Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Roger Cohen, "My Jewish State": Still Playing Footloose With the Truth

Let's begin 2014 by asking which New York Times columnist is more ignorant concerning matters involving the Middle East, Thomas Friedman or Roger Cohen? Today, in his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "My Jewish State" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/opinion/cohen-my-jewish-state.html?ref=opinion), Roger Cohen certainly places his brainlessness on full display. Cohen writes:

"I am not going to gripe about brilliant Twitter. I have nothing new to say about Miley Cyrus. But I am going to make one prediction for 2014. It is that, for all John Kerry’s efforts, this will be another year in which peace is not reached in the Middle East. (And if I am wrong, I vow Sisyphean penance in eternity.)

Plenty of bad things have happened between Israelis and Palestinians of late. There has been a steady uptick in violence."

No peace in the Middle East in 2014? That's a no-brainer given the violence, oppression and chaos plaguing Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and the rest of the region. However, Cohen would have us only focus on the Israeli/Palestinian dispute, which indeed has evidenced an "uptick in violence" in recent weeks, but such violence does not remotely compare with the barbarity being witnessed elsewhere in the region.

Always ready to fault Israel for the lack of progress regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, Cohen goes on to say:

"It’s also true that Palestinians leaders, with zero democratic accountability, and through facile incitement, are not preparing their people for territorial compromise at or close to the 1967 lines. Then again, nothing in Israel’s actions facilitates that."

Of course, as well known to Cohen, Israeli prime ministers Barak and Olmert offered Arafat and Abbas an independent state along the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps, and Olmert even offered Palestinian control of east Jerusalem. Arafat and Abbas refused.

Yes, Roger (Iran is "not totalitarian") Cohen is given to playing footloose with the truth, and my prediction for 2014 is that he will continue to rain manure down upon us.

Let's see what rubbish Friedman can disseminate in the coming weeks to make this a horse race.

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