This is a great article. If the people we elect are supposed to be the best and the brightest, why can they not see the very things you point out.

I stand strong with Israel and pray she is able to fight back the Islamic terrorists. I also pray that this country never abandons her.

Big Dog --

The greatest problem we face as a society, as a free people and as living, breathing human beings is our political leaders' naivety re Islam:

They just won't get it through their heads that Muslims don't reason as we do, and that their "religion" dictates that they rule over us.

It's like when Ignatz the mouse hits Krazy Kat in the head with a brick and all K.K. can do is swoon and say, "My lil' angel..."

Israel is victimized by this stigma, we put it on them, and they cooperate by continuing to elect people who won't say "enough is enough".

I, too, pray that some people will wake up PDQ and take care of business before business takes care of them.

Israel needs to survive, and we need Israel to survive.

Glad you finally made some appropos comments regarding Olmert and his ministers. After reading today's Debka story about impending missile sales by Italy to Lebanon -- the lastest non-action by the Israeli government that started with unexpected intertia during the Lebanon war and that subsequently has converted to utter passivity in the face of accumulating existential threats to Israel's existance -- I'm starting to think the governing coalition has undergone the political equivalent of a clinical nervous breakdown. Unfortunately there does not appear to be any younger, fresh leaders waiting in the wings.

I am becoming more pessimistic than ever before as to the viability of Israel in light of its breakdown in political leadership coupled with what is now looking to be increasing hostility of the entire world. I have to look back to the Persian Empire to see such dire straits for the Jewish people. Does the West really believe that allowing the destruction of Israel in the hope of keeping oil flowing will protect them from being the next target?

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies,"

This sentence haunts me. There's a terminal sound to this, as though the next sentence would be, "Just leave us alone long enough so that we can lie down and die in peace."

And if indeed the political leadership has lost the will to live, then there's little we can do on the outside unless a new generation arises - quickly!

Excellent article, Seth.

Olmert's words are chilling. Defeatist - almost "European" sounding. Why the Israelis elected him is beyond me.


I cringed when I heard Condi Rice's words regarding Palestine. This is one of the reasons why many Conservatives are fed up with the Republicans. Yet I will still vote for them because the alternative is worse.


I can't for the life of me understand why so many American Jews are leftist when it's so apparent that the Left would not blink an eye if Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, were annihilated by its hostile neighbors. Is this also a form of self loathing?


In my town we have a local movie theatre who is owned by a Jewish man who is very liberal, and he constantly shows films which are very left leaning and pro Palestine. He also has guest speakers who also spout their leftwing ideology which is anti Israel. He's a nice guy, and a good local businessman, but what the hell? Why would he support this? Makes no sense to me.


But then, most Liberals don't make sense.

Civil Truth --

In times of leadership with spine, the Israelis would have waited until the Aster-15 systems were set up and fully operational, then sent in commando units to destroy them. Today, under the dubious leadership of Olmert and his merry men, they'll probably simply ground recon flights.

...what is now looking to be increasing hostility of the entire world. We have the global MSM and the accusations that Israel's discontinued defensive action in Lebanon were "disproportionate" to thank for that. As is always the case, atrocities against Israelis by Islamic terrorists are ignored, and the resulting picture is one of Israel being the evil aggressor while the Muslim terrorists and their Islamic supporters are unjustly put-upon victims.

As I wrote above, I give as much blame to Israel for these problems as I do anyone else: Like our own administration, theirs does not ably communicate its own side of things while its enemies conduct a full scale propaganda war. The result of this relative silence is defeat in the battle for public opinion.

Netaniahu, or even Sharon before his spine fell out, would have been aggressively vocal where it counted -- Olmert seems to have developed laryngitis or, as his recent statements and actions suggest, simply thrown in the towel(which is only good for any nearby Arab in need of a hat).

Israel also needs to strengthen its ties with supportive American Jews to counter the anti-Israel rhetoric coming from the left, including the Jews who are inexplicably hostile to them.

The big problem here is time, which we have allowed to grow incredibly short by permitting so many simultaneous 11th Hour situations to manifest themselves via our lack of adequate and forceful pre-emptive measures.

Atheling 2 --

The Israelis inherited Olmert when Sharon's health deteriorated. However, had they been a little smarter as a collective population than they apparently are today, they would have dumped him. He is, as they say, "giving away the farm".

I really don't know what to say about my fellow American Jews who have taken such aggressive anti-Israel positions, except that they make me ashamed and that I believe they are garbage in every sense of the word. Those that work actively against Israel have no right calling themselves Jews, period, and should not be welcome in Israel should they decide to go there.

It is sad, Seth, that there are so many American so-called Jews working actively against Israel. To me, "liberal Jew" is an oxymoron, just like conservative liberal would be! The Jewish people have always been steeped in many beautiful traditions, at least I always thought so until I began blogging.

Well, about all I can say is G-d is watching.

Blessings.

Gayle --

Judaism does have a lot of beautiful traditions -- the liberals in question have no business calling themselves Jews.

Last Saturday afternoon, an acquaintance of mine called, and we chatted for a while. She eventually brought our conversation around to politics, as she usually does. At one point, she asked me if I supported Israel these days. I replied in the affirmative. Then she said to me something like this: "Look at the bigger picture. The reason Muslims hate us is because the United States supports Israel." I was stunned! Such blatant anti-Semitism and ignorance of world events! This from a woman who attends a church where exactly the opposite is preached--I know this for a fact.

She then proceed to defend Muslims, in particular Pseudostinians, as oppressed and victims of prejudice. In the process of her defense, she called Muslim a race. I set her straight on that and also gave her a little history lesson, the latter showing that Muslim hatred of all non-Muslims well predates the founding of the modern nation of Israel.

Now, here's the thing about this woman. She considers herself a staunch conservative. And she doesn't pay much attention to the msm (I'm not sure what exactly she IS reading, probably some kind of weird Armageddon stuff, but I don't know for certain). She didn't attend a leftist university; I think she went to Falwell's Liberty University to get a nursing degree. Nevertheless, she's swallowed the propaganda about disenfranchised Pseudostinians.

I know that she's not wrapped quite right--through absolutely no fault of her own. But still...

The conversation dismayed me. I don't expect the left to support our one true ally in the Middle East, but I admit that I'm stunned that someone whom I know to be a conservative would voice the idiocy I heard.

Addendum:

She actually believes that if the United States were to withdraw all support of Israel all would be hunky-dory with the Muslims inside Western borders.

Zionism is a disease that must be crushed by force.
End Zionism now!
antizionistjews.blogspot.com

AOW --

Your friend has undoubtedly been reading or listening to either the leftist BS or the Muslim propaganda that seeks to hide the true intentions of Islam, by blaming terrorism on our presence in Iraq, our support of Israel, etc -- she's obviously one of those who number among the duller knives in the drawer, as like the rest of those who listen to that mallarkey, she seems to forget that, as you told her, jihad has been going on for 14 centuries, not just since Israel became a state.

Finkelstein --

Normally, I welcome first-time commenters to Hard Astarboard, though in your case, while I will always listen to what a commenter, no matter how misguided or in opposition to my own views he or she may be, has to say, I do not consider your ilk fit to call yourselves either Jews or Americans -- to me, your kind is a non-person who is, and I say this without the deaf ears you mention in a post I read at your site, beneath the contempt of any true Jew.

I notice that in your profile, you identify both the Torah and the Koran as your favorite books, an interesting choice.

Every religion has its tunnel vision afflicted zealots, such as yourself, who will focus on one scriptural event and amplify it to fill their entire belief envelope, then dismiss all else as unimportant.

Do you truly think that Islam would see the United States as any different if we did not support Israel? You are obviously an ignorant person, I suppose these days anyone can become a college professor.

Israel or no Israel, the United States represents everything the Muslims hate, especially the rights to think, speak and worship freely -- do you think that Islam would spare you the choice between death, dhimmitude and conversion were they to realize their religious ambition of world domination and the imposition of Sharia law upon everybody?

Let me add "idiot" to the above.

Zionism took nothing from anybody -- the "Palestinians" were not a sovereign people settled on a sovereign land, they were the unwanted among the Arab nations. They had nothing, cultivated nothing, built nothing -- it was only after Israel achieved statehood that they were "created" as a tool to be used against Israel. I would suggest that you mark your places in the Torah and the Koran and try reading some history.

Your kind are pure filth, and you insult all of Judaism when you dare refer to yourselves as Jews. And yes, you are a traitor to our people and an enemy of Israel, no matter how you might describe those of us who call you and your kind what you are.

Now crawl back into your Koran in your dark little room and drool quietly, there's a good ben zona.

Seth, Ouch! :)


Nathan, do you enjoy being a useful idiot? You know they'd cut your head off in a New York minute if they could.

Atheling2 --

Scum like this Nathan Finkelstein are just what his name implies -- finks.

They sell out their own people and their own heritage because they can't live within their own skin, knowing they are the cowardly feces they are and thinking they can curry favor with those who would wipe out followers of their religion if given the chance. They are lowlife pieces of dung.

Click on the Islamofascist collaborator's nic and check out his picture on his website -- his face is the countenance of a Judas, of a sleazy little worm that would take the appendage of a pig in its mouth rather than be beaten by any entity that claimed to be the master of his kind, or sell out his own mother for 50 cents.

This disgusting organism needs to be taken out and drowned, slowly...

You know I tolerate and debate dissenting opinion, but the likes of this... Finkelstein? He is every Islamic terrorist's dream come true, the infidel who would throw himself on his knees at first contact and plead for dhimmitude.

He is one of those spineless maggots, spawned by spineless maggot parents and spineless maggot generations, who deserves no human considerations of any kind and certainly no mercy. I pray that he has not fathered any children, because like him, they will grow up to be fiends of Satan.

Have I in any way come across as critical of any aspect of Finkelstein's existence?

Seth,

You definitely missed out on a promising (though hazardous) career as a speechwriter for Hamas, et al. -- all you'd have to do is change a few nouns. Or have you been taking Diplomacy 101 at your friendly neighborhood madrassa?

Civil Truth --

Sorry.

This Finkelstein creature is one of my so-called fellow Jews who uses his "Jewishness" as a badge of credibility to erode U.S.-Israeli relations. His kind are the ones who succeed and do real damage. I am not one to lose it like that as a rule, but this pestilence is one of the few inspirations for exception to the rule...

Seth,

No apology is necessary. Your imprecation was a throwback to speeches I've read by 19th century orators, who in the absence of the film media had to paint pictures with their words. However, a truly inspired imprecation needs to be a bit more disciplined.

Of course, that's not entirely your fault, as the art of imprecation has been largely lost in the modern West, although this tradition remains quite alive in the Islamic world. In addition to the rhetoric we hear from Iran, Hamas, Hizbollah, etc., MEMRI has many such (translated) examples from sermons and other speeches/articles in Arabic, which we ignore at our peril. The Psalms also contain some delicious imprecations (definitely not rated PC)...

Civil Truth --

Perhaps that's another reason liberals are so anti-Judeo-Christian venues: Because the Bible and political correctness have nothing in common, heh.

Finklestein seems to have blocked my IP address from accessing his site, probably because I left a comment there -- though nothing as "aggressive" as my reply to his comment here.

Typical -- he was probably beaten up a lot as a kid, and learned to hide as his primary means of self defense. Cowards are as cowards be.

I have long been endeavoring to complete a couple of novels to my satisfaction, and at times do have a flair for the dramatic -- when my ire is piqued, as it was on reading the Fink's little declaration, I kinda sorta erupted.

The alternative is war and no one wants that, and some want some want to avoid it so badly that they will create a fantasy world where the Muslims want peace. This is much easier than living in the real world where many Muzzies want us dead.

Shoprat --

Agreed. The problem, from the standpoint of the Utopians, is that when their dream becomes a nightmare, it will be one they'll find they can't wake up from.

While many people believe that you can't blame the ignorant, and that terrorists are 100% to blame for their "successful" operations, I tend to attach exactly as much blame on the useful idiots who allow it to happen as I do on the perpetrators -- they ignore the obvious in order to remain shielded from reality and somehow believe that this will protect them.

They are like someone hiding behind a thin tree that only conceals the middle of their face, and since they can't see beyond the tree, they believe no one on the other side of the tree can see them.