How else can you describe this column calling upon Israel to "hunker down" and live with ongoing terrorist assaults? Rather than engage in self defense, Cohen wants Israel to play the passive victim -- much like moral midgets used to suggest women do in case of sexual assault.

I mean, consider this bit of finely crafted moral reasoning.

There is no point in condemning Hezbollah. Zealots are not amenable to reason. And there's not much point, either, in condemning Hamas. It is a fetid, anti-Semitic outfit whose organizing principle is hatred of Israel. There is, though, a point in cautioning Israel to exercise restraint -- not for the sake of its enemies but for itself. Whatever happens, Israel must not use its military might to win back what it has already chosen to lose: the buffer zone in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip itself.

Yeah, you read that right -- don't condemn the aggressors, because they are aggressive. Blame the victim for fighting back!

And while Cohen concedes that the current conflict illustrates that those who opposed the Israeli pull-back from Gaza and south Lebanon -- which was supposed to help bring "peace in our time" -- were absolutely correct in their prediction that it would embolden Israel's enemy, you will not guess what Cohen's solution is.

All that the critics warned has come true. But worse than what is happening now would be a retaking of those territories. That would put Israel smack back to where it was, subjugating a restless, angry population and having the world look on as it committed the inevitable sins of an occupying power. The smart choice is to pull back to defensible -- but hardly impervious -- borders. That includes getting out of most of the West Bank -- and waiting (and hoping) that history will get distracted and move on to something else. This will take some time, and in the meantime terrorism and rocket attacks will continue.

Yeah, that's right -- SHOW MORE WEAKNESS BY GIVING UP MORE TERRITORY TO APPEASE THE UNAPPEASABLE!

Anyone with so much as an ounce of moral decency would never make such a suggestion. But then again, Cohen's starting premise makes it clear that he is severely lacking in that department -- for he begins with the premise that "Israel itself is a mistake."

And no doubt Richard Cohen believes that his female family members and friends, after enjoying their rape, should offer their attacker a blow job as well -- because after all, it was a mistake for them to even take their vagina into that part of town.

For that is the posture he suggests for Israel -- despite the fact that there has been a continuous Jewish presence between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan for at least 3000 years -- twice as long as there has been either an Arab or Muslim presence.

Perhaps it is time for the civilized world to quit telling the Jews to get off the Arab street, and instead act to ensure that the Arab are scoured from the Jewish street.

UPDATE: Over at American Thinker, James Lewis argues that Cohen should be fired for the position he takes in this morally reprehensible column.

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