Niccolo Machiavelli, the master player of political games
has pulled the ultimate trick on one of the characters in the club of the
double-faces that plague this planet. He wrote a letter and sent it supposedly to
Vladimir Putin but arranged for it to fall into the hands of Josef Joffe of the
club known as World Jury. As expected, the latter tried to make hay of it by
publishing it in the Wall Street Journal under the title: “A Letter from the Prince to Putin” and the subtitle: “Niccolo Machiavelli sends a message on
power politics to Moscow
from beyond the grave.” The Journal agreed to publish the letter, which it did
on March 7, 2014.
People who know what this thing is about understand that the
letter must not be taken at face value, but must be considered to have been
written in code to mean something else. And while some will decode it in a way
that is different from the other, the majority has settled on the following
rewrite. They don't call this guy Machiavelli for nothing; he knows how to take
advantage of those who try to take advantage of him.
Dishonored apprentice of useless sorcery;
For the past 3,500 years – fully 3,000 years before I graced
this planet with my presence – you have been pulling tricks on a human race
that trusted you only to be betrayed by you. And during all this time, you have
been ruthless and imprudent because you absorbed nothing of my wisdom ...
before I came and after I came. And in your foolishness, you have learned
nothing of the phrase “Kto Kovo” which is supposed to mean who dominates whom.
And so you tried to dominate the whole world instead of biting only the pieces
that you could chew. Also, settling in the Middle East
was a caper that proved to be the ultimate in dumb politics.
You did everything wrong. You missed every opportunity that
came your way. You calculated that the balance of power was in your favor
because the neighbors were disorganized. They had assets galore but you guessed
that they will not use them to defeat you once and for all, and you were
correct. But you misjudged their intentions because defeating you was not the
game they played knowing that you will rise again from your ashes like the Phoenix and plague this
planet for another thousand years or more. Instead, they only wanted to contain
you, and give you the opportunity to defeat yourself, and perish like a plant
that withers away.
Worst of all, you are nowhere near being a Machiavellian
when it comes to the use of violence. Every weapon that the Americans send your
way, you use it against the least defended people on this planet. They are the
Palestinian women, their children and their elderly who can neither shield
themselves from the smart bombs you drop on them, nor retaliate to deter you
from coming back replenished once more with more American firepower at your
fingertips.
But never forget that power is when you don't have to use it
– when you don't have to threaten, let alone execute, to get your way. Your
neighbors understand this, and they win by watching you run from one spot to
the other, where you drop a few bombs here and a few bombs there; where you
bark threats at this one, and bark more threats at that one. And once in a
while you mount a blitzkrieg that looks like a victory at the beginning of the
adventure, but where you always end up getting your ass kicked and thrown out
from where you were never a welcome guest.
Everywhere on this planet, people have pooh-poohed you as
someone that continues to live in the Stone Age of the Jewish Bible known as
the Old Testament. You still believe that God is your General who will guide
you to the places where you can raid the undefended people, and live off what
you steal from them. And then you wait for the General to find you another
place you can raid and repeat the performance. But you are beginning to realize
it is getting harder for you to live that way in this day and age.