Netanyahu Speech, from Three Perspectives

Published on March 4th, 2015 | by David Housholder

Benjamin Netanyahu carved a tattoo on the minds of every member of congress yesterday. A flourish of oratory rare in contemporary America. See the full speech in the video above.

But how you react to it depends on which of three tribes hold your membership card.

1. Conservative
2. Leftist-Progressive
3. Liberty

CONSERVATIVES:

Assumptions: This is a dangerous world. Some of us are trying to build civilization. Some barbarians are trying to rip it down. We must be ever vigilant in guarding the boundaries between civilization and barbarism. Do you wanna live in Tel Aviv or Baghdad? San Diego or Tijuana? So push back the chaos with force before it creeps in and takes over.

Conservatives LOVED this speech. It was a classic “wolf at the door” message. The Iranians are painted as un-people out to do nothing but cause harm and disrupt civilization as much as possible. Netanyahu (one of the few foreign leaders who speaks English with an American accent) pulled on all the conservative heart strings.

Granted, it’s easy to find harrowingly scary quotes from radical Iranians. There is no shortage of that. And there is no question that Iran is the main rival to Israel for regional power in the Middle East. And yes they try to set up governments in neighboring states that are favorable to them. Ironically, we helped them do exactly that in Iraq.

Radical Islam is very real and the cause of a disproportionate share of chaos in the world. And Islamist thinking one of the chief ideological rivals to the West, along with China, since the demise of our old challenger: communism.

CONSERVATIVE GRADE FOR BIBI SPEECH: A++

LEFTIST-PROGRESSIVES:

Assumptions: The world is made up of oppressors and oppressed. The 1% and the 99%. Those in power are not contributing their fair share and are keeping the rest of us down by force if necessary. All groups of oppressed people need to be liberated and brought up to every kind of equality with those of privilege. Corporations are running the world and we need government to make them give what they owe us.

Leftists (including Obama and Biden) were conspicuously absent. Joe Biden should have been sitting behind Netanyahu and next to John Boehner. He sent a sub. In their defense, this was at best a hostile away-game for leftists. Who can blame them for not wanting to party?

In the leftist world-view, Israel is the strong nation in the Middle East. They are thus the oppressors of the Palestinians, for whom they call the shots. They are walled into to zones chosen by the Israelis and forbidden to return to their homes in what is now Israel–homes that were taken from them by force. The Palestinians have no “right of return.”

And here we have a White Male, wealthy and educated, standing in front of Congress, asking for help in oppressing the rest of the Middle East and keeping everyone under Israel’s thumb.

True leftists could not stomach being in the room. Here is a LIST of the boycotters.

LEFTIST GRADE FOR BIBI SPEECH: Fail! And suspend him from school!

LIBERTY PEOPLE:

Assumptions: The world is divided between those who want freedom and those who want to coerce, rather than persuade, others. Our natural state is freedom. Nobody owes anyone anything, we give voluntarily or not at all. Ethics, politics and law can be summed up as: Don’t hurt people, don’t take their stuff. Mind your own business.

A Libertarian looks at this with a mind-your-own-business mentality. After all, why should Iran give up its nuclear ambitions? Don’t they have a right to self defense? After all, Israel has 200 nukes, and no one stopped them. Why should one nation (like us) be able to have (and we have used) nuclear weapons and other nations not? Who gets to decide? The ones who already have them?

And when Gadaffi of Libya, who was turning to the West and giving up his nuclear program (because of pressure from the West), what did Hillary Clinton do to him? She deposed him. He ended up brutally beaten to death by an Islamist mob and carried away in the back of a truck. So, are we telling Iran that this is the reward for giving up your nuclear program? Those radical Muslim terrorists are now swimming in our embassy pool and there are three gang-led governments vying for power in a collapsed state. Great incentive for Iran to give up their nukes.

Liberty people will also point out that every US intervention in the Middle East has resulted in the removal of a stable, secular, Christian-friendly dictator and has ended up replacing them with radical Islamist nut jobs and their goons. Israel can take care of itself–they can turn any nation in the Middle East into a sheet of glass in an afternoon–and everyone knows that.

Non-intervention unless there is a clear and present danger (not just potential danger) to the homeland of the US. We tend to escalate the situation wherever we show up. And tell people what to do even when we have no idea how their cultures work. It usually doesn’t go well. So let’s stop it.

LIBERTY GRADE FOR BIBI SPEECH: Meh. He doesn’t get it. But that’s none of our business. C+.

CONCLUSION:

How you heard the speech depends on how your brain is wired.

Each of the three points of view is reasonable given its a priori assumptions. It’s OK to have a “Home Base” world view; but a wise person will strive to understand the other two as well.

For the record, I am a Libertarian who strives to understand the other viewpoints so that our discussions are more meaningful and productive.