The amazing Tom Ricks, now at Foreign Policy Magazine, held a little contest about what SOS Clinton should tell AIPAC next week. The winning entry is spot on. Ricks introduces it this way:
We have a winner. Agree with it or not, this entry captures the historical moment, I think. Whatever the Secretary of State says, I think this is what Israel will hear.
I especially loved the line “…I know this may be difficult to hear, but I think we should see other countries for a while…”
Cheers
dengre
Splitting Image
Spot on. And funny.
Off topic, did anyone have Northern Iowa in their bracket today? My whole Midwest bracket is now a sea of red strikethroughs.
Ron Beasley
Perfect!!!!
And we certainly could put the 3 billion a year to better uses.
Brick Oven Bill
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.…
And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
Kind of sounds like neutrons to me. 2112 is 19 months away.
Violet
I love that line too. This one would be really helpful right now, if only it could happen:
Nothing like wiping out a small chunk of the deficit in one fell swoop.
ThatPirateGuy
BOB, I think you need to check your math. You seem to be off by an order of magnitude.
freelancer
@Brick Oven Bill:
I guess we oughtta be preparing for 2113, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcik1ZMTDv8
@Violet:
Heh, yes. I want a YouTube video of crying Rednecks screaming, “I want my F-16s back!”
Brick Oven Bill
ThatPirateGuy makes a good point. Not quite a magnitude though.
Comrade Luke
I’m hearing more and more about foreignpolicy.com. Is it a pretty new site? Is it worth following?
I always ask others before I go wade into foreign waters…
(btw, Go Zags! Beat ‘Cuse!)
cleek
Cut.
Israel.
Loose.
it’s no longer a child.
let it find its won way in the world.
Joel
@Comrade Luke: Foreign Policy has been around a long time, but only recently have they been dovetailing with the Atlantic and other publications. It’s hugely upgraded their internet profile.
fucen tarmal
i don’t think aipac will take it well. i think they will start showing up at starbucks, the bar, the concert, too often to be purely coincidental….
they should remember, we will always have the neocon years. even if we knew then what we knew then but didn’t want to admit…
that all that changes was the far right decided it could sell the story of revelations, and all the armageddon and left behind books, as a reason to support an aggressive israel. of course the idea behind it, that israel would start an apocalyptic world where only kurt cameron and his buddies would benefit, and every one else would burn in hell or worse…but hey israel lapped it up, and didn’t question the source….
so really, from being outright and openly hostile to israel, to hoping they destroy the world, and encouraging them to do so….
the relationship has been dysfunctional for a long time..
gbear
OT, but the BJ spam filter is really out of control. WTF?
Annie
I don’t know whether or not it is time to cut Israel loose, but I do know that it is time to cut “religion” loose as a reason and an excuse for supporting one group over another. To me, religion is used both as a rationale for support to one country, and a reason to oppose another. Without support from the religious right, conservatives are bankrupt as a party. They use religion as a default position when their corruption is exposed. Jack Abramoff would never have risen as far as he did without his cloak of religious fundamentalism — the right both loved and exploited the fact that he claimed to be an orthodox jew. Israel would be forced to change its policies if they could not appeal to both the religious right and conservative jews for support. Without the religious card, Israel would be forced to defend its policies and practices based on its actual policies and practices…
It’s amazing to me that human rights abuses can be overlooked if one subscribes to “correct” religions, while damned if undertaken by those of religions we do not care for.
salacious crumb
sorry to pour water on the Tom Ricks’ lovefest, but lets not forget that he wholeheartedly supported the war with Iraq until it started going wrong. of course that doesnt take away the message of what he posted on FP, which is 100% spot on..just saying that we shouldnt glorify the male version of Judith Miller.
Jason Bylinowski
@salacious crumb: While I see your point, I really have never been one to hold Iraq against anyone. While I was always against it, I’m so cynical as to approach Biblical Corruption (and a nobody besides), though I tell myself it’s because of my correct and astute assessment of the situation. Nevertheless, two factors let most people off the hook as I see it: 1.) supposedly, Iraq was sitting on WMDs which could be used on our allies or sold to our enemies, and 2.) there had recently been a pretty bad terrorist attack (which shall remain nameless here) which probably screwed up a lot of people’s ability to weigh the options properly. Of course, those in power (Condi Rice and Colin Powell, mostly) who used the “mushroom cloud as smoking gun” analogy probably deserve to be in jail or worse, and I would never defend that. I also still have a problem with Andrew Sullivan’s worst offenses during that period.
My point, labored and small as it may be, is just that I have a hard time penalizing some of the analysis that went on in that period, because the great majority of pundits and analysts ended up with egg on their faces once the facts came to light. So anyway, I do still read Tom Ricks, and if maybe his record isn’t perfect, at least we have that in common.
tomvox1
I think once the intrepid diarists at FDL get this out, well, old Benjamin’s gonna have some ‘splainin to do:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/36246
Should make Hillary’s tough love act much easier for her to believe in, don’t ya think?
Mary
Wasn’t Jack Abramoff arming the settlers? I seem to remember hearing something like that.
BDeevDad
What’s lost in a lot of this discussion is that the AIPAC and Weekly Standard positions are closer to the bible-thumping end-of-times Christian fundamentalists than most Jews in the US and Israel.
Ty Lookwell
Huh, from my perspective, I found it pretty insulting and insipid, casually insulting the Palestinians – denigrating them, their rights, their history, and their cause while coyly wrapping itself in two-cute-by-half. I didn’t find it “spot-on.”
Cain
@Brick Oven Bill:
And the meek shall inherit the earth…
cain
J. Michael Neal
@tomvox1: Oy.
Warren Terra
Assuming BOB meant 2012, not 2112:
1) He’s got his Armageddons muddled, quoting Revelations but reading the Mayan calendar.
2) 19 months until 2012?? It’s already out on DVD! But I’ve heard it sucks.
JGabriel
@Warren Terra:
Actually, I think he was referring to the album 2112 by Rush. But not being familiar with the lyrics, I have no idea what the reference means or if it’s just gobbledygook.
.
Blue Raven
@Ty Lookwell:
The Palestinians weren’t the point, Ty. She’s going to be speaking to Netanyahu, not whoever replaced Arafat (my memory sucks). Also, that’s “too.”
Personally, I think if that’s the gist of the message Israel gets from Clinton, I may just break tradition and volunteer for Obama ’12. It’s about damn time we admitted we need to back away from the blind support of a half-rogue nation like Israel.
bob h
Israel is doing so well economically with high tech and all that, so it is hard to justify the foreign aid we send them. For their own self-respect, we should cut them off the welfare dole.
Alan
With all the Christian and Jewish theocrats running things, why would they ever need the United States? They’ve got God on their side. So yeah, they should go it alone. Let their mythical God lay out their plans for a greater Israel. What could go wrong?
Barry
in terms of whether or not FP is worth a good g*d-d*mn:
1) Ricks recently used the ‘we broke it, so we have a duty to keep
breakingoccupying Iraq’.2) A couple of posts down from the one on Israel, Ricks discusses three ‘heavy hitters’ having a discussion. One of those ‘heavy hitters’ was Thomas ‘Always Wrong, Never in Doubt’ Freidman.
At that point, just burn FP to the ground, with everybody in it.
liberal
@Barry:
OTOH, they host Stephen Walt’s blog.
liberal
@Annie:
What makes you think it’s solely a question of religion? It’s also a question of differing ethnicities.
While I’ll be the first to agree that religious differences are preeminent among reasons groups use to slaughter one another, it’s hard to believe that ethnicity alone doesn’t play a role in the Israel/Palestinian conflict.