With Israel at the epicenter of World War IV today, I thought I’d troll around to the top liberal blogs to see what they have to say on the subject.
Crooks and Liars had only one post about what I believe to be the greatest geopolitical crisis of our time. And that post doesn’t really demonstrate any depth of knowledge about the forces driving the current conflagration. To wit: John Gibson, of Fox, has written that the current war is a proxy for Iran’s attack on the U.S. Those of us who follow events and players closely know that this is probably an accurate assessment, since Hezbollah is nothing more than an agent for Iran (with some help from Syria, too). John Amato’s in-depth analysis? “These people are nuts.” Yup, that clearly sums up a situation that sees Israel staving off nuclear annihilation. And just so you know who is reading this stellar analysis, I should add that C&L is the 21st top ranked blog on Technorati.
Wonkette doesn’t do much better. She tsks at a wounded Fox newsman and tuts at the Bush administration’s noting that Iran is behind much of this. And that’s it. At Wonkette, Dennis Hastert’s cellulitis gets more press. She may be shallow, but she’s popular, coming in at 39 on Technorati.
You won’t find any deeper analysis at Eschaton (number 67 in the Technorati hit parade). Atrios is as fascinated as Amato was about Gibson’s finger-pointing to Iran, and has pretty much the same deep thought on the subject: “Maybe these people are nuts.” I mean, how can the facts (a) that Israel has had war declared upon her by her neighbors (I consider the soldier kidnappings a classic casus belli), and (b) that Israel has responded with all flags flying matter when you have something exciting to think about. You know, something really important like Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against everyone of note in the Administration. (That post, by the way, garnered 813 comments last I looked.) Let’s keep things in perspective, folks, right?
John, at AMERICAblog at least realizes something big is going on, although he’s open about his gross ignorance of the subject. This ignorance, of course, doesn’t stop him from placing blame where it really belongs — on George Bush. It’s nice to have a fallback opinion and scapegoat, regardless of topic.
And then there’s the Kos, the top political blog in America. As I noted in my previous post, he allowed his blog to be used for a cheerful imagination exercise that erased Israel from the map. Other than that little exercise in anti-Semitism, Kos ignores the subject.
I think what we’re seeing here is the fact that the loudest Leftists can’t credibly attack Israel’s position. Israel withdrew from Gaza, which is what the shriekers demanded. Israel put up with 1,000s of rocket strikes against her sovereign territory. And Israel finally said “no more” her citizens were snatched by people even the Lefties know enjoy the worst forms of torture. These same Lefties also know that, despite civilian casualties in Lebanon, Israel has been rigorous about confining her strikes to militarily strategic targets. There’s just nothing to criticize. And as Alice Roosevelt Longworth knew, when you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all. (Long ago, I read that she had that embroidered on a pillow.)
Bookworm Room (ARCHIVES) 
[…] More blogs posting about Israel, the parallels and the twisted view of some on the left: Bookworm Room has posts here, here, here and here. Pam at Altas Shrugs has this post rounding up the world view of Israel’s fighting back. Beth at Blue Star Chronicles has her latest post along with links to her other posts regarding Israel’s fight for it’s life. Frau Budgie at Red Hot Cuppa Politics always tells it like it is in her posts here and here. […]
The Lefties aren’t on the beat of the latest intel, they are just incompetent. Don’t be so sure the Left can’t attack Israel, their propaganda apparatus can always cook up some delusion toxin.
Kos is the “top political blog in America”? According to whom?
Give the lefties time – their wheels just don’t turn that quickly. Events have just overtaken them faster than they can incorporate them into their BushHitlerChimpyHaliburtonRove black helicopter constructs.
Actually, I believe Alice Roosevelt Longworth said “If you can’t say anything nice, come sit by me”.
[…] [Read more and discuss…] […]
Great series of posts, Bookworm. FYI, I found out that we have something else in common–my mother was a Nazi refugee, too……
On Israel: As a long-time supporter of Israel, I am seriously wondering if this is the proverbial “it”. Iran has been spoiling for a fight to the death with Israel. There are 85,000,000 or so Iranians, and about 5,500,000 Israeli Jews. I won’t even consider the rest of the 290,000,000 Arabs. I’m not no math major, but those odds don’t look particularly good to me…………
Isirota1965. Ya, but humans aren’t machines, it’s not like 5 robots vs 500. It’s 5 million humans vs around 100 million. And that has all the difference in the world, given Israel’s combat experience and air power.
Small forces have defeated larger forces before in military history. Look up the Gates of Thermopylae, where 300 elite Spartan hoplites and their Theban allies died to the last man defending a pass from around 100,000 to 250,000 Persian combat effectives. The logistics trail for the Persians were like in the 1 million range. In the US forces, for every 1 combat warrior, there is like 7 logistics dudes. Back in the good old days, it was like 12 to 1.
So it doesn’t matter how many “men” they got, it matters what they can field and where. Russia had an army of 1 million, but there is only like 15,000 fighting in Chechnya. Why? Because Russia’s army looks good on “paper”, but in actuality it is something else. Ivy League professors and teachers “look good on paper” but the reality is a bit different.
Having said that, Israel isn’t alone. The US has permanent air and land bases in Iraq with free access to every neighboring country, including Lebanon and Syria. All it takes is the President giving the order, and Israel has two fronts on Syria and Lebanon. The Iraqis might want a piece as well, since Syria’s the conduit for a lot of foreign jihadists that have been doing most of the violent killings in Iraq.
oh, I forgot to mention that the forces at Thermopylae killed so many lightly armored Arabs that the entire pass was filled with blood and gore, of perhaps foots in depth. They held off a force more than 100 times their own, for 3+ days, and were finally betrayed and surrounded, then crushed. Israel’s odds were far greater than the Spartans at Thermopylae. For one thing, the Spartans didn’t have air support.
Israel’s problem has always been endurance. Eventually their politicians give away the victories that their soldiers bled for, and then we all know what happens then. If Israel can maintain their “endurance”, they’ll be all right. They may not win, but they won’t lose either. Only if Israel lose their endurance can Iran and Syria win. And if we don’t start distracting Iran and Syria, of course. Israel has a higher chance of ultimate victory if the US runs interference on Syria and Iran.
Because Israel only has 5 million people to power their economy, this creates a huge drain on their resources whenever they use bombs and what not. Again, endurance.
The Spartans fought Persians, not Arabs, at Thermopylae. Different people.
I feel like a slacker, dear friend. I’ve ben catching up on news since returning to the States, but haven’t posted anything about Israel, Iran, or Lebanon on my decidedly un-Lefty blog because I don’t yet have anything to add to the discussion that you’ve done such a yeoman job of summarizing. With Bookworm Room, LGF, et. al., on current events, this Paragraph Farmer faces a surfeit of rich but disturbing analysis. All I can say is, I agree with you and with Israel.
[…] Israel’s crisis and the Leftist blogs […]
I used both Persians and Arabs as descriptions because the Persian Empire had in fact at that time huge auxiliaries of an Arab persuasion. Their Empire, after all, was still large since this was the time before Alexander carved it up.
looking at it from Asain theater of the War on Terror where I’m at, things are a bit different. So far things here have been working out perhaps its becuase there were fewer foreign boots on the ground and it is more training and ecconomic issues that have driven many poor people into the arms of the extremists.
Poverty afterall is the best recruiter of rebels- history shows us.
I looked at something today – from Cotabato City in the southern Philippines where an Imam (Cleric) speaking at a mosque condemend the violence in Lebanon blaming both sides- Hizbollah for its past attacks and latest kidnappings and Israel for the over kill of the current ofensive!
A few years ago- they’d be calling for vollenters to sadle up and go there- so its a albeit Rare shift towards moderation – he was saying dailogue and political solutions are more needed than violence.
So that in and of itself- considering the place was once the home of many radical militant groups shows that at least on one front some things are going right.
Even if things are far from perfect here mind you- I just thought I’d throw that in… considering everything that happened – any voices of moderation deserves to be heard.