Recognizing the End of America

 

The First question we need answer is can, and if so how, the United States return to being the moral leader of the free world. Unfortunately it will not be so easy as to return to acting as a leader or changing its retreat from the forefront and taking up the banner dropped January 20, 2009 when President Obama was sworn into office and made his very first phone call from the Oval Office. One can learn a lot about the direction the Presidency will take going forward by paying attention to the smallest of things, an off the cuff comment, the wistful glances at the least opportune times, immediate reactions when one is caught off their guard and acts from deep within; but none are more telling than finding out what one places their most important relations which can be ascertained by often the simplest of actions. The telling act by any President is the order in which they place their first phone call from the Oval Office on Inauguration Day. Newly elected and just having taken the oath of office, twice we find out though stories on why and what was different the second time vary, President Obama did what likely every President has as soon as they get a chance, they go into the Oval Office and sit behind the resolute desk and take in the view of the most important office in the world and then it hits them, they are the most important person in the world right then and there before doing anything to prove themselves. Then they take the phone and make that all important first phone call from the seat of power. Who they call and in what order is an important stage for realizing what direction and the importance of issues and relations are all revealed over that first week and the phone calls they make, the people they arrange to meet, and the people they have closest to them assisting their sorting out who is responsible for what, the attention paid to those first briefings and their first time for each function. More often than not it takes six months to figure out which direction a Presidency has set for itself. Not so much with President Obama.

 

 

Abbas and Obama Handshake with Netanyahu Watching at Opening of Peace Talks where the three met for a photo-op announcing the start of peace talks brought on with ten month building freeze as enticement, but Abbas never negotiated except to demand officially announced permanent building freeze which Netanyahu agreed to permanent stealth freeze but not announced. Abbas and Obama have pressed for announced freeze to ruin Bibi’s political future and bring down present government hoping Labor-Livni government will win next time.

 

What President Obama placed his highest emphasis on was apparent as soon as he finished pressing that last number for that all important first phone call; that was the first step in foreign policy agenda which has not strayed one iota from that initial act. So, who did President Obama call with that first phone call after walking into the Oval Office and seating himself down in the leather bound chair behind the massive resolute desk and reached for the receiver and punched in that first number making a call to a leader outside of the United States, what did it say about the forty-fourth President? Well, the fact he called somebody overseas, we know that he had at least one foreign agenda item at the top of his list of priorities. That the call was reportedly of a friendly and possibly defined as jovial told us he had called somebody he felt comfortable talking with and with whom he could be at ease and lastly, that the President called the person by their first name he was talking to what might be termed a friend who thusly indicated that if this said anything about President Obama and foreign policy it was that this was very likely an area the President placed great importance and emphasis for the President’s agenda. So, who received this all important phone call which was so potentially revealing about the Presidency that unfolded over those first hours on that all important day of firsts? That was the most shocking and gave many a jolt and served as a clarion wake-up bell as it placed a shroud of doubts which actions over the next few months and beyond reverberated the importance the President himself placed on his relations with the recipient of that first phone call, Mahmoud Abbas.

 

We were never made aware of how long it was before President Obama placed his call to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu but we estimate it was not until much further into his Presidency and we suspect that first call was likely made out of necessity rather than cordial relations. We were told that Prime Minister Netanyahu did call to extend warm greetings and wished the President well but we were never informed by either party whether the two actually spoke or if the phone call was simply registered along with the myriad of other similar phone calls. Armed with the information available we have Mahmoud Abbas as the very first person President Obama called and that he placed this call from the Oval Office later in the afternoon when President Obama first visited his new office and that it was the only call made during that first visit though such is unconfirmed and will likely remain as such. One thing which has been validated by actions is that the first phone call was a good measure of the man who had just taken the oath of office and would preside over the most influential position and force on the world’s stage. It did not take much longer before the foreign policy agenda began to emerge from behind that shroud of uncertainty when the President gave his speech from Cairo. The affirmations that President Obama was going to be far more preoccupied with the Middle East and promoting an agenda deeply steeped as his preeminent “Hope and Change” agenda which would result in far more change and turmoil over the ensuing years.

 

The next shoe to fall came over the President’s presumed backing for forcing a peace between Israel and the Arabs and that President Obama was willing to place his office squarely behind Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Palestinian claims for statehood when the President came out pressing Israel to return to the negotiations table and to once again demanding Israel make concessions in order to gain the cooperation of Mahmoud Abbas because if he did not get some guarantees up front, what was the use of his even negotiating. There were no doubts that Israel would want to negotiated, Israel was always ready to negotiate. The offer was a fateful one as it had never been rescinded since that initial promise to a building freeze for ten months while the negotiations would presumably work through to an actual final agreement. Why would it not as here we had a United States President who was ready to assist the two sides in reaching an agreement, maybe too interested in reaching an agreement. Prime Minister Netanyahu took an unprecedented position and froze all building in Judea and Samaria which was announced and also in East Jerusalem though this was an under the table promise which for political reasons could not be made public. The first nine months passed and the sole meeting had been the customary photo-op and then Abbas refused to negotiate and instead spent that entire time demanding that the building freeze be made permanent and to continue in perpetuity until a final agreement could be reached. Suddenly Mahmoud Abbas after about three months of insisting on a permanent building freeze slightly altered his terms and now demanded such a freeze be not only the Israeli unofficial policy but that it be announced for all the world to witness this concession, unprecedented concession, had been forced by Mahmoud Abbas. It seemingly was all about Abbas parading around with streamers flowing off his cape announcing concessions he had forced and less about peace and actual negotiations. Over time it became apparent that Prime Minister Netanyahu had given his word to President Obama that there would be a building freeze in place on all of Judea, Samaria and even East Jerusalem though it would be a silent unannounced freeze and would often take form to appear as if building was imminent but that he, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, would continue to enforce a silent building freeze in order to get Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiations table. After nine of the ten months of announced building freeze had passed, Abbas continued to demand assurances and an announced permanent freeze knowing that the minute such an announcement was made that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political career was over. Netanyahu also knew this and so the unofficial and unannounced but still permanent building freeze has been in place ever since with no doubt President Obama at every junction reminding Prime Minister Netanyahu that the man in Washington demands he keep his promise despite not holding anybody else to their promises including Iran and their nuclear, for peaceful purposes only, weapons program.

 

So now we have Israel in their seventieth month of an unofficial, unannounced, complete building freeze on Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem where no buildings for Jews are to be constructed by where the Arab Palestinians are permitted to build without any of those pesky and irritating requirements such as licenses, inspections, or even ownership of the land on which they build even to include Area C which was under Oslo reserved for Jewish rule but promised to Israel, the Jew amongst the nations, and are not of any consequence. Only promises forced from the Jew Nation are enforceable but promises to them, you must be kidding, are worthless just as all promises made to Jews since history was first recorded. Anyway, what are they going to do, sue us? Where, in what court, who would even listen to them. Don’t they know that the courts are only there to enforce judgements against them and that even the United States has grown tired of their constant demands for the Palestinians to recognize them? Why does nobody in the world honestly recognize the Jewish right to self-determination, a country for the Jews? Next you will tell me it was a promise from Hashem and that permits the Jews the right to a country. As we all know, President Obama was converted into Christianity and taught about Christianity by Reverend Jeremiah Wright who practices a form of replacement theology which does not recognize any Jewish claims to the Promised Land and rather believes them to have been cast off by G0d and left to do the devil’s work and are cursed by G0d to lives spent as cast out from His righteous protections, accursed forced to live lives of doubt scorned by all and forced to live being chased from one land after another never permitted to put down roots or ever to know peace or security. For twenty years and being converted by, married by, children baptized by this one preacher, Jeremiah Wright; yet, we are supposed to believe that President Obama never heard a single disparaging word, or at least seldom was heard a disparaging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.

 

The new presumably right leaning, nationalist, Zionist Israeli government has taken office with the guarantees that the gloves are finally coming off. Well, we’re waiting and thus far we have seen no changes which for the slightest make one believe that anything has changed. I know, Iran is far more important and then there is the Islamic State which promises to be on both borders, Gaza as well as Judea and Samaria and the government just is unable to address the building freeze and the truth is there will be plenty of room for building later after these crises are gone. Somehow that seems awful difficult to believe and it would be more readily believable that there is still that pesky building freeze in place and President Obama has you pegged as simply a pushover and the only person in the entire world he can bully and as long as he can he will continue to bully you to death and what does that say about you and the Israeli people. We should not be on bended knee before any others for Hashem is the L0rd our G0d and we have no others besides Him. We are not to bow down before Pharaoh nor before Nebakanezzer, nor Xerxes King of Persia, nor Caesar, nor any mortal man including Barack Hussein Obama II as you are My servants and shall serve only Hashem. You have the full support of the people though that will wane as your will appears to wane and weaken as your knees weaken and cease to have hope in their hearts if you do not give them hope in their lands. President Obama has mortally wounded the United States for centuries at the very least. Obama has proven beyond the remotest of doubts that the promises and word of an American President is only as good as his character and worth nothing after he leaves office. Laws do not matter, treaties do not matter, letters of promise do not matter, and with some Presidents even their own word and promises do not matter and this President has lied to you, spat in your face, demeaned you, disparaged you with other leaders (remember Obama and Sarkozy), enfeebled you before your enemies and sold Israel down the river with his arm Iran with nukes treaty. Wake up and smell the coffee and realize that that man in Washington holds nothing but animosity and hatreds for you, your nation, and the Jewish People. Obama does not even serve Hashem as he serves Allah, the god of Abraham, Ishmael and Muhammad, not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His conversion and any other vow he may have taken were all in the service of Allah as he was simply taking those steps as required to serve Allah more efficiently and was all taqiyya and thus meaningless. Judge the man by his actions as truly you will be judged and treat him with the same respect he has shown you and his word to you. If you are unable to serve the people of Israel because of a promise made to a lying hater of Israel and everything Jewish outside of campaign cash and lastly has placed Israel in an untenable position by adopting the most hardline of the Arab demands of the right of return to Israel of five-million plus Arab refugees which would bring about the end of Israel as the home of the Jews at their very first election and within weeks of that election almost, if not every, Jew will have departed Israel voluntarily or have left this mortal existence. If President Obama were to have his way, then Israel as the home of the Jewish People and as the dreams and aspirations of the Jewish People will have died a horrid death. He has forced Mahmoud Abbas to take an even more strident and extreme position by adopting every last one of the Arab demands thus making them the mainstream position and also radicalized the anti-Israel demonstrators and groups such that only the eradication of our state is acceptable now as many Jews in the United States and Europe have taken as their position feeling that as leftist Jews they must be more anti-Israel than anybody else, and these are the people who will be used and discarded in order to destroy Israel. The only way to prevent their strident leftist indoctrinations from destroying Israel is for every Zionist and nationalist Israeli Jew to stand and make a difference, but how can we do such when as soon as we do we are reminded that even Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu, the most Zionist of them all, recognized the illegitimacy of Israel and its Jewish oppression of the Arab Palestinians and that is why he has not permitted building in Judea and Samaria and has ignored the calls for Jews to be permitted prayer on the Temple Mount. We are pleading with you Prime Minister, get out in front and lead as we are already there following and only need you at the fore where as our Prime Minister you belong. Do you think for a minute that Tzipi Livni would have wasted ten seconds before leading marches against the Jews residing legally in Judea and Samaria or anywhere else the leftist desire to thrown the Jews out of. Have we not had enough of being our own worst enemies? Lead us and lead us NOW! If you cannot as you gave your word, then allow another to do so and confess that you are bound by word and duty and for that betrayal you step aside and please make the next Prime Minister a true Zionist in the mold of Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

All’s Fair in Love, War, and Politics

 

The actual sayings from which the title becomes a truism is a combination of “All’s fair in love and war” with the saying “Politics is war by another means.” String the two together and one gets “All’s Fair in Love, War, and Politics.” Nothing has made this more evident than the infighting, battling semantics, war of personal destruction, and meddling by outlying interests attempting to destroy the nation, Israel, using her weakest point, democratic elections. The current campaign before the Israeli public presents a choice between two old and tested rival parties, one from the leftist edges and the other from the nationalist center. The socialist left which used the crime of inequality of money between the wealthy and the jealous crowd who desire that government reallocate earnings in what they are convinced through repeated promise by political charlatans is their rightful desserts. The other side speaks of great threats abounding around every corner from which the world is not willing to assist and may even be willing to sacrifice Israel on the altars of expedience rather than fight the battles of conscience and hold the gates keeping out those barbarians pounding from without. The debate might be a fair political battle if elections were still held between the parties, candidates and the people of the nation. That is how it functions in most nations but there are those few nations within which nothing can be done normally and everything plays out on the stage of the world susceptible to the whims, influences and interferences of those from around the world whose interests are not as much for the health and safety of Israel but more to protect their images and promote their own positions even if it must be at the cost of Israeli politicians or potentially the actual lives of millions of Israelis. We will likely be able to witness such interferences and even the dishonest attempts by outside interests working with the selfish efforts of politicians within Israel who desire either personal aggrandizement or some who believe there are fated and destined to lead Israel into the future and that being so fated they are the only one capable of leading with true sight and divine brilliance thus willing to do virtually anything in order to reach their fated position as Prime Minister. The mixture in this election has a cast which might be able to fill every type and situation one might imagine which is what makes such so interesting to study and watch everything play out.

 

Where the differing positions and offers are almost always similar in Israeli politics such that it makes it fairly easy to describe the differing political positions and people familiar with Israeli politics do not even require the names or parties to identify where and from whom the positions originate, so I guess we could speak of theoreticals and leave the names for each to discern on their own, but eventually names simply become more convenient and necessary and anyways, why play it safe all of a sudden. As has already been made obvious, the two viable parties vying for the privilege to form the next coalition government are about as opposite as two parties can get. One side claims that Israel needs to get along to go along and that good relations with Europe and the United States to the point that in many items Israel would be better served by joining with the efforts in every situation and that rocking the boat and making claims that Israeli interests must supercede those of other traditional allies is counterproductive and likely to cause Israel great harm. The opposing party and their candidate’s position is that there are threats to Israel which must be addressed even if doing so places Israeli leaders in opposition to what they identify as allied leaders who are willing to compromise so completely in order to establish what they view as their potential for a great and exemplary legacy. The split between the two main parties divides between guns and butter. The proponents of the guns legacy emphasize the need for Israel to remain strong and able to stand against any and all threats even if such preparations come at the expense of addressing the disparity between the wealthy and the middle class. The proponents of the butter legacy call for redistribution through having the wealthy pay their fair share and call for more government programs and giveaways where the government subsidizes more and more items such as rents and food subsidies despite this requiring higher taxes and a smaller military and defense budget to pay for their social projects. But this election cycle has two distinct realms, the Israeli and the international realms. The Israeli side of this coming election appears to be mostly relegated to the second tier parties which are not expected to be vying for the Prime Ministership and being tasked with forming the coalition but rather gaining as many Ministers so as to provide them with the most favorable influence and assigned positions over the most desirable Ministerships in the next government. Of course these parties also will be asked to provide suggestions as to whom they prefer from the two leading parties, or possibly three in some unforeseen scenario, to become Prime Minister and organize a coalition. The predicted choice is no secret as the two entities vying for the top spot are Likud and the hybrid of Labor and Hatnua Parties running, for now, as the Zionist Party with Benyamin Netanyahu the leader of Likud and the shared position of Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni being the alternate choice. No matter which party, Likud or Labor/Hatnua Zionist Camp, win the most mandates, it still will rely on which leader is recommended by the parties combining to give one side the best ability of patching together a coalition which has sixty-one Ministers or greater as such is required to have even the most shallow coalition majority of the one-hundred-twenty seat Knesset. Fortunately, almost without interference, at least up to this point, the secondary parties have not suffered the interferences from outside of Israel beyond the occasional editorial or commentary in foreign newscasts or newspapers. The interesting interactions has been the international jousting which promises to only accelerate and become even more amplified in the remaining weeks and then days leading up to the March 17th election day.

 

Where the Israeli elections have hit a fulcrum on which the election’s fate will pivot has its origins in the heart of Washington D.C. and will be operated out of New York City and Tel Aviv with generous American funding, State Department support and heaven knows what else. V15, V2015 and One Voice are the three names that the media will avoid relating tales of mystery and shady deals. Instead we will hear stories about bottlegate; Naftaligate, any forms of misrepresentation or misinterpretation of words either spoken or misheard coming from Naftali Bennett who heads the Jewish Home and is a strong and unrepentant Zionist which the press finds as something depicting suspected personality defects; more stories of crimes concerning members of Yisrael Beytenu; stories of Sara Netanyahu being really mean to the hired helpers around the house; and scandals speaking of unspeakable offenses by Prime Minister Netanyahu against members of United States President Obama’s administration. The media coverage of these items will become ever more harsh, louder, more shrill and ever more edgy as the March 17th deadline for elections rapidly approaches. There will be the regaling stories about the universality of rapprochement and acceptability which the team of Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog bring to an Israeli government if only the political luddites can be enlightened to look beyond the primitive sloganeering of the false self-proclaimed Zionists as is not the merger of Herzog’s and Livni’s Labor/Hatnua Party’s election title “The Zionist Camp” making them actual and real true Zionists? What will be interesting for those afflicted with reading both Israeli and American liberal media, but I repeat myself, there will be similar stories covering the actual speech, the invitation, the broken protocols and the offenses committed against President Obama by the plotting and dastardly deeds committed by Speaker of the House John Boehner through inviting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress behind the back of the President and to espouse theories and accusations of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran being overly desperate such that they are willing to accept any deal the Iranians demand just so they will have something to show for their efforts. Their impatience will be shown to be only outdone by their desire to make a deal that permits President Obama to also reestablish United States formal relations with Iran just as he recently has with Cuba. Perhaps President Obama will force an agreement which will allow for the signing to be held in Tehran and coincide with his announcing the reopening of the American Embassy and the new Ambassador, John Kerry, establishing his legacy as the President who reopened doors long ago locked and ignored in order to not admit the broken off of relations had become failed policy.

 

There is one claim which has been made recently which strikes me as being well beyond the cusp. That claim is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, by his recent actions and especially for not backing out of his acceptance of the invitation to address a joint session of Congress while in the United States for the AIPAC Conference, has destroyed the trust and good will that had been built under the careful, generous and skillful steps taken by President Obama which have proven his support and devotion to Israel and her security both now and into the future which has been exemplified by the tireless and relentless pursuit of the best possible agreement which will limit and deny Iran the ability to ever develop nuclear weapons. Such a story line would be far more believable if history had not shown the animosity and disrespect shown Prime Minister Netanyahu by President Obama from the very outset of their relations. What is odd is that the reason for the bad blood between the two leaders stems from President Obama’s animus shown towards Israel and the possibly intentional missteps taken by the President over the years. One might have taken one of the very first steps by President Obama as soon as he came into the Oval Office after being sworn in during the inauguration and then re-sworn in as something made the President feel he needed to recommit. With all that behind him, President Obama nestled into the large, comfortable chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office where he made his very first official phone call of his administration. As difficult as it may be to accept, President Obama did not call Prime Minister Netanyahu with that first defining phone call. Neither did he call the Prime Minister of Britain, the President of France, the Prime Minister of Turkey, the King of Saudi Arabia, the President of Russia, the Leader of China, he phoned a man who was not even a head of state, he phoned Mahmoud Abbas who is the chairman of the Fatah Party, head of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority. Yes, President Obama’s first official phone call from the Oval Office went to Mahmoud Abbas, a leader of a terrorist organization, the PLO, and a man sworn to destroy Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. One of the first moves towards attempting to push for a peace agreement establishing borders establishing peace and security between Israel and the Arabs was a demand that Israel freeze all building until the negotiations were finalized as a measure to show Israeli willingness to make peace. This resulted ultimately in Prime Minister Netanyahu promising and observing a ten month building freeze in all the disputed areas and instead of using this time of goodwill to negotiate an agreement, Mahmoud Abbas, the good friend of President Obama, refused to meet with the Israelis for the first nine and a half months. When he finally met with Prime Minister Netanyahu he simply demanded that the building freeze be extended for another ten months. When the building freeze officially ended and realizing that calling for another ten month freeze might have been an error, Abbas altered his demand and called for a permanent building freeze until a final agreement was reached. During the ten months of the Israeli enforced goodwill gesture of a building freeze President Obama did not once demand that Abbas actually negotiate. On Prime Minister Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington D.C. to meet with President Obama, the President set some unusual rules for the Israeli leader. The two men would not have any meeting before the media, there would be no official meal shared and Prime Minister Netanyahu was required to enter and depart the White House from a side delivery entrance and not be seen using the main entrance to the White House. So much for first impressions making an optimistic start.

 

Moving along we find that President Obama made another demand while still in his first two years as President when he stated that he fully expected for the border between any Arab state being forged to exist side by side with Israel presumably in peace and security would necessarily have the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Line, the pre Six Day War boundary lines which Abba Eban, the Israeli statesman and former Ambassador to the United Nations described as the Auschwitz Borders, as their border. Eventually the idea of mutually agreed upon small land swaps was added and that was to make everything just wonderful. President Obama had a habit of intentionally making such demand of Israel either just before the Israeli leader boarded the plane to visit Washington D.C. or while he was actually in the air in flight to the United States. President Obama refused to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu when both were in New York for the opening ceremonies for the United Nations General Assembly but instead found time to appear on the television show “The View” and make small talk and good humor during their broadcast. There have been numerous leaks from the White House which spoiled a number of Israeli plans which were being arranged with the target being the Iranian nuclear sites in order to end the Iranian nuclear weapons production before they became too well fortified for air attacks to be successful. These leaks attained their intended goal of protecting Iran from any Israeli intervention. President Obama has stated numerous times that he honestly believes that Iran can be deterred even should they attain nuclear weapons status through the same Mutually Assured Destruction which prevented a nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States. Such reasoning refuses to accept the Iranian policy which has been stated in speech after speech that Israel could be destroyed by at most two nuclear weapons while all the nuclear weapons possessed by Israel would only wound the Islamic world which would survive while Israel would not survive. Such reasoning is not the product of any sane and rational mind which could be dissuaded by their own destruction from attacking Israel with as many nuclear weapons as was necessary. There are numerous other points which could be presented to paint the picture of the contempt and disdain that President Obama has for Israel and her existence. President Obama only desires one thing from Israel and that is for Israel to do whatever is required to reach a peace with Mahmoud Abbas so that President Obama will enhance his legacy with the making of peace in the Middle East even if said peace is written across the corps of Israel. All of this paints a picture far different than what is being sold in both the United States and Israel. Netanyahu has not lost the friendship of President Obama as one cannot lose that which never existed. As all President Obama wants from any Israeli Prime Minister is for them to promise him the same thing the Israelites promised when receiving the Law from G0d in the wilderness when they are recorded as having said, “We obey and we hear.” After experiencing the Ten Plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna they ate in the wilderness and numerous other miracles of the L0rd the Israelites were absolutely ready to accept and honor anything G0d may have demanded of them. Thus the agreement of was spoken by the Israelites in every corner of their camp into the heart where the Tabernacle stood erected, “We obey and we hear.” They were ready but the Israelites of today, well, most of the Israelites of today are not about to grant such faith in President Obama as he has not come anywhere near deserving of the respect, awe, fear, love and faith that the Israelites had back there in the wilderness before the actual presence of G0d Almighty.

 

Beyond the Cusp