“American diplomats in The Hague described Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s visit in the Netherlands in November 2009 as ‘a demonstration of how to irritate people and lose friends.’”
See?
No Hill, he is not for real.
Ohhh no you di-in’t, he said, wagging his finger.
This is short-sighted and stupid, but totally expected.
“We hear in recent days that the Palestinian Authority is thinking of uniting with Hamas…It’s thinking of effecting peace, not with Israel, but with Hamas,” he said. Well, I say to them something very simple: you can’t have peace with Israel and Hamas. It’s one or the other, but not both.”
-PM Netanyahu to Jewish fundraisers in a speech distributed on Tuesday by the Israeli Government Press Office.
So… all those efforts before to get these two groups speaking, all the logic of saying “we can’t have peace if these two aren’t together because negotiating with them separately is too hard…” that was all crap? Is Netanyahu implying that he can find a solution with Palestinians still split?
No. That’s just silly. What he’s implying is that he’s not looking for a solution- he’s looking to lay Hamas flat. The problem with that is, Hamas isn’t the only anti-Israel group operating in Gaza, and they aren’t the only one firing rockets- they just control the territory where all the bad guys roam free and easy (sorta).
So what he’s telling us is…Israel doesn’t want the more moderate Palestinian Authority to be talking to/influencing the group (Hamas) in charge of the territory where all the rockets are coming from? I wish he was kidding. Think: If Israel spoke to the PA, and the PA rang up Hamas, maybe Israel could (through a nice game of telephone) get their message across without having to drop as many bombs.
The message may get muddled, but at least it would be out there verbally. Telephone is a fun game, and sometimes funny. Netanyahu’s warning is neither. It is a sign that he is not at all interested in diplomacy. Or did I miss something when this message finally got passed along to me? (Thanks Al-Arabiya)
Wikileaks just published our Diary- never mind that the first page said “Keep Out.”
the communications between our diplomats around the world have been compromised. We’re going to have to start making nice, giving back massages, making friendship bracelets etc. until everyone forgets about this whole mess.
Until then, its going to be hard to deny anything about our back room dealings. Today, Alarabiya reported that a bomb exploded in Tehran killing one nuclear scientist and injuring another. Iran is blaming us… do we still deny deny deny?
To put the whole Wikileaks scandal in perspective, the information leaked isn’t anything people didn’t already suspect. Moreover, it’s certainly not the worst of the worst (no assassinations or the like). The info was leaked by a 22 year old intelligence officer, who moved the info hidden as a Lady Gaga CD (this is in bold because it is absurd), and he didn’t have access to some of the juiciest stuff (says The Guardian).
But still, Wikileaks did manage to bring the elephant in the room to the center, paint it pink, and put it on parade. What they published was the nitty-gritty of diplomacy- the dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Our Saudi friends talking smack about Iraq and its nuke capabilities ruining all the “fun” in the Middle East; our spying on Ban Ki Moon; Our diplomats calling Germany out for being a boring weenie; North Korea selling big time weapons to Iran; Our diplomats calling Venezuela the new Zimbabwe (NASTY) and basically saying Sarkozy has a Napoleonic complex; The worst? Some kind of secret love thing between Putin and Berlusconi (woah TMI).
The only thing to do is use every diplomat’s greatest weapon- “I’M SORRY, I’M REALLY REALLY REALLY SORRY, GUYS- BUT YOU KNOW THIS IS FIGHT CLUB. YOU’RE IN IT, AND YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT IT.”
Professor Michael Cox, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London think tank, took it one step further, saying: “But as to whether it is going to cause the kind of seismic collapse of international relations that governments have been talking about, I somehow doubt. Diplomats have always said rude things about each other in private, and everyone has always known that.”
Other countries seem to agree. Let’s face it, everyone has a burn book and no one wants it published. Hamid Karzai, who was called weak in the leak, sent his spokesman out to say basically…err… ‘yeah, its whatever.’
”There is not much in the documents to surprise us, and we don’t see anything substantive that will strain our relationship, but there is more still to come,” said Waheed Omer
And more…
“This won’t restrain dips’ (diplomats) candour,” Sir Christopher Meyer, a former British Ambassador to Washington DC, told Reuters. “But people will be looking at the security of electronic communications and archives. Paper would have been impossible to steal in these quantities.”
Even The Economist is turning its nose up at Wikileaks and calling this indiscretion irresponsible. That’s basically like getting a wag of the finger from dad.
I’m not making fun of him, I’m just quoting. Not even my genius mind can make this nonsense up.
This during a speech to diplomats encouraging them to bring pretty women to Italy as Latin men know how to appreciate them. Again, this is hilarious, but its not a joke.
Let slapping begin! Because of the Flotilla incident, Turkey is recalling their youth soccer team currently playing in Israel. They have also canceled joint military exercises and, as a member of the Security Council, have called an emergency meeting to discuss the fiasco. Bad stuff. We get it. But…but did they have to drag the kids into this?! And the soccer?!
Why should we, as Americans, care about this tiff? Read on if you’re tired of the carefully crafted statements from career diplomats and would rather read the informed, but frustrated diatribe of an American with no particular bias. Seriously, if you’ve ever read this blog, you know that I think everyone on this planet is capable of immense stupidity.
Lesson learned- everyone’s a little bit terrorist.
The Turkish charity that funded the Flotilla (Islan Haklary Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi- IHH) has connections to Saudi terrorist piggy-bank The Union of Good, according to The Weekly Standard. Israel recognizes both these organizations as big-bads with connections to Hamas and also, perhaps, Al Qaeda. Okay, so that makes them terrorists. Got it.
But now Turkey and a bunch of other people are calling Israel a terrorist state. See how this gets confusing? It’s confusing because the word “terrorist” is shifting meanings to suit anyone’s convenience. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. There was nothing systematic about how the Israelis boarded those boats and nothing particularly terrifying about a bunch of writers and hippies on the boats. “Terrorist” is the new “witch”!
Did we forget who lives in Gaza?!
Hamas, people, Hamas lives in Gaza! They still say that they want to destroy Israel. Also, as I understand it, they don’t have their own country and, while this sounds mean, no country = almost no rights. Israel is a country with rights, and definitely has the right to protect itself and survey its territory. Israel had every right to search those boats- as they said they would at Ashdod- and the Flotilla should have complied. The entire world has allowed the Palestinians to become Israel’s problem- if they don’t like how Israel and the U.S. are dealing with it, why don’t they do something constructive (NOT BOATING)? Why don’t Palestine’s Arab buddies help them out a little every now and then? Maybe broker a peace deal or two. Maybe get Fatah and Hamas to kiss and make-up so everything is simpler. No, right? Right.
Live and let die.
The activists on that boat were there to make a point. Some of them were willing to die to make that point. This is obvious, not only because it happened, but also because, knowing the IDF, this violence is something that any idiot could have foreseen. If the activists wanted to end the blockade and shame Israel, they got some of what they wanted. Egypt has opened the Rafah Crossing and Israel answered an annoyance with violence- just as they have so many times in the past.
And Israelis HATE this (as they should). The word is that they are not so much upset about the deaths of Flotilla riders, but that they are upset that Israel looks so stupid. They think the Army walked into a trap…which is not totally incorrect- they certainly at least walked into a performance (all protests are, in part, performances after all). This is where politicians come in; they’re supposed to understand this mind game crap better than soldiers. So why didn’t they arm the IDF with rubber bullets and cans of mace? Why did the IDF have to prove the protesters’ point (that Israel is unjust, hyper violent)? It’s not like listening to Israel’s Foreign Minister isn’t hostile enough! (Here’s a post about how he’s a total d-bag).
Love hurts.
America, we have a problem. We can’t let go of Israel, because almost everyone else in the region is one hundred times nastier than they are, but we also can’t just sit back and pretend that every Israeli administration is good. Some of them suck at managing Israel’s image. This is wicked bad for us because it seems that shortly after one angry protestor (from Iran to Pakistan) screams “death to Israel,” someone else screams “death to America” shortly thereafter. “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden,” said the chief of Israeli intelligence wing, the Mossad, Meir Dagan. All Americans, not just Jews, need to care about the tone of the Israeli government. It means our heads.
You can always trust Israeli Foreign Minister Aivigdor Lieberman to turn an awkward situation into a catastrophic-vomit-filled-BP-oil-spill disaster of epically stupid proportions. His management of the 6 boat “Freedom Flotilla” aid convoy heading to Gaza laden with supplies for Palestinians is no exception to this rule.
Okay America, I’m talking about the one on the right. You dig?
