Soccer Dad

Right universe, poor logic

In an alternate universe I read the following editorial in the NT Times, "Hamas's militant message"

The Hamas led Palestinian Authority has made some encouraging progress recently, refusing to launch terror attacks though competing terror groups in Gaza have not respected the truce reached a month ago. This respect for the peace process hopefully will boost Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert currently suffering for low approval ratings. Unfortunately Hamas threatens to undercut the good it has done by failing to rein in the rogue factions firing rockets into Israel.

Hamas's space for peace diplomacy is tightly constrained. It must contend with its own ideology denying Israel's right to exist, numerous terror groups operating without challenge and a Holocaust denying President of the Palestinian Authrority. Without any obvious partner to make peace, Israel's defense minister has chosen to authorize a new settlement to accomodate Jews expelled from Gaza last year to further the peace process. Though we don't approve of settlements, this is no excuse for the continued terror Israel has had to endure especially after giving the Palestinians their own territory to live in.

We hope that the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will take the initiative and order the many men he currently has under his authority to protect Israeli civilians. We would be encouraged if, for once, he would take an action - any action - that could be unambigiously interpreted as promoting peace and coexistence.

Then I pinched myself and returned to reality and read "Israel's Mixed Message in the Times. I was greatly relieved to be home, in the correct universe.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, took some encouraging steps over the weekend to ease the frustrations Palestinians face at West Bank and Gaza checkpoints. He hoped in that way to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas, the embattled moderate who presides over the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, Israel’s defense minister, Amir Peretz, has undercut these moves by approving the first new West Bank settlement in more than a decade.

Israel’s space for peace diplomacy is tightly constrained. It must reckon with a Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet that denies its right to exist and rejects the very notion of a negotiated peace. Yet those facts of Mideast life do not justify authorizing a new settlement. That self-defeating move adds nothing to Israel’s security and needlessly complicates the quest for an eventual negotiated peace.

We hope Mr. Olmert or Israel’s Parliament can reverse Mr. Peretz’s damaging decision, taken in defiance of the international road map for Middle East peace, which Israel’s governing coalition has pledged to support.

It may be the correct universe, but there is no logic here. Does the Times really expect Israel to accede to every demand of the roadmap if the governing party of the PA rejects the roadmap because the roadmap assumes that Israel has the right to exist?

Boker Tov Boulder defined "sops" and reveals this bitter irony

I had to look up the word, sop, just to make sure. It is "something yielded to placate or soothe, a bribe." So Israel is bribing some of the Gaza "settlers" with a place to live, a year and a half after dragging them out of the homes they built in Gush Katif.

It Shines for All judges the value of promises

Prime Minister Sharon repeatedly and emphatically said that Israel's obligations to the roadmap don't start until there is an end to terrorism. The end to terrorism never happened, so the roadmap never took off and none of Israel's "promises" had to be kept. The promises were contingent on an end to terrorism. Otherwise Israel would be rewarding the Palestinian Arabs for abandoning peace and continuing with terrorism. Something no Israel leader would do, and something America did not demand Israel do.

Meryl Yourish is inspired to reduce silly criticisms of Israel to numbers as shorthand.

I’m about done with being able to post on Israeli issues. I am simply seeing the same scene played over and over again, on different days, and sometimes with different players.

I’m going to start assigning numbers, like in that old joke about the prisoners.

Let’s see, Israel being bashed for settlements and checkpoints with no mention whatsoever of the need for those checkpoints: We’ll call that 2. One will be the “exercise restraint” after the pals get a suicide belt through the area that was previously checkpointed, and Israeli civilians are murdered.

Blogdigger tags: Israel, Hamas, Media Bias, New York Times.