Living in a Fool's Paradise - Over complacency In a Dangerous World

Submitted by Paul Evers (United States), Jan 31, 2018 at 14:48

Dear Dr. Pipes:
Your confidence that continued "conservative" support is adequate to maintain support for Israel ignores several important facts:
1. Israeli actions that fly in the face of perceived American interests in the Middle East.
2. Increases in negative attitudes as Israel moves further and further along in its de facto annexation of the West Bank, requiring further curtailment of rights of Palestinian residents of the area. And this annexation is becoming more and more de jure as per several bills currently pending in the Knesset
3. Shifts in the American political opinion as a reaction to an increasingly unpopular administration. This will, most likely, lead to extensive Republican losses in the 2018 election.
4. Though the Palestinian cause currently has little traction among the ruling elites in the Arab world, the same cannot be said of their populations. Historically, when these regimes have felt internally threatened, they have brought out the Israeli "bogey man" to keep their power. I do not see that things have changed to alter this.

I find this type of wistful thinking coming from someone living in a fool's Paradise and not from a pragmatic realist, which is something I have always assumed that you are. I am disappointed in complacency in your ... analysis.

Lastly, as a strong supporter of the Jewish state of Israel, I abhor what I see happening in Israel. During the 1970's when Gush Emunim was beginning, many of us on the Israeli left were saying that Israel could either have the land or it could have its soul. Unfortunately, we were prophetic.

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