Before you get too "up in arms" over Israel

I'm doing more reading than writing today, so I'm going to let others do the heavy lifting for me. Please click through for their entire piece, however, when you finish grazing here.

From Tbogg:

Okay, I'm being glib, but Israel kind of lost that virginal glow it used to have for me years ago, right after it filled up its shopping cart with lots of American dollars and weapons and became the bully on the block knowing fully well that the US was standing behind it, smiling passively like a mother with an out-of-control toddler, while armed with biggest Louisville Slugger in the world at the ready.

I know that many on the right (and this would include those on the right who have kind of forgiven the jews, if only for the moment, for killing their savior) are cheering on Israel as our proxy in the fight against Islamowhateverism, because the right loonisphere constantly demands that someone must fluff their hate hard-on, particularly at a time when the commies, homos, negroes, and Mexicans (temporarily at least) lie dormant.

From James Wolcott:

Lawrence (Larry) Kudlow, CNBC host, columnist, and an editorial advisor at Pisspoor Media, is a Catholic convert who credits his faith with helping him achieve and maintain sobriety. But his Catholicism has limits, especially when it conflicts with a higher creed--the neoconservative agenda.

"Israel is doing the Lord’s work," he proclaimed today, a sentiment of which the Vatican would hardly approve, and which makes some of us non-believers want to hurl, preferably in his direction. "They are defending their own homeland and very existence," Kudlow continues, "but they are also defending America’s homeland as our frontline democratic ally in the Middle East." So when Israel bombs the Beirut airport or hits a viaduct, it's really looking out for us--I mean, U.S.

"When the dust clears the world will applaud Israel for its courage. Sensible freedom-loving people everywhere will realize that Israel’s furious response in the face of senseless terrorist attacks will have made the world a better place.

"In fact, we are all Israelis now."

You know what, I don't want to be an Israeli. Include me out. Pardon me for not wanting to be conscripted into the Israeli division of the 101st Fighting Wankers. I'm an American, a New Yorker, and a world citizen, and I don't see why empathy is supposed to reside exclusively on the Israeli side when Lebanese civilians are suffering so. Why I should identity with the humanity of those fleeing Haifa and not with those fleeing Beirut? Is this supposed to make me want to become an honorary Israeli?