We (and Israel) need to recognize world leaders as they are, not as we imagine or would like them to be. Case in point one odious creature named Catherine Ashton, the EU “foreign minister”.
Catherine Ashton
by Caroline Glick
With her unbridled hostility towards Israel, the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton provides us with an abject lesson in what happens when a government places its emotional aspirations above its national interests.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel, many of Israel’s elite have aspired to be embraced by Europe. In recent years, nearly every government has voiced the hope of one day seeing Israel join the EU.
To a significant degree, Israel’s decision to recognize the PLO in 1993 and negotiate with Yasser Arafat and his deputies was an attempt by Israel’s political class to win acceptance from the likes of Ashton and her continental comrades. For years the EU had criticized Israel for refusing to recognize the PLO.
[...]
And now, Israel’s reward for preferring European love to our national interest and embracing our sworn enemy is Catherine Ashton.
To put it mildly, Ashton is not a friend of Israel. Indeed, she is so ill-disposed against Israel that she seems unable to focus for long on anything other than bashing it. Her obsession was prominently displayed in March when she was unable to give an unqualified condemnation of the massacre of French Jewish children by a French Muslim. Ashton simply had to use her condemnation as yet another opportunity to bash Israel.
Her preoccupation with Israel was again on display on Tuesday. During a boilerplate, vacuous speech about President Bashar Assad’s slaughter of his fellow Syrians, apropos of nothing the baroness launched into an unhinged, impassioned, and deeply dishonest frontal assault against Israel.
The woman US President Barack Obama has empowered to lead the West’s negotiations with Iran regarding its illicit nuclear weapons program stood at the podium in the European Parliament and threw an anti-Israel temper tantrum.
The same woman who couldn’t be bothered to finish her speech about Assad’s massacre of children, the same woman who is so excited about her Iranian negotiating partners’ body language that she doesn’t think it is necessary to give them an ultimatum about ending their quest for a nuclear bomb, seemed to lack a sufficiently harsh vocabulary to express her revulsion with Jewish “settlers.”
As she put it, “We are also seriously concerned by recent and increasing incidents of settler violence which we all condemn.”
It’s not clear what “recent and increasing incidents of settler violence” she was referring to. But in all likelihood, she didn’t have a specific incident in mind. She probably just figured that those sneaky Jews are always up to no good.
[...]
Aside from its jaw-dropping animosity towards Israel, what is notable about the EU’s position is that it is actually far more hostile to Israel than the Palestinians’ position towards Israel as that position was revealed in the agreements that the Palestinians signed with Israel in the past. In those agreements, the Palestinians accepted continued sole Israeli control over Area C. They did not require Israel to end the construction of Jewish communities outside the 1949 armistice lines. The peace process ended when the Palestinians moved closer to the EU’s position.
The EU’s antipathy towards Israel as personified in Ashton’s behavior teaches us two important lessons. First, it is often hard to tell our friends from our foes. Israelis – particularly those born to families that emigrated from Europe – have traditionally viewed Europe as the last word in enlightened democracy and sophistication and style. We wanted to be like them. We wanted to be accepted by them.
Indeed we were so swept away by the thought that they might one day love us back that we adopted policies that were inimical to our national interest and so weakened us tremendously.
It never occurred to us that the fact that Europe insisted that we adopt policies that undercut our national survival meant that the Europeans wished us ill.
[...]
The second thing we learn from Ashton’s anti-Israel mania is that when we engage in foreign policy, we need to base our judgments about our ability to influence the behavior of our foreign counterparts on a sober-minded assessment of two separate things: our interlocutor’s ideology and his interests. In Ashton’s case, both parameters make clear that there is no way to win her over to Israel’s side. She is ideologically opposed to Israel. And the citizens of Europe are becoming more and more hostile to Israel and to Jews.
[...]
Obama is not the only American leader that has been seduced into believing that Erdogan and his Islamist AKP Party are trustworthy strategic partners for the US. Many key members of Congress share this delusional view.
According to a senior congressional source, Turkey’s success in winning over the US Congress is the result of a massive Turkish lobbying effort. Through two or three front groups, the Turkish government has become one of the most active lobbying bodies in Washington. It brings US lawmakers and their aides on luxury trips to Turkey and hosts glittering, glamorous receptions and parties in Washington on a regular basis. And these efforts have paid off.
Turkey’s bellicosity towards Israel as well as Greece and Cyprus has caused it no harm in Washington. Its request to purchase a hundred F-35 Joint Strike Fighters faced little serious opposition. The US continues to bow to its demands to disinvite Israel from international forum after international forum – most recently the upcoming US-hosted counter-terrorism summit in Istanbul.
Certainly Turkey’s strategic transformation under Erdogan’s leadership from a pro-Western democracy into an anti-Western Islamist police state has dire implications for American national interests. And the Americans would be well-served to look beyond the silken invitations to Turkish formal events at five-star hotels and see what is actually happening in the sole Muslim NATO member-state. But whether the US comes to its senses or not is its business.
[...]
True, today no one in Israel operates under that delusion anymore. But the basic phenomenon of our leaders failing to distinguish between what they want to happen and what can happen continues to exist.
Ours is a dangerous world and an even more dangerous neighborhood. Everywhere we look we see cauldrons of radicalism and sophisticated weaponry waiting to explode. The threat environment Israel faces today is unprecedented.
At this time we cannot afford to be seduced by our dreams that things were different than they are. They are what they are.
We do have options in this contest. To maximize those options we need to ground our actions and assessments in clear-headed analyses and judgments of the people we are faced with. Their actions will be determined by their beliefs and their perception of their interests – not by our pretty face
Read the rest: Dreamy foreign policies
Tags: Caroline Glick, Catherine Ashton, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
There’s wisdom in that long sentence.
From Catherine Ashton’s wiki --
WTF is a Life Peer???
@ Bumr50:
Some sort of nobility. Yet more proof that America needs no “noble class”. Things are bad enough with the political class that we have without giving in to their pretentions of nobility.
Bumr50 wrote:
Oh.
THOSE life peers…
Wow.
@ Iron Fist:
This creature is what you get when you allow someone of Barack Obama’s ilk to “create life peerages.”
@ Bumr50:
Putting aside her ridiculous politics, Catherine Ashton is one fugly woman!
@ Speranza:
Composite progressive hag.
@ Bumr50:
She has no chin.
I really long to see the European Union (that monstrous creation concocted by France, Germany and Belgium) completely collapse.
@ Speranza:
Beaker.
As an European I’m really jealous that you have such an fantastic commander in chief:
@ Bumr50:
Actually it is a receding chin -- a sign of weakness.
Guggi wrote:
Who is James M. Goldgeiger -- a newsstand operator?
@ Speranza:
Actually he’s that Custodian at my Grand daughters middle school.
Speranza wrote:
@ Guggi:
Really?
@ Bumr50:
Angelina Joliee? Wow! Indespensible!
@ Bumr50:
This doesn’t take away that he is:
On a semi-related note, picked up the rest of the parts needed for my latest AR lower build at the local gun show this weekend. I am going with MAGPUL ACS Buttstock with a Mil-Spec buffer tube in flat-earth color for style.
Noticed a couple my co-coreligionists at the table of a local gun club that I am thinking of joining.
@ citizen_q:
That sounds cool.
@ citizen_q:
Cool. I thought about an ACS for my LWRC, but I went with a CTR instead. All black. If I were going to go away from basic black I would Ceracoat it in camo. I like black, though.
@ Bumr50:
Hope so, this build is more a fun project where I am mostly building it to have fun with with the process and learn. I am building with a Daniels Defense Lower Parts Kit. Not sure right now if I will stick with the trigger included, which is supposed to be pretty good, or will spring for an upgraded one.
This will be my second Lower build.
The jury is still out on if I will attempt to really go whole hog and build an upper as well.
@ Iron Fist:
I have black ARs. I like black, but I also like the color contrast. Besides the build will match my Dual tone Glock 35. Not that I am fashion conscious mind you.
LWRC, I remember you mentioning it before. Very nice!!
These ‘internationalists’ who let each other into the club are Agenda 21 agents. You can tell them by the company they keep. Angelina is a good unwitting shill for them. I think she is the most self-made people on the list. Ashton is a bully who seems to be well connected.
George Washington University is well known for being a huge recipient of Saudi money. I believe following the money trail brings me to a Rodan-like conclusion. It is no accident that Arab riches work mightily to take down Jews.
I’m not going to blame Israel. They are the victims here. It is not in the nature of modern Jews to see themselves as victims. You know what they say; The Jews invented guilt. The Catholics just rent it. /
@ citizen_q:
It looks crazy hard to me.
@ yenta-fada:
PIMF…Angelina is ONE of the most self-made people on the list.
@ yenta-fada:
Yes, membership in the Krazy Klub cannot be overlooked!
@ citizen_q:
LWRC is one of the best rifles out there. They really aren’t all that pricey, if you look at what you are getting. They are piston rifles, and they cost about the same aa a Barrett or even a Ruger. I really like mine. I wish I could shoot it better.
@ Bumr50:
Yes, I still have not read up enough on it to decide if I really want to attempt it.
I have several ARs, and it would be really neat have one the I built myself from the ground up. Plus the investment in tools might be helpful with my other ARs. I figure it I can build one totally from sctach, I can be my own low budget armorer. Still, I may after more study decide it wiser to rely on a professional build for the upper.
Bumr50 wrote:
When I can stand to listen to Fareed Zakaria for a few minutes, he is constantly delivering talking points of the globalists. He goes to Davos because he helps creative the narrative as a propagandist. These people all sound the same. They advocate global warming as the biggest danger that faces humanity. He sounds like Al Gore. These ‘folks’ are working furiously for a global financial tax which will tax EVERY FINANCIAL transaction in the world. That includes the direct deposit of your paycheck, buying a stock, selling a house, etc. Given that we are, for the most part, already a cashless society, these taxes are extremely easy to collect.
@ Iron Fist:
Hmmm….. You know, I don’t have a piston AR, yet…
Bumr50 wrote:
The Krazy Klub wants to impoverish everyone in order to enrich itself.
OK. It’s a gun thread. lol
@ yenta-fada:
This is telling of their organization:
LOL.
Guggi wrote:
More elitist talking points. Romney is one of them, sadly. He is less likely to blow up the entire planet than 4 more years of Obama.
Bumr50 wrote:
@ citizen_q:
The thing I’d worry about is headspacing the barrel. If youI mess that up it can be catastrophic. If it were me, I would buy the upper from a reputable dealer. But that is just the way I do things.
@ yenta-fada:
PIMF. I didn’t get any sleep. “People who DON’T PAY any taxes.” This is not my usual time to be around here!
I’m turning into Rodan. Saudi oil (plus the rich Emirates) fund all of these globalists. I just started the book Osprey recommended called “The Secret War Against the Jews”. It starts back in the 1920′s.
The Euro based Globalists have a problem. Their money sucks. h/t Drudge
“We will continue to stand by Greece,” European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement following the vote. The Group of Seven industrialized nations said in a statement that it’s in “all our interests for Greece to remain in the euro area while respecting its commitments.”
After an inconclusive May 6 election that led to the June 17 rerun, European and IMF budget experts canceled a mission to review Greece’s eligibility for the next aid installment and now intend to carry out the assessment around the end of June. That plan assumes a new Greek government is in place by then.”
@ yenta-fada:
Globalists are a universal problem.
@ citizen_q:
Oh, man, you need one! They are clean, and they run cool. That is no small thing. When I went to Reaganite’s retirement party, I was shocked at the way the M-4s overheated. We had to stop several times to let them cool down. You get much less of that with a piston. When I bought the LWRC, I looked at all my options. I narrowed it down to the LWRC or a Noveske. I think I made the right decision.
Seems you all missed the irony in my first sentence:
/////////sarc
Bumr50 wrote:
I rest my case. Angelina Jolie, Erin Burnett they have the combined IQ of an ashtray. Chuck Hagel? The less said abut him the better.
@ Iron Fist:
Yep, that is one those very important aspects I want to be informed about before I start on the project.
Bumr50 wrote:
That was a wisecrack, yes?
Guggi wrote:
@ Speranza:
I would like to submit Mika Brezinski for serious consideration
in this category.
@ yenta-fada:
Yeah, but I was in firm agreement with you!
@ Speranza:
Erin Burnett isn’t stupid. She’s a pretty smart financial analyst. You may not agree with her politics, but she’s not dumb. Angelina Jolie is no bimbo either.
Bumr50 wrote:
I know.
I’m just underslept, so I don’t trust my brain.
RIX wrote:
That one I will agree with. Hell spawn with no talent.
While I’m defending the women, I fully recognize that the odious Ashton is a sock puppet.
@ yenta-fada:
The interesting thing about Mika Brezinski is that she
is amug & disparages other intellects.
She fails to see that she has all the electrical activity
in her cranium as the average carp fish.
RIX wrote:
I am so tired of ‘opinion TV’. This blog has a better grasp of the realities. (the purity of not getting paid to talk, lol)
@ yenta-fada:
Heck yeah & we are a lot more fun as well as non fattening.
Israel moves tanks to Egyptian border over ‘incident’.
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.ca/2012/06/israel-moves-tanks-to-egyptian-border.html
@ yenta-fada:
Did you see that the Islamist candidate won their Presidential election? Joy. It could mean civil war in Egypt. I guess that will depend on what the Muslim Brotherhood wants. It is clear that the people of Egypt have spoken. I don’t thin.k that this bodes well ffor the United States
@ Guggi:
Heh, Guggi, I read it as sarcasm.
I wouldn’t say your initial sentence was irony. In my mind, irony is a term reserved for events, or a statement about events that occur with a curious twist to them, whereas sarcasm is commentary with a certain degree of snark, not meant to be taken at face value.
I haven’t expressed myself very well, but it’s a difficult subject, and some people simply do not get sarcasm, ever.
Iron Fist wrote:
The fact that their are any Islamist breathing on the face of the Earth does not bode well for the United States, or the earth for that matter.
@ Iron Fist:
But the military has effectively pulled off a coup. Suspended the constitution (heh, like it was ever much use), and made itself supreme over parliament. The islamist president basically serves at their pleasure.
Best out come we can hope for. If the military is smart, members of the MB and salafist organizations will start disappearing without trace.
ANOTHER GRIM MILESTONE: Obama Plays 100th Round Of Golf As President.
Iron Fist wrote:
Muslims in Canada and the US want Sharia Law as the Law of the land. It’s the plague.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
I agree. The best outcome we can hope for is a military dictatorship. It is crazy to expect savages to vote for their government. They will simply vote in savagery. The question is can the military hold the lid on it? I don’t know that they can. It’ll depend on what the Muslim Brotherhood wants. If they start a bombing campaign like is going on in Iraq, what does the military dictatorship do?
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
ON FATHER’S DAY. Not noted by the press. Saturday was the Jarrett wedding, so Sundays are for gulf. His kids are props. That’s why Zero and the Mooch are always holding onto their kids hands in public. The kids are trying to get away.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
Egypt is a huge welfare state supported by the U.S. The U.S. is broke. What could go wrong??/
@ yenta-fada:
All pious Muslims want Shari’a law. That is as core to their belief system as the divinity of Christ is to the Christian religion. Muslims who deny it are only practicing taqiyya. Lying to infidels is another key part of their faith.
@ Iron Fist:
The only good muslim is a bad muslim. Except for Ontario’s Salim Mansur. He’s one in 10 million, give or take a few million.
@ yenta-fada:
Carp. Sundays are for ‘golf’, not gulf. fog rolls in.
yenta-fada wrote:
This is an acceptable analogy, since there’s one way you can get rid of it for sure.
By fire….☢
@ yenta-fada:
Checka U E-mail, eh!
@ citizen_q:
I was checking out the gun show calendar online today myself. Gotta get the business up and running again when I get back.
I hope my employee hasn’t gotten too lazy from her year-long vacation…
@ lobo91:
LOL! Hopefully not.
@ citizen_q:
She’ll probably demand 99 weeks of benefits.
//Good help who will work for kibble is hard to find…
//The only good Turkey is in the frozen food section…
RIX wrote:
At times she is more conservative than Joe Scarborough.
lobo91 wrote:
Nothing that a bag of peanut filled pretzels wont fix in a heartbeat…
@ doriangrey:
We should try that with Congress
lobo91 wrote:
How about C4 filled pretzels for congress instead?
@ yenta-fada:
I first read that as “The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim “,which would be a stretch. But you are right. By their standards, the only good Muslim is a bad Muslim. Or an apostate. Apostate is good.