Nice post, MJ. I believe it.

As in the campaign, Obama remains an enigma to me. I can guess what his next step is going to be. In fact, I can assert an opinion as to what I think his next step should be. Yet, time after time he does something totally unexpected (i.e. Shinseki for VA; Mideast trip in January) and I'm left to say "Why, that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"

Gonna' be an interesting number of years here, I expect.

MJ says:
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The Obama administration will put all its weight behind peace and, reading between the lines, behind the Arab League initiative which offers Israel full peace and normalization of relations with all 22 Arab states in exchange for a Palestinian state in West Bank/Gaza and East Jerusalem.
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The Arab League initiative in unacceptable to Israel, including the Left. Livni has said so explicitly. Why? Because it demands implementation of the phony Palestinian "right of return" according to UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Of course, MJ conviently leaves this out of his statement above. In a previous thread I asked MJ if he actually read the Arab League terms. He didn't answer me so I assume he hasn't. He reduces the the Arab/Israeli conflict to a mere question of territory. The Arab League resolution explicitly expands Arab demands beyond territorial issues.

MJ says:
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Obama gets it. He understands that until we resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, preserving Israel's security and achiieving a state for the Palestinians, American interests throughout the Muslim world are doomed.
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The Arab-Israeli conflict is UNRESOVABLE in terms of a "contractual" peace agreement. Ongoing efforts to force the sides to come to such an agreement are due to failure and only push peace further into the future. The Arab world can not accept the existence of a dhimmi Jewish state within the "Dar al-Islam" (Realm of Islam). What should be pressed for is an UNOFFICIAL modus-vivendi which would mean not pressing the Arabs to recognize Israel and not continually pressing Israel for territorial concessions which have only increased Arab radicalism and violence (the terrorist war in the wake of the failed Oslo agreements and the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza after Israel destroyed its Gush Katif communities there).

Also, American interests are not "doomed" in the Middle East. Most of the Arab states (i.e. those not allied with Iran and Syria) are totally dependent on the United States for security, as was seen in the wake of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iraq. The Arab world is also economically totally dependent on the US and its economic power in order to keep their oil resources valuable. The Arabs can't eat their oil, they must sell it in a world in which the US is still the number one econonmic player.

MJ says:
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There is not a single problem that America faces in the Middle East that will not be ameliorated if America becomes what it must be, an honest broker between Israelis and Arabs
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This is a myth. As far as radical Islam is concerned, America is a major enemy. It is a Christian country with a significant Jewish minority. Radical Islam views themselves in confrontation with this. This has nothing to do with Israel and this conflict would be just as sharp if Israel didn't exist. The Iranian regime calls the US "the Great Satan" and Israel "the little Satan". The radicals in Iran hate the US for its involvement with the Shah over the years, and the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime. None of this is connected with Israel. Tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis have nothing to do with Israel. Even if the US forced Israel to withdraw from Judea/Samaria, the US would not get any credit for it, because even within the pre-67 borders, Israel's existence would still be intolerable and the US would still be blamed for supporting Israel. This is because, unlike the myth that MJ and other "progressives" push, the problem is NOT Judea/Samaria, but the very existence of Israel. A smaller Israel would be viewed as a weaker Israel, and this would only increase Arab demands and radicalism.

Change will be coming, and it will doubtlessly be the kind of change that gratifies amoral swine who respond to Jews being slaughtered by Muslims with columns fretting not about homicidal anti-Semitism but about potential Islamophobia. A decent human being would react to Jews being murdered by expressing that there seems to be a problem with Jew hatred. But not our MJ. He responds to Jews being murdered by fervently hoping that the Muslims who killed them are not disparaged. Each incidence of Jewish blood being spilled is cynically used by Mister Rosenberg to campaign for the presidency of CAIR.

America's interests in the Muslim world are doomed for the same reason that India's interests in the Muslim world are doomed, and neither has anything to do with the Evil Zionist Entity Mister Rosenberg despises with such psychotic zest. Americans and Indians are I-N-F-I-D-E-L-S.

Until that changes, the jihad will persist...even after Obama and Rosenberg and J Street and other "friends of Israel" succeed in destroying the Jewish State.

This Rosenberg column is truly a classic. It fuses a maliciously false premise with an irrationally inane conclusion. As such, it represents the quintessence of the author's work product.

I think that what American Jews can do--the best service they can give as to advance Middle East peace--is to support Israel as much as they can. And by support I do not necessarily mean "give money". In fact, giving money is the easiest way for people to support someone when they do not want to be bothered--but I'd like American Jews to be bothered. I want them coming for visits, I want them caring, I want them lobbying. And no--I do not want them to be criticizing Israel in public and trying to pressure Israel on matters of policy and trying to "save Israel from itself" and all that condescending crap. Not because I think Israel doesn't deserve criticism, or doesn't make mistakes, but because there are more than enough people criticizing Israel already and because making policy is for people who will eventually pay the price for it--and because Israel is a "responsible adult". And with all due respect for those thinking that they know better--I think they don't. Not those on the right urging settlers to defy government orders to evacuate from their homes in Hebron (I know some American Jews were involved, and not in a good way, in matters related to recent clashes in the city)--and not those on the left thinking they have the key for Middle East peace (your recent interviewee, Daniel Levy, is such an example).

To all those I'll say: you think you have a solution? Come and convince Israelis. And if you happen to fail, don't go and work behind their backs to advance your cause by making America pressure Israel.

And I know that I'm going to be mocked for my primitive tribalism, and I know that unconditionally supporting Israel might sound like a mission that is hardly ambitious for those Jews in America who believe that their role is fixing the world (Tikkun Olam). But I'm a man of small ambitions, and I think that it is better for American Jews to try and do one thing they actually can do--and not the many things they can't. Supporting Israel is a responsibility you did not ask for--but it's yours nevertheless. And since I also believe that a stronger Israel gives more hope for Middle East peace, this is what I'd prescribe for those eager to advance this specific cause.

"Chin up, YBD. Pretty soon Israel is going to have internationally recognized borders that do not include, take a breath, that tomb in Hebron."

Poor, pathetic mental munchkin, cursed with the intellect of a lobotomized squid.

Will Iran recognize Israel's borders?

Will Hezbollah?

Will Hamas?

How I rue the day that Mama Rosenberg chose to ingest Thalidomide.

Yet fairness dictates acknowledging that you will be a smashing success on the exciting new Fox reality show, "America's Most Clueless!"

The prospect of Obama crippling Israeli national defense has Rosenberg more excited than Michael Jackson at a Cub Scout Jamboree.

"There is not a single problem that America faces in the Middle East that will not be ameliorated if America becomes what it must be, an honest broker between Israelis and Arabs."

Yeah, that should convince Saudi Arabia to end slavery and Iran to stop female genital mutilation.

What a dunce.

This post by M.J. with the avalanche of response and rebuttal it has generated illustrates the depth of passion surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Respondents on both sides have made some legitimate arguments but the central fact is that this little fragment of land called the West Bank has been steadily eroded and infiltrated by settlers who deem it their legitimate property. But there is one small problem. Millions of people already live there, and have lived there for centuries. They are called Palestinians. At one time they lived on that entire space between the Jordan River and the sea, and beyond, but through developments they had no control over, another people were "given" the right to settle there, and because of assumed "rights" those settlers have steadily moved in, with the aid of a powerful and moneyed ally across the Atlantic, to now dominate that entire space.

Folks, that is the central issue! Forget all this smokescreen about Arab extremists and terrorists and how uncivilized they are. Without the profound injustice of the apporpriation of one group's homeland by imposters (I mean that) this tragedy would never have happened.

I am not saying this is going to end with a just solution. Unless Obama has more courage to enforce such justice than I'm afraid he has, this relentless process with continue, and hatreds will intensify. In the long run it does not bode well for the Israelis. It will be hard to survive in the 21st. century when a good 1.5 billion Muslims hate your guts. You can bomb Iran and pre-emptively destroy perceived enemy plotters wherever and whenever they exist but sooner or later something really bad is going to happen.

So my advice to YBD and all you other Zionists, get over your obsession about this "promised land" that supposedly includes "Judea" and "Samaria". If your people are willing to live within the 1967 borders just maybe moderates on the other side will be emboldened to find an accomodation. The initiative presented by the 22 Arab states certainly suggests this. And if the U.S. political establishment has the moral courage to enforce such an accomodation this just might avert a truly terrifyingly tragic outcome.

Do I sound like an anti-Semite? I have never considered myself such. I just yearn for world peace, which will never occur without political justice.

"Do I sound like an anti-Semite?"

Yes.

The 1967 "borders" were not recognized; it is an armistice line.
The 1967 "borders" are unrealistic in terms of Israel's security.
But, something reasonably close to those lines could be workable if as part of a legitimate package of recognition by the Arab world, peace treaties, and trade pacts, etc. This cannot possibly include a so-called "right of return" as promoted by the Arab League.
Speaking of which, how about the hundreds of thousands of Jews kicked out of Arab countries (and property confiscated) in 1948 and thereafter? If you want fairness in the Middle East, then you must show some awareness for this. Most of these "refugees" went to Israel. They have yet to see anyone care about their dispossession.
I don't think disparaging others personally helps this discussion. The name calling of MJ is way out of line, even though I agree with only a small part of what he generally says. OK, I mostly think he is way off base. Calling him names can't convince anyone of that, so I ask that the posters with whom I mostly do agree knock it off.
BTW, I don't think anyone posting here thinks Jewish lives are more valuable than others. Sure, a few Jews undoubtedly have a prejudiced, misguided view. I just read about a program in Israel encouraging Arab Israeli teachers to teach in elementary schools. They wear "traditional" Arab clothing, and help bridge the gap between cultures. How many Jewish teachers are in schools in the PA, or for that matter anywhere in the Arab world?
But there seem to be plenty of people in power (not just the "street") in the Arab world who "officially" denigrate Jews as sub-human, in state-sponsored media and in other ways. The Palestinian educational system teaches this. The Egyptian TV has had shows about Jews drinking human blood for passover, etc.
To mythbuster I would say, if you want to call a "terrorist a terrorist" then apply the term to people who send rockets to civilian areas, who send suicide/homicide bombers to pizza joints, and the rest. If you agree that Israel has a right to exist, then these attacks can't be justified by the actual and the alleged misdeeds of Israel, any more than settler attacks on innocent Palestinians can be justified. PM Olmert called the recent attacks "pogroms." When did Hamas EVER criticize ANY attack or death of ANY Israeli?
Obama certainly has his work cut out for him, and it's far broader than the Israel-Palestinian conflict.