Bravo! It Just Doesn't Matter
Bibi Netanyahu gave a great speech at the UN on Friday. It really doesn’t matter.
Why did I come to Israel in 1992? I had just finished my doctorate and had two excellent postdoc offers in the US. Had I taken one of them, I probably would be a professor somewhere in the US right now. So why did I come here? My family was religious in all of its hundreds of years in Germany. My parents fled with their parents, and we grew up in the Chicago suburbs, where we belonged to a large Conservative synagogue. When I was in Madison, I had a stirring to become more religiously observant. I realized that if I wanted to accelerate this effort, it would happen more quickly and more fully in Israel. I was very fortunate to receive a Fulbright Fellowship to the Hebrew University, and I am grateful to God for all of the good that he has done for me and for my family.
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Israel is by no means a perfect country. One can criticize it on my many fronts. Last week, I heard the screeching of the head of the cab drivers’ union on the possibility that Uber will finally become kosher in Israel. To date, there has been limited Uber service, only with cabs, as the High Court ruled that normal people do not have car insurance that covers commercial activity. Things here are very expensive. Ralph Lauren (originally Lifshitz) opened a Polo store in Jerusalem. You have to bring your banker with you to go shopping. Traffic here can be beyond brutal. There is no shortage of kvetching and if one is honest, he can find fault here as he can find in any country on the map.
Bibi Netanyahu flew to New York to give his annual UN speech. The IDF set up massive speakers in Gaza and supposedly commandeered Gazan cellphones in order that the locals and the long-suffering hostages would hear his speech. His speech was in my unofficial fact-checking position true on every claim made or statistic presented. But in the end it doesn't matter. What did Bibi claim? A portion:
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While everything Bibi said is true, none of it matters. I keep seeing the scene from the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie: it was supposed to be the greatest sword fight ever. Everyone on site had dysentery and could not work more than a few minutes. So rather than do the big fight, Harrison Ford pulled out a gun and killed the sword dude. Bibi reminds me of the sword dude: he is the expert, everything he says is right, but since so much of the world hates Jews and Israel for different reasons, none of it can change their minds. Two of our kids used to fight over who was better, Messi or Ronaldo. They could go on forever with statistics and recent accomplishments. Neither ever changed the other’s mind. It is a real testimony to the greatness of Charlie Kirk that he actually got some percentage of the people listening to him to reevaluate their views and conclude that Kirk was right and that they were wrong. Very few do it, and I am sure that Bibi’s speech changed no minds, none at the UN and zero at universities and in the street. It is not his fault. He needed to come and give Israel’s side of the story, even though the UN via UNRWA, is a branch of Hamas. But when people hate you, they will never give you the benefit of the doubt or even admit that your facts are true. You are evil and we hate you.
People often use historical magic in order to support their side of an argument. For many, October 7th did not occur or it was no biggie or the Jews deserved it. So, their calendar only starts on October 8th. And let’s imagine that Hamas really had done nothing and that Israel decided to enter Gaza for no apparent reason, raze it, and kill tens of thousands of locals. That would really make Israel an evil country. But the 7th did happen, it was as gruesome as has been described, and the war that has followed is a response to what happened to the thousands killed, wounded, and kidnapped. In that light, Israel is justified in its actions. Bibi praised their feeding the Gazans and warning of impending attacks. Maybe these are for UN bonus points, but both actions have prolonged the war for at least 18 months.
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I very much like Donald Trump and his presidential program. When he was sitting with Macron the fool, he said that he has been supporting Israel his entire life. And that is the truth. So it is a disappointment to read of the “21 Point Plan” that the administration has put forth to end the war and move Gaza forward. It’s a disappointment because it once again is based on nonexistent honesty and good will from the Palestinians. Remember, to get Arafat out of diplomatic hell, he just had to say, “We renounce all forms of terrorism.” He said it and became acceptable in polite society. He did not mean it. Terror continued to the point that a Chicago Tribune cartoonist showed him standing in front of microphones and saying, “We renounce all foams of tourism,” which is how it actually sounded. The new plan is based on Hamas being nice, the Palestinians removing material from textbooks, and mythical “reform” of the billion dollar sinkhole known as the Palestinian Authority (PA). I am sure that Steve Witkoff, the same guy who promises a breakthrough every week, week after week, wrote it. It is pie-in-the-sky as the Palestinians will gladly agree to anything, sign anything in order to get more money, land, control, and power. Some international force is supposed to replace the IDF. When heavy weapons go under their feet, will they dig out the tunnel? Will they engage in a firefight with the terrorists moving missiles into Gaza? Are they willing to die to keep the peace in a smoking heap of rubble? President Trump is a great friend of Israel; this program is a disaster because it relies on the promises of killers and liars.
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Condi Rice once upbraided the Israeli government for having too many checkpoints in the West Bank and thus choking supposed Palestinian economic activity. Israel removed a few and sure enough, near Hebron, a car came by a bus stop, the passenger opened fire and killed and wounded several people. The checkpoint returned. Nobody in the US or Israel took responsibility for the action, nobody said that they were sorry. It was just covered over, like those who were buried from the terror attack.
The Palestinians, like other Muslim Brotherhood members, want to get rid of Israel and the West. Give them a document and because Hamas is honest about wanting to wipe out Israel, they may actually refuse to sign. The PA will agree but will never reform, will never run Gaza in an honest manner, and will never be a true partner for peace. Israel may have to go it alone, but if that means that all Israelis who wake up in the morning go to bed at night, so be it.
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