The shocking news is that the IRA have now withdrawn their alleged offer to disarm. Surprise! The usual suspects will now say that the Unionists brought this about by refusing to believe a mere IRA promise, which belied everything the IRA has said in the last three years. That, of course, was the entire point of this silly exercise in IRA spin – to deflect blame from the IRA for the breakdown of the “peace”-process. Meanwhile, three IRA members were just caught in Colombia hanging with paramilitary groups there. Intelligence sources tell the Daily Telegraph today that “they were acquiring information and expertise in the firing of home-made and self-engineered rocket and mortar devices for use in rural and urban areas as well as offering their own talents in the same areas of activity.” Hmmm. These terrorists arrived in Colombia posing as journalists five weeks ago, just as the IRA leadership was pulling the wool over the eyes of the “peace” negotiators. The security sources have this to say about the incident: “The Colombian incident confirms what we have said all along. While we have a ceasefire, it simply means that, for a given time, they are not killing police officers and soldiers, but reserve the right to continue all other activities, including murder, punishment attacks, robberies, recruitment, targeting and training. They have not taken a day off since before the ceasefire. They are scouring the world to try to advance their technology and improve their devices.” And people wonder why the Unionists are a teensy bit skeptical of the IRA’s claims to want disarmament.
PLO SCHTICK: Meanwhile, back in Israel, there is a de facto war under way. As Michael Ledeen points out in National Review Online, so much for Clinton’s foreign policy legacy of “peace.” The arguments I made recently about the IRA apply, of course, even more emphatically to the PLO. Both groups are professional terrorist organizations, using an underlying political grievance to stay in the business of killing. Neither will ever faithfully negotiate; and if the leaders of these thugs were foolish enough to negotiate some kind of real truce, they would never be able to enforce it. But the Israeli crisis is even deeper than that of Ireland. In Ireland, you have two democratic governments in Dublin and London, both skeptical of the IRA, and with at least some popular legitimacy to enforce peace. You also have prosperous economies in which there is an alternative for young people who prefer to make money rather than war. In the Levant, every single pro-PLO Arab country is a dictatorship, supported by mob rule, suspicious of capitalism, and dedicated to anti-Zionism as the main means of taking and securing power. The notion that these people can be negotiated with is – how can one put this kindly? – nuts. The truth is that both in Ireland and Israel, the solution is already in place. It’s called partition. What’s needed in both places is not some constant attempt to renegotiate borders. That way simply leads to more war. What’s needed are governments in Jerusalem, London and Dublin prepared to enforce the current borders effectively, and to take on terrorism with unforgiving force. Take it away, Sharon. And save your apologies. Anyone who believes that the PLO wants peace with Israel is so delusional they cannot be persuaded. So ignore them and defend your country.
MICKEY VERSUS THE TIMES: Just so you know I’m not the only one obsessing about bias in the news (like reporting about HIV transmission), here’s Mickey Kaus’s great job detailing how the New York Times did its best to hide the amazing news of the success of welfare reform. Yes, he’s picky. But he’s also right.
The Dish 