“We also look at our friends the Palestinians, and we remember the painful history of a people who have never had a state of their own, and we are renewed in our determination to help them finally realize their legitimate aspirations. The lack of peace and the occupation that began in 1967 continue to deprive the Palestinian people of dignity and self-determination. This is unacceptable, and, ultimately, it too is unsustainable.”
– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speech given last week at the Brooking Institute

“The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy,” … “And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”
– Then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in a conversation with Richard Nixon, as recorded on oval office tapes and recently released.

“Almost 100 countries already recognize an independent Palestine, and it is unclear how many others Abbas has asked to sign on to his plan of a unilateral declaration.”

“Although a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood is a seemingly attractive alternative to negotiations and is gaining credence among a growing group of countries, it is an almost surefire recipe for war. If the Palestinian government unilaterally claims land where an estimated 400,000 Israeli settlers currently reside in the West Bank, don’t expect them simply to pull up and move, especially if they were not consulted on the matter. Expect them to fight.”

“From there, a border dispute with Israel becomes inevitable. And in the Middle East, border disputes are not settled through binding arbitration. Another military conflict is sure to follow. We can expect the Iran-sponsored proxies Hezbollah and Hamas to launch new rounds of rocket attacks, and perhaps even a military assault from the Palestinian territories.”
– Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, writing in the Dec. 14 issue of Foreign Policy.

“Terrorism is not an everyday crime, driven by mundane motivations. Maybe overzealous police can get some sap to commit a fraud he’d never have dreamt of on his own, lead him to think he can make a few bucks that no one ever has to find out about. Maybe they can lure a curious loner into buying child pornography. Mass homicide is quite something else. It is not the work of the greedy or the curious, but of the committed.

“The entrapment defense is always trotted out, because a defendant who is tape-recorded planning to slaughter thousands of people – who enthuses over the prospect of killing infidel children toted along with their families to a celebration of Christmas, whose top recollection of 9/11 is how ‘awesome’ it was to watch victims leaping to their deaths to escape the hellacious fires raging inside the skyscrapers, who actually tried to detonate the Portland bomb not once but twice, as crowds gathered at the tree lighting – does not have a lot to work with. He can’t credibly deny what he has done, so it is best to have his lawyers razzle-dazzle the paranoid with the idea that the government made him do it.”
– Andrew McCarthy writing in the National Review refers to the Christmas tree bomber deterred in Oregon in discussing the reflexive defense consistently used when a terrorist threat is prevented.