Bringing Bibi down

By Caroline B. Glick, JWR

The media and the Obama administration are again colluding with the Israeli Left’s political leadership to overthrow the Netanyahu government. How they intend to succeed at their goal

Over the past week, two writers published columns in foreign newspapers. One received wall to wall coverage in Israel. The other was completely ignored. The contrasting fortunes of the articles are a key to understanding the central challenges to Israel’s democratic order.

Last Friday, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority’s chief peace negotiator with Israel published an op-ed in Britain’s Guardian newspaper in which he declared eternal war on the Jewish state. This he did by asserting that any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that does not permit the immigration of some 7 million foreign Arabs to Israel will be “completely untenable.”

So as far as the supposedly moderate chief Palestinian negotiator is concerned, a peace deal in which Israel cedes Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the Israeli Left desires will not be sufficient for the Palestinians. Unless Israel also agrees to commit national suicide by accepting 7 million foreign Arabs as citizens, the Palestinians will continue to wage their war. So with or without a Palestinian state, as long as Israel exists, the Palestinians will continue to seek its destruction.

The second article was Tom Friedman’s latest column in the New York Times.

Throughout his interminable career, Friedman has identified with Israel’s radical Left and so been the bane of all non-leftist governments. In his latest screed, he compared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to someone in the throes of an LSD trip. Friedman harangued Netanyahu for failing to convince his cabinet to agree to the Obama administration’s demand to abrogate Jewish property rights in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem for another 90 days. He argued that by doing so, Israel — with some help from the Palestinians — is destroying all chance of peace.

So on the one hand, the chief Palestinian negotiator declared eternal war. And on the other hand, Friedman condemned Netanyahu — for the gazillionth time.

And characteristically, the Israeli media ignored Erekat’s article and gave Friedman’s screed around-the-clock coverage.

Despite its hysteria, the media has not fooled the public. The Israeli people don’t need to hear about Erekat’s declaration of war to know that the supposedly moderate Fatah party is just as committed to Israel’s destruction as Hamas. Israelis know that the majority of terrorist attacks carried out by the Palestinians since 2000 have been conducted by Fatah. They know that the US- and EU-financed and trained Palestinian security services commanded the Palestinian jihad that began in 2000. They know that Fatah is behind much of the political warfare being carried out today against Israel throughout the world. The disparity between the pubic and the media comes across very clearly in a poll released last week by the Brookings Institute. A mere eight percent of Israelis believe that Israel and the Palestinians will achieve a lasting peace in the next five years. 91percent of Israeli Jews and 88 percent of Israeli Arabs think either that more time is needed or that there will never be peace.

Despite the sentiments of the public, there is a class of Israeli leaders that acts as though peace is just around the corner and that the public expects them to deliver it. Not unlike Friedman, for the most part these politicians argue that the Israeli government bears either sole responsibility or the lion’s share of responsibility for the absence of peace. Consequently, they argue that all that is required to achieve peace is an Israeli leader willing to do what it takes to make it happen.

Over the weekend, opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak were in Washington for the annual Middle East peace process conclave at the Brookings Institute’s Saban Forum. In their addresses to the forum and in media interviews, both politicians followed the Israeli media’s lead by ignoring Erekat and parroting Friedman.

Barak brazenly rejected the policies of the government he serves by calling for the division of Jerusalem in the framework of a final peace accord with Israel.

As for Livni, she eschewed every semblance of propriety during her stay in the US capital. During a joint appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” with the unelected Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, Livni viciously attacked the Netanyahu government. Livni criticized Netanyahu for not accepting the Obama administration’s call to abrogate Jewish property rights. She attacked him for not forming a leftist government with Kadima and Labor. She made it clear that she doesn’t believe that Netanyahu is interested in peace.

Echoing Barak’s assertion at the Saban Forum that being a Zionist means supporting a Palestinian state, Livni asserted that by surrendering to the Palestinians, and agreeing to every US demand, Israel is advancing its own existential interests.

On the so-called Palestinian refugee issue, while stipulating that Israel could not accept immigration of foreign Arabs to its truncated borders, she said nothing about Erekat’s Guardian article. And she voiced no objection when Fayyad intimated that a Palestinian compromise on this issue is not in the offing. From Livni’s perspective, the only one acting in bad faith is Netanyahu.

Barak and Livni’s behavior was not wrong simply because it is classless to attack your country’s elected leadership while visiting in foreign lands. It was wrong because in behaving as they did, they showed extraordinary disrespect for the 92 percent of Israelis who do not share their professed belief that peace is just around the corner.

So what were they after in Washington? Why did they embrace the views of a mere 8 percent of the electorate while treating 92 percent of their countrymen with contempt? And why did they choose to launch their assault on the government from Washington? In truth Barak and Livni were simply following what has become the standard operating procedure for leftist politicians over the past twenty years. They were playing to two constituencies that they prize more than they prize the public.

They were playing to the US administration and the Israeli media.

Barak is an old hand at this game. During Netanyahu’s first tenure as prime minister, Barak used then president Bill Clinton to bring down Netanyahu’s government and get himself elected in his place. After Barak made clear that he would be far more accommodating towards Yassir Arafat than Netanyahu was, Clinton went out of his way to demonize and isolate Netanyahu. He pressured Netanyahu’s coalition partners to abandon his government. And when Netanyahu’s government finally fell, Clinton dispatched his senior political strategists James Carville, Stanley Greenberg and Robert Schrum to run Barak’s campaign.

Since Netanyahu appointed him Defense Minister, Barak has been racking up frequent flier miles on the Tel-Aviv-Washington line. Barak travels to Washington at least once a month. Amazingly, he always happens to come home with recommendations consonant with the administration’s whims.

Livni was similarly richly rewarded for her willingness to attack Netanyahu while sitting next to Fayyad on American television. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton treated Livni like the most esteemed politician in Israel. Clinton steadfastly ignored the fact that 91 percent of Israelis think Livni’s views are utter nonsense. And after accusing Netanyahu of lacking the courage to embrace the cause of peace, Clinton ostentatiously hosted Livni for an hour-long private meeting.

Livni’s party, Kadima, is a media creation. Whereas every other political party in Israel was formed by citizens who felt they needed to organize politically to empower their voices, Kadima was the brainchild of the media. The media colluded with Likud leaders who were disenchanted with their voters. The likes of Ha’aretz, Yediot Ahronot and Channel Two convinced these Likud politicians to join forces with breakaways from the Labor party, who also held their voters in contempt.

As Barak’s rise to power in 1999 makes clear, the media’s bid to demonize the Right and undermine Israel’s alliance with the US in the hopes of restoring the Left to power is nothing new. But this week, a leading media siren was kind enough to expose the media’s entire strategy for disenfranchising the public. Ha’aretz’s veteran columnist Akiva Eldar performed this service in a pair of articles published Tuesday in the Guardian and Ha’aretz.

Eldar co-authored his Guardian article with his comrade Carlo Strenger. It was their response to Erekat’s declaration of eternal war. Eldar’s main message to Erekat was that he should keep his plans to himself. Certainly he shouldn’t be blabbing about them in a place the Israeli public was liable to see them. It could wreck the media’s entire plan to discredit the government.

Eldar and Strenger scolded, “Erekat”s article is disappointing. He is not just a private citizen, but the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, and he knows Israel and its internal dynamics very well. He knows that raising the right of return at this moment plays into the hands of Israel’s right wing: they will be able to say: ‘We always told you so: the two-state solution is just a Palestinian plot to incorporate the Jewish state into the Greater State of Palestine.'”

But then again, as Eldar showed in his article in Ha’aretz, Erekat doesn’t really have anything to worry about. Eldar and his comrades will keep the Israeli public in the dark about Erekat’s determination to destroy Israel.

Ignoring completely what Erekat wrote, Eldar’s column in Ha’aretz started where Friedman’s ended. He placed all the blame for the absence of a peace process on Netanyahu’s shoulders. He accused Netanyahu of destroying Israel’s alliance with the US by not embracing Obama’s latest request to abrogate Jewish property rights in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. He then claimed that due to Netanyahu’s behavior, the Obama administration has decided to follow in the Clinton administration’s footsteps and overthrow his government.

As Eldar put it, “When Clinton recently invited Kadima leader Tzipi Livni to a private meeting, this signified an unofficial announcement that Netanyahu’s account in Washington has been closed.”

He continued, “Twelve years ago, when Hillary Clinton’s husband realized that? [Netanyahu] had no intention of honoring his signature (on the Wye River Accord with Yasser Arafat), that was Netanyahu’s last stop before being sent back to his villa in Caesarea.”

So this is the game. The media and the US administration are again colluding with the Israeli Left’s political leadership to overthrow the Netanyahu government. They are willfully ignoring both the will of Israel’s voters and the declared commitment of their favorite “moderate” Palestinians to fight Israel until it is destroyed in order to blame the absence of peace on Netanyahu.

This game can stop. But two things must happen first.

The Obama administration and the US foreign policy establishment that supports it must pay a price for seeking to undermine the elected government of the US’s most important strategic ally in the region. And Israeli voters — who gave Kadima more mandates in the Knesset than any other party in the last elections — must abandon Livni and her Astroturf party.

Until these things begin to happen we can expect our media to continue to collude with its American partners, and with Livni and Barak to undermine the will of the public.

December 17, 2010 | 23 Comments »

Leave a Reply

23 Comments / 23 Comments

  1. Agreed. I would rather have tap dancing, poker playing Bibi over Livni or Olmert. I just wish that he could roar the truth every once in a while and spend less time tap dancing.

  2. Dov Bar Lieb writes:
    Netanyahu could form a government with whomever he darn well pleased.

    With all due respect, Bibi is the best person to deal with Imam Obama at this time. His opponents deliberately misconstrue the poker game he plays with everyone. Previously you had Livni and Olmert. Imagine if they had been there now.

  3. Actually we voted for Katzela and National Union. Netanyahu could have just as easily formed a government with National Union giving him 65 mandates in his coalition, thereby excluding Labour altogether. I believe the Israeli voters voted for this. But in Israel’s peculiar system of proportional representation, Netanyahu could form a government with whomever he darn well pleased. The Likud Central Committee saw to it that the rank and file of Likud of whom 25% are Feiglin supporters could not hold Bibi’s feet to the fire for forming a coalition with Labour. The fault for Barak being in this coalition is systemic to Israel’s form of democracy. It is not the fault of Israel’s voters.

    Perhaps another form of democracy would have better served Israel over its first 62 years. District representation, though, probably is not workable here because the country is simply too tiny to accommadate 120 separate districts. But democracy is the best system that Man has established to govern himself. Of course, the Kingdom of G-d is the only system better than democracy. I guess we will do much better with a benevolent, enlightened, G-d fearing monarchy set up by a true Prophet named Eliyahu along with a 70 member Supreme Court and legislature of sages called a Sanhedrin. This seems to be about to happen, a lot sooner than most people think.

  4. Yamit writes:
    I say Obama has shown courage and wisdom in dealing with Iran and the Muslim world considering the deck he was handed by that abominable Bush.

    Two wars and an economic meltdown.

    Once again we see Yamit resisting the facts and promoting the liberal Jewish view on America by putting a happy face the actions of Imam Obama and the Democrats.

    Iran was scared of Bush. No one in the Muslim world is scared of Imam Obama. Can anyone conceive of Obama initiating pre-emptive strikes when the need arose as Bush did TWICE? Clinton and Obama would have still been fiddling at the UNSC while Afghanistan and Iraq burned.

    The two wars benefited Israel indirectly by sending scores of Israel’s natural enemies to Allah. How many suicide bombings have there been in Israel since Saddam’s bounties to their families stopped?

    Before Bush Yasser Arafat had a virtual suite in the White House. Bush shunned him from day one. Accepting the notion of a 2-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians in the middle-east has been US policy for decades and actually started with the Zionist founders of Israel. It would have been a fait accompli if the Palestinians had only accepted Israel. Now we have an unholy mess with no end in sight short of all out war to finally decisively settle the opposing claims.

    Obama and the Democrats were directly responsible for the economic meltdown because they weakened the banking sector by forcing banks to lend to people who couldn’t repay their loans. Imam Obama was the largest recipient of campaign funds per year from the PACs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs and AIG, all major culprits in the scam that caused the housing bubble which then collapsed as the financial crisis.

    The US annual deficits averaged 3.4% over Bush’s 8 years. They are 11% now. Obama and the Democrats increased the national debt by $5 trillion in the 4 years since they took over the Legislature, after it was $8 trillion over the previous 230 years. In the same time the unemployment rate went from 5% under Bush to 10% now.

    Dov Bar Lieb writes:
    Why is Barak still in the government?

    Dov, why are you and Yamit and the other chest-thumpers not in the government? Having trouble getting elected are we? Did you prefer Livni or Olmert to Bibi? Wise up.

  5. You Tube just closed down Palestinian Media Watch’s account for hate speech although the hate speech that You Tube quoted were videos showing the hatred of the PA and Hamas. It looks like that the World is closing in for the kill by August. There is no way to fight the media war if You Tube closes down the account of a group that exposes the truth about the PA. Hasbarah deficiencies cannot be overcome if the Internet closes its portals to it. Arguments cannot be made so that noone will be convinced. No, we only have G-d now. We cannot fight this battle ourselves. It is the perfect storm as Glenn Beck likes to say. We can only turn to HaShem to save us. As it says in Exodus 14 as G-d is about to split the Sea, “HaShem shall do battle for you, and you shall remain silent.” As it was in the Redemption from Egypt, so it will be at the Final Redemption only more spectacular, complete, and everlasting. Sadly the hard part comes first.

  6. I goofed on Ghajar’s history. Apparently the northern part of Ghajar was part of Lebanon. All of Ghajar was originally in its southern half. It prospered under Israeli sovereignty and started expanding northward in 1978 when Southern Lebanon was given over to the Free Lebanon Army which later became the South Lebanon Army. In 1981 when the Golan Hts. was annexed by Israel, the northern part of Ghajar was included in the maps of the Golan that was officially annexed. It would have been cruel to separate the two halves of the village which included members of the same families from each other. In 2000 Barak unilaterally withdrew from Southern Lebanon, dividing the village in two, obviously not caring about the dispensation of the relatives in both halves of the village. In the 2nd Lebanon War in 2006 the village was again reunited. Again the issue of abandoning family members in the northern part comes into question. Here is what seems to be a factual article on the subject: http://www.rightsidenews.com/200908095888/world/terrorism/ghajar-problem-and-solution.html Now with the issue of Hezbollah coming in to control North Ghajar, a unilateral withdrawal from the north is all the more stupid and again cruel to the villagers who are very happy with their Israeli citizenship. If Bibi concedes to the UN which apparently he has, he is creating a much bigger mess. He is not a leader. He is as you say a tap dancer.

  7. Dan, this is brazen poppycock, with all due respect.

    Why is Barak still in the government? Netanyahu could have formed a right wing government with Katzele and his National Union Party. He could have left the Erev Rav (mixed multitude) traitors totally out in the cold, but he made one of them his Minister of Defense. He then sanctioned a ten month building freeze on Judea and Samaria and a de facto freeze on building in East Jerusalem for nothing in return. He knows that the PA can never and will never accept Israel as a Jewish State. Yet he did it anyway. Now he has abandoned the northern half of the Golan village of Ghajar to Unifil and Hezbollah. The good people of Ghajar have been Israeli citizens since 1981 when the Golan was annexed by the Begin government. The northern part of Ghajar, that supposedly was part of Lebanon at one time, was part of Syria until the 6 Day War. It was taken by the IDF in 1967 with the rest of the Golan. Why would Netanyahu even consider a unilateral withdrawal from Northern Ghajar, getting zip in return, just because the UN and Obama demand it. What gives him the right to abandon 1000 people who like their Israeli citizenship to the whims of Unifil and Hezbollah. I am sorry AmericanEagle, but Netanyahu may not be as bad as the Erev Rav, but because he has no abiding faith that G-d will protect him, he caves in so so easily to international demands. His son is a biblical scholar, and his wife Sara is a rock for the truth. But Bibi himself is no Lion for the truth. And at this time in our history, we need someone who can tell the world where to stick it.

    Regardless, the international troops are coming before the Jewish year 5771 comes to a close. Only a total economic collapse of the West will delay this by three or four years, or a nuclear war with North Korea may impinge on this coming about too. Besides that it looks like the Gog and Magog flood is about to arrive when Fayyed declares his state this coming August. Negotiations and Bibi’s tap-dancing will not stop this from happening. We need a Lion now not a tap dancer.

  8. I’m all for bringing Bibi down. My concern is that the israeli public is still way too sheepish to realize what’s needed to replace him.

  9. Netanyahu has shown courage, stamina, and wisdom against huge pressures. He’s clever, appearing to be agreeing to Obama’s abominable demands but throwing in a little clinker from time to time, trying to preserve Israel’s rights without declaring diplomatic war on the US. After as, he has to work within the framework of POLITICS and DIPLOMACY–two words to make an honest man cringe. He can’t just wave a magic wand and have the will of the 92% go forth, much as I think he would like to.

    If you believe that cooment of yours then why not this: ?

    I say Obama has shown courage and wisdom in dealing with Iran and the Muslim world considering the deck he was handed by that abominable Bush.

    Two wars and an economic meltdown.

  10. Netanyahu has shown courage, stamina, and wisdom against huge pressures. He’s clever, appearing to be agreeing to Obama’s abominable demands but throwing in a little clinker from time to time, trying to preserve Israel’s rights without declaring diplomatic war on the US. After as, he has to work within the framework of POLITICS and DIPLOMACY–two words to make an honest man cringe. He can’t just wave a magic wand and have the will of the 92% go forth, much as I think he would like to.

  11. Dan Friedman writes:
    The problem is not so much Obama as it is Bibi.

    Dan, this is brazen poppycock, with all due respect.

    You sound like one of the infamous 78%.

    Was it Bibi who sent an envoy to Hamas even before he was inaugurated, then apologized to all the Muslim dictators in Cairo for America’s past defense of freedom and democracy, and has been pressurizing Israel ever since to compromise with the Palestinian demands without demanding any concessions from them? Have you ever heard Imam Obama acknowledge that the Palestinians have never accepted Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state?

    Bibi is the best tap dancer that Israel has in this dance of evil that Imam Obama has been conducting, matching Imam Obama pretense for pretense and driving him to distraction. I am confidant that he will not give an inch – he has learnt a lesson from the debacles in Gaza and S. Lebanon, where concessions only emboldened the enemy and led to more hostility, not less.

    And, let’s not give the vociferous Yamit a pass here just because he is hiding under his desk. Just as we see from Dan, he has been mercilessly libeling Bibi as a sell-out at every opportunity.

  12. Arnold Harris states:

    Ehud Barak either is seriously deluded about Israel’s national enemies or is an open traitor to the Zionism he frequently proclaims

    Frankly, only his closest associates would know who Ehud Barak really is. I do know that in 2000, Yossi Beilin,Shlomo Ben Ami and he were practically on their knees asking Arafat to sign. Of course, fortunately for us, Arafat refused to sign as he knew that he would be assassinated by Fatah. It seems that Ehud Barak is still jockeying for position. Caroline has done a tremendous service by revealing this. For Bibi to get rid of Barak, the general population needs to be kept updated with a State-of-the-Union address by Bibi, so that the public sees though the game that Kadima is playing and before any replacement is found. The Brookings Institute poll quoted by Caroline is very critical. Liebermann is gaining more credibility; however, for the moment he needs to be kept away from the hyenas of the foreign press, especially Guardian, BBC, etc. Ashton, of the UK, is doing a good job of destroying the credibility of the Euros. Such a dhimmi!!

    Caroline needs to be included as a very close advisor in the foreign ministry. Arnold, if you have contact with Rev. Hagee of CUFI, perhaps a personal meeting to update him on these scoundrels, Barak and Livni, as well as Akiva Eldar, Amira Hass, David Landau et al and Ha’Aretz in particular would provide better coverage of the hijinks that Hillary and Obama are playing with Israel than anything we can do. Assertions by Jewish people only go so far. An American Evangelist saying that will also boost the Tea Party and Sarah Palin awareness of our situation. I do receive CUFI updates regularly. They are amazing in their support for Israel!! Probably, Ted can give you my email, if you would need a back-up. I am not too far from your end of the country.

    It won’t be long before Obama will capitalize on any foreign policy success he gets by using it for a second term. My impression is that, for now, he IS desperate.

  13. The problem is not so much Obama as it is Bibi. He swings with the wind and is quite willing to appease the Americans. In that regard he is a quisling to his principles, his party, and most of all his country.

    In every respect he has turned out to be a huge disappointment.

  14. December 18, 2010 at 7:27 pm
    The following news item made a big hit in Australia recently.

    This is one of the big news items on tonight’s news in Australia. The woman in the burqa was pulled over by the police because she was a “P” plate (provisional) driver and the plates weren’t displayed correctly. He asked her for her license and asked her to remove her burqa so that he knew it was her license. She then accuses him of being racist and that the only reason he pulled her over was because she was wearing a burqa. She then tells him he will be sorry and that she would take him to court. Then she contacted the media and says that he was very racist and touched her burqa and she was intimidated by him. However luckily for the policeman the police car’s video camera was operating and it was all caught on film. She has now been charged and supposedly is going to be jailed for 6 months and the judge said she was the racist one. Now her solicitor is saying it wasn’t her who made the complaint but someone else in a burqa and they are now saying she shouldn’t go to jail as she has 7 children.
    This video appears in http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/Video.aspx

  15. The solution of the Israeli Arab problem should be a simple declaration by Netanyahu to the World at large that Judea and Shomron, Gaza and the Golan are the patrimony of World Jewry thus, it is the State of Israel at perpetuity.

    A unilateral declaration of yet another Arab State, this time in the heart of Israel, should be a warning to all that this would not be tolerated and would be considered a ‘Declaration of War’… everyone will know then, which party is going to lose.

    Palestine and Palestinians represent the patrimony of the Jews, the nomenclature ‘Israel’ is its modern appellation.
    HBendor

  16. Cal,

    You know, a military anlalyist once wrote something to the effect that, “…the most amazing fiction ever written appears in a nation’s newspapers the day before they surrender..”.

    We can determine the degree of desperation emanating from the anti-Israel elements by the grandiosity of their lies.

    Recently, that Saudi whore, Christiana Amanpour, commented on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that mobs in London attacked the motorcade of Prince Charles because of British royal family support for Israel. That was quite a whopper indeed….

    In my neck of the woods, we have a rather larger than average Arab/Moslem population, which intimidates and perhaps bribes the primary local newspaper into being particularly anti-Israel. I knew they’d absolutely get hysterical when the talks collapsed, and true to form, they just published an unsigned “official” editorial excoriating Netanyahu in particular and Israel in general for the failure of the so-called “peace process”. It was jam-packed full of just about every lie the “other side” ever uses against Israel.

    So, Cal, you can piss and moan and bluster all you like. I’d say that, despite having the President of the United States squarely in your corner, IT STILL WOUND UP PALESTINIANS ZERO, ISRAEL ONE.

    The Saudis may have got their ‘stooge’ in the White House, but competent stooges who know how to run a country, who know how to run a foreign policy, that is harder to come by. This is their last gambit, and they are failing.

    We are a long way from winning ourselves, but you and your ilk have been stopped. You have no more forward momentum. Get used to losing…that is pretty much all you have to look forward to.

    AH, keep posting. Your stuff is terrific. I hope you are writing and posting elsewhere, too.

  17. cal, G-d led the Jews, His people back to the Holy Land, from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean, including Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights. They have G-d given rights to the Holy Land.

    For the Palestinians SEE. .

  18. To Cal:

    You are as ignorant, and an ‘OBOT’..nothing new, the smae talking points, and hate for the jewish people. May I remind you, that Israel is the chosen land given to them by the Almighty God?

    To Arnold Harris, and Laura:

    I totally agree with you!!

  19. Israel has dug its own grave. Either it stops crucifying the Palestinians and gives back most or all of the land it stole and now occupies or it will die a slow wretched death as the dung beetle of nations. It’s all over but the shouting. Palestinians 1, Jews 0.

  20. AH said,

    …leftist Israeli quislings…

    I would edit this, to read,

    …Israeli quislings…

    When you take away the windowdressing, “leftists” and “rightists” ultimately behave the same as each other. Viz Menachim Begin & Ariel Sharon, George W. Bush, …

  21. Like our own liberal democrats, the Israeli leftist politicians are detached from reality as well as unmoved by the wishes of the majority of their countrymen. It’s bad enough that clueless leftist elites here fail to grasp that no matter what land concessions Israel makes, it will never lead to peace because the goal of the “palestinians” is the obliteration of the Jewish state. However Israeli leaders wherever they are on the political spectrum ought to know better. Yet leftists like Livni and Barack continue to emphasize the importance of the “peace” process charade and falsely and maliciously blame the right wing in Israel for the lack of peace in order to obtain power for themselves. What they are doing is treacherous.

  22. I see I mis-worded the above comment in such a way it sounds as though Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! For America had founded Tikun Olam, a gang of self-hating leftist Jews of the worst type. In reality, Ms Gabriel is one of the most pro-Israeli and pro-Zionist speakers to whom I have listened in many years.

    Ted, I belatedly discovered that your blogsite permits me to edit my own comments. But apparently only for a brief amount of time after the originally “post comment” button was clicked. Is there any way you can get your website designer to fix this so that commenter can edit their own comments at any time they are properly signed in with their registered name and password?

    Thanks for any help you can provide. I know, I really should be writing comments first in MS Word, which has its own spelling and syntax checking features. But copying and pasting comments can be a major nuisance.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI

  23. Ted,

    Plainly, the Obama administration is trying to bring down the Netanyahu government in an effort to replace it with a gang of leftist Israeli quislings, exactly as Clinton helped accomplished by engineering Barak’s takeover a number of years ago. The key quisling in Netanyahu’s government is Ehud Barak, who is both defense minister and chief of the moribund and probably dying Labor Party. So it is equally plain that Netanyahu’s cabinet should remove Barak from his post as defense minister and let his stew in his own juices with the rest of the opposition back-benchmen. The will of the Jewish nation is that Yehuda, Shomron, Golan and eastern Jerusalem shall be reserved for Jewish settlement and never surrendered — especially not to an enemy population that sees itself at perpetual war with the Jewish nation and whose leadership openly admits it shall never recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

    Ehud Barak either is seriously deluded about Israel’s national enemies or is an open traitor to the Zionism he frequently proclaims. His opposition to the rights of his fellow Jews to build homes and live in whatever part of Aretz-Yisrael are under control of the government of the State of Israel, and his endless efforts to sabotage the policy of the government in which sits as a key minister means that he serves President Baraek Hussein Obama and not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But no man can equally serve two masters, especially where their policies are at cross purposes not only with one another, but where his American master in Washington is now thoroughly distrusted and held in contempt by the majority of the American nation.

    The time has come for the Netanyahu cabinet to remove Barak. This would be the strongest signal to date that Israel has no intentions of being answerable to any power other than that of the eternal Jewish nation, the works of the sages of that nation, and especially, to the voters, residents and taxpayers of the State of Israel.

    And do not for a moment think that the great American nation will raise its voice to condemn Netanyahu for asserting Israel’s independence from Obama, Clinton and their liberal gang. It will be a long time before anything like this bunch ever controls the levers of power in this country again. So don’t judge us by the Thomas Friedmans. They speak for the discredited left. Israel has the support of the overwhelming majority of the United States Congress, which controls Obama’s power by controlling his appointments and his budgets.

    Moreover, the Jewish nation has the strong, unstinting and selfless support of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), who themselves represent the prevalent teachings of the 65 million Americans of the Evangelical Christian churches; along with numerous largescale political groups such as the new Tea Party, Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! For America (ACA), and many others, none of whom have any connection with the leftist and frequently self-hating and self-despising leftist Jews of the Tikun Olam variety, organized by a Christian Lebanese woman who tells her audiences all across this land of how the forces of the State of Israel in Lebanon saved her life from the Islamist terrorists who have worked for almost a century to destroy the Christian community of that country. Israel has more friends around this country than you ever could imagine, especially now that Amrica’s enemies have lined up solidly against Israel.

    For starters, what is the present composition of the Netanyahu’s governing coalition? If Barak is booted out, could Netanyahu’s coalition win a no-confidence vote in the Knesset? I only know about a couple of the parties, but I naturally tend to favor groups such as those led or influenced by Katzele, Feiglin and Liberman, as you would expect from somebody like me, who learned his Zionism from Dr Israel Eldad and Rav Meir Kahane. I think a lot of Israpundit readers and commenters would better trust information on Israel’s politics from you and your friends than from the usual gang of lukewarm Zionists who seem to run the Jerusalem Post and other elements of the Israeli media.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI