Learning nothing from history

Ronnie

I guess they just don't have the back-up, knowledge, fresh perspective and insight that you do, Melanie.

Mark S

The link to the Efraim Inbar paper seems to be wrong.

Nannette

Melanie, the link goes to your mail inbox and not to an article.

Gil

The die is cast: Egypt may indeed go islamist if it cannot feed its people. I wonder if there is a corruption problem in Egypt to. What will the army do is the big question? Will they fire on their brothers?

Saudi Arabia is an enigma and Turkey will go islamist and thank Sarkozy and Merkel that they are n longer candidates for EU membership.

There needs to be a Marshall Plan for the ME, comprehensive and historic. Only Obama has the clout to sell it, if his 'brand' is not tarnished in the meantime.

Your rush to condemn Obama is strange as you have no idea what the game is realy about. No one aside from some intelligence agencies know what is being planned. I fully believe that Obama will deal forcefully with the Iranian threat or at least not stop Israel.

Forlornehope

If Melanie were to study the history of Outremer, she might learn something.

Louise K

That's right, Ronnie, they don't. They think the world will be fixed with the Sesame Street-style chant of 'Yes, we can.'

Clever, aren't they?

London Calling

I think they get it Melanie...

However, maybe not depending on evidence? Is their documental evidence that clearly states that Hamas will have access to monies? if so...this needs to go right to the top in the whitehouse and an explanation veryfied.

Apart from this important point you make, I would advise you dont let your personal dislike for Barack Oboma cloud your judgment, it has been the many downfall of a good journalist and I hope integrity remains intact.

With respect...:)

London Calling

I think they get it Melanie...

However, maybe not depending on evidence? Is their documental evidence that clearly states that Hamas will have access to monies? if so...this needs to go right to the top in the whitehouse and an explanation veryfied.

Apart from this important point you make, I would advise you dont let your personal dislike for Barack Oboma cloud your judgment, it has been the many downfall of a good journalist and I hope your integrity remains intact.

With respect...:)

ahad ha'amoratsim

Obama reminds me of the Piranha Brothers, who threatened their victims "If you don't give us $200, we won't break both your legs." Only with Obama, it's "If you don't commit suicide, we won't protect you from Iran, but if you do commit suicide, we won't protect you against Iran." By all accounts Obama did well at school; proof once again that there are some ideas so stupid that only an intellectual can believe them.

Ronnie

Absolutely Louise K!

Much better with 'no we can't and even if we could, we wouldn't want to'.

Hand me those scissors, I want to cut my nose off and be like everyone else.

Ronnie

Forlornehope, that is a very good point.

Tony Allwright

Gaza is the model we must perforce look at when contemplating the creation of a second Palestinian state (the first being Jordan).

For Gaza is, to all intents and purposes, already a 100% Palestinian state, with its own elected government and - thanks to lavish funds from the EU, US and various Arab states - an income far beyond what it is actually able to earn. And not a Jew in sight.

If ever there was a laboratory to experiment with how Palestinian statehood might look, Gaza is surely it.

And what a horror. For its own people and for its neighbours, especially Israel under relentless rocket attack.

Even mighty Egypt is horrified, which is why it continues to imprison Gaza's population rather than open its crossing at Rafah and risk having Gazan Palestinians run riot within Egypt.

Moreover, there is no sign of any mollification in the way Gaza is governed, or the anti-Jew propaganda spewed over the airwaves or indoctrinated into schoolkids. In other words, Gaza is not transiting to some better place. If anything, it’s getting worse.

What you see in Gaza today is what you will get in a new Palestinian state.

Unless and until Gaza becomes civilized, no-one but no-one should support the creation of a Palestinian state.

That means you, Barry.

Ros

Tony Allwright: Excellent post. Why is it that no one else seems to get this point? Why on earth do they continue to spout the nonsense of 'Two States'? In addition, why is it that it would appear that over 1,000 people have been killed by the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tigers over the last few days and nobody but nobody is in the least bit interested? Not a photo on the front page. No screams of 'massacre' 'war crimes' ' genocide'? Maybe it's because they're not using 'UN' buildings from which to shoot and launch missiles? Buildings are obviously far more important than people and 'Palestinians' far, far more important than Sri Lankans.

David MacKinnon

No one dares to say no to Obama because he and his thugs wield tremendous power right now, with the help of a corrupt Democrat-led Comgress and a sycophantic press. Obama himself sees no foreign threats - only the domestic variety from the right. The only conflict he's interested in winning is the political war at home.

Sam Armstrong

They aren't stupid, Melanie. They are callous one worlders with an agenda to screw up Israel and the West.

Michael B

Substituting a feel-good, wish-full, triangulating sense for a realistically founded vision and corresponding backbone.

Lot of that goin' 'round.

David

Maybe they aren't stupid. Maybe, just as in economics they aren't letting a good crisis go to waste, so in the Middle East they are using the Iran problem as a cudgel to get the concessions they want from Israel. They know there is no linkage, they are just using what they have to hand to get what they want.

Bob from Virginia

ahad ha'amoratsim

George Orwell once wrote "only a member of the intelligentsia could believe something as stupid as that."

George Will wrote "the intelligentsia, that herd of independent minds".

That said there are plenty of off the cuff comments by Obama indicating he is hopelessly uninformed about the real world. He has apparently confused a bunch of left wing cliches.
BTW O's first overseas phone call to a foreign leader was to Mahmoud Abbas. I wonder if the public here will ever wake up and see that they have elected an unicorn salesman.

JW

The wishful thinking, appeasement policy of the US State Departm't & Obama clouds the common sense logic & evident facts stated in Tony Allwright's post above about Gaza already being a dependant terrorist state indoctrinating hatred to the next generation of Arab ingrates.

Kirk Strong

I agree with Sam. These people are not stupid.

I have finally, and reluctantly, come to the conclusion that we have elected as President a man who hates America, and he is implementing a strategy to assure its destruction.

I can see no other way to explain his actions.

Original Tony

I read on WND yesterday that Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia are quietly building a military alliance with Israel to counter any threat by Iran.

As I said a few days ago, who would ever have thought that it would be the Arabs and not the Americans that would stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel over Iran. I think "THE O" is going to have quite a big shock coming when Netanyahu meets him on the 18th May in Washington, he may well find the rug has been pulled from under him.

Roy

One gets the impression these people, Obama and his followers, being brought up with Marx's 'Capital' in their back pocket. What they have never learned is that this book is grossly inaccurate, is full of discrepancies and misrepresentations. Is it no wonder followers who have used its pages for information to gain power and keep it have shown unmerciful actions that have highlighted the sham of the ideology it incorporates? But still we have these ideologues springing up like daisies, attempting to follow rules that are faulty and dangerous.

Mailman

What happened to Germany and Japan after world war 2 needs to happen to Gaza and the West Bank.

These two societies need to be forced to drag themselves in to the 21st century. They need to be forced to give up their war of aggression against Israel. Then and only then should 1c be invested in the area.

The reality is that the people of Gaza and the West Bank dont lack for want of resources. What they lack is the will to make a very real change to their lives.

An American

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Netanyehu meets with the new American Messiah.

The scenario will probably go like this...Obama will first try to charm Netanyehu with his over-whelming charisma, then when that doesn't work, Obama and Rahm Emanuel will follow up with their Chicago thugish threats to abandon Israel by not supplying future weapons sales and mutual intelligence along with turning Obama's worldwide worshipful media against Netanyehu specifically and Israel in general.

Our only hope is that Netanyehu will stay strong and tell this slimy viper to stick his pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel plans 'where the sun don't shine'.

Augustus

Yes, somehow Obama appears to have adopted the naive liberal conceit that if only we can show our friendly intentions then the Islamist threat will go away and we will all live in peace and harmony. This noble ambition is on a par with biblical imagery of the lamb lying down with the lion. However, in reality whenever the lion and the lamb lay side by side the lamb is usually dead, and the lion is feeding on its carcass.

While Israel has become the convenient whipping boy for Western liberals, the State of Israel is still the only nation in the Middle East founded as a true democracy, even extending the right to vote to non-Jewish citizens, which is wholly absent from most Arab/Muslim nations. But it now appears that Obama is prepared to cut Israel loose to fend for herself. That in itself would not be the end of the world, as Israel has demostrated a remarkable abilty to take care of itself. But if America cuts off all military hardware and technology to Israel, then Israel will become the lamb to the Arab lion and there will be a repeat of the genocide perpetrated against the Jews in the 1940s. If this were to occur it could be laid directly at the feet of Barack Obama. It would also justify all those fears expressed during the Presidential campaign about voting for someone which such limited diplomatic and political experience.

Ian G

What an American Muslim thinks about Obama/Soetero and his so-called Christian Church (Unitarian).
/www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/muslim-barack-obama-opinions-contributors_islamic_president.html>

It all make far more sense when viewed from this position.

davidrev

“How can so many people in such a position be so staggeringly stupid?” It is obvious. They are all of the political left. The left often talk a good game, but their actions always have bad consequences. Just read an editorial in any leftwing newspaper like the Guardian, The New York Times, or in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald; then imagine the state of the world if their editorial advice was followed. Or imagine if the world was run by academics from liberal arts faculties, or union officials or social workers. The right often get it wrong but the left always get it wrong.

An American

davidrev,

Agreed...every day, Obama and his leftist cronies make yet another decision that in the future, all Americans will be forced to live with and pay through the nose for.

It's like a very bad, surreal nightmare that we're not allowed to wake up from.

I sometimes wonder what I and other Americans have done to deserve seeing our lives and country destroyed by these commies.

hippiepooter

Errm, I dont think its 'stupidity'. You catalogued Obama's past really well Melanie, and what is happening now is all that was to be expected from it. I think we'll probably end up seeing Obama ordering his troops in some day to 'protect' Israel, and then .. and then ..

In the Wilderness In America

When everyone is ideologically the same (media, White House, and Congress), the policies are not "staggeringly stupid" but "brilliant." No one is puncturing all those pompous twits in all those institutions with a dose of reality. Even the press conferences are campaign rallies for the Annointed One known as Obama. They are marching toward Armageddon with a loopy smile of "hope and change" on their faces.

Thanks Melanie for being one of the few jounalists (if there are any left) to tell it like it is.

Reality will bite very soon, and the powers that be in America will be running around with their hair on fire while those with any modicum of sense will have to pick up the pieces and try to save what is left of America and the free world.

From US

US attitude towards Israel is largely influenced by Saudi investments – let’s not forget who is and who is paying for the votes and ordering pro-Arabic media coverage. I am very concerned with our new president and his foreign policy towards the Islamic world. US was playing with Taliban as it was a harmless kitten in 1980s, just to keep a balance with Soviet Union in that area, and look what it has become. They are playing the same game with Hamas now. Obama is confusing a tiger showing its teeth to him for a tiger’s smile.
I am glad that there are voices like yours, Melanie. G_d help them to be heard!