Mickey Kaus can be both remarkably sharp and annoyingly thickheaded, depending on which day you happen to be reading him. His stuff on the connection between Islamofascism and the Lefty-promoted dole, for instance, is meaty and instructive — while his continued attempts at forcing a meaningful connection between Binny’s videotaped propo-gripes and the Israel / Palestinian conflict are disturbing — and incredibly shortsighted, to boot.

Kaus keeps acting as if he’s a lone sane voice in the universe, shouting “scoop!” every time he comes across some reference to either Israel or Palestine in the grainy, mumbled digi-tritus of a poorly-produced Usamic video dispatch. Mickey wants us to believe that Usama and his band of goons (or, at the very least, those who dig on his message) might be less inclined to send suicidal maniacs to threaten our buildings if only we would renew our brokerage of Mideast Peace:

It makes little difference if, as several commentators have noted, Bin Laden’s interest in ‘Palestine’ wasn’t much in evidence until recently. The point is that, cynically or uncynically, Bin Laden recognizes that the Palestinian issue is a powerful rallying cry and recruiting tool among Muslims who now see daily satellite images of violence on the West Bank and in Gaza. If Bin Laden feels he has to emphasize the Israel issue even though he doesn’t care about it personally, that only emphasizes what an effective rallying cry it is.

Take away that rallying cry, or weaken it with an Israel-PLO peace, and the appeal of Bin Laden’s organization will weaken as well.

Okay, that’s one idea — one we tried for a decade and that did nothing to prevent the giant mess in Manhattan or the deaths of a bunch of Israeli kids who made the mistake of going to the mall one evening. What it did do, of course, was serve to legitimize a hateful and dissembling anti-semite, a thugish autocrat who now (hideously! unconscionably!) holds a Nobel Prize for Peace — and we shouldn’t lose sight of our culpability in that.

So here’s another idea, Mickey — one I’m more fond of: howsabout we just continue saying ‘fuck you’ to those moldy medieval villains who think killing civilians will weaken our resolve and force our hand, instead? howsabout we continue raining heavy fuel-air explosives on their cave complexes, wherever they try to hole up, until that “weakens” the “appeal of Bin Laden’s organization.” Whackos who plot the extermination of entire groups of people over sweet tea and curried goat (while simultaneously, sickeningly, praising their God for his assistance), shouldn’t have a say in things. Period.

“If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a ‘factor of importance,'” Kaus continues, responding to a concession made by Bernard Lewis in his famous discussion of Arab discontent, “and we can responsibly negate that factor by promoting a peace, isn’t that worth trying?” Well, of course promoting peace is “worth trying,” Mickey. But first you need to create the conditions for peace. And hopefully, our bombs and our resolve are doing just that.

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