"Freedom" Vanilla coffee, anyone?

And to think, I was starting to warm up to France again recently.

There was a particularly bad fight I had with my ex-girlfriend, Sophie. It got to be so absurd, but then again it started out absurd. She said she wanted to talk, then pulled me aside and knocked me in the jaw – hard, even now I remember it with pain on the left side of my face – with her fist. I’m not going to go into the reasons for the fight, but rest assured that while I was immature at the time, I certainly hadn’t done anything to deserve that. Anyway, we did some screaming and shouting after that (I’m sure all of Ulpan Etzion heard us), and then I made what probably was the dumbest comment I’ve ever made in a fight:

“I hope the Germans invade France again, and that WE don’t come to rescue you again!”

Yeah, I actually said that in a fight. At the time, it was dumb. But at the time, I’d run out of things to yell about and I wasn't thinking straight. That night ended with one of our many soap opera-style breakups, but it wasn’t long before we got back together, and then she dumped me again, this time on the streets of Paris without a place to stay. Ah, what a trip…but then again, there was still more to come in later months. Getting back together and dumps, that is.

Anyway, that comment I made to her has come back into my head again, and this time it isn’t directed at a French woman. It is directed at France itself. And I am thinking straight this time. And I've got plenty to yell about.

Why?

Because, first Russia this week announced the position that they really didn’t consider the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to be a terrorist group. And then that paragon of democratic change for Russia, Vladimir Putin, made an invitation to the leadership of Hamas to come to Moscow. Never mind that such an invitation goes against the principles set forth by the “Quartet” – the U.S., the E.U., the U.N., and Russia – for going forward with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations: namely, that groups committed to the destruction of Israel are not to be given legitimacy. Russia is Russia, after all.

On January 30, five days after Palestinian Arabs went to the polls and voted for Hamas - knowing full well what the group stands for - the Quartet said that the Palestinians risked losing international aid if Hamas did not renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Hamas, in turn, stated that it would do neither.

And then this week comes this from a spokesman for France’s Foreign Ministry: “As long as we stay within the framework of the objectives and principles that we have fixed, we think that this initiative can contribute toward advancing our position. We share with Russia the goal of leading Hamas toward positions that permit reaching the objective of two states living in peace and security.”

The French, as usual, are idiots though. Idiots who are so-called allies within the Free World. I don’t mind that Nicolas Sarkozy fellow, but Chirac, de Villepin, et al, to quote Bart Simpson,can “Eat My Shorts”. The Russians are the Russians, and can be expected to act like a bear in a china shop.

But the French are displaying the same kind of idiocy that led to the idea that the Maginot Line could hold off the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany. And that kind of thinking led to, well, to France’s being occupied by the Germans of the bad kind, and later to that cretin Charles de Gaulle coming into power, and then succeeding him many years later that current cretin President Jacques Chirac and his PM, Dominique de Villepin. It really makes one wonder how much pressure Arabs and Muslims in France put on the government to support such idiocy.

If the honorable Germans of today really wanted to put their modern Bundeswehr to good use (other than helping out NATO in Afghanistan and training Iraqi police in Germany), maybe they could reoccupy France blitzkrieg-style and do us all a favor. Even though France has nukes, I think they could do it.

In the meantime, the possibility is strong that I’m going to go back to calling French Fries “freedom fries”, even if the “French” or “France” had nothing to do with their coming into being. It’s an honorific that the French don’t deserve.

Okay, so if it won’t work on fries, maybe it’ll work with “Freedom Vanilla” coffee, instead of “French Vanilla” coffee.

But back to the point: You don’t invite groups like Hamas to meetings before they change – if they ever change. You do so after – if they ever change. Except for countries like Egypt. Anyway, just take a closer look at the pictures on this page, to see the kind of people I speak of. Not the French. Hamas. Well, if both France and Russia support talks with Hamas, that kind of puts them all in the same league with each other anyway, doesn’t it?

Freedom Vanilla coffee, anyone?