I am a big Joe Biden fan. The vice president is an indefatigable defender of U.S. interests abroad. So it pains me to say that on his recent trip to Israel, when Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government rubbed his nose in some new housing plans for contested East Jerusalem, the vice president missed a chance to send a powerful public signal: He should have snapped his notebook shut, gotten right back on Air Force Two, flown home and left the following scribbled note behind: “Message from America to the Israeli government: Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. And right now, you’re driving drunk. You think you can embarrass your only true ally in the world, to satisfy some domestic political need, with no consequences? You have lost total contact with reality. Call us when you’re serious. We need to focus on building our country.”
Sometimes I agree with Friedman since he realized how wrong his stance was on Bush's criminal war in Iraq and wised up a little. Sometimes I don't.
Netanyahu said he was blindsided. It’s probably true in the narrow sense. The move seems to have been part of a competition between two of Netanyahu’s right-wing Sephardi ministers from the religious Shas Party over who can be the greater champion of building homes for Sephardi orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem. It is a measure of how much Israel takes our support for granted and how out of touch the Israeli religious right is with America’s strategic needs.
They don't give a (kosher) rat's ass about "what America needs". Blindsided? I don't think so. The Israelis don't play that shit. It was done absolutely on purpose. They make Machiavelli look like a two-bit con man.
They stuck their finger in our eye. As far as I am concerned, Israel can go get fucked. If I were President, they would be on their own for awhile until they realize that they can't get along without our support and come begging for it.
It's pretty obvious that they don't want peace with the Palestinians unless it's on their own terms, which doesn't involve 'peace with the Palestinians' at all, simply their continued subjugation.
Friedman said once, and I agree, that for Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peace, they have to want it more than we do, and so far they don't appear to.
If Israel doesn't climb down off its right-wing high horse, there won't be an Israel in forty years.
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