On the one hand, it's no secret that Israel would support a two-state solution -- with some kicking and screaming -- if the Palestinians would ever really accept one. On the other, Lapid is making a terrible mistake in an unfriendly forum.
That's right -- Israeli PM Yair Lapid told the UN, which is hostile to Israel, and where the Palestinians have been trying for decades to declare their "statehood" as an end-around to negotiations -- that Israel accepts a Palestinian state.
This jibes with Joe Biden's nonsensical claim yesterday that Palestinians are "entitled" to a state. No, they are not: they, like everyone else, have to build a state and agree to the basic rules of living in peace with their neighbors.
Perhaps Lapid made his announcement as part of some concession to the Biden administration -- perhaps to get Biden to back off the Iran deal, or to relieve some other form of pressure. If so, I doubt that deal will hold for very long.
The major criticism of Lapid's move comes from within Israel: that he is just an interim PM leading a collapsed government on the way to elections in November, and has no authority to offer such a momentous compromise.
The joke's on the little right-wing parties and politicians who, for reasons of personal ambition or narrow ideology, refused to allow Netanyahu to govern. Don't complain: you got what you should have known you were going to get.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
