Israel celebrates its 60th birthday this year, and dignitaries from all over the world have sent congratulatory messages. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saluted them for managing not to get crushed yet under Allah’s thumb, but warns that it’s coming, Jews! Osama bin Laden takes the more direct approach. Rather than just allude to Israel’s demise by calling it a “stinking corpse”, the terrorist vows to create a lot of stinking corpses instead:

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — in a blunt new message that coincides with Israel’s 60th anniversary — urged his followers to liberate Palestine, a terrorism analyst told CNN on Friday.

In a message entitled “The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation,” bin Laden reiterated jihadist opposition to the existence of the Jewish state and its policies.

Bin Laden’s audio message, released Thursday, told listeners that “liberating” Palestine should be the aim of every Muslim, according to terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield.

How dull have Osama’s rants become? Hardly any news agency reports on them anymore. A scan of the most prominent American newspapers show scant interest in the bin Laden missive, leaving it to the wire services for coverage. Osama has become a broken record.

However, it does give an opportunity to reflect on how similar the messages from Ahmadinejad and Osama sound. People wonder whether radical Sunni and Shi’ite Islamists can ever find common ground, and the answer is easy: Tel Aviv. They will not rest until they can create enough force to attack Israel and drive the Jews into the Mediterranean. Whatever other sectarian feuds exist can wait until they achieve that singular goal, and they will have no problems working together to that end.

Why talk to either one under those circumstances? Unless we’re willing to do to Israel what Neville Chamberlain did to Czechoslovakia, we have nothing to say that interests them.

Update: Holy cow. I screwed up the headline — my sincere, embarrassed apologies to Senator Barack Obama.