The false choice

The New York Times has an article about how more and more people are talking about Israel as a strategic liability for the US. The number of problems with the article are numerous.

Among other things, it includes the false use of the term "Arab East Jerusalem" - which include neighborhoods that are wholly Jewish, neighborhoods that are not in the eastern part of Jerusalem, and implies that "East Jerusalem" is a different city than "West Jerusalem," as if the aberration of 19 years of a divided city, which ended 43 years ago, where the eastern part was Judenrein is the status quo ante that must be adhered to forever.

It invokes the tired and absurd idea of "linkage" where supposedly Israeli actions are behind the worldwide Muslim and Arab anger at the West, an idea that is equally ridiculous, easily rebutted and yet well-entrenched in the current administration.

It ends off with a quote from Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation and a member of J Street - a representative of the liberal, anti-Israel stream of Jews emboldened by Obama's policies of conciliation with those who hate us.

He says,

America has three choices. Either say, it’s politically too hot a potato to touch, and just pay the consequences in the rest of the world. Or try to force through a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, so that the Palestinian grievance issue is no longer a driving force or problem.” The third choice, he said, “is for America to say, we can’t solve it, but we can’t pay the consequences, so we will distance ourselves from Israel. That way America would no longer be seen, as it has been this week, as the enabler of excesses of Israeli misbehavior.

From his perspective, these are indeed the only choices America has. That is because the most obvious and effective choice has been all but shouted down by the left and center-leaning media.

The real option is none of the above.

America is the only superpower and as such it must be the leader, not the follower. To appease those whose philosophies are against American values is not to lead but to be held hostage to extremists. Anyone who makes enough noise now has veto power over US decisions, because the desire to be loved is outweighing the mandate to do what is right.

Levy makes a fatal assumption: that if a peace deal is forced through, the "the Palestinian grievance issue" would go away or be greatly reduced. History shows that the exact opposite is the case, and making that assumption is wishful thinking replacing real thought.

Israel withdrew from Lebanon, completely. Hezbollah was not weakened by that move - on the contrary, it has stayed at least as radical as ever, and based on its rhetoric, maybe more so.

Israel withdrew from Gaza. The vacuum was not replaced by an America-loving moderate Arab government, but by an Iranian-leaning radical terror organization. It did not reduce friction - it increased it, although it made Westerners very happy.

Today's Pearls Before Swine comic strip helps show the absurdity of the new realism that demands real compromises from only one side, in the name of "peace". (Whether Stephen Pastis' use of the name "Potus" was an intentional dig at Obama or not is open to question.)

It is too bad that so many, including so many Jews, cannot see the obvious truths and replace it with their hopes and dreams - disregarding the dangers of their wishful thinking.