Sub Specie Aeternitatis

Evil has existed since man's memory runneth not to the contrary. So, too, has naivete. Those who consider themselves moral, decent people (or leaders) have often sought an accommodation with evil. They include the pre-World War II appeasers and the appeasers of this generation. They are attempting to coerce Israel, the front line for democracy and Western values, to make compromises with the modern face of evil, a genocidal, nihilistic brand of Islam characterized by the obligation of Jihad. Netanyahu is not a barrier on the road to peace. Criticism of Islam is not by its nature inflammatory-those Muslims who seek reform of their own faith are by their actions-critics. To fall in line with those who urge limits on speech to protect this or any other faith advances totalitarianism. Any suppression of speech to spare feelings is an affront to universal human liberty. Silencing those who don't tow the party line and embrace political correctness will go a long way to losing the war which isn't after all against Islam or even terror but is the struggle to advance freedom and as Natan Sharansky has stated it, democratic values-as democracies virtually never make war on each other.

Government for War

The nation of Israel under the leadership of Prime Minister-designate Benyamin Netanyahu is forming the coalition required to govern Israel's Knesset-a fractious parliament. Netanyahu is building a broad government including what some would say is the incompatible leftist Labor party. The Labor party is led by Ehud Barak, a great military hero, former prime minister, and current defense minister. Barak is serious about the security of Israel. Even if he has made less than perfect decisions in the past, Barak knows the Iran nuclear threat poses an existential danger. Atomic Iran is forcing strange bedfellows in Israel, and the situation in Middle East is about to reach the boiling point. This coalition is constructed to defeat Iran and within months, before Russia deploys the S-300 in Iran, it will hit critical mass. No matter what Obama says and the current of world opinion, the new Israeli leaders will not tolerate Iran attempting nuclear genocide.

The Israel Nightmare

Israel whose creation and continued existence is something in the realm of the miraculous as a tiny Jewish enclave and bastion of Western Democratic values in a sea of Muslim dictatorship much of it dedicated to the totalitarian proposition of pushing the Jews into the sea, faces a stifling internal dynamic which even lacking an existential threat would be difficult to endure. There is a labor organization called the Histadrut which has prevented the implementation of much of the capitalistic reform that could have increased prosperity. School instructors at all levels even that of the university have recently routinely gone on strike. Students have struck in solidarity. Ben Gurion Airport workers in the past have staged strikes or wildcat walkouts that have caused visitors and travelers all measure of inconvenience. There is a pervasive mafia which of late has been engaged in a bloody gang war purportedly over recycling, Jew killing Jew over who can steal the most garbage. While there thankfully has not been violence to the level of the recent troubles in Greece, while travelers have not so far been stranded for days as they were in Thailand, and while organized crime does not seem to have quite the reach it enjoys in Sicily, the Jews have showed they are no pikers. From leading the world in the distribution of the club drug Ecstasy to having the former Prime Minister Sharon's son convicted and incarcerated, to having a legal cloud hanging over current Prime Minister Olmert, to allegations of Chicago- style corruption in almost every election, the Holy Land has been tainted enough that she might implode. Netanyahu must love the state and the people or be insane. Only a mad man or great patriot would want to clean this Augean Stable.