Showing posts with label Jews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jews. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Bernie And Blacks


  • Bernie should talk more about his Jewish experience. And, like I suspect, if he does not have too much of it, he should talk about his father's Jewish experience. Black folks think they have some kind of a patent on victimhood. They got nothing on Jews
  • Blacks wrongly think they were/are victimized because they had nothing. The opposite is true, just like for Jews. Jews have a tradition of knowledge. The rest of the world has had to wait for a 21st century knowledge economy to get the message. 
  • Black folks need the Bernie message more than any other group. Bernie is not trying to dismantle Obamacare, that would be Donald Trump. He is trying to expand upon it. College is the new high school. Bernie is right. Taking money out of politics only makes sense. It makes everything else possible. 



Saturday, February 20, 2016

Iran: The Peace Dividend

English: President Barack Obama welcomes Israe...
English: President Barack Obama welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office Tuesday, May 5, 2009. At right is Vice President Joe Biden. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. Français : President Barack Obama accueille le président israélien Shimon Peres dans le bureau ovale mardi 5 mai 2009. A droite, le vice-président Joe Biden. Photo officielle de la Maison Blanche par Pete Souza. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Where we stand today, Israel is safer. Correct?

But there were people who were saying Obama is taking Israeli safety down the drain. It was an existential question. How could he?

My point being, sometimes you have to get unpopular with the very people you are trying to help. When you are doing the right thing, the popularity chart is not the right guide. Your compass might not be jiving with it.

So, just on this question, people who got it wrong, will they now take a second look at their prior position? Will they now admit Israel is now in a safer position?

A POTUS, any POTUS, stands with Israel, because America is all about democracy. So Obama's loyalty could not have been in doubt. Ends up he was also right.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

A One State Solution

English: Palestinian territories (West Bank an...
English: Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip) showing Israel's 1948 and 1967 borders (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At best it looks like soft apartheid.
 
Israel Elects a One-State President
Over time, a series of other Likud politicians have faced the contradiction between democracy and ruling over the Palestinians of the occupied territories, and have concluded that Israel must seek a two-state solution. Rivlin once described this as the equivalent of an ultra-Orthodox Jew turning his back on religion. To avoid this heresy, Rivlin has declared that Israel should annex the West Bank and give the Palestinians citizenship. He has become a one-stater..... the only possible democratic outcome for Israelis and Palestinians is a binational state ..... the one-staters of the right aren't at all interested in binationalism. And at closer examination, they aren't proposing a true shared democracy ..... a folksy, friendly president who "would prefer for the Palestinians to be citizens of this country rather than divide the land ..... "in the Land of Israel, whether we like it or not, both Jews and Arabs live. Thus any diplomatic solution based on separation is not feasible." You can't fault him for lack of chutzpah; he gave this speech at memorial ceremony for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was killed for his commitment to the opposite view. .... The Jews would vote for a Jewish parliament and the Palestinians for an Arab parliament ..... Rivlin is committed to the three principles of the Whole Land, democracy, and a Jewish nation-state. He doesn't know how to fit them together ..... The single state would change its electoral system, designing voting districts to reduce Palestinian political power ..... She, like the others, leaves Gaza out of the picture, as if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can end with no change in the besieged coastal enclave. .... What Rivlin and the rest share is professed confidence that a single state from river to sea can be both democratic and Jewish, with a large Palestinian population that is denied national rights. ...... They do share a certain brazenness with those Palestinian one-staters who hope that with a narrow Palestinian majority, they can have a Palestinian state. .... neither group is giving up its national aspirations, and creating a single state would mean continuing the conflict under new conditions. To the extent that President Rivlin becomes a symbol of the potential for a one-state solution, he will be the friendly, good-humored symbol of a dangerous illusion