Time Saver
I was going to write something about the end of the first week of the Israeli insanity, but EBW at Wampum saved me the effort by writing A minor problem of (political) targeting.
One thing he didn’t write about was why Hamas won the election that the Shrubbery demanded the Palestinians hold. The answer is simple: corruption.
The Fatah party was as corrupt as Tammany Hall under Boss Tweed. If it weren’t for Israel, they would probably be the most corrupt party in the Middle East. [Did you forget that Olmert has resigned to spend more time with his defense attorneys; that the President of Israel was replaced for inappropriate behavior; Sharon’s problems?]
Hamas was providing the social services that the Palestinian Authority under Fatah was being paid to provide, but wasn’t. When they entered the voting booths in a monitored free and fair election that Fatah couldn’t rig, Palestinians threw the bums out. With Fatah controlling everything, it was impossible to gauge how truly ticked off the Palestinians were. The prevailing “wisdom” was that Hamas would make some gains, which would frighten Fatah into being more pliant in negotiations. Just another Hedgemony failure.
10 comments
…back during the 2000 campaign, Gee Dub spoke rather disparagingly about the whole idea of nation-building and said he would never be that sort of president. So, tragically, from Afghanistan through the heart of what was once called Palestine to Iraq, this remains one of the very few campaign promises he kept, aside from those about tax cuts for the weathy…
Fatah was actually *more* corrupt than Boss Tweed. Boss Tweed was a master of what he called “honest graft” — for example, buying up the land around where a new road was to be built so that he could sell it at a gigantic profit once the road was built and the land became more useful. But at least the Tammany machine performed all of the normal actions of a functioning government — paid cops and firemen, ran the city hospitals, kept the waterworks maintained and the sewers flowing, etc. While the elections were rigged during the Tammany ring’s control of NYC, it is likely that they would have won even without the rigging.
Fatah… bah. Morons. More interested in looting than in providing basic public services. Barbarians. Reminds me of a scene from Lawrence of Arabia. You probably know the one I’m talking about.
The only way that Hamas is going to get pushed out of office in an election is if someone else comes forward to provide the services Hamas currently provides. But Israel would rather bomb the Palestinians than provide those services. And the U.S. would rather provide bombs to Israel than provide those services. So it goes. Barbarians. Bah.
– Badtux the Civilized Penguin
Very true Bryan (and BadTux).
People there still don’t seem to have woken up to the… *possibility*… that Bush only invaded Iraq on behalf of Israel. I still have the photo of Bush wearing a yarmulke praying at the wailing wall just before the announcement to invade happened.
My Jewish Israeli friend told me some time ago that many in Israel called G.W. Bush ‘Marranos’ (Jews who pretend to be Christians in their community but secretly hold to their Jewish faith and race when among their own kind). There are also questions about Dick Cheney’s *faith*. Indeed, the name Cheney comes from old Yiddish, ‘Khayney’ or ‘ankles’. The Khayney clan grew up in the Jewish ghetto in Stockholm, which they ruled with an iron fist, but they tried to assimilate with the Christians before emigrating to the USA and using the English form of the name. But… what do I know. 🙂 Well, I know I’d never be stupid enough to trust a self-professed Christian wearing a Jewish yarmulke and praying with Jews at the wailing wall. Or a Jew that pretends to be Christian. 😉 Not that I trust any *religion* in any case. 😉 LOL
Names are funny things really. 😉 I’m told, for example, that the name ‘Rumsfeld’ has it’s roots in the Yiddish ‘fendl’ or ‘saucepan’ while the ‘rums’ comes from ‘krum’ or ‘crooked.’ Hmmmm. ‘Crooked Saucepan’! Dunno if it’s true, but it sure sounds appropriate. LOL
And for some further amusement with names… 🙂
Israel – Jewish Calendar
Hey… Did you know that Usama bin Laden (as the CIA still refers to him) code name whilst working for the CIA as a covert operative in Afghanistan (while the Russians tried doing what the USA is trying to do) was ‘Tim Ossman’? What does that mean, or matter? Nothing, probably. 🙂
Ahem. 😉 I’m just having some fun, right? 🙂 Know nothing, me.
Actually Bryan, I’d say it’s another typical Israel failure rather than blaming the Hedgemony puppets. 🙂
Oh, dear. Does this still make me anti-Semitic? 😉 LOL
[Glad to see you are still in communication, Jack, considering what’s been coming ashore up your way. At least our storms are warm.]
Iraq is what you get when you try to “build” a nation and government with Republican “core values”. The Shrubbery has definitely not done any nation building.
Badtux, the jobs and assistance in NYC under Tammany only went to supporters, just like Palestine under Fatah. Disagreeing with either machine normally resulted in injury or death with little note taken in the local media, also controlled by the parties, although I admit, Tammany had a better PR operation and were generally more intelligent in their corruption.
My comment moderation hates you, again, Kryten. I wish I could divine what the problem is.
I personally believe that failure on this scale requires the combined lack of intelligence of the Likud and Hedgemony brain deficits. I doubt that either is capable of this nadir of competence on their own. It’s probably another application of the inverse square law regarding success and hubris.
Maybe your moderation mod thinks I’m anti-Semitic too? LMAO
And point taken. The supreme arrogance, paranoia and impatience of the Likud controlling the dumbest bunch of crooked puppets on two legs. Yup! A real recipe for disaster all around. 🙂
I’m working on the problem because the only person who has ever been kicked into moderation by design after being approved is the idiot who thinks that if you don’t worship Israel you wear weird armbands.
I really don’t get it – the Shrubbery has a 29% approval rating and only 30% of Americans think we should back Israel in this, but any one from the 70% who complains is called names. I keep wondering when in hell the majority viewpoint in this country is going to get a little respect and air time, so the rest of the world stops thinking we’re all militaristic crazies.
BTW, few among the 70% back Hamas. What the majority think is that it is none of our damn business, and we have problems of our own to deal with.
What I can’t get across to people is that what Israel is doing is an existential threat to the country, the way the Palestinians can never be. In farming terms, they are killing their prime breeding stock in these military adventures. The way things are going the Jews will be in the minority in Israel based solely on birth rates. They really need to make love not war if they want a Jewish state.
Bryan, Jews will never be a minority in Israel. If all else fails, they will engage in a spot of ethnic cleansing a’la’ 1948-1949, when there was a deliberate effort to cleanse Israel of as many Arabs as possible (verified by Israeli historians analyzing recently-released Israeli archives from that era) to make sure of that. The radical right in Israel is already setting the stage for that, painting the non-Jewish citizens of Israel as a “trojan horse” that will destroy the Jewish state. And if you think international condemnation will prevent them from doing this, obviously you haven’t noticed that international condemnation hasn’t stopped Israel from doing anything it damned well pleases over the past forty years… as long as they have the support of the U.S. government, they’ll continue to do whatever they please.
– Badtux the Cleansing Penguin
The “support of the US government” is the key, and it may yet fail, given the stress that the US faces, and a need for the US to rejoin the community of nations. We just blocked the latest attempt by the UN for a cease fire, and the rest of the world isn’t going to continue to tolerate this behavior.
The actions of the Hedgemony have destroyed good will that took decades to amass, and the only way we can return to the community of nations as a good citizen is to start acting like an adult. Giving unqualified support to the destructive activities of Israel will soon be a price too high to pay.
Hah! While the USA continues to do things like this, the USA will become more and more isolated and shunned.
The Right To Food
Even some of the most rabid Nations voted for the resolution, with the USA the sole naysayer. I would never have believed that even possible a decade ago. Essentially, the USA now stands for everything bad and immoral, and against anything even remotely good or moral.
And, yet, there are still people in this country who don’t understand why the US is hated around the world, or why the Shrubbery is far and away the worst single person to have been called President of the United States.
When you refuse to do away with cluster bombs and land mines, refuse to support the International Criminal Court, block calls for a cease fire in the UN Security Council, and launch preemptive wars based on lies, you thoroughly deserve the condemnation that follows.