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November 24, 2009

Is Sarah Palin their “man”?

By Ted Belman

Sarah Palin laid it on the line and recommended the US seek victory in Afghanistan.

William Kristol and Frederick Kagan do so too in No Substitute for Victory. After criticizing Obama for his dithering, they write,

    [..] And we need not accede to defeat. The challenges, both military and political, on the ground are great, but they are not greater than those we faced and overcame in Iraq. The U.S. military has become the best counterinsurgency force in history and has only just started to bring its capabilities to bear in Afghanistan. General McChrystal is an outstanding and battle-tested commander with a creative staff and extremely talented subordinates. And he is working for the architect of the Iraq surge, General David Petraeus.

    The political team, on the other hand, is weak. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry have been ineffective and even counterproductive. The Obama administration appears to have recognized this, recently relegating Holbrooke to a diminished role and assigning Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the responsibility of formulating policy and working directly with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. It is a sign of seriousness.

    The president’s indecision and delay have increased the challenges we face in Afghanistan. But it remains unnecessary and unwise to accept defeat. A model for Republicans is the behavior of Senator John McCain from 2003 to 2007. McCain consistently questioned, challenged, and criticized President Bush’s strategy and tactics in Iraq, but he never wavered in his determination to do everything possible to succeed there. Both his steadfast opposition and his steadfast support for the mission were essential in making possible the transformation of strategy that led to success in Iraq. Success in Afghanistan also depends on sound strategy and sufficient resources, which in turn are more likely if Republicans remain unyielding both in opposition to misguided attempts to fight the war on the cheap and in support of a strategy that will lead to victory.

A few weeks ago Sarah Palin joined William Kristol and others in signing a petition demanding more troops. Kristol has always been a supporter of Palin and so has Fred Barnes and others in the Weekly Standard, the standard bearer of the neocons..

So I am guessing that Kristol and the boys are behind Palin’s present moves and policy statements. She’s their “man”.

A simple Google search for Kristol Palin makes it clear.

Results 1 - 10 of about 343,000 for palin kristol. (0.24 seconds)

Search Results

  1. Me2|4Palin: Bill Kristol: Palin Wouldn’t Bow (FNS Nov 15 2009)

    15 Nov 2009 … Bill Kristol: Palin Wouldn’t Bow (FNS Nov 15 2009) … Palin CSLA September 2009 speech: Compilation of a… GOING ROGUE fan video! …
    vegans4palin.blogspot.com/…/bill-kristol-palin-wouldn-bow-fns-nov.html - Cached

  2. YouTube - Bill Kristol: Palin Wouldn’t Bow (FNS Nov 15 2009)

    Bill Kristol: Palin Wouldn’t Bow to a Foreign leader.Palin/ Cheney 2012?
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sq-Yv9if-A&hl=en_US… - Cached

  3. Kristol: Palin qualifications on par with Obama - Yahoo! News

    Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who’s emerged as one of Sarah Palin’s highest profile conservative boosters, defended the Alaska governor’s decision to …
    news.yahoo.com/s/politico/35395 - Cached

Posted by Ted Belman @ 7:12 am |

13 Comments


  1. I love Palin primarily because of who hates her:

    Palin Urges Settlement Expansion

    Her latest bombshell: to effectively call for an end to 40 years of official government policy on Israel in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters. In teasers the network is releasing before the interview airs tonight, ABC quotes Gov. Palin as saying Obama is wrong to oppose settlement expansion, an ongoing issue that is dimming the chances for progress on peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

    “I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin said. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”

    While her assertion that more and more Jews will be “flocking” to Israel soon is dubious (the immigration of US Jews to Israel hit an 18-year low in 2007 while the Palestinian population in the area is growing at faster rate than the Jewish one), her wholehearted support for settlement expansion on land Israel seized in 1967 is an outlier. The West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered to be illegally occupied by the UN and most world governments . Direct support for settlements would be a stunning departure for the US.

    The administrations of Presidents Nixon, Johnson, Ford, Carter, and Clinton all considered the annexation of land seized in 1967 illegal. President Ronald Reagan took a position that some might be legal, but opposed their expansion. Prior to becoming president, as the US ambassador to the UN, George H.W. Bush called the settlements illegal. His son, President George W. Bush, thought natural growth for existing settlements was fine, but was opposed to new ones.

    Her comments are drawing criticism from editorial writers and Israeli peace groups. “It turns out that we’ve got it all wrong in the Middle East,” writes Dallas Morning News editorial writer Tod Robberson. “Despite the fact that every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter has recognized the damage done by Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, Sarah Palin says the solution is simply to butt out…. Stay tuned for her solution to global warming: Burn more coal.”

    American-Israeli peace activist Noam Shelef, writing at the website of Americans for Peace Now, writes: “Those of us who care about Israel and peace cannot afford to simply dismiss Palin’s comments. Palin’s statements are likely to become the new conservative line of attack against President Obama’s efforts to bring peace to Israel. Gov. Palin may not be aware of it, but every American president in the past 40 years — Republican and Democrat alike — has opposed West Bank settlements. They have done so because settlement expansion is bad for American national security interests and because they have cared about Israel’s well-being.”

    Writing on Foreign Policy magazine’s blog Blake Hounshell writes the “settlements are hugely problematic for peace” and that her position amounts to “supporting an Israeli policy that all serious people understand to be deeply corrosive to the prospects for peace and to Israel itself.”

    Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street (a pro-Israel lobbying group in DC that favors a negotiated peace settlement), said in a press release that “Palin’s pandering to her right-wing base comes at the expense of the security of the State of Israel, the lives of those actually living the conflict, and the fundamental American interest in achieving a two-state solution in the near term.”

    Comment by ayn reagan — November 24, 2009 @ 5:44 pm


  2. I love Palin primarily because of who hates her:

    Best reason I have heard to date in support of her. I can live with that reasoning.

    “I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin said. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow.

    More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead

    Is she befuddled? Prescient? Or does she know something we don’t?

    Comment by yamit82 — November 24, 2009 @ 6:17 pm


  3. Good post Ayn.

    Whether the settlements built in J & S and previously Gaza are illegal or not which most here contend, there is no question that Israel, by building those settlements, has taken steps not only in direct conflict with Arab/Palestinian claims that the land is theirs, but these steps only add fuel to the already blazing Jew/Israel hatred of the Arabs and Palestinians.

    As Israel’s presence in J & S becomes more widespread and entrenched, the Arabs’ and Palestinians’ dream of getting the whole of J & S back Jew free are diminished.

    For those Arabs and Palestinians who might be in favor of a 2 state solution, they see as their claimed land diminishes, they will have an unsustainable lesser portion of land for their expected Jew free state and Israel will have more.

    Obama’s stance that all Israeli settlements built since 1967 including in Jerusalam are illegal and that Israel must halt all further settlement construction, while it may be a restatement of past American positions (save for Bush Jr.’s tolerance for existing settlements) it is most starkly and uncompomisingly stated. That has given Palestinians/Arabs reason to adopt Pres. Obama’s position in that regard and look to Pres. Obama to make it happen.

    As the Palestinians/Arabs see Pres. Obama faltering in forcing Israel to her knees and Israel’s settlements looking more like permanent features of J & S which galls the Palestinians/Arabs as a completely unacceptable situation, the result is that the chasm separating Israel and Palestinians/Arabs from peace has widened much further.

    In this regard, the left wing and Jewish peaceniks are right that Israel’s settlement policies and actions have been an anathema to peace.

    Where they are wrong however, is that they have singled out Israel for blame and completely ignored the fundamental cause for the failure of peace to come to fruition, which is Palestinian and Arab intractable Jew/Israel hatred and rejection of Israel’s right to exist.

    The issue for the Palestinians/Arabs is still not about what benefits they would derive from peace, but the fact that hated Israel would derive benefit and they cannot abide the possibility that Israel would benefit at all.

    Things with the Arab/Palestinian attitudes as regards Jews and Israel have not changed over the last 60 years and there is no reason to believe that they will change any time soon.

    The gulf between Arabs and Palestinians on the one hand and Israel on the other for now and for the forseeable future at least, therefore appears to be unbridgeable.

    Comment by Bill Narvey — November 24, 2009 @ 6:34 pm


  4. All political groups want power and influence. YThe Neocons are no different. They supported Bush into the Whitehouse for eight years. Now I believe they are backing Palin with a view to seeing if they will back her all the way.

    Comment by Ted Belman — November 24, 2009 @ 6:46 pm


  5. Good post Ayn.

    It is from the Christian Science Monitor. They cover Israeli-related stories better than most.

    “I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin said. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow.

    I believe this calculation is exclusively based upon your sperm count, yamit.

    Since you exchanged briefs for boxers the projected population of Israel in 2020 had been adjusted from 8 million to 1.6 billion.

    Comment by ayn reagan — November 24, 2009 @ 7:27 pm


  6. Ayn, you’re hilarious.

    Comment by Ted Belman — November 24, 2009 @ 8:20 pm


  7. Since you exchanged briefs for boxers the projected population of Israel in 2020 had been adjusted from 8 million to 1.6 billion.

    How did you know? That I changed briefs for boxers? I thought only hairdressers …..?

    Prolific sperm count? That’s why I got the nickname ……! “Groznyi Yober”

    Comment by yamit82 — November 24, 2009 @ 8:56 pm


  8. If Sarah runs for the Presidency, Ayn should be her running mate. We men who have been married, should know the terror men face. Pity the Muslims.

    Comment by Ed D — November 24, 2009 @ 9:37 pm


  9. yamit >How did you know? That I changed briefs for boxers? I thought only hairdressers …..?

    Prolific sperm count? That’s why I got the nickname ……! “Groznyi Yober”

    ______________________________________________________
    correction : Groznyi Yober should read “farcokta Mishigeggi”

    Comment by h peskin — November 24, 2009 @ 9:59 pm


  10. correction : Groznyi Yober should read “farcokta Mishigeggi”

    Good Peskin, what are you aiming for to be my “FAIRY” JEW MOTHER?

    Comment by yamit82 — November 24, 2009 @ 10:47 pm


  11. ayn :I believe this calculation is exclusively based upon your sperm count, yamit.

    Since you exchanged briefs for boxers the projected population of Israel in 2020 had been adjusted from 8 million to 1.6 billion
    ________________________________________________________________
    Speaking of sperm, I think we can all agree that it is high time for us to find you a real live guy.Ted suggests, that at this stage of the game we cannot be to pickey or choosey. ANYTHING THAT MOVES WILL DO.

    Do not despair, the age of miracles has not ended. G-d is good.
    And when that great say arrives, may you have a cherry popping good time,

    Ohmain

    Comment by h peskin — November 24, 2009 @ 11:39 pm


  12. If Sarah runs for the Presidency, Ayn should be her running mate. We men who have been married, should know the terror men face. Pity the Muslims.

    Comment by Ed D — November 24, 2009 @ 9:37 pm

    I will certainly support that ticket. Perhaps I could be given a role in the administration?

    Comment by Laura — November 25, 2009 @ 12:08 am


  13. I will certainly support that ticket. Perhaps I could be given a role in the administration?

    How about Grand Inquisitor?

    That had to be the coolest government job ever.

    As a matter of fact, you be vice president.

    I want to be Grand Inquisitor.

    Comment by ayn reagan — November 25, 2009 @ 1:09 am

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