Mandatory Weekend Reads

Israel under siege by Douglas Murray

Unlike its neighbours, Israel is not spoilt for options. The country occupies a tiny piece of land — far less than was promised to it a century ago. Since the moment of its creation in 1948, all of its neighbours have repeatedly tried to invade and eradicate it. Since the failure of the last attempt in 1973, they have realised that they cannot destroy the country by conventional military force. Some, notably Egypt, subsequently sought and gained peace agreements.

But led by the Islamists in Iran and their proxies, over recent years Israel’s enemies have chosen the tactic of terrorism rather than invasion to achieve their ends

The burdens that Israel should not have to bear by Brendan O’Neill

This transformation of Israel into a conduit for the hopes and desires of both sides in the modern-day Culture Wars is a disaster for the Middle East, and for Israel in particular. It heaps on to Israel two profound, historic burdens that it cannot and should not have to bear: the burden of protecting Western Enlightenment from ‘barbarism’ and the burden of atoning for the historic sins of Western colonialism. And it inevitably imbues the local wars in the Middle East with an apocalyptic momentum, turning what are frequently just desperate wars of self-defence or opportunistic wars of self-assertion into End-of-Times conflicts between what Gilder describes as ‘barbarism, envy and death and civilisation, creativity and life’. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of Israel’s recent skirmishes as ‘great battles between the modern and medieval’ suggests that Western observers’ redefinition of the Middle East conflict as a battle over their values, their beliefs, their philosophical needs, has, worryingly, been taken to heart by the conflict’s protagonists.

8 thoughts on “Mandatory Weekend Reads”

  1. Should we in America take the Jan. 22nd election results as a sign from Israel on what role you want us to play in your lives? Because if you really want it that way, we can really be self-absorbed with the Super Bowl and the new season of “American Idol” coming up without having to be concerned with the Middle East. Just let us know.

    1. Please! Please! Please!

      And yet, and this one of the fallacies of the Paulites, the rest of the world will not go away. The US – and here I disagree with both Obama and Paul, while it has done some very wrong things, has a strong measure of morality in their foreign policy. The rest of the world only self-interest,and is actively hurting us.

      We need the active political support of the US, and we need someone to sell – mind you, I said sell – us weapones. And I suppose if a decent navy came againt us, we would need someone to shoo them away. In return we give you intelligence, a steady customer, and our vote in the UN.

      1. I really don’t know what the problem is with us being involved in your lives. You all had/have Jewish mothers. But ok, we could go from BFF’s with sleepovers to just FaceBook friends.

    2. I am always happy when there is something in the US to distract from us. Not because of the average American, but because of the bias of the MSM in the US and Israel. You can pay attention to the ME – concentrate on Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

      BTW, the MSM here was in the tank for Obama, worse than in the US, if that’s possible. Latma had a cute satire on that, with Ronit in the anchor chair doing a cheer (give me an aleph!). It’s quite cute to watch a “cheerleader” in her ninth month of pregnency. (She just had a boy.)

  2. The people that claim Israels battles with Gaza or Iran will spiral into World War III are absolutely deranged and they occur on both sides. Russia and China have far too many trade ties to get into a World War.

    1. First sentence – probably true.
      Second sentence – that’s what they said before WWII.

      Since the primaries are tomorrow, I took a look at an interview Feiglin sent me. I find it quite interesting that in a country where no-one has ever heard the word, his viewpoint is quite libertarian.

      Did you know that to vote in the primaries, you have to be a member for a year and pay membership? I think that for both of us for the two years we could have spent a night in a hotel.

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