<<Ehud Barak warned that, in a contest of wills between two societies, the loser will be the one who blinks first. Now, with Geneva, a part of Israeli society has blinked.>>
What a bankrupt and juvenile sentiment. Adherence to third- grade concepts like that one will visit this Mideast impasse on our great great grandchildren.
"Blinking" must precede ANY peaceful resolution, and what is or isn't a "blink", as well as who blinks "first", is entirely malleable. This is just cover for a rightist intransigence toward the negotiating _process_ itself.
<<But perhaps their greatest damage is domestic... Now, with Geneva, a part of Israeli society has blinked.>>
How supercilious and patronizing! So some has-beens in Geneva with a crackpot document have instantly put a mind-meld on a 30% plus-or-minus segment of Israeli society? Isn't that a bit disrespectful of the cognitive powers of the citizens in question? As Halevi bemoans the migration of members of the flock to a false oracle, he presumes in the process their dimwittedness.
The return of poisoned discourse, indeed.
Halevi sniffs that some right-wing Jews "really love only those Jews who agree with them, and hate those Jews who don't", perhaps forgetting that he had just written the following:
"My anger toward the Geneva initiators is personal: I hold them responsible for threatening my country and its ability to defend itself, for threatening the well-being of those I love."
A very astute centrist, indeed.
John |
