Do We Need Tough Love from Hillary?

Counterpoint to:

Try tough love, Hillary
"Nobody's been more solidly pro-Israel than Hillary Clinton. But to be effective, she must become a tough taskmaster. That is in the best long-term interest of Israel."

Roger Cohen
The New York Times
December 1, 2008

Columnist Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, believes that the next US secretary of state should apply pressure on Israel, and should do so as a friend. Israel, he implies, is incapable of doing what is good for it and therefore needs a friend, such as Hillary Clinton, to force it into acting in its best interest. She must be "a tough taskmaster", opines Cohen.

To some of us this attitude may sound extremely condescending, yet it is not new. The United States has applied pressure on Israel on numerous occasions in the past, and there are some prominent Israelis who share Cohen's view that this is what we now need. 

Allowing hostile activists into Israel

In April 2003, a 22 year-old British photography student, Tom Hurndall, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in Gaza by a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and subsequently died. Simon Block has made a two-hour feature television film about Hurndall, whom he describes as a peace activist. It tells a sad story.

But it is also tells a controversial story, because it exposes the hostile political activism of foreign nationals who come to Israel. 

A very one-sided view

Counterpoint to:

A last chance for peace in Israel? 
"It's a sign of how desensitised Israel has become to the violence committed in its name that the potential indictment for war crimes of Livni's main rival, Shaul Mofaz, was barely an issue."

Johann Hari
The Independent (London)
September 22, 2008

Here are four interesting stories. If you bear with me, I will link them later.

The first story is rooted in the Taba negotiations when, in January 2001, the Palestinians rejected peace proposals from President Clinton and from Israel.  Two years later Yasser Arafat lamented his mistake in offhandedly rejecting the offers, but in the intervening time he and his people had launched one of the worst waves of violence and terror Israel had ever witnessed. It became known as the second intifada. 

Made-to-measure 'collective punishment'

Counterpoint to:

Israeli collective punishment of people of Gaza must be ended

There is little doubt that Israel's economic strangulation of Gaza, constitutes collective punishment and is illegal under international humanitarian law."

Philip O'Conor
The Irish Times (Dublin)
August 21, 2008

Philip O'Conor, writing in The Irish Times, alleges that Israel is guilty of collective punishment. What picture comes to your mind when you think of collective punishment? George Mason University Law Professor Michael Krauss, responds powerfully:

An irrational neighbor

CounterPoint to:

Palestinians' self-inflicted wounds

"Israeli oppression has helped fracture Palestinian society and turn some of its groups into desperados who fight one another to maintain a modicum of control over their increasingly restricted and empty lives."

Rami Khouri
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

 

"These are grim days for the Palestinians," writes Lebanese political analyst Rami Khouri, "but not unusual ones for the Arab world as a whole. The sight of clan-based political groups in Gaza killing each other is sadly familiar in many parts of the region."

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Point / Counterpoint A response to selected commentary about Israel in the world press, from an up-close observer of the Middle East for more than fifty years.

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Recent Comments

Dagoberto Mensch: Even Shakespeare recognized that Jews bleed (The Merchant of Venice, Act III, scene I)- a right we, Jews, don´t have today, after so many Human Rights Declarations. And - as a prove of media objectivity: (There aren´t enough jews dead etc). In Brazil, the biggest network (Globo) said: "It´s 700 palestinians dead and only 11 israelis - that´s awful". And now, people talk crazy things like, why don´t Israel and Hamas terrorists talk? Sure, why didn´t we have this idea before? Because, you know, Jews hate talking and convincing others, right? THAT´S THE PROBLEM! Oh, man, you make me laugh.
Gail Wainer - Harvard University: I want to reiterate Jay Goldberg's sentiments. Tell me Simon, why does the world suddenly become so concerned about the plight of Palestinians only when Israel is involved with defending itself against its enemies? Why have the refugee camps been allowed to linger for more than 30 years? Why not take the money, used to buy rockets to aim at Israel, to improve the lives of those living in Gaza? What I have trouble understanding is how the people of Gaza continue to support Hamas when it is so obvious that Hamas does not care whether they live or die? I think they're afraid they'll be killed.
David J Feiger USA: Hypocrisy, immorality, antisemitism motivated by a deep seated hate that blames the ills of the world on Jews, has supposed progressive leftists championing a theocratic, reactionary, racist, sadistic terror dehumanizing fascist movement that wishes to enslave secular Palestinian Arabs under Sharia Law.Egypt that put the blame for the situation on Gaza is ignored. Israel is the blood thirsty monster that killed 600 in 12 days!! Now Turkey is the true voice of hypocrisy.Turkey surely has set an example for Israel. Kurdistan is a free State. Christian Armenia is a free state of 2 mil corpses.