Michael Prell who used to advise Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been gracious enough or stupid enough to unveil the source of Netanyahu's lack of logic and by implication, the source of all Israeli lack of logic if not all of Jewish lack of logic. To do this, he wrote an article that was published in the Washington Times on August 19, 2011 under the title: “Obama made them hate us” and the subtitle: “'Weak horse' diplomacy has ignited Arab hatred.” What comes out of this article is that Prell himself is one of the reasons why absurdity and lack of logic permeate so pervasively everything Jewish and Israeli.
For several decades, voices have been coming out of Israel to the effect that the Arabs love, respect and fear power therefore America must project power in the region in order to be loved, respected and feared by the Arabs. And the echo repeaters in America echoed and repeated the refrain over and over again – sometimes when there was an occasion to do so and sometimes because an echo repeater had nothing else to say, thus decided to rehash the worn out refrain thereby get published and receive a paycheck. Michael Prell is doing it now for no reason that I can discern and so I must assume that he ran out of money and is looking for something to tidy him up until the muse visits him with one or two new ideas.
What the illogical mind fails to see, however, is that the more it expresses itself, the more it exposes its own absurdity and in doing so nullifies its argument. The approach used by Prell this time is to cherry pick Arab proverbs and use them to explain the result of polls that show a decline among the Arabs of America's popularity and that of Mr. Obama personally. Of course, Michael Prell makes no mention of the fact that the popularity of America has dropped everywhere in the world as did the popularity of Mr. Obama, including in America itself and among those who supported candidate Obama. And all this happened for reasons that have nothing to do with the Middle East or even politics but everything to do with economics. Perhaps this was an oversight on the part of someone who was eager to get as quickly as possible to the center of his thesis.
And so, the first Arab proverb that Prell mentions is the one that goes this way: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” He goes on to opine that this “strong horse” view of power is dominant in the Arab world. He then uses his own opinion to explain that when Obama shows weakness, the Arabs see him as weak. Instead of loving him – which they did at first – they now hate him and by extension hate America too. And because there is nothing that a Jew will do without pushing the envelop past the point of absurdity, Prell goes on to say that there is a more ominous consequence to the Obama weak-horse theory. To explain it, he cherry picks another Arab proverb that goes this way: “A falling camel attracts many knives,” and he explains that weakness makes the Arabs want to stab the falling camel which in real life will mean that the Arabs will feel justified, even provoked to attack and kill Americans. This comes from the people who pretended to know everything and warned before Obama's election that he was a Muslim but is Muslim no more, a fact that makes him an apostate in the eyes of Muslims and a target for assassination. The man is still alive and visiting Arab and Muslim countries without fear.
But having surprised himself by the fact that he was able to stitch together those ideas without detecting his own absurdities, the author now surpasses himself by pushing the argument way past the outer edges of the envelop. He does this in several steps, the first step being that he explains how and why 9/11 happened. This is what he says in this regard: “When al Qaeda attacked the USS Cole in October 2000 ... the terrorists could smell a weak horse. Their perception of American weakness ... inspired the architects of Sept. 11 to [move] forward with murderous plans.” What the author fails to realize here is that October 2000 and September 2001 happened before the election of Mr. Obama. In fact, October 2000 happened just before the election of W. Bush whom he holds up as a model of American strong-horsemanship, and September 2001 happened during his presidency.
What is significant about the mention of these happenings is that it violates the sequencing of chronological events. And this is a principle so sacred in science that even science fiction writers make sure not to violate it because if they do, they prove to be not ready yet for prime time. Thus, for Michael Prell to insinuate that 9/11 happened because a weak Obama was going to be elected 7 years later is to violate the most sacred of scientific absolutes which is the principle of causality. In doing this, the man has proven himself to be as illogical as only a Jew can be. No wonder Netanyahu made him an adviser of his.
The next step in the explanations given by the author is to list what he sees as the failings of the Obama approach since the man assumed office. Here is that list:
One, says Prell, in the Palestinian territories ... 82 percent of Palestinians have an unfavorable view of the United States and they ... form[ed] an official coalition with the strong-horse ... Hamas. Here, the author fails to mention Obama's first veto in favor of Israel at the Security Council of the United Nation, a veto that riled the Palestinians.
Two, Says Prell, in Egypt, America's approval ratings have dropped to 5%, and the Egyptian people are embracing the strong-horse Muslim Brotherhood as their next leader. Here, the author fails to mention that the election has not yet happened in Egypt. Projections were made as to the possible outcome based on what happened in the elections that were carried out during the Mubarak era where the Muslim Brotherhood won as much as 30% of the popular vote. And this has nothing to do with Mr. Obama.
Three, says Prell, in Turkey, the approval rating for America has dropped to 14 percent … and Turkey has gone from being the vacation destination for Israeli tourists to one of Israel's biggest threats. Here, the author fails to mention that Obama did not kill Turkish sailors who tried to bring food and medicine to the Palestinian people who were blockaded and trapped in Gaza. Israel did the blockading of Gaza and the killing of the Turkish sailors. It also refuses to apologize to this day, and Obama has nothing to do with any of this.
Four, says Prell, Lebanon has been swallowed by Hezbollah, Yemen is in chaos, Pakistan gave refuge to Bin Laden and Gaddafi is still in power running Libya (but maybe not for much longer). Here, the author fails to mention that it was President Reagan who pulled the American troops out of Lebanon. And since that time, Israel has tried to play the role of the strong-horse game in that part of the world. Instead of getting respect, however, Israel has only managed to stiffen the backbone of the Arabs who repeatedly kicked the ass of the Israelis in South Lebanon and elsewhere. And several American Presidents after Reagan were wise enough to keep their noses out of that part of the world. As to Bin Laden, it was Obama that got him, not the Israelis.
Five, Just this week, says Prell, the President of Iran unveiled a new threat to Israel. Apparently, the man said that Iran will defend itself within its capabilities which, according to an angry Prell, must have been a response to Obama's announcement that America will not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not use such weapons. What? What is this guy, Michael Prell, saying? Is he saying that American presidents must pace the world carrying nuclear weapons in holsters on both sides of their hips like a modern day cowboy to make Israel feel safe? Can anyone get sicker in the head than this?
And finally, Michael Prell ends with this lamentation: “The Arab world never loved us, but at least it respected and feared American power. Today, under Mr. Obama, the numbers show that a weak-horse America is less respected by the Arab world than a strong-horse America. Events in the Middle East show that the Arab world no longer respects or fears American power.”
If this theory were correct, the Arabs, the Muslims and the rest of the human race would now be worshiping Israel but this is not happening because the theory has turned reality upside down and has adopted a dyslexic view of reality. The truth is that America must reject the advice given to it by people who, for thousands of years, have ended up in the proverbial gas chambers and the incinerators for one reason only which is that they do not know how to get along with human beings.
Clearly, they are not of us. They say they are different and maybe they are.