British Foreign Minister: AQ Popularity Not Really Israel's Fault But We Should Obsess About Israel Anyway (Plus: That's Not Even The Dumbest Thing He Said!)
Miliband also underlined the need for an urgent solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict to remove an "excuse" for al-Qaeda to foment unrest in Iraq and elsewhere. "Al-Qaeda are using the suffering of the Palestinians as an excuse for violence," he said in a keynote address to the ruling Labor Party's annual conference. "We need to remove the excuse. We need urgent progress to address Israeli security and Palestinian rights through the only solution, a two-state solution in the Middle East," he added
"We know that AQ is just using media-supercharged images of Palestinian suffering as one of many, many pretexts for their jihad against the West, but we need urgent progress against this particular excuse anyway." It's almost like everyone has already decided - for reasons that we're not allowed to speculate about - that Israel has to make concessions to the Palestinians. It's almost like they're just looking for thin pretexts to justify those decisions.
After the jump, something Miliband said that's even dumber.
He also suggested that the US should engage Syria on Iraq. Let Across The Bay be your guide on this one:
Reality is that Syria has zero assets inside Iraq. It has no influence over any Iraqi political group (here's a test, to contrast with Iran: name a single Iraqi politician that can be said to be "Syria's guy." Exactly.). This is why they tried to create a seat for themselves at the table by hosting a sham Baath party conference in Syria, where certain marginal Iraqi Baathi figures were co-opted. The result was that the Iraqi Baath party disowned them and attacked the Syrians for trying to create a splinter leadership. Also, in an interview with a Chronicle correspondent in Iraq, a former division general of the Republican Guard, Saddam Hussein's most elite military corps, dismissed the widespread assumption that Syria's tribal links to the Sunni-led insurgents would give it leverage. "We still remember how Syria sided with Iran during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, when they closed the Iraqi oil pipeline passing through its territory and provided Iran with ground-to-ground missiles to attack Baghdad," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Besides, the tribes are now fighting the very jihadists Syria is supporting and hosting.
This is almost identical to what Hillary said in April - complete with the "obviously this won't work but we should do it anyway." Because engaging Syria feels good. Just like fiddling with Israeli security because it might tangentially maybe be connected to AQ's popularity feels good. And what's the worst that could happen?
References:
* British FM: Al-Qaeda using Palestinian suffering as excuse for violence [YNet]
* Miliband: We have alienated millions of Muslims over Iraq [Guardian]
* Syria Selling Snake Oil [Across The Bay]
* HILLARY TO NATIONAL JEWISH DEMOCRATIC COUNCIL: TALK TO IRAN [Daled Amos]
Previously:
* British Anti-Semites Poison Israeli Food Exports, Get Israel Blamed For It
* BREAKING: Palestinian Arrested In British Bombings (Plus: Failed Leftist British Politician: It's Israel's Fault)
* War On Britain's Jews [Video]
Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
