Apparently Benjamin Netanyahu never remembered to pick up his copy of the classic self enrichment book “How to win friends and influence people”. First he allowed the Republicans hatred and contempt of President Obama’s resolve in negotiating a non nuclear treaty with Iran and a broad European coalition, making an intrusive and insulting speech before a joint session of congress to humiliate him and put him in his place in his own backyard. This did not go over well, not only with the President, but with the allies that were negotiating the deal to make the world safer. He got his butt flamed, made a bunch of unnecessary enemies, and had to come back to Washington with a tin cup in his hand for his troubles. Well, as Billy Joel sang, “Only the good die young”, but in real life only the dumb never learn.
Benjamin Netanyahu is an uber nationalist, and his world view revolves only around his personal and political vision of Israel and its place in the world. Simple question. Does anyone here actually think that Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel would be as arrogant and aggressive as they are if they didn’t have “the bomb?
The Palestinians are not going anywhere. They have been around as long as the Jews, and they want nothing more than their own homeland exactly as Israel now enjoys. Most of the world, including the United Nations has come to recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian people and their right to an independent state. The insistence of the Israeli government, and the heavy handed Netanyahu among others to treat them like chattel property is not going over well.
As a result, more and more of the civilized world is starting to get fed up with the bullshit. Hence, the next reason for Bibi and the Israeli government to get their panties up in a bunch, put their war paint on and sound the battle cry. The newest provocation? The EU is considering having products from Israel being imported to the EU to be distinctly tagged if the goods came from within the “settlements”. Cue the inevitable hysterical overreaction of the Netanyahu government, with some truly regrettable historical references. According to an article on Politico.com;
A new European Union rule to slap labels on products from Israeli settlements escalated quickly Wednesday into a heated feud between the two allies and the suspension of some diplomatic dialogue.
The rule means Israeli firms selling their goods in Europe will need to differentiate between products made in Israel and those produced in Israeli settlements. European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said the move was merely “a technical issue, not a political stance.”
But Israel was furious at the decision, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likening it to the Nazis’ treatment of Jewish businesses.
“The labeling of products of the Jewish state by the European Union brings back dark memories, Europe should be ashamed of itself,” he said during a visit to Washington on Wednesday.
Freaking REALLY?!?!? The fact that the European Union might want to educate their citizens to the origin of products if they came from somewhere that the consumer may not choose to patronize, that’s the same thing as a boycott on Jewish shops and goods? Ummm, who exactly is the one who should be ashamed? But it only got worse, the rhetoric only got worse from the Israelis, bringing up an imaginary corollary directly related to the holocaust;
The Commission wants the wording “Israeli settlement” to be added to labels. For example, an item from the West Bank could read “product from West Bank (Israeli settlement).”
Netanyahu’s comments were not the first time that a senior Israeli politician has used such strong language to describe the labeling rules, which apply to fresh fruit and vegetables, wine, honey, olive oil, eggs, poultry, organic products and cosmetics.
After more than a dozen European foreign ministers sent a letter to Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, urging her to push forward new rules on labeling products, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, suggested that such a distinction could be made by putting a yellow star on the products, a reference to the stars that Jews were obliged to wear by the Nazis.
Pardonez vous moi Francias, but what the FUCK?!? The labeling of a product as originating from a contested area is the same as a badge assigned for the express purpose of identifying a human being as being deserving of persecution, forced deportation and even death? Full disclosure. I am not Jewish, and would not presume to walk in their shoes, but to a simple Irish Catholic, that comparison is an insult to the millions of Jews that suffered and died under a repressive regime. Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government should be humiliated and ashamed to even be associated ith such an insulting and inflammatory statement. What do you think the the Israeli governments reaction would have been if the EU had suggested that such product actually have been identified with such a yellow star.
Here is a link to the entire article;
http://www.politico.eu/article/eu-backs-labeling-rules-for-goods-from-israeli-settlements-european-commission/
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. You lay down with wolves, you wake up with teeth marks. If you choose to undertake projects that are outside the mainstream geopolitical point of view, you risk ostracism and rejection. And you had better have a more measured and tolerable reaction to the pushback than references to the most horrible part of the Jewish experience.
Thanks as always for reading!