"Never miss an opportunity…" to think for yourself
Eli Valley’s latest comic is up! And below is the man himself explaining his choice of equating 1950s horror comics with Israeli hasbara and the scare tactics of establishment fundraising. (Bnai Brith, he’s looking at you…)
On the one hand, Eli Valley sounds very intelligent in this interview and I agree that the “organized” North American community is doing an injustice in not fostering a more open dialogue about Israel and the Middle East. Agreed.
On the other hand, people who actually “think for themselves” are at some point going to have to account for the reality that many of these “free thinking” policies would have led to:
1) Sadaam Huessien having nuclear weapons (no Israeli attack in 1981)
2) Sadaam Hussein controlling a substantial amount of the crude oil market, and probably ruling Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (no 1991 Gulf War)
3) Sadaam Hussein still in power and terrorizing his own people, including the occasional slaughter of Kurds (no 2003 Iraq War.)
4) Ghadaffi using chemical and biological weapons against his very own people in Libya (no 2003 Iraq War.)
5) President Assad would be well on his way to controlling nuclear weapons (no Israeli strike on Syria in 2007)
6) President Assad would be a Nobel Prize winner, with his regime receiving billions of dollars in Western aid, a rebuilt military at his disposal, and the Golan Heights once again Syria’s (an Israeli-Syrian treaty)
7) Hezbollah would have sky-high legitimacy in Lebanon, with its success of driving Israel from Lebanon in 2000, and its continued bordercrossings and kidnappings of Israeli soldiers with impunity (no 2006 Lebanon War II)
8) With a “free thinking” policy of increased Western diplomatic support for “moderate” Arab regimes, along with more cooperation, and more financial aid, those “moderate” regimes might still be ruling in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and prospectively in Syria.
9) And, toward the future, Hamas could become the indisputable ruler of Palestine, considering that it would have now had years of firing rockets from Gaza into Israel (no Cast Lead) and that it would have been embraced by the West as a political player, without any quid pro quo.
It works both ways—the large, organized community has to look itself in the mirror about some things . . .. but so do the “free thinkers.”
He was right about Herzl however. He’s be rolling in his grave. Then again, who cares about that nut Herzl? He probably wouldnt care about a two state solution as long as nobody- Arab or Hasid- got in the way of his sipping cafe afuch in his Vienna by the sea. His Altneuland was pure fantasy. Ginsburg was the one who had a soul and foresaw the potential moral pitfalls of Arab populace. Lo Zeh Haderech, my friends….