U.S. leftists back Palestinian state

A U.S. liberal writer and professor has proposed a way to solve the major problem burdening the Middle East:  He proposes denying U.S. visas to residents of certain countries.

Of course the people he wants to deny visas to are residents of...Israel.

He proposed this because he's furious at the results of the Israeli elections, which resulted in a majority for Netanyahu's party.  And why does he hate that?   Because Netanyahu opposes giving Palestinians their own state.

Peter Beinart wants the U.S. to ramp up pressure on Israel to give the Palestinians a state--and he's willing to use a wide array of means to achieve this.

"Our principle should be this: Support any pressure that is nonviolent and consistent with Israels right to exist. That means backing Palestinian bids at the United Nations. It means labeling and boycotting settlement goods. It means joining and amplifying nonviolent Palestinian protest in the West Bank. It means denying visas to, and freezing the assets of, Naftali Bennett and other pro-settler leaders. It means pushing the Obama administration to present out its own peace plan, and to punish yes, punish the Israeli government for rejecting it. It means making sure that every time Benjamin Netanyahu and the members of his cabinet walk into a Jewish event outside Israel, they see Diaspora Jews protesting outside. It means loving Israel more than ever, and opposing its government more than ever. It means accepting that, for now at least, the peace process is over and the pressure process must begin."

Of course if giving the Palestinians a state results in the destruction of Israeli democracy, U.S. leftists, "progressives" and Democrats will loudly deny they had a thing to do with it.

They'll claim Israel's destruction was inevitable, "because we waited too long to give them their own state.  If only you Rethuglicans had taken our advice years ago the destruction of Israel could have been avoided.  But you didn't listen."

They'll deny they ever suggested a Palestinian state.  If confronted with their written words they'll claim they were misquoted.  Framed.  Show 'em video clips of them making the proposals?  Same response.  "Video can be faked."   And "It's all part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy to make those of us who are more sophisticated, more nuanced, look bad."

"I didn't draw a red line--the world drew it." Sound familiar?

People like Peter Beinart and Obama are never held to account for the results of their policies, in part because most of the time reality moves slowly enough that by the time things blow up, people have forgotten who proposed and implemented the policies and programs that blew up.

The other reason is that the organizations that could educate the public about dumb policies--the media--will always circle the wagons around liberal/Democrat/"progressive" pols. 

So we repeat the same blunders again and again.

Of course, "At this point, what difference could it possibly make?"  (Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, on the killing of four Americans in an attack in Benghazi)