There’s a disconnect in what Bibi’s doing – it doesn’t make any sense at all. The only thing I can think of is that he’s adopted Jerry Brown’s ‘Canoe’ theory of politics: “Paddle on the right, paddle on the left, you keep going straight down the middle.”

On Friday, Bibi went to Ariel -- it’s in Samaria, what the Community Organizer likes to call the “West Bank” when he’s feeling generous, and “the future state of Palestine” when he’s not. Anyway, Bibi went to plant trees in Ariel in honor of Tu B’Shavat, the Jewish New Year for Trees.

So Bibi planted the tree in Samaria and referred to Ariel as “The capital of Samaria” adding that it was “an indisputable part of Israel”. "Everyone who sees the geography here understands how important" Ariel and the surrounding areas are, he said – which is certainly a truism. Here’s a map – of course Ariel is an indisputable part of Israel.



Moreover, Bibi said he wasn’t just planting a tree, but instead setting forth three principles: “Growing strength, Jewish settlement and culture in the heart of our land of our forefathers and where we will remain and build."

Huh?

Hey – great to have the Prime Minister recognize that indeed Samaria – and Judea, and Jerusalem – are the heart of our land, and that we will remain and build there. Good to know he agrees with that – because when he paddles on the left, he appears not to understand that concept.

But this is the same Prime Minister who knuckled under to the Community Organizer’s demented and illogical demand for a building freeze in..... you guessed it, Samaria. (And Judea and Jerusalem, of course). When Bibi finally gave in to Washington’s pressure machine and agreed to a ten month freeze on all “building” and “settlement activity” he was admitting, tacitly or otherwise, that Samaria, Judea and parts of Jerusalem would, at some point, be handed over to the terrorists who surround us, so that they could create yet another terrorist state from which to attack. That was the alleged point of the building freeze: Jews would no longer build in those areas, because they were about to become part of the “Palestinian” terror state.

So now, the Prime Minister plants trees in Ariel, pictured below, “the capital of Samaria”, averring that “this is the land of our forefathers... where we will remain and build.”



As I said, Huh?

Ariel was an interesting place for Bibi to make his quizzical comments – Ariel University, founded in 1982, and today, home to some 11,000 students, including Jews, Arabs, Druze and Circassian Israelis. As it happens, it’s the fastest growing university in Israel.



For what it’s worth, Bibi also planted trees in Gush Etzion and Ma'ale Adumim, two other Israeli communities that also happen to lie over the infamous “green line” and hence are subject to US, UN and Arab demands for inclusion in some future terrorist state.

There must be some logic to what the Prime Minister is doing and saying, but it’s not obvious – unless it really is as simple as Jerry Brown suggested: paddle on the right, paddle on the left….

The problem with Brown’s kind of political pragmatism is that it rarely wins you any friends. Much more common is for the canoe to spring a leak, and leave you alone in the lake, gasping for breath.

As Matt Drudge says, “developing…”