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Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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This is a surprise?

What we don’t need is some kind of early warning mechanism there, what we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation. Putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import ; it may more crucially mean sacrificing — or investing, I think, more than sacrificing — billions of dollars , not in servicing Israel’s military, but actually investing in the new state of Palestine , in investing the billions of dollars it would probably take, also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force , not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence . Because it seems to me at this stage (and this is true of actual genocides as well, and not just major human rights abuses, which were seen there), you have to go in as if you’re serious , you have to put something on the line.
Unfortunately, imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful. It’s a terrible thing to do, it’s fundamentally undemocratic. But, sadly, we don’t just have a democracy here either, we have a liberal democracy . There are certain sets of principles that guide our policy, or that are meant to, anyway. It’s essential that some set of principles becomes the benchmark, rather than a deference to [leaders] who are fundamentally politically destined to destroy the lives of their own people. And by that I mean what Tom Freidman has called “Sharafat.” [Sharon-Arafat; this is actually an Amos Oz construction -- NP] I do think in that sense, both political leaders have been dreadfully irresponsible. And, unfortunately, it does require external intervention.
Samantha Power
Director for Multilateral Affairs, National Security Council

Yes, she's acknowledged she made a mistake, not much else she could have done after the Jenin "massacre" was proved to be a fraud, but this would have been her advice to the President had she been on the NSC at the time, and American troops would have been invading Israel and the West Bank before the fraud was widely known in the Israel hating community. Go to war with Israel, that's the kind of advice BHO values. If it's a mistake, so what.