In a smart editorial published in Jewish World Review today, Caroline Glick reviews the dismal state of Israeli-American relations. This, on top of the report that Rahm Emanuel, at the behest of the White House, is threatening Israel with no help vis-à-vis “kill-the-Jews” Iran and its nuclear program unless Israel gets busy engaging the Iranian ‘kill-the-Jews” proxies in Arab lands surrounding Israel.
Dismal, indeed. Caroline Glick makes a good point, though. Given the de facto hostile attitude of the Obama administration toward the Jewish state, Israel must take its message directly to the American people. (Funny, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty used to do the same thing by transmitting directly to the people then in Communist bondage, over the strenuous objections of their tyrannical governments.)
My impression is that Americans continue to feel a great deal of solidarity with Israel, and tend to understand the dangers well, so this is potentially a winning strategy. Trouble, is, where to find such a great communicator? In the early years, there was Abba Eban, of blessed memory. Who can perform the same function for the Jewish state today? I confess that I don’t know, but we’d better find him or her soon.
Here’s a first cut at a job description: statesmanlike, multilingual, thoroughly steeped in history, brilliant extemporaneous speaker, superb writer, tireless, willing to travel at a moment’s notice, willing to endure endless abuse and heckling with unlimited grace, willing to face injury or even death in the name of his or her convictions.
Any ideas?
Any takers?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
WANTED: A SILVER TONGUE!
In a smart editorial published in Jewish World Review today, Caroline Glick reviews the dismal state of Israeli-American relations. This, on top of the report that Rahm Emanuel, at the behest of the White House, is threatening Israel with no help vis-à-vis “kill-the-Jews” Iran and its nuclear program unless Israel gets busy engaging the Iranian ‘kill-the-Jews” proxies in Arab lands surrounding Israel.
Dismal, indeed. Caroline Glick makes a good point, though. Given the de facto hostile attitude of the Obama administration toward the Jewish state, Israel must take its message directly to the American people. (Funny, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty used to do the same thing by transmitting directly to the people then in Communist bondage, over the strenuous objections of their tyrannical governments.)
My impression is that Americans continue to feel a great deal of solidarity with Israel, and tend to understand the dangers well, so this is potentially a winning strategy. Trouble, is, where to find such a great communicator? In the early years, there was Abba Eban, of blessed memory. Who can perform the same function for the Jewish state today? I confess that I don’t know, but we’d better find him or her soon.
Here’s a first cut at a job description: statesmanlike, multilingual, thoroughly steeped in history, brilliant extemporaneous speaker, superb writer, tireless, willing to travel at a moment’s notice, willing to endure endless abuse and heckling with unlimited grace, willing to face injury or even death in the name of his or her convictions.
Any takers?
Dismal, indeed. Caroline Glick makes a good point, though. Given the de facto hostile attitude of the Obama administration toward the Jewish state, Israel must take its message directly to the American people. (Funny, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty used to do the same thing by transmitting directly to the people then in Communist bondage, over the strenuous objections of their tyrannical governments.)
My impression is that Americans continue to feel a great deal of solidarity with Israel, and tend to understand the dangers well, so this is potentially a winning strategy. Trouble, is, where to find such a great communicator? In the early years, there was Abba Eban, of blessed memory. Who can perform the same function for the Jewish state today? I confess that I don’t know, but we’d better find him or her soon.
Here’s a first cut at a job description: statesmanlike, multilingual, thoroughly steeped in history, brilliant extemporaneous speaker, superb writer, tireless, willing to travel at a moment’s notice, willing to endure endless abuse and heckling with unlimited grace, willing to face injury or even death in the name of his or her convictions.
Any takers?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT AND ISRAEL
With the appointment of such as Samantha “Force-a-Solution-on-the-Jews” Power and similarly-minded denizens of academe to highest policymaking positions, the Obama administration’s policy toward Israel may finally fall in line with hoary anti-Israel State Department perspectives. More change that we are supposed to believe in, I suppose.
The Foggy Bottom prejudice is as old as Israel itself, as well documented. Quoth Abba Eban, of blessed memory, on p. 151 of his Autobiography: “…on April 4, 1954, Assistant Secretary of State Byroade went back to his campaign for the de-Judaization of Israel.” Mr. Byroade apparently went on to encourage Israel to view itself as a Middle Eastern state vice a Jewish one, and to harangue Israelis not to view themselves as conquerors who believe that force is the only policy that their neighbors will understand. Finally, he stated that “…unlimited Jewish immigration [to Israel] was a matter of grave concern.”
Mr. Eban, then Israel’s ambassador to the United States, had filed a protest against Mr. Byroade’s harangue, forcing a partial (!) retraction from the State Department. When, in a subsequent meeting with Mr. Byroade, he pointed out that the U.N. had asked Jews to form “a Jewish state, not another Middle Eastern state,” Byroade “could hardly believe his ears.”
“His ignorance is encyclopedic,” Abba Eban is reputed to have said about someone. One hopes it was about Mr. Byroade, but it might as well be about the State Department in general. Then, as now, Israel is always faced with the prospect of going it alone and being destroyed. To quote Abba Eban (again): “Israel was and is breathing with only a single lung.”
Naively playing footsie with terrorist states like Iran and Syria, as the administration is doing now, can only make matters worse for Israel. One hopes that President Obama gets burned quickly since, to quote the inimitable Abba Eban (yet again): “When all else fails, men turn to reason.”
An Obama administration that follows the dictates of cold, hard reason: now that would be change even I would believe in.
The Foggy Bottom prejudice is as old as Israel itself, as well documented. Quoth Abba Eban, of blessed memory, on p. 151 of his Autobiography: “…on April 4, 1954, Assistant Secretary of State Byroade went back to his campaign for the de-Judaization of Israel.” Mr. Byroade apparently went on to encourage Israel to view itself as a Middle Eastern state vice a Jewish one, and to harangue Israelis not to view themselves as conquerors who believe that force is the only policy that their neighbors will understand. Finally, he stated that “…unlimited Jewish immigration [to Israel] was a matter of grave concern.”
Mr. Eban, then Israel’s ambassador to the United States, had filed a protest against Mr. Byroade’s harangue, forcing a partial (!) retraction from the State Department. When, in a subsequent meeting with Mr. Byroade, he pointed out that the U.N. had asked Jews to form “a Jewish state, not another Middle Eastern state,” Byroade “could hardly believe his ears.”
“His ignorance is encyclopedic,” Abba Eban is reputed to have said about someone. One hopes it was about Mr. Byroade, but it might as well be about the State Department in general. Then, as now, Israel is always faced with the prospect of going it alone and being destroyed. To quote Abba Eban (again): “Israel was and is breathing with only a single lung.”
Naively playing footsie with terrorist states like Iran and Syria, as the administration is doing now, can only make matters worse for Israel. One hopes that President Obama gets burned quickly since, to quote the inimitable Abba Eban (yet again): “When all else fails, men turn to reason.”
An Obama administration that follows the dictates of cold, hard reason: now that would be change even I would believe in.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
THE MYTH OF AFGHANISTAN AS THE CENTRAL FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM
For months now, I have been wondering who gives President Obama geopolitical and military advice.
To me, the idea that isolated and historically ungovernable Afghanistan is THE front in our (and NATO’s) fight against terrorism seems extraordinarily naïve. We have no secure land lines of communication into the country. The Khyber Pass from Pakistan is currently available, but insurgents throughout the ages (including in December 2008) have shown how easy it is to interdict this chokepoint, then melt away and await another opportunity. Also, if there is any truth to the widely reported rumors of Pakistan’s imminent collapse, Khyber Pass, vulnerable or not, will be off limits.
Will Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia or China allow NATO to move troops and equipment at will through their territories? Not on your life. None of them want us there, for their respective reasons.
Well then, if not by land, how about by air? For starters, Afghanistan is completely hemmed in by nations that are not friendly to us. This gives rise to the thorny problem of overflight rights that can be pulled at a moment’s notice. Air bases? We have use of the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, but the BBC reported on February 6 that the Kyrgyz government has announced that the base will be closed. Karshi-Khanabad, an alternative in Uzbekistan, is still a pipedream.
As if on cue, the Russians and Tajiks have followed up with a promise, likewise reported by the BBC on the 6th, that they will allow transshipment of supplies through their territory, but only of a non-military nature.
In any case, any discussion of long-term air supply is moot. Moving sufficient troops, equipment and supplies by air seems out of the question even for the existing force in country, let alone the expanded force that Obama is planning to deploy.
If President Obama wanted to present the U.S. military with an opportunity for disaster, he would be hard-pressed to find a better way to do it. The whole thing looks like a potential country-wide Dien Bien Phu.
Iraq, on the other hand, was the right war, at the right place, at the right time. I know: this is a concept that is hard to swallow, given that the war was the nefarious doing of the Bushcheneyneoconreactionaryzionistcapitalist Evil Axis, but there it is.
To me, the idea that isolated and historically ungovernable Afghanistan is THE front in our (and NATO’s) fight against terrorism seems extraordinarily naïve. We have no secure land lines of communication into the country. The Khyber Pass from Pakistan is currently available, but insurgents throughout the ages (including in December 2008) have shown how easy it is to interdict this chokepoint, then melt away and await another opportunity. Also, if there is any truth to the widely reported rumors of Pakistan’s imminent collapse, Khyber Pass, vulnerable or not, will be off limits.
Will Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia or China allow NATO to move troops and equipment at will through their territories? Not on your life. None of them want us there, for their respective reasons.
Well then, if not by land, how about by air? For starters, Afghanistan is completely hemmed in by nations that are not friendly to us. This gives rise to the thorny problem of overflight rights that can be pulled at a moment’s notice. Air bases? We have use of the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, but the BBC reported on February 6 that the Kyrgyz government has announced that the base will be closed. Karshi-Khanabad, an alternative in Uzbekistan, is still a pipedream.
As if on cue, the Russians and Tajiks have followed up with a promise, likewise reported by the BBC on the 6th, that they will allow transshipment of supplies through their territory, but only of a non-military nature.
In any case, any discussion of long-term air supply is moot. Moving sufficient troops, equipment and supplies by air seems out of the question even for the existing force in country, let alone the expanded force that Obama is planning to deploy.
If President Obama wanted to present the U.S. military with an opportunity for disaster, he would be hard-pressed to find a better way to do it. The whole thing looks like a potential country-wide Dien Bien Phu.
Iraq, on the other hand, was the right war, at the right place, at the right time. I know: this is a concept that is hard to swallow, given that the war was the nefarious doing of the Bushcheneyneoconreactionaryzionistcapitalist Evil Axis, but there it is.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
THE ONE PARTY STRIKES AGAIN or BUCHENWALD, ANYONE?
The inimitable Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Fl), has introduced HR 645 (www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645), a bill requiring the Homeland Security Department to establish at least six “six national emergency centers” at military facilities in the U.S., for reasons of emergency preparedness, for housing “large numbers of individuals” for “an extended period of time” but also to “to meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security” (Section 2.b.(4)). These sites will eventually be transferred from the Department of Defense to the Department of Homeland Security.
Jerome Corsi at WorldNetDaily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87757) has taken note of this bill but I have not yet seen it discussed elsewhere. I am assuming that “other appropriate needs” include detention of prisoners relocated from Gitmo but, given the totalitarian direction The One Party has taken and the language of HR 645 that refers to "large numbers of individuals" and "extended periods of time," it is fair to ask if detention of political opposition will also become an “appropriate need.” This question is especially urgent since a Bush Administration Executive Order NSPD-51/HSPD-20 of May 2007 also gives the President the authority to declare a national emergency and take over the direction of all governmental bodies, from federal to tribal, without even consulting Congress (Also reported by WorldNetDaily at (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55825).
President Obama’s desire to create a “civilian national security force” is a well-known fact. He has let us know in no uncertain terms even before being elected that "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set[.]...We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." Equally well known is his impatience with a Constitution with enumerated powers. I imagine that, to him, NSPD-51/HSPD-20 is a G-dsend.
Imagine this civilian security force (read "people's militia" or "Sturmabteilung"); well armed, I am sure, owned by The One Party and responsible only to The One, running these emergency centers...
At the very least, this bill needs extensive modifications to protect American civil liberties. I would propose at least the following:
Jerome Corsi at WorldNetDaily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87757) has taken note of this bill but I have not yet seen it discussed elsewhere. I am assuming that “other appropriate needs” include detention of prisoners relocated from Gitmo but, given the totalitarian direction The One Party has taken and the language of HR 645 that refers to "large numbers of individuals" and "extended periods of time," it is fair to ask if detention of political opposition will also become an “appropriate need.” This question is especially urgent since a Bush Administration Executive Order NSPD-51/HSPD-20 of May 2007 also gives the President the authority to declare a national emergency and take over the direction of all governmental bodies, from federal to tribal, without even consulting Congress (Also reported by WorldNetDaily at (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55825).
President Obama’s desire to create a “civilian national security force” is a well-known fact. He has let us know in no uncertain terms even before being elected that "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set[.]...We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." Equally well known is his impatience with a Constitution with enumerated powers. I imagine that, to him, NSPD-51/HSPD-20 is a G-dsend.
Imagine this civilian security force (read "people's militia" or "Sturmabteilung"); well armed, I am sure, owned by The One Party and responsible only to The One, running these emergency centers...
At the very least, this bill needs extensive modifications to protect American civil liberties. I would propose at least the following:
- Opposition to the sitting government and political party in power, no matter how widespread, shall never be construed as a national emergency.
- The national emergency centers shall never be used to confine people specifically because of their political views or political party affiliation.
- In order to continue receiving funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall report to Congress each fiscal quarter that the national emergency centers are being used in accordance with the above guidelines, and that they are not being used in any manner that would abridge the rights of United States citizens.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S FINANCIAL LITERACY SITE
I came across www.mymoney.gov recently, and that made my day. I howled with laughter for hours.
Imagine, our government actually has a national strategy for financial literacy, developed for our benefit by the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission. This Commission’s motto is “Providing financial education resources for all Americans.”
My only question is: does anyone in Congress know about this?
Oh, what is even funnier is the fact that the little symbol that shows up next to the address in the navigation toolbar is – I am not making this up! – a red star! All I can say is: “Спасибо, товарищ, but your help with managing financial affairs we surely do not need!”
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Chicago dEMOCRATIC Charter
This fascinating tidbit just in from Chicago!
It appears that a number of Chicagoans, apparently spurred to action by recent revelations about Illinois Chairman Blago, created an organization called Folks for the Ethical Treatment of Americans (FETA) and signed a document called The Chicago dEMOCRATIC Charter.
“Change is no longer optional,” said Gouda Syreček, FETA’s big cheese. He acknowledged that this kind of action is all but unprecedented in Chicago, and admitted that the Chicago democracy movement has hardly made progress since the 1931 Republican Mayoral Massacre. (Then, as today, the Republicans’ wounds were largely self-inflicted.) “Since then,” Gouda said, “Chicago politics have been frozen in place – downright Illinoian.”
But the document FETA issued yesterday marks a significant new chapter in the fight for political freedom. More than 450 Chicagoans from all walks of life published the FETA Charter on the Internet. The Charter calls for an end to the Illinoian freeze of the political scene and the establishment of multiparty democracy. It includes a scathing account of the decades of rule by The One Party, and gives a moving account of Chicagoans' yearning for a political system in which the governmental organs, instruments of enforcement and coercion, courts, schools, places of worship and all other institutions are accountable to laws rather than to an all-powerful political party.
“The purpose of FETA is to instill a feeling of hope,” Syreček stressed. “And, we want to see change we really can believe in.”
This is a daring move in a year that has seen political dissent crushed and opponents ruthlessly smeared, not just in Chicago but nationwide to ensure the success of a hardened Chicago politician’s presidential campaign. FETA's Charter is brutal in its frankness: "Our political system continues to produce economic disasters, human rights disasters, social crises and terribly educated children." It continues: "The Windy City’s ruling elite, all loyal members of The One Party, continues with impunity to strip away citizens’ rights to freedom, property and the pursuit of happiness. We see the powerless here becoming more militant because they no longer have any hope for change. This has all the makings of a disaster, as if what The One Party has done to date was not disastrous enough. The One Party’s system, as typified by the recent steamroller presidential campaign which eerily resembled the steamroller political campaign that swept Illinois Chairman Blago into office in 2003, has reached the point where the Illinoian freeze on genuine change in city politics is no longer an option."
A distinguished Chicagologist, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, likens the FETA manifesto to Charter 77 that was signed by Václav Havel and other Czechoslovak dissidents in 1977. “The Czechoslovak dissidents had to wait 13 years to realize their democratic dream,” he said. “In Chicago, the reality of genuine dEMOCRATIC government also seems far off. I'm sure that the FETA Charter won't produce immediate change. But the bravery of its authors suggests that the dEMOCRATS' day will come. After all," he added, "Chicago stinks like a cheese factory. Indeed, whenever northerly winds blow, we receive reports that numerous children and elderly residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have to be hospitalized after being overcome by the airborne miasma from the Windy City. Even localities in Ontario, hundreds of miles to the north, have reportedly begun to issue gas masks to its residents.”
It appears that a number of Chicagoans, apparently spurred to action by recent revelations about Illinois Chairman Blago, created an organization called Folks for the Ethical Treatment of Americans (FETA) and signed a document called The Chicago dEMOCRATIC Charter.
“Change is no longer optional,” said Gouda Syreček, FETA’s big cheese. He acknowledged that this kind of action is all but unprecedented in Chicago, and admitted that the Chicago democracy movement has hardly made progress since the 1931 Republican Mayoral Massacre. (Then, as today, the Republicans’ wounds were largely self-inflicted.) “Since then,” Gouda said, “Chicago politics have been frozen in place – downright Illinoian.”
But the document FETA issued yesterday marks a significant new chapter in the fight for political freedom. More than 450 Chicagoans from all walks of life published the FETA Charter on the Internet. The Charter calls for an end to the Illinoian freeze of the political scene and the establishment of multiparty democracy. It includes a scathing account of the decades of rule by The One Party, and gives a moving account of Chicagoans' yearning for a political system in which the governmental organs, instruments of enforcement and coercion, courts, schools, places of worship and all other institutions are accountable to laws rather than to an all-powerful political party.
“The purpose of FETA is to instill a feeling of hope,” Syreček stressed. “And, we want to see change we really can believe in.”
This is a daring move in a year that has seen political dissent crushed and opponents ruthlessly smeared, not just in Chicago but nationwide to ensure the success of a hardened Chicago politician’s presidential campaign. FETA's Charter is brutal in its frankness: "Our political system continues to produce economic disasters, human rights disasters, social crises and terribly educated children." It continues: "The Windy City’s ruling elite, all loyal members of The One Party, continues with impunity to strip away citizens’ rights to freedom, property and the pursuit of happiness. We see the powerless here becoming more militant because they no longer have any hope for change. This has all the makings of a disaster, as if what The One Party has done to date was not disastrous enough. The One Party’s system, as typified by the recent steamroller presidential campaign which eerily resembled the steamroller political campaign that swept Illinois Chairman Blago into office in 2003, has reached the point where the Illinoian freeze on genuine change in city politics is no longer an option."
A distinguished Chicagologist, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, likens the FETA manifesto to Charter 77 that was signed by Václav Havel and other Czechoslovak dissidents in 1977. “The Czechoslovak dissidents had to wait 13 years to realize their democratic dream,” he said. “In Chicago, the reality of genuine dEMOCRATIC government also seems far off. I'm sure that the FETA Charter won't produce immediate change. But the bravery of its authors suggests that the dEMOCRATS' day will come. After all," he added, "Chicago stinks like a cheese factory. Indeed, whenever northerly winds blow, we receive reports that numerous children and elderly residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have to be hospitalized after being overcome by the airborne miasma from the Windy City. Even localities in Ontario, hundreds of miles to the north, have reportedly begun to issue gas masks to its residents.”
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