"I can't stand him… he’s a liar!"

[trish]

How stupid can you get?! People are not devices. The guns are. And the little dicked dudes like you and OMK, who think that picture on the left with all the hardware on "display" (a kind of male animal behavior) exemplifies virility and sound leadership, are the pathetic losers who envy what those "devices" represent. Either that or you just want to suck Netanyahu's dick. But now that we're on the topic, Netanyahu has been a major obstruction to peace in Palestine.

[Faldur]

How stupid can you get?!

What it must be like to live in your world, where you are so brilliant and the rest of the world is so stupid. Must be a sad place...

[trish]

Well it IS pretty obvious that people aren't devices. I don't claim any "brilliance" for that observation. And it's pretty obvious omk used those particular pictures because guns are symbols of virility and as notdrunk points out, Obama's not toting one. So there's nothing brilliant in that observation. What's sad is that you realize all that too, but you're willing to forgo your integrity to be a toady for a netnitwit who calls himself "notdrunk." But hey, thank you for the undeserved compliment.

[notdrunk]

How stupid can you get?! People are not devices. The guns are. And the little dicked dudes like you and OMK, who think that picture on the left with all the hardware on "display" (a kind of male animal behavior) exemplifies virility and sound leadership, are the pathetic losers who envy what those "devices" represent. Either that or you just want to suck Netanyahu's dick. But now that we're on the topic, Netanyahu has been a major obstruction to peace in Palestine.

There you go. Putting your foot in your mouth. I looked beyond the firearms. It is a photo from a time in which he was in the military. He rose to the rank of Captain in the Sayeret Matkal. The Sayeret Matkal is a special forces unit. He chose to join that unit. I guarantee he made life and death decisions during his military service. He led men into combat (is that leadership?!?!?! :0). It also shows how his attitude can be and it will turn people off.

[Stavros]

What a puerile argument for god's sake.

Anyway iran said yesterday that the explosion was an accident. Normally they'd b quick to blame Mossad.

And an attack on iran? Just what we need after the mess we all made in Iraq and Afghanistan. It might, however, be hard for Israel to resist because for them a nuclear iran (with Ahmadinejad and his apocalyptic mad sect in control) would be an existential threat. (There is very distrubing piece about the Twelver sect in Iran in a recent NYRB - can't find it now - but this has some interesting background.
http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/gue...elfthimam.html )

Prospero, I think we should let the Americans snipe at each other on the Bibi/Obama photo call.


Re Iran: You may know that in contrast to the 'Twelver Shia's' the Ismaili are 'Seveners' who believe the 7th Imam Jaffar was the rightful leader of all Muslims -they also have seven pillars of the faith where Sunna have five, and needless to say Ismaili like most Shi'a are not considered Muslims by a lot of Sunna, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The messianic element in Shi'a discourse has been constant since the schism, whether or not the Hojjatieh mentioned in your link have as much influence over Ahmadinejad is a debatable point, but what is not in doubt is that there has been a major falling out between Ahmadinejad and Khamane'i since they conspired to steal the last Presidential elections in 2009 and use various paramilitaries to crush dissent thereafter.

It seems Ahmadinejad took the election 'victory' as a green light to forge his own path, and maintain his legacy by appointing the father-in-law of his daughter -Esfandar Masha'i - as his successor as Vice President. Masha'i then made a speech in which he claimed Iran is a friend of Israel and the USA after which Ahmadinejad was forced to sack him for that speech and the lack of consultation on government appointments that suggested Ahmadinejad thought he could rule without the 'supervision' of the Clergy, for it is precisely this desperate need by Khamane'i and the Clergy to retain what they see as Khomeini's legacy that is at the core of the conflict.

Ahmadinejad has been a colossal flop -apart from becoming a figure of ridicule in the west, none of his promises of economic growth have borne fruit, instead whatever money Iran makes is being poured into the nuclear gamble, and its offshore funding of favourites in Lebanon and Afghanistan -interestingly less so in Syria in recent months. Having second largest reserves of gas in the world do not give Iran much of an edge domestically, it has to import gas and its argument that it needs nuclear power to generate electricity is, ironically, valid but only if it works, given that Iran has one of the best educated population in the region but neither they nor their energy sector seem to be working (!).

Legislative elections follow next year, the Presidential one the year after, and given that most Iranians want good relations with Israel and the West it will be interesting to see if Netanyahu disregards all this for his own deliberate policy of not informing the USA and ignoring Obama on his government's intentions, and attacking Iran. The Iranians are absorbed with their own spats, Israel could yet prove to be as counter-productive as it has been under Sharon and Netayahu to nobody's benefit. It just seems very convenient that an attack on a missile base kills a prominent member of the missile programme, but I can't prove Israel was behind it.

Durham have a useful paper with some of the details on Ahmadinejad's neo-fascist connections in Iran and the bizarre definition of Israel which means that when they refer to it being 'erased' and so on, they only claim to be referring to Jewish settlers. Whatever.

http://dro.dur.ac.uk/7087/1/7087.pdf

[trish]

I looked beyond the firearms.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Half a day after your post maybe. And even then you felt it important somehow to point out that Obama has no firearm. Like I said, you were drawn in and are still drawn in by the symbol of virility those weapons represent. The person in the right hand photo, the President, is the person who btw ordered the raid that killed Bin Laden, ordered the mission that took out Anwar Al-awlaki, oversaw the fall of Ghaddafi and even put a fleet of Somali pirates in their place and for way less the cost in lives and money paid by the previous president.

He rose to the rank of Captain in the Sayeret Matkal. The Sayeret Matkal is a special forces unit. He chose to join that unit. I guarantee he made life and death decisions during his military service. He led men into combat (is that leadership?!?!?! :0).

Never denied any of that. Sure Netanyahu is a leader. That's an empirical fact. But where has his intransigence and corruption led Israel? To an apparent impasse. Extreme conservatism is anathema to progress__it's in the word "conservatism". Witness the impasse in the U.S. Congress which is due to the radical right's stigmatization of the word "compromise."

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.c...-conversation/

[Dino Velvet]

The guy on the left, Dino, who you say you don't like, has already sent Mossad into Iran where, according to the Guardian (UK) they attacked a missile base:

The blast at the Alghadir missile base at Bid Ganeh was so powerful it rattled windows 30 miles away in Tehran. Witnesses said it sounded like a huge bomb had been dropped. Seventeen of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were killed, among them a man described his peers as the "architect" of the country's missile programme, Major General Hassan Moghaddam.

Sometimes your political choices are irrational, in the sense that your opinion on people conflict with their affinity with your views...Netanyahu is one of the most dangerous people in the region, a man who rejected the Oslo Accords and the peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, which is why he has done so much to ignore it. A man who has offered no support whatsoever for Arab democracy -and a man who has treated with contempt the government [and by extension, the people] of the USA -the same government that guarantees his country's security and transfers a staggering amount of taxpayer's $$$$ year after year.

What a puerile argument for god's sake.

Anyway iran said yesterday that the explosion was an accident. Normally they'd b quick to blame Mossad.

And an attack on iran? Just what we need after the mess we all made in Iraq and Afghanistan. It might, however, be hard for Israel to resist because for them a nuclear iran (with Ahmadinejad and his apocalyptic mad sect in control) would be an existential threat. (There is very distrubing piece about the Twelver sect in Iran in a recent NYRB - can't find it now - but this has some interesting background.
http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/gue...elfthimam.html )

I had heard about an accident reported on the news too. But, after reading what Stavros wrote, who knows? Anything's possible.

I would love to hear Nicolas Sarkozy elaborate on why he he thinks Netanyahu is a liar and what Netanyahu lies about. Netanyahu is not helpful and I hate the manipulation Israel does to compel people to assist them. Not sure if Sarkozy has the guts to be honest himself. I'd listen.

[hippifried]

Extreme conservatism is anathema to progress__it's in the word "conservatism". Witness the impasse in the U.S. Congress which is due to the radical right's stigmatization of the word "compromise."

"Extreme conservatism" is anathema to itself. It's an oxymoron that creates an irreconcilable paradox. This is just another reason why I despise the linear political descriptive, & the silly current habit of interchanging terminology. It confuses the narritive until there's noyhing remaining but derogatory animus. It's a lot harder to keep the dialog civil if nobody knows what the other is talking about.


Back to the topic (which isn't guns by the way):

All I know of Netenyahu is what I've gleaned from the miniscule spun coverage we get here. I would imagine it's probably the same for anyone who isn't Israeli in here, regardless of how pompously some will deny that. Other than what appears to be promotion of Israeli expansion & a disdain for non-Jews, I really don't know what his politics or economics are. Hawkish & expansionist nationalism doesn't necessarily equate to fascist ideals. He could be Maoist for all I know. It's hard to think of anything more commie & little red bookish than a kibbutz. I just don't like the dude because he comes off as such an arrogant asshole.


P.S. The 2nd Amendment says you have a "right to keep & bear arms". There's nothing that says it's the right or smart thing to do. My observations tell me that packing makes you a target.

[russtafa]

Obama is on his way here to visit Australia and i suppose our useless Prime Minister will gush all over him

[Dino Velvet]

I just don't like the dude because he comes off as such an arrogant asshole.

Hippi, we agree on something. Netenyahu has a face made for a fist. He makes many other Israeli leaders appear calm and reasonable almost having a Stalin effect projected onto them.