the advocate

The usual minds are all in a tither after what grande dame Helen Thomas let loose the other day. Whoa, nelly! What a shot. You had to know that was gonna leave a mark. And mark it did, as all the Bush White House Likudniks, Obama White House Likudniks, congressional Likudniks, along with a phalanx of well-oiled neocon media drip-feeds, hopped to and demanded her firing.

Listen to Ari Fleischer. "She is advocating religious cleansing." oh, the humanity!

Well, no, not actually. She just said that the Jews "should leave Palestine," which tends to suggest voluntary withdrawal from a poorly realized campaign. Much like the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles the US won't leave either. Of course, the Israelis have been at this a lot longer than the US, and they're actually winning at it, at least so far as Israel imagines winning.

The Israelis have developed a much better system for acquiring territory. In plain sight of the world, they do this, take over land. Are doing it now, and each and every day. Sure there's noise and spite and howling and UN condemnations and UNSC resolutions, vetoed by the US always. So, not a problem. Keep grabbing while the grabbing is good. This appears to be the operating dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Hardly any Israelis get hurt or killed because of this activity -- though their claims of plight would suggest constant fearful strain over what turns out to be almost nothing. The march continues, the world makes noise, a few try to defy, get shot for doing so. No reprisals, no consequences. Ever. This was the key lesson learned by the Israelis after the Liberty.

Their psychology of previous investment is deep, rad hardened, and nuclear tipped. So, what Helen said? ain't gonna happen. Certainly not within the viable lifetime of nuclear missiles. Besides, the guiding document of international property and boundary law, the Bible, says that the Jews should be there. Yaweh gave it to them ... sort of. Yeah, there were all kina other muthafuckers there, but the Bible said to kill 'em all! take what's yours! Somethin' like that, right? So there's yer Bible message: after the Jews kill everyone else, Israel is theirs! Woo hoo! It's in the Bible! So there! Don't fret Ari.

But fret he did, along with all his soft-topped soul mates.

Nope. "Soul" is entirely the wrong word there.

These days, of course, it doesn't really matter what Thomas, or any libDem, actually said. All that matters is the appearance of having said something. That is especially true if the something involves Israel, as it often will these days. And then, Kabloooey! It's off to the media races, where more bullshit 'bout nothin' will be disgorged.

You can understand now why the reaction of the IDF on the boat was so lethal. They couldn't believe that the boat people were hammerin' their IDF elite commando asses. Shit, when saying something bad about Israel is a firing offense in Washington, a couple of smacks with a stick on an IDF ass gets ya four taps to the head, one to the chest.

Meanwhile, the real things of the world fail to make an appearance on Meet the Pressniks. Because those serious fellows will be yammering about Helen Thomas. Betcha.

Cleansing. geesuz. And even if we could grant that that is what she said, note how much worse is "advocating" ethnic cleansing (what he really meant), as opposed to actually doing ethnic cleansing. For sixty fuckin' years.

And Ari? Shouldn't you be helping Tiger sue those prostitutes for wrecking his career or something?