Whither Israel?

I first heard the phrase in Phnom Penh during the siege: “The situation is hopeless, but not critical.” As Israel and the Moslem world claw at each other unendingly, I wonder whether the same diagnosis doesn’t apply. Perhaps I am wrong. I don’t see how.

 

To begin at the beginning: The Jews had long wanted a country of their own and, after Germany, understandably really wanted one. The problem was that all the countries were already taken except maybe Antarctica, so they conquered parts of Palestine by force of arms.

 

There was nothing Jewish about this. Most of history consists of groups conquering each other’s territory. When you do this, the conquered people hate you, and begin to resist. To control them you resort to the rifle butt, the torture chamber, the air strike, and the secret police. This makes them hate you more, world without end. Consider the occupation of Jewish Palestine by the Romans, the Jewish resistance, and Rome’s murderous responses.

 

The neighboring Moslem peoples, and indeed all Moslems, came to hate the modern Jews like poison, and the Jews, now become Israelis, soon returned the sentiment. Historically, this was business as usual. Christians, Jews, and Moslems have spent a phenomenal amount of time hating each other. It doesn’t seem to have gained them much.

 

Anyway, a vaguely possible modus vivendi was the Two-State solution, now dead, if it ever wasn’t, because Israel is absorbing the occupied territories. So many Jewish settlers now live on occupied Moslem land that no Israeli government could force them to come back, even if it wanted to, which it emphatically doesn’t. So much for modus vivendi.

 

In what amounts to Greater Israel, the Jews came to have custody in Israel proper of about 1.7 million Moslems, in Gaza of over a million and a half who hate Israel and, in the West Bank, pushing toward three million more, who hate Israel. Why Israel wants additional Moslems isn’t clear—I don’t want any at all, as they seem to be nothing but trouble--but it does seem to be collecting them.

 

This means that Israel can never be a democracy because, if the Moslems had the vote, Israel would stop being a Jewish state and just be a country with a lot of Jews. Worse, the moment Moslem voters, who breed faster than Jews, outnumbered these by one vote (if they ever did), Israel would become an Islamic republic, like Afghanistan. I do not think the Israelis have this in mind.

 

How a First World people can live as keepers of what appear to irremediably primitive Third Worlders is not clear, even without hatred.

 

There is worse.  The Moslems cannot be allowed much commercial success, since it would translate into political power. And intermarriage must be prevented at all costs, since Jews, of whom there are not many to begin with, could be bred out of existence. Is this not Alabama in 1900?

 

So what can Israel do with its internal Moslems? Logically it can (a) shoot them all, which even Netanyahu probably wouldn’t do, or (b) exist forever with a huge and perhaps growing number of hate-filled subjects, or (c) push them across the borders at bayonet-point. Is there another choice?

 

Since the Moslems both internal and external hate the Jews, Israel must constantly fight them off, often militarily. Just now it is invading Gaza again, which has been firing rockets into Israel. The Moslems are always doing something, such as blowing up buses full of Israelis, so Israel is always bombing Gaza, invading Gaza, killing Turks, bombing Lebanon,  invading it, bombing Iraq, killing Iranian scientists, and so on. There is the usual political posturing and kindergarten yelling about you started it, no, you started it, but underlying the noise is that the two sides bitterly hate each other.

 

If there is any reason to believe that it will ever stop, I am unaware of it. Does anyone seriously foresee a multi-culti, Koom Bah Yah amity, with turbans and yarmulkes back-yard barbecuing together and swapping dirty stories? Anybody who thinks this possible must be smoking Drano. The two flavors of Moslem are murdering each other in droves, and they have the same faith. They’re going to learn to love Jews?

 

Any day now.

 

No military solution is possible. Israel’s First World, heavily armed, high-tech forces can defeat, usually easily, any forces arrayed against it by its Third-World enemies. It just can’t keep them defeated. Nor can the Moslems decisively defeat Israel. The only remotely plausible approach would be to force Israel to mobilize and stay mobilized until its economy collapsed, which for a lot of reasons isn’t going to happen, and anyway the US would intervene.

 

The beat goes on.

 

Meanwhile, Israel depends utterly on America for its survival. Yes, it is an advanced, highly educated, commercially astute nation, and if it lived in peace would be a small roaring success.  But it doesn’t live in peace. And it is too small to buy or build the forces it needs to repel its neighbors and keep its supply lines open. It cannot field a large army other than briefly because it just doesn’t have the population. A garrison state, it very much needs US support.

 

Said support is not just military and economic.  If votes in the UN are an indication, Israel is detested by most of the planet, which would endeavor to do all manner of anti-Israeli things if the US didn’t veto all of them. Israel has a PR problem. In Gaza we see the now-common spectacle of a national military fighting a non-state enemy of barely armed militants. The result is dead children, recorded on cell-phone cameras. Image-wise, not good.

 

In America politics regarding Israel are often bitter and even more confusing. For example, I know feminists hostile to Israel, which doesn’t mistreat women at all, yet well disposed to Moslems, for whom mere misogyny would be a great step upward. Many Jews of my acquaintance are ambivalent or confused, wanting Israel to survive yet loathing its government.

 

How firm is American support for Israel? Very—for now, anyway. This is due in part to the immensely powerful Israel lobby in Washington, in part to a certain lack of enthusiasm for Moslems after 9/11, and in part to the lack of strong anti-Jewish sentiment in America. The United States isn’t Poland. In fact there is a lot of pro-Jewish feeling, seldom mentioned because it doesn’t fit the journalistic template of the eternally endangered Jew on the raw edge of extermination, sieg heil.  Of course, pro-Jewish and pro-Israel are different categories.

 

If there is ever a threat to American support, it will be not from anti-Semitism but from indifference. There is a potential softness in the support. When Netanyahu gets 29 (was it?) standing ovations in Congress (which he did) it is not because all Congressmen are wildly enthusiastic about Israel.  God himself would not receive such unanimous enthusiasm. Electoral politics screens out principle, and politicians will vote for whatever they think in their interest. If congressmen spoke honestly (yes, I know) I think you would find a small neo-Nazi group virulently against Israel, a substantial Christian group strongly for—and a majority who just wanted the question to go away.

 

There are powerful forces—Big Oil, companies that want to do business in Iran—that would happily abandon a small, petro-dry nation with no resources. Thus the crucial importance of the lobby.

 

All in all, it seems to me that Israel has gotten itself into a horrible situation, hated within, hated without, and hanging by a lobby. What can the Israelis do? Emigrate to New York? Undertake an absolutely horrific ethnic cleansing? Exercise the Antarctica Option? Spend all eternity ducking rockets and bombing neighbors? Live as herdsmen of unwanted Moslems that they have to avoid assimilating?

 

I don’t see a happy ending. Or any ending.

A Response to Elizabeth Warren

 

In a recent speech Elizabeth Warren outlined ‘What it means to be a Progressive’.

 

I find it necessary to reprint Ms. Warren’s outline (in italics) followed by my response…

 

- “We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we’re willing to fight for it.”

 

Wall Street is not the problem.  The power of our Politicians to grant Wall Street et al. favors and cover them from enforcement is the problem.  Removing that power from our elected representatives is the ONLY answer.  There are no other solutions.

 

- “We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect this Earth.”

 

We also believe in Science.  However, instead or proposing solutions, that coincidentally benefit our campaign donors and their friends, to problems we cannot define we expect to retain the element of Science that is Rational and Reasoned.  Skepticism is an integral part of Science and must be nurtured lest the scientific method be abandoned and all things to be determined through consensus.  If this were the case the world would still be considered flat.  So why do we want to go down that road again, Ms. Warren?

 

- “We believe that the Internet shouldn’t be rigged to benefit big corporations, and that means real net neutrality.”

 

We believe the Internet should be ‘rigged’ to benefit everybody including ‘big corporations’ which is why we expect you to leave it alone.

 

- “We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage.”

 

We believe destroying the buying power of those you profess to want to help by raising the minimum wage and subsequently the cost of goods across the board while simultaneously reducing the availability of what goods are left is ignorant and self-destructive.  We believe that the individual has a choice and should retain that choice to exercise the principle of substitution when it comes to employment.  If that individual chooses to work full-time, either directly or through a series of decision-making which demands it, then so be it.  We believe creating new businesses which pay all kinds of wages which are determined by the business owner alone allows for greater choice for the individual to better their lives… if they choose.

 

- “We believe that fast-food workers deserve a livable wage, and that means that when they take to the picket line, we are proud to fight alongside them.”

 

We believe you, Ms. Warren, and your cronies simply hate whatever you define as ‘Fast Food’ and want to do everything you can to shut down the readily available nutrition it supplies the American Population.  Your War on Food is well documented and is based on the premise that the American People are too Stupid to make decisions for themselves thus you have undertaken the effort to reduce their options to feed their families.  You should be ashamed, but you have no shame.

 

- “We believe that students are entitled to get an education without being crushed by debt.”

 

We believe the no one is entitled to anything.  Using the word entitled revisits a past where only those ‘noble’ people associated with Royalty enjoyed the benefits of their labor allowed by a King.  That aside, when you make something ‘free’ you make it worthless… just as you and your ilk have done with Elementary Education, High School Education and if you get your wish College Education.  (You’ve pretty much already achieved it, just ask graduating Seniors how valuable their Degree is in today’s job market.  For that matter ask a High School Graduate to read… anything… out loud.)

 

- “We believe that after a lifetime of work, people are entitled to retire with dignity, and that means protecting Social Security, Medicare, and pensions.”

 

Once again, the word entitled… let’s try ‘deserve’ instead.  We believe that after a lifetime of work people ‘deserve’ the fruits of their decision-making.  If they went to the casino and gambled away all of their earnings they will be subject to whatever safety net We the People, who did not waste our money and planned for retirement, determine they should have.  The only people this part of Ms. Warren’s platform should appeal to are those who do not save and do not plan ahead, and know it.  These are the people who rely on some ambiguous definition of ‘fair’, that is whatever definition benefits them directly, when it comes time to pay the price of their decisions.  They wish to be irresponsible and never be judged for it.  They expect to use the power of Government Force to mortgage the lives of The Responsible instead of living with the consequences of their decisions.  They should be reminded that whatever support they receive from ‘the Government’ is actually a Gift from the rest of us.  I would even find it acceptable that every person who receives subsidies from the Government be compelled, by Government Force, to write Thank You notes to a minimum of 100 taxpayers every year until they become self-sufficient.  The Stigma of taking and the Pride of Producing must be returned to the system.

 

- “We believe—I can’t believe I have to say this in 2014—we believe in equal pay for equal work.”

 

I Agree.  And you don’t have to say that in 2014 unless you’re addressing the Current Progressive Administration occupying White House.

 

- “We believe that equal means equal, and that’s true in marriage, it’s true in the workplace, it’s true in all of America.”

 

We believe Government should get out of the Marriage Business altogether.  Marriage is between you and your church.  The day’s of some Government Bureaucrat deciding that Blacks shouldn’t marry Whites and only Certain Families can marry certain other Families should be long, long over.  We Don’t Care.  And Frankly, the idea your marriage must be validated by some Government Worker should be nauseating at a minimum.  Get Governments dirty, fat, bloated, hands off our Marriages.  As far as Government is concerned, Contract Law should do just fine.

 

- “We believe that immigration has made this country strong and vibrant, and that means reform.”

 

We believe using words like ‘reform’ are designed to get people to nod their heads in agreement instead of asking for a definition.  We believe that a Liberal Work Visa Program should be initiated while keeping all current immigration requirements in place.  We believe in Tall Fences and Wide Gates.  We believe that those who come here to work should be able to send their money anywhere they wish.  We believe the American People should never be asked to pay welfare for those who are not Citizens of the United States… not… even… asked.  And if those that do choose to come here like the American Experience and want to stay, they must get in line to become a Citizen like every legal immigrant has done before them.  If not, then they can rest assured that as long as they obey our laws, return to their country of origin for two weeks every year and do nothing to foment or agitate Anti-American Sentiment then they will be welcome here to work.  If they choose not to do these things they will not be welcome.  Simple.

 

- “And we believe that corporations are not people, that women have a right to their bodies. We will overturn Hobby Lobby and we will fight for it. We will fight for it!”

 

We believe that Corporations are IN FACT people.  A Corporation is created by Human Beings and made up of Human Beings and subsequently creates products enjoyed by Human Beings which make their lives better and more productive or they wouldn’t purchase them.  It is also worth noting that the Humans Beings which make up, and enjoy the benefits of, Corporations are over 50% Women… with Bodies.  The fact that Corporations should not be involved in Anyone’s sex life, women’s or any of the other varied genders, is a point we can all agree.  Which is why Corporations and the Human Beings who make them up should not be expected to pay for Anyone’s sex life.  Easy Enough.  If you want to fight for some inane and poorly thought out line of logic go ahead.  We’ll be here waiting.

 

And the main tenet of conservatives’ philosophy, according to Warren? “I got mine. The rest of you are on your own.”

 

We believe it would be more accurate to state: “I’ve got mine, now I can help you get yours if I choose to.”  Absent in our philosophy is Force.  We believe in Choice.  Choice is sacred to Us and every Human Being’s Freedom depends on that Choice being protected at all costs.  I would rather die Poor and Free than Wealthy and Enslaved.  Warren and her Progressive/Socialist ideology bring only Slavery.  So, by her own words, Ms. Warren is rallying the useful idiots to ‘fight for’… Slavery.

 

This is true of Every Socialist… no matter what they call themselves.

 

Make a Choice.

 

We’ve made ours.