Israeli Left Wants Communist/Socialist Dictatorship

Getting real, the only way that the demands of the Israeli Left can be met would be for Israel to become a communist dictatorship. Freedom and democracy make for the Israel of today.

Herzog: Netanyahu focusing on 'Jewish state bill' because he can't lower housing prices
"You talk more and more and more about nationality in order to avoid addressing the inability of the public to afford buying a house."

As anybody with half a brain knows, housing prices are the result of supply and demand, freedom and democracy. The government does not have any real direct control over these things. Isaac Herzog, Leftist Labor Party leader, knows this perfectly well, but as a Leftist campaigning to unseat Likud leader Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu, he goes for the popular headline grabbing demands which ignore reality.

Of course, there are steps the government can do to lower some housing prices, but the process would take a long time, and we all know that Herzog himself would vote against them.

To lower housing prices, there must be low priced building in places where Jewish Israelis would love to live, such as "E1," the connection between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, linked from a 2006 article.

In the not-too-distant past, Kashriel told The Report ("Growing to Jerusalem, June 14, 2004") that "Ma'ale Adumim was established to break Palestinian contiguity," adding that "Ma'ale Adumim necessarily cuts the West Bank in two." In March 2006, however, when Kashriel meets me in his office in the impressive city council building next to the city's shopping mall, his message has been recrafted, presumably to cause as little discord with the Americans as possible, and to try to persuade me, or them, that the Palestinian and American objections to Israeli building in E1 are unfounded.
The Palestinians, he asserts, have misleadingly persuaded the Americans that E1 will split the West Bank in two, now claiming that to "not true at all." Unfurling a large map, he points out the new road, from Anata to Al-Azariya, that will facilitate Palestinian north-south traffic, and which is due to be completed in a matter of months. More roads are planned to run around the barrier to the east, in the less than 20 kilometers of wilderness the Palestinians will theoretically have between the Ma'ale Adumim bloc and the Jordanian border.

That's to show how long Jerusalem has been strangled by the Israeli Left, which in all honesty cares more for American interests than Israeli needs. If they hadn't blocked E1, prices in the Jerusalem area would be much lower today.

A few hundred more units built each year in the Gush Shiloh (bloc) would easily be full and lower prices for those who want to be a half hour from both Jerusalem and the Tzomet Yarkon (Junction.)

My area is also very popular for those who want a more rural-suburban, warm community life and easy access to Ariel and the Jordan Valley, which is a couple of minutes' east of Shiloh.

In general, building for Jews in all of the popular places in Judea and Samaria would lower prices across the board in all of Israel. And of course schools, hospitals and medical centers should also be built. Building is less expensive in all of these areas. Now that there's a university in Ariel, a hospital should be built with the required medical school (and school for nursing,) since there aren't enough spots in the existing medical schools.

But in total contradiction to their headline-soundbites, the Israeli Left has done everything in its power to stop or severely limit building where people want to buy, especially people with limited means and strong patriotic convictions.

The Israeli Leftist "solutions" to the housing problem is anti-democratic and against the principles of freedom. In Jerusalem they want to usurp ownership and control of property used for vacationing by those who live abroad. They want to fine the owners for not living full-time in their legally bought homes. The Left has been demanding that these "empty" apartments be rented to students and young families for nominal sums. That's their "solution" to the high price of housing in Jerusalem. Only fascist dictators could dream something like that up. It reminds me, if you'll excuse the expression/terminology, of when Nazis forced Jews out of their homes and when communist officials offered exit visas to Jewish owners of luxury apartments. (That's how a neighbor of mine and her mother got out of Hungary in the 1950's.)

As the "pre-election campaign" heats up, Herzog and other Left leaders are taking cheap and anti-democratic jabs at Bibi. Now, you must know that I'm not a Likud voter. I hope that this campaign with galvanize the patriotic, pro-Land of Israel for Jews Right to run and win seats in the Knesset. At present there is no Right wing party in the Knesset. Naftali Bennett's NRP newly labeled  as Jewish Home, is a Center-Right which campaigned to be in the coalition, meaning that it is more Center than Right. And the Israeli political system is supposed to be like a bell curve, with official opposition on both the Right and Left.

credit

We do not have an opposition party on the Right which skewers the Israeli Government to the Left, especially since Leftist Tsipi Livni is Netanyahu's Minister of Justice.

Leftist policies are based on heavy government interference, which frequently goes against public will. Most Israelis oppose Leftist solutions. The Israeli "silent majority" is on the Right, while the vocal media is on the Left. That's why the Left gets disproportionate time and headlines. G-d willing things will change for the better.

E1, Not Some Poisonous Food Additive

A 2006 art installation by Liz Hickok in
San Francisco featured Jell-O. As a food,
 Jell-O could be affected by the review.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Too many people from all over the world, many who should really know better, have condemned Israel for its plans to build in what's known as "E1."  Maybe there's something in their subconscious that connects that "E" to the category of controversial food additives.

To make it clear to all, E1 has nothing to do with those possibly poisonous chemicals.  The only relation may be that just like the E food additives have been shown to make some children hyperactive, talk of E1 creates a hyperactive anti-Israel response by many...

A Third Avenue El train passes Cooper Square

 in the 1950s, with the Empire State Building

 in the background.

 

I consider Arlene Kushner's explanation of E1 to be the best and clearest, especially for those in need of a "Dummies Guide to E1," no offense to those who wouldn't know E1 from the noisy El train on NY's Third Avenue.

 

 

 

 

E1 is something else entirely, and those who aren't really familiar with Israel and its geography and security needs should not butt in. The whole controversy is another knee-jerk anti-Israel reaction by those who, no matter what their pro-Israel sounding mantra says, really don't care about Israel's long-term security and survival.  The most popular oxymoron heard in diplomatic and media circles is:

"...two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security." United State President Barack Hussein Obama
"...two peoples live freely, side-by-side, in amity and mutual respect." Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
and other similar statements,  more can be found on Pro-Con.org

The truth must be faced.  The raison d'être of the so-called Palestinian sic Arabs is the destruction of the State of Israel and the banishment of Jews from the Land of Israel.

As Arlene Kushner explains:

This caused a furor among the Arabs and their supporters because, went the claim, building in E1 would prevent a contiguous Palestinian state from being established.
This is simply not the case, and I want to review the situation once again before proceeding.
Here you see a map of the E1 area and Ma'aleh Adumim. Note the arrows saying "To Ramallah" to the north, and "To Bethlehem" to the south. What the Arabs want is continuity of Ramallah and Bethlehem via a tract of land that is directly adjacent to eastern Jerusalem. That is because they still covet eastern Jerusalem (at a bare minimum, and all of Jerusalem, more honestly) as the capital of their state some day. That requires that state to be up against eastern Jerusalem.
Once there is contiguity between Ma'aleh Adumim -- which is itself only seven kilometers (just over four miles) to the east of Jerusalem -- and Jerusalem, via E1, a swath of Arab land that runs along all of Jerusalem's eastern border is no longer possible. This does not mean, it should be noted, that a theoretical Palestinian State could not abut Jerusalem at some eastern points. There just wouldn't be contiguity along the whole eastern border of the city.

Credit: Israel Hayom

Honestly, what normal, self-respecting country would ever give up its land to create an enemy state in its midst?  I've been a Zionist, kept up with Israeli news and history ever since the middle of the 1960's, prior to the 1967 Six Days War, and I have never understood this enthusiasm some Israelis have for self-destruction.  Maybe someone can explain it to me.