Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Israel's Military Versus Netanyahu and Knesset Situation

Nadene Goldfoot                                              
Fareed Zakaria's GPS Sunday morning program opened with a discussion about the Israeli soldier who is in hot water for shooting a Palestinian. Fareed said this has caused Israel's Defense Minister  to be fired and that there is a feud between the Generals (Alufeem)  and Netanyahu.  He was replaced with Avigdor Lieberman causing the lawmakers to be against the appointment.  Moshe Yaalon had resigned, accepted as a good defense minister who had in a year calmed a big uprising.  .Moshe is one who sides with the military.

The decision by Netanyahu comes from dealing with the politics of the moments, the centrists, which brought about choosing a hawk like Lieberman.  The question is, will he continue to uphold their strong moral values?

 What happened was that a 19 year old IDF Sgt Elor Azria, French Moroccan, shot a wounded Palestinian attacker while he was lying down on the ground in Hebron (18 miles south of Jerusalem)  on March 24th of this year.  The soldier has been charged with  violating the rules of engagement without justification.  The terrorist showed no immediate threat for anyone.  He had shot and killed Abdul Sharif, 21.  He was charged with inappropriate military conduct.

 This is where Abraham buried his wife, Sarah.  He bought a plot of ground which included a cave which is where he buried her.  Today a mosque stands over the site.  Hebron was one of the Levitical cities as well as a city of refuge under the Israelites.  The screw-up in finally allowing Jews their Jewish Homeland-20% of the promised land,  made sure that Israel would not get their ancient homeland.  Religious reasons?  Political reasons?

This was just before Passover.  He was allowed to have one night with his family Friday at the start of Passover.
Hebron
Hebron is in Judah, what Westerners call the West Bank,  and is a city with important history to Jews.  It now has become a Palestinian city and has had 7 months of Palestinian violence against Israelis.

 People on the right thought this was unfair to arrest a soldier who shot a terrorist, and thought this was like executing military personnel unfairly.  A video caught the scene.  Minutes earlier, Abdul and another terrorist were stabbing and wounding a soldier.  They were shot by a soldier.  Evidently, while down, the soldier shot Abdul again in the head without good reason as he was down.

The lawyers for the soldier said that he may have thought the terrorist was wearing explosives.  The facts came out that had he already been checked for a suicide belt, but no one in the video shows actions exhibiting any caution towards him.  The far right want the soldier released.

However, who is angry with the soldier?  The Top military brass of Israel.  They have strongly condemned his actions.  This happened during a wave of violence beginning in October which killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.  Most all of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.  The sentence came on Monday which said it had located and destroyed a tunnel that went from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, first discovered since the Gaza war in 2014.  The military has a strong code of Jewish ethics and keeps to it.  The tunnel  was built by Hamas terrorists.   32 tunnels had been discovered including 14 that extended into Israel.

This gets to my point today.  There are 2 levels of operation for nations in the world; political and religious venues.  What is each platform?  Have they always been in sinc with each other?  Israel was created as a much needed Jewish state after 2,000 years of it's population being beaten up for being Jewish by the world's religions and politics.  It's important to keep to the values.  Being a democratic state in the midst of none, they must allow the whole gamut of political parties, but the Knesset must stand behind the values of Judaism, which is highly moralistic.  They always have maintained their high moral values, especially when involved in the past wars with the terrorists of Gaza.   I can understand a young soldier in the heat of battle being scared enough to keep shooting, something so easy to do with his finger, but it was wrong to shoot a man when down when he could be taken alive.

Resource:  http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/israel-soldier-who-shot-wounded-palestinian-charged-with-manslaughter
Newsweek
The Guardian 

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Making Peace? Fatah's Abbas Lacks Clout
The PLO, once ruled by Arafat, was a terrorist party called Fatah. It started in the early 60's and took over in 1968. Fatah means: conquest by mean of jihad. Jihad means: Islamic holy war.
Abbas took over as its leader when Arafat died. He lost the last election to Hamas in 2007 , an extreme terrorist organization who chased him to Judea and Samaria on the Eastern part of Israel.
The PLO Executive Committee is the governing body of this party. They are made up of 18 un-elected influential political men. They called a meeting to approve direct negotiations with Israel. Only nine members showed up. They needed twelve according to their constitution to approve of Abbas's participation.
The problem is that Abbas's term as President of the Palestinian Authority ended in January 2009. There have been no elections since Hamas won the 2007 election.
Abbas cannot negotiate for Hamas, who has sworn no recognition of Israel as its charter says they will drive Israel into the sea; meaning to destroy and end Israel. Fatah is now the main faction of the PLO. Therefore, Abbas has no control at all of the Gaza Strip. He has little control of Judea and Samaria shown by the attacks on Israelis recently who were driving there. Fatah has not recognized Israel. Israel cannot begin negotiations without this recognition.
Netanyahu is trying to make peace with a man who has no authority to make legitimate terms. How could he possibly have support from his own people? He can't even keep the Arabs in Judea and Samaria from attacking Israelis. He's done nothing about the text books the children use that show that all of Israel is Palestine or stop the instigative remarks found in these textbooks about hatred for Jews.
Here Israel is going through the motions of negotiating in good faith hoping to come to an agreement of peace. Netanyahu may be hoping that this will cause Abbas to actually win the support of the Arabs that he now lacks. Our hope is that the main body of Arabs in both sectors might enjoya peaceful condition.
I think they will also have to edit their charter. Many of the articles are simply about liberation and Jews.
Article (4) The Palestinian struggle is part and parcel of the world-wide struggle against Zionism, colonialism and international imperialism.
Article (5) Liberating Palestine is a national obligation which necessities the materialistic and human support of the Arab Nation.
Article (6) UN projects, accords and reso, or those of any individual cowhich undermine the Palestinian people's right in their homeland are illegal and rejected.
Article (7) The Zionist Movement is racial, colonial and aggressive in ideology, goals, organisation and method.
Article (8) The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism.
Article (9) Liberating Palestine and protecting its holy places is an Arab, religious and human obligation.
Article (10) Palestinian National Liberation Movement, "FATEH", is an independent national revolutionary movement representing the revolutionary vanguard of the Palestinian people.
Reference: mgbard@aol.com Mitchell Bard-Do the Palestinian authority Leaders have a mandate to pursue peace?

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Give Up Jerusalem? Are You Crazy?

Nadene Goldfoot
Today Israel's President Shimon Peres continues talking in Washington to American leaders who are trying to force Israel to follow their unprecedented leadership. They're trying to force Israel to freeze settlement activity in Judea and Samaria and construction in East Jerusalem. Then they plan to push Israel to abandon large sections of Judea and Samaria, even removing communities and outposts and hand over the center of Jerusalem to Palestinians! 


They plan on forcing Israel to accept a Palestinian state that is controlled by the terrorists Hamas who refuse to recognize Israel, a state that was sanctioned and accepted by the United Nations in 1948. Some friend Obama is turning out to be. Whoever thought so should have studied politics a little more. Jerusalem is being squeezed in meetings on making nice talk with the Palestinians, Syria and Iran. These three entities want to see the slaughter of Israel. 


From the video I just watched of a Kuwait Arab leader, according to their holy book, hostility toward Jews is eternal. They have no intention of ever getting along with us. Why Obama is pretending that some peace can come out of talks with these groups is again, political and not a realistic goal. What they are actually doing is giving many anti-semitic people fuel to criticize Israel, and they don't need very much as it is. What I'm seeing are people who are ready to sacrifice Israel and Jews since we are a small group for their own ends, and that is that they cannot see using money to help protect Israel.

Obama is shifting ideology around so much that Israel and Egypt are joining forces in a meeting where they both find themselves in opposition to Obama's goals. Obama's maneuver is to make Iran the main force of regional power, and Israel and Egypt can have none of this. It challenges their security and interests, and here America is making deals with Iran. Surprisingly, Tehran does not plan to allow Washington to dictate the limits of its influence and will not want its nuclear aspirations checked. Bending to Iran is only giving them the power they seek.

Also, Obama is endorsing Turkey as the senior Muslim power in the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia, which is reminding people of the Ottoman Empire when they were king.

By May 18th Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled for White House talks. American leaders will throw all their strength on him and will try to discredit him. Netanyahu is marshalling all Israel's resources including President Peres in trying to remain a first rate Middle East power worthy of consultation. Up to now, Israel has been able to count on American opinion to side with them.

 I see now that the Jewish community has gone Democratic, as usual, but is facing a president that is breaking with the tradition of Israel's protector. The public is also depending on Obama's judgement and is tiring of siding with Israel. Netanyahu will have to be very strong to stand up to such an opposing force.

 We do have some friends, however, such as "Christians United for Israel" and others not affiliated with this major group who see the value of Israel and know how they have been knocked down by sloppy and hateful journalism and that their right to exist should not be challenged. Know this, Washington.

 Jews have been praying for over 2,000 years to return to Jerusalem. We've said that we should lose our right hand if we ever forget it. We're not about to lose our Jerusalem to salve someone's term in office.

Reference: Gerald Robbins: Netanyahu heads for collision with Obama administration from http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/May06/0614.html

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

More Facts About Israel to be Aware Of

Nadene Goldfoot
By 1972 almost a million Arabs lived in the administered areas (not called occupied areas). 640,600 of there lived in Judaea and Samaria. This consisted of 5,900 sq km or 2,270 sq mi. 388,600 lived in the Gaza Strip consisting of 360 sq km or 140 sq mi. and North Sinai.
8,000 Arabs lived on the Golan Heights consisting of 1,250 sq km or 500 sq mi. There are the Druzes living here.
Most of this population are Moslems. The smaller Christian communities of Greek Orthodox and Latins are mainly in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala.
Israel waited for a peace settlement which didn't come. Their objectives have been:
1. To maintain conditions of security for Israelis and Arabs alike.
2. To enable inhabitants to live normal lives without losing contact with Arabs in other countries.
3. To make possible rapid economic development.
4. To encourage co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs of the areas and Israelis, as an example for relations to come between the two peoples.
1. By 1972 things were tranquil and thriving. Local affairs were administered by the local population.
2. Open bridges on the Jordan allowed movement in either direction between the areas and the Arab States.
3. Arabs and Israelis up to 1967 had lived in mutual separation and estrangement but after 1967 were enjoying the beginnings of a peaceful and fruitful co-existence.
4. The hope was that this would make a contribution towards a transformation of Arab-Israel-relations from conflict into cooperation.
What Happened?
I daresay that other Arabs poked their goals into the territories and grabbed some political power over these people. Arafat died and Hamas took over Fatah. The whole leadership changed from bad to worse.
Israeli politics also changed. It was as if American Democrats gained power. The Left gained power and did not protect Southern Israel which was shelled for 8 years. Now the Right is back in. We await with baited breath to see how Netanyahu handles things, but I have a feeling he'll be great. Security is a big thing with him. Most Israelis voted for him for this very reason.
Unlike Muslim Nations
Arabs and Druzes take part in Israeli political life. They are in the government's legislature.
In the 7th Knesset there were 6 Arabs (one was Deputy Speaker and one was a Deputy Minister) and one Druze who was a Deputy Minister. That was by 1972. It's not a new thing. Remember, Israel only was born in 1948. It was only 24 years old. In just about every Arab nation, Jews are not allowed, even as tourists. Egypt allowed Jews by 1980 that I know of. Sadat had made a change in his attitudes. I believe it would be impossible for me to tour Saudi Arabia.
Advantages for Arabs in Israel
Israel has treated the Arabs well, though they probably wouldn't dare admit it. They have the advantages of Israel's modern medical services. They are served by 6 health centers. 79 village clinics and 75 mother and child station, besides facilities in the cities. Their death rate dropped from 20 per thousand in 1948 to 6.2 in 1971, among the lowest in the world. During this time, infantile death rates fell from 68 to 38 per thousand live births. By 1972 93% of births are in hospitals.
Now Arabs want to overwhelm Israel with their numbers demanding a return of millions and millions of Arabs who left in 1948 of their own choosing.
Resource: Facts About Israel: published by the division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem 1973.
Israel's Arab Minority
Population in 1948 126,000 in 1972 458,500
Illiteracy 95% ...................................5%
School Population 10,000 ...............117,000
University " 15 ....................................1,000
Teachers 286 .....................................5,000
Hospital Births 4% ................................93%
Health Services None ...........................85 clinics, 75 mother-child stations
Electricity Almost None .........................92%
Agriculture
machines 5 ............................................960
life expectation 52................................... 70

Resource; Facts About Israel from 1973 booklet published by division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Anti-Israel Direction in USA Government

Nadene Goldfoot
By appointing Charles Freeman as Chairman of our National Intelligence Council, our government is showing its negativity towards Israel.

Mr. Freeman has been since 1989-1992 the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and President of the Middle East Policy Council which was known as the American Arab Affairs Council. This was a lobbying group for the Arabs. One of their functions was to publish a quarterly journal called Middle East Policy which was filled with extreme anti-Israel messages. This very man, Charles Freeman, was responsible for this biased journal. Therefore, he just may share the sentiments it vomited out. He has been active in groups against Israel. In 2006 he was involved in Chicago with the group promoting John Mearsheimer and Walt in their writing against Israel.

Why President Obama invited him to take this position does not compute in my mind nor show me that he is qualified to be the editor of America's intelligence. Israel will not have a chance to be dealt with fairly.
P.S. Charles Freeman was NOT appointed as announced today under Yahoo's News Opinion section. 3/11/09. The writer was quite put out and blamed AIPAC and other Democrats favorable towards Israel.

Thank goodness for AIPAC and others. This would not have been fair at all. The writer is banking on Israel being completely wrong in hoping for such a Charles Freeman who would attack it nevertheless. We need fair open-minded people not against Israel at the start.