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And The Cat’s In The Cradle And The Silver Spoon . . . He’d Say “I’m gonna be like you Dad. You know I’m gonna be like you.”

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Jabotinsky’s heirs down through Irgun, the bombing of the King David Hotel, Likud and the temporary false front of Kadima and its aftermath have the Boy King’s measure. Bibi, among this motley assortment, is not even the most extreme. So why should any of them think there’s a price to pay? After embarrassing Obama’s two-state initiative recenty? BP, Beijing, a child-man TV anchor Bret Baier and even souvenir stands in D.C. treat him as a Ken doll.

People like Stephen Walt et al. can fulminate. Fruitlessly. We’re sympathetic – Walt in particular braved crazed calumny. But he claims to be a realist. So he and so-called ‘realists’ need to face facts. The U.S. is helpless. For four reasons. First is Obama. ‘Nuff said.

Second, Israel never has given a hoot about international opinion- from 1947 to today. Who cares if the UN votes on this incident without an American veto. A ‘signal’ you say? Ha. What changes on the ground? That’s what Israelis of all political hues know matters. Remember. These people are debating and fighting internally protracted war over the status of individual buildings, streets, hills, gullies and settlements. A vote in fading New York? Please. Sans real and direct consequences, Israel’s policy of Palestinian apartheid will continue. The Palestinians will live wretched lives like General Government untermenschen and die needlessly. Rightists elements in Bibi’s government in particular believe it’s the racially correct outcome. And they’re not alone.

Israelis should believe this relief ship massacre will just blow over. Again. Why not? Same drill. Tactical crisis management and wait for an ADD world’s attention to flit on. Who recalls innocent Lebanese dead from 2006? Or the last Gaza brutality? But everyone knows the iPad is out. What about that tweet Carla Bruni wants to tour with Madonna?

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What Obama Said At West Point Worth Noting

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Obama’s address to the Army cadets offered the usual laudatory references to American military’s greatness and history. Including the ‘I’m your commander-in-chief but really ok guy’ jokes. Naturally, Obama’s omission of Wolfowitzian unilateral, unchallenged American power gets pundits’ tongues wagging. His embrace of diplomacy as a much needed option for exhausted recourse to military action welcome but also old news. We ain’t got the mojo no more – militarily or diplomatically. Even the Brazilian president, together with the Turkish prime minister, got the memo when cutting their own deal with Iran.

More important to the Stiftung was Obama’s indirect warning to the military establishment – the salad days are winding down. And with them? The last tangible claim America has to some kind of global centrality. He reminded all listening that American power’s foundation was, is, and will be our economic health. He indirectly alluded to its haggard state. We think it’s noteworthy Obama observed to the military that the American people need to start making things. We must engage in real economic activity (lawyers, politicians, Facebook devotees, media ‘personalities’ and wedding planners excepted) to support a world class military. As ritual requires, any hint of truth must be dosed with copious dollops of ritualistic cant about America’s future has never been brighter because [insert macro here i.e.,’the genius of American enterprise’, ‘the unparalleled creativity of the American worker’, etc.]

Obama hitched his horse to victory in Afghanistan. It’ll be interesting to see how he defines it down.

We have brought hope to the Afghan people; now we must see that their country does not fall prey to our common enemies,” Obama said. “There will be difficult days ahead. But we will adapt, we will persist, and I have no doubt that together with our Afghan and international partners, we will succeed in Afghanistan.

The British? Making moves about leaving.

From Katyn To Raoul Wallenberg (Error Corrected In Comments 5/2011)

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Putin’s government surprisingly is at least partially open to historical truths over Soviet lies recently. His presence at the Katyn massacre memorial and then again for the plane crash memorial well covered. Another facet is a seemingly small but hugely significant gesture: releasing more files on the fate of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, arrested by the Soviets in Budapest after he worked desperately to save hundreds of thousands of Jews. Amy Knight, who has written several good books on Soviet intelligence, sums it up in NYR.

When the Soviet Union fell, the KGB was sundered into two: the SVR (the old First Chief Directorate for foreign intelligence) and the FSB (the old Second Chief Directorate for domestic matters). It’s the FSB which on its own this year provided information undercutting Soviet and Russian official lies about Wallenberg’s fate. As Knight notes, we still do not yet have the full truth or any measure of confidence as to how Wallenberg died in Soviet hands.

Many former Soviet-related colleagues and now fresh young faces unknown to the Stiftung are speculating on why these terribly belated now. Naturally, the Poles like Z-Not-Zo-Great attribute it to Polish resurgence and Russia’s need to reconcile with Poland to get a fair hearing in Europe. Warsaw as Europe’s arbiter. Right. Others put Europe first and see normalizing consensual history the first step towards deeper social and economic connectivity. The Stiftung also sees a domestic imperative as well. The Russians have their virulently anti-American ‘Fox Nation’/tea bag demographic, naturally. But the broader sociology and demographics have changed – more education, younger people getting news from around the world, etc. Their Stalin-Brezhnev cohorts are dwindling away. Even Putinism as a social and political force benefits from carefully measured and controlled truth telling.

Regardless, one can only hope that all of us learn the truth about Raoul Wallenberg, Russians and the world both.