From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Did
Hezbollah Win?
The conventional answer is yes, and the arguments for this view are convincing.
Yet not everyone agrees. One who apparently does not is Fuad Siniora, Lebanon's
prime minister. YnetNews reports on an interview Siniora gave to La Repubblica,
an Italian newspaper:
The Lebanese PM also told the newspaper he does not expect Hizbullah to drag Lebanon into a war again.
"I don't believe it can happen again," he said. "I don't think Hizbullah is in the same position where it was before the war, and won't be able to repeat what it did. It learned the lesson from what happened."
Turning his attention to Israel, Siniora said he hoped a peace deal between the two countries can be reached.
"I think that Israel learned from the war that violence isn't the way to ensure its wellbeing," he said. "The only way to achieve peace is through negotiations. The belligerent statements made by the Israeli government, even if they're meant to quiet internal criticism, do not assist the negotiation track."
As blogger Michael Totten, a onetime Lebanon resident, notes, "it's telling that Seniora says he wants a peace treaty with Israel. No Lebanese politician could possibly have said anything like this two months ago without all but begging to be car-bombed on the way to work in the morning."
Agence France-Presse reports from Cairo that a pair of erstwhile allies aren't getting along so well:
Egypt state media have accused Syria of committing "massacres" in Lebanon, lashing out at Damascus in response to President Bashar al-Assad's recent criticism of Egypt.
In an editorial addressed to the Syrian ambassador in Cairo Wednesday, the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhuriya said "the Egyptian army has done much to save you over the course of history.
"While your heroic army, protector of the homeland, has a weighty record of Lebanese massacres . . . and you have killed thousands of your citizens in Hama and Aleppo when they rose up against the regime of father Assad," it said.
Political tensions between Syria and Egypt began to rise when Assad criticized Arab leaders who had rebuked Hezbollah, the Shiite fundamentalist group which is backed by Damascus and Tehran, during a speech on August 15.
Assad said the war between Hezbollah and Israel "has exposed the Arab situation entirely . . . because it has downed the people of half positions, or the half men, and brought down all the tardy positions."
During the conflict, some hands were wrung over how Israel had (to paraphrase) squandered the goodwill of the "moderate" Arab states by continuing to fight for more than a few hours. This was silly: Cairo, Riyadh and Amman were never going to support Jerusalem, as hatred of the Jews is too central a part of their domestic political cultures. But fear of the Iranian regime, patron of both Damascus and Hezbollah, was always going to remain an important practical consideration too.
Am Nasty
International
The anti-Israel group Amnesty International has issued a report accusing the
Jewish state of "war crimes." Blogger David Bernstein does a good
job taking apart the report, noting, for example, that Amnesty International
faults Israel for hitting military targets, such as bridges, roads, seaports
and Beirut's international airport.
This news report offers another important counterbalance:
During the four week war Hezbollah fired 3,900 rockets at Israeli towns and cities with the aim of inflicting maximum civilian casualties.
The Israeli government says that 44 Israeli civilians were killed in the bombardments and 1,400 wounded.
AI has not issued a report accusing Hezbollah of war crimes.
The New York Times account, by contrast, quotes an Israeli official as rejecting the Amnesty International allegations, but it makes no mention of Hezbollah's unquestioned war crimes. In this sense, at least, the Times is more anti-Israel than the organization that produced the other news report--which, by the way, is al-Jazeera.
Houston,
We Have a Problem
A Florida-based media watchdog group called Primer (Promoting Responsibility
in Middle East Reporting) reproduces a syndicated column by Charley Reese that
appeared in the weekly Suncoast News of New Port Richey, Fla., in which Reese
blames anti-American terrorism on Israel. Here is the key paragraph:
Today, there is no avoiding stating the plain truth: We have a Jewish problem. The government is totally paralyzed and is unwilling to issue even the mildest rebuke to Israel, no matter how outrageous its behavior. Why? Because the Jewish lobby is so powerful, American politicians are afraid of it. I don't blame the Jewish lobby for the cowardice of American politicians. American Jews have a right to lobby the government. But we don't elect politicians to serve three percent of the population and a foreign country. We elect them to serve the interests of all of the American people. The politicians need to learn how to say "no" when our interests and Israel's interests conflict.
We don't want to make too much of this. Reese is a fringe figure; we remember reading his columns in the late 1980s, when we monitored the op-ed pages of several small and medium-sized papers as part of our job, and we regarded him as a right-wing crackpot (though we remember being more amused by him than we are today).
Let us give Reese credit for clarifying matters. Substantively, the only difference between his anti-Semitic rant and the "scholarly paper" Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer published earlier this year is that Walt and Mearsheimer are honest enough (but only honest enough) to acknowledge that you don't have to be Jewish to support Israel.
The main difference between Reese on the one hand and Walt and Mearsheimer on the other is a rhetorical one: The academics are savvy enough not to use the J-word where the I-word will do.
Letter
From Okinawa
A reader who asks not to be identified writes in response to an item yesterday:
I got a huge kick out of the reminder of the John Murtha/Okinawa remark.
I'm stationed on Okinawa (at Kadena Air Base Japan), and can assure you the Okinawans would go absolutely insane if they knew Murtha had proposed effectively using Okinawa as a staging ground for U.S. forces redeploying from Iraq but ready to return as required. We can't start an engine or fire a weapon without the Okinawans freaking out about US activities on the island.
Its also curious he mentioned Okinawa as the imaginary redeployment base. According to Indo.com, Okinawa is 4,257 nautical miles from Baghdad, while Frankfurt (near Ramstein Air Base) is only 1,873 nautica milesl. If we had to implement Murtha's nutty proposal somewhere, wouldn't somewhere closer than Okinawa make sense? Baltimore, the main East Coast deployment port, is 6,176 nautical miles away, but once you're airborne in a C-17, flyin's flyin'. What's seven more hours of flight time?
We're sure Murtha will figure this all out when he's President Feingold's defense secretary.
It's
All Ova but the Shouting
"Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was recovering Wednesday at Providence
Health Center in Waco after undergoing a hysterectomy on Tuesday," reports
Waco, Texas' KWTX-TV.
In an article titled "Atrocities Performed Upon Women in the Name of Science," Dr. John R. Christopher observes: "The hysterectomy was originally performed upon women to cure them of hysteria." It seems some people still have backward ideas about women's health.
Little
Women
From an FDA press release:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced approval of Plan B, a contraceptive drug, as an over-the-counter (OTC) option for women aged 18 and older. Plan B is often referred to as emergency contraception or the "morning after pill." It contains an ingredient used in prescription birth control pills--only in the case of Plan B, each pill contains a higher dose and the product has a different dosing regimen. Like other birth control pills, Plan B has been available to all women as a prescription drug. When used as directed, Plan B effectively and safely prevents pregnancy. Plan B will remain available as a prescription-only product for women age 17 and under.
By "women age 17 and under," don't they mean girls?
Isn't
He Swift?
This story from the New York Sun has us scratching our head
Democrats are calling on Wal-Mart to repudiate a statement by a talk show host and Wal-Mart proponent likening the party's leading lawmakers to members of a terrorist group, Hezbollah.
In a column published Tuesday, the commentator, Herman Cain, repeatedly used the term "Hezbocrats." Mr. Cain defined them as "a roaming band of militant guerrillas seeking their party's 2008 nomination for president" and said they were lobbing "rhetorical bombs at Wal-Mart."
Senator Kerry of Massachusetts denounced Mr. Cain, who serves on the Georgia steering committee of a Wal-Mart-funded advocacy group, Working Families for Wal-Mart.
"I won't stand for the 'Swiftboating' of working people and Democrats who ask tough questions of big corporations," Mr. Kerry said.
UrbanDictionary.com defines swiftboating as "the process of smearing a military veteran's service record for political purposes." So it would have been "swiftboating" if Cain had said of the Wal-Mart detractors, say, that "they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."
But he said nothing of the sort. Indeed, he didn't say a word about their military records. So what in the world is Kerry talking about?
The
Purr-fect Crime
"Meow," the Associated Press reports from Jeannette, Pa.:
A district judge has been asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment. Jeannette police charged a 14-year-old boy for "meowing" whenever he sees his neighbor, 78-year-old Alexandria Carasia.
The boy's family and Carasia do not get along. The boy's mother said the family got rid of their cat after Carasia complained to police that it used her flower garden as a litter box.
The boy testified Tuesday that he only meowed at the woman twice. Carasia testified, "Every time he sees me, he meows."
The Arab News reports that the most populous province of Saudi Arabia has begun treating pets as if they were infidels:
The Makkah governorate, acting on a request from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has decided to prohibit the sale of pet cats and dogs. The commission made the request after it noticed many young Saudis going out in streets with their pet dogs in violation of the Kingdom's culture and traditions. . . .
The commission complained of Saudi youth, apparently influenced by Western culture, bringing their pets into public places, allegedly causing distress especially to families with young children.
Maybe Alexandria Carasia could move in next door to one of those distressed families.
Hit
the Road, Hitler
"A restaurant named after Adolf Hitler that enraged Bombay's Jewish community
will soon have a new moniker, its owner promised Thursday," the Associated
Press reports:
Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the eatery's menu after it had angered so many people. He had previously said the name and symbols were only meant to attract attention.
Yesterday we noted that South Korea has had several establishments named for the National Socialist dictator. Blogger Joshua Stanton has a story about one of them:
Inevitably, this ill-considered fad drew unpleasant reactions from abroad. The initial response to it was a typically, and sadly, Korean one:
The owner admitted that some customers, especially Western students from nearby universities, occasionally come to protest. "They've sometimes made scenes. So, I decided not to take foreign customers anymore," he said.
Only in Korea would the owner of a business bar all non-members of his non-white race to silence their denunciation of his trading on the symbols of a reviled white supremacist ideology.
Stanton also notes a May New York Times article about another bizarre Korean establishment: the Pyongyang Moran Bar, which glorifies the North Korean regime and is located in Taejon, South Korea. It's as if one of those Nazi bars opened in Tel Aviv.
World
Ends; Poor Hardest Hit
"Astronomers Vote to Strip Pluto of Planetary Status"--headline, FoxNews.com,
Aug. 24
Courts
Go Soft on Terrorism
"Md. Commuter Wins Right to Blow Up Wilson Bridge"--headline, WTOP
radio Web site, Aug. 23
Fakes
on a Plane
A story we noted
yesterday turns out to be a hoax, or at most a gross overstatement, according
to Phoenix's KPNX-TV:
Police say reports that rattlesnakes were let loose during a showing of Snakes on a Plane at a north Phoenix theater have taken moviegoers for a ride.
There is some shred of truth to the story, Phoenix police Sgt. Joel Tranter said. A 10-inch-long rattlesnake was found Friday in a hallway at AMC Desert Ridge 18, near Tatum Boulevard and Loop 101. But it likely slithered inside on its own, Tranter said.
A security guard swept the snake outside and held it in a Tupperware container until a member of the Arizona Herpetological Association could take it away.
This does lead to some interesting sequel possibilities. How about "Snake in a Cake Taker"?
Life Imitates 'The Jerk'
"The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! . . . Page 73--Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book every day! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity--your name in print--that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now."--Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson, "The Jerk" (1980)
"NEW ORLEANS--On a recent hot day, the new phonebook landed with a thud on the stoop of a house that one year ago lay under water, a notable sign of normalcy. The phonebook's arrival is a mark of progress here, but it's also a window into how much has changed. . . . Lay the old and new editions side by side and the resulting contrast is a microcosm of a transformed metropolis."--Associated Press, Aug. 24
Homer
Nods
OK, let's try this one more (you'll pardon the expression) time: When it's 4:30
p.m. EDT, it's midnight in Tehran, not the other way around as we said in a
correction yesterday.
And Lisa Murkowski, not her father, Frank, won a full Senate term in 2004; our item yesterday (since corrected) had an ambiguous Murkowski reference.
Even Death?
"The elderly face a greater risk of developing problems in the years ahead,
including heart disease, stroke, cancer, infection, Alzheimer's or even death."--McClatchy
Newspapers, Aug. 23
Alas,
Poor Yorick! I Knew Him, Horatio.
"Body Parts Harvested in NC Are Recalled"--headline, Associated Press,
Aug. 23
News
You Can Use
"Don't Be Fooled by Purple Loosestrife"--headline, Huntsville (Ontario)
Forester, Aug. 23
Thanks
for the Tip!--XCVIII
"Health Tip: Prepare Your Child for Surgery"--headline, HealthDay.com,
Aug. 24
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Rapper Foxy Brown Skips NJ Court Session"--headline, Associated
Press, Aug. 23
- "Study: Polar Bear Genitals Are Shrinking"--headline, LiveScience.com,
Aug. 23
- "McCarty's Band Won't Play at State Fair Tonight"--headline, Detroit
Free Press, Aug. 23
- "An Unmonitored Lizard Found in Sayville"--headline, Newsday
(Long Island, N.Y.), Aug. 23
- "Bridge Will Get Routine Patching"--headline, Richmond
Times-Dispatch, Aug. 23
- "McPhee Not Counting Calories on Tour"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 23
Mae
West Meets the TSA
We'd like to begin this item with a personal message to any female reader who
has a son named Madin Azad Amin: Please do not read the rest of this item.
We can't tell you why, but trust us, if you read on, you'll regret it.
The rest of you, get a load of this Associated Press report:
Prosecutors say a 29-year-old man traveling with his mother desperately did not want her to know he had packed a sexual aid for their trip to Turkey.
So he told security it was a bomb, officials said.
Madin Azad Amin was stopped by officials on Aug. 16 after guards found an object in his baggage that resembled a grenade, prosecutors said.
When officers asked him to identify it, Amin said it was a bomb, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto.
He later told officials he lied about the item because his mother was nearby and he did not want her to hear that it was part of a penis pump, Scaduto said.
Amin now faces felony charges and could be sentenced to as much as three years in prison. The poor guy is really going to pay to keep his secret, so the least we can do is help him. If you know Madin Azad Amin's mom, please don't tell her!
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ed Lasky, Mike Renshaw, Edward Schulze, John Williamson, C.E. Dobkin, Chris Mario, Jeff Dobbs, Mark Schulze, Kent Budge, Michael Segal, Steve Bartin, Charlie Gaylord, Steve Karass, Mara Gold, Paul Wood, Daniel O'Shea, Kyle Sowles, Leland Hein, Bill Heyman, Thomas Dillon, Ethel Fenig, John Hall, Thijs Schroeder, Mark Van Der Molen, Al Vesper, Jim Lucas, Kepten Carmichael, Mark Williams, Jim White, Nick Kuder, David Hancock, Kenneth Killiany, Jim Weidman, Ruth Papazian, Mary Ann Lomascolo, Dave Tinkle, David Ringelman, Dawson Bell, Doug Hoffman, Jeffrey Stoner, Keith Cummings, Joseph Carlucci, Bruce Goldman and Thomas McKay. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Iran's nuclear strategy is to divide and conquer the U.N.
- Jason Riley: Can Sen. Santorum survive?
- David Bernstein (from The Volokh Conspiracy): Does Japan have a right to exist as a Japanese state?
