Prime Minister Natanyahu met again with President Obama this time with all the bell snd wistles. So of course which reception truly reflects the Presidents' views this time or last time when PM Netanyahu was left alone while the President went to have diner with his daugthers?
However it is telling that there is an on going effort by the President to make nice after the earlier gaff. However this may be more in response to buyer's remorse on the part of American Jews who voted for the President but would reluctant to do so again as well as a nod to the Democratic Congress that has overwhelmingly pro-Israel.
Improoving relations with the Islamic world is a good thing and in American's interest. However the way to made new friends is not by abandoning the old ones nor by losing one's own identity and values to satisfy the other. Without saying more it is possible that the President's international background and out-of -the-mainstream mentors may have brought him to a place where he does not have an American identity or at least not one as strong as his predecessors in office.
Alack of national self esteem can be made for Mr, Netanyahu as well however before condeming totally one must account for whatever strongarm tactics were used on him, even so he too must step up to assert Jewish National interests against Mr. Obama and his minions. One must be who they are destined to be a Jew must be a Jew no matter how badly he may want otherwise. Faith and strength are what matter once one knows who one is then a worldview and desicions can be competently made.
Showing posts with label OBAMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OBAMA. Show all posts
Friday, July 09, 2010
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
THE SILVER LINING on the Eve of 5770
A friend once asked “were times ever good?” Every year it seems when one looks back on the year that is drawing to a close the question becomes “could it get any worse? ” Year after year one concludes, this year it was really bad. Needless to say one eventually becomes reluctant to declare “this is as bad as it could get, things cannot become worse” out of fear things will spiral downwards.
Yet, to focus only the positive and there are indeed positives only ignores reality. With the winds of hope and change, which captured the national consciousness in January, has turned to horror and chagrin, as ostensibly high-minded initiatives to benefit society’s health and environment are actually attempts to stealthily reshape the national character.
America, is built on the notion of the autonomous individual choosing to participate in limited government. The design which has caused a ground swell of popular opposition. e Both prongs of the present regime’s agenda seek to create a society dependant on government for basic needs. If successful, the government will control the growth of businesses, especially in manufacturing and consequently controlling employment. If the national government gains control of health care the focus shifts from concern for an individual’s needs for those of society generally. Instead of valuing the individual and a model built on individual rights one’s duty to the community/country will become public policy’s North Star.
A shift away from acknowledging the value of the individual combined with an apparent adoption of the Arab/Islamic narrative that the creation of the modern State of Israel was no more than the intrusion of Jewish interlopers seeking a haven in the aftermath of the Holocaust, cannot be viewed as being good for the Jews. The administration’s efforts to create Middle East peace has resulted in a 4% approval for the American President by Israeli society. Similarly, Prime Minister Netanyahu has found the administration’s demands so beyond the pale he has more or less has withstood the pressure applied against him. True in the Bar Ilan University speech the Prime Minister accepted the notion of a two state solution and even if that acceptance is so qualified that acceptance is restricted to February 30, 2011 at 13:00 am. Even so the hypothetical change is an ideological breach which is enough to start down a slippery slope
The Rabbis in the Talmudic tractate Megila observe the threat posed by the Persian King Achashveirosh authorizing Haman to attack and slaughter the Jews aroused more repentance that all the rebuke given by all the Prophets. Maybe this is the time for those who are apathetic to step up and claim their identity and heritage. Maybe a powerful person’s hubris is so powerfully disdain by a free people that it can galvanize a population to say a resounding “NO!!!!” So too it is time for Israel’s place among the nations is as an equal, a people of history , culture and destiny all their own. It is time for Israel to champion it own values, mores and sensibilities and stop aping what others’ hold dear.
Maybe this is the sliver lining both for the American and Israeli peoples attempts to demand a people abandon their unique character, values, mores, heritage or destiny will not succeed. The human spirit, the soul does not abide falsehood.
Blessings for being signed and sealed for a year full of blessings
Yet, to focus only the positive and there are indeed positives only ignores reality. With the winds of hope and change, which captured the national consciousness in January, has turned to horror and chagrin, as ostensibly high-minded initiatives to benefit society’s health and environment are actually attempts to stealthily reshape the national character.
America, is built on the notion of the autonomous individual choosing to participate in limited government. The design which has caused a ground swell of popular opposition. e Both prongs of the present regime’s agenda seek to create a society dependant on government for basic needs. If successful, the government will control the growth of businesses, especially in manufacturing and consequently controlling employment. If the national government gains control of health care the focus shifts from concern for an individual’s needs for those of society generally. Instead of valuing the individual and a model built on individual rights one’s duty to the community/country will become public policy’s North Star.
A shift away from acknowledging the value of the individual combined with an apparent adoption of the Arab/Islamic narrative that the creation of the modern State of Israel was no more than the intrusion of Jewish interlopers seeking a haven in the aftermath of the Holocaust, cannot be viewed as being good for the Jews. The administration’s efforts to create Middle East peace has resulted in a 4% approval for the American President by Israeli society. Similarly, Prime Minister Netanyahu has found the administration’s demands so beyond the pale he has more or less has withstood the pressure applied against him. True in the Bar Ilan University speech the Prime Minister accepted the notion of a two state solution and even if that acceptance is so qualified that acceptance is restricted to February 30, 2011 at 13:00 am. Even so the hypothetical change is an ideological breach which is enough to start down a slippery slope
The Rabbis in the Talmudic tractate Megila observe the threat posed by the Persian King Achashveirosh authorizing Haman to attack and slaughter the Jews aroused more repentance that all the rebuke given by all the Prophets. Maybe this is the time for those who are apathetic to step up and claim their identity and heritage. Maybe a powerful person’s hubris is so powerfully disdain by a free people that it can galvanize a population to say a resounding “NO!!!!” So too it is time for Israel’s place among the nations is as an equal, a people of history , culture and destiny all their own. It is time for Israel to champion it own values, mores and sensibilities and stop aping what others’ hold dear.
Maybe this is the sliver lining both for the American and Israeli peoples attempts to demand a people abandon their unique character, values, mores, heritage or destiny will not succeed. The human spirit, the soul does not abide falsehood.
Blessings for being signed and sealed for a year full of blessings
Friday, June 05, 2009
CUTTING DOWN CAIRO
President Obama’s speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009 evoked this simple reaction “Today for the first time in my life I am ashamed to be an American”
Whatever the reasoning the President of the United States and thereby, the executive branch of the government and even the Democratic Party has adopted the Arab narrative. Israel’s establishment was not as the President asserts, a haven for Europe’s displaced Jews. Jews pray several times daily to return from exile home to Israel. Even the casual scholar would recognize the city’s residents during the Second Temple period lead a Torah /Jewish Law based lifestyle. David and son Solomon who ruled in Jerusalem were not Shia or Baptists, they were more than Jews they are either my ancestors or the Kings to whom my ancestors were loyal to. To ignore or even deny a connection going back to antiquity between Jewry and Eretz Yisrael denies truth and embraces a falsehood so harmful that it approaches holocaust denial.
When modern Israel’s roots are presented as being out of the ashes of Auschwitz and the other factories of death the Arab experience can be examined in comparison. After all if one relies primarily on a recent default connection to the land, how does that in a world that rejects racism create moral authority for a superior claim to the land?
Consequently, how can there be any moral authority to occupy lands not sanctioned by the international community especially those places with populations that claim prior residency? Therefore following this reasoning a Jewish presence in Yehudah, Shomron and Jerusalem would indeed be illegitimate.
The Arab claims of a distinct national identity or a connection with the Canaanites or Philistines , Temple denial and so become secondary arguments that merely provide a basis to justify rejection of even an ancient Jewish claim to the land and weaken a claim resting on the authority of British Home Office or the UN. Therefore, struggle to liberate the land from this third party allocation has moral justification that defies serious scrutiny.
Condemnation of Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Terrorist violence can be articulated but does not dislodge the line of reasoning stated above. Righteous indignation over these Arab excesses justifies the silencing of strident assertion of Jewish claims to the land. Thus a comparison can be made between installing a swing set in a Beit El or Efrat backyard and grad missles being fired in to Ashdod or Sederot.
The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of history and fact. The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of how much of the Arabs’ present situation is self inflicted. If there were no security concerns regarding the Arab population would Arabs living under the PA have to endure check points or border closure? If were it not because of rampant corruption both under Hamas and Fatah spheres of influence would the PA area economy be in shambles or would there be wide spread poverty or unemployment?
Lastly, by embracing the Arab narrative leaves open the question “what compromise
would satisfy the Arabs? The question presumes there is a possible point of compromise. This is not a mere rhetorical straw man as each offer of territory for a 23rd Muslim state was rebuffed in 1947, 2000 or during the waning days of President Bush (43) Prime Minister Olmert’s terms of office, not to mention the inaction by Jordan and Egypt between 1948-1967 on behalf of their brethren in creating a State as contemplated presently. The concern that tolerance of a Jewish State within the borders of Eretz Yisrael maybe an act of heresy offensive to Islam is ignored . In which case can anything short of complete capitulation i.e. the removal of Israel and Jewish presence in the land be acceptable?
Frankly it is doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu has any greater fortitude or backbone than his predecessors including his own first go round as Prime Minister so rejecting Mr. Obama’s dictates underscores how totally absurd and how nationally suicidal accepting then would be. Denying settlement growth including natural growth taken literally would ban people from having children or keeping generations together, positions that offend any notions of human rights and calls upon the Jewish State to adopt a racially restrictive policy against its own population. Adopting the Zero tolerance to growth and declaring the settlements as illegitimate is more than discriminatory if creates the absurd result that America has endorsed a policy the excludes the Biblical people from Biblical lands.
Remember this analysis has not begun to include the nod to Iran’s right to develop nuclear power.
Any expectation that the President’s Hoiff Yidden (Court Jews) do not agree or fully support their boss is a redefinition of naïve.
Quite simply Israel’s survival and that of all Jewry rests with our faith and the nation’s embrace of its history and heritage. The call from Cairo can be turned to a mere footnote let Jewish Hearts and all who are devoted to G-D meet the Present ‘s call with prayer , principle and persistence.
Whatever the reasoning the President of the United States and thereby, the executive branch of the government and even the Democratic Party has adopted the Arab narrative. Israel’s establishment was not as the President asserts, a haven for Europe’s displaced Jews. Jews pray several times daily to return from exile home to Israel. Even the casual scholar would recognize the city’s residents during the Second Temple period lead a Torah /Jewish Law based lifestyle. David and son Solomon who ruled in Jerusalem were not Shia or Baptists, they were more than Jews they are either my ancestors or the Kings to whom my ancestors were loyal to. To ignore or even deny a connection going back to antiquity between Jewry and Eretz Yisrael denies truth and embraces a falsehood so harmful that it approaches holocaust denial.
When modern Israel’s roots are presented as being out of the ashes of Auschwitz and the other factories of death the Arab experience can be examined in comparison. After all if one relies primarily on a recent default connection to the land, how does that in a world that rejects racism create moral authority for a superior claim to the land?
Consequently, how can there be any moral authority to occupy lands not sanctioned by the international community especially those places with populations that claim prior residency? Therefore following this reasoning a Jewish presence in Yehudah, Shomron and Jerusalem would indeed be illegitimate.
The Arab claims of a distinct national identity or a connection with the Canaanites or Philistines , Temple denial and so become secondary arguments that merely provide a basis to justify rejection of even an ancient Jewish claim to the land and weaken a claim resting on the authority of British Home Office or the UN. Therefore, struggle to liberate the land from this third party allocation has moral justification that defies serious scrutiny.
Condemnation of Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Terrorist violence can be articulated but does not dislodge the line of reasoning stated above. Righteous indignation over these Arab excesses justifies the silencing of strident assertion of Jewish claims to the land. Thus a comparison can be made between installing a swing set in a Beit El or Efrat backyard and grad missles being fired in to Ashdod or Sederot.
The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of history and fact. The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of how much of the Arabs’ present situation is self inflicted. If there were no security concerns regarding the Arab population would Arabs living under the PA have to endure check points or border closure? If were it not because of rampant corruption both under Hamas and Fatah spheres of influence would the PA area economy be in shambles or would there be wide spread poverty or unemployment?
Lastly, by embracing the Arab narrative leaves open the question “what compromise
would satisfy the Arabs? The question presumes there is a possible point of compromise. This is not a mere rhetorical straw man as each offer of territory for a 23rd Muslim state was rebuffed in 1947, 2000 or during the waning days of President Bush (43) Prime Minister Olmert’s terms of office, not to mention the inaction by Jordan and Egypt between 1948-1967 on behalf of their brethren in creating a State as contemplated presently. The concern that tolerance of a Jewish State within the borders of Eretz Yisrael maybe an act of heresy offensive to Islam is ignored . In which case can anything short of complete capitulation i.e. the removal of Israel and Jewish presence in the land be acceptable?
Frankly it is doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu has any greater fortitude or backbone than his predecessors including his own first go round as Prime Minister so rejecting Mr. Obama’s dictates underscores how totally absurd and how nationally suicidal accepting then would be. Denying settlement growth including natural growth taken literally would ban people from having children or keeping generations together, positions that offend any notions of human rights and calls upon the Jewish State to adopt a racially restrictive policy against its own population. Adopting the Zero tolerance to growth and declaring the settlements as illegitimate is more than discriminatory if creates the absurd result that America has endorsed a policy the excludes the Biblical people from Biblical lands.
Remember this analysis has not begun to include the nod to Iran’s right to develop nuclear power.
Any expectation that the President’s Hoiff Yidden (Court Jews) do not agree or fully support their boss is a redefinition of naïve.
Quite simply Israel’s survival and that of all Jewry rests with our faith and the nation’s embrace of its history and heritage. The call from Cairo can be turned to a mere footnote let Jewish Hearts and all who are devoted to G-D meet the Present ‘s call with prayer , principle and persistence.
Monday, June 01, 2009
REALITY CHECK
National leaders privy to information from many more sources than the man or woman in the street or os it would seem. Therefore,if national policy defies logic one could believe the chices made are based on comprehensive intelegence and the promotion of national interest. Then again there is Israel.
If a Jewish resident in Yehudah and Shomron installs a awing set or baseketball hoop it is an obsticale to peace. Jewish Parents building housing for their married children is a hostile act. A group of scholar farmers more interested in meditation than munitions, genorah and granola over guns are viewed as an occupying military force.
These other worldly folks are villified not just by those who preach the virtues of violence as an element of policy but even by those who feel threatened by the settlers' belief in eternal principles and maintaining fidelity to their national heritage.
The willingness of those in charge to shed their heritage or minmize its influence in terms of pragmatic realities where red lines are penciled in pink and can be erassed with ease.
The Obama Administration recent assertion that Israel adopt a Zero Growth policy in Yesha including Jerusalem was so blatantly offensive to Israel that Prime Minister Netanyahu rebuffed, albeit for the time being Washington's demands.
Even if one is ideologically oopposed to the Settler enterprise there can be no justification to discriminate against where Jews may choose to male their lives. just on the basis of one's faith.
Maybe there is something far more worriesome than oopposition to Jews settling throughout their ancestral homeland. It is opposition to the underlying ideology that underlies the national return to Zion. There is hostility to Judaism, as its beliefs takes away power and position from those holding power and prestidge.
A Jew praying on a hilltop in serene conversation with G-D is precieved as the enbodiment of all the region's and world's problems, evils.
What is threatened is arrogance which abhorrs truth, like darkness cannot tolerate light. Rabbi Nachman of Breslev ZT'L taught that just before Mashiach's arrival there would be a generalized intolerance to faith. Faith requires humility, arrogance consequently rejects faith and the faithfull as well.
If a Jewish resident in Yehudah and Shomron installs a awing set or baseketball hoop it is an obsticale to peace. Jewish Parents building housing for their married children is a hostile act. A group of scholar farmers more interested in meditation than munitions, genorah and granola over guns are viewed as an occupying military force.
These other worldly folks are villified not just by those who preach the virtues of violence as an element of policy but even by those who feel threatened by the settlers' belief in eternal principles and maintaining fidelity to their national heritage.
The willingness of those in charge to shed their heritage or minmize its influence in terms of pragmatic realities where red lines are penciled in pink and can be erassed with ease.
The Obama Administration recent assertion that Israel adopt a Zero Growth policy in Yesha including Jerusalem was so blatantly offensive to Israel that Prime Minister Netanyahu rebuffed, albeit for the time being Washington's demands.
Even if one is ideologically oopposed to the Settler enterprise there can be no justification to discriminate against where Jews may choose to male their lives. just on the basis of one's faith.
Maybe there is something far more worriesome than oopposition to Jews settling throughout their ancestral homeland. It is opposition to the underlying ideology that underlies the national return to Zion. There is hostility to Judaism, as its beliefs takes away power and position from those holding power and prestidge.
A Jew praying on a hilltop in serene conversation with G-D is precieved as the enbodiment of all the region's and world's problems, evils.
What is threatened is arrogance which abhorrs truth, like darkness cannot tolerate light. Rabbi Nachman of Breslev ZT'L taught that just before Mashiach's arrival there would be a generalized intolerance to faith. Faith requires humility, arrogance consequently rejects faith and the faithfull as well.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
TO THE PRESIDENT ELECT RE: MUMBAI
Statement of President-elect Barack Obama
Below is a statement by President-elect Barack Obama
"Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the American citizens who lost their lives in the outrageous terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and with all who have been touched by this terrible tragedy.
"These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them. The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks, and defeating their hate-filled ideology.
"There is one president at a time. I will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Mumbai, and am grateful for the cooperation of the Bush Administration in keeping me and my staff updated. We fully support the Bush Administration's efforts to protect American citizens and assist the government of India during this tragic time," said President-elect Obama.
From www.change.gov
There are three pionts to make ;
1 The outrage should extend to all the victims so brutaly and wantonly murdered, not just the American lives lost. Indeed this series of attacks, their brutality diminish our collective humanity as did the institutional mass murderers like the Nazis or Stalin’s forces ir The Communist Chinese (during their revolution.)
2 The President –elect deserves kudos for calling these murderers Terrorist and not militants or activists as appeared in some news reports.
3 That all terrorist networks need to be destroyed not just in the immedate sense through eliminating operational assests but in a lasting sense through casting their underlying philosophy to humanity’s garbage heap.
During the campagin during the Second debate the President –elect offered that negotiation and dialog being the means for the better results in dispute –resolution between peoples. Mr. President-elect it is my prayer that you and your team recognize that your rule of thumb simply does not apply to all time and certainly not in this incident nor with those who support these terrorists and their philosophy/ideology and methodology.
Just as 9/11 changed how America views the world. Mumbai should remind us who are truly the good guys and who are not. May those who cherish life collectively refuse to accept or tolerate this personification of evil.
Below is a statement by President-elect Barack Obama
"Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the American citizens who lost their lives in the outrageous terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and with all who have been touched by this terrible tragedy.
"These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them. The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks, and defeating their hate-filled ideology.
"There is one president at a time. I will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Mumbai, and am grateful for the cooperation of the Bush Administration in keeping me and my staff updated. We fully support the Bush Administration's efforts to protect American citizens and assist the government of India during this tragic time," said President-elect Obama.
From www.change.gov
There are three pionts to make ;
1 The outrage should extend to all the victims so brutaly and wantonly murdered, not just the American lives lost. Indeed this series of attacks, their brutality diminish our collective humanity as did the institutional mass murderers like the Nazis or Stalin’s forces ir The Communist Chinese (during their revolution.)
2 The President –elect deserves kudos for calling these murderers Terrorist and not militants or activists as appeared in some news reports.
3 That all terrorist networks need to be destroyed not just in the immedate sense through eliminating operational assests but in a lasting sense through casting their underlying philosophy to humanity’s garbage heap.
During the campagin during the Second debate the President –elect offered that negotiation and dialog being the means for the better results in dispute –resolution between peoples. Mr. President-elect it is my prayer that you and your team recognize that your rule of thumb simply does not apply to all time and certainly not in this incident nor with those who support these terrorists and their philosophy/ideology and methodology.
Just as 9/11 changed how America views the world. Mumbai should remind us who are truly the good guys and who are not. May those who cherish life collectively refuse to accept or tolerate this personification of evil.
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