Barry Cohen, former Australian Labor Party minister in the Hawke government, is no longer proud to be a member of his party, where anti-Semitism is “now rampant:”
There are Labor MPs who are vigorous supporters of Israel but their numbers are diminishing and they are being drowned out by the more vociferous members of Labor’s hard Left. . . .
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey . . . suggested that the cause of September 11 was America’s Middle East policies and their failure to rein in the Israelis. This has been repeated ad nauseam by one left/liberal commentator after another.
Israeli scientist Haim Harari nailed this nonsense in a speech earlier this year:
“The millions who died in the Iraq-Iran war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Muslim regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilians in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam did not invade Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of Israel . . . The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. I could go on and on.”
Anyone who believes that “reining in the Israelis” will bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East should change their medication.
Is there a medication for non-sequiturs? Thomas Friedman writes his usual rein-in-the-Israelis column in today’s New York Times. He notes there is:
a trend in the Arab media, after a century of Arab-Jewish strife, where if you want to brand someone as illegitimate, just call him a “Jew.” . . .
This wider trend has been fanned by Arab satellite TV stations . . . . [and] has also been encouraged by some mosque preachers . . . .
[T]he Palestinians continue to stick with Arafat as their leader, even though this bum has led them to ruin . . . .
You would think the conclusion to be drawn from this is that when the Arab media stop branding Jews as illegitimate, Arab TV stations and religious leaders stop fanning hate, and the Palestinians elect someone other than president-for-life Arafat, there will be a chance for peace.
But Friedman blames the “Bush team” — for too strong support for Israel’s elected leader, and insufficient “energy and creativity.”
(Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds for the Cohen article, which is essential reading.)