Displaying posts published in

2011

ROBERT WOLFE: SETTLEMENTS ARE THE ISSUE

Wolfe – Settlements Are the Issue Robert Wolfe New English Review August 2011http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/93385/sec_id/93385
thanks to: LOVE OF THE LAND… http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/

You often hear defenders of the Netanyahu government say, in opposition to demands for a settlement freeze, “Settlements are not the issue. The issue is the Palestinian refusal to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.” The unspoken subtext behind this argument is that if only the Palestinians would accept the existence of Israel, the issue of the settlements could easily be resolved, with Israel retaining some and abandoning others. And it is certainly true that the Palestinians have never accepted the existence of Israel and have always found one pretext or another to avoid a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but even if the Palestinians would formally accept the Jewish state, it is far from clear that a compromise on the question of settlements is either possible or desirable.

In the first place, although some Palestinian negotiators have given the impression that they would accept Israeli retention of the large settlement blocs in return for the surrender of some Israeli territory elsewhere, the official Palestinian and Arab position has remained that Israel must withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines, which are invariably referred to as the “1967 borders.” When the Palestinians ask individual countries to declare their support for the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, the boundaries of that state are always described as the “1967 borders.” All this creates the impression that one of the main reasons why the Palestinians are not interested in a negotiated settlement is precisely because they are not willing to accept the existence of any Israeli settlements, whether big or small, beyond the 1949 armistice lines. This impression is further reinforced by the repeated statements by Abbas and other Palestinian leaders that they do not intend to accept the presence of even one single Jew within the territory of their new Palestinian state.

YORAM ETTINGER: ISRAEL’S UNIQUE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=875&r=1 Israel’s unique contribution to the US “Israel is responsible for over 600 modifications in the current generation of General Dynamics’ (GD) F-16 fighter aircrafts, providing General Dynamics a multi-billion dollar bonus in research and development, improving General Dynamic’s competitive edge in the global market, expanding U.S. employment and its export base and enhancing U.S. national security,” General […]

CAROLINE GLICK: CALLING THINGS BY THEIR PROPER NAME

http://jewishworldreview.com/1111/glick112511.php3

There is a price to be paid for calling an enemy an enemy. But there is an even greater price to be paid for failing to do so.

Next month, the US’s long campaign in Iraq will come to an end with the departure of the last US forces from the country. Amazingly, the approaching withdrawal date has fomented little discussion in the US. Few have weighed in on the likely consequences of US President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw on the US’s hard won gains in that country. After some six thousand Americans gave their lives in the struggle for Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on the war, it is quite amazing that its conclusion is being met with disinterested yawns.

The general stupor was broken last week with The Weekly Standard’s publication of an article entitled, “Defeat in Iraq: President Obama’s decision to withdraw US troops is the mother of all disasters.” The article was written by Frederick and Kimberly Kagan and Marisa Cochrane Sullivan. The Kagans contributed to conceptualizing the successful US-counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, popularly known as “the surge,” that former president George W. Bush implemented in 2007.

THE SCOURGE OF CLIENTITIS: CAROLINE GLICK

http://townhall.com/columnists/carolineglick/2011/11/25/the_scourge_of_clientitis/print For many years, observers of the US State Department on both sides of the American political spectrum have agreed that State Department officials suffer from a malady referred to as “clientitis.” Clientitis is generally defined as a state of mind in which representatives of an organization confuse their roles. Rather than advance the cause […]

AND THE FAIR LAND……

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577037921612867912.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop ‘For all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators.’ Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful. […]

CALVIN COOLIDGE: OUR FINEST PRESIDENT ON GIVING THANKS: CHARLES C. JOHNSON

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/284066 In our increasingly secular age, as we watch grown men play a boys’ game, as a certain parade sponsored by Macy’s commercializes our streets, and as we look forward to shaking off our tryptophan-induced slumber to wait in line for Black Friday, it is worth remembering, as Calvin Coolidge did, that “the things of […]

MARIO LOYOLA: AMERICA’S MOST GRATEFUL IMMIGRANTS

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/284058 Every Cuban-American family has the following black-and-white picture hanging somewhere on a wall: Grandfather and his many brothers, dressed in smart suits with thin ties; wives and sisters in floral and pastel dresses; everyone crowded together, some kneeling, others standing, all beaming broadly. That was Cuba in the 1950s. That was the country that Fidel Castro ruined. […]

RICH LOWRY: A WORLD OF GIFTS

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/284061
Eventually social science works its way around to confirming eternal verities. So it is with gratitude.
An article in a psychological journal a few years ago noted that “throughout history, religious, theological and philosophical treatises have viewed gratitude as integral to well-being.” Psychology has recently worked to quantify the wisdom of the ages and confirmed — sure enough — it was correct.
A raft of recent research has established that grateful people are happier people. They are less depressed and less stressed. They are less likely to envy others and more likely to want to share. They even sleep better. As the journal article put it, empirical work “has suggested gratitude is as strongly correlated with well-being as are other positive traits, and has suggested that this relationship is causal.”

ROGER KIMBALL: THE OPIUM OF THE INTELLECTUALS

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2011/11/23/the-opium-of-the-intellectuals/?print=1 How many people still remember The Opium of the Intellectuals, the French philosopher Raymond Aron’s masterpiece? First published in France in 1955, at the height of the Cold War, L’Opium des intellectuels was an immediate sensation. It caused something of a sensation in the United States, too, when an English translation was published in […]

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S THANKSGIVING WISH: JOSEPH ASHBY

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/11/george_washingtons_thanksgiving_wish.html By Joseph Ashby The first official United States Thanksgiving came on November 26, 1789.  In the first year of the Constitutional Republic, both houses of Congress recommended to George Washington that he set apart a day for “thanksgiving and payer.”  President Washington agreed and proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November that year to be […]