American Delegation Visits Israel About Embassy

 

United States delegation led by Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) visited Israel this past Saturday and Sunday and has studied the possibility of placing the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. In the past, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders have warned moving the embassy could spark violence in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the Middle East region as a whole. We posit the question of how one would be able to find this any different than the current situation. Obviously there would be little if any noticeable effect on Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the Sinai or even Turkey which has had a number of large terrorist bombings in the past few months. In Israel and the Palestinian Authority ruled areas it runs hot and cold on the levels of terror all depending on the signals they get from the ruling media. When Abbas takes to the airwaves and claims that he cannot control the uprising which is solely the expression of the desperation of the people oppressed by Israel, they know that this means it is time to rise up and try to kill Israelis by any means available. Then whatever means they find, stabbings or ramming with vehicles become the name for that Intifada which was how the last Intifada was called the Stabbing Intifada. The Palestinians decided by personalizing their uprisings instead of numbering them they would not be drawing attention to their nearly constant level of violence. Though Israeli defensive measures brought the level of stabbings down measurably, we still have the vehicular assaults as proven by the recent truck attack in Jerusalem. The reality is that the threat of added violence is exactly that, a threat. There will be no change in the levels of violence, especially in Jordan where their militarized law enforcement will not tolerate even peaceful demonstrations, let along any violence. Should Mahmoud Abbas decide to elevate the levels of violence and terrorism against Israel, then Israel will find the solution and implement one as rapidly as possible. That would be an Israeli problem and should have little effect upon the American decision to locate their embassy in the Israeli Capital City of Jerusalem. Israel promises that your embassy will be safe and guarded equally in Jerusalem as it has been in Tel Aviv and those guarding it will feel a small measure of greater pride guarding it in Jerusalem, trust us.

 

United States Embassy Tel Aviv, Israel

 

But it will cost the United States status in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the Arab and Muslim worlds react to the move. Well, allow us here in Israel to give you a little insight. You already lost that little edge you are so afraid of losing just by bringing up the subject for debate. Further, the level of loss will continue to increase for as long as the debate continues. Now there are two means of ending the sliding effect of the United States in the MENA world’s view, either by moving the embassy or declining to move the embassy and announcing that you are fearful of moving the embassy. Oh, you claim that fear would not be the reason; it would be so as to respect the feelings of the nations who have stated their opposition. Really, you think that works? Here is the reality, should you decide not to move the embassy then whatever amount of respect you believe you had lost in the MENA world would instantly be surpassed immeasurably. By not moving the embassy you signal now that you can be bullied by the nations of MENA simply claiming that your intended act would hurt their feelings and you have no stomach for any disagreement, let alone an actual fight. You claim you really want to not lose any respect from the MENA nations by moving the embassy but the truth is to regain everything that they claim you are and will be losing by moving the embassy and gain measurable amounts of extra credit for making the correct choice, then simply move the embassy because ignoring threats and saying what you believe and then acting on it counts for everything in the MENA world.

 

What you need to learn if you do not yet understand the MENA world is that everything is a threat and every threat is a bluff. The only thing which gains you respect is calling everyone else’s bluff. When you call their bluff, then they need to decide whether going through with their threats is worth what it may cost in the future and if they back down, how they can mitigate their timidity. Their reaction to your not moving the embassy is pocketing the knowledge that if their world threatens violence then the American back down. This will only serve to make their actions towards the United States as cowardly and able to be scared by threats of violence. Once you decide to move the embassy, the ones who threatened you will influence others from their world to join in making greater threats hoping to still make the United States back down. The announcement that you will move the embassy threatens their image of the United States as a nation which can be backed down with simply threats as that has happened ever since the first announcement for moving the embassy in the 1990’s. These threats will continue and grow or lessen according to the believed potential for the United States to move the embassy. Remember that a certain level of violence equal to the ability of the terrorist organizations to penetrate the security and intelligence of the United States exists at all times. Their efforts increase whenever the United States either acts against the terror interests or when the United States announces plans that those controlling the terror interests wish to prevent.

 

 

There is but one means to remove the threat level over moving the embassy to Jerusalem once and for all, move the embassy. Do not even announce the move, simply in secret in concert with the least number of Israeli departments and individuals as the less number of people knowing of the plans, the less the possibility for any leaking of the plan. It should be possible for the United States to build an embassy building using security approved construction personnel from the United States who can hold to a cover story. Make the building being constructed be referred to as a new office building from where a series of headquarters of American companies will be operating. This would qualify for why a building is being built by American workers in the center of the modern downtown of central west Jerusalem. Then once the building is completed and everything is readied for operations, the grand opening can reveal the new name which will appear on the outside of the building which has been covered since it was first mounted. The cover comes off and it states “United States Embassy” and then be ready for about ten to twelve weeks of screaming and shoe throwing. Place additional Marines around every MENA embassy and meet the reaction head on. Once the MENA nations and groups have vented sufficiently to make their chest beating need be satisfied they will quiet back to normal, which is not all that quiet as the NSA, CIA, Military Intelligence and other data gathering agencies can tell you and back it with evidence in spades. Then everything can return to its nominal level, not its normal level as nothing about the MENA nations of the world can be deemed normal, so nominal will have to suffice.

 

Imagined New Style for United States Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel

 

Further, the embassy will be in Jerusalem, West Jerusalem but still Jerusalem, and that will set a precedent for other nations and it will remove the claims from some out of the MENA world who claim that all of Jerusalem belongs to Islam and that neither the Jews nor the Christians have any rights, claims or history to or from Jerusalem and that neither Jews or Christians ever held Jerusalem because before Islam conquered Jerusalem it had no previous history because everything in Islam begins and ends with Islam and no other existence holds even the level of fancy as far as the Muslims are concerned. Moses, not a Jew, Noah, well, he really was not a Jew, Abraham, not a Jew, Isaak was never taken for sacrifice on Mount Moriah because that was Ishmael just as the Koran says and the Hebrew Bible is a misrepresentation because Judaism made up everything because only the Quran is true and the Christian Bible is also just a pack of lies and misrepresentations also because only the Quran tells truths and Jesus was an Islamic prophet, nothing more. Jesus will play a role in the end times according to the Quran. Jesus will return as a prophet readying the world for the return of the true final prophet of Allah, Jesus will return and make the world suitable for Muhammad who will come and lead the world into the age of perfection Islamic style. With this as the prescription for our future according to the Quran and Islam, what possibly could be the terrible consequence for moving an embassy to the Israeli capital city? Face it, there is nothing to fear but prolonging the agony by continuing the debate as the law declared the embassy move into law and all any President can do is prolong the agony so why not go for the ecstasy and just move the embassy to Jerusalem and get ‘er done!.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Jewish Divide Over Trump Very Telling

 

Here’s a news flash that the media thus far has refused to mention, there are many Jews who support President Donald Trump. The media has been quite vocal of those Jews who are vehemently protesting the Trump Presidency. Probably the most telling example has been the Senate hearings to approve his Ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman. We will gladly grant the media that President Trump’s choice for Ambassador to Israel of David M. Friedman is a novel appointment when compared to previous appointments made by all the previous Presidents throughout Israeli history. There have been Ambassadors, Middle East Special Councils, Palestinian Israeli Peace Ambassadors and all sorts of other appointments made concerning Israel and her Arab neighbors plus the fact that American Ambassadors to the United Nations often have to interdict in matters concerning Israel, especially in United Nations sanctions against Israel often brought by Arab and European nations at the behest of the PLO or Palestinian Authority (PA) which have more often than not been vetoed by the United States Ambassador.

 

All of these past officials have more often than not been career Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) with the remainder have been political appointees. There have been more than a few of the most recent Israeli Ambassadors and Special Appointees who have been Jewish and thus touted as being most obviously as pro-Israeli. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Some in particular, Thomas R. Pickering, Martin Indyk and Denis Ross have been some of the most antagonistic to the Israeli cause. Both Martin Indyk and Denis Ross were said to be very much favorable to Israel because of their being Jewish which is like claiming that someone had to be favorable to illegal immigration across the southern border because they were Hispanic, an insult and very likely false. Indyk and Ross attempted to force Israel to make concessions in exchange for empty promises which had been given by the PA before and never acted upon or immediately broken often with an in-your-face attitude. David M. Friedman is a different Jew, he is also a Zionist. This is a first for an Ambassador to Israel and many Israelis are expecting great things if only our leaders can be bold, even brash for a change. Some here in Israel have placed David M. Friedman as being to the right and more Zionist than Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu or most of the other Ministers of the Knesset. Additionally, Israelis have begun to believe that President Trump will be good for Israel providing Israel acts good for Israel.

 

Additionally, Orthodox Jews mostly voted for President Trump over Hillary Clinton while Democrat Jews voted almost universally for Hillary Clinton and are extremely upset by her loss and screaming mad over President Trump. During the hearings for Ambassador David M. Friedman there were Jews disrupting the hearings blowing Shofars. Traditionally the sounding of the Shofar other than as part of religious observance has been used as a warning sign often used as an alarm that enemies were advancing or other calamity. Sounding the Shofar at the hearings for the new Israeli Ambassador they were meaning that a calamity was occurring threatening Jewish lives. Their actions were over the top as no lives were being endangered and no emergency was coming for Jews and if anything this appointment was going to be good for Israel, a new page in appointments of advisors to Israel.

 

This brings us to what for us is one of the saddest things we will ever discuss, Israel and the American Jewish left. Often at demonstrations denouncing Israel some of the most virulent demonstrators will come from leftist, liberal Jews. These Jews are more attached to their leftist principles than they are to Torah and Israel. These are Jews who will never consider making Aliyah and were the members of our Synagogue who when we made Aliyah asked us why in the world we would want to go live in Israel of all places. They were stunned that somebody they knew would do something which was such an anathema to them. These were the same members of the Synagogue who had to get past the horror that we might actually be Republicans as we had admitted. Many initially thought we were joking and trying to be funny and some when they realized we actually were Republicans never spoke with us again. Israel has actually become a divisive issue in the American Jewish community.

 

For Jewish Democrats it is a serious problem. There are still a goodly number of friends to Israel remaining in the Democrat Party but their numbers are diminishing and some have actually needed to go underground in their support. Pro-Israel Jews in Reform Synagogues have to act like the Marranos during the Inquisition where they practice their Judaism silently and with little visible evidence at home and were good Catholics in public even to going to church daily and every action including rosaries and confession to avoid the Inquisition and the tortures and death sentences which would be their punishment if their being a Jew was ever rooted out. These new Marranos support Israel but must do so while in conversations in Synagogue or at Temple functions, as most Reform Synagogues refer to themselves as Temples; something less Jewish in its identity, these Jews either remain silent on issues Israel or denounce those sensitive issues such as Bibi Netanyahu, the greatest force of evil in the Middle East.

 

 

For far too many American Liberal Leftist Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been the reason why President Obama was unable to make peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis and had Netanyahu simply followed the instruction, the orders from on high at the Oval Office, then Israel would have peace. There are no arguments which they would ever accept and they honestly believe that the Arabs would be happy if only Israel would surrender everything to the Green Line and half of Jerusalem and all the terrorism and demands would end. Never mind that Mahmoud Abbas refuses to even say, let alone guarantee, that the terror and violence would end with such an agreement, he has instead stated that any agreement would be but the initial step to the removal of the Zionist entity and that all resistance, that would be terrorism, would continue until the Zionist entity has been eradicated and the Jews defeated completely. Never mind that in Gaza there is Hamas which has promised to murder every Jew on Earth which includes these American Leftist Jews who happily claim that Hamas can be reasoned with. One would think with the history of the Jewish People, especially their recent history, specifically since the last century, that when some group of extremists claim they have designs for the complete annihilation of the Jewish People they would take things like that very seriously.

 

That Israel, and even additionally President Trump to the point of violence and lost friendships, have become the two most divisive issues in the Jewish community is the saddest commentary one could imagine. Israel, the hope and the prayers of Jews for thousands of years now a matter for derision and splitting the community is beyond sadness. Israel and Jerusalem, the final desire of every Seder is, “Next year in Jerusalem” and Psalms 137, Song of Babylon, which demands that as a member of the Jewish People, Jerusalem must be our first love and, allow me to quote, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill (strength). (And) May my tongue cling to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my (chief and most important) joy.” Yet somehow Israel, and even the surrender of the Old City of Jerusalem and the surrendering of the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives Cemetery, has become a sticking point, an issue for debate and for too many simply something too trivial to be bothered with when supporting those for whom Israel is a bother is the real issue. How can Jews unfriend other Jews or shun them in the Synagogue because they support Israel. They demand, ‘how can one support Israel’ which is simply just for those other Jews, those religious Jews, those Jews who are just too Jewish and the ones the anti-Semites hate. They believe that because they support the right causes and they rub elbows with the right people that should the anti-Semites ever get their dream again and Jews are hunted down that they will be granted exceptions because they are those good Jews. They do not realize that to an anti-Semite the only good Jew is a dead Jew. But these Jews would gladly sacrifice those Zionist crazies if it would advance their standing at the club, or even sadly their Synagogue. We hold some truths to be very troubling and beyond our ability to accept. How can there be an ingathering when so many Jews refuse to even accept the concept of a Jewish State, a Jewish People or of Hashem and instead view their Synagogue as just another social club. This makes one remember that a minority of slaves left Egypt with Moses and a similarly percentage returned after they were liberated from Babylonia by Cyrus the Great and the majority either remained in Babylon or migrated to the major cities of Persia.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Senator McCain, the Media Moderate Republican Leader?

 

That is the favorite phrase we seem to read whenever the media is about to attack some Republican for some treachery or perceived misdeed. They have been appearing repeatedly in articles when there is a need for a quote of a Republican questioning, disagreeing, criticizing, decrying, denouncing or in some other way disgracing President Trump or those in his administration. Often the article will then point out how President Donald Trump is not a normative Republican or has often contributed to Democrat candidates or some other action which apparently should disqualify him from support by the entirety of the Republican Party. Such articles often then explain that obviously President Trump running for President as a Republican, a false Republican, but a Republican just the same, must be opposed by the Democrats and their final conclusion is always that President Trump must be opposed by everybody because he has forsaken both parties and is a disruptive influence on American politics. What these articles appear to have missed is that the recent political season has been a revolt against politics as usual. The first, and until Trump, the biggest and most obvious sign was the Brexit vote. The European Union was campaigning against any move by the British to leave their ranks and Prime Minister Cameron even went so far as to threaten to resign should the BREXIT vote remove Britain from the European Union. Well, the people were, according to almost every poll, predicted to vote to remain by a small margin and the result was more definitive than predicted but was in favor of leaving. The British are taking a long and winding approach to leaving presumably in order to allow time for reconsideration which is not likely coming. The good news is that Cameron did resign as threatened, or promised depending on your viewpoint, and the British have a Prime Minister who presumably has their confidence as she is in favor of withdrawing from the European Union even if slowly. Then there were rumors of the European right wing parties gaining strength, especially the nationalist parties, and that it was expected that the German elections would replace Chancellor Angela Merkel who was likely to lose and then that French President François Hollande announced he would not seek reelection. Donald Trump winning as President of the United States was just the crowning exclamation point on the dearth of the liberal west which just a few years earlier with the reelection of President Obama was looking as if they would rule for the foreseeable future.

 

Then the media was all over the prediction by Senator Chuck Schumer, the great spokesperson of the Democrat left, where he prognosticated the divorce between the Republican Party, or at least those Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and President Trump. His claim was that in four months there would be a splitting between true Republicans and Trump because of his ignoring protocols and not giving them adequate measure in his appointments and his populace stances which they cannot agree with and would rub roughly making them chafe and itch so badly that they would have to disassociate from Trump to remain pure. You have to understand that the media will quote anybody claiming that Donald Trump is making enemies anywhere and with anyone, any group, any political faction or any people holding purist views. They seek anger from any quarter and will attack any crack with crowbars of skepticism trying desperately to turn the slightest crack into a chasm if there is even the remotest of possibilities it will alienate Trump from voters. You see, Donald Trump must be brought low for he is a scoundrel who has bested the media in the game of words. They are used to having all the words coming from them and that their words win in the end and that there be no way around their words. Then there came Trump and the Twitterverse where Tweets are louder than all that the media’s words can carry. His reaching the public directly and telling them exactly what he means and what they should believe about him in 140 characters or less. The media cannot fight Donald Trump even in the Twitterverse because they have never mastered brevity as their trade is wordiness and Trump has mastered cutting to the chase and directly to the chase. The media attacks with lengthy diatribes and Trump replies with 140 characters or less and they have no answer for these tweets. The people get the essence of Trump and the media is powerless to dilute his wisdom, his tweets.

 

Politics has changed and Trump along with the Internet has changed it and never again will campaigns be won by cumbersome political machines and large campaigns. Brevity has become the new watchword and that 140 characters or less limit is the initial cause with short attention spans being the final touch. Campaigns will be held just as much on YouTube as every in person appearance can also be shared with the world in real time and then returned to be viewed again and again. Donald Trump has taken politics out of the hands of the political machines and eventually this revolution could bring down the large political parties. This was the idea of a candidate back during the 2000 elections whose campaign literature and all was on the Web, the Internet, where his supporters had hoped it might catch and go viral, a phrase not even born at that time, or in its infancy. This campaign did benefit from these postings as it gained the campaign the support of a group which was already Internet savvy, the gun rights groups which found his pro-gun stance to their liking and came out solidly behind him. Unfortunately that proved not to quite be sufficient in a rather liberal area but it did give hope that perhaps there would be a future where the Internet would trump, pardon the pun, the regular media and the rest of the structured political monopolies. That day has arrived and this genie will not be put back in its box. This new paradigm scares the likes of Senator McCain, Senator Schumer, the media and the leadership of both parties. Their regular power structure has been toppled by a campaign which utilized the media as their public awareness source having the media carry their water and do their advertising for them while straightening any wrongful reporting or damaging news reports and editorials by going directly to their base online and stating that their positions and responses to accusations and rumors would be made on Twitter, YouTube or their web address. People got used to seeking information refuting news stories, or at least clarifying them, by following Donald Trump on Twitter or finding his actual campaign appearances recorded on YouTube or, as a last resort, going to his web site to find answers.

 

Fake News Galore

 

Where will the media go without political campaigns every four years depending on them carrying their water when there is a firehose called Twitter and a garden hose for a slower and more detailed watering of the public on YouTube and other locations on the Internet? That is a good question and with the way they are currently acting, that question becomes all the more pressing. The torrents of “Fake News” stories are not doing the media any favors. When the people now trust the President more than the media covering him and the President remains trending on Twitter, then this will only trend worse and worse for the media. With every story told about President Trump which he denies and then gives his version in one, two, three or so 140 characters Tweets basically asking, “Who are you going to believe, Donald Trump or the lying media?” Unfortunately for the media the majority of the citizenry, according to a poll, believe Donald Trump over the White House Press Corps, which kind of answers the previous question. The media, if it knows what is good for them and their future, should start speaking straightly and honestly even if the news is not to their liking. With every story which results in the media being shown to have told another set of lies, their credibility sinks lower and further from any ability for redemption. When people have direct access to the seats of power, the actual leaders and their real statements, the media faces a real problem. They no longer filter the information the people receive as the leaders and politicians and the people have direct access to the real stories in the words with which they were spoken. They have little actual choice but to give the truth or face obsolescence as they spiral into irrelevance. Imagine a world with no New York Times, no Wall Street Journal, no Washington Post, no CNN, no Fox News and the remainders of the mainstream media have collapsed into a pool of lies of their own making. In some way it is really a shame that it had to be Donald Trump who brought about this change and gave the media their comeuppance. But then it was always going to take somebody famous, flamboyant and somewhat irregular to bring about such change, so, in a way it needed to be somebody exactly like Donald Trump.

 

We have to face it that there are very few people in this world anything like Donald Trump. He brags like few others. Where he may not be as wealthy as he claims, he sure can play the part even if he has his doubters. He has the brashness to face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Now he is deconstructing the myth of the inviolate media whose words are as pure unvarnished truth as he proves they are more often than not painted tapestries telling fanciful tales and yarns of myth and magic. He has challenged the evening anchors to a war of words and abbreviations and proving that his 140 characters or less are greater than their hour of comic coverage. This will be a battle of the ages and it will be amusing to witness. There is one warning we would like to impart to President Donald Trump. Whatever you do remember that it was the people who made you and should you believe too highly in yourself, they will remind you that you are very little without them and that the last thing they will accept from you is anything short of the truth. Do not for a moment believe that you are smarter or more wise than the people as their collective wisdom and ability to smell a yarn is far greater than any single person’s ability to get away with misleading them or concealing the truth from them. The people will always find out the liar in the end and they will more oft than not do it before the liar gets out of town. Tell them the truth and they will forgive the mistake and even the slightest of misconceptions, but lie and they will roast you like you can never know. Recovery from their anger is impossible and once deceived they will not be won back to your side for they are a mean mistress whose scorn will destroy the strongest of leaders. Keep the people at your side and nothing can stand against you, not even political parties because all political power arises from the people, or at least that is the theory. Trust the people if you ever hope for them to trust you. And if you could, be nicer to the media, please. OK, just kidding.

 

Beyond the Cusp