The Right to Our Opinion

Hanoch Daum

Published:

03.28.10, 12:06 / Opinion

 Let’s all take a deep breath. All of us. Now that the latest meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ended, we would do well to accept the not-so-bitter truth: At this time there are disagreements between the United States and Israel.

Two new governments on both sides do not see eye to eye on diplomatic realities and have different attitudes to Jerusalem. We could have caved in, or tried to blur the gaps, yet this would be a missed opportunity. It is better to reconcile ourselves to this diplomatic reality and recognize it. This is the situation, dear citizens: Israel thinks differently than America.

Instead of getting scared of this fragile situation, we need to speak out boldly: On the other side, there are quite a few people who fail to understand the limits of power.

It doesn’t matter what they tell you about what’s really happening between the White House and Israel, one thing is clear: The notion someone planted in Obama’s head, whereby Netanyahu will make statements that contradict his beliefs and his voters’ worldview, and that would shatter his coalition and split the Likud – this notion is foolish and unreasonable.

Indeed, this notion casts doubt on President Obama’s ability to conduct himself vis-à-vis Israel the way one should conduct himself vis-à-vis an ally.

Long-term opportunity

Of course, there is no reason to panic. Yet there is definitely room for regret. It is regrettable that the American Administration comprises figures who do not respect Israel’s right to think differently than them. It is regrettable that officials around Obama have embarked on a rash effort to turn the US, within a short period of time, into a friend of the Muslim world even if this means clashing with their ally.

Most of all, what’s regrettable is the very thought that a deep and complex conflict like the one involving Israel and the Palestinians is the kind of thing that can be managed in a capricious and aggressive manner, without listening to the mood on both sides.

Even if Obama and Netanyahu overcome the latest bump in the road, this is no longer an optical illusion: There are disagreements between Israel and America. This is unpleasant in the short term, yet in the long term it’s a situation that also presents an opportunity – the opportunity to face the Americans candidly and tell them: Precisely because you are our real allies, you will have to cope with one of our most basic rights – the right to think differently than you about our future.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Report from the Jerusalem Watchman-Stan Goodenough

 

The rolling drums of war

Posted on Sunday 22 November 2009

It’s never quiet in the Middle East, but sometimes the drums are muted. They roll like faraway thunder. You hear them, you know they are out there, but they’re not pressing in on your consciousness, not demanding your attention or causing you to act. Your life - our life - continues as normal.
This is both a blessing and a pity. It’s a blessing because no-one can live constantly hyped on the edge of expectation for an imminent conflict explosion.
On the downside, there’s the tendency to switch off - the danger of losing one’s own edge.
That airforce jet patrolling high over Jerusalem for the third time this morning is just another plane on patrol - never mind that we haven’t heard them this frequently for some time. The interview given by jailed venerated “Palestinian” leader - Marwan Barghouti - last week was just another interview and not a coded message to both the Fatah and Hamas terrorist cells to unleash a “Third Intifada” against Israel.  The latest rash of scary headlines? They’re just that - the latest rash.
And the drum rolls on.
In Ha’aretz this morning I read, “Iran set to hold ‘huge’ war games.”
My laptop is shouting the latest threat from Iran’s religious leaders: “We’ll hit the heart of Tel Aviv.”
They can: IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi warned just 12 days ago that Tehran’s proxy army, the Lebanese Hizb’allah - now has rockets that can hit all of Israel’s major cities, including Jerusalem. And Iran has test-fired missiles from its own territory with the range to reach Israel’s heart.
That we’re well into the countdown towards a major war with Iran seems a given. Few Israelis believe this issue - a nuclear-armed Iran - will simply go away; or be diplomatically defused.
Despite this, there is little sense of nervousness on the street. Like us, everyone else seems to be living life as usual.
In fact, it seems on some days as if Israel’s friends “out there” in the wider world - and notably in the United States - are far more concerned about the threat hovering over us than we are.
When it happens? What then? When Israel hits Iran, what will happen in Haifa; what will happen in Tel Aviv; what will happen in Jerusalem?
That’s the first question. No-one seems to have the answer to it so no-one is even talking about it.
The second question? How will the Israeli strikes be reported abroad? When IAF fighters bomb Natanz and the other nuclear facilities, what will Israel be accused of in the court of world opinion?
And when - may God not let it happen - Iranian warheads start dropping on Dizengoff Street and Jaffa Road, on the Haifa Bay area and on the Old City, what will you hear, and how will you respond?
Hopefully you will hear something about it here on Jerusalem Newswire and the Jerusalem Watchman. Unless our Internet access is knocked out we’ll do what we can to keep you in our part of the loop.
But brace yourselves: Israel - already painted a war criminal by Judge Goldstone - is going to be blamed for the fallout of the inevitable strike. And that fallout could reach us all.
Earlier this year, during Operation Cast Lead, we saw the power of the media to turn people who were staunchly for Israel against the Jewish state.
With Iran it will be much bigger. Huge. What will you do? It’s probably worth asking yourself that question now, before it happens.
If hitting Iran brings American interests under attack - propelling the price of gas through the roof and crashing the precarious economy to the ground; when the world as you know it is collapsing around you, you will need to guard your heart.
It’s not too early to prepare for this now. It may nearly be too late.
We’d better get ready - on our knees

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Obama win will lead to America's demise~not Israels

FromStan Goodenough
Barack Obama’s platform, his policy agenda, his world view, his religion, his associations, his immaturity, his carefully-hidden depths - all comprise a clear and present danger to the security of the United States and the security of the world.

Conservative Americans - Christians and Jews - are rightly fearful of what an Obama victory November 4 will mean for their great nation.

And I would want to blast it as loudly as I could in the ears of every true American: It’s good that you are afraid. Be very, very afraid. And get everyone you can to get out to vote on November 4.
As Ann Coulter said on the Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor last night. If Obama becomes president on November 4, things will never be the same again. There will be no going back.

Will an Obama win lead to Israel’s destruction? The biblical answer is a resounding “no!”

A more immediately important question for Americans should be: “Will an Obama win lead to the demise of the United States?”

For the answer to that one, see Isaiah 60:12

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