I’m sure you recall—it was only yesterday—that House
minority leader Nancy Pelosi claimed to have been almost in tears at Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to the Congress.
Pelosi was insulted to see a foreign leader
suggesting that she and her president and even her nation did not understand
the threat posed by Iran. No no one insults the intelligence of Nancy Pelosi with impunity. How dare Netanyahu accuse her of being naïve about
such a serious foreign policy issue?
The condescension was too much for her psyche to
bear. She was forced to hold back the tears. Between us, the normal reaction to an insult is more anger than tears.
For those who like to keep things in perspective, the Wall Street Journal editorialized this morning about Pelosi’s: “… most significant foray into Mideast politics.”
The Journal reminds us:
Shortly
after becoming House Speaker in 2007, Mrs. Pelosi led a Congressional
delegation to meet Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. “We were very
pleased with the assurances we received from [ Mr. Assad ] that he was ready to
resume the peace process,” she reported after shaking hands with the dictator
and adversary of America.
The
visit was seen at the time as a rebuke to the Bush Administration, which was
then trying to isolate Assad for the safe harbor he provided jihadists on their
way to joining the insurgency in Iraq, his military support for Hezbollah, his
depredations in Lebanon and his covert efforts to build a nuclear reactor with
the help of North Korea.
Assad’s
nuclear gambit wasn’t known at the time—it took an Israeli bombing run later
that year to expose its existence. But the rest of Mr. Assad’s behavior was no
secret even then, long before his name became associated with killing his
people with sarin gas and barrel bombs.
Oh well. No one is right all the time.
At the least, we understand why the Israeli prime minister
might have imagined that certain powerful Americans did not understand the politics of the Middle East. If his was an error, it was surely forgivable.
1 comment:
Bibi had every reason to believe that our government officials don't understand the Middle East, and don't care.
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