White House Correction Tells the Tale

 

President Obama spoke in glowing tribute for Simone Peres and his efforts for peace and how his message resonates in the world and lamented its failure in the Middle East. The White House released a transcript of the President’s wonderful tribute except they apparently made one single and glaring error, they corrected the media release thus revealing the ugly truth of the aftereffects of the Oslo Accords and how the world has taken one man’s glorious dream and bludgeoned the nations that Simon Peres loved as much as life itself, a fact which must never be forgotten. The White House official media release told the truth initially that President Obama had delivered this address in Jerusalem, Israel. By anybody’s map this is true as the cemetery is located in West Jerusalem in an area within the 1949 Armistice Lines, the Green Line, the 1967 Lines (border) or whatever terminology one desires to use except if one believes that Jerusalem should be as initially denoted in General Assembly Resolution 181 which was rejected by the Arab League and thus made void, so void as if it had never been imagined and pronounced stillborn never to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of that burning hot rejection which was punctuated when the half dozen plus Arab armies launched their genocidal intended war on the nation of Israel within hours of her birth.

 

Two Capital Cities Washington and Jerusalem

 

Even Simon Peres would never, even in his most delirious moments, have ever stood for the surrender of West Jerusalem even if he favored sharing, sharing being the pivotal word, Jerusalem as the Capital City of Israel and any Arab Palestinian entity. Only in that defamatory document was Jerusalem anything other than the Capital of Israel in some form or another. The United Nations was the originator of the concept of a Jerusalem as an international city not belonging to any nation but to all people of the Earth and protected by the mere declaration and words of the United Nations General Assembly. Would anybody believe that the Arab League or the Palestinian terror entities would leave well enough alone and agree to share the holiest of cities in all Jewish history, the center of Christianity and a once conquered and ignored as a backwater wasted land with horrific weather left meaningless until it regained the hope of returning as the Capital City of the Jewish State, Israel, and of the Jewish faith foremost in the hearts of all Jews as retold for near endless generations in songs and prayers? Just as Constantinople had to be felled and brought into Islam ending the Byzantine or Holy Roman Empire; or how they call for the conquest of Rome and the return of Islamic domination over Vatican City (many in Islam believe the world was created for them by Allah and no others have rights to any of the world and those parts not a part of Islam must be conquered and “returned” to Islam) and Paris and London and New York, and San Francisco and Washington D.C. and anywhere else one cares to name.

 

But the reality one will be told of Simon Peres and his quest, noble as it was in the eyes of the Western World leftists, to find the means and path to peace between the Arab world and Israel will be the fancy making of good fiction. Simon Peres was the last of the so-called founding fathers of Israel and assisted in the building of the modern IDF and modern IAF building it from French Mirage jets. He was one of the principles who pushed for the Dimona reactor and all that implies and produced (not an admission of anything beyond nuclear physics research). Truth be told, Simon Peres lived two very different lives tied together by his love of Israel and her holy city and Capital, Jerusalem. He saw and made real the necessary military strength and power of Israel and also knew that Israel also required peace as the standing ready for war as the neighboring belligerents being sworn and dedicated to the destruction of Israel left her no other choice. Simon Peres saw the truth and dreamed of peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors and that dream carried his soul on the second path of his life and in that dream he did not fail but the world failed him as they backed those who would make a mockery of his dream and thus of Simon Peres as well. The murder and twisting of Simon Peres and the peace he was brave and bold enough to dream and the backing of a world ready to destroy Simon Peres’s first and foremost dream, one of Israel living in peace and being a Light Unto the Nations making discoveries and designing methods of agriculture and medicine, in physics, chemistry, mathematics and the other sciences all given to the world freely for the betterment of all mankind in the name of Hashem.

 

That peace was not made reflected no shame or disgrace upon Simon Peres but the abuse of his words, dreams and efforts to drag down Israel and bludgeon the Jewish homeland brings shame on those who performed such atrocities. Simon Peres was a noble man with a dream equal of all the praises spoken by the numerous world leaders just this past week are more than mere words; they are a tribute to his dream and cast shame on those who misused his driving passion as their bludgeon in an attempt for the Europeans to correct what they believe was their error in allowing the Jews to be as other people with their own nation. This destructive use of Simon Peres and his dreams for peace had given the exact result one might expect when one arms and backs one side while demanding the other give concessions after concession while expecting nothing and ignoring every transgression of the other side, the complete wrath of failure, death and destruction which we see sweeping the Middle East. The only thing keeping Israel from becoming the next Syria is the simple resolution of the Israelis to enforce order and restore their homeland in the lands promised by International Law as described in the San Remo Conference and the Treaty of Sèvres all formalized by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

 

But if there is one thing Jews have learned in our long history, things change and when they do, we usually have to rely on our only true weapon, Hashem and the Love given to all Humankind in measure with how they treat the Jews. There are rumors as reported in the below video and this article that President Obama is believing he will be able to pacify the Nobel Committee by forcing a settlement through the United Nations Security Council upon Israel gifting all lands which were occupied by Jordan to the Arab Palestinian Authority which was formed out of the remnants of the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a group formed in 1964 to liberate the lands of Israel well before the Six Day War of June 1967 while Jordan still occupied what they called the West Bank. The PLO had no qualms over the Jordanian occupation of the lands which became the lands beyond the 1967 lands which were drawn in 1949 as the Armistice between Israel and the Arab League and all its nations and represented the front lines of the war started by the Arab world against Israel the first day of her existence on May 15, 1948 as they intended to commit another genocide on the Jews. The PLO was also dedicated to the extermination of the Jews of Israel while the Hamas terror group has grander designs, they also want to murder every Jew in Israel and then the rest of the world while they conquer the world for Allah as the Quran has promised. President Obama likely is capable of pressing the United Nations Security Council making it illegal for a Jew to live beyond the 1967 Lines, the 1949 Armistice Lines and even possibly getting it as a Chapter VII enforceable by military action rather than a mere Chapter VI enforceable by hard pressed words and long speeches. Such an item would not be legally binding on the United States without ratification by both houses of Congress. Yes, the United Nations would vote in the Security Council but it would never make ratification through Congress which would nullify any United States participation in its enforcement and, were it against any nation other than Israel, would nullify the entire motion as it would not have been legally presented. We will see and even the will of the American people would likely not prevent President Obama seeking his legacy in such a deceitful manner, but why should this be different. He passed the Iran deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA) as necessitating an override of a veto as he claimed it was simply a Presidential agreement and not a treaty and when Congress passed legislation demanding it not be agreed upon he vetoed the bill thus turning the ratification process on its head. He passed his signature legislation of Obamacare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act PPACA) through a Congress heavily Democratic without a single Republican vote and in an imperfect form as had the House of Representatives modified the Senate Bill by a single world or punctuation mark it would have returned to the Senate where the late Senator Kennedy was replaced by Senator Scott Brown, a Republican elected by the people of Massachusetts in order to block Obamacare from becoming law. This would be nothing even remotely close for President Obama and he would likely claim he was realizing the dreams of Simone Peres, not even close to the truth.

 

 

 

Simon Peres will be judged by history but not at this time. He will be judged in the future when the heat of the present no longer blurs objectivity. There were two Simone Peres personas, or at least that has been the theme of many an editorial and attempt at explaining this complex and sometimes controversial man. No matter what one’s views, Peres was a giant in everything he did and his story will be just as controversial as were his politics. He remains the indispensable man in all which he was involved. His legacy will be that of a man who lived as a dreamer and who loved Israel above all else. He saw an Israel at peace with its neighbors but did not live to see that dream come to fruition. As in all he attempted, he gave that peace all he had. He gave Israel all he had. Simon Peres never gave up in all he pursued and Israel is all the better for his efforts and owes the man its undying respect. Simon Peres, may that peace you so desperately desired come and come quietly and settle permanently over these lands and may you see this peace from the next world and smile one lasting smile. Where peace is what we owe the memory of Simon Peres, a whole Israel is also a fitting tribute we can give to Simon Peres as this was his first and primary goal in life.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Israeli Elections Bring One More Blast from the Peres Past

 

Many Israelis had hoped that when Simone Peres retired from his Presidency of Israel that they had heard the last of his meddling and interfering in Israeli politics, but apparently they will once more be dismayed. The same people had hoped when he assumed the Presidency, a presumably functionary a-political position in nature beyond being tasked with choosing which party after elections is given first chance to form a governing coalition, that this would have marked the end of Simone Peres and his far leftist we can make peace if we simply give the Palestinians everything they ask for interjections and preaching attempting to instruct Israelis how and what to think. I do not wish to denigrate or dispute the contributions of a national hero from the earliest days of the formation of the state of Israel and before. His most recent incendiary discharge came during a speech made to a group of non-profit organizations in Yafo, Israel where he noted, “the poverty report of the Latet organization is a most serious indictment against us. It is impossible to reject or discount the figures of the report.” He followed this presenting that, “You can’t feed hungry children and elderly with talk. We are taking the future away from our children. If we don’t raise the issue to the top of priorities, maybe we will win in battles but we will lose our children. Both those who are the soldiers of the future and those who raised us.” Further, he continued, “as we knew to raise money for security and war, we must raise money to deal with poverty. The elections are a chance to do social justice so as to be at peace with ourselves and have social resilience. All of the parties must put the treatment of poverty at the head of their priorities.” All of this came after his initial targeting of one who might be considered Simone Peres’s main nemesis when he made the charge that Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government on Monday, saying it “talks but doesn’t act” against poverty.

 

A small aside before getting back to what will become the main theme to simply spend a paragraph listing the positions held by Simone Peres over his ninety plus years of time on the blessed planet. We have been blessed by his service and had some difficulties from others, but the man has never refused the call to serve Israel to the best of his ability as he has seen was the needs of the nation. The unfortunate item is he will be forever remembered as the man behind the Oslo Accords and then, from that point on, as the man who could not let go as if peace was the only answer. There is one piece of philosophical wisdom that Simone Peres never learned which came from, of all places, a television show, the original version of Battles Star Galactica, where Adama played by Lorne Greene said, “The opposite of war is not always peace, sometimes it is slavery.” That little quote stuck with me as somehow when I first heard that I knew it would have more meaning and importance as I grew older and it most certainly has, I just wish it had not had to be about Israel. Following is a list of the positions held by Simone Peres with minimal commentary: Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Defense; Minister of the Knesset; Deputy Defense Minister; Minister of Immigrant Absorption; Minister of Transportation and Communications; Minister of Defense; Acting Prime Minister (under Rabin remained in office but inactive due to scandal pertaining to actions by his wife); Likud agreed to an unusual “rotation” arrangement, or unity government, in which Peres would serve as Prime Minister and the Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir would be Foreign Minister and then the two would exchange offices leading to Peres being Foreign Minister; Minister of Finance; Co-authored Oslo Accords; Nobel Peace Prize; Acting Prime Minister and Acting Defense Minister (after Rabin assassination); Minister of Regional Co-operation; Foreign Minister (again); Joined Kadima to assist in pushing Gaza disengagement; Vice Prime Minister; Minister for the Development of the Negev, Galilee and Regional Economy; President of the State of Israel (Peres became the most political President in Israeli history often expounding positions the diametric opposite of the ruling government and its Prime Minister). Where his was not the first shot, nor will have been the last, but his has been the most potentially damaging, potentially credible, and definitely the most important thus far of a coming tsunami of attacks on Netanyahu as he seeks to continue to lead his political party to control the next government which is, surprisingly, his main purpose as the leader of the party and would immediately become the most important job should somebody else replace him in the coming Liked primary elections where he does face some competition.

 

The interesting item until the Likud Party primaries have chosen current Prime Minister Netanyahu as their leader and presented candidate for the office of Prime Minister once again in the upcoming elections is that nobody knows for sure, though all bets are that he will continue to lead Likud, that he will actually be the person put forth. One might think that with such doubt that there might be some reason to wait an additional week or two and see if attacking Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming he was not the best qualified person to lead the Israeli government was the smartest election tactic. What happens if the New Year brings a new leader of the Likud Party and thus a new potential frontrunner for the office of Prime Minister, or perhaps a new person leading the Likud Party might make Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog along with Hatnua Party leader Tzipi Livni as the two are running on a joint ticket and both are already known party leaders entering this election cycle. There will likely be a number of fuselages fired at Naftali Bennett who currently leads the Jewish Home Party though this too could change as they are also holding new party elections going into the elections and he might, though doubtful, be replaced as well. The facts that there may be new leadership on the nationalist or right ends of the political spectrum in what are recognized as the most likely to gain the most seats and the most ardent and potentially most extreme personality pushing what the leftists like to present as most damaging and anti-peace message will make no difference in the coming weeks between now and the party elections and will thus produce extreme and strong accusations and charges against such people which will be carried by much of the Israeli media and have the greatest possibility of being covered in media sources outside of Israel. Is such totally fair, more important is does it matter.

 

Politics makes the strange acceptable and the acceptable strange. Watch any election cycle and watch how inter-party contests will produce some of the most heated rhetoric yet once the primaries have ended and the party has spoken, then those very same accusations made now by the opposing party are unacceptable and almost fighting words objected to and contested as untruths by the very person who originally made the accusation during the heated primary. That phenomenon is almost as beyond belief as the seemingly immediate turnaround and becoming not only supporter but almost best friends as the adversaries for the party nomination close ranks at the actual convention after a heated and unimaginably close primary election where the winner was not certain on day one and even ended up taking numerous ballots and not simply being decided in the first or second vote. That might actually be where the expression that politics makes for strange bedfellows originated. Then there are the sometimes unexplainable results in Parliamentary governments are concerned and there are multiple parties, often some new parties almost every election as previous parties have breakups or a person who lost the primary believes they would have a better possibility if they struck out on their own or the strangest when people who previously were from opposite parties join together to form a new party or somebody moves inexorably from a party at one end of the spectrum and within a relatively short period they have worked their way to the other end of the political spectrum. All of these behaviors though seemingly peculiar and hard to explain, and even more difficult to excuse by former supporters when they feel betrayed, are part and parcel of politics which is by far the strangest game people play and one which eventually reveals the worst actions and largest weaknesses of human nature. Perhaps we would all be just a little more relaxed and a whole lot less anxious if we treated politics for what we often call it, the game of politicking, just another game people play. I know, a game with potentially very dangerous consequences, but wouldn’t many if not most of those consequences occur no matter how we individuals cast our votes. Can we not always at least pretend that it was really someone else’s fault, possibly we could simply blame all those people who did not even bother to vote, yea, that’s it, it is always those people too lazy or uncaring to bother to vote who are to blame.

 

Beyond the Cusp