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Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0208-goldberg-israel-20110208,0,2439664.column
Realism on Israel
(Los Angeles Times) Jonah Goldberg - Former U.S. national security advisor Gen. James Jones said in 2009 that if he could solve just one problem in the world, it would be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the "epicenter" of U.S. foreign policy. Such thinking falls somewhere between wild exaggeration and dangerous nonsense. Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda remains dedicated to our destruction. Turkey, a once-staunch ally, is Islamifying. Russia is careening toward autocracy and China is on the march. Oh, and the United States is fighting two land wars. But the national security advisor's No. 1 priority was keeping Israelis from building houses in east Jerusalem? Really? Any effort to take attention off the Palestinians is greeted with outrage from an anti-Israel industry that cravenly singles out Israel as the worst human rights abuser in the neighborhood. Israel puts Arab critics in the Knesset. Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia put them in jail or in an unmarked grave. All of this would be just as true if Israel retreated to the 1949 armistice lines tomorrow.