Chamblee54

PG was reading another episode in the latest orgy of mid east punditry, when a couple of things made him think. The first was a breakdown of the Knesset. Towards the end of the tally, it came out that the two Arab parties had 7 seats, out of 120. This works out to 5.83%
According to wikipedia, 20% of Israel is Arab. So one fifth of the population is represented by 5 percent of the Knesset? This is not exactly one man one vote. If Israel is really a democracy, then something should be done about that.
The second tale is best told by a quote. “Israel’s policy-making no longer seems to me to be particularly related to concrete policy objectives at all. Neither the Lebanon war nor the Gaza war had actual military goals. Both were essentially wars for domestic consumption. Hezbollah and Hamas were firing rockets at Israel, and Israelis were understandably furious. “Something” had to be done about that, to let the Israeli public know that their leadership felt their fury. So the government did “something.””
Which is more or less why the United States is in Afghanistan. When 911 happened, the people required revenge. The plotters for 911 lived in Hamburg, Germany. 15 of the 19 attackers were from Saudi Arabia. For various reasons, revenge against those countries was not an option. That left Afghanistan, where Al Queda was based.
When we attacked Afghanistan, we did not have a goal. All we wanted was revenge for 911. We wanted to do something. Almost nine years later, we are stuck.
HT to Andrew Sullivan for the article quoted above. The pictures are from The Library of Congress.