Because What Where When is a monthly publication,
it is often difficult to write about current events when so many astonishing
things are unfolding hour by hour. As I write these words, Israel is bracing
for another Iranian attack. No other country, having already been repeatedly
attacked, would stand back and await the enemy’s choice of time and place for a
follow-up strike. In the Talmud Sanhedrin
72A, we learn, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first!”
Unfortunately, the rules for Jews and Israel, which are being strictly enforced
by the current administration in Washington, require Israel not to respond in
an appropriate manner (a massive preemptive strike) since the U.S. woke
appeasement policy requires that Israel, and America, must not upset their
sworn enemies. Consider that the U.S. possesses the firepower to neutralize
Iran. Nevertheless, the Iranian regime openly threatens America, Israel, and
the free world. That’s because the Biden administration has demonstrated by its
inaction that Iran need not to be concerned that the U.S. will respond
decisively. Sadly, America is sorely lacking in leadership and resolve. It is
for that reason that Iran has been emboldened.
Nevertheless, for many progressive leftists,
these events don’t seem to be nearly as important as achieving their goal of
electing the incompetent Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, the
equally incompetent governor of Minnesota. Walz was sort of (maybe, kind of)
sympathetic to Israel immediately after October 7th, but the
politics of “Minnesota-stan” now require him to support Israel’s enemies and,
of course, moronic woke policies which are ruining Minnesota. Walz is therefore
the perfect choice to complement Kamala.
* * *
The question that I have been asking myself
for quite a while is who is running this country?! Notwithstanding the
protestations of Biden’s handlers, who until recently claimed that he was as
sharp as a tack, it’s crystal clear now – since the cover-up could no longer be
hidden – that he’s not in charge, much to the delight of America’s enemies, who
are wholeheartedly supporting Kamala. They and the Democrats are working
diligently to defeat Trump, which may not be difficult with the help of the
mostly corrupt media, the “deep state,” and millions of illegal and “low-information”
voters. The once great U.S.A., like the rest of the woke liberal western world,
is stumbling down a path toward self-destruction. Many of the enemies inside of America – especially the Islamo-fascists,
who were admitted and embraced from 2009 to 2017 and from 2021 until the
present – are now rising up fearlessly against Americans in general and America’s
weak, immoral, and unethical “leaders.”
It will be interesting to see how
the Democrat national convention works out with its coalitions of woke progressives,
Islamo-fascists, antisemites, and America haters. In contrast, the Republican convention
opened with this prayer: “O L-rd our G-d, we pray for the peace of
Jerusalem, your eternal city, and for all the children of Abraham. We remember
and pray for freedom for the hostages kidnapped and held so cruelly against
their will. L-rd, please keep them in your sight and hasten the day of their
freedom.”
In the May edition of WWW, I wrote a piece entitled “Appeasement
as Official Policy.” In that article, I quoted Melanie Phillips, an award-winning
British author and journalist. If you recall, one of her books, Londonstan, published 18 years ago,
spelled out exactly what the West is
now experiencing. In May, I mentioned that Melanie calls herself “a liberal who
was mugged by reality.” On July 25th, the day after Netanyahu spoke
to Congress, she wrote a piece that was published in England. Her perspective
as a foreigner, viewing America from 4,000 miles away, is most enlightening.
* * *
Netanyahu’s Hour: Congress Cheered Him
to the Echo, but That’s not Enough to Save Israel, America, and the West
by Melanie Phillips
July 25,
2024
For
the better part of an hour on Wednesday, it was possible to believe that the
Western world had not lost its mind. For some 54 minutes, Israel’s Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. Congress truth after truth about the
war against Israel and demolished the malicious and grotesque accusations
against it of war crimes and genocide.
In a magnificent,
impassioned and pitch-perfect address, he roused Congress to its feet with at
least 54 standing ovations. They cheered and applauded when he declared that
Israel’s battle against Iran was America’s battle. They cheered and applauded
when referring to U.S. intelligence that Iran was behind the pro-Hamas protests.
He said those demonstrators “stand with evil” and are “Iran’s useful idiots.”
They cheered and applauded when, in a veiled reference to the Biden
administration’s decision to slow down the supply of arms to Israel that
Congress had mandated, Netanyahu said: “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll
finish the job faster.”
For the duration of that hour, it was possible for Jews
reeling from the murderous antisemitism that has erupted around the world since
the Oct. 7 pogrom, the refusal of Western governments to tackle it, and the
near-universal adoption of Hamas propaganda by liberal elites, to believe that
the Jews are not standing alone after all.
But this ecstatic audience was composed of Republicans who
get it and some Democrats who were prepared at least to give Netanyahu the
courtesy of a hearing. The same could not be said of the 70 Democrats who
boycotted Netanyahu’s address, including the new Democratic presidential
candidate Kamala Harris.
This was the most
ominous signal possible that, if she becomes president, Harris will be a danger
to both Israel and the West. Her absence wasn’t just a deliberate insult to
Netanyahu. It showed contempt for America’s principal Middle East ally as it
fights for its life against forces that menace America and the free world. Far
from marking her out as a statesman, Harris’s boycott was the act of a petulant
partisan. And the claim made by such Democrats that they only loathe Netanyahu,
not Israel, doesn’t hold water for a moment.
While dutifully intoning concern about the hostages and
maintaining hand-on-heart, their iron-clad commitment to the Jewish state,
Harris and like-minded Democrats demand an immediate ceasefire by Israel, which
would be tantamount to handing victory to Hamas. They recycle Hamas blood
libels about the IDF wantonly killing Gaza civilians and deliberately
withholding aid. They support the appeasement of Iran – the Biden
administration policy that laid the fuse for the Oct. 7 pogrom and has
systematically undermined Israel’s self-defense ever since. And with a few weasely
caveats, Harris has expressed her sympathy and understanding for the mobs who
have turned college campuses into no-go areas for Jews – though she was careful
to condemn the “despicable hate-fueled” rampage in Washington while Netanyahu
was speaking, when mobs screaming “Allahu Akbar” burned the Stars and Stripes and hoisted the Palestinian flag outside
Union Station.
The Democrats, many of
whom have acted as Hamas shills, can’t shrug off this sickening, anti-American
behavior. They own it.
Harris’s attitude
towards Israel is of a piece with her left-wing positions on other issues that
place her to the left of President Joe Biden. She also has a track record of
utter incompetence and asininity. Yet since the convulsive developments that
propelled her to the Democratic nomination, Harris has had the wind in her
sails. Her first, carefully controlled speech was widely praised. On TikTok,
she’s become a viral pin-up. Liberal websites are attempting to conceal her
central role in the catastrophic collapse of U.S. border controls. The media
will fall into line in sanitizing her and demonizing her opponent, former
President Donald Trump, still further.
Will American voters
fall for this? There are signs that the Trump campaign has been knocked off
balance. Its strategy of focusing on its core vote, which was predicated on the
enfeebled Biden fighting the election, is no longer appropriate. According to
some polling, the vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance – who was selected in
order to further fire up the base – is not going down well. And his own strange
absence from Netanyahu’s address was an inexplicable error.
In these most febrile
times, anything could happen. But Jews must face the fact that, come November,
America might have elected a president viscerally hostile to Israel backed by
similarly hostile administrations in Britain, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
As the free world staggers over the edge of its own civilizational abyss,
Israel and Diaspora Jews could find themselves shockingly isolated.
Oct. 7 and its
aftermath should provide a wake-up call for the Jewish people. This is not just
about the massive security failure of Israel’s political, military, and
intelligence elites and their inability to understand what Hamas was planning.
Nor is it just about the omnipresence of vicious antisemitism throughout the
West, of which the Jewish people should have needed no reminder. The more
urgent realization now must be the danger posed by the liberal mindset that
characterizes the Democratic Party in America and the cultural elites that rule
the West.
The failure to
recognize this danger has done Israel immeasurable damage over the years.
Israel’s elites allowed themselves to be seduced by the liberal article of
faith that war must be replaced by law, all global actors are susceptible to
reason, and all conflict must be resolved by negotiation and compromise. Israel
accordingly went along with the “peace process” orthodoxy that required it to
negotiate with genocidists in the belief that they don’t speak for the majority
of the Arab and Muslim world, who only want jobs and security. This fantasy was
institutionalized through the 1993 Oslo Accords, which created structures
designed to lead to a Palestine state and a “two-state solution.”
Israel has paid for
this terrible error in blood. From 1994 until today, more than three times as
many Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian Arabs than between the
formation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the signing of the Oslo Accords.
The lesson taught so agonizingly since Oct. 7
is that Israel can never achieve security through diplomatic means. It can
never expect acceptance from the world, nor rely on America or anyone else. It
can only make itself safe and secure through military means, an unequivocal
defeat of its enemies, and a clear-eyed acknowledgment of what it is up
against.
Since Oct. 7, a number
of Israelis have woken up to this. The young generation performing so
heroically on the front line certainly gets it. So do Mizrachi or
Eastern-origin Israelis who understand the Arab and Muslim world all too well.
So too do many former leftist dreamers in Israel and the West, who have found
to their profound shock that people they thought were on their side suddenly
turned out tragically to be their mortal enemies or have been cheering on those
who want the Jews gone from their world altogether.
In his address to
Congress, Netanyahu spoke repeatedly of achieving victory over the enemies of
Israel and America. To Western leftists – including many Jews and too many
elite Israelis – such talk is anathema because it involves the exercise of
military force rather than diplomatic compromise. They assume that Jews who
talk about achieving security through Jewish power are fascists because
leftists associate all free-world power with fascists. They believe instead
that the powerlessness displayed by compromise with genocidists is the way to
achieve the brotherhood of man. This default position of Western liberalism has
resulted in the murder of thousands of Israelis and is exposing the West to
existential danger.
And that’s something
those who care about Israel, America, and civilization should keep in mind when
they cast their ballots.”
* * *
It is beyond regrettable that among
the leftist woke progressives, Jews are in the forefront. Senator Chuck Schumer
bases his comments upon whomever he is speaking to, and always hedges his bets.
After he was castigated for his anti-Netanyahu remarks four months ago, he was
embarrassed into signing on to Mike Johnson’s invitation to Netanyahu to
address Congress. Remember, Schumer wants to placate his large Jewish
constituency while at the same time trying to appease the progressive leftists
within his party. Pathetically, as the majority leader, he made certain not to
greet or acknowledge Netanyahu. That honor fell to Maryland’s retiring senior
Senator, who wasn’t worried about the repercussions since he’s not on the
November ballot and has one foot out the door. In fact, Ben Cardin seemed quite
happy to sit next to Mike Johnson and greet Netanyahu.
Sadly, Josh Shapiro, governor of
Pennsylvania, who obviously wanted to be vice-president, decided to jettison
his integrity by disavowing and apologizing for a piece he wrote 20 years ago –
which accurately described the Israeli/Palestinian reality.
I strongly suggest that Maryland
Jews who care about Israel vote for Larry Hogan, a friend of the Jews and the
Jewish State. This is especially important since our soon-to-become senior
Senator is (sadly) no friend of Israel. This is after he received tremendous
Jewish support in his previous elections.
It is stunning that so many Jews do
not seem to grasp that the progressive left enables America’s (and Israel’s)
enemies while simultaneously destroying the fabric of our country from within. It
is the progressives for whom DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) protocols have
served to ruin our medical and law schools as well as our governmental agencies
– especially the military. The concept of “illegal” only resonates with the left
when Donald Trump’s name is mentioned.
Recently, Simon Hankinson, a career foreign
service official, wrote an impassioned article about how DEI puts unqualified
people in critical leadership positions. We saw that on display when three Ivy
League university presidents stumbled through their embarrassing Congressional
testimonies.
Dr. Travis Morrell, a renowned
gynecologist and a senior fellow at the organization Do No Harm, fought to have
Colorado protect children from destructive, and mutilating, gender reassignment
surgeries (another imbecilic leftist idea). Dr. Morrell never thought that he
would be overwhelmed by woke supporters who are in favor of mutilating children
– but he was. This is what he said:
The
ideological wave that has begun in medical school will inevitably define the
medical profession. These students, having been trained in an ideology, are all
but certain to bring it into the treatment room. You can equally bet they’ll
become vocal advocates for divisive and discriminatory policies at the local
state and federal levels. They’ll lend an air of legitimacy to fundamentally
illegitimate ideas, by virtue of the white coats they wear. Today they ensured
the defeat of a commonsense resolution about protecting children. Tomorrow they
will bring about the decline of medicine itself. (See his full
statement in the Wall Street Journal July
27, page 13A).
* * *
The woke leftist policies lack any
semblance of logic or common sense – unless their goal is to destroy our civilization, in which case they are to be
commended for doing a superb job. For example, when it comes to shoplifting, in
progressive, “blue” jurisdictions, we have an epidemic. Thugs know that, even
if they are caught, they will be quickly released to return to the store of
their choice to steal again. Several retail stores that I used to patronize
have closed and more are considering whether they can afford to stay in
business due to the high cost of thievery. Safeway, Giant, CVS, Walgreens, and
numerous other retailers in the DC metro area don’t bother calling the police
when people steal. Since, as long as you and I are willing to pay higher prices
to cover the cost of crime, they can remain in business.
Just as the woke appeasement
policies have emboldened Iran, that same thinking has emboldened criminals in
the U.S. The standard response by woke liberals referring to criminals is
pretty consistent. Chicago’s feckless mayor, Brandon Johnson, stated the leftist
progressive policy clearly when he was asked to explain his city’s outrageous
crime statistics. “It is indifference to black life that led to generations of
disinvestment in black communities,” he said. It seems that the teens who
rampage on Chicago’s Miracle Mile – beating, stomping on, and mugging
passersby, while smashing car windows – have, according to the mayor “been
starved of opportunities in their own communities.” The mayor’s response to
last year’s Memorial Day weekend shootings, when 11 people were killed and 30
more were shot, was “Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend; you are seeing
the manifestation of trauma.” The only flaw in Mayor Johnson’s argument is that
Chicago and similar woke, criminal-embracing amnesty zones have poured billions
into high crime areas for decades. In fact, in the past five years, Illinois
has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars directed to therapy, job
training, substance abuse counseling, and other social services with little or
no positive results other than skyrocketing crime and violence, which primarily
affects the Black community.
California implemented “implicit
bias” training for police officers when Kamala was attorney general. It was she
who said, “Putting more cops on the street does not improve public safety.”
Really? Well, yes. If your government disempowers and disrespects the police,
it teaches the thugs and punks not to
respect the law either. Illinois and other woke jurisdictions followed
California’s lead by not prosecuting shoplifters who steal less than $1,000 at
a time. Since the cap is $1,000 a time, shoplifters who want to take more just
need to visit the same store multiple times a day.
In 1994, Rudy Giuliani was elected
mayor of New York after a series of liberal progressives had all but destroyed
the city. Crime was rampant, and Times Square was seedy and dangerous. Giuliani
realized that, first and foremost, law and order needed to be restored. He therefore
instituted the “broken windows policy.” That successful policy states that
visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior, and civil disorder create an urban
environment that encourages further crime and disorder – leading to more serious
crimes. By policing minor crimes – including vandalism, graffiti, loitering,
public intoxication, and transit fare evasion – you create an atmosphere of law
and order. In addition, Giuliani and his Police Chief William Bratton
instituted “stop and frisk” in high crime areas, leading to the arrest of
numerous criminals and the confiscation of thousands of weapons.
I remember New York City before
Giuliani. It was depressing. After only eight years in office, Giuliani had
saved the city, instituting changes that led to Times Square becoming a safe
and enjoyable family fun destination. I used to enjoy the vibe and energy on my
New York visits until Bill de Blasio, a woke leftist progressive Democrat
handed the city over to the criminal mobs by ordering police to stand down. The
well-meaning but unqualified Eric Adams is now presiding over a city under
siege and headed for bankruptcy. The horrible campus takeovers and out-of-control
antisemitic mobs are a direct result of progressive woke leaders who empower
criminals. Had the police been authorized to intervene early and decisively to
end the antisemitic campus takeovers by arresting protesters for numerous
violations, the protests would not have gained momentum and spun out of control.
Essentially, the New York story is being repeated in every leftist woke-run
city. Chicago and Washington DC are but two prime examples of what happens when
you diminish the police and empower the criminals.
* * *
As the U.S. heads into an extremely
consequential election this November, my primary focus is based upon the best
choice for Israel. That’s always been my number one concern when casting my
vote. Of course, I want security and safety here in America – which the woke
cannot deliver – but Israel’s safety and security is essential. Like it or not,
I realize that I can only choose from the available ballot options. Also, as a frum Jew, I accept and respect daas Torah. In 2020, Rav Shmuel
Kaminetsky, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, recommended voting for
Donald Trump! He also said his decision was based upon Trump’s policies not his
personal behavior.
Because many Jews do not respect daas Torah,
Rav Kamenetsky’s words were largely ignored. And now we have open borders,
disastrous energy policies, out-of-control spending, rampant crime, serious
inflation, and incompetent and indecisive leadership, with Israel under threat.
For the past 10 months, the U.S. has been sending Iran and its terror proxies
mixed signals concerning our resolve, while helping to fund their regime by
sending cash and lifting sanctions. This has emboldened Iran and prolonged the
war. The leftist Democrat progressives, led now by Kamala and Tim, keep calling
for a two-state solution. They are shill’s for Hamas.
Following a very near-death
experience, Donald Trump thanked G-d. His son-in-law made a mishebeirach for him. Although no one
has the answer for certain “why” questions, those who have barely escaped death
always wonder, “Why was I spared?” In recent months, I have had Israeli mothers
and wives ask me why their son or husband was spared when the soldier next to
him was hit. Although I have no answer for such questions, I have said, “Evidently,
because he has much still to do.” When Trump narrowly escaped death, the same
thought occurred to me. For those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,
you might want to consider where our leftist woke progressive leadership is
taking us. For me, and many others, that’s a really deranged possibility.
