Too Fair

| Wed Jan. 21, 2009 1:25 PM PST

TOO FAIR....Abe Foxman on the mooted appointment of former senator George Mitchell to be Barack Obama's top diplomatic envoy to the Middle East:

"Sen. Mitchell is fair. He's been meticulously even-handed....So I'm concerned. I'm not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East."

Quite so. But Abe: you're not supposed to say this in public.

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Comments

Kevin, modern pundit cliche demands you call this a Kinseyan faux pas.

Man, I hope President Obama is able to inspire change, but jeeze! Just how many battles on how many fronts is he gonna be fighting? We need to make a list.

And this one, fairness to all in the M.E., could be one of the uglier and have implications for other initiatives.

Interesting.

Not to worry. Israel's teflon coating is of the highest quality. When the prime minister of Israel publicly boasts that he dictates US policy and the world barely notices, how much harm can Foxman's comment about Mitchell do?

I guess Foxman doesn't think we should be even-handed between a staunch U.S. ally and an entity that has been traditionally otherwise, including celebrating 9/11 in the street.

I understand his point, but he really should have kept that private.

I do think we should be even-handed in all disputes though. We shouldn't pick sides between India and Pakistan, or Russia and Georgia, or Turkey and the Armenians, or China and Tibet . . .

Foxman never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Kevin, I don't get "Quite so." Does that mean you agree that American policy should be one-sided and unfair? because a lot of Americans like Israel? or because a lot of Americans think God likes Israel?

I personally am not even sure what you or Foxman or anyone means by fair or unfair. I just think America should start supporting international law. There is no other way to secure real peace.

Now, I don't want to go too far out on a limb, but one might entertain at least the possibility that when he says "quite so" Mr. Drum is perhaps being a wee bit, um, sarcastic?

Gary, Sugar, we all agree that abiding by international law is a good thing. International law is often mentioned with respect to Israel allegedly not abiding by it, but much less often with respect to Israel's enemies not abiding by it. How even-handed is that?

Haha, I agree with Odysseus about the time and place for sarcasm. But I don't agree with thinking your biased opinion is right when the entire world tells you you're wrong. Following that simple maxim, even the most emotional nationalist lunatic would have known not to invade Iraq, for example.

Personally, I would like to see Saudi Arabia and Israel to be the ones sending envoys to the Middle East talks and the United Nations to have Peacekeepers in Gaza, Lebanon, and borders with Egypt, Syria, and Iran-That would slow down things a bit!

Abe Foxman has done a lot of work to push me toward antisemitism, him and Marty Peretz.

Haven't quite got there yet though.

they managed to kill over

they managed to kill over 3,000 americans in the matter of a few hours with thousands of miles of emptiness under their control. Last thing is the psychological effect. We can't give them a victory in Afghanistan. We would suffer that consequence 1000 fold in the form of emboldened jihad all over the world. That is why they fight the hardest there. It is the alamo for AQ and they know it.

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