November 14, 2016
"Unsettled"
"Unsettled" is probably a major understatement with regard to what's going on, here and in the US. Doesn't mean all bad. Not at all – it's a mix with a great deal that is exceedingly promising.
But before I address that mix, just one great news item:
"The United Nation's World Health Organization recognized the Israeli army's field hospital, which is regularly sent abroad to provide aid at natural disaster sites, as 'the number one in the world' in a ceremony last week, classifying it as its first and only 'Type 3' field hospital, according to its commander, Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Ofer Merin...
"The military's field hospital is 'not just some medics and doctors spread out in the field'; rather it is a 'national treasure' that has the capabilities of an advanced, permanent hospital but can be set up almost anywhere in under 12 hours, Merin told The Times of Israel last month.
"This Type 3 classification ensures that Israeli teams will continue to be the first allowed on the scene of future disasters and further cements Israel's position as a world leader in emergency medicine."
Credit: Israel21c
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I had promised, after focusing exclusively on the US election for some very tense days, that I would return to news about Israel. But in reality Israel is very focused on president-elect Trump, with regard to all of the implications for us with the coming change in administration. And, so, what I want to do here is consider some of those implications.
No one can state precisely what Trump's position vis-à-vis Israel will be after inauguration. I certainly would not be terribly surprised if some of the things spoken about during the campaign never came to be – that is always the case, I fear. Things look different in the White House from how they looked on the campaign trail. But, that said, we still have a good sense of how the Trump presidency is likely to impinge upon Israel. And it is so promising that we have to shake our heads to be certain this is real. It's a sea change coming.
JPost political commentator Gil Hoffman on Friday quoted Prime Minister Netanyahu, who had been heard to say several times over the years:
"I want to know what it's like for just one day to have a president who has my back."
Well, he's about to find out. And this president is going to have his back for a whole lot more than one day.
Credit: Middleeasteye
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An overview:
[] The day after Trump was elected he called Netanyahu and invited him to come to the White House at the "first opportunity."
[] Two days later, Trump delivered a message to Israel, calling our country a "ray of hope."
"I love and respect Israel and its citizens...I look forward to strengthening the unbreakable bond between our two great peoples."
[] One day after this, Sara Netanyahu and first lady-elect Melania Trump had their own phone conversation. Melania told Sara that relations between the US and Israel, and between their two families, "will be wonderful."
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[] We still have to see it really happens, but many Trump aides – I'm aware of one exception - are insisting that while other presidents made the promise and didn't mean it, Trump fully intends to honor his promise to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.
The PA is taking this seriously:
"If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the Palestinian Arabs will 'make life miserable' for the United States at the United Nations, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the United Nations is threatening."
My sense of the matter is that Trump is not the type to take kindly to threats.
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[] Pinchas Inbari, writing for JCPA, said that:
"Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, the architect of the diplomatic blitz against Israel, was the first to comment on the meaning of Trump's election. In the first Palestinian public remark on the election, Malki said that he 'was concerned' because Trump represented an absolute supporter of Israel. With Trump's election, he warned, global stability is threatened." (Emphasis added)
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[] Elder of Ziyon shared a picture taken in the Arab Souk (the open air market in Jerusalem) that shows T-shirts – manufactured before the election - for sale. Trump is represented as a Chasid. This is how the Arabs are seeing him:
Credit: ElderofZiyon
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[] According to Eric Trager of the Washington Institute, Trump adviser Walid Phares is saying that President Elect Donald Trump intends to designate Hamas's parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, a terror organization.
Talk about a sea change! Obama's first address as president was delivered in Cairo, and the Brotherhood was invited. But then, Obama's first phone call on becoming president was to Abbas.
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Key Trump advisor on Israel Jason Greenblatt says that the president-elect does not see settlements as an obstacle to peace.
"He thinks that Israel is in a very tough situation and needs to defend itself," he continued. "He is not going to impose any solution on Israel, he thinks that the peace has to come from the parties themselves."
Credit: inspireconversation
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According to a scoop by POLITICO, the Trump team has warned Obama not to make any major moves on foreign policy.
"On big, transformative issues where President Obama and President-elect Trump are not in alignment, I don't think it's in keeping with the spirit of the transition ... to try to push through agenda items that are contrary to the president-elect's positions," a Trump national security adviser told POLITICO on Thursday. "It's not going to be just counterproductive, but it will also send mixed messages."
THE big transformative issue would be Obama allowing an anti-Israel vote in the Security Council to go through without vetoing it – recognizing a Palestinian state, or setting parameters for a deal. It remains something of considerable concern here.
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And then there are Trump's advisors, pro-Israel people who are likely to have roles in his government. Notably:
Newt Gingrich, historian, former Speaker of the House, who, as Caroline Glick reminds us, in the course of a debate in 2011, referred to the Palestinians as an "invented people." He never retracted this. I've long admired him as one of the sharpest minds in politics, someone who really gets it. He never shied from speaking about the dangers of radical Islam.
Credit: Wikimedia
John Bolton, lawyer, former ambassador to the UN. While at the State Department he led the fight to rescind the "Zionism is Racism" resolution at the UN. Tough, no nonsense.
Credit: Wikipedia
Rudy Guiliani, lawyer, former mayor of NYC, international security consultant. He's been my hero since he told off Saudi Arabia after 9/11. Another tough, clear-eyed thinker.
Credit: beeffco
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I had hoped to segue at this point into political news about Israel: there is some major stuff happening. But I will table that discussion for the next posting (which will come soon), because there is something pressing that cries out to be addressed.
I am referring to the rioting that is taking place in various cities across America in protest against the election of Donald Trump. It is beyond vile, it is obscene: un-American and undemocratic. Everyone knows about the fact of these riots, but it's important to place them in a broader context lest this be seen erroneously as a spontaneous "uprising."
"Billionaire globalist financier George Soros's MoveOn.org has been revealed to be a driving force behind the organizing of nationwide protests against the election of Donald Trump — exposing the protests to largely be an organized, top-down operation — and not an organic movement of concerned Americans taking to the streets as reported by the mainstream media." (Emphasis added)
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On November 9, MoveOn.org put out a press release that included the following:
"Tonight thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings...following the results of Tuesday's elections. The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump...and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we believe in."
This then, is a call to fight to overturn the results of an election. Of course, in the end the gatherings have been anything but peaceful. They have become an obscenity and bring shame upon America.
American flags have been burned.
Credit: Tumblr
There are calls for the new first lady to be raped.
Tonight, thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings in cities and towns across the nation, including outside the White House, following the results of Tuesday's presidential election.
The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump's bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.
Within two hours of the call-to-action, MoveOn members had created more than 200 gatherings nationwide, with the number continuing to grow on Wednesday afternoon.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/soros-trump-protests-revolution/#VZfW82fKwLpPMMvW.99 Tonight, thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings in cities and towns across the nation, including outside the White House, following the results of Tuesday's presidential election.
The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump's bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.
Within two hours of the call-to-action, MoveOn members had created more than 200 gatherings nationwide, with the number continuing to grow on Wednesday afternoon.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/soros-trump-protests-revolution/#VZfW82fKwLpPMMvW.99 Tonight, thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings in cities and towns across the nation, including outside the White House, following the results of Tuesday's presidential election.
The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump's bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.
Within two hours of the call-to-action, MoveOn members had created more than 200 gatherings nationwide, with the number continuing to grow on Wednesday afternoon.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/soros-trump-protests-revolution/#VZfW82fKwLpPMMvW.99
Credit: twitter
Trump supporters have been beaten up.
Sick. And sickening. The goal here, rest assured, is not making America strong.
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There is indication that paid "demonstrators" were bused into key regions. In a commentary on this situation, Bob Livingston talks about the "useful idiots" who are brought out by the agitators:
"vacuous individuals dumbed down to an almost nonfunctional state from years of programming by the American (non)education system and government propaganda. Many of them, if television interviews are any indication, did not even vote. They assumed what they heard from mainstream propaganda media and social media and from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that a Hillary win was assured...
"Among the complaints being voiced by the so-called #notmypresident mobsters is that Trump is not the legitimate president-elect because he did not receive the majority of the popular vote...
"But whether Trump ends up with the lead in the popular vote is irrelevant as he won the electoral vote. America is a republic, not a democracy, a fact lost on the empty heads wandering about chanting anti-Trump slogans into their phones to broadcast over social media and when the television cameras light up.
"The ignorance...and cognitive dissonance being demonstrated by these 'useful idiots' is profound, but should not be surprising given the recent news coming out of college campuses regarding millennial snowflakes and their quest for 'safe spaces' free of 'hate speech' and contrary opinion and their efforts to create a society where gender dysphoria [profound unease and dissatisfaction] is the norm. This is the direct result of decades of mollycoddling in schools and society.
"The public (non)education system, rather than teaching the three 'Rs' and allowing students to stand or fall on their own work, has long taught a 'value-based' curriculum in which students were constantly pampered and enabled...
"The result is those students are now physical adults but emotional toddlers..." (All emphasis here is in the original.)
http://personalliberty.com/anti-trump-crowd-clamors-slavery/
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Bill O'Reilly expresses a similar sentiment in this short video, in which he speaks about progressive, permissive government that does not take a stand when it should. Violent protestors who should be arrested will not be. (You perhaps need to see the behavior of the rioters in this video to understand what he is talking about.)
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5207075800001/?#sp=show-clips
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This needs to be a turning point for America, with a great deal of soul searching to be done.
And in this crisis, which represents a challenge to democratic process, I point a finger directly at Hillary Clinton, who has remained silent. Her silence is understood by the "demonstrators" as meaning she condones their actions. As she full well recognizes.
During one of the campaign debates, Trump was asked whether he would accept the results of the election. Speaking about the possibility of fraud, he answered that everyone would have to wait and see. Perhaps not the best answer, but this is what he said.
Hillary milked it for all it was worth. Here is what she said (my emphasis added):
"By doing this, he is threatening democracy. The peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart."
But thousands riot in the streets because they want her to be president instead of Trump, and she says not a word to them about peaceful transition, which sets the nation apart.
I would say that she should do soul searching on this matter, but it would be a waste of energy.
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I want to compare this to how Trump has behaved. He has been accused of being in bed with racists on the far right, including the Ku Klux Klan. But he disavowed them clearly and publicly:
"'David Duke is a bad person, who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years,' Trump said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'
"'I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK,' Trump added. 'Do you want me to do it again for the 12th time? I disavowed him in the past, I disavow him now.'"
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"In his first post-election interview, President-elect Donald Trump told his supporters who have engaged in racist and bigoted attacks in the days following Tuesday's election to 'stop it,' saying that he wasn't aware of the incidents and claiming it was 'a very small amount.'
"'I am so saddened to hear that,' Trump said on CBS's '60 Minutes,' which aired Sunday. 'And I say, "Stop it." If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the camera: "Stop it."'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hate-crimes_us_5828f3f6e4b02d21bbc952be
"Do not do this in my name," Hillary should have told the rioters. "Stop it now. If you were to succeed in driving Trump out, I would not take the presidency. This is not how America works."
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Hillary Clinton has inadvertently given us a clear picture of who she is. And another reason to be very grateful she did not win the election.
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A final word, a post script of sorts: There are charges that Trump's people, or some of them, are anti-Semitic. This is something to always be alert to, but though I am watching and checking (I am not closing my eyes), I have not found anything that convinces me of this. At the moment the charges concern Steve Bannon, whom Trump has selected as an advisor.
With regard to Hillary, however, it has been easy to find anti-Semitic connections:
For example concerning the Blumenthals, with whom Hillary has had a close friendship: http://observer.com/2016/02/hillarys-email-trail-of-troubling-anti-israel-conversations/
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Leonard Cohen, z"l, song writer and performer, has passed away. He was much loved in Israel and performed here multiple times, including for the troops during the Yom Kippur war. His songs were frequently based on Jewish themes, and so I end here with a link to five of these songs:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220209
Credit: myChordBook
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