Garbanzo Toons

If

If the victims in Zimbabwe, Tibet, Darfur, Myanmar, or any other country where innocent citizens are now facing rape, death, starvation, slavery, or any combination of those undesirable conditions want the world to care about them and offer any help at all, here is what they must do. They must declare themselves Palestinians. They must also claim they are being targeted for extermination by an oppressive Zionist regime. It worked for Middle East Arabs, there's no reason why it can't work for others. There is a difference however. People in Zimbabwe, Tibet, Darfur, and Myanmar really have been oppressed. They are suffering at the hands of tyrants, thugs, and murderers. The Arabs in the Middle East who have conned the world into calling them Palestinians and who have had money showered upon them for the past 60 years are oppressors in victim's clothing. They are oppressors of Israel and of their own people.

If Israel was truly the neighborhood bully that its enemies claim it is, nobody would be condemning the Israelis. I just figured that out today by reading this post at The BIDINOTTO BLOG (linked to by way of American Digest).

Why won't the West help Georgia -- say, by immediately admitting the nation to NATO?

How to explain the West's impotent tsk-tsking in the face of this latest Russian aggression?

The answer lies in what I call the "anticipatory capitulation" factor.

The greatest terror of postmodern Westerners is "confrontation": to be compelled into situations in which they must actually face down a bully. And, of course, taking a moral stand may sometimes lead to such "confrontations."

So, in anticipation of any course of action that could possibly lead to a "confrontation," postmoderns never take a moral stand. They look into the future, at where such a stand might lead them -- and, terrified by the prospect, they back down pre-emptively. Often, they seek some sort of "compromise" with thugs that takes the "confrontation" option off the table. "Compromise" here means: anticipatory capitulation.

This is the policy that Border's Books, Comedy Central, and the entire MSM adopted when contemplating even a hypothetical "confrontation" with Islamists who might become angry about their circulation of those Muhammad cartoons: They capitulated and refused to publish the cartoons, in mere anticipation of a possible showdown.

and more importantly,

Bullies, of course, can always smell fear: It's their special talent. They accurately perceive the cowardice that underlies responses of whining, pleading, dithering, and mollycoddling, and know that they will confront no barriers on the paths of aggression.

Besides Russia, Islamists have also been getting away with murder. Besides the acts of preemptive surrender already mentioned, what have we done about Iran over the past 29 or so years since the Iranians declared war on us by taking over our embassy? How many Americans have they killed since? What about facing down Hezbollah? It hasn't happened, has it? They've created themselves a comfortable terrorist state within a state in Lebanon. The world watched and continued to condemn Israel.

Now that we know that bullies, even little bullies, will be allowed to push the rest of the world around, I wonder what would have happened had Israel not sued for peace following their victory in the 1967 six-day war. Let's imagine instead, that they did all of the horrible things that they've been accused of, like removing all of the Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank (and just to be safe, from Israel), and the Sinai, and just kept it all and developed it all. Let's say they flipped the rest of the world the bird and told the UN and anyone else who tried to stick their nose in, that it was none of anyone's business.

Then what if they'd hunted down Arafat and all PLO members wherever they could be found, again daring the world to do anything about it? What if they'd threatened their neighbors with anihilation if they made a wrong move? They'd be a real bully, like the Islamic and Russian ones we're facing today. They could face down their enemies and even be aggressive without worrying about consequences. But they'd be bigger and more ruthless, less trying to appeal to morality and more trying to create fear.

We have to face the fact that the world is an immoral place. There are only a few islands of attempted morality on this Earth and Israel is one of them. That's why the scenario I suggested had no chance of happening. That's also why Israel is always facing an existential threat.

Being Jewish and being chained to their particular moral stance, Israel will always be the scapegoat. It's one of the ways the world can avoid facing the real bullies and still hold its collective head up.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Israel, Palestinians, Russia

posted by Harry @ 7:36 PM 3 comments

Jimmy Loves Bob, but Does Bob Love Jimmy?

Julie Gorin wrote a fascinating piece today on the Jimmy Carter's unrequited love (well, maybe only admiration) for Bob Dylan. But, as Ms. Gorin writes:

I know of Carter’s repeated efforts to get Dylan to perform or at least show up at Carter events and campaign stops and major political bashes. Every time, Dylan was either too busy or traveling, or made sure that he was. Diss!

Some interviewer should ask Carter whether he’s aware that Bob Dylan is a Jew. Even worse, he’s a Jew who doesn’t hate Israel. In fact, he’s the Jew who wrote the song “Neighborhood Bully” in 1983:

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man,
His enemies say he’s on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin,
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He’s always on trial for just being born.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He’s the neighborhood bully.
…
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Julie Gorin left out one verse. You can find it here Just scroll down. It's the eighth verse.

As a youngun' growing up in the 60s and 70s I wasn't much of a Dylan fan. He wasn't loud enough. He didn't scream. I hadn't yet learned to appreciate musical niceties like melody, harmony, and intelligent lyrics. I've got a bunch of his stuff on vinyl and CD. Jimmy Carter, friend to terrorists, Jew-hater, I've got no sympathy for. I'd like to invite him over to my house and play one Dylan song for him though.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Jimmy Carter

posted by Harry @ 8:13 PM 0 comments