Who’s Really to Blame for Government Shutdown?

 

Next time the government, meaning Congress, cannot find some compromise on Immigration and the Budget and the government is shuttered again, who will be to blame? That appears to be one of the big questions in the minds of the media. They have an obvious answer, an objective for making this the pinnacle of political prognostication. They know they have three paltry weeks to turn this entire mess around in the minds of the people. They will have plenty of assistants on social media and across the Internet to repeat the mantra that all government shutdowns throughout history have been the fault of the Republicans. Back in the 1980’s the government shutdowns, and there were more than one, were all the result of Ronald Reagan refusing to sign a very proper and reasonable budget bill. Reagan received so much bad media that he finally caved and it was over budget and immigration where he gave in on amnesty in exchange for border enforcement to be discussed in the new Congress. Somewhere on the way to the next Congress that promise fell through the cracks and enforcement never happened. Then in the 1990’s it was about the budget and Newt Gingrich battled with President Clinton and in the end it was Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House who refused to play ball and shut down the government. So this last shutdown was placed on Chuckie Schumer so we have circled from the President to the House and the Senate so reason would say the next shutdown should start the cycle over and be the President, it is only fair, right? Well, that will be the story, it is the Republican refusal to be reasonable and accept that we cannot afford to build Trump’s wall. These shutdowns should be called the Great Wall of Trump shutdowns. That should sell, the Great Wall of Trump shutdowns.

 

The facts do not matter and the reasonable offer by the Republicans to grant the DACA young adults et al a reprieve as has been offered as a way of addressing their individual cases and allowing those who meet certain expectations to stay and those who have criminal records and other problems and do not speak English being deported was not sufficient. The fact that President Trump insists that his wall be at the very least initiated as the prototypes were impenetrable by special forces who were used to test their effectiveness. We know, totally unreasonable as obviously they could always just blow the wall up or tunnel deep and go under them as they are only going down six feet or thereabouts under the ground. Anyway, walls do not work, history has proven that. Just let us go through some of the great walls built from past to a few present day walls and we will see they failed, and more importantly, how they failed. The most famous of all walls, the Great Wall of China, was build to keep the Mongol tribes from invading from the north. The Great Wall kept the border so peaceful that the Chinese society grew exceedingly wealthy from a century plus of no wars. The Chinese people became soft and refused to have their children taken to guard the wall so the Chinese hired Mongols to guard the gates and that also worked for a few more decades until finally one Mongol warlord forced his tribe’s guards to open one of the gates and raiding parties poured in. Other Mongols saw this and the wall failed. The Roman Empire built walls to keep the Germanic tribes from raiding the norther edge of their empire. Eventually, they ran out of slaves and hired Germanic tribesmen to guard their wall and repair the wall. For some reason this led to the wall failing. Romans also built Hadrian’s Wall to keep the Celts out and it remained a working barrier even after they put British tribal members from the south guarding the wall. Rome stopped paying these guards as they retreated from the British Isles finding them too expensive and not worth retaining and the wall failed.

 

Border Wall Prototypes

 

But what about more modern walls? More modern was the Berlin Wall which was torn down after twenty-eight quite effective years being built overnight on August 12, 1961 and fell on November 9, 1989 and thus the wall failed. Even the Israel Terror Wall, sometimes misrepresented as an Apartheid Wall, has made suicide bombing a rarity but it is still extremely porous as walls go. Hundreds upon hundreds, possibly over one thousand, of Palestinians with proper identification each day pass through to go to work and the occasional terrorist does make it past the border wall officers who check identity cards so it has not been perfect. Should Hamas ever take over the Palestinian authority areas the wall will become relatively worthless, as Hamas prefers rockets to having people carry the explosives. Hamas has made the real wall, the Gaza Wall compromised with who knows how many tunnels and they regularly cross the wall simply by firing rockets over it. India and China have a wall on their border as well as India and Pakistan; and in these cases it is the fact that both nations have military guarding these walls that makes them work. The same goes for the DMZ Wall between North and South Korea where workers are permitted to cross and should North Korea ever fire the artillery and rockets they have poised just on their side of the wall, that wall too would prove worthless. So, we have seen that walls work great until they don’t work and then they fail catastrophically often just being torn down, breached or the gateways left open. What a surprise, walls need to be guarded by the people who built them or those with common fears; and if you allow your potential enemies to guard your wall, no matter how much you pay them, they will betray you and your wall will fail, we are simply stunned.

 

There are less than twenty days before the continuing resolution runs out and the government faces another shutdown. It is time to assess who is really to blame? On one side, we have President Trump who is insistent that his wall begin to be financed and built, period. The President is refusing to budge. The Democrats in the Senate are demanding that the DACA illegal immigrants be granted total amnesty, all of them with one blanket amnesty with no restrictions. The Republicans want a system by which these illegal immigrants must meet some minimal qualification which includes speaking English and a clean record of no criminal activity since breaking the law being smuggled into the United States. This would include drug possession and any felonies being disqualifying them from receiving amnesty and each case be reviewed independently. The Democrats also want extended amnesty for all illegals in the country now for a decade until they can be fairly assessed for citizenship. They do not want even those with criminal records or multiple deportations already to be excluded, blanket that all illegals remain in the country completely free from government harassment in any way. The President insists that any illegal found guilty of a felony being deported permanently, no exceptions.

 

And the final sticking point is the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (H.R. 2580), also known as the Hart–Celler Act. This law completely revamped the National Origins Formula for having quotas based on needs and compatibility with American culture which had been in place since the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. Representative Emanuel Celler of New York proposed the bill, Senator Philip Hart of Michigan co-sponsored it, and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts helped to promote it and thus the quota system was abolished and replaced with a lottery system where people from nations less represented were granted entry. This law has some of what you might call unintended consequences though many believe these were more accurately to be called intended consequences. This might have also been called the future will belong to the Democrat Party as these unassimilated people living off the government will be loyal Democrat voters. This was the program which gave start to the lottery visa program which would bring in immigrants by lottery from largely third world countries and this was how Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbeki national entered the United States. ‘The Diversity Visa Lottery Program is a Chuck Schumer program resulting from The Immigration Act of 1990. This modified the Hart–Celler Act so as to make the system even more fair balancing the entry into the United States from its former unfair Eurocentric systems. Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbeki national who entered under these programs would become the Bicycle Terrorist who plowed a rented pickup truck into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists in lower Manhattan on Oct. 31, 2017. President Trump wants this program killed until it can include a more strict vetting of the applicants as currently vetting is minimal. Chuckie Schumer is fighting for this wonderful idea he promoted and refuses to have someone as ignorant as Donald Trump to alter his hard work.

 

Those are the sticking points over which the war of words is over though the media will spend all their time covering the personal attacks and ignore the actual reasons that the government may again face a shutdown. But is a shutdown really all that horrible? It is if you reside in Washington D.C. area as that is the economy as the government and servicing the government is almost all that area does. That even includes the stores, restaurants and everything else you might imagine even to bowling alleys. The Federal Government employees will collect unemployment while they are otherwise on vacation and when they come back, they will be given a nice large payment to cover the time they were “out of work.” They are not required to return the unemployment so they make out fairly well, all things included. Some miss the overtime they used to get but the unemployment should cover that nicely. The Democrats always threaten to shut down the payment of welfare, food stamps, Social Security and other such but President Trump can order these be paid as they are a function of the Administration and he can claim them as vital interests. Many such payments are actually done by State government employees such as unemployment. Most of our readers are probably too young to remember the heady days when President Willian Jefferson Clinton and Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich were at war over the budget and from December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996, they shut down the government completely for a total of 27 days. The world actually managed to continue to spin, the United States was not invaded as the military were considered essential personnel, crime waves did not develop as the Federal Agents were also considered essential and the Post Office is a supposedly independent agency and not directly run by government so the mail continued, and the nations did not grind to a halt. Other than the hyperventilating media, the entire three weeks and six days passed and nobody died as a result, not even a single hyperventilating media type, as they are practiced at that art. President Trump should challenge Chuckie Schumer and allow the government to be shuttered for as long as Senator Schumer can take the heat. We would bet that providing President Trump can still Tweet to his little heart’s content (not to imply he had a little heart as he is rumored to be a generous individual) then he will be able to continue and hopefully be persuaded to watch the goings on with an unattached glee and amused viewing port. The media will of course cast such blame predicting the end of the world, as we know it. If he can manage to allow the government to remain shut down with just the essential personnel and all government checks to the citizens continuing on schedule but with over three-quarters of the government on extended vacation, as that will be what it will be in the end, then he can easily make a speech during ‘prime time’ to the American people to apologize for the extended government shutdown and then propose that each department of the government be required to freeze hiring until further notice with the administration setting up a panel which will mediate any hiring needs during the period in order to make limited exceptions if a position is truly essential, which they will advise that the agency usually fill it from within. If President Trump can keep such a freeze in place his entire presidency and be reelected, perhaps government might finally be parsed to a more manageable size. Just a closing crazy idea.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Why Iranian Nuclear Program Matters

 

President Obama would like the world to believe that there was a nuclear deal reached, signed, sealed and delivered to the Security Council and set into stone. There are a few problems with that story line, namely the Iran part of the deal. The part of the nuclear deal which is valid is that the sanctions have been lifted, Iran is back in the oil and pistachio business while European companies are tripping over each other in a race to sign deals with Iran and get their share of the billions which are going to be flowing when Iran receives the monies the United States is obligated to release from banks and investment accounts. The deal passed by the Security Council made the European and United States parts of the deal sealed and delivered and sent the Iranian part of the deal to Iran where it was graciously received and filed in the nearest wastebasket. Think back and try to remember the conflicting news reports from those final days of the Iran nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 consisting of Russia, China, Britain, France, the United States plus Germany and think back to the celebratory language and you might remember that the Obama White House and State Department were claiming one set of conditions, the Europeans had their version, Russia and China made very few statements with some in interviews with Western news interviews revealing that they were uncertain on a number of issues in Moscow and Beijing remaining mute and Iran claiming an entirely different interpretation and having doubts that the remaining difficulties would ever be bridged. I’m not sure those differences were ever ironed out nor does it appear that Iran has ever considered themselves to have made any promises to the Western World or the United Nations or anybody else. For the record, the Iranian parliament has never approved any deal that the United States or anybody else can honestly report and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has never signed any paperwork for a deal and thus Iran is not legally bound to anything just as the State Department freely admitted in a letter to Representative Mike (R-Kan.) of the House Intelligence Committee.

 

This admission simply echoes the actions by Tehran which has now made two test launches of ballistic missiles which would have definitively been forbidden by any deal admitted to exist by any of the Western Nations as well as the United Nations interpretations of the agreement, but nobody appears to be rearing up in reaction to these tests. There has been no ‘snapback’ of sanctions and the releasing of funds as theoretically agreed upon by western Nations in any version of a deal is proceeding along on schedule. Are we the only ones who seem concerned that there appears to be an agreement to free the dogs of nuclear ambitions in Iran while obliging the West to release the funds and remove all sanctions which might have proven to be an impediment and chaining the United States and European nations to back the Russian, Chinese and Iranian desires for business as usual as if there is not a care in the world? A quick check of news stories and it seems the most recent testing of another nuclear delivery capable continental ballistic missile, the most powerful yet and a decent sign that Iran is aiming for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capabilities and is going at such capabilities with some vigor does concern any number of responsible adults. Unfortunately the closest the White House has come to a responsible adult has been United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power who stated at a Congressional hearing last week, “discussions are a form of U.N. action.” So, apparently the White House left Congress and themselves no actual control over sanctions and thus the possible ‘snapback’ is solely in the hands of the United Nations where such is an impossibility and even if the United States acted, theirs would necessarily be a whole new set of sanctions which are presumably forbidden by the presumed deal which is no deal and the White House would necessarily, as they have stated, veto any such sanctions. So as it currently sits, Iran will receive their $150 billion in unfrozen assets within the next six months, can test missiles to their hearts’ delight and all are to proceed as if there are sanctions on Iran when in reality the sanctions are on the Western Powers making sanctions near to impossible and now even the IAEA has officially surrendered before the Iranian games of guile as we reported recently in What the IAEA Closure of Their Iran Investigations Really Meant.

 

What has been successfully pulled off by deceptiveness, chicanery and outright lies is the freeing of Europe to return to their preferred business as usual and ignore the consequences, a similar aspect to their recent receipt of the first wave of ‘Syrian refugees’ and intent to make them legal citizens almost automatically which will grant them new visas from their new home nation and also grant them instant acceptance on the visa waiver program the United States shares with the European Union. What could be better as it has been made obvious that the vast majority of these ‘Syrian refugees’ are not Syrian, are not refugees, are not dirt poor losing everything in the civil war and Bashir al-Assad’s butchery and are intent on infiltrating the United States as they see Europe rightfully as all but conquered already. What we do have as the vast majority of these ‘Syrian refugees’ are military age single males with plenty of money and a penchant for rioting and causing disturbances and will very likely prove to be the tip of the spear with the only question being are they Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Taliban, or Iranian IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) trained infiltrators who have received some of the best training in sabotage and other disruptive acts and also master coordinators (community organizers on steroids). Whatever and whomever they are operating under, this sizeable sector of the ‘Syrian refugees’ who have poured into Europe, largely centered on Germany and the Scandinavian nations all of which have some of the best social services with the highest welfare payment structures in all of Europe, and with a fair share of the ‘Syrian refugees’ now headed to the final target on the list, the United Kingdom; their aims are becoming ever more clear, to bring Europe to its knees and then simply take charge of its remnants and turn it all over to whichever group manages to wrench control from the rest of the other groups. This simply means that the next front of the Syrian civil war turned Sunni-Shiite war will be being fought across Europe just as soon as the Christian and Atheist Secular Humanists have been murdered in large part or converted to Islam or converted to being good little worker Dhimmis producing for their new taskmasters. The alternative is a revolution by the Europeans themselves which will end very poorly for both sides as this will become very quickly a war of extermination and who will prove the strongest force and last group standing is in doubt though we would place our money on the home team as they know the landscape and will be fighting for their own survival and the survival of their way of life and the Europeans have proven their ability for warfare and the heritage to match. The question which needs answering is when, or should it be, will the European Union and the individual governments such as Angela Merkel’s Germany and François Hollande’s France wake from their utopian dream, which is proving to be a hellish nightmare for their people, before their nations are so overrun with ‘Syrian refugees’ that recovery has been made impossible? If not, does the average European have it within them to force their leaders to heed and save the lands before it is too late? The greatest of fears is that for Western Europe it may already be too late.

 

The other ramification of the ‘Syrian refugees’ problem is that with much of Eastern European nations, former Warsaw Pact nations plus Greece, have closed their borders allowing those who wish to take trains through to Germany and other points west with the train stations along the tracks well-guarded to force the ‘Syrian refugees’ through to all points west. What way will these nations be turning once NATO ceases to offer them any real protection? We see their returning to the Russian sphere of influence as Vladimir Putin (aka Vlad the Invader), offering a stronger arm in protecting them from the invading ‘Syrian refugees’ and all that encompasses, then turning to the seemingly feckless United States which has proven itself to be weak and unsupportive at best and traitorous at worst. Poland and the Czech Republic, despite being the victims of President Obama’s cancellation of the radar and anti-missile system which had been approved for delivery and operation on their bases, might hold out and wait to see who wins the 2016 United States elections though if pressed would likely seriously consider placing their bets on a sure thing, meaning Putin. And now we can probably name the three things which will be the Obama legacy; first, a nuclear armed Middle East tinderbox; second, a neutered United States military degraded to a point of near impotence; and third, removing any trust in the United States as her promises have been proven to be simply worthless if any change of administration can so abruptly and totally alter the realities and break any and all promises with allies apparently is just as easily done as it is with revolutions in third world nations. The last one which renders the United States as untrustworthy will prove to be the straw which breaks the camel’s back as if the word of the President of the United States is only good for as long as he or his party holds the Office of the President, then what worth does any Presidential promise hold? Even worse was that President Obama also went back on promises made by President Willian Jefferson Clinton which infers that even same party Presidencies may prove untrustworthy of keeping promises made by previous Presidents of their own party. One thing which has been made evidently obvious is that any nation relying on the United States to have their back had best also have their own Plan B just in case they find their back suddenly rendered vulnerable as their strongest protection of their back having quit and gone home prematurely. Further, depending on the United States to actually produce and make good on promises of weapons systems being completely dependent on any new President continuing with the production or delivery of promised systems should put the fear of heaven in them as the anti-missile systems and radar cancelled and the premature stoppage of production of the F-22 Raptor proved as that was the fighter the United States was counting on for granting her air superiority over any other nation, something the F-35 joint strike fighter does not and may even prove to be less of a fifth generation fighter when compared to the Eurofighter Typhoon or the Russian Sukhoi Su-27.

 

 

 

 

These are the lasting legacies of President Obama and they will all but destroy the faith in the world of any United States President for some time into the future until trust can be proven or given a legal basis. The only item which may be seen as trustworthy might be actual treaties which have the full backing of the congress and the Courts, including especially the Supreme Court and as such may be proven to be beyond the reach of any American President to negate by his or her own power without running afoul of the Courts and Congress. Even this will need to be seen by those who have been burnt the most by this administration and its complete disregard for precedent, Presidential respect for and by other administrations and potentially the rule of law which would make even treaties only as good as the President and congress who made them and otherwise potentially worthless. The United States is going to have to face these issues and either find some manner of placing the nation behind the promises of their Presidents going forward when a new President takes the office and has a different view of the world and sees the promises of the predecessor as unbinding upon them, that must be changed if the United States ever desires to be respected and trusted ever again. Perhaps it is time for a previously unthought of and seemingly unnecessary Amendment to the United States Constitution which will state that once the President and the Congress have declared use of the United States military to undertake a task that from that point forward or until a supermajority of two-thirds of both houses of congress and the President together call the mission complete, the military will remain on stations until the military Joint Chiefs of Staff declare the mission completed. Such an amendment would restore faith that once the United States military was deployed that they would not simply pull out leaving whatever governance they left in place completely vulnerable and it will cause the Congress and President to carefully spell out the necessary accomplishments of every mission long before troops would be deployed. Both of these required changes in the way troops are deployed and returned from deployment would make for stricter definitions of any mission and a clear promise that once the United States troops are deployed and tasked with supporting any government until said time that it has been stabilized and completely functioning with domain over all of its nation that the United States will not just pull out leaving a huge sucking sound of a vacuum which will almost always be filled by other than savory forces. Such would give real meaning to any military promise given by the Congress and President when forces are deployed to a long term mission which will necessarily be passed to the next President and his administration which would be powerless to end the mission unless the military top level commanders determined the mission completed.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Vultures Circling as Israel Goes to the Polls

 

Israelis will be casting their votes today but that is only the start of the process in forming the next coalition which will rule at most for four years. That is assuming this government makes it to the conclusion of its term, a real rarity in Israeli politics. Still, the results from today will be leered over with every morsel’s potential meanings gleaned and meticulously quantified with the unflinching attention of a vulture over an injured beast waiting for it to breathe its last signifying dinner is ready. Then it all starts tomorrow or even a few days down the road when President Reuven Rivlin has talked with the various heads of the respective parties to gather their input as to which particular leader they favor for the position of Prime Minister. Though it is not unheard of for some parties to initially place the name of their head as their choice for Prime Minister fully aware that such is next to impossible, though conceivable as President Rivlin is free to choose whomever he believes would be both the best choice and also capable of forming a ruling coalition exceeding sixty Ministers. Such a suggestion still mostly prolongs the process and may even work to produce a choice for the first attempt in forming a coalition to the candidate your party did not prefer, so it is best to not choose to make such a recommendation. That is particularly true this election cycle as whichever person between Benyamin Netanyahu and Yitzhak Hertzog is given the go-ahead to form a coalition will likely succeed. Such is not an unprecedented situation but is not the most likely scenario but this election the citizens polling has depicted an evenly divided electorate between the two expected leaders to receive the nod to form a government. Once a choice has been made, it starts a clock of sorts which allows the candidate forty-two days (six weeks) to assemble sixty-one ministers by cobbling together sufficient parties by granting demands and negotiating alternatives. Should that leader fail, another leader is asked to try; he or she has up to twenty-eight days (three weeks) to attempt to achieve a coalition. Once the President believes there is little or no hope for any leader to forge a coalition, the elections are held again hoping for a different result, almost like Einstein’s definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result. I guess one might look at the Israeli government forging mechanism and determine as such it is, it could qualify as insanity in action.

 

Meanwhile, there is a world out there with some just interested in seeing which side wins the opportunity to forge a coalition and succeeds so that they know with who they will be dealing, who will be Foreign Minister, Finance Minister and any other Ministerial position which may determine how they interact with Israel on any number of fronts. What is different about this election is the number of interested parties who have a definite preference to the point that there have been interferences in this election campaign of varying degrees which were mostly beyond acceptable levels. Where editorials in the foreign media are to be expected but daily editorials demanding that the Israeli public choose the leader of the opposition from the previous sitting government in the place of reelecting the current Prime Minister is perhaps attempting to have an influence on the electorate is a bit over the top. But writing editorials and holding frequent interviews with people antagonistic to the current Prime Minister and even holding repeated interviews with influential people, leaders of political parties, heads of NGOs and reporting intended sanctions which will be levied against Israel all demanding that one of the two leading candidates not be granted a chance to form the next government even should their party win by a decent or sizable margin is carrying things way too far into the influence peddling. A foreign government making threats against one of the leading heads of parties from being given the opportunity to form a coalition regardless of the votes cast and doing so for weeks even months or even immediately after elections were called is meddling beyond the acceptable level. But even this was not the limit of the interference.

 

There were efforts by NGOs within Israel who received much of their, if not all, funding from foreign entities or even foreign government and the European Union all of which were very direct in what was expected as far as attempts to influence the outcome of the Israeli election and there was a group V15 (aka V2015) which is allied with OneVoice, a tax exempt entity which recently received a $200,000 grant of funds from the United States State Department and who was headed by political strategist Jeremy Bird leading five Democratic consultants all directly ordered to work for the defeat of Netanyahu as directed from both the State Department and the White House and probably by President Obama personally. Bird and his team are working with a group known as V15 which is a politically allied partnership with OneVoice which describes itself as utilizing grassroots canvassing and door-to-door politicking tasked to amplify the voice of Israelis and Palestinians to empower the election of, as they candidly have stated, “anybody but Bibi” allowing those more favorable to the two-state solution to defeat Netanyahu removing what President Obama identifies as the greatest threat blocking his forging a lasting peace. This interference in the Israeli elections if legal is only by depending on what the meaning of is is as well as the definition of interference is. Had Israel done similar against the reelection of President Obama during the 2012 elections the group and its entire staffing would have been arrested and charged with spying and working for a foreign government interfering in the election process of the United States and probably a dozen more charges and brought to trial and likely the top organizers and any of the people holding Israeli citizenship being imprisoned for an exceedingly long time. Such would not have been tolerated, let alone continued to act impervious to election laws about foreign interference.

 

Meanwhile, in almost unanimous agreement the media and anybody who could get themselves before a microphone or quoted in print or in pixels on the Internet were given such attentions providing they were speaking to removing Netanyahu from power and promoting Yitzhak Hertzog directly or simply pressing for any candidate from the opposition who would keep Netanyahu from holding any influence or power in the coming Israeli government. There were even demonstrations and organized rallies which though couched in innocuous to misleadingly tame to even inane terminology though any inspection of their mission or political support were all aligned across the globe to defeat Bibi Netanyahu. One example we recently found related to in an editorial titled A “Peace” Party where the events were describe as the global, “Dance for Peace,” in which parties are being held around the world in the name of electing an Israeli government that according to the organizers, will “bring peace” and “transform the Middle East” One does not need to look too much further before realizing the aim is to defeat Netanyahu and elect Hertzog as by doing so the impediment to peace, a strong and Zionist Israeli government will be replaced with a weaker and more pliable Israeli Prime Minister who can be pressured into making the necessary sacrifices to allow for the formation of a Palestinian Arab state carved out of land that belongs to Israel by any and every legality which can be derived from International Law. We discussed the particular treaties, conference, League of Nations ratifications, and inclusion carrying all forward within the charter of the United Nations in yesterday’s article titled, Israel Elections are Upon Us Tomorrow found within the final paragraph for those interested. This global Dance for Peace goes beyond the obvious assembling people who desire removing Netanyahu from leading the Israeli government and are willing to attempt to influence the Israeli electorate by staging these events throughout the globe which would also include positive coverage of their actions and thus accommodating their view and amplifying its effects, especially if it received such coverage internationally as was also an obvious goal.

 

As also stated in the editorial, this “peace” movement which is attempting to influence the Israeli election has some glaring assumptions at its base and also makes an oblique accusation against Israel, the supportive Israeli public and anybody who supports Netanyahu over Hertzog casting them as anti-peace, or even worse, as pro-war or warmongers. Prime Minister Netanyahu has made tremendous efforts to forge a peace with Mahmoud Abbas and has taken steps presumably beyond the sight of the average Israeli in order to facilitate the efforts by President Obama meeting even his demand for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to extend the building freeze well past its initial nine months making it virtually permanent, a dispensation which may be crucial in this election removing him from power as it caused a housing shortage and increased pricing, a likelihood very much desired by United States President Obama. The implied accusations of all the efforts to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu are predicated on erroneous assumptions that first-off Prime Minister Netanyahu does not desire peace, is unwilling to make the territorial sacrifices required for peace, desires to inflame tension to a breaking point forcing another war and finally that the Israeli people are equally guilty of these supposed crimes and would foolishly and blindly reelect Netanyahu if the entire world does not save them from themselves. These suppose that the Israelis alone are to blame for the lack of peace and the making of the Palestinian Arab state and that the Palestinians have already sacrificed for peace and are ready to jump at the chance for peace if only Israel would sacrifice even more if the Israelis even came close to making a fair peace settlement. These suppositions ignore reality to an unfathomable extent. The United Nations extended in the General Assembly Resolution 181 passed on November 29, 1947, offered the Arab League a petition plan where the Jews and Arabs would have divided the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea evenly and somewhat unfairly as close to half of the lands granted the Jews consisted of the Negev Desert while the Arabs would have received the prime farming lands and despite the Jews accepting this partition the Arab League refused to accept this initiative thus rendering it null and void in that process and opted instead to wage war a few months later on May 15, 1948 immediately the morning after Israel declared their independence. Israel had declared their independence on May 14, 1948 at sundown which in Jewish law was the actual beginning of the next day, May 15, 1948, the Israeli Independence Day.

 

Since then Israel offered what has been considered to be the acceptable over ninety-five percent of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), all of Gaza and to share Jerusalem, even dividing Jerusalem instead of internationalizing the city in a manner, and made this offer repeatedly since when Prime Minister Ehud Barak did so during the Camp David Accords under President William Jefferson Clinton during 2000 and January 2001 as a favor to President William Jefferson Clinton and both were refused by Yasser Arafat with his initial refusal coming in Paris where after being presented with Prime Minister Barak’s offering which included everything Arafat had demanded from President Clinton included in the offer by Arafat abruptly rising and stalking from the room without even making a subsequent demand or comment charging to his awaiting vehicle which was running which leads one to believe this was a planned exit though unexpected by President William Jefferson Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak or United State Secretary of State Madeline Albright who attempted to request for Arafat to return to the negotiations strangely running as best she was able calling Yasser Arafat who simply ignored her and drove away returning to the disputed territories and initiating the deadly Second Intifada as had been planned from even before the negotiations began. The offer was given again by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008 at the very end of George W. Bush Presidency which was refused out of hand by Mahmoud Abbas who demanded a complete right of return for five million plus Arab refugees within the boundary of Israel instead of mostly to the areas to be declared as the Palestinian State and refusing to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish People. Mahmoud Abbas has made numerous references to what he considers to be a fair offer of making the entirety of the lands between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea into an Arab state where the Jews will be initially permitted to reside and expected to accept their status as Dhimmis with the rule of the new state being under an Arab Muslim all powerful leader, presumably Mahmoud Abbas until Hamas replaces him, and with the Jews receiving no political rights and limited religious, social, legal, entrepreneurial or ownership rights. Such statements can be located on MEMRI using their search as we did using the search term Mahmoud Abbas and received a plethora of results. Making claims that the Israelis are solely to blame for the lack of peace or the formation of an Arab state and addressing the refugee problem simply aggravated intentionally with malice aforethought by the Arab states surrounding Israel border on or fall under anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and are definitively anti-Israeli. They are also as false as any statement which nullifies and abrogates any Palestinian culpability for the lack of peace. Perhaps such lack of actions against the Palestinians is due to the small fact that there has been no Palestinian election since 2006 and even longer for Mahmoud Abbas’s position as the leader of the Palestinian Authority while Israel holds elections regularly and often. That would be a nice thought and would pass muster except that worldwide demonstrations consistently target Israel and seldom if ever the Palestinians plus all diplomatic and economic pressures, threats, proclamations, sanctions, boycotts, arraignments and punishments almost without fail are used against Israel while the Palestinians simply receive the majority of aid monies in the entire world through NGOs, UNRWA, funding from individual governments especially from the United States, Europe and the European Union as well as from numerous other United Nations Agencies. The funding of the Arab Palestinian entities is measurable in the billions per month and likely trillions per year should all of their monies including clandestine funding by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other secretive sources. Such inequities have unfortunately become so commonplace and almost to the point of being mundane that they no longer raise even a question from any corner of the world and the Palestinian Arabs are held guiltless while the Israelis and held culpable for every sin and transgression real or imagined and such should deserve far more even scrutiny than any appear willing to grant. With the measurable rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, these disparities of intentions, actions and accusations will only increase even more until they become an all against the one, the one and only Jewish State and possibly only place on the earth where a Jew is permitted the freedom to worship as they please. On that day Israel will be the sole nation with universal freedom of religion, the last and only.

 

Beyond the Cusp