By Ted Belman
The GOP decries the use of antisemetic imagery by Ron Paul’s Tea Party. And so they should. The poster is disgusting.
It is one thing for the Tea Party to be against taxes and its a second thing to be against giving Israel money. Its a whole other thing when they suggest that this money enables Israel to kill Palestinians.
As I have noted before, there are two camps in the tea party. The isolationists lead by Ron Paul, not his son Rand Paul, and that part lead by Sarah Palin. She is unabashedly, pro-Israel and pro-military. But both groups support the limited government and lower taxes.
Can Sarah have the support of the Tea Party, without compromising her principles? I believe that she would lose the support of the TP, if it came to that, before losing her principles.
But then she would only be losing the support of part of it. In any event she will not be running under the TP ticket. She will run as a Republican. It is for the TPiers to support her or not. They will support her regardless.
By the way I got into an argument with a young Obama lover and he said the Tea Party was racist. I decided to google for any connection. I found a poll that said the members of the Tea Party are 36% more likely to be racist than white non -Tea Party members.
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Rand Paul and the Perils of Textbook Libertarianism
NYT
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Rand Paul’s remarks on the Civil Rights Act put Sarah Palin in a difficult position. But she stood by her man
Chris Wallace asked her about the controversy.
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WALLACE: Let’s start with the controversy over Rand Paul, who, of course, just won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky. You were a big early supporter of Mr. Paul.
As you know, he’s now under fire for criticizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act for banning discrimination in private establishments. First of all, do you think that Rand Paul is right or wrong about that? And secondly, what do you think of this whole controversy?
PALIN: I think Rand Paul is right in his clarifications about what he means and his interpretation of the impacts of the Civil Rights Act. He — he’s right on when he says he is a supporter of civil rights. He’s a supporter of the Civil Rights Act and equal rights. He would have marched with Martin Luther King Jr., he said.
And he will oppose any efforts to diminish or erode away any aspect of the Civil Rights Act, so he’s supportive. And I think there is certainly a double standard at play here.
When Rand Paul had anticipated that he’d be able to engage in a discussion, he being a libertarian-leaning constitutional conservative, being able to engage in a discussion with a TV character, a media personality, who perhaps had an agenda in asking the question and then interpreting his answer the way that she did, he wanted to talk about, evidently, some hypotheticals as it applies to impacts on the Civil Rights Act, as it impacts our Constitution.
So he was given the opportunity finally to clarify, and unequivocally he has stated that he supports the Civil Rights Act.
WALLACE: Do you see some similarities to what politicians and the press did to you in the fall of 2008?
PALIN: Yeah, absolutely. So you know, one thing that we can learn in this lesson that I have learned and Rand Paul is learning now is don’t assume that you can engage in a hypothetical discussion about constitutional impacts with a reporter or a media personality who has an agenda, who may be prejudiced before they even get into the interview in regards to what your answer may be — and then the opportunity that they seize to get you.
You know, they’re looking for that “gotcha” moment. And that’s what it evidently appears to be that they did with Rand Paul, but I’m thankful that he was able to clarify his answer about his support for the Civil Rights Act.
WALLACE: Having said all that, Governor, Rand Paul is a strong libertarian, and even some conservatives have doubts about some of his positions. Let’s put them up on the screen.
He wants to close the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay. He wants to repeal the Patriot Act. He wants to abolish the Department of Education and he wants to end subsidiaries for farmers.
Does he carry his political philosophy too far? Should he tone it down, particularly in a campaign for the U.S. Senate?
PALIN: [she wisely begs off] Well, I won’t speak to each one of Rand Paul’s positions because no candidate is going to be the ideal or the perfect candidate in any voter’s mind. Rand Paul is not a perfect, always-to-be-agreed- with candidate. Nobody is.
But Rand Paul is a libertarian. He’s clear in his libertarian leanings. He asks questions about implications as it applies to our Constitution, our economy, our society when a law is proposed and a law is enacted.
And I think that more of those who serve in the Senate, and Rand we anticipate will be serving in the Senate, should ask questions about the constitutionality of policies that are proposed. I think more questions should be asked as to the impacts. And Rand isn’t going to be shy about asking the questions.
WALLACE: Let’s turn to another subject. Millions of gallons of oil are continuing to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. You, of course, are a big supporter of offshore drilling. You popularized the phrase “drill, baby, drill.” Does this disaster give you any pause, Governor?
PALIN: I am a big supporter of domestic extraction of the resources that we are so reliant on, versus relying on foreign sources of energy, relying and beholden upon regimes that can use energy as a weapon and have less stringent environmental standards than we have. I am still a strong supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted.
Having said that, these oil companies have got to be held accountable when there is any kind of lax and preventative measures to result in a tragedy like we’re seeing right now in the gulf.
Alaska has been through that. I’ve live and worked through that Exxon Valdez oil spill. I know what it takes to hold these oil companies accountable, and we need to see more of that. But we are still reliant on petroleum products and oil and gas.
And I’m a supporter of offshore drilling but also onshore drilling. Maybe this is a lesson, too, for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land, like in ANWR and NPRA, other areas of Alaska. Let us drill there where it is even safer than way offshore.
WALLACE: Governor, I want to pick up on the point that you just made, which is that you did, as governor of Alaska, go after oil companies, including B.P. in several cases. How do you think the Obama administration has handled the oil spill so far?
PALIN: Well, I think that there is perhaps a hesitancy to — I don’t really know how to put this, Chris, except to say that the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now — I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration.
If there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico — now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn’t received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case in terms of asking questions why the administration didn’t get in there, didn’t get in there and make sure that the regulatory agencies were doing what they were doing with the oversight to make sure that things like this don’t happen. [..]
WALLACE: Governor, we only got a couple of minutes left. I just want to ask you a little bit about Sarah Palin. So far, you’ve endorsed 15 candidates. You’re traveling around the country, to Republican events, to Tea Party events.
What’s your game plan between now and November? What are you going to do? What do you hope to accomplish?
PALIN: I’m going to keep this up. I’m going to keep out there talking to people, hearing from people, those who desire a less intrusive government in our businesses, in our lives and in our family matters.
I’m going to keep speaking with them and helping to empower them to effect this change that is so needed in the midterms. It’s a fun gig. It’s a great thing to get to do, to be across the country with my family, speaking to these awesome Americans who are quite concerned about our country.
WALLACE: Finally, the last time we talked with you back in February you said honestly you will consider running for president depending on what you think is best for the country and what’s best for the Palin family.
Assuming that Republicans do well in November, and that your kind of Republican does well, would that push you more in the direction of making the run?
PALIN: You know, it really comes down to it not being about me or what I want or what I predict is going to happen. This is all about what the voters of America are in the mood for.
And if the voters of America are in the mood for a kind of unconventional, candid, honest public servant, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be me, but if that’s what they’re in the mood for, they’re going to let that be known and they’re going to help really propel and push that candidate forward. And then that candidate, of course, will make the decision whether to run or not. Don’t know if that’s going to be me, Chris. [It is obvious that Palin is hoping for a draft]
WALLACE: But it could be you?
PALIN: As I’ve always said, I’m not going to close any door that perhaps would be open. But you know, this is not about me. But I do appreciate the platform that I’ve been given, the opportunities that I have to be out there speaking to these good, hard-working, average, everyday, patriotic Americans who want to see the positive change in our country that they deserve.
Why I Love Barack Obama
Ted Belman wants to see Israel destroyed!!!
No not really but if he gets his hearts desire, as friendly and return to patronizing past American governments policies since I guess all of them. We will be as good as dead if not in fact.
Were Israel to have as Felix points out ever so frequently that we need leadership, a leadership that elevated Israeli independence over superficial and mostly negative benefits of our dysfunctional relationship with America than I position vis a vis Obama and America I’m sure would be different.
We don’t however have such a leadership and none on the horizon either so I am depending on Obama to do the right thing for us DISENGAGE!!!
Hpefully that disengagement will be to tonic that might just save us from, …..You name it!!!!!
I don’t want for us a savior like he believes Palin will be. I don’t want the help of the Christians or the leftist (Jewish, sic) Jews in America. I want our leadership to have no choice but to do that which they were elected and swore under oath to do. defend and protect our country and the Israeli people against any threat to us no matter the cost and to who will pay it.
Ted is a non believing rationalist and no different than the bulk of the corn fed here and there. Your kind have had 62 years to prove your world outlook correct. You have failed to prove yur position. Time has come for my world view to have a chance. Obama is key to that end.
Sadly, Yamit, I must agree with you. History repeats, but the same thing doesn’t happen exactly the same way. What we are seeing is fascism inverted—like the cover of Johna Goldberg’s book—but it is still fascism. However, this time fascism has greater global appeal because its racism is cloaked in racial and social equality, rather than superiority.
Yes, Johnson’s Great Society played a big part, but no more than FDR or Wilson who laid much of the foundation.
It’s been a long social war, over a century; and we are now headed for a final battle of epic proportions. Global economic depression is likely unavoidable; this will add to the already existing tensions ending with a world conflict that will make WWII preferable. Think gold is up too high now? Ha! Just wait.
Randy American stat-ism is well entrenched and at least since Johnson it is ever more encompassing. Look at the numbers and % of Americans employed in the public sector under Johnson and today. Ho many government agencies existed then , how many today. States have even compounded the Federal Government by an increase well above the population growth rate in most states.
When I grew up in America it was a given that working for the government State or Federal governments you were going to earn much less than in the private sector but job security and benefits helped to bridge the gab between incomes.
Today, Government workers still retain that job security with wonderful packages of benefits and are earning more than in the private sector.
America will in ten years at current rates of debt and borrowing be only able to pay the interest on that debt which will approximate the whole of American GDP.
America knows she has a drinking problem but refuses to face the reality of going through detox, and keeps stocking up on booze with other peoples money. 50% +/- of working Americans pay no income tax. That’s not Statism?
Bush against lots of advice invaded Iraq second only to the Saudis with proven oil reserves when the price of crude was under 15$ and the oil companies in danger of going belly up. Since then I don’t have to tell anyone what profits the oil companies have been pulling in and on top of that Bush gave them big tax breaks. Why should American oil companies take on enormous costs and risk with so much bureaucratic restrictions and oversight? Why should they opt for that when getting concessions at no or little risk can be had from Middle eastern autocrats. There is no shortage of oil; anybody with money can buy oil even on the Rotterdam spot market. The supply is controlled to keep prices high and if demand dips so does available supply in order to maintain price levels. So the oil companies are making out like bandits they are, the sheiks are cleaning up, The dictators have money to develop nukes and modern weapons that keep Some of Americas biggest going.Then
the dollars are recycled in Buying American politicians and corporate America.
When Felix calls on the American worker I laugh. Who and what is today the American worker? Overpaid parasite who work for the state? the other 60% in non productive service industries? Less than ten % work in productive jobs that produce a salable and needed product.
America has lost her political independence long ago because she allowed greed and short term corp profit to override the common sense that you keep your productive capacity at almost any price because once they are gone they are gone for good.
All this Bahblat of Individualism vs. collectivism is rot drivel because if you can’t pay your bills and are living off the work and sweat of others you also have lost your capacity and moral right to individualism.
In short America is a schnoror nation. ( A beggar nation ). Now Israel today keeps American aid because it ties Israel to America or America to Israel, depending how you want to view it but Our political leaders want that aid as it gives America control and final say as to what Israel can or can’t do. It relieves our leaders from making decisions that they would rather not. If things go wrong blame it on the Americans. The aid keeps our cowardly politicians in office with built in deniablity and the excuse that they were left with no choice . It’s what the Americans wanted.
Palin wants more oil because it’s good for Alaska and herself but why not spend like crazy for oil energy alternatives?
Pass laws requiring every new home to have solar heat, hot water and even electric at least partially as a hybrid system! Tax credits for older homes and businesses. diesel engines will run on almost any combustible fuel, even vegetable oils. Electric cars and hydrogen powered are a reality why hold back. America owns GM and Chrysler. What’s their excuse now?
A nation not independent economically cannot be politically independent.
Collectivism in America cannot be reversed until the American people are willing to pay the price for a return to economic independence, destruction of the labor unions, the halving of the public sector workforce. I don’t see it in the cards.
Felix, it is simple—statism vs. freedom, the collective vs. the individual. The idea that the state will protect us from corrupt individuals is flawed in that the state always ends up being run by, corrupt individuals. Once you have a state that can enforce order on all points beforehand, corruption becomes universal and almost inescapable.
I will grant you that greedy capitalists exist, but being individuals they are not universal in power as a government can be. Government given universal power will have less virtue than capitalists who face competition. A government fix is is almost always worse than the problem it addresses; and it is usually the source of the problem.
Yamit wrote
I am really struggling on my own blog http://www.4international.wordpress.com and I am certain it will always be a struggle.
So indeed I have sympathy for Ted.
But I do agree with Yamit82 for sure, and he is touching on what the role of leadership actually is.
On palin, there is certainly something happening here, but I am not at all sure what yet, it is far more complex than presented, because I think it relates to the division in America, between those who are loyal to the American Revolution, against those who want to tear up tradition etc.
This though is undercut by the overall crisis in the capitalist system, so that palin can be progressive to Israel tpoday, when in power the crisis can drive here and she becomes the worst enemy.
Ted has always looked for a section of American Imperialism to come to the aid of Israel.
I believe that independence of Israel has to start from theoretical independence, ideological independence.
The issue of htis Flotilla is most important and it raises all of the questions, leadership from the Israeli rulers, the role of Turkey, role of antisemitic Europe, how to fight antisemitism, uselessness of the Israeli Embassies and much more.
It is on these issues that leadership will be fought for.
He lacks yamit’s boyish good looks.
I like that one.
Not that you want my approval.
Just that you are saddled with it.*
*Please note the Jewish lone star
Tourette’s syndrome? AA (Angelena Ayn): At least get the name right. What the hell are you talking about?
All right.
I tried.
Some people are not worth it.
Mbrach, you need a tougher skin. Some humility to go along with that might be good in the way you present yourself. It would also be helpful if you lightened up and displayed at least a bit of a sense of humour.
How different are you then Yamit or Ayn when you tear strips off them or suggest that I am tripping on LSD for merely inviting you to stop with the mud slinging and speak to the issues?
Look in the mirror Mbrach and you will see the same quality of self righteous indignation that you accuse others of.
What makes you think I would have seen your earlier comments, which I didn’t and thus judge you as you see yourself, as an even keeled, fair minded and rational centrist?
As for your other more relevant comments on the issues that you have mixed into your little diatribe against Yamit, Ayn and Ted, they are interesting and well stated.
Felix is also an anti-capitalists.
Tourette’s syndrome? AA (Angelena Ayn): At least get the name right. What the hell are you talking about?
I don’t know if I am a liberal. I’m pretty centrist. I hate self-righteous people and political and religious extremists of all shades and variations.
Narvey: participate on this blog in a “cogent” way? Please, are you tripping on LSD? If so, wait until you come down off it. I originally several weeks ago posted on here calling for more rational discussion than calling Abe Foxman a Judenrat (“emphasis on the rat” to quote YY, Yamit the Yammerer) and was in short order deluged with every sort of sarcasm and insult, including being called a schmuck by aforementioned YY. I have limited time to read or to post anything. When I do so I don’t enjoy being insulted and react very angrily when I am. So I’m going back to lurking for the time being. Let AA and YY, when they’re not conducting their version of long distance internet sex, amuse and entertain you with their profundity and erudition.
We need a liberal voice on this blog, so why don’t you cast aside the Tourette Syndrome and make your case that Obama is more intelligent than Palin.
I forgot to add for Belman something my mother (OLM) would say when she saw some of my cohorts during my teenage years: nice blog, and nice group of friends, you run around with, Belman. I began my post yesterday with trepidation, for fear that saying something against the sarcastic and know-it-all tone of yamit and Angelena Ayn would bring insults and sarcasm directed my way. I originally called for less incivility (going back to my posts about Abe Foxman). I should have know better. On the other hand, based on their posts yesterday,
I repeat, nice blog, and nice group of friends you run around with, Belman.
I’m glad I’m still a schmuck in the eyes of yamit the yammerer, who never seems to be off this blog except to stuff himself with doughnuts or catch a few hours of apnea-interrupted sleep. (Apnea being pandemic among obese computer couch potatoes). Of course, anyone is a schmuck who 1) derides the snide and insulting style of yamit and others who’ve never fought for anything in their lives and feel they have the right to judge anyone, Abe Foxman or whoever, whom they’ve never met; 2) use complete sentences and paragraphs; 3) point out their sanctimonious hypocrisy in deciding who is and who is not Jewish enough for them, then make up far-fetched and preposterous excuses about how their posts magically appear on the blog smack in the middle of Shabbat; 4) make up wholesale lies about what their detractors say: I never said I didn’t like ALL CAPS. I merely said that using ALL CAPS doesn’t make your points any more valid, but then you lie and distort about everything else I write here; 5) dare to question their personal crushes and heartthrobs: you, Ayn and Holy Ted Belman can praise Palin to the skies; just because I see her as having no intellectual, policy, or political depth doesn’t make me a schmuck (what are you doing when you’re not eating doughnuts and posting your ridiculous posts here, yamit? I can guess you have a photo cache of Palin and others you have crushes on, and I don’t care to imagine what you do with them).
Modern Israel was founded largely by secularists (Herzl himself hardly knew Hebrew or set foot in a synagogue) and was meant to be a Jewish national homeland for all who had a legitimate connection to Jewish ethnicity, culture, religion, and tradition. All were victims of anti-Semitism, from the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians through the Crusades and medieval Europe, the Nazis, the tsars, and right up to the current time, when the enemies are Hizbollah, Hamas, Iran, and Islamism and their extreme-leftist and -rightist Western allies. These anti-Semites laugh among themselves when they see self-appointed arbiters decide that someone isn’t Jewish enough; they know that these divisions within the Jewish community only help them in their plans to annihilate all Jews. Present day Israel has leftists, centrists, secular right-wing nationalists, and religious irredentists vying for power. If they don’t get along and stop questioning each other’s “Jewishness,” Hamas and its ilk will surely win.
Self-appointed arbiters like yamit, and his ready-made insults for all who question his infantile beliefs, are merely the Jewish version of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, who are similarly socially retarded, emotionally immature, ready vessels for unthinking bigotry, and ready to enforce, through violence, their ideas of proper Islam on any Iranian who isn’t “Muslim” enough in their eyes.
So this SCHMUCK says, go back to your doughnuts and your Sarah Palin photo cache, Yamit, you obese baby. Have fun with them. But I’ll know better to rely on you (or publicity-hound/telegenic/never met a camera or microphone she didn’t like Sarah Palin) when Jews and Israel are under threat.
Mbrach must be sitting back and enjoying seeing where the mud he/she has stirred up is settling. I do hope Mbrach does not just lurk, but participates in these discussions in a more cogent way.
Apparently this is not the 1st time the Tea Party has raised questions as to where it stands on Israel and Jews. See:
http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-room/other-news/66763-elie-wiesel-calls-tea-partyers-signs-indecent-and-disgusting
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/11/06/1008998/njdcgop-must-condemn-tea-party-signs
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/17635/cpac-tea-party-launch-event-hosted-by-anti-semitic-israel-hating-islamic-terrorist-buddy/
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/20556/ohio-tea-parties-host-open-anti-semite-nazi-defender-israel-hater/
Rand Paul has literally stumbled out of the gate with his comments on the Civil Rights Act. His stands on closing Gitmo, repealing the Patriot Act, calling for the abolition of the Department of Education and ending subsidiaries for farmers, will no doubt in the coming weeks, be questioned. What Rand Paul really thinks will emerge or what he really thought, will be changed by that inquisitorial experience.
On Palin, while her sophistication and knowledge on the issues appears to be growing as is her appeal to many grass roots Americans, she still has not been embraced by the GOP. A number of conservative pundits have dissed her or at least her chances of ever getting the GOP nomination to run as their Presidential candidate in the next election.
The GOP is itself stumbling around to find a comprehensive platform, borne of compromise amongst disparate Republican voices, from which platform Republicans can say more precisely what they stand for as opposed to what they stand against.
The Republicans are predicted to benefit from the angst and anger building amongst grass roots Americans against Obama and his policies. The concerns swirl around big government getting bigger and unnecessarily intruding into the lives of Americans, big government hears only the sounds of their own voices and Washington politicians cater more to their own interests rather then to the interests of the American people they are elected to serve.
The Republicans however are also bearing the brunt of some of that anger. Republicans, if they expect to make large gains in these mid-term elections and unseat Obama in 2012, they had better come up with a cohesive platform of what they stand for, sooner, rather then later.
Getting the likes of candidates like Rand Paul elected to the senate where his views on some of the issues Wallace identified do not seem to accord well with Republican thinking in the main, does not help the GOP in its efforts to unite the Republicans under one banner on the significant issues of the day.
And Betty would make a great Secretary of Energy, too!
The last time a serious woman had a chance at becoming president:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFPVCfQ7uxM
Paul knows the truth, but cannot speak the truth.
The libertarian narrative is that American hegemony creates world tension, and therefore the way to world peace is American isolationism.
Libertarians cannot deviate from that narrative, regardless of the suffocating avalanche of contradictory facts.
Doing so would require that they embrace an active American international presence, at which point they would no longer be libertarians.
The philosophy is self-negating.
That is why I embrace conservatism.
It is sufficiently flexible so that when circumstances warrant you can admit that you were wrong.
Neither libertarianism nor liberalism provides the believer that latitude, which puts adherents of those philosophies in the morally untenable position of creating alternative realities:
“Muslim terrorism? There is no such thing!”
You would show my pal mbrach considerably more respect if you were aware of his formidable track record, which includes being the career counselor to McLean Stevenson and the dietary consultant to Karen Carpenter. In fact, it was m who said to Mama Cass, “Who eats jello for dinner? C’mon…have the ham sandwich!”
circumspect?
I guess I should be with him, he did threaten to thrash me both he and his “Karate Kid”!!
I guess I should not ignore threats of extreme sanction against my person even from a SCHMUCK. Notice the Caps? I love risk.
Not so ironic it fits because they have a lot of Jews posting and they are out to defame the Tea party and the Republicans as right wing extremists.
What might be ironic is that there might be an element of truth in their contention.
If the Republican party does not disassociate itself from those fringe groups it will ensure that obama serves another 4 years. Short term gains while maybe seemingly expedient today will have the converse effect further down the road.
Palins support for them for any reason, is for me at least is a red flag.
How ironic that the huffpo would feature an article about ron paul’s anti-Semitic imagery. The poster’s anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist imagery, which makes the statement that we give money to Israel to kill “palestinians”, is exactly the kind of sentiment regularly expressed at the huffpost.
I’m sure the tea partiers must be aware of Sarah Palin’s support for Israel and yet she has mostly enthusiastic support from them.
ron paul is a douchebag as well as being totally ignorant of islamic history. Perhaps someone should send him a copy of “The Legacy of islamic jihad”. Someone also needs to remind him of the barbary pirates, muslim jihadis who attacked American merchant ships during George Washington’s time, centuries before America was a superpower.
He also wants you to become more circumspect, so keep that in mind prior to posting.
mbrach believes that you, Ted, must abstain from pretensions of infallibility.
And I think he just wants me to drop dead.
So let’s all do our very best to comply.
mbrach does not appreciate it when you use all capitals.
I know. 😉 This time I did it in purpose just to bug him. It’s a guy thing. He tells me what he hates and bugs him and I oblige.
mbrach does not appreciate it when you use all capitals.
.
I agree with this outlook.
That said she still besides being a curiosity doesn’t yet deserve all the space you devote to her. That’s my opinion.
Re News Items I also agree although certain current news items give context to many of the opinions and analysis that you post. Since most of your readership do not come from Israel I am not sure how many read the Israeli press on line. Judging from some of the reactions and opinions I’ve seen I will hazard a guess that at best it’s a mixed bag.
There is a lot going on here but you need to go the the Hebrew press to ferret much that don’t get space in the English editions especially opinions and editorials.
You have ignored European crisis and how and what that could effect Israel no less than Palin and Obama. Over a third of our trade is with Europe.
European collapse can bury America along with it and that will have repercussions on everything including Americas’ wars and her relations with the rest of the world. You are largely silent on the Russian Moves in Syria Egypt and Lebanon in offering them Nuclear reactors. Arms and a naval base in Syria S300 to Iran. The S300 to Iran is as big a threat to America and Nato as it is to Israel.
PALIN MAY BE IMPORTANT TO US IN THE FUTURE BUT NOT YET.
Lessons not learned from the botched May 1 Times Square attack
By Scott Stewart of Stratfor
A Long History of Plots
Yamit
I read most of the articles you have posted. I didn’t bother posting them because they don’t say much of importance and nothing much is happening now that is crucial. Who gives a shit about the “proximity talks”? I generally don’t report the news items. They are all over the Israeli press. I am more interested in analysis.
So pardon me if I left our readers to read INN, JPost and Haaretz for themselves.
As for Palin, I think you are wrong. It is of the utmost importance that Obama is removed from office in 2012 and that he loses his support in the House or Senate in 2010. This applies to the US for sure but also to Israel and that’s for sure too.
Palin, more than anyone will protect israel and work with her. So I support her. Questioning the Tea Party Racism and Libertarians is importance so that we are aware just what her relationship to them is. So we can’t ignore them.
Now I am not blind and often mention her shortcomings (which are getting fewer and overwhelmed by her growing strengths. I raised the racism and isolationism as potential detractors to her and her candidacy.
Palin will run for office if her numbers are better and she believes she can win or at least secure a nomination as VP again. Eight years later she will be in her mid fifties and could then run for president if she proves her mettle to the mainstream. At a minimum she deserves to be Secretary of Energy in the next administration.
Your last posts here on Israpundit were noted by our ignoring you completely. Is that what has stuck a spike up your ass today bubby?
I’m not above criticism even from the likes of you and I never claimed to be the best observant frum Jew around, besides I have a wonderful voice to text software, very professional, and I might add very expensive. It’s slow makes some errors but on the whole allows me to rest my tired fingers. If your interested I can get a cracked copy for you wholesale.
No nothing that egotistical, my cat walked across the keyboard hit the caps key and by the time I caught it decided to leave it rather than retype. Clear Bubby? nothing sinister there unless you hate cats? Do you hate cats? I’ll bet you do. Your nasty disposition would indicate feline hatred.
“Huge effect on Israel”? That remains to be seen now doesn’t it.
then come over here and be called a schmuck, a galut left-winger, an unblinking Obamite, etc. for daring to defend Abe Foxman against scabrous insults or to question the goddess-like status of Her Excellency Sarah Palin.
Abe Foxman is a Kapo court Jew, who fawns over Muslins Hates Christian fundamentalists, is a self promoter for cash and good living and if he ever ws an asset to the Jewish people those days are well past and behind him. He too is a schmuck.
The day I called you a schmuck I might have been feeling under the weather or something but today I feel fine and still think you are a schmuck and ready to take on your son at a time and place of my choosing 🙂
I agree with everything mbrach has written, especially his insightful disparagement of me…which was much needed and long overdue.
Obama Advisor: Warm Words for Saudi Arabia, Hizbullah, Al-Quds
by Hillel Fendel
John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security, called Jerusalem “Al-Quds,” praised Saudi Arabian religious tolerance, and is encouraging of Hizbullah.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has drawn attention to the above three instances of recent remarks by one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s top terrorism-issues advisors, calling them “outrageous” and “disgraceful.”
Speaking to an apparently Muslim audience at New York University in February, at a forum co-hosted by the White House and the Islamic Center at New York University.” Brennan first told a story in Arabic, evoking laughter and concluding with, “Don’t tell the folks who don’t speak Arabic what I said.” He then said that his favorite city in the Middle East is “Al Quds, Jerusalem.”
In the same speech, Brennan also spoke of his time at the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, referring to the common aspirations of his former Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian classmates, including the freedom “to practice our faith freely … In Saudi Arabia, I saw how our Saudi partners fulfilled their duty as custodians of the two holy mosques at Mecca and Medina.”
In another speech before Lebanese leaders who visited Washington recently, Brennan told them, “Hizbullah is a very interesting organization,” and said that it had evolved from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia and now to an organization that has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hizbullah that are truly a concern to us, what they’re doing,” Brennan said. “And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements.”
The ZOA noted that Hizbullah is actually a Lebanese-Iranian proxy terrorist group that has called continually for the elimination of Israel.
“These comments by John Brennan are as outrageous as they are deeply troubling,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “No one refers to Jerusalem in the English language as Al-Quds, unless they have a specific political, anti-Israel agenda – in this case, pandering to Israel’s enemies, who will draw comfort from the use of the term Al-Quds by a senior U.S. government official.”
Klein termed “disgraceful” the fact that “Mr. Brennan’s pandering is taken so far that he speaks of some supposed shared goal of freedom of religious practice, and then immediately refers in complimentary words to Saudi Arabia – a country that is notorious for its harsh denial of freedom of religion, in which even non-Wahhabi Muslim mosques are prohibited, let alone churches and synagogues.”
Regarding Brennan’s comments about Hizbullah, Klein said, “Worse, Brennan give unwarranted legitimacy to the recognized terrorist group Hizbullah, thereby undercutting past U.S. efforts to isolate this murderous outfit.”
Klein sums up: “John Brennan is yet another hand-picked Obama adviser who shows a distinct animus against Israel and partiality for its enemies. It is unsurprising that, when Barack Obama is advised by people like these, quite apart from the President’s own troubling history of friendships with vicious critics of Israel and having belonged for two decades to an anti-Israel, anti-American black supremacist church, the Obama Administration has ignited major tensions in its relations with Israel while not holding accountable and penalizing the Palestinian Authority for continuing terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder.”
I don’t know whether to join this discussion or not. I’ve been “lurking” (to use the old-fashioned (ca. 2001-2002) term for reading websites and blogs without posting) for days now. I remember being called a schmuck and other distasteful things on this website in the past, and I read just this past weekend on this website that Reform Jews are not “real” Jews. These posts of course were posted on Shabbat, but of course I’m certain that the posters did not actually use machines on Shabbat but rather wrote their thoughts down (so clairvoyantly! Predicting what would be news on Saturday! But then the wondrous powers of Yamit, Ayn, et al. are truly God-like) before sundown Friday and had Shabbas goys all lined up to post them on Saturday. Of course. I could post on salon.com and contradict Glenn Greenwald’s insults, half-truths, and exaggerations, and get labelled a Likudnik, a neocon, and a right-wing Israel-firster who should leave the salon website and only post on right-wing sites, then come over here and be called a schmuck, a galut left-winger, an unblinking Obamite, etc. for daring to defend Abe Foxman against scabrous insults or to question the goddess-like status of Her Excellency Sarah Palin.
I have in the past questioned this devotion to Palin on this site: she seems to me to be willfully ignorant, opportunistic (she’ll drop political activism/punditry in a New York minute to host a kitschy, shallow show about “True Heroes” for big money), reliant on bromides and slogans instead of carefully thought-out political positions, and a quitter (she’s bored with being gov. of Alaska. So much for the will of the Alaska electorate). For pointing these things out Ayn, apparently a resident of that center of intellectual profundity Los Angeles, and her pal Yamit, when not exchanging hilarious jokes with one another, think of which insulting term to hurl at me on any given day.
Belman has actually admitted ignorance about LIbertarianism, which is a major step of progress, stepping down from his usual presumed infallibility. Never mind that the modern libertarian movement in the U.S. dates back to the 1960s, and the movement and the party of that name is riven ten ways from Sunday in its ideology (there are “Left” libertarians and “Right” libertarians, and even that distinction doesn’t begin to address the contradictions and complexities of the movement. But my point here is that maybe it’s safe to post a critical word or two about Her Highness the Empress of Wasilla on Ted Belman’s holy website, now that Belman himself has expressed doubts.
As for Yamit’s post above, which he believes will be magnified in importance by using ALL CAPS, electing “libertarians” like Rand Paul to the U.S. Senate (which says yes or no to international treaties, pacts, alliances, etc.) or Republicans like Sarah Palin president has a huge effect on Israel. This is true whether Yamit chooses to believe it or not.
PA Negotiator: Accept 1967 Borders or We Go to Security Council
Rahm Emanuel Leaves Maze for Protesters
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has arrived quietly in Israel for a ”private visit” without letting protesters know when and where his son’s Bar Mitzvah will take place. Government spokesmen did not reply to questions from Israel National News concerning whether Emanuel will meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.
Emanuel said several weeks ago he would celebrate his son’s Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall (Kotel), but Israeli activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, calling Emanuel a “traitor,” vowed they would protest his visit. “We will make sure to receive you as you deserve to be received … with catcalls and disgust,” they stated.
According to ABC News, the activists are offering to take 13-year-old Zach Emanuel “on a day of fun without his father” in order to “teach him a few things about the Jewish People’s heritage.”
If Emanuel does visit the Western Wall, it could complicate matters for President Obama, who also visited the holy site during his presidential campaign. Since taking office, President Obama has accepted virtually all of the Palestinian Authority demands that Israel surrender “settlements” in parts of the capital that were restored to the Jewish State in the Six-Day War in 1967. The Western Wall and the Old City were occupied by Jordan, in violation of the 1948 United Nations Partition Plan, until 1967.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office several months ago denied a report that he termed Emanuel a self-hating Jew. Emanuel, whose father fought for the Underground against Britain when he lived in pre-State Israel, has largely been considered responsible for guiding U.S. President Barack Obama’s hard stance against Israel.
The Emanuels Feast in Eilat – Israel Foots Bill
by Gil Ronen
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and his family dined on seafood at an Eilat restaurant and left the bill for the Israeli Tourism Ministry, according to reports in Israeli media. The report was met with consternation by MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union, who wants the bill sent back to Emanuel.
Emanuel is in Israel on a private visit, not an official one, with his parents, wife, children and other family members, to make preparations for his son’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Upon arrival in Israel Friday, the Emanuels headed for Eilat, where they dined on seafood at a restaurant. After the (unkosher) meal, which included cheviche (citrus marinaded seafood), calamari (fried squid), various fish, salads and hamburgers, the bill was handed over to a Ministry of Tourism representative who accompanied the Emanuels.
Who was it that said he was an orthodox Jew?
“For Every Israeli Concession, a Palestinian Provocation”
by Hillel Fendel
The Israeli Government loves terrorist prisoners
After more than a year of deliberations, the government debated again whether to send to the Knesset a law which would worsen jail conditions for Hamas prisoners.
Currently, Hamas prisoners enjoy satellite TV channels, cell phones, and even cash allowances. The government will not even consider worsening the resort-like conditions in Israeli jails for terrorists from the friendly Fatah.
No law is needed: it is completely within the power of government to make the lives of terrorist prisoners a hell. The law allows for the execution of terrorists, but they are always sentenced to comfortable lives in Israeli jails.
The PA’s Minister of
TerroristPrisoner Affairs duly condemned the proposed Israeli legislation which would make prison conditions for Hamas members less cozy.The minister, a member of peace-loving Fatah who receives his salary from Israeli tax transfers, would be expected to be less sympathetic to Hamas.
Israel: Palestinian business above Jewish lives
As a gesture to Mitchell, Netanyahu’s government agreed to remove 60 roadblocks which successfully intercepted Palestinian terrorists.
TED YOU AND MANY OTHER SPEND AN INORDINATE AMOUNT OF TIME SPACE AND ENERGY HERE ON NARROW SECTARIAN AMERICAN POLITICS, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO SARAH PALIN BUT CORRECT ME IF I AM MISTAKEN ; THIS SITES OVERRIDING Raison d’être IS SUPPOSED TO BE ISRAEL,ISRAEL ADVOCACY AND SUBJECTS MOSTLY RELATING TO AND OR EFFECTING ISRAEL AND BY INFERENCE JEWS IN GENERAL.
IF TRUE THEN I FAIL to see any direct connection with most of your topics to your stated Raison d’être
However interesting most of your posts and comments re: purely American politics and related opinions, I fail to make a direct and even indirect connect with Israel in many if not most. While they may be interesting in their own right what do they have to do with us (Israel) Today or tomorrow?
For example:
Nuclear scandal: Israel is right
The Guardian published a story of Israel agreeing to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa in 1975. Though Shimon Peres weaselly denied the report, the affair is in fact well-known and true.
So yes, we offered to sell a few nuclear warheads to our close ally, so what? And it was not exactly a sale: South Africa took part in Israeli nuclear program. Likewise, Pakistan delivered several nuclear kits to Saudi Arabia in return for funding Pakistani nuclear program. Pakistan requested North Korean nuclear assistance to Iran in return for revealing Pakistani nuclear technologies to the communists. This kind of nuclear cooperation is common.
And moreover, Israel offered nuclear assistance to the Shah of Iran, though Peres kept saying later that we intended to cheat the Shah like we cheated him on conventional weapons: receiving huge advance payments and delaying the deliveries forever.
Israeli cooperation with the apartheid South Africa was relatively small. Arab and African states, the first to condemn the apartheid regime, accounted for the bulk of South African trade. Western countries supplied South Africa with weapons.
Ron Paul is the most overrated phenomenon since the Bay City Rollers (the “next Beatles”).
Paul has the support of approximately two percent of registered voters (zero percent if you exclude residents of America’s outstanding maximum security mental health facilities).
This buffoon is a media creation.
His views are intellectually and morally bankrupt.
Muslims hate the United States because of “American imperialism”?
Bite me.
American “imperialists” saved Bosnian Muslims from genocide when their Islamic brethren refused to help.
American Muslims are treated better by their fellow countrymen than are Muslims in any Islamic nation.
Ron Paul is the right wing equivalent of the Code Pink yentas.
And they are crazy.
’til now I have been pretty ignorant about Libertarians and to a lesser extent Tea Partiers. I am glad that I started asking these questions because they have lead to greater knowledge. Thanks for your help.
You need to check your source; other sources say 100%.
Most Tea Ps are pro Israel. Considering the percentage of Americans that support Israel, that number would be higher if you just did the math among TPs. It is Ron Paul that will lose the TPs with this anti-Semetic stuff, accept for a minority. I know people that like Ron Paul; but they agree with his policies from an isolationist viewpoint, not anti-Semitic. The fact that the poster singles out Israel—considering the amount of aid giving to other entities including the PA—makes this poster at the very least anti-Israel if not anti-Semitic. Still, considering the history of persecution of the Jews, by singling out Israel in this manner, there is a very fuzzy line if there is a line at all, between being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
Libertarians have always been anti-Semitic.
They are Birchers.
The Huffington Post criticizing the GOP for not being more aggressive in opposing ethnic bigotry?
Review your comments section, HuffPo.
It reads like a slightly more anti-Semitic version of Stormfront.org.
For the umpteenth time, the Libertarians are bad news.
They are a paleolithic cult.
They hate Jews and blame America for the world’s ills.
They are few in number, but are very loud and extremely aggressive.
They see the Tea Party movement as their one chance to emerge from political obscurity and become power players.
Ron Paul is scum, and so are his stormtroopers.