There is something quite remarkable about the desperation of Chris Christie – but also telling about the litmus tests you have to pass in today’s GOP money primary. The price of entry is denying that Palestinians have any right to the country they have lived in their entire lives (and many generations), and thereby ensuring that Greater Israel is the formal policy, for the first time, of the United States. The occupied territories are not “occupied”. They are Israel. Anyone who says otherwise (i.e. the overwhelming majority of the entire world and every U.S. president since the founding of the state of Israel) “either doesn’t understand the issue at all, or he’s hostile to Israel,” as enforcer, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, insisted. And we know Christie can bully. But watch his talent at groveling:
The source told POLITICO that Christie “clarified in the strongest terms possible that his remarks today were not meant to be a statement of policy.” Instead, the source said, Christie made clear “that he misspoke when he referred to the ‘occupied territories.’ And he conveyed that he is an unwavering friend and committed supporter of Israel, and was sorry for any confusion that came across as a result of the misstatement.”
I slept twelve hours last night. The Dish didn’t. This weekend, we explored the laughter of animals, Oscar Wilde’s view of Christ as a poet, what straight women look for in men on a dance-floor, and the bitter honesty and self-doubt of Flannery O’Connor. Aronofsky’s “Noah” needs to be seen in the same light as Rembrandt’s “The Raising of the Cross.” Malcolm Gladwell unearths the great secular-religious divide that led to the massacre of so many in Waco, Texas. If you want to see something surpassingly beautiful tonight, watch this.
One quote:
For the first time in my life, I felt like there was a creator of the universe, a force greater than myself, and that I should be kind and loving.
How do you achieve such an epiphany? See here.
The most popular post of the weekend was It’s Not Easy Being Grün, followed by The Quintessential American Word: “Hi!”
See you in the morning.
(Photo: SGT Martyn Piggott from Pittstown, New Jersey with the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division patrols across barren foothills outside of Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank looking for positions the enemy has used to send rockets onto the FOB on March 30, 2014 near Pul-e Alam, Afghanistan. By Scott Olson/Getty Images.)
The Dish 