-
John Kerry, Secretary of Gaffes
April 25, 2013 | 9 comments
-
Rand Paul and Marco Rubio at CPAC
March 14, 2013 | 0 comments
-
SEQUESTER: The Dumbest Weight-Loss Plan Ever
March 1, 2013 | 0 comments
-
Israel’s Hard-Right Turn That Wasn’t
January 22, 2013 | 1 comment
-
Deep Space Nine, Twenty Years Later
January 3, 2013 | 23 comments
The Spectacle Blog
It’s a familiar ritual: Israel-haters at the UN push a resolution attacking the Jewish State, the US uses it’s veto. But the Obama administration really seems to hate the idea of sticking up for Israel:
The U.S. informed Arab governments Friday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity,” a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal…
Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East. In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel’s settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.
Shortly after it went up, that report — by UN reporter Colum Lynch at Foreign Policy — was updated to note that the Palestinians rejected Rice’s offer in a meeting tonight. But what an absurd offer to make. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) gets it exactly right:
This is too clever by half. Instead of doing the correct and principled thing and vetoing an inappropriate and wrong resolution, they now have opened the door to more and more anti-Israeli efforts coming to the floor of the U.N. The correct venue for discussions about settlements and the other aspects of a peace plan is at the negotiating table. Period.
This is a moment of uncertainty in the Middle East, with a wave of protest movements threatening the stability of autocrats across the region. If this leads to the opening of Arab societies, that’s a good thing in the long term (tyranny has bred radicalism; freedom is likely to breed moderation). But in the short term, a more democratic Arab world could be enormously destabilizating; people who have been fed decades of propaganda laden with Jew-hatred will be tempted to embrace a politics of confrontation with Israel. Maintaining Israel’s ability to project strength is the best bet for maintaining peace — Israel must be able to credibly say things like “You don’t like Camp David? We’ll be taking the Sinai back, then.” This is no time to be shy about reminding the world the the US has Israel’s back.
View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/16/fear-of-defending-israel
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Hook| 2.16.11 @ 9:04PM
I think Mr. Tabin could have gone even further. The Obama administration considers Israel a nuisance and probably would love to figure out a way to feed Israel to the Arabs "for peace." Israel is lucky that Obama is incompetent.
LeslieC| 2.16.11 @ 9:49PM
The poverty of the arguments is aptly illustrated by the first sentence: "Israel-haters at the UN push a resolution attacking the Jewish State, the US uses it's veto." First, textbook hasbara: immediate attribution of any criticism of Israel to "Israeli-haters," in an attempt to make people think twice about criticizing Israel. To back that up, there's the victim/guilt/fear card, in "attack...Jewish", a disingenuous attempt to link opposition to Zionist colonization and apartheid with anti-Semitism. The sentence ends with a sophomoric grammatical error -- "it's"(sic).
By adding nothing new or intelligent to discussion on Israel-Palestine, the American Spectator does not serve its readers, it serves propagandists.
ChristianLoveIsBest| 2.16.11 @ 11:37PM
Propagandists are quick to shout down the truth about Obama's tendency to betray America's friends in order to move his radical agenda.
D G Myers | 2.17.11 @ 6:10AM
LeslieC,
Disingenuously using a bit of Hebrew (hasbara) does not make you any less of an anti-Zionist. And to call Israel the Jewish state is hardly to play the “victim/guilt/fear card.” Israel just is the Jewish state. They are co-referential names.
(Why do Leftists find it clever to connect words by means of virigules, by the way? Do they think it improves their case to demonstrate that they can’t find the exact word?)
What you seem to miss is that Mr Tabin is not referring to you and your fellow Leftists as “Israel haters.” (If the shoe fits, however. . . .) The Palestinian Arab delegation to the UN and the other members of the self-described “Arab group” there are the “Israel haters” at issue here.
The one who is “adding nothing new or intelligent” is the one for whom the mere mention of Israel, any mention whatever, unleashes babble about conspiracies and hidden agendas and victim cards.
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:33PM
Leslie, it's just that 99% of the critics of Israel that don't live in Israel proper are antisemites. Very few of them are not up to NO GOOD.
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:38PM
Dear LeslieL:
nice job supporting child rapists.
Nite| 2.16.11 @ 10:11PM
The Palestinians do not need land from Israel. The League of Nations gave Israel the land they have today. Palestinians were given Palestine, which is called Jordan today. However, the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza are not wanted there because they are trouble makers.
Stuart| 2.16.11 @ 10:14PM
"This is no time to be shy about reminding the world the
theUS has Israel's back."The world needs no reminding of the United State’s unconditional support of Israel’s racist apartheid regime or that the US preserves its interests in the region through the support of dictatorships. Unfortunately for Israel a democracy in Egypt means a government that will no longer cooperate with Israel’s policy of starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Hook| 2.17.11 @ 2:47AM
If Israel lay down its arms there would be genocide.
If the "Palestinians" who are really Jordanians did, there would be peace.
Just a teeny bit of anti Semitism in these comments.
Palestinians starving in Gaza? That is like saying black is white.
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:37PM
Please list the starvation victims.
Red Phillips | 2.16.11 @ 10:34PM
Of course as a conservative, I'm sure Mr. Tabin understands that the conservative position on the UN is that America should withdraw from this sovereignty sacrificing abomination immediately and should have never joined in the first place. So what the UN Security Council has to say is of little to no concern of ours. I'm just not sure why he wrote this whole blog post without mentioning this fact as if conservatives should be concerned about it. An oversight I guess.
ChristianLoveIsBest| 2.16.11 @ 11:26PM
America must stand together with Israel and win the war for our mutual survival.
Hex| 2.17.11 @ 3:32AM
"But the Obama administration really seems to hate the idea of sticking up for Israel"
That's an inventive description. An alternate one would be "OMG look what's happened this one time out of 1000 for the first time ever"
Quite the trend there.
Conservative Bob| 2.17.11 @ 8:27AM
John, I think you understate the situation relative to the people of Egypt having "been fed decades of propaganda laden with Jew-hatred" read the Koran and the history of the Prophet and I think you will find it goes back a bit further and is substantially more widespread.
The Muslim Brotherhood hated Jews before there was an Israel, how exactly did the settlements figure into that. Or better yet for those of you attacking Israel in these comments how exactly does that figure into the Racist Apartheid argument you spew. The hatred of Jews is central to Islam.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.17.11 @ 8:36AM
Conservative Bob,
thank you for tying a bow on the package.
Jew haters can't get their head out of their butticious opinions. I just let them suffer in their e-coli.
Red Phillips | 2.17.11 @ 8:43AM
Ken, just to clarify, as a conservative you surely understand that the US has no business being in the UN, don't you?
Conservative Bob| 2.17.11 @ 9:24AM
I would like us out of the UN and the UN out of the USA... Anti free market, anti US , corrupt ineffective do nothing waste of money organization. Welfare for the corrupt relatives of the dictators of the world... not worth a dime of tax payer money.
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:34PM
I'd be happy to be out of the UN. Unfortunately, the Security Council can authorize the use of military force.
Red, the Islamists are the new Communists. No more, but no less.
Steve J.| 2.17.11 @ 8:59AM
I think it's well past time that we let Israel fend for itself.
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:36PM
I think it's a great idea to isolate a state that has 150 plus nukes, according to Carter. A plus at Al-Azhar Uni, Mr. J.
Gareth| 2.17.11 @ 11:03AM
Rep Weiner: "The correct venue for discussions about settlements and the other aspects of a peace plan is at the negotiating table.".
Really? Even when the negotiating table is - and always has been - ridiculously tipped in favour of Israeli negotiators? Come on, America. This rhetoric only works when you're being even handed.
Approach the peace process with true balance, and you won't find people getting hysterical at the UN.
not beholden| 2.17.11 @ 4:18PM
American politicians are slavish in their support of Israel. We borrow money we don't have to give them and pay their friend to hang with them. You turn reason upside down. Apparently any glimmer of a lack of craven subordination to Israel is equal to throwing Israel under the bus. Alice in wonderland reasoning. No wonder Israel is undermining its position in the world, not to mention ours. And yet we are still not craven enough for you!
Occam's Tool| 2.18.11 @ 9:35PM
Dear not beholden,
you side with the child rapists then. Not using you as my babysitter.
Bigmo| 2.19.11 @ 5:18AM
Right, and also like the Palestinians, White Americans are being displaced by the Jewish establishment through their support and push of mass immigration to the US. The Jewish etsablishment want an ethno state in Israel but want a multi-cultural America where White Americans are no longer a majority.
America has now made it official. It has inherited the Jewish problem.