Howard Feinberg over at Kesher Talk recently posted about an article written by a British Member of Parliament named Peter Ainsworth. Essentially, Ainsworth blamed Israel for most of the conflicts in the Middle East. I commented there, and I thought I'd comment a little more here.

Probably the most mawkish and offensive thing Ainsworth said is that, since we're about to go to war over there, some would probably question his patriotism to bring this up.

Listen up, Ainsworth: I would question your patriotism if you were busy making unsubstantiated allegations of corruption by our mutual leaders in a time of war. Well, you aren't doing that. I might question your patriotism if you were a non-stop critic of our leaders who would only spread negativity, attacking everything they did without saying, clearly and succinctly, what you thought they should do instead. Bashing our leaders' actions without proposing alternative solutions verges on treasonous, when we are at war. Otherwise, it would just be everyday cheap partisanship.

But it's moot, because you aren't doing any of that, Mr. Ainsworth. So I don't question your patriotism at all. Let's hoist a pint and sing a few rounds of "God Save The Queen" together, and I will then toast you as the living incarnation of John Bull.

Even if you're a bloody stupid incarnation of John Bull.

There is no justification for the view that Israel is the "root cause" of Saddam Hussein's evil, or the evils perpetrated by anyone else. If the Palestinians truly wanted human rights, democracy and their own state they could have had it decades ago. They need only throw off the lying worm they've got for a "leader," Arafat, and his cronies, and deal with the reality that Israel exists and has a right to exist in peace.

Israel is a tiny country in a vast Middle East, comparable in size and location to most Arabs as Rhode Island is to the rest of the United States. The notion that it could possibly be the "cause" of Arab thuggery and violence can only be based on thundering ignorance or thundering stupidity. Or anti-semitism. Take your pick.

You know, when I started this weblog back in April, I tried hard to remain fair to the Palestinians, to point out where Israel could do better, even to point out that I was never 100% certain Israel should have been made a country in the first place. It is not as if Israel has been 100% saintly in all actions it's taken over the last 50 years, and I've never hesitated to say that.

It's not even as if some people who lost their homes in the Arab wars with Israel don't have some reason to complain.

But I have been nothing but disappointed by efforts of pro-Palestinian folks to make things better. You can see where my attitude has gone in the last six months by just looking at that flag of Israel I posted a month or so ago at the right hand side of my page. I always tried to say that the Palestinians do have a valid cause in wanting independence, and I still stand by that. But we're beyond that now, because they've shown that (so far) they are unable to throw off the worm Arafat--who is not just a murdering thug, but is an oppressor of the people of Palestine. Until he goes, and something less odious takes his place, there is no more point in bashing Israel.

In the meantime, Israel remains the West's only true ally in the Middle East. They cannot, by any sane measure, be blamed for anything Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia, or most of the peoples in that region do. Enough's enough, this is war and we need to know who our true friends are.

To call Israel a primary cause of what thug-regimes in the Middle East do is to suggest that the British caused World War II by not giving in sufficiently to German demands in the 1920s and 1930s. Israel exists as a nation and they will not go away. Or would you deny them even that, Mr. Ainsworth?