Dog Wags Tail

In a reversal-of-stereotypes, I read via Kevin Drum the clearest expression yet of information that's been hinted at previously the U.S. government is actively pressing Israel not to negotiate with Syria. That's super-duper crazy.

See more, from M.J. Rosenberg. The episode serves as a reminder that unlike American Middle East hawks, Israelis actually have to live in the middle of the Arab world and are relatively ill-served by the sort of grandiose transformational schemes the administration likes to come up with the justify their increasingly rudderless approach to the region.

2/23/07 9:32AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

Israelis actually have to live in the middle of the Arab world and are relatively ill-served by the sort of grandiose transformational schemes the administration likes to come up with

Not just relatively (I assume you mean relative to us, the folks who don't have to live there). They are ill-served in absolute terms as well.

Posted by: dj moonbat on February 23, 2007 09:54 AM

but maybe if Israel and Syria don't talk, then maybe Syria will do something rash, like attack Israel, and then we can come to Israel's defense, and wage glorious (oh so glorious) WAR ON SYRIA! oh just imagine the lovely explosions, and the regime changing, and the piles of corpses, and the approval ratings...oh how lovely.

Posted by: cleek on February 23, 2007 09:55 AM

dj moonbat, how did you know exactly what i was going to write?

so let me turn to something else: it's not just a rhetorical device to describe cheney's foreign policy (because that's what this is ) as super-duper crazy. it's objectively true that cheney's foreign policy is super-duper crazy....

Posted by: howard on February 23, 2007 10:27 AM

Negotiations require concessions. Why share the pie when you can take it all via glorious (oh so glorious) war - ala cleek?

Girlie men.

Posted by: Eric Martin on February 23, 2007 10:32 AM

We use Syria to torture people and yet won't negotiate with them. That's really not dancing with the girl you came to the dance with.

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on February 23, 2007 10:45 AM

This is exactly what I mean when I tell people that the neocons are not even acting in Israel's self-interest. The whole idea of diplomacy is to, you know, talk to people. During the cold war we talked to the Russians, and the Chinese. Acting like they need to change before we talk to them is literally insane.

The best thing that could happen to Israel right now would be for it to disassociate itself with my right-wing co-religionists, who have done them no favors. Anyone want to talk about the neocons as anti-semites because what they do hurts Israel?

Posted by: IP Guy on February 23, 2007 11:00 AM

dj moonbat, how did you know exactly what i was going to write?

I keep my XM radio tuned to "howard jamz" all day.

Posted by: dj moonbat on February 23, 2007 11:07 AM

Re negotiations with Syria.

1. There is a good reason why the US, and in fact, its allies in the Middle East (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt) are opposed to Israel negotiating with Syria at this time. They lack confidence in Olmert who they think will sell out Lebanon if he thinks it would facilitate an agreement with Syria. This is based on his incompetence which was fully demonstrated in Lebanon last summer. Since he is currently at 19% in the polls (making even Dubya look like a popular leader), their reasoning is that he would try to rehabilitate himself by making a deal with Syria at Lebanons' expense.

2. Having read Mr. Rosenbergs' drivel on the Israelinsider and Jerusalem Post web sites, he is clearly a man living in a dream world and is thus totally inaccurate and unreliable.

Posted by: SLC on February 23, 2007 12:22 PM

Israel cannot be allowed peace

The obvious reasons for this, that AIPAC must be kept dependent on a hawkish US policy, and Israel continually in at least potential need of US rescue, are the least important. It takes two to tango, and the folks who want there to be permanent war between the US and radical Islam must make sure that radical Islam has motive to continue to hold up its end of the war, and gets enough support from the rest of Islam to give them the means and opportunity to continue the struggle. US support for the Zionist enterprise has a proven track record as the most effective means to this end. Israel cannot be allowed to settle into accommodation with its Arab neighbors, and become to the Islamic world just another foreign power, rather than the state that exists as the embodiment of the ongoing theft of Arab land, and whose existence is therefore ultimately intolerable.

Your idea that this policy is madness, and somehow not in the best interests of the US, is based on the shallow belief that permanent war is somehow not good for the US. Permanent war is what the continued Republican domination of this country depends on. Why do you hate America? Or, from a more rational perspective, when are you going to accept that this administration means exactly what it has been telling us all along?

Posted by: Glen Tomkins on February 23, 2007 09:27 PM

If Olmert resigned tomorrow and someone with actual support came into power in Israel, would the Bushies actually reverse themselves and support talks? I doubt it. There will always be an excuse not to have talks, such as the summer heat is too hot. People should have learned a long time ago neocons and such don't want Israel to have actual peace. They want Israel to either 1) be in a perpetual state of crisis to justify bad policies and boost their own careers or 2) be completely militarily dominant to the point that what Israel says will be done. 2 is probably never going to happen in the ME, so they're stuck with one. The Israel of their minds is militaristic and nativistic like old European nations. They cast Israel as a European country while ignoring the diversity of Israeli society and much of its current cosmopolitanism. Their Israel is not the Israel where in Jerusalem Arabs and Jews eat at the same falafel stands together. They purposely ignore the cosmopolitanism that Israel has and will be further capable of someday. Peace and cosmopolitanism help reinforce each other, but neocons can't have that apparently. Neocons are the ones who read racist drivel like The Arab Mind, after all. A cosmopolitan Israel at peace with its neighbors would be an Israel they would be completely unable to relate to.

Posted by: Reality Man on February 24, 2007 11:23 AM

And according to this story, what is the US threatening to do to Israel if Israel negotiates?

The tail is wagging the dog as usual. Israel has made a decision not to negotiate and is somehow blaming the US for it. Please don't buy into this nonsense.

Posted by: Arnold Evans on February 24, 2007 04:37 PM

Re Arnold Evans

As is usual with Israel bashers, Mr. Evans comment is seriously in error. The fact is that the countries not wanting Israel to negotiate with Syria are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, all of whom are scared sh**less of Iran and are furious at Syrias' alliance with that country and its meddling in Lebanon.

Posted by: SLC on February 24, 2007 09:10 PM

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