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Monday, December 29, 2008
What are Israel’s goals?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Israeli response to aggression by Hamas appears to have been a success, with large numbers of Hamas members and top officials killed or driven underground. Again, Israel had every right and indeed an obligation to respond to attacks on its people, and it has done so effectively.
However, success could turn into failure with an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza or even an expansion of the bombing campaign that begins to inflict more civilian casualties. And unfortunately, that seems to be where Israel is heading, with tanks and troops massing at the border and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak telling the Knesset that the military was fighting a “war to the bitter end against Hamas.”
Israel should not allow its overwhelming military dominance to seduce it into believing in a military solution to Hamas. No such solution exists, and trying to impose one can only make matters worse, as Israel should have learned from its repeated experiences in Lebanon.
So the question is one of goals: If Israel seeks a renewed ceasefire with Hamas, it may have created the circumstances in which that goal can be negotiated. No one can quibble with a goal of stopping missiles from landing in its territory.
However, if Israel’s goal is really to solve its Hamas problem once and for all, it will fail. There is no conceivable mechanism by which that can be achieved at gunpoint.
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Your chance to play Roger Ebert…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s kind of slow out there in the news department. So … anybody out there gone to the movies this holiday season?
Seen anything good that was supposed to be bad?
Anything bad that was supposed to be good?
What’s the best movie you’ve seen this year?
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The GOP’s minority ‘outreach’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The GOP is apparently intent on continuing its minority outreach program — if by outreach you mean a running back’s stiff-arm to any minority voter who might come close.
The latest event was the decision by one of the top candidates for the post of Republican National Committee chairman to send out a CD to RNC members containing a song about “Barack the Magic Negro,” sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon” by someone impersonating Al Sharpton.
The lovely tune was originally broadcast on Rush Limbaugh’s show. But Chip Saltsman of Tennessee apparently doesn’t understand that it’s one thing to play the segment on a controversial talk radio show, and another to have it sent out by someone wanting to be elected to head the national party and serve as party spokesman.
It brings to mind the local Republican official here in Georgia who sent out an email to her fellow Republicans not so long ago with a doctored photo of Obama as a black lawn jockey, among others. She wasn’t a racist, she insisted, and neither were the 20 or so Georgia conservatives who had sent the photo to her.
One of the more curious responses came from Erick Erickson over at redstate.com. “”In any event, that Chip Saltsman did this shows poor judgment on his part,” Erickson writes. “He should have known this would happen. This is a distraction from the RNC Chairman’s race coming on the heels of revelations that South Carolina GOP Chairman, and fellow contender, Katon Dawson belonged to an all white country club shortly before he decided to run for RNC Chairman.”
So far, so good. However, Erickson also believe that “There is absolutely nothing racist about the song, but the race baiters of the world love to think there is. The added humor is that the song accurately captures the problems of the race baiters in American with Obama as President.”
Erickson goes on to chide the current RNC chair, Mike Duncan for saying he was “shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate, as it clearly does not move us in the right direction.” To Erickson, “This suggests he doesn’t keep up with Rush Limbaugh, which suggests he’s a bit disconnected from the roots of the party.”
So Limbaugh now apparently sets the standard for what’s appropriate in the Republican Party? Is he, in effect, the unofficial RNC chairman, with the official titleholder bound to follow Limbaugh’s lead?
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