Posted on 01/01/2009 5:43:04 AM PST by Kaslin
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Does anyone know the name of the National Public Radio interviewer who was so disdainful of Israel's ambassador to the United States on the morning of Dec. 31? I missed his name. I would like to give him an award for sarcasm, rudeness and, well, controlled rage. Maybe he would accept my shoes.
The interviewer is perhaps a graduate of one of our country's esteemed anger management centers. Very theatrically, he cut the Israeli ambassador off in the midst of the ambassador's variations on the theme of peace and goodwill and that sort of thing.
I wonder what made the NPR catastrophist so angry. I can understand the professional journalist suffering some mild pique. The ambassador obviously was not giving him the answers he sought. Yet this fellow was downright contemptuous. To employ a word currently in fashion, I would say his response to the Israeli ambassador was disproportional.
It is dreadful that Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth, is under heavy aerial bombardment from Israel. Yet Hamas, the governing entity in Gaza, has been lobbing shrapnel-filled missiles into Israel on a regular basis for months. Two weeks ago, Hamas arbitrarily broke its six-month ceasefire with Israel, and the danger to Israeli life and property has gotten worse. How many missiles is Israel to suffer before it is warranted to defend its territory and its people?
Now that word "disproportional" is being raised among foreign policy elites. Israeli air strikes since Saturday have killed several hundred Palestinians and injured several thousand. So we are hearing that the Israeli actions are "disproportional."
I can almost imagine a learned seminar being convened here in Washington wherein the assembled gogues excogitate precisely how many incoming Hamas missiles will warrant one air strike or more. And how will these advocates of proportionality factor in the targets of the Israeli air strikes?
It is tragic that Palestinian civilians are dying, but Hamas locates its military installations and administrative facilities in civilian areas precisely to dissuade Israel from attacking Hamas as it insouciantly bombards Israel, its soldiers and, more frequently, its civilians.
A couple of decades back, I wrote that the Palestinian terrorists -- and Hamas is a fully accredited terrorist group -- were the only fighters I knew of that target civilians rather than soldiers. That was pretty much true back then. Yet as terrorist organizations have proliferated, the targeting solely of civilians has become widespread throughout the world. Now apparently the civilized world has become accustomed to this outrage. Yet it is to Israel's credit that it remains outraged by a terrorist group that would target noncombatants for strategic purposes.
I have no idea how many Hamas strikes against civilians warrant how many Israeli acts of retribution. Frankly, such calculations seem to me as beside the point. The real question is how many Israeli strikes are needed to close down Hamas? That is what is necessary. The Israelis have at their border a violent, unprincipled enemy that has vowed to destroy Israel. Hamas not only vows to destroy Israel, it bombards Israel and expects the world to object when Israel counterattacks.
Now that strikes me as irrational. Hamas should accept the consequences of its assaults on Israel. Hamas might even renew the ceasefire that it broke. For that matter, Hamas might end its war against Israel. I doubt the Israelis would object.
It’s a waste of time to listen to anything on NPR except for “Car Talk”.
Car talk? The two inane brothers? They couldn’t talk a person through a tire change.
Do I remember correctly that there were elections in Gaza and that the people in Gaza elected the Hamas to lead them?
That was an excellent interview. I don’t see a problem here at all.
And they are “the best show” on NPR.
NPR reminds me of “Radio Moscow” in the early ‘60s. Occasionally, they have some good music.
Hands down, the best money I spend is satellite radio so I can hear classical music without the NPR bull****.
Is Daniel Snore still alive? Still blaming everything under the sun on Ronald Reagan?
I can almost imagine a learned seminar being convened here in Washington wherein the assembled gogues excogitate precisely how many incoming Hamas missiles will warrant one air strike or more.Anybody know the definition of the bolded word? I can't find a definition anywhere. Maybe it's a typo?
Possibly a shortened form of demagogue, but I've never seen it before. Taken in the context of the sentence, I believe that's it.
- Traveler
What would you expect from National Propaganda Radio, Emmett? Name names. (or is that being too aggressive?)
Probably a coined word intended to cover demagogues, pedagogues ... whatever.
In context I rather admired the surprise.
I doubt I would ever listen to an NPR interview or any NPR take on current events? Did that ambassador just get off the boat? Doesn't Israel expect ambassadors to know fundamentals of the cultures to which they are assigned?
I like to listen to NPR because of the interviews. Quite a few times the NPR media idiot gets their ass handed to them when the interviewee exposes NPR prejudices. The interviewer will counter with the same question reworded which gets the same answer in greater detail. You can hear the discomfort and surprise in the NPR interviewer’s voice.
It’s great sport!
Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Quaeda; the Taliban, Islamic Jihad - all Muzzie terrorists! How come there are not, say, 5 Presbyterian terrorist groups? Or 5 Episcopalian ones? Just Muslims?
I don’t know his name, but I can tell you who he voted for.
I occasionally listened to Radio Moscow in the early '60's and aver that your characterization is completely unfair. To Radio Moscow. They were far more balanced and rational than anything I've ever heard on NPR. BTW, I am not kidding. Radio Moscow writers did not persume that the listeners accepted their premises, so they were much more restrained and rational. NPR writers marinate in a peculiar fantasy world, without adult supervision.
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