July 22, 2011, 10:34 AM
| Comments (12) | | |
 |
| |  |
Saying that Israel faces daunting challenges today and that those challenges will multiply and grow in the near future should not be construed as a partisan or ideological statement. Rather, it is a statement of fact.
It is also a fact that the greatest dangers facing Israel stem from President Barack Obama's rapid withdrawal of the US from its position as the predominant power in the Middle East on the one hand, and from Iran's rise as a nuclear power and regional power on the other.
These power shifts along with the Muslim Brotherhood's rising power in Egypt; Turkey's Islamist government's regional ambitions; the rise of jihadist forces throughout the Persian Gulf; and the growing instability of the Syrian and Jordanian regimes, together constitute a threat environment unmatched in Israel's history.
Alongside these conventional threats, Israel is the target of a sustained, escalating political campaign to delegitimize its right to exist and its right to defend itself by the Palestinians and the international Left. This campaign threatens Israel's economy and prepares the ground for violent aggression against Israel by conditioning the West to believe that Israel deserves to be attacked.
Given the magnitude, multiplicity and complexity of the threats Israel faces, it would be reasonable to expect our leading politicians from all parties to place patriotism above partisanship and at least on the issues that are beyond dispute to work together to defend the country.
And it would seem reasonable to assume that the issues beyond dispute are Israel's right to exist and defend itself as well as its need to deter or defeat its enemies.
Throughout most of the state's 63 year history, opposition leaders have joined forces with the government to defend the country in times of trouble. Most recently, while serving as head of the opposition during Ehud Olmert's tenure as prime minister, in 2006 Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to Europe at Olmert's request and defended Israel's war against Hezbollah.
During the course of hostilities, Netanyahu never criticized Olmert's poor war leadership in public. He did not publicly criticize then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni's scandalously incompetent handling of the cease-fire negotiations at the UN Security Council. Instead, Netanyahu communicated his criticism to Olmert behind closed doors. As he saw it, public criticism would diminish Olmert's ability to win the war.
Shortly after Netanyahu took office in March 2009, the UN released its libelous Goldstone Report in which Olmert and his government were falsely accused of committing war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Although Netanyahu himself was not mentioned or accused of anything, he led a staunch campaign to discredit the report.
Netanyahu didn't act as he did because he wanted to help Kadima. He acted as he did because he realized that it was Israel, not Olmert and Livni, that was under attack. As prime minister and as opposition leader, it is his job to defend Israel from attack even when the most direct beneficiaries of his actions are his political rivals.
NETANYAHU'S DECENT behavior didn't make him a hero. His behavior is the minimum we can and should expect from our elected officials, whether they are in the government or the opposition. We should be able to reasonably expect that those who seek public office with the declared intention of serving as national leaders will always put the national interest above their partisan interests when the two conflict.
Unfortunately, this fundamental, eminently reasonable expectation is being trampled by opposition leader Tzipi Livni today. Since taking the helm of the opposition, Livni has never been willing to recognize that foreign attacks on Netanyahu are quite often attacks on Israel.
Rather than acknowledge that attacks on the legitimacy of the democratically elected government of her country are attacks on her country, Livni has viewed every attack on Netanyahu as an opportunity to weaken his government.
In this vein, Livni has consistently sided with Obama, the Palestinians and the international Left against Netanyahu, and blamed Netanyahu for their attacks on Israel. For instance, when during his visit to the US in May, Netanyahu rejected Obama's hostile call for Israel to retreat to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines, Livni defended Obama as a friend of Israel and accused Netanyahu of harming Israel's ties to the US.
Indeed, Livni called for Netanyahu to resign.
Livni ignored Obama's shocking renunciation of pledges his predecessor made to the Sharon government regarding Israel's right to defensible borders and US rejection of the Palestinians' demands for unlimited immigration to Israel and for Israel to vacate all the Israeli towns and villages built beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Livni ignored the fact she herself demanded that the Palestinians renounce the so-called "right of return," and blamed Netanyahu for all the unpleasantness. As she put it, "A prime minister that harms the relationship with the US over something unsubstantial is harming Israel's security and deterrence."
As for the Palestinians, as far as Livni is concerned, they can do no wrong while Netanyahu is in office. Although the Palestinian negotiations department documents that were leaked earlier this year to The Guardian show Livni arguing that the Palestinians have to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, since Netanyahu took office, she has abandoned this position in favor of blanket support for the Palestinians against Netanyahu.
In Livni's world, the fact that the Palestinians have refused to hold negotiations with Israel for two years is an opportunity to attack Netanyahu.
The fact that her friends in Fatah just signed a unity deal with Hamas is insignificant. As for their bid to ditch the peace process and ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state without peace with Israel - that too is an opportunity to attack Netanyahu.
Last month, Netanyahu told an interviewer that the conflict with the Palestinians is not about territory but about their rejection of Israel's right to exist. He asserted that as a consequence, it will be impossible to resolve the conflict until they change their view of Israel.
As is her wont, Livni treated her opponent's observation about an unpleasant reality as equivalent to creating that reality. Attacking Netanyahu from the Knesset podium she hissed, "Who are you to tell the citizens of Israel that they and their children, and later their children's children, will continue to live by their swords forever? Who are you to bury the chances of a deal and of normal life here, after just a few hours in the room meant for negotiations you didn't conduct?"
THEN THERE is Livni's ardent support for far-Left organizations in Israel and abroad that work actively to undermine Israel's legitimacy. Take J Street. It took less than a year for J Street to demonstrate that its claim that it is pro-Israel is a sham. J Street lobbied the US Congress not to impose sanctions on Iran. It lobbied the Obama administration to allow an anti-Israel resolution to pass at the UN Security Council. It has included advocates of the boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel at its annual conference. It supports several of the most anti- Israel members of Congress.
Due to J Street's hostility, the government has rightly shunned it. But Livni has embraced it - mainly in a bid to make Netanyahu look petty.
In so doing, she has given legitimacy to a deeply hostile organization whose goals are far outside the mainstream of both Israeli public opinion and American public opinion.
Then there is her outspoken support for anti- Zionist Israeli and foreign organizations that participate in the international Left's campaign to delegitimize Israel. Many of these groups worked with the Goldstone Commission and others to criminalize Kadima's leadership - including Livni - as war criminals.
If it hadn't been for Livni, last week the Knesset would have approved by a much wider margin an anti-boycott law that enjoyed support from across the political spectrum. Instead, it passed with the support of right-wing lawmakers alone.
The original anti-boycott bill was co-sponsored by Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin and Kadima MK Dalia Itzik. Several Kadima MKs were vocal advocates of legislation punishing those waging economic war against Israel.
For instance, Kadima MK Otniel Schneller said, "Those who oppose the bill with phony democratic claims are legitimizing the international trend of boycotting Israeli academia, culture and economics, thereby damaging the legitimacy of Israeli democracy and Jewish morals."
But Livni would have none of it.
Last week, Livni forbade Kadima MKs to support the legislation in any form, and then led the charge in attacking it with those very same "phony democratic claims."
By acting as she did, she didn't merely hurt the government. She hurt the country. Now everyone from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to B'Tselem, to the International Solidarity Movement will cite Livni's position as proof that there is nothing wrong with waging economic warfare against Israel. They will quote her to claim it is reasonable to single Israel out from the rest of the nations of the world for delegitimization and divestment.
Livni insists that Kadima is not a leftist party and that she is not a leftist even as her positions are identical to those of the post-Zionist Meretz party.
Livni's political rationale is clear. She knows that despite her protestations, no one other than her media supporters believes that Kadima is a centrist party. As a consequence, her only chance of forming a government is by capturing the entire leftist vote.
Although many Kadima MKs object to her positions and criticize her for being too radical, they realize they have no choice but to go along. If they want to remain in Kadima and in politics, they must appeal to Kadima's voters - who are all on the Left.
This is why Livni's rival for party leadership Shaul Mofaz has adopted a peace plan that is even more radical than Livni's plan to give Fatah everything it wants. Mofaz's plan is to recognize and seek to negotiate a settlement with Hamas.
Mofaz is no dove. But his only option for beating Livni in the Kadima leadership primary is to outflank her on the Left.
Livni has always been an opportunist. When Netanyahu brought her into the Knesset in 1999, she was a super hawk. When in 2004, then-prime minister Ariel Sharon adopted the far Left's strategy of wholesale territorial surrender, Livni moved from junior minister to senior minister in less than two years by adopting the positions of the far Left.
Today, as she attacks Netanyahu for advancing positions that most Israelis agree with, she does so not because she believes Netanyahu is wrong. After all, she advanced many of the same positions when she was foreign minister. She attacks him because she wants to bring down his government so that she can have another shot at getting elected to replace him. That her behavior's affects Israel's ability to withstand political and military aggression is clearly of no concern to her.
It is hard to quantify the damage Livni's opportunistic attacks on the government have already caused the country. As we move into an uncertain future, it is disconcerting to consider the damage Livni will cause with her shameless exploitation of Israel's vulnerabilities for her own political gain.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
| Comments (12) | | |
|
Livni is the worst kind of bottom-feeding politicians. She is in the job only for her own benefit, not for the good of the country, as a result she represents no-one but herself. Unfortunately the Israeli voting system helps people like her because they are answerable to no-one, Israel needs to adopt a geographic constituency system where members of the Knesset represent real people in real areas - its not perfect, but at least politicians are answerable to the people they supposedly represent, not just party members.
As loathsome as Obama is, does it really fall on the current president that it is responsible for "... withdrawal of the US from its position as the predominant power in the Middle East ..." Or maybe, is it really true that such a withdrawal is taking place? Your chief complaint in this area is Egypt's Mubarak, but you insist on ignoring that Mubarak fell ill. He is sick and he can no longer serve as dictator, no matter what the US does. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is older than the refoundation of Israel, Sadat turned them loose and then was in turn assassinated by another group for dealing in a marginal way with Israel.
It is clear that things are changing around Israel and Israel may be forced to act to confront them. But Obama is small potatoes in the history of this problem and constantly harping on Obama outside of his real hostility to Israel is a strategy of convenience. It is things like this that make one wonder if the Obama adminstration is the result of a conspiracy of the right as well as the left, or maybe something larger that subsumes both.
In this vein, it is also worth examining why Livni insists that she is not a leftist. I disparage the whole "left" versus "right" debate and rhetoric as well the equally empty "liberal" versus "conservative". But how else to describe Livni's politics? Something has calcified public discourse to this highly restrictive language. What is it?
Caroline, As you write all the warning signs are there, but the solution is clear. Livni has to go. She and her Leftist friends pose a real and imminent danger to the continued existence of Israel. Shabbat shalom and G-d bless you for your bravery and courage to speak out in the presence of evil.
You can say that Livni forbad Kadima from going along with the anti-boycott law, but if the minions of Kadima did not agree with her, then they throw her out and have their own from of a putsch. the fact that they chose to follow her either because of political loyalty or hopes of political gain mean that they are as self-serving as Livni. Remember a leader only has power if people follow.
Those why watch events closely in Israel are acutely aware that those placed to oversee the fiefdom are always keen to please their masters in far away Washington.
In Israel everything revolves around Washington and appeasing the feudal lord.
What we see going on between the two poodles Livni and Netanyahu is one trying to outdo the other in pleasing their lord.
It's easier for Livni to go after a straw man than to deal with the serious issues of lost sovereignty and Israel's never ending capitulation to the demands of a treacherous ally who has betrayed Israel and sacrifices it to Israel's enemies under a false peace agenda.
The problem is that all of them are too fearful to deal with this reality and all they know to do is to keep appeasing their Lord of destruction.
straw man
Another more popular origin is a human figure made of straw, such as practice dummies used in military training. Such a dummy is supposed to represent the enemy, but it is considerably easier to attack because it, naturally, neither moves nor fights back.
You show that Tzipi Livni is a hypocrite. She should have no place in any responsible government. Regardless of Livni, Kadima MKs must be held responsible for their actions. Netanyahu is right, it will be impossible to resolve the Palestinian conflict. We must assume they will never change their view of Israel. We must also assume that Israel will stand alone against the world, and plan how to survive anyway. I urge everyone to check out Angelo M. Codevilla’s essay “The Chosen One” (http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1852/article_detail.asp), an in-depth look at what little we know about Obama, and how much we can learn from it anyway. I’ll bet a similar analysis could be made regarding Tzipi Livni and her fellow travelers (or maybe Codevilla’s analysis of Obama explains Livni precisely).
Absolutely with you on this one Caroline.
Those from every nation who place their own political ambitions above the best interests of their country should be abhorred, Livni included.
As a Christian who loves Israel though, I have to say that your God hasn't brought you this far to abandon you.
There are many like me who will support Israel. Without you, I would have no Saviour, no prophets, no Bible, no hope
I think Livny should be concerned about Israels independence from islam oil !
Drill for the oil offshore Israel ... because the problem is not first of all energy dependency of an entity that is hostile for ideological reasons for that is what islam-oil represents. (shariah the threat to america an exercise in competitive analysis report of team b II)
The first problem is that (islam)-oil has reached Peak-oil and structural high prices caused by the demand of the Chinese ..
The only way to cheap energy is a vast number of Thorium Nuclear reactors (Molten Salt Reactors MSR & Very High Temperature reactors VHTR) in combination with a world wide Electric Automobile Industry.
Both Thorium reactors & Electric cars have great saving potential & thus contributes to curing the economical crisis or else .. end up in a asymmetric Third World War !.
1. Energy independence as important as it is is only one of many measures to be taken !
2. The islam must be wiped of the face of the Earth
3. liberal democrats like the muslim outreaching Clinton's, George Soros-Samantha Powers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Reich, Larry Summers etc. are evil for the whole of mankind for they are basically advocating communist ideals which reduces or = equal to redistribution and nullify innovation ... which is the only source of empirical falsyfiable proof of physical measurable wealth !
4. The green mafia with their three axes a. the lie of Global Warming (AGW) b. anti-nuclear power c. the lie of sustainability.
5. the theft of aprox. 4 trillion USD by the US based financial mafia like Bernanke, Geithner, Lagarde, Zoelick, Trichet, & later on Draghi but also Greenspan, Volcker etc.
6.The destruction of Iran's nuclear arms capability
7. The dismantling of the Pakistani nuclear arms complex under serious threat of the Pakistan Neo Taliban Jihadi's
Ps. I support Michele Bachmann !
T.Prinse
Dear Caroline,
J Street hasn't lobbied against sanctions on Iran -G'd forbid!: They must push for all possible sanctions too-. I don't belong nor side with J Street, nor am I an American Jew, but it is an accusation I didnn't find any base for.
Yours thankfully,
Shabbat Shalom,
Fortuna Benmayor
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.
WHAT EXCUSE CAN ANYONE MAKE FOR OBAMA NOW?
by Sharon Rondeau
This "document" lacks the certifying wording present on other birth and marriage certificates issued by the Hawaii Department of Health. Why?
(Jul. 22, 2011) — Mr. Douglas Vogt, owner of Vector Associates and Archive Index Systems, has sent letters to officials in Hawaii and will be sending them to all members of Congress with his report on why he believes the image released by the White House on April 27, 2011 purported to be Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate is a forgery.
The Post & Email previously interviewed Mr. Vogt on June 2, 2011, during which he stated, “I have a unique background for analyzing this document. I owned a typesetting company for 11 years so I know type and form design very well. I currently own Archive Index Systems since 1993, which sells all types of document scanners worldwide and also developed document imaging software…”
We asked Mr. Vogt how many mailings he had completed, and his interview follows below:
MRS. RONDEAU: How many letters have you sent to members of Congress with your report as of now?
MR. VOGT: I haven’t finished the cover letter to Congress. I mailed off about 70 of them, but that was 3-4 weeks ago, and that was to several committees. Then I started to write all of them down. I still have to create that mailing list. I have about 89 names, and I have more to do to finish off all the Republicans in the House and the Senate. They’ll get it first before their Democrat colleagues.
I’ve been busy with notifying the U.S. Attorney in Hawaii. You saw the letter to the governor and the attorney general of Hawaii. It looks as if it worked with them, because Loretta Fuddy, the Health Department Director, split! She supposedly “left the island.”
MRS. RONDEAU: Have you been able to find out any more specifics on that?
MR. VOGT: Yes, I mailed the thing on July 11th; it was accepted on the 14th, and on the 15th they said that the deputy attorney in the office who was handling the subpoena had left and won’t be back until this week sometime and that Fuddy had left the island. It doesn’t matter whether the director is there or not; it’s a public office, and people come and go all the time. The government office remains open; it’s just the next person in charge or even an employee who serves the public, and that’s it; you’re done. Actually, it’s the State of Hawaii which gets served and has to produce it.
The letter to the AG and governor formally notified them that it’s a forgery. I sent them both copies of the report: the 28-pager and also the latest affidavit on the news conference.
The news conference analysis was very important, and I think the reason that it shook up the attorney general and governor was that I had correctly identified plausible deniability in that news conference on the 27th of April. It was clear-cut. I’m surprised no one had spotted this. The lawyers hadn’t; other people at least didn’t say anything; but Bauer and Pfeiffer – Bauer is the former White House attorney and Pfeiffer is communications director – basically set up plausible deniability, and when Obama gave the speech an hour later, he never even mentioned the Certificate of Live Birth that was released an hour before. He only mentioned the Certification of Live Birth of 2008. That’s a classic case of plausible deniability where they say, “Well, I never saw it; I never heard it; I didn’t order it…” They did it. It’s not going to work here. It didn’t work during the Nixon administration, and it’s not going to work here, because the only one who benefits by that fraud is him. It has nothing to do with money; it has to do with a certificate. That’s what we’re dealing with.
I think it shook them up. I think it shook up the attorney general in Hawaii and the governor such that they looked at the evidence and said, “He’s right.” That’s plausible deniability; there’s no question. They knew they were presenting a fraud. “We’re in trouble.”
When you read the letter, you’ll see it. I said, “This is most likely going to be the end of the Democrat Party.” The letter is two pages. The point is that I think this letter scared them, especially when they saw plausible deniability, and I think they realized I’m right. When I defined “plausible deniability” on the affidavit, they said that middle management either is inaccessible or impossible to interrogate because they’ve beat the scene or they’re dead. It’s one or the other; that’s what happens with criminal organizations to protect the leadership.
[Editor's Note: Vogt issued an original affidavit on May 10, 2011, an expanded 22-page report on May 22, 2011, and a longer report dated June 13, 2011 consisting of 28 pages. A July 4 affidavit containing graphics analyses by Vogt states that "false statements" were made on April 27, 2011, the day on which the image in question was presented to the public as a copy of Obama's original birth record.]
If you remember the Watergate matter, G. Gordon Liddy was volunteered to be assassinated on a Washington, DC street corner if it would save the president. Send Liddy an email; he’ll tell you. I’m going to be contacting the U.S. attorney here in Seattle with all the evidence against Robert Bauer to have him prosecuted, because he obviously perpetrated the fraud; he’s a principal. I did the same thing with the U.S. attorney in Hawaii to investigate Fuddy and the Hawaii attorney general. They’ve all been put on notice that “This fraud has happened; these people are most likely involved, and it’s your job to investigate.”
MRS. RONDEAU: The Post & Email had conducted two Hawaii Petition Campaign mailings, after which we thought we might turn our focus elsewhere. Then Obama released what he said was his birth certificate on April 27 which many have stated is a forgery. As a result, perhaps people such as Fuddy; the attorney general and deputy attorney general, Jill Nagamine; Alvin Onaka, the registrar; the U.S. attorney, as you’ve mentioned, and the FBI in Hawaii need to hear from as many people as possible.
MR. VOGT: I’ve notified the U.S. attorney there, Florence Nakakuni; she received hers the same day as the others. She’s in the same building as the FBI.
What I want to do is something I learned from my friend, who did something similar with a totally different subject: We have a crook in the White House. We have people who are covering up for him. If the FBI doesn’t do anything, I will resort to telling them about not only the plausible deniability, but also the section in the statute about misprision of felony. I tell them very plainly that I’m obligated to tell people, and I’ve said, “If you do nothing, I’m going to the next group on the list, which is federal judges.” I’m going to tell them that I’ve notified the FBI director and the agent in charge of Hawaii, and they’ve refused to do anything about it; it’s obviously a forgery. I think they’re not acting for political reasons. I’m going to ask the federal judges if Mueller can become an accessory after the fact. If you read that law, Section 3, it says that if you hinder the investigation or the prosecution of a guilty party, that is an accessory after the fact. I’m going to ask all the federal judges, including the Supreme Court justices – all the judges who deal with criminal cases, not bankruptcy or probate matters – just those who deal with criminal cases. That’s hundreds of judges. If I don’t get a response, the next group is all the U.S. attorneys.
MRS. RONDEAU: U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, but perhaps we don’t have a president right now.
MR. VOGT: We do, but he’s a liar. He lied his way to the top; he’s a phony. The FBI has to deal with U.S. attorneys and federal judges all the time on a daily basis. So what do you think is going to happen with Mueller and other FBI agents, once they know this stuff, that every U.S. attorney and every federal judge has gotten black-and-white proof that this thing is a forgery? Everybody they work with from whom they need cooperation is going to know the secret. It’s no longer going to be a secret. They may not mention it publicly, but they all talk among themselves. This would be the biggest topic among them. Eventually they’re going to break, and they’re going to break the story to other media. The best thing that could happen for your readers and you is to contact foreign media as well as the smaller- and medium-sized domestic media, both radio and print media, because they aren’t so much under the control of the White House, or maybe not even ideologically attuned to them. That’s perhaps the best way of doing it. I put up on the secure Birther Summit website blog a suggestion format for a news release.
The only way to force Mueller and the FBI to do something is my plan, which is contacting the federal judges and then the U.S. attorneys, then all of Congress. You tell each and every one, “I’ve told the FBI; they refuse to do anything; can you please contact them, because the next one on the list is going to be all of these people.” They can’t do anything to me. I have an absolutely clean record, and they know I’m right. I’m going to try calling Mueller and the FBI agent in Hawaii. I think they’ll take my call because I’m the one who wrote the letter and affidavit. A couple of people have called Hawaii and Washington, DC, but they didn’t speak with the people to whom I have written. I’m going to see if I can get anything out of them. If I get a chance to talk to them, I’ll say, “Listen, if you don’t do it, the next one on the list under the law is all the judges.” Every single federal judge is going to get a copy of it. Then every single U.S. attorney is going to get it, and they’re all going to know that the FBI didn’t do anything about it. It’ll put the pressure on them.
With Paul Irey‘s material, my report has a total of ten items. I’ve offered people who are complaining a $1,000-$2,000 challenge that they couldn’t prove all nine of my items wrong, and no one has taken me up on it. They won’t. It’s just overwhelming.
Anyone who says that the image released by Obama is a forgery has to produce an affidavit that a lawyer can use in court. Some have not come out publicly, so that’s just “noise” that the FBI can legally ignore. They have to be formally told that a crime has been committed. They have to make an affidavit, write a letter to the FBI or their congressman, and do the same thing I’m doing. It’s basically putting your name and your reputation on the line. I was evidently the first one to do it.
Editor’s Note: In an email, Mr. Vogt supplied the following information:
My cover letter will remind them that this scandal is the worst in American history and it is going to hit the domestic as well as foreign media this year.
To me, it seems very clear. Livni has been convinced by JStreet and other Soros influenced and paid for puppets along with European anti-Israeli operatives that she will be the next PM if she goes along with them.They probably also call in her tactics during the day and her propagandistic copy to parrot. I would do an investigation of her bank accounts in Switzerland, the US, and France, her foreign associations and contacts.
She is acting like Nancy Pelosi did when she was in power.I wonder, what Netanyahu's response was when she attacked him as quoted.If the other Kadima MK's ignored her, Israel may not have to suffer consequences from her machinations.
Kadima in Israel, the Democratic party in the U.S. With some supporting scum in the republican party and the media completely Marxist or supporting their efforts without objection, which is the same thing.
Somebody tell me again that this wasn't somebody's plan from the beginning.