Posted on 10/01/2009 11:26:35 AM PDT by mojito
I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.
I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.
And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish nationalist as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.
Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Tom’s a smart guy - just ask him - he’ll tell you.
My husband calls Joe Biden “Obama’s Job Security” LOL
Fighting for what you believe, for your family and your home is not to be allowed.
Doing those things cause a “climate of hate.”
So stop opposing our good wise benevolent brilliant boy king.
Stop calling him a “socialist.”
Because if you don’t you’re not just a racist, you’re a hater.
My granddaddy said, ‘Don’t spit in the well, you may have to drink the water.’
Funny, that they think this rhetoric is extreme now that they are in charge.
I wouldn't jump in front of a bullet headed toward *any* President,regardless of how much or how little respect I had for him/her....at least not during peacetime.But I would vigorously oppose any attempt to physically harm *any* President.
Yeah, I guess he didn’t see the film that was made about Bush....
A lot of people don’t think they would put their life on the line for another until they come upon a situation and without even thinking they jump in to a burning car and pull out an injured person.
I think everyone has the potential to jump in without even thinking and save a life.
I am sure there is a companion peice about the leftists who say the same thing about Republicans.
I wouldn’t. Might help him get medical attention, but me and mine won’t do jack to protect him. Leadership at times has been described as getting others to jump on grenades for you. Has this asshat done anything remotely resembling leadership since he arrived on the scene? If the grenade rolls into his foxhole, well better him than me. Sorry, I won’t loose a wink of sleep if bammy swims with the fishes. Maybe there are a lot of “Yes we can” types that want to jump on a grenade for him, just not me. If he were returning fire against our enemies instead of apologizing things might be different. But I think we all know what we have on our hands, and it smells.
The Rabin assasination was inexcusible, but how did that land for peace deal work out? When you support policies that threaten the very existance of the country, it pizzed people off. Extreme policies tend to produce extreme opposition. However, elections mean things, and as long as elected officials follow constitutional law, there is no excuse for violence.
Whenever I see a Tom Friedman article, I reach for my *hit Shovel. I know there’s another load coming. He’s reliable if nothing else.
“...I’d jump in front of a bullet to protect him just like most Americans would.”
.
I don’t think that most Americans agree with you on that subject — not even the liberals.
The left brings up the possibility of Obama being assassinated quite often. Do they want it to happen or has it been the plan from the beginning for him to be the “martyred black president.” Would that be an effective cudgel to beat up the opposition?
Where was all this concern when George W. Bush was POTUS? The assumption by the the MSM is that only right wingers assassinate politicians. That says much about the MSM’s worldview. They can’t help being what they are.
Must be something in the water over there.
Cheers!
wasn’t Tom the one who just a week or so ago was saying the country would be better off if all the Conservatives were ‘gone’?
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