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10 Responses to “Gaza in Flames, Labor Party Turns to Barak–and Groundhog Day–Again”

1. imjudy says:

   June 14, 2007 at 12:36 AM

   If you followed the Leftist media during the time of Sharon, they kept saying that this was the type of situation they wanted;…i.e. a Prime Minister who hand-picks the Knesset members, so they won’t be subject to the force of public opinion. That is what they have now. KADIMA’s MK’s are all hand-picked, the Labor Party membership is controlled by vote contractors who sign them up in groups and tell them how to vote (e.g. The Electric Company workers, Arab villagers, Kibbutznikim, etc) none of whom are representative of the Jewish/Zionist public at large, Lieberman’s MK’s also are hand-picked, so are SHAS’s, so were the Pensioners. Again this is what the Leftist media was calling for, and this is what they got….a DICTATORSHIP. This is what picked Peres and Barak for their positions. It would seem to me to be a dangerous situation when the large majority of the population is politically disenfranchised in a country with so many existential problems.

   Reply
2. Yohay says:

   June 14, 2007 at 12:47 AM

   Barak is not only an old war horse. In his primaries campaign, he asked the voters: “Who would you trust during wartime?”.
   I take this as a hint that he seeks war. Together with the IDF’s hunger to “fix” the damage done in last year’s war, I fear that as a defense minister, Barak will lead Olmert and Assad (who don’t want war) to the battlefield.

   Reply
3. Zhu Bajie says:

   June 14, 2007 at 4:59 AM

   Fail again but better: sounds like what’s on offer in the US as well.

   Reply
4. Steve says:

   June 14, 2007 at 6:41 AM

   Briefly, your Masada2000 affair, documented in the the Forward article – http://www.forward.com/articles/vitriol-proliferates-on-jewish-blogs/
   Rebecca Spence | Wed. Jun 13, 2007, proved one thing, that Jewish mainstreams and sidestreets are ripe for dissolution.
   We can live in peace if all ethnic and religious out of date streams will undergo serious reforms to weed out immoral members and rehabilitate all individuals to a human being.

   The Palestinians and the Israelis must undergo this cleansing together. Muslim sheikhs and Jewish rabbis must learn the new enlightened philosophies of Baruch Spinoza with a 500 year delay.

   Only with people of Abraham Lincoln’s character can save the suffering Palestinians and Israeli from each other barbarians.

   Reply
5. Richard Silverstein says:

   June 14, 2007 at 12:58 PM

   I take this as a hint that he seeks war.

   Yes, precisely. This is a portion of the same Haokets post which Sol translated that agrees with you:

   Peace seems to be even further away than it ever was. Thus Barak gets chosen because he promised he could run a war better than anyone else. He who spoke of [Israel in the Middle East as] the villa in jungle, and in the meantime moved house to a high-rise in the savannah [an allusion to his luxury apartment], boasts of his ability to renew Israel’s deterrence and dictating power. He does not promise, God forbid, reaching an accommodation with the Palestinians. Instead he raises the hope of a well-conducted war. I never realised that are our situation has degenerated to the point that our only remaining hope is to live by the sword — but efficiently

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6. Richard Silverstein says:

   June 14, 2007 at 7:14 PM

   Imjudy: We don’t often agree on most things, but boy do I agree w. yr comment about the narrowness of those who lead Israel. They ARE a bunch of self-selected, insular peacocks who preen & think the world is their oyster. It’s not much better here politically, but at least our politicians seem to come fr. slightly more varied circumstances, economic backgrounds, classes, etc.

   Reply
7. Melvin Schnell says:

   June 15, 2007 at 3:38 PM

   A couple of Perez oldies but goodies
   Peres’s interview with Ha’aretz following his defeat by Benjamin Netanyahu in the May 1996 prime ministerial election:

   Interviewer: What happened in this election?
   Peres: “We lost.”

   Interviewer: Who is we?
   Peres: “We, that is the Israelis.”

   Interviewer: And who won?
   Peres: “All those who do not have an Israeli mentality.”

   Interviewer: And who are they?
   Peres: “Call it the Jews.”

   How fitting, therefore, are the words of Moshe Sharett, a former Israeli prime minister, who said of Peres: “I have stated that I totally and utterly reject Peres and consider his rise to prominence a malignant, immoral disgrace. I will rend my clothes in mourning for the State if I see him become a minister in the Israeli government.” (Personal Memoirs, 1957)

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8. imjudy says:

   June 16, 2007 at 8:45 PM

   Thanks for reminding us of that, Melvin. Also we should recall that the custom at the ceremonies where the Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm and Oslo, the recepients give their speeches in their native language. When Peres, Rabin and Arafat got their “Peace” Prizes, Arafat gave his speech in Arabic, but Rabin and Peres gave theirs in English, thus signalling to the world that they apparently do not want to be considered “Jews” or even “Israelis”.

   Reply
9. Richard Silverstein says:

   June 16, 2007 at 10:47 PM

   That’s pretty unfair, ImJudy. Peres & Rabin gave speeches in English because they are intensely aware of their need to marshal the support of the world for their country. English is a world diplomatic language & they wanted their message heard, read & understood by as many people as possible.

   Your last sentence is repellant.

   Reply
10. Herbert Kaine says:

    June 17, 2007 at 9:48 AM

    By the way, Arafat’s “Peace Prize” was looted from his vacant villa in Gaza last Friday. Please let me know if it shous up on Ebay

    Reply