Dr. Frank's What's-it

Coddle, Denounce, Coddle, Denounce den

Coddle, Denounce, Coddle, Denounce

den Beste has posted the photographs of the weaponry captured at Arafat's headquarters, which include many materials banned by the Oslo accords. As he says, it's damning.

Should this make a difference? You bet. It proves that Arafat has been lying all along, as if any proof were needed.

Will it make any difference? Of course not. Those who believe that negotiations can still succeed will ignore this because if they accepted it they'd have to acknowledge that they're trying to deal with someone who won't keep his word.

The "denial" is staggering. A furious debate rages within the souls of our chatterati and amongst our leaders as to whether or not it would be a good idea to believe their own eyes. Friedman can't seem to decide whether to stick to the sensible reasoning of his last column in favor of Israel's self-defense and the defense of civilization; his decision seems to be to cover his bets by articulating opposite positions in alternating columns. That way, one of them is bound to be right.

The Bush administration seems to have adopted the same coin-flipping strategy.

Bush had little good to say about Arafat, saying "the situation in which he finds himself today is largely of his own making."

"He has missed his opportunities and thereby betrayed the hopes of his people," he said. "Given his failure, the Israeli government feels it must strike at the terrorist networks that are killing its citizens."

Still, Bush says, the Israelis should cut it out. Striking at the terrorist networks that are killing your citizens is fine and dandy, but

to lay the foundations of future peace, I ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas, and begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied.

What on earth does he mean? "For the sake of future peace, it is imperative that you refrain from capturing any more illegal weapons and leave what remains of the terrorist infrastructure intact. Because allowing Arafat's extremists to police themselves has worked out so well in the past." That's my best guess, anyway. Perhaps the "coddle, denounce" routine is part of some clever overarching strategy. Other than getting up every morning and flipping a coin to determine today's position on Arafat.

The result of capitulating, under threat of terrorist attack, to the demands of thugs like Arafat and his anti-American/anti-Jewish cheerleaders will certainly not be "future peace." Does the Bush administration understand this? They don't seem to be able to decide.

Posted by Dr. Frank at April 4, 2002 11:17 AM | TrackBack