Author Archives: Soccerdad

About Soccerdad

I'm a government bureaucrat with delusions of literacy.

On the Ashton heap of current events

Lady Ashton wrote yesterday about Ending Gaza’s dangerous isolation: Two questions arise. How can we help to improve the daily lives of the people of Gaza? How can we help to enhance the security of the people of Israel? Those … Continue reading

Posted in Israel | 1 Comment

Concrete answers for Gaza

This is a pretty typical claim made in news article about Israel’s embargo of certain goods into Gaza, which is controlled by the terrorist group Hamas: Israel says the embargo it imposed when Hamas rose to power in 2006 is … Continue reading

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Joe Klein and the alphabet soup strategy

Joe Klein says that Israel’s problem is that it relies on ABCD. Jeffrey Goldberg, in his excellent memoir Prisoners, tells how he got pummeled by Irish kids, then read the famous novel of Israel’s liberation, Exodus, by Leon Uris, and … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Juvenile Scorn | Tagged | 2 Comments

Judt’s new cliches

If Michael Chabon’s reflections on Jewish and Israeli stupidity weren’t offensive enough, now the New York Times gives another Jewish anti-Zionist, Tony Judt a few hundred more words of op-ed space to express his contempt for Israel. In Talking about … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged | 3 Comments

Chabon: Israel is stupid for trying to survive

This past Sunday, novelist Michael Chabon took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to argue that Jews were Chosen but not special. Toward the end he wrote: This is the ambiguity that cites the dispensation of God … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged | 2 Comments

Mr. Abbas goes to Washington

If you recall, when chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was in Israel to celebrate his son’s Bar Mitzvah, he invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to Washington to meet the President. Then the IDF encountered a group of militants on the Mavi … Continue reading

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The last refuge

I don’t always agree with Richard Cohen, but when he’s on, he can be excellent. Today, with What Helen Thomas Missed he was excellent. (or at RCP.) Cohen points out that Jews, in the past, have wanted to go back … Continue reading

Posted in Israel | Tagged | 5 Comments

What was so offensive about Helen Thomas’s remarks

I was unaware of the story behind Helen Thomas’s outburst against Jews. But I wonder what was wrong about what she said. My co-blogger JudeoPundit writes: Israelis constitute a unique nationality and for the most part they are natives to … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged | 2 Comments

Other than *that* President Obama, how was the irony?

Yesterday, President Obama observed D-Day by going to the theatre. Ford’s Theatre, to be exact. (via memeorandum) The bestowing of the Lincoln medal upon two anti-apartheid activists. To Don Surber it’s a sign of the President’s increasing detachment. I wish … Continue reading

Posted in The One | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Perspective, Daoud, perspective

During Israel’s justified response to repeated Hamas attacks against it southern citizens, Daoud Kuttab, a prominent Palestinian “moderate” described the rocket attacks: In its efforts to stop amateur rockets from nagging the residents of some of its southern cities, Israel … Continue reading

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The poisoned fruit of GA resolution 2708

After becoming the 1137th pundit to declare (against all evidence) that Turkey is an ally of the United States, David Ignatius reverts to blaming Israel first in The U.S. needs to keep nudging Israel on a Gaza fix: The Obama … Continue reading

Posted in Gaza, Israel | 1 Comment

National Jewish Democratic cluelessness

Commentary magazine asked thirty one prominent American Jews their opinions on the relationship between Jews and President Obama. While the results of the symposium are generally not available, behind Commentary’s subscription wall, some of the participants have posted their thoughts … Continue reading

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See no (Hamas) evil

Predictably the editors of the New York Times find fault with Israel: There is a bigger question that Israel — and the United States — must be asking: Is the blockade working? Is it weakening Hamas? Or just punishing Gaza’s … Continue reading

Posted in Hamas, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged | 4 Comments

Friedman: imaginary friend

Thomas Friedman is apparently vexed, by the recent conflict between Israel and Turkey in When America’s friends fall out: As a friend of both Turkey and Israel, it has been agonizing to watch the disastrous clash between Israeli naval commandos … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, World | Tagged | 2 Comments

The UN condemns “acts”

No surprise. The United States tried for some ambiguity, but didn’t really get it. In a formal statement that seemed less forceful than what had been demanded by Palestinians, Arabs and Turkey the council also demanded an impartial investigation into … Continue reading

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