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April 19, 2008

Delusions of a Psychopath

By: Bernard Chazelle

In Wednesday's Ha'aretz:

Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq."

—Bernard Chazelle

ADDED BY JON: This, from September 12, 2001, is also worth remembering:

Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.''

Posted at April 19, 2008 10:22 AM
Comments

He's not deluded, is he?
The whole thing worked out very well for Israel.
Their monthly stipend from USers is bigger, the beneficence of the Rapturous Right is expanding exponentially. They're killing lots of Palestinians without any significant objection from the West.

For Israel, qua-Israel, the whole thing was win/win.

Posted by: konopelli/wgg at April 19, 2008 11:04 AM

Anyone who hasn't thought that the champagne wasn't flowing in Tel Aviv on 9/11 is hopelessly naive.The only group celebrating more than the al-Qaeda leadership was the Israeli leadership.

Posted by: BobS. at April 19, 2008 12:21 PM

Maybe you mean he's delusional because he thinks 1=2? Because other than that, he's just stating the obvious here (as others have said).

I do see one delusional statement from him in the article, though:

Netanyahu compared Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler and likened Tehran's nuclear program to the threat the Nazis posed to Europe in the late 1930s.

Netanyahu said Iran differed from the Nazis in one vital respect, explaining that "where that [Nazi] regime embarked on a global conflict before it developed nuclear weapons," he said. "This regime [Iran] is developing nuclear weapons before it embarks on a global conflict."
Posted by: John Caruso at April 19, 2008 03:07 PM

No doubt the thousands of dead of 9/11 and the hundreds of thousands of dead in Iraq have been good for Bibi.

But they brought about US policies in the Middle East that might prove fatal for the state of Israel.

In Bibi's world, however, L'Etat C'est Moi.

That's the delusional part.

Posted by: Bernard Chazelle at April 19, 2008 04:40 PM

I used to hear that an important question about any world event was "Will this be good for the Jews?" I'm not sure to what this referred in past times, but is this an example of that perspective?

Bibi, you're a yahu, as your name indicates.

Posted by: catherine at April 19, 2008 04:57 PM

they brought about US policies in the Middle East that might prove fatal for the state of Israel.

9/11 didn't bring about any US policies in the Middle East that weren't already in place, though it did bring them to greater prominence. Or prominence here, anyway; the victims (and those close to them) were always well aware of them, and in fact it was those selfsame policies that brought about 9/11 in the first place.

Actually it's a bit odd to see Netanyahu saying this now...it made more sense when he said it shortly after 9/11, but at this point the sympathy effects that made it so useful to Israel are wearing off.

Posted by: John Caruso at April 19, 2008 09:22 PM

See what happens when WE sell these people guns, and they laugh at US behind our backs as WE hand them OUR money. The Palestinians do EXACTLY the same thing. Stop giving both sides any money or guns.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at April 20, 2008 04:16 AM

Actually existing Zionism is a disgrace.

Posted by: abb1 at April 20, 2008 04:49 AM

But they brought about US policies in the Middle East that might prove fatal for the state of Israel.

True, dat...
But keep in mind Jno's maxim on the inexorable logic of institutions: that powerful people within institutions would rather see the institution fail than that they should yield any power or stats.

Posted by: konopelli/wgg at April 20, 2008 11:03 AM

Perhaps another Oslo Agreement? OR an updated ROADMAP is in order? But it don't change nothin', still on the "Road to Nowhere" and getting there fast. Face facts, U&I gots NO reasonable answer for either side of these people.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at April 20, 2008 03:29 PM

The settlers seem to be lovely people.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=settler

A link about Hebron someone posted at John Caruso's blog:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/our-reign-of-terror-by-the-israeli-army-811769.html

Christian Peacemaker Teams have several informative galleries of the area:

http://cpt.org/gallery/hebron

Posted by: Save the Oocytes at April 20, 2008 05:46 PM

Israel is the rider, America the horse, and 911 the longed-for starting gun.

Posted by: Glenn Condell at April 20, 2008 08:08 PM

@Nell

Well, there's an extremist right-wing-Zionist group called the Jewish National Front.

The Wikipedia says: "The Jewish National Front calls for a state that is more Jewish in practice than strictly in ceremony, including emplacement of Torah laws in place of the current civil ones after the Jewish majority is increased west of the Jordan River. This will be achieved through motivating mass Jewish immigration to Israel as well as encouraging emigration of Arabs through various incentives. While the party openly calls for the expulsion of Israel's enemies (terrorists, as well as terrorism sympathizers and Jew-haters who call for the destruction of Israel) from the state, it does not advocate the forcible expulsion of Arabs. [Front leader] Marzel's activities as a member of Kach in the past decades have earned him the "street credit" that is needed to unite the extreme right behind his movement.

Few doubt the seriousness of his intention to carry out the platform. The party, in the tradition of its predecessor Kach, is different from Tehiya, Moledet and Tzomet or even Herut in that it places its platform in a context of religious obligation, whereas the others are secular parties built around military figures or pre-independence ideologues like Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon enacted the disengagement plan in September 2005, Marzel placed his group into high gear by holding sensational protests full of polemic about Sharon's intention to forcibly remove Jews from their homes."

Posted by: at April 20, 2008 09:11 PM

Adding: and of course it should be obvious that "west of the Jordan River" is inclusive of the occupied West Bank.

Posted by: Rojo at April 20, 2008 09:15 PM

Further adding: And it should also be obvious that the refusal to call for the expulsion of all Palestinians is only because they recognize that they can't get away with it, for the moment

Posted by: Rojo at April 20, 2008 09:18 PM

Thanks, Rojo. Now I'm more curious than ever to know where the villages are that in which Arnon led those tours. In Israel, I'm guessing, as part of the effort to drive out Arabs.

Posted by: Nell at April 21, 2008 01:40 AM