Reasons for NOT Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem

 

This has been the most and greatest coverage we have seen since the Inauguration of President Trump when covering his promises and the possibility that he might falter. Every article has mentioned different choices predicting which promises the President Trump would renege upon. Many claimed he would never build the wall along the Mexican border. Some kind of cheated by claiming that he would merely use a fence or even cameras with computer monitoring for motion detection and alerting the Border Police instead of building a wall along the entire border. Some would claim that the terrain would prevent it being a wall along the entire border but these arguments were disingenuous as the wording of a “wall along the Mexico border” simply meant closing the border through the use of combined deterrents, walls, fences or monitoring through advances of technology in the most difficult terrain or least used crossing locations and simply closing the border using all means necessary and required. Others claimed he would be unable to deport all the illegal immigrants as promised. First off, that was not the promise. He promised to deport illegal immigrants with felony convictions and to work at finding an equitable solution in which deportation may be an integral part of the equation.

 

The one item which made virtually every article’s list was the promise to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Almost, well, honestly every article we read claimed that President Trump would not be capable of moving the embassy as the threats, dangers, political pressures or even that Trump would use moving the embassy to force the Israelis to make the next concession of dividing Jerusalem and returning to the 1949 Armistice Lines with very minor land swaps making a final peace deal. What the problem with the claim is that the Congress passage and the signing into law of the Jerusalem Act “recognized Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty.” That makes an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty United States law and thus holds any President to standing either actively for the undivided capital of Israel as being all of Jerusalem or remaining silent, no matter how President Obama attempted to divide Jerusalem as he disregarded numerous laws including the United States Constitution. Even some Israeli media has come up with lists for why President Trump will not, or should not (Haaretz), move the embassy to Jerusalem claiming things so extreme as stated by Haaretz, “Relocating its embassy to Jerusalem would mean the U.S. taking a partisan stance on a central and sensitive issue, a source of controversy between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and the international community.” That is a falsehood unless moving the embassy to western Jerusalem would be taking a position that western Jerusalem would remain part of Israel. Is Haaretz indicating that Israel should leave western Jerusalem and if that is the meaning, then what else should Israel surrender or does Haaretz stand with the most extreme position such as that expressed by Helen Thomas who stated on May 27, 2010, when asked whether she had any comments on Israel? “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,” she replied. “Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not Germany, it’s not Poland.” When further asked where they should go, she answered, “They should go home.” When asked where’s home, Thomas replied: “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

 

 

The American Embassy could easily be moved to even the most western edge of Jerusalem and be as far as possible from any lands under dispute and still there would be whole hosts of people screaming that the United States is persecuting the Palestinian Arabs and determining to cheat them out of their homeland. This might at first glance appear as a ridiculous position to take as it could be so easily repudiated except that the Palestinian Arab claims include all of Jerusalem. The reality is the United States has already made a statement that is determined to cheat the Palestinian Arabs out of their homeland by leaving their embassy in Tel Aviv as the Arab claim is to all of Israel just as the students chant in campuses across the United States, Europe and beyond, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.” The Palestinian Arabs are actually the entire Arab world’s crowbar and will be their implement by which they continue to wage their war to destroy all of Israel. The truth is the existence of a United States Embassy is an affront to the Palestinian Arab claims to their “rightful” country which would be built on the ruins of the Jewish State as anything less would be an aberrance to their stated demands and eventual goals. This is part of why Mahmoud Abbas, and Yasser Arafat before him, refused even offers which granted them with over 90% of Judea and Samaria along with all of Gaza and east Jerusalem as their capital when offered in 1999, 2000 and in 2008.

 

So, why should President Trump move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem according to us here at Beyond the Cusp? Well, we could use our favorite reason when trying to win an argument as kids with our parents when life got between us and a promise to go somewhere fun, “But you promised,” but we know that does not wash when things are on this level. First, it would send a message that there really has been a change in Washington D.C. and that the change will very likely be permanent for all intents and purposes. The world’s train is racing towards oblivion and nobody is manning the breaks. The old steam engine is racing with its speed balls spinning full out threatening to blow off their spinners. Everything about the old globe is screaming, whistles blowing and rivets near popping and the boiler exploding and the Deadman’s switch rig disabled and there is nobody in the cabin. Well, there was nobody in the cabin. This was the picture of the world not long ago and hopefully things will be saved before we hit a sharp curve and it all goes off the tracks. Brexit was step one and President Trump is step two but nobody knows how many steps it will require for sanity to rescue the world. Will the needful steps be taken or will the next cataclysm strike before the world regains sanity. What are the necessary steps that will bring the world back within the bounds, who can tell? The world has been slowly gaining reckless speed slowly slipping out of control and towards untold violence. There are those forces which would welcome the untold violence. They loudly proclaim their love for violence and the death it brings. They claim to worship death and that this allows them power over all who worship life. Their claim is that death conquers life. Those who love life claim that death is the rest one receives after a full, long and hopefully well spent life. These are opposing views which cannot be reconciliated, one must prevail. The good news is that President Trump is aware of the challenge though he has spoken only about it through allegory and indirect references. Moving the United States Embassy would be a strong message when it is announced as a definitive and executable policy decision. Perhaps that is the future for the moving of the United States Embassy, a declaration that the United States and life will declare over death and those who believe it is primacy. Yes, perhaps the moving of the Embassy will be a greater declaration than what the debaters believe it will be. Perhaps there is a grander plan than we are aware, perhaps the plan is greater than men and from beyond our understanding. This may be a greater issue than a mere embassy and the city in which it sits. Jerusalem had been more than a city and perhaps this is more than a simple embassy. Lastly, if the reason not to move the embassy to Jerusalem is because it reportedly will inflame Muslim passions moving them to further animosity and in turn greater acts of violence, then there is no reason not to move the embassy as from all observations of the Middle East, especially Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya and both Sudan and South Sudan as well as the levels of terrorism in Europe, more so Western Europe and also in the United States, though there it has been reported as anything but terror, especially Islamic driven terror, the levels could not conceivably be any higher. Violence, thy name is Islam, has become a truism of our times and thus simply move the embassy as there is no possible additional levels other than war, and that will happen whether the embassy is moved or not. If we had our way and the United States had not already purchased the land, then we would call for the embassy not only to be moved to Jerusalem but to the Jewish sector of the Old City as well. After all, did not Trump promise that his Presidency would be a brave and bold rebeginning for America and her relations with her friends? Well then, let’s get it off on the right foot.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Hating From the Word Go!

 

Right from the start let us set the record straight, the Republicans who refused publically to attend the Inauguration of Barack Obama were wrong to make it public, especially if they made a big show of such in the mainstream media, social media, alternative media and elsewhere. The current identical actions by those boycotting the Inauguration of Donald Trump are equally wrong. The big difference is the mainstream media and their joyous celebration of the boycotts being performed as a grand show now and the critical coverage they gave such in 2008. I will grant everybody a miniscule but infinitely important morsel of credit; at least nobody tried to make a mockery of the President elect and Vice President elect laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, well, except the most petty. Such mockery would have been so below the belt and uncouth beyond measure and as unacceptable as anything possible. Do not get me wrong, I respect these people’s right to do exactly what they are committing to do. My admonition goes to those from his party, the Republicans, the “Never Trump” Republicans, the Republicans who used every piece of rumor, dirt, suspicion of evil deeds and anything found against Trump even to repeating charges made by the Democrats amplifying their voices, the Republicans who used everything in the Republican National Committee computers such that the Russians found nothing new there to throw at Trump as they found with Hillary Clinton. News to everybody, News Flash, important news; Donald Trump is President and the United States is really in crisis with a government far too huge and cumbersome which is the exact swamp which needs draining. The problem which Trump will run up against first is that he cannot under the law just tell people in government, “You’re Fired,” and make it stick because the rules forbid exactly that. That is the reality, the swamp is protected by law and Trump and his administration will need to find some way of removing the dead wood sitting smug and comfortable pretending nothing can touch them. Well, there are other means of forcing one to depart the government such as making their working conditions too demanding and uncomforting. Force them to perform acts under their definition of office which are against their very principles and finally simply transfer them somewhere that does not permit family to also be allowed and repeat transfers until they decide it really is not worth the aggravation just to oppose the President. Should the President require somebody with experience and knowledge on how to make a workplace support only that which is the President’s promises, we are available.

 

One ideal example is Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi who fears that these people supporting Israel, “And unfortunately, these people infest the Trump transition team, these people are going to infest our government as of January 20.” Professor Khalidi is an Islamic Arab who believes that all of Israel is occupied and that Jews are not entitled to any “Arab lands” and the Zionists are colonizers. Needless to understand is that Professor Khalidi is an atypical Arab spokesperson, American born, pro-Palestinian, reputed but denied being a PLO spokesperson in Beirut in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when Israel and the US considered the group a terrorist organization (see photo below). Obviously Professor Khalidi is among those who are less than exuberant about the new day with President Trump in the White House. Professor Khalidi was welcome at the White House during President Obama’s administration. He was hopeful that President Obama would hinder and possibly lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. The end of Israel and the imposition of Islam on the world making the world safe for the Arab people throughout all the continents, well, possibly except Antarctica as it might be just slightly too chilly during the winter that close to the South Pole. If one has surveyed the lands which were conquered by the Arabs between 620 and 750 and the indigenous peoples in these areas which remain under Arab rule, they would notice they have become an almost unnoticeable minority. The area of Egypt had a large population of Coptic Christians and a very active Jewish society before 625 and by the year 1700 the Jewish population was disappearing and the Christians were relegated to small enclaves and today there is no Jewish community and the Coptic Christians are a threatened group who, if we had lists of endangered human societies, the Coptic Christians would be amongst those on the list.

 

Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi

 

Let us return back to the new American President, Donald Trump. If one were to simply search here at BTC entering with quotes “Trump” “failure” one would find this has been a repeated subject as it is rampant and amplified by the mainstream media making it appear to be a pandemic when actually it is only three to four times the size from the people equally infuriated with President Obama being elected and being also equally boisterous. One of our favorites and we think almost amusing was It’s In, Trump’s Failed Presidency. Now that the inauguration is history and we are officially in the start of what will be those fateful first one-hundred days of the Trump Presidency, it is going to be interesting to see what the mainstream media makes of his successes and failures. It can be bet that what they term as a disaster or really terrible for the nation and the world will be the exact items where President Trump delivers upon his campaign promises. One item which will be interesting to read will be how as President Trump, providing the Republican congress actually work with him and not join those opposing everything he does, actually delivers on lowering taxes for the majority of people, deregulates businesses following through on what small businesses and others have noted are worthless busywork regulations and other things which would be approved by many people providing they were presented with these actions as theoretical and not attached to any political party or special interests. What many people do not understand and something I found out about as my Mother ended up working at home filling in forms and checking everything at least twice as errors on these forms were criminally punishable by long prison terms. Imagine having dozens of regulations each month with each averaging two pages of forms all requiring a grasp of basic math, some accounting, understanding poorly and distressfully worded instructions with vague meanings (yes, potentially double meanings) and deadlines for filing and this was way back in ancient history, the 1960’s to the 1980’s just to keep my Father’s tailor shop which employed himself, assistance from my mother and more often than not one tailor as an employee. Now imagine a plumber who has a small one city plumbing service and contracting company with twenty or thirty plumbers and fifteen trucks. Such a small company would require at least one person if not more to handle the required paperwork spawned by regulations. Ever wonder what happened to the neighborhood doctor’s office? When I was a kid, yes, I know I still act like one, we had a lady doctor who we could get treatment and she would assist in cover stories on how we injured ourselves, even when she saw you break your arm car surfing. She closed up the office in her house and joined three other doctors in a clinic which had a receptionist and two people who handled billing and regulation forms and they were considering hiring another. Take a look at the local school and remember back to your school days and there is little comparison if you are over thirty. There are three times the councilors, more than one principal, numerous vice principles (my high school of almost 4500 students had two), and an EEOC advisor (at least one), and a near uncountable number of secretaries spread around the various offices, and positions we never even heard of back in the day all because there are numerous requirements that the schools must fulfill, many having to do with sex education, equal opportunity for students, special education programs, physical education requirements and more and more federally imposed programs which the schools must document that every last one of these additional educational requirements are provided for the students or covered by teachers even to the point of students having to document receiving some required courses. None of these courses have anything to do with reading, writing, arithmetic, math, history, civics or any other educational subject but are usually more along the line of indoctrination.

 

So as Trump gets rid of regulations we will hear how Trump is releasing the polluters to destroy the air and water, killing endangered animals, allowing for price gouging, releasing restraints on bad things, vague bad things which will be left undefined other than they were bad things being loosed on the people. Imagine the productivity that could be increased if the numbers of regulations and required documentations by businesses. What could be wrong with that? Well, it will allow the people who own these businesses to enjoy larger profits, you know, allowing the rich to get richer. Further, the screams of his making certain jobs no longer necessary are simply outlandish. I doubt Donald Trump could ever get rid of so many regulations and other demands from government to cause widespread unemployment. Honestly, if President Trump can force the revocation of sufficient regulations and required documentation which would require also reducing state regulatory agencies which were initially brought into being by the Federal Government and many even financed initially by the Federal Government and later were just unloaded onto the states. Such a present to the American people would be unprecedented and unbelievably liberating freeing businesses and beyond but the media and special interests would howl and declare foul because they depend on these regulations to enforce their will on the hapless public. So what might result in the most voluminous in quantity and levels of sound could also be the greatest favor President Trump could give the people, regulation depletion allowing people to act with less tethers and restrictions or unnecessary paperwork all because the simple presumed fact that if Trump does something, then it must necessarily be an evil thing and must be denounced. I can hardly wait to hear the squealing from the mainstream media at every turn as President Trump and his administration move forward. The first circus we are already witnessing, the Senate hearings and approval of his Cabinet and other appointments requiring Senate affirmation. Allow us to give you a simple and different way of viewing Trump’s appointments, the Cabinet appointees are not supposed to necessarily be experts in whatever field of their administration, they are to be managers who know how to listen to experts, have an ability to understand even complicated explanations, manage people and use their skills, know how to balance those who work with them and setting up the administrative structure to best advantage to produce the most efficient results. Imagine an efficient government department, any one of them, just imagine. The problem is it would be difficult because doing so would make so many government employees superfluous and imagine how the media would howl if, by fiat, the government let one third of their employees go and have to find real jobs. The screaming would be that President Trump was causing massive unemployment because where would these government employees find work with their skills? We would be led to believe that government employees are unacceptable as employees in the real world, imagine that. Could that be true or is that simply fear mongering, but then again, we are talking about people screaming whose deepest skill is warning of catastrophic disasters should their warnings not be heeded. Oh, by the way, they are, more often than not, simply wrong. So, let the games begin.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Imagine the Return to a Revolutionary Ideal

 

Once upon a time there was the Black Robe Regiment which was the name given by the British to the Colonial Preachers who supported American independence. Not only did they preach independence, they very often were officers in the militias against the Red Coats. The British did all they could to murder these preachers and many gave their lives for the Revolution but the danger did not curtail the Black Robe Regiment preachers who refused to be cowed and were one of the main inspirations of the American revolution. Their sermons inspired and often their brash and brave actions kept the Revolution alive and brought a number of victories against the odds with their bravery and words motivating their fellow congregants often at the most crucial of moments. The United States owes much of the founding in the fighting and the religious basis of the Founding Fathers and the state legislators whose input and approvals were required in the formation of both the federation of America and then the Constitution which was the foundation for the United States of America. There is a possibility that the Revolution could have failed without the local inspiration and organization which was often centered around the churches and their Black Robe Regiment preachers.

 

Black Robe Regiment

 

All that changed in 1954 at the behest of Texas Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson’s proposed legislation to amend the tax codes affecting houses of worship such as churches, synagogues, mosques, or temples and other nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax exemptions. The amended tax code limited the freedom of speech by members of organizations and entities who had tax exempt status under 501(c)(3) regulations making any political speech such as supporting a candidate, party or other specified political speech. The amendment to the tax codes was named for its presenter and is called the Johnson Amendment. Particularly prohibited was conducting political campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office or other sermonizing which may be perceived as backing a candidate or party. The language was vague and unspecific enough that many clergy were silenced from mentioning even certain Bible passages near election times as they might be construed as taking sides on a campaign issue and by doing so backing a particular candidate or party. Such brought to an end political preaching from the pulpit, at least in theory as some such still exists but as long as the parishioners are singing the same tune, nobody complains and such activity continues. This was specifically used to target and silence clergy from endorsing candidates. Over time this embargo on political speech became partisan in nature in too many locations as a ban against conservative politicking while backing leftist causes or progressive Democrat candidates. Still, care was taken to never mention any names and instead to often mimic campaign slogans working them into sermons or choosing verses carefully for recitation which would appear to back one candidate’s positions or damn the opposing candidate. Still, clergy still need be far more reserved and careful and a far cry from the history of clergy, especially when one remembers the Black Robe Regiment.

 

Texas Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson

 

Should Donald Trump as president keep his word and successfully repeal the Johnson Amendment thus freeing certain tax exempt institutions and their personnel from conducting any political activities, especially campaigning or endorsing candidates, imagine the consequences. We would witness the liberation of the clergy and the resultant rebirth potentially of a new Black Robe regiment preaching and supporting political positions more aligned with their religious beliefs. There need be no great fears from secularists as they won’t be in houses of worship forced to hear any sermonizing, especially political sermonizing. Rescinding this regulation, expunging it from the tax code, would be a strike for freedom of speech. Placing a political muzzle on the clergy and threatening their tax exempt status was a bad idea from the start, one might even say criminal. But then Lyndon Baines Johnson was not exactly known for tact or freedom of expression for anybody disagreeing with his views. He was better known for strong-arming political rivals by any and all means at his disposal. This was most evident during his time as President which also served to allow his passing every piece of legislation which became the backbone of his “Great Society” and a remaking of the social safety net and the start of an increased welfare system. Some have blamed this for many societal problems being faced by American society currently. Just maybe a little moralizing before Election Day voting would serve as a positive influence. Just Maybe.

 

Beyond the Cusp