"I am deeply committed to Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state, and just as convinced that the only way to guarantee that outcome is through diplomacy. And while no solution can be imposed from outside, I believe the United States has a responsibility to help bring Israelis and Palestinians to the table and to encourage the difficult but necessary decisions that will lead to peace. As president I will never stop working to advance the goal of two states for two peoples living in peace, security and dignity.
I will do everything I can to enhance our strategic partnership and strengthen America’s security commitment to Israel, ensuring that it always has the qualitative military edge to defend itself. That includes immediately dispatching a delegation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to meet with senior Israeli commanders. I would also invite the Israeli prime minister to the White House in my first month in office." Hillary Clinton
------------
This supposedly impassioned cri de coeur would be funny if it were not so indicative of what this woman is really like. The "sucking up" here is impressive. HC is systematically "sucking up" to every group in the democrats' base. Blacks (screw the police!), Latinos (halt deportations!), Gays (beat the Flyovers into submission!), Guns (Background checks on all transfers!), Jews (I loves Izrul! No, she only uses that voice in the South). How about Canine Americans? Well that might have to wait a bit...
It is not accidental that HC's poll ratings on honesty and truthfulness are in the toilet. IMO, not even those who love her believe her. She and Bill are arriviste opportunists who will say and do anything needed to achieve power and hold it. Anyone who believes either of them is simply a fool.
When she is elected, and she probably will be, there will be a massive purge of every institution she and Bill can reach. Holdovers from the Obama days of "Hope and Change" will run for the hills if they are smart. The scythe will swing far and wide. The only thing restraining her a little will be the prospect of 2020.
Yes, she will send the JCS to Jerusalem to offer their swords to Bibi. Yes, she will. She has remarkably little regard for soldiers. That line of chatter is yet another part of the joke. pl
Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/324013/how-i-would-rebuild-ties-to-israel-and-benjamin-neta/#ixzz3qdrAJPIE
Apparently she doesn't have a problem with her brand, considering the larger US voter (versus non voter) universe. Or do you doubt Coca Cola is not well known?
Posted by: LeaNder | 06 November 2015 at 12:51 PM
Leander: Tunisians refer to the Palestinians who returned from Tunis after Oslo. It refers to Abbas's clique.
Posted by: Matthew | 06 November 2015 at 12:59 PM
@ Charles Michael
I know that the French version of the Neocons is rich - he has a riad in Morocco (he was born in Algérie) but, at whose table (amongst the members of the Arab league) does he break bread? He likes to be put on a pedestal- easily done in Manhattan when one's GF is the socialite Guinness but where in Paris?
For sure not Mme O, she likes politicos.May be the Qataris :-)
Posted by: The Beaver | 06 November 2015 at 01:43 PM
LeaNder,
sometimes you are quite exasperating.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 06 November 2015 at 02:13 PM
Pat,
I think not.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 06 November 2015 at 02:13 PM
sometimes?
Posted by: jld | 06 November 2015 at 02:35 PM
Beaver,
the full quote should be "superficially rational lunatics"
And I agree with Charles Michael about BHL - he needs not serve any master but his high minded ideals and narcicism. Like Wolfowitz BHL is a true believer.
For BHL, and true R2P believers like Samantha Power, Assad is at fault for the emergence of IS in Syria simply because he didn't step down when they demanded him to in their self-righteous indignation over his tyranny.
It is this act of disobedience that is Assad's orgiginal sin that led to his universal responsibility for everything that happened in Syria afterwards - had he stepped down, democracy would have prevailed, ISIS never would have found a power vacuum to fill and flowers would bloom - neither the US, Gulfies and Turkey facilitating Jihadis, or the Jihadis comitting atrocities and so forth possessed any agency - Assad forced all their hands.
That, naturally, is a grotesque caricature of actual causalities, but does it matter?
It does of course matter if one is interested in discernable reality, but I observe that it doesn't for US foreign policy. What counts there is the narrative, and the narrative leave no doubt about Assad's universal guilt.
The US is infact quite unfazed by trivialities like evidence or causalities. Social media suffice as a cause of war. As Kerry suggested, having seen stuff on youtube is all the proof he needs.
The US stubbornly insist that Assad must go, and for BHL and Power nothing less than Assad's head on a spike will do.
That aside, and ignoring the major point that BHL is flat wrong about ISIS origins - I daresay that Jihadis don't need Assad or Tyrrants to comit atrocities. They simply are like that.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 06 November 2015 at 02:44 PM
As a registered independent I have not voted for the nominee of the duopoly for the past many decades. If Hillary as expected becomes the Democrat nominee I will have to break with my tradition and vote for the Republican. There are no more sleazy politicians than Hill & Bill.
Posted by: Jack | 06 November 2015 at 02:47 PM
Perhaps she is most qualified, but is she sane? What about her sociopathic streak?
"We came, we saw, he died!"
Posted by: confusedponderer | 06 November 2015 at 03:00 PM
As has been said of Obama, perhaps Hillary is in reality "the more effective evil". It was obvious imho when Obama extended much of Bush's domestic surveillance and foreign misadeventure policies---and did it all without a peep out of the democratic party which at least in some measure had opposed those things when done by a republican president.
Posted by: steve | 06 November 2015 at 03:14 PM
Stuart Wood,
If Sanders is still in the DemParty primaries by Michigan, I will vote for Sanders. If Sanders has been driven out before Michigan, I will cross over into the Republican primaries and vote for Trump. It is not that I am "pro-Trump", but I would be less afraid of and repelled by a President Trump than by a President Clinton. If it were Trump versus Clinton, I would at least feel free to vote for an unrealistic Third Party Protest candidate.
But if enough Dparty voters will just vote for Sanders all through the primaries, we may not even have to face the possibility of a Candidate Clinton.
The ideal outcome would be a Trump vs. Sanders election. That would give people something to vote "for" or at least "about" either way.
Posted by: different clue | 06 November 2015 at 03:19 PM
r whitman,
Wait . . . was it the "military" who advised to invade Iraq in 2003? Then too, didn't the "military" win both the Afghan and Iraq wars initially?
And wasn't it then the civilian leadership which very deliberately threw the victories away and inspired insurgencies which the military was then left and expected to fight?
It wasn't Franks who decided to shove the old king-in-exile Zahir Shah aside and short-circuit the whole Grand Jirga process for Afghanistan to find its own post-Taliban government. And it wasn't Garner who decided to fire the entire Iraqi Army and Secret Police forces.
Posted by: different clue | 06 November 2015 at 03:24 PM
Matthew,
If/when the "Tunisians" get superceded by natively-indigenous on-the-ground West Bank and/or Gaza younger leaders, then it will be about the Revisionists in any event. The Revisionists will merely call that younger on-the-ground leadership "terrorist" whether they are or are not, and cook up new excuse-casseroles to not negotiate.
Rabin and the Rabinists negotiated Oslo WITH the "Tunisians" after all.
And the Revisionists considered those negotiations sincere enough that they engineered the Rabin Assassination to prevent the Oslo peace process from leading to the intended Oslo peace result. Whether outside observes felt that Rabin really "meant it", the Revisionists certainly felt that Rabin "meant it" and sought his death to prevent it.
(And yes, I recognize that it wasn't "all" Revisionists, only some certain ones in a position to engineer the assassination).
Posted by: different clue | 06 November 2015 at 03:29 PM
Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again.
Posted by: optimax | 06 November 2015 at 03:40 PM
I live in a Swing State, North Carolina, so voting for Hillary is voting for my interests. A vote any other way is a vote for the Republican candidate. I wish it weren't so but it is.
Posted by: Nancy K | 06 November 2015 at 04:12 PM
LeaNder,
I found the article valuable more in what it does not cover. From our perspective it is a whitewash job for exculpating the neocon cabal which oversaw the tayyiban operation. You can see their dream of a "Greater Kurdistan" if you look long enough.
Ishmael Zechariah
Posted by: Ishmael Zechariah | 06 November 2015 at 05:54 PM
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump is advocating exactly this for Iraq. Is he serious, or simply posturing?
Posted by: Imagine | 06 November 2015 at 05:58 PM
different clue: Once you liberate yourself from the shackles of believing that Israeli actions are motivated by Palestinian conduct as opposed to deep-seeded Zionist ideology, then you realize it doesn't really matter what the Palestinians do.
The Palestinians are in the way. They will be demonized if that's necessary to keep the settlement project going. And then when they have been ethnically cleansed, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama, and all the other "good faith" negotiators will blame the victim anyway.
Sorry to be so cynical, but we're 20 years past Oslo and Nutty won't discuss borders. To keep pushing the "peace process" at this point requires a level of cynicism that would make Cardinal Richelieu blush.
Posted by: Matthew | 06 November 2015 at 06:28 PM
Having sociopathic tendencies does not make you insane. I would imagine that every man and woman running for president from both parties have sociopathic tendencies. Are hers any more severe than Trump's? And what about Carson, Huckabee, Cruz and Rubio who think the world is only 5000 years old and believes God speaks to them and wants them to run for office. Why exactly would God want all of them to run when only one can win. Wouldn't God only speak to one? Possibly God did not speak to any of them and they are delusional. Now that is a mental illness. Do we really want a president who believes in the rapture and Armageddon having the ability to access nuclear weapons? Hillary might not be trustworthy and she may use everyone and every situation to get elected but she is smart and she is sane.
Posted by: Nancy K | 06 November 2015 at 07:23 PM
Does voting matter if we use electronic voting machines? Are they secure? Who would benefit from hacking them?
Posted by: SAC Brat | 06 November 2015 at 07:29 PM
confusedponderer,
C. Wright Mills referred to a version of such people as "crackpot realists".
Posted by: different clue | 06 November 2015 at 10:47 PM
LeaNder,
I'm glad to hear that VW's fraudulent method of meeting envirnomental testing standards will have zero impact on their future sales, stock price, executive compensation and fines from any government here or abroad. Hilary's brand, as you point out, is well known to the US voter.
Posted by: Fred | 06 November 2015 at 11:24 PM
Can't really tell with that guy. Posturing probably, I hope, I fervently hope. I daresay: Adopting Tanden's idea as policy wouldn't serve the US well as far as foreign policy goes, other countries probably would perceive the inherent 'adverse incentive problem' and disapprove. But what's that to a hegemon?
I can almost hear the Generic Nutcase Candidate (GNC):
"Medicaid and Medicare are eating us alive *snicker* and don't get me started on how expensive the F35 is getting, we need to do something. Doesn't the world owe us big time? Let's liberate Burma, no not Burma, they're poor, France, they're richer, and bill them! I'd try to get the British on board, they have been in all our latest wars, and they have tight budget, too! We would form a coalition of the billing!"
Posted by: confusedponderer | 07 November 2015 at 05:10 AM
But imagine where this would be heading - American would´end up make their exceptional wars of liberation (of people who didn't really ask for it before the US paid them to) for booty, and for Tanden, oil revenue would do as a 'Freedom Fee', or 'tribute'.
How very roman. I wonder, who will play the part of the slave whispering in the Imperator's ear that he or she ot it is not a god?
Posted by: confusedponderer | 07 November 2015 at 06:35 AM
To get new impressions and to take a vacation from her duties at the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden travels the Greater Middle East and connects with the locals.
Secret squirrels eavesdrop on her conversations, which, to protect sources and methods, can only be reprinted in excerpts.
Nice country you're having.
Poor country? Deficits? Tell me about it!
These mummies and pyramids, what they're worth?
These rugs are awesome!
Nice oilfield, how much does it produce?
No oil? What about water, you must have water.
Fertile soil perhaps?
Poppy crops? Cannabis? Khat?
What about cheap labour? Ah, youth bulge you say?
What's your stance on indentured service?
... to be continued.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 07 November 2015 at 08:42 AM