Once in a while you
encounter someone that has gotten so annoyed with himself holding the mask in
front of his face, he decides to throw the mask away at least during the one
occasion in which he seek to make points too difficult to express from behind a
mask.
This is the spot where
Bret Stephens finds himself standing as he tries to bludgeon Vladimir Putin of Russia for
grabbing Ukrainian territory. In so doing, he collides with principles he
trampled on during all his professional life as he tried to construct a
philosophical and legal framework that would justify the Jewish grab of
Palestinian lands. He never completed that task, and what he is doing now will
end up turning his world so much upside down, Alice herself will feel befuddled
by this lopsided version of Bret's Wonderland.
You can see the Stephens
machinations in the article he wrote under the title: “Apologies for Vladimir”
that could easily have read: “Apologies for Bibi,” and the subtitle: “Putin's
seizure of Crimea gets an assist from foreign policy realists and postmodern
liberals,” that could easily have read: “Bibi's seizure of West Bank territory
gets an assist from Wall Street Journal types and from Victor Hanson
disciples.” The article was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 25,
2014.
To set the stage for doing
battle with Putin's apologists, he begins by putting down what those apologists
say. First of all, they say that “Crimea
itself is ethnically Russian.” This is a more powerful excuse than that of the
Jews who insist they lived in Palestine
thousands of years ago, and while they may no longer be of the Hebrew or
Semitic race, they have a sentimental attachment to the land. Second of all,
they say that “Crimea passed into Ukrainian hands
through a Soviet bureaucratic maneuver.” This too is a more powerful excuse
than to say Palestine
passed into Jewish hands through British colonial bureaucratic maneuver, and
Jewish terrorism.
Stephens goes on to say:
“As for provocation, how could any Russian leader be indifferent to a Ukraine that
sought to join NATO or the European Union?” So the question is this: How could
any Arab – leader or commoner – be indifferent to a so-called Israel that says it may be located in the Middle
East but its heart is in Europe and its mind in America ?
Past that, Stephens says:
“In this reading, the West's policies toward Russia have been a complex of
patronizing lectures about democracy and good governance,” something that can
be translated as follows to apply to the Middle Eastern situation: In this
reading, Israel's policies toward its Arab neighbors, especially the
Palestinians, have been the dishing out of a load of B.S. about a Jewish
democracy that is more like savagery out the Stone Age. They have also been
policies of trying to sell to the Arabs technical knowledge that the Jews knew
less about than they knew about the hole in their anatomy.
Unhappy with the stance
taken by the Vladimir Putin apologists, Stephens unloads on them: “Let's get a
few things straight.” (1) “Russia
does not need Ukraine as a
territorial buffer,” which sounds like Israel
does not need the settlements in occupied Jerusalem
as a territorial buffer. (2) “A historic claim is not a valid claim,” which can
be translated into: “Get those Jewish squatters out of there.” (3) “Ethnic
claims aren't valid claims, either,” especially when the claim to Jewish
ethnicity is a made-up bogus claim. (4) “Russia was not humiliated by the
end of the Cold War,” which is meant to tell the Jews that the Palestinians did
not humiliate them. Someone else may have done so, but they should not take it
on the Palestinians. (5) “Crimea is not Iraq ,” which sounds like the West
bank is not the Promised Land. (6) “Neocons typically want to promote liberal
democracy,” which is like saying the bloodthirsty settlers want to promote
peace and harmony.
And so, our dear Bret
Stephens ends his article by giving the American administration what he believes
is good advice. He begins with a preface: “Putin is pursuing his own interest
as ringleader in a corrupt oligarchy sitting on the economic time bomb that is
a commodities-based economy,” which sounds like: Bibi is pursuing the interest
of Jewish gambling moguls in a corrupt Atone Age setup living off the economic
time bomb that is compensation-based and donation-based economy.