OF COURSE, TOM FRIEDMAN BLAMES BIBI, AND HIS COALITION GOVERNMENT

Via Hot Air:

Tom Friedman - Israel alone

What could Israel have done? The Palestinian Authority, which has made concrete strides in the past five years at building the institutions and security forces of a state in the West Bank — making life there quieter than ever for Israel — finally said to itself: “Our state-building has not prompted Israel to halt settlements or engage in steps to separate, so all we’re doing is sustaining Israel’s occupation. Let’s go to the U.N., get recognized as a state within the 1967 borders and fight Israel that way.” Once this was clear, Israel should have either put out its own peace plan or tried to shape the U.N. diplomacy with its own resolution that reaffirmed the right of both the Palestinian and the Jewish people to a state in historic Palestine and reignited negotiations.

Mr. Netanyahu did neither…

I have great sympathy for Israel’s strategic dilemma and no illusions about its enemies. But Israel today is giving its friends — and President Obama’s one of them — nothing to defend it with. Israel can fight with everyone or it can choose not to surrender but to blunt these trends with a peace overture that fair-minded people would recognize as serious, and thereby reduce its isolation.

Read the Article.

What to think? HERE'S WHAT:

Liberal doves like Tom Friedman always think they have a utopian solution for peace without victory.

They call their policy "accommodation."

And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us.

All who oppose them - like Netanyahu - are indicted as warmongers.

(Adapted from Reagan's Time for Choosing Speech.)

It's delusional to think that Arabs will become less belligerent or want to co-exist with Israel if only Bibi would "make nice."

The Arabs do not want to coexist with the Jewish State of Israel - (links to video of Abbas saying so just a few weeks ago)

• BESIDES, IT'S ABBAS AND THE ARABS HAVE REFUSED TO TALK TO ISRAEL.

• ISRAEL, UNDER BIBI, HAS REPEATEDLY SAID THAT THEY WILL TALK ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME ABOUT ANYTHING, NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE.

IT'S REALLY THAT SIMPLE: As a result of the Arab refusal to negotiate, no deal is possible - no matter what Israelis do.

The recent expansion of Arab and Muslim bellicosity is a direct result of several signals Obama sent them - (deliberately or naively, it matters not why):

• He un-invited Mubarak to his Cairo speech while inviting the Muslim Brotherhood
• He announced time-based withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan
• He sided with Arabs with regard to the 1967 borders
• He sided with Arabs with regard to settlement construction - even in Jerusalem
• He stood by and did nothing as Iranians rebelled against the theft of their electoral process
• He does nothing with regard to the assassination of PM Hariri now proven to have been by Hizballah - despite the fact that Hizballah is part of the government of Lebanon
• He allows NATO member Turkey to EXPLICITLY threaten Israel

OBAMA AND HIS POLICY OF APPEASEMENT ARE WHY WE ARE HEADED FOR A HUGE CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

It matters not if Obama is a crypto-Muslim, or just an anti-Zionist (who has been friends with leading anti-Zionists his entire adult life!), or an inept naive appeaser.

The results are the same.

The results will neither bring peace or stability or justice.

Just war.

Sigh.

BOTTOM-LINE: FRIEDMAN IS WRONG: BIBI AND BARAK ARE NOT TO BLAME. OBAMA IS.

UPDATE: ROUND UP HERE.