Not About Israel:
Tell you what: the Rude Pundit's not gonna pretend to understand the what's and why's of the new two-front war Israel is fighting. It'd be like saying the Rude Pundit understands what it feels like to have one's clitoris tickled. There's only so much one get one's head around and the Rude Pundit'd rather not spout knee-jerk bullshit like: Israel should defend itself from terrorist savages, or, its converse, bloodthirsty Israel was lookin' for an excuse to start a regional war. (He's damn sure, though, that bombing the shit out of civilians who don't give a fuck about Hezbollah ain't gonna do a whole helluva lot of good, just as he's pretty sure that kidnapping soldiers and constantly threatening the neighborhood bully ain't a good idea, either.) Instead, what the Rude Pundit can say is this:

You remember the raid on Entebbe? Sure ya do, considering that this past July 4 was the thirtieth anniversary of it. Quick review: pro-Palestinian hijackers took over an Air France plane leaving Israel, forced it to land at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where, aided by Idi Amin's government, they held 100 people hostage until a commando force from Israel came in, killed all the hijackers and a bunch of Ugandan soldiers, and saved all but three of the hostages. When Jimmy Carter faced the Iranian hostage crisis a few years later, everyone wanted him to pull off an Entebbe-type attack, which ultimately ended up in the sandstorm debacle. But, man, how we all were taught to worship Israeli ballsiness and toughness, as if we can say, "Fuck negotiation; let's kick some ass." It was, of course, an oversimplification of the situation, since Israel was negotiating with Amin and was prepared to give in to the hijackers' prisoner release demands if military action failed or was not possible.

So many on the right just fuckin' love it when Israel gets all rocket-y, cheering Israel on and not giving a good goddamn that, except for the constant repetition of the phrase "road map," the Bush administration has been a non-player in peace negotiations for some time. Bill "No, Having Been Alan Keyes' Senate Campaign Manager Shouldn't Have Any Bearing on My Credibility" Kristol masturbated loudly and mightily about it on Fox "News" yesterday, squeezing his balls and yowling, "[T]his aggression is a great opportunity to begin resuming the offensive against the terrorist groups. Israel is fighting four of our five enemies in the Middle East, in a sense. Iran, Syria, sponsors of terror; Hezbollah and Hamas."

This was just before Juan Williams, looking on in disgust at the tumescent cock of Kristol about to spray a concupiscent Chris Wallace with neocon jizz, slapped The Weekly Standard editor's dickhead and said, "[Y]ou just want war, war, war, and you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East...[To you] Everybody is weak in the aftermath of Sharon, and so everybody has to prove what a man they are in the Middle East, including — you’re saying, why doesn’t the United States take this hard, unforgiving line?" Kristol, his ejaculation ruined, tucked his half-flaccid pecker back in his pants and shook his head in disgust; he'd have to wait for Israel or the United States to start bombing Iran or Syria before he could get it up again.

Williams also said, "Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been, we don’t talk to anybody. We don’t talk to Hamas. We don’t talk to Hezbollah. We’re not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill?" These are sentiments also expressed by Joe Biden on Meet the Press, that it's not weakness for the most powerful nation to talk, to offer support to, say, the newly elected government of Lebanon back in 2005, when it might have mattered.

When George Bush stood next to Vladimir Putin this past weekend, Putin felt free to degrade the entire Iraq mission, leaving Bush flopping around onstage, in front of the media and the world, like a trout on a sun-drenched dock. The world knows that the Bush administration has wrecked the United States' credibility. All that's left is raw projection of power. And that is the weakest position of all.

Truly, powerful nations can start and fight wars. The truly powerful ones end them.