My Great Good Friends,
Thanks to brother Emil having posted these opinion pieces in chronological order, (SPQR.today) the dialogue has become a more holistic discussion and less a single ‘point at issue’ debate.
For example, possibly due to the heavy pour at The Palm, Andrew challenged my assertion that the Israelis would become more, not less assertive in confronting BDS with the end of the Obama administration. My parry riposte is reproduced below.
In an unprecedented series of long open forum discussions with various conservative Jewish media outlets (the most recent was five and a half hours on August 23rd) Prime Minister Netanyahu has been waxing philosophical on how he outlasted the Obama administration.
Ranging from the ‘poor little me’ version; “…President Obama told me at our very first meeting that the US demands that Israel stop building everywhere in Judea and Samaria. I asked him about (lists various areas) that will obviously remain part of Israel… He refused to hear about it.” He goes on to say the President “marked” him from the outset as to blame for the lack of a working relationship. Ahhh, poor baby.
To the conveniently forgetful version, omitting his histrionics vis first promising to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities (didn’t happen) and blocking Americas rapprochement with Iran as an ‘existential treat’ (more on that later) to Israel, (yeah, also didn’t happen).
He then, (ironically for the leader of a parliamentary system based upon stitching coalitions together) attempts to degrade the power of the American Presidency, which as you know in matters of international affairs is virtually unfettered. Specifically he has the hootspah (chutzpah Ed.) to say; “The President is not a one man show. There is public opinion, there is congress, there is the media. You have to use the entire system.” Which his fifth columnists in all of the above certainly did, however the President still prevailed. Meaning, I doubt the idiots in Congress will re-invite him to address a joint session in an attempt to end run a President.
Adding academia to the list of traditionally supportive disciplines, in another section of his comments, going on about how much he is liked in America he concedes; “While it’s true that we have a problem on the campuses…” Which has to be the greatest possible compliment to the BDS movement.
And finally to his phony bravado denouement, full of the self aggrandizing half truths I have often exposed, he maintains it is an Israeli success that the US security aid was set at $4.5B per year for the next decade. “We sealed the deal midway, and in my opinion, that is more than reasonable.” he said, unless of course one remembers his adamant refusal to begin negotiations until after the administration closed the Iranian deal. A tactical mistake defense analysts estimate at a $10B loss to his country.
The relevance of his manipulation of the facts will become obvious as his media shills here begin repeating his $45B end zone dance.
And, although it’s in the public domain, I’ll bet we don’t hear that his ‘victory’ agreement also includes:
- ending the additional $.4B to $.7B annual aid for Iron Dome
- ending all military and security funding outside of the agreement, and
- reducing to zero the 25% of the aid now permissibly allocated to Israeli defense contractors. Which, just happens to coincide with the largest segment of Israeli defense industry revenues.
AnyHowitzer, back to his favorite tune: X, Y, and/or Z are an ‘existential threat’ to Israel. Since you’re probably tired of my debunking that trope try this on:
In an August 30th article in the Jerusalem Post entitled “Ex Mossad Chief says Israel’s biggest threat is potential civil war not Iran”. From the article; Tamir Pardo in his first public appearance since leaving office in June of this year says the most pressing threat is increased polarization within Israeli society.
“There is no outside existential threat to Israel, the only real existential threat is the internal division.” Pardo said. He went on; “When a society crosses a certain line in its division and hatred then there is a real possibility to see a phenomenon like a civil war.” “Internal division can lead to civil war – we are already on a path towards that”.
Well I guess if anyone, the Chief of Mossad should know how much of the Likud monolithic image we are fed here is bullshit.
-ATN
As much as I admire the Penguin Grips I shared in my May ’15 post, the example below is a particular favorite as it was my first attempt at hand carving a pair myself.
