Democrats Following Ilhan Omar Slamming Israel First

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren continued on her assumed guaranteed path to the Presidency following the lead of Representative Ilhan Omar choosing to denounce Israel above, beyond and before any other nation in her claim to the higher ground. Also, Senator Amy Klobuchar slammed Israel as she too seeks to lead the Democrats in their bid to regain the White House. Ms. Klobuchar took the lesser of the roads to perdition by simply slamming Israel for the deal between the Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit referring to it merely as extremist and racist. Ms. Warren went a bit further stating, “First embracing right-wing extremism. Now manipulating a free press, accepting bribes, and trading government favors.” She then charged, accusing Netanyahu of delivering a “cut to the heart of a functioning democracy.” What is it with these Democrats and their campaigns for the Presidency, is Israel the sole country which has possible problems which in this case could be politically driven as the investigations have dragged on for over four years and suddenly, right after elections were called, then came charges timed to do the most damage to the ruling Likud Party and to Netanyahu himself. But, apparently, Israel with a sufficiently free press, despite claims to the contrary, came out and brought these charges into the open thanks to the “compromised” free press, as Ms. Warren claimed, and everything is being conducted in the open and will proceed through a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, except in the media and the campaigns apparently in both Israel and the United States. We find it fascinating that the first nation to be taken to task for its corrupted media and presumed compromised leader was Israel. Even before attacks on President Donald Trump, both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, not to bother mentioning Bernie Sanders who is always ready with an attack on Israel, and numerous others in the Democrat Party, would put Israel at the head of their campaigns as the nation the United States needs to hold to a strict standard and may desire to distance themselves from due to its weak respect for freedom of the press, racist politics, and compromised leadership whose moral compass may be skewed.

 

Let us consider what other nations might have made the list for such problems ahead of Israel which these Democrats might have chosen for their example. First coming to mind would be the obvious choice of North Korea, a nation where the leader and those he favors live well and the common person all but starves; a nation with no regard for human life and absolutely no media outside of what the government prints and no elections not to mention that anyone daring to charge their “Dear Leader” with crimes would be executed the next day at sunrise. Then there is Venezuela which pretty much mirrors North Korea but the problem with both of these is it would place them in a position allied with President Trump. They could easily have chosen Russia and President Putin which would have had the added bonus of allowing them to bring up the Mueller investigation and the Russian collusion charges, but they went with Israel. They might have gone slightly northeast of Israel and gone with Bashir al-Assad who is gassing and bombing his own country and its people back to the Stone Age just so he can remain ruling whatever remains in the end, but they chose Israel to condemn. Then they could have accused Saudi Arabia who is suspected of having murdered and then dismembered a person who had made accusations of the Royal Family after luring him to their embassy in Turkey, but they claim that Israel suppresses opposition. We could continue adding Iraq, Iran, China or any of the other one-hundred-forty six nations out of one-hundred and eighty ranked which were determined to be more corrupt than is Israel, but Israel lead their list and we are willing to bet that Trump’s America would not be far behind on their lists. Perhaps next they would like to complain that there are Israelis who are less than overwhelmingly happy as Israel ranks merely as the eleventh happiest nations, but then they would have to accept that the United States came in at number eighteen, a full seven slots behind Israel. We could continue and point out that Israel ranks at the top for political rights, individual rights, freedom of the press and well in virtually every category in the freedom ratings. The main complaint, just in case the Democrats running for the White House would like a pointer as to what might be a valid claim, Israelis are required to carry identification and to show their identification before boarding trains or entering many buildings including retail malls. Well, we wonder why this might be, could it be to reduce the chance of terrorists gaining access to places where they could inflict the worst carnage as was the case when terrorists attacked trains near Madrid in 2004 resulting in almost two-hundred deaths and over two-thousand injured.

 

Madrid Train Bombing

 

As far as life in Israel is concerned, we have elections which suffer from the fact that we have a parliamentary system even more convoluted than others, we have more parties than flavors of ice cream (an exaggeration), we have to watch what we say about our little isolated place like heaven as people will believe any accusation or shortcoming, the media is just as strange as in the United States but there are some very decent smaller publications and even free newspapers, we are one of the few nations who has a major newspaper kept alive because of its foreign sales for the online version (Israel’s version of the NYT), freedom of speech, freedom to protest which is vigorously and enthusiastically used, equality of all varieties and about the only nation in the Middle East where gays are not persecuted and have full right of expressing their proclivities, complete religious freedom (the Baha’I have one of their two main centers in Israel with the other in India) and women are fully free and equal in every part of Israeli life. We have our problems like any other nation. We have checkpoints in order to protect the innocent from terrorism, a larger concern than in the United States but still manageable. There are beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean and skiing on Mount Hermon. Israel produces some of the world’s finest wines and has a broad selection of wines across a wide price range. Truth be told, until you have spent a couple of months, well, at least six weeks, in Israel, you really will not know Israel. Sure people come on a tour and see historic locations tailored to what the desired image the providers intend. That is one thing Israel is not short of, historic places, many of which date back more than three-thousand years. Just south of our location and visible from the train tracks or the main highway are the remains of a Roman aqueduct which probably does not make any tour guides itinerary. They just sit there looking, well, very Roman.

 

Bahá’í Gardens in Haifa

 

Those who wish to show the mistreatment of Palestinians, there are four or five Potemkin villages set up for display in the West Bank, but they will avoid Nablus or any of the main cities as people driving Mercedes and Audis is bad for the poor and beaten down image they wish to sell. That is also the problem with trying to judge Israel from news reports; you will simply get the view intended and nothing even close to the reality. Even favorable coverage does not do Israel justice. We have everything from small mom and pop stores to department stores as well as what we call shuks and Americans would call farmer’s markets. Jerusalem has areas which probably have not changed since before Alexander the Great came rolling through here on his way to conquer Egypt, for him Israel wasn’t so much conquered as ignored but still subjugated and far more trouble than it was worth except as needed to reach Egypt, the real prize in those days. Then Jerusalem has malls just every major city in the Western World, a modern light rail system and an electric train which will eventually make the trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with a stop at Ben Gurion International Airport in well under an hour. Healthcare in Israel is a comfortable balance between government guaranteed coverage and available options at relatively modest prices as there is competition between the different providers. We also have some of the finest hospitals in the world. When you get treated in Israel, you are not guaranteed Jewish doctors as we have a fair percentage of the physicians that are Arab Israelis as well as other places of origin or ethnic background. For fun, the pictures below are of Gaza, Nablus and Tel Aviv, two of each, so before looking at the caption, that would be cheating, try and decide which ones are which.

 

Top Nablus Palestinian Authority
Middle Gaza City Hamas
Bottom Tel Aviv Israel

 

Now that we have completed pointing out that Israel, while not perfect, is not exactly the nation one should start with when complaining about crooked politics, corruption, a compromised and slanted media or any other attacks one would wish to level outside of we have a very high percentage of Jews compared to other nations, which may be part of the reason we are placed so high on so many politicians’ target lists, shall we get back to the latest fascination of the Democrat Party, using Israel as their punching bag. There have been the accusations that Israel has been shooting innocent and peaceful Gazan protesters completely ignoring the obvious terrorism launched by these protesters which have included shooting at IDF positions, launching incendiary kites and balloons setting numerous serious fires, launching colorful balloons with cute toys attached loaded with explosive and set to detonate when squeezed or picked up, attempts to breach the border fence and an ecological attack caused by the burning of tens of thousands of tires to produce a smokescreen from which to hide their attacks. Then there are the accusations that Israel has not permitted the Palestinian Arabs to vote in elections. This is a trick question as the implication is that Israel does not permit them to vote in Israeli elections while the truth is that they have not been permitted elections by their own leadership. Hamas appoints who leads in Gaza as it is a terrorist dictatorship and Mahmoud Abbas continues to cancel elections within the Palestinian Authority as he knows he would lose his comfortable position. As far as their not being permitted to vote in Israeli elections, they are not Israeli citizens, they have their own governing bodies and territories which are independent of Israel. Gaza is completely independent of Israel and has been since September of 2005 after Israel pulled all her citizens and IDF forces from Gaza in the George W. Bush idea for showing how the Arab Palestinians could have a normal society given the chance so Israel gave them the opportunity with the Gaza Disengagement. The Palestinian Authority has had semiautonomous rule in northern Samaria in Area A and Area B while Israel retained complete rule in Area C as per the Oslo Accords of 1993. The reality is that Israel has not had direct rule over the Arab Palestinians since September of 1993 and Israel completely surrendered the Gaza Strip in September of 2005 with Hamas taking over in a coup in 2007 resulting in the blockade of Gaza after the Hamas takeover. Truth is the Gaza blockade was not put in place when the Arabs took control of Gaza but only after Hamas took control. Hamas is a terrorist organization which is sworn to destroy Israel and had, in their original charter, the Quranic verses calling for the killing of all Jews. The Gaza blockade also does not prevent aid from reaching Gaza; it only requires that Israel be permitted to check aid to make sure it does not contain weaponry or military grade equipment. Israel provides the aid through the Kerem Crossing with often caravans of semis going in to Gaza where the trailers are turned over to Hamas. Hamas has left aid undistributed preventing it from reaching their people so as to sell it on the black market or simply allow it to be wasted so as to continue the poverty amongst their people for use by media reporters who they provide minders to showcase what they wish the world to know. Below we included a comparison of the two Gazas, the one where the Hamas leaders and their benefactors and the other those who Hamas cares little for one way or the other.

 

The Two Gazas with One Pristine and the Other Ravaged

 

These are facts that Ms. Warren and Ms. Klobuchar along with the rest of the Democrats catering to the far left of the party will never admit exist. To them Israel is to be cast as pure evil and the worst humanity has to offer. They are targeting the anti-Semitic wing of their party and those who have drank the BDS propaganda, and also those who work to produce the BDS styled propaganda. The Democrat Party is not the same party which existed thirty years ago and that is likely only going to become more evident as time passes. But, you say, are not most Jews Democrat voters? Yes, but you are making an oft made error by equating Jews with Israel. There has been a drift away from Israel amongst Jews as they also have drifted away from traditional Judaism, stopped going to daily services with many not going to services with possible exception of the High Holidays, if then. The Reform Jews, those whose parents were Reform Jews, have intermarried at an alarming rate of over fifty percent and all but completely left the religion and have virtually no compassion one way or the other, or are as rabidly anti-Israel as the Democrat candidates are proving to be, when it comes to Israel. You are likely to find numerous Jews who because they wish to be included in the leftist protest movement will join the BDS or simply reject supporting Israel as due to intersectionality, supporters of Israel are banned from joining in most progressive protests and are excluded from all women’s march and affiliated events. This is part of the reason why we will see ever more left wing politicians and organization turning against Israel. This is a well orchestrated and financed, as explained in the above link, operation which targets only Israel while turning group after group against Israel by threatening to marginalize their cause and prevent people from supporting their protests. Either you can support Israel or you can pass the intersectionality test, but you cannot do both. There was a turning point in the Civil Rights movement after Martin Luther King was assassinated where the Jews went from being strong supporters of the movement, most still support equal rights completely, to the Black Lives Matter turn against Israel and their joining with such as the Occupy Movement and the BDS movement in targeting Israel and the Jews. Anti-Semitism is growing on campuses across America and many professors now teach in their humanities classes that Israel is evil and some go as far to state that Israel is evil because Jews are evil. With such in the society and growing, it will become natural for political candidates to cater to the anti-Israel position, especially as it will not necessarily hurt them with the Jewish vote. Additionally, the Jews are a small percentage and Arab oil monies are being funneled into leftist campaigns replacing the one influence which had been considered the Jewish weapon. Additionally, the majority of pro-Israel Jews are living in Israel and even should they use their citizenship and absentee ballots, they came from such left wing bastions that their vote is irrelevant. Just as Jeremy Corbin has become the leader of British Labor and anti-Semitism will soon be rife in that party, the Democrat party is less than a decade behind them. Pro-Israeli positions are becoming a right wing and nationalist position and are being shunned if not abhorred by the leftist, internationalist agenda. Eventually, the internationalists will take control of the left wing political parties as they continue to drift leftward and the concurrent anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism will take the fore as these parties take over in Europe and possibly in the United States and Canada. Once this has taken hold, Israel will become the isolated nation the world will love to hate and even the Security Council will pass condemnations of Israel and may even once again declare Zionism equal to racism and eject Israel from the world body, which may be the nicest thing they could ever do. When the world turns to destroy Israel it will be a sad day and signal the death of Western culture as one cannot turn against those who laid the basis for the Judeo-Christian ethic and remain the beacon of the free world and even if you do not recognize it, lose it and you will no longer be free.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What Political Message Have Elections Taught?

 

What we need do is to seek out what politics or which politicians invigorated their electorate and the means and methods they used which proved more effective than the others did. To do this we need to look at elections of the Twenty-First Century starting with George W. Bush and ignoring third party candidates, as that has been the way of things. In the 2000 election, we saw George W. Bush running against Albert Gore. Both of these candidates are so exciting that we can refer to one as watching grass grow and the other as watching paint dry. When it all was over it came down to divining the desire of voters and hanging chads and a Supreme Court decision calling the circus to a close with the winner according to the final count before the bell rang being grass growing, George W. Bush. So, this was politics as it had been in the Twentieth Century, a form of politics which died in this century as it no longer plays in the climate of reality TV such as naked survival, alone in the worst climates on earth and we are waiting for the how long can you stay in a viper pit without being bit, losers are buried. How far is television from the Roman Colosseum?

 

The next election in 2004 we saw George W. Bush running for reelection against John F. Kerry. The most interesting item in this election also kind of explains who won and why. John Kerry’s middle name does not really start with an F, or it starts with an F, ends with an F, and is one letter long which is an F. John Kerry was running for the Senate in Massachusetts and decided that having the initials JFK would really help him sound more like John Fitzgerald Kennedy and gain some of the shine and famous recognition using the same initials as the most popular figure in Massachusetts politics. So, in his normal fashion of faking it, he faked three serious injuries for which he required Band-Aids to get three Purple Hearts within four months which he wrote up the recommendations himself and that got him sent home early, so adding the F to the middle of his name was child’s play for this faker. So, this was an election between grass growing and a liar and a fake who nobody believed or really trusted so grass growing won again, only bigger. Again, this election was old school and boring and nothing to see there either.

 

On we go to the 2008 elections and finally the start with the new age of American politics. Here we have a contest between Barack Hussein Obama and John Sidney McCain. John McCain was extremely competent in carrying on the Republican Party technique of being grass growing, and he did it extremely well, much to his detriment. The Democrat candidate, Barack Obama, was fireworks and all about the politics of you. This is where you are defined by policies which excite the younger voters as if they are excited with your policy positions, they will volunteer and climb the Himalayas if that is required to win. And unlike former generations where the young were not interested in politics, the latest couple of generations are all about policy and politics. They are idea driven and can be caught up in a good campaign if it makes them believe. Barack Obama had the idea of the first Black President which got the left wing all a titter and ready to make history, and for the older voters, it was the making history and proving they were not racist. But the youth, though exited by the mantra of first Black President, required much more. The youth needed to know what it was that Barack Obama was going to stand for and what drove him and were to be his policies. This was where he hit it out of the park. For the most part candidate Obama was whatever you wanted to believe, that was his love too. President Obama was the master manipulator of the thoughts of others. His eloquent and smooth delivery and the wording left everyone painting their own picture onto a blank canvas. Barack Obama masterfully would talk both sides of every issue he talked about leaving the listener to decide what they believed and then it appeared that so did Barack Obama. He was noncommittal talking in double circular ovals and squiggly lines leaving everyone assured that yes was maybe while no was why not and all of it was but wisps of smoke which when one finally emerged dizzied and befuddled they would soon decide that what they heard had to be what they wanted to hear and thus Barack Obama was all things to all people. There were those who realized that he was not standing for anything and they tried to call attention to the con-game being played by Barack Obama and you will never guess what they were called by the mainstream media. You might think they were called, “Racist,” but that would be exactly correct. Any discontent or criticism of Barack Obama was labeled as racist and bigoted thus being able to simply deflect any criticism and parry truthful accusations not allowing anything negative to be applied thus we witnessed the initial settling of the whole of the media with the smallest of exceptions aligned as the supportive propaganda arm for the Democrat Party. So, in the end we had a contrast between watching grass grow against a three-ring circus advertised as the greatest show on Earth. Guess which won. Nope, no watching grass grow, this time that lost and lost big. But do not let that shake the Republican Party because in 2012, they gave us watching grass grow once again in the form of Mitt Romney and got a repeat performance of 2008, they lost. So we had Barack Obama two in a row using excitement and selling political positions or the appearance thereof.

 

So, here we come to 2016 and all kinds of insanity. The Republicans came out with seventeen candidates. One was Jeb Bush who had more campaign funds than all the rest of the candidates combined. He was such a great example of watching grass grow that he never got past the first couple of primaries. The remaining candidates were various types of grass growing, some latex paint drying along with enamel paint and some good old oil paint drying, one serious former CEO, one world famous neurosurgeon and a circus barker. The nice thing was all of these candidates talked their best on policies and were pretty much all the same; well, except the circus barker who had policies mixed with ridiculous statements and tone of controversies. Guess who won? You got it, the circus barker won.

 

Meanwhile, over at the Democrat Party there were only two candidates, one was a traditional candidate and the other a wild eyed, far left, older politician who often screamed out policy positions and really wound up the young supporters and he was excited right along with his youthful supporters. This was an interesting primary where the wild, screaming policy-wonk started off really slow but caught fire about one-third the way into the primaries and with plenty of time to close. The standard and favored candidate started fine but bogged down in malaise and lack of feelings and absolutely little to no policy positions. Actually, this candidate spent much of the time fighting accusations of mishandling e-mails or misconduct of different varieties which questioned their character and trustworthiness. The wild leftist was closing and the supporters were getting wildly excited thinking they just might have a chance to win it all when the word came down, there were even more super delegates which consists of Senators and Representatives from Congress, members of the Democratic National Committee and notable Democrats, including such as former presidents and vice presidents and Democrats of note. This came to contain sufficient, apparently, numbers to assure that the conventional candidate wins because the Democrats already had their rallying cry, elect the first woman President.

 

The Democrats had zeroed in on one of the things which had won for President Obama, the theme of being the first Black President, thus Hillary would win as the first Woman President. They ignored the excitement the youth had for what they believed was a candidate who understood their concerns and knew the policies they desired. The Republican candidate who was cast as a clown and a carnival barker by the media, virtually all media uniformly could but laugh at candidate Donald Trump. So the scene is set, the stage lights on and the show begins. The campaign was one which was more incongruous, bizarre and incoherent as any we have ever witnessed, including the one in which we were participants as third party candidate for the District Eight in Maryland’s Seat in the United States Congress.

 

In this one, we had Hillary doing her best possible job of character assassination against Trump while he left the candidate assassination to the media and the realities of her history. Trump also relied on the media to carry his talking points as he mixed them with outrageous statements. The barker did do one thing different, and that was he talked purely message and positions on the economy, immigrations, terrorism and rebuilding the country to lead the free world again and he stuck with that message at every campaign rally which he did almost constantly. The other spent their time accusing the other of being unserious as a candidate who did not deserve to be President while she was due the office as the first Woman President plus she had done all the right things to be owed the Presidency. There was one report which nailed the reality and why Donald Trump won and this theory was, those who supported him ignored his Tweets and listened to his positions while the media ignored his positions and believed his Tweets.

 

Conclusion time for what does it take to be successful as a Presidential candidate in the Twenty First Century. The simple way to put it, you need to concentrate on message, message, message. The youth vote is the secret as they are also the volunteers which can carry a campaign. The youth in this generation realize that leadership of the nations, and possibly the world, is important and that it is your beliefs and positions on critical themes such as the economy, foreign policies and interactions which includes immigration, foreign interventions and the wisdom and what reasons it would take to cause the United States to send troops, what one would do in any situation which required an American response such as if a foreign nations crossed a “red line” or threatened an ally. These are questions they want to hear about but they also have some dangerous ideas themselves. Many youth still are in the grips of the socialist, anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, rejectionist theories they were pumped with by their professors in university.

 

Many have not experienced sufficient situations in life to understand the long-term effects of some of their favorite pet policies. The most dangerous of these is fighting income inequity which they were told is a great evil. There is an easy way to point out the destructive effect of this idea, and that is to compare a ditch digger (which will soon be a robotic position along with almost all minimum wage positions) with a surgeon, we like to use brain surgeon. These positions would never be considered to be worthy of receiving equal pay thus are two positions which contain a huge income inequality. Much of income inequality is driven by knowledge, experience and responsibilities. These students have been told of CEO’s who make millions of dollars a year for making obvious decisions, or at least that is the way it is presented and their professors love to point out how the students themselves could make these same decisions given the opportunity. That is a lie as these professors have little if any idea what decisions managers make and there is a simple and necessary policy about managers. Managers need to earn close to or preferably more than those they manage and a CEO manages people who make six and seven figure incomes, make decisions which concern billions of dollars, make decisions which effect thousands of employees and with one swipe of the pen can cause ten thousand people to be fired or two thousand to be hired, all this also decides the health of their company. Often you will hear of a CEO who comes to a company, fires one third of the employees, closes three of the seven manufacturing plants, ends all but four of the company’s products and loses one-billion dollars the first year and only makes three-hundred million the next year and was lauded as a genius. This CEO was brought back to his company and where we may have a few points slightly wrong, the losses and gains in profits are accurate and the man saved the company, his name was Steve Jobs and the company was Apple.

 

What sounds like a failure may be an intelligent realignment as the slimming of a company to make it more competitive. Another person may have added employees and appeared to grow a company by making twice as many numbers of the same products but as sales collapsed that year he was a disaster. Another myth is that companies are in business to employ people. Wrong, the company is in business to make profits for their stockholders and that might require automation and reduction in workforce as McDonalds is in the process of trying to do. This idea of a $15.00/hr. minimum wage sounds wonderful unless you are seeking a starting position job because compared to current jobs, almost half of minimum wage jobs might disappear should the minimum wage be jumped by so much. Raising the minimum wage simply prices any number of jobs right out of the job market. How does that happen, don’t the companies have to keep somebody doing that job. Well, yes, and let me give you a great example. We will assume we own a shoe store which has a decent business and we have four full time sales people and five part time sales people and a stock person who also sweeps the stock room, vacuums after the store closes and keeps the stock room straight. Now some goody-goody decides to up the minimum wage by fifty percent. Well, now one of the full time sales people, the one closing the store which will often be the owner who will run the vacuum and clean the bathroom and runs the stock and there is no longer a stock person. We would also let at least one part time sales person go, the one with the lowest sales average and possibly one full time sales person and the owner would work opening to closing and might have their wife or one of their children work some hours when business peaked around Christmas. Now how did the raising of the minimum wage help the stock person? Are they making more money or are they making less.

 

What will almost doubling minimum wage do? Things have consequences and many of these consequences are not taught in university, they are learned in life and life is a very demanding instructor. Those of us who are fortunate never have life teaching them many lessons; those are truly blessed people who need to be thankful for their life. Automation and robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are going to alter the job market drastically and the higher the minimum wage is placed the faster many jobs will disappear. For a good example one need look no further than auto manufacturing. There used to be near to if not over one hundred people on an assembly line which made maybe twenty cars a day way back when. Now there are less than twenty people on an entire assembly line including sub-assemblies which we did not count in the above description and these lines can put out twenty cars an hour and within the next twenty years the number will drop to under ten and even five while even more cars will be produced. This is reality and as we know the ATM machines led to less tellers at the bank and the ones there are usually bored stiff and many banks have management level people who are also assigned to do teller position work when volume required such. Also, ditch diggers have been replaced by a backhoe, twenty diggers, gone. This will become true for every job even to lawyers and auditors as AI takes ever-greater powers.

 

ATM vs. Bank Teller

 

Some jobs have been altered drastically by modern technology. Auto mechanics now must be trained on diagnostic equipment and specialized tools and how to handle electronic ignitions and make adjustments through programming the modules in the engine and elsewhere. Wrenches, well they are still required as are screw drivers but hammers are a thing of the past, well, not completely, just do not get caught adjusting anything with a hammer if you like your job. Trains no longer need anyone to drive them as they are becoming automated, even the subways as they modernize. There will soon be automated trucks driving the roads and there will be automated cab drivers and in our lifetimes, we should live the necessary twenty to thirty years, all cars will be automated and selecting human driver will have your car emit a signal and do not be surprised if you get additional scrutiny by police just waiting for you to make a human mistake. Eventually driving a car will be illegal which will make life interesting. Your windows will be computer screens which can show you anything except where your car is going, as they do not wish to scare you to death. Fully automated roads will have no traffic signals and the cars will speak to one another and miss each other by millimeters and it will presumably be safer than it is now. Things are going to start becoming unrecognizable and for many our age it already has. When the AI gets to the point that it can design the next generation AI and can design the manufacture of the next generation AI we had best practice our best puppy dog begging eyes and being really cute as our place will be as the robot’s pet. Hopefully somewhere they will place in the robotic basic program along with the twenty (the original were three) Isaac Asimov Laws (but I-robot showed the problem with his laws so we are guessing it will take a few more) includes one which requires every robot to have at least one human pet it cares for and that the number of human pets is a status symbol. The changes are coming and humans are soon to be as obsolete as dogs presumably are to the running of any city, we may require a few but those will be replaced with robot dogs real soon.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel Iron Dome Can be Their Asian Diplomat

 

China is spreading their wings blanketing much of Asia in the shadow staring up the claws and talons of the Chinese dragons armed with missiles covering every corner of her neighbors. South Korea, Japan and the Philippines face the combined threat of an expansive reach, possibly overreach from China and the growing ballistic and nuclear potential from North Korea and all from shorter ranged ballistic missiles, just the ones the Iron Dome is so proficient at intercepting. Israel has good relations with much of the Asian nations such as India and also China and could always use a few more friends. The recent test by North Korea of a nuclear device which had the highest yield of any device thus far tested by the secluded and often surly in their relations with the neighboring nations, especially South Korea and Japan , has led to a troubled area with furrowed brows. Israel has the perfect solution for addressing potential threats from North Korea and their rockets, missiles, mortars and even artillery rounds with a highly successful interception rate in the neighborhood of ninety percent. The Iron Dome systems have proven their effectiveness against actual war time footing in the last Gaza conflict. Israel could offer the Iron Dome to these nations in a very affordable and mutually beneficial exchange where for every so many units purchased the nations also finance the production of an additional Iron Dome system for Israeli use. Such an arrangement would be of obvious benefit to all the nations involved in such an arrangement. The United States who had been assisting with the production of the Iron Dome in exchange for access to some of the research and operational data of the system and the production of some of the system’s units by the American company Raytheon has already taken their pound of flesh. Such an arrangement would benefit all involved and would provide Raytheon business in the production of their section of the systems thus also benefitting the United States.

 

Why would Israel seek to offer their most proficient indirect weapons fire interception system to foreign Asian nations when there are presumably agreements with the United States for further production of additional units? The recently signed defense agreement signed between Israel and the United States set into motion a steady reduction in monies reserved for Israeli defense industries. This may reflect on further financing the Iron Dome systems in Israel independent of influences in Washington D.C. Whether Israel will continue to have a friend in Washington D.C. will be heavily dependent upon the results of the coming elections for President as well as for Congress. Israel needs to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. These last eight years have placed relation between the White House and Jerusalem in the most parched regions of the driest and hottest desert known to man and depending on the election the next four years could just as easily be more of the same. Neither candidate for the Presidency has made foreign policy the main theme of their campaigns which is understandable with the American public more focused on the economy and jobs caring little about the rest of the world beyond reducing legal and ending illegal immigration until the economy warrants the need for foreign workers. Both candidates will necessarily concentrate on the economy first and foremost and foreign relations will be a back burner issue unless events cause the American public to sit up and take notice and keep their attentions. The American public has a remarkable ability to look up and see beyond their borders only if the noise is loud enough but even when they do look up, they return to their daily concerns with unfathomable speed continuing as if their attention had never been diverted. The resilience of their ability to focus on everyday life and only passing attention beyond their drive to and from work, their job or finding one, and their family, disregarding the remainder of the world as if it was a bothersome mosquito whose droning wings are but an aggravation is their best coping method and the world’s bane.

 

 

This may be to the detriment of Israel as well as other nations who may depend on the United States government and particularly the White House actually looking beyond their borders when the most pressing problems echoed by the media is jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy and in an extreme situation, immigration. Terrorism, well, only if there are a series of devastating attacks within the United States itself with potential for momentary interruption if there is striking news from abroad, but such news passes from the news and the attention span of the busy Americans is brief for anything not immediately on their view screens. The news networks in the United States spend more time on the weather and even more on sports with little room for international news which they run through as quickly as possible avoiding it altogether when possible as their advertisers know the public and the public cares more about the cat rescued for the little girl from a tree or some viral video than they want hard news. It is no wonder why the United States Congress and the White House are hard pressed to tune into the international front when they are rewarded almost uniquely for taking care of the home front leaving the world to do as it will. The American citizens believe that the two great oceans protect the United States just as much if not more effectively than the military. One would think that the terrorist strikes they have suffered would have disabused them of this notion, but like any normal person, the average American prefers to believe that they are safe and comfortable within their little cocoons with the remainder of the world locked out. Granted the United States is the size of a continent and reach from ocean to ocean and are bordered largely by Canada and by Mexico for a far shorter southern border which most Americans simply would love to see it closed but unless pressed mostly do not place that concern at the top of their to worry list.

 

What does this have to do with Israel? Well, their future has been tied to the United States in the defense area since they terminated the Lavi fighter project and went with American aircraft and have remained dependent on the United States for their aircraft ever since. The future of this relationship has been harshly affected for the worse under President Obama and the fear is should Hillary Clinton be elected in November that relations will not improve under her leadership. As far as Donald Trump is concerned, many claim relations would be improved under a Trump Presidency but still there are many unanswered question as Donald Trump is still largely an unknown. The current aircraft Israel is expected to receive from the United States is the F-35 JSF which has been experiencing serious delays and problems. There has been serious concern that the F-35 JSF will not be truly combat ready until sometime in the early to mid-2020’s with 2025 not an unreliable prediction. Israel’s main enemies are able to purchase superior Russian aircraft which are combat ready today such as the SU-35 or any of the newest Chinese aircraft which are also combat ready. This could be a detrimental situation which Israel can ill afford as she is extremely dependent on air superiority. Iran is currently sitting with the ability to purchase entire fleets of these aircraft with the monies they received from the United States from the Iran Deal and the loosening of sanctions, the payments for the release of hostages or repayment for nondelivered arms after the Shah was overthrown in 1979. There have been rumored further cash payments to Iran for undetermined reasons by the Obama administration. How much additional payment Iran has or may receive is unknown and probably the full amounts granted to Iran may never be fully understood. This has created further concerns for Israel as has the recent delivery by Russia of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile and tracking systems to Iran which have seriously upgraded the Iranian air defenses around their nuclear sites.

 

Sukhoi Su-35

 

Israel could seriously upgrade their defenses against rockets fired from their neighboring threats such as Gaza and Hamas and Lebanon and Hezballah who between them have easily over one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles. Such numbers are the very serious reason why Israel would be very pressed to increase the numbers of Iron Dome systems and further develop their other systems and deploy them in order to be capable of defending against any missiles fired from Iran or potentially other enemies. This means the manufacture of David’s Sling and the Arrow II systems and further developing of these systems to improve them seeking the impossible, perfection of interception of all range of missiles and other armaments fired at her people, that is what Israel could gain from such deals. Further, Israel could strengthen her relations and perhaps develop closer relations with new nations. Israel recently made inroads sharing a visit with Japan and has good relations with the Philippines after assisting them with their recovery after the horrific typhoon which struck that nation. Israel could also seek to have improved relations with South Korea and with the troubling developments and concerns over North Korean sabre rattling and their close relations with Iran with the two nations sharing scientific and military research developments Israel has more in common with these nations than many might see at first glance. Israel could develop these relations using military trade as an inroad and develop further trade relations as time and relations develop. One can never have too many or too varied friends and with systems such as the Iron Dome Israel has a very enticing calling card.

 

Beyond the Cusp