perfidy

Having won the Palestinian elections in a landslide, Hamas immediately put forward a sensible and forward-looking plan to establish amicable relations with Israel and bring peace to that troubled region, and prosperity to its beleaguered citizens.

The first point of its comprehensive one-point plan is so simple and profound that it is truly astounding that no one in fifty years had ever hit upon it. Israel must change its flag. I mean, sure, those two blue bars on the Israeli flag are clearly indicative of the zionists desire to create a greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates. We all saw it, didn't we? We just didn't want to say anything, embarrassed as we all were after that Holocaust thing that didn't really happen, but which would still have been a good idea if someone had only done it.

Yeah. Change the flag. All will be well.

I think we can anticipate an endless series of well thought out and reasonable policy proposals from Hamas. Now that they're the head of an almost state, they'll certainly have to be more polite. Maybe instead of killing Jews, they'll just suggest in polite diplomatic language that the situation will be greatly improved if most or all of the Jews would somehow cease living. Maybe the Iranians could help out with that.

[wik] Loyal reader #0003, NDR, notes in the comments that claims such as these have a long history. He recommends this Daniel Pipes article, and having read it, I do as well. However, before I read it, a funny thing happened. I am so conditioned as to assume that NDR is disagreeing with me. So before actually reading the article he linked, I did a panic check on my source. The only other places linking that article were places like NewsMax. Egads! Had I unintentionally linked to the Israeli equivalent of NewsMax? I broadened my search, and discovered that the Jerusalem Post had also mentioned the incident, here. As I read, I realized that the Pipes article was referring to the long history of Arab claims. Not some sort of fantastical notion of Israelis claiming that the Arabs claimed that the flag stood for Greater Israel, or whatever it was that ran through my noggin.

My only excuse is that it is unseasonably warm, and the air conditioning at work has only two settings: warm and hot. And it is only set to warm for three days in October. The rest of the year is mostly unbearable, especially when it is sunny outside. Today, according to the cheap thermometer I keep in my office, it is 86 degrees and no air movement whatsoever.

My brain is melting, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.