Prof. Barry Rubin sums up the present situation, writing from Israel:
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Herzliya
Israel’s resolve is unbreakable. May I point out that it took far less than seven years from September 11 to the election of Senator Obama. Three thousand dead civilian Americans did not sustain majority support for a war against terrorism all that long. From Le Monde’s “we are all Americans” to its “we are all anti-Americans” (actually it took about a month). You can depend on Israel but can we depend on you (I speak nationally not of you as individuals, of course.).
We have some of our staff fighting in Gaza at this moment. Volunteering for combat units is at incredibly high levels and I know–because they told me so–that my children are ready to follow this tradition. We are putting in 17-hour workdays to try to combat the lies. Many families like us have volunteered to take people from the south into our homes to live with us if they want to leave to avoid the rocket fire. But guess what? Hardly anyone has agreed to leave their homes despite the rockets being shot at them. Except for a handful of extreme left academics and writers for Haaretz (who naturally have the op-ed columns of American and European newspapers opened to them) the country is united. It has no illusions about radical Islamism or Iran. It will be ready, if necessary, to attack Iranian nuclear installations (unless President Obama talks Tehran out of it, which gives you some sense of the outcome).
So please don’t underestimate Israelis and their resolve, especially while our people are fighting thirty miles from where I am writing this. This is not your conception of Israel as of, say, 1995. A huge majority supports the war–and that’s not just verbal but putting their lives on the line. One month from today Israelis will elect Bibi Netanyahu–not Senator Obama or Nicholas Sarkozy–as leader of the country. So please keep in mind where the criticism should be put, even as the secretary-general of the UN who embraced Iran’s president compares Israel to Nazi Germany and when we don’t know whether we can even depend on the United States to support us ten days from today.
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Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
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Posted by JonJayRay on January 13, 2009 9:25 am
» Filed Under 9-11, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Hamas/Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Islamicfascism, Israel, Liberal Media/Bias, Middle East, National Security, News, The United States of America, UN, gaza, liberalism, military, terrorism
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