Sar Shalom
While there will be much discussion about the effects that the Republican takeover of the Senate will have on Palestinian negotiations with Israel, such as on this blog, a separate issue is how the Republicans are like the Palestinians. No, I am not suggesting that their policy platforms are similar. However, there mannerisms have a bit of overlap.
Both the Republicans and the Palestinians depend on people accepting their memes without question simply because every Very Serious Person talks as though they are obviously true. In the case of the Palestinians, the memes include the claims that Israel's settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and that Jordan's conquest of 1949 conferred an inalienable right upon them. In the case of the Republicans, the memes include the notion that out-of-control spending is what is holding back the economy and that both parties are equally intransigent about their bases' shibboleths.
Further, both the Palestinians and the Republicans profit by sitting pat and waiting for outsiders to punish their opposition for the "joint" failure to reach an agreement. In the case of the Palestinians, we see this in the Palestinians refusing to offer acceptable terms for Israel to allow a Palestinian state with the result of Sweden, joined by the British parliament, reacting to Israel's failure to reach an accord for a Palestinian state by recognizing a Palestinian state. In the case of the Republicans, the Republican Party adopted a strategy of withholding all support from whatever Obama proposed for the sole purpose of not allowing the label "bipartisan" to associated with the initiative and was rewarded by the voters' for the Democrats' failure to any agreements with them.
Now, is there any chance that we can convince the liberals who invariably take up the cause of the Palestinians, "You know, everything you say about the Republicans applies to the Palestinians as well," as well conservative minded voters, "You know, everything you say about the Palestinians applies to the Republicans as well?"
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
Brilliant, and spot-on, comparison.
ReplyDeleteYesterday Field Marshall Dear Leader Obama claimed victory and asserted that not only is everything going according to plan, he has no plan to change anything nor would he, in retrospect have changed anything before. It's as if the PLO was commanding the Titanic.
ReplyDeleteYou know, everything you say about the Palestinians applies to the Democrats as well. The Republicans withheld support on issues that would take us farther down the road to European socialist ruin. But keep in mind, on his signature issue, Obamacare, there was not even a pretense of including Republicans in the process. And apparently, neither Obama, Pelosi, or any other legislater was included since they had no idea what was in the bill (Pelosi's admission, not mine).
ReplyDelete"But keep in mind, on his signature issue, Obamacare, there was not even a pretense of including Republicans in the process."
DeleteSpare us your sophistry. The Democrats in the Senate writing the ACA went to Republican senator after Republican senator soliciting ideas to make it palatable. When time after time, whether it was Grassley, Collins, or whomever, the Democrats would incorporate the Republican suggestion into the bill and the response would be an unspecified "I still can't support that," it became clear that Republicans talking about the ACA was just a stalling tactic to prevent anything from ever happening. It was only at that point that the Democrats decided to pursue a partisan bill. Not to mention that what actually went in to the ACA was a grab bag of conservative proposals, as in they were first floated by the Heritage Foundation, from the 1990s.
"The Republicans withheld support on issues that would take us farther down the road to European socialist ruin."
Complete nonsense. The problems in Europe were exclusively in countries using the Euro and running TRADE deficits. Trade deficits have nothing to do with policies you call "socialism," let alone real socialism. For a definition of socialism, try looking at chapter 1 of The Road to Serfdom by Frederic Hayek.
The reality is that what this country is facing now is a shortage of spending. If you question that, just name one time in your life when you have earned a dollar that was not spent by someone. Households are not spending because their incomes plummeted. Businesses are not spending because households are not buying their goods and services. That leaves government to pick up the slack. And the Republicans will have you believe that the solution to the lack of spending is to cut spending.
Not to mention that one of the first things the president made clear was that single-payer was "off the table."
DeleteAn ominous shadow of threatening "socialist ruin," if ever there was one...
So, should I take this to mean that I was not lying when I claimed that Israel Thrives is, in fact, a non-partisan political blog?
DeleteHeck, I thought I was right about that!
{Good for me.}