.jpg)
.jpg)
%20(1)%20(4)%20(1)%20(1).jpg)
CONGRESS
Chinese Balloon ‘Did a Lot of Damage'—Here's Why
++++++++++++++++++++++++
After Train Crash 'Nuked' Ohio Town With Toxic Chemicals, Buttigieg Focuses on Bigger Threat: White Construction Workers
By Ben Wilson
In one of his first public appearances since a massive train derailment released poisonous chemicals in eastern Ohio, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg avoided discussing the disaster—instead criticizing construction workers for being too white
"We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood," Buttigieg said Monday at the National Association of Counties Conference.
The transportation secretary made no mention of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which has forced authorities to release toxic chemicals such as phosgene and vinyl chloride to avoid an explosion and get the tracks operable.
"We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open," Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, told a local news outlet.
Buttigieg has been mum on the incident—the transportation secretary's Twitter and press releases have omitted any mention of the crash—even as reports have emerged that animals and fish are dying near the chemical releases. The possible effects on the human population are not yet known and the Environmental Protection Agency says anyone experiencing symptoms should see a doctor.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), whose state borders the affected towns, said it was safe to return home as air and water tests appeared acceptable.
Caggiano said he was surprised at how quickly authorities told people they could return home.
"There's a lot of what ifs, and we're going to be looking at this thing 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the line and wondering, 'Gee, cancer clusters could pop up, you know, well water could go bad," Caggiano said.
The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The future of medicine after embracing "Wokeness Monster."
+++
What a relief. Color wins again versus competence.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-p
+++
More Left hysteria because of hatred of BIBI:
ZOA’s Klein/Berney JPost Op-Ed: Israeli Judicial Reforms Are Good for Democracy and Rule of Law
By Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth Berney, Esq.
(FEBRUARY 12, 2023 / JERUSALEM POST) The Left has been screaming that the new Israeli government’s judicial reform proposals are “extreme” and “the end of democracy.” However, honest examination reveals that the Israeli Supreme Court has extraordinary, autocratic, unchecked power; that reform is desperately needed, and will be good for democracy, the rule of law and Israel’s economy.
Democracy is rule “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Israeli and U.S. legislatures and executive are democratically elected and answerable to the public.
But U.S. and Israeli judicial systems are vastly different, starting with judicial selection. The U.S. public selects judges through its democratically-elected representatives: The president nominates new justices; the Senate decides whether to confirm them; and Congress has the power to impeach justices.
By contrast, in Israel, the Supreme Court self-selects and self-ousts its own justices. The court has the controlling vote and veto on a nine-person “judicial selection committee” that selects new judges. The Knesset has no power to impeach justices. Justices can only be removed by the same “judicial selection committee” controlled by the Israeli Supreme Court, or by a disciplinary court appointed by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The Israeli Supreme Court’s “self-selection” and continuing control over the court’s composition has enabled the Court to seize and maintain enormous, unchecked power.
Thus, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested adopting a democratic U.S.-style judicial selection process. ZOA previously made the same sensible suggestion. Promoting democratic judicial selection is surely not an “extreme” position.
| Read More ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
Nolte: Democrats Pass Laws to Destroy Suburbs
By John Nolte
In the name of “equity,” the Biden administration and state Democrats have declared war on the suburbs:
The Biden administration and Democrats in New York, Connecticut and other states are fighting local zoning laws in order to build high-rise apartment buildings with “affordable” units in tree-lined, single-family neighborhoods. All in the name of equity, meaning everyone can live in a tranquil suburb, whether they’ve earned the money to pay for it or not.
The Biden administration announced Jan. 19 that it will require all towns across the U.S. to submit “Equity Plans” showing how they will make it possible for low-income people to live there by providing affordable housing, transportation and other resources.
Towns that don’t meet the cookie-cutter requirement for economic diversity will lose federal funding.
The left’s seething hatred of the suburbs is readily apparent in popular culture, where movies regularly portray these tranquil, tree-lined neighborhoods as hotbeds of racism, repression, sexual dysfunction, and hatred. Unless it’s in the hands of a genius like David Lynch, the result is usually tired and stereotyped. For every classic like Blue Velvet (1986) and (1999) and Ordinary People (1980), there’s a ton of garbage like Revolutionary Road (2008), Little Children (2006), Pleasantville (1998), and The Stepford Wives (2004).
Why does the left hate the suburbs? For starters, we tend to vote Republican. Worse still, we’re truly happy out here. The suburban way of life proves people live fuller lives if they are unbothered by central authority and control. We prove government causes way more problems than it solves, and nothing makes the left angrier than happy, contented people they cannot control.
I would add that nothing proves that everything the left believes in is a lie more than the suburbs do. It’s in the blue cities where all the violence, hate crimes, lousy schools, traffic jams, gun violence, and environmental issues like smog occur. It’s out in the mostly ungoverned suburbs where people of all races get along; where our water, air, and streets are safe and clean; where the schools are functional; where we all own guns, but there’s hardly any gun violence.
So what better way to destroy the suburbs than to turn the suburbs into just another lousy Democrat-run city?
Once Democrats strip the suburbs of what makes them special — zoning laws that protect property values and avoid density — that’s the end of the suburbs. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) knows exactly what she’s doing with a new law that will force “each town and village in the New York metro area to increase its housing stock to meet a uniform, state-imposed target and rezone for high-density housing – apartment buildings – within a half-mile of every MTA train stop.”
What happens, then?
The plague of failed cities spreads into these idyllic areas, and Democrats move in, those whose voting patterns ensure even more destruction, especially in the schools.
“Say goodbye to quaint downtowns lined with two-story buildings and older houses.” Yep. That’s the master plan.
What’s more, Democrats have climbed into bed with the big developers who cannot wait to enrich themselves by tearing these towns apart.
Nothing destroys a community faster than renters, and I say that as someone who has been a renter. In my little neighborhood, the only stress point is a rental house. Everything else here is placid and serene. But every once in a while, idiots move into that house and make life hard on the people who live nearby. So I can’t imagine what a multi-unit apartment building would do to undermine our way of life, not to mention our property values.
Democrats are locusts.
They’ve already consumed and annihilated the cities.
Now they are moving to the suburbs.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jack Posobiec: My Fight to Expose the Media’s Woke Narrative
Political correspondent, TV show host, and former Navy Reserve intelligence officer Jack Posobiec is worried about America. While sharing his story, Jack discusses why he got into politics as a career, the rising threat of China, the politicization of the U.S. military, and the power of the corporate media to drive woke narratives. As the country heads in the wrong direction, Jack reminds us that nothing will improve unless we all take a stand.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fellow Conservative,
Special Counsel John Durham is THIS CLOSE to releasing his groundbreaking final report... so the Liberal Media and Radical Democrats are springing into action to undermine his entire investigation. .
FIRST: The New York Times published a political hatchet job to attack John Durham’s credibility.
THEN: Days later, The Washington Post ran TWO back-to-back hit pieces smearing his reputation.
NOW: Senate Democrats are citing these reports to launch a FORMAL PROBE into John Durham's investigation claiming "abuse of power" and other politically motivated attacks.
GO ON THE RECORD: STAND WITH JOHN DURHAM >>
We cannot let the Democrats sweep his investigation under the rug. It's too important. But that's not stopping the Democrats from trying every dirty trick in the book to cover it up.
House Republicans are doing everything in their power to bring back ACCOUNTABILITY, but they're taking on the entire Liberal Media and the Radical Democrats so we need your help right now.
We need AT LEAST 10,000 strong Conservatives to go on record in support of John Durham's critical investigation.
We need your help, Fellow Conservative. Are you in or not?
GO ON THE RECORD: STAND WITH JOHN DURHAM >>
Thank you,
John Durham Updates (via House GOP)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How Mexico outfoxed Joe Biden on illegal immigration, knowing he’d never fight back
By Todd Bensman
Immediately after Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the southern border exploded. Families started crossing en masse, and the Border Patrol released them to non-profits, which bused them to cities around the country. As reporter Todd Bensman reveals in this new book, “Overrun,” the Mexican government had been plotting to push this wave of illegal immigration as soon as Biden was elected — knowing he would do nothing to stop it.
The Mexican government was not happy with President Trump’s Remain in Mexico policies.
Facing threats of debilitating trade tariffs from Trump, Mexico had been forced to take on the burdens of housing, feeding, and caring for hundreds of thousands of migrant family groups either expelled by Trump or unable to proceed over the border. Many could not be easily deported to Africa, Cuba, Haiti, or one hundred other countries.
Once Trump’s expulsion policies took full effect, as the Texas Tribune put it, Mexico was quickly “overwhelmed by the number of migrants in its border cities.” Women with very young children that Trump expelled soon became a headache for Mexico, which by law had to care for them somewhere, somehow. They filled Mexico’s 58 detention centers to capacity.
And when those centers filled up, squalid camps began to form in parks or in the central squares of northern Mexican cities like Nuevo Laredo, Piedras Negras, Juarez, Acuña, and especially so in Tamaulipas State across from South Texas in the cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, long the most heavily trammeled border-crossing areas into the United States.
So Mexico began closely eyeing the American election, looking for the soonest possible relief should Joe Biden win
Immediately after the election, the Mexican congress secretively passed a new and unusual law that had been pre-written and a pathway for its quick approval cleared.
On November 6, 2020 — within 72 hours of Joe Biden’s election — the “Various Articles of the Migration Law and the Law on Refugees are Reformed, Complementary Protection and Political Asylum in the Matter of Migrant Children” was on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s desk for signing.
On November 11, President Obrador signed it with no formal announcement or press coverage.
The law would be implemented 60 days later, on January 11, just before Trump was to leave office. Boiled down, the law prohibited federal detentions of migrant families with minor children — with or without parents — in all 58 Mexican detention facilities nationwide. To remain in compliance with Mexico’s laws requiring the feeding and sheltering of migrant children, the new law required the government to merely refer them to voluntary-stay shelters.
This meant that after January 11, 2021, Mexico could start emptying its detention centers, and thousands of families with their young children could travel freely inside the country, which everyone knew meant the U.S. border.
But what to do about Title 42, the COVID pandemic rule Trump had used to keep out those who tried to cross? The law addressed that: It gave individual Mexican states authority to refuse U.S. Title 42 expulsions — if the states deemed the private shelters as too full or to be closed for COVID.
The State of Tamaulipas, the most heavily trafficked by migrants, did just that. It refused to take Biden’s family expellees — on Biden’s Inauguration Day — saying it had no shelter space.
The collective effect of the law was that thousands of migrant families found that they were not only freed from Mexican detention centers, but that, when they crossed the U.S. border, the Americans would have to keep them. Mexican government officials wagered President Biden would take all the families without resistance and threaten nothing like Trump’s trade tariffs. They were right.
The impact was immediate. Family groups were coming in so hot and heavy they couldn’t be detained, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers could not even conduct credible fear interviews.
After processing the migrants at a local facility for a day or two, Border Patrol was releasing them on their own recognizance to a local nonprofit advocacy organization in Del Rio called the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition. The volunteers were arranging buses and flights into the American interior to cities of the immigrants’ choice.
Shon Young, director of the Coalition, said the same thing was happening in towns far downriver from Del Rio. “For some reason, the day after inauguration,” Young explained, “we had a big influx of people. So we fired up the coalition at full speed.”
Before the inauguration, Border Patrol typically might bring three or four released immigrants a day to the coalition building, situated about a mile from the international bridge to Acuña. But on the very first day after the inauguration, Border Patrol started dropping off sixty to a hundred, Young said.
Young said his organization was arranging Greyhound buses and even, for those with money (usually the Haitians who’d been earning well in Chile for years), local flights out of Del Rio International Airport to whichever cities they picked for resettlement. Border Patrol was dropping off so many at the nonprofit’s campus, they had to move out the old fast to make way for the new, Young said.
The way it worked, Young explained in my first February 2, 2021 phone interview with him — and this would soon become normalized on an industrial scale — was that the families would cross the river and turn themselves in to any federal agent they could find or wait by a roadside until the agents found them.
The agents, who were used to doing most of the chasing around there — not the other way around — would transport them to a limited-capacity Border Patrol station just north of Del Rio and find it filled.
Reporter Todd Bensman book "Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History" takes a look at the migrant crisis since Biden's election.Reporter Todd Bensman book “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History” takes a look at the migrant crisis since Biden’s election.Todd Bensman
Since most ICE detention facilities were closed for COVID-19 and the Border Patrol stations were unsuited for high-volume, long-term family care, Border Patrol was quickly releasing them to Young’s group with legal papers called “Notice to Appear,” or NTAs, and Notices to Report, NTRs.
I later learned NTAs and NTRs were part of the new “honor system” that provided temporary legal residency for their bearers to remain inside the United States on a promise that they self-report to an ICE office in destination cities, presumably to initiate an asylum claim.
Border Patrol apprehensions of family unit individuals, almost all of them in Texas, rocketed from 4,406 in December 2020 to 54,132 by the end of March 2021, a 1,400% increase. Apprehensions of family units hit 86,631 for August of that year.
The numbers were particularly stark for unaccompanied minors. In fiscal year 2020, they numbered 33,239. Six times that many crossed in fiscal 2021, or 146,925 and 150,000 in fiscal 2022.
Another Biden change was that women in advanced stages of pregnancy, usually seven months, would be allowed in, no questions asked. The fathers of their unborn children got in with them, no proof necessary.
Diane Edrington, a nurse practitioner and medical director for Panama Mission who has volunteered with indigenous tribes, saw an immediate effect.
“They understood that if they were pregnant by seven months by the time they got to the border, they would be allowed to go through,” she said. “I was told they would get pregnant just for that reason. Everyone knew that this is the way to do it now. Let’s get pregnant and we can get through. That’s a free pass to get across. That’s common knowledge.”
Selfies showing videos of real families flashing the thumbs-up as they boarded their U.S. city-bound charter buses spread like wildfire online. Nothing the president or his people ever said again could overcome the narcotic allure of the selfie evidence showing smiling families holding up their new government Notice to Appear documents.
When Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas went on international TV to pronounce that “the border is closed,” their cell phones showed thousands of friends, neighbors, and third cousins quickly being released into America. So, the parade went on and on.
When Vice President Harris beseeched migrants during a June 2021 trip to Guatemala that immigrants were being expelled and, “Do not come. Do not come,” the migrants fact-checked their cell phones, saw that her words were untrue, and kept coming.
Excerpted with permission from “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History,” by Todd Bensman, out this month from Bombardier Books.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
James Clapper Called Out For Whining About 'Russian Disinfo' Letter He Signed...Years Ago
+++++++++++++
The new America.
+++
Jewish teens balance pride and safety when navigating public spaces
Sarah Silverman February 10, 2023 12:45 pm
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with teens across the world to report on issues that impact their lives.
(JTA) — After wearing his yarmulke all day at his Orthodox yeshiva on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Zac Jacobs takes it off before boarding the 6 train home.
“I think it helps mitigate any potential danger that I could be in,” Jacobs, 17, said. “You never know what could happen; the trains are mostly safe, but it takes one person to push you into the tracks.” Besides, he said, he knows that God is above him.
With the 2022 increase in transit crime and with a rise in antisemitic hate crimes, many young Jews in New York City are scared to display their heritage in public settings.
The violence hit close to home for Jacobs last November, when a man threw rocks at his school, Ramaz, damaging a window. It was the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” when, in 1938, the Nazis orchestrated attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses.
For some teens, showing their Jewishness publicly can make them feel self-conscious.
Sima Epstein,16, is always wary of whether people can see the star of David necklace she wears.
“I probably wouldn’t hide it [my Judaism] in a situation or a conversation, but I wouldn’t let it come up” outside of school, said the junior at Yeshivat Frisch,an Orthodox day school in Paramus, New Jersey. “I would avoid discussing religious topics all together.”
Removing their yarmulke in public can be a tough call for a Jewish teen: Halachah, or Jewish law, requires that males wear a head-covering in public. And while the Torah permits Jews to protect themselves when there is a possibility of harm, not all rabbis would agree that riding the subway presents the kind of danger that would allow someone to hide their Jewishness.
“If we are so concerned about appearing Jewish on the subway, what does that say about our ability to live in New York?” says Rabbi Aviad Bodner, a spiritual advisor at Ramaz. As an Orthodox rabbi and mentor, he often deals with students who have concerns about showing their identity in public. “I’m very troubled by the recent uptick [in antisemitism], and it is something we should all be considering when we make decisions.”
Instead of a yarmulke, Bodner wears a fedora-style hat everywhere he goes, so being visibly Jewish is not a concern for him, but he understands and empathizes with students worried for their safety. However, this doesn’t stop him from studying Jewish texts on his morning commute.
He distinguishes between Jewish teens who are not wearing their kippot for safety reasons, and those who do not want to be viewed as “different” by the general public.
“All teens desire to fit in, and sometimes showing off their cultural heritage is not the way to be seen as popular, especially on college campuses, with antisemitism rising,” says Bodner. Day school students in particular are more likely to encounter antisemitic attitudes or anti-Israel hostility at college than they are in their parochial schools.
For Oren Leitner, 16, the issue is personal. A junior at the Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, New Jersey, Leitner was verbally attacked on the subway as an elementary school student. He was with his older brother and both wore kippot. “He started talking/screaming about how Christianity is the right religion and how we should not be Jewish,” Leitner said. “I was really young at the time, and I did not understand what was going on and was very scared.”
This and other antisemitic instances shaped his Jewish identity. Although in all other areas of his life, he wears his kippah proudly, on the subway he covers it up with a hood.
How Jewish he can look and act in public is a concern for Leitner as he considers applying to college. “It is a risk I would be willing to take if I end up going to one [that is not Jewishly affiliated]. But it is a factor my family and I will have to take into account,” he said.
Emy Khodorkovsky takes the opposite approach. He fights antisemitism by never hiding his Jewishness. “The only way we can combat Jew hatred is by being proud of our heritage,” the 16-year-old said. He understands why some of his friends decide not to display their Judaism openly. He also used to remove his yarmulke on the subway but not since the Ramaz junior became active in his school’s Israel advocacy club and recently attended the Anti-Defamation League’s “Never Is Now” summit on antisemitism.
“I was worried, like other people are, about getting attacked, but then I realized that we can not shy away from showing our beliefs just because others do not like it,” he said. He thinks about his parents who escaped antisemitism in the former Soviet Union for a better life for their children.
Khodorkovsky has never experienced aggression on the subway, and is unruffled by the curious looks he gets when he carries his lulav and etrog on Sukkot or his tefillin bag to school. “New York is a big place, and there are stranger things to look at than a kid carrying a palm tree,” says Khodorkovsky.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Liberals haven't completely broken the black relationship with God.
+++
THIS WEEK ON CURE AMERICA TV SHOW
Black Americans, Remain True to Our God
Every year, in the month of February, we pause to take a look at African-American History, to think of the African-American story and how it involves the grand American story. However, in our society today, so much is coming around now trying to dictate what that story was and is.
So this week on CURE America, we take that pause – not to solely sift through the noise of the news as we normally do, but this time to sift through the noise of history as well. We’re joined by Delano Squires, Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and contributor of The Blaze. Delano takes us through the story and ideals of the man Frederick Douglass, and how the actions of the Left today are not just a contrast to this hero’s ideals - they’re in direct opposition to his messages of freedom and uplifting the individual, not uplifting the government.
Lakuita Bittle, Director of Attorney Ministries at the Christian Legal Society, highlights the profile of another hero in the story, Harriet Tubman, and the great work of the Christian Legal Society in uplifting individuals to safeguard life and liberty. Pastor Dan Crabtree of the Immanuel Bible Church takes us through his recent book, “A House Without Walls: How Christ Unites His Ethnically Divided Church,” and how the greatest truth will always remain in the gospel, and how that truth unites us, regardless of race and background.
In the midst of honoring these legacies and stories, we take a moment to sift through President Biden’s State of the Union Speech, with Richard Manning having CURE’s Marty Dannenfelser join him on the panel. All is guest hosted once again by Jonathan Alexandre, who guides us on an analysis and appreciation of the people and stories within African-American History.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How Americans can save Israeli democracy
Israeli elites have mobilized to attempt to essentially overturn last November’s Knesset election results. Foreign friends who help them shouldn’t pretend it’s about democracy.
By Jonathan S. Tobin
President Joe Biden isn’t the first American president to intervene in Israeli politics. U.S. administrations have been doing so for decades with generally dismal results. Yet there was something different about the comments Biden recently made to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
Prompted by Friedman, Biden dropped a 46-word sermon about democracy and consensus-building that sounded like sage advice but, in the context of the current moment, was nothing less than a carefully considered slap in the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the past, Washington has sought to pressure Israeli governments to prop up failed peace process ideas, restrain them from defending Jewish rights or prevent them from holding the Palestinian leadership accountable for supporting terrorism.
And, of course, American presidents have done their best to influence Israeli voters to favor candidates that will do as Washington bids them. Most memorably, Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama repeatedly tried to defeat Netanyahu, while Donald Trump sought to help him.
Yet Friedman is right to note that never before has an American president issued a statement that seeks to influence a Knesset debate on domestic Israeli issues. That Biden did so is presented as an indication of the seriousness of the moment, as well as a call to stalwart friends of the Jewish state to act to save Israeli democracy. The alleged threat to this democracy is, of course, the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform proposals.
Here’s what Biden said: “The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”
That someone like Biden, who has called his political opponents “fascists” and accused them of wanting to put black people “back in chains” has the nerve to lecture Israelis about consensus-building is pretty rich.
The same applies to pushing through massive changes via legislation without a broad political consensus. Lack of consensus didn’t stop the Obama-Biden administration from passing a bill that altered America’s health care insurance system on the basis of a slim congressional majority not dissimilar to the one now possessed by Netanyahu. Nor did it prevent them from concluding the most important foreign treaty since the aftermath of World War II—the disastrous Iran nuclear deal—without the backing of a majority of either the House or the Senate and with polls showing the public strongly opposed.
As for an independent judiciary, Biden’s all for it, so long as it does what he wants. The president has repeatedly criticized the U.S. courts when they uphold the Constitution and thwart left-wing efforts to reinterpret it. Many members of Biden’s party have called for packing the Supreme Court because it currently has a conservative majority—though Biden didn’t go along. The president has also refused to condemn statements seeking to intimidate the justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, even to the point of remaining silent after an assassination was plotted against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The real problem with Biden’s lecture, however, is not its breathtaking hypocrisy. It’s the notion that Israeli democracy is in danger because of judicial reform proposals put forward by a government that won a clear majority only three months ago.
Equally egregious is the idea that Americans who want to back Netanyahu’s opponents can preserve Israeli democracy by joining an assault on the government being mobilized by Israel’s liberal elites, who largely control its media, economic and legal institutions.
In fact, the best thing Jewish or non-Jewish Americans, no matter where they sit on the political or religious spectrum, can do to boost the cause of democracy in the Jewish state is to respect the outcome of its elections and stay out of the current controversy.
That’s not to say that Jews outside of Israel aren’t entitled to their opinions about what goes on in the Jewish state. Israel is the vital center of Jewish life and everything that concerns it is the concern of the entire Jewish people. Moreover, Israeli institutions, organizations and political leaders have never been shy about rallying the support of American Jewry when it was in their interests to do so. Virtually every school, hospital, charitable endeavor and political cause of any size or consequence has its “American friends of” U.S.-based support group. Seen in that light, any argument about the necessity for American silence on the issues of the day in Israel or who should run it is absurd.
Yet there is one caveat to that broad principle: Diaspora Jews can say whatever they like about Israel, but they should also have some humility when doing so.
That’s not just a function of the inequality of sacrifice or risk that the two communities bear. Only Israeli Jews pay the ruinous taxes that are levied on the country’s citizens and, more importantly, send their children to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Though American Jews are subject to antisemitic attacks, they are not on the front lines of a sustained campaign of Palestinian terrorism, as is the case in Israel.
Yet the real problem is the chutzpah of Americans weighing in on Israeli political disputes with only the biased coverage of outlets like the Times to guide them. This explains the vast disconnect between Americans and Israelis when it comes to security issues. The overwhelming majority of Israelis understand that the nonsense about the conflict with the Palestinians peddled by the likes of Friedman is divorced from reality.
Moreover, Biden’s comments effectively support a political campaign based not so much on a desire to preserve democracy but on the desire to thwart it. The Israeli Supreme Court’s arrogation of unprecedented and unique powers to itself is a way for forces within Israeli society that have been on the losing side of most recent elections to retain control regardless of who sits in the Prime Minister’s Office.
The effort to stop the government from passing the agenda on which it won the last election is itself anti-democratic. Resisting the kind of pressure to which politicians who usually seek the praise of establishment institutions often succumb will be a genuine test of Netanyahu and his coalition’s courage.
Talk about democracy in peril is nothing less than an attempt by Israeli politicians to import Democratic Party talking points with which Biden and his supporters sought to label their Republican opponents as anti-democratic. Those seeking to rally Americans behind those politicians are intervening in a political squabble in which, despite the apocalyptic rhetoric, Diaspora Jewry and the U.S. government have no reason or right to intervene.
An Israel in which there will be some checks and balances—currently absent in a situation in which the Supreme Court can rule unchallenged, without reference to law but only its own sense of what is “reasonable”—will be more of a democracy and not the proto-authoritarian or theocratic state that Netanyahu’s foes talk about in their partisan smears.
No matter how the battle over judicial reform is resolved in the Knesset, Israel will remain a democracy. No matter where you stand on the Israeli judiciary, the best way to support democracy in Israel is to avoid participating in an effort to effectively overturn the results of a democratic election. That’s a stand that Biden and his many Jewish supporters consider a litmus test of virtue when it comes to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. They should treat the results of Israeli democracy with the same respect.
And:
The Need for Compromise on Judicial Reform
By Sherwin Pomerantz
Looking at the political scene in Israel today, I am reminded of an incident I witnessed some years ago at the Rechavia Post Office in Jerusalem.
An American tourist came into the postal branch to send home a package of items purchased here during his visit. When he approached the clerk, the package was weighed and the postage determined. As was the custom before there were machines that spewed forth the postage on a self-stick label, the clerk counted out the stamps and gave them to the customer to lick and paste on the package.
The customer looked aghast and said, “In America the postal clerk does this for you!” At which point another person in line tapped the tourist on the shoulder and said, “You know, for 2,000 years we have been waiting to have the privilege of licking stamps that say State of Israel and the clerk does not want to take that privilege away from you.” At which point everyone else in line applauded.
What is it about this story that brings it to mind now? Well, as I read the vitriol coming from those who absolutely demand judicial reform and others who say it will mark the end of democracy in Israel I sense that they have all forgotten what a privilege it is to live here. For the first time in 2,000 years we created a sovereign nation that is the envy of the world for its technical achievements, for its staying power in the face of the enemies around us who were, for so many years, bent on our destruction, and where our people are so confident about their future here that we have the highest birth rate of any western nation, bar none.
Having such a record of achievement in the face of significant odds to the contrary, is the best we can do now is tear ourselves apart internally about an issue that probably 80% of the population agrees needs addressing?
Have we really sunk to the level of American politics where everybody who disagrees with us is an enemy to be demeaned, disenfranchised and belittled?
Have we no ability to recognize that when it comes to the topic of judicial reform, there is a middle ground just like there is in every situation where there are opposing viewpoints? Are we actually totally bereft of sufficiently intelligent people who can bring the sides together and hammer out a compromise with which the majority can support?
Do politicians on either side of the issue seriously want this disagreement to end in civil war with Jews fighting Jews? Does Minister of Justice Yariv Levin not remember the words of former Prime Minister Menahem Begin of blessed memory, who when faced with the possibility of civil war just after the founding of the state, said simply but powerfully, “Do not raise a hand against a brother, not even today.” And does Levin not remember that this man, who had the foresight to understand the challenges of sovereignty, was the sandek (i.e., the one who held the infant) at Levin’s own ritual circumcision
The fact is that this is only the third time in the history of mankind where we Jews have enjoyed sovereignty over this land. On both prior occasions sovereignty lasted just 75 years according to historians. In two months the modern State of Israel will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its founding as well. The challenge before is whether we will get past this milestone as a nation united in our commitment to the land and its values or, heaven forbid, go down in the history books as the third unsuccessful try at sovereignty.
Everyone, yes everyone, those who say they are for judicial reform and those who say they are against……everyone knows……
They know that there is no successful way forward for Israel to survive without compromise.
They know that we are alone, that there is no one out them to protect us. This has become ever so clear to us as we watch the world let Russia basically do what it wants in Ukraine where the words “never again” have once more been observed in the breach.
They know that a compromise can be worked out that will be acceptable to the majority of Israelis all of whom know judicial reform is needed.
They already see the social impact that is tearing the country apart and pushing people into “us” and “them” categories.
They know the potential economic impact on Israel’s future growth if investors do not feel their investments are secure and protected.
And they know that the lesson the last 75 years have taught us is that the only way to survive here is to band together in the face of those who, even today, remain committed to our ultimate destruction.
It would be a sad day in Jewish history if we were to fall by our own sword and give our enemies the victory they desire by our own desire to be right rather than smart.
Former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo once said: “You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.” The rhetoric that got people elected was the poetry but now that they have the power, their governance has to be in prose. Campaigning is the easy part, governing and maintaining political balance is the hard part.
Rumor has it that the American tourist who was appalled that he had to lick his own stamps was so moved by the incident in Rechavia that he now lives in Israel with his family and many relatives. This all may be just a nice story, but Israel is not just a nice story. Israel is the fulfillment of 2,000 years of dreaming coupled with commitment to make that dream a reality. We dare not be guilty, yet again, of letting that reality slip out of our grasp. Should we let that happen, the stain will be ours to bear for generations to come.
Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Jerusalem for 39 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem based international business development consultancy, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, President of Kehillat Ohel Nehama and a member of the board of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment