Showing posts with label Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF ISRAEL'S PRESIDENT RIVLIN - DECEMBER 16, 2015

The consensus from Jews and non-Jews alike is that on his US trip, Rivlin embarrassed nearly everybody who stands with Israel.


Who are we to judge, from here in New York?


After all, Hillary Clinton is adored by so many here in America that she stands at least a 50/50 chance of getting to the White House.


This is the most corrupt woman in America that we’re talking about. Strangely and unwisely, the Republican contenders going at it in tonight’s CNN Debate, resolute as they were on defeating Radical Islam, they left Hillary mostly unscathed and laughing.


She is still laughing because she knows that before you can defeat ISIS you’ve got to defeat the Clintons, any Clinton, and the Clintons invented politics.


So we’re not so smart ourselves as we watch and even assist our country going down the tubes. We have no excuse.


“Where is the pride?” asked a non-Jewish friend, expecting me to deliver answers.


What about the Israelis who are smart enough to advance technology and medicine to incredible heights but...


But they got Reuven Rivlin.


Rivlin is President of Israel, a largely ceremonial post but still PRESIDENT, for crying out loud, and perhaps he needs to be reminded about the people he represents. He represents a people who were ordained by the Almighty Himself “to be for Me a kingdom of priests; a holy nation.”


Benjamin Netanyahu serves as prime minister. He is a politician. He is expected to mix it up, to be political and to get dusted up politically.


He would have been sensational in tonight’s CNN Debate.


But Rivlin, symbolically at least, sits near the throne of David. He is obliged to soar above it all.


This demands gravitas and dignity fit for a king; certainly not the behavior we witnessed from Rivlin in Washington, D.C, and New York, both places, where it hurts to say, his demeanor turned him into a laughingstock. He did no honor to himself or to his holy nation.


At least that’s the view from America…where passionate no-nonsense defenders of Israel (like myself) were put on the spot.


“What gives?” That was one question.” Next, “Where is the pride?” asked a non-Jewish friend, expecting me to deliver answers.


There is no answer when the Jewish head of state acts like a schnorrer.

In Washington Rivlin took part in a Hanukkah celebration that will always be remembered for the lecture from a reform “rabbi” that had no time for the Maccabees but plenty of time for Black Lives Matter, gun control, Islamophobia and “justice for the Palestinians.”


Rivlin, from all accounts, and from my friend Doodie’s description, “stood there with an indelibly stupid and clownish smile on his face.”


He made no protest and, if this is true, uttered praise for Allah – in Arabic. She did.


We are still talking about the President of Israel, but now move on to New York where Haaretz was having a party for its friends, among them the world’s most honored and most respected anti-Semites. Roger Waters attended. Haaretz is his kind of paper. Need we say more?


Yes we do. Rivlin showed up and may well have been the life of the party. He was full of praise for the radicalized Arab paper published in Hebrew.


I don’t do surveys. Doodie does. We go way back to Saint Urbain Street in Montreal. So Doodie did some canvassing. He interviewed scores of people at the New York Public Library because that’s where the people are, the thinking people, and the consensus from Jews and non-Jews alike is that

Rivlin embarrassed nearly everybody who stands with Israel.


The prevailing view is that the head of state from no other country would mingle so approvingly with problematic people and their dubious causes.


It is unbecoming. It is undignified.


When the shofar blasts some of us here in America set everything else aside, place our lives at risk, and rush in for the sake of Zion.


During his days in the Knesset, Rivlin was known to champion minority (meaning Arab) rights. This is okay, I guess. This is his politics.


But as head of state we would expect him to drop his personal convictions in favor of the prestige and grandeur of his office.


His task is to defend the honor of Israel.


He owes that much to the state, the Jewish State that he represents at home and abroad. Into the teeth of Islamic terror that has us jittery, America could have used less clowning, rather a more formidable presence at a time when we seek reassurance from our most courageous and steadfast ally.


We sink or swim together.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

ISRAEL'S LONESOME FIGHT TO PROTECT AMERICA - OCTOBER 6, 2015

If you care about the safety, prosperity, liberty and security of the United States of America, it is your patriotic duty to support Israel.


We think it is far away. But it is closer than we think. Every stabbing, every firebombing, every gun shot from Palestinian Arabs against Israelis in and around Jerusalem, now happening day after day, is meant for us here in the United States, Jew and Christian alike.



The jihad, the nakba, the intifada, call it what you will, it is fever, it is intoxication, it is a war of terrorism from which no one can hide.


Those Palestinian knives and bullets are meant for us as we comfort ourselves thinking we are protected by geography. They don’t know geography.


They only know how to kill. They create nothing. They produce nothing. They invent nothing. They contribute nothing. They have no heart and they choose the best, the most beautiful among us to do the most harm and spill the most blood. They laugh and rejoice at their own deeds of depravity.


It is difficult to think of them as human. There are no signs of it.


Then they call us Islamophobic. But as we ask in these pages – “Can you be blamed for being a bigot if by their barbaric actions they turn you into one?”


The jihadist Palestinian murderers – they make no distinction among man, woman or child. Borders mean nothing to them. Watch them as they swarm one country after another. These same men intoxicated by jihad in Israel have their crazed eyes set on America. They have already taken Europe.

What happens in Israel does not stay in Israel.


It would be intelligent to consider ourselves warned.


On 9/11 we were warned, but still we think it is Israel that has a problem. Not our business, we say.

No, we have the same problem and it is very much our business if we care about the well
being of the United States.


Their debauched customs are nothing new in Israel and are becoming familiar within our own country of open borders. Schools in America now try to drop allegiance to the American flag for fear that it may offend or “exclude” others. Case in point, Jackson Hole Wyoming. Elsewhere in the Heartland kids are being taught the charms of Sharia. Schoolgirls are being told to wear the Islamic veil.



The FBI tells us that there are jihadist terror cells in every state.
The FBI tells us that there are jihadist terror cells in every state. Is this enough? No, 200,000 more of them are being brought in.


Are they harmless? But even if only one causes us harm our government has failed its sworn duty to preserve and protect.


Let’s be clear about this: If you love Israel for the sake of Israel, that is beautiful, but it is a personal choice, certainly my choice. But it is not required.


If you love Israel for the sake of America, this is required. If you care about the safety, prosperity, liberty and security of the United States of America, it is your patriotic duty to support Israel with all your heart, your soul and your might. Israel and only Israel stands at our frontier to fight our fight, which it does every day.


It is a lonesome fight because our leaders in politics have chosen to isolate the Jewish State because it is a Jewish State. We know this. We knew it when Mr. Obama enriched the mullahs of Iran with cash and bombs and when he instructed envoy Samantha Power to snub Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he spoke at the UN.


The same bigotry infests the news media from New York to London. The BBC was troubled about the “inconvenience” facing the Palestinian Arabs after Israel restricted their access to the Temple Mount for two days. There would be trouble, warned the BBC, and the trouble would be Israel’s fault.


The BBC was not troubled by Jewish blood running through the streets of Jerusalem. Nor was the BBC troubled by Jewish tears throughout the Land.


Those images were not shown – only sullen and inconvenienced Arabs were on display.


The EU is troubled. Those ministers never miss a chance to blame “both sides” when it is only one side that does the killing.


In fact nearly the entire gutless world keeps shaking hands with Fanatical Islamic Terrorism in order to pretend that nothing is happening, and if it is, let someone else, let Israel – let the Jewish State stand and fight for us so that we can sit back and worry about Palestinian Arabs being so terribly
inconvenienced.


In America it’s getting dangerous and it’s getting late but we still have choices. Israel is the only choice if decency still means anything.


[Additional and personal note: To the readers of my books who asked me to write something literary once in a while, get back to my novelistic roots, especially now on the eve of the Nobel Prizes, I did so as requested in an essay called “Why We Write.” I very much enjoyed writing the piece by popular demand. It was set to be published here but then the jihadist barbarians got busy and in an instant nothing made sense, at least nothing civilized, like literature. Perhaps another day when the fever passes, if even for a short while.) 

Thursday, October 1, 2015

MAHMOUD ABBAS - YOU ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT - OCTOBER 1, 2015


The Holocaust-denier who runs the confederacy of terrorists known as the PA (Palestinian Authority) tried a new trick. He is scrapping his end of the Oslo Accords -- as if anybody around here really gives a damn. But he needs the attention, poor guy.



Whatever works to get him a headline – he’s in.


He came to America just when football season is getting heated and Americans are in the mood for not much else – maybe the baseball playoffs.


So nobody really cared why he came here and the only headline he got was at The New York Times, naturally.


Nobody cares, Mahmoud.
Nobody else gave him the coverage he craves.

Nobody cares, Mahmoud.


He got no ticker-tape parade down Broadway and even Mayor de Blasio was too busy – too busy feting Clock Boy.


At the UN he got the usual applause that tyrants always get and then came the speech, remarks straight from the Third Reich songbook that runs “Palestine uber alles.” Far as I know, television didn’t care. “Dancing with the Stars” didn’t preempt itself for his blood-libel blather and nonsense. We have heard this before.


You are not that important, Mahmoud.


It is true that all the other world leaders mentioned the conflict, but that is an automatic insert, the blaming of Israel for everything.


Trouble is, they didn’t really mean it, not with the world tumbling out of control.

The constant kvetching from Abbas has become so tiresome; has become a sideshow of a sideshow.


Get over yourself, Mahmoud.


Bad timing, that’s for sure.


Overnight Putin elbowed Obama out of Syria, or at least we have American and Russian planes zooming across the same sky.


What can possibly go wrong?


Plenty, of course…so while we wait for the inevitable collision, and WAR, who cares about Mahmoud Abbas and his list of fake grievances?


What we’ve got here is fake grievances about a fake conflict. Israel never asked for this.

Meanwhile, here’s REAL CONFLICT – Syria again. Hundreds of thousands of dead and dying, and millions of them devouring Europe.


Here we’ve got Arabs against Arabs. The Jews don’t even figure as an afterthought. This is not their fight.


Those are the headlines and those are the worries. Nobody is worried about a tin-horn dictator and his phony beef.


Abbas is not even a legitimate leader. His term as “president” ran out years ago, which renders him a fake president of a fake people.


There never was a Palestinian state and the only Palestinian people, before 1948, were the Jews.


No big loss, Mahmoud.


Guess what?


The Oslo Accords were never a bargain for Israel or the world. What a relief to get that albatross off our necks. The deal legitimized the PLO, created the PA, enriched both Yasser Arafat and Mahoud Abbas, triggered Arab bloodshed against Israelis, and made kosher the very people, the very cannibals that are terrifying and terrorizing the entire world.


The entire world is arming itself against Radical Islam, and it was to support Radical Islam that Mahmoud Abbas came to the United Nations.



The Oslo Accords were never a bargain for Israel or the world. What a relief to get that albatross off our necks.
The PLO is the grandfather, the originator of Radical Islam.

No wonder you could hear a pin drop.


We understand the Benjamin Netanyahu will soon be addressing the same General Assembly. He is to refute Abbas point for point.


We don’t need this, either, Bibi. Nobody cares. Nobody in America cares and in Israel… in Israel people care too much.


Why give yourself a headline, which only lengthens the argument and puts the spotlight back on this fraud who never was a partner.


Stop treating these bums as your equal. That was Oslo’s big flaw from the start.


Let it go. Stay home and take care of family business. Your people are hurting. Kristallnacht has come to Jerusalem.


Make this stop, for only that is your job.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

CHUCK SCHUMER AGAINST THE WORLD - AUGUST 11, 2015

Of Abraham it’s said that in smashing idols and embracing the absolute sovereignty of a single G-d, he became one man standing against the rest of the world. Well maybe it’s not quite that lonely and heroic for Chuck Schumer, but pretty close. To a Democrat like Schumer,Barack Obama is “the rest of the world.”

That took guts doing what he did. Last week Schumer put to rest all doubt. He will vote to defeat Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal.

So doing he risks the displeasure of the President and the Party. He also risks losing his bid to become Party leader in the Senate.

Toughest of all, perhaps, Schumer risks being called out for voting Jewish.

Yes, Schumer is known for his warmth for the Jewish State. But Schumer is a United States Senator. 

He declared himself against the deal because the deal is harmful to the United States. He spoke up for his New York constituents and he is acting in accord with his American conscience.

This is a rotten deal. It is against the best interests of the United States and it must go down. That is Schumer’s thinking and that is Schumer at his best.

Last week, Obama spent an hour trying to put lipstick on this pig. The President resorted to a crafty age-old trick, blaming Israel – you know, the Jews, wink, wink...

Last week, Obama spent an hour trying to put lipstick on this pig. The President resorted to a crafty age-old trick, blaming Israel – you know, the Jews, wink, wink – in case the deal fell, and he singled out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being so stubborn.

Bibi is guilty of “unprecedented interference” in US politics, according to Obama with Fareed Zakaria on CNN. As if an Israeli leader speaking his mind is somehow out of turn. This is the same Obama who dispatched an army of political fixers to interfere Bibi from getting reelected.

Obama was sending a message. 

The message was meant for Bibi and the warning was meant for Schumer. Behave or else.

Hours later, Schumer went public. He refused to be intimidated. The timing itself – that really took guts.

Schumer became an instant hero to those who disdain the Iraq deal, and rightly so, but some people wanted more. Why did Chuck say that he was only acting on his own behalf? Why did he say that he would not, repeat not rally his fellow Democrats to his side?

Well, what more can we possibly want? Schumer still has to live in the real world. He still has to caucus with members of his own Party.

He still has to do lunch with the President – the leader of his Party, the leader of his country. Too much lobbying would be rubbing it in.

Schumer has done plenty as it is. He should not be made to answer for what he is not doing.
We know where the Liberals stand. Running on TV at the moment is a J Street commercial frantically supporting the deal.

Swallow it, they say. It’s good for you. Take the medicine.

Why is it so good? Because Obama says so, that’s why.

Plus, John Kerry and his team put it together and is there a smarter man on the face of the earth than 
John Kerry?

To this observer, there is no need to talk centrifuges or “snap-back”clauses or secret agreements to know that Kerry was taken to the cleaners.

The proof of it is that Kerry left Tehran leaving four hostages behind. If he could not get that much business done, surely he was swindled on everything else.

But the Left insists that we won. They tell the rest of us that we have no right to object because we do not have all the facts.

This is true. We do not know all the details. Precisely why we are suspicious and why we find it impossible to talk to a Liberal.

They truly say this… They argue that nobody knows what’s in the deal… but it’s a good deal.

Stop scratching your head. Go, make sense of that logic…plus this logic from Obama himself, saying that they “don’t really mean it” when they chant “Death to the United States” and “Death to Israel.” Six million Jews had to die in order to prove that Hitler really did mean it.

How many chances are we supposed to give the ayatollahs to likewise prove that they mean what they keep saying?

New York-based author and bestselling novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Monday, July 6, 2015

JULY FOURTH, ENJOY, BUT BEWARE OF RAMADAN - JULY 3, 2015


I’ll bet nobody knows this, that July 1 was “Canada Day.” They have it every year to celebrate Canada’s birthday.


Only a few days later comes July Fourth for those of us here in the United States and we celebrate our Independence (from Great Britain July 4, 1776) by having one big fat national party – parades, picnics, fireworks and whatever else it takes to make us glad that no more are we subject to the tyranny of foreign monarchs.

They do it like this in Canada as well and likewise in Israel when the Jewish State celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut. Parties galore and always harmonious.

Three great democracies, all sharing Micah’s vision.
Micah dreamed of a day when everyone shall sit under the shade of his vine and fig tree…”and none shall make us afraid.”

But we are afraid.

What they did to us on 9/11 was only a calling card.
A different tyranny has imposed itself upon us, global jihad, and it has us on edge, and please let’s not get into a discussion that teeters on whether all of Islam is to blame. Let’s agree that it’s only a spin-off. Most Muslims are virtuous. Let’s put it like that, but there is no denying that almost all acts of terrorism are the result of individuals and groups who’ve become intoxicated by extremist interpreters of their faith.

Ramadan, my Arab friends tell me, is supposed to be about allegiance to Allah.

“It’s supposed to be a time of devotion and reflection,” Waji says, “and there’s nothing in the Koran about killing people. Not my Koran.”

Waji, who runs a news shop in Manhattan, has been my friend for years and it pains him to what they’re doing to his religion. I used him frequently in this book to counterpoint and balance Jay Garfield’s lonely newspaper crusade against Radical Islam.

“We are not all like that,” Waji says. He says that every time we talk.

Because the people who are not like Waji have been on a rampage ever since Ramadan began. They have been on a killing spree across continents.

In Israel the Jews keep burying sons and trembling over their daughters as the mosques, within Israel itself, keep demanding more Jewish blood.

All that in the name of Ramadan and Islamic supremacy. Mahmoud Abbas will soon be naming a street for the murderer of Malachi Rosenfeld.

Has he already done so for the murderer of Danny Gonen?

A thousand Israelis have approached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act forcefully in order to prevent Ramadan Terror.

One thousand? Until it’s one million at the rally nothing will be done.

Liron Yisraeli was serving with her Border Guard unit around Rachel’s Tomb when a Palestinian Arab celebrated Ramadan by stabbing her in the neck. As of this writing she is recovering. Liron, 19, happens to be gorgeous. The terrorists always pick the best of Israel, the most beautiful.

They hate beauty. They hate liberty.

What they did to us on 9/11 was only a calling card and at this moment New York City is on full alert to prevent what the experts see coming.

Every day now we are warned that the coming of July Fourth coincides with the coming of Ramadan.

They don’t put it quite that way. Mr. Obama wants no mention of Islam unless it’s something good. He has Radical Islam stricken from the FBI.

So the FBI says to beware, to expect trouble from people with no name. Could be anybody, sure thing. 

The announcements on our commuter trains tell us that “if you see it, report it,” as if that really means anything to the typical American en route to grandma’s for apple pie and backyard baseball.

No, when we see a package unattended it means somebody forgot something. In Israel it can mean anything and it’s time to call the cops pronto.

They’re pros at this.

Exactly what are we supposed to do when on the train in walk a group speaking Arabic and walking and talking with that particular swagger?

If we report them for being suspicious, we are bigots. If we let it go who knows what can happen from our being timorous and lax?

Anything is possible in a world where people observe their festivals by committing bloodshed, call them what you will. Or call them Ishmael.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.Website: www.jackengelhard.com