Jonah Goldberg: The Real 'Realism' on Israel
[Jonah Goldberg is a syndicated columnist and editor at large for the National Review]
Finally, I can put the rumors to rest: The land of Zion isn't merely an abstraction, it's an actual country.
I am in Israel — my first time — to cover the Herzliya Conference, the country's premier national security forum. (Full disclosure: My trip, as well as that of several journalists, was underwritten by the Emergency Committee for Israel, which seeks "to educate the public about the serious challenges to Israel's security." But the views here are my own.)
One of the few things that critics and friends of Israel can agree on is that Israel is a special sort of nation. It represents a special idea; it is different....
In Egypt, the popular uprising unfolding is not about Israel but about autocratic brutality, economic stagnation and skyrocketing prices. The same goes for Tunisia as well as the popular protests brutally crushed by Iran's mullahs in 2009. Turkey is not Islamifying because of the Palestinians. Al Qaeda surely hates Israel, but its roots lay in hatred of the Saudi royal family and the Islamist ambitions of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood....
Read entire article at LA Times
Finally, I can put the rumors to rest: The land of Zion isn't merely an abstraction, it's an actual country.
I am in Israel — my first time — to cover the Herzliya Conference, the country's premier national security forum. (Full disclosure: My trip, as well as that of several journalists, was underwritten by the Emergency Committee for Israel, which seeks "to educate the public about the serious challenges to Israel's security." But the views here are my own.)
One of the few things that critics and friends of Israel can agree on is that Israel is a special sort of nation. It represents a special idea; it is different....
In Egypt, the popular uprising unfolding is not about Israel but about autocratic brutality, economic stagnation and skyrocketing prices. The same goes for Tunisia as well as the popular protests brutally crushed by Iran's mullahs in 2009. Turkey is not Islamifying because of the Palestinians. Al Qaeda surely hates Israel, but its roots lay in hatred of the Saudi royal family and the Islamist ambitions of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood....