Monday, March 23, 2009

Roger Cohen Goes A-Rogering Again

Having read all of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books, I've always waited for an opportunity to use one of his favorite verbs: rogering.

Roger Cohen has now provided it.

After his series of ridiculous articles drawing irrational and incorrect comparisons and conclusions thereof (here), he again uses his position as New York Times columnist to bombard us with dangerous corruption of facts and illogical persuasive propaganda:

...[Obama] placed Iran’s nuclear program within “the full range of issues before us.” By doing so, Obama made it almost inevitable that one of the defining strategic issues of his presidency will be a painful but necessary redefinition of America’s relations with Israel as differences over Iran sharpen...

...I was in Iran in January and February. The visit convinced me that confrontational American high-handedness has been a disaster;...that the regime’s provocative rhetoric masks essential pragmatism [who said Jews were smart and clever?]; and that the best way to help a young, stability-favoring population toward the reform they seek is through engagement.

[odd that, for Israel it was disengagement from Gaza and, if I understand Cohen, he wishes the US to disengage from Israel]

...One of the people involved in the review told me he had been bombarded by warnings from Israel and Sunni Arab states that engagement with Iran would lead nowhere. Of course they would say that; any Iran breakthrough will shake up current cozy U.S. relationships from Jerusalem to Riyadh.

[of course Cohen would write that. he wrong?]

...The clock is ticking — and Obama’s will not be the same as that of Israel’s prime minister designate, Benjamin Netanyahu.

...A senior Israeli official told me Iran has 1,000 kilos of low-enriched uranium and will have 500 more within six months, enough to make a bomb. It could then opt for one of three courses...And where, I asked, is Israel’s red line? “Once they get to 1,500 kilos, nonproliferation is dead,” he said. And so? “It’s established that when a country that does not accept Israel’s existence has such a program, we will intervene.”

I think there’s some bluster in this.

[that is wisdom? insight? or is he being a bit blustery himself?]

...Still, this much is clear to me: Obama’s new Middle Eastern diplomacy and engagement will involve reining in Israeli bellicosity and a probable cooling of U.S.-Israeli relations. It’s about time. America’s Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy has been disastrous, not least for Israel’s long-term security

[er, where was this policy expressed? In Baker's epithet about 'f*ck the Jews'? Condi's harping harassment of Israel? Kissinger's holding up of arms during the Yom Kippur War?].


Oh, yes, it might be painful but that will be the pain Roger Cohen is afflicting upon Israel by acting out the, unfortunate, but traditional, role of the 'apostate' Jew in the intellectual and emotional sense (I am presuming that he is Jewish as there have been Cohens not Jewish, one even a US Secretary of Defense), egging on a semi-anti Israel politician and providing him with a security blanket of "Jewish" support, along with J Street whose head is a son of an outstanding Irgun fighter and commander and Jews for Justice and other such grouplets.

Passover/Pesach is a-coming and I just get wait to get out of the "exile mode", out of the "impurity of Egypt".

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