Fidel Castro, Something Israel Should Learn From Him

Fidel Castro  1926-2016

I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that ranking/rating the late Fidel Castro is probably more difficult than for any leader in recent history, or ever.

Most people either hate/abhor him or they admire and adore him. Very few are willing to admit that they see both sides simultaneously.

Nobody can deny that he was a terrible, cruel and extremely effective dictator. For his opponents he was a horror, a terror, and many Cubans risked their lives to flee Cuba especially in the early years of his rule reign. Cuba, like most of the island states in the area and Central America were (and still are) extremely poor with a small wealthy elite. And as far as I'm aware, people are still fleeing, at least from other countries.

Over a half a century after Castro took over Cuba, there's a big difference between Cuba and its neighbors. Although the Cubans are still living under strict dictatorship rule, which goes against the norms of modern western civil rights, they are healthy, have healthcare, education and food. In neighboring countries, conditions are much worse.

As a Jew I must say that Castro's Cuba was the only Communist country that allowed the Jewish community to function. Jews got special rations to replace pork and lard.

But as an Israeli there's something else I've admired about Castro for years. He didn't kowtow to American pressure. Unlike Israel, Cuba was and still is a very poor country and technologically behind. But that never made Castro think he needed the United States, even though earlier on he had been an admirer. American Presidents came and went while Castro continued his iron grip over Cuba, and even the past decade after he officially gave up his position, things didn't change.

Honestly, every time I hear some Israeli politician or the media preaching/repeating ad nauseum that:

"We can't ______, because the Americans won't allow/like it."

I cringe and then get angry, because we shouldn't pay any attention to what America says. The State of Israel is an independent country, not beholden or responsible to American Government officials. The United States has a long history of abusing its allies, taking them for granted and not backing them when in need. To be honest, the USA needs Israel more than most people realize, and Israel will get more from the USA if we stop acting so pathetic and desperate for approval.

Post-Castro, I hope that the Cuban people will be given more freedom and opportunities to build a stronger economy. And even more, I pray that our Israeli political leaders will behave as leaders and not followers.

The Obama Bucket List: Cuba, Vietnam and Hiroshima

Lame Duck POTUS Barack Hussein Obama has been celebrating his final months as United States President in rather ...surprising? Leftist? radical ways.

It's hard for any American of my generation to imagine a United States President having an official state visit to Cuba and meeting Raúl Castro. But Obama has changed the relationship between the USA and Cuba a complete 180 degrees.

Barack Obama and Raúl CastroNicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Another shocker for me, at least, is Obama's visit to Vietnam. When I left the United States it was at war in Vietnam.

Luong Thai Linh—Pool/AP

Maybe I've missed something, but I can't figure out how those countries changed sufficiently to cause a United States President to grin and glow like a winner of a gazillion dollar lottery.

And POTUS Obama's opening statement in Japan shows just how disengaged he is from American history:

Upon his arrival Thursday in Japan, Obama called the world's first nuclear attack, on Aug. 6, 1945, "an inflection point in modern history," telling reporters at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: "It is something that all of us have had to deal with in one way or another." (nbcnews.com)

Yes, he sounds like the radical Leftist he was raised to be by his mother.

NYPost.com

After Obama, the United States will never be the same. No doubt that is why Donald Trump is now leading in the polls had to head against Hillary Clinton! If you are among those who don't like it, you can blame it on Barack Hussein Obama!

Alan Gross Released by Cuba While Jonathan Pollard Still Jailed

The American practice of justice and fairness is pretty fokokt. I don't think there was anything wrong with Obama's government coming to some sort of agreement with Cuba about releasing Alan Gross after five long difficult years of imprisonment there and rebuilding diplomatic ties after a half a century.

What's out of balance, or disproportionate (a favorite word of the Americans when discussing their demands and expectations of Israel) is the continued and unprecedented imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard for a crime that didn't endanger the United States of America. Pollard illegally transferred data, intelligence (security) information to an ally, Israel. That was thirty years ago, and since then he has been held in the most secure and punishing conditions the American Prison System provides. He has also served longer than enemy communist spies arrested during the same time period. A generation earlier the Rosenbergs were executed for spying for the USSR. All they and Pollard have in common is religion, Judaism. But Pollard did not spy for an enemy country!

CREDIT: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE

As part of the Alan Gross package, the United States has released three Cuban spies.

Cuba also released an intelligence agent who spied for the United States and was held for nearly 20 years, and the United States in return freed three Cuban intelligence agents held in the United States......The three Cuban intelligence agents, jailed since 1998, are Gerardo Hernandez, 49, Antonio Guerrero, 56, and Ramon Labañino, 51. Two others had been released before on completing their sentences - Rene Gonzalez, 58, and Fernando Gonzalez, 51. 

Yes, those Cubans were spies for an enemy. Did Cuba apologize for their spies the way Israel apologized for Pollard? And please don't forget that Israel actually handed Pollard over to the Americans by locking him out of the Embassy!

Will the American Jewish community temper their celebrations of Gross's release by demanding that the United States release Jonathan Jay Pollard?

The U.S. A. is "Leading" by Following "Snakes"

Caroline Glick's latest article depicts the increasingly weakened United States of America.  Considering that I've spent two thirds of my life in Israel I wouldn't be so concerned except for the fact that the only country that obeys American dictates is Israel.

By forcing Israel to apologize to Turkey, Obama took the side of the aggressor against the victim.
Netanyahu apologized to Turkey's pro-Hamas Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in a phone call that Obama participated in. Obama promised that Turkey would accept Israel's apology and restore full diplomatic relations.
But nothing of the sort occurred. Last week, Turkish President Abdullah Gul told Yediot Aharonot that the apology came too late. And this week, Erdogan hosted Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal for the third time in the past year. Commentators have raised the prospect that Hamas may be hoping to transfer its headquarters from Qatar to Turkey.

picture credit

So to make sense out of the title of this article is to see and accept the utter contradiction between leading and following.  If one is following one really isn't truly leading, except when there's another following the follower.  For some very strange and peculiar reason Israeli  politicians and mainstream aka extreme Leftist media are chreidim to their American Rebbe.

I've been following politics and world events for close to sixty years, and I remember when Castro took over Cuba.  The United States Government still hasn't recovered.  And I think that the great political parody The Mouse That Roared is one of the most brilliant ever written.  It should be required reading in every Political Science and International Relations course.  The United States is generous to its enemies and stingy to its friends.  Israel should never, ever rely on America.  We really don't need to.  We have the Jewish People and G-d.

Shabbat Shalom