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Friday in New York City the prime minister of Israel laid down the gauntlet, for America and the world to see. As it racks up an increasingly impressive number of successes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, it gains respect and even admiration in the international community.
The London Telegraph wrote this:
The implications of today’s action cannot be understated. Israel has seized the initiative in the most extraordinary manner, and this demonstration of military brilliance may well even convince Tehran to direct its other terror proxy Hamas to release the remaining hostages and sue for peace across the region. We can only hope.
Israel’s success in Lebanon, from the exploding pagers attack to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was done on its own initiative. The Biden administration was not informed and did not participate.
Naturally, this torques those who belong to the whiners’ chorus, led by New York Times columnist Tommy Friedman. Where Israel chalks up more and more successes, Tommy believes that Israel has chalked up more and more failures. The reason, it has not listened to the Biden counsel of cowardice and the whining of Tommy Friedman himself. He believes that Israel has set out on a “road to ruin encircled by a ring of fire” that will ultimately destroy the nation. He, like the Biden team, continue to drool over the prospect of a cease fire.
At a time when Israel has taken the fight to Hezbollah and has shown superior military abilities, this defeatest rhetoric is the last thing anyone needs. People should feel proud of Israel and should feel pride in their successes. Only the cowardly lions of the Biden administration are upset to see what is happening.
With friends like that, you do not need enemies. Because after all, the Tommy approach is simply to surrender. It makes a certain amount of sense, since America has not been winning too many wars lately. The Biden administration has presided over some very serious chaos, in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe, but when Israel decides that it will do what it has to do in order to win, the Biden flunkies take out their whining towels and offer the road to retreat.
So, Tommy says that Israel is a pariah state. As for Hamas, the Saudis told Israel, via back channels, to “waste” Hamas. Anyone who knows the least smidgeon about Middle East politics knows that the Saudis despise the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and also the Iranian proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis.
We recall that when Egyptians voted for a president who had been a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, that is, Mohamed Morsi, the Saudis cut off Egypt’s credit line, and thus its access to grain. Facing mass starvation, the military mounted a coup and installed General al Sisi.
And we also know that when the Israelis killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran the Saudi Crown Prince declared that no one in the kingdom would be allowed to mourn his death.
Surely, the Saudis are not grieving the death of Hassan Hasrallah. They have never wanted to have anything to do with the Iran-backed madness.
It might be less than overt support, but to say that Israel is a pariah state feels like wishful thinking by Tommy Friedman. He is saying, in a not very subtle way, that Israel must be punished for not following his lame advice.
As of now Tommy counts as one of the few remaining nitwits who still believe in the two state solution. He considers that the root of the problem in Gaza is Israeli intransigence, an unwillingness to allow moderate Palestinians to rule that swath of land. He must be the only person who believes in the myth of moderate Palestinians and who believes that a Hamas that survives the Israeli attack will be more willing to compromise and to live in peace.
Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration to get Israel to surrender, that small beleaguered nation is showing the world that it commands its own destiny. Consider how much better it would be doing if the Biden team had not stopped sending it certain armaments and munitions.
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5 comments:
Friedman should change his last name to Chamberlain.
"may well even convince Tehran to direct its other terror proxy Hamas to release the remaining hostages and sue for peace across the region."
Interesting, but doubtful. That is the thought process contained in the Dahiyeh Doctrine: "harm the civilian population so much that they will then turn against the militants, forcing the enemy to sue for peace." And Nasrallah was bombed in Dahiyeh, with over 500 civilian collateral deaths, so it makes sense the writer would look to the doctrine to explain the collateral.
But before you say Hezbollah hides itself amongst civilians and for that reason it is their fault so many civilians died, I'd simply point out that IDF intelligence is also headquartered in Tel Aviv, British Intelligence in London, French Intelligence in Paris, and so on. Its a bunk argument. Every political figure is surrounded by civilians in city centers.
Shin Bet proved it was able to shoot a guided missile from the mountaintops of Tehran, through an apartment window, directly at Ismael Haniyeh's head. Killing him without leveling a city block, as happened in Dahiyeh.
So, my guess is support for Hezbollah will grow as recruitment for Hamas has grown. Every time Israel makes an orphan they make a soldier. De-escalation by escalation is a dubious concept in this context.
I dunno, Realist. But Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pretty de-escalating and that, I think, is what Iran fears. That, or the loss of its oil fields and uranium refineries.
My hometown is Toronto. I still have friends and relatives there, and often have voice communications with them.
A friend was telling me he went to a party on the Lakeshore last Saturday (Sept. 28). He was invited by a neighbour. It was spread by word of mouth and very impromptu. He ate lots of pastries and sweets, drank lots of scented tea.
Hundreds of Iranians celebrating the death of the hizbollah leader. People waving pre-revolutionary Iranian and Israeli flags. Chants of "Thank you Netanyahu!"
This party was not and will not be reported by the mainstream media.
Just how much influence and control Iran has over Hezbollah, Hamas, and Ansarallah is something of an unknown but I suspect it to be overstated.
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