The title is a joke, of course. Friends are what people have, not countries. This post was touched off by some talking head on Fox News repeating the "Putin isn't our friend" cliché, which has now been said by everybody, it seems, from Harry Reid to John Bolton to maybe even Hillary herself. Trivially true, of course. Putin isn't the "friend" of any country, except maybe his own, in a figurative sense. No person is the friend of a country, and no country is the friend of anybody or anything, people or other countries, or planets, or galaxies. It's somewhat a matter of proportion. Putin can't be France's friend any more that a mite on your eyelash can be the friend of the guy who lives next door to you.
What countries have is allies and enemies, and those classifications can change very fast. Put another way, as in the quibcag, "Countries can't be ‘friends’ with one another, because in order to do, so, they'd have to put the interests of their ‘friends’ ahead of their own, at least sometimes, which is suicidal behavior on their part, because countries are sovereign and therefore don't live in meta-countries with laws and safety nets to ensure the survival and well-being of their constituent countries."
And if they do have anything like that, they're member states in an
empire which is a whole nother thing.
And this is also significant with regard to the "friend" meme about Israel, and also the "our greatest "ally" one. Lord Palmerston is famous for the quote in the quibcag that is usually paraphrased as "Nations have no permanent friends, only permanent interests." or something of the sort. I used his actual words in the quibcag, which aren't quite as pithy, but have the virtue of being what he actually said. And when it comes to Israel as an "ally," do we have some kind of treaty with them that requires us to come to each other's aid in case of war? If there is, I don't know anything about it. Actually, Israel is more like a brother-in-law who keeps "borrowing" your money, and asking you to accompany him on his walks around town to deter people he's pissed off from punching him. That, and he reads your mail and listens in on your telephone conversations, and when you criticize anything at all that he does, or even raise an eyebrow when he does them, he sets up a wail that you're "bashing" him and "hate" him, and that you're an anti-brother-in-law-ite. Oh, and he beats his wife (your wife is the Israel lobby and he's her brother and
his wife is the Palestinians) and everybody talks about it except for you, and you don't talk about it because your wife might get mad. Israel isn't our friend. Neither is Bibi.
And some talking head on Fox News just said
again that "Israel is our friend."
I've always sympathized with the Palestinians, and when I say always, I mean since before the '67 war. I remember after that, hearing American Jews swagger about with pride at the toughness of Israeli forces, while as for our Vietnam war, they were either indifferent to it, or downright hateful towards this country because of it. Pretty clear to me what country was "their country," and it pissed me off then and still does now. As for the Palestinians, they are screwed over big time. One maddening absurdity is that American Christians, many of them, support Israel when they push Palestinian
Christians around. Maybe they don't know there
are Palestinian Christians. They're 6% of Palestine, if anybody cares. The fact that Palestinians, as a collective nation, seem to be crazy, isn't all that relevant, since Israel has treated them horribly for the last 68 years, probably long before they
became crazy. And, of course, Israel itself, as a collective Jewish nation, is
also crazy. Just look where they decided to set up housekeeping when they could have gone to Madagascar or Alaska. Crazy.
I have no problem with our having Israel as an ally (but let's get that treaty drafted and signed, okay?), but I have a
big problem with dual citizenship, with the US and Israel or with the US and
any other country. If you become a citizen of Israel, or Taiwan, or Paraguay, you automatically renounce your US citizenship. Simple as that.
And isn't it interesting that, despite all this, the Obama administration is playing scorched earth, burning the fields and poisoning all the wells before the Stormtrumpers move in, throwing Russian diplomats out of the country for no discernible reason, and giving Israel a reason to have a hissy-fit. (If John Kerry gave a speech about me, I'd have a hissy-fit, no matter
what he said.) I wonder if
any administration in history ever tried this hard to create needless problems for the next administration.
Neither Putin nor Netanyahu is an idiot, so Trump should be able to soothe the hurt feelings pretty easily, since it's obvious to both of them what Obama is up to. Not that they both won't try to use the situation to their own advantage. I would. Trump would.
Speaking of Russia, I'm with Trump, and I want to work with Russia, as a formal or informal ally, to stabilize the Middle East. A good idea, right? Better than deliberately creating chaos, as our Presidents have been doing since 1989. But
Paul Craig Roberts warns Russia here [link] that if they get too close to us, they might lose an eye.
And, finally,
Vox Day warns the "Israel is our friend" basket of naifs that some Israelis definitely are anything but friends [link]:
Israeli parliamentarian destroys the New Testament and declares that Christianity "belongs in the garbage can of history".
MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union), a member of the Israeli parliament tore up a copy of the New Testament and threw it in the trash, an act that was apparently caught on camera. Ben Ari and several other Knesset members received by mail on Monday a copy of the New Testament, sent by the Bible Society in Israel, an organization that distributes religious books.
In the letter sent with the book, director of the Christian organization Victor Kalisher wrote that the new edition “sheds light on the Holy Scriptures and helps understand them."
“We hope the book will help you and illuminate your way,” Kalisher furter wrote.
However, while most MK's chose to ignore the book or return it to its sender, the rightist lawmaker chose to term the book a "provocation," tore it up into shreds and then threw it out.
“This abominable book (the New Testament) galvanized the murder of millions of Jews during the Inquisition and during auto da fe instances,” Ben Ari said adding that “Sending the book to MK's is a provocation. There is no doubt that this book and all it represents belongs in the garbage can of history.”
Imagine the outrage if a U.S. Congressman tore up a copy of the Talmud and denounced Judaism on camera.
There is no such thing as Judeo-Christianity. It does not exist. There are no "Judeo-Christian values", any more than there are "Islamo-Christian" or "Hindu-Shinto" values.
What many naive Christians need to understand is that many Jews absolutely hate Christians and Christianity. Such Jews are neither our friends nor our allies, but our overt enemies.
That does not mean that all Jews are enemies of Christianity. It doesn't even mean that most of them are. It simply means that they are a distinct people with their own distinct interests, a nation who should neither be favored nor trusted on the sole basis of their religious or ethnic identity. And like everyone else, Jews should be judged as individuals, on the basis of their individual statements and actions.
As for Israel, the USA should support it to the extent it is in American interests to do so. As a regional power in the volatile Middle East, Israel is much more useful to Americans as an ally than as an enemy. But Christians nevertheless need to understand that many Israelis, including some Israeli political leaders, are their open and avowed enemy.
Now, I realize there are more than a few Jews and Christians alike who would prefer to bury all signs of this Jewish enmity for Christians and Christianity for one reason or another. This is understandable, and it may even be well-intentioned. But if you are inclined to knowingly keep the deceived in the dark, I think you really need to ask yourself whom you are serving in that regard.
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Quibcag: Two allies, at least for now, Japan and the US, symbolized in the first quibcag by the girls from
Hetalia: Axis Powers (Axis Powers ヘタリア). In the second, the girls from
Nichijou (日常) demonstrate friendship. And the third is the Israeli girl, also from
Hetalia: Axis Powers (Axis Powers ヘタリア).