Bush is best President ever for Israel

[madmunchie]

Bill Maher said words to that effect last night on Real Time, what exactly did he mean by that. The comment caught me totally by surprise.

I was REALLY DISSAPPOINTED by his show last night for several reasons.

[Ezlivin]

1. Too bad Bill doesn't just have progressive panelists

After all, we've all heard the right-wing talking points a hundred times already. Why have a conservative apologist on the show at all?

[PresidentWar]

18. This is what happens when people don't really read

It seems my post caused some consternation. Perhaps I should clarify.

Much in line with the guesses of some other respondents, yes, I said that Bush is good for Israel in the sense of the current (and long running) somewhat rightwing and militaristic leadership. Bush and Likkudniks both consider themselves hammers, while every problem is a nail. Send in the army! Now as far as the Israeli people go, no - Bush and his ilk are unmitigated disasters because their policies amp up violence and make us all more enemies than we ever had before.

And please, before you call my posts "anti-semetic" (misspelled, by the way) I would suggest you try to be more discerning of the difference between Israeli rightwing military policy, and being a born a Jew. Which I was, by the way.

[stranger81]

23. It's because Bill isn't a progressive

he's more like a libertarian.

[PresidentWar]

27. It's not terrible progressive to...

endlessly fund Israeli rightwing militarist beligerence. In fact, one could say it's quite the opposite.

Mr. Maher has started a riot more than once with something he's said. But the truth of the matter is, although the way he says it might be questionable, he's uually right.

[HongKonger]

25. Right....

The use of US built cluster bombs in Lebanon

The US Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis - New York Times

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[madmunchie]

3. Welcome to DU!!!!

I just don't know what he actually meant by that statement. Was it sarcastic, was it said in earnest? What?

[PresidentWar]

21. Clearly Mr. Maher was jabbing at

The "shoot first ask questions later" Israeli leadership, which under one goon or another has been the ruling paradigm there for about a decade. If Bill M. had been addressing what is truly the interests of the Israeli people, of course, he'd have been light years off the mark. The Likkudists/Warmongers don't even have the support of their own people. I credit the Israeli populace with much more brains and heart than the Eretz Israel expansionists who have been winding up at the pinnacle of power for way too long.

[stepnw1f]

8. Welcome to DU! (nt)

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[niallmac]

5. Why?

[jeff30997]

9. Here we go again!

:eyes: And first of all you should use the spell checker when you post.

[madmunchie]

13. Please, sew eye kant sill two gud!

[dogman]

6. Bill must be rooting for Hezbollah if he thinks that.

w is the best President for Al Queada.

[stepnw1f]

7. I Think It Was Perfect Actually

Afterall... Olmert seems to act just like Bush.

[marlakay]

10. I have heard Bill say that before

Sometimes stuff on his show makes me want to turn the channel. Last night I was pissed at the Repub guy and not for his beliefs which he has a right to but because he was a jerk. I think in a way Bill inviting them and treating them politely unlike all the right wing shows gives us a better name. But when they are jerks, I hope he has a list of don't invite back people both from right and left.

I think also Bill likes to pretend he is more in the middle on things than he is to get repubs on his show.

Yes, I like hearing dems better but if its all one side how can we change them?? I like it better when they have intelligent discussion on both sides where obviously Bill and others shows them usually the error of their ways.

And having said all that, I was dissapointed too, having looked forward for weeks for it. I think I had expectations of a better discussion and better guests.

[madmunchie]

12. Me to, That Christopher Hutchins (?) is a jerk

Maher has had him on too many times, why I don't know, maybe he is one of the only R-wing guys that will come on his show. I could see that Maher was really pissed at the guy last night, but he stopped himself, why I don't know.

I was so excited about his show starting again, boy was I let down!!!! I hope that it was a fluke, and that the next one will be better. Although from the look of next week's guests, it isn't too hopeful.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

16. I couldn't believe Hitchens last night

He's supposed to be this intellectual or whatever and he just sounded like a typical RW dolt at a backyard barbeque. Rather than address any issue that he was asked about, he resorted to red herrings, which Maher at least called him out on that one time.

[AX10]

20. Bill Mahar usually is a disappointment. I don't watch his show.

But what can be expected from a man who idolizes Hugh Hefner for his lifestyle choices?

[calimary]

11. See, even if he was semi-sarcastic about that, I still don't follow.

How on earth could bush really be considered a great president for Israel? Just as his policies and "leadership" have left the United States weaker, more hated, more vulnerable, and more of a tempting, satisfying target than ever in our history, it seems to me as though he's done likewise for Israel.

I mean, all the glad-handing and funding and other kinds of support and war waging to "soften up" the enemy doesn't seem to me to have made things any better for Israel. Just look at how utterly inflamed almost the entire Middle East is. Look how destabilized it is. Look at the angry infernos that have been ignited all around there - Israel is SURROUNDED by this now. At least, before bush "took" office, various sides were talking to each other. Maybe they weren't getting much accomplished, but at least they were talking first and shooting later. Now, it's the other way around. All hell has broken loose in that part of the world, and Israel is smack-dab in the middle of it. He's turned a hose on a grease fire and splattered burn spots all over everywhere. HOWTHEHELL is that state of affairs beneficial for Israel??? Wouldn't you think the best approach would be to try to turn the heat DOWN over there, rather than up?

[theanarch]

14. it's a matter of interpretation...

...in terms of supporting the hard-right, expansionist policies of Likud/Kadima, Junior is the best president ever for Israel; however, if one regards this support as NOT being in Israel's best interests, then Junior is the WORST president for them ever.

As for Maher, i've always been highly skeptical of his 'politics'--when Politically Incorrect was still on, wasn't he the one who gave Coulter her start in the media as a flame-throwing shill for the fascist right--simply because she exposed more skin than anyone else? If this is the case, hey, Bill, THANKS A LOT for jump-starting her career.

[IndianaGreen]

15. The alcoholic would consider a friend the man that buys him booze

A real friend is the one that gets the alcoholic to seek treatment, and keeps the car keys away from him.

[Sparkly]

17. That was very well-said, IG.

I love a good metaphor. :thumbsup:

[CrushTheDLC]

19. Considering Chimpy's cabinet is mostly made of PNAC'ers

He's definitely the best President ever for the Likudists. Now saying that's the best for Israel is like saying Bush himself is best for America. You have to support their fucked up fascist agenda in order to believe it. I hope Maher doesn't.

But as far as Chimp, or anyone connected with the PNAC-Likud death machine being good for the Israeli people, or the American people, NOTHING could be further from reality.

[lgn19087]

22. It is a perfect fit!

A fascist dictator for a fascist state...no wonder its a match made in heaven!

[IndianaGreen]

24. Israel has been corrupted by American corruption

Disfigured by its "special relationship" with the US arms industry, of which the US Congress is an integral component, the IDF has been morally corrupted by years of risk-free brutalization of unarmed Palestinians, many of them children. It's one thing to level an apartment building with a missile from a plane or crush a protester with a bulldozer or lob shells at a Palestinian family having a picnic on a beach or kidnap middle-aged and democratically elected Palestinian politicians. It's another confront a foe, with modest but effectively deployed weaponry, prepared to fight back.

Years of racism have taken their toll too. Think of Arabs as subhuman "terrorists" and you end up making a lot of misjudgments, tactical and strategic.

Amid the first days of the "ceasefire" the Israeli press has been carrying reports not only about Halutz's secret stock sale, but also that prime minister Ehud Olmert may have accepted a $500,000 bribe as part of a conspiracy with a building contractor; also that Justice minister Haim Ramon has resigned to battle charges of indecent assault on a female employee at a Defense ministry party; also that Israel's President, Moshe Katsav, may face charges of rape of a female employee.

<snip>

As corrupted as the Israeli military who shove them around, Israeli politicians have grown accustomed to thinking that any outrage on morality and reason will get a lusty cheer from the US political establishment, press and entertainment industry.

They're right. They did get material encouragement from the Bush administration, and lusty cheers from Capitol Hill and Hollywood as congress people and some movie industry bigwigs stampeded to cheer on Israel's onslaughts on Lebanon and Gaza while the press echoed all the nonsense about the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers being a legitimate casus belli.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08262006.html

[samsingh]

26. bush's incompetance has not helped Israel

by spending $200,000 billion on failed wars that have strenghtened terrorism, bush has hurt the original cause of the neo-cons.

[chieftain]

28. Eventually, Israel will know that W has screwed them just as he

has done to the rest of us.Israel is much better served by having the US viewed as an even handed facilitator of progress towards a workable peace rather than the marginalized minor player we are becoming. W may well profess loyalty to Israel; he may even be sincere about it. But the fall out from Iraq and our tacit support of Israel's own misadventure in Lebanon has only led to increased power and prestige to the extremists in the Mid East. If I were an Israeli, I would ask him to go help someone else.

[xkenx]

30. Chieftain, my sentiments exactly. And the reason for B**h support

of Israel is his fundie supporters' Endtimes/Armageddon interpretation of the Bible. In this, Israel must be preserved so that Christ can return. In the Rapture, some Jews will accept Christ and will rise to the perpetual heaven with the true Christians. Upon Armageddon, the remaining Jews will either convert or perish (mostly perish). Bush is no true friend of Israel; in the fundies' view, Jews are a step above Muslims, but not on a par with Christians. So all that Bush babble about Israel is just Biblical bullshit.

[chieftain]

32. Of all, the things that scare me about this gang of thugs,

this belief in the Apocalypse is the most frightening. We should never entrust the nuclear codes to someone who is looking forward to the end of the world.You are right about the Fundie view of the Jews. As a Catholic, I know they think of I and my co-religionists, Jews and all other non born again Christians are doomed to eternal damnation. It is not the teachings of Christ that I grew up with.

[leesa]

29. Well, he's been blowing up Muslims for Israel, but I don't think it's

helped Israel's status in the world at all, course that's their fault as well.

[eccles12]

31. Best for Israel. Worst for the US. n/t