Finally, the contest in Connecticut tomorrow is about two views of the world. Mr. Lamonts view is that there are very few antagonists whom we cannot mollify or conciliate. Lets call this process by its correct name: appeasement. The Greenwich entrepreneur might call it "incentivization." Mr. Liebermans view is that there are actually enemies who, intoxicated by millennial delusions, are not open to rational and reciprocal arbitration. Why should they be? After all, they inhabit a universe of inevitability, rather like Nazis and communists, but with a religious overgloss. Such armed doctrines, in Mr. Liebermans view, need to be confronted and overwhelmed.
Almost every Democrat feels obliged to offer fraternal solidarity to Israel, and Mr. Lamont is no exception. But here, too, he blithely assumes that the Palestinians could be easily conciliated. All that it would have needed was President Bushs attention. Mr. Lamont has repeated the accusation, disproved by the "road map" and Ariel Sharons withdrawal from Gaza, that Mr. Bush paid little or even no attention to the festering conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. And has Mr. Lamont noticed that the Palestinians are now ruled, and by their own choice, by Hamas? Is Hamas, too, just a few good arguments away from peace?
The Lamont ascendancy, if that is what it is, means nothing other than that the left is trying, and in places succeeding, to take back the Democratic Party. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters have stumped for Mr. Lamont. As I say, we have been here before. Ned Lamont is Karl Roves dream come true. If he, and others of his stripe, carry the day, the Democratic party will lose the future, and deservedly.
Read the whole thing.
Why does opposition to the Iraq war constitute appeasement? I dont get it. Its not clear to me how exactly were "confront[ing] and overwhelm[ing]" anyone there. Its also not clear how the IDF is doing that in southern Lebanon, all things considered, but, at the very least, reasonable minds can differ on that point, I suppose. Too bad Peretz doesnt see it that way.