The man runs a dictatorship that gets hundreds of millions in US Aid, and has a peace treaty with Israel. He says in a recent interview with NPR, that Israel is the problem in the region, and that Israel needs to decide to be a good neighbors.

Its not lack of freedom, terrorism, water resources, discrimination of women, minorities, etc etc. that might be part of the cause for the lack of peace. Nah!

No, this Oxford educated political genius, pegs it all on Israel. Wow that is so original.

The ultimate “prize” for the Israelis, King Abdullah said, is recognition by the 57 Arab and Muslim nations that don’t have relations with the Jewish state. He says Israel is at a critical juncture now and has to decide whether it wants to be “integrated into the neighborhood” or continue to be “fortress Israel.”

When you listen to the interview, in almost sounds like he is saying that Israel is at a juncture. . . for existence. You listen, and tell me that I am not dreaming this up.

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Rabbi Yonah

17 Comments

  • Sounds like a stark, raving lunatic to me. Worse than Ahmadinejad.

  • He once played a supporting character on Startrek as he loves that show.

    Anyhow, Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with general suffrage at age 18, with a bi-cameral parliament (minimum numbers of seats reserved for women, Bedouins and Christians), a supreme court, a fabulous-looking queen that deliberately does not cover her hair as she [correctly] does not see this demanded by the Quran and has been one of the most-copied women worldwide in terms of fashion over the past few years. Doesn’t sound like a dictatorship to me (unless Britain also qualifies as a dictatorship). Compared to many Middle Eastern countries, this is rather progressive.

  • There’s arguably not a word in that Abdullah interview that couldn’t have been said by Obama himself.

  • He’s right. Over the long term — the very long term — we’ll be integrated into the neighborhood, one way or another. I hope we can do it the “nice” way.

    We won’t last forever as a wannabe-European outpost in the middle east.

    And that means dealing with the Palestinian “problem,” not just in the WB and Gaza, but within Israel proper.

    An integrative solution is the only real solution.

  • He HAS to talk like that, he risks being overthrown at all times. I believe the Palestinians even killed his grandfather.

  • Yup. Shot him dead on the steps of Al Aksa because he talked with the Jews.

    People think people like Abdullah and Assad are modern and Western because they wear suits. But they’re not.

    Abdullah is part English anyway, IIRC. If he doesn’t out-Arab the Arabs they’ll just shoot him like they did Grandpa.

    By “integrated into the neighborhood”, do you mean Israel will become a repressive one-party dictatorship where political opponents are jailed or murdered out of hand (Egypt and Syria), a loony theocracy where where political opponents are jailed or murdered out of hand (Iran and Saudi Arabia) or a fractured, fratricidal multi-confessional hodgepodge where political opponents are jailed or murdered out of hand, usually by being blown up (Lebanon)?

    I think Israel is just fine the way it is. The Arabs in Israel should get with the program or leave. If things disintegrate to the point that Israel really becomes “integrated into the neighborhood”, that is, if it becomes like the cesspools masquerading as countries that surround it, chances are that the ensuing bloodshed will cause the rest of the Arabs in Israel to pack their things and move out. If things go that far south, it will be impossible for anyone to stop it.

  • All the arabs hate Israel, and according to my Holy Bible, they will soon pay the price for hating their half-brothers, the descendants of Ishmael are cursed with a curse, GOD has said that HE would Bless those who Bless Israel, and HE would curse those who curse Israel! Even so, Come LORD JESUS! Yes, I am a Christian, and the best doctor I ever had was a Chrisian Jew, Amen, and her last name was Cohen, and she married a Baptist preacher on my birthday two or three years ago, a very great lady and believer in Jesus Christ and she still had her Jewish beliefs on the wall on her office! I have prayed for the Peace of Jerusalem every night for along as I read in my Holy Bible to do so many years ago. I am glad that Benjamin N., can’t spell his last name at the moment, has become the Israeli Prime Minister again. I beleive he is a great leader for Israel, and he is my age also,and I served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War in 1970, USMC, 1968-72.

    GOD Bless and I know HE will cause I have read his book!

    Semper Fidelis,
    Steve Epps

  • Ephraim, I think the idea is that Israel has to determine / assume its role as a Middle Eastern state and not just an EU-/ 51st-state potential as many seem to view it. We should refrain from blaming dysfunctional Middle Eastern political systems on Jordan. Analogously, we do not want the wrongdoings of Charedi fanatics be thought of as representative of the world’s entire Jewry. Abdullah’s idea resonates well with Netanyahu’s claim sometime last year that Jews outside of Israel should stay out of Israeli politics.

    Steve, I hope you’re aware that your Bible also says “blessed are the peacemakers”.

  • Pretty weird post, froylein. Not sure what you’re trying to say.

    I’m not blaming Arab political dysfunction on Jordan. I am saying they’re dysfunctional, but I don’t think they are the cause of it. As far as Arab/Muslim states go, they don’t seem to be as bad as some, at least on the surface. But scratch the surface and it’s the same old shit.

    What do the Charedim have to do with this discussion? It is true that the shenanigans of the Charedim make Israel look bad sometimes, but at least there are normal Israelis to balance them out. I don’t see a single prominent Arab anywhere who doesn’t, at bottom, peddle some version of “It’s the Jews’ fault”. Abdullah just seems less threatening because he wears a suit and speaks good English, that’s all.

    Seriously, if the choice is between being considered European and trying to “integrate into the neighborhood” (whatever that means), then I think Israel should go with being considered European. Does Israel really want to integrate into a “neighborhood” that is the equivalent of Crackhouse Row with automatic weapons?

    Seriously, what do people mean when they say Israel needs to “integrate into the neighborhood”? Such a silly, superficial phrase. (Of course, it assumes that Israel is the cause of all of the problems since it arrogantly holds itself aloof from the Arabs, refusing to “integrate”.) I assume they mean Israel should do something that will get the Arabs to like them or to at lest not hate them so much. But what would that be?

    Short of ceasing to be a Jewish state, I mean. Do people seriously mean Israel should become more like an Arab state or something? I hope someone can enlighten me.

  • Ephraim, I think there is more to Abdullah’s being Western-oriented than just a suit and speaking English. His state has got a political system and civil rights and liberties that are way above those of many Muslim countries and do resemble those of Israel more than those of Syria. Still, it appears that many Israelis that are not first-generation Zionists do not give Israel much credit as a state proper as there often are demands towards the US and Europe to act in certain ways without considering that those states are also entitled to their own reason of state. Those people are like a guy that moves on from one gf to the next, whom he’ll eventually marry, and then still demands blowjobs from his old gf (sorry, Rabbi!), because she once was his gf. The questions Abdullah therefore raises are whether Israel is a state proper not only by its constitutional understanding but also by its people’s mindsets, how much political influence Israel will take from the US and Europe, and whether Israel is vital for religious Jewish identity (Rabbi Ignaz Maybaum, one of the most prominent religious Jewish theologians of the 20th century, said Judaism has become post-Israel). So, the point is not for Israel to forego human and civil rights but to determine its role as a politically autonomous state proper (as its existence does clash with Jewish eschatology, it cannot convincingly be a Jewish (as in religiously Jewish) state without its existence being lamented and denied by extremist religious bodies such as NK).

  • I don’t understand what you are saying, froylein. Is your point that Israel should cease to exist because it “clashes with Jewish eschatology” or because Israelis beef about US and European policies that are objectively anti-Israel or something?

  • Oh, yeah: do you take seriously pronouncements by Arab kings questioning whether the existence of Israel is vital to Jewish identity?

    That’d be sort of like expecting black people in the US to accept KKK pronouncements about what rights blacks do and don’t have.

    Just sayin’.

  • Ephraim, I’m not quite sure whether you’re misreading me on purpose or whether you’re just tired. Anyhow, please carefully re-read what I wrote above. I’ve never claimed that Israel should cease to exist as it clashes with Jewish eschatology (unless you define Israel as a strictly secular state; and then domestic issues must be resolved by secular courts as well) or that Israel should have defined itself by an Arabic king, but that Israel will have to define itself. The question whether Israel was vital to Jewish identity was raised by a prominent rabbi and theologian, but Abdullah’s comments lead us to those questions. How much interfering from diaspora Jews and foreign states can Israel take / accept to be autonomous? How do its people feel about the autonomy of the state? How much / What can its people claim from foreign countries [and those policies are not all obviously anti-Israel; a less selective choice of media and more in-depth coverage would show that policies are made that also are advantagous to Israel]? And, does being Jewish equal being Israeli (politically, not theologically)?

    The KKK is a (political and social) force within the US. Black people are a minority (a large one, but still) in the US. So your analogy is anything but analogous.

  • By integration, Abdullah’s probably referring to economics and, perhaps, integrating Israel into a Sunni-led, anti-Iranian security framework. Abdullah’s outspokenly anti-Iranian.

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