Tuesday 27 February 2018

Opinion | Don’t Count Bibi Out — Yet - The New York Times

It should go without saying that a Palestinian state is a terrific idea in principle — assuming, that is, that it resembles the United Arab Emirates. But Israelis have no reason to believe that it will look like anything except the way Gaza does today: militant, despotic, desperate and aggressive. Netanyahu's foreign critics are demanding that he replicate on a large scale what has failed catastrophically on a smaller scale. It's an absurd ask.
[Snip from Bret Stephens' article linked here]
And let's not forget that the Palestinians have been offered their state numerous times and have repeatedly rebuffed the offers, a course snatching defeat from the jaws of victory laid down aby the horrid Yasser Arafat (nephew of the even more horrid Amin al-Huseini the viciously anti-Semitic murderer and would-be genocide enabler), and followed ever since by the Palestinian "leadership".

Sunday 25 February 2018

Opinion | Can the German Left Save Itself? - The New York Times

 ....the far-right party Alternative for Germany, widely known by its German initials as AfD, has managed to combine its fierce anti-immigrant stance with a new rhetorical and policy focus on social welfare — calling for higher wages, safer pensions and extended unemployment benefits. These are the kinds of issues that should be offered by the left, untainted by the AfD's putrid nationalism. (Snip from article linked here).
In what sense is the AfD "far right". Its policies are classically of the Left. As the author himself points out.
The only way the AfD differs from the Left is to raise concerns about unchecked immigration to Germany by young men (70% of whom are not refugees, but economic migrants jumping the queue) from countries with cultural practices totally inimical to the values of the Left. A bitter irony.
Because of this one area differing from the Left the views of AfD are called "putrid nationalism".
Oh the Blindness. Oh the Hypocrisy.

Tuesday 20 February 2018

You’re Wrong! I’m Right! - The New York Times| Nickolas Kristof

What we were kind of talking about recently, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias and all that and how we — youse and I — are free of all that nonsense. (Not!).
Nickolas Kristof here on the importance of seeing the other side. Though he infamously did not do so in a show with Sam Harris and Ben Affleck. (On YouTube).

Thursday 15 February 2018

Violent crime in Sweden is soaring. When will politicians act? | The Spectator

Another view, counter to the one I recently posted. This is by far the consensus on the issue. Namely: big problems for Sweden, the self styled "humanitarian superpower".

Opinion | Do Israeli Students Need to Visit Auschwitz? - The New York Times

"Israel is not a compensation for Auschwitz."  
One of the interesting points made in this article by Shmuel Rosner in today's New York Times
Do you agree with his main point: Jewish visits to Auschwitz should end?