By Ted Belman
Of course I went to the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem to listen to Caroline Glick along with over 1000 others. The subject of the talk was the Arab Spring.
Here are the points that stood out for me.
– Israel is only marginally effected
– the weakening of the Assad regime in Syria weakens Hamas and Hezbollah and that is good.
– Egypt will soon be bankrupt soon and thus can’t afford to war against Israel. Egyptians will riot in the streets demanding food.
– The US is the big loser. US influence has plummeted.
– The best thing Obama could do is reverse everything he has done.
– Israel must diversify their dependency or relationships. The US can no longer be relied on. Its not just about removing Obama. She is leery of the people also because they could elect a person like Obama.
– Israel should claim sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria and give the Arabs there citizenship if need b e. Jews would still have a 2/3 majority. Jewish fertility is rising and Arab fertility is dropping.
– There is great potential and expectation for Aliya
– Israel PR is bad because she doesn’t know what whe wants to sell. Israel has no goal other than to fend off diplomatic and terrorist attacks. Israel can’t even agree that settlements are good.
– The Arabs know what they want and sell it very well though there are so many objectionable things about them.
–
Correction: I mentioned “Rev. Lambert”, meaning “Rev. Lathrop”. Rev. John Lathrop (1584-1653) was a nonconformist minister in Plymouth Colony. He emigrated to Massachusetts in 1634 on the “Griffith”. He is mentioned in James Savage, “A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692” and many other publications. By the time of the Chmielnicki uprising in Poland in 1648, which was largely responsible for the Ashkenazi bottleneck and subsequent endogamy, Lambert had already produced a considerable brood, mostly in Barnstable (MA) and New London (CT) counties.
Concerning your “animals in the barn” comment, I choose to be charitable. On my end of the matter, I would hardly call some of the world’s greatest presidents, governors, poets, inventors and religious leaders “animals”; but perhaps you have more illustrious people you can trace your line to. On my Jewish line, I descend from Moses’ brother Aharon. Do you consider his mother an animal?
Citizenship for Arabs? There’s something not quite right about offering automatic citizenship for Yesha Arabs. It’s as if those in favor wanted at the same time to sabotage their own arguments for extending sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. A sudden flood of Arabs with voting rights is the stuff of nightmares for even those most in favor of full sovereignty over Yesha.
Citizenship is not something that should be given automatically. Arabs should apply for it, individually, conditioned on their swearing allegiance to the Jewish state and all its laws. That’s what’s done everywhere else. There is a probationary period of residence, while one hopes the applicant will study the country’s history and laws. If he feels they suit him, he can apply. There’s still the issue of whether he will be granted citizenship. A criminal past and other issues would render him non-eligible.
There has to be an organized effort to finance the emigration of Arabs who want to live abroad. Statistics show that a large percentage of young Arabs want to try new lives in Europe, America and other places.
Shy Guy says:
January 24, 2012 at 3:51 pm
“Endogamy”? That’s when both sides go into sudden-death playoff, no?
A NYG Specialty. 😉
Yamit,
You like to look things up. The reference concerning Ashkenazi Jewish endogamy is Behar, Hammer, et al, “MtDNA evidence for a genetic Bottleneck in the early history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population”, European Journal of Human Genetics (2004) at
http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/behar%202004%20mtdna.pdf
The part concerning the population bottleneck around the time of Rev. Lambert (and, cocurrently, the Chmielnicki uprising) in the 1600s, is:,
“There are several periods in the history of Jewish populations when bottlenecks may have occurred, for example: (1) in the Near East before the initial migration to Europe (eg >1500 years ago), (2) during the migrations of Jews from the Near East to Italy after the 1st century A.D., (3) upon establishment of small communities in the Rhine Valley in the 8th century A.D., and (4) in the 12th century A.D., when migrations took place from western to eastern Europe. In addition, endogamy in combination with >100-fold population growth in the last 500 years undoubtedly played a role in shaping patterns of variation in the Ashkenazi gene pool..”
You have made so many comments about my own ethnic background; and others, such as Teshuvah, have made similar comments concerning Mitt Romney, that you ought to consider this. You ought to consider some things:
(1) Since I am descended BOTH from Ashkenazi Jews like yourself (who are EXTREMELY inbred) and Europeans as well as Native Americans, your charge of “endogamy” is (Ahem!) absurd — like many of the things you say.
(2) The settlement of New England, from where I, Mitt Romney and about half of the US Presidents come, was a population bottleneck with about a 100-fold population growth — similar to the Ashkenazi bottleneck. That bottleneck explains why so many of us Early American Settlers’ Descendants have common ancestors.
(3) It’s easy for me to demonstrate connections between Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, FDR, George Bush, Joseph Smith, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Eli Whitney and myself (all of whom, by the way, descend from Rev. John Lathrop and also share other early American common ancestors), because New Englanders are unique in the world for their long-standing, educated history and excellent record-keeping. If the Ashkenazi Jews would have kept nearly as good records, you would also find numerous connections between yourself and me; for you and I are probably related from the mid-1600s. I certainly am closely related to most Polish, Belarussian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Galician Jews. I can’t speak concerning Hungarian and Slovak Jews, because I know much less about their history.
during the time of Rev. Lathrop What’s this?.
Jews are forbidden to intermarry, so we are close to being a racial group but unlike you we don’t copulate with every animal in the barn.
Shy Guy has it right, Yamit. Speaking of small gene pools, most Ashkenazi Jews descend from about six women during the time of Rev. Lathrop. That may explain a lot.
“Endogamy”? That’s when both sides go into sudden-death playoff, no?
looks like the reason you are what you are, is your ancestors practiced Endogamy! Either that or there was a very small gene pool, maybe both?
I can’t wait till Teshuva replies to your post! 🙂
Stewart,
Are you descended from Rev. John Lathrop of Barnstable, MA? His son Samuel, by first wife Hanna Howse, was the ancestor of Romney & Huntsman. His daughter Jane, by the same wife, was the ancestor of Joseph Smith. His daughter Abigail, by his second wife Ann, was my ancestor. Presidents Grant, Bush, Roosevelt and Taft also descend from the Rev. About a fourth of US Mormons are descended from him, and a good million others.
I grew up in a Mormon G-d fearing family. As a child we played on the street with Jewish kids without any animosity whatsoever. Our Church elders taught us that Jews and Israel is close to Mormonism in many ways. We knew absolutely nothing about antisemitism.
Among my eight (8) wives three have retained their original faith. Also included among my sixteen (16) kids, five (5) attend Hebrew day classes. and one (1) is studying for the rabbinate.
Hope G-d strikes down Obummer.
Paul are you dense?
Jerry Sandusky was not a member of Coach Paterno’s staff in 2003 when the so called incident occurred as reported by the young assistant coach.
The alleged victims were associated with the charitable organization “The Second Mile” started by Jerry Sandusky.
The young assistant should have gone straight to the police, no he went home to talk to his father and the next day brought it to the attention of Coach Paterno who contacted his supervisor Curly who was the AD and told him to speak to the assistant.
Joe should not have been brought into the picture. He was not Sandusky’s boss, he was not in charge of the athletic facilities and he was not the policeman.
Joe became the scape goat for the failure of the administration and BOT.
Tell me how Joe is culpable.
And yet he was not arrested until years later when victims came forward. Just because Paterno could not be found guilty of a crime does not mean he was not culpable.
Bottom line is we have to wait until Obama is out of office, hopefully after his first and only term or sooner if he can be impeached for screwing up the country.
He embraces Islam and is no friend of Israel.
If anything since Israel is our only true friend and trusted ally, the US should ask Israel how we can be of any help.
Israel has G-d given rights to the Holy Land and we should recognize it and let the Arab world know we stand by it.
The Palestinians should be absorbed by Jordan.
Paul says:
January 23, 2012 at 6:20 pm
I have to agree. I’ve seen this kind of thing in athletics departments and it is rarely isolated from those at the top. I’d say all evidence points to complicity at least and participation possible. Sandusky should have been arrested and the fact that he wasn’t, he was just retired, speaks volumes about the situation.
Paul, I don’t want to go any more on this except to correct you. This incident occurred after Sandusky was retired.
Sandusky retired in 1999 after Joe told him he would not be his successor and he would not recommend Sandusky for a similar position with another school. He did not like his fooling around all the time.
The incident occurred in 2002. He was no longer on Joe’s staff. His access to PennState facilities was through a tenure agreement with the university.
Quigley says:
You have contradicted yourself by saying ‘Just accept what happened in Egypt/Libya’. Egypt IS heading towards bankruptcy and Egyptians will soon plead for “a Mubarak” to come back.
Two days ago, a large group of people in Benghazi attacked the transitional power in Libya with grenades and demanded transparency and accused the Transitional Council of passing laws without informing the people. .
The Alawites will be murdered by the Sunnis and the opposition in Syria and many Syrian Druze will flee to Israel. Would you prefer if the Druze fled into the arms of Walid Jumblatt in Lebanon? He has already made a deal with Hezbollah to ‘protect’ his own Lebanese Druzim. Further chess games may be futile!!!
So Quigley, “look before you leap” or better still, “avoid putting your foot in your mouth”. The Arab Winter has already begun.
I have to agree. I’ve seen this kind of thing in athletics departments and it is rarely isolated from those at the top. I’d say all evidence points to complicity at least and participation possible. Sandusky should have been arrested and the fact that he wasn’t, he was just retired, speaks volumes about the situation.
Why would somebody drag this kind of misery out and prop it up like there was nothing to argue about in a comment section like this for an article that has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Yonatan, I replied twice and both did not appear.
No, Sandusky was not on Joe’s staff at the time of the incident on campus. He has use of the university facilities as part of his tenure agreement with the university.
When the young assistant coach saw Sandusky in the shower with a teenager he reported it the next day to Joe after consulting with his father. Out of respect for the elder coach Paterno he did not go into specifics. Joe therefore reported this to his supervisor, the AD and told him to meet with the young coach and take care of it. The young coach met with the AD and VP of finance who also is head of the university police dept (has same authority as any community police dept) he is the police commissioner.
It is not know what the assistant told them or what they did after that.
The state attorney general stated Paterno did nothing wrong and was not being investigated.
The Board of Trustees felt Joe had a moral obligation to follow up on his report to the AD, thus making Joe the escape goat.
Lost my original reply.
Yonatan, no in fact had it occurred while he was a staff member, Sandusky would have been history.
When the young assistant coach saw Sandusky with a teenager in the shower Sandusky was no longer on his staff, in fact he had use of the facilities as a tenure agreement with the university.
The young coach reported to him the next day after consulting with his father. Out of respect for the much older coach Paterno, the young coach did not go into specifics. Paterno believed he did the correct thing by reporting it to his supervisor, the AD and told him to talk to the assistant and take care of it.
The AD and VP of finance who also heads the College Police dept (has the same authority as any municipal police dept) in other words was the Police Commissioner.
It is not known what the assistant told them and what they did.
The Board of Trustees felt Joe had a moral obligation to follow up on it.
The state Attorney General stated Joe did no wrong and was not being investigated.
further, perhaps the “arab spring” is good as long as the arabs are focusing their internal arguments where they belong: internally. In any case a perpetually arguing enemy cannot be worse for israel than a strong united enemy. Just be aware that whoever rules will seek war with israel to exterminate its own unfed population. A limited war will serve their purposes.
agreed Oslo should right now be repudiated and the instability of the arab world used as the reason to rethink Israels entire public position. Israel really does need to start from square one in the global eye. This opportunity to start again will not readily reappear. Israel must declare a sabbatical from the process. It is becoming obvious that the arab instability can make agreements insecure. Jewish refugees from arab lands must be addressed as wither ethnic cleansing or the first part of a population exchange.
Generally agree with annexation but favor concentrating on completing the population exchange of jews and arabs of the former palestine mandate. Instead of paying jews to leave gasa and the west bank all the global money supporting the refugee camps should go to resettling the west bankers into the eastern half of the palerstine mandate territory of jew free jordan. If given excellent compensation to move to their jew free land being transformed with foreign investment why would they want to remain under the jews. They would have gotten 77% of the original mandate, this is enough. If this is not done then the flight of jews from the arab lands will not have been addressed as part of a population exchange but rather as an ethnic cleansing of jews from muslim countries.. This must be demanded to be addressed in any settlement.
Quote: “Remember Caroline Hope is not a strategy” I was at Caroline’s talk also and I guarantee that if anyone isn’t burying their heads in the sands with “hopeful” thinking it’s Caroline Glick. With her experience and knowledge of the entire ME, if she makes a well-analyzed point as to why something should NOT be of too much concern you can probably rest your hat on it. I found those points that she made to be actually reassuring. Remember, she is the ultimate realist.
No, Joe was not aware of it and I assure you if he did Sandusky would have been history.
First of all he was only aware of it was after Sandusky was no longer on his staff and a young assistant coach saw Sandusky in the shower with a teenager. He had access to the facilities as part of his tenure agreement with the university. The assistant coach told Joe the next day after consulting his father. However he was not explicit out of respect for the much older head coach. Joe then reported it to his supervisor the AD and told him to talk to the assistant. The AD along with the Financial VP who also heads the University police (they have same powers as those in the communities). It’s not sure what the assistant told them.
Unfortunately Joe did the right thing by reporting it to his supervisor the AD and told him to meet with the assistant and take care of it.
I agree with most everyting Caroline said, except that I am leary of annexing J&S right away, and giving citizenship to the Arabs there.
I have only spent a brief time in Israel, and Israelis here on this forum may be able to offer more insight, but from my communications with other Israelis, or Jews here who have family there, even the Palis that are already citizens of Israel are a HUGE problem in terms of crime, disloyalty, tax dodging, etc. Giving citizenship to those in J&S means roughly doubling this population in Israel. Israel may still maintain a Jewish majority and keep it through fertility, as proponents of annexation argue, but what is now a very big headache becomes twice as big in one stroke. And this new other half of the Pali population has been under PA rule now for decades, and is heavily brainwashed so as to be an even bigger headache still.
For that reason, at the very least, before doing anything “rash”, I’d work on promoting the Jordan-as-Palestine tack, and to the extent that is successful, try to get Palis in J&S (or in Israel generally) to move there first. The PA is going to have to be deligitimized and destroyed as well. I’d prefer to wait for them to make the first move before doing this, at least if Obama is going to be around…doing this pre-emptively in the absense of any further major provocation, while Obama is in office – which could be for as long as five more years – is a sure way of getting expelled from the UN and the PA taking Israel’s seat…followed by the “Rhodesia” treatment.
In the meantime, until such an opportunity presents itself, as a matter of political tactics/strategy, a possible interim posture might be to have a standing offer of Israel annexing the major communities in J&S contiguous with Israel, while offering the rest of J&S to Jordan-as-Palestine as a demilitarized buffer zone.
Right away, “pre-emptively”, I DO recommend abrogating Oslo – with the justification that the PA already had done so the moment they went to the UN for recognition – and declaring the PA illegitimate, nothing more than a terror organization, and not fit to negotiate anything with besides their dissolution. If they start Intifada Three in response, THEN CRUSH THEM, annex J&S, while maintainng the same standing offer to Jordan outlined above while things are ‘sorted out’. With the PA destroyed, no one can so easily get in the way of providing financial incentives to the Palis in J&S to move to Jordan, which should of course be encouraged. If Obama were still in the WH while this was happening, I’d still expect a big s***storm from the UN, but it would be a lot easier politically for Israel-friendly elements in the U.S. Congress to restrain Obama to the extent that Congress could, in terms of moving to “punish” Israel.
If a democratic Jordan-as-Palestine is not feasible, and along with that, if they simply won’t take J&S Palis even if they come with bags of money – a really stupid policy but I can see them being that stupid – then maybe formal annexation for all of J&S would have to be carried out along with giving citizenship to the Palis, as Ms. Glick suggests. But I would be leery of doing that right away.
As a longer term strategy, I also agree FULLY with Ms. Glick about diversifying Israeli international relationships away from the U.S. This cannot be done overnight, however, and in the near term, considerations dealing with the U.S. that I outline above will still be important.
IF Obama gets re-elected, and he doesn’t get impeached, facing five more years of him, I’d move as fast as reasonably possible towards diversification. The sooner, the better.
IF Romney gets in, it’s back to garden-variety Bush #43-style duplicity. But there’s still a bit more time. And at least Romney could probably be counted on to have Israel’s back at the UN.
IF Gingrich gets in – Hey, who knows? – There’s plenty of time. He’d be the most pro-Israel president in history, period. The party would be over for the Saudi anti-Israel machine here in the U.S., for the time being. Big setback for them, Gingrich would be.
But the long term is still dangerous. The colleges here just about uniformly brainwash the kids into hating Israel. The bad guys pretty much have a lock on that. There is SOME push back, but not nearly enough. All those stupid kids are tomorrow’s leaders….give you three guesses why Obama was SOOO popular among the collegiate types back in ’08…AND RON PAUL IS NOW. The college kids, above all else, want someone who’ll screw Israel. That is not b.s., that is the incredible reality. Here in my small midwestern city, the local college paper ran an editorial by one of their regular columnists, during the ’08 election season, in which the writer said that he’d no longer personally campaign for Obama after his speech to AIPAC; was “disappointed” that Obama didn’t appear to be willing to hold Israel to account. Finished the article with a plug for a talk being given by Mearsheimer at a nearby major school..wanted to know if any readers wanted to tag along. I swear I’m not making this up.
Ron, I have not followed this as I have bigger fish to fry, so I ask you – Did Paterno know about this and leave him on the staff? I don’t care if he wouldn’t recommend him for another school, did he know and leave him on the staff or provide cover for this in any way?
Lenny, your showing your ignorance. Joe did not shield Sandusky as a matter of fact he forced him to retire when he told him he would never be the head coach at PennState and Joe would not recommend him at any other school.
After he retired Sandusky was granted access to PennState facilities by the University, not Joe Paterno.
Joe had no reason to protect Sandusky, he wasn’t crazy about him and they were not social butterflies.
Just a another PennState hater, like worms crawling out from under the rocks.
I know Lenny, your hero is Obama, like the rest of the liberal American Jews who kiss his butt while he pushes Israel under the bus.
“Yamit, its a sad day at our home. A great loss to the PennState family. He built men from boys. He touched so many lives”
Paterno? You got to be kidding me. He shielded a child molester monster for a decade for the greater glory of JoePa. His whole reputation was as phony as a $20 dollar Rolex. He was a selfish prick who’s rotting in Hell right now. He turned Penn State into Pervert State. The place won’t recover for 25 years easy..
January 22, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Shy Guy and Felix,
I agree. Assad was weak, protective of himself and his regime above all else. Syria being one of the poorest Arab countries was in no position to harm Israel without jeopardizing himself, his family and his regime. The border with Syria has been Israels quietest since the 73’war.
As for Hamas and Hezbollah, Last I read Iran had dumped Hamas and Hezbollah is in charge of all of Lebanon and will continue to be an Iranian satellite no matter what happens in Syria. Hezbollah can be supplied either directly by air or sea from Iran if Syria becomes unfriendly in the future.
Even if there is a regime change in Syria it does not necessarily rule out business as usual between both Syria and Lebanon and
Iran even it it is the MB who takes control. Shia Iran and Sunni regimes do cooperate when it serves their interests.
I can guarantee what and whoever replaces Assad will be worse for Israel.
Yamit, its a sad day at our home. A great loss to the PennState family. He built men from boys. He touched so many lives.
She might have mentioned that she is just as leery of Israelis who vote the same way. But here is the rest of the summary posted above:
This is wise. The forces arrayed against Israel and the Jewish people represent a global evil with threats and influence that range outside of the influence of the US. It is only natural that Israel take its case to them on its own. The US should be relied upon only to the extent that its own citizens can rely on it, and there is no question that the US is failing its own citizens to the betterment of people squatting here against the interests of its own citizens.
I think we can expect a video on this appearance, or at least transcripts.
ron my condolence on the death of Joe P.
Laura, lets hope and pray Americans won’t make that mistake again.
I’m sorry Caroline feels cynical about the American people although I can’t blame her. I only hope we can rectify the mistake of four years ago come November.
Shy Guy and Felix,
I agree with both of you, that Israel should not get involved in the overthrow of Assad. That said, I think his ovethrow is planned by many and cannot be avoided. Israel’s main concern in the matter, which PM Netanyahu has already articulated, concerns the disposition of the many Missiles and especially possible WMDs in Syria. Although that is a concern, I don’t know whether Israel can do much about them openly. At best, I think they could work with friendlies in the country to try to locate them for destruction. I do not agree with Caroline that the demise of Assad would probably be good for Israel. I think it would probably be bad.
The Druse MIGHT ask for Israeli protection. Who knows?
You also are dreaming on but about something else.
Israel does not have the pull to play nation builder in Arab countries or anywhere else. In fact, neither does the US. In fact, such interference would only incite both the governments and the populace against Israel even more.
Israel’s problem is not that it doesn’t defend Arab despots. Israel’s problem is that it does not defend Israel.
OR – we will be forced to confront this in the only way that is going to work once and for all. Unrelentingly. At some point you have to pull the band aid off the injury and allow it to get air. These dictators were just masking an underlying problem that needs to be dealt with in the harshest manner. The music has ended, the dance is over.
Dream on Caroline Ted and Bland
Problem! They are not weakening they are replacing defeating murdering Assad. Just accept what happened in Egypt Libya.
Remember Caroline Hope is not a strategy.
I hate to say it because she analyses well and in a meticulous fashion but this is one of the worst examples of bankruptcy in Jewish leadership circles that I have seen.
The only solution was to defend Mubarak UNCONDITIONALLY, defend Muammar Gadhafi UNCONDITIONALLY, defend now Assad UNCONDITIONALLY. But do not get me wrong that is only the start but without THAT start nothing can start.
Present Jewish leaders cannot do this. They lead the Jews into greater and greater danger.
Thanks Ted. I’m envious. Wish I was there to hear Caroline in person.
I generally agree with Caroline. Her funniest comment is:
Her most profound, but obvious, comment is:
Her most thought-provoking comment is:
The thought provoked in ME, is that with enfranchisement of J&S Arabs, the leftists would become Israel’s kingmakers. If Israel is a political nightmare today with its four factions (Arabs, Left, Right and Religious), it will be political hell on earth under the Arab-Religious-Center three-way tug of war that will ensue. I favor annexing Yosh, but forming a federalist government wherein Israel is divided into states. This will ensure a permanent Jewish majority by creating a TWO-way tug of war (Jewish vs. Arab) that cuts out the Jewish religious. Otherwise, leftist and secularist Jews and non-haredi Zionists would be forced into a “Center” group to counterbalance Arab interests; and the religious Jews would exploit the divide to indefinitely extend their privileged status as a bloated First Estate.