Writes Thomas Friedman, in "Why Israel Is Acting This Way" (NYT).
If Friedman's use of the word crazy bothers you, you should read the whole column. He uses the word crazy (or a variation on crazy) 10 times.
As Friedman imagines it, Hamas, seeing Israel's increased acceptance in the Arab world, thought: "OK, Jews, we will go where we have never gone before. We will launch an all-out attack from Gaza that won’t stop with soldiers but will murder your grandparents and slaughter your babies. We know it’s crazy, but we are willing to risk it to force you to outcrazy us, with the hope that the fires will burn up all Arab-Israeli normalization in the process."
And Friedman seems to accept that Israel has no other choice than to perform the required craziness:
Israel has suffered a staggering blow and is now forced into a morally impossible war to outcrazy Hamas and deter Iran and Hezbollah at the same time.... It is one thing to deter Hezbollah and deter Hamas. It is quite another to replace Hamas and leave behind something more stable and decent. But what to do?
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Lots of commentators are saying it isn't Iran that is behind this, but Qatar... where the US has its largest air base in the Middle East and just held the World Cup.
“Crazy” would be for Israel to allow the continued existence in Gaza as an existential threat. Sanity is removing Hamas permanently, root and branch.
In order to get the Left to accept Israel's self-defense Friedman must resort to calling them neurodivergent. Being Jewish isn't enough of a victim group.
1. I’ll tell what is crazy: American Jews voting for the Dems.
Hey, Tommy. Biden and Obama have both funded Iran. Iran has grossed $60 billion in oil revenue. And, or course, Obama flew in pallets of cash.
2. The siege is a great idea. Starve them out and then invade.
3. Big question! With no electricity, how is Hamas going to charge their iPhones?
"I don't know karate, but I know karazy."
The Big Payback, James Brown
Israel needs to understand who their REAL enemy is. It's not Iran. It's the United States.
Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, with no authorization from Congress, provided Iran with the $6 billion then laundered to Hamas to purchase the rockets and bullets used to kill these people.
Joe Biden and the Democrat Party are the enemy of Israel.
Just look at the commonality amongst all the pro-Palestinian agitators in the United States: All liberals. All Democrats.
They might bulldoze Gaza but until they deal with the Democrats, Israel will never be safe.
The Netanyahu government’s obstinate refusal to listen to Israel’s security chiefs, who warned him that the safety of the country was being imperiled by policies that were dangerously divisive. Whatever the immediate unity of the country, his days as prime minister are numbered and his legacy will forever be this catastrophe.
One text from Deuteronomy, 30.19 lies at the indefatigably beating heart of Jewish history:
'I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.'
Further evidence, as if any is needed, of what a terrible writer Friedman is, and how warped his mind is. People get "driven crazy" by annoyances like mosquitoes or loud music. There's nothing "crazy" about Israel's response to the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of hundreds of innocent civilians.
All of this is funded and pushed by a-holes who do not want a lasting peace...or acceptance of Israel.
the war machine.
That's crazy-talk....
Agatha, darling!
Yes, mamma.
Will you go and look over the photograph album that I see there?
Yes, mamma.
Dear girl! She is so fond of photographs of Switzerland. Such a pure taste, I think.
- Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
The train is leaving the station and Hamas is not on it.
The answer is not to stand in front of the train.
What gets me, is how Israel won't let Gaza's southern border to open!
If the southern border was open, people and goods could move between Egypt and Gaza.
But no!
Israel insists on forcing the Egyptians to keep it closed
Just like Israel insists on forcing All of the Arab world to refuse to accept Palestinians
Israel also insists on forcing the PLO to be corrupt and incompetent
Israel also insists on forcing Hamas to be psychotic murders
Just like Israel insists on forcing all Palestinians to also be psychotic murderers
Face It! ALL the problems in the Arab world are Israel's fault! If only there were a solution!
Of course, If there were no Israel, those problems would Still be there; just like All those problems were there BEFORE Israel. Come to think of it; the Arabs (and the Left) NEED Israel!
Doesn’t Friedman misidentify who is the outcrazy one? Hamas exhibits the outcraziness, and Israel is responding as any normal government that exists to secure and protect its citizens. Hamas has pretty much instigated its own demise, if Israel’s threats are born out.
Friedman does what he does: bury some good points among a mound of right think nonsense.
In his wording, not responding with action would be “not crazy” and responding with appropriate action is to “out crazy”
Once upon a time that type of carefully written and edited publication would result in loss of a job.
Friedman is making this more complicated than it is. I guess he needed some padding for his column.
Living next door to a monster leaves you three choices: befriend it, contain it or kill it.
Israel has tried friendship. Didn’t work.
It has tried containment (walls, fences and the “virtual fence” of deterrence through guaranteed and very painful retaliation). Didn’t work.
That leaves killing. Now underway.
A perfectly abhorrent and perfectly rational response to the endless unprovoked predation. Israelis aren’t willing to commit suicide to enable the Arabs to pursue their murderous fantasy.
Some of the European press this morning is reporting that Hamas really just intended a lightning strike on IDF military targets, followed by a quick retreat. But when they found no resistance, they continued on, things got a bit out of hand, a bit CRAZY, like a frat party late at night with no chaperone. It was Israel’s fault for not having the required police presence.
Danger Close Podcast on Israel and Hamas
Because the second shoe is now dropped on our pathway to Armageddon, I thought I would briefly come out of retirement to share this excellent discussion between an American special operator author and filmmaker with an Israeli journalist. This discussion takes the time to put the current situation into the appropriate historical context.
Why anyone would ever waste their time with Thomas Friedman is beyond imagination.
You're welcome, lol
Refunds for The World is Flat are apparently once again not being offered.
Unconditional surrender, military tribunals to prosecute Hamas war crimes, execution and imprisonment of the guilty. Otherwise, we'll be back here in 5 or 10 years.
The first part of Friedman's column subverts his own conclusions....He writes that Israel's disproportionate response to a Hezbollah provocation in 2006 inhibited later actions by Hezbollah. In order words, it worked....Israel's reaction now will be disproportionate and cruel. That's the point of it. Maybe some people in Gaza will be less gung-ho about terror tactics in the future. Maybe not, but there's no sane response in anyone's repertoire to the Hamas atrocity.....Friedman would dearly like to assign some of the blame to Netanyahu and Trump, but just now he's stymied. Give him time. Some time in the future he'll establish how all of this was the inevitable result of their machinations.
Fuck Friedman. Much of America's diplomacy in the Mideast during Clinton was based on his reporting from there. After he left, in his first book he very nearly bragged, or at least wasn't embarrassed to note, that he frequently skewed his reporting out of fear of Arafat's henchmen.
"They drove Israel crazy"
I don't think that's true. Israel was crazy to want to be there. Mexicans with guns and cartel connections have taken over my old South Central neighborhood. Do you think I'm going back to start a fight over it? Or do you think America gives a damn that someone from another country has taken over my home? No, America's forcing me to live with what's happened, just like the Jews should've.
Instead, we have to be witnesses to mass killing for the rest of our fucking lives.
And, you can bet, it bothers me that America cares more about whether or not Jews can go back to the Middle East than I can go back to my home here.
Agree with mikee. Unconditional surrender is only option.
Gilbar, Egypt has a say about whether to open its border to fleeing Palestinians, and it won't do it.
Why? Because Hamas has been aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has engaged in many acts of terror against Egyptians and tourists alike.
Hamas fighters would come in along with the "innocent" Palestinians.
Why let in people who aim to make trouble in your country?
"The notion, that mass killers are wild beasts, which exists amongst many in the public - 'Kill them all! How could they do such a thing?!?' - is absolutely false. The mass killers are people, just like you and me, who are doing what they think is necessary for the general welfare."
- Benjamin Ferencz, a Jew and the Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg
For some reason, most of you just can't seem to grasp that, can you? That's the mark of children in war time.
Israel has suffered a staggering blow and is now forced into a morally impossible war to outcrazy Hamas and deter Iran and Hezbollah at the same time....
Is this a true statement? Was Israel "staggered"?
It was a horrible and sickening atrocity, but it wasn't a threat to Israel's existence anymore than a few hundred unruly citizens wandering around in the Capital Building was a threat to the rule of the US Government. Israel isn't "forced into" anything. They can choose how to react and they will choose how to react and ultimately, they will be held morally responsible for how they react.
Israel should be careful not to throw away one of it's biggest assets, the moral high ground.
The US should not get into another mid-east war over this. You can bet if we get into a war with Iran, the Patriot Act 2.0 will come with it here at home.
What would hurt Iran and Hez and Hamas more than anything would be to continue to strengthen Israel's alliances with KSA and Egypt and UAE.
Thanks for posting that video, Howard. For me, it puts the whole Israeli mindset in perspective while clearly illustrating the intractable situation in which Jews find themselves. It also at least partially explains how the other side (antisemites, Gasa Arabs, Middle Eastern Arabs, progressives and US academics among others in other parts of the world) came to embrace terrorism against the Jews as some type of self-delusional "anti-colonialism." After 140 or so years of persecution around the world and finding all other doors closed to them, the Jews in Israel literally have no place else to go. So, Hamas and their Gasa supporters demand a fight to the death and the Israelis are of necessity going to oblige them. On the more positive side, this will likely go a long way toward relieving the overcrowding in Gasa,
The principles offered by Thomas Aquinas are more useful guidelines than Mr. Friedman's opinions. Is this a just war? Is war the last resort? Are the ends proportional to the means used? And so on.
The only issue I have with the Israeli response is whether its actions are proportional. If this is a war for self-preservation than just about anything goes.
Side note -- George W. Bush didn't give a fig about just wars and Thomas Aquinas and all that bullsh*t. Preemptive wars were always justified to combat terror threats (real or imagined). W.'s crazy behavior is how we got ourselves in this mess.
This conflict seems more like a Civil War to me than anything else.
American Jews in the Biden Administration are fighting Israeli Jews using Hamas as their army and funneling the arms through Iran.
Not a single American Jew has resigned from the "Biden" Administration over this insanely obvious funding of Hamas terrorists via Iran, so clearly, they support this activity.
The attacks by Hamas were an act of desperation. Why are they desperate? Because of the strengthening of new ties between Israel and it's Arab neighbors and the moves toward lasting peace and prosperity. Hamas relies on those Arab nations for funding, weapons, intel, safe haven, etc. Hamas' leaders could see all that drying up soon. They could see the walls closing in. Pretty soon they'd be on the run and hunted like dogs by Mossad. Time was not on their side. They wanted to throw a big wrench into all that.
Seems like Israel could still turn this into a strengthening of the positive developments brought about by the Trump Administration, an acceleration of that trend. Or they could indulge themselves in a bloody revenge in which thousands of innocents die and set that progress back by many years and give Hamas a win.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1712858177933582793
“Hamas fighters would come in along with the "innocent" Palestinians.”
“Why let in people who aim to make trouble in your country?“
… appearing today in an American border town near you …
A couple of quick things. Go easy on poor ole Tom, his in-laws are all from that interesting part of the world. As far as his reporting skillset, he has never mastered the basic five questions of reporting, but he does have bloviating, lies by omission and willful blindness down pat.
To the crack emcee; I can understand your disgust with some of the opinions concerning south central vis a vis Israel and Palestine. It must burn something fierce to realize not only scumbag republicans encouraged illegal immigration for 40+ years, now the entire Democrat herd of donkeys have fallen in love with illegal immigration ever since former President Clinton. And yes, young african-american males are hit the hardest by this deliberate attempt to undermine America both political parties. However, alot of the young african-american males became excellent operators that I was proud to serve with.
Gilbar, you do know that Egypt has kept the southern border of Gaza closed for years now, right? Easier just to blame the Jews. You are so transparent.
"Hezbollah killing three and kidnapping two Israeli soldiers in 2006"
This is the example of how dangerous Hezbollah is? 3 soldiers killed 17 years ago? That's also crazy. How many lebanonese (sic) have died in Israeli airstrikes since 2005?
Well its Tom Friedman after all. He's just another NYT's columnist that makes you scatch your head and go "this is the best they can do? American premier MSM newspaper cant get anyone smarter?"
Why don't they hire Bob Wright or Mickey Kaus or [insert 100 people smarter than Friedman] ?
Bibi was staggered on Sabbath like FDR was staggered on December7, 1941. They rejoiced that the enemy attacked first and thus created a resolve to fight them. The IDF will finish off Hamas before Christmas. Then they begin work again on a Middle East Pax Israeliana begun by Trump’s extraordinary wisdom.
The collateral consequences are the exposure of the American Edu and Dem-Marxist animals as pro Jew Extermination subhumans. That mask is off. And the MSM liars can’t put it back together again.
I think it's cute how the Crack MC thinks Jews have some place safe they can live when they abandon Israel.
As a pundit, a "news analyst", or a genocide color commentator -- whatever Tiny Tommy Friedman uses to describe himself, his sell-by date has long since expired. Given the triteness of his prose and the superficiality of his analysis, he's on the wrong platform. He should try TikTok. Crazy as an explanatory word works well there.
Israel's response is far from crazy. It has been logical, legal, and methodical. Hamas hasn't been crazy, either. If your goal is the extermination of the Jews, you must start somewhere, you've got to go out and kill them. They're not going to gas themselves just because. That is not crazy, that is evil, wickedness, the blackest malevolence this side of Hell. To call Hamas crazy is unforgivable because it allows Hamas an excuse it does not deserve. Friedman ought to be ashamed. Regrettably, shame requires a modicum of moral integrity, so don't expect a Friedman epiphany by next Tuesday.
What Hamas has done isn't crazy, but it is stupid -- stupid almost beyond belief -- but not wholly unexpected from the Palestinians, a people who have evidently embraced stupidity as their founding ethos. Stupidity or its Arabic equivalent ought to be emblazoned on the Palestinians' heraldry instead of "God is Great". What did they expect? Like the Armada of 1588, evidently a miracle. They didn't get one. So, Ismail Haniyeh demands a worldwide jihad starting on Friday the 13th (ooooh... scary!). They didn't get that, either. Was the whole thing a sick practical joke invented by the ruling mullahs in Tehran? (Can't you just see them now, so convulsed by laughter that they can't even wind their turbans properly, yelling "They fell for it!" in Farsi?)
Hamas as the ruling party of a quasi-state is doomed to extinction. The leadership will somehow escape to a Muslim shithole somewhere, leaving the Gazans to cope with Israel which will most likely annex Gaza as a tightly controlled and severely policed protectorate. Then will come the pleas and alibis. The typical Gazan will have all sorts of stories and tales about how those horrible Hamas terrorists were entirely to blame. Gaza in 2024 will be like Germany in 1946 -- full of innocent victims who always loved the Jews and always hated the Nazis.
Friedman wrote:
"It is one thing to deter Hezbollah and deter Hamas. It is quite another to replace Hamas and leave behind something more stable and decent. But what to do?"
The Israeli government has stated a goal in the words of Netanyahu- they are going to kill every member of Hamas inside of Gaza. That goal cannot be reached without emptying Gaza of every one of its present residents. Hamas isn't a discrete thing that you kill and that is it- even if the IDF could enter Gaza, identify every member of Hamas, and kill them, Hamas would be regenerated by other residents of Gaza within a year's time.
Hamas' attack last weekend has shown that the status quo as it existed on October 6th is no longer stable. I suspect the Israelis have decided to empty Gaza of its residents, and force the rest of the world to take them in as refugees. In the end, it all comes down to fixing a border that is defensible against even the incursions of last weekend- the border with Gaza is apparently too long and with no natural barriers- Israel aims to fix this problem by making the new border the Mediterrean and the Egyptian border on the Sinai.
I'd be happy to invite all the Jews in Israel to come to America - in exchange for the millions of illegals brought to us by Soros-biden - exiting.
Wa St Blogger said...
"I think it's cute how the Crack MC thinks Jews have some place safe they can live when they abandon Israel."
You mean they'd have to live like black people in America? Oh my, how will they ever survive?
Wa St Blogger said...
"I think it's cute how the Crack MC thinks Jews have some place safe they can live when they abandon Israel."
I put it on the Stanford thread, but Louis CK reminds us that Jewish kids who died in Nazi concentration camps didn't get to grow up to hate Black people in Brooklyn.
Actually, Crack, every single one of us who voted for Trump because we believed he would put the brakes on illegal and excessive legal immigration tried to save your old South Central neighborhood for you. Also, everyone who supports law and order worked hard for decades to save yours' and many other people's neighborhoods from tragic destruction imposed on all by small numbers of residents.
The same demographic change is happening quickly in Chicago and NYC.
It also would have been nice if generations of my hard-working family weren't repeatedly driven out from neighborhoods and homes they loved and nurtured by criminal gangsters.
Were I Israel I would send every inhabitant of Gaza to Egypt or wherever...expel every last one.
Then bulldoze the land flat, leaving nothing but dirt.
Then wait. Tell the world, you want peace? A 2 state solution? The land is still here. But there is a time limit of 10 years. After that the land is ours.
Wa St Blogger said...
I think it's cute how the Crack MC thinks Jews have some place safe they can live when they abandon Israel.
You actually bring up an interesting point. There's never been any place safe here for Black people, but I don't see this level of concern for us. You've talked about sending us home, back to Africa, but only to get us out of your hair, not because any of us actually want to go. You could care less if we want to go. You laugh if we talk about needing a safe space. You guys really oughta be more circumspect about showing one group of people OVERSEAS so much attention, while neglecting the ones in your midst for centuries.
Why, we just might get the impression you don't like us very much,...
"Or do you think America gives a damn that someone from another country has taken over my home?"
I care but I have no power.
I would prefer to expel every single illegal alien of all races tomorrow.
I wouldn't get them all the first day but you have to start somewhere : )
technochitlin said...
"Gilbar, you do know that Egypt has kept the southern border of Gaza closed for years now, right? Easier just to blame the Jews. You are so transparent."
Leave Gilbar alone. You missed the obvious, pro-Israel sarcasm. The avatar was a clue.
"Israel insists on forcing the Egyptians to keep it closed"
(clown emoji here)
"technochitlin said...
Gilbar, you do know that Egypt has kept the southern border of Gaza closed for years now, right? Easier just to blame the Jews. You are so transparent."
I'm pretty sure it was sarcasm.
"As a pundit, a "news analyst", or a genocide color commentator -- whatever Tiny Tommy Friedman uses to describe himself, his sell-by date has long since expired. "
If only Israel could be China for just one day...
technochitlin said...
Gilbar, you do know that Egypt has kept the southern border of Gaza closed for years now, right?
WOW! dude! you are AWESOME at noticing sarcasm. You should get a medal!!
gilbar said...
What gets me, is how Israel won't let Gaza's southern border to open!
If the southern border was open, people and goods could move between Egypt and Gaza.
But no!
Israel insists on forcing the Egyptians to keep it closed
Just like Israel insists on forcing All of the Arab world to refuse to accept Palestinians
Israel also insists on forcing the PLO to be corrupt and incompetent
Israel also insists on forcing Hamas to be psychotic murders
Just like Israel insists on forcing all Palestinians to also be psychotic murderers
Face It! ALL the problems in the Arab world are Israel's fault! If only there were a solution!
Of course, If there were no Israel, those problems would Still be there; just like All those problems were there BEFORE Israel. Come to think of it; the Arabs (and the Left) NEED Israel!
Okay.. I'm REPOSTING my entire post.. Word for word..
Those of you that commented MIGHT try READING it this time (NOTE: the last sentence was NOT sarcasm)
If you didnt think LLR-democratical Rich could sink any lower, think again.
He's now all about deflecting for Hamas!
Which makes sense given the undeniable, long-running and growing stronger every day democratical-islamic supremacist alliance.
Tina Trent,
Get in line! I'm still waiting for a refund on The Lexus and the Olive Tree.
technochitlin,
gilbar is fine, but you... let's just say you need a whole new sarcasm detector, the old one is broken beyond repair.
Gilbar only ever posts very obvious and boring sarcasm. I never would have imagined that anyone could be stupid enough to mistake it for sincerity.
"Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, with no authorization from Congress, provided Iran with the $6 billion then laundered to Hamas to purchase the rockets and bullets used to kill these people."
I disagree with the Administrations actions here, but this is just not true, in a number of ways. First, there's always the implication that this is taxpayer money, which it is not. Also, the planning likely took a long time, long before the agreement to unfreeze the funds took place. Also, there's the implication that if only Trump was president, this wouldn't have happened, as if Hamas wasn't intimidated by the IDF next door, but was by the hypothetical American response.
"Israel has suffered a staggering blow and is now forced into a morally impossible war to outcrazy Hamas and deter Iran and Hezbollah at the same time"
1)"Israel has suffered a staggering blow" What does staggering mean here? If Israel was a boxer, this might be a glancing blow. Israel is not close to being knocked out, hence not so much staggering.
2) "Israel...forced into a morally impossible war to outcrazy Hamas" Is that a euphemism for Israel must be more evil than Hamas?
3) "Israel has suffered a staggering blow and is now forced to......deter Iran and Hezbollah at the same time."
Putting it all together: Israel is forced to be more evil than Hamas cause if they are not more evil than Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah will win (i.e. kill all the Jewish people).
This logic ends in one place, because an arms race of outcrazying isn't so good: At the maximal endpoint, the more powerful Israel must totally conquer Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran. Not that this ending doesn't also result in a massive hit on Israel (and probably the world).
OTOH, maybe Friedman is wrong and Israel doesn't need to outcrazy Hamas. How about out smarting them?
IDK
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