Jerusalem if I fail thee

Is anyone else scratching their heads over the Israeli government's behavior; or am I the only one?

Olmert could not have done a better job in sabotaging Israel's safety and security had he been for sale--which brings up the question, doesn't it?

Dismantling settlements, imprisoning dissidents, and more recently, initiating a half-baked retaliatory attack on Hizbullah, while at the same time delaying a definitive offensive for 72 hours, thus ensuring that Hizbullah will have adequate time to identify Israel's offensive positions and target her tanks by means of capturing her wire communiques--did I overlook something?

Why are we surprised? More to the point, why are the Israelis surprised? Olmert is the poor reflection--the crack-in-the-mirror reflection of The Smirking Chimp, whose Vice Presidential handler has directed our once-proud nation into penury and ignonimity--his wan corpulenscenceness, a scowling and growling example of a once-proud and toothless attack dog, a pupeteer, behind the scene, whose very silence gives testamony to the truth of these metaphors. After all, the best ventroloquist can only use one voice at a time.

We are offered the grim alternatives of the Republican innate and repetitious warning of dire consequences in their absence (true enough, taken literally,) with histrionic and strident elulations from the likes of Bill O'Reilley and Rush Limbaugh, who dishonor themselves more than usual with their most recent utterances--all--on the one hand, and the grimly defiant and purposeless attempts at we-told-you-so by the Democrats, whose answer to any problem is to rob some defenseless segment of our population for undeserved and unpaid services of one sort or another, be they medical, or whatever--on the other hand. Wow. Wotta choice.

You have only to revisit William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" to see the parallels. Parallels? Did I say parallels? Same cast of characters, one or two generations removed--both in the forms of the Bush spectre, now the young ne'er-do-well, as the spawn of the arch-criminal Prescott Bush, who together with Fritz Thuyssen put Adolph Hitler into power; and then when it was convenient, allowed him to be removed.

Yet the grimmest irony was yet to come:

After and during World War II, all European countries, as well as United States military leaders, robbed the Jews of their lands and of their possessions, jewelry and gold. All postwar attempts to achieve some justice were to no avail. It was this desperate and clear perception of what had to be done that led to the formation of the State of Israel--all of which, I hasten to add--bought, part and parcel, from the Ottoman Sultan, (who later attempted to renege on the deal.)

Israel was born out of a religious destiny and sealed by the formation of a homeland for the Jews. What has happened ever since is heartbreaking: Generations of Israeli politicians, in order to appease the United States, upon whom she is desperately dependent for aid, arms and loans, have given away precious land for broken promises of peace from the Arab league; and the Arab population within her borders will out-breed the predominantly Jewish population.

The grim reality of the need for total possession and of the severe consequences if this is not recognized is excellently layed-out by:

How ironic--that Israel is faced with a moral dilemma, generated by her own humanity, and despite her own historical experience! How far greater an irony is it that the religious base and justification for her existence is, in effect, outlawed as a governing principle in her own country, whereas humanist moral-philosophic concerns may very well become the cause of her own undoing.