Mere Rhetoric: One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador John Bolton Unloads On The US State Department

This afternoon's One Jerusalem conference call was with Ambassador John Bolton. Also on the call: Jerry Gordon (Israpundit), Rick Richman (Jewish Current Issues), Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), TigerHawk, Avi Green (Tel-Chai Nation), and Carl (Israel Matzav). Allen Roth was in his usual moderator perch and audio will soon be made available on the One Jerusalem frontpage. Ambassador Bolton was on the call to discuss his new book, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations.

For decades foreign policy elites and institutions have been getting things dramatically wrong. Their miscalculations are the result of bureaucratic inertia, institutional bias, and a pathetic investment in personal sophistication. As an example - and we don't remember the source of this quote - the State Department's problem in evaluating the Middle East is that the Arabs aren't Arabists. They don't send out covert signals about their intentions that can only be detected by trained Western experts who have studied at the knees of Juan Cole (not just a vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet - a particularly pretentious vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet). Rather, when Israel's Arab enemies say that they'll never accept the Jewish State - as the moderates in Fatah did yet again a few days ago - they actually mean that.

But foreign policy elites ignore that. Things can't be that simple. If it is then the State Department's insistence on dialogue and engagement becomes something in between willful appeasement and unintentional treason. Their fundamental misunderstanding of the enemy has caused the enslavement of billions, first to Communism and now to Islamofascism. They just can't stop losing ground. Sometimes the parcels of land they lose are the size of Gaza, sometimes they're the size of Iran. And yet the people who are in charge of promoting US interests - demonstrably abject failures in the cases of Gaza and Iran - suffer almost no institutional consequences. In many circles Jimmy Carter's advice on foreign policy is considered the height of sophistication. So of course Condi is getting advice from him on Annapolis.

And of course, Keith Dayton - the man who lost Gaza for the State Department - is failing again in the West Bank. Maybe he could have been more successful if he had spent less time mocking Israeli security concerns to Congress and more time not being an abject failure. But then he'd have to give up his self-declared sophisticated understanding of the Palestinians. And why bother doing that when you can blame the whole thing on Israel? Obviously, he's being given more money and resources to try again. Because why not?

For decades the discerning analysts in the State Department insisted that - despite all outward signs - Iranian moderates were gaining strength within the regime. Opps. No really, opps.

But these people still think it's perfectly reasonable for them to mock Ambassador Bolton and those who agree with him. Because the Ambassador is just so unsophisticated, you see.

References:
* Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations by John Bolton
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]
* MR Cracks the Code: Juan Cole Is Not "Wrong" - He's Just "Deploying the Technique of the Hermeneutical Circle" [MR]
* 'No Jewish state'
* Rice Gets Advice From Jmmy Carter And James Baker On How To Pressure Israel [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]