Moving to Israel

The heat has continued to rise in U.S. President Barack Obama’s tense relationship with Israel and this American Jew who moved to Israel over a decade ago couldn’t be more disappointed in the leader of the country he once called home.

The dust continues to settle in the wake of the Obama administration’s misguided rebuke of its best friend and most trusted ally in regards to potential new construction in Jerusalem and, thank G-d, it seems that some of Israel’s true friends are indeed beginning to lose their patience. A string of prominent Jewish communal, political and social leaders - including former mayor Ed Koch, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder - that have publicly called out the President and his Israeli policies have now been joined by New York’s senior senator, Charles Schumer. As this link and its corresponding article states, many U.S. Jews are continuously growing frustrated and breaking their silence against Obama’s seemingly one sided crusade against Israel.

While, obviously, it is Hashem that ultimately decides our fate as a country and a people, it is our job to continue to put pressure on the powers that be in America and around the world and let them know of the dire consequences that will result from more hostility towards Israel.

Ari

As many of you probably know, US President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address the other day and, as usual, there are major ramifications for those interested in the well being of Israel.

The US is placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials, in what appears to be the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The President warned that his administration’s diplomatic outreach will now be combined with the “consequences.” Obama’s administration is attempting to garner broad international consensus for imposing sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which apparently controls the military side of the nuclear program. The deployments are an attempt to show Jerusalem that there is no immediate need for military strikes against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, according to administration officials.

While we hope that the President is working with Israels’ - not to mention the worlds’ -  best interest at heart, it is worth thinking about whether, in the end, anything positive will result from these crucial decisions. Remember, the International community wasn’t exactly thrilled with Israel’s intentions to strike Iraq’s nuclear reactor in the early 1980’s and it turned out to be only through the grace of G-d that Israel acted regardless. It could very well be that Israeli action against Iran would be the best thing that could happen to the world at large and let’s hope President Obama and the US administration realize this before the ultimate mistake is made.

Ari

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how US President Barack Obama, along with his family, attended the second night Passover Seder in the White House with staff and friends. This is believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president. I also noted how we must look closely before celebrating such an event as being a positive occurrence for Israel and the Jewish people by noting that it was former President Jimmy Carter, hardly a friend of Jews of the world, who had set the closest precedence to this and we all know how his reign of terror played out (and, unfortunately with his world wide influence, continues to play out to this day).

Therefore, I thought it was interesting to point out an article by Carol Schwartz entitled “Seder in the White House, Oy Vey” that takes this point further and brings in examples throughout history telling us to beware of what such an event can mean. It is a truly chilling account as it makes us look at our own past and see how we are potentially putting ourselves in great danger once again when we take our supposed “great relations” with our host (and foreign) government and assume that it bodes well for our long term future there.

As Carol closes her article “Let us not forget our history and let us remember that history has a way of repeating itself. (May G-d protect us.)”

Ari