When I am in my car not listening to music, I turn to satellite radio where they have both left- and right-leaning stations. I toggle back and forth between them.

What is absolutely amazing to me is that both left and right are now saying essentially the same thing about the Obama administration – he’s too far to the “other” side. The left is saying that Obama is too pragmatic, too far to the right for them. The right is saying that his administration is too far left and he is an extremist. People in the middle are also completely confused and are backing off their support for Obama. How can this happen?

Here is my theory about this. I said this a year ago that Obama is an empty suit, soulless and without conviction.

If you had made an ink blot of Obama during his election campaign over a year ago and passed it out to people from all sides of the political spectrum, you would have had many different views of the same picture.

People on the center-right would have seen a liberal who was leaning to the center, possibly similar to President Clinton. People on the left saw a messiah, their savior for all far left, liberal causes. People in the middle saw a centrist that suited their political views.

Jews felt that he was pro Israel with a liberal bias towards a more constructive approach. They didn’t view him as a threat or an ideologue. They felt as if they were electing the first Jewish President.

Some poor blacks saw Obama as someone who would pay their bills, give them health care, lower their mortgages, and bring prosperity to them.

Some Latinos saw Obama as a President that would side with them on issues of immigration etc.

In short everybody projected their wishes and views onto this one man, although people knew nothing about him then and perhaps still don’t.

The media did a very poor job in vetting this person who would be President. They all but ignored (except a few like Fox) his past associations, writings, videos. The Los Angeles times went as far as allegedly suppressing a video where Obama made remarks about Israel at a party for his Palestinian friend Rashid Khalidi.

Here we had a candidate with no real record to speak of. No voting record to pinpoint his viewpoints. He voted “present” often instead of taking a potentially unpopular position. The few times that he did vote, his votes were egregiously to the far left. He voted for late term abortions, and then later denied, or gave another spin on it. He was a pretty face, an empty slate on which people would project their hopes and wishes. This was after a difficult 8 years under the former President.

The problem that Obama has now is that he is filling out his empty suit with some substance, albeit slowly. Even though he has tried to stall, he eventually has had to take stands on some things. Afghanistan took him months to grudgingly (without conviction) do what his appointed generals told him that he needed to do.

The terrorism issue is a prime example of Obama trying to keep his empty suit status. He doesn’t use the words “radical Islam.” He has banned the use of the term “war on terror.” After the Fort Hood shooting his first comments were that this was the work of an “isolated extremist.” The unsuccessful Northwest Airlines Christmas bomber was immediately read his Miranda rights, branding him as a common criminal instead of a terrorist. Only after a huge uproar from Democrats and Republicans did this administration reverse itself yet again and call it an attempted act of terror. Then the President tried to appear stern.

This is a President who wants to be - needs to be - liked. He doesn’t take criticism well. He doesn’t take opposition well. He says anything to please the audience that he is front of at the moment, then reverses course for the next audience.

If you say all things to everybody, and try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody. That is what has happened to Obama. That national Rorschach test is coming back schizophrenic, confused, and angrier by the moment, because he hasn’t delivered all the things he promised. As Obama’s friend Reverend Wright famously said, “The pigeons are coming home to roost.” Do I see a pigeon in that ink blot?

PERMALINK  

The Forward newspaper has recently identified ten up-and-coming Jewish politicians. We are pleased to note that four of the ten politicians they identify are Republican.


PERMALINK  

As the war of words between the United States and Iran escalates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, Iran watchers have the same question: what took so long?

What took so long for an administration that has been rejected time and again in its policy of engagement over Tehran’s nuclear program to finally—at least for now—accept “no” for an answer?

In his inaugural address, President Obama appealed to Tehran:
“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Ayatollah Khamenei’s response: “Obama’s is the hand of Satan in a new sleeve. The Great Satan now has a black face.”

In March 2009, President Obama recorded a video message of goodwill on Nowruz (the Persian New Year) which addressed the regime and Iranian people: “Nowruz is just one part of your great and celebrated culture. Over many centuries your art, your music, literature and innovation have made the world a better and more beautiful place.”

Khamenei’s response: President Obama had “insulted the Islamic Republic of Iran from the first day” of his presidency.

During this past summer, the administration’s relentless pursuit of engagement with the regime met face to face with the reality that is the Islamic Republic of Iran. The June 2009 presidential election was rigged and followed by the regime’s brutal suppression of public demonstrations through arrests, violence, and torture.

At this point, the Iranian people must have wondered whether it was the United States that was on the right side of history. In the face of the regime’s violent and brutal crackdown, including the murder of the 26-year-old opposition demonstrator Neda Agha-Soltan in broad daylight on a Tehran street, President Obama offered cold comfort, suggesting that the world “bear witness” to the plight of the Iranian people.

All the while, the regime rebuffed the administration’s deadlines to respond to the P5 +1’s offer of a nuclear fuel exchange. Give Iran “as many deadlines as” you want, “we don’t care,” huffed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The administration’s continued reliance on engagement in the face of diplomatic humiliation reflects the policy’s faulty premise; namely, that engagement is cost-free. It is not.

Over the past year, Iran has doubled its production of enriched uranium. U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that Iran has achieved a “breakout capacity.” Iran possesses enough uranium, that if further enriched to military grade, could suffice for a nuclear weapon.

Still, the White House continued to “engage,” deliberate in its willing suspension of disbelief.

Presented with the opportunity to reveal the existence of a covert enrichment site at Qom during a session of the United Nations Security Council, President Obama pushed instead for the passage of a fanciful resolution calling for global nuclear disarmament.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy was reportedly furious at President Obama for failing to mobilize the Security Council toward action at a sanctions regime.

All this leads to one unmistakable conclusion. Mr. President, Iran is not playing “hard to get.”

Achieving nuclear weapons capability is a strategic imperative for the regime. Iran seeks to solidify its control over the Iranian people and fulfill its hegemonic ambitions for the Middle East.

As the regime races toward a bomb, confirmed by the IAEA in its latest report, our efforts to achieve further action at the Security Council have yet to corral Russia and China toward approving a sanctions resolution.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate are finalizing legislation providing for sanctions against companies that export gasoline to Iran or that aid in the expansion of Iran’s oil-refining capacity.

Mr. President, now is the time to act on sanctions - multilaterally if possible, but unilaterally if necessary.

In your State of the Union you stated: “[A]s Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: They, too, will face growing consequences. That is a promise.”

Mr. President, that is a promise we must keep.

Randy Altschuler is a conservative Republican candidate running for Congress in the First District of New York.

PERMALINK  

There’s an interesting juxtaposition this week in the news from Israel.

Archaeologists have uncovered structures just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem which date back some 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon. The Jerusalem Post reports:  

The section of the city wall revealed, which is 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

An inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city was uncovered in the city wall complex, along with a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron Valley.

The structures and their contents attest to the existence of the Davidic monarchy in Jerusalem, consistent with the biblical account:

Pottery shards discovered within the fill of the lowest floor of the royal building near the gatehouse also testify to the 10th-century-BCE dating of the complex. On the floor, excavators found remnants of large storage jars that survived destruction by fire and that were found in rooms that apparently served as storage areas on the ground floor of the building. One of the jars shows a partial inscription in ancient Hebrew indicating it belonged to a high-level government official.

"The jars that were found are the largest ever found in Jerusalem," said [archeologist Dr. Eilat] Mazar, adding that "the inscription found on one of them shows that it belonged to a government official, apparently the person responsible for overseeing the provision of baked goods to the royal court."

In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word "to the king," testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, indicating the royal nature of the structure.

Those who claim that King David is a myth, that Jews never had an independent state in the land of Israel, and that Jews have no historic connection to Jerusalem have been handed some uncomfortable evidence to the truth of Jewish history.

Enemies of Israel have also been handed some uncomfortable evidence this week about Israel’s growing ability to defend itself against the possibility of a nuclear Iran.

The Associated Press reports:

Israel's air force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and could fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range.

The Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel's military. The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads.

Noah Pollak at Commentary’s blog says that “the 20-hour flight figure is almost certainly a dramatic understatement. Other reports put that figure at 36 hours, and the real number is probably higher still.”

He also notes with this roll-out, Israel has unveiled what appears to be the solution to the IAF’s historic lack of long-range bombing capability, considered one of the obstacles to an Israeli strike on the Iranian nuclear program.

For more than three millennia, the enduring Jewish presence in Israel has included building defensive structures, whether low-tech stone walls or high-tech drone planes.

PERMALINK  

The Senate has a long history of filibuster, a delay technique a Senator may use to hold off a final vote on a bill. Many Americans are familiar with the famous filibuster conducted by South Carolina's Senator J. Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. That hateful form of filibuster is what some people may think of when "filibuster" is mentioned. But the filibuster has a necessary purpose.

Over the last century, the Senate has made new rules to lower the number of votes needed to stop a filibuster.  In 1917, Rule 22 allowed the Senate to end debate by getting a two-thirds majority known as "cloture."  However, with 100 Senators in the Senate, a two-thirds vote has been difficult to get, maintaining the power of the filibuster. In 1975, this difficulty led the Democrat-controlled Congress to reduce the necessary number to 60.  Now, in 2010, there is push to lower this number to 55. One must wonder why there is even a discussion on this, as both houses of Congress, and the White House, are ruled by one party!

Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is certainly stirring the pot on this issue. After announcing that he will not run for re-election, he made the statement "that the Senate has become dysfunctional." A day later, Vice President Biden claimed that DC is "dysfunctional." Their comments echo what many Americans are feeling. The Democrats are starting to blame the minority party, the "party of no", for this. They say that it is necessary to lower the cloture to 55 votes to enable them to get the votes they need to pass their important legislation. Their argument stems from the belief that they represent the majority of the people of America and that the Republicans are holding the country back from their initiatives. There lies the misconception. The Democrats no longer represent the majority of America.

Obama was voted into office on a centrist image. It wasn’t long after he took office that the real, left-leaning Obama surfaced, along with a very left-leaning Senate. There are no longer enough Democrats or any Republicans who want to support the Obama-Reid-Pelosi radical agenda. Democrats are beginning to see that the majority of independent Americans are conservative thinkers. I am grateful to the grassroots tea parties for taking action to demonstrate this fact.

There seems to be a plan in the making... one could say, a public relations trap is being set for the Republicans. Senator Bayh talks of a dysfunctional Senate, Vice President Biden speaks of a dysfunctional DC. In fact we have function at its highest order. The "Tea Party" movement brings this all to light. It brings together Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats on common issues like national security, deficits, jobs, big government, and political integrity.

Keeping this in mind, one must see why cloture needs to remain at 60 votes. We mustn’t let the radical Democrats take away the only option that brings some balance of opinions to the Senate. If we do, it can destroy our democracy and the rights of "We the People."



PERMALINK  

I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Veingrad.

Many people worldwide read my blog today and asked, “Who the heck is Alan Veingrad?”

Alan Veingrad played offensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers from 1986 to 1990. He then played with the Dallas Cowboys in 1991 and 1992.

He is the only Orthodox Jew with a Super Bowl ring. After the 1992 Cowboys won it all, he retired.

http://www.alanveingrad.com/

He spoke the other day at USC Chabad. USC Chabad Rabbi Dov Wagner put the event together. Part of Mr. Veingrad’s talk was about football. The rest dealt with his balancing sports and religion.

He now goes by the name Shlomo.

With a deep sense of pride, I present the words of Super Bowl Champion Alan Shlomo Veingrad.

“I played my college ball at East Texas State University. I was the only Jew within a 65 mile radius.”

“As a kid my family moved from Brooklyn to Miami. I got to witness perfection at age nine when the 1972 Dolphins became the only team to have a perfect season. I was a huge Dolphins fan and wanted to play football.”

“I was an average high school football player. I ran a 5.3 40 yard dash, which is slow. I needed to run a 4.9 to have people look at me. My mother took my resume, took some white-out, and wrote 4.9 on my resume and mailed it out.”

“I was not big enough, so I wore boots with two inch heels to my college interview.”

“As a Jewish person, it was nice to at least be playing in the bible belt, even if it is not our bible.”

“I got a head start when I ran my 40 yard dash. I ran a  4.9 39 yard dash.”

“When I arrived in Texas I was only 180 pounds. I bulked up over a few years to 270 pounds. A lot of it was due to biscuits and gravy. I also lifted a lot of weights.”

“After college, I was undrafted. I played in the preseason for the Buccaneers and the Oilers. They both cut me.”

“In five years playing college football in Texas, I never heard one negative Jewish comment. In fact, my Christian teammates were fascinated by my being Jewish.”

“The problem is I did not know the answers to many of their questions. I would say to them, ‘Let me go check on that.’ Then I would call my mom.”

“A year after failing to make it in the NFL, I kept trying. From May through mid-July, I worked out with the Green Bay Packers. Then it happened. The starting offensive tackle was holding out for more money. The backup had retired. I was given a real chance to make the team.”

“During a blocking drill in practice, a defender told me to ‘Come on Jew-Boy.’ I was stunned. This was the first time I had ever heard such a thing. I tossed him aside and had a great blocking drill.”

“Later on he told me that he had no idea that what he said was wrong. He told me that he liked and respected Jewish people. He said that ‘My agent is Jewish. My CPA is Jewish. My money manager is Jewish. Jewish people have been good to me.’”

“In the NFL, I had no Jewish teammates, but they knew Jewish stuff. I was the only Jew on the Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Yet there would be candy in my locker on Hanukkah.”

“My very first game in the NFL came against the Oilers, the team that had cut me.”

“My first time playing on Monday Night Football was against the defending champion Chicago Bears, who had one of the greatest defenses of all time. Bears Coach Mike Ditka was intense. Packers Coach Forrest Gregg learned from Vince Lombardi. Gregg was always extra intense when playing Ditka and the Bears. Of course, they beat us badly. Being a rookie offensive lineman against Richard Dent is a challenge.”

“No matter how much you work out, some guys are going to throw you around. Cortez Kennedy, Reggie White and Jerome Brown just manhandled our offensive line.”

“The day before my first pro game, I was given a message from a team employee that a guy named Lou Weinstein had called me. I had never heard of him. My life was about to change.”

“I called Lou Weinstein back. He said that he had read about me, and wanted to meet me for lunch at his country club. I had no idea what he wanted to meet with me about. I met him at the club, and he offered to help me find a place to live. He even offered his home to me. I could not accept that, but he helped me find an apartment. He was simply a Jewish person reaching out to a new Jew in town. He changed my life.”

I was never that religious, but Lou one day asked me to visit him on a Tuesday. He knew that Tuesday was the day off for NFL players. He wanted me to join him and his family for Rosh Hashanah.”

“After the 1990 season, my agent spoke about me moving from the Green Bay Packers to the Dallas Cowboys. I could not understand why. I was happy in Green bay. I had a good life. It was cold, but I was happy. Dallas was very hot in the summer, and Jimmy Johnson was a taskmaster. Why would I want to move to Dallas?”

“My agent brought up life after football. He asked me, ‘Alan, how many dates have you been on in Green Bay?’ I told him that ‘I went on a date with a girl a couple of years ago.’ He told me that if I wanted to settle down, get married, and have a family, I had a better chance in Dallas, which had a much larger Jewish population than Green Bay. So I moved to Dallas and played for the Cowboys.”

“I moved to Dallas, met the Jewish community, went on some dates, won a Super Bowl ring with the Cowboys in 1992, and retired. I moved to Fort Lauderdale, dropped 65 pounds, and raised a family.”

“One day I got a call from my cousin, who is a doctor. Having a doctor as a cousin is good because as a retired football player, free medical advice is nice. He invited me over to his home for Shabbos. When he asked me wash my hands before dinner (the ritual), I told him that I had already washed before I came. I had no idea what he meant.”

“One day one of the Rabbis called me up and invited me to a Torah study. For 59 1/2 minutes I tuned out. Then in the last 30 seconds, I paid attention long enough to hear him say that life was not about material accomplishments. It was about finding meaning in this world. I am so glad I briefly heard that. I wanted to learn more. I had a nice house, a fancy car, and material possessions. I wanted more meaning.”

“The Torah is a playbook. It is a playbook for how to live life. It is an inspirational message.”

“One day the Rabbi called me up and asked me to come down to the Synagogue to make telephone calls to raise money for the Synagogue. I told him no. I told him that I would do anything else, but don’t ask me to make phone calls. Then I sat back and reflected about everything the community had done for me. I called the Rabbi back, told him I would be on my way, and that he should give me a telephone and let me start dialing.”

“For those who want my football card, it is available for $3 on Ebay.”

“I tried to get my father involved with Judaism, and he refused for so long. He did not want to have to eat on certain plates, or deal with other inconvenient restrictions. He told me how much fun he had attending all those cool NFL parties in Green Bay and Dallas. He was proud of me for being an NFL player. I told him I loved all of that, but now I loved Judaism and wanted to share that with him.”

“After a year and a half, he showed up one Wednesday to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah. He told me ‘I am so proud of you with that Yarmulke on your head.’ That meant more to me than anything.”

“Judaism has made me better in everything. I am a better husband, better father, better boss, and better employee.”

The questions were insightful, and Shlomo’s answers were thoughtful. He was asked if he thought another Orthodox Jew would win a Super Bowl ring, perhaps even one that is Orthodox while playing.”

“Unfortunately it is not likely to happen. Playing football requires years and years of practice. You can’t just start out in the NFL. First you have to play in high school. Those games are played on Friday nights, which is the sabbath. That is where we get the expression ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Then there is college, where the games are played on Saturdays. That is also Shabbos (it runs from Friday evening at sundown to Saturday evening at Sundown). In the NFL the games are played on Sundays, but there are practice workouts the day before. From a practice standpoint it is impossible to play football and conform to Jewish law.”

(Also, NFL Playoff games are on Saturdays and Sundays.)

Another person wanted to know if his sons played football.

“My sons both play in a baseball league. The games are on Sundays. We all keep the Sabbath. Plus, football is such a brutal game. It is a violent game. I am glad they don’t play football.”

As for his Super Bowl prediction, he says that he normally does not watch the Super Bowl, but this year he is making an exception. “I am pulling for the Saints. I am an NFC guy, and plus, it is a great story.”

One person wanted to know why he retired right after winning a Super Bowl when he could have come back and won another one. The Cowboys did win another one after the 1993 season, came one game short in 1994, and won their third championship in four years after the 1995 season.

“My body told me it was time to retire. You have to listen to your body. Some days I still ache. It occasionally hurts to get out of bed.  My kids can see me ache from time to time. I loved playing football. Now I love my life after football.”

I wanted to know if Shlomo was doing any outreach to any current Jewish NFL players. After all, there is a huge Christian outreach program in the NFL.

“Shlomo, I read somewhere that Minnesota Vikings backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels is Jewish. He gets tons of invitations to speak at Synagogues, but he turns them all down. He says he does not know anything, and does not want to feel like a fraud. Have you thought about reaching out to him and other Jewish players.”

His answer was disappointing and honest.

“I have tried, but it has not worked. These guys are busy. I am an old guy. They don’t have time to talk to me. I called one Jewish player and invited him out for lunch to talk. He said he was busy and hung the phone up. Things are easier after retirement. There is more free time to learn. Football is a full time demanding job.”

With regards to Tony Dungy and other devoutly religious men publicly expressing their faith in interviews, Mr. Veingrad was fine with that. As a religious man himself, he was comfortable with such expressions.

The last thing Shlomo let us know was that on April 18th, 2010, in Suffolk County, New York, he was being inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. We have Red Auerbach in Basketball and Sandy Koufax in baseball. Now we have Alan Veingrad of the National Football League.

As for me, one fabulous experience was before his speech even began. He let a couple of us try on his Super Bowl ring. I had never seen such a beautiful stone before. Like a holy grail, I could not bring myself to try it on. I held it in my hands for 30 seconds and just stared at it. It said “Cowboys, 52-17,” which was the score of the game. Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones had them personally designed.

What Shlomo never mentioned was that despite playing alongside NFL Hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith, Shlomo himself won the “game ball” on five separate occasions during his career.

Life is about meeting people and having experiences and developing memories. Alan Veingrad was helped along by Lou Weinstein.

It was a true joy to meet Alan Shlomo Veingrad, the only man to experience two of my favorite passions.

Jewish people in New York should make their way to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 18, 2010. They will be glad they did.

PERMALINK  

Prof. Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, recently wrote a column that was published in the Washington Examiner. He discussed the importance of the Tea Party movement and correctly described their passion, observing that, "In fact, Tea Partiers seem quite clear on what they're for: A limited government, one that keeps its nose out of their business and focuses on things like protecting the country in preference to redistributing income."

This philosophy is the driving force behind the growth of our chapter in Knoxville. We are mad at Obama and the Democrats for trying to take full control of our lives. We are mad at the Republicans for not doing what we had voted for them to do - reign in government. But a remarkable thing happened in Tennessee in 2008. In a year that Democrats won crushing victories, Tennessee went Republican. We won the house for the first time since the Civil War. But then we saw typical Republican failure. The Republicans failed to win the Speakership. We had a 49-48 majority but one member decided to vote with the Democrats and he became speaker. Robin Smith, who was our chairman, threw him out of the state party.  Yes!  Right then I knew the the Tennessee Republicans got it.

Next, I heard one of our Rabbis in town say that he would rather Jews be associated with the Bubonic Plague than with Sarah Palin.

Now was the time to act. We needed Jews to feel free to proclaim loudly that we are freedom-loving, conservative Americans; that, although we may be a minority in the Jewish community, we are in the right and we will be a force in the Jewish community. We also wanted to be a loud voice in the Republican Party. We wanted the Republican Party to know that there are Jews who understand the proper role of government and who want our freedom back. We wanted the Republican party to know that we are her and that we will be with them and this march to reigning in government. We founded the Knoxville Chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition. We are Republicans, but we are of the Tea Party type. We are of the Tennessee GOP type. We will be loud and to paraphrase Prof. Glenn Reynolds, those politicians who will not listen to us will probably be out of a job in 2010.

We were very fortunate to have Prof. Glenn Reynolds at our meeting last month. We are energized are we are having serious thinkers, like Instapundit, and serious machers, like Tennessee Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Jamie Woodson, State Sen. Tim Burchett, State Rep. Ryan Haynes and Chairman Devany attend our meetings. We are fighting for lower taxes, lower spending.

We are fighting for what Frederic Bastiat in The Law describes as the proper role for government and law: "to prevent injustice from reigning" and not to create a socialist state (what Mr. Bastiat calls legal plunder).

PERMALINK  

Our big Winter Leadership Meeting is fast approaching (learn more here) and yesterday I was reviewing RJC press clips from the last few months to prepare a packet for our leaders. We’ve been busy! The clippings came to an impressive pile that included press releases and press coverage about:

The buyer’s remorse shown by voters in the off-year elections last November, when Republicans Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie won the governors races in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively;

The decision by 21% of House Democrats to oppose a pro-Israel House resolution on the infamous Goldstone report;

Chris Christie’s strong showing in the New Jersey race among Jewish voters;

Poll results showing that Jewish support for President Obama fell from 83% in January 2009 to 64% in September 2009, to only 52% in November 2009;

Passage of major Iran sanctions legislation, which we pushed hard for in the House and in the Senate - and now the push for both chambers to pass a final bill and send it to the President;

The prominent Democrats who have announced their retirement, leaving the impression that Democrats are abandoning a sinking ship;

Scott Brown’s amazing victory in Massachusetts and what it means that the Senate seat occupied by Ted Kennedy for 47 years is now in Republican hands;

A sharp RJC rebuke of the National Jewish Democratic Council for trying to use a pledge against “Holocaust rhetoric and anti-Semitic language” in political discourse as a cudgel against a pro-Israel Senate candidate (Rep. Mark Kirk – R-IL) when Democrats make use of similar rhetoric;

RJC’s strong efforts to call out the “Gaza 54” – the Democrats in the House who signed a letter asking President Obama to pressure Israel to loosen security measures on the border with Gaza;

Our call to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to repudiate Rep. Baird’s outrageous remarks about breaking Israel’s “blockade” of Gaza with American ships.

All in all, we covered a lot of important ground in the last few months, and we will continue to be your eyes and your voice on important issues like these.

And let’s not forget the dozens of local chapter events we’ve held recently, too. Did you attend one of our events with great speakers like Aryeh Green (of MediaCentral), Kristen Silverberg (about Iran), Norman Podhoretz (legendary author and Commentary editor), Jennifer Rubin (reporter and blogger extraordinaire), Gal Luft (on energy and security), and a host of elected officials and candidates for office?

Don’t miss important RJC news and events – become an eTeam member and get RJC emails; follow us on Twitter; join us on Facebook.

Your support is what makes all this energetic, effective, and enlightening activity possible. Please take a moment to add your two cents (or more) to our work by visiting our donation page. Thank you!

PERMALINK  

On February 11th, 2010, I attended the Heritage Foundation’s Discussion and Dinner hosted by the NY Area Committee for Heritage. The two guest speakers at the discussion, Dr. Matthew Spalding and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. and the featured dinner speaker, John Stossel, all spoke with a heartfelt love of our country and for the principles we stand for. Their message was clear: “Now is the time to act worthy and stand up for our country.”

One thing is certain, the greatness of America is based on our ability to ‘fearlessly speak’ and fight for our principles. By comparison we see pro-Democracy Iranians rising up against their Totalitarian regime. What a great contrast! The Iranians are dealing with a government that thinks nothing of having them killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards who think nothing of killing them. Many Americans believe the Iranian struggle is noble and empathize with their fight for freedom and democracy. Many Americans also believe we should be helping the Iranian people. Obama’s ‘talking policy’ has actually emboldened President Ahmadenejad and the Mullahs to ignore negotiations, agreements and sanctions while continuing their uranium enrichment program and silencing the protestors.

But, Iran’s pro-Democratic movement will not be silenced. There already are signs of a division in the Islamic Republic. We also see Hillary Clinton bravely speaking out against the Regime. Times are brewing for the Iranian Democratic movement to find the cracks in their abusive regime’s power and seize the opportunity to end this destabilizing, military dictatorship. Time is also right for Americans to be outspoken. Two Republican Senators introduced a Bill called “Iran Democratic Transition Act of 2010”. This proposed legislature states that it should be the US policy to support the Iranian people in their efforts to oppose and remove the current regime and replace it with a freely elected Democratic government. It also provides a program for direct, non-military assistance to achieve this goal.

One of the authors of the Bill, Republican Senator Brownback said, "The biggest problem with Iran is not weapons or terrorism, but the regime itself." This bill can help protect the human rights of the Iranian people in a non-military capacity. It can bring about a transition towards Democracy and can stop the quest for nuclear missiles, all from within Iran. This will free Israel and the US from having to find a way to end Iran’s development of nuclear missiles. This will stop Iran’s dictators from seeking dominance in the Middle East Region. Therefore, let's show our support to Hillary. And should our President continue with his ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ attitude, it is the duty of Congress to stand up and ‘take actions worthy of our country’… and it is for our principles that ‘We The People’ need to bravely stand up for our country.

PERMALINK  

If you were like me this week -- buried in snow and looking to pick up a new book – you may have come across Eve Ensler’s newest work (released on Tuesday), I am an Emotional Creature.

Ensler is the author of the ridiculous – yet award-winning – play The Vagina Monologues. As feminist critic and scholar Christina Hoff Sommers described the play in a speech a few years ago:

1) It is atrociously written. 2) It is viciously anti-male; and 3) and, most importantly, it claims to empower women, when in fact it makes us seem desperate and pathetic.

Well Ensler has struck again. And as if The Vagina Monologues was not bad enough, by reducing grown women to nothing more than their vaginas, her newest book is all about girls and their quest to overcome the “pressures that rob them of their originality and power.”

On the surface, there’s nothing wrong of course with encouraging young women to move beyond the superficial, to develop self-admiration and self-confidence (certainly, it’s something I hope to inspire in my young daughters). But Ensler does something entirely different.

She helps advance the same stale, leftist notion of feminism that sees women as victims living in an openly hostile and repressive society. (And unfortunately Ensler helps promote this belief system that continues to be held by so many women on the left. Just look at NOW’s president Terry O’Neill’s recent debate about the state of women in the West that I wrote about here.)

Ensler feels she can lump together all girls, from all walks of life, and all their varying life-challenges. As one left-leaning women’s organization wrote about the book:

Though the pieces are all fictional monologues, Ensler says they are “based on what is real and true” in her observation of the lives of different girls all over the world. Among the girls Ensler creates are a teenager in a New York suburb struggling with high school peer pressure; a Masai girl resisting female genital mutilation in Kenya, where V-Day maintains a safe house; a survivor of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo; a teen who blogs about her self-starvation. Says Ensler, “I hope it tells these interior stories of girls that don’t normally get told, the secret stories … as opposed to the fantasy version of what girls are living.” She hopes that through the stories, “girls get freed into the reality of their lives.”

Really? Can you honestly group together an American suburban girl struggling with peer pressure with a young girl in Kenya facing genital mutilation? It’s absurd and offensive to reduce the suffering of all girls around the world and only helps diminish the real problems of violence and abuse facing girls in parts of the Middle East and Africa, for instance.

It’s a shame that at a time when women are receiving more college degrees than men, out-earning their spouses, and serving in positions of leadership across all fields, Ensler still can not enjoy the advances girls and women have made.

PERMALINK  

Note: This item has been updated since initial posting.

Since some efforts I've been involved in have become controversial, here's my take on the latest twist in the "Gaza 54" saga.

When I first learned that 54 Democrat members of the U.S. House of Representatives had sent a letter to President Obama urging him to pressure Israel to relax security measures aimed at combating terrorism emanating from Hamas-ruled Gaza, one of the things I was immediately curious to see was how the letter's authors would address the obvious objection from Israel's leaders - that doing so would heighten the risk to Israelis. 

As a long-time Hill staffer, I'd drafted letters like this.  I knew that one of the essential components of the form - one of the things you know the members of Congress you hope will sign their names to it will expect to see included - is a diligent attempt at anticipating and refuting the expected counter-arguments that will be raised by those who disagree.

So I was struck when I read the letter that its authors had not, as Power Line's Paul Mirengoff noted, made even a cursory attempt "to explain how Israel's security concerns would be met in the absence of the blockade."

The letter did include a reference to "legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups" that had led Israel to impose the restrictions in the past.  But it never engaged the claim put forth by Israel that loosening the restrictions in the current environment would leave Israelis at greater risk in the future. 

Since I found this omission so remarkable - and damning - I made a point of noting it with special emphasis when I drafted RJC's action alert to our members.  My words: "These 54 Democrats expressed no concern whatsoever about the consequences their ideas might have for Israelis living under the threat of terrorism from Gaza!"

Then yesterday, Ron Kampeas of JTA questioned my veracity in a way he has since seen fit to retract.  The basis he cited for doing so: a general statement from the letter that the changes sought would be in Israel's overall interest:


Sorry, Mr. Kampeas. When Israel specifically cites the imperative of impeding terrorism from Gaza as a rationale for restrictions, the failure by members of Congress to address the issue specifically in a major public statement is telling and damning.  ZOA's Morton Klein captured the distinction that eluded Kampeas when he said "It is meaningless and insincere for these Members of Congress to claim that they recognize that Israel has imposed restrictions on well-founded security grounds – then call for the lifting of those restrictions."

Of course, Kampeas offers no criticism of the 54 Democrat Congressmen campaigning for U.S. pressure on Israel.  Neither does James Besser, another writer whose work is widely syndicated in Jewish newspapers.  The only criticism offered is aimed at critics of the Gaza 54.  Both writers display a deep concern about Rep. Keith Ellison being portrayed as anti-Israel. 

The zeal to protect Ellison is difficult to understand as anything other than a particularly irksome manifestation of political correctness.  Anyway, it's irksome.

And just as much as the next fellow, I don't appreciate being having my veracity called into question in such a fashion.

My displeasure quickly crystallized into a tweet.  My 140 characters were intemperate and I have pulled the tweet down subsequently, but a J Street operative took note and controversy ensued.

Of course, the racism card is being played.  Why do many refer to the Gaza 54 missive as "Ellison's letter"?  Probably because one of the first accounts to circulate widely was this sympathetic report on the Minnesota Independent site in which it is described as, um, "Ellison's letter."

There may be more to say about this, but I'll just close with this assurance: whether "straight shooters" like Kampeas and Besser like it or not, RJC is going keep the heat on the Gaza 54.

PERMALINK  

A couple of close friends from Cincinnati recently asked me to join them on a trip to Israel, to a place they hold dear, to meet with America’s best friends in a volatile region. I had the opportunity to visit Israel with other members of Congress several years ago, and I had been looking forward to returning to witness the latest in the peace process and receive briefings on the region. I also wanted to return to better absorb the richness of the land, experience the neighborhoods and communities, and breathe the same air as the free men and women who every day demonstrate the power of courage, determination and faith.

Israel once again left an indelible impression on me. Not just because of its historic partnership with America, or just because of its strategic importance in a region filled with violence and tyranny. Those are important aspects of our country’s relationship with Israel and reason enough to stand at each other’s side. But what I uncovered during this trip, no matter who I spoke with or which business I visited, were the values of Israel and of its people: faith, love of liberty, respect for free enterprise, pursuit of justice, compassion and the importance of community and family.

These are the values of Israel that bind its people to one another and to their homeland. These are also the values that cause the United States to hold Israel in esteem, because they are the building blocks of democracy, the thread joining our two countries in a bond that continues to grow and strengthen regardless of the changes and chaos taking place elsewhere in the world. It is by following this thread that I came to truly understand and appreciate Israel.

Israel and the United States have a mutuality, an understanding that our fates, our cherished values, are the underpinnings on which our democracies rely. This country, that was born in 1948, is smaller than Ohio and struggles daily against terrorism and unrest, yet thrives culturally and economically because it is at peace with the values on which it rests.

One can’t visit Israel without immediately appreciating that Israelis honor their values by putting them to use every day in their business, political, and social lives. Schneider Children's Medical Center, a world-class children’s hospital I toured in Tel Aviv, has recently established a cooperative agreement on research and treatment with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. It receives patients from all over the globe, including the Arab world, and – like the amazing medical teams and equipment Israel has sent to Haiti last week – is a testament to Israel’s commitment to community, healing, and compassion. I toured Procter & Gamble’s Innovation Center, recently established in Israel because of the Israeli culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, making it a world leader in start-ups and new technology despite the security challenges it faces.

Sderot, a small town I visited about a mile from Gaza and an all-too-easy target for missiles and rockets fired by terrorists, houses a playground in a bunker because somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 rockets and missiles have been fired at the town over the past 8 years. Sderot’s Mayor, David Buskila, confronts each day fully aware of the reality, but also with a sense of optimism and hope that tomorrow will be better, and the day after, better still. The resilience of Sderot, which I witnessed, is hard for most of us to imagine, but nonetheless remarkable and heroic.

Israel also honors its values at the redesigned Yad Vashem, a powerful memorial that pays tribute to families and communities destroyed by hate and intolerance during the Holocaust. Though a painful reminder that the world can be a violent and cruel place, the museum also teaches the values of peace, justice, and humanity. Because it is appropriately located in the heart of Jerusalem, it is testimony not only to the pain of the past, but to the amazing birth of the Jewish State.

Israelis put their values first. This truth resonated with me during my meetings with Israeli Cabinet Ministers, the President, and the Prime Minister, Israel’s Chief Rabbi, and other government and business leaders. These values are the collective starting point for every social program, for every business decision, for every neighborhood or community organization, and for Israel’s Defense Forces. Despite knowing their values will be tested, threatened, and abused by their enemies, Israel remains committed to doing what is right—even in time of war. Israel’s strength in the face of hardship and peril is evidence of the importance of doing what is right and putting values first. In this belief, as in so many other ways, the United States and Israel must remain trusted allies and partners.

PERMALINK  

As we noted in our e-newsletter today (click here to sign up!), President Obama has implemented an aggressive policy of targeting al-Qaeda members using unmanned drones. Several terrorist leaders have been killed. Is this a good idea, or does it rob us of needed intelligence? Marc Thiessen argues for the latter view:

Obama's escalation of the "Predator War" comes at the very same time he has eliminated the CIA's capability to capture senior terrorist leaders alive and interrogate them for information on new attacks. The Predator has become for President Obama what the cruise missile was to President Bill Clinton -- an easy way to appear like he is taking tough action against terrorists, when he is really shying away from the hard decisions needed to protect the United States... The problem is that Obama is increasingly using drone strikes as a substitute for operations to bring terrorist leaders in alive for questioning -- and that is putting the country at risk.

There is something to be said for making sure a terrorist is prevented - permanently - from carrying out his planned attacks, but it would be better to know his plans and who else was in on them. This avoidance of the hard work of interrogating enemy combatants runs through the administration's policies. The decision to read Miranda rights to the al-Qaeda-trained Nigerian terrorist who nearly carried out an attack on Christmas day is another example.

It leaves the Obama administration with an odd policy toward terrorists - if you're far enough away, we'll use advanced technology to blow you to smithereens, but if we get close enough to touch you, we're going to treat you like a wayward American teen. Let's find a middle ground: no matter where you are, we'll find you, we'll put you out of action, and we'll find out everything you know about others who want to harm us, so we can stop them too.


PERMALINK  

Early last week the administration unveiled its new $3.8 trillion budget. This budget, and the spending it assumes, is so reckless it is difficult to fathom. It projects a deficit of $1.6 trillion for fiscal 2010, with an explosion of publicly traded government debt to $18.5 trillion by 2020. Debt service is projected to reach $912 billion a year by 2020, or over $5,000 for every working person in America.

Even assuming that wages grow over time, the budget suggests the government believes that as U.S. citizens we should devote 10% or more of our gross income just to pay the interest on the federal debt. That 10% comes out of income even before people start paying for actual government programs like national defense, health care, bank rescues and welfare. Nor does it count the spending people need to make for state and local government obligations and their own mortgage and credit card payments.

The administration clearly believes that we can spend our way out of a slow economy and has put us on a path to have total government spending over 40% of GDP. This is Disneyland thinking. While it is true that we can spend our way into a depression, there is little evidence we can spend our way out. It didn't work last year, when we allocated $ 787 billion in stimulus spending on the threat that unemployment would go over 8% otherwise. (It is now at 9.7%--16.5% if you count the underemployed and those who are too discouraged to look for work.) Excess spending didn't work for President George W. Bush. It didn't work for Presidents Roosevelt or Obama.

When the government spends $3.8 trillion, there is no net multiplier effect. There is a divider effect. We become divided from our income and wealth. The government taxes inefficiently and spends inefficiently, wasting a big chunk of the transfer. Yes, it is possible for purposes of a speech anecdote to find isolated beneficiaries. The government will soon be able to claim massive "job gains" for temporary workers for the 2010 census. But much government spending misallocates resources--it's distributed without a profit motive and with frequent conflicts of interest, including an eye toward political returns rather than longer-term growth and private sector jobs.

Markets are waking up to the fiscal crisis. The price of a credit default swap for a five-year U.S. Treasury has gone up 700% since 2007, from about 8 basis points to 56 basis points. Germany, at 40 basis points, is now deemed by the market to be 28% less likely to default than the U.S., and the difference is growing. More ominously, the U.S. swap has more than doubled in price in the last few months. As recently as 16 months ago Greece was at levels we are today. When a country goes past owing 100% of its nominal GDP in publicly held debt, as this budget schedules us to do by 2020, there is danger.

Given our politicians' willful innumeracy, perhaps the best way to understand what the budget does for us is to compare it with the movie Thelma and Louise. For those who never saw it, Thelma and Louise was a film about two women on a supposedly liberating road trip. Toward the end, running out of money, they rob a convenience store and blow up a gasoline truck for fun. FBI agents close in on them, and they decide to drive their car off a cliff. In a Hollywood ending they are shown with a look of joyous freedom while they are in free fall.

Like Thelma and Louise, we are spending beyond our means, and at some point the bond vigilantes will close in. With this budget we almost guarantee that the United States AAA debt rating will at some point be called into question. If and when it is, the result will resemble the downward arc of that terrific 1966 Pontiac Thunderbird. In real life, at the end, when you go off a cliff at 100 miles an hour, gravity takes hold, and there is a fiery crash.

David Malpass is an economist and president of Encima Global LLC. He writes a column for Forbes. Eric Singer is the president and portfolio manager of the Congressional Effect Fund (CEFFX). This item also appeared in Forbes.

PERMALINK  

Two quite unrelated items came to my attention this week, but they illustrate a couple of things about how America is perceived abroad.

Our health care is popular, apparently. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is coming down from Canada to the U.S. to have heart surgery. Over at the Hot Air blog, Ed Morrissey noted that Mr. Williams vehemently defended the care available from Canada’s national health care system back in 2008. Meanwhile, Williams is under some heat back home for crossing the border to get care. His deputy told reporters that he didn’t have the option of having such surgery done in his own province, but it remains unclear why he had to leave the country altogether for his surgery.

Another unanswered question: Where will Canadians go for treatment if America nationalizes health care?

Let's move our attention to Egypt, where American hair styles are not so popular – at least among women at Cairo University. Mark Steyn notes that women graduating from Cairo University now wear the hijab (head scarf) far more often than in decades past.

So now look at these two pictures:  First, the Cairo University class of 1978, with every woman bare-headed; second, the Cairo University class of 2004, hijabed to the hilt.

Whenever I give a speech on Islam, some or other complacenik always says, "Oh, but they haven't had time to Westernize. Just you wait and see. Give it another 20 years, and the siren song of Westernization will work its magic." This argument isn't merely speculative, it's already been proved wrong by what's happened over the last 20 years. Compare the Cairo University class of 1959 with those of the 21st century, and then see if you can recite your inevitablist theories of social evolution with a straight face. The idea that social progress is like the wheel or the internal combustion engine — once invented, it can never be uninvented — is one of the laziest assumptions of the Western Left.

Personally, I doubt that these women are all choosing this expression of religiosity of their own volition. What does this trend in "moderate" Egypt mean for future Mideast-U.S. relations?


PERMALINK  

This is great work from South Dakota State Representative Dan Lederman, who has introduced an Iran disinvestment bill that has gained support from Governor Mike Rounds and appears certain to be enacted.

Dan is a Jewish Republican. He founded our Great Plains Chapter and is a member of our national leadership. For more details about this effort, please read this article from the Associated Press.

PERMALINK