Democrat's Left Giving Trump 2020

Not that anyone really listens to me, but I see American political trends very clearly from far away in Israel.

The Democrats have been moving to the Radical Left, while middle America and even the Hispanics, who are doing everything legal and illegal to enter the USA, prefer old time family values and conservative morality.

What do you think? Where do you live? Reply in comments, thanks.

Sexist "Vote Female" Voting Facilitated Rise of Radical Leftists

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against Women's Rights. I have nothing against seeing more women in positions of political and economic power. But voting "blind" for women, just because you want women's number to increase" to governmental positions is dangerous.

Many Americans, even in the Democratic Party, and political observers all over the world are horrified at the antisemitic, shockingly ignorant photogenic chutzpadik Radical Leftist females who are now getting all the press in the United States Congress.

It's hard to believe that so many voters would have voted for them if they had paid careful attention to the qualifications and statements, opinions prior to the new congresswomen's campaigns. Most of the newbies moderated their positions a bit to make them more palatable for the electorate, but their unsuitability to such important public office was obvious. They all come from the very radical Socialist Left. The Democratic Party has moved to the Far Left of the political spectrum, and even the more "moderate" Democrats are trying to excuse and whitewash the antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-Socialism policies of the new Members of Congress.

Unfortunately, American Jewry is at the forefront of this Leftist-Socialist radicalization of the Democratic Party. They are major donors and supporters of the Extreme Radical Left in some perverse and totally inaccurate opinion that the Democrats have always been the best for the Jewish People and State of Israel. Facts are very different. FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Kennedy I did everything they could to keep Jewish refugees out of the USA during the Holocaust. And when Harry Truman overrode the State Department to demand that the American Ambassador to the United Nations vote in favor of a Jewish State, it was his private/personal decision after a friend spoke to him, not due to the Democratic Party. Remember that the most recent Democratic President, Barack Hussein Obama was the most anti-Israel president. In an unprecedented move, he used his time as a "lame duck" to an support extremely anti-Israel resolution in the United Nations. And the most recent Democratic National Convention had a strong anti-Israel and anti-American content.

Today's Democratic Party isn't the party of Adlai Stevenson or LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Check the "fine print" before voting. The gender of the candidate shouldn't be your deciding factor. Vote SMART not sexist.

The sun is setting on a truly tolerant America

More on Bennett-Shaked, Israel Not Governed by Laws of Nature and Math

It's less than twenty-four 24 hours since  Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked shook things up by announcing that they're breaking from the NRP-Jewish Home Party and establishing the New Right. No surprise that many people claim that they are making a mistake.

The popular  reason that most everyone is giving is one of Mathematics. By breaking away and forming a new party, they are diluting the chances of the so-called Right wing Likud to continue in power. Of course, according to logic, the Laws of Nature and Numbers they seem correct. But as I titled this post:

Israel Not Governed by Laws of Nature and Math

If the State of Israel, the Jewish People and the Land of Israel were like any other in the world:

1. We certainly would be been defeated/destroyed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, 
2. if we hadn't been invaded and destroyed in the 1967 Six Days War.
3. Most probably, there never would have been a State of Israel, since on paper we had so little going for us when we declared Independence on May, 14, 1948.
4. A "normal" people would have been so beaten, both physically in terms of numbers and emotionally, that any remaining Jews would have taken the express train to complete and utter assimilation after the Holocaust. 
5. Or most probably, like our ancient contemporaries/enemies, we'd be no more than a footnote in history. 

Israeli politics is more than plain numbers. There must be balance in the ideological spectrum, and our political spectrum has been over-heavy on the Left for a long time. There are quite a number of Far Left parties, both Arab and Jewish, but there hasn't been a strong unabashed Right Pro-Jewish Rights in the Land of Israel for much too long. That's why political positions that had once been only heard from the Far Left are now heard in the Center and what I'll call the "Lite Right."

Although the media loves to call Likud an ideologically Right party, the truth is that it's Center-Right. As is the NRP establishment which  controls certain aspects of the Jewish Home Party. It kept reigning in Bennett and Shaked to the Center, which is what the NRP is all about. For the NRP, it has always been a claim to fame that they could mould themselves to suit any coalition, Right, Left or Center.

Think of the ideological aspect of the political scene here as a Tug of War. The Far Left has been tugging and there is no equivalent balance/weight from the Right. Some of you may be saying:

"What about Avigdor Lieberman?"

To be perfectly honest, he has his own unique views, which change periodically according to what he thinks will give him more electoral support. Or to follow my "Tug of War" analogy, his rope isn't attached to the one everyone else is tugging. He's just faking it.

I don't pretend to be a fortune teller, and I don't have any recent direct contact with Naftali Bennett or Ayelet Shaked. So, I certainly can't guarantee that the New Right will be what they are saying it will be. One thing I do know is that Prime Minister Netanyahu firmly believes that to be Prime Minister, he must keep to what he considers the political center. I heard him say so in person. Gd willing, Bennett and Shaked don't hold that opinion.

Naftali Bennett visiting us when he was head of YESHA Council

How Was Donald Trump Elected to the US Presidency?

First I'd like to make it clear that this isn't an article supporting Donald Trump as a person. I admit that he's certainly one of the least attractive and certainly one of the most problematic US Presidents ever elected. But Donald Trump was elected, because the Democrats put up a candidate, Hillary Clinton, with more faults and less charisma.

How Was Donald Trump Elected to the US Presidency?

1. Trump was elected legally, according to American Law
2. Trump was nominated because now there's a primary system, rather than allowing the politicians to wheel and deal.
3. Many Americans were completely turned off by Democratic policies and so-called "successes" of the Obama administration.
4. Hillary Clinton insulted many voters.
5. The Democratic Party has moved to the Extreme Left. 
6. Many Americans feel under attack by the Left/Democrats.
7. Donald Trump made many Americans feel more confident in the future. 

These are my observations from abroad. I've been living in Israel for almost half a century. In all honesty, I'm not only glad that we made the move right after our wedding, but I'm sure that if we hadn't done it then, we, too could have been sucked into American Jewish life.

As Israelis who've lived in Shiloh thirty-seven years, we had no problem seeing the growing antagonism from the United States. The anti-Israel policies that had formerly come mainly from the State Department, has now spread to almost all parts of America, academia, the Democratic Party, the media and hollywood. Please don't forget that Obama ended his presidency with a strong attack on Israel in the United Nations. 

All we in Israel have left in "our camp" are some committed Jews, mostly Orthodox, but not all, middle America and the Evangelicals. Coincidently, they are the same Americans, on the whole, who voted for Donald Trump.

• They are the ones who just can't forget how Hillary Clinton as FLOTUS kissed Suha Arafat after a hateful, lie-filled anti-Israel speech. 
• They are the ones who aren't overjoyed at the legality of same-sex marriage being legalized, one of the great accomplishments of the Obama administration.
• They are the ones who prefer to check the policies and platform of a presidential candidate, rather than the sex or race. 
• They are the ones who don't want how-to sex education for young children.
• They are the ones whose children serve in the US Military and Police Forces.
• They are the ones who don't think that a person's sex can be changed by surgery and hormones. 
• They are the ones who believe in absolute values and rules.
• They are the ones who fear that their country has been hijacked by radical extremists who not only rioted when they didn't like the 2016 Presidential Election results, but have made it difficult for others to voice opinions.

From my vantage point halfway around the world, I see the United States losing basic democratic values. The media and academia are preferring to voice and accept only one opinion. 

My husband and I greeting US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center

What do you think about my points?

Natalie Portman, Typical Leftist Double-Talk

Natalie Portman may be a very talented and successful American actress, who was actually born in Jerusalem, Israel, but that doesn't make her a good Jew or expert in what's best for the State of Israel.

I haven't a clue as to how the Genesis Prize Foundation committee chooses its winners.

Some people obviously have money to burn and look for headline friendly celebrities of their political ilk to accept a couple of million dollars.

I must admit that I'm not on the same political wavelength as those controlling the Genesis Prize, but at least up to now, as far as I can remember, the recipients have all been polite enough to come to Israel to accept the prize. That is until Natalie Portman. Portman has announced that since she refuses to appear at the same ceremony as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, she will not attend the ceremony. So far, she hasn't refused to accept the money. She plans on giving it to groups she approves of. And she doesn't consider her behavior as BDS, though it is.

Portman interprets Israeli history and "Jewish values" as a Leftist. She claims that Israel's establishment was a reaction to the Holocaust, which ignores and denies the well-documented history of the Zionist movement long before Nazism. Zionism, Jewish Nationalism, the right for Jews to have a state in the Historic Jewish Homeland, began in the 19th century.

The Genesis Prize committee should withdraw their prize to Portman, but they won't. If you look at the list of recipients, you'll see that their politics is no further to the Right than Natalie Portman's. The only difference is that the other recipients were more gracious and polite and willing to do anything for the money, even appear on the same stage as Bibi Netanyahu.

Israeli money

Future American Support for Israel Dropping

As readers of this blog must know by now, I've always been very cynical or doubtful about American support of Israel. The United States State Department has been anti-Israel from the days of Harry S. Truman, when they recommended voting against a Jewish State. And they haven't changed their approach, even though Israel has been threatened and attacked constantly over the past seventy years. The totally fokokt idea that there can be a "Two State Solution" is their ideal, and if it endangers Israel, they don't care.

Of course, American politicians claim to be pro-Israel, and it's not because of the Jewish vote. There's a minuscule amount of Jewish voters in the USA.

• But a lot of money comes into the campaign accounts from Jews, who don't feel comfortable with an obviously anti-Israel candidate. 
• Christian Zionist and Bible belt voters are very numerous as Hillary Clinton discovered November, 2016. They have no sympathy for the various ideologies of the extreme Left. 

Ambitious candidates/politicians claim to love Israel while they simultaneously support policies that can only endanger the State of Israel. The radically Leftist, pro-Palestinian J-Street has become the darling of the Democratic Party, academics and the international media. 

This is causing a serious drop in future Jewish support for Israel. Liberal American Jewish youth's estrangement from Israel by Matthew M. Hausman on Arutz 7.

In recent years, fundraisers from Israel have found it much easier to get donations from Christian groups, rather than from Jews. The more secular and/or Leftist Jews give their money to Left wing and non-Jewish causes. Mainstream Israel is not their priority. If they support Israeli funds, it's the New Israel Fund and NGOs that give to Arabs for humanitarian and "Jewish-Arab co-existence."

There are many Jews who do support Israel and Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan, but most of them don't have the financial luxury to donate much money. Jewish Life in the United States is very expensive. Synagogue dues, Jewish school tuition and university education for their children have caused many people reduce their donations. Many Jewish families are surprised and shocked to discover that their children coming home from college now sympathize with the Arabs, rather than identify with Jewish Israelis.

I am very pessimistic about future support for Israel in the United States. And the worst thing is that I don't see a solution to the problem. The State of Israel will be more and more isolated. We must get stronger and stop all dependency on foreign countries and organizations. We don't need them if we obey Gd.

Jerusalem, Capital of the State of Israel

Why is The Secular Left so Obsessed with Converting Us?

I don't feel threatened by the secular Left, so why do they feel so threatened by us on the Right?

Lihavdil, it reminds me of the christian proselytizing of "unbelievers." In contrast, if someone wants to convert to Judaism he/she must literally beg and do one's best to convince the rabbis to take him/her on as a potential Jew.

IMHO the secular Left suffers from an insecurity, since their religion/ideology keeps changing with the seasons. And they never know who's going to ask too many questions and end up taking on traditional Judaism and/or Right views.

What is known today as BT- Ba'ale Teshuva, "masters of return," began in the 1960's a generation or two after it had looked like most Jews had jumped ship in their enthusiasm to assimilate into secular and non-Jewish society. 

I'll never forget the shock and dismay when I began taking on Torah Jewish aka Orthodox practices/mitzvot. My parents had been certain that they had saved us from the restrictions and difficulties that strictly observing Judaism would cause us.  They were also on the political Left; I remember their disappointment when Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in the 1956 USA Presidential Elections. They'd be horrified to discover that I'm on the Right also politically.

Ironically, the "wild" 1960's in its search for truth, simplicity and the intolerance of hypocrisy facilitated my increased connection to Judaism in every way. I couldn't abide being a part time or just Jew "in name" living outside of the Holyland.

I can tell my story, but I can't imagine trying to brainwash or convince anyone to live how I do. It is something one must reach on one's own. You must be ripe for it, like the difference between a ripe fruit and one that isn't edible.

Gd willing all Jews will find themselves ready to lead full Jewish lives in the Land of Israel.

Dictatorship of The Judicial Left

View from Israeli Supreme Court Building

Here in Israel, we suffer from the whims of a Leftist dictatorship. The Supreme Court takes its title much too seriously. Its "justices" really think they're supreme, higher authority than all others including the laws voted by the Knesset, Israel's Parliament.

The "justices" decide whether laws can stand or not.

When deciding cases, they don't take into account the laws of the State of Israel, they judge according to their ideology and agendas.

Most Israeli citizens completely disagree with the decisions and ideologies of the "justices." Ordinary Israelis don't vote for them. Actually, neither do the Knesset Member who are elected, as part of party lists, by Israeli citizens. The "justices" vote in their successors to perpetuate their agendas and ideologies.

Even though the "justices" claim that they are the epitome of "democracy" and democratic thought, the very system and their dominance in Israeli life and law is totally anti-democratic. It's no less that a complete dictatorship. It mocks democracy. Those faux "justices" endanger the State of Israel.

Israeli Supreme Court Building

Israeli Supreme Court Building

Melanie Phillips and Abraham H. Miller, Two Must-Reads from Jerusalem Post

ON THE WRONG SIDE OF AMERICA’S CULTURE WAR 
BY MELANIE PHILLIPS AUGUST 31, 2017 20:24

If anyone is “lacking in moral leadership and empathy” for the victims of hatred, it’s surely the liberal rabbis.

In America, four liberal rabbinic organizations have scrapped their participation in the annual conference call in which the president traditionally offers his greetings for the Jewish New Year.

Their reason? President Donald Trump’s statements about the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville were “lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred.”

After that rally, which gave rise to a violent counterprotest and the murder of a young woman when a white supremacist driver plowed his car into a group of “antifa” (or anti-fascist) protesters, Trump provoked widespread fury by observing there had been violence on both sides.

According to the liberal rabbis, responsibility for the violence “does not lie with many sides, but with one side: the Nazis, alt-right and white supremacists who brought their hate to a peaceful community.”

Yes, they did so; and the fatality was caused by a white supremacist. But until that point, violence had mainly come from the antifa attacking the far-right rally, which although obnoxious was legal; indeed, the antifa had come equipped with baseball bats and other weapons.

There is now ample evidence of the hatred, intimidation and violence these supposed anti-fascists direct – not just against far-right extremists, but against all conservatives and white people, and Israel, too... (For complete article click here.)


RABBIS BOYCOTTING TRUMP ARE IGNORANT OF THEIR OWN HISTORY
BY ABRAHAM H. MILLER AUGUST 31, 2017 20:31

The president was correct in condemning all violence. In a viable democracy, there is no excuse for political violence in the streets.

The novel Bridge on the Drina is a poignant depiction of the Balkans being torn between the competing empires of the Ottomans and the Austro-Hungarians.

In 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina. As the troops of the Hapsburg Empire came across the bridge on the Drina, representatives of the three Abrahamic faiths stood there as supplicants, hoping their new rulers would recognize them as representatives of their respective communities.

In America, even minority religions have access to the corridors of power, and some of these political relationships are informally institutionalized.

The representatives of faith groups are not supplicants standing on a bridge waiting humbly for some sign of recognition.

For Jews, one of the mechanisms that affirm their access to the political structure is the annual High Holy Day conference call with the president.

This year, three non-Orthodox rabbinic associations, seemingly unaware of their own painful history, will boycott the annual event. The Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform), the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly, joined by the political arm of the Reform Movement, will not take US President Donald Trump’s call.

Their decision is as contemptible as it is outrageous and self-indulgent.

For centuries Jews were wantonly deprived of the opportunity to have the needs of their communities heard. Now, possessing political access, these religious leaders seek to squander it.

Their forebears, who stood on the bridge over the Drina waiting for recognition by the Hapsburgs, could not have imagined either this kind of access or behavior.

The boycott will further alienate the Jewish community from the administration.

It is an immoral form of grandstanding at the expense of the Jewish community.

The non-Orthodox rabbis are vexed over Trump’s statements about the violence in Charlottesville, which the mainstream media characterize as a morality struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

It obviously wasn’t. There were violent elements on both sides. Antifa is not the Girl Scouts. It actively trains people in the use of violence at demonstrations and it justifies violence through the delusion that it is standing in the streets of the Weimar Republic fighting Hitler’s Brownshirts... (For complete article click here.)

Haman in Modern Times

Like that classic story about terror, fascism etc starting with the policies and actions against Jews, those looking clearly without PC-distorted lenses can easily see the progression of violence in the United States, Europe etc. Caroline Glick tells the story perfectly clearly. Here we are on the first morning of Purim 5777. Read:

COLUMN ONE: THE RISE OF THE NETWORKED LEFT
BYCAROLINE B. GLICK  MARCH 9, 2017 22:10
 The riots against Murray and Yiannopoulis alerted non-Jewish Americans to the intellectual and moral decay of their campuses.
An acrid stench of repression is spreading through America.
Last Thursday, conservative political scientist Charles Murray from the American Enterprise Institute was attacked by a leftist mob at Middlebury College.
Murry was invited to Middlebury by the college’s AEI club. He was to discuss his new book, Coming Apart, which discusses the plight of white working class Americans. Middlebury’s liberal political science professor Allison Stanger was set to ask him questions about his work.
As has been widely reported, a mob of leftist students prevented Murray from speaking. They shouted him down with a stream of epithets that went on without interruption, until Murray and Stanger were spirited out of the lecture hall.
They were brought to another location where they carried out their conversation in front of a camera that was livestreaming to students blocked by the mob from hearing them in person. The mob followed them to the new location and rioted outside the room as they spoke.
The rioters assaulted them as they made their way from the second location to their car. They hurt Stanger in the neck.
The assault continued after the professors entered their getaway car and at the restaurant where they tried to dine at with students.
In the end Murray and his companions were forced to leave town in order to have dinner away from the rioters. Stanger was later treated for her wounds at a local hospital.
The riot against Murray at Middlebury occurred barely a month after right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulis was blocked from speaking at the University of California at Berkeley by a similarly violent mob. The Berkeley rioters caused more than $100,000 in property damage. They beat up students who came to hear Yiannopoulis speak. Complete article here click

As I read this on Shabbat, I knew that it was the perfect message for Purim. Haman is alive and still trying to murder not only all of the Jewish People, but all who refuse to accept his/their ideologies.

Bernie Sanders: Good for Israel or Jews?

For someone of my age who grew up in the United States, the idea that a Jew is now considered a "frontrunner" of sorts to be President of the United States is rather amazing. But as an Israeli for almost half a century, I look at it with different eyes.

Friends and family of mine in the states who feel about the issues, the "situation," in Israel as I do, don't vote Democrat. And I strongly doubt that they'd change their minds to try to put a Jew in the White House. Intelligent and idealistic people vote policy not "color," religion or "pride." The novelty of having a Jew as President of the United States is not enough of a reason to have an extreme Leftist who repeats the same anti-Israel mantras as Obama and the United Nations.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign fundraising reception at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub in Los Angeles, October 14, 2015. (David McNew/Getty Images/via JTA)

In all honesty, even though your typical assimilated America-first Jew will finally feel fully accepted and relieved to finally have a Jew holding top office, my priority is how he relates to the State of Israel and its very complicated simple* security issues.

Sanders own campaign site makes it clear that "evenhandedness" is a good way to describe his policies vis a vis Israel and the so-called Palestinians, sic.

Jewish Heritage: Bernie is Jewish, but he does not favor Israel over the Palestinians, nor does he otherwise let his religion influence his positions regarding the conflict.
Two-State Solution: Bernie believes that Israel and the Palestinians can, and should, peacefully co-exist, and that Palestinians should have a country of their own.
On Netanyahu & Iran: Bernie is not a big supporter of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that diplomacy, not military action or economic sanctions, can keep Israel safe from Iran.

Many presidential wannabes convincingly mouth pro-Israel platitudes while running for office, but we haven't yet seen anyone change the traditional pro-Arab and anti-Israel policies emanating from the State Department.

And we must not forget that although Sanders doesn't deny being a Jew, his wife isn't and neither are their children. It's davka Donald Trump who has Jewish grandchildren...

*I changed the adjective to simple, because in all honesty, anyone who listens with even half an ear to what our Arab enemies unabashedly say know perfectly well that they are out to destroy us, and they have the support, financial and diplomatic of most of the world, especially the United Nations and the European Union.

Has the Israeli Electorate Really Gone Loony Left?

I've been pretty shocked to see the latest polls, check Jeremy's site, which show the Left, Herzog-Livni, Lapid plus Arabs, pulling ahead of Likud and Bennett's Bayit Yehudi.

Dialog/Haaretz Poll: Zionist Union 24, Likud 21, The Joint (Arab) List 13, Yesh Atid 12, Bayit Yehudi 11, Kulanu 11, Shas 7

Panels/Maariv-103 FM Poll: Zionist Union 24, Lkud 21, Yesh Atid 13, The Joint Arab List 13, Bayit Yehudi 12, Kulanu 9

Here in New York, everyone wants Bibi and trusts Bibi and wishes he was running the White House.

I've only been in the states less than two weeks, what has been happening? Has the Israeli media really succeeded in brainwashing the public that Bibi-Likud is so awful? He's not perfect, but he's a lot better than Herzog-Livni. Watch Latma. The Herzog skit is best.

Against The "Spirit of Chanukah," Davka in Israel

The story of Chanuka, the fight of the Maccabees against the Greeks and their stooges the Hellenists, is a tale of freedom fighters, Jews fighting for minimal religious rights, religious freedom. Today we are a vibrant people with influence well beyond our small numbers.

There's a disproportionate amount of Jews who receive all sorts of prizes for excellence, whether in the sciences or the arts or philosophy etc. And where are the Ancient Greeks who so terrorized us and dictated the end of Jewish observance? They are gone. Their society is history. Their metropolises are archaeological sites, while the Ancient Biblical Jewish cities are filling with Jews, building and thriving.

The only thing that really casts a pall on our great Jewish success and revival is the fact that the anti-Jewish, anti-History Left is ruling here in Israel. They wouldn't dare do this to Arabs or Leftists.

'Radical Left Crackdown': Lehava Head Released to House Arrestand
Ben-Ari: I Get Raided, Zoabi Gets Away Scot-Free

The mentality and ideology of the Israeli Left is very reminiscent of the Ancient Hellenists, Jews who identified with Greek society and culture more than they identified as Jews and Laws of Judaism.

To make it clear. None of these problems put me off from living here in Israel. There is only once way to stop it, and that is for us to be here in larger and larger numbers. That is how we influence change. Making Israel more Jewish takes time. There is no instant cure. We must not get frustrated and give up. That is the lesson of the oil on Chanukah. We will survive and get stronger, no matter how small and weak we seem.

Chag Urim Sameach!

Have an Enlightened Chanukah Holiday!!!

Likud in Opposition?

Polls are showing that there's a chance that the united Left Labor-Livni list could out-poll Likud in the upcoming 2015, 5775, Israeli Elections.

Poll: Joint Herzog-Livni list could outscore Likud

Combined Labor-Hatnua could win 23 seats, compared to 21 for Likud 21, but separately would dip below Netanyahu’s party

Read more: Poll: Joint Herzog-Livni list could outscore Likud | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-joint-livni-herzog-list-could-beat-out-likud/#ixzz3LNPBlbjf Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook

Flash90

I have no doubt that the Likud will use that "threat" as campaign scare tactics against any other Center-Right or Right party running. The Likud has done that before, and considering that the largest/most popular public opinion is more Right than Left in Israel, it usually works.  And please don't forget that two elections ago, Livni's Kadima, yes, she seems to frequently flit from party to party as a true loyal and consistent political opportunist, got more MKs than Bibi Netanyahu's Likud, but she didn't succeed in putting together a coalition.

Does this scenario of a Leftist government frighten me?
Do I think that it would be bad to have the Likud in the Opposition?

As much as I oppose the loony Left Isaac (rather a disgrace to his late grandfather's name) Herzog's ideology, I can't imagine him doing any worse than Bibi's Center Left anti-hareidi government has done of late.

Actually, I think it would be a good lesson to Likud to spend some time in the Opposition. It should remind them and teach them that trying to straddle the Center of the political spectrum is not an honorable position.

Bibi hasn't done much for Jewish Rights and building in the Land of Israel, not even in Jerusalem. Like the person who faints at the sight of a needle and never gets vaccinated, he hasn't built homes for Jews, and he hasn't really approved many if any new large building projects. The minute American Government officials start complaining he clams up and freezes them, again. Yes, I say again, because many of these touted projects are the same ones he has been promising for years.

If it happens that Loony Left Labor-Livni-Herzog try to put together a coalition, I hope that NRP-Bennett stays away and joins Likud-Netanya on the vocal backbench. If they do that, there's a chance that the Left won't succeed in getting the required 61 MKs on-board. And that brings us to Lieberman and the possible Kahlon. Are they Right, Left, Center or Opportunist, willing to go with anyone who offers a seat and Volvo?

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.

Take Off Your Leftist Tinted Glasses

It's sad, no tragic that too many people refuse to accept the truth, even when it's not only staring them in the eyes but exploding right in front of them. That is the situation of the Israeli Left. You'd think that the Gazan launched rockets, missiles weapons falling in Tel Aviv would do the wake-up trick pretty effectively, but they still subscribe to their fantasy of "if Israel would just ... then I have no doubt that the Arabs would be peaceful." sic.

I keep hearing this on the Israeli media. So-called experts refuse to read the writing on the wall or listen to the sirens and explosions all around them.

Jibril Rajoub

Even worse is the fact that the Israeli media gives our enemies the chance to tell their side of the story, as if this is a simple debate about who should get the larger piece of chocolate cake.

Time after time I keep hearing the so-called "experts" saying that peace depends on Israeli concessions, that even after decades of our being forced to defend ourselves from constant Arab terrorist aggression, attacks, we can achieve peace "if only..."

This fairy tale must stop. There will be war between the Arab terrorists and Israel until there is a major change in Arab thinking.

A Gazan "Marshall Plan" will not make for a rehabilitated peaceful Gaza. Just like they have done in the past, they will use the cement, not for schools, hospitals and shelters, but to make bunkers and tunnels to attack Israel.

Truth may hurt the ego, but that's nothing compared to the price of the Gazan Arab terrorist attacks, whether they land in Israel or misfire and kill Gazan Arabs.

As many as 25 percent of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel in the current Israel-Hamas war don’t make it out of Gaza and strike civilians inside the coastal enclave, Algemeiner Editor Dovid Efune asserted in an interview on Real News TV on Friday.
Asked about an explosion at a UN school on Thursday, which killed at least 15, according to Gazan reports, Efune pointed to the IDF’s claim that the source of the munition may have been Hamas.
Efune said, “This is really a watershed moment, which brings up a fundamental issue which is never discussed in the mainstream media and that is this: you have hundreds and thousands of rockets that are being shot out of Gaza. In our estimations, at least 25 percent of those rockets do not make it into Israel and fall short into Gaza.” (Algeneimer)

Light-bulb Moment for Israeli Extreme Leftist: "Israeli PLO Sympathizer: 'We Thought They Wanted a State…. But it Turns Out They Want to Destroy Israel.'"

Can the Moshiach, Messiah really be close?

Israeli PLO Sympathizer: “We Thought They Wanted a State…. But it Turns Out They Want to Destroy Israel.”Frontpage Mag by Daniel GreenfieldShlomo Avineri is an expert on Marx and Engels. He was a fervent advocate of negotiating with the PLO and ended up heading Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs...Avineri’s awakening process was really slow. But now approaching 80, he’s sort of figure a few things out. Like that negotiating with the PLO was never going to work.
“We were incredibly stupid…. We thought they wanted a state, and a two-state solution, but it turns out that they want to destroy Israel, because they cannot/will not accept any form of Jewish national self-determination.”

Why and how has it taken so long, and will Avineri have the guts to seriously join the Right? In this translation from Ha'aretz on Truth Provider, Avineri expands on his newly discovered truths.

Abbas’ refusal to sign a document with Olmert or Beilin has a clear implication: not that he is no partner for talks, but that he is an excellent partner for talks — as long as they are talks designed to lead Israel to make more and more concessions, and to put them in writing. Then, on one pretext or another, he is unwilling to sign and brings the negotiations to a halt, so they can be restarted in the future “where they left off”: with all the previous Israeli concessions included, and no concessions having been put forward by the Palestinian side.

There's hope, I pray for the State of Israel if people would only open their eyes and ignore their false Leftist ideologies.

Truth and Consequences in Israel, Olmert, Abbas and the Extreme Left

Off with the Teflon!!

I'm a CPA's daughter, and I consider myself a simple pragmatist. I don't see myself as an unrealistic dreamer. It can be dangerous to let ideologies dominate reality. We must look carefully at what's happening. Caroline Glick got it right again when writing about the P.A. Abbas and his alliance with the terrorists in Hamas.  Time for consequences

Two weeks ago, Abbas signed on to 15 international agreements that among other things require the PA to respect human rights and punish war criminals.

And this week, he signed a unity deal with two genocidal terror groups all of whose leaders are war criminals. Every leader of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two parties that signed the deal with the PLO, are war criminals. Under the Geneva Conventions, which Abbas signed onto just a couple of weeks ago, he is required to put them on trial, for their war crimes.

Here it is worth noting that under the Geneva Conventions, every single rocket launch from Gaza into Israeli territory is a separate war crime.

Abbas was only able to sign the Geneva Conventions on the one hand, and the unity deal with terrorist war criminals on the other, because he is utterly convinced that neither the US nor the European Union will hold him accountable for his actions. He is completely certain that neither the Americans nor the Europeans are serious about their professed commitments to upholding international law.

Abbas is sure that for both the Obama administration and the EU, maintaining support for the PLO far outweighs any concern they have for abiding by the law of nations. He believes this because he has watched them make excuses for the PLO and its leaders for the past two decades.

When it comes to the Palestinians, the Western powers are always perfectly willing to throw out their allegiance to law – international law and their domestic statutes – to continue supporting the PLO in the name of a peace process, which by now, everyone understands is entirely fictional. (continue)

In actuality the situation should be very easy to understand.  Only the Israeli Left refuses to do so. There are even some extreme Leftist MK's who are so blind to the truth that they insist of paying homage to Abbas in Ramalla.

A delegation of 14 Knesset members will meet in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday amid calls to cancel the visit due to the recent spate of terrorist attacks in the West Bank.
The delegation consists of lawmakers from Labor, Meretz, Hatnua, and Shas.

I consider it treason. They should be arrested and stripped of their office and financial benefits, government salary, pensions etc.  There must be consequences to such anti-Israel actions.

According to Israel's Chanel 2 via Arutz 7, Ehud Olmert may actually be imprisoned for his crimes. It's rumored that the prosecution will request a five year sentence.

There should be one law for all, and everyone must pay for their crimes. That is true equality!!

Warnings from the U.S. Gov't About Land Day, But American Campuses Aren't All That Safe for Jews

Many of us United States citizens got the following email.

United States Consulate General Jerusalem
March 28, 2014

Security message for U.S. citizens:  “Land Day” Demonstrations

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem advises U.S. citizens that "Land Day" will be commemorated on Sunday, March 29, in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Israel.  Demonstrations and heightened tensions may continue on Monday, March 30, and through the next week.  U.S. citizens are advised to exercise an extra measure of caution.

The U.S. Consulate General takes this opportunity to remind U.S. citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. U.S. citizens should avoid areas of demonstrations and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations.

Review your personal security plans; remain aware of your surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security and follow instructions of local authorities.

We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program(STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. If you don't have Internet access, enroll directly with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State’s Internet website where the Worldwide Caution,  Country Specific Information for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts can be found, including the current Travel Warning for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.  Follow us onTwitter and Facebook.
You can also follow the Bureau of Consular Affairs on Twitter and on Facebook. .  Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada, or, for callers outside of the United States and Canada, on a regular toll-line at 1-202-501-4444.  These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).   U.S. citizens should also review "A Safe Trip Abroad,” which includes valuable security information for those both living and traveling abroad.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem is located at 14 David Flusser Street in the Arnona neighborhood and is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays and certain local holidays). Its telephone number is (972) (2) 630-4000. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv is located at 71 HaYarkon Street and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays and certain local holidays). Its telephone number is (972) (3) 519-7475. If you are a U.S. citizen in need of urgent assistance, the emergency number for the Consulate General is (972) (2) 622-7230, and the emergency number for the Embassy is (972) (3) 519-7575.

I just hope that this warning doesn't make the Arab terrorists think they are supposed to riot and attack us. also don't see the point in their recommending that we contact them in an emergency tomorrow, when they don't have hours on Sundays... but that's American efficiency no doubt.

What concerns me even more is that American universities, especially the elite ones are extremely anti-Israel. Caroline Glick wrote about it this week and there's also a very disturbing book review in the Jewish Daily Forward, A Century of Anti-Semitism on the American College Campus:

In 2012, the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise published “Israel and the Campus,” a study noting 674 anti-Israel events at 108 United States and Canadian universities during the 2011-12 academic year. It remains undetermined how many of these events led to the development of full-fledged anti-Semitism on campuses making American Jewish students feel uneasy during their bright college years because of who they are. But there’s nothing new in that, as “Antisemitism on the Campus: Past & Present” edited by Eunice G. Pollack proves.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/195371/a-century-of-anti-semitism-on-the-american-college/#ixzz2xNdvOen4

Glick's Campus brownshirts on the march is a report on what's happening on American campuses:

Rather than take action against the thugs from the SJP, both the members of the committee and the audience quickly joined forces with them and doubled down on their assault against all even mildly pro-Israel voices on campus.

As Scheneiderman wrote on her blog, at the meeting she was “knocked off-center by a belligerent academic community dedicated to vilifying anyone who dares set foot in Israel.”

Weiss wrote of the meeting, “The spirit of that young progressive space was that Israel is a blot on civilization, and boycott is right and necessary.

If a student had gotten up and said, I love Israel, he or she would have been mocked and scorned into silence.”

Weiss is pleased with the air of intimidation. As he sees it, this is the whole point of the so called boycott, sanctions, and divestment movement that calls for institutions to boycott businesses that do business with Jews in Israel.

As Weiss explained, the real purpose of the BDS movement in all its component parts is to make it impossible to voice any sentiment in relation to the Middle East on college campuses that isn’t anti-Israel.

Unfortunately the extreme Left also dominates many Israeli universities. I'll be perfectly honest with you. I think that those extreme Leftist academics in Israel and abroad are ore dangerous to the State of Israel than the Arab terrorists.

The Arab Mind: Read Their Lips

Netanyahu says his goal is to remain in the talks and continue with them for an extended period to try and "grapple with all the issues"; Palestinian Authority leader reiterates call for full settlement freeze.

Being in mourning for my mother, according to Jewish Law I can't watch enjoyable television shows, which makes the news the perfect thing to have on.  I just can't stand the silence without either music or TV in the background.  So last night I asked my husband to turn on the news.

I wonder why it's called the news, when there is nothing really new being broadcast.  We have the same things going on, maybe recycled with different "players," but it's really hard to discover something that hadn't happened before.

The President's Strategy (2007)

Back in 2007, President George W. Bush was dealing with the Middle East by sending weapons to one set of terrorists in hopes that they would use them against another group of Islamists. Now, with the slaughter in Syria out of control, has another President decided to adopt the same strategy of sending weapons to one set of terrorists for use against another?

The Arabs have been pretty straight-talking about their plans and aims; you just have to read their lips.  That's why I always recommend keeping up with the Palestinian Media Watch, which translates and publicizes what the Arabs are saying among themselves. 

While international "statesmen," media, academics and too many Israelis keep insisting that we can "negotiate peace"  with the PA's Abbas, the truth is that he has never supported true peace with Israel.  Abbas defies US Congress request to fire official who glorified murderer.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has defied senior members of US Congress by announcing his refusal to dismiss a senior PA official who glorified a murderer.

FollowingPalestinian Media Watch's report last month that Abbas' advisor and Head of the PA's NGO Authority, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, glorified the murderer of an Israeli just three days after the killing, five members of the US Congress sent a letter to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas demanding that the PA official be removed from office:

"We ask that you publicly and officially denounce and condemn Mr. Al-Einein's remarks at once and remove him from his position in your government."
 

The letter was signed by Reps. Ed Royce, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Ted Deutch, and Brad Sherman. PA official Abu Al-Einein had praised the murderer with the following words:

"We salute the heroic fighter... Blessings to the breast that nursed [him]."
 

Abbas has now announced that he will not remove Abu Al-Einein from his position, and likewise rejected Congress' demand for condemnation.

Last night another of those interchangeable Israeli "experts" on Israeli television kept on insisting that he had no doubts that Abbas really wanted peace sic.  That's what we keep hearing from the Israeli Left and Center, but there has never ever been such words and promises from the Arabs themselves.

The Jerusalem Post even admits it in today's headline:
Abbas douses expectations for resumption of talks



Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters

 Israeli-Palestinian talks are on the immediate horizon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shifted the message Tuesday from calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table, to calling on him not to bolt once he is there.


  

Amid reports that that Israeli-Palestinian talks are on the immediate horizon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shifted the message Tuesday from calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table, to calling on him not to bolt once he is there.

But will our policy makers and media take this to heart?  Are they willing to admit that their policies and ideology are lies based on fantasies?

The Arabs aren't hiding anything.  We just have to listen.