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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Not getting it... or willful ignorance? You tell me.

Considering the unprecedented access that just about everyone on the planet has to information about world events, and the extensive inside intelligence available to heads of state and diplomats, one has to wonder if the following statements indicate that the speakers truly don't understand the situation on the ground here... or if they are simply maintaining a state of willful ignorance in order to shore up their world-view.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:

"It would be illegal for Israel to cut the supply of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip.... Such action would be "contrary to" Israel's "obligation toward the civilian population under international humanitarian and human rights law". *

This unhelpful statement came in the wake of Israel's declaration yesterday that Gaza is now considered 'an enemy entity', a signal that most took to be a preamble to following through with a long-overdue promise to cut services to the strip.

What baffles me is Ban's willingness to toss around grown-up words like 'illegal' and 'international law' when it comes to Israel's potential actions, yet when discussing the uninterrupted rocket barrage from Gaza onto Israeli civilians (i.e. stuff that is already happening), he simply 'condemns' and 'deplores' these clear cut acts of war without feeling the need to fit them into the framework of International law (and the sanctions that usually accompany such violations). 

If the Palestinians are to be infantalized to the point that they are considered juvenile offenders in the eyes of the world (and therefore not fully responsible for their actions), let the UN take custody of these unruly brats and assume full responsibility for their care and feeding.  It is untenable that Israel should be expected to continue suppling food, water and electricity to an entity that is openly attacking her.

Former US President Dhimmy, er I mean Jimmy Carter:

"Iran is quite distant from Israel... I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel." **

First of all, I imagine that if 'only one or two' missiles were pointed at Dhimmy Carter's cracker ass down there in Georgia, he might be whistling dixie in a whole 'nother key.  But his statement is especially suspect, coming as it does only two days after Iran announced that it has over 600 medium range missiles targeted on Israeli cities.  Is it possible that the wind blew the newspaper off Jimmy's front porch that day?

Also, has Jimmy looked at a map lately?  The distance from Iran to Israel would be no problem for any of Iran's medium range missiles (of which they have thousands).  I know it's been a few decades since Iran took 66 US citizens (and by extension, Dhimmy himself) hostage for 444 days, but you'd think he'd have some recollection of the region's geography.

Again, this knee-jerk tendency to explain away and downplay Islamofascist threats against Israel seems intended to infantalize the Arab/Muslim world... as if to say, 'aw shucks, they didn't really mean it.  It's a cultural thing that you have to make allowances for... boys will be boys'.  The problem with this is that if/when it turns out that they're wrong... it is only Israel that will have paid the price.

Of course... as usual, I could be completely full of sh*t.

* Source

** Source

Posted by David Bogner on September 20, 2007 | Permalink

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Great post -- too bad the people who need to hear this probably won't...

But, um, unfantalize? Don't you mean infantalize?

Posted by: wogo | Sep 20, 2007 11:14:41 AM

Wogo..."Don't you mean infantalize?"

Why yes... yes I do. :-)

Thanks for being the first to catch today's first error. We should have a daily treppenwitz contest to see who can find the first, most egregious and largest number of, errors.

Posted by: treppenwitz | Sep 20, 2007 11:21:19 AM

hmm...to quote a friend of mine, "People are stupid."

Infantilization rings true for other issues in life, as well, even within the Jewish world.

Nice description of Jimmy Carter.

Posted by: tnspr569 | Sep 20, 2007 1:11:04 PM

Yup. Yup. Yup.

PS: Do you want to speculate about the nature of the recent Syrian target of Israeli whoop-ass?

Posted by: Doctor Bean | Sep 20, 2007 3:31:11 PM

tnspr569... The depth and breadth of Jimmy's stupidity actually defies description.

Doctor Bean... It's a complete secret... so naturally everyone knows what it was. Are you telling me your're the only person on the planet that hasn't been briefed?

Posted by: treppenwitz | Sep 20, 2007 3:38:28 PM

"cracker ass"

Posted by: Karl Newman | Sep 20, 2007 4:10:12 PM

What a loser that Ban Ki-Moon is! How sad that a moron like that is following in the hallowed footsteps of Kurt "the Nazi" Waldheim, Bhoutros "Bhoutros" Bhoutros-Ghali, Kofi "the Crook" Annan...

On second thought, he'll fit right in. (:

Posted by: psachya | Sep 20, 2007 4:12:42 PM

I'm so glad you wrote this! I have been thinking the same thing, but all the news I have seen, heard, and read only talks about our potential violations of "human rights", not the actual violations of human life going on right now. I was feeling pretty alone and scared before I read this; now I feel better.

Posted by: chavah | Sep 20, 2007 10:57:32 PM

Cannot find a single thing here with which I disagree.

Much more than any of you other posts, however, I wish I could.

----------

Three different news-reports yesterday that taken collectively paint a disturbing picture.

The first one, of course, was about the jets over Syria. The second one was about an accident fitting a chemical weapons head to a Scud missile at a location in Syria which resulted in numerous deaths. The third was that the Syrians were planning a big surprise for Israel.

These are not calm times.

Posted by: Back of the Hill | Sep 20, 2007 11:50:09 PM

Israel is always wrong. At least according to the UN. They need to accept it and do what needs to be done anyway.

Posted by: Jack | Sep 21, 2007 5:26:53 AM

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