Michael Wolff Sets the Record on Trump’s America

 

Michael Wolff’s bestselling book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” actually tells us volumes and we do not even need read the book to understand the not-so-groundbreaking information actually proves a good deal. Oh, it proves almost nothing about President Trump as the book’s author, Michael Wolff, says he can’t be sure that all of it is true according to his interview with Business Insider. We really do not care so much about the words within the book as we do about the coverage it has received and will continue to receive and the tenor of both. The fact that a book the author refuses to state is valid at any level and is likely no more than conjecture at best and straight slanderous fallacies at worst and it easily found a publisher, a distributer and advertising proves our points alone with no further backup required. This book and similar articles in the American and around the world media stating the wildest accusations about President Trump and, for the record when you read “President Trump” throughout this article please add in “Prime Minister Netanyahu” and for America one could also include Israel, even published in America are as safe as a baby in a caring mother’s arms. This was proven even further with the accusations that Trump attempted to have his lawyers stop the presses and squash this book to absolutely no avail. Likely, this book has much vapid accusations which will be repeated by a breathless media and yet it will be treated as if it were a masterpiece of investigative journalism. We would treat the accusations we have heard with equal laughter as we did when Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife like, enjoy greatly and consume copious amounts of, wait for it, ice cream. You have that right; it was a scandal that the Prime Minister and his wife, possibly a few dinner guests as well, consumed $2,700 a year of ice cream. Now we want to hold such an office where that is the worst crime the media can prove.

 

President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have committed very similar crimes. They have both defeated once considered undefeatable leftist opponents, and in the Prime Minister’s case repeatedly while in President Trump’s case a super vicious and vindictive elitist leftist who believed in her own media image as unopposable and the nearest thing to a perfect being. Both have made enemies of the leftist media such that nothing they accomplish matters and anything they find is considered to be the crime of the century until it becomes evident that the majority of people do not care about their nitpicking. For proof just read about the “Ice Cream Scandal” linked to above. Just for comparison, on basically retirement pay, we eat merely half that amount of ice cream and we do not entertain at near the rate of the Prime Minister and his wife nor have access to salaries or we might also consume near equal amounts given the opportunity. We also assume, not to give the media any ideas, that both the Prime Minister’s and President’s family diets include more meat, vegetables, exclusive condiments, fine wines, brandy and other fine liqueurs and barely countable other culinary delights. We expect Steak-gate to erupt imminently.

 

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu

 

Being the top person in the government and not aligned with the media politically will inevitably result in being maligned by that same media. Those are the two choices one has going in, align or be maligned. But if the person being slighted by the media is anywhere near the Alpha person, we believe anybody reaching such political heights to be, especially a nonempathic, unfeeling, coarse, unruly, horrific pair of monsters as are colluding right now, in all likelihood, to conquer the world along with Russian collusion and the three, Netanyahu, Trump and Putin will lord over all in the triumphant triumvirate. Of course that is pure nonsense, but the current media in the United States would likely jump all over it as a justified possibility considering the voracious appetites the three men have for absolute power over all they perceive. The problem the media have in framing these people as having super-egos and being blood-soaked monsters who will do whatever it takes to achieve their ill-conceived goals is very likely, in a toned-down manner, exactly why they were elected, they described a vision which resonated with the people and promised to work towards achieving stated goals with their entire beings, and the people approved giving them or their party their votes. Somebody should tell the media that this is how you get elected and not through polls which are manufactured to represent exactly what the media wished them to represent and not necessarily reality of the political landscape and picturing the election. The media, on the other hand, realize that by ignoring or casting in a defeated light a candidate and writing glowing reviews of a preferred candidate can assist that result the media desires becoming reality. The problem is that the media in the United States, and to a lesser extent in Israel, has been shown for what they are, news manufacturers and not impartial reporting of the news. Their front pages have been revealed as pure editorial and their editorials as flights of fancy. The majority of the people no longer rely on the mainstream media to tell them the truth; they have instead become a form of reality television where the results are determined before the candidates for office have been chosen. Trump’s continued success against all the media odds won the Presidency by playing the media like a fine tuned Stradivarius violin. This likely has finally dawned on them making them all the infused with a visceral hatred of Donald Trump yet they still fall into virtually every trap he sets.

 

The media in the United States can rest assured that Donald Trump will not be President for life, we do not care what Twitter or Facebook claim. The media in Israel and the United States can also rest that Bibi Netanyahu will step down as the head of the Likud Party and soon they will have another evil incarnate to deal with either Naftali Bennett, the next leader of Likud which might be Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely or possibly a new Jewish Home Leader and current Ministers of Justice Ayelet Shaked. The two ladies, Tzipi Hotovely and Ayelet Shaked, (pictured below) are definite leaders who would make great Prime Minister and hopefully their day will come, preferably one after the other and not vying against each other. We suspect anything the media cares to shoot at either of these ladies will be met with a firestorm for an answer, as both are strong, assertive and capable women. Israel would be fortunate to have such as leaders and with any fortuitous destiny; we will have both in that office either successively or alternatively. As a side note, Netanyahu gained much recognition for his handling of the formerly considered ministry where you appointed your political opponents for them to be pummeled by the economy. Netanyahu used the Ministry of Finance and turned the economy around and set a new stage for operating which benefited almost all Israelis. Likewise, many thought placing Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister would be her political end but she has shined and is managing to revamp much of the Justice system and if she can accomplish two important goals, she too will use her position to vault her into the public eye and leadership down the road.

 

Tzipi Hotovely and Ayelet Shaked

 

The media now exposed and this new book harpooning Donald Trump will prove to be understood by the people as yellow journalism. This is, quite unfortunately, the media has been exposed to have become. What is worse is looking back through the last sixty or seventy years at the media and one realizes they have always put their agenda ahead of their reporting. One famous example was the Tet Offensive of 1968 was covered by the media, especially the coverage by the most trusted man in America, Walter Cronkite. He reported that the United States and Vietnamese allies were being beaten on every front, the war was unwinnable, and the United States was being given a bloody nose by the rag tag guerrilla fighters of the Viet Cong. The reality is the United States and allies were fighting the North Vietnamese Army and were decimating them on every battlefield and we also learned that Walter Cronkite was actually reporting to make his superiors happy and was as close as one can be to being a spy for the communist regimes as one could be without facing charges of treason. Unfortunately for the American audiences, the evening news on the major networks, including most of the news channels on cable, have not drifted that far if at all on their political ideologies. They all support the equalizing of salaries such that people earn similar amounts despite any differences in job performance or skill set requirements, they support organized labor unions, weakened military to pay for social works, anti-capitalism and a series of other leftist liberal-socialist views. The media has been polled and the numbers of new reporters who are Republicans or consider themselves conservative are few and far between. The vast majority consider themselves to be politically neutral yet most belong to or vote predominantly for the Democrat or Green Parties. Until this changes, the alternate media of blogs and podcasts will become a more and more trusted source for news. Also, editorial blogs such as us here at BTC, we will be found to represent a political view but still manage to be fair and at least we are up front about our politics and tell where our hearts are politically. We still try to at least give some mix in our opinions and views of recognition of the other side, often lampooning them though we find simple reporting often provides that for us.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Yair Lapid and Avi Gabbay Show True Colors

 

Yair Lapid and Avi Gabbay each revealed their real positions and declared war on all religious, nationalist, Zionist and Conservative or right-leaning voters and the work done by the Knesset to legally pass legislation. They claim they will use the courts and all other means at their disposal in thwarting the will of the people. Their actions are simply an extension of their mutual belief that only they possess true sight and that makes their opinions more correct and necessary than that of the voters. Their inability to accept the will of the majority simple reveals their own self-derived greater-than-life image of themselves as the true prophets of our times who have been chosen by Heaven to intervene and make the government upright again. If only they actually had such insight, but alas, they only possess self-righteous pride and the belief that they know better and we must accept their wisdom or else they will go to any length to defeat our triumphs and overturn our accomplishments. Let us recount each of these gentlemen’s latest announced crusades and the revelations they provide.

 

Let us take the more reasonable Avi Gabbay who at least claims he will use legislative means to accomplish his quest. Mr. Gabbay was kind enough to spell everything out for us when he stated, “December 27 is a dark day in the history of the fight against crime and corruption. I reiterate my commitment: The government which I will head will abolish the Recommendations Law, the Supermarket Law and the Job Law.” Well, there it is. If the people of Israel would simply realize the opportunity facing them and place their trust in the Zionist Union, then they would do their best to undo everything accomplished in the past year’s efforts. You like being a Jew and think that the religion should be the basis for attitudes of the government, then Avi Gabbay is not your man. If you believe that laws need to be made by the Legislature, interpreted by Judges and merely enforced by the police, then Avi Gabbay is not your man. The simple truth from Mr. Gabbay is that he desires an Israel which is democratic and multicultural with perhaps a touch of Judaism permitted in certain neighborhoods. His vision is known as a Secular Israel where Israel is the Middle East version of the United States and he is the Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and friends modern Democrat Party where the Zionist Union are the Democrats working for that brave new world where the government is supreme. They also have a problem fulfilling their party’s name, Zionist Union. They have the Union part down pat if they are referring to Union as in Soviet Union as they love all things leftist but they are not all that much Zionist. They believe that the Arabs have just as much right as the Jews to the land and the Arab claim is just as historically valid as the Jewish claim. We have to wonder if Avi Gabbay was at all impressed and pleased with President Trump’s announced recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital City of the nation of Israel or would he prefer Israel moving the capital to Tel Aviv where the embassies still sit. What is the difference and why are those religious types making such a fuss, we can almost hear them asking. It has to do with the history of the Israelites and all of the generations of the Jewish people for the past three-thousand years plus. But what is the big deal, Avi just does not get it.

 

Now for Yair Lapid and his cry that every last one of the hundreds of reservations brought forward against the bill, many by his party, were being voted down one after the other, that should the Knesset pass the Recommendations Law, his party will challenge the law hoping to get it annulled by the Israel Supreme Court. This law, according to Arutz Sheva states, “According to the coalition’s conclusions, the law will only relate to the non-publication of police recommendations in the media, and will determine that in investigations in which there is an accompanying attorney, there will be no recommendation but only a summary of the hearing.” Yair Lapid recently stated that he should be considered to be the next in line for the Prime Minister position as he is the logical extension of Benyamin Netanyahu as he, Yair Lapid, is just as conservative, just as religious, just as strong a Zionist and simply more Bibi than Bibi. Apparently, the more Bibi than Bibi opposes the actual Bibi who supported the passing of the Recommendations Law and Yair ‘I’m more Bibi than Bibi’ Lapid will go to the Supreme Court demanding that they overturn the legislation immediately once it has passed, or at least some time convenient after he wakes and gets a good breakfast under his belt, then Supreme Court must act as Yair Lapid has spoken.

 

Both of these politicians suffer from a severe misreading of the Israeli public as they believe in their post-Zionist views and their anti-religious pro-governance by autocrats and the Black Robed Dictatorial Courts. We discussed this concept and its birth and continued applications and the ramifications in greater depth in Democracy’s Greatest Threat Wrapped in Black and how the current Israeli Coalition, led by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, has worked to change the self-replicating appointment methods of judges, particularly Supreme Court Judges, and lessen the power and range of adjudicable subjects to coral the runaway power extension and liberties taken by the Supreme Court. Their days of overturning laws passed by the Knesset, reversing decisions made by the Prime Minister, authoring laws they believe are necessary to advance society in the “correct” direction, and even countermand orders given by command level officers of the IDF during a conflict. The Israeli Supreme Court has long worked under the concept put forth by Israeli Supreme Court former Chief Justice Israeli Aharon Barak in his statement that “everything is justiciable” granting the Supreme Court and all courts unlimited power. Yair Lapid hopes to use their power to once again impose the leftist views of the court, and Yair Lapid, upon the nation overturning legislation passed by the Legislature. Yair Lapid, a former editorial newscaster who was famous for reporting the news as he saw the news. He used his name identification and popularity gained from reading the teleprompter and having good writers with whom he likely had a working relationship.

 

Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked

 

One thing we will give Yair Lapid credit, he can read a teleprompter with the best of them, sounds smooth, and presents well. He can tell you exactly what you should want and then convince you to vote for him to get it. Unfortunately, Mr. Lapid is most often simply reading a script constructed to make him sound exactly what the audience to whom he is speaking wants to hear and are willing to but unchallenged. To Zionists, he sounds as nationalist and pro building in the Shomron sounding like Naftali Bennett with just sufficient Bibi and a small amount of safe centrist pabulum making him too good to be true. To the secular post-Zionists, he does not even need speechwriters, as this is what he actually believes. The secular Israel is a Democracy first, second, last and everything inbetween with Judaism simply one of the plethora of religions observed here. Yair Lapid was once a proud two-state solution water carrier who believed that if Israel just found the perfect combination of land and other incentivizes then peace would be reached and the terrorism would end and everything will be perfect. One can only wonder how far from his roots he has managed to move. He claims he can out Bibi, Bibi, and can almost match Bennett but his idea is to be more logical and able to compromise where required to get the most, yet he spoke as a supporter of the Gaza pull-out. Not all that long ago, right before the last elections, Mr. Lapid stated, in clear English, “The details may be complex, but the basic idea is simple – Israel doesn’t want to absorb 3.5 million Palestinians. It is time to separate and guarantee our future as a Jewish and democratic state.” One must believe now that he is a Zionist’s Zionist? Really now, why are we having problems believing this. Of course, he can also out Gabbay, Gabbay, when speaking to the left wing demonstrators in Tel Aviv. He is the perfect politician capable of being whatever the crowd wants to hear and he counts on his true friends in the media to cover his chameleon-like presentations molding his speeches to each crowd.

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely

 

The next Israeli election is going to be so much fun for us as politicians attempt to assure their leftist base that they really do not mean most of what they are having said in the media as everyone attempts to out Bibi, Bibi except for Bibi who will be attempting to out Bennett, Bennett. Unless something changes within Beit Yehudi (Jewish Home), then Naftali Bennett will run believing his time has come. The one big problem standing between Bennett from a fair chance at making it to the top spot is Bibi. Should Bibi step aside, then Likud, with a large assist from Netanyahu, needs to groom the next seemingly permanent Prime Minister and do so fast. Netanyahu has so efficiently prevented anyone challenging his position at the top of the party that there has not developed a successor. Without Netanyahu or a strong Likud candidate, then the field will be open and then who knows what will come next. The one person who would make a formidable candidate for Likud might not desire the top spot, Tzipi Hotovely. Some day Israel might face two women running for Prime Minister with Tzipi Hotovely for Likud and Ayelet Shaked for Jewish Home, now that would be a real choice of two of the most competent and complete candidates who would, either of them, make for a strong and well represented Israeli Prime Minister. That would be the political race the world would watch. For now, we are going to have to settle for the biggest question of the moment, will or will not Bibi Netanyahu run at the head of Likud, and if not, then who? Then there is another less tempting question, who will be the candidate to lead Zionist Union? Will it be Avi Gabbay or will it be Ehud Barak? Beyond these questions, there are some other side items such as who will be running under what name and in what grouping as the new election laws has had the making for strange bedfellows. Who will combine with whom and how they divide up their lists is the kind of minutia which makes this boring to all but the most invested and the people who live politics. We will try not to bore you with these items unless they are surprising or particularly amusing. You’re welcome.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

A Question for Netanyahu

The election results were a ray of hope and promise for many in the Zionist communities. But there is a question which must be asked of Netanyahu because if there is any chance that his intended direction has been indicated by bringing Livni into the coalition while also acquiescing to her every demand; then the Zionist should stop any celebrations and begin to worry that another Likud Prime Minister is headed to the dark side. What would be the indications that Netanyahu intends to fall before the pressures from the Europeans, United States President Obama backed by his recent appointees to be CIA Chief and Secretaries of State and Defense, the numerous leftist NGOs and the rest of the world support groups backing the Palestinian ploy by the Arab and Muslim world to destroy Israel?

It truly was a shocking revelation to read that Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted Tzipi Livni into the coalition and agreed to grant her the Justice Ministry which was the expressed position sought by Yair Lapid and also granted her request to be the lead in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as her position supporting surrendering most if not all of Judea and Samaria along with half of Jerusalem including all of the Old City as well as the Kotel which would make it next to impossible for Naftali Bennett and the Jewish Home to also enter such a coalition. The first question that comes to mind is how Netanyahu could form a coalition without compromising his promises to Livni. The first sign of the unthinkable may have been occurring right before our eyes as Netanyahu appears to be spending great amounts of time wooing Shelly Yachimovich and the Labor Party to join his coalition. Should Netanyahu succeed in his wooing of Yachimovich and the Labor Party he would be well on his way to forming that both sides of center coalition which has been the center of much chatter since the election. This would also fit in with the rumors that Netanyahu will go to whatever length is necessary to keep Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett out of the coalition. I know, how could Netanyahu fill out the rest of the needed Knesset seats to reach the minimum of sixty-one seats as even with Kadima along with Labor Party, Hatnuah and Likud-Beiteinu only gives him fifty-four?

That is where the unusual leadership by triumvirate of Shas comes into play. Despite the story fed to the media and membership of Shas that the three members of the triumvirate, Eli Yishai, Ariel Atias and Aryeh Deri, were equal and were working together there will always be the suspicion that not all members are truly equal. The truth is that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as the spiritual guiding light is the true and undisputed true leader of Shas and he was the one who decided upon the triumvirate form of leadership in order to soften the inclusion of Aryeh Deri back into a leadership position immediately after he returned to politics after his conviction. This would likely mean that anything which Aryeh Deri decides for Shas will be supported by Rabbi Yosef and thus nobody would ever think to counter his decisions. Deri was well known to prefer Labor over Likud though he would ally with whichever was necessary to gain considerations for the Hasidic heart of Shas. It is this flexibility; some might say pragmatism, which has made Shas the coalition builder in Israeli history. Should Shas also join the above parties in a coalition, then Netanyahu would have his broad based coalition with sixty-five seats. The guarantor that this is Netanyahu’s desired outcome would be some generous deal made with Shelly Yachimovich in order to bring Labor into the coalition over her original denial of any possibility of her being in a coalition with Netanyahu.

 
Should this actually come to pass, then there are some additional questions which would soon surface. One of the foremost among them is what will Netanyahu do to keep such a coalition together with a number of his fellow Likud members probably having misgivings about their fellow coalition members? With Moshe Feiglin and Tzipi Hotovely and other Zionist and nationalist members within the Likud faction, how does Prime Minister Netanyahu expect to hold his coalition together and avoid losing a sure to follow vote of no confidence. Such would most certainly come attached to some piece of legislation made to satisfy either Tzipi Livni or Shelly Yachimovich or members of their parties by one of the parties not within the coalition, especially should such legislation either be detrimental to the Israelis residing in Judea and Samaria or other controversial subjects. Would Prime Minister Netanyahu purposely hold the members of the coalition to vote for anything which was brought before the Knesset by any coalition member? On the other hand, would Prime Minister Netanyahu deny members of the coalition bringing any motion which might challenge the coalition? And if either were the case, how would such a move be enforced? Would the coalition survive if Prime Minister Netanyahu challenged one of the other party leaders to hold their members to vote with the coalition or be removed from the Knesset and replaced with another minister appointed in order to enforce compliant voting? Would Prime Minister Netanyahu replace members of his own Likud Party in order to sustain his coalition? What would be the result from either of these actions? Such a coalition even if formed would appear on face value unsustainable. This may be conjecture but the possibility that Prime Minister Netanyahu may be headed in this direction is possible. This becomes even more likely if Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid hold to their agreement not to enter the coalition without the other, an agreement I believe both will truly honor despite what some, including Netanyahu, may think or even be counting on.

Beyond the Cusp