Israel Matzav: How Petraeus could set the record straight

How Petraeus could set the record straight

Despite the fact that US Centcom commander David Petraeus supposedly set the record straight regarding his remarks about Israel, there continues to be a lot of back and forth among the pundits over whether what he said that day in New Hampshire really changed what had been reported.

I've been following it from a distance, because the argument is among conservative bloggers whose work I enjoy reading (Phillip Klein, Max Boot, Lenny Ben David, Jennifer Rubin and Andy McCarthy among others), but I haven't been blogging it because there have been so many other things to discuss.

However, I had to pass on this quote from McCarthy, who is most vocal that what Petraeus said in New Hampshire doesn't change anything.

In any event, if Gen. Petraeus really does want to set the record straight in a way that reassures supporters of Israel, it is a very simple thing to do. He just needs to say that America's bias in favor of Israel is not a "perception" but a reality; that it will always be a reality unless and until Palestinians and their Islamist backers unequivocally acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and convincingly foreswear terrorism (aka "resistance"); that until those conditions are met, the United States realizes that there can be no resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; and that, if we are truly to "live our values," we have no alternative but to favor a Western-style democracy over a would-be Islamist regime that glorifies violent jihadists, endorses sharia principles, and inculcates anti-Semitism in its people through its control of the media, the schools, and other institutions.

Nice idea, but fat chance it will happen. Certainly not with this administration in power

Israel Matzav: How Petraeus could set the record straight