Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has had a very interesting and denigrating visit in the United States which began with a meeting with United States President Barack Obama as we covered in our article Once Again the Discussion is How to Satiate Mahmoud Abbas where the two Presidents discussed their mutual concern of the consequences should Mahmoud Abbas and the governing Palestinian Authority (PA) fail due to one of any number of reasons, many of which were caused by Abbas and his supporting band of kleptocrats. The President of the United States was sounding out on his guest what very well will soon be an enacted plan which will more likely blame Israel generally and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for not salvaging any remnant of hope for continuing the ill-fated peace process. The aim and results of the secretive meeting between the Presidents, one, the Israeli, in a nonpolitical role and the other, the American, all too political very likely misled and made indications which though meaningless and no promise of Israeli intents or actions will still be utilized to attempt to bulldoze concessions from the Israeli government in order to reconstitute the PA and restore faith and trust in the idea that Mahmoud Abbas, Saab Erekat and the rest of the officers in the PA are agents seeking peace. This has been the misconception which had been the basis of the United States policies and decisions as well as the underpinning of the European Union and its individual governments such that their condemnation of Israel can be made with righteous indignation only exceeded by their hypocrisy and that by their resurgent anti-Semitism whose historic malfeasance is epic and writ throughout European history. We cannot say for certain that President Reuven Rivlin promised that the Israelis were willing to give away the store in order to have peace and were willing to accept almost any demand in order to satisfy Abbas and make a final peace. The problem there is for Abbas to accept a peace it would require the end of Israel as we know it. The question is whether President Rivlin knows such or is he the new Simon Peres, his predecessor as President and possibly the most damaging person to ever hold the office.
But Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s fateful week was far from over and would hit two distinct peaks, or should we say sink to two troughs, one at the White House Hanukkah Party and the other at a very unusually decorated Haaretz Party with some questionable guests and main speaker in New York. First the White House Hanukkah Party where at least President Rivlin was not the main problem, his not making some protest, a mild and polite rebuke would have sufficed, but to pretend nothing untoward had occurred was a bit disappointing. Of what should President Rivlin made a critical comment? The Rabbi must have been carefully vetted by the White House to find the least Jewish most ardent leftist which called herself a Rabbi. What she was was a walking, talking advertisement for why Reform and Reconstructionist Rabbis and their congregations may not actually be all that Jewish and a reason for orthodoxy. The hand-picked Rabbi’s name was Susan Talve and I plan to take great care to keep the title of Rabbi separated from her name out of respect for the title of Rabbi. Susan Talve touched every liberal cause, or should we say extreme leftist as we feel that even some of the most liberal American Jews would have still felt uncomfortable with Susan Talve and even more so were she named their congregation’s Rabbi and they heard her presentation at the White House. With her opportunity to light the Hanukkah candles one would have expected at least one comment about Israel, the Maccabees, the little vial of oil burning for eight days or something related to Hanukkah, Israel or Judaism, which she did not unless leftist Democrat talking points is now considered Judaism which would be a sad commentary on American Jewish community, but we refuse to believe that the entirety of Judaism in the United States are this lost from their roots.
So, what was it that Susan Talve, the White House selected Rabbi, said which was offensive? Well, it is a multiple choice test as she made a number of questionable statements with some sufficient on their own for rebuke and the others simply further supportive evidence. For a soft preparatory introduction we will tell that she wanted her fellow Jews or Americans, she did not specify, to “clean up the fires of toxic nuclear waste.” We never realized that nuclear waste, even toxic nuclear waste, actually qualified as something on fire or even that such gave off flames of any kind by the regular definition of flames or any kind of fire, and I was a trained crash and rescue air field military firefighter; so I know a little about what constitutes a fire. Then there was another of the milder comments when Susan Talve pleaded for getting the “guns off our streets.” As the old Ronco ads said, but wait, there’s more. She has been described as screeching though I prefer to be kinder and refer to it as a high pitched emphasized with ample volume firmly warbling, “I stand here with my fierce family of clergy and Black Lives Matter activists who took to the streets of Ferguson.” Well now, guess we are starting to go off the rails finally. While rambling on about anything but the reasons and events celebrated in Hanukkah where one of the Priestly class was forced to make an apparent choice between making a sacrifice to a Syrian-Greek idol or be murdered along with the entire town he served decided to refuse the two choices and take matters into his own hands. Grabbing the Syrian-Greek unit commander’s sword the lead priest and head of the Maccabee family, Mattathias the Hasmonean, first killed the individual who stepped forward offering to make the sacrifice for Mattathias and then killed the Temple Priest who accompanied the Syrian-Greeks as they were an anathema to the Jewish religion and with the assistance of his family, Judas Maccabee and his four brothers, Eleazar, Simon, John, and Jonathan; Mattathias started the revolution with the words as he prepared to head into the Judean hills from where they fought a guerilla war eventually causing the Syrian-Greeks to depart with the words, “Those who are with Hashem come with me.”
The epitome of the offensive and anti-Rabbi whose name must not touch the title she claimed and the White House chosen Rabbi when lighting the Hanukkah Candles, Susan Talve made her dedication, probably instead of the actual blessings, “I stand here to light these lights to say no the darkness of Islamophobia and Homophobia and Transphobia.” And in her continued running at the mouth before she mercifully was seated included here represented in bits and pieces she called for, “Justice for Palestinians” and closed with the coup de gras, “InshAllah, InshAllah.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Lighting Hanukkah Candles
at President and Michelle Obama National Hanukkah Party
Then there was the Haaretz Party in New York, New York. As with any party this had its share of luminaries. What it did not have are supporters of Israel. This was a very exclusive event with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) supporter who has actively advised other performers against playing or performing in Israel. This is forgivable. Coming to an event where Avner Gevaryahu, representing Breaking the Silence was the featured speaker is highly questionable as long as your time at the microphone defends the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and makes known your discomfort with the invitation of such a hater of the IDF might be in order. Remaining at an event being given by what we are to assume is an Israeli news source which has removed and refused to display the Israeli flag is an insult to every caring and patriotic Israeli. One does not need be a Zionist to expect Haaretz to display the flag of Israel, particularly when inviting the President of Israel to attend and making the comfort of the Israeli President and the Israeli People he represents over an anti-Israeli representing a group which is reprehensibly defaming the IDF, is unacceptable. No foreign nation would invite the President of Israel, or any other nations’ President, and not fly the Israeli flag in honor of his presence. To not permit the flag of Israel is firstly an offense committed by Haaretz as one of Israel’s presumably premiere news sources even worse than having Avner Gevaryahu, representing Breaking the Silence, as your featured speaker and placing his speaking as featured over President Rivlin are first and foremost an insult by Haaretz against the Israeli people, the Israeli Defense Forces, and the nation of Israel.
It is solely because this event was an anathema to any respectable and patriotic Israeli and triple that to any Zionist Israeli and should have been sufficient warnings that this was not a venue suitable for the President of Israel who is presumably the representative of all Israelis and by attending and apparently having no difficulty with the insult to the nation of Israel and her people by refusing to fly our flag is where President Rivlin showed poor judgement and to put the bow on top, he gave a warm and welcoming speech expressing his pleasure and privilege for attending an event that so insulted the nation and its peoples. President Rivlin, it is your poor judgement in representing most Israelis we know, potentially every Israeli we know, that have us questioning your sensitivity to our expectations and something we would sincerely request you either become more sensitive to our feelings and sensitivities or hire a person who could assist you in sensing when Israelis like those we represent and other friends of Israel we represent from our readership that we show our concerns and hope your staff will find somebody from amongst them or from outside to alert you to such potential signs which might arouse our concerns in the future. Until such wisdom and discernment is shown by preferably yourself, or at least one in your staff, we will remain fearful that we once again have a President from whom we can again expect insult after insult to our feelings and once more we are left unrepresented in the office which is presumably tasked with representing Israel spiritually and emotionally and to show respect for our nation and its valued trappings such as the flag and the IDF. We hope that is not too much to ask of our President but thus far we are unsure such a level of dignity will be forthcoming. We have a friend who expressed suspicions that the Presidential Office or potentially the Residence itself has a particularly virulent virus which will infect every Israeli President going forward called Peresitis. We hope that you can be cured of Peresitis and have the entire trappings of the Presidency cleansed of this virulent endemic of Peresitis as soon as an antidote or other method of destroying this pathogen can be found. Until then we can only hope your case of Peresitis passes soon from your system and your developed immunity can also cure the rest of the trappings of your office from Peresitis.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 