Max Blumenthal uses the assassination of Osama Bin Laden as an excuse to push the ridiculous claim, advanced by Israel-haters for years, that Binyamin Netanyahu was overjoyed at the events of 9/11.Read the whole thing.
Blumenthal says that Netanyahu called the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon “very good.” But what he glosses over is the question he was answering....
The question was specifically about US-Israeli relations, not about what he thought of the terror attacks. Netanyahu answered accurately and then immediately realized that this obvious truth could be twisted by people with an agenda–like Blumenthal–so he clarified what he meant.
Blumenthal, like all Israel-bashers who suffer from terminal intellectual dishonesty, ignored the context of the comment.
Yet the truth is undeniable–9/11 did make Americans wake up and realize what Israel has gone through for decades. It caused previously complacent Americans to realize that there was a global threat from Islamist terror groups. It woke up the government to be less sanguine about what national security means in an era of jihadists deliberately targeting civilians.
Not only that, but the US has used Israel as the model on how to fight terror. We went on the offensive, forcing the enemy to fight trained soldiers rather than have the luxury of planning attacks on innocent civilians on our shores. We used unmanned armed drones, sophisticated electronics intelligence, and beefed up our more traditional human intelligence, just like Israel. We adopted Israel’s methods on how to fight in urban areas while minimizing casualties of civilians. We used Israeli technology and methodology to help treat battlefield injuries and to help defeat threats from IEDs and missiles.
Even at home, city police forces and hospitals took lessons from Israeli experts on how to deal with local threats.
Bibi was correct in that 9/11 helped US-Israeli relations, on many levels.
To say that he therefore is happy about 9/11 is, however, pure slander. It would be similar to saying that CNN was considers 9/11 “very good” because its ratings soared as the only 24-hour news channel at the time, or that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is thrilled that 3,000 Americans died because their deaths gave him a high-profile job and budget. In short, Blumenthal’s charge that Netanyahu–and, by implication, all Zionists–are happy when Americans die is nothing short of obscene. It is a sick, transparent attempt on his part to drive a wedge between America and Israel.
To him and his friends on the far Left, the strong relationship between the US and Israel is the real evil that must be fought, not radical Islamists who want to see Blumenthal dead just as much as they want to kill all Jews and Americans.
Max Blumenthal trots out a lie (NewsRealBlog)
My latest post at NewsRealBlog, written by request:
Will Abu Amr replace Fayyad as PA prime minister?
Al Manar is reporting that Dr. Ziad Abu Amr, who lives in Gaza, is a frontrunner to replace Salam Fayyad in the new "unified" PA government.
Abu Amr is a former foreign minister for the PA. He is said to have good relations with both Hamas and Fatah as well as other terror groups. In fact, he wrote a book called "Islamic fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad" which looks, at first glance, to be fairly well done.
He received his masters' degree and doctorate from Georgetown.
Abu Amr is a former foreign minister for the PA. He is said to have good relations with both Hamas and Fatah as well as other terror groups. In fact, he wrote a book called "Islamic fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad" which looks, at first glance, to be fairly well done.
He received his masters' degree and doctorate from Georgetown.
US and EU don't look at maps, and that hurts the chances for real peace
Last week:Washington on Thursday called Israel’s approval of building 900 apartment units in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem “damaging and inconsistent” with its commitment to a two-state solution.Of course, the EU piled on:
The condemnation of the move by the State Department came less than a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a new governing coalition.
“This is a disappointing development, and we’re concerned about it just as a new Israeli government has been announced,” US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a press briefing. “Israel’s leaders have asserted that they remain committed to a two-state solution, and we need to see that commitment in the actions of… the Israeli government.”
Rathke said that the US government would “continue to make our position clear that we view this as illegitimate.”
Israel's determination to continue its settlement policy despite the urging of the international community, not only threatens the viability of the two state solution but also seriously calls into question its commitment to a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians.A simple look at where the construction is planned shows that in no way, shape or form does building at Ramat Shlomo hurt the two state solution.
Here is Peace Now's map of the planned construction at Ramat Shlomo, in red, when 1500 units were planned:
Here is the same area from satellite:
The new construction is on the southern end of Ramat Shlomo, towards the Jewish neighborhoods of Sanhedria, Har Hotzvim and Ramat Eshkol - that are mostly within the Green Line.
In other words, there is no possible way that the land that is being built on would ever, in any universe, not remain in Israeli territory. Not under any peace plan ever promoted by any serious group. Never.
Even the far left Geneva Initiative, one of whose members was PA minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, included major Jewish neighborhoods much further to the north than Ramat Shlomo as remaining in Israel:
When the US and EU say that Israel cannot build anything at all for Jews in Jerusalem who live in areas that everyone agrees would be part of Israel forever, they are saying that Jerusalem must remain static and unchanging They are also saying that the rules for Israeli Jews are different than for Israeli Arabs, who have moved into Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and whose additional construction approval do not get condemned by the EU or US.
This is not helpful to "peace." It just signals to Israel that it is alone, and that its opponents have bought the extreme anti-Israel positions of the Palestinians, and that their rules are particularly against Jews.
Which in turn makes Israel less likely to negotiate over other areas, since the third parties that want to be part of the solution have already signaled their extreme bias against any Jews - and only Jews - living in any part of Jerusalem that happen to live across what was meant to be a temporary armistice line.
Who wants to negotiate their own destruction? Who wants to negotiate under the friendly auspices of people who have loudly announced their bias against you?