Posted on 09/13/2013 5:00:16 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place.
Strange. And it gets stranger still. That strike Syria, maybe speech begins with a heart-rending account of children consigned to a terrible death by a monster dropping poison gas. It proceeds to explain why such behavior must be punished. It culminates with the argument that the proper response the most effective way to uphold fundamental norms, indeed human decency is a flea bite: something limited, targeted or, as so memorably described by Secretary of State John Kerry, unbelievably small.
The mind reels, but theres more. We must respond but not yet. This Munich moment (Kerry again) demands first a pause to find accommodation with that very same toxin-wielding monster, by way of negotiations with his equally cynical, often shirtless, Kremlin patron bearing promises.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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CBS' Bob Simon's 60 Minutes segment, entitled Christians in the Holy Land-- wherein Simon, a Jewish American CBS correspondent, exposed the exodus of Christians a once-dominant community in Israel and laid it at the door of Israels policies toward all Palestinian-Christians.
CBS News---60 Minutes transcript--excerpt The exodus from the Holy Land of Palestinian Christians could eventually leave holy cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem without a local Christian population, Bob Simon reports. Why are they leaving? For some, life in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become too difficult. Simon states: but Palestinian Christians have been leaving in large numbers for years. So many, the Christian population there is down to less than two percent, and the prospect of holy sites, like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, without local Christians is looming as a real possibility.
Simon asks Eastern Orthodox figure Theophilos: When you first came here in 1964 what was the percentage of Christians in the old city?
Theophilos: There were around 30,000 of-- Christians living in the Old City.
Bob Simon: And now how many are there?
Theophilos: Very few. So few, some 11,000 Christians out of a population of almost 800,000 -- just one and a half percent.
Simon cites not only the occupation but also the Jewish communities: Palestinian Christians, once a powerful minority, are becoming the invisible people, squeezed between a growing Muslim majority and burgeoning Israeli settlements
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oron then told Bob Simon on-screen that lessening the Christian population in Israel was necessary---b/c "Israel has to defend its own interests."
Krauthammer at his best - this is a must read...
Every word is a gem.
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