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February 28, 2006

PLANET MORONIA: Riding the Struma to Safety

 

 

Now that Hamas and Hezbollah are more entrenched than ever (Hamas now running a government founded by fellow terrorist group Arafat’s PLO), Israelis are beginning to ask about the possible intelligence failures that could have let this happen.

 

Blogbat wants to know about the possible common-sense failure. After all, does it really take a bunch of men in black tights with ear buds in a van to figure out what was going to take place when Hamas, clearly having announced its intentions, made its move to take control of the old PLO? Even the most casual observer could have guessed it was a foregone conclusion.

 

But as Debkafile noted, the number of Israeli experts on Palestinian matters has dwindled so that they have become somewhat rare as a species as time has passed since Israel began negotiating with Arafat. And this even as the doves in Israeli government continued to believe that the Palestinians would themselves crack down on the terrorists - or that the two were even distinguishable to begin with.

 

At least those in Netanyahu’s camp grasped this; it’s a shame the rest in Israeli government seem to want to be popular more than they do honest.

 

It’s crazy that any government would turn such a blind eye to such a pernicious danger growing right in its own backyard, but it seems to be the Zeitgeist among democracies. The US has been guilty here too with respect to China in Latin America, as it’s become all too clear.

 

So after Israelis decide who gets to be the fall guy for the disaster anyone could have predicted, perhaps maybe then they’ll get to the business of righting the ship and taking her out of harm’s way.

 

Posted by Martin at February 28, 2006 03:32 AM

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