I”€™ve been reluctant to write about Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza this past two weeks for the simple reason that the ordeal has struck me as, to borrow a phrase from Bismarck, “€œsome damned foolish thing”€ in the Hold Land”€”and one which, I hope, doesn”€™t precipitate a worldwide disaster like the original “damn foolish thing”€ in the Balkans. The invasion also gives one a strong sense of déjà vu. In Hollywood, big-budget movies that are embarrassing flops thankfully don”€™t generate sequels. In foreign affairs, things are different. Much as if an exec had green-lighted Istar II for a Christmas release, Israel seems intent on presenting us with the second installment of The Invasion of Lebanon. The cast is even mostly the same: Ehud Olmert is back, now flanked by new blonde co-star with the alluring name of Tzipora. This time round, Hamas has replaced Hezbollah the hate-filled, towel-head villains who just won”€™t acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

The great American journalist H.L. Mencken made of his whole career a kind of one-man “€œrevolt against the masses”€ kamikaze mission. In the Menckenian imagination, the “€œsuperior man”€ (a category of person in which Mencken, no doubt, included himself) was beset on all sides”€”if it wasn”€™t the collectivist state trying to bring him down, then it was the hordes of unwashed American boobs. “All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both.”€ Mencken certainly had a distaste for “€œall government”€; however, as we”€™ll see later, if there must be a state, then he”€™d prefer of the aristocratic variety.