I don’t usually get political on this blogspot, but sometimes things just build up.
The trigger was my reading two articles. The first was written by Caroline Glick and called The Obama Administration’s Most Covert War, which I found on Facebook. The second was written by Naomi Ragen and titled Israeli and American Jews: The Grand Canyon. That one was sent to me via email by my wife.
From Glick’s article:
Over the past several weeks, we have learned that the Obama administration believes it is at war with Israel. The war is not a shooting war, but a political war. Its goal is to bring the government to its knees to the point where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loses power or begs Obama and his advisers to shepherd Israel through a “peace process” in which Israel will renounce its rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
This pretty much makes my blood boil. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not any sort of Obama fan, but the fact that he’s playing political games to establish his so-called legacy by risking the lives of every Israeli Jewish man, woman, and child is reprehensible and vile.
Naomi Ragan wrote about her encounter with a liberal Jewish woman during a short car ride here in America to highlight the chasm existing between Israeli and American Jews.
She was silent for a moment, then shook her head. “He [Netanyahu] shouldn’t have come to America. He shouldn’t have addressed Congress. It polarized American Jews, politicizing the support for Israel,” she said emphatically.
“I think it’s been politicized for a long time,” I answered drily. “Democrats voted for Obama. Republicans didn’t.”
That seemed to surprise her. “So, Israelis don’t like Obama?”
“They hate his guts.”
She shrugged. “Yes, I can understand that. What do you think happened to him?” She seemed honestly bewildered.
“Nothing happened to him. Anyone who did the slightest bit of research understood that he had been a member of an anti-Semitic church for twenty-five years; a church that gave an award to Louis Farrakhan.”
Ragen pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. It also seems quite true that Israeli Jews have a lived experience many American Jews (or Americans period) are clueless about.
The Ragen article continued:
If I’d had any doubts, her reaction put them to rest. She had been one of the 70 percent of American Jews to vote Democrat and elect Obama. Twice.
“You know, American Jews vote for the things that are important to them. Those are not always the same things that are important to Israelis.”
I looked surreptitiously at my watch, calculating how much more time we would be locked into this conversation. Too long to say nothing. So I ventured mildly: “What is important to you?”
“Well, women’s rights, reproductive rights. The environment. And fighting the evangelicals.”
I suddenly remembered something my Harvard-educated son recently told me: “Many American Jews will blindly follow any agenda created by the Liberal establishment because it makes them feel virtuous and like part of the in-crowd.”
“So,” I said unwisely, my temperature rising, “let me get this straight. You’re worried about abortions, climate change and being converted to Christianity?” I didn’t let her answer. “And those things are more vital, more important to you, than whether Israel’s greatest enemy gets an atom bomb to blow the next six million Jews off the face of the earth?”
And the article ended…
Just at that moment, the hotel loomed into view. I thanked her for the ride, opening the door and stepping out as swiftly as possible. Before I closed the door, I turned back and looked at her.
“Please,” I begged her. “Don’t vote for Hillary.”
It was the last straw. “She’s better than Trump!”
“I don’t think so,” I told her with full confidence.
She rolled her eyes. I rolled mine.
And then the door slammed shut, and she disappeared in one direction, and I in another.
But then, why should you care about all this?
Here’s why.
The question shouldn’t be “Why are you, a Christian, here in a death camp, condemned for trying to save Jews?” The real question is “Why aren’t all the Christians here?”
-Joel C. Rosenberg, The Auschwitz Escape
I’m going to assume that the majority of people reading this blog aren’t Jewish but rather, American Christians or perhaps what I call Gentile Talmidei Yeshua, non-Jewish disciples of Rav Yeshua (Jesus).
My experience in various Messianic Jewish and (largely Gentile) Hebrew Roots groups is that their members, Jewish or Gentile, tend to be pro-Israel politically. Of course, I live in Idaho, which is a pretty “red” state, so folks here are generally conservative about a lot of things.
I have to believe that when Ragen says Israelis hate President Obama’s guts, it’s because they see Obama all but handing Muslim Iran the keys to a nuclear arsenal and showing them how to aim it at Israel.
Caroline Glick’s article outlined the nuts and bolts of Obama’s (not-so) covert war against Israel in less passionate but no less disturbing terms. The country we’re citizens of (I’m assuming most of you live in the U.S.) is deliberately acting against the Israeli people, putting all their lives in jeopardy. It’s terrifying to think that the other people I share this nation with voted to elect a man into the office as President twice who is capable of such heinous acts.
Naomi Ragen complains about the liberal Jews who are more worried about “abortions, climate change and being converted to Christianity” than “whether Israel’s greatest enemy gets an atom bomb to blow the next six million Jews off the face of the earth.”
What about the rest of us?
If you’re religious and you’re a political conservative, you’re probably pro-Israel and in some fashion, oppositional to abortions and the idea of human created climate change. You may indeed want to “share the Gospel” with Jewish people, but if you’re Gentile Talmidei Yeshua, that might seem a somewhat different process to you than how Evangelicals might approach it.
Whoever you are, if you say you are pro-Israel, how far does that go?
I learned from this Aish article about Swedish journalist Petter Ljungggren, who tested anti-Semitism in his own country by putting on a kippah (he’s not Jewish) and letting himself be publicly cursed at, threatened, and harassed.
I’m not a big fan of non-Jews wearing traditionally Jewish apparel, but in this case, Ljungggren had a good reason. It makes me wonder if we all shouldn’t start donning kippot, not to imitate Jews but to stand in solidarity with them and with Israel.
Maybe we’d just feel social pressure like this young fellow, or maybe we’d experience a whole lot more.
Millions of human lives are at stake. Millions of Jewish Israeli lives are at stake. We happen to be living in a nation that’s at least contributed to if not acted as the direct cause of the danger to Israel.
If the Jews were once again rounded up and sent to the camps tomorrow would we Gentile disciples of Rav Yeshua (or just regular Christians) go with them?
Morning Meditations 
â
On Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 9:37 PM, Morning Meditations wrote:
> James posted: “I don’t usually get political on this blogspot, but > sometimes things just build up. The trigger was my reading two articles. > The first was written by Caroline Glick and called The Obama > Administration’s Most Covert War, which I found on Facebook. The s” >
James, here’s another post by Caroline Glick that I saw last night: https://www.facebook.com/carolineglick/?fref=nf. It’s hard to understand the overwhelming Jewish support for Obama.
@cdgarrett: Not sure what you’re saying here.
@Mel: Thanks. I’ll have a look.
For those that have a hard time understanding the American Jewish attraction to Obama, Ben Shapiro does an excellent job of breaking it down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5IqH7oJ9h4
Ben Shapiro: Why Jews Vote Leftist? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5IqH7oJ9h4
Phillip, I like the video but you don’t need to post the link twice. Because sometimes people visit my blog and post “sparky” comments, I have chosen to moderate each and every comment submitted. If you make a comment and it doesn’t immediately appear, be patient. I’ll get to it as time allows. Thanks.
I live in California, where no matter how I vote, the state’s delegates vote for Democrats, and the Judges overturn every attempt at common decency voted upon by the people. Overwhelmingly, Californian’s continue to vote for socialistic, nanny state candidates, who recommend abortion at the drop of a hat along with open door immigration; blandly approve voting without citizenship or ID’s; are pro-political correctness to an Orwellian degree; and are anti-gun unless they are the ones so protected while they visibly pander to Obama and Hillary and squash every voice that attempts to be raised by simply not hearing them.
Knowing that my vote counts for nothing, and my letters and phone calls to my representatives are consistantly ignored; that Brown, Pelosi, Feinstein and Boxer care nothing for what any of us think in California, so long as they get elected again, and can push their progressively Socialistic agenda; I am resolved to not vote again, and instead to pray for us all, Jews and Gentiles alike, and leave the End Time arrangements to proceed as G-d allows. I am not a fatalist…I simply know when I am outmatched.
In California they will come for the Jews eventually, but I know they will come for Believing Gentiles first, because the Christians, Messianics, and Talmidei Yeshua in California are hated by many a leftist Jew, Secular Humanist, Agnostic, and Athiest. Believers in YHVH and Yeshua will not be well served by our joining anyone in prison, for the times of civil disobedience under an approving media are long gone, even as protesting from a far distance is a fruitless task while purposefully being ignored by the press.
Talmidei Yeshua are supposed to be attempting to be light, not volunteering for incarceration just because others are incarcerated. Certainly we can petition the government, and attempt to visibly protest such incarcerations of anyone for any religious assembly, but it is an exercise in futility in California. Surely one must be aware that Yeshua did not join John the Immerser in prison until it was his time to be incarcerated. We should all know that those who fight against us now, and who will come after us in due time, are full of darkness, and are being permitted by G-d to do as they do.
For nine years I have been aware of the executioner’s block awaiting me, and others who fight, if only with words, against evil…not by attacking the darkness, nor joining the victims of darkness in prison, but by lighting a candle wherever I can, and by helping others to shine a brighter light than I am able to kindle.
@James – Actually, there was a glitch with my log-in. WP never went to the comment acknowledgement screen (where it shows you your comment and tells you it will be moderated), so I posted the link thinking the first comment never registered. Sorry for the aggravation.
Thanks for mentioning that, Phillip. My posts never go to the comment acknowledgment screen, although they used to, here and at another WP site. I was wondering what tech trick I didn’t know.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemöller
You missed my point. Fighting against tyranny by any one is a good thing, if what you do makes a difference. The current media doesn’t allow for self-sacrifice to make a difference.
At this time in America, we can speak out for everyone and anyone all that we want, and not be come after by anyone. Instead, we are ignored to death.
http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_maddow_aoprah_160122
http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_maddow_cb2kochva_160122
Who displays proper “Jewish perspective” so people can “vote Jewish” (according to some knowers and tellers as to what Jews need)?
a: Donald Trump
b: Ted Cruz
c: Hagee
d: Bickle
e: the Koch brothers
f: all of the above
g: none of the above
h: two or more of the above
i: someone else (and, if so, where do they stand
on these people and issues and related issues?)
I picked up the following from another site, and I haven’t checked to see if there are italics or anything else missing from my simple block copy. I thought it would be helpful to share more on the main person who is the subject of the link to the early article of the opening blog post (that is the link that [along with a picture] drew more attention to Obama than to the person said there to be doing nefarious things concerning Israel). Notice that he worked under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush too, as well as earlier. I did boldface a section. The first part to read, coming right up belkw (as it appeared at the site I got this collection from), shows that he also worked for the “private” sector (business). [This is significant to me as there are popular refrains about private being better.]
THOMAS R PICKERING
Mr. Pickering retired as Senior Vice President – International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of The Boeing Company on July 1, 2006 having served in the position for five and one half years. He was responsible for The Boeing Company’s relations with foreign governments and its globalization. He joined Boeing in January 2001. Mr. Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary … of State for Political Affairs since May 1997. He held the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, Mr. Pickering has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Pickering served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. Mr. Pickering serves as Co-Chairman of Board of Trustees at The International Crisis Group. He has been Vice Chairman of Hills & Company, International Consultants since December 2006. He serves as a Director at Taganrog Metallurgical Works Public Joint Stock Company. Mr. Pickering served as a Director of OAO TMK from June 30, 2009 to June 26, 2012. Mr. Pickering entered on active duty in the U.S. Navy from 1956-1959, and later served in the Naval Reserve to the grade of Lieutenant Commander. Between 1959 and 1961, he served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department, in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and from 1962 to 1964 in Geneva as political adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the 18-Nation Disarmament Conference. Mr. Pickering served briefly as the President of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union. In 1983 and in 1986, Mr. Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and, in 1996, the Department of State’s highest award – the Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Currently, he is co-chair of the International Crisis Group, chairman of the American Academy of Diplomacy, and a member of the board of advisors of the Global Panel Foundation. Pickering also serves on the board of directors for the American Iranian Council and the Henry L. Stimson Center, and he holds advisory positions with several other organizations.
http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/people/data/thomas_r__pickering.html
Thomas Pickering – recently joined Hills and Co. as Vice Chairman. He retired after five and a half years as Senior Vice President International Relations of The Boeing Company in July 2006 but continues to consult for them.
http://www.stimson.org/about/board/thomas-pickering/
Diplomatic Career: His four decade long career in Foreign Service included ambassadorships in Russia (1993–1996), India (1992–1993), United Nations (1989–1992), Israel (1985–1988), El Salvador (1983–1985), Nigeria (1981–1983), and Jordan (1974–1978). Additionally, he served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He holds the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Pickering
THOMAS PICKERING: Co-Chair US – Middle East Project
The U.S./Middle East Project was established in 1994 by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) under the direction of Henry Siegman, a senior fellow on the Middle East at the Council. In 2006, the U.S./Middle East Project became an independent policy institute. Its mission is to provide non partisan analysis of the Middle East peace process and to present policymakers in the United States, in the region and in the larger international community with balanced policy analysis and policy options to prevent conflict and promote stability, democracy, modernization and economic development throughout the region.
The U.S./Middle East Project pursues these goals under the guidance of an International Board chaired by General (Ret.) Brent Scowcroft (President, Forum for International Policy; former National Security Adviser to President Gerald Ford and President George H.W. Bush).
http://www.usmep.us/usmep/co-chair/thomas-r-pickering/
Senior Advisors and International Board Members
Carla Anderson Hills (partner w/ Pickering at Hills & Co.) and other significant names.
http://www.usmep.us/
THOMAS PICKERING: Vice-Chairman Stimson
Stimson is a trusted source of independent, expert knowledge. We are a community of analysts devoted to offering pragmatic solutions to today’s most pressing security challenges. Stimson offers in-depth analysis, fair-minded criticism, and fresh perspectives focused on results for the policymaking community – executive and legislative branches, foreign governments and organizations – as well as the media and concerned citizens. Please click here to view a full listing of Stimson staff.
http://www.stimson.org/experts/
THOMAS PICKERING: Senior Vice President Boeing
International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of The Boeing Company on July 1, 2006 having served in the position for five and one half years. He was responsible for The Boeing Company’s relations with foreign governments and its globalization. He continues to consult for Boeing.
http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/brief.html
Thomas Pickering: U.S. Middle East Project, Inc.
President: Henry Siegman; Chairman Emeritus: Brent Scowcroft; Co-Chair: Thomas R. Pickering
Fouad M.T. Alghanim; Hanan Ashrawi; Shlomo Ben-Ami; Lakhdar Brahimi; Zbigniew Brzezinski; Lester Crown; Richard A. Debs; Chuck Hagel; Lee H. Hamilton; Carla Anderson Hills; Joseph Hotung; James L. Jones; Nancy Kassebaum-Baker; Hamza Al-Kholi; Said T. Khoury; Samer Khoury; Nemir A. Kirdar; Yosef A. Maiman; Fouad M. Makhzoumi; Musallam Ali Musallam; John C. Novogrod; Sam Nunn; Hutham Olayan; Stephen Robert; Mohammed Al-Sager; George R. Salem; Paolo Scaroni; Ramez F. Sousou; Peter Sutherland; Enzo Viscusi; Paul Volcker; James D. Wolfensohn
http://www.usmep.us/usmep/co-chair/thomas-r-pickering/
Thomas Pickering: Co-chair w/ Louise ICC – The International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is now generally recognised as the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advice to governments, and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union and World Bank, on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict.
Interesting…
…so, not only did he work for Reagan and the senior Bush…
In 1983 and in 1986, Mr. Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award…
Even more than before, I now would like to see the article’s allegation proven rather than asserted.
The allegation I am referring to (above post) is the alleged intention of Pickering. Related, but not the same thing, would be Clinton’s intention.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“….consider how senior US officials view these politicized organizations.
“Currently, the State Department is slowly fulfilling a federal court order to publish the emails Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton sent from her private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. Over the past several weeks, the department has published a number of emails regarding Israel that reveal the depth of hostility Clinton’s closest advisers harbored toward Israel.
“Last week, one such email demonstrated that Clinton’s senior anti-Israel advisers viewed radical Israeli-registered NGOs as agents for the administration to use in order to carry out covert anti-Israel policies.
“The email in question is a letter Clinton received in December 2011 from retired ambassador Thomas Pickering. Clinton asked her chief of staff to print out his letter.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This (excerpt that I have copied from the article), at the center of the article, is misleading (or, at minimum, not well presented for clarity and fact) as well as mistaken. First of all, printing out the content of an email is not the same thing as “sending” it [and if she sent it (as in forwarded) to her chief of staff for the purpose of printing, that is not the same as agreeing to it]. Secondly, the fact (if it is a fact) that this was sent to Hillary — to promote activity in Israel as generated by Pickering — does not prove she was in favor of it (nor does printing it prove she was in favor of it… that is, in favor of doing what was suggested). Third, the fact she was in communication with this man (or receiving email from him anyway) doesn’t prove Obama was intending she be advised by Pickering. Fourth, this particular email (if it is real as characterized) has to do with and reflects on one of Hillary’s contacts or beseechers (not a blanket plural). Fifth, Hillary herself and her chief of staff can amount to a plural number of “senior officials” [not the same thing as the theoretical advisers] — if the two actually were in favor of the proposed action.
For people (such as myself) who viewed the eleven-hour hearing questioning Hillary, it was clear in that official encounter that Hillary was told (by Obama) not to hire or appoint at least one particular person (if not certain people) she had requested to hire. She subsequently was nonetheless receiving communication from at least one such person in whom the congressional hearing was interested. It was frustrating to me that the Republicans questioning her could not seem to muster the intellectual capacity to question her further as to why she received from such people or said person when the President had said not to have him be part of her State Department team. Perhaps they didn’t pursue this because of the irrational hatred of Obama and perceived need in Republicans not to acknowledge or, as was called for in this matter, emphasize the authority of the President (as in the requirement to act on his direction rather that flout an ability to get around him) so long as the person holding the seat (the Presidency of the United States) is this black Democrat upon whom they have invested such disdain.
Perhaps it was rather because she is the Republicans’ best hope in the next election. [She and her husband have been economic conservatives.*] Or perhaps the politically-motivated are simply intellectually dull after so many years of ridiculous political posturing on one thing after another until they don’t know what’s up. However, I can hope against appearances in order to look forward and expect… the legal team(s) pertaining to all of this will gather details so as to put together a solid legal case (conjecture is not proof that sticks).
* I am not using this term as to “conservative” to indicate good or bad –but a set of tendencies within U.S. political culture for decades.
https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/get-attachment.aspx_.jpeg?82332e
I don’t know how to place this in a post so as to have it simply show up (like yours of Obama) rather than having it like this, needing to be clicked on to go see. But there are lots of pictures of Reagan happily shaking hands with or posing or meeting with Pickering.