RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Understanding-politics-in-Israel-The-limousine-theory-316478

Into the Fray: How is it that, time after time, the electorate ends up with a gov’t adopting precisely the policy it urged voters to reject?
On the one hand, the state invests billions of dollars in building a modern army; purchasing state-of-the-art warplanes and constructing modern airfields; equipping and training reserve battalions; and deploying Arrow missiles. All this is right and proper and necessary. But on the other hand, it has permitted a situation to develop in which these selfsame modern, expensive systems are liable to be rendered irrelevant. On the basis of such wishful thinking, battles, and wars, are lost
– Yuval Steinitz, “When the Palestinian Army Invades the Heart of Israel,” Commentary, December 1, 1999.

To a dispassionate observer, unfamiliar with the mechanisms – and machinations – of Israeli politics, the events of the past two-and-a-half decades must seem to defy explanation, flying in the face of both logic and common sense, and a gross violation of the rationale of democratic principles.

To the vanquished the spoils?

Political realities in Israel since the early 1990s have shown that electoral victory has little bearing on the policies the resultant governments will pursue. Quite the reverse.

No matter how often the doctrine of political appeasement and territorial concession failed to win approval at the ballot box, it nevertheless continued to dominate the policy-making decisions of governments – even of those elected in express opposition to it.

Astonishingly, time and time again, the prescriptions of the vanquished became the policy of the victors.

Thus, Yitzhak Rabin, elected in 1992 on the basis of a series of hawkish “nays,” including rejection of negotiations with the PLO terrorist organization, radically switched his positions, transforming them all to dovish “yeas.”

The policy he adopted was indistinguishable from that promoted by the radical Left of the time – which failed to win voter support.

More dramatically, Ariel Sharon, elected in 2003 on a platform opposing any notion of unilateral withdrawal, adopted precisely this policy, advocated by his Labor Party rival, which was resoundingly defeated at the polls.

In 2009, shortly after his reelection as prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu’s regrettable volte face in the speech he delivered at Bar-Ilan University, accepting the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea-Samaria, was a repudiation of the positions he presented to voters. Indeed, it was an endorsement of those of his opponents, who failed to win sufficient electoral support to form a government.

True, he did attempt to hedge his acquiescence with various unrealistic reservations and restrictions. However, this was of little avail. He had, for all practical purposes, capitulated intellectually and strategically, and in a stroke, fundamentally transformed the debate from one over whether there should, or should not, be a Palestinian state, to one over what the characteristics of the Palestinian state should be.

Conundrum I

In an article I wrote several years ago, titled “The Israeli Political System: How It Works and Why It Doesn’t,” I pointed to the following startling facts in Israel’s parliamentary history:

(a) For 20 of the 28 years between 1977 and 2005 – from the time the Likud first won the elections on a platform of Greater Israel, until a Likud-led government withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in stark contradiction to its electoral pledges – the Israeli prime minister came from the ranks of the Likud.

(b) When the Likud first came to power, not only was the entire Sinai Peninsula under Israeli control, but any suggestion of evacuating the Jordan Valley, dividing Jerusalem or withdrawing from the Golan was unthinkable.

(c) Yet today, well over a third of a century since Menachem Begin’s dramatic electoral victory, all the above are either already faits accomplis or acceptable topics in mainstream political discourse.

(True, lately, some reservations may be emerging as to the wisdom of withdrawal from the Golan. But this nascent realization is far more an outcome imposed by external events in Syria, than one generated by any informed process of internal discourse in Israel.) This demonstrates that while the right wing regularly wins elections, it never really gets to control the reins of power. This phenomenon has virtually nullified the significance of the Israeli democratic process, and can only be explained by the existence of some source of influence, extraneous to the political system, that imposes outcomes very different from those that should result from unhindered operation of the political routine.

http://nsroundtable.org/as-we-see-it/snooping-in-all-the-wrong-places/

Looks like the government snoop-fest going on today excludes one very important place, i.e., jihad factories, or mosques in America (see below).

Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents, meaning no more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department, called the Sensitive Operations Review Committee. [Sounds like something right out of a KGB spy novel, eh?]

Needless to say that’s pretty disturbing, especially since recent surveys show that 80% of mosques preach violent jihad or distribute violent literature to worshippers, a number that just so happens to coincide with the percentage of mosques in America funded by Saudi Arabia, aka Wahhabi Central.

But Grievance Central, er, the Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007/8 Holy Land Foundation trial regarding the funneling of money to Hamas), teamed up with the ACLU and put a stop to all those successful sting operations by the FBI against homegrown jihadists inside mosques. How’d they do it?

Well, the official reason appears below, but the unofficial one can be found here, here and here (hint: it has to do with infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into U.S. government agencies, like the Pentagon, White House, Justice Dept., Homeland Security Dept., State Dept., etc.).

So welcome to the United States of Arabia, folks, where Big Brother watches everyone but the most-likely suspects!

http://letthemfight.blogspot.com/ The stories of government agency corruption and the blurring of Constitutional guidelines has certainly caused a storm of consternation and outright anger in the past many weeks. It seems each day has provided us with yet one more glimpse into the seedy world of a government which has clearly lost its way, and shed […]

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/jcc-watch-stop-giving-jewish-money-to-fund-anti-israel-activity/2013/06/13/

JCC Watch: Stop Giving Jewish Money to Fund Anti-Israel Activities

Pro-Israel groups are now turning to the UJA-Federation and asking that it stop providing funds to organizations which use those funds to promote virulently anti-Israel activists. If not, a “Close Your Wallet” campaign will begin this summer.

JCC Watch and other pro-Israel organizations are now asking that entities which use Jewish communal dollars to support anti-Israel activists no longer receive Jewish communal funding

Pro-Israel New Yorkers continue to seek ways to prevent Jewish charitable dollars from supporting anti-Israel activities and speakers.

Because the UJA-Federation is the source of funding for so many Jewish organizations, an organized effort is about to get underway to ensure that this funding source – all of which comes from Jewish donors – is being used to fund programming that is infused with Jewish values and which is supportive of Israel. This effort is in response to several years during which UJA-Federation-supported entities use some of those donors’ dollars to support efforts to cripple the Jewish state.

One of the most active efforts to stop this suicidal movement is led by Richard Allen who began JCC Watch several years ago when he was no longer able to abide the many anti-Israel events taking place at New York City’s Jewish Community Center.

Allen decided that one way to fight the battle was to inform as many people as possible about the problem. He created a huge database of email addresses and periodically sends out emails with detailed information about anti-Israel events and suggestions for action. He is judicious about the frequency of his mailings and is careful to include accurate information. And he just keeps adding to the roll of email addresses.

Allen and his colleagues found that the NYC JCC was partnering with groups that blatantly promote economic and political warfare against Israel known as the BDS movement (Boycott of, Divestment from and Sanctions against Israel).

  http://unitedpatriotsworldwide.com/vinienco/2013/06/14/stakelbeck-terror-agricultural-jihad-israel-full-video/ Stakelbeck on Terror: Agricultural Jihad Against Israel (full video) Stakelbeck on Terror: Agricultural Jihad Against Israel (full video): This week’s edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show provided an up-close look at the “agricultural jihad” that local Muslims are waging against Israeli communities in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. The popular CBN broadcaster spoke to Israeli leaders on the […]

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2013/06/oil-brings-us-to-a-better-plac.php?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Oil+will+take+us+to+a+better+place&utm_campaign=20130614 By all accounts, Shai Agassi, the founder and original CEO of Better Place, Israel’s bankrupt electric car company, is an extremely charismatic man. His charm had politicians, venture capitalists, celebrities and non-automotive industry reporters slobbering over him. Everyone wanted to get their picture taken with the man who would transform Israel’s auto industry into […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/350931/whats-happening-turkey-interview Barry Rubin is a commentator National Review Online often checks in with when there are eruptions around the world, particularly in and around the Middle East. He is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Israel, and author of, among others, The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist […]

Among the discontents of summer is the necessity to buy bathing suits. The other day I was in a department store trying on 21 suits in a variety of colors and sizes…scooting in and out…..since one is only allowed to have 5 in the room at a time.

As I stared disconsolately at the three sided mirror I saw a small sign warning that the rooms can be monitored. Yikes! I threw on my clothes. Finally I realized they were after me and now know that I have been lying about my size and my weight for ten years. I even tried a faulty scale once but the darned thing kept correcting upward instead of downward.

But now my secret is no longer safe, and cutting off the size tapes will not work. Big government is after big bodies. Will they give my secrets to Nanny Bloomberg who will then monitor what I eat and what I drink?

The consequences are staggering. I sulked and slipped out of the store and went for a 24 ounce ice cream milk shake.

They will not break my appetite! I will buy a hijab for the beach and they will leave me alone.

They will not stop me!!!

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/epa-climatism-dictating-our-lives-living-standards-and-life-spans?f=puball Numerous articles document how European climate policies have been disastrous for affordable energy, economic growth, entire industries, people’s jobs and welfare, wildlife habitats and human lives. Even the IPCC, BBC and Economist have finally recognized that average global temperatures have not budged since 1997. The EU economy is teetering at the precipice, people are […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/secrecy-surveillance-and-privacy-momus-and-moral-ambiguity

After each of the major terrorist attacks in the last few years, the various so-called Intelligence Services in the United States, Britain and elsewhere have disclosed two important things: first, the perpetrators of these horrendous deeds have been known to the officials and often for many years been “on the radar”; and second, the various security and anti-terrorist organizations claim that they did not have sufficient information or resources to keep these people-usually young men-under proper surveillance. In the light of what the media perceives as scandalous misuse of eaves-dropping technology-tracking all sorts of telephone, internet and other electronic and digital communications-do these two mitigating factors stand up to scrutiny? In other words, are governments engaged in too much secret intelligence work or not enough, or is it a matter of the actual quality of the intelligence deployed to make sense of the information gathered?

Moreover, should we worry about spying on citizens as in itself a justifiable cause of the current outrage, or is it just the sheer numbers of individual men and women and private organizations caught up in the compass or prism of the official spy-networks? Perhaps a lot of the anger and shock actually stems from the paradox of our new kind of world, a world wherein, on the one hand, millions of people link themselves into social networks, keep in touch with other millions of people frequently, and, in the process, willingly or not, expose sensitive information about themselves and their activities, things that were best left unstated, at least in the sense of not revealing them in a permanent way and into an uncontrollable system of electronic-digital form; whereas, on the other hand, the dangerous and explosive world we live in requires that different nations’ security agencies use this vast amount of information to try to protect the lives and well-being of their citizens.