GIULIANI'S RADICAL IMAM

How insane is Rudy Giuliani's Middle East adviser Daniel Pipes? He considers the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, which has held for almost thirty years, to be a trick:

"No significant peace process exists now, nor has it ever. Israel's signing of a diplomatic agreements with Egypt (1979), Lebanon (1983), the PLO (1993), and Jordan (1994) all proved ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.

Preliminary skirmishes suggest that the usual pattern will hold in Annapolis. The Israeli side makes "painful concessions," the Arab interlocutor imperiously disdains these even as terrorism and other forms of violence continue. Jerusalem responds with several more rounds of ever-more painful concessions until finally the Arab side grudgingly accepts them, offering airy promises of "peace" that promptly turn into just the opposite – greater levels of hostility and violence."

This is typical of Pipes. The idea that any Arab might have a legitimate grievance against Israel simply does not exist. The Israeli occupation and settlements do not exist. The idea that Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians might actually have separate and conflicting interests? Whatever. To the extent that "Egyptians," "Lebanese," "Palestinians," or "Jordanians" exist at all for Pipes, they are simply different masks worn by "the Arab" as he carries on his genetically hardwired fight to destroy Israel. Peace? Peace is what happens when all of your enemies are dead.

Somewhere, there's a sci-fi movie missing its villain.

--Matthew Duss