Judenrat Kapos for Peace attack Romney, advocates anti-Israel divestment Article by Lori Lowenthal Marcus In one of the more hotly debated statements Romney made on his trip to Israel last month, he attributed the vast disparity in economic health between that of the robust Israeli one and the dismal one of the Palestinian Authority to, in part, a difference in culture. Editorial of The New York Sun By American bedrock we mean the deep constitutional principles that undergird our republic. The written constitution. Enumerated powers. Reserved powers. God-given rights. More than any other politician of her generation, Mrs. Palin has stood for what she over and over again has called “constitutional conservatism.” It’s not “neo-“ conservatism exactly. That magnificent strain to our politics was opened up by former leftists who saw that the ideals to which the left once gave lip service were better vouchsafed by classical liberalism. It’s not “paleo” conservativism of what was sometimes called the country-club or old-right. What Mrs. Palin has been talking about is a fealty to original principles, on taxation, monetary affairs, war, and spending. (Read more…) When Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz proclaimed Obama’s support for Israel in a Pennsylvania synagogue, she was visibly shocked by the loud and vocal dissent from the audience. Unlike the sanitized pro-Obama Jewish events in Florida, where Jews who opposed him were prevented from entering, the Pennsylvania event was open to all. Wasserman Schultz apparently so believes her own rhetoric and has been so insulated from the political change sweeping the Jewish community that for a few moments she seemed sufficiently shaken to be unable to continue her speech. As any fool knows, the upcoming United States presidential election is going to be decided by the state of the economy in November 2012. That is what is uppermost in the minds of most Americans after years of deep economic crisis. And yet, never before in any previous race for the White House have U.S.-Israel relations played such a prominent role in the campaign. What accounts for that? Some might ascribe it to the phenomenal performance of Benjamin Netanyahu on the American political scene. To the many standing ovations he received in his recent appearance before both houses of Congress, and to his many friends among American politicians. One American journalist recently, half-jocularly, remarked that if there is one man who could beat Obama in the race for the White House, it is Netanyahu. But that would not be an adequate explanation for this unprecedented phenomenon. After all, it is America’s interests that are at stake in this election, and not the popularity in America of Israeli politicians. I am in total agreement. Many people make suggestions as to what Israel is doing wrong in her Hasbara. I reject these suggestions because in my mind once we allowed ourselves to be labelled “occupiers”, it was downhill all the way. The only way to reverse our poor image and our hasbara is to claim our rights to the land. Ted Belman Adopting a blue-ribbon legal report reasserting the validity of Israel’s claim to the West Bank wouldn’t undermine Israel’s international image, but bolster it. When a blue-ribbon panel of Israeli legal experts issued a report this July declaring that the West Bank isn’t “occupied territory,” but territory to which Israel has a legitimate claim, and that settlements therefore cannot be considered ipso facto illegal, it raised an outcry both in Israel and overseas. A group of prominent American Jews even wrote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him against adopting the report, arguing that it would imperil both “the two-state solution, and the prestige of Israel as a democratic member of the international community,” because the latter depends on persuading the world that Israel is “committed to a two-state vision.” Many Israeli pundits voiced similar concerns. Since Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to Israel last week, during which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu openly and in Panetta’s presence decried U.S. policy toward Iran as ineffective, Israeli media have been reporting further bitter charges against Washington by Israeli officials. On Sunday Ynet, website of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, reported that “the Obama administration’s efforts to calm down the Israeli government on the topic of Iran have not made an impression with Jerusalem decision makers,” and that Senior officials…leveled severe criticism against the US, declaring that the American position on a date for a military strike against Iran was a “wretched red line.”
US Jewish Peace Group Calling Romney Racist over Palestinian Culture Comment
In an entirely predictable effort to use the word “Jewish” to attack those who support the Jewish State, the organization Jewish Voice for Peace invited other haters of Israel to sign a letter to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, lambasting him for his “racist” and “ignorant” statements about Arab Palestinians.
‘Worse Than Palin’
As Governor Romney moves closer to choosing a running mate, the Daily Beast is out with a headline warning against what it calls a “dull white guy.” It runs out the story under the headline “Worse Than Palin?” It prompts us to reprise just why it was that we reckoned that the governor of Alaska was, as we put it at the time, “a perfect pick” for vice president and why we have stood by that opinion through all the ensuing contretemps. We understand completely that she is not seeking to run in the current contest. But the theme that she introduced into American politics, well, let us just say that more than any other candidate in the past decade she has dug down to what we like to call American bedrock, and that is the ground on which to run.Obama’s continuing Jewish problem
(Read more…)America and Israel 2012
(Read more…)The Levy Report: A Chance to Regain Lost Diplomatic Ground
(Read more…)Israeli Officials Blast U.S. Iran Policy
(Read more…)
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
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