Kevin Sullivan

Mental and Moral Vacuity

Posted by Kevin Sullivan under Uncategorized

Steve Clemons puts it on display for us regarding Senator Obama’s repudiation of Jimmy Carter:

Apparently, he’s OK meeting Israeli leaders because they disavow terrorism — but still they protect and establish illegal settlements and have installed more roadblocks and inhibitions to Palestinian mobility than was the case since the November 2007 Annapolis Summit. And while knocking Carter’s efforts, Obama fails to articulate how any negotiation that does not include in some way a wrestling match and attempt at a negotiation with Hamas will be stable enough to believe in.

Ahh, it’s all of the old classics.  Naive moral equivalence, followed by a kowtow to terrorists and a quick cheap shot at the Evil Zionist Occupiers.  Just one problem: Settlements were forcefully removed from the Gaza Strip, the place in question, back in 2005.  If the terrorist regime in Gaza displayed even half of the Israeli propensity to rein in on their own radical elements, the entire region would be an exponentially better place.  Instead, Hamas chooses to concoct mini-crises, while they skim profits and fuel off the top for their own gains.  By fostering misery in their pseudo-state, they can mold and mobilize the kind of public sentiment that justifies firing shrapnel-laden rockets into school yards.  This organization–which refuses to even acknowledge the existence of those they terrorize–belongs at the discussion table, according to Clemons.

But wait, he gets dumber:

The correct position for Obama to have taken is to say that he would be open to what someone like a Jimmy Carter. . .or a Colin Powell. . .or a Tony Blair, Joschka Fischer, Javier Solana, Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao, or Saudi King Abdullah might be able to achieve by way of Hamas and Fatah. Emissaries are important, and they can create opportunities a President can’t often take the risks to do himself or herself.

Obama, in my view, has tarnished his foreign policy credentials here. If he can’t embrace what these Americans have been able to do — and what Senator Chuck Hagel has suggested be done with Hamas — then what use is his new vision?

What is his position today if not one that has been influenced by special interests whose political weight has undermined the strategic interests of the United States?

And we have an (albeit veiled) AIPAC jab!  Ding ding ding!  All we need now is something about the Rothschild family, and we can give Clemons his trophy.

So all of the Israel hatred aside, what is Clemons’ primary point?  Well, the responsible thing for the next president to do would be to embrace some unofficial document drafted and signed at a summit that nobody cared about.  This should be done, apparently, despite the stated position of the United States government; which considers Hamas to be a purveyor of terrorism (which, incidentally, they are).  

What escapes Clemons is the issue of legitimacy.  Senator Obama appears to understand what the United Nations, The Quartet, President Carter and even President Bush fail to grasp.  By negotiating with terrorists you legitimize terrorists, thus codifying the tactics they utilize.  Terrorism then becomes “resistance,” and dolts like Clemons are allowed to wrongly equate road blocks with Qassam rockets.  Like a mosquito with amnesia, we keep flying into the zapper over and over and over again, allowing those who deserve no voice a chance to be heard.  We allowed Yasser Arafat to become the defacto spokesman of of an entire people in 1974; despite his lacking in any legitimate claim to that title.  The Road Map plan has produced much of the same, granting authority to an organization that has no place being at the negotiating table. 

Barack Obama, thankfully, understands the folly in this naive cycle.

UPDATE: Thanks to TMV for the link love!