Soccer Dad

Did I miss something?

In the Lion King, there's a scene where Simba's (Simba is the Lion King of the title) friends, the meerkat Timon and the warthog Pumbaa are attacked by a lioness. It turns out that before Simba ran away from his home, the lioness was his good friend Nala. After introductions are made, Timon can't believe that everyone's letting bygones be bygones:

How do you...whoa, whoa! Time out... Let me get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him. And everybody's...okay with this? Did I miss something?! (Breathes heavily.)

(This scene's a riot and about ten years ago our oldest daughter, then 4, did a great rendition of these lines.) Actually what he couldn't believe is that a carnivore could simply stop being a carnivore.
My wife said she had the same impression when she saw:

About 700 Palestinian militants in the volatile West Bank city of Nablus have agreed in principle to join the Palestinian security forces as part of a campaign to transform the gunmen into government servants, Palestinians officials said today.

The Palestinian leadership has been working on the program for months, and says more than 500 militants in other West Bank cities have already signed up to work in the security forces or take civilian jobs in government. The deal in Nablus, a hotbed for militants, marks the most comprehensive agreement so far.

Of course a real lioness doesn't simply stop being a carnivore. And a militant doesn't simply stop being a terrorist.

And yet, rather than withdraw US support for Abbas as a result of his blatant failure to deliver on even the smallest American expectation from him, during her visit over the weekend, Rice simply shored up US support for him. Rice supports continued Israeli security "gestures" to Abbas, like the release of further prisoners. This, even as the night before she arrived, the IDF arrested Rami Muhammad Hassan Kandil in Jenin. Kandil, a member of Islamic Jihad who was among the 900 terrorists recently released from prison by Israel in order to "strengthen" Abbas, was planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.

Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at June 26, 2005 7:09 AM