Bibi vs. the Post Democracy Movement

A bad day for Bibi? A bad day for the Likud?
Yes, to both.

But let’s understand what is going on here.

It’s no coincidence that Bibi opened with thanks to President Trump for his support. This is because they are kindred spirits. They are both targets of the same new and powerful enemy: the weaponised state.

For Trump it started under Obama when the IRS was weaponised to harass any right wing campaign funds and NGOs, the FBI was weaponised to eavesdrop on Fox News and ultimately the justice department was weaponised to investigate supposed fake Trump-Russia election collusion as a smokescreen to the genuine Clinton collusion when Hillary’s State Department approved the transfer of 20% of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while nine investors in the deal funnelled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. Whilst the Mueller probe against Trump has found no Russia collusion, it’s clear that Trump associates – such as Cohen and Manafort – have been threatened with long jail terms for unrelated misdeeds unless they dish up some Trump dirt, whether real or made-up.

The same goes for Bibi. Just like Trump, he has a 90% leftist media ranged against him along with the powers that be in the self-appointed court system and ‘Deep State’ of the civil service.

This is the ugliness of our post-democracy age. If you can’t win power through the ballot box, use all other means. Weaponize the media, justice and law enforcement, make sensational allegations and leak stories all over the place. Trial by television.

As I posted last week, the Lahav 433 police unit has an abysmal track record with high profile indictments which have an even bigger failure rate than Britain’s SFO (which satirical magazine Private Eye lampoons as: the Serious Farce Office). When the Bibi cases collapse in two years’ time, it will be too late to fix next month’s electoral damage to the Right which the media, supreme court, left-wing parties and their Arab bedfellows are hoping for.

But let’s not forget, this is Bibi Netanyahu. This is a man who doesn’t shy away from a fight. A man who defied the last president of the United States by going over his head to Congress over the Iran deal. If he fights his corner even 1/10th of the extent to which he has fought Israel’s corner all these years, he will come out victorious.

When it comes to predicting Israeli voting intentions, I always think of what the average taxi driver would be saying. I think the Israeli cabbies are smart enough to see through this leftist smokescreen and will reflect the wider public in rejecting the slander and voting in favour of what’s been achieved by Likud under Netanyahu. The most sustained period of peace and quiet, economic strength and success and levels of optimism and happiness that we have seen in the history of the state.

Their names liveth in infamy .....

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is a crucial ally in the fight against antisemitism

Over 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party sign a letter urging that anyone seeking an end to bigotry and racism should back Labour and Corbyn

Guardian Newspaper Letters

Wed 20 Feb 2019 18.39 GMT Last modified on Sat 23 Feb 2019 21.12 GMT

You report (19 February) that a number of implacably anti-Corbyn MPs have left the Labour party alleging a failed “approach to dealing with antisemitism”, with Luciana Berger criticising Labour for becoming “sickeningly institutionally racist”.

We are Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party concerned about the current rise of reactionary ideologies, including antisemitism, in Britain and elsewhere across Europe.

We note the worrying growth of populist rightwing parties, encouraging racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. In Britain the far right is whipping up these prejudices, a threat that requires a resolute and energetic response. But instead we have seen a disproportionate focus on antisemitism on the left, which is abhorrent but relatively rare.

We believe that the Labour party under the progressive leadership of Jeremy Corbyn is a crucial ally in the fight against bigotry and reaction. His lifetime record of campaigning for equality and human rights, including consistent support for initiatives against antisemitism, is formidable. His involvement strengthens this struggle.

Labour governments introduced both the anti-racist and human rights legislation of the 20th century and the 2010 Equalities Act. A Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn will be a powerful force to fight against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.

It is in this context that we welcome the Labour party’s endorsement of freedom of expression on Israel and on the rights of Palestinians. Labour is correct to recognise that while prejudice against Jewish people is deplorable, criticism of Israel’s government and policies can and must be made.

We urge all who wish to see an end to bigotry and racism, and who seek a more just society, to give their support to the Labour party.

Prof Elizabeth Dore
Prof David Epstein
Prof Gene Feder
Mike Leigh
Prof Mica Nava
Prof Michael Rosen
Prof Donald Sassoon
Prof Avi Shlaim
Gillian Slovo
Prof Annabelle Sreberny
Walter Wolfgang
Prof John Yudkin
John Abraham
Kate Adams
Rebecca Amiel
Ruth Appleton
Tasha Barlow
Graham Bash
Dr Shereen Benjamin
Jeremy Bernhaut
Frances Bernstein
Dr Jon Berry
Cllr Jo Bird
Rica Bird
Frank Black
Jay Blackwood
Pamela Blakelock
Alice Bondi
Tony Booth
Jenny Malca Brown
Peter Buckman
Andy Burkitt
Erica Burman
Samuel Burrowes
Keith Burstein
Rose Challands
Brian Chinnery
Eve Cina
Andrew Clifford
Emma Clyne
Jonathan Clyne
Mike Cohen
Ron Cohen
Amnon Cohen
Ruth Cohen
Kathy Cohn
Rita Craft
Judith Cravitz
Prof. David Curtis
Mike Cushman
Miriam David
Steven Davidson
Hilary De Santos
Alan Deadman
Greg Douglas
Elizabeth Dresner
Linda Edmondson
Ros Edwards
David Einhorn
Mark Elf
Michael Ellman
Prof Debbie Epstein
Javier Farje
Pia Feig
Jack George Field
Arye Finkle
Nick Foster
Roisin Francis
Esther Freeman
Debbie Friedman
Danny Friedman
Kenny Fryde
Carolyn Gelenter
Mike Gerber
Vicki Gilbert
René Gimpel
Prof. Jane Ginsborg
Claire Glasman
Murray Glickman
David Goldberg
Paul Goldman
Simon Goodman
John Goodman
Peter Gorbach
Tony Graham
Rosalind Grainger
Alice Gray
Ilse Gray
Elleanne Green
Heinz Grünewald
Ash Hardenne
Alison Harris
Jeanne Heal
Prof Susan Himmelweit
Andrew Hornung
Katharine Hoskyns
Mike Howard
Jonathan Hyams
Selma James
Lin James
Riva Joffe
Ann Jungman
Michael Kalmanovitz
L Sasha Kaplin
Stephen Kapos
Jenny Kassman
Richard Keidan
Monash Kessler
Jenny King
Godfrey King
Katherina Kohler
Simon Korner
Dr Agnes Kory
Debbie Krantz
Richard Kuper
Jon Kurta
Prof Frank Land
Michelle Laufer
Pam Laurance
Daniel Laverick
Mike Layward
Dr Sydney Leaman
Joanna Leigh
Jessica Leschnikoff
Cllr Leah Levane
Rachel Lever
John Lipetz
Robert Lizar
Ruth Lukom
Simon Lynn
Deborah Maccoby
Dorothy Macedo
Nikki Mailer
Jenny Manson
Jessica Manson
Helen Marks
Stephen Marks
Gillian McCall
Jeff McCracken-Hewson
Terence McGinity
Ros Meadow
Rita Mendelson
Dr Heather Mendick
Angie Mindel
Prof David Mond
Diana Neslen
David Nissen
Gary Ostrolenk
Jonathan Parish
Susan Pashkoff
Helen Pearson
Jacob Prager
Caroline Raine
Reuben Ramsay
Roland Rance
Tom Reed
Jenny Richardson
Siôn Rickard
Prof Marion Roberts
Prof Jonathan Rosenhead
Benny Ross
Carolyn Roth
Richard Saffron
Esther Saraga
Ian Saville
Monika Schwartz
Josepha Scotney
Mike Scott
Amanda Sebestyen
Glyn Secker
Jenny Secretan
Irene Sedler
Marian Sedley
Ruth Selwyn
Brian Shade
Janet Silver
Liz Silver
Ludi Simpson
Pam Singer
Mark Smithson
Stephen Solley QC
David Sperlinger
Ruth Steigman
Dr Alexandra Stein
Adrian Stern
Martin Stevenson
Benny Talbot
Deborah Talmi
Inbar Tamari
Norman Traub
Tessa van Gelderen
Daniel Vulliamy
Brian Warshaw
Sam Weinstein
Charlotte Prager Williams
George Wilmers
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Debbie Windley
Roy Wolfe
Miriam Yagud
Dr Gillian Yudkin

Blue & White Fantasy

By all the brouhaha that’s blown up over the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, you’d have thought Bibi had invited them to join the Likud. AIPAC’s condemnation came as no surprise as they need to appeal to a broad American Jewish audience many of whom are Leftists whose faith-du-jour is political correctness and whose self-esteem is measured in likes and followers on social media. Thus anyone remotely connected with Meir Kahane is as toxic as ISIS.

But even as this issue erupted, Leftists were willing to give a pass to ISIS and allow their brides and expat fighters to return to America and Britain because they deserved a chance at rehabilitation. But for followers of Kahane it seems there is zero tolerance.

No, Bibi did not invite Otzma to join the Likud. He simply brokered a deal to allow Otzma votes to actually mean something in this election, rather than fall into the dustbin by failing to reach the qualifying threshold. The message is: if the Left can have a Hanin Zoabi, the Right is entitled to have the people of Otzma.

The difference between Left and Right is often associated with politics. But its pathology is much more fundamental. Leftists like to see the world as a cuddly fluffy place where everyone should be given the chance to get along. They have no concept of pure evil and will almost always seek root causes to explain evil acts rather than accept them as evil on face value. People on the Right accept that evil acts are committed or incited by evil people and if we haven’t already eliminated them, they can never be trusted anywhere near the things we hold dear.

Put simply, the fundamental difference between Left and Right is between fantasists and realists.

Yuppies in the Tel Aviv bubble will likely vote for Gantz and Lapid simply because they’re the ‘new thing’ and it’s cool to get aboard. That’s the zeitgeist that got geniuses like Trudeau and Macron elected.

The older Haaretz-readers in the bubble mostly believe that if we give the Arabs their state they’ll leave us alone. If it has to include the settlements and most of Jerusalem, so be it. At least they won’t want Tel Aviv.

This is the same fantasy that holds that if you throw enough meat at an attacking lion it will turn into a vegetarian.

Which brings me back to Kahane.

Granted, I don’t condone everything he did or said in his lifetime. But the one thing you cannot deny is that he was a visionary. He never stopped warning that there would never be peace with the Arabs. In the 30 years since his murder by an Arab assassin, there have been more than a dozen peace plans bandied about. Grand ideas of land swaps, tunnels between Ramallah and Gaza and of course Oslo which repackaged the PLO as a more user-friendly “PA” led by people in suits. Those plans either failed or caused more bloodshed than before.

Kahane understood that this was never a territorial dispute. It was about our very existence as Jews … and within ANY borders.

The people who will be voting for Otzma Yehudit are not necessarily Jewish terrorists. Instead they are Jewish realists. And unlike members of AIPAC, they are not watching this scenario from their armchairs in Long Island. They are surrounded on three sides by the mortal enemies of Israel, armed by Oslo and empowered by Leftists who see poor Palestinians as underdogs under brutal occupation, rather than the pure evil that unrepentantly butchered poor Ori Ansbacher two weeks ago. The same evil that Kahane warned us about 30 years ago.

And to this resident evil, Lapid and Gantz want to give a state?

The only way of preventing this madness is by making as many right-wing votes count to preserve Eretz Yisrael as there will be left-wing ballots in favour of more peace experiments or, worse still, votes that allow the unified Arab parties to hold the balance of power over our territory.

I end with a commandment from this very day’s Torah reading: “Beware lest you forge a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you come, lest it become a pitfall for you”.

'And the earth shall give up its dead'

This news is heartbreaking for all our people.

The thought of these tragic souls never being at rest for nearly 80 years, that their horrifying deaths went unnoticed and without meaning or purpose.

Well, today - more than any other time in those last 80 years - these souls have a real meaning and purpose.

It is to forcefully rebut the current generation of Holocaust deniers and belittlers. It is to shame the new wave of anti-Semites that peddle the only form of racism that seems to have a free pass in these days of insane political correctness.

The survivors may now be disappearing fast, but the sanguinary soil of Europe will yet yield up more of its macabre evidence to damn the naysayers, just as the soil of our beloved Israel gives up evidence of our 3,000 year history and inalienable rights to the homeland.

What's the hurry Avichai ?

I’ve never had much respect for the Israeli justice system, particularly the Supreme Court headed by self-appointing elites who regard themselves as an upper chamber of the Knesset legislating from the bench rather than interpreting the laws passed by the people’s will.

Happily this cartel of elites is now being taken down and the justice system reformed by the intrepid justice minister Ayelet Shaked, now of Bennet’s New Right party.

But the current attorney general is one of the good guys. He’s what one would regard an ‘erlicher yid’ (honourable Jew) as distinct from other Haredim in government who have disgraced their ethical upbringing.

Which is why I am so puzzled by his intention not to defer announcement of Netanyahu indictments until after the April elections. At least this is what is reported by the incessant leakers in his own justice department.

What is the urgency Avichai?

Is Bibi a flight risk?

Will those cigars disappear from his humidor?

Is that German submarine at risk of sinking before Election Day?

Is Yediot Achronoth losing readers because of the delay?

More importantly: did Bibi call an election just to delay indictments?

Everyone knows that it was Liberman’s walkout that precipitated the election.

Did Bibi make him do it? Can anyone make that big boy do anything he doesn’t want to?

And what’s clearest of all - other than the utter shallowness of the charges - is Bibi’s absolute determination to face and challenge his accusers in court.

So Mr Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit …. what’s your hurry?

On any objective view, given the total absence of any time prejudice, a decision to announce an indictment weeks before a general election can only amount to one thing.  A blatant interference in that election and an attempt to pervert the course of the democratic process.

This would be the case in any democratic country. How much more so in Israel where so many political indictments spawned by the now infamous Lahav 433 police unit have ultimately failed in court.

You only have to look at the same Avigdor Liberman who was hounded for more than 5 years before acquittal. How many times in that process were interim hearings conveniently timed to coincide with election campaigns? No prizes for guessing who was behind those moves. It sure wasn’t anyone on the Right

.

So Avichai. Do the right thing. Defy the Left-wing pressure, discredit the leakers. Make your own decision. The right decision. The one that’s faithful to the people of Israel and the democratic process.

A Parev Gantz

I've just watched candidate Benny Gantz's first foreign speech, at the Munich Security Conference.

You can see the video on the Ynet website HERE. (Scroll down the page)

Great soldier that he is, can you really see this man speaking to a packed US Congress?
It's quite painful to watch when you have to love the guy for his IDF service and leadership.
Too wooden, no passion and makes Olmert sound like Cicero.
Alas this is not prime ministerial material.
No wonder his handlers delayed his inaugural speech for so long.

It's not as if we've been dazzled by army heavyweights thrust into politics.
Rabin allowed himself to be dragged into the disaster of Oslo by the politically savvy Peres.
Barak fled South Lebanon and handed the keys to Hezbollah.
Then he offered to give away 97% of Judea and Samaria. Only by the grace of G-d did Arafat refuse.
Sharon evicted 8,000 Jews from Gaza and handed the keys to Hamas.
Both territories surrendered by these soldier-politicians are now lethal Iranian rocket bases.

Hopefully Gantz will have the opportunity to serve one day as defence minister.
But for prime minister, we need a man who speaks to the world with eloquence and passion.
That man is Bibi Netanyahu.
He had the guts to take the fight with Obama to the US Congress.
He got 26 standing ovations.

Can you see Gantz doing anything like that?

What makes Corbyn Hate ?

Today the Daily Mail published the first extracts of the Jeremy Corbyn biography written by Britain’s top investigative author Tom Bower.

This portrays a failure at school who grew into a seedy little man who cast himself in the image of Lenin and Marx without actually reading their works. His ex-wife claims he never read a single book in the 4 years of their marriage.

This is only Day 1 but the story so far seems to be all about failure in so many areas: school, relationships, marriage and in the choice of friends. His only success seems to have been as a lightning rod to all the worlds most vile extremists and revolutionaries.

I always wonder what actually makes an anti-Semite. What turns someone into a Hitler, an Irving or a Galloway.

The conclusion I usually come to is simple jealousy. It’s either envy of our people’s totally disproportionate success in so many walks of life or of our biblical status as a chosen people.

Reading the Bower extracts I can see the same applies to Corbyn.

It’s just all-consuming jealousy that the founder of Marxism was a Jew as was Trotsky. And that this was just the beginning of a long line of Jewish socialist superheroes all the way down to Ralph Miliband in our present era.

But Corbyn never made the grade. He never even got close. Because he’s an ignoramus who couldn’t come up with an original thought to save his life.

And for all his failures, his response is the same old thing: blame the Jews.

What Makes Corbyn Hate ?

Today the Daily Mail published the first extracts of the Jeremy Corbyn biography written by Britain’s top investigative author Tom Bower.

This portrays a failure at school who grew into a seedy little man who cast himself in the image of Lenin and Marx without actually reading their works. His ex-wife claims he never read a single book in the 4 years of their marriage.

This is only Day 1 but the story so far seems to be all about failure in so many areas: school, relationships, marriage and in the choice of friends. His only success seems to have been as a lightning rod to all the worlds most vile extremists and revolutionaries.

I always wonder what actually makes an anti-Semite. What turns someone into a Hitler, an Irving or a Galloway.

The conclusion I usually come to is simple jealousy. It’s either envy of our people’s totally disproportionate success in so many walks of life or of our biblical status as a chosen people.

Reading the Bower extracts I can see the same applies to Corbyn.

It’s just all-consuming jealousy that the founder of Marxism was a Jew as was Trotsky. And that this was just the beginning of a long line of Jewish socialist superheroes all the way down to Ralph Miliband in our present era.

But Corbyn never made the grade. He never even got close. Because he’s an ignoramus who couldn’t come up with an original thought to save his life.

And for all his failures, his response is the same old thing: blame the Jews.