<http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/35083#CurDomainURL #/blog.cfm> The Iconoclast
Saturday, 21 May 2011 Michelle, "I shrunk Israel" by Jerry Gordon http://www.newenglishreview.org/images/clear.gif PM Netanyahu and Pres. Obama White House, May 20, 2011 I'll admit the last 48 hours have been tumultuous given the exchanges between President Obama and Israeli PM Netanyahu about Israel's existence. The next 72 hours will heighten the tensions given a speech on Sunday at AIPAC by Obama, speeches by Netanyahu on Monday night at the AIPAC gala dinner and on Tuesday by Netanyahu before a joint session of Congress. When it comes to Israel the world has literally turned upside down or inside out-your choice. When I got up on Thursday before dawn, I wrote a blog post on Obama's expected Middle East policy speech entitled, " <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/34845> Obama is now the Wind behind the Arab Spring". I wrote in conclusion: The other concerned party is Israel. Although President Obama hopes to upstage Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu by speaking first at the AIPAC conference, we hope that Netanyahu will show more resolve than he did in Monday's post al Nakba day remarks in the Knesset. We and the US Congress are overdue for some Churchillian rhetoric with muscle behind it to counter this dangerous devolution of American hegemony in world and regional affairs. What we have now in Washington can be captured in that slangy Hebrew word derived from the Russian, Balagan- "chaos". Pour les deluge. In the early afternoon, a friend from Northern Virginia reached out to me on a cell call to give me the stunning news that Obama had spoken first and said that a Palestinian State should be formed based on the pre-1967 'borders'. I thought to myself, darn, you should have waited and have produced a post with a title, "Michelle, I just shrunk Israel". That might have been a funny sight gag routine for The Daily Show of Jon Stewart <http://www.thedailyshow.com/> on The Comedy Channel, but on second thought, it was hardly funny to me. For what had just occurred in President Obama's May surprise speech was a radical departure from previous assurances between the two allies. It was to my mind suicidal, the <http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/60837/sec.../60837%20-%20C ached%E2%96%BA> Czechoslovakization of Israel by Obama that I had written about in April, 2010 during an earlier Obama Netanyahu face off in Washington Had we just witnessed a rupture in that enduring 63 year special relationship? I hoped not, but wasn't too sure. Later, I watched news video of Netanyahu lecturing a very tense Obama yesterday in a very 'arctic-like' atmosphere in the White House in full view of the international press. Netanyahu said the effect of the Obama pronouncement would shrink the border of Israel with a proposed Palestinian State from 49 miles currently to less than nine miles, about half the distance across our nation's capitol, Washington, DC. Moreover, it would result in giving up control over the strategic Jordan Valley, getting so-called swaps of territory in return, perhaps including the Kotel-the Western Wall. To paraphrase him, those are hardly "borders of peace, rather, they are borders that generated repeated wars". Especially borders that would be based on what the late Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban referred to as the "Auschwitz line"; a reference to the 1949 Armistice line. My cousins in Ma'aleh Adumim wouldn't find it comforting. Nor would the surviving children of the Fogel family murdered by Arab Jihadists in the Jewish community of Itamar in Samaria. Besides, how could you contemplate a deal with someone who has just aligned themselves with a designated terrorist group, Hamas whose charter seeks not only the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel but all Jews, just like the mad Mahdists in Tehran waving their nuclear scimitar. To make matters worse, after the jarring phone call from my buddy in Northern Virginia, I entered a meeting with a local reform rabbi, who revealed that he was a roommate at the HUAC seminary with the incoming President designate of the Union for Reform Judaism, <http://newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/34261> Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Scarsdale, New York. Rabbi Jacobs is a member of the J Street rabbinic cabinet, as I pointed out to the local rabbi. The rabbi responded by saying that he was a J Streeter, too. I didn't inform him that I am a <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/33550> Z Streeter and none too enamored about those liberal faux "Pro-Israel-Pro Peace Jews" backed by George Soros, who are in favor of declaring an immediate Palestinian State. That is pretty Orwellian to my thinking. Yesterday, I also went to a Tiger Bay Club luncheon to hear a local first term state Representative from neighboring Milton, Florida talk about his experience in the state legislature over in Tallahassee. Before the talk, a friend had introduced me as someone who might talk to the table mates about what Obama and Netanyahu were engaged in. They were all non-Jews and from various Protestant denominations. My friend, who attends a monthly breakfast of grey beards with both another synagogue member and me, thought that Obama's speech on Thursday was "beautiful". I demurred politely and then proceeded to give the table some of the facts on the ground about prevailing US Israeli negotiating assurances , especially the guarantees of secure and defensible borders based on the November 1967 UNSC Res. 242 and the 2004 letter from Bush II to somnolent Israeli PM Ariel Sharon confirming guarantees about secure borders in any final settlement. I was pleasantly surprised when one of the tablemates piped up and disagreed with my interlocutor and friend. That person cited a book by Washington Examiner and Townhall.com columnist, Diana West, <http://www.dianawest.net/Book/tabid/54/Default.aspx> " The Death of a Grown Up" . He thought it dreadful that President Obama would effectively derogate our special relationship with Israel an ally who shared common Judeo Christian democratic values rather that political intolerant totalitarian Islam. I noticed more than a few nodding heads around the table. Then someone piped up about the Glen Beck announcement of the <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/34761> Restoring Courage Rally in Jerusalem on August 24th and commented that was commendable. Notwithstanding my friend's views about Obama and his message of hope and change for Palestinians, I drew comfort from what these commendable Americans seated at a Tiger Bay Club round table discussion had to say. They are clearly part of the 70% of Americans in polls and those here in the heartland that get it when it comes to why there is a common bond between America, Israel and the Jewish people. And no, I don't think they find the prospect of 'shrinking' Israel a very funny matter, at all. _____________ These remarks were given by Jerry Gordon at B'Nai Israel Synagogue in Pensacola Florida during regular shabbat services on May 21, 2011, just prior to a prayer for the State of Israel [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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