Thursday, March 12, 2009

Disproportionate Hypocricy

A German firm which sold some industrial equipment to an Israeli factory is refusing to send the technicians to set it up, because it's in Kiryat Gat, and thus within range of Hamas rockets. Yes, those ineffectual tin-can homemade not-really-serious weapons Hamas has, which cannot be justification for Israeli attempts to make them go away.

So long as they're aimed at Israelis, that is. If you aim them at Germans the narrative changes.

But it's not only the Germans, it's the Americans, too. Powerline points out that Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence and thus an important and influential man, admits that although everyone agrees about the facts, the danger of Iranian nuclear weapons differs according to perspective: The Israelis take it seriously, the Americans not so seriously. Which is foolish of the Americans, because the single most salient fact about the world from an American perspective surely ought to be the aggravating propensity of the rest of the world not necessarily to behave as the Americans might like. If the Iranians and Israelis end up shooting at each other, it won't be helpful to the Americans that they were laid-back about the possibility earlier on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yaakov, the German government is not claiming that the rockets are harmless.

The German company should, however, hire and train some people living in Sderot if they are not willing to send their own people.

Anonymous said...

Good that someone knows so clearly what the German government thinks, and what people should do.Very German, in fact.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Lozowick,

the official German stance on the matter is this:

Germany blames Hamas for Gaza violence
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE4BS3T020081229

Kind regards from Germany