Robert,

It is disconcerting to me that all Israel seems to do is be satisfied with getting the Security Council to denounce the killing.

Hamas and the other savages must be rolling on the floor laughing.

As you have pointed out...Israel must show supreme force and no mercy. The government must stop worrying about world opinion....and unleash the IDF to do what has to be done to protect Jews.

I would rather have the liberals, Jew and Non Jew alike, wring their hands in protest, instead of watching more Jewish lives ruined.

Enough!

Lance:

Enough, true. But I fear that Ehud Olmert does not recognize it as such. BTW, the homicide bomber was not 21 years old as Hamas said, he was 16 years old. Ponder it, this is a culture that values and raises children to murder innocent Jewish men, women and children. Such a culture is a blight on the face of the earth.

Robert, I'm not an Israeli and I'm not Jewish but I am so sick of the fighting. I know I'm not alone. Israel needs a Churchill to lead them to battle. Israelis have never lacked courage, it appears its only leadership lacking. Maybe you can help me if I'm seeing that incorrectly. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

"There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel." --Golda Meir

trn, I came back to the site to add one more question/comment. How in the world can human beings explain other humans who raise their young to kill themselves while killing others? The mind boggles.

"There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel." --Golda Meir
The problem with this statement, as eloquent as it may be, is that it will never happen. I don't even think it's an issue of love for children. I think it's more a matter of inertia...the hate has been set in motion, and cannot stop.

Suz:

Peace will come when the Palestinians are utterly and completely defeated in battle and are not saved by any kind of last minute UN truce. They must learn once and for all that the Jewish State is permanent. For every day that goes by the larger will the casualties on both sides grow.

Robert,

Your above comment to Suz, is exactly what needs to happen.

However, this current Israeli government, neither has the resolve or inner strength to do what truly needs to be done.

Olmert, Peres, and company are more concerned with currying favor with Europe and America.

No disrespect intended to the Prime Minister, but maybe someone should screw Olmert into a seat at a screening of "The G-dfather". Specifically, the scene at the Bronx restaurant when Michael (Pacino) is, uh, negotiating, with the other "family" and the corrupt police captain.

Jaw already swollen from a blow landed in a recent scene, when Michael's Italian fails him, he spits this out in English: "I want a guarantee that there will be no more attempts on my father's life."

I won't spoil the drama by saying what he spits out after that. He just does what he has to do - and takes the consequences.

Jeremiah,

I know the scene you are referring to.

One can only wish...

I've got a bad feeling Olmert is a lot more like Fredo.

Jake:

Olmert is quite willing to use overwhelming force against fellow Jews, but against a terrorist regime, his government seems paralyzed. He seems more like Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Jimmy Carter, than Fredo.

Hmm... I guess that makes Olmert like Hyman Roth? I guess we ran out of Godfather analogies. Too bad.

Yes, it's more than clear that Israeli leadership is lacking. What's more, from what I understand many Israelis *voted* for this type of leadership, and consider tougher parties and their leaders "fascists". So if that's how the Israeli public votes, can anything really be done about it?

Irina:

Israel is a Parliamentary Democracy and so they will live and die by their choice of Ehud Olmert.

One of the lovely things about the left, be it Israeli or American, is never having to admit that you have made a mistake. In fact, hosts of mistakes.

Speak of Oslo and an Israeli on the left will probably find a way to blame Israel (settlers?) rather than Arafat and the precious "victim" Palestinians. Or they will split the difference in the interests of "fairness."

G-d forbid there should be right and wrong, good and evil. That's way too stark for such sophisticated mentalities.

But as the disengagment from Gaza starkly displays, Israelis living among Palis has nothing to do with the conflict. It all comes down to what it originally was about in 1948: the very existence of Israel. And this truth is simply unbearable for some people to acknowledge.

These are the same people, spiritually, who forced America to withdraw from Vietnam, thus dooming hundreds of thousands to death and "reeducation camps." And then of course emboldened the Khmer Rouge in their genocide -- one million human beings murdered through suffocation with plastic bags. Usually by another family member.

No way was America going to intervene in Cambodia -- not after Viet Nam.

Guess who stepped in to stop the slaughter?

Viet Nam. Even those barbarians couldn't take it.

But ask any Viet Nam protestor about his/her part in those atrocities and they will deny any part. Noooo, they had nothing to do with it. They are safe and secure in their smug self-righteousness.

You see what I mean about never having to admit any culpability?

Hamas preys on leftist guilt.

Thousands of Jews will be thrown out of their homes in Judea and Samaria. The left will sip latte in Katamon (where Arabs used to live BTW) and congratulate themselves on their progressive politics.

And then hell will rain down from Gaza and Judea and Samaria at the same time.

And then maybe Israel will look for its Churchill and the left will blame it on... The Jews.

My wife, the psychologist, calls this mode of thinking, cognitive dissonance; it's a recognized mental illness.

The situation is so frustrating. Robert, if only you'd be the prime minister things would be better. But you're not, and people continue to die.

Dovid:

You're very kind to suggest that I'd be an appropriate Prime Minister. My inner voice tells me that there are many others who would do a far better job.

Though not Ehud Olmert.

I'm pretty sure even I could do a better job than he.

But let us all agree that the murder of every Jew is a tragedy, an atrocity, and their blood cries out for vengeance.

Let us all recite extra Tehillim, Psalms, during our morning prayers.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

Robert, have a good Yomtov.

I came across the following comment on an article on another blog..and I think, unfortunately, it's not far from the truth:

"I'm having less and less sympathy for the Israeli public.
If they gave a damn they would be marching in the streets demanding their government take decisive action to end the sacrificial Jew killing.
Yet, they respond with well rehearsed words and the same old lame responses, if not a shrug of the shoulder.
They have accepted the occasional slaughter in exchange for trying to go along to get along.
Frankly, they have become fat, lazy Euro wannabe's who have lost their will to fight with extreme prejudice."

I know it is NOT completely true, but for some reason, it's what Jews do...we will forgive our enemies almost anything...not all of us, but a good many. It's not a defect, in that we truly cannot fully fathom the depravity of the Palestinian killers, any more than we could the Nazis...who can really believe people would send a 16 year old to death and then hand out 'sweets' when they murder a number of, in this case, mainly middle-aged folks just minding their own business.

I know I can't fathom it.

The typical American Jew is even more disconnected from reality. The reality is what you have written...and I believe, in the long run, the best thing for the Palestinians themselves, as it was in a horrible and unfortunate way for the Japanese and Germans, is total defeat. Germany would never have stop fighting..and I do not believe the Japanese crazies running the show there would have either.

If the Palestinians are finally destroyed as a terrorist entity...maybe they'll wake up from their dreams of destroying Israel. Maybe not, but nothing else certainly has worked.

Robert,

The left never says its sorry....

Only that it is smarter than the rest of us..and like a adult talking to a child...we better listen, since they know better.

Of course...if WE DO listen....we will end up speaking Arabic and living under sharia law.

"One of the lovely things about the left, be it Israeli or American, is never having to admit that you have made a mistake".

and George Bush has admitted mistakes...when?

(Robert, I know i'm opening up a can of worms, and will be attacked for this, but oh well...I know I'm not loved on your blog anyway, so what the heck. I just couldn't resist).
(and, by the way...I agree with what you say...Israel has every right to do all that you describe)

Since Maurice mentioned typical American Jews being even more disconnected from reality....

Last Thanksgiving for the first time I met some distant cousins. Very liberal New Englanders, they have been hosting a high school exchange student from Egypt. The boy's grandfather was Minster of Defence during the Yom Kippur War. When asked what about the Begin-Sadat-Carter treaty, he said (apparently without missing a beat): "Sadat betrayed the country." During Ramadan the woman of the household woke up before dawn every day to make him breakfast.

For Hanukkah I sent them a card whose preprinted message linked that holiday with "enjoying freedom". No reply. That's when I decided to go online and find others to connect with.

Can someone...ANYONE...explain to me why the left always answers with "George W. Bush"?

I can take precious blog space and give a retort to the comment above....but it has been rehashed so many times I wonder if lefties have anything else to counter with.

Maurice:

Unfortunately your quote does apply to a sizable segment of the Israeli public. For instance, two of Ehud Olmert's children stand at Israeli checkpoints to make sure that Israeli soldiers do not "dishonor or mistreat" any Palestinians. One can assume that at some point they and those like them have made sure that the Israeli soldiers went nice and easy on some homicidal bomber. This "guilt mindset" afflicts a huge portion of the Israeli "elite."

Lance:

The stated objective of the worlwide Jihad is to destroy the state of Israel and kill or convert every Jew on the face of the earth. Those who deny this are allowed to by Islamic law, for they are allowed to lie to infidels.

Randi:

First of all, you are loved on this blog. Just because we disagree on some political issues does not diminsih my affection and respect for you.

And your babke.

You ask a fair question, let me try and answer.

President Bush and his alleged mistakes. I think you are referring to WMD's in Iraq? If so, there is a huge difference between a sitting President admitting mistakes during wartime and generations of lefties who are directly culpable for the death of millions of people--would you not agree?

Besides, every European government agreed that Saddam had WMD's, as did the UN.

And besides, there is ample evidence that the Iraqi WMD's are now in Syria.

Let us never forget that Sadam used WMD's to slaughter over 50,000 Kurdish men, women and children.

He planned on using them against Israel.

Now, if you are referring to the war in Iraq as a mistake, well, we have a philosophical difference. I believe that this is a just war and is the same war Israel is fighting against the Palestinian barbarians.

I urge you to read the post "The Last Helicopter." It's truly important.

Do I get my coffee and babke?

Jeremiah:

The boy's grandfather survived the assasination of Sadat, which suggests that he probably had a hand in it. The Muslim Brotherhood made sure to murder everyone who was in agreement with Sadat's policies.

It was a massacre.

Welcome to the MidEast.

Is this what it takes to make it in the Middle East?

It's OK to be liked, but it's always more important to be respected than to be liked.
And if people won't respect you, make them fear you.
And if people won't respect you or fear you, humiliate them.
And if people won't respect you or fear you or be humiliated by you, destroy them.
Then destroy the memory of them.

Jeremiah:

Something like that. Though memories die hard in the Mideast. Usually, physical destruction does the job.

Not everyone on the Left needs to be right all the time. I was a strong supporter of the peace process until 2000. When the second intifada began with no Israeli provocation, it was clear to me that only complete military defeat would "solve" the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

That is not to say that during the peace process I wasn't getting more and more concerned when suicide bombings stilloccured, or when both sides seemed to think it was fine to avoid discussing the difficult and most pertinent issues year after year. I criticzed, cajoled, but still believed.

Then Ariel Sharon takes a little walk and 16-year-old Palestinians are blowing themselves up again. Hopeless people.

Being right all the time isn't all it's cracked up to be. Two people in my family are like that; needing to be the smartest person in the room all the time, and they are very unhappy people.

"Can someone...ANYONE...explain to me why the left always answers with "George W. Bush"?"

Lance, I have a name...it is not "the left". And, while I am no Robert Avrech, (well-read and skillfully written words), I have a valuable opinion about things, even if they are not the same as yours. I am sorry that we cannot agree to have differing opinions without you feeling the need to be so aggressive.

Robert, thank you for your kind response. I am well aware that other than the great respect you are still willing to show me even if our opinions differ, that there is not, shall we say, alot of
"love" here for me....that's okay though. (my dog loves me unconditionally)

I appreciate everything you have stated in your comment back to me. I even read the Last Helicopter. I will take it all into consideration, and learn from it.

Babke and coffee will arrive in the morning, as always.

Cognitive Dissonance would not be classified as a mental illness, it's too subtle and incident specific for that. I think what Robert means is a massive case of denial, or maybe magical thinking.

Randi: I am not precisely ON this site, but I read it regularly and learn from your perspectives, even when I disagree. The left-of-center viewpoint is usually represented by the MoveOn crowd, whose delivery is less elegant, and less constructive. (My wife pointed me to your own blog, and your thoughts on funerals were especially fun!)

Boxer, I have read your comments and appreciate your thoughtful viewpoint as well.
I have learned alot from this blog. And when I say I know there is not alot of love here for me...I mean: I realize that my viewpoint is, at times, different from many of Robert's readers, and so my opinions do not bring a positive response (but I'm willing, of course, to bribe with babke). I would hope that we could discuss, learn, and be tolerant. I do not in any way want to hurt of offend anyone that comes to read this blog.
Thanks for reading my funeral post.