There is, alas, vanishingly little to say about Bush’s visit to Israel, the most profound effect of which, I feel safe predicting, will be traffic jams in Jerusalem. I share Yossi Alpher’s take: “This visit, like Bush’s Israeli-Palestinian peace process in general, looks to be all hype and superficiality.”
So instead of adding to the verbiage, I’m going to just post some links to what other people are saying.
Michael Oren: “Presidential visits are always characterized as ‘historic,’ but Mr. Bush’s trip to the Jewish state is marked by a lack of momentousness.”
The Economist speculates that Bush’s visit will provide an opportunity for the Israelis to get a read on where America’s commitment to thwarting the Iranian nuclear project stands. I am skeptical.
Amir Taheri: “The president’s tour can acquire a positive meaning only if it is used to shape a new alliance for reform, progress and democratization as the chief guarantor of Middle East peace and security.” I’m a big fan of Taheri’s, but really–is this even remotely plausible?
Jon Alterman, on the excellent new Harvard Middle East Strategy blog: “The Bush administration has been mugged by reality.”
Talk is cheap. I prefer to judge Estrich and her ilk by their political actions, which are, and will continue to be, shameful. No more olive branches to the Left, please. They are the moral equivalent to Hamas and Hezbollah. Buckley’s approach to Vidal is what is called for at present. Always remember, George Bush was never accepted by Howard Dean as his “neighbor.” Susan Estrich is not mine.
But terrorists who use schools and hospitals as launching pads for attacks should not complain when the bombs hit the targets they have created. No one likes to see children die, but so-called leaders who use their children as pawns and train them to kill should not expect sympathy when the lives they risk so carelessly are then lost.
Yeah, well they do and they do and they do and they do.
George Wallace lives. On the score of supine subservience to the follies and crimes of Zionism, there really isn’t a dime’s worth of difference.
However, a Cheney-Estrich Celebrity Death Match would be worth watching.
3 and 4
TAKE THE SLAM OUT OF ISLAM!!!
#3 all we need for you is an even smaller oven for that pea sized brain you must have.
“It is heartening to see so many political leaders of both parties affirm that “if Israel is your enemy, so am I.” The “international community” believes the opposite, of course”
as with our policy of supporting dictators in the middle east, we are happy that the bozos in the state capital have been coerced into agreeing with us and not actually representing their consituents. for we zionists relate only to dictators and to hell with the 99.9999 percent who don’t exist in the kings court
the world is revolting against authority, cmomentary says “we’ll stick with authority”. and “how come no one likes us?” duh
Hey, so the least one is proud that no one has ever called *it* a “bozo.” Poor ass can’t even understand that nobody despises clowns quite so much. But the least one also can’t get it through its head that, regardless of its passionate murderous desires, the magazine has not been and will not be cmomentary. As for revoltin’, ipse dixit.
Come back here and i will taunt you orthographically a second time.
What’s interesting is that I have to visit the Commentary website to hear the anti-Semitic taunts being lobbed from Hamas-supporters on American soil.
The local news media never tell us about that. There have been pro-Hamas AND pro-Israel demonstrators in LA since this thing started, and I have yet to see the TV news media cover any actual “commentary” (if you will) from the pro-Hamas demonstrators. They will show Orthodox Jews saying, on camera, “There IS no such country as ‘Palestine’!” But I haven’t seen intelligible coverage of what the Hamas supporters are shouting. When the LA Times quotes them, their words come across as an undergrad’s version of Marxist-liberation-theology-speak. The police say only, as one would expect, that the demonstrations remain peaceful.
#7 Les
“international community”…no it is mostly the international militant islamic communities that disagree.
JE – oh yeah the press isn’t nearly pro isral enough!! holy cow talk about chutzpah
lester — you kill me, you really do. How you got to the imputed conclusion that “the press isn’t nearly pro isral enough,” from my comment at #11, is a mystery decipherable only to you.
you were clearly saying that the media was biased in favor of hamas