mentalblog.com comments:
The entire western world is drowning in a bog of political correctness; so much of Ari Shavit's opinion sounds similar to opinion pieces I've read published or linked on Townhall.com and RealClearPolitics.com. The U.S. government was well aware of al Quaida all through the Clinton presidency, but did nothing. So 9/11. And there are many people who believe Bush somehow caused it. There are even people who are suspicious that Bush and/or the Republican Party had some hand in the timeing of Britain and Pakistan's bust on Friday of al Quaida's latest plot to murder a few thousand airline passengers. Then there are individuals and organizations like the ALCU, guardians of civil rights of drug smugglers, who are outraged that the government monitors the phone calls of persons who catch the attention of those responsible for our security. They should know it was an intercepted phone call that alerted Pakistani intelligence to the imminent plan to down ten passenger jets over the Atlantic.
Is Shavit the man in the red shirt? Or perhaps it's you?
I wish I had that soldier's beautiful mane -- what curls . . . . I hope they don't get in the way of his aim . . . or is that a doctored photo?
why did you write that the guy is a commie?
I would guess that TA pre-judged Ari Shavit to be a commie because of where he works and how he used to write. BUT Ari Shavit burst out of his role of commie propagandist and wrote from the heart that Olmert is a jackass. Shavit's outburst seems similar to the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in refence to other jackasses who tout themselves as Jewish leaders but are so stupid and vain that their claim to leadership is a joke. A sickening joke.
Me comments about him being a commie is based on his veiled longing for the old lets’ all get together socialist ways expressed in his articles. This and his disdain for so called elites. Notice that while in America the term elites means media, etc. Shavit used it exclusively for the money oligarchs. He also somehow claims that part of the current problems are the excesses of greed and capitalism. Hence my comment.
Shavit actually agrees with some of the things that I've been saying recently - and this gives me no joy.
* * *
"Capital brought the illusion-of-normalcy ad absurdum, and established a crushing social-economic regime here [...] And the media [...] created a hallucinatory state of mind, which combines unbridled consumerism with false righteousness."
"[...] the Israeli elites [...] deceived themselves and those around them that Tel Aviv is in fact Manhattan. Money is in fact everything. And thus they bequeathed to young Israelis a legacy of values that makes it very difficult for them to attack even when the attack is fully justified."
* * *
While (some) Israelis have been getting rich, whether from hi-tech investments, corrupt connections or real-estate deals, this did not mean that Israel and the Middle East was somehow normalizing. Osama bin Laden (like Arafat before him) was quite remarkably wealthy before he set out on his world-changing adventures.
There ARE things more important than money? Why can't people understand this? Our enemies surely understand this.....
TA, I am not familiar with Shavit but you seem to be missing something here.
The Israeli Left is nothing like the Left in other societies. In Israel, the Left is the established money, the owners of the corporations and the monopolies, the side that destroys the environment for profit or just for fun. References to the elites are to the Left, the old, controlling money and the media and opinion shapers.
By lambasting the "elites" Shavit might be advocating rebellion and might be considered a radical or a Communist, perhaps. But he sure isn't defending the post-Zionist post-Jewish, money-oriented, greedy power brokers that have broken Israel down to where it is today.
Leftist elites in the US are also well moneyed. Their problem is that they feel guilty about it. Just look at the Democrats. Many, many of their elites are rich, some loaded. And the media? All Democrats and all rich.
Well, wherever you locate the elites: in post-socialist monopolists or free-market hi-tech entrepreneurs, I don't know that there's a straight line between these cultural/societal ills and the military campaign's anomalies this go around. October 1973 started out poorly because of such problems but the generals and politicians played it straight: did what they said they were going to do after the surprises and disappointments without bluffs or empty war declarations or looking for the UN to accomplish what the IDF was not prepared or given the chance to accomplish.
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