tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573533210099052368.post2087946675638246143..comments2024-03-16T00:26:41.051-04:00Comments on Scaramouche: Thomas L. Friedman's "Solution"scaramouchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04380374512378209528noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573533210099052368.post-21796167071490566152011-09-18T09:40:14.012-04:002011-09-18T09:40:14.012-04:00Thanks for that perceptive analysis, CP. TLF is so...Thanks for that perceptive analysis, CP. TLF is so consistenly wrong about so many things--recall his embarrassing giddiness in Tahrir Square and his enthusiasm for the Communist Chinese way of doing things--that it's a wonder anyone gives his pseudo-profundities any credence.scaramouchehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04380374512378209528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573533210099052368.post-24623772064270239412011-09-18T09:29:31.916-04:002011-09-18T09:29:31.916-04:00To read a column like Mr. Friedman's latest is...To read a column like Mr. Friedman's latest is to marvel at the mentality of someone who treats Israel's existential struggle against many hostile neighboring nations that want to expunge it (literally!) from the map as if it were a squabble among Minneapolis city councilmen over whether to allocate additional funds to expanding the park system or building more bridges across the Mississippi to neighboring St. Paul. (I'd vote for the latter myself, . . . but I digress.)<br /><br />The problem, of course, is not confined to Mr. Friedman. While the animus against Israel among many Europeans--not to speak of Middle Easterners--is doubtless rooted in old-fashioned anti-Semitism, I think that American pseudo-intellectuals, like Mr. Friedman, who cannot bring themselves unreservedly to take Israel's side in her existential struggle are motivated by (1) a sense that Israel is a honkie urban enclave resisting "integration" with the surrounding black neighborhoods and (2) the deeply-ingrained American cultural outlook, born of the long Anglo-Saxon tradition of rule of law and free commerce, that adversarial relationships can always be resolved by negotiation, compromise, and quid-pro-quo. (In Mr. Friedman's case, having actually grown up in Minneapolis, this world view is reinforced by what Midwesterners dub "Minnesota nice," a particularly sunny outlook and heroic neighborliness, only now being tempered by exposure to large numbers of Somali "refugees.") In their heart of hearts, many Americans--and, I would guess, many Canadians as well--just cannot bring themselves to believe that Israel could not solve its . . . differences . . . with its neighbors with the right bundle of concessions and subsidies.<br /><br />Of course, even a cursory reading of the recent history of the Middle East, not to mention that of Islam going back to its origins, should be enough to convince anyone with a mental age greater than, say, 12 that deeper factors than economic interest motivate the fanatical Moslem hatred of the "Zionist entity" in their midst, but, alas, subjective perceptions of reality often trump the objective facts of the case.Carlos Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00253355647824872032noreply@blogger.com