Open Letter to Israel

                     

I am an American woman and U.S. citizen – a staunch supporter of Israel. 

I’ve admired the Israeli people for years -- long after I got over my teenage infatuation with Ari ben Canaan (Exodus, 1958).  For years, I fervently believed in the courage and fearlessness of the early underground, Haganah (IDF), the inherent romantic ideal of the Sabra and the immensely sensible structure of the Kibbutzim.  

Your people brought forth a veritable garden from the dry and rocky Negev Desert.  You elected the miraculously astute Golda Meir as your Prime Minister long before most countries would take their women seriously as political leaders.  And, you allowed your women to fight.  This is a country to be proud of, I remember thinking – you were resourceful, brainy and courageous.

But then, you elected Benjamin Netanyahu as your Prime Minister and I began to doubt.  Netanyahu appears to have no desire for the peace process.  I believe that he hates the Arabs and thinks the only thing they understand is force; to wit, the long-standing wars and the continued illegal settlements. He is pompous, he is arrogant; he is a destroyer, not a builder.  

I have come to despise his muscle-flexing and his interminable fear-mongering over Iran.

And now, after his duplicitous behavior in concert with our Speaker of the House of Representatives, I believe he is not only careless, by his reckless interference in our political system, but is a danger to our country as well as yours.

Bradley Burston in a recent piece in Ha’aretz, says of your prime minister  “. . . he has poisoned his country. Israel is broken and battered and weak with fear... His legacy is decay."

If you re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu, he and his bellicose defense minister, Avignor Lieberman could take us ALL to war with Iran, as we Americans will never be far from our greatest ally -- you. However, I do not want more war and I do not believe that the majority of your people want war. 

And that is why I feel I must speak to you.  I do not wish to interfere in the internal politics of Israel – I speak only because your decision has a direct bearing on my life and the lives of my children.

Please do not allow Benjamin Netanyahu and his war-mongering party this opportunity. Please remind me and the rest of the world that Israel is made of sterner stuff.  Show us the gutsy, courageous and dynamic people you have always been.    

Make the change!      

Netanyahu's Arrogance Embarasses Rabbi

Thanks to Rabbi David Teutsch -- finally, a voice of reason!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-david-a-teutsch/netanyahu-in-congress-confronting_b_6707354.html

Romney's Political Triumvirate

If Romney wins the election, we will have lost more than a year of sane and civilized dinner table conversations.  We will lose our souls.
 I say this because the election will have been bought.  Sheldon Adelson has spent more than all the corporations and super pacs combined and a lot of it was spent in Israel to get the vote of 164,000 American Jews living there. Mr. Adelson is spreading the word – not just for a Romney presidency, but for Netanyahu to get another go as Prime Minister of Israel  in January, 2013.

By producing a daily newspaper called Israel Hayom (Israel Today) and handing it out to readers for free with advertisers getting a substantial discount, Adelson has essentially closed down the Israeli free press. Traditional papers such as Maariv and Haaretz may have to sell to the highest bidder because they cannot compete. Adelson, as you may recall, is the Las Vegas casino magnate who at first supported Newt Gingrich and is now Romney’s benefactor, advisor and big daddy.

What he is hoping to accomplish is to ensure the election goes to Romney with help from the ex-patriot vote in Israel.  As a result, he will have a grateful Romney, control of Netanyahu after the Israeli election, ending in an all but certain war in Iran.  Romney and Netanyahu have been friends for thirty five years and most of Romney’s foreign affairs advisors are former Bush advisors.  Think Iraq.    

And, don’t forget what will happen here in the U. S.  With Romney as president, we will likely have no more balance of powers. The Republicans will control not just the presidency, but the House and soon (with the kind of money machine the Republican Party has no qualms using) they will also control the Senate, and the Supreme Court.  There are two imminent positions to be filled on the Court and you can be certain they will be filled with over the top conservatives.  Does the name, Bolten ring a bell?

There are abundant reasonable American Jews in Israel and there are Israelis who are far more moderate who believe Adelson’s influence in Israel is wrong.  On the other hand, there are people like Barry Rubin and Arlene Kushner, whose anti-Obama vitriol is in perfect harmony with a bellicose prime minister. With Netanyahu’s re-election, and a Romney victory in the U. S., we will have a triumvirate of power -- Adelson, Netanyahu and Romney.   

I can’t make these corporations, super pacs and multi-billionaires refrain from buying our leaders.  All I can do is draw attention to their purpose.

And, I just have.