September 19, 2012

What they talk about in Boca Raton

Mitt Romney has a two-step strategy for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  It’s called kick and hope. He wants to  “kick the ball down the field” and “hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”

To a $50,000-a-head fundraiser at the Boca Raton home of a fellow private equity manager, Marc Leder, a more candid Romney said, “The idea of pushing on the Israelis to give something up to get the Palestinians to act is the worst idea in the world.” 
His comments seemed to reflect the views of his billionaire benefactor, Sheldon Adelson, who has pledged $100 million to elect Romney. Adelson, the self-proclaimed “richest Jew in the world,” is an outspoken foe of Palestinian statehood and sees the peace process as a plot to destroy the Jewish state. 
Romney sounded like he was channeling Adelson when he told contributors the Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish." ... 
He listed the dangers a Palestinian state would pose, including that “the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel.”

Basically, what would happen is like what happened in Gaza three years ago: If Israel pulled out, Palestinians would shoot a lot of rockets at Israel, then Israel would smash them (remember white phosphorus?) until they learned their lesson.

One difference is, as Romney pointed out, that the West Bank is right next to the very pricey real estate of Tel Aviv. The Gaza rockets didn't do all that much damage to the nearest Israeli town because they aren't very accurate. But from the West Bank, you just have to shoot them in the general direction of the west and they are likely to hit something in sprawling Tel Aviv. So, West Bank rockets would do more harm to Israelis and Israel would no doubt hit the West Bank even harder than Gaza.

Personally, I'd like to see a two-state solution with Palestine winding up like Jordan. You may have noticed that Jordanians don't shoot many rockets at Israel. That's because Jordan has a king and an army and they don't like it when the Israelis come and smash up their military hardware in revenge. So, they keep their thumb on anybody who feels like shooting stuff at Israel.

But, how would you get from here to there? The Gaza example isn't encouraging, but maybe it's tolerable. Or maybe not.

Romney suggests kicking the can down the road, pointing to how time has made what was once a scary China-Taiwan stand-off into less of a problem. Israel is developing an anti-missile system, which might make their worries less.

Also, the Israelis don't really want a two-state solution, they want what could be some pretty pleasant real estate as suburbs for Tel Aviv. They think about the West Bank like Rahm Emmanuel thinks about housing projects near the Chicago lakefront. They say they don't want the West Bank, but they've been settling the West Bank for the last 45 years, so I'm starting to notice a pattern. The last President to punish the Israelis for settling the West Bank was the elder President Bush, who rapidly became ex-President Bush.

Lesson learned.

Since then, Presidents have been known to tut-tut about West Bank settling, depending upon whether their party is aligned with the Israeli ruling party of the moment, but not much happens. They just kick the ball down the field until their term is up. Romney telling the guests of Marc Leder in Boca Raton that he's just going to do what everybody else doesn't seem all that shocking to me, but a lot of people are acting like they are shocked.

The bigger question is not the tiny West Bank, but whether Romney would have the strength of character to not get rolled by his old consulting colleague Bibi into a big war with Iran or some other truly foreign country. Boys will be boys, and they like competition. Israel doesn't have college football, so rich and powerful Israelis obsess over geopolitics while their American counterparts obsess over high school cornerbacks.

At least we know that Obama doesn't like Bibi, personally or politically.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post celebrates David Corn of Mother Jones for getting a scoop on the surreptitious video shot at Leder's Boca Raton place:
Corn said there was no “strategic intent” in the timing of the full video’s release Monday afternoon, but there was one consideration: “We decided not to do it on the morning of Rosh Hashanah,” the Jewish new year, which fell on Monday. “We knew a lot of people in the media would be out of the office then, and we wanted maximum exposure. The morning of a holiday may not be a good time.”

Sounds kind of like what former CNN anchorman Rick Sanchez said two years ago (or Gregg Easterbrook ten years ago). Of course, that was different. It's not what is said, but who says it that counts.

By the way, the brokering of this seemingly illegally obtained videotape was carried out by Jimmy Carter's grandson. I reviewed Old Man Carter's 2009 book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid here (and Part II here).

111 comments:

Lugash said...

Was Romney this gaffe prone as governor? I think he was CEO for too long... everyone beneath him was always laughing at his jokes and agreeing with his off key ideas.

PropagandistHacker said...

By the way, the brokering of this seemingly illegally obtained videotape was carried out by Jimmy Carter's grandson.

============


not illegal==> no expectation of privacy when you are a presidential candidate speaking before a group of people.

Jason said...

Steve, you're misrepresenting history here. Rabin, Peres, Barak, Olmert, even Netanyahu offered much of the West Bank to the Palestinians during the 90s and the first part of the millenium. The Palestinians and the Arabs were not interested in any of this, because they don 't want the conflict to end. What are the Israelis supposed to do then - simply do nothing in the territories and just wait around for decades until the Arabs and Palestinians finally get their act together and decide they really want to end the conflict? You're expecting the Israelis to hold to a standard that I doubt you would hold any other country to (If you think I'm being unreasonable here, then mention another nation that has made the sort of sacrifices - with great risk - that you think Israel should make).

Sammy's Song said...

I wonder if there has been a strong dysgenic effect in the Muslim world over the last century or so? Old pictures of Arabs look a lot ... Whiter. Now, when I see the actual masses of the Middle East, it seems really brown. Anybody know?

Anonymous said...

(If you think I'm being unreasonable here, then mention another nation that has made the sort of sacrifices - with great risk - that you think Israel should make).

You're incorrigible.

Anonymous said...

People of the future are going to read books and shake their heads in disbelief at how US politics was conducted in our era.

Anonymous said...

Instead of a two-state solution how about a one state one? Yes, have both groups in the same state. If multi-racial-culturalism is good for us it should be good for them.

NOTA said...

JustAClown:

Yeah, it's important to be clear that just because someone powerful wants something kept secret, that doesn't mean there's anything illegal or immoral about leaking it. By Orwell's definition, this sounds kinda like journalism to me.

NOTA said...

It's weird how much the news cycle can be dominated by a politician saying basically true and sensible but impolitic stuff (appeals to voters based on lowering their tax rates aren't going to work too well for voters that don't pay any income tax already). We reward politicians for lying to us and treating us like children when we put up with the kind of answers that make this pretty normal statement by Romney sound like a shocking thing to say. And the politicians oblige us by giving speeches in public that dodge all unpleasant or difficult issues in favor of slogans and one-liners. .

Aaron in Israel said...

Actually, a large majority of Israelis do want to give up the West Bank, if it doesn't lead to war. That's clear in surveys, and it's been proven at the ballot box. Israelis just think, rightly or wrongly, that withdrawal would lead to war. In the meantime, they don't care enough about it to keep the settlers from doing their thing.

Of course you want a Palestinian state like Jordan. The "Jordanian solution" - a federation of Jordan and the West Bank, with a Hashemite foot on the neck of the Palestinians - has been the dream of Israelis for decades. But the Jordanians aren't interested. The choice is an irredentist, terrorist client state of Iran in Judea and Samaria, or the status quo. Romney's right about this one. There are lots of insoluble problems in the world, and this is one of them.

By the way, my guess is that Barack Obama sees things approximately the same now.

IHTG said...

The last President to punish the Israelis for settling the West Bank was the elder President Bush, who rapidly became ex-President Bush.

Lesson learned.


Uh.

Anonymous said...

"Basically, what would happen is like what happened in Gaza three years ago: If Israel pulled out, Palestinians would shoot a lot of rockets at Israel, then Israel would smash them (remember white phosphorus?) until they learned their lesson."

No, West Bank is ruled by Fatah.

NOTA said...

Aaron:

Based on the actions of Muslim powers in the region, my impression is that the Palestinians are much more popular as sympathetic victims of the evil Israelis than as people you'd like to let come into your country to cause trouble in any significant numbers. From Wikipedia, Egypt will let most Palestinians cross into Egypt from Gaza, but not military-aged males, and I gather they control the movement of the Palestinians.

I'm sure this wouldn't work by now, but I wonder how much it would cost to honestly compensate Palestinians for the land the Israelis took. This is one of those dreams like heading off the civil war by having the North just buy all the slaves at prevailing prices--it wouldn't really have worked, but it sure would be nice to be able to solve this apparently unsolvable problem with dollars instead of missiles and bombs.

Mr. Anon said...

It's notable that a presidential candidate in this country quite openly campaigns on issues only of interest to another country. Nobody even tries very hard to hide it anymore, neither the candidate nor his wealthy gambling-magnate backer.

Anonymous said...

Bush would have lost in 1992 even if he'd been 100% pro-Israel. The media adored Clinton, a boomer, and they thought it was time for Dems to retake the White House.

Big Bill said...

"We decided not to do it on the morning of Rosh Hashanah,” the Jewish new year, which fell on Monday. “We knew a lot of people in the media would be out of the office then, and we wanted maximum exposure."

What does he mean "lots"? "Lots" like (a) "more than the proportional 2%", or like (b) "pretty much all the heavy hitters and shot-callers in the print and broadcast media"?

I go with (b).

Anonymous said...

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/washingtons-double-standard-7473

Anonymous said...

http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/foreign-policy-domestic-policy-7474

Truth said...

Hey, in case you guys forgot, I just wanted to remind you before you hit the microbrewery after work, that Sept. 19 is one of The greatest days on the yearly SWiPpLe Calendar! Svigor started working on the getup he was going to wear to work, weeks ago!

Anonymous said...

http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/trouble-brewing-the-kingdom-7478

"In several recent years, the largest share of Saudi exports that was not a mineral or chemical product was tugboats, topping out at just under four-tenths of one percent of the kingdom's export value."

Rotfl.

peterike said...

A "gaffe" is anything uttered by a Republican candidate which can be spun into a 24x7 smear-fest. The accuracy or reality of the comments have no bearing. All that matters is if they rub the PC thought police the wrong way.

By definition, a Democratic candidate cannot commit a gaffe, no matter how many stupid things they say or do.

The level of coverage given Romeny's "gaffe" has been truly astonishing, even by the debased standards of a totally corrupt media. I can't wait to see how many times the "moderators" throw this in his face during the debates.

Anonymous said...

How Jews feel toward most Americans is like how Israel feels toward its neighbors: We Are Surrounded.

Anonymous said...

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/why-are-the-neocons-still-around-7477

Iraq War may have been led by neocons but it had the full backing of liberal Jewish media.

TontoBubbaGoldstein said...

@ Truth:

Aye aye, yea scurvy bastard! ARRRRRRRRRGH!

Anonymous said...

I don't know Steve.

These things are impossible to predict, and here we are dealing with two equally ruthless and fanatical semitic tribes squabbling over a few thousand acres of eastern mediterranean stone filled desert. (the great irony is, of course, that Palestinians are the genetic cousins of 'Israelis').
What's happened over the past 60 years has been a punctuated stalemate, with the Israelis stomping Arab heads everytime they make a foray, but the longer, subtler game not being so favorable. Bloody mindedness,deceit, ruthlesness, vindictiveness, unforgivingness and cold blooded, sadistic fanaticism seem to be the common theme that unites both protagonists - hence I venture to squeak there will be no peaceful solution.Ever.
Reading the runes (metaphorically speaking!)I feel the most likely outcome is a cataclysmic showdown (and I do mean cataclysmic) at some indeterminae date in the future. Other parties will be involved, of course.

Anonymous said...

Sammy's Song said...
I wonder if there has been a strong dysgenic effect in the Muslim world over the last century or so? Old pictures of Arabs look a lot ... Whiter. Now, when I see the actual masses of the Middle East, it seems really brown. Anybody know?
------------

Yeah, thats because the photographers were white people.


Imagine going to Mexico after only seeing Mexicans on those TV soap operas?

Anonymous said...

TWo minutes of the Romney video are "missing." The taker claims a "malfunction." Yeah, right.

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to like Romney more and more. He picked Paul Ryan as his running mate to kick part a vital policy debate. He stands by his comment that 47% of voters will vote for Obama because the SNAP card is in the mail. And he takes realistic foreign policy positions that show he is a well informed grown up. In a second term Obama's gift to America will be more pointless conflict in the Middle East and the loss of Japan as a vital ally in East Asia, not to mention a new Supreme Court court justice to guarantee the further erosion of free speech and equal protection guarantees.

Anonymous said...

There IS no solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Time IS the only thing that could possibly change things and I emphasize "could."

Don't you just love how Arabs treat other Arabs?

Anonymous said...

"Was Romney this gaffe prone as governor?"

You miss the point: something's not a gaffe unless the media portray it as a gaffe.

He was speaking in a closed environment in generalities about an electoral strategy, not about policy or about governing. Notice the media doesn't stress that as they would had the candidate been their boy.

Anonymous said...

Wow--On Letterman, POTUS says he expects ME countries to respect and keep safe our representatives.

What a man. What a leader.

Beecher Asbury said...

Anonymous said...

Instead of a two-state solution how about a one state one? Yes, have both groups in the same state. If multi-racial-culturalism is good for us it should be good for them.


Yes, that sounds like a plan.

A two state solution would not work because what passes for a Palestinian state would not be big enough, or contiguous enough to run. Even if there were no violence, they'd be a permanent ward of the UN, which means they'd be a permanent ward of Uncle Sam, sort of a like giant Cabrini Green.

Israel's economy is a dynamo and has been unaffected by the recent downturn. They need more workers and cheap labor. Once the Palestinians are exposed to Israeli democracy and the rule of law, the transformation would begin and these people would modernize. All they need is a chance.

After all, there is no place in the world today for ethnic states. That is so passe and flies in the face of what everybody knows, that diversity is the key to future economic success.

The USA would have faded years ago had it not been for the recent immigration of vibrant non-Westerners. We have been successful in transforming these heretofore third world peasants and tribesman into world class citizens. Europe too has been doing this for the past thirty years.

And given all the experience American Jews have had with helping this process, Israel would surely make use of their expertise in assimilating the Palestinans. In fact, if groups like the ACLU and SPLC joined in, I am sure the process of integration would move swimmingly.

Anonymous said...

Always knew you and your followers were closet antisemites. Gentiles pretend to care for and respect Jews, but once the shit hits the fan it is always the same. Blame the Jew.

Peter A said...

"I wonder if there has been a strong dysgenic effect in the Muslim world over the last century or so? Old pictures of Arabs look a lot ... Whiter. Now, when I see the actual masses of the Middle East, it seems really brown. Anybody know?"

I suspect this is true in Egypt, at least. There used to be significant Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Copt (aka real Egyptians) minorities in Egypt. Those groups constituted the intellectual and business elite of the country for the most part. Most of those populations have emigrated since the 1940s. Concurrent with that immigration was a huge increase in the population among the poor urban and rural Muslim population due to reduced infant and child mortality, and better (mostly Western funded) medical care in general. The net effect seems to have extremely dysgenic, as Egypt has gone from being a pretty pleasant seeming place in the 1930s to basically an unlivable hell hole today.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone on this blog really doubt that this POTUS harbors animus toward Jews?

I mean, forget Bibi. Bibi's a handful, a man's man, and one can understand how another man could feel bowled over by him and want to spite him, but consider what you know about the American black's attitude toward Jews, Koreans, any businessmen who opened stores in black neighborhoods.

Even if one never lived in those neighborhoods (Obama), one can't escape the deep resentment felt by blacks when they see people of another race in their neighborhoods "making it." Of course, their definition of "making it" is not how others define that. (Think of the Korean immmigrants struggling to survive, to keep their heads above water in order to pay the lease each month on their small stores in LA. Think Spike Lee's depiction of the two old guys wasting their days away gossiping and watching life go by in their black neighborhood as the Korean opens his shop each day.)

Then there's the black church. I wonder how many of you have ever attended one long enough to hear the constant griping about whites and "others" who "use their neighborhoods to make money." Blacks love to say the resent the "other" who opens the liquor store and ruins their men, but truth is, they hate all people who've opened a business, and Jews are their first target, a leftover, I suppose from days gone by.

A college degree doesn't free blacks from this kind of scapegoatism.

I'm sure Barack Obama takes great delight in knowing he has taken millions from Jews in campaign donations and smiles each night as he realizes that he's playing a part in causing angst and danger for the state of Israel, even if he's not the major cause of that danger.

I don't believe for one minute he cares if the state of Israel were to disappear tomorrow--as long as it didn't occur until after his re-election.

It's personal to him....and to most blacks. There is a natural human resistance to accepting that one's own tribe is the real reason for its sorry state.

Big Bill said...

You know, contra Aaron and Jason, it doesn't make much difference what the Israelis do, nor is any of their historical tit-for-tat particularly productive or persuasive.

Israel Is running the largest open air concentration camps on the planet, ever, and will be held responsible for whatever happens. They can negotiate with the prisoners or not as they see fit. Set 'em free, exterminate 'em, starve 'em, racially cleanse 'em, it really makes no difference any more. They will be damned regardless of what they do due to the liberal victim/refugee worship, which, ironically, was one the Jews pushed after WWII.

The biggest problems, however, are Jewish internal problems. It is internal Jewish conflict (as the Jewish sages warned for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years) that will destroy the Zionist experiment.

The Jewish Taleban (Haredim) are outbreeding secular Jews like crazy and a civil war is breaking out. The seculars' own women are feminists who would rather abort little Jewish babies than try and keep up with the Haredim.

There is no hope coming from overseas, either. Jews in Exile would rather live with all the nice goyim rather than make Aliyah, no matter how many Nefesh b'Nefesh flights the Zionists pay for.

Heck, the seculars' own yordim kids are sick of the draft and want to live in the West. Even Rahm, a True Believer, didn't want to get close to the action. He just wanted to get his ticket punched (cheap) and head back to the US of A.

The moshavim and kibbutzim are sick of playing blut und boden farmer and getting their hands dirty, so they are bringing in Asian and Eastern European goyim to till the soil.

Finally, the seculars themselves are importing sweet, gentle, loving Asians (Burmese, Thais, Cambodians) to take care of their elderly because secular Jewish wives won't do it, out of work Israeli Jews demand too much money, and are just too mean to other Jew's weak and defenseless Jewish grannies.

Boys, it ain't the Arabs that are your problem. You just can't get along with each other!

Or, as my old pal Joe Dizengoff put it when I asked him why he didn't Fulfill his Religious Destiny and make Aliyah, "So who wants to go live with a bunch of Jews? I can make more money with less grief off the goyim."

Anonymous said...

the brokering of this seemingly illegally obtained videotape was carried out by Jimmy Carter's grandson.


Strangely, there's no talk in the media of prosecuting the younger Carter for his crime. It's not like his name is O'Keefe.

How's the prosecution of those responsible for breaking into PWC and stealing Romney's tax data coming along? I'm sure Holder is personally running that one.

Anonymous said...

Was Romney this gaffe prone as governor?


Behold the power of the media. If they say something is a gaffe, it's a gaffe. If they say something is not a gaffe, it's not a gaffe. And everybody obediently thinks what they are told to think.

Anonymous said...

no expectation of privacy when you are a presidential candidate speaking before a group of people


It's too bad for the aptly named "JustAClown" that the law makes no such exception.

Btw, the LAT has been sitting on a damaging tape pf Obama for the last four years, one taken under similar circumstances. When is "journalism" going to to require them to release it?

Anonymous said...

Romney sounded like he was channeling Adelson when he told contributors the Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."


Yeah? I'm no Israel-firster like Adelson, but I agree that Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.

As with the remarks about the 47%, this is a "gaffe" which consists only of saying what everyone already knows.

Obama has commited a string of genuine gaffes recently, such as the "Egypt is not an ally" remark, but I don't see any JournoLists asking hm why he keeps saying stupid things.

Cail Corishev said...

Would Jordan be Jordan if it were full of Palestinians?

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

At least we know that Obama doesn't like Bibi, personally or politically

He despises pretty much all the people in the next tier down, regardless of conviviality or personality quirks. That's not commonly an ingredient of political success, but his visceral loathing of Mitt Romney, attested by everyone, certainly has given Obama's otherwise absent-minded re-elect campaign a direction of sorts

Lucius said...

This "boys will be boys" talk reminds me of my first sexual harassment complaint.

The Dean of Students calls me into his office. A sallow-faced Jersey guy.

"Now, now-- it's not that I think you're a pervert, but--"

He kept saying that over and over. "Not that I think you're a pervert, but . . . ."

Well, since all I ever did was kiss the back of her hand, I suppose not.

But my point is: all this "boys will be boys" talk, these football analogies, are the least effective rhetorical pose (yes, pose) in the isteve arsenal. If no sympathetic nerve twitches for Tel-Aviv, just say to hell with them already.

These are human beings. They live, in fact, rather like us. They don't concern themselves with whether my Penguin Talmud gets a coffee ring on it and start carving up my relatives. What kind of sicko roots for Team Iran, anyway?

But if paleoconservatism and its fellow travelers cannot separate Seleucid Cultural Marxism on the Hudson from Likud and the survival of millions, well, just hop back on the tractor and play-pretend Cato the Elder amid the smell of gasoline like our Southern Agrarian friends and wait for the doom.

Nuclear Iran will not be pretty for the West.

--And since Manchester United or whatever you call Netanyahu's team is going to go it alone anyhow, one might as well ask: why doesn't the IDF have a wing of strategic bombers?

Looks like the all-powerful Elders would attend to that matter. Can't David Frum make this happen?

Anonymous said...

"“We knew a lot of people in the media would be out of the office then, and we wanted maximum exposure. The morning of a holiday may not be a good time.”

Not all holidays are equal in the secular press. Where is the atheist outrage?

Whiskey said...

Romney told the truth -- the Palestinians are NOT interested in a two-state solution. The Israelis are, not the least of which they don't have the money or men or the ability in a small democracy to tolerate casualties that an occupation brings.

Clinton pressured the Israelis to offer 98% of the territory that Arafat said he wanted, and Arafat reneged and rather than counter-offer launched the Intifada. Clinton was quite bitter, and concluded AS DID ROMNEY that Palestinians do not want Peace or a Two State solution

You don't get it -- NO NADA NONE Palestinian leader could offer peace because he'd be dead in a few hours. The PALESTINIANS don't want peace -- what would they do with it? Rot and starve, basically, since they are oriented towards war, its the only glue holding Hamas and the PLA together, and they depend on Iran and the Saudis for funding (each) faction.

Iran in particular which funds Hamas is not interested in Peace, they need semi-war with Israel as an external enemy/scapegoat to keep power internally.

Jordan as a monarchy is a status-quo power, and depends on oppression and violence much harder than the Israelis upon the Palestinian majority. Black September?

Lest we forget, Ariel Sharon and most of Israel opposed the Iraq War being a status quo power and fearing basically Hamas+ emerging in Iraq (they were right).

The US and Iran are headed for war anyway, Iran says oil should be at $150 a barrel IF NOT HIGHER, and the US (now) cannot afford that. As long as your car runs on gas and not rainbows and unicorn farts, the US and Iran will be at war or nearly at war over the price of oil (aided by Russia which has the same need for pricey oil).

jody said...

"Israel doesn't have college football"

you're taking this one way too far now.

nobody outside of the US gives a F about american football.

and trying to jam the equivalent sport in there doesn't work. it's not like foreign nations would be more peaceful if they all had local soccer teams for the rich and powerful men to manipulate instead of thinking about real war - because they all do have local soccer teams to manipulate instead of thinking about real war, yet they still want real war.

and, you may have noticed, they take soccer A LOT more seriously in these foreign nations than americans take american football. they enjoying thinking about both killing fans of the rival team, and killing the enemy in the next nation over.

Anonymous said...

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/17-girls/6517

heauxs.

Ex Submarine Officer said...

By the way, my guess is that Barack Obama sees things approximately the same now.

Does any sane, rational person see it differently and really think that there is some magical solution that will infuse the whole situation there with sweetness and light.

The mideast/israel/palestinian situation has been a chronic issue for my entire life and I expect it to continue to be so indefinitely into the future.

That is, unless one side just annihilates or somehow subsumes the other.

This is an irreconcilable mess for which there won't be a General Lee at Appomattox getting his side to lay down arms and accept defeat (or even compromise).

Anonymous said...

Iraq War may have been led by neocons but it had the full backing of liberal Jewish media.

Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

Geoff Matthews said...

You know, when the Finn's lost Karelea to an invading Soviet Union, they were much more clam about the experience.
Of course, they were much more competent on the battlefield as well.

bleach said...

----------
Anonymous said...

Bush would have lost in 1992 even if he'd been 100% pro-Israel. The media adored Clinton, a boomer, and they thought it was time for Dems to retake the White House.
---------

Sorry, Anonymous, you are misinformed as usual. Bush Sr. lost because a billionaire spent tens of millions of dollars as a third party candidate, gained 19% of the popular vote, and our moronic political system doesn't provide for runoff voting.

DR said...

The international community should just suspend this modern day leftist fretting about the treatment of brown people.

Give Israel the same political freedom to deal with their brown skin Arab subjects that Britain had circa 1900.

Notice much terrorism or Islamic extremism in the age of Victorian colonization of the Middle East. You can't run these places with the political sensibilities of the 21st century West.

Look at Iraq, look at Egypt, look at where Libya's going. Does anyone doubt the same will happen in Syria once Assad (the strongman) is out and multiparty elections (aka Muslim Brotherhood is in).

Let the Israelis if allowed to use the tactics used by Western powers up to and including in World War II, without CNN (and hence the US government) up their ass about blowing up some Madrasa with 12 year old suicide bombers.

The Israeli military could conquer the entire Muslim world from Marakesh to Kashmir with minimal effort. Think Iran would be much of a problem, it'd be nothing more than an Israeli colony.

Wouldn't the world community much rather have the Israelis in control of the oil wells than nutso Wahhabis?

The age of a peaceful prosperous and most importantly colonized Middle East would be here again.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG2fkfvjkp4&feature=g-u-u

One way to end Muslim protests about Muhammad cartoons/videos.

Come out with new Muhammad cartoon/video everyday. Muslims will get worn out from protesting sooner or later. I mean how many American flags can a Muslim burn and step on until he's just about had enough?
It's like even the fiercest horse can eventually be tamed. It will just tire when the rider gets on and on and on...

Dahlia said...

Re: Pres. G.H.W. Bush

I don't know, Steve. Vice-presidents have a notorious record for not being as successful as the men they follow, those at the top of their original ticket.
They often don't win election in the first place, and they rarely win a second term.

I believe it is because the original top guys pick someone not quite as good as themselves, more "beta" if you will. Unfortunately, these men are often the heirs apparent and get the subsequent nod.

Gore had nearly everything going for him. Given that great economy and how good most people felt, a Democratic nominee normally would not have even attracted a formidable candidate from the GOP as any man worth his salt would have waited for a more opportune time. G.W. Bush and the GOP picked up on something wrong with Gore, took a gamble, and won.

I think Bush 41 was better than Gore leadership-wise, but mostly he had the coattails of uber-popular and successful Reagan to thank for his one term.
Prospective presidents face many tests and the media is a unique one for the GOP. Reagan knew how to handle them, a testament to what an outstanding man and leader he was. I don't get too upset about the biased media. They've always been that way.
The question is, can the man pass that test?

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s

This looks really dumb.
Forrest Pomp.

Anonymous said...

"Was Romney this gaffe prone as governor?"

The gaffe gap.

Obama says something stupid but it's ignored or praised as wisdom.

Romney speaks but 90% of what he says is whistle-called as 'gaffe'.

Leftists protest violently but it's just passion.

Tea Party is peaceful but is called hateful.

This is how the Jewish media play the game.

Anonymous said...



Better apartheid than suitheid.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mMN693-F3U&feature=relmfu

Another swpl spirintellectual epic, along with cloud atlas, inception, tree of life, etc.

gushery and mushery.

Anonymous said...

new trend:

intellectual/literariness + big concept + blockbuster effects.

All in one package, for bookish eggheads, new age airheads, and videogamey blockheads.

HUGO was like that too. Ugh.

Life f Pi = jungle book meets joyce's ulysses meets spielbergisms.

Anonymous said...

"Boca Raton" actually means "Mouth of the Rat" or "Rat's Mouth" in Spanish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Raton#History

Bob Arctor said...

Jason:

You seem pretty pleased to see White Americans lose their demographic majority in their own country; if that's not a "risk" then the word should be removed from the dictionary. At least the Israelis can hide behind their walls, H-bombs and the US military, we have nothing at all defending us from what's coming.

stari_momak said...

" The greatest days on the yearly SWiPpLe Calendar!"

Wow, it conflicts with Mexican Independence Day, it'll have to be moved.

Anonymous said...


Do you suppose swpl-gayization of society and culture has made looks and style even more important in politics?

Gays are obsessed with looks and style--consider Alan Cummings in EYES WIDE SHUT when he sees Tom Cruise--, and the gayization of culture may have made us more into the way things look.

Obama is the cover girl or cover boy. There is a gayish style about him. We do judge crooks by their covers.

Anonymous said...

Why was Paul Ryan chosen? Most appealing look according to gayish stylistics.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8V7CG4Om9U&feature=g-u-u

my head hurts

socks said...

I just saw that Adelson has 5 children. I wonder what the Forbes 400 looks like after one generation if everyone leaves money to their kids, excepting the Buffet Challenge and other known deviations.

Unknown said...

Steve,

While I agree that the Israeli conflict over a tiny strip of real estate is silly and pointless, the potential consequences for the region, its oil supply, and everyone else in the world is much greater than the clash between football rivals.

Israel is a nuclear power thought to have little to no second strike capability. Iran may soon be. While the repercussions in the court of public opinion will be harsh if Israel acts unilaterally, they likely don't care.
Iran benefits from radicalization of the ME, especially the Saudi axis minorities, so they will trudge ahead.

This may be the greatest test of the Obama presidency yet. Unfortunately, it is hitting right as an election season crests. See my blog for more...

- lydgate

DaveinHackensack said...

"I just saw that Adelson has 5 children. I wonder what the Forbes 400 looks like after one generation if everyone leaves money to their kids, excepting the Buffet Challenge and other known deviations."

If history is a guide, his descendents will remain wealthy for generations, but nowhere near the top tier. Sort of how the Rockefellers are today.

Anonymous said...

USA have as many jews as israel for obvious reasons...

Harry Baldwin said...

Anonymous josh said...Romney is such a disgusting tool. At least if he is beaten this time around, we will never have to look at his stupid unctuous mug again. He'll be like McCain:a loser.

And we don't have to look at John McCain's stupid ugly mug all the time? He's Fox News's go-to guy on every foreign policy matter, along with his unctuous twin Joe Leiberman.

Anonymous said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion/notes-on-a-century-reflections-of-a-middle-%20east-historian-by-bernard-lewis-with-buntzie-ellis-churchill/2012/09/14/ec401fc6-f690-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_print.html

“Sir Harold Nicolson once said that one can never be certain what is in the mind of the oriental but we must leave the oriental no doubt what is in our mind.”

True, but Jews are 'orientals' too.

socks said...

"If history is a guide, his [Adelson's] descendents will remain wealthy for generations, but nowhere near the top tier. Sort of how the Rockefellers are today." DaveInHackensack

I wasn't very clear. My interest is in the Jewish proportion of the Forbes 400 over the near future. I'm guessing they have more kids and less likely to give the money away, but I could be wrong.

NOTA said...

anon 10:05:

What law do you think was broken by the guy who made the Romney tape?

NOTA said...

Anon 1:22

It's a big world. Stuff no better produced than the videos that have stirred up riots must be hitting the net all the time. But most of the time, most Muslims never hear about it. Then some rabble rouser makes it a big issue, and stirs up some riots,and either becomes a big man in local politics or dies under questioning from the local secret police, depending on where he is.

I suspect something Albertosaurus pointed out is important here and with urban black riots. People with jobs and wives and families are too busy to do a lot of rioting, but unemployed young men with no prosepects (something blakc inner cities and much of the Muslim world both have plenty of) are pretty easy to get to riot. It's not like they've got somewhere else to do, or risk spoiling their prospects for a bright future by getting into trouble.

Anonymous said...

RE: a one-state solution (Jews and Arabs living in the same polity),

If the Palestinians were smart, that's what they would be screaming for, Israeli citizenship for every Arab in Gaza and the West Bank; imagine the fits that that would give liberal Jews in the USA, Arabs calling for an end to South African style Bantustans and integration into Israeli society. Fortunately for the Israelis, the Arabs are too stupid to embrace such a nation-busting strategy.

Syon

peterike said...

What law do you think was broken by the guy who made the Romney tape?

Florida has laws specific to this.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0900-0999/0934/Sections/0934.03.html

You cannot record someone without consent if it is not a public event. It is considered a felony in the third degree (and no I'm not going to bother finding the details of what that means).

I suppose you could argue it was a "public event," but it was at a private home and I assume invitation only.

Anonymous said...

NOTA, Florida is a two-party state where recording circumstances where there's an expectation of privacy is concerned, so dissemination of this recording is actionable.

Ralph said...

"Hey, in case you guys forgot, I just wanted to remind you before you hit the microbrewery after work, that Sept. 19 is one of The greatest days on the yearly SWiPpLe Calendar! Svigor started working on the getup he was going to wear to work, weeks ago!"

- Thank you Truth! We know African Americans share a special affinity with pirates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjdBp167q0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji3RiuFRZEA&feature=related

Mark Re said...

""I just saw that Adelson has 5 children. I wonder what the Forbes 400 looks like after one generation if everyone leaves money to their kids, excepting the Buffet Challenge and other known deviations."

If history is a guide, his descendents will remain wealthy for generations, but nowhere near the top tier. Sort of how the Rockefellers are today."

As I understand it, they're adopted. Maybe the 'Scots-Irish' adopt Euro kids to show off the way that Euro people adopt African kids.

In any case, we can hope with a right wing patrician they won't turn into liberal philanthropists like the Rockefellers and Fords...

Anonymous said...

Nuclear Iran will not be pretty for the West.

Isn't that what we were told about North Korea?

In reality the unhappy party will be Israel. If someone in the Mideast develops nuclear weapons, Israel will no longer have a local monopoly on such weapons, and her ability to act as she wishes will be restricted.

BTW, a nuclear USSR was not pretty for the West either. But certain people decided that the USA should not have a monopoly on nuclear weapons, and did everything they could to give them to the Soviets.

We learned to live with it, Israel should do the same.

Anonymous said...

"Hey, in case you guys forgot, I just wanted to remind you before you hit the microbrewery after work, that Sept. 19 is one of The greatest days on the yearly SWiPpLe Calendar! Svigor started working on the getup he was going to wear to work, weeks ago!"

Truth, if you're ever in Sherman Oaks (near Steve, natch) the brewpub on the corner has its hot waitresses dress up like pirate wenches for the festivities today. Good times!

beowulf said...

"TWo minutes of the Romney video are "missing." The taker claims a "malfunction." Yeah, right."

If Mitt Romney said something in those two minutes so scary persuasive it could swing the election, I'm pretty sure he could have done an encore performance in his acceptance speech.

AmericanGoy said...

What the $%^#!!!! Steve-o!

Lern yor hiztory!

The Palestinians in The Kingdom of Jordan has ALREADY been tried.

Google it.

Start with
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_%28group%29

Charlesz Martel said...

It IS full of Palestinians. Jordan is most of what was called Trans-Jordan, and was initially , under Balfour, supposed to be Jewish territory. After a power struggle, a Saudu Hashemite was appointed the ruler. 80 percent of the population of Jordan is ethnic Palestinian.

Charlesz Martel said...

I always assumed that was true, as I could never understand how Clinton was hurt by Perot more than Bush ( which was the media narrative at the time) I always thought this was typical liberal propaganda. I met a highly placed Republican operative a few years later, during the Lewinsky scandal. He assured me that it was true- Perot hurt Clinton more than he hurt Bush. We both agreed that this made zer sense, but hd told me that the Bush campaign had gone over and over this point, and their internal studies confirmed what the media studies reported. This might be why Bush never went after Perot as hard as he should have, but I'm guessing on that point.
He was surprised I knew a lot about Mondale's daughter doing all her Secret Service guards when she was 17, however ( I have other good sources). We laughed about how that was a bigger scandal than Zlewinskt, as she was underage at the time. There's a HUGE sexual subculture in D.C.- it's kept real quiet. No-one wants to be the next Mary Pinchot Meyer.

Charlesz Martel said...

You got my vote!!!

Charlesz Martel said...

Damn Skippy!

Anonymous said...

The thing is, the Palestinians didn't learn their lesson in Gaza after the Israelis stomped on them a few years ago. They're still rocketing Israel today.

Bob Arctor said...

"These are human beings. They live, in fact, rather like us. They don't concern themselves with whether my Penguin Talmud gets a coffee ring on it and start carving up my relatives. What kind of sicko roots for Team Iran, anyway?"

The Persians are human beings, they more or less "live like us," and in case you haven't noticed genius Shiite Persians are not the ones burning embassies down, Sunni Arabs are.

"Nuclear Iran will not be pretty for the West."

You've been reading Sailer for almost five years Lucius and yet you've learned absolutely nothing. You're completely hopeless.

What "won't be pretty" is White Americans not having a country of their own anymore in a couple of decades, and the fact that your favorite ethnic group played a critical role in making that horror come to pass. Israel can defend itself against outsiders with its nuclear arsenal and with walls; what do we have to defend our home with again?

Anonymous said...

Liberals win the war of metonyms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

Notice that the media made sure that most negatively charged metonyms are associated with the right or conservatism.

Watergate means political scandal.
Mccarthyism means political witchunt/hysteria.
Selma means redneck bigotry.
Etc.

But Woodrow Wilson imprisoned Germans and FDR rounded up Japanese. So, why shouldn't Wilsonism or Rooseveltism mean Mccarthyism?

And will Knoxville come to mean black brutality? It should but the libs in the media get to choose what metonyms will stick in our consciousness.

Anonymous said...

"The US and Iran are headed for war anyway, Iran says oil should be at $150 a barrel IF NOT HIGHER, and the US (now) cannot afford that. As long as your car runs on gas and not rainbows and unicorn farts, the US and Iran will be at war or nearly at war over the price of oil (aided by Russia which has the same need for pricey oil)."

Gushers in central Australia are a worry then. If the sink is as big as some say, we'll have Persians, Ruskis and Whiskey's people all bombing us.

Dr Van Nostrand said...

Palestinians may hem and haw about Israeli occupation but slowly they adapting themselves to a situation unlike the one before the 1st intifada i.e cooperation with the Israeli state for economic stability.

Palestinian firms(accounting,software etc) get Israeli contracts...I don't know if this decision of making Palestine an India to Israels U.S is a planned or even sound idea but for now it seems to keep the peace.

Palestinians are amongst the most educated of Arab peoples, who are likely to have technical degrees than gulf arabs who rather major in islamic theology and poetry and are shocked SHOCKED when job offers are not forthcoming.

Just evict this Hashemite interloper from Jordan, squash the local Bedouins(most Levantine Arabs loathe them) and just handover Jordan to the Palestinians as per the Balfour declaration and end this nonsense once and for all.
Of course withdraw all financial aid to Jordan ,Egypt and yes Israel.Israel can take care of its neighbors if it gets too uppity.Just wink at it and move on.

Anonymous said...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/19/so_much_for_the_good_war

"A vigilant drone campaign has depleted al Qaeda's core. Many commanders have fled for greener pastures in the Arab heartland, where the next great jihad could begin."

Critics accuse the administration of supporting Islamic militants in places Libya and Syria--even members of Al Qaeda--, but Washington sees it as turning Islamic extremists against our Arab enemies. Since we can't win the War on Terror by killing all the terrorists--there are too many--, the thing is to turn the terror on our enemies. USE the terror. So, we've become supporters of terrorism. If you can't stop the water, channel it to flow in another direction. If we cant stop the terror, steer it at our enemies. Give support to terrorists to blow up Gadfly or Assad.

When US invaded Iraq, it attracted all the terrorists to come to Iraq and fight Americans. Now that US might pull out of Afghanistan as well as having done so from Iraq, there are worries as to what all those terrorists might do next. Encourage them--even support them--to fight our enemies and expend their energies in that fashion.

NOTA said...

Anon 6:27:

Okay, thanks.

I'll admit that I find the idea of arresting people for recording politicians' speeches without permission even more offensive than the other way I've ever heard of these laws being used--to arrest people for recording the cops beating someone up. (It should be obvious, but in case it isn't: I do feel the same way regardless of what politician is being recorded.)

My guess is that this is a change in the world as a result of technology. Once, even most speeches by most people would not have a videotape of them taken and made available to anyone. A speech by a prominent author or journalist or politician was heard by the people present, and maybe recorded or at least reported on by some local reporter, but wasn't going to show up on YouTube, partly because videocameras were expensive and big and obvious. And that meant that speeches could have more interesting content--the NYT columnist could say stuff in his speech at Duke that he wouldn't be able to get past the editors, and this wouldn't cause him any trouble later. Politicians could say radically different things to different audiences without much cross-contamination of messages.

That's gotten harder, and probably will continue to get harder. Short term, I imagine this will make it even harder to get anything out of a national-level politician that isn't processed through their PR department to the point where it's flavorless mush. I'd like to think this will eventually lead us to stop wanting politicians to lie to and BS us, but that's wishful thinking--most people don't pay much attention to politics, even most voters don't, and so it will continue to pay to BS the public. It just won't be easy to BS different bits of the public differently.

NOTA said...

Anon 11:14:

It doesn't have a catchy name (Warrenism?), but the internment of the Japanese during WW2 is probably as often brought up as McCarthyism in politicial discussions.

Some catch phrases you see often enough in political dialog that link much more strongly to the left than the right, and specifically to Communism, off the top of my head: politically correct, Stasi, KGB, five year plan, commissar, pravda, gulag.


Svigor said...

RE: a one-state solution (Jews and Arabs living in the same polity),

If the Palestinians were smart, that's what they would be screaming for, Israeli citizenship for every Arab in Gaza and the West Bank; imagine the fits that that would give liberal Jews in the USA, Arabs calling for an end to South African style Bantustans and integration into Israeli society. Fortunately for the Israelis, the Arabs are too stupid to embrace such a nation-busting strategy.

Syon


And if they weren't, it wouldn't matter because the Jews running our culture are too smart to report the fact.

Anonymous said...

Multi-culturalism is essentially a projection of modern Jewishness on other non-whites and anti-whites.

Against the notion of minorities melting/assimilating into the larger group--the melting pot ideal--, multi-culturalism says minorities can have the cake and eat it too. Become equally part of the whole while maintaining their separateness. Jews have been like this. Use universalism to be part of the larger community but maintain their separateness in terms of tribal interest and identity. Jews, instead of melting with White America--as did most white ethnic groups--, chose to guard their Jewishness even as they, more than any other group, pushed for even more radical universalism. So, Jews have been radical universalist tribalists. Since it worked for Jews to weaken white power, why not expand it to other non-white groups(and make sure those groups don't melt with whites either)?
Demand from whites that they treat non-whites as equals and as the 'same people', all the while maintaining special identities and privileges for non-whites(and gays).

Haven't we had enough of Jewish foulness?

Napoleon told the Jews: "Everything as Frenchmen, nothing as Jews." In other words, if Jews were to become equal citizens of the French republic, they must be French foremost and not Jewish. Equal rights, not special privileges.
But Jews have turned this around: "Everything for Jews as Jews, nothing for whites as whites." As Jews, Jews not only all the universal rights but all the special privileges as a 'minority'.

Anonymous said...

Whites mustn't celebrate multiculturalism but use it. It's time for whites to develop a separate/distinct identity as European-Americans.
Conservatives have been arguing against hyphenism, but now it's time to take up hyphenism for the interests of whites.
Whites must say we are not just Americans but EUROPEAN-Americans, and we have our own special heritage, history, and interests.

Anonymous said...

Israel doesn't have a second strike capacity.

An Iranian bomb will necessitate a launch on detect policy.

I assume the Israelis have 700 weapons.

goatweed

alexis said...

With his shirt off, he looks exactly like a guy who grew up poor and slightly malnourished during the Depression, then spent years in the Navy lifting heavy objects under life or death stress, drinking poisonous torpedo juice for fun, slowly breaking down mentally, but still, after all that, having a motor inside him that gets him into endless trouble in civilian life.

Good one, Steve. My son and I were discussing the American obesity thing, and I was trying to explain a kind of physique that I used to see much more than you do now, and you nailed it.

Anonymous said...

The US and Iran are headed for war anyway, Iran says oil should be at $150 a barrel IF NOT HIGHER, and the US (now) cannot afford that.


Whiskey-style economics. It is not the role of the rest of the world to provide the US whatever it wants at whatever price the US says it can afford.

Anonymous said...

RE: a one-state solution (Jews and Arabs living in the same polity),

If the Palestinians were smart, that's what they would be screaming for, Israeli citizenship for every Arab in Gaza and the West Bank; imagine the fits that that would give liberal Jews in the USA, Arabs calling for an end to South African style Bantustans and integration into Israeli society. Fortunately for the Israelis, the Arabs are too stupid to embrace such a nation-busting strategy.

Syon

Svigor:"And if they weren't, it wouldn't matter because the Jews running our culture are too smart to report the fact."

Difficult to say; the Arabs make such excellent bad guys (they are so easy to hate), that Israel has not really had to work very hard to maintain the unswerving loyalty of the bulk of Western Jewry. If the Arabs actually did embrace a nonviolent, Martin Luther King-style strategy of integration and citizenship, I'm not sure that liberal Jews like, say, Steven Spielberg, would be able to stand firm.

Syon

Anonymous said...

If we cant stop the terror, steer it at our enemies. Give support to terrorists to blow up Gadfly or Assad.


We did that in Libya. And after killing Gaddafi (with our considerable assistance) the terrorists then killed the US ambassador to Libya.

Often clever, seldom wise, those neo-conservatives.

Charlesz Martel said...

You've got my vote!!!

Charlesz Martel said...

Actually, Israel has acquired a missile launching sub from Germany. This gives them a nuclear second strike capability. The Muslims in Mecca might find out if they really get 72 Virgins in heaven.

JPS said...

pedantic maybe, but:

"The last President to punish the Israelis for settling the West Bank was the elder President Bush, who rapidly became ex-President Bush."

a biiiit reductionist i think

and the football references are insanely cynical but i get that you feel this need to reduce everything to status competition

Charlesz Martel said...

Google "Demographics and the coming youth explosion in the Gulf" -I tried pasting the link, but my Phone's acting wonky. Derbyshire referenced this article a dozen or so years ago. The Arabs have to find a way to eliminate millions. The per capita income of even the wealthy states is declining sharply due to population growth. Layabouts cause trouble.

ain't got a dime but what I've got is mine said...

“The Real Romney Captured on Tape Turns Out to Be a Sneering Plutocrat,” shouted a headline on the Web site of New York magazine.
But that line of analysis may miss the point. Mr. Romney was not articulating the typical resentments of the stratosphere. If the rich talk about the poor, it is usually not in such terms. What Mr. Romney seemed to be channeling was the resentments of the much larger class far below him — but just above the 47 percent.



Good, honest analysis by the Indian NYT writer. When they do something straight, they should get credit.

helene edwards said...

Joe Dizengoff

Ha ha, good one.

Charlesz Martel said...

Largest open air concentration camp? Ever? Are you serious?
What about Biafra, South Africa, American Indian Reservations, Cambodia- the list goes on and on. Funny how well - fed and fertile these denizens of a "concentration camp" are.

The reason people like you are never taken seriously is you let your biases overrule all reason and self- evident facts. Palestinians travel as workers all over the M.E. and Asia for work - that doesn't seen to fit the idea of a people stuck in a "concentration camp" to me.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 9/19/12 8:19 AM wrote:

the great irony is, of course, that Palestinians are the genetic cousins of 'Israelis's'

I realize that this was a throwaway side comment, but it does not really capture the totality of the population genetic data. The core Jewish populations (excluding Ethiopian Jews, Yemeni Jews, etc.) and Palestinians share a genetic origin in the Levant. One could say the same about Lebanese and Syrians. However, the recent autosomal genetic studies make clear that the average group genetic profiles of Jews and Palestinians are not identical. The Palestinians have experienced admixture from Arabia as well as a mild degree of relatively recent (within the last 1000 years) sub-Saharan admixture. The Ashkenazim and Sephardim demonstrate evidence of admixture with (predominantly southern) Europeans, and all Jewish groups demonstrate less sub-Saharan admixture than the Palestinians (exact degree is a matter of dispute given methodologic deficiencies pointed out by Dienekes in a 2011 paper that treated the subject as well as subsequent discovery of East Asian-like admixture in the North European reference population).