Deconstructing Cohen

Roger Cohen has another op-ed to discuss in the New York Times and even if he is beginning to approach my position, he still writes enough to prove his shallow intellectualism.

Entitled, "A Mideast Truce", his conclusion is: forget about peace; work on detente. Funny, that's what I have been saying for the past 25 years at universities, media, rallies, etc. My exact words were: "why is it that the US could talk about detente but insisted Israel must talk peace?"

Here's Cohen's comment:

Obama, who has his Nobel already, should ratchet expectations downward. Stop talking about peace. Banish the word. Start talking about détente. That’s what Lieberman wants; that’s what Hamas says it wants; that’s the end point of Netanyahu’s evasions.

Admirable.

He even gets closer to the real number of Jews living beyond the Green Line:

Both Oslo (1993) and the Road Map (2003) called for settlements to stop, but the number of settlers has risen steadily to over 450,000.

I think it is a half-million already. About 310,000 in Judea and Samaria and almost 200,000 in east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

One thing, though, is his name-tagging. Quoted are (in order): Avigdor Lieberman, Ron Nachman, Michael Sfard, Barack Obama, Shlomo Avineri, David Grossman. He has quite a limited field of who-is-who.

Grossman's words, actually, are quite gross. He is quoted saying: “We have dozens of atomic bombs, tanks and planes. We confront people possessing none of these arms. And yet, in our minds, we remain victims. This inability to perceive ourselves in relation to others is our principal weakness.”

So facile. Would he want us to start blowing up buses and restaurants so we could feel equal, so we literally level the playing field?

And yes, we are victims, victims of an insane fake nationality movement, victims of a pathological religion-corrupted hate, victims of our own willingness to act as no other country under attack has done, victims of a media that cannot or will not perceive the propaganda service they provide not to mention the bias, victims of our adoption of compromise and peace as goals that have no relation to the reality of our particular situation.

In outlining "the deep scars inflicted in the past decade", somehow, disengagement and its failure as well as the Hezbollah threat is missing. He could claim only a "Palestinian"-Israel axis but that doesn't hold up. Like blinders on a horse, Cohen trots about uselessly in the wrong direction.

Here is an interesting observation:

These...developments...have transformed the psychologies of the protagonists. Israelis have walled themselves off from Palestinians. They are less interested than ever in a deal with people they hardly see...Peace and walls do not go together. But a truce and walls just may. And that, I must reluctantly conclude, is the best that can be hoped for...A peace of the brave must yield to a truce of the mediocre — at best.

Finally, from a person whose outlook on Iran was warped, completely off the mark, Cohen is beginning to see things, or at least possible conceptions of policies and politics, my way.

Well, now we can reconstruct.

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UPDATE


Camera.