The 6'8" height of arrogance - LeBron James

Does LeBron James think he is God's gift to basketball?  In seven years in the NBA, he has won a grand total of zero NBA championships.  Most recently, Michael Jordan won six; Kobe Bryant has five.  LeBron wants to be mentioned in the same breath as them.  The Cleveland Cavaliers, perennial laughingstocks of the league, did all they could to obtain the right players around him to build a championship-winning team.

But it didn't work.  And now, at a much-publicized press conference which smacked of tremendous self-glorification, King James has left Cleveland for Miami, where he says he feels he will have a better chance at winning a title.  Crazy question here: Perhaps it was not the Cavaliers' fault, but rather LeBron's?  Maybe he did not play well enough in the playoffs, and it had nothing to do with the team Cleveland built?  I doubt this thought has even crossed LeBron's mind, because in his head, he is owed an NBA championship, he has earned it.

The city of Cleveland embraced him, a native Ohioan, as its favorite son.  They made him who he is.  And now, he has unceremoniously dumped them, on the grounds that Miami has the tools to win him a championship.  He has shown his true colors.  He never wanted the Cavs to win; he wanted to win.  Plenty of great NBA players never won a championship, and they did not jump ship after their team, and they, put in years of effort to win one (see Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and others).

Let us say that James wins this coming season, or next, in Miami.  Will it be exciting for him?  Of course.  But will it be as sweet as if he had stayed in Cleveland, put in more effort, and won with the Cavs?  Of course not.  Since we live in an age of instant gratification, James feels he is entitled to win an NBA title.  Since he knows he is great, he believes that this is coming to him.  And if he has not won already, it must be due to his team, not due to him.  He sees his arch-rival, Kobe Bryant, filling up his fingers with rings, and he feels that should be him.

I used to respect LeBron James.  He struck me as one of the good guys, a guy you could not help but root for.  He turned around the mindset of a city that has virtually only known sports losers.  He was Cleveland, and Cleveland was him.  He could have made true the Drew Carrey Show's theme song: Cleveland Rocks!  Instead, he showed himself much more concerned for his own achievements than his team's.

I'm a Knicks and Spurs fan.  I did not want LeBron to sign with the Knicks; the team is well beneath him., and I knew the Spurs were not a possibility.  This season, I will be very happy if the Cavs win the championship.  They deserve it much more than the ungrateful King James.

More risks for peace?

We constantly hear how "both sides" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must take "risks for peace."  Prime Minister Netanyahu just announced at a press conference with President Obama that he was willing to do so.  The President said it was vital for Israel to do so.

Nonsense.  How many more "risks for peace" does Israel need to take?

1. Israel transferred thousands of weapons to the Palestinian Authority security forces, only to have those weapons turned against it during the Second Intifada.
2. Israel turned over territory in Judea and Samaria to full Palestinian civil and security control, only to have a number of these cities turn into terrorist hotbeds, from which originated many suicide bombers (e.g. Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus et al).
3. Israel completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, destroying Jewish communities and forcibly expelling their residents, only to have it become a launching pad of thousands of Qassam rockets into Israel.
4. Israel forcibly expelled four Jewish communities in northern Samaria.

Even if one believes that Israel is (much) more in the wrong in this conflict, one cannot seriously claim that Israel has not taken enough risks for peace.  By contrast, the Palestinians have taken virtually no tangible "risks for peace."

1. Have they taught their children that they should live in peace with their Israeli neighbors?  No, they teach them to hate all Jews (not just Israelis, highlighting the religious, not only political, element to this conflict), using language not seen since Nazi Germany.
2. Have they announced that suicide bombings are morally reprehensible?  No, they merely state that such attacks are counterproductive to achieving Palestinian nationalist goals.
3. Have they amended their various charters calling for Israel's destruction?  No (the 1998 Palestinian parliament vote in the presence of President Clinton was invalid, even according to the PLO's Covenant's own rules).  Hamas certainly maintains its open opposition to Israel's existence.
4. Have they ended incitement through their official media outlets (not from a fringe group)?  No, they constantly broadcast hate-filled, antisemitic sermons by PA-sanctioned imams.  (See MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch.)
   

So I ask those who call on Israel to take risks for peace, what more would you ask of Israel?  Which other risks would you like Israel to take?  For the risks it has already taken, thousands of Israelis have paid with their blood.  Yet Israel is called upon to give more and more, with nary a peep about the Palestinians' constant violations of their accepted obligations.

The bottom line is this: Israel has accepted the notion of a Palestinian state in its midst (though I completely reject this).  The Palestinians in particular, and the Arab/Muslim world in general, do not accept the existence of a tiny Jewish state in the middle of their world.  That is all one needs to know about the current conflict.  If the Palestinians genuinely wanted a state, they could have had one many times in the past.  But anything short of all of Israel, they rejected each and every overture.  But it is not a state they want; it is the destruction of Israel.

If the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace tomorrow.  If Israel were to lay down its arms, there would be no Israel tomorrow.  No more Israeli "risks for peace," please.

More moral equivalency from J Street

Poor J Street.  They just can't help themselves.  As much as they would like to call themselves "pro-Israel," the simple fact is that any group which regards the Israelis and Palestinians as equally culpable for the lack of a peace agreement cannot reasonably call itself "pro-Israel."  Even if one hates the State of Israel (which I do NOT believe J Street does, by the way), one cannot seriously claim that the two sides share equal blame for there not being a Palestinian state yet.  I would much rather debate with someone who claims Israel is more at fault then with one who claims both sides are equally guilty.  The former might be persuaded by evidence; the latter is obviously more interested in political correctness than in discovering truth.

J Street falls into the latter category.  See this ad which they produced recently.  Here are my comments, with citations from the ad in bold:

• We feel deeply the sense of pain and anguish over the violence and insecurity wrought on Israel by Hamas through rockets and terror - Kudos to J Street for stating this.  Too many liberal/Left groups cannot bring themselves to condemn Hamas' actions as terror; J Street did.  The problem is, though, despite their claim to "feel deeply" the pain of Israel, they do not support actions which would go a long way to minimizing the terror emanating from Gaza, such as bombing strategic targets as many times as it takes until the threat is neutralized.
• We are steadfast in remaining true to the vision of Israel's founders in creating a democratic, Jewish state—a nation that upholds the highest human and Jewish values - I hope J Street is not suggesting that Israel has strayed from this vision.  Israel is a model of how to protect the rights of all its citizens, even those citizens who openly call for the dismantling of the Jewish state (see a number of Arab Members of Knesset).  Israel's actions consistently demonstrate its commitment to the dignity of all people (certainly with exceptions, but one should compare Israel to other democracies, not to a Utopian country), and its army is among the most moral in the entire world.  How many armies call in air strikes to its targets to warn them to leave the battlefield (Gaza War)?  How many armies fight in house to house, hand to hand, combat instead of just bombing the (heck) out of its enemies (Jenin)?
• The international controversy surrounding the attack on the Gaza flotilla........concern[s] us deeply - It was NOT an attack on the Gaza flotilla.  It was an action of self-defense in response to an unprovoked, merciless attack by some of the passengers on the sixth boat.  They planned to attack the IDF commandos, and had no interest in actually delivering humanitarian goods to the Gazan people.  And in the act of self-defense, nine Hamas collaborators (and that is exactly what they were; please do not fool yourself) were killed.
• ...the growing isolation of Israel concern[s] us deeply - Why?  The issue should be, was/is Israel right or wrong?  If the world supports Israel, great!  If the world opposes Israel, great!  What is important is the righteousness of Israel's cause, not whether it has "the world" 's support.  A world which condemns Israel overwhelmingly more than any other nation, including the worst human rights violators, while granting these nations spots on a human rights council or women's rights group, is not a world whose approval I wish to gain.  Period.
• ...the rhetoric and actions that feed fear and violence, emanating from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders... - This is the giveaway.  "Emanating from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders"?!  The Israeli side consistently expresses support for a Two-State Solution, however misguided it may be, in my opinion; the Palestinians refuse to speak to the Israeli side.  Israeli schoolchildren learn a curriculum of peace and reconciliation; the PA-controlled media broadcast messages of hate, violence, and rejection of Israel as a Jewish state.  How, exactly, does an unprecedented ten-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria (from an allegedly right wing Israeli government) qualify as an action which feeds fear and violence?  Why can J Street not have the intellectual honesty to recognize that one side has consistently demonstrated its commitment to peace, while the other side consistently rejects these peace overtures?  If we cannot admit this uncomfortable truth, there will never be peace in this region.
• Od lo avda tikvateinu / We have not lost our hope - What a perversion of the words of Israel's national anthem!  Was it the hope of Israel's founders to have a Jewish and Arab state west of the Jordan?  No, they accepted the 1947 Partition Plan reluctantly.  Something was better than nothing.  But the Arabs rejected it out of hand, and tried to destroy the nascent Jewish state in its infancy (and this before even one settlement was constructed in Judea, Samaria, or Gaza!).  Ever since Israel extended its hand in peace, that Arabs have either slapped it away, or shaken it with their own hand, dripping with Jewish blood.  This last line in particular is disgusting, and belies the notion that J Street is concerned with Israel's best interests.  They either do not care about reality, or are in willful denial of it. 
  

The notion that Israel needs to be encouraged to make peace, either by the American government or by concerned Diaspora Jews, is laughable.  Israel need not prove its desire for peace anymore.  Let J Street take out ads in Arab newspapers; then there will be some glimmer of hope for peace.  Let J Street stop being a part of the problem, and start being a part of the solution.