Here is the Elder's post concerning an interview of Benjamin Netanyahu by the Australian.
As I said in a comment:
We get lost at times in seeing the anti-Israel hysteria surrounding us, and lose sight of the support for Israel outside the chamber we occupy.
The subject matter was Iran, the Palestinians, and Israel's standing in the world.
An excerpt:
Netanyahu is actually making a profound point here. Israel is making very big gains in Asia, which an Atlantic-centric Western media and the Arab world both tend to miss. Israel is making significant progress in Asia diplomatically, economically, in all measures of trade and in military-to-military exchanges. And it's not just in Asia that Netanyahu has something positive to talk about: "The same thing is happening in Africa. I'm going there soon, but I just had visits from the leaders of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. They're concerned with the Islamist tide above them.
"We have excellent relations with many countries of central Europe. They're concerned with the Islamist tide to the south. Canada is like the other Australia, or Australia is like the other Canada, an extraordinary country.
"I would also mention that small, little-known country called the United States of America. The support for Israel in the US has skyrocketed. It has always been high, but it has gone up year by year."
Netanyahu cites a plethora of polls to bolster this claim, and continues: "An overwhelming swath of the American public identifies with Israel because they view it as sharing the same values and ideals as the US.
"So the description of Israel as isolated in the world is not correct."
Please read the whole thing. It left me feeling better, and I hope it will do the same for you!
(Cross-posted at oldschooltwentysix)
Good post, School.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, the country that I just recently saw seemed absolutely dynamic. Tel Aviv, in particular, was out of control. That is, the hub-bub and bustle was just terrific.
Israel has problems, not the least of which is the never-ending hatred that gets spit at it by the usual suspects, both here and there, but the country is unquestionably thriving and for all the hatred, it still has many friends... particularly in the United States where Evangelical support remains high.
It's friends include many liberals as well.
ReplyDeleteAs Netanyahu said, there is a radical element that "speak often of being progressive, of being for gay rights, women's rights and so on. The only point of common cause they make with radical Islamists is animosity to Israel and to the US. Israel is seen as representing the US. It's the most anti-Western forces in the West that cause the problem. They can sometimes even shape the positions of some governments."
We all oppose these types of "progressives" yet should not overestimate their strength or believe that they constitute the majority.
This seems to be the ongoing point of contention between the two of us. Which is good.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I am not entirely certain just how much I really disagree with what you have written above. Is surely agree that anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic progressives are in the minority among progressives.
That is unquestionably the case and I would not want to give anyone the impression... as I surely do, anyways, inevitably... that I think otherwise.
My problem with the progressive movement, as I have repeatedly stated, is that it has made a home for itself for those anti-Semitic anti-Zionists. In terms of Israel, progressives mainly run the gamut from indifferent (which is the norm and I do not have a problem with that) to genocidally hostile.
As for "liberals," it is increasingly unclear to me just what that word means today in the US. We have hardcore socialist progressives who would like to see the entire system replaced with something else calling themselves "liberal," even as someone like David Horowitz likewise claims the term.
I know that you think of yourself as a liberal and I have no reason to doubt that you are. I am sure that you favor all, or most, of the things that classical liberals supports, such as a free press and free elections, and so forth. I also feel reasonably certain that you mainly support the contemporary liberal agenda, which is "rights" liberalism. Gay rights, women's rights, the rights for a level playing field for minorities, and so forth.
And I favor that, as well.
So would Horowitz, for the most part, really.
This is why I almost never speak about liberals because of how fuzzy the meaning of that word has become.
It's ironic. Over at his site, VB says that I harp on non-partisanship, but he does not see me you doing so "on a right wing blog that you post on."
ReplyDeleteI think that means here.He crows how he deals with facts, yet the comment you just made shows that his facts are 100% inaccurate in this case.
The right wing label is inescapable when dealing with most progressives no matter who they are once you cross certain "talking points."
ReplyDeleteEven the verbiage "talking points," as opposed to mere "opinions," or "points," points to the ideology kicking in. Life gets better when one becomes a "no-winger."
Yep and yep.
ReplyDeleteHere's the difference and please let me know where your disagreements or quibbles are.
ReplyDeleteWhen I talk about "progressives" it is not for the purpose of dismissing their ideas as either irrelevant or offensive. On the contrary, it is because I take the progressive movement seriously that I criticize that movement viz-a-viz I-P.
Contrarily, when progressive-left activists accuse liberals, such as Rubin or Landes or Dershowitz or Chesler,, of being "right-wing" it is because they wish to wave away differing views.
By the way, Chesler is the bravest of the four above.
http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/
I like Chesler and the rest, and am proud to be a liberal like them, even if I don't meet approval from some progressive pro or anti-Israel folk.
ReplyDeleteI know I am a proponent of universal human rights, and that is all that matters to me.
I read a very good speech given last May at Oxford University by Frits Bolkestein, former EU commissioner and Dutch Defense Minister. It can be found at this link:
http://www.fritsbolkestein.com/docs/All_Souls_Oxford.doc
It gets to the issues I have raised regarding the international battle going on. I hope to write about it in further detail, as I said, but commend it to you and others.
I'll read Bolkestein, School.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, tho, it takes some balls these days to stand up for Chesler and the others.
They represent the first generation of contemporary Jewish liberals to stand against the Jihad and therefore get slandered as "right-wingers," if not warmongers, by their ex-fellow Jewish liberals.
Chesler actually did it, if you can imagine, in the face of progressive-left Jewish feminist disapproval.
How's that for cajones?