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Just back from Athens where I chaired a committee of GMOA.
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This from a good friend and fellow memo reader in response to my memo about Ted Cruz and the liberal press and media: "'B' is on target... E-"
This from dear friends and fellow memo readers regarding my LTE (See below.):B--- and I think your letter was great! Just hope it gets printed.
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Obama appears accommodating for reasons that are inexplicable unless you believe, as I have come to, they are purposeful.
The time has come when I no longer am willing to accept the apologist's view point that Obama is intelligent but is learning from his mistakes. (See 1 below.)
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Obama appears accommodating for reasons that are inexplicable unless you believe, as I have come to, they are purposeful.
The time has come when I no longer am willing to accept the apologist's view point that Obama is intelligent and is learning from his mistakes. (See 1 below.)
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My LTE response to a local Jewish resident attacking Netanyahu and Israel:
"Linda Brill, recently attacked your editorial as being too harsh on Obama and ignoring what she purports are facts.
Linda Brill is a rabid supporter of our president and, therefore, I submit, lacks a degree of objectivity in her argument that Israel needs America more than America needs Israel.
I would suggest, a strong relationship between two democracies is not something one should trash or make light of.
Netanyahu came to our country to openly challenge Obama's deal with Iran, the outlines of which are basically known . Many Democrats are upset with the supposed treaty and are most particularly offended by the fact that Obama believes the U.N is the proper forum, not Congress, for its blessing and approval.
I further submit, Obama's rule by Executive Order and his defiance of the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, who devised a Constitution to prevent a monarch determining our freedom, is something about which every citizen should be concerned, regardless of party affiliation.
Now as to Israel. There are very liberal Jews among us who are uncomfortable that Israel exists, has persevered against all odds and has emerged as a beacon of light in a very dark region . They cannot accept or must resent the fact that it was a Democrat who went against his most trusted and respected advisors and voted to establish a homeland for Jews and, immediately after its establishment, this tiny nation was attacked and has won every war since.
Netanyahu came to explain Israel faces an existential threat because of proximity and Obama's apparent desire to curry favor with the world's leading terrorist state whose leader reaffirmed his intent to destroy us only this week.
Netanyhu also came to plea for the lives of Christians who are being slaughtered by those our president refuses to even define because, apparently, he believes their unemployed status causes them to behead innocents and destroy precious historical artifacts.
Netanyahu finally came to reaffirm and thank America for the special relationship Israel and America has enjoyed for well over sixty years and did so believing that freedom of speech and the exchange of views, even when in disagreement, is healthy. I concur and would not the world have been better had it not listened to Chamberlain instead of rejecting Churchill's warning?
Ms. Brill's president has responded in a petulant manner because his approach has been challenged. So far there is no evidence anything Obama has done, in matters of foreign affairs, has worked and even his most claimed successful venture in Yemen has now fallen apart and we have withdrawn all American personnel.
These are my facts and I will let the reader decide whose are more in keeping with reality.
And yes, I will add, facts do make a difference notwithstanding the likelihood Ms. Clinton and Ms. Brill will be joined at the hip in short order.
(You can go to The Savannah News. Com Editorial Page, dated 3/24 and see Ms. Brill's LTE.)
Dick Berkowitz" (See 2 and 2a below.)
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1)
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| With Iran moving closer to a deal with world powers to constrain its nuclear program in return for an end to sanctions, Arab analysts and leaders are focused more on how Tehran is working unconstrained to tighten its grip on Arab states, from Iraq to Lebanon, and Syria to Yemen. The man behind what some see as an attempt to create a new Persian and Shi'ite "empire" on Arab land is Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the al-Quds brigade of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Since he emerged from the shadows last autumn, Soleimani seems to be omnipresent on the battlefields of the Middle East. Photos of Soleimani, 60, almost an invisible man until the Sunni jihadis of Islamic State overran cities in northern and central Iraq last year, are now everywhere. He is seen directing operations in the battle to recapture from IS the Sunni city of Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein. He is snapped in Syria offering condolences on the killing of a relative of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president he has helped cling to power during four years of war. In Beirut he is photographed praying at the grave of Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the late commander of the IRGC-backed Hezbollah paramilitary group. Jihad was killed in Syria in January. Meanwhile, the heterodox Shi'ite Houthi movement in Yemen has seized power in the capital, Sanaa, to Iranian acclaim and the alarm of Sunni Arab states such as neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival. Such is Soleimani's personal sway that a Syrian opposition website has put up a spoof election poster saying: "Vote for Qassem Soleimani, President of Syria." Iran may be serious about a nuclear deal that ends its pariah status and the crippling sanctions. But it has been maximizing its strength across the Middle East and, because Iranian forces and allied militias are spearheading the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria, Sunni Arab leaders believe the United States will do nothing to stop this. This month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Saudi leaders there would be no "grand bargain" with Tehran attached to any deal. Yet in a news conference at which Kerry acknowledged that Soleimani was involved in Tikrit, his host, Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, almost exploded. "The situation in Tikrit is a prime example of what we're worried about," said Prince Saud. "Iran is taking over Iraq." That is why, regional analysts say, it is not so much the prospective nuclear deal that is panicking the Gulf and its Sunni allies such as Egypt, but what a US-Iran rapprochement may bring. Sultan al-Qassemi, a commentator in the United Arab Emirates, says: "The Iranian deal is a game-changer for the region and I think it is going to encourage Iran to pursue an even more assertive foreign policy. "This deal is the grand bargain Kerry is denying it is. It is giving Iran carte blanche in exchange for empty promises. Iran is on the ascendant. Iran has the winning hand in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen." Riad Kahwaji, head of the Dubai-based INEGMA think tank, warned of "all-out sectarian war" between Sunnis and Shi'ites. "The events in Iraq, Syria and Yemen indicate that Iran is on a massive offensive under the cover of a US-led war on terrorism, to gain strategic depth that has extended its areas of control all the way to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean." The schism between Sunnis and Shi'ites dates from shortly after the dawn of Islam 14 centuries ago. In modern times, this often translated into rivalry between the Wahhabi fundamentalism of Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Shi'ite theocracy of Iran. But the overthrow of Saddam's Sunni minority rule by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and its replacement by a Shi'ite Islamist government under the sway of Iran has rekindled a sectarian firestorm. The Saudis and their allies have backed Sunni forces, including rebels fighting to topple Assad. Riyadh formally backs mainstream rebels in this increasingly Sunni-Shi'ite stand-off, but support from Gulf states and nationals is believed to have reached jihadi groups. That is certainly an alibi used by Shi'ites to justify intervention. In Syria, when Assad seemed likely to succumb to the mainly Sunni rebellion two years ago, Iran deployed its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Soleimani and the al-Quds brigade, created in 1980 to export Iran's Islamic Revolution, patched together a network of loyalist militias that is now the backbone of Syrian rule. In Iraq, after the IS eruption in mid-2014, the al-Quds commander put together a similar coalition of Shi'ite militias, first to defend Baghdad and the south and now to carry the fight northwards into jihadi strongholds such as Tikrit. His allies in Iran, meanwhile, such as Tehran MP Ali Reza Zakani - like Soleimani, close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - boast they have three Arab capitals in the bag, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut, with Sanaa soon to follow. According to Iran's Rasa new agency, Zakani said that "had Hajj Qassem Soleimani not intervened in Iraq, Baghdad would have fallen, and the same applies to Syria; without the will of Iran, Syria would have fallen". Describing events in Yemen as a "natural extension" of the Iranian revolution, Zakani predicted 14 of Yemen's 20 provinces would soon be under Houthi control. "The Yemeni revolution will not be confined to Yemen alone" he said. It would extend into Saudi territories - a reference not only to the kingdom's long, porous border with Yemen but the Shi'ite Eastern Province where Saudi Arabia's richest oil deposits lie. John Jenkins, until last year British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and now with the International Institute of Strategic Studies, suggests US inattention to the region's concerns is worrying. "Already we see Iranian officials saying that they control four Arab capitals, and we have seen Houthi delegations travel to Tehran and Baghdad. This plays into the Gulf Arab narrative that they are being sold down the river," Jenkins says. "The U.S. presence in the region is as strong as its ever been, but the Gulf Arabs' questions are about the Western will to act. They've seen examples in Lebanon and Syria of US inaction. And Yemen is the tip of the spear as far as the Saudis are concerned. Behind Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen stands Iran." While the Obama administration seeks to reassure Arab allies that it remains committed to them, analysts say Washington's priority is to stop Iran developing an atomic bomb and halt IS expansion. "Obama believes that reaching a nuclear deal with Iran could be his foreign policy legacy. The Americans are not looking at the deal with Iran in terms of its regional impact," says Fawaz Gerges, Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. "The US deal with Iran would deeply intensify a new cold war that has been unfolding between Saudi Arabia and its allies on one hand and Iran. It would likely pour more gasoline on the raging fires in the Arab heartland." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
American Jews: Be Careful
By Sherwin Pomerantz
I am watching with increasing concern the abandonment of the Zionist dream by so many American Jews as a result of last week’s election in Israel, as if that community can ever feel safe absent the existence of Israel.
Kol ode balevav p’nimah - As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart
Frankly, I never thought that I would live to see the day when the likes of Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben-Ami, among others, would urge American Jews to demonstrably act against Israel and/or to actively lobby the US government to “reset” its traditional support for its only democratic and reliable ally in the Middle East. This is the same US government who, under the current administration, has been guilty of a failed foreign policy which has turned America into a non-trusted partner about whom the Arab world’s leaders makes jokes.
These dyed-in-the-wool liberal critics of Israel’s policies are actively working to rally American Jewish opinion against Israel by stepping up their condemnations of the prime minister and calling on the United States to ratchet up the pressure on Israel.
For example, at the annual J Street conference in Washington, in a speech on Saturday night to 3,000 attendees, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s executive director, accused Netanyahu of harming the US-Israel relationship through “partisan gamesmanship” and called on the Obama administration to put forth the parameters for a resolution to the conflict at the U.N. Security Council. In addition he urged his members to lobby schools across America to change their maps of Israel to clearly identify the “green line” and to support BDS activities aimed at economically sanctioning Israel.
Earlier last week, in an op-ed in Ha’aretz, another harsh Netanyahu critic, Peter Beinart, called for the Obama administration to “punish” Israel on several fronts — including by backing Palestinian “bids” at the United Nations and denying visas to and freezing the assets of Israeli settler leaders. He specifically name Naftali Bennett as one of those who should be so treated. Beinart also urged American Jews to ensure that Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet are met with protesters at Jewish events and urged American Jews to support the BDS movement.
Nefesh Yehudi homiyah - With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion
But these self-described Zionists who, in Beinart’s words, suggest “tough love” for Israel, are living in a dream world that can come crashing down on them at any moment. They have forgotten the lessons of history that apply to people living as a minority in a society (yes, Jews are, indeed, a minority in the US). And that applies to everywhere Jews live except, of course, Israel. There simply is no long term guarantee of safety when living as a minority.
As we have seen often this past year in Europe, anti-Israel sentiment easily ramps up to anti-Jewish behavior with our enemies making no distinction between the two. It is simply obscenefor outspoken members of the American Jewish community to use their public platforms to encourage activities which are hurtful to the State of Israel. Eventually, the enemies of the Jewish people in America, and there are many to be sure, will use the fact that Jews are advocating punishing tactics against Israel as justification for all kinds of anti-Israel and, by association, anti-Jewish activities. After all, if the Jews are saying boycott Israeli products why should the rest of us (i.e. the non-Jews) be more Jewish than the Jews?
Ulfa’atey mizrach Kadima, ayin l’tzion tzofiyah - Then our hope – the two thousand year old hope – will not be lost
Sadly, in the rush to criticize Israel after the elections, and to support the venomously narcissistic behavior of the current occupant of the White House, these self-proclaimed liberals have forgotten that 83% of Israel’s eligible voters did not vote for the Likud and Netanyahu. Are our brethren in the U.S. so committed to punishing us that the 5/6 of the population who did not vote the Likud should be penalized financially?
More importantly, if these objectors have their way, and successful and financial ruin descends upon Israel, do they have a fund to save this 83%? If I, as a business person here with a significant number of American clients, lose my business, will my welfare checks come from the likes of Beinart and Ben-Ami? Well, we know the answer to that question.
Ode lo avdah tikvatenu, Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim - To be a free people in our land
Sadly, those in the American Jewish community who are counselling “tough love” do not understand international diplomacy or how the mind of the current US president functions. As Bret Stephens said today in the Wall Street Journal:
“Here is my advice to the Israeli government, along with every other country being treated disdainfully by this crass administration: Repay contempt with contempt. Mr. Obama plays to classic bully type. He is abusive and surly only toward those he feels are either too weak, or too polite, to hit back. The Saudis figured that out in 2013, after Mr. Obama failed to honor his promises on Syria; they turned down a seat on the Security Council, spoke openly about acquiring nuclear weapons from Pakistan and tanked the price of oil, mainly as a weapon against Iran. Now Mr. Obama is nothing if not solicitous of the Saudi highnesses.”
That’s what is means to be a free people in our land.
L’hiyot am chofshi b’artzenu - Eretz Tzion v’Yerushalayim - The land of Zion and of Jerusalem
My American Jewish friends: be careful. Most of you in today’s liberal establishment there never lived at a time when there was no Israel. Most of you do not remember when people did notwalk around in America wearing visible signs of their Jewishness. Most of you do not remember the vicious anti-Semitism of personalities like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh while conveniently forgetting the later day anti-Semites like Mel Gibson and Oliver Stone.
And lest you think these are isolated individuals, according to a recent study by the Anti-Defamation League, “only” nine percent of Americans hold anti-Semitic attitudes. This sounds good, but it translates to 21,000,000 people. It means that there are far more anti-Semites than Jews in America. This may be one reason why the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly reports that anti-Jewish hate crimes exceed hate crimes against any other religious group. On some university campuses, Jewish students (who often make up the vanguard of those liberal elements recommending boycotting Israel) have recently been spit at and called “dirty Jews” and worse. The problem is greater for those students who are known to support Israel on campuses where anti-Israel activism runs high.
My mother, of blessed memory, when I was growing up in the half-Jewish, half-Irish Catholic neighborhood of High Bridge in the Bronx, told me often “Don’t get them angry.” I can still hear the words cascading out of her mouth. She knew well the risks attendant to living as a minority in any society and how best to avoid trouble.
My zaidie (grandfather) who punctured his left eardrum in order not to serve in the notoriously anti-Semitic Russian army of the czar, and who came to America in the early 20th century to raise his children there and experience the American dream of the time, would be aghast at the rantings of people like Beinart and Ben-Amir who use their significant communication abilities to trash Israel and the Jewish people. But my guess is that these same people who are so eager to point accusing fingers at others, when anti-Semitism raises its ugly head in America, as it most surely will; they will be the first ones on line to buy tickets to Israel. And this country which they so gleefully trash will be here to welcome them home as they gratefully deplane and kiss the ground on which we walk.
Sherwin Pomerantz is a 31-year resident of Jerusalem, former national president of the Association of Americans & Canadians in Israel and president of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based economic development consulting firm.
2a)
Obama Declares War on Israel
by Bassam Tawil
Many Arabs and Muslims are rubbing their hands in joy as they watch U.S. President Barack Obama declare war on Israel after the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party in last week's general election.
They do not see the rising tensions between Obama and Netanyahu as the result of a personal dispute between two leaders. Instead, the dispute is seen by many Arabs and Muslims as part of the Obama Administration's strategy to undermine Israel and force it to make territorial concessions that would pose an existential threat to Israel.
At the beginning of his first term in office, he raised high hopes in the Arab and Islamic countries when he rushed to deliver an apologetic speech at the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Azhar University in Cairo. His speech left many Arabs and Muslims with the impression that here, finally, is an American president who is prepared to sacrifice Israel for the sake of appeasing its enemies.
Muslims have long considered Obama to be on their side in the conflict with Israel. They were expecting him to become the first U.S. president to abandon Israel in favor of Arabs and Muslims. But since the 2009 speech in Cairo, there has been great disappointment with Obama in the Arab and Islamic countries for failing to "do something" about Israel.
Now, at long last, the Obama Administration's increased hostility toward Israel is being welcomed in many Arab and Islamic capitals. They are overjoyed to see that after failing the Arabs and Muslims for the past six years, Obama seems finally to be moving in the "right" direction.
Terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad are also expressing satisfaction with what they see as Obama's "declaration of war" against Israel. Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank are also celebrating over the fact that Israel has become the number one enemy of the Obama Administration.
This week, a Palestinian Authority official was quoted as saying that the Palestinians would not be surprised if President Obama himself joined their campaign to file war crimes charges against Israel before the International Criminal Court. The official was reported to have told a Ramallah-based Western diplomat that Obama hates Israel and this was good news for the Palestinians.
Israel's enemies have been sitting on its borders and waiting for an opportunity to attack. One of the reasons they have been reluctant until now to wage an all-out war to destroy Israel was their fear that the U.S. would come to Israel's rescue. But now, Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Islamic State and other terror groups are hopeful that Obama has finally decided to abandon Israel.
The terrorists also have been following with great enthusiasm reports that the Obama Administration is considering reassessing its policy in the Middle East in the wake of Netanyahu's electoral victory. This is exactly the kind of news they have been waiting to hear for so many years -- that the U.S. no longer considers Israel its main strategic ally in the Middle East.
Reports that the Obama Administration will no longer support Israel in international forums and agencies, especially in the UN General Assembly and Security Council, are seen by a growing number of Arabs and Muslims as the beginning of the end of the partnership between the U.S. and Israel. This partnership has worried Israel's enemies for decades because it stands in the way of achieving their goal of wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
In short, Obama's anti-Israel stance is the best gift the Americans could have given to Islamist terrorists and radical Arabs. For the first time ever, the Obama Administration has created hope among Israel's enemies that the U.S. will at last give them his wholehearted support, just as he has been doing with Iran.
The sharp crisis between the Obama Administration and Israel has been taking place at a time when the U.S. is losing most of its Arab and Muslim friends, especially in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, as well as other countries. It is also taking place at a time when Iran is capturing one Arab country after the other, and has now surrounded all the oilfields in the Persian Gulf, as well as having quietly for years infiltrated South America.
Thanks to Obama's policies, the Iranians and their friends are now in control of Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, and much of Bahrain, and have surrounded the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been forced to close down its embassies in three Arab countries -- Syria, Libya and Yemen.
Instead of facing the dangers of the Iranian drive to export the Islamic revolution to as many Arab and Islamic countries as possible -- with the help of an accelerating operation to acquire nuclear weapons -- Obama has turned Israel in general, and Netanyahu in particular, into the main threat to world peace and stability.
And instead of congratulating the Israeli people for being one of the few countries in the Middle East to hold real free and democratic elections, Obama has decided to inflict collective punishment not on Netanyahu, but on all Israelis, even its Muslim and Christian citizens, for having an election that came out not the way he wanted it to.
What Obama does seem to want is to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state that would pose an existential threat to it and become the source of instability and tensions in the region. Obama also seems not to want to face the fact that because of his withdrawals and neglect, the situation in the Middle East today, with the rise of Islamic State and other terror groups, is not the same as it was even five years ago.
Even Palestinians and Arabs are aware of the fact that under the current circumstances a Palestinian state would sooner or later be controlled by jihadists and Islamic terrorists, whose dream is the destruction of Israel, Europe and the U.S.
If Obama is interested in reconsidering his Middle East policy, he should start by examining the repercussions of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on regional and international security. The last thing Americans and Europeans need is another Islamic extremist country that exports terrorism -- most probably with nuclear weapons -- to all parts of the earth.
Obama needs to wake up. The real enemy is not Netanyahu. The real enemy is Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Islamic State. Unfortunately, Obama -- as he continues undermining moderate Muslims and Arabs in the free world -- has decided to side with the wrong side.
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