# 278 – Post Election Again

March 24, 2015

Post-elections

Let me first tell you that, today, the sun was shining beautifully. We had lunch on the beach, a slight breeze keeping it ‘just right’. Sorry, but the selfie only shows me, the blue sky – and a neighbouring foot. Aviva was on the other side of the table.

Post-election has been an interesting time over here. I don’t think I’ve ever read so much ‘stuff’ from extreme Left to extreme Right. I’ll try to keep this to concise ‘bullets’ (unfortunate phrase) –

• One angry Californian sent a letter to Israel as a whole…’the grave insult Netanyahu did to our presidency…’ etc. He ended with ‘You are going down a dangerous path if you choose to ignore the American People’. Well that’s a good one. This guy appears to represent a 1-thought nation, with 350 million agreeing with him. So much for his knowledge of his own country (which I consider more polarised today than ever).

• There’s no question Netanyahu played a couple of dirty last-minute political tricks – and it sure paid off. I suppose he gets kudos for being smart. His quick apology to the Israeli Arabs for giving a hint of racism, will not change much. But, there again, his slight political blunder will also not have changed much.

• His ‘no’ to a 2-state solution was also partly rescinded. He’ll be the one of the first to say yes if the Palestinians come to the table without the usual preconditions, and openly recognise the Jewish (and democratic) state.

• I’m not ‘anti-Obama’ – I really do waiver in between Dems and Reps, being influenced by the person, his team, and the actions/reactions of his party. But I believe that this feud between him and Netanyahu is more because of Obama’s antipathy with the Israeli PM and his apparent dangerously misguided opinion of Middle Eastern affairs.

• Is he not listening to the clever advisors, or are they as blind as he? And I don’t only mean Iran. From Saudi to Qatar, Egypt to Syria, Yemen to Jordan, Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya, Iraq. You name it, he’s filed it in the wrong place.

• I also think that those who are concerned about the US relations with Israel are being overly pessimistic. Congress and Senate know that Israel remains the only country in the region on which they can depend for the foreseeable future. We may need the USA, but they also need us – in a region which will remain strategically important for quite some time to come.

• Where else can the 6th Fleet rest and have R & R? Where else can US depend on military airports without officially having any US personnel based there? Yes, I only mentioned the military aspect, which, like it or not, remains extremely important. The friendship, the info-exchange, the tourism, the technology mix (every one of those Google headings is set up over here), that’s all taken for granted.

• On the whole, I was very pleased that the Arab parties combined. It resulted in many myths being deleted:

  • More people will know that there are Arabs here, mostly Muslim, but also some Christian.

• Some will now know that this was a mix of parties which have little else in common. It’s a win-win situation. Either they continue to scream and shout at each other (as do the Jewish parties – and most other political parties in the World) or they really unite. If that happens, the only positive way forward is compromise with the Jews. The other direction, unity in extremism and violence, will be crushed.

• Some were shocked to discover that a member of the United Arab party is Jewish – Dov Khenin – son of one of Israel’s most famous Communist leaders. And of course, there have always been 1-2 Arabs in the ‘Jewish’ parties.

• Btw, that ugly, stupid, pathetic ‘Israel Apartheid Week’, supported by the fallen-off-the end-of-the-World lefties, which the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign supports instead of going to school, must have felt pretty stupid when faced with the strong results of the united Arab parties. And don’t let’s bring up the 2nd-class citizens bit again.

• Are you really surprised that the ‘don’t knows’ went to the right. The so many other problems facing Israelis are usually dwarfed by the constant threat from the neighbours over the last 100 years.

• Bibi reminds of facts that still cannot refuted – such as Iran’s 3 Yes’s: 1) Destroy Israel, 2) Support Terrorism, and 3) Disrupt the Middle East by fermenting hatred between Sunnis, Shiites (and others). I wouldn’t sit down with them until those 3 little subjects are sorted out. Would you? Obama does….

• A propos Obama – when he was presidential candidate back in 2008, he said “Let me be clear – Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided’.

• Finally….the J-Post published an article yesterday by a Palestinian lady, living in the West Bank, entitled ‘I’m Palestinian and I want a normal life’. It’s a good example of the silent majority saying something out loud. But it’s also a sign that (and now I’m going to be very controversial) the Palestinians have been brainwashed almost to the level of the Cubans.

• It is arguable that the people who have treated them bestare the ones they call their enemies – the Israelis. If she thinks Palestinians have been treated fairly by the other Arab nations, then she’s in cuckoo-land. And if she thinks their own leaders have led them well – with enormous banners of their faces on every 2nd corner – like Castro and Che in Cuba – she’s practically a zombie.

• She says she’s sick of everything around her, ‘the bad news, the bloodshed and the spreading of hatred all over’. Well, she should spend a few days with her cousins in Israel proper, and find out that life for them is ‘relatively fantastic’. Then she says she’d personally like to tell the Israeli PM that ‘we are ready to recognise the State of Israel, and it’s not only us, but also most of the Arab countries’. Zombie.

• And…’I have been living under occupation for 22 years’ – but she does not mention the far worse occupation by Jordan. Many say that Israel ‘liberated’ the land from the oppression of the Jordanians.

• And finally …’We really can love each other and live in harmony, just as we used to do’ – I’m not sure to which period she’s referring, but the only words she’s missing in this beautifully idealistic dream world of hers is that we’re all human beings. We’re all equal; why can’t we talk to each other?

  Good morning…….

  Stephen