as if the system is set up so we help Israel destroy itself, and maybe take everyone else with it.
Chris
@beltane:
Uh, yeah. Have you guys seen this? “An annual report delivered recently to the US Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports.”
There’s a bigger context when it comes to the whole negotiations with Iran, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the timing was also meant to deliver a solid “up yours” to Bibi (the report is dated end of February). At the very least, I’m sure it occurred to Obama that it would be taken that way, and that he was fairly amused that it would double as an opportunity to troll Bibi.
Chris
@Botsplainer:
And worse, it’s largely correct.
Hence my continued stance that no matter how much I may loathe Israeli hard liners, it doesn’t even come close to my contempt for their American groupies.
Chris
@PeakVT:
I’d also argue that both in the way it runs itself and the way it handles its foreign policy with the rest of the region, Taiwan’s proven itself far more deserving of American support than Israel. Might not have been the case fifty years ago, but it’s gotten better since then, as opposed to Israel, which has gone from bad to worse. Unfortunately, I suspect we’d be far more willing to throw Taiwan under the bus if push came to shove, than Israel.
Quaker in a Basement
@Cervantes:
Because Yiddish is unique among languages in its capacity to call things exactly what they are in colorful and memorable ways. Yiddish words such as these have been assimilated into the American lexicon and are familiar to anyone even modestly literate.
Lurking Canadian
@mdblanche: Well, look, we let the Calormenes have their own state and they literally brought about the end of the world. Do we want to make that mistake again?
Brachiator
@KXB:
I’m going to have to take a look at that article. This seems very plausible. For the Republicans, this is the gift that keeps on giving. They can use Bibi to demonize Obama and then dare Hillary to distance herself from Obama and previous American policy (which also used to be approved by Republicans as well as Democrats).
There is one out, although I don’t know if the Iranians are wise enough to take it. If Iran agreed to a deal on nukes ASAP that was even stronger than what is currently being sought, Obama and the Dems could use this going into 2016. A real, firm deal vs GOP and Bibi fear mongering. Conservatives would still attack the deal, but they would look like war mongering fools if they scuttled it.