PrintJune 14, 2009
Bibi the Houdini?
What do you do when you have a Middle East ignoramus as the president of the most powerful nation on earth demanding absurd concessions from your country which you know would be disastrous to you? What do you do when at the same time you are under existential threat from a virulent enemy, but against which you are unable to fully act since the naivete of the most powerful country would only be definitively exposed by your very annihilation.
You try to explain to the ignorant humanity the history of the Arab/Muslim antagonism towards the Jews that predates the Six Day War. You try to put in as many truths about the history of the conflict, which much of the ignorant humanity hears for the first time, you try to explain the essence of the conflict which is that the Muslims never accepted the Jewish presence among them although Jews had a civilization here two millennia before the Islamic conquest. You try to put conditions to the creation of this Palestinian state by demilitarizing it and by asking it to accept the Jewish character of yours. You try to give all these explanations in hope that some will understand how absurd this vision of peace really is if the jihadist ideology is not confronted, yet at the same time you are bound to color your speech in the vision of hope and of peace. Because we live in a time when we are not free to say that two plus two make four.
Like in a Milan Kundera novel after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, where at workers' meetings everyone was supporting the Soviet invasion but everyone knew that everyone present was against it, and that made them feel even more humiliated, you talk of peace but you know that it will not come until the jihadists change their ways.
You stall. You say almost everything what is wanted from you, Palestinian flag, sovereignty, but you do not say the actual words. Words have meaning and you cannot square the circle. You know you that you have to concentrate on Iran and Iran alone. As for the rest you hope that when you resolve the problem of Iran, your stature as the leader of the free world will be confirmed. By then the American people will have waken from their trance and will have come to their senses, and then you will be able to tackle the rest of the issues.
It was not a Churchillian performance, although under the circumstances I am not sure how Churchill would have behaved. Even the Former Naval Person did have his difficult moments with President Roosevelt. But Houdini definitely comes to mind.
You try to explain to the ignorant humanity the history of the Arab/Muslim antagonism towards the Jews that predates the Six Day War. You try to put in as many truths about the history of the conflict, which much of the ignorant humanity hears for the first time, you try to explain the essence of the conflict which is that the Muslims never accepted the Jewish presence among them although Jews had a civilization here two millennia before the Islamic conquest. You try to put conditions to the creation of this Palestinian state by demilitarizing it and by asking it to accept the Jewish character of yours. You try to give all these explanations in hope that some will understand how absurd this vision of peace really is if the jihadist ideology is not confronted, yet at the same time you are bound to color your speech in the vision of hope and of peace. Because we live in a time when we are not free to say that two plus two make four.
Like in a Milan Kundera novel after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, where at workers' meetings everyone was supporting the Soviet invasion but everyone knew that everyone present was against it, and that made them feel even more humiliated, you talk of peace but you know that it will not come until the jihadists change their ways.
You stall. You say almost everything what is wanted from you, Palestinian flag, sovereignty, but you do not say the actual words. Words have meaning and you cannot square the circle. You know you that you have to concentrate on Iran and Iran alone. As for the rest you hope that when you resolve the problem of Iran, your stature as the leader of the free world will be confirmed. By then the American people will have waken from their trance and will have come to their senses, and then you will be able to tackle the rest of the issues.
It was not a Churchillian performance, although under the circumstances I am not sure how Churchill would have behaved. Even the Former Naval Person did have his difficult moments with President Roosevelt. But Houdini definitely comes to mind.
