Daniel J. Pipes

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Why Did He Do It?

Reader comment on item: Assessing Binyamin Netanyahu's Speech at Bar-Ilan University

Submitted by Sofa Sogood (United States), Jun 15, 2009 at 01:56

I completely agree with everything Dr. Pipes has stated here.

For the most part, Netanyahu's speech was excellent and honorable. What I'm baffled about is "why" Netanyahu would "cave" on those particular points on which he did. What exactly is meant by "weakness?" Did he just "give up" his own beliefs to "others" because of "pressure?" What specific "pressure?" It seems to me, Netanyahu's own beliefs would coincide exactly with Dr. Pipes. What specific "consequences" could he have been concerned about or afraid of -- or what -- mistakenly or not -- could he have been hoping to achieve -- that thinking would cause him to make those several wrong choices which he did?

I think it's helpful to try to know the reasons that could lie behind the mistakes in reasoning and judgment in order to more directly deal with and correct them.

It's one thing when an Olmert or Livni make totally foolish decisions -- because those are based upon their lopsided and foolish beliefs. But Netanyahu, as far as I can see has no such delusional beliefs.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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