Opuscula Bibi whines: Bennett is soft On Iran & Biden

Vindication.

More proof.

On 14 July this blog had an entry headed “Publication’s true colors finally exposed to readers” (https://tinyurl.com/639sbbam) in which it suggested former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behaving as badly as Hillary Clinton or my grandchildren, perhaps worse.

Today, a headline in World Israel News (https://tinyurl.com/mdnr55ue) confirms, at least for this scrivener, yesterday’s effort.

 

THE HEADLINE: "Bennett twiddling his thumbs while Iran goes nuclear," charges Netanyahu followed by a leed paragraph that reads Bennett’s office fired back, accusing Netanyahu of failing to deal with the Iranian threat during his years in power.

Netanyahu missed his chance to act when Donald Trump was U.S. president.

Not only was Trump a strong supporter of Israel, but Muslim countries in the region feared Iran more than they hated Israel, ergo the Abraham Accords.

Now, Trump is gone — perhaps only temporarily — and the leftistS in the U.S. control the White House.

Bennett finds not even luke warm support for an attack on Iran in Washington.

The Abraham Accords, now defunded by the leftists, are tottering — it be a small miracle if they survive the current administration.

What would Bibi do about enemies?

Given he did relatively little during his more-than-a-decade as Israel’s prime minister, even when he had strong support from Washington, what would he do were he in Bennett’s position and had zero support from the White House and the sycophants surrounding the occupants of the nation’s capitol?

Given his lack of action against Iran when he had political support from Washington, why is anyone listening to his sour grapes (right) now than Bennett is at the helm?

Netanyahu has publicly stated his goal is to “bring down the government.”

Like a petulant child, if Netanyahu can’t get his way, he will take his toy (the government) and go home.

Netanyahu has once again driven people out of “his” party, Likud, and he refused a chance to bring in a right-wing, Likud-led coalition by simply stepping down as party head (and therefore prime minister) for a year.

It’s documented.

What can Bennett do?

The reality is that Bennett’s hands are tied.

Washington has abandoned Israel to kowtow to Iran (lifting Trump’s effective sanctions) and restoring the funding to the “Palestinians” that Trump canceled that nearly forced Ramallah to the negotiating table.

Israel could turn Iran into ashes.

Israel could seal the borders to PLO/PFLP areas and its border with Hamas in Gaza. (The Hamas Gaza/Egyptian border is open as long as Egypt is willing to allow traffic through it. Israel does not control Egypt’s actions.)

While much of the Muslim world would privately applaud, it would publicly condemn Israel.

Europe would shun Israel while some secretly would be delighted. Euro-liberals would take to the streets for a new Kristallnacht.

The leftists in North America — lest we forget the Canadians — would gnash their teeth, wring their hands, and send BLMers to destroy anything and everything Jewish in their own countries.

China would see such actions as another opportunity to extend its influence.

Bottom line: Israel would win the battle but loose the hasbara (PR) war, a war it has continued to lose since 1949.

Beyond that, there are some, perhaps many, in Iran that would prefer the ayatollahs to get out of government and return to their madrashas. While the mullahs probably would sacrifice the average Iranian (Persian) to stay in power, Israel — as proven multiple times in Gaza — is less inclined to murder innocents.

 

As an aside: Netanyahu was prime minister for a dozen years. Why didn’t he eliminate Hamas, et al, and put an end to the missile attacks on Israeli civilians? Gaza is a much smaller enemy than Iran and a much lesser threat than Iran. And then there is Hezbollah in Syria/Lebanon. Netanyahu failed to remove it and is rockets.

 

Bennett’s problems

In addition to Bennett’s problems with Washington and Netanyahu’s whining, he also must contend with a government that includes

✡ Likud — Netanyahu’s sycophants and loyalists

✡ Far left parties such as the almost defunct Labor party and Meretz

✡ Anti-Israel parties such as Ra’am

The “religious” parties refused to be part of a government that includes the anti-Israel Ra’am party.

A number of members of the more centrist parties simply wanted to be rid of Netanyahu.

The “Dump Netanyahu” movement

✡ Caused some members to abandon Likud

✡ Forced other right wing and centrist parties to look to other leadership

In order to maintain a coalition of unlikely bedfellows, Bennett and his partner in the leadership, Yair Lapid ,have had to compromise their own political positions. That included accepting Ra’am into the government and naming PLO supporter Ibtisam Mara’ana from the Labor party to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (https://tinyurl.com/47xbbahc).

For the good of the country

If Netanyahu really cared about the county that allowed him to lead it for more than a decade, he would do what former national leaders have done: assume the role of “elder statesman,” write (or find a ghost writer) for a book about his real or imagined successes, retire to his home to raise flowers and grandchildren.

Ben Gurion did it.

Menachem Begin did it.

Even Golda Meir did it.

Quiet retirement not to Netanyahu's liking?

He could do as Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Moshe Sharett and find a profitable situation .

He could even convince his buddies in the Knesset to name him president, as Shimon Peres did.

Netanyahu would rather bring down a government before it gets a chance to accomplish anything — accomplishments would make Netanyahu’s years in office look bad — than to accept defeat and retire gracefully “Stage Right.”

He put his ego above his party and he put his ego above a conservative coalition.

He needs to put his ego on a shelf.

Given time, Bennett and Lapid may well have Israelis wishing Netanyahu was at the helm, but for now, he is not, and his whining is unbecoming for a former prime minister.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Netanyau whines

Opuscula Publication’s True colors finally Exposed to readers

MOST OF ISRAEL’S NATIONAL MEDIA, tv, newspapers, and on-line publications, are politically left of center; some more than others. (Specifically,, limited circulation/limited interest media, such as that controlled by Orthodox rabbis, are excluded from the “most national media” category.)

One publication stood out as a bastion of conservatism.

Operative word: “Stood.”

Past tense.

 

I USED TO THINK ISRAEL HAYOM presented basically fair coverage, less influenced by the politicians than other publications.

It was to the right-of-center, to be certain.

However,

New name needed

The newspaper is owned lock, stock, and ink barrel by “an unidentified relative” of the Adelson family.¹ On the death of Sheldon Adelson, his widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, assumed the role of publisher.

While Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, Israel HaYom stayed close to its general conservative roots.

However, when Netanyahu was deposed — primarily by his own doing — the paper’s loyalty to the former prime minister took precedence over journalistic integrity.

No matter what the leaders of the current coalition do (or don’t do) they are pilloried by Israel HaYom columnists and headline writers.

Netanyahu could do no wrong (despite his record).

Netanyahu’s foes can do no right — never mind that they have been in office less than 90 days.

In this scrivener’s opinion, the publication should be renamed to

Bibi’s Personal PR sheet

Caveat: I was not, I am not, a fan to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Just like Hillary

Netanyahu and his followers learned from Hillary Clinton and her Democrat sycophants after she lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump.

Whine.

Claim he could do better.

Disrupt parliamentary discussions.

Exit in a huff.

Promise to “bring down the government” because the man who would be king was deposed.

Childish.

My grandchildren are no worse, and they are 10 and 6.

Frankly, Netanyahu’s behavior, and that of his hangers on is embarrassing.

Embarrassing to the country he used to lead.

Embarrassing to the people who once gave his party their votes.

(In Israel, Members of Knesset (MKs) are elected by party; the more votes (mandates) a party receives, the more members will make it into the Knesset. The Knesset has 120 seats.)

All about Bibi

This is not the first time people have left the Likud party, the party Netanyahu leads.

In a previous instance, several Likud members left the party because of Netanyahu’s flips and flops. The best known of the defectors was former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (right).

Shamir was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Shamir went so far as to resign from the Likud in 1998 and endorse Herut, a right-wing splinter movement led by Benny Begin, which later joined the National Union during the 1999 election. (https://tinyurl.com/snvutxm9)

According to Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, “the creation of the so-called unity government was made possible by one man and one man only. And his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. Such a coalition was rendered possible by Netanyahu’s personal untrustworthiness.” (https://tinyurl.com/2awx3d38)

Finance Minister Israel Katz told activists for the ruling Likud that in an attempt to prevent the party’s fall from power, he had suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu step aside temporarily to enable the formation of a right-wing government. (https://tinyurl.com/yxzelhg6)

Netanyahu refused, even though Katz (illegally ?) promised that Netanyahu could continue to reside in the PM’s residence while he “vacationed” for a year.

Bibi and D.C.

Netanyahu had his problems with Washington while the Democrats were lodged in the White House.

During the Trump administration, Bibi and Trump had a warm relationship that led to the Abraham Accords (for which Netanyahu falsely claims credit).

Now that the Obama protege (right) is sitting in the Oval Office and surrounding himself with pro-Muslim/anti-Israel advisors, Netanyahu would hardly be welcome at the White House. (Would Biden snub a prime minister as the chutzpan Obama did?)

The current coalition — it is not expected to last the full four-year term — is more pragmatic, less antagonistic to Washington than Netanyahu following Trump’s defeat.

 

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Sources

1. Wikipedia: https://tinyurl.com/2a9jneac Footnote 9)

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on True colors

Opuscula Vanity put aside Could have Avoided election

Like or hate Israel’s new government, blame it on one person’s vanity.

 

Had former prime minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu given up the PM post and retired to the life of an elder statesman, the right wing parties would have joined Likud — Netanyahu’s party — to form a viable coalition. Some leaders of these parties might even have returned to the Likud fold.

But Netanyahu apparently wanted to be King Bibi and rule for life.

Leaders make friends, enemies

Netanyahu had been PM for more than a dozen years.

Over that time, all leaders form friendships of convenience and at the same time find the number of foes increasing.

In Netanyahu’s case, the foes outnumbered the friends. Many, former members of the Likud, left the party to form new parties. The new parties had similar political philosophies, but they were “Netanyahu free.”

This is not a new phenomenon. Netanyahu drove former PM Yitzhak Shamir from the Likud. Shamir then formed a new party. (See Yitzhak Shamir mini-biography, below)

Finance Minister Israel Katz told activists for the ruling Likud that in an attempt to prevent the party’s fall from power, he had suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu step aside temporarily to enable the formation of a right-wing government. (https://tinyurl.com/yxzelhg6)

Netanyahu refused, even though Katz (illegally ?) promised that Netanyahu could continue to reside in the PM’s residence while he “vacationed” for a year.

Unlikely bedfellows

Because Netanyahu refused to accept the reality that, after three elections he still was unable to form a stable right-wing government, other politicians, notably Yamina's Naftali Bennett (right-wing) and Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid (centrist) cobbled together a coalition of parties whose main goal was Netanyahu’s removal as PM.

Politically, the coalition members run the gamut from far left to moderate right. The haredi parties representing Shas (headed by a convicted criminal) and United Torah refused to participate in a national unity government that included the Muslim’s Ra’am party and leftist parties they consider anti-haredi.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his minions are behaving like the sore losers they are, like spoiled toddlers who failed to get what they want the instant they want it.

Netanyahu repeatedly promises — or threatens, depending on the point of view — to being down the current government, and his sycophants either try to shout down the new PM (Bennett) and his coalition members or, like petulant children, walk out of the Knesset. Either way, they cannot do the business of the state, the job their parties — not the individuals — were elected to perform.

A better man

Netanyahu had an admirable record, some of which he actually deserved. (He claimed he created the Abraham Accords, for example. The accords that attempt to “normalize” relations between Israel and Muslim countries were conceived and implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump using U.S. assets as a carrot to encourage Muslims to recognize Israel as a country with a right to exist.)

Unfortunately, his forced exit from power and his behavior will be remembered long after anything positive he may have honestly accomplished.

Had Netanyahu done what previous “retired” PMs had done, his positive reputation would remain intact.

Many of Netanyahu’s predecessors as PM knew when to step aside. The following are excerpts from Wikipedia biographies.

David Ben-Gurion retired from politics in 1970 and spent his last years living in a modest home on the kibbutz, working on an 11-volume history of Israel's early years. In 1971, he visited Israeli positions along the Suez Canal during the War of Attrition. (https://tinyurl.com/gtkoro9)

Moshe Sharett during his retirement he became chairman of Am Oved publishing house, Chairman of Beit Berl College, and Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency. (https://tinyurl.com/yfpx8l4j)

Levi Eshkol and Yigal Allon died

Golda Meir resigned on April 11, 1974. She believed that was the "will of the people" and that she had served enough time as premier. She believed the government needed to form a coalition. She said, "Five years are sufficient ... It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden.” (https://tinyurl.com/nlmgqsp)

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing extremist who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. (https://tinyurl.com/mrwvu7d)

Menachem Begin (right) retired to an apartment overlooking the Jerusalem Forest and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. He would rarely leave his apartment, and then usually to visit his wife's grave-site to say the traditional Kaddish prayer for the departed. His seclusion was watched over by his children and his lifetime personal secretary Yechiel Kadishai, who monitored all official requests for meetings. Begin would meet almost no one other than close friends or family. (https://tinyurl.com/kb86yg2)

Yitzhak Shamir was defeated by Yitzhak Rabin in the 1992 election. He stepped down from the Likud leadership in March 1993, but remained a member of the Knesset until the 1996 election. For some time, Shamir was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Shamir went so far as to resign from the Likud in 1998 and endorse Herut, a right-wing splinter movement led by Benny Begin, which later joined the National Union during the 1999 election. After Netanyahu was defeated, Shamir returned to the Likud fold and supported Ariel Sharon in the 2001 election. Subsequently, in his late eighties, Shamir ceased making public comments. Shamir's health declined, with the progression of his Alzheimer's disease, and he was moved to a nursing home. The government turned down a request by the family to finance his stay at the facility. (https://tinyurl.com/cxaooso)

Shimon Peres was elected President of the State of Israel by the Knesset. 58 of 120 members of the Knesset voted for him in the first round (whereas 38 voted for Reuven Rivlin, and 21 for Colette Avital). His opponents then backed Peres in the second round and 86 members of the Knesset voted in his favor, while 23 objected. He resigned from his role as a Member of the Knesset the same day, having been a member since November 1959 (except for a three-month period in early 2006), the longest serving in Israeli political history. Peres was sworn in as president on 15 July 2007. (https://tinyurl.com/znmgjer)

Ehud Barak After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister. In an interview with HaAretz Barak said he currently earns more than a $1 million a year, and that from 2001 to 2007, he also earned more than a $1 million every year, from giving lectures and from consulting for hedge funds. Barak also said he made millions of dollars more from his investments in Israeli real estate properties.

In the interview, Barak was asked whether he is a lobbyist who earns a living from "opening doors". Barak confirmed that he has been received by these heads of state but denied earning money from opening doors for international business deals for Israeli and foreign corporations, and said he does not see any ethical or moral problems in his business activities. He further said there is no logic to demand of him, after "the natural process in democracy has ended" to not utilize the tools he accumulated in his career to secure his financial future. When asked if his financial worth is $10–15 million, Barak said "I'm not far from there." (https://tinyurl.com/c82j4oy)

Ariel Sharon was hospitalized on 18 December 2005, after suffering a minor ischemic stroke. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a heart defect requiring surgery and ordered bed rest pending a cardiac catheterization scheduled for 5 January 2006. Instead, Sharon immediately returned to work and suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on 4 January, the day before surgery. After spending eight years in a coma, Sharon died at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) on 11 January 2014. (https://tinyurl.com/yf3dwomv)

Ehud Olmert in 2009, he spoke at various colleges throughout the United States to mixed receptions. In October 2009, he visited Magnolia, Arkansas, and spoke about Israeli farming, technology and Israel's view on Iran. The speech was given at Southern Arkansas University, where he also invited the rural university to form a partnership with Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (https://tinyurl.com/yhtwwv69)

Term limits

A Hebrew video clip from nearly two decades ago of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for term limits spread like wildfire on Wednesday, reminding the public of the earlier views of the fourth-term leader.

“I have an answer for you that is inscribed in stone,” Netanyahu told tv’s Dan Shilon in 1977. “When I was one of initiators and backers of the Direct Election Law, I asked to add a clause that a prime minister cannot serve more than two terms.”

The Direct Election Law, which allowed the public to choose a prime minister on a separate ballot from their Knesset vote, was repealed in 2001. Netanyahu explained his support for term limits for a prime minister. (https://tinyurl.com/yh8hx52b)

Once crowned PM, the proposal to limit a PM’s term of office quickly “disappeared” from Netanyahu’s vocabulary.

According to a New York Times article (https://tinyurl.com/ygwvb8fb), the first two prime ministers elected directly, Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996 and Ehud Barak in 1999, both resigned early, after losing support among the many parties that found their influence had increased in Parliament.

Today's vote came just hours before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new government was sworn into office this evening, and was supported by the Likud and Labor parties -- the right and left mainstays of his new unity coalition.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

Comment on Vanity

Opuscula One man’s ego Opened government To Leftists, haters

THE EGO OF ONE MAN, Benjamin Netanyahu, may put leftists and haters of Israel into the government.

Not since Israel’s first prime minister has any politician had such a grand vision of himself.¹

 

Netanyahu’s party, Likud, has been in power since Menachem Begin wrested control from Ben Gurion’s Labor party in 1977.

The Likud of 2021 is not Begin‘s Likud of 1977.

In a critique of Netanyahu’s tenure, Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, defines some of the reasons the prime minister’s right-wing supporters abandoned him. (https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb)

According to Tobin, rather than raging at Bennett and his Yamina colleague, Ayelet Shaked, they should be blaming the object of their veneration for this. The creation of the so-called unity government was made possible by one man and one man only. And his name is Benjamin Netanyahu.

such a coalition was rendered possible by Netanyahu’s personal untrustworthiness.

It is possible to argue that Netanyahu’s skills as a leader outweigh the shortcomings in his character. But his problems go deeper than the fact that most of the Israeli media and the intellectual, legal and bureaucratic establishments are biased against him. The flimsy corruption charges that he is seeking to refute in court can be seen as a product of that bias.

To be fair to Netanyahu, similar to the media in the United States, Israeli national circulation media generally are at least left leaning if not solidly leftist and are aligned with leftist political parties. Only one national circulation media, Israel HaYom, is conservative.

Tobin noted that Netanyahu spent the last decade driving most of his possible successors out of the Likud. He also has convinced just about everyone who did a coalition deal with him that they had been swindled. Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz, who signed a power-sharing agreement last year that Netanyahu reneged on as everyone had predicted, is just one example. As such, Netanyahu’s credibility is shot.

Unity government for change?

The hoodge-podge of competing political philosophies — far left to far right — all have one thing in common, a “Never-Netanyahu” commitment.

According to a Washington Post article (https://tinyurl.com/fse3e7hb), Divisions between a dovish left and a hawkish right have long defined Israel’s highly fragmented party system. Yet during the past couple of years, Israeli politics has increasingly become not only a competition between left and right — but also between the pro-Netanyahu and Never-Netanyahu blocs. One side sees Netanyahu as the protector of Israel, while the other considers him an immediate threat to Israeli democracy. Netanyahu’s indictment on bribery and fraud charges and his combative stance toward the Israeli legal system have only further polarized how Israelis feel about their prime minister.

The New York Times (https://tinyurl.com/yehm4ve9) blames Netanyahu for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapse, and tensions between Jews and Arabs inside Israel peaked in May when unrest swept across mixed Jewish-Arab cities during the latest Gaza war.

At the same time, the publication credits Netanyahu claiming he nevertheless defied expectations and convention by negotiating diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries, subverting assumptions that Israel could make peace with Middle Eastern states only once a final deal with the Palestinians had been made.

Most people, especially Americans, would credit former President Donald Trump with forging the “normalization” (not “peace”) agreements between Israel and several Muslim-dominated nations. The NYT chose not to credit Trump for anything.

Not first “unity” government

If the Lapid-formed unity government ever takes office, it will not be Israel’s first attempt at an almost-all-party government.

It also will not be the first time the prime minister post will be held on a rotation basis.

Israel has had, according to the Washington Post (https://tinyurl.com/55vwy5nt) several “national unity” governments, including:

1967-1969

On the day before the outbreak of the June 1967 war, prime minister Levi Eshkol -- under mounting public pressure to do so -- brought opposition parties Herut (the predecessor of the present Likud Party), Gahal, and Rafi into the ruling coalition, the first time any of these parties had been included in a government. This national unity government, the first of its kind in Israel's history, was formed even though Eshkol's ruling coalition had included 75 seats out of the 120 in Knesset (well above the necessary threshold). In the 111-member national unity government, the former opposition parties were given just one seat in the cabinet -- the Ministry of Defense, awarded to Moshe Dayan.

1969-1970

Following Eshkol's death in February 1969, Golda Meir was tapped to succeed him as head of the Labor Party and to lead Israel's fourteenth government. Wary of upcoming elections, coalition members Alignment (Labor), Gahal, Herut, National Religious Party (NRP), Independent Liberals, and Rafi together with the minority lists decided to honor the existing coalition agreement and maintain the embrace of national unity. This time, however, former opposition parties Gahal, Herut, and Rafi were given ministerial posts and portfolios as fully integrated members until Israel went to the polls in October 1969. Following the elections, a new national unity government was formed with essentially the same composition.

1984-1988

The July 1984 national elections -- reflecting the fissures in Israeli society that followed the Lebanon war -- were ideologically indecisive: Alignment (Labor) won 44 seats while Likud took 41. Unable to assemble a coalition larger than 54 seats each, the Knesset's two largest parties reached an unprecedented agreement whereby Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and Likud Party leader Yitzhak Shamir would divide the administration and switch portfolios, each serving out two years as prime minister and foreign minister respectively (under this arrangement, Peres served initially as prime minister and Shamir as foreign minister).

1988-1990

he November 1988 elections resulted once again in a political deadlock. Labor won 39 seats -- down 5 from the previous seventh Knesset and down 24 from the sixth Knesset -- but the 40-seat-strong Likud held just one fewer seat than in the previous Knesset. Labor and Likud blocs both made abortive attempts to construct coalitions with the religious parties (Shas, NRP, Degel Hatorah, and Tehiya) who collectively held 18 seats, almost enough to give either bloc the required majority. In the end, Labor and Likud instead chose to adopt another power-sharing arrangement, but unlike the 1984 elections, the poll results enabled Shamir to become prime minister with Peres as foreign minister.

In May 1989, the Shamir government presented plans to proceed with negotiations concerning Palestinian autonomy, and the fabric of the coalition began to unravel. Labor Party leader Peres -- upset that Shamir would not comply with U.S. secretary of state James Baker's more ambitious peace initiative -- toppled the government with the support of religious parties disgruntled by domestic and finance issues.

Only one “unity government” lasted more than two years.

Ego brought down Netanyahu

Unless Netanyahu can scuttle the new government before it is accepted — and by all accounts he is making every effort to prevent a new government from forming — he and his ego will be history, at least for the moment.

Finance Minister Israel Katz proposed to Netanyahu that he hold fresh primaries for the party leadership, with the winner replacing the incumbent as prime minister for a single year — after which Netanyahu would presumably return. (https://tinyurl.com/kjnkt6z4)

According to Katz, Netanyahu would have been allowed to remain in the PM’s residence while waiting to be reinstalled as PM.

Lingering question

Before first assuming the prime ministership, Netanyahu proposed term limits for the position.

As soon as he assumed the position, the proposal “disappeared.”

Talk of the Knesset instituting term limits for the position has resumed.

Will it happen if Netanyahu succeeds in overcoming the “unity” government of Lapid and Bennett?

Will it happen of the unity government prevails?

Is the issue a “smoke screen” for something entirely different?

Politics in Israel.

 

 

 

Sources

1. Ben Gurion had the chutzpah to order his flunky, Yitzhak Rabin, to open fire on JEWS bringing weapons and personnel for Israel’s defense on the ship Altalena (https://tinyurl.com/vuruujk3).

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Ego

Opuscula King Bibi Deposed By own arrogance

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, caused his party (Likud) to lose control of the government.

Offered a chance to “fool the people” by surrendering the party leadership for a year — after which he would be reinstated and return to power — he refused.

In the end, it cost him his crown.

 

Jonathan S. Tobin editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate wrote what this scrivener considers a well-thought out review of Netanyahu and what led to his downfall. See https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb

 

ACCORDING TO ISRAEL’S CHANNEL 12 tv station, Finance Minister Israel Katz recently suggested to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Likud Central Committee hold a vote for the ruling party’s chairman and that whoever wins will serve as premier for a year instead of Netanyahu to allow for the formation of a right-wing government.

Katz also reportedly told Netanyahu that he and his family can continue living in the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem during that year. (https://tinyurl.com/nm6yvrn5)

Netanyahu rejected the idea.

The “Katz plan” would have allowed Netanyahu’s political foes on the right to accept a Likud-led coalition to form a government excluding left-leaning, leftists, and Israel-hating (e.g., Ra’am) parties from control of the Knesset.

Israel’s Labor Party, according to HaAretz editorial writers (https://tinyurl.com/x4jdsm8k), once was Israel’s largest party and ruled 1948 until Menachem Begin's Likud first came to power in 1977. The newspaper describes Labor as the party that"supports the policy of social pluralism and equality, and since the 1990's, a free market “with a soul' economic policy." In the political arena, despite most of its leaders having a military background, Labor has traditionally led a pragmatic, more compromising approach to solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."

Interestingly, until Begin and Likud came to power, there were zero peace agreements with neighboring states; so much for solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."

Katz and Sa’ar

HaAretz (https://tinyurl.com/8eyx9c) writes that Transportation Minister Katz is currently the only truly senior Likud minister besides the prime minister. With all the top cabinet jobs doled out to coalition partners, Katz has been forced to make do with the same position for eight years. As a sop to his seniority, Netanyahu added to his portfolio in 2015 membership in the security cabinet and also made him intelligence affairs minister.

It should be noted that the once independent HaAretz (c 1975) now is solidly in the leftist camp, and its opinions should be viewed accordingly. All Israeli national circulation newspapers have a political bias.

The HaAretz piece continues.

Gideon Sa’ar, 50, the suave Tel Aviv lawyer who moonlights as a DJ, is married to Channel 1’s senior anchor Geula Even and has recently ended his time-out from frontline politics.

Sa’ar’s advantage over Katz is his younger and more sophisticated image. Katz, however, has a crucial edge – he’s currently a Knesset member.

Like Katz, Sa’ar is, o was, a Likudnik.

Alone on the throne

One reason Netanyahu has opposition from his own party is his apparent fear of being replaced.

Interestingly, at one point Netanyahu proposed term limits for prime minister; and then he was given the plumb and the idea of term limits quickly went away.

HaAretz again: In the quarter century since taking over Likud, Netanyahu has dominated the movement, transforming it from a grassroots ideological outfit into his personal platform. This was true even of the six years between 1999 and 2005 when Ariel Sharon nominally led the party, with Netanyahu in the wings waiting to return. Bibi has never nurtured any deputies, and he has quickly cut any potential successors down to size.

The Times of Israel (https://tinyurl.com/45ekn8wf) opines that Netanyahu’s bloc, comprising Likud and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, meanwhile, would win just 44. Even with Yamina, such a coalition would still fall seven seats short of a majority. Leaders of other Zionist parties have not expressed a willingness to sit in a Netanyahu-led coalition.

Too many politicians have too many real or perceived grievances against Netanyahu and are unwilling to support any government in which he is prime minister even if it means a collation with leftists and other Israel haters (e.g., Ra’am).

 

One point must be made perfectly clear: not all Muslims align with Ra’am, not all Muslims are anti-Israel or pro-PLO/Hamas. There are Muslims in the major political parties where they serve their constituents admirably.

 

Few of the recent articles on Netanyahu focus on either his legal woes or his wife’s infamous behavior.

For most who want Netanyahu gone, it simply is time for a change.

He was offered an chance to “hide” for a year (ibid.) — and even keep many of the PM’s perks — a move that would prove to thinking Israelis that no politician can be trusted.

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on King deposed

Opuscula When did Gantz Join the Joint List?

HOW IS IT THAT co-Prime Minister, Benny Gantz, supports the PLO/PLFP’s Slay for Pay?

According to Yediot Aharonot, as reported by Israel National News/Arutz 7¹, Gantz over the weekend extended the moratorium on an order imposing criminal sanctions on Palestinian Arab banks that hold accounts of terrorists and their families and which are budgeted by the Palestinian Authority.

The imposition of sanctions was initiated by former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, and Gantz froze the sanctions a month and a half ago.

 

Ayalet Shaked and Naftali Bennett

 

Granted, Gantz is not a member of either Netanyahu’s Likud or Bennett’s Blue and White political party, but leader of the so-called Israel Resilience Party.

It seems more than a little strange that Gantz, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is so willing to fund the killers of Israeli military and civilians.

Abu Mazen and the PLO/PFLP cuts the pay of its workers to pay prisoners in Israeli jails salaries that often are greater than the wages they would get at an honest job.

At the same time, the PLO/PFLP don’t pay their bills for utilities they get from Israel. Abu Mazen, in a fit of pique,

  * Refuses to accept tax money Israel collects for the PLO/PFLP

  * Condemns his people to second rate health services by preventing access to Israel’s superior health care workers and facilities

  * Prevents his people from working in Israel for better wages.

Meanwhile, Abu Mazen calls the continued payments to terrorists a "red line" that would not be halted under any circumstances.

 

Is Gantz a PLO agent?

While Gantz may not be an active member of the anti-Israel Arab Joint List, his allowing the PLO/PFLP to continue paying people who have slain Israelis seems to be counter-productive — unless you are Abu Mazen.

Will allowing Slay for Pay payments bring the PLO//PFLP to the bargaining table? So far it has not, Abu Mazen et al are as intransigent as before.

Based on past discussions, the only way Abu Mazen will be satisfied is when the last Jew leaves Israel.

Abu Mazen has lost face with Arabs around the globe. He still is the darling of non-Arab liberals everywhere, but in truth, he has become an embarrassment to the PLO/PFLP bosses.

Hanging on to the Slay for Pay is his last gasp — and Gantz is helping him by allowing the program to continue.

Not only is Gantz propping up Abu Mazen, he is showing the world that (like the U.S.) Israeli decisions are cast in Jell-O^®, if even that much.

With Netanyahu fighting for his political life, Gantz is PM heir apparent.

The only alternative to a Gantz-led government similar to Rabin, Olmert, and Peres, to name but three leftists prime ministers, is a government headed by Bennett, Shaked, or similar strong personality.

Abu Mazen — even despite losing support from other Muslims in the Middle East — refuses to even DISCUSS borders with any right wing government and Netanyahu, who flips and flops daily on settlements, still is considered “right wing.” Abu Mazen is no fool. He realizes that with Gantz as prime minister the PLO/PFLP again will be in position to demand additional concessions from the leftists . . . with the likelihood of getting them.

I would not wish yet another election on the people of Israel, but the current kluge is similar to having Trump as president and Biden as vice-president.

 

 

Sources

1. Arutz 7: https://tinyurl.com/y2ufy62o

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Gantz

Opuscula Trump, Netanyahu: Not the sharpest Crayons in the box

NETANYAHU IS, IMO, A TWO-FACED, opportunistic politician who would be King for Life. An Israeli “FDR.”

Trump, while I agree with much of what he does — his “tweets” often are abominable — I cannot understand at all with regard to Tlaib, Omar and Israel.

Trump and Netanyahu (No credit given at http://tinyurl.com/y3wpte4e)

WHO AM I TO TALK?

I’m a dual national, and like many American Jews, I have kin in Israel. I am politically conservative.

Admittedly, the Powers That Be failed to ask me for my not-at-all-humble opinion, but if they had, I would have told them to welcome the Israel bashers.

Let them SEE the reality of Israel and let them SEE the reality in the PLO and Hamas-controlled areas.

Provide the visitors with Israeli Muslim escorts whenever they are in Israel. Take them to Muslim communities and let them talk to local Israeli Muslims. Take them to meet Druze. Let them talk to Israeli Muslims in the Army, on the Supreme Court, and even in the Knesset.

Escort them to the borders of the PLO and Hamas-controlled areas and turn them over to PLO and Hamas escorts. Let them (try) to see life in areas controlled by people who practice terrorism, apartheid, and misogyny as a way of life. Look at the mall in Gaza; compare the houses in the PLO and Hamas-controlled areas: look at how the leadership lives and also how the average person lives. NOW, compare that to the lifestyle of Muslims in Israel.

Why Netanyahu would, by fiat, deny the Israel bashers into Israel to SEE THE REALITY ON THE GROUND, other than to flatter Trump, is beyond my ken.

Why Trump should interfere in another country’s business likewise is unfathomable to me.

Maybe Trump wants to keep “The Squad” in the headlines; their outrageous behavior is one of the GOP’s best tools to keep control of the White House and Senate, and to regain control of the House.

Obama tried to influence Israeli elections (and failed).

That was enough interference from America to last for decades.

* * * * * * * *

Tlaib (left) and Omar (Photo Erin Scott for Reuters)

It's a small thing, but bothersome.

"The Squad"'s ignorance of Israel, the PLO, and Hamas.

The "Squad" claims Israel occupies Gaza.

According to multiple web sources — left, right, and center — Israel pulled out of Gaza on 15 August 2005, 14 years ago.

Does that mean members of "The Squad" are stupid, too stupid to read (or have reports read to them), too stupid to acknowledge history.

Maybe it means their constituents are stupid for electing such bigoted and ignorant people to federal office.

I suppose that Tel Aviv — a city built on the dunes by Jews, not Palestinians — is "occupied land."

If that's the case, then members of "The Squad" need to write bills to return occupied Indian lands held as part of the U.S.

The "Squad" rattles on and on about inequality of non-Jews in Israel, but ignores survey after survey by independent organizations that clearly show-ALL CITIZENS are equal in every way to Jews in Israel; which might explain why many Muslims prefer life in Israel to life in either PLO or Hamas-controlled areas.

"The Squad" talks about apartheid but ignores the apartheid in the PLO and Hamas-controlled areas; they talk about apartheid but ignore the Indian reservations in the U.S.

Israeli Muslims have full citizenship and the rights that go with it. They can live where they wish, pray (or not) as they wish, work wherever there is a demand for their skills, travel without restrictions, own businesses — just like Jews. Muslims are exempt from both military and national service, although they are encouraged to do national service.

Muslims from the PLO and Hamas-controlled areas are treated at Israeli hospitals without distinction or restriction. (PLO leaders send their kin to Israeli hospitals for the treatment unavailable in their own area.)

Muslims from the PLO areas once worked at Jewish owned companies such as SodaStream until BDSers such a Tlaib and Omar forced SodaStream to relocate, putting the PLO residents out of work.

They talk about the alleged cruelty of Jews against Muslims, but ignore U.S. history and subjects such as the Cherokee Trail of Tears1. They also ignore on-going pogroms against non-Muslims in Muslim-controlled countries (Somalia 2, Kenya 3 come to mind.) Never mind attacks by the PLO and Hamas on Israelis and visitors to Israel of all ages, colors, and religion. Tlaib and Omar will be protected during their stay in Israel by the very people they love to hate.

It IS true that many Israelis look with suspicion on Muslims, and why not?

Muslims from PLO and Hamas-controlled areas attack and kill Jews AND ARE PAID FOR IT by the PLO.

There are Jews with Muslim friends and co-workers.

There are Muslims in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There are Muslims in the Army.

There are Muslims sitting as judges on Israel's highest court.

Are there ANY Jews — even far leftist — in either the PLO or Hamas governments?

Are there ANY Jews who live as citizens in either PLO or Hamas-controlled areas?

Are there ANY Jews who own businesses or work in in either PLO or Hamas-controlled areas?

Not because they won't but because they are forbidden.

Apartheid.

Sources

1. Tears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

2. Somalia: https://www.refworld.org/docid/551d0a5b4.html

3. Kenya: http://tinyurl.com/y2p2jakb

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

Comments on Tlaib & Omar & Israel

Opuscula Politicians Never learn Basic lesson

HAMAS WINS AGAIN! After sending nearly 500 rockets and mortars into Israel, killing at least one and injuring many, Hamas agrees to a cease fire.

“We’ve taken our toll on you, now we have a cease fire so you can’t fight back.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

APPARENTLY SOMETHING IS sufficiently “wrong with this picture” to cause Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to resign his post.

Liberman announced his resignation in a press conference Wednesday afternoon (11/14/18) expressing dissatisfaction with Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas. He says he will call for immediate elections.¹

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends ceasefire, cites secret information² that, apparently, is too secret to share with the country’s defense minister.

Meanwhile, opposition party members celebrated Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s announcement Wednesday that he was resigning his post.

Leader of the opposition and member of the Zionist Union Tzipi Livni said, “Liberman is right that the government revealed weakness against terror. Everyone errs who thinks the solution is with Liberman, Bennett or the rest of the slogan throwers. We’re the solution.”³

---

It seems the more Hamas gets from, or via, Israel, the more it indiscriminately attacks Israeli civilians.

There WAS a brief cease fire, but Hamas broke it.

Does anyone believe Hamas will honor ANYTHING that is not to its advantage (and to Israel’s disadvantage)?

Didn’t Israel’s politicians learn ANYTHING from Oslo?

Netanyahu, “Bibi,” can’t seem to stick to a decision from one day to the next.

Allow settlements.

Bulldoze the same settlements.

Close the border to Gaza in retaliation for rockets, mortars, and fire bombs.

Open the border when Hamas offers a cease fire.

Close the border’s again when Hamas violates the cease fire.

Allow millions of dollars into Gaza for humanitarian use.

Let Israelis be shelled by Hamas again.

I don’t blame Liberman for resigning. The way Bibi is flip-flopping, it seems the inmates are running he asylum.

Unlike the opposition parties, I doubt they (the opposition) could do better.

One thing is beyond question: Likud 2018 is NOT the Likud of Menachem Begin, the man who forged, with Anwar Sadat, a long-lasting peace agreement.

Likud 2018 can’t seem to create a program and stick to it.

Is Likud — read Netanyahu — afraid of the Left?

Has Likud 2018 lost confidence in its military and its diplomatic corps.

Netanyahu is guiding Israel along a path that seems to be influenced by the former U.S. president, a man who diligently worked against Israel’s interests.

Or is Netanyahu simply a politician in mold of the Roman god, Janus.

What Israel needs today is another Jabotinsky or Begin or even Trumpeldor.

Sources

1. Liberman: http://tinyurl.com/yd98ytgf

2. Netanyahu: http://tinyurl.com/y7ycdd94
3. Livni: http://tinyurl.com/ydhosn2g

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Pols never learn

Opuscula Almost everything Upsets Palestinians But Israel’s demise

RECENTLY THE SO-CALLED “PALESTINIANS” hit the streets to main and kill because U.S. President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. a fact on the ground since 1967.

Now, President Trump is cutting the UN’s special fund for “Palestinian” welfare by freezing the US$125 million January dole payment.

It is interesting to note that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is the ONLY UN agency of its type – no other body of “displaced” peoples has a UN agency dedicated to it.

Who is against the cut?

Israel’s near-sighted and often two-faced prime minister¹

ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH online edition of Israel HaYom (Israel Today) for Monday, 8 January, Netanyahu voiced support for Trump's threat to cut aid to the Palestinians, saying the UNRWA "perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and the right of return narrative, in an effort to eliminate the State of Israel."

"Therefore, UNRWA should pass from the world," Netanyahu declared.

However

While Netanyahu praised Trump's "critical approach" to the aid issue, he steered clear of advocating a suspension of funding for the Palestinians, reflecting concern that cutting off funds could exacerbate Palestinian hardship and put Israel on a collision course with Palestinian terrorist groups.

He said UN. aid funds should be transferred to Gaza gradually via its global refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, "with clear criteria for supporting genuine refugees and not fictitious ones, as is happening today under UNRWA."

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the refugee crisis was being perpetuated by "failure of the parties to deal with the issue. UNRWA is mandated by the General Assembly to continue with its services until a just and lasting solution is found for the Palestine refugees.

The fact that many of the grandparents of today's “refugees” left Israel in 1948 because the mufti in Amman told them to get out of the way of the glorious Arab armies who would drive the Jews to the sea.²

Why is Netanyahu cowering? Attacks by “Palestinian” terrorists?

When have these people STOPPED attacking Israelis – women, children, old people, and soldiers.

The “Palestinian” – and Gazan – leaders, instead of sending their kin on jihad to become shahidem (martyrs) sends their kin to Israeli – not Egyptian, not Jordanian, not European, but Israeli – hospitals. “Palestinians” regularly travel to Arab states and Europe via Israel’s air and sea ports.

Meanwhile, The United Nation's International Children's Fund is spearheading a campaign to include the Israel Defense Forces on a UN. blacklist of "grave violators of children's rights," that includes terrorist groups like the Islamic State group and Boko Haram, this according to a new report by the NGO Monitor watchdog group.³

The NGO Monitor report further shows how UNICEF opted to ignore violations of children's rights by Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip, when it admitted "the working group was not in a position to document cases of child recruitment and use of children in armed conflict owing to a number of factors, including security and protection risks related to collecting comprehensive and detailed information."

A number of these organizations, including the Defense for Children International- Palestine, have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel, Canada, the EU and the U.S.

The liberal media and leftists governments around the world are complaining that Trump’s recognition of reality will destroy any “peace talks” between Israel and the “Palestinians.”

The question is: WHAT PEACE TALKS?

The “Palestinians” have not sat down with Israelis for serious, no pre-condition peace talks for months. Recognition of Jerusalem cannot be blamed for holding up peace negotiations months before Trump’s announcement. (When the “Palestinians” and Israelis came to an agreement in Oslo, the “Palestinians” quickly broke the agreement.)

Having the “Palestinians” sit down with Israelis is similar to Democrats sitting down with Trump and the Republican leadership. Even though the Democrat leadership failed to show, they still blame the GOP and Trump for lack of cooperation. (Did they learn from the “Palestinians”?)

Sources

1. Israel HaYom: http://tinyurl.com/y8okrac2

2. Arab exodus: http://tinyurl.com/y96n6v9j

3. UNICEF: http://tinyurl.com/y8wg5lxl

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Comments on Israel’s demise

Politics What did he say Really, And in what context?

 

Not reporting ALL the words is a lie

 

Obama said this.

Netanyahu said that.

Both are politicians and most politicians are not known for truthfulness, especially when bashing an opponent.

Netanyahu allegedly said before the elections that if he was re-elected there would be NO "two-state" solution to the Israel-PA conundrum.

This was reported - headlined - in most media - liberal and conservative.

UNFORTUNATELY, it was taken out of context.

In context, Netanyahu said that as long as things remain as they are then there can be no two-state solution. The partner, Abu Mazen and Friends - must meet certain apparently unrealistic conditions before two-state talks can resume. Abu Mazen must

1. Cease his government's official anti-Israel hate speeches
2. Stop honoring murders of Israelis - Jews and non-Jews alike; stop naming streets and sports venues after the killers
3. Remove inflammatory statements in textbooks used by PA students in all grades
4. Remove racists cartoons and other propaganda from PA television

So far, that's been too much to ask.

And that doesn't even include Hamas in Gaza over which Abu Mazen only thinks he has control. Nor does it include paying off the PA's electric bill, or even lifting the boycott on Israeli products.

Israel is not demanding that Abu Mazen give up his plan to make the PA "juden frei" (Hitler tried that if anyone recalls recent history; the popes also tried it a few centuries earlier. It didn't work for either.)

Netanyahu "clarified" his taken-out-of-context statement by stating there could be a two-state solution once the PA becomes a civilized partner in negotiations.

Netanyahu said that he expected Israeli Arabs to turn out in "droves" to vote for any party other than Likud. That, the liberal media exclaimed, is racist.

For the first time the several Arab parties in Israel were united and Israeli Arabs DID turn out in record numbers. But because the words came from Netanyahu's mouth the statement was racist.

Are tv talking heads racists when they report that voters of this or that party in the U.S. turned out ion "droves?" Hardly. Heck, in the U.S. people sometimes "swarm" to the polls; they "mass" at the polling place's doors to be first in line.

Are those words racists? Only in the minds of an easily offended liberal who knows his - or her - party cannot generate the same turnout.

Here, in the U.S., the (not "our," please) always-ready-to-condemn Israel president jumped on the out-of-context Netanyahu quote and ranted that the U.S. would have to rethink its relationship with Israel. RETHINK? Who is he kidding. Since taking office he has repeatedly shown disrespect for the country's prime minister and generally worked against the nation. (He hasn't done any good for America's image abroad, either, but that's a problem the U.S. can fix after the not-born-in-America* president is history.)

Truth be told, I am NOT a fan of Netanyahu; he certainly is NOT my choice for prime minister - or for any ministerial position save for perhaps hasberah (PR) to the English-speaking nations; he speaks well.

I think there is much that can be done to improve the Knesset and Israeli Arab participation, starting with integrating Israeli Arabs into the "Jewish" political parties - there certainly are enough political parties in Israel. (Interesting that they don't "flock"- is that racist?? - to the liberal parties.)

 

* Yes, I know a birth certificate was "discovered" two years AFTER he took office the first time. I also know that no one investigated, certainly not more than superficially, the voracity of the document, despite much skepticism.

No safe haven for Jews Netanyahu says Be safe in Israel

 

ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER tells Jews in France, Denmark, elsewhere to come to Israel where they will be safe.

Granted, Europe is a hotbed of anti-Semites and Israel haters.

Canada and the U.S. are not completely free of the European plague. Likewise, South America and Africa are infected.

But is a Jew really safer in Israel than "hu'l" (outside Israel)?

CAVEAT: I am a dual national (U.S. and Israel) living the the States. I'm here because of Israeli politics and strikes. I have a daughter who lives with her husband and daughter in Israel; I also have two sons who live in the U.S. with their families.

None of us are "afraid" to live in Israel or the U.S.

But to claim, as Netanyahu claims, that a Jew is safe in Israel is dishonest; it's a lie.

How many Israelis have been murdered by terrorists? How many blown up by terrorists' bombs as they sat in a café or rode a bus?

How many Israelis been murdered by knife wielding or vehicle driving terrorists while waiting for a bus or train?

How many Israelis have been injured or murdered by Muslim youth throwing rocks and cinder blocks at passing cars. For that matter, how many have been killed or injured driving in, or even near, some "religious" neighborhoods on Shabat?

How many Israelis have been killed in the last several years by missile fire from Israel's neighbors to the north and south?

The answer to "all of the above" is "Too many."

Jews born and raised in the U.S., at least the politically (vs. religiously) conservative ones, are prepared to fight back. Many are armed and are trained in the use of firearms. Having a personal weapon in Israel is almost an impossibility, so when a terrorist attacks a person with a knife or gun, the person being attacked is left defenseless - just as he would be in New York City.

While Europe has its "Muslim problem," the U.S. has its Mexican, Cuban and Haitian "problems" - drugs and territory wars. In Israel, not only is there a "Palestinian problem" there also is a Sudanese "problem."

There is a dearth of police in Israel. The only place to see more than an occasional cop is at the police station or at an "event."

I'm not "anti-Israel" and I certainly never would discourage anyone from making aliyah - my daughter did - but the reality is that Israel is probably no safer than a European country, and certainly - given gun control - less safe than the U.S. For Netanyahu to say otherwise is just another political prevarication.

 

Opuscula Tunnel Vision

 

Headline in Arutz Sheva for July 20, 2014: Livni Asks: 'Why Destroy Tunnels Before They Were Used?

A synopsis of the article reads: Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (HaTnua) explained over the weekend why she agreed to a ceasefire - even though the IDF had not yet managed to destroy the Hamas tunnels network.

This is the Member of Knesset who repeatedly meets with PA officials in Europe despite being told not to do so by the prime minister. Netanyahu fires deputy defense minister Danny Danon, a member of Netanyahu's own Likud party, for publicly disagreeing with him, but he keeps one who thumbs her nose at his political decision. Only in Israel.

When asked by a tv personality how it developed that the government basically agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, while on Thursday it suddenly "remembered" that "the tunnels are a strategic problem that must be urgently taken care of" Livni answered, "First of all, in truth the tunnels aren't something new…. There is a difference between a problem that still hasn't taken place and you still don't see it inside the territory of the State of Israel, [and between] that infiltration [from the tunnel] at Sufah that basically meant that it's not only a tunnel, but that Hamas continues and intends to use them inside Israel against the citizens of Israel."

It was Livni's veto last week that delayed the ground operation into Gaza for two full days.

The article continues by noting that In actuality, Livni overlooked the fact that the tunnels had been used successfully in the past against Israel. It happened in June 2006, when Hamas tunneled under an IDF outpost, killed two soldiers, and abducted Gilad Shalit back into Gaza. Hamas held him hostage for more than five years, until Israel released over 1,000 terrorists to secure his release.

In my professional life I am a risk management practitioner, and in a former life I was in the U.S. military. As I read Livni's remarks I have to wonder is this person has eyes to see and a brain to think.

Only the most isolated hermit lacks knowledge that Hamas builds tunnels for a purpose - either to import restricted goods and contraband from Egypt - which, to its credit, has demolished many tunnels - or to infiltrate Israel to kill or capture Israelis.

Yet this person is not only a member of the Israeli government (Member of Knesset) she also is Netanyahu's Justice Minister and the person he has appointed to work with the Palestinian Authority to achieve a two-state peace deal - never mind that the PA, now in bed with Hamas, still has as its primary goal the destruction of Israel and the making of Palestine a "Jewish-free country. (Even the Muslim in the White House and his lackey Kerry can't get Abu Mazen to give up that raison d'etre.)

Still, when the "apartheid" state of Israel has seven (7) Arab members, most of them Muslim, with at least two, Hanin Zoabi of the National Democratic Assembly and Dr. Ahmad Tibi of the Ra`am-Ta`al-Mada list, who outrageously condemn Israel for daring to exist. (Yet it is interesting to learn that according to her Knesset page, Ms. Zoabi has a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from Haifa University and an M.A. in Communications and Media, from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.)

Given the prime minister's actions and those of his Justice Minister, it is a wonder Israel's military and do more than play soldier, let alone conduct attacks against enemies using tunnels that - according to Livni - had not been used before. (Why did she think Hamas built them?)

Only in Israel.

There will be Peace in our time

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry & his European buddies are all aglow over a "no nukes" treaty with Iran.

It is the first of a two-part treaty that might mean Iran won't develop nuclear weapons IF if agrees with Part 2.

This truly must remind all thinking people who know anything about history of Britain's Neville Chamberlain and his infamous "There will be peace in our time" after his "successful" session with the nazi's leader, may his name be erased forever, that took the Sudetenland from what was then Czechoslovakia.

It might be well to note that Czechoslovakia was not invited to the meeting, just as Israel, Iran's primary target for nuclear destruction was not invited to the confab with the so called P5 + 1 ( United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany) and Iran.

But would Iran's representative from the Supreme Ayatollah have been allowed to sit in the same room with an Israeli or even an acknowledged Jew?

Interestingly, of the P5 + 1, none of the countries has been threatened by Iran, although the U.S.,UK, France, and Germany are being overrun by Muslims many of whom would like to see the pseudo-democracies replaced by the caliphate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mediterranean, not only is Israel concerned with the continuing Iranian threat but likewise Saudia.

According to Arutz Sheva Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK has declared the kingdom would not “sit idly by” if world powers fail to halt Iran’s nuclear program," reports Al Arabiya.

Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, who was speaking to the British Times, called the Obama administration’s “rush” to embrace Tehran “incomprehensible.”

“We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region,” Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi King Abdullah’s nephew, said.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu said "For the first time, the world's leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran while ignoring the UN Security Council decisions that they themselves led. Sanctions that required many years to put in place contain the best chance for a peaceful solution. These sanctions have been given up in exchange for cosmetic Iranian concessions that can be cancelled in weeks."

"Implications of this agreement threaten many countries - including, of course, Israel. Israel is not bound by this agreement," Netanyahu affirmed. "What we achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement; it is a historic mistake."

Naftali Bennett said "We awoke this morning to a new reality. A reality in which a bad deal was signed with Iran. A very bad deal," Bennett stated on his Facebook page. "This bad deal gives Iran exactly what it wanted: a significant easing of the sanctions while retaining the most significant parts of its nuclear program

"It is important that the world knows: Israel will not be committed to a deal that endangers its very existence," Bennett concluded.

What makes Kerry & Friends think the Iranians are any different then their cousins the so-called "Palestinians" - Jordanians in Israel. Not once have the leaders of the "Palestinian Authority" kept their agreements with Israel. Not at Camp David, not at Oslo, never.

The Iranian ayatollahs have proven, time and time again, that their promises are only words; there is no worth to them.

There is more similarities between Chamberlain and his meeting the the chief nazi and the P5 + 1 meeting with Iran' representative.

In neither case did the German nor the Iranian have any intent to honor an agreement. The German and the Iranian gained time to advance their agendas - just as the "Palestinians" gain time to gain theirs -- at the expense of the fools who are party to the agreement - and that most certainly includes Netanyahu.

Peace in our time?

Not likely with enemies such as Iran and the PA.

Is Obama blind?

Are Kerry, Netanyahu just stupid?

Obungler and his puppet Kerry are insisting that Israel make peace with the so-called Palestinians. (Israel already has a peace deal with the true Palestinian state: Jordan.)

Netanyahu apparently is safely tucked in Kerry’s pocket; another Obungler “yes man.”

Meanwhile, the people who are supposed to sit across from the Israelis at the peace table are publically praising the people who slaughtered innocent Israeli civilians. ( http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9425)

Can’t Obungler and Company see that?

Is Netanyahu so intent on being the U.S.’ lackey that he is willing to do exactly what he said he would NOT do.

There was a song popular in the 1960s, “Where have all the flowers gone?” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GCPAhR09wCA) - parts actually date back to 1955 ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F). *

The main thought was “When will they ever learn?”

Over and over and over yet again the modern day “Palestinians” have proven they don’t come to the table ready to make peace with Israel under any terms other than Israel’s destruction as a Jewish state. (Never mind that Arabs live in Israel and have as many – in some case, it seems, more – rights than Jews and that, on the flip side, Abu Mazzen & friends brag that they intend to build a Jew free country.)

Stop construction. Construction was stopped.

Free the murderers. The murderers were freed. (Lest we forget, that demand applies only to prisoners in Israeli jails; not to prisoners held by the enemy and not even to Jonathon Pollard held by Obungler and Company in the U.S.)

But Abu Mazzen won’t come to the table. More demands.

Give up Jerusalem. OK, give them Mea Sherim and let THOSE extremists deal with Mazzen.

Go back to 1948 lines. True, Israel once defended itself from those lines; defended itself from aggressors from all sides. But the toll was more than anyone wants to consider again.

Will Obungler put American soldiers’ lives on the line for Israel? I pray he won’t. To be fair, I think the last U.S. president to “have Israel’s back” was Harry Truman. The U.S. State Department ALWAYS has been pro-Arab; even after 9-11-2001 nothing has changed.

Will the UN put blue bonnets’ lives on the line for Israel? We know it won’t – and indeed should not. For the most part, when an Arab says “Boo!” the blue bonnets disappear.

Despite a history of deception and lies by Abu Mazzen and friends, the U.S. and, following along like a puppy on a leash most EU countries, continue to act like the three blind mice.

When will they ever learn?

 

* There even is a Hebrew version of the song (איפה הפרחים כולם ) by the Gesher HaYarkon Trio (שלישיית גשר הירקון ).