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Defeating Hamas by example
TigerHawk —
Jeffrey Goldberg has written a depressing piece in the Geriatric Lady, explaining why Israel can neither settle with nor eradicate Hamas on the battlefield. The doves are wrong; Hamas cannot negotiate peace with Israel, and will not. The hawks are also wrong; Hamas can be degraded and temporarily deterred, but as long as Iran keeps it going there is no way to prevet it from coming back. Goldberg argues that the only hope, if it is hope, is to help Fatah turn the West Bank into a much better place, discrediting Hamas by example. Before you snort your coffee out your nose, ...
Why Israel can't make peace with Hamas - or Fatah
Israel Matzav —
Why Israel can't make peace with Hamas - or Fatah The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg has an op-ed in Wednesday's New York Times in which he explains why Hamas (and Hezbullah) will never make peace with Israel (Hat Tip: Hot Air ). Here's the key passage. Periodically, advocates of negotiation suggest that the hostility toward Jews expressed by Hamas is somehow mutable. But in years of listening, I haven’t heard much to suggest that its anti-Semitism is insincere. Like Hezbollah, Hamas believes that God is opposed to a Jewish state in Palestine. Both groups are rhetorically pitiless, though, again, Hamas sometimes appears to follow the lead of Hezbollah. I ...
Essentials
Dean's World —
An illuminating interview with Hamas boils things down nicely:
Mr. Rayyan answered the question as I thought he would, saying that a long-term cease-fire would be unnecessary, because it will not take long for the forces of Islam to eradicate Israel.
Peace requires two willing parties, war requires only one.
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It's all happening again
Daimnation! —
... the Jews use the trump card of the Holocaust and Im afraid its wearing pretty thin. The Arabs had nothing to do with the Holocaust. There wasnt one Palestinian involved in the Holocaust. Nobody in the Arab world set out to kill any Jews. And yet this is brought up time and time again as a justification for whats going on now."
Professor Haiven, Haj Amin al-Husseini. You guys met?
The Holocaust, of course, was engineered in Europe, which is why Hamas and Ahmadinejad would like to send the Jews "back" to the continent. And what ...
How and (How Not) to Assess Israel's Moral Self-Destruction
TPMCafe —
... A few days after Hedges' condemnation of Israel appeared in Truthdig, the New York Times op-ed page ran Jeffrey Goldberg's "Why Israel Can't Make Peace With Hamas." There, as in virtually every article of Goldberg's I can recall, we learn that Goldberg, a Long-Island-born Israeli army veteran, has once again defied amazing personal dangers - as he did in the African bush, in Lebanon, in Gaza, and more - and walked right up to question people who, he gives us to understand, would just as soon slit his throat as squint at him. In a variation on this theme, other Goldberg ...
The Dissonance
Matthew Yglesias —
Jeffrey Goldberg had a piece on Hamas in yesterday’s New York Times that Noam Scheiber hailed as “hands down the best thing I’ve read since the Gaza conflict started.” Jon Chait deemed it “fantastic” and recommended this conclusion especially:
The only small chance for peace today is the same chance that existed before the Gaza invasion: The moderate Arab states, Europe, the United States and, mainly, Israel, must help Hamas’s enemy, Fatah, prepare the West Bank for real freedom, and ...
Weekend Opinionator: Closing Gitmo, Opening a Can of Worms
Opinionator —
“We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.” So, in one inaugural phrase, did Barack Obama attempt to swipe away the entire legacy of the Bush administration’s national security policy — and with good results, if you ask the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne or Salon’s Joan Walsh . But the Opinionator was equally taken with a follow-up line: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions … they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force ...
