Month: March 2010

Fred Kaplan gives us a brief reality check:

It is worth noting, for instance, that every nation or international entity that has taken a position on the issue—except for Israel—regards East Jerusalem, at least formally, as “occupied territory.” Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, but no other country recognized the move. U.N. Resolution 478, passed soon after, declared the annexation to be in violation of international law and thus “null and void.” (The Security Council passed the resolution with no dissent; even the United States merely abstained.)

And he gets why Obama must not, cannot back down:

U.S. envoy George Mitchell was on the verge of starting “indirect” talks between Israelis and Palestinians, shuttling between the two, at least initially. The talks were quietly supported by Saudi Arabia, whose rulers want to check the regional ambitions of Iran, which uses (and supplies) Hezbollah and Hamas as its surrogates. A convergence of interests between Israel and Arab moderates—among whom can be numbered Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad—would tilt the regional balance away from Iran. This tilt could help in the campaign to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons—and perhaps solidify support for U.S. and NATO policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, this entire chain depends on one critical link: the appearance of a genuine and promising movement toward an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. For their own standing in the rest of the Arab world and among their own potentially volatile populations no Arab country can afford to get too cozy with the United States, and especially not with Israel, as long as that link is severed.

By continuing to expand in East Jerusalem, the Israeli government’s leaders demonstrate that they are not interested in a real peace.

And until they are, the US’s interests globally are threatened. This is where the rubber hits the road. If AIPAC wants to use this weekend to pretend nothing has changed or that this is somehow Obama’s fault, or that we can continue on fighting Jihadism while they keep polarizing the Muslim world, then they need an attitude adjustment. When you’ve lost your European allies, Turkey, and the US president, Cllnton, Emanuel and Biden, you need to realize you’ve become your own worst enemy.

Enough.

Goldblog surveys the series of pretty awful diplomatic blunders over the last few months and concludes:

Bibi Netanyahu is not in control of his government. He has brought into his coalition parties — Lieberman's party, the Shas Party — that are narrow-focused, excessively-rightist, stubborn and prideful, and now he's paying the price. The problem is that Israel is paying the price as well. America can afford stupid politicians. Israel can't.

Jeffrey rightly points out something that many missed: the truly stupid alienation of Turkey. But he doesn't note that the Dubai assassination wasn't merely impolitic with respect to the UAE but to France, Germany, Ireland, Australia and Britain, whose citizens had their passports and identities stolen. is it really in the interests of Israel to have MI5 pissed off? In the Times, former Tory foreign minister, Malcolm Rifkind, puts it this way:

Was it a cock-up? Or was it a conspiracy? In all probability it was a cocked-up conspiracy.

We are now getting all sorts of excuses and explanations – East Jerusalem has always been fair game for new Jewish settlements, Netanyahu didn't know what was happening, Obama has made this worse than it might have been, and on and on. But the truth is: Petraeus is right.

If Israel continues to alienate and insult every ally, as it has done now for over a year, and if its actions inflame Jihadist terrorism which US forces are trying to tamp down, then this is an American issue. And the American president has every right and reason to protest and get a change in attitude and policy from Jerusalem. 

And, yes, the Palestinians could always throw this opportunity away. But it's there now. And Obama must not flinch on seizing it.

From Brad DeLong.

Greg Scoblete sums up Robert Pape's view:

In contrast to the popular assertions that terrorists "hate freedom" or want to build a 21st century Caliphate, Pape documents the true driver of suicide attacks: to compel a democracy to remove combat forces from territory the terrorists prize and/or want to liberate. It is not primarily a function of Muslim extremism, even if Muslim terrorists have embraced the tactic.

Edwards Glaeser explains how you shrink a city:

Detroit has a large number of communities that are dominated by empty lots and vacant homes.  Mayor Bing has spoken of providing incentives for the people still living in such areas to relocate, and warned them that “if they stay where they are I absolutely cannot give them all the services they require.” For a big-city mayor to warn that some areas will be no-service zones is radical, but our country is filled with less populated areas that lack public trash removal, bus service and water provision.   In a sense, Mayor Bing would just be treating the least dense areas of Detroit like those other less dense areas.

Richard Rothstein joins the discussion:

Ravitch says she was converted because the "facts have changed," but that's not really the case. What has changed is the recent appreciation by her and her colleagues of how incentives to boost basic-skill test scores at the expense of all else inevitably corrupt education. In Death and Life, she describes the familiarity of sociologists, economists, and business theorists with a 1975 observation of Donald T. Campbell that such corruption erupts in any field where simple quantitative measures are substituted for careful evaluation. "Campbell's Law" is expressed when cardiac surgeons, held accountable for raising surgical survival rates, refuse to operate on the sickest patients most in need of intervention; … or when Wall Street traders take reckless risks because they are rewarded only for short-term, easily measured outcomes.

A reader adds:

I’ve been reading the posts on this topic with extreme interest.  You see I live in Texas.  That’s right – the state that spawned NCLB.  I have a son who is a sophomore.  I removed him from the Texas public school system between 4^th and 5^th grade.  I now pay more in private school tuition per year than the full load at a local state university.  Why?  Because while teachers are teaching to the test, NCLB manages at the same time to ensure very few get

pushed ahead. 

Everyone is so busy teaching for the tests, especially for the students who struggle, that some schools neglect the kids who need to be challenged.  I pulled my son out because he was not a quietly bored kid and I was always at the school listening to the latest escapade story.  When he finished one of those tests a few hours early the school refused to let him read a book, but made a 9 year old boy sit in a school desk for 2.5 hours with nothing to do.  He hated school.  Too often this translates to hating learning.  Do we really want to do this to our kids?  This year he told me he is finally enjoying school.  For his junior year in high school he has asked to register for 5 AP courses. 

Best decision I ever made, best money I ever spent.

Today on the Dish we watched Netanyahu dig in, Abe Foxman play the Jewish card on Petraeus, the Greens kept the fires burning in Iran, and more evidence surface against DADT. The WaPo and Bernstein gave Kucinich more attention, Chait bemoaned the debate over process, and Noah Millman outlined how the GOP could reform healthcare in the future. More HCR drumbeats here and here.

Andrew wondered when the pope will resign and addressed Rove's hypocrisy over his gay father. Chris Beam profiled Breitbart (with help from a reader). Ben Wildavsky and Dish readers carried on the conversation over NCLB. And controversy over that Israel map continued.

Crazy talk from Steve King and Ben Shapiro. Cool ad here. Creepy hosts here. Matthew Schmitz hated on St. Paddy's Day while we posted a poem and a comedy skit. Andrew gayed it up with Kathy Griffin.

— C.B.

Holder said yesterday that bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom." Matt Steinglass counters:

Call me an Islamofascist symp, but I rather like the idea of seeing the man put on trial in downtown Manhattan on 2,900-plus counts of first-degree murder. There must be some part of my brain that's still frozen in September 10th 2001 mode, because I just can't remember the chapter in American history where we apparently decided that criminal trials are some kind of favour we do for terrorists that proves we're postmodern multicultural cowards who lack confidence in our own civilisation, or whatever. Seems to me that if a trial was good enough for Adolf Eichmann and Saddam Hussein, it's good enough for Osama Bin Laden.

Jay Newton-Small:

[T]he 24-hour cable net cycle has been stuck on ugly process maneuverings in the vacuum of no score from the Congressional Budget Office and no bill. This meme just adds to the back room aura and sweetheart reputation the legislation has enjoyed for months. You're getting hit on all sides – from the President, the Speaker, constituents, even donors. Oh, and, it turns out most folks really do hate you.

But, oh how quickly things can change. If you pass the bill, next week's coverage is likely to trumpet triumph, the most productive legislative session since LBJ, an historic and seminal victory.

Catherine Tate, genius: