Imagine a foreign diplomat claiming that the only measure holding up world economic recovery is American politics? What if for instance, it was said that the election season in the United States was the primary reason for failure to secure a new agreement to stop Somali pirates (AKA Islamic ship jacking: see Jefferson and the Barbarians as background)?
I cannot say I am surprised given Ms. Rice's lack of success in diplomacy that she would have the audacity to lay blame for the administration's perceived failure to secure a "peace treaty" between the Arabians and Israel on the Jews. Perceived, meaning, success would have been worse.
Ms. Rice has consistently ignored the facts on the ground and the realities of what a successful conclusion to her talks would look like. Like all power crazed politicians determined to establish a favorable legacy, somehow, just somehow, she has managed to miss the point that the barbarians she is negotiating with are still determined to at the very least undermine the security of the Jews with which she is insisting that an agreement be had. Forget selling her the reality, that they, the barbarians, have never given up the kill factor.
We have been there before. A democratic and non-threatening "Palestine", like a drug induced vision held by professional diplomats who believe all evil can be conquered by the suffrage of the ballot box, is just as much a fantasy as it was when first envisioned as a means to make the Jews trust their Edomite supervisors and would be Yishmaelite masters. What the next four years holds only HaKadosh Baruch Hu can say. We have gone from bad to worse - the instrument in his hands has been forged. Will the children of Israel, the goy kadosh, listen to his words before Edom swings the axe? It will indeed be a great test to blunt the axe before it swings with more political obstruction in the form of a new nationalist government in Israel.
Rice: Israeli politics preventing peace
Nov. 23, 2008
Hilary Leila Krieger and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST
The fact that Israel and the Palestinians have not reached a peace agreement and will likely fail to do so by the end of 2008 is "largely due to" political turmoil in Israel, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday night.
"Even though there was not an agreement by the end of the year, it is really largely because of the political situation in Israel," Rice told reporters.
Still, she tried to remain upbeat about the peace process, adding, "It's in pretty good shape."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Washington Sunday, and was set to meet with Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams later in the day to kick off his farewell visit with US President George W. Bush.
The parley with Abrams was one of a number of preparatory meetings before a working meeting and private dinner with Bush that Olmert will hold Monday night.
Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are expected to dominate the conversations, as Olmert looks to secure policies and priorities worked out with the Bush administration before both he and the US president leave office at the beginning of the next year.
While Bush and Olmert have enjoyed good relations and have seen eye-to-eye on many issues, they have struck different postures when it has come to negotiating with Syria, which Israel has been doing indirectly for many months.
"The prime minister wants to generate a final tailwind for the Syrian track," one of the PM's aides said, as quoted in Reuters ahead of the visit.
Olmert Spokesman Ya'akov Galanti told The Jerusalem Post that was in keeping with Olmert's efforts to continue pressing on these issues until he leaves office when Israeli elections are held in February.
The Oval Office meeting also presents an opportunity for the two leaders to leave a blueprint for fulfilling their ambitious but unrealized Israeli-Palestinian peace agendas. Paving the way for a smooth and productive transition is also an important aim of the visit.
Just a year ago, Olmert and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, proudly announced the resumption of peace talks after a seven-year hiatus at a summit hosted by Bush in Annapolis, Maryland. The three set a target of wrapping up a final peace deal by the end of 2008.
Despite frequent negotiating sessions, two trips to the region by Bush and eight more by Rice, the sides have little to show for their efforts and have acknowledged the year-end target will not be met.
With his time in power running out, Olmert has become increasingly candid, saying Israel will have to withdraw from almost all the West Bank and parts of east Jerusalem to make peace with the Palestinians. Talk of such concessions was virtually unheard of just a few years ago.
"I know that Mr. Olmert wants to leave to whomever is elected as the next prime minister the peace process in the best shape possible," spokesman Mark Regev said.
Bush, who spent the weekend in Peru at a meeting of Pacific Rim nations, invited Olmert to Washington as part of his final round of talks with world leaders before he leaves office January 20.
Olmert often speaks of the close personal friendship he has developed with Bush over the past three years. When Bush visited Israel in May, Olmert showered the president with praise, saying, "You're a great person, you're a great leader, and you're a great friend." Though largely unpopular internationally, Bush is loved in Israel, where he is seen as a staunch defender of the US ally.
"It's a farewell, a double farewell," said Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington. "They will try to sum up a period and cement all the understandings and agreements between the US and Israel over the last eight years."
After Monday's meeting, Olmert and his wife, Aliza, will dine with the president and first lady Laura Bush at the White House.
The two leaders probably also will discuss the global financial crisis and the future of arms and aircraft deals with Israel.
During his visit to Washington, Olmert also planned to meet with Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and congressional and Jewish leaders.
Bush leaves office on January 20. Olmert, who announced plans to resign in September amid corruption charges, will step down after a successor is chosen February 10. 
Obama Advisor Blames US Jews for Lack of Mid-East Peace (will open new window)
19 Adar Bet 5768, 26 March 08 05:07
by Avi Tuchmayer(IsraelNN.com)
Once again, a furor surrounding US Presidential candidate Barack Obama has erupted, this time over a senior military advisor to the Obama campaign with a history of anti-Israel remarks. He has strongly criticized pro-Israel Jews in the United States for allegedly torpedoing peace efforts in the Middle East.
In a 2003 interview with The Oregonian newspaper unearthed by The American Spectator magazine, General Merrill "Tony" McPeak, a former chief of staff in the United States Air Force who is a candidate for secretary of defense in a potential Obama administration, claimed that efforts to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority failed because there is no US-written "playbook" to create peace.
An interviewer asked General McPeak "So where's the problem? State? White House?" McPeak pulled no punches. "(The problem rests in) New York City. Miami. We have a large vote here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it…nobody wants to take on that problem. It's just too tough politically. So that means we can't . . . you can't develop a Middle East strategy. It's impossible," he said.
Even prior to the Oregonian interview, McPeak was known as a long-time critic of Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights. In a 1976 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, he criticized Israel for refusing to withdraw from areas liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, even as he wrote poignantly about the vital security advantages Israel obtained by conquering those areas.
"At the Suez Canal, Israel had the best 'tank ditch' in the Middle East. The Gaza Strip, long a nursery for Egyptian-supported terrorism reaching to within a few miles of Tel Aviv, had come under Israeli administration. On the Golan, Israel at last held the high ground. The bulge of the West Bank, an implicit threat that Israel would be cut in two, had been superseded by the line of the Jordan River. More important, the air threat to Israel had disappeared, at least for the moment. Tel Aviv had been 12 minutes flying time from Egyptian bases in the northern Sinai," he wrote.
Yet the same article calls for an Israeli withdrawal from those areas, and seems to suggest that despite Israel's legitimate security concerns, "genuine security depends on regional accommodation, which the Arab states say cannot occur until all of the occupied territory is returned."
Latest storm
The storm surrounding McPeak is the latest in a series of anti-Israel revelations to tar the Obama campaign in recent months. Obama has long been a favorite son of left wing elements in the United States, but has been strongly criticized for failing to cut ties with radical preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright has called Israel a "racist country," said that "Israel" is a dirty word, and claimed US foreign policy was responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Another anti-Israel activist, Arab-American Ali Abunimah, has claimed to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.
During his tenure as a junior air force commander, McPeak spent time in Israel and participated in joint exercises with the Israeli air force. He acknowledged that he enjoyed his experiences here, "but that's maybe the more cosmopolitan, liberal version of the Israeli population," he added.
Zionist Canard
McPeak also charged Jews and Christian Zionists with dual-loyalties, and said that concern for Israel manipulated American foreign policy in Iraq.
"Let's say that if one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq," he said.
This is a follow up to The Secret Thoughts of Barry H. OBAMA (opens in new window). APRPEH implied that judging Obama by his associations is not only acceptable but now mandatory. He may get a pass once or twice, but the pattern that has been produced of now daily insults to intelligence leaves no benefit of the doubt in its wake. One must go out of his way to surround himself with the likes of people Obama has chosen as mentors, friends, advisers and associates. And as stated in the earlier post cited above, believability/credibility of the claims is supported by the consistency of the claims. This story would not have been credible last summer. Today, it is yet another in a chain of events which should send waves of warning shivers down the backs of American Jewry. Obama's choice of associations, a sign of what makes him comfortable and of that which is familiar is the best evidence of his real beliefs. It is the evidence, not his words which really do matter, or should matter most to the voting public and more importantly to American Jewry.
I am curious though, where is the esteemed, respected, thoughtful, insightful, highly intelligent, cogent Eric Yoffie of Reformist fame warning us about the Obama anti-Semitic attack conspiracy? Yoffie presser (new window will open). Shalom TV (new window will open) had the taped interview up on their website at one time. It may still be available if you have access to Shalom TV. Oh Eric, I am waiting?
What Words Offend Arabs? The Truth.
Children's Poetry Booklet Recalled After Arabs Complain
(Israeli censorship kowtows to Arabs.
When Will We Tell The Truth Without Fear)
(IsraelNN.com 7 Sivan 5768/June 10, '08) Ynet's web site and Arab complaints against a ten-year-old boy's poem about terrorists has resulted in the recall of all of the Nes Ziona municipality's children's poetry booklets.
Ynet boasts that its coverage of the poem resulted in its being recalled.
The text of the poem (Ynet's translation):
Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bombing!What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.We get blasted while they have a blast!Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.
Poetry competition director Marika Berkowitz, who published the booklet, was surprised at the protests and told Ynet: "This is the boy's creation and this is what he wanted to express. Of course there should be a limit, but I think the there is no racism here. 'Ahmed' is a general term for the enemy. These are the murmurings of an innocent child."
The Education Ministry told Ynet: "The local authority that published the booklet should have guided the students in a more correct manner through the schools. The district will investigate the issue with the local authorities."
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