Stand With Israel

Marco Rubio makes the case that we should stand with our friend and ally Israel.  His statement reads in part:

For the entirety of its existence, Israel has been targeted for annihilation by its enemies and we must never do anything to undermine its right to protect its people. As enemies such as Iran develop nuclear weapons that pose an existential threat to Israel, America has a responsibility to continue serving as its strongest and most steadfast ally.

Israel is a valued American ally and our closest and most reliable friend in the Middle East. Israel is neither the problem nor the obstacle to peace, and it should not be treated as one. By strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance, we also strengthen the moderate, pro-U.S. elements in the Arab world. If the U.S. shows itself to be an unreliable ally to Israel, moderate Arab states will take note that they cannot trust the U.S. to be a reliable friend for them either. This is unacceptable for the future of U.S. security, Israel’s existence and the prospects for a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Since January 20th of 2009 we have been awful quick to throw our traditional friends under the bus while we've been darn slow to back what could have been valuable new friends-think the demonstrators in Iran and our deplorable actions (inaction?) in Honduras.  The message we've sent has been loud and clear:  you can't count on us.  We appear weak and fickle to both friend and enemy alike.  Let's not blow it with Israel.  The consequences are simply to grave.

Marco's statement in its entirety.

Also see the post from Backyard Conservative at Potluck.

Smitty at the Other McCain has the words to We Con the World.  Let's all sing along!

Israeli Soldiers Attacked by "Activists"

Contrary to the false headlines being splattered throughout the world by the MSM, a group of Israeli soldiers were viciously attacked when they attempted to board a flotilla carrying "aid" to Gaza.  The following video, via The Sundries Shack, clearly shows that it was the soldiers who were attacked and not the other way around:



How did the MSM and the crackpots and thugs at the UN get the story so wrong?  Simply, they wanted to. 

Stacy McCain has background on the "activists" on the flotilla.

Melissa Clouthier-President Obama Abandons Israel (AGAIN)

American Power-Gaza Flotilla Activists Launched Pre-Planned Attack on Israeli Commandos

As we speak, the UN Security Council is meeting to condemn Israel.  The UN is a joke.  It is comprised of a bunch of thugs and self-dealers who have no moral authority to pass judgement on anyone.

STAND WITH ISRAEL

"Prove It"

I love it when some crackpot says, "prove it."  It is as if they are totally unaware of this little Internet thingy where every public utterance is preserved for all to see.  The latest example "I never said that" came during the joint appearance of David Horowitz and Mark Levine, a UC Irvine professor, on Sean Hannity's show.  Levine called Horowitz a liar.  When Horowitz answered by pointing out that Levine is a "supporter of the Muslim Students Association" Levine went in to "prove it" mode.  Just. Plain. Stupid.

Donald Douglas does a fantastic job of "proving it."  Read the smack down.

"We Screwed Up": Get Out the Waders Edition

"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

Golda Meir

Rahm Emanuel told a groups of rabbis at the White House that "we screwed up the messaging".  Really?  After the disgraceful treatment that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received during visit to the White House the "messaging" is quite clear:  bug off. 

Now that Jewish voters are abandoning the Democratic party Emanuel wants to pull an, "oops, our bad" in the hopes that everything will be forgotten and forgiven.  Fat chance, ballerina boy.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

When did the Obama administration become aware that they had “screwed up the messaging”? About the same time that Jewish voters began abandoning them. That would have been shortly before Chuck Schumer scolded them over fumbling the alliance, and perhaps just after leaking that Obama would “impose” a peace plan on Israel. With the midterms looking disastrous, Emanuel and his team want to shore up support in one of the most reliable voting blocs Democrats have.

The problem is that it’s not just the messaging. Obama set peace negotiations back to pre-Oslo days by demanding a halt to building in an area of Jerusalem that hadn’t ever been a hurdle to talks in the past. He insulted Israel’s Prime Minister in a visit to the White House, and has repeatedly demanded concessions from Israel as preconditions to talks with an enemy that still refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. This White House has objectively been the most hostile American administration to Israel since its founding.

If they just try to spin the messaging while keeping to the same strategies, don’t expect it to fool anyone. Pleasing words mean less and less after the track record of the last sixteen months. This looks like a desperate plea from Emanuel to the rabbis asking them to ignore Obama’s obvious hostility towards Israel in order to get more Democrats elected. (emphasis added)

Emanuel can dance around the Obama Administration's words and actions of the last sixteen months but but the record remains.  The Administration has aligned itself with the wrong side and has done so in keeping with its true self.  Barack Obama is no friend to Israel and he never will be. 

Image via Sizzle and Steak

My Thoughts on Our Relationship With Israel

From Instapundit:

SMART DIPLOMACY: 327 House members tell Obama to make U-turn on US-Israeli relations. “The letter’s lead signatories were Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The letter had only circulated for three days last week before garnering 327 signatures, probably the most bipartisan effort seen on Capitol Hill in this session of Congress. It provides a measure of just how far out of the mainstream the Obama administration has gotten on relations with Israel. Moreover, they’re entirely correct. Thanks to what amounts to a reversal of 20 years of American policy on settlements in Jerusalem, Obama has given the Palestinians a reason to refuse to come to the table that Israel simply can’t address. Obama has made peace a lot less likely than it was fifteen months ago by throwing his tantrum in such a public manner. Weakening Israel won’t bring peace — it will bring more attacks on Israel as Palestinians begin to believe that the US won’t back its ally any longer.”

Our President agrees with those who believe that the Jews have business being in Jerusalem.  Yet, Jerusalem has been home to the Jewish people for all time.  Remember that fateful Sunday:

Mark 11:1-11 (21st Century King James Version)

1And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent forth two of His disciples

2and said unto them, "Go your way into the village opposite you, and as soon as ye have entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon man never sat. Loose him and bring him.

3And if any man say unto you, `Why do ye this?' say ye that the Lord hath need of him, and straightway he will send him hither."

4And they went their way and found the colt tied outside by the door at a place where two ways met, and they loosed him.

5And certain of those who stood there said unto them, "What do ye, loosing the colt?"

6And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded, and they let them go.

7And they brought the colt to Jesus and cast their garments on him, and He sat upon him.

8And many spread their garments upon the way, and others cut down branches off the trees and strewed them upon the way.

9And those who went before, and those who followed, cried, saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!

10Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

11And Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple. And when He had looked round about upon all things, as now the eventide had come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

Who is Barack Obama to tell the Jewish people that they can not live and build in the land of their fathers?  The treatment that Benjamin Netanyahu received during his recent trip to Washington from Obama was shameful and embarrassing.  But Obama's behavior did not diminish Netanyahu, he diminished himself.  Instead of acting like the leader of the free world, he behaved like a spoiled brat.

The fate of the Christian and Jewish people will always be tied together.  The same can be said of the American and Israeli people.  Israel is our friend and ally in the Middle East.  The same can not be said of any other country in that region.  Should we allow the Muslims to succeed in their stated goal of wiping Israel off the map, they will then turn their full attention to us.

For reasons I do not understand, Obama has spent much of his presidency building a wall between us and our traditional allies.  He may simply so arrogant that he believes that we do not need friends in the world.  I worry that his vision of America is more in line with those countries who throughout history have eschewed freedom and liberty.  Obama has made no secret of his desire to "re-define" America.  The important question is "as what?".

Hump Day Pop Quiz

Who said:

My own view is moving toward supporting a direct American military imposition of a two-state solution, with NATO troops on the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel.

If you guessed Andy "little guns" Sullivan give yourself a gold star.  Who knew Andy was one of them war mongering imperialist swashbucklers that advocates the invasion of other countries just because they make him "sick" (I don't think it was Israel that caused him to become sick)? 

My suggestion to Israelis, is lock up your young sons and small farm animals.

Are We the Next Israel?

Christopher Hitchens writing in Slate:

What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets. The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high. (emphasis ended)

Watching a news show or special or something several months back I remember them showing a schoolyard playground in Israel. Among the slides and swings and jungle gym were brightly colored bomb shelters. Even the youngest of the young children in Israel know that when the siren blows they have mere moments to get in the shelter. Every building, every event, every person is a target. Is that our future?

I agree with every word that Hitchen’s writes but I disagree with the finality with which he writes. There is a certain acceptance, an “it is what it is” about his words. I don’t accept that we are incapable of defeating our enemies. I want Hitchens to write one more paragraph, the happy ending, so to speak. I don’t think he’ll do that nor is it his job. We have an enemy bent on depriving us of our lives and our freedom. We must find the resolve to write our own happy ending.

That's an Odd Title

Politico has a poll out by The New American Foundation that found that 39% of Israelis (both Jewish and Muslim) believe that President Obama is a Muslim. Although the number is a bit higher than I would have expected, I didn't find the poll particularly shocking. What I did find surprising was Andrew Sullivan's title to his post linking the poll:

Israelis Or Appalachians?

Andy didn't elaborate so I have no idea what he is inferring. I would love to hear from him how he believes that Israelis and Appalachians compare to each other. I am sure it would make for a fascinating anthropological treatise.

Make Love, Not War?

According to Hamas, the Israelis have devised an insidious plot to corrupt the Palestinian youth; they are passing out chewing gum laced with aphrodisiacs.

Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to "corrupt the young," an official said on Tuesday.

"We have discovered two types of stimulants that were introduced into the Gaza Strip from Israeli border crossings," Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan told AFP.

"The first type is presented in the form of chewing gum and the second in the form of drops," he said.

The Islamist movement that has run the densely populated and impoverished Palestinian territory for the past two years said it has detained members of a gang that helped to bring in the products.
"They admitted during the investigation they were linked to the Zionist intelligence services," he said.

One suspect said he had received the products from an Israeli intelligence officer at a cut-rate price "with the officer saying they did not want money, but to distribute the products among the young people of Gaza," Shahwan said.

"The intelligence services are aiming to corrupt the young generation by distributing these products among students."

The story came to light after a Palestinian man filed a complaint that his daughter had experienced "dubious side effects" after chewing the offending gum, Israeli media reported.

The Israeli military declined to comment officially on the allegations, which one military source termed "absurd."

Geez, next thing you know the kiddies will be too distracted making nookie to blow themselves up.

Anti-Semitism Is A Wholly Owned Subsiderary Of The Left

Taken straight from InstaPundit:

IN LIGHT OF MY EARLIER POST about how it’s not Rush Limbaugh hollering about “the Jewish Lobby,” a reader emails:

Rush has been downright forceful in defending Israel, yet I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Jew defend him.

It is frightening and sobering for me, as the child of Holocaust survivors, to see my co-religionists align with pals of unambiguous anti-semites like Rev. Wright.
I let my wife choose to raise our kids as protestants, rather than have them risk the fate of my grandparents.

American Jews have cast their lot as poorly as many German Jews did nearly a century ago. I can honestly say I never imagined in my blackest moments I’d see this.

Yes, the mainstreaming of anti-semitism (disguised as being tough on Israel or “Zionists”) has proceeded apace, even while people on the right are the ones called Nazis.

Israel, and Jews, have nothing to fear from “the right” or Christians in general. We support our our Jewish brothers and sisters and the the right of Israel to exist, flourish and prosper. But anti-Semitism does grow and prosper in the United States, aided and abetted by the Left. The following is a video taken in my home state. Ft. Lauderdale is a bastion of “progressiveness” and judging from the video, a center for Jew hate.



I'll leave you to consider Golda Meir's words:

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.

Support Israel.