The difference between Israel and its neighbors: An Israeli man was indicted for throwing stones at the Egyptian embassy. The Egyptian man who scaled the Israeli embassy wall and replaced the Israeli flag with Egypt’s was hailed as a hero. And by the way, note that the AFP calls the Israeli flag “the Star of David flag”. It’s a very subtle way of delegitimizing Israel. Ah, the French. Their Jew-hatred will never end.
Help us Hillary-kenobe, you’re our only hope: You know, right now, I would vote for Hillary over Rick Perry. I don’t like Perry on too many issues, and I think if he keeps hammering social security, Rove is right: He’ll be unelectable. But I don’t like his record on the death penalty. I don’t like his record on teaching creationism in schools. It’s religion people, let’s stop pretending otherwise. But that really doesn’t matter. The way he’s going, if he’s the nominee, you can forget about the middle. And I’m part of that middle.
Turkeys from Turkey: You know, the bullshit just keeps on getting deeper and deeper. Erdogan refined his “no trade with Israel” to “no defense trade with Israel,” which hasn’t happened for the last 18 months. The war of words and threats continue, but I really can’t see Turkey actually causing an international incident with Israel. Meantime, some Israeli ministers are pointing out the obvious: Turkey’s Islamist bent began years ago, and won’t stop if Israel apologizes. The Turkish opposition isn’t mincing words:
K?l?çdaro?lu also criticized Turkish foreign policy policy, claiming that the Palmer Report, which legitimized the Gaza blockade, was a blow to the Turkish government. “This is one of the greatest defeats in the history of Turkish foreign policy.”
He added: “The Turkish government aimed to delegitimize the Gaza blockade and ultimately led to the UN’s legitimization of the blockade. Can this be regarded as successful foreign policy? Turkey has lost on all fronts: Its citizens were killed, it was defeated in the legal arena and has lost leverage in lifting the blockade which has only consolidated further.”
The best Turkey can come up with to counter? “Well, Livni supports us.” Um, no, she doesn’t.
“Despite deep disagreements with Netanyahu regarding his diplomatic conduct, I’ll keep defending IDF soldiers as they work to secure the nation,” Livni said. “There will be no rift between us on this issue. Both countries must revert back to talking with each other, not about each other.”
When one is in a deep hole, one should probably stop digging. But when one is Turkey, that won’t happen.
Meryl, let me help you out a bit with Perry, since I think that – even despite last night’s debate – he may be the only alternative to Obama.
“his record on teaching creationism in schools” – Despite the hysteria on this from the Left, I can find no evidence that this is actually happening. In fact, a recent review of the proposed curriculum concludes that it is not happening. Perry shot off his mouth to that child, but he was wrong.
“his record on the death penalty” – I don’t know that I can argue here, but I don’t believe it matters. There have been, as far as I can tell, no federal executions since 2003, despite the fact that GW Bush was clearly in favor of death penalties.
Right now, I think economic issues have to come to the fore. If the choice is pro-Israel Perry vs. anti-Israel Obama, how could you possibly not prefer Perry? I’ve come to expect that I will not be enthusiastic about presidential choices, but we still have to choose the lesser of evils.
Hi Meryl,
Far be it for me from my side of the world to criticize American voters but you guys are making me nervous with the, at this moment in time, nit picking for a candidate to defeat Obama.
Maybe Americans can live for another 4 years of Obama but a lot of us outside cannot given the results of his first term.
It is time for everyone serious enough about the future to make sacrifices however painful and pull together to put your country back on track.
If he gets another term where he will not be running for re-election goodness only knows what executive orders he will be capable of, and most probably of a spiteful order as well.
Oh, don’t mistake me. I’d never vote for Obama. But I don’t think Perry can–right now–pull the independents to his side. And that’s important.
The Jive Turkey just keeps on losing it: now he openly threatens Cyprus as well as Israel if they dare drill for gas resources in the eastern Med (taking a note from Nasrallah, perhaps?), and is actually declaring Turkish warships will accompany future “peace” flotillas. Wonder what NATO will have to say about that:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4119834,00.html
I would vote for Obama over Ron Paul; otherwise, whoever the Republicans put up I’ll vote for and I once never would have thought I’d write that. It’s not just Israel–his foreign policy generally is at best feckless and foolish and has the potential for catastrophe. He absolutely need someone else–again, excepting Paul who is even worse than Obama.
I wonder about this evolution thing, too. I’ve seen claims that Sarah Palin also opposes teaching evolution–thirty seconds of Google searching brings up the fact that her father was a science teacher and she thinks schools should teach science in the classroom and the churches should teach religion.
She wouldn’t be my first or second or even third choice but I’d vote for her if she’s the candidate if only to enjoy the the next four years watching people foam at the mouth every time she’s on tv or in the papers. I’m at the age where I tend to judge people by who hates them and I hate the people who hate her.