Read their lips

Three seemingly unrelated points

• In a report that most Western newspapers thought not noteworthy, it appears that Jordanian public television has cancelled a 29-episode series about Jews, originally produced by Syrian television.  A bunch of rabbis wrote to King Abdullah, and it appears Jordanian authorities agreed that the contents were "controversial."  We're talking about utterly false and unfounded allegations of blood libel and murderous "Talmudic courts' [sic].
• Meanwhile Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (try saying that fast when you're drunk) stands by his position that Israel should be obliterated, confirming what Israel has long been saying, namely that Iran's nuclear program has a particular target.  The world is outraged by this comment.
• Then I get an email from a decidedly dovish friend in Israel, with reference to this article.  "Discouraging!" he writes, "but read between the lines," referring I assume to the fact that Hamas is open to ceasefires and cooperating with PLO.

Pundits, always hopeful, like to point out that the harsh rhetoric against Israel isn't always meant the way it sounds.  We're supposed to discount it all in light of the need for posturing, to appease the radicals, etc.  Hamas is really open to arrangements, and so is Iran.  If Israel only gives up more, puts more of her citizens' lives at risk, then things will start moving.

To which I have three things to say:

• Arabs and Iranians, and the others who denounce Israel aren't stupid.  They know the meaning of their words.  It's not as if they have some collective form of Tourette's or OCD that compels them to shout obscenities every once in a while.
• One could certainly accept that a lot of big talk is a cover for more peaceful action, but I am hard pressed to find a pattern in these people's actions that could convince me that they are anything less than sincere when they call for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its people.
• Instead of reading so frantically between the lines, perhaps it is time to read the actual lines and take them seriously.  Perhaps it is time for the EU, newspaper editors, and others to actually point out that incitement is a) not helpful; b) unbecoming a nation that wants to be taken seriously in the world community.