The editor of Israel Insider is sounding more and more like he needs a blog. But he's doing a fine job as is. Here are two gems from today's newsletter (by subscription) that gave me a lift in spite of the utter seriousness of their topics:
Do we talk too much?
The morning papers and the radio shows were full of reports of American anger that Israeli officials had "chattered" and "leaked" about the likely date of the American offensive.
There were complaints from the Israeli consulate in New York that Israelis seem too eager for war, too anxious to get on with it, all of which complicated the consulate's job of explaining that this conflict had nothing to do with us.
Well ex-cuuuuuse us for being a bit curious about when we should need to strap on our gas masks and seal our rooms. And if we support this war it is not because the disappearance of Saddam is good for the Jews (which it is), and good for Israel (which it is), but also because we know that it is the only way to deal with tyrants and terrorists. The rest of the world may not understand, but we are pleased to show our American friends that we do. And we CAN keep a secret.
Psssst.... Just.... give us a hint.
And this:
Well, except for being a Holocaust denier and an advocate for killing Israeli soldiers and settlers, Palestinian PM frontrunner Abu Mazen is really, well, not as bad as some of the alternatives. Trouble is, his boss Yasser Arafat doesn't want to hand over to him little powers like security or negotiations with Israel. So what's the Abu to do? How about another book on WW II?
I've also found a few interesting quotes from the new palestinian prime minister-in-waiting himself, actually, and I think I'll post a few of them here. Behold, The Moderate:
IN THE MARCH 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO, Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen"), PLO spokesman, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
(via IMRA)
And here's "Abu Mazen on the Peace Process," interviewed 8/8/00 (just weeks before the launch of "intifada 2") in the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab:
Question: The Israelis want you to forget the past and turn your gaze to the future...
Abu Mazen: According to this logic, he who wants to forget the past [namely, the Israelis] should not claim that the [Jewish] Temple is underneath the Haram. They demand that we forget what happened to the refugees 50 years ago and at the same time they claim that 2000 years ago they had a holy place there. I challenge the assertion [that there has ever been a Jewish temple.] But even if it were true, we do not accept it because it is not the logic of someone who wants a practical peace. We took a historic step when we accepted resolution 242 while three quarters of the Palestinian people rejected this resolution [242] and demanded, as a minimum, the Partition Resolution [of 1947]. Have the Jews forgotten that in 1948 they owned only 5.6% of Palestine while the Partition Resolution gave them 56% and that they took over 79% through occupation. We do not forget history.
(via MEMRI)
Palestinian motto: We do not forget history. We just make it up.
