Sunday, June 17, 2007

Power, Faith and Fantasy, by Michael B. Oren

The Israel bashers want us to believe (as someone else, although I forget who, pointed out) that Middle Eastern history began with the Six Day War in 1967. We are supposed to ignore anything that came before that date. And if we are part of the U.N. so-called Human Rights Council we are expected to ignore a lot more than that. Michael Oren's new book, Power, Faith, and Fantasy, really is well done. I learned a lot. I learned a lot of things I didn't know. I also learned that the United States government doesn't always learn from its mistakes, since current leaders are still making the same blunders past leaders made. The biggest blunder is pandering to Islamic supremacists who really don't want the same things we want, you know, like peace on Earth and a happy prosperous future for our children.

It's interesting that in the early days of our country's independence, when the U.S. chose to appease the (Muslim) Barbary pirates by paying tribute for hostages, and to buy their "protection" the pirates kept increasing their demands. The Barbary pirates had no respect for a weak United States that succumbed to blackmail, but they did respect American firepower when the U.S. fought back. As Oren points out, it cost more financially to fight back than it did to pay tribute, but self-respect is priceless. And with the example set by the United States Navy, the European countries decided to flex their muscle instead of folding to Islamic demands, thereby putting an end to that set of pirates.

Since Israel declared its independence in 1948, our European "allies" have been for the most part, just as traitorous and backstabbing as they are today.

Some of the reviewers on Amazon.com object to Oren's description of the past 60 years. It seems his bias doesn't match their bias.

Labels: , ,

3 Comments:

At 1:09 AM, Blogger Pen of Jen said...

Self respect is priceless Right on, yet more and more seem to think that this will go away.

Just check out the rockets launched into Israel, and they are asked to exercise self control, while being stabbed in the back.

Self respect is something we need to do and self control means that we are going to see appeasement.

Great Post Harry!

 
At 8:09 AM, Blogger Rita Loca said...

I am starting a list of books to order when I get stateside..just added this one.
My son occasionally reads your blog and he loves your button of disproportionate response!!!
He will be studying Hebrew this semester, too bad he cant go and study it in Israel.

 
At 8:41 PM, Blogger Harry said...

Jennifer,
Sadly, you're probably right. Too many of us want to take the easy way, and will convince ourselves that even though appeasement has never worked before, this time if we appease even more, it will work. Of course, it won't work, but that won't stop the next round of appeasement.

Jungle mom,
I think you'll like it. It really is a good book. My son is headed for Israel soon. His trip last year was cut short. We're all hoping that doesn't happen again.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

<< List
Jewish Bloggers
Join >>
War's legitimate object is more perfect peace. Flavius Vegitius Renatus This is an optional footer. If you want text here, place it inside these tags, and remove this comment.