Charles Krauthammer: A Life that mattered

The death of Charles Krauthammer this week is like a giant sequoia falling in the forest of journalism. 

He didn’t need his Pulitzer title to elevate his standing – he was, to quote Fox News editor Brit Hume, ‘in a class of his own’.

This was a man who grew up knowing how to learn Torah, became paralysed from the neck down in a diving accident but went on regardless to study medicine and psychiatry. His true vocation was as a syndicated columnist and political commentator and I tried to never miss his appearances on the panel of Fox News’ Special Report.

Above all, Charles was an outspoken and fearless defender of Israel and the imperative of a secure Jewish state.

A few weeks ago he wrote a last dispatch to say he had mere weeks to live. In that message he said ‘it’s been a wonderful life’. How incredible to hear such a thing from a man confined to a wheelchair for 40 years and totally dependent on others. It should be an inspiration to all.

I am appending here Prime Minister Netanyahu’s letter to Charles after his final message was published.

It is terribly sad that he became ill so shortly after Trump’s election. To be robbed of his piercing commentary during Trump’s first 500 days, with all the skulduggery of the Left and media bias, was like watching a symphony without the sound.

Click the the life-story video presented by his Fox News host, Bret Baier. It is well worth watching the full hour.  

May his dear soul rest in peace.

Defenceless Britain

When the PLO frightened the Argentinian football team off a match with Israel, I tweeted that the next time the Argies tried to invade the Falkland Islands Britain wouldn’t need to send in the Navy – they could just ask Ahmed Jibril to say ‘boo’ to Argentina.

Little did I know then that Britain has no Navy. Well, not a functioning one anyway. According to the Daily Mail, Britain's six Type-45 destroyers, described as ‘the backbone of the Royal Navy’ spent 80 per cent of last year in dock. The ships, costing £1billion each, need a multi-million-pound refit after repeatedly breaking down in the Persian Gulf. It turns out that their Rolls Royce engines aren’t suited to warm seas. Refitting work is not due to start until 2020. (I imagine that’s because of defence cuts which had to make way for the burgeoning welfare costs for migrants to the UK.)

And there, in case Mr Putin missed it on his satellite pass, is a photo of all 6 warships sitting in the same Portsmouth dock – sitting ducks.

What’s truly ironic is that such a defenceless Britain remains a major proponent of arming Iran, whilst at the same time criticising Israel for defending her own people.

And it’s not just on the waves that Britannia is defenceless. Its citizens and working families have never been more defenceless in so many ways. For us Jews, it has lately been ill-advised to wear a kippa in the streets. But now everyone else has been advised to dress defensively and keep their phones, watches and jewellery out of the sight of motorbike raiders who are running amok, ripping valuables off pedestrians with little or no police intervention.

Then there are all the gang killings and knifings which have turned London into the crime capital of the world, surpassing even New York.

Aside from it being unsafe to walk the streets, Brits are also defenceless in their own homes. Almost every other week we hear of armed thugs sledgehammering their way into well-off homes and terrorising families as they are robbed of their valuables.

Part of this is due to the government’s cuts in police numbers – madly in inverse proportion to the migrant tide from countries where such thievery and crime is infused with mothers’ milk. The other reason is that even those few police officers we have left are not able to ‘stop & search’ at will. It was thought to be politically incorrect profiling of minority groups.

Then there is the case of pensioner Henry Vincent, who stabbed a house burglar only to find himself initially arrested by police and then, when released, defenceless in his own home against threats from the burglar’s family. He had to flee his home and go into hiding.

Then there are the parents of hundreds of white girls in their early teens who were groomed and gang-raped by Asian groups all over the country and over many years. They were defenceless when the local councils and police turned a blind eye because it was politically incorrect to target ethnic communities.

And whatever your views about Tommy Robinson, he too was defenceless in simply reporting on the court hearings into one of those rape gangs and being instantly bundled into jail for 13 months without a trial and under a media gag order.

A government’s prime duty, first and foremost, is the protection of its citizens.

This seems to be miserably failing in Britain, whose politicians should be the very last people to be criticising others; least of all Israel which ranked 11th in the UN’s World Happiness Index. That was above Britain’s ranking at 17, but before the explosion in UK crime.

I can’t wait to see next year’s figures.

Beep Beep to Hamas

As a kid my favourite cartoon character was Road Runner.
Always under constant threat from Wily Coyote who was constantly cooking up schemes to kill him, flatten him, blow him up or send him off a cliff.

Each and every attempt failed, but Wily Coyote never stopped trying ever more outlandish schemes.
Meanwhile, after every deliverance, Road Runner would "Beep-Beep" with a smile and zip off to business as usual.

This is very much the story of Israel and the so-called Palestinians. They started with multiple airplane hijacking, then shot up Ben Gurion airport itself, then moved on to bus bombs, then restaurant bombs, followed by Gaza rocketing, then random stabbings, more rocketing, then car rammings, followed by attack tunnels, more rocketing and now blazing kites.

Just a week ago at the Gaza border, the IDF came across bolt cutters which had been abandoned at a hole in the fence. A rookie soldier felt that there was something odd how they'd been left and persuaded his commander to call in the bomb disposal team. The bolt cutters exploded in the robot's hands. Nothing short of an open miracle.

Just like Wily Coyote, the PLO and Hamas never seem to run out of ideas to kill Jews.
And just like the Road Runner, the Israelis live another day and move on with their lives.

It would be nice to think we moved on with a smile, but the sad truth is that too many lives are tragically lost or ruined in this process.

I look forward to the day that we bury Hamas like the rabid bunch of coyotes they really are.

Mazeltov Mr President

Congratulations President Trump !

You pulled off what no president has achieved in the 65 years since the Korean War; and not least within 500 days of being elected as a total political novice.

It seems that your presidency is truly blessed. In that short time, you’ve decimated ISIS, restored US power and pride and projected it to the world's tyrants, you’ve cut taxes and crippling regulations, reduced African-American and Hispanic unemployment to their lowest levels in history, small business optimism is at a record high, the jobs you promised have now outpaced the jobseekers, the US economy is booming with offshore companies galloping back home in droves – and you’ve boldly opened the Jerusalem embassy and cancelled Obama’s Iran deal without the sky falling.

On the eve of the presidential election, your daughter Ivanka paid a visit to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to pray for your success. That might well have helped your poll numbers, but the stunning success of your administration in such a short time probably owes itself to something else.

It’s foretold in Genesis 12:3 – “I will bless those who bless you and will curse those who curse you".

Donald Trump and his closest advisors, notably the UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, have given Israel full-throated support in all forums and excoriated those who have sought to Demonise, Delegitimise and apply Double-standards to the Jewish state.

Those are the 3 D’s by which former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky famously defined antisemitism.

It happens that Donald Trump has had all these 3 D’s attributed to himself by the Democrats, Leftists and Never-Trumpers.

They first Demonised him as a candidate, then they Delegitimised his election, and now they apply Double standards to actions taken by him when far more serious sins are now being shown to have been committed by Obama and the Clintons.

So, President Trump knows firsthand what it’s like to be Jewish.
And yet, he scoffs at the backbiters and just keeps on doing what he thinks is right, and fulfilling more election promises than possibly any politician in living memory.

May the blessings continue to flow and may G-d give you, Mr President, the strength and good health to keep doing the right thing for the American people and its friends and allies.

Bibi Comes to London

Prime Minister Netanyahu comes to London this Thursday after visiting Berlin and Paris.
He has doubtless been pressing the case against Iran and its entrenchment in Syria, its control of Lebanon and its proxy wars from Gaza to Yemen. That such evil hegemony may one day be protected by nuclear weapons is a horrendous prospect.

In backing the Iran deal, Germany, France and Britain couldn’t wait to get their hands on some of Obama’s $150 billion golden handshake with the ayatollahs. But it’s not clear this has actually translated into the export deals they salivated over. Long before sanctions were lifted, French and German banks had already been stung by billion-dollar fines. They will be unwise to mess with the Trump administration which now seems quite capable of shutting down their Wall Street operations for financing deals with Tehran.

So, this time Netanyahu comes to London with a lot more spring in his step; almost arriving as teacher’s pet. President Trump and his closest advisors John Bolton and Mike Pompeo appear to be in lockstep with Netanyahu on Iran, Syria, the issue of border walls and the general threat of radical Islamic terrorism. 

They may expect Netanyahu to try and prise the Brexiting Brits away from the Franco-German lust for trade with the ayatollahs, and to show Theresa May how much more she stands to gain by getting on board the Trump train. Once unshackled from the EU, Britain will need the trust and trade of America as never before. After 500 days of Trump, America is booming. Employment numbers are totally off the charts, major overseas manufacturers are galloping back home to the USA and Trump’s 700-billion-dollar rebuild of the military must create enormous trade opportunities for support and service industries.

Of course we can pretty much predict the statement that the UK Foreign Office will draft for Theresa May to deliver outside Downing Street. Unshakeable support for Israel’s security, condemnation of Assad and abhorrence of his chemical weapons but, above all, concern for the poor Palestinians - the human rights lecture that's never mentioned on Saudi or Turkish visits.
And of course, not forgetting Britain’s total commitment to that white winged unicorn, now on life support: the Two State Solution.

But, behind the scenes, it may well be a very cordial meeting between two leaders who know perfectly well the nature of pure evil and its home address. 

I certainly hope so.