| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine |
| Israel betrayed: The new cold war |
| 2004-05-25 |
| Posted: May 25th, 2004 Editor’s note: The following commentary was excerpted from the current edition of Whistleblower magazine, titled "THE PARTY OF TREASON." By Bob Just Imagine you’ve got a Muslim neighbor who is actually a radical, but hasn’t yet revealed to you his inner radical thoughts. He may seem like a nice family-oriented, hard-working, reliable guy, but then at a barbecue he tells his private view that the "worldwide Jewish movement" is the embodiment of evil, and that Israel must be destroyed. One moment you think he’s a reasonably normal guy, and a moment later you realize he lives in a very dark world. Still, there he is, smiling at you while he flips a burger and offers you another cold soda. That’s what it felt like for me recently to read a quote by the French ambassador to Britain. According to Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, the ambassador said Israel was a "[expletive] little country ... why should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?" With this as the sentiment of a major ambassador from a major Western country, could a global betrayal of Israel be far off? Indeed, a European Commission poll reported that 59 percent of its democracies thought that Israel was the greatest threat to world peace. Skeptics might ask how the world could possibly turn against Israel with America as her staunch ally? After all, we are the world’s only superpower. The answer lies within America itself, specifically the Democratic Party – the "blue state" half of the country. A paradigm shift is occurring – one that will affect not only Israel’s security, but America’s as well. Howard Dean’s famous comment about not taking sides between Israel and the Palestinians was directed at the many radical Palestinian sympathizers in the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," a group that will become increasingly vocal as the war on terror continues. Make no mistake, anti-Semitism is alive and well as a political force – and so is appeasement. The two will combine, and my Democratic Party will soon betray Israel. It may not be an overt betrayal. It may come in a thousand cuts rather than with a single blow. But it will come. All this is more than a hunch on my part. It has to do with core values. One party has them, and the other doesn’t. The Democratic Party’s leaders may look like traditional Americans. They may say they support Israel. They may "stand with our troops" in Iraq. They may go to church and take communion. They may even sing, "God Bless America" on the Capitol steps – but increasingly their inner thought life is not what it seems to be. Inside they seethe at "red state" America. We watch the weird, angry behavior of prominent Democrats like Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean or even John Kerry and we scratch our heads in wonder. Who are these people? What are they thinking? What caused all this anger, and why is it directed at fellow Americans? The furious fringe is taking over the party. They are solidified in their sense of victimhood. They aren’t looking for compromise, but for total victory – revenge almost – in fulfilling their vision for a new America, one that has nothing to do with biblical Christianity or Judaism, the pumping heart of true Americanism. Last November, famous Soviet Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky wrote a piece for Commentary Magazine in which he made clear that anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism were related. Both express hostility toward the "moral clarity" of Jews and Christians and their shared love of liberty. Anti-Americanism, like anti-Semitism, is increasingly evident both globally and locally – and you’ll find them both in my angry Democratic Party! Now here’s the sobering reality: Defeating "angry leftists" at the polls does not solve our problem any more than disarming a crazy person makes him a safe roommate. If I am right that the Democrats (under current leadership) are no longer an American party in any traditional sense, then this has massive implications for our two-party system – which depends on mutual respect and common goals. It’s as if Israel were forced to accept radical Palestinians from Gaza as voting members of the Jewish state. Needless to say, shared power combined with radically opposing agendas would spell disaster. Democracy is too vulnerable a system to withstand an entrenched and determined hostility, serving no higher purpose than itself. Whether or not you call this treachery hardly matters. The end result is the same – conflict, not compromise. Everyone is talking about the growing red-state /blue-state divide in America. The words "parallel universe" have even been used to describe the two ethics that dominate our political scene. To put it simply, the red side believes in "one nation, under God," and the blue side doesn’t. We think rights come from our Creator, they think rights come from our government. We think there are moral absolutes, they think everything is relative, including the Constitution. Yes, a paradigm shift is in process, a change in national political character that could destroy any hope of national security – from winning the global war on terror to defending our interests in the Middle East, including Israel, to defending our borders right here at home. The "PC" movement that Newsweek famously called "totalitarian" in 1990 is alive and well – and now controls one of our two major parties. In "Fascism, corruption and my ’Democratic’ Party" – written before the 2000 election – I use expressions like "fascism" and "cold civil war" to make the point that America faces an immediate and very real danger from within – a growing anti-traditional, "party first" mentality among "Clinton Democrats" that would stop at nothing to achieve power and remake America in their politically correct image. Although the attacks of 9-11 seemed to inspire the "new patriotism" Ronald Reagan sought, in the end nothing really changed. Witness how my party acted during the Iraq War – undermining the president at every opportunity – even while knowing America’s terrorist enemies were taking comfort in words like "liar" and "fraud" and "regime change." It was a very sad thing to watch for those of us who remember a different Democratic Party. At this point, our only hope is for the public to wake up to what is happening. It won’t be easy – for reasons I’ll explain – but traditional Democrats can turn the tide by blowing the whistle on our own party. Mainstream Democrats, especially Jews, better start understanding what is at work here. Time is running out. This political party, which still smiles at you and offers you "a cold soda," sadly no longer thinks like you do, or shares the same loyalties. Now here is our big problem. These Democrats don’t need to win elections the usual way. All they need to do is solidify their angry base – then entrench like an occupying army – and wait until Americans are desperate for a political "change." No one can break the stranglehold of a party that has a solid 40-45 percent base (as some experts claim), and few moral limits. First, there’s no oxygen for a third party, at least not for one that has any chance of winning the presidency. But, meanwhile, these anti-traditional Democrats can undermine the system. They can quietly block legitimate votes in the Senate; they can noisily filibuster judges; they can emotionalize debate, use their power to politicize and subvert committees, force damaging scandal hearings – and do all this while networking with their secular media allies to pressure the public. They can campaign perpetually, wage the politics of personal destruction – they can infiltrate, obfuscate, accuse, demoralize and defeat at every opportunity. Call it permanent gridlock – a wrestling stranglehold just waiting for the pin. It doesn’t sound very American, does it? |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #1 There isn't much difference between Democrats and Republics with regard to attitudes toward Jews or even toward Israel. In fact, more Jews are Democrats than Republicans. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-05-26 11:16:00 AM |