Tag: israel

Why are we not selling military equipment to a democratic ally?

Contemplate this: you have already guessed who I am talking about.

It is, after all, not a Republican administration.

Administration blocks helicopters for Israel due to civilian casualties in Gaza

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has blocked Israel’s request for advanced U.S.-origin attack helicopters.

Government sources said the administration has held up Israel’s request for the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. The sources said the request was undergoing an interagency review to determine whether additional Longbow helicopters would threaten Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Via AoSHQ, via The Hasmonean, who is apparently keeping track.

If this pleases you, by the way, consider that the administration doesn’t have the guts to do any of this openly. Saying one thing in public and doing another in private is a behavior pattern that most of us were supposed to discard by the time we graduated high school; I grant that this is honored more in the breach than the observance, but we expect more from our leaders. If the White House wants to disarm Israel, it should do it in public and take the heat…

Yes, I’m a blind, mad optimist. Almost dangerously so, in fact. But dammit: this isn’t right.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I offer you a toast!

Charge your glasses!

“Confusion to our enemies!”


Israel expected to hold back on Iran as diplomacy runs its course
Robert Gates would be “surprised” if Israel attacked Iran this year to prevent it developing a nuclear weapon.

Petraeus Says Israel Might Choose to Attack Iran
April 1 (Bloomberg) — Israel might choose to attack Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said today.

“Why the hell should they be any better off than we are?”

Crossposted to RedState.

Charles Freeman: And I would have gotten away with it, too…

…if it wasn’t for those meddlesome Jews:

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign.

Speaking as one of the aforementioned unscrupulous, passionate people, I offer this response to Freeman – and, indeed, everybody who shares in his, ah, particular ethical stance:

Geh kak afen yam. When I want moral judgments on my motivations I’ll get them from somebody who doesn’t think that the Chinese government should have stepped down on its dissidents harder, thanks.

Moe Lane

PS: Ed’s right, Gray Lady: you mucked up the reporting on this one something fierce. Didn’t want to admit that the President had a catastrophic error on this one, huh?

Crossposted to RedState.

Le affaire Hamas Letter: well, it’s John Kerry.

Ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray, if you know what I mean:

Kerry Turns Over Hamas Letter to U.S. Consulate

U.S. Sen. John Kerry has turned over to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem a letter from Hamas to President Obama that Kerry had received during his trip to the Middle East, FOX News has learned.

Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones said the Democratic senator was not aware that the letter was from Hamas when he accepted it from a United Nations official, and only heard media reports of its origin, which prompted him to relinquish it.

News that Kerry had given up the letter came after the Israeli embassy and a former Bush adviser on Middle East affairs said Friday that Kerry should not act as mailman for a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States.

Continue reading Le affaire Hamas Letter: well, it’s John Kerry.