On What is Donald Trump’s Appeal Being Based?

 

Read the newspapers or listen to the network news and you would believe that Donald Trump’s appeal is restricted to reprobates and morons, racists and xenophobes, uneducated and unclassed, rejects and retards, unsavory degenerates and that is being kinder than PBS talks about Trump supporters. They will tell their liberal audiences that the Trump supporters do not read or listen to the news and have little or no understanding of the realities of the world and Trump supporters are simply supporting Trump because they hated President Obama because he is black and well educated and the Trump fools are jealous of those who are their betters and want to put one of their own in the White House. It’s the same old story in the media, if there exists support for anybody not leftist, socialist, one worlder then they are not worthy of standing on the stage in the debate, let alone be elected to the most important job in the world. Coverage like that is simply more of the every day in and day out coverage of Democrats good, Republicans evil; our side educated and wonderful, that other side ignorant and disgusting. So, what is driving the support for Trump? That is the question which is seldom answered by the mainstream media because they do not recognize what Trump is selling or what his supporters desire and see as him capable of delivering.

 

Trump’s slogan of make America great again resonates and his plain language strikes them as honesty and his level of excitement is contagious and he works the crowd well. What they want is the country they believe America should be and what they feel they have had stolen from them. They want an economy which provides decent jobs with better pay which comes with a healthy economy. They do not understand the jobs overseas as much as they understand the jobs simply drying up. They understand that a near doubling of the minimum wage will only drive away jobs and prices up because many have seen what rising minimum wages has done. They remember days when things were better and the unions protected them and that the Democrats promised they would protect the unions but that did not work out as well as promised. Many of Trump’s supporters have voted for the Democrats out of loyalty, out of belief they really were for them, that the Democrats loved the same America they did and that the Democrats were delivering on their promises. The news media have one thing correct, many of these voters really have problems with President Obama but not because he is black but because he really meant that he would fundamentally change America and found what President Obama did not like and wanted to bury about America was the America they loved. It was the policies and broken dreams that lie shattered in the wake of President Obama and his policies and his hatred of their America. Now they believe that in Trump they can have their America back again. They just want what they had, what was before Obamacare, before President Obama bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia and apologized for their country all over the world and deferred to the Iranians and basically acted in what they always thought to be un-American. Now they just want to set things back right and believe the Donald will do that. Whether their faith is misplaced or whether Donald Trump is exactly what they believe him to be, well, unless he becomes President Trump we will never know. This is the one type of Trump supporter that the media elites really do not like as most are not Ivy League educated or even anything beyond possibly Community College or Trade School educated or even simply high school or drop out and are what they think of as the great unwashed.

 

There is another group of Trump supporters which the media dislikes even more because they cannot scare or cajole these voters into ever supporting Hillary Clinton. These are unlike the Never Trump voters because there is a good chance the Never Trump voters will go third party or stay home, they will never likely vote for Hillary Clinton and be able to look themselves in the mirror should she win. It will not matter if they live in a redder than red or bluer than blue state such that their vote never really mattered because they have consciences which would always prevent their sleeping well the entire four or eight years Hillary Clinton spent as President. The voters who are either tired of Hillary Clinton’s corruption or Hillary Clinton’s lies or simply tired of Hillary Clinton period will vote for Donald Trump by a large percentage because they are not really voting for Trump but will do what it takes to prevent a President Hillary Clinton. These same people will also vote for Donald Trump again if he delivers on what he has bragged he will do. This is close to what the United States and the American voters faced in the 1980 elections with many crossover voters electing President Reagan because they did not want any more of President Carter. President Reagan delivered and I know this because my lifetime Democrat father who voted for the reelection of Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan voted four years later for the first time since President Eisenhower for a Republican candidate and was quite overjoyed and proud for voting for President Reagan and supporting his second term. Oh, and about President Eisenhower, didn’t almost every World War II veteran vote for the Commander of the Allied forces in the European Theater, even if they served in Burma in the British Army against the Japanese and the vultures, snakes and other dangers of the Burmese jungles. He will be voting for Hillary though this time around as Trump never did serve, let alone command forces in any war as doing so might have destroyed his manicure.

 

Who will win the election is not an easy one to discern as there are way too many variables. First off, if it is raining, nay, pouring down rain in the battleground states that will aid Hillary as too many of the potential Trump voters who are voting against Hillary are likely not as driven as those voters voting for a candidate and might decide to stay warm and dry, especially if it is freezing rain. Fair weather favors Trump as all the many varied levels of committed supporters will vote. But predicting an election based on the weather is really iffy as just predicting the weather is just so iffy. There is one thing which may very well be true about one ominous prediction that should Hillary Clinton win the election and serve eight full years, two terms, then there will probably not be another Republican President for at least forty to fifty-two years. Should Trump win and be reelected then the Republican Party will have been reborn quite a bit faster than having to react to the changes in the public perceptions and the voter make-up as Trump has introduced a whole new dimension to the Republican brand even if the stalwarts hate what he is doing to their party. The only guarantee we here at BTC are willing to get one-hundred percent behind is that the Democratic Party will not win because while there is a Democrat Party, there is no Democratic Party any more than there is a Republic Party instead of a Republican Party. With that off our chests and our dig at the misinformed media elitists who constantly get that wrong, we believe because they are trying to make the Democrats the representatives of the Democratic form of government and are using it as subliminal propaganda. Well, since this is a shorter than usual article, why not go out on a limb. If the election is as close as advertised, then Hillary Clinton will squeak out her victory by any means necessary and we can expect some late reporting urban centers claiming reporting problems from their voting machines as they wait to see what is required to win while if it is a knockout landslide then Donald Trump will have sufficient states that the amount of cheating required will place the election beyond the reach of Hillary Clinton. We are not claiming that Hillary cannot win without cheating nor are we claiming that there will not be any shenanigans from the Republicans as there are the competing machines in northern and southern Illinois who will fight it out as per usual and central Pennsylvania will be shooting to upset Philadelphia and Pittsburgh which will come down to places like East McKeesport, Ben Salem, North Versailles, and Montgomery County in Pennsylvania and other suburbs around the nation. It often comes down to the areas which are neither urban nor rural but those areas which span both communities and where the line between the voting trends has been known to slide between Democrat and Republican and probably always will.

 

Hillary Voters Challenging Nature to Reach Polls and Vote for Hillary

 

There has been much written and said about the United States being at a junction and this election being the last stop for changing direction otherwise the decision is done and the United States will have been radically transformed. Rules for Radicals wrote the game plan long ago and eventually that plan will change the United States into another European nation but there is even more at stake with this election. Western society and way of life may very well be on the line and should the United States simply be transformed into another European style socialist state then Western civilization will be dead and buried. Europe is falling rapidly into a dark place with their surrender to the threat of Islam, as Islam means surrender, and should the United States not hold the line, then the world will have only Israel to which to turn and little Israel can only promise to at her best to save herself and not let the spark of freedoms, especially intellectual freedom, die. The leftist have no love for the old Europe and are willing to settle for anything which will destroy the old Western Judeo-Christian ethic because they are tired of what many have referred to throughout history as the moralistic ritualism and restrictive ethics of those Jews and are willing to lie down with the Islamists to rid themselves of the Judeo-Christian ethics not realizing that what they are allowing into their bed is something far less understanding and something which will strangle every freedom and liberalism which has ever developed thanks to that Judeo-Christian ethics. Islam will not tolerate women having rights equal to that of a man, will not tolerate same sex marriage and has a way of ending them and it is not gently, nor will it permit freedom of or freedom from religion but will only accept strict enforcement of Islam and the strict five times a day prayers, modest clothing and particular hair styling and facial hair is required of men and so many other restriction that the liberated Europe is heading for a darkness with which they will be ill prepared to cope. When the war in Europe between those conservative Christians and the few liberated people who see the writing on the wall and freak out screaming, “What have we wrought?” When that war erupts, and it is coming, Europeans will need far more than Israel as an ally, they will be needing a strong and still Christian America to once again, pardon the phraseology, save their bacon; literally. There is a long night falling over Europe and it brings to mind a poem, which often happens, our friends, so allow us to quote and enjoy and ponder.

 

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thanks to Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953

Beyond the Cusp

 

Colonial Expansions Resumed

 

The greatest colonial force in the history of humankind is again on the march. This colonial system has expanded reaching beyond the size if not scope of the great European empires of France, Spain, Portugal, England and the rest. This expansionary force has reached beyond the scope of all systems with the exception of Communism and is now ascending as Communism collapses in Europe and Russia. This expansive colonial force is, of course, Islam. Islam is not actually a religion as much as a weaponized political force wrapped in the shroud of an all-consuming religion. Islam is perfectly named and correctly translated to English meaning “Surrender.” That is exactly what Islam requires and Sharia is the force used to demand the complete turning over of one’s existence to Islam. All free will is surrendered. All curiosity is surrendered. All of one’s society and way of life is surrendered. Islam demands that it be granted all power over every act one will be permitted from the moment Islam assumed full influence in an area. Islam empowers the cult of personality placing the most successful Imam as Caliph, and the greatest Imam is that which has conquered the largest number of minds into blind obedience into every interpretation given of the Quran.

 

Inside the Quran is the secret magic of Islam and Sharia. The Quran contains verses placed in order not chronologically, not by importance of highest to lowest or lowest to highest, but from shortest to longest. The Quran is assembled in a manner which lends to its being memorized starting at the earliest of ages. Thus Islamic education takes over the entirety of the education system into which it plants memorized verses. It is then the privilege of the Imam to exemplify and amplify by their teaching those verses which are dominant and those which are of lesser standing. This too lends itself to a means of conquest. Islam can be all things to all peoples simply by expressing certain verses as superceding all other verses. This lends perfectly to the use of Taqiyya which is using deceit to gain advantage and for the sole implementation of Sharia. The implication of Sharia is the ultimate goal of Islam as once Sharia has been imposed on a society, Islam will inevitably become the sole religion and further, only the manner of Islam practiced by the main body will result in the only permitted form of Islam. In the world today that would mean that Sunni Islam is dominant. Even this realization still leads to an eventual conflict between the main proponents of Sunni Islam, Wahhabi Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood Islam.

 

Reading the Quran one will inevitable discover that there are verses which are contradictory where there are a set which preach acceptance and peaceful coexistence and still others which dictate conquest and submitting any native population forcing conversion or death choices and still others which direct exactly how one is to live one’s life. There are the obvious religious teachings such as prayer five times each day, observing Ramadan fasting, giving of alms, making of the Haj to Mecca in one’s lifetime and the acceptance of Allah and Muhammad as Allah’s messenger on Earth as the final revelation. These five laws are called the “Five Pillars of Islam” pictured below. Additionally the Quran teaches what foods are acceptable as Halal and numerous other requirements of Islam. Beyond these basics are the two sets of verses which are obvious in their differences.

 

 

The two obviously contradictory verses within the Quran are the Mecca versus preaching peace, acceptance, pluralism, respect for other religions and even recognizing the Promised Lands as belonging to the Jewish people. Then there are the verses demanding conquest, subjugations and the eventual complete absorption of a society by force if required which were recorded in Medina. An introductory explanation can be found here. Suffice it to say these different and opposing verses are implemented such that Islam slowly builds until reaching a critical point at which it conquers. Islam has attempted to conquer Europe at a minimum twice, once from the west and once from the east.

 

The western offensive was eventually halted in the Battle of Tours where the Frankish forces commanded by Charles Martel who was also known as Martellus (“The Hammer”), who defeated the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate advancing out from Spain in October 732. The Battle of Tours was known to Islam as the Battle of the Palace of the Martyrs (Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء‎‎, transliterated as ma’arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ). This turned back the Islamic armies who were later driven from Spain starting with the Spanish reconquest and the imposition of the Inquisition to cleanse the Spanish of any remnants of unbelievers, mostly Muslims and Jews. This was a cleansing by the Church to reestablish their dominance after recovering from Islamic conquest.

 

The conquest from the east was turned back at Vienna in the breaking of the Siege of Vienna on September 11 through 12, 1683. This battle pitched the Ottomans against the Holy Roman Empire and was subsequent to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and its being renamed Istanbul to erase its history in Christianity and Roman, Greek, Persian and even earlier civilizations and empires going back originally in the first known empire of the Hittites. The breaking of the Siege of Vienna was largely accomplished by the addition of the Polish forces to those of the Holy Roman armies and the commander, the King of Poland leading the troops himself, King John III Sobieski. The battle was depicted by an anonymous British artist shown below. This was the high watermark of the Ottoman Empire’s thrusts into Europe. The Ottoman Empire was finally defeated as a result of World War I leading to the Sykes-Picot Treaty, Treaty of Versailles, and the Treaty of Sèvre which codified the San Remo conference and the Mandate System subsequently recognized by the United Nations in Article 80 of the Charter.

 

Siege of Vienna Depicted by an Anonymous British Artist

 

Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula by the Prophet Muhammad starting around 611 to 625 in Mecca and finally truly established in Medina around 629 establishing it in both cities until his death in 632. This led to the Rashidun Caliphs who ruled and expanded Islam from 632 through 661 and were succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphs ruling from 661 through 750 and expanding Islam further taking it into Spain finally halted by Charles Martel in 732 as noted above. A map depicting these early advances can be seen below. The early expansion would continue to include subsequent conquest of Constantinople and under the Ottomans conquer up to Vienna where they were stopped and repulsed by the Holy Roman Empire aided by the support of the Polish Army and the combined troops commanded by King John III Sobieski of Poland, also as noted above.

 

Islamic Expansion

 

Islam in the Middle East and much of North Africa is currently engaged in a great political upheaval which will likely spell the end of the Sykes-Picot Treaty’s borders and set up of states to be replaced either by tribal boundaries or possibly a unified Islam likely broken into two camps, the Sunni and the Shiite. The Shiites will most definitely be under the control either directly or indirectly by Iran and will include Yemen, western Syria and potentially central Syria, Lebanon and Southern Iraq. The Sunni Islamic camp will include as separate but potentially allied Egypt and Saudi Arabia with each under strong leadership and the partnership always slightly tentative between these two. Saudi Arabia and Egypt may include Turkey though Egypt and Turkey are currently at odds over loyalty or opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. Jordan will remain a lesser player probably seeking shelter under Egypt or Saudi Arabia if not both. Jordan also has a delicate balance with the Muslim Brotherhood with their allowed a presence but not overtly ruling the country. Then there are the Kurdish forces which have been showing signs of joining the radical jihadi forces but on their terms. This will depend on the Kurdish forces currently engaged by Turkey surviving the Turkish offensive bent on wiping them out as a viable fighting force. This has led to some friction between Turkey and the United States who was serendipitously supplying the Kurds with bombing support and some logistics and planning. The one obvious challenge to all Sunni forces is the Islamic State which has terrorist bands in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya as well as their main body centered in southern Syria and into central Iraq. The Islamic State is currently opposed by all state actors who are refusing to grant the Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi who is a self-proclaimed Caliph and insisting that the Islamic State is the new Caliphate, something which remains to be seen.

 

The advance guard of the Islamist forces are currently infiltrating the Western nations as a part of the “refugee” crisis which has Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia allowing increased immigration with minimal if any checks on any Middle Eastern or North African claiming to be refugees from any of the wars currently embroiling much of the area. These refugees include Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Yemenis, Libyans, Algerians and others from as far as the Horn of Africa to Morocco back across to Pakistan. Imbedded within the refugee population are teams of Islamists, both Sunni and Shiite largely from Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezballah on the Shiite side and Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and smaller groups on the Sunni side. All these planted groups plus unknown numbers of Muslims who are being excited by the signs of a resurgent Islam are taking on themselves the mantle of jihad and attacking in what are call “Lone Wolf” attacks. The violence and lawlessness which has come along with the predominantly male fighting age single unaccompanied men has led to some second thoughts across Europe. Sweden is paying undocumented Middle Eastern refugees money to leave and presumably return to their national origins in the Middle East, or at least appear to be heading in that direction. Some Eastern European nations simply refused to allow any refugees to permanently remain within their borders with some places the military at the train stations forcing the refugees to continue on to Germany, France, Britain or anywhere but “here”. Russia has pretty much been bypassed as a nation for the refugees. The biggest scandal has been the entire Islamic world refusal to accommodate resettling any of the millions of refugees. Turkey and Jordan have been stymied by the hordes crossing from Syria and Iraq simply to escape the wars in those nations. Quietly Israel has provided aid to Jordan in the form of additional water and electricity to assist the refugee situation. Whatever additional aid has been provided is uncertain.

 

On another front the Islamic State is serious about their becoming the next Caliphate and is fighting against Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as throughout the remainder of northern Africa. Further, terror groups including Boko Haram in Nigeria and neighboring nations and some groups formerly tied with al-Qaeda also have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. The main problems with these forces have been in the Sinai Peninsula and have been aided as possible by Hamas in Gaza. This has made for a strange cooperative effort by Egypt and Israel in sharing intelligence and closing all borders over land and sea by both nations to prevent military and dual use items from being used by Hamas as much as they are capable. Hamas has stolen, re-appropriated if you insist, the building provisions such as bricks and cement and concrete for their tunnel construction to infiltrate into Israel or the Sinai. This has had the strange effect of a world demanding that more building provisions be sent into Gaza despite the known misuse. Apparently building tunnels with humanitarian aid is just fine with much of the world providing those tunnels are used to murder Israelis. So nice to be appreciated in this manner, we bet!

Meanwhile, the numbers and severity of crimes, many of which could be termed as Jihadic or terrorist attack, have been exploding across Europe with concentrations in Germany, France, and the Scandinavian nations, the places which took in the largest share of Muslim refugees or had large Islamic populations to begin with. One systemic problem has been the radicalization of the younger indigenous Muslims by the instigators planted within the refugee populations. By all appearances, what had been considered to be the peaceful Muslims, the good Muslims if you will, only need be aroused and pushed, perhaps threatened to join jihad or else and they appear to respond, at least a percentage. There will be those who will rightfully point out that the problems are caused by a minority, anywhere from negligible (obviously the low estimate) to as high as one in five or even in four but not quite three, or so we hope. Still, twenty percent of three or four million refugees is still well over half a million persons and add in the “Lone Wolves” and you are likely approaching a potential of three-quarters of a million threatening social cohesion which had been low to begin with. Seven-hundred-fifty-thousand jihadists will overwhelm European and western society’s ability to cope with such a threat.

 

These are just the initial wave as the refugees are still pouring into eastern Europe heading northward and westward aiming for Germany, France, Britain, the Scandinavian countries; anywhere that a strong social basket is deployed giving what amounts to a guaranteed wage for all persons reaching and registering with the government no questions asked. The problems in Germany alone appear to be sufficient that Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be on her way out of office come the next elections no matter what the future holds, as the people are furiously upset with her open borders policies. Should Donald Trump win in the United States, his election will in part be all about closing the borders, all the borders including those currently used by the State Department to import as many Islamic refugees as humanly possible. The most interesting and important item is that very few of the refugees are Christians or Yazidis, people truly under threat just remaining in the Middle East and North Africa. It is as if these refugees are not desirable and the few who manage to arrive in Europe are often murdered in the camps by the other refugees. One would think that the Christians would identify themselves as such to the Europeans and they would be separated out but maybe the European powers that be are not interested in importing devout Christians, Christians who have resisted unknowable hardship that Western Christians have never faced. Western European Christians face a different threat, indifference and a strong societal urge for hedonism. We know from past empires failing that when the public turns as a whole to hedonism as their life’s theme the society will die within two generations at most, often in one generation. Perhaps these two symptoms go together one causing the other. Hedonistic society not reproducing as that would curtail the fun and thus requiring immigrants to replace the children they refuse to have of their own and then they wonder what happened when the new refugee brought morality closes all the doors and brings their fun ride to its undeniable terminal end. Perhaps this is the Requiem for Europe and Christianity in the Western world, or at least in Europe. Requiem for Europe, somebody should write a song with this title, it would be appropriate to salute the death of a society.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Sanders Foreign Policies Even Worse than Obama

 

Democrat candidate for President attempting to catch and pass Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, has less foreign policy knowledge and absolutely no grasp of the Arab Israeli conflict beyond that of President Obama and Possibly even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His knowledge on these issues and others were illuminated by the Washington Post using an interview from the transcript from the New York Daily News interview by their editorial board. We took both and other commentaries and attempted to choose those items which we found the most revealing concerning those items we here hold in value. We will attempt to use his own words wherever convenient and not overly challenging.

 

One somewhat rare plus was Senator Sanders answer to the question of whether Israel should be left as a Jewish State to which he replied “Of course (pauses) that’s the status quo.” From here things get murky at best and otherwise troubling. After some urging Senator Sanders finally fleshed out some visions he holds including this quote, “Here’s the main point that I want to make. I lived in Israel. I have family in Israel. I believe 100% not only in Israel’s right to exist, a right to exist in peace and security without having to face terrorist attacks. But from the United States’ point of view, I think, long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area. And I think that for long-term peace in that region, and God knows nobody has been successful in that for 60 years, but there are good people on both sides, and Israel is not, cannot, just simply expand when it wants to expand with new settlements. So I think the United States has got to help work with the Palestinian people as well. I think that is the path toward peace.”

 

Uncle Bernie Wants You

 

Well, that does leave some wiggle room for policies that range from full support for Israel to Israel needs to save the Arab Palestinians from their own leadership. Israel must make sure that the Arab Palestinians have sufficient employment, reasonably priced homes and apartments, sufficient resources and plenty of opportunities and fiscal success. That would be the same as demanding that the British assure the economies, health, and general prosperity of the Australians, Indians, Pakistani, Americans, Israelis, Jordanians and all their other colonies succeeded when they were granted freedom and self-government and France do the same for her colonies and the Spanish and Portuguese all supported and maintained a functioning economy and government and the people had health care and everything at a similar level as is available in the colonizing nation. This expectation is ridiculous beyond measure as Israel was herself a colony which suffered an assault intent on genocide immediately starting on the morning of Israeli independence where Israel lost the areas which would come to be known as the Gaza Strip and West Bank. This thinking falls into the trap that the Jews of Israel having worked and established successful businesses and making revolutionary discoveries, new software and hardware, innovative medical procedures, and developed a system which provides opportunity to develop intuitive new concepts allowing for intellectual freedoms leading to successful ventures but the world, including Bernie Sanders, see Israeli success as stealing opportunity from their Arab neighbors who are impoverished because if Israeli success. Such reasoning is insane as well as faulty.

 

When Bernie Sanders was challenged on the 2014 Gaza War he danced with great skill around committing to supporting one side or the other. Eventually a longer answer which had some red meat to it was presented. When asked pointedly, “And I’m going to look at 2014, which was the latest conflict. What should Israel have done instead?” where Bernie struck forth replying that, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed. Look, we are living, for better or worse, in a world of high technology, whether it’s drones out there that could, you know, take your nose off, and Israel has that technology. And I think there is a general belief that, with that technology, they could have been more discriminate in terms of taking out weapons that were threatening them.” And when the New York Daily News pressed further on the Gaza conflict of 2014 and the Arab Palestinian casualties Bernie provided a slightly deeper view stating, “I don’t have it in my number…but I think it’s over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”

 

Bernie Sanders Says, “Shhh, Quiet it’s a Secret”

 

These are the most egregious quotes from the transcript that we found with simply a cursory review doing a few simple searches for keywords such as Gaza, Israel, Human Rights and Crimes. The real root problem of Senator Sanders making such statements derives not from any validity that they might have, nor from the fact that these claims are coming from a candidate for President of the United States as they have because they come from the Jewish candidate for President of the United States. That fact makes these statements all the more credible and gives them the veneer of truth and places their validity beyond repute making them valid and truthful accusations because of their source more than anything else. When Bernie Sanders uses such statements that place the number of civilians killed, and he may as well say murdered, by the IDF at 10,000; even though he qualified it with the fact that he did not have the exact number and was working from memory, it validates that number as a point any detractor of Israel can now use with impunity. Add the rest of the quote which reads, “My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been and now you have the makings of admitted war crimes by the IDF.” And add in the earlier quote where Senator Sanders stated, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed,” and that simply adds more fuel to the fire. It will not matter that Senator Sanders is not an expert or that he is not an ardent supporter of Israel or that he has voted against Israel funding and defense packages as his desired use for such funding is in social spending and domestic spending and he would all but cancel all defense spending in favor of his pet social issues spending is all meaningless. The only thing which those who oppose Israel Defense Force actions and Israel generally will see is the Jewish candidate has made these accusations thus they will take on a life of their own and these quotes will be used everywhere as they can be quoted in context with no fear that Israel’s defenders can cut them down when they can be attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders.

 

This is part and parcel of the problem with much of what Senator Sanders says on the campaign trail where he plays fast and loose with facts and factoids which it often appears he just makes up figures and his own facts using anything which will sound right and further his campaign. Should these facts and figures result in throwing Israel under the bus, then it must really suck to be Israel as all is fair in the arena of the hunt for that November candidacy spot on the ballots. These quotes we found here all came from a transcript which has been published and is now a part of the public record and there is nothing that can be said which will erase or excuse the fact that they have been added to the arsenal of quotes which will now be used repeatedly with the full veneer of truth. There are those who claim rightfully that Israel does not spend sufficient time, money or effort to counter the many mistruths, half-truths and outright lies which are spread far and wide against the Jewish State. Where such is a valid point, statements such as these by the Jewish Presidential candidate and you have something which cuts much deeper, the seeming proof due to their source. Senator Sanders making such statements would grant such statements validity but Jewish Presidential candidate Bernie and these accusations take on a life of their own and can now be used with impunity claiming them to be the gospel truth. Where we would not think to demand that Senator and Presidential candidate Sanders state, though we wish we could invalidate some of his statements, full and uncompromised support for Israel, antagonism is not a supportive policy position. Even if we were to have the reach his statements have, we would not have the instant credibility he gives to them simply by his being Jewish. Such things and truths about facts are not fair but then that is life and life never was promised to be fair. When Senator Sanders talks, there are legions of Israel’s detractors who are documenting his every expressed factoid as the gospel truth as only a Jew could express them. It matters not if Bernie expresses truth or simply grabs numbers from the thin air, either way his statements will be quoted time and again and marked up as truth and no amount of proof will be capable of erasing their stains on the reputation of Israel or her soldiers. That is the crime here, and it is a crime, will be the irrefutable truth set in stone by the Sanders campaign and the listings of the presumed crimes committed by Israel, the IDF and in their name as attributed by the Sanders campaign. The entire election taken into consideration, there is but one currently viable candidate who fully supports Israel, and it just had to be Ted Cruz, didn’t it.

 

Beyond the Cusp