Fisking Richard Cohen

A good collection of links to the Washington Post's token Jew. Read them, and report back. There will be a quiz.

In Cohen's world view, everybody should give up territory to the guys who had it before them. Thus, Americans should feel guilty for conquering the Indians and should let them run casinos and sell tax-free cigarettes wherever they think they were when the evil round-eyes displaced them. However, if someone preceded the Indians, they should give up the land to whoever was there before the land bridge disappeared. The Mexicans should give their country back to the Mayans, if any can be found.

How does Cohen think the Kosovars came to be Muslims? Or the Iranians, for that matter? They were conquered, that's how. The natives were given a choice between converting to Islam or dying. After thinking it over, they converted, and became crazier than the Muslims who had conquered them, in terms of sheer bloody-mindedness. Now if the Iranians give their land back to pre-Islamic Persia, maybe Israelis should give up Israel. But neither eventuality is likely to happen.

But Cohen is wrong on the facts. Jews have always lived in Israel, despite the best efforts of their enemies to kill them off. Palestinians, far from being natives of the region with anything that might be called a state, were just a bunch of nomads noodling around the area, annoying all their neighbors. Remember when they were expelled from Jordan?

Meanwhile, their Arab brethren have refused to let them settle in other Arab countries and have kept them for 60 years in UN refugee camps, where they seethed with hatred.

Now along comes Jimmy Carter, encouraging these lowlifes to think they had a "country" and a "leader." Carter created Yassir Arafat and subsequent presidents planted their lips on his rear end for 20 years. Arafat had no power, but we pretended he did. Arafat couldn't go to the movies without a written note from the Israeli Prime Minister, but we acted as if he were head of a mighty power.

Then there's the deal with Hezbollah. They promised to lay down their arms. This will happen when the IRA lays down theirs, which is to say never. It's easy to give a promise when you don't mean it and no-one is going to call you to account.

Now Israel has to deal with the whole bloody mess. The world's freedom rests on the shoulders of a small country. What a burden!