Victor Davis Hanson: When Should We Stop Supporting Israel?

VDH ^ | March 28, 2004 | Victor Davis Hanson

[quidnunc]

The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman raises among some Americans the question — at what point should we reconsider our rather blanket support for the Israelis and show a more even-handed attitude toward the Palestinians? The answer, it seems to me, should be assessed in cultural, economic, political, and social terms.

Well, we should no longer support Israel, when…

Mr. Sharon suspends all elections and plans a decade of unquestioned rule.

Mr. Sharon suspends all investigation about fiscal impropriety as his family members spend millions of Israeli aid money in Paris.

All Israeli television and newspapers are censored by the Likud party.

Israeli hit teams enter the West Bank with the precise intention of targeting and blowing up Arab women and children.

Preteen Israeli children are apprehended with bombs under their shirts on their way to the West Bank to murder Palestinian families.

Israeli crowds rush into the street to dip their hands into the blood of their dead and march en masse chanting mass murder to the Palestinians.

Rabbis give public sermons in which they characterize Palestinians as the children of pigs and monkeys.

-snip-

[Quix]

WHEN should we stop supporting Israel?

WHEN HELL BECOMES A SOLID BLOCK OF ICE!!!!!!

1. Either there is such a thing as authority--even ULTIMATE, ALMIGHTY AUTHORITY

OR

ALL IS OR WILL SHORTLY BE, CHAOS.

2. Evidences exceedingly indicates there is a very viable concept and reality labeled authority.

3. THE BOSS says that those who bless, support are friendly with ISRAEL

HE WILL BLESS.

4. Wisdom chooses to go with THE ALL WISE, ALL POWERFUL, LOVING, JUST, ALL KNOWING

BOSS

. . . otherwise known as GOD ALMIGHTY, FATHER GOD.

i really don't know what's so difficult about such a conclusion.

[KC_for_Freedom]

To some it has; to a lot of others it appears they still believe we asked for it.

To the left this is one of their spin points, but most know it is a losing arguement. Now most are more aligned with the concept that we should abet the greatest good for the greatest number and since there are far more muslims than Jews, (and far more arabs than Israelis.) we should give in to world opinion. This too is a losing arguement once one adds morality, and the world would not be a fit place to live without morality, but the left does not see this.

[Mr. Silverback]

The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman

Bwahaha! Does Hanson read FR or is the resemblance just that bleedin obvious? Heck, that answer could go either way, but if VDH is reading this, I'd just like to say he's 100% good stuff.

[Mr. Silverback]

It it always in America's interest to do the right thing, even when it's hard, or not in her immediate interest.

[Mr. Silverback]

Admin, please edit out post #34. Thank you.

Seconded!

Paulie, please read An Autumn of War. Thank you.

[Mr. Silverback]

I am NOT nitpicking about spelling, I just got a really amusing mental image from this:

Don't forget the million or so Palestinian refugees sitting out there in the dessert waiting to return.

Marge: Grandpa, did you sit in that pie?
Grandpa: I sure hope so!

[Cinnamon Girl]

I was just wondering that! It's kind of funny how the Saruman comparison has been so widely accepted. ;)

[Mr. Silverback]

I'm sure that's part of it, but if Israel disappeared tomorrow, I think they'd still hate us and want to destroy us.

Absolutely. First there's the religious aspect. The radical Islamists believe we are worthy of death, and it's not because we like "Da Joooooz" it's because we are not radical Islamists. Second, there's the distraction factor. In order to treat their populations the way they do and live high on the hog, Arafat and his fellow Arab tinpots have to blame their subjects' plight on someone. Right now it's "Da Joooooz" but if Israel disappeared tomorrow they would have to find a new scapegoat, and we're easily the most convenient one.

[general_re]

Perhaps. It's still wise to consider things on a case-by-case basis, I think.

[general_re]

I agree.

[Mr. Silverback]

Hanson never met a war he didn't like.

Please, share your vast wisdom with us!

What is Israel supposed to do in response to her women and children being killed in her streets?

Why is America supposed to abandon her when her enemies are the same people who have killed Americans, like, oh Leon Klinghoffer?

And tell me, have you ever met a terrorist Jew-killer you didn't like didn't apologize for wouldn't oppose?

[Austin Willard Wright]

I will ignore your last line (perhaps you have been drinking too much coffee)....and treat your argument seriously.

Israel is perfectly free to defend itself but after over 100 billion dollars of aid since 1947, it should no longer be given a free ride off the American taxpayers. Our support for Israel (not to mention Egypt or Saudi Arabia) has only drawn us into ancient Middle East blood feuds and thus detracted from American defense needs.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

Its very unfortunate that this person took a completely legitimate question and ruined it by inserting ludicrously extreme straw-man scenarios.

[Austin Willard Wright]

True, but my point was entirely serious. If someone can show me that Victor "bear any burden and pay any price" Hanson opposed a single war ever fought by Americans, I'll issue a humble apology for defaming him.

[iconoclast]

We intjected Israel in their little world that injected our influence into the middle east to a much larger degree than it ever was.

Yes, and that interjection was conceived in and of the same kind of starry-eyed optimism that triggered the presumptive invasion of Iraq and the mind-boggling anticipation that these people of a primitive culture would WELCOME our dragging them into the twenty-first century.

[quidnunc]

Dr._Joseph_Warren wrote: Its very unfortunate that this person took a completely legitimate question and ruined it by inserting ludicrously extreme straw-man scenarios.

Bullbleep!

What Hanson is saying that we should support Israel because they don't act like Palestinians, and we shouldn't support the Palestinians because they do act as they do.

I don't see any straw men there — or anything to quarrel with either.

[quidnunc]

Austin Willard Wright wrote: True, but my point was entirely serious. If someone can show me that Victor "bear any burden and pay any price" Hanson opposed a single war ever fought by Americans, I'll issue a humble apology for defaming him.

This whole conversation is nonsensical since I have never seen Dr. Hanson pass judgement on most of the wars in which we have fought.

I suppose that he's mostly non-judgemental because he takes the view of most historians that what's past is past and there's no sense pontificating about what can't ber changed.

The terror war, on the other hand, is still ongoing and he probably feels he needs to weigh in with some of the lessons which history has taught us.

[WhiteGuy]

Cut 'em off now.

Foreign welfare is just as wrong as domestic welfare.

They can take care of themselves.

Without our meddling, they will solve their "arab problem" once and for all.

[A CA Guy]

Victor Davis Hanson: When Should We Stop Supporting Israel?

When hell freezes over.

[Mr. Silverback]

True enough.