You have to wonder sometimes if Rick Santorum is an idiot looking for his village, or if he’s an abject liar, or if he’s an abject liar looking for his village? One thing is clear, like most of today’s Republican/Tea Party hybrids (GOTP), he doesn’t jack about US/Israeli relations
President Barack Obama seems to have trumped Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential wannabe Willard Mitt Romney by announcing he’s releasing an additional $70 million in military aid for Israel the day before Willard traveled to Israel on the second leg of his so-called international trip.
But it can’t possibly be a big deal for Romney since he’s already said he’d do the opposite of everything the President’s done for Israel. So, logically one can assume Willard wouldn’t have given any additional monies.
The stepped-up U.S. aid, first announced in May, will go to help Israel expand production of a short-range rocket defense system known as “Iron Dome”, which has proved successful at stopping rocket attacks fired at Israeli civilians from close range, including from Gaza. The President announced the new military assistance as he signed a bill in the Oval Office expanding military and civilian cooperation with Israel.
The President said the bill underscores the United States’ “unshakable commitment to Israel.”
During this week’s CNN Republican Tea Party (GOTP) debate, Michele “Krazy” Bachmann made the absurd claim that, “The biggest problem with this administration and foreign policy is that President Obama is the first president since Israel declared her sovereignty (to) put daylight between the United States and Israel.”
Krazy’s statement doesn’t support the facts; President Obama, late in 2009, transferred 55 bunker-buster 5,000 pound bombs to Israel putting it in the perfect position to take out Iran’s buried nuclear facilities; or perhaps to target Hezbollah’s buried bunkers in Lebanon at its earliest convenience (https://thelibertytree.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/obama-gave-israel-bunker-busters/ ).
Ever since he was elected, conservative talking heads have claimed President Obama was pro-Palestine, but just a month ago the President led the charge in the United Nations (UN) to deny the creation of a Palestinian state, and now it turns out he gave Israel the capability to defend itself in the event Iran continues its nuclear program.
It’s time for the whiny GOTP presidential hopefuls to shut their collective pie holes when it comes to the President’s stance on Israel; while Bush equivocated Obama acted.
Under President Clinton aid to Israel was $4,132,000,000 but under the Bush administration aid to Israel steadily declined to $2,424,000,000; under President Obama aid to Israel is on the rise once again $2,550,000,000 in 2009 and $2,770,000,000 in 2010 with continued increase expected through FY 12.
So, which party supports Israel? Under President Clinton aid to Israel reached its highest point and then was steadily cut under Bush (even though we were fighting the War on Terror), but has risen again under President Obama; Bush refused to give bunker busters to Israel, but President Obama has given them. Facts don’t lie, but GOTP presidential candidates – like Bachmann – clearly do …
So, the President who supposedly hates Israel, and who all the conservatives have claimed is willing to sell out Israel turns out to be the President who in late 2009, transferred 55 bunker-buster 5,000 pound bombs to Israel putting them in the perfect position to take out Iran’s buried nuclear facilities; or perhaps to target Hezbollah’s buried bunkers in Lebanon at their earliest convenience.
As it turns out, Israel had requested the deep-penetrating bombs from the Bush administration, but according to reports Bush wimped out, evidently afraid the Israelis would use the bombs to – of all things – attack Iran. So, Republican Bush refused to help Israel, but Democrat Obama does.
Ever since he was elected, conservative talking heads have claimed President Obama was pro-Palestine, but last week the President led the charge in the United Nations (UN) to deny the creation of a Palestinian state, and now it turns out he gave Israel the capability to defend itself in the event Iran continues its nuclear program.
So, now it’s time for the talking heads – and the whiny GOTP presidential hopefuls – to shut their pie holes when it comes to the President’s stance on Israel; while Bush equivocated Obama acted.
Media Matters is reporting that “Professor” Glenn Beck is promoting the organization of a far-right Israeli extremist who has ties to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s terrorist Kach movement.
Last week, Beck held his “pro-Israel” event near the Temple Mount, a sacred site in Jerusalem to peoples of many faiths including Muslims, Christians, and Jews. It’s the site where the Solomon’s and Herrod’s Jewish temples once existed and where the Islamic Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque now stand. It is revered as the site where Abraham took his son Isaac when called upon by God to sacrifice his only son.
Shortly before the “event”, Professor Beck broadcast a brief feature about the mount, which discussed plans by “religious Jews” to “build a Third Temple” there. Beck’s broadcast promoted the work of an organization called the Temple Institute, a group allegedly “dedicated to every aspect of the Biblical commandment to build the Holy Temple of G-d on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem”.
The group declares its short-term goal is to rekindle the flame of the Holy Temple in the hearts of mankind through education, and that its long-term goal is “to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the Holy Temple in our time.” The Jerusalem Post however describes the Institute as “a once-marginal organization that has been gaining increasing prominence.” According to a January 25, 2000, piece published in Ha’aretz, “most” of the Institute’s members are “extreme right wing.”
The group’s founder – and current head of the Institute – is Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who, according to according to the Jerusalem Report, “ran for Knesset on Meir Kahane’s racist Kach party ticket in 1981, and has argued that Jewish law does not allow Christians or Muslims to live in the Land of Israel.” The Rabbi – it appears – was quite close to Kahane, and according to a 1990 Jerusalem Post article, Ariel “served as No.2 to Kahane in the early ’80s” before Kach was banned from Israeli elections. Ariel was seen as a potential “spiritual successor” to Kahane.
According to Media Matters, in his book, The End of Days, historian Gershom Gorenberg explained that among the aims of the Kach party “was making sexual relations between a Jew and an Arab a capital crime” and that “the party’s eventual goal was the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories.” According to Gorenberg, “Kahane’s small group of aggressive followers splattered Jerusalem walls with posters demanding that Israel ‘erase the mosques form the Temple Mount.’ ”
Israeli police broke up an alleged plot – in 1983 – by armed Kahanists and other extremists to forcibly seize the Temple Mount. According to Reuters, “Police said the group was inspired by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who [in 1982] was involved in nationalist resistance to the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.”
According to a March 12, 1983, Washington Post article, some of the alleged conspirators were arrested at Ariel’s home, “Jerusalem police, alerted in advance, last night broke up what they described as a well-organized attempt by orthodox and militantly nationalistic Jews to take over and establish a ‘settlement’ on the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Moslems in Jerusalem’s Old City.”
At the time of the arrest, police officials said some of those arrested included followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and that some of those arrested, including the soldiers, were armed with automatic weapons in preparation for the takeover attempt.
Ariel has since tried to distance himself and the Temple Institute from those who seek to use terrorism to destroy the mosques in order to rebuild the Jewish Temple. ”We don’t want to blow up the mosque,” he told The New York Times in 1989. ”Our intention is to do everything that we can within the law. We’ll prepare whatever we can so that we can eventually worship there again.”
But, if one applies the logic espoused by Beck and other uber-conservative talking heads when they repeatedly attacked President Obama over his alleged connections to William Ayers – once a terrorist, always a terrorist, and thus Beck’s Rabbi buddy and his organization must still be terrorists; because you can’t have your cake and eat it too Professor.
Media Matters reports that since its inception in 1969, members of the Jewish Defense League and related Kahanist organizations have allegedly carried out a relentless campaign of violence, culminating in JDL-member Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 massacre of 29 Muslims in Hebron. In 1997, the U.S. State Department officially designated Kach and Kahane Chai as “foreign terrorist organizations.” The State Department noted that both groups “were declared to be terrorist organizations in March 1994 by the Israeli Cabinet under the 1948 Terrorism Law.
So, of all the groups, and of all the individuals, Glenn Beck could pick to affiliate himself within Israel he chooses an uber-conservative, militant, terrorist organization? Beck is either proving himself – once again – to be completely obtuse and not understanding things nearly as clearly as he likes to portray, or, he knows full well who Rabbi Yisrael Ariel is, and what his organization is. Of course, in the right-wing nut job world of Beck and his devotees, Israelis can’t be terrorists, and killing Muslims is all according to “God’s plan”. But, then again, Beck also claims to be receiving “revelation” and “inspiration” from God, and that makes whomever he hangs out with OK; at least in the twisted mind of Professor Beck.
Hold on to your hats kids, the “Prophet”, Glenn Beck has claimed that President Obama has issued an “ultimatum,” to Israel giving them “30 days to comply with the 1967 border rules.”
“And then, the Israel ultimatum,” declared the Prophet. “This one happens by September. This weekend, the Obama administration gave Israel 30 days to comply with the 1967 border rules. According to the National Security Council, quote, ‘We have a month to see if we can work something out with the Israelis and Palestinians as accepting these principles as a basis for negotiations.’ Well, now, there’s a reasonable timeline on solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conflict that has gone on for decades and centuries. Guys, you got 30 days. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? This presidency thing is a breeze for Barack Obama.”
Well, not quite Prophet Glenn, not quite. Fact is the article you chose to quote, trying to back up your latest falsehood (should Prophets be telling falsehoods? That’s a topic for another day I’m sure) actually stated that the Obama Administration has made a “request” of Israel to accept the President’s proposal as a basis for negotiations and as a way to head off Palestinian plans to unilaterally declare an independent state.
Glenn, you’re a liar, and you’re crazy.
But, even though the Prophet Glenn is certifiable, I have to say I find the whole idea of even asking Israel to move back to the pre-1967 borders is very naïve. I don’t know who in the administration thought up this one, but they should do a little studying about the why there’s a pre-1967 border.
There was a little something called the Six-day War. It started when Israel’s neighbors decide in June of 1967 to enact their own “Final Solution” on their Jewish neighbors. Egypt, Jordan and Syria – with troops and aid from fellow Arab nations Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria – attacked, and had their lunch handed to them. When the dust settled, Israel’s borders had expanded dramatically including The West Bank together with East Jerusalem (taken from Jordan), the Golan Heights (taken from Syria) and the Sinai and Gaza (taken from Egypt).
Had these peaceful Arab neighbors not attacked Israel, then there wouldn’t be any need to discuss any “pre-1967 border”. If I were Israel I would ignore anyone suggesting to me that I should relinquish these territories.
As for the Palestinian People, you had a chance in 1947 when Israel was created, to have a separate Palestinian State, but you turned your nose up and declared Jihad against the Jews. You were not going to share anything with your cousins; you were going to exterminate them. Well, let’s see, 64 years later, how’d that strategy work out for you?
The Liberty Tree 