Republicans - Eight Years of Devastation

On November 2, 2006, as we concluded the sixth year of the Republican reign with their control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, I examined what they had wrought. If you wish to read that piece in its original form, it can be found here.

For those who don't want to bother reading the original I paraphrase what I wrote: As Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001 the country was at peace. Democracy was sweeping the globe; moderate democratic governments were in power in South America, and in much of the globe including Thailand. Iraq was contained with sanctions and no fly zones, and in Iran it’s youth was clamoring for reform, and had elected as its President, the moderate, Mohammad Khatami. North Korea was a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and had admitted inspectors into its closed society. It had negotiated the “Sunshine Policy” with South Korea, which led to a lessening of tension, and we were witnesses to relatives from the divided nation meeting each other, amid hugs and tears for the first time in decades. In Thailand a democratically elected government ruled the country.

Six years later, as of 11/2/2006, we had extreme left wing governments in power in Venezuela and Peru. In Thailand the democratically elected government had been overthrown by a military coup and a military dictatorship reigned, without a murmur of protest from our government.

In Palestine the radical Hamas had been elected.

Iraq lay in ruins as the death toll of our troops mounted and the total casualty figures were withheld from us. Afghanistan, which was the one and only success of the Administration, was back slipping as a result of neglect, and it looked like a resurgent Taliban might yet turn that unhappy country into another Vietnam.

In Iran, Khatami was replaced by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the youth who once clamored for reform, clamored for atomic power and cheered the madman. Any hope that the youth would successfully push for reform went down the drain.

Korea had left the NPT, kicked out the inspectors and rather than forswearing an atomic bomb bragged about having one. It probably did not, but it looked like that if we “stayed the course” in this theater, it undoubtedly would have one before long.

In the meantime Russia’s atomic weapons were left unguarded and it was a more likely source for such weapons falling into terrorist’s hands than any of the rogue states, but negotiations to safeguard this danger had been all but abandoned.

When it came to terrorism all attempts by the terrorists to attack our homeland were thwarted before the Republicans gained ascendancy. In the years immediately preceding that ascendancy, during the Clinton Administration, the terrorists tried again and again to attack our homeland. They attacked the World Trade Center but it was unsuccessful. They planned to blow up 12 U.S. jetliners simultaneously; to attack and blow up UN Headquarters; to blow up FBI Headquarters; the Israeli Embassy in Washington; Boston airport; the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge in NY. They were thwarted each time and without the use of torture or illegal wiretaps. And then Republicans gained power and 9/11 happened and somehow they reaped benefit from it. It shows that they are good at one thing. PROPAGANDA!!! How can one reap credit for failure?

On the home front Republicans inherited a Budget Surplus. The federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion and the cumulative National debt stood at 5.7 trillion. Even though during the previous twelve years of Republican rule preceding the Clinton Administration, the Federal debt had quadrupled, the White House and the Congressional Budget office projected that the National debt of 5.7 trillion would be retired in ten years. No one questioned these projections and the Republican Administration, expressed fear that without a tax cut for the most affluent, the surplus would become too large. Well, we didn’t have to worry about that any more. The cumulative national debt rose to 8.5 trillion by 2006. While huge sums were stolen, laws were written by lobbyist for their clients, instead of by legislators for the American people, and pork was rampant with appropriations for bridges to nowhere. Citizens Against Government Waste calculated that pork barrel spending exploded from 1,439 projects worth $10 billion in 1995 to 13,997 worth $27.3 billion in 2005. How did they propose to remedy this mess? They told us our entitlements cost too much money. The said we couldn’t afford Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid anymore or loans and grants for needy college students.

In the meantime wages were stagnating. In the years 2000 to 2005 total compensation for workers, which includes wages, health insurance and pension benefits, declined 2.5% as a percent of gross domestic product, according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis. This contrasted with the 1990s when Workers’ share of the economy grew by 2.3%. What made this even worse was that it happened while productivity was increasing rapidly.

As for unemployment, an area where Republicans were bragging about the low rate, it appeared that in 2000 just before Republicans seized the Presidency and enacted their “stimulating” tax cuts, the unemployment rate stood at 4%. By 2003 it was up to 6%. It was finally down to 4.5% by 2006, which they claimed showed how well things were working. It took them 6 years to get it close to where it was when they seized power. When Walmart, in 2006, offered it’s extremely low paying jobs without benefits, 25,000 potential employees vied for 325 available jobs. On another occasion in ’06, 15,000 people lined up to try to snag one of the 400 available jobs.

Even the people who supposedly were the beneficiaries of the Bush policies did not fare well. The Investor Class, whose taxes had been slashed again and again, had not benefited. Between the ascendancy of a Republican President to go with a Republican Congress, investors actually lost money. At the close of the market on January 19, 2001, the day before Bush took office, The S&P 500 which tracks 500 of the largest companies and is a much more meaningful indicator than the Dow, stood at 1,342 at the beginning of the Republican ascendancy. On October 30, 2006 it was at 1,378, a gain of 36 points or 2%. Factoring in inflation, investors in an S&P index fund lost 13%. If we look at the NASDAQ we find the respective figures to be 2,770 and 2,359 a loss of 411 points or a loss of 14%. When inflation is factored in that was a whopping 29% loss.

Let us see how much worse things have gotten since then. There has been some improvement in Iraq, but things have markedly deteriorated in Afghanistan, and Pakistan has been added to the crisis areas. Israel is at war with Hamas. Korea and Iran have become more dangerous, and our relations with Russia have reached a stage of confrontation. Africa is aflame.

On the domestic front Republicans have managed us into a severe recession and possibly a depression, and the national debt as of 02/19/2009, the latest available figures from the Treasury Department, is almost 11 Trillion, up from under 8.5 trillion only a little less than 3 years earlier.

As for unemployment it is now at 7.6 percent, up from 4.5% four years ago, and this doesn’t count the underemployed and those too discouraged to continue looking.

As for the investor class the S&P stood at 1,342 when The Republicans became ascendant. It now, as of 2/20/09, stands at 770 a loss of 572 or 42.6%, and that is without an inflation factor.

And now that the American people have removed a Republican from the Presidency and left them depleted in Congress, they have only one answer. Oppose, obstruct, and prevent action to alleviate the disaster they have caused. They don’t just vote against necessary action; they obstruct action. They will not allow an up and down vote, and they filibuster (i.e. they talk and talk and talk, so no vote can be taken). And the three “moderate Senators,” who provide the votes needed to stop the obstruction, only lend their votes in return for a watering down of effective action. They demand their pound of flesh. They want Obama to fail even if that means disaster for The American people.

Next time I will discuss the stimulus program passed by Congress and analyze its provisions. I will show that the three "moderate" Republican Senators did not improve the bill but substantially weakened it. I will also discuss some of the unfounded criticism that have been leveled against it, and show that some it is simply misplaced, some of it distorts and some of it is based on outright lies.

Israel and the Palestinians (A Summing Up)

As I come to my final commentary on this subject, I find myself quite sad because for the most part the people who disagreed with me never engaged in a real discussion.

With some notable exceptions all they offered was hate and endless war. Do they really think that this is in the interests of Israel or Jews throughout the world? Thus Frank Friedman of Johannesburg, South Africa, wrote, “Anti-Semitism is here to stay. Jew bashing is a very popular sport. The Arabs only want the country is not negotiable! Their aims are war until they achieve what they want. What ever Israel does is wrong. I personally would send rockets back all day until they are all wetting their pants as the Israelis do!"

That is insulting to the Israeli’s, as brave and courageous a people as live anywhere. Israeli’s are not wetting in their pants.
And the implication that my criticizing Israeli government policies are anti-Semitic is a slander on me, and all those in Israel who agree with me, as shown in the many articles I cited in Haaretz written by Israelis.

I wonder whether Mr. Friedman has even tasted the lash of anti-Semitism as I have. Did he escape from Hitler’s Holocaust? Jew bashing indeed.

But why engage in rational debate which might actually further the possibility for Israel to live in peace and prosperity. Like so many Arabs, the spewing of hate comes easier than actually furthering the interest of Israel or Jewry throughout the world.

Why have my critics totally ignored what Ben Gurion said, “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

This quote is important because it shows that Ben Gurion recognized that the Arabs had a legitimate grievance, not something that today’s hate mongers will ever concede. But it is important to recognize such factors if they are ever to be dealt with.

But more importantly we have to answer the other question, Ben Gurion raised, “Why would they accept that?” Why indeed? And the answer is reality! Arabs are not good at facing reality, but even they come to grips with it after suffering defeat after defeat.

My critics act like nothing has changed since 1948 or even 1967. So very much has changed, but my critics sit in their bunker mentality and pretend nothing has changed. Today Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East, with the IDF by far the most powerful military, and Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has atomic bombs. Its existence isn’t threatened. Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties and have recognized the state of Israel.

The threat to Israel comes from within. It comes from the fanatical settler movement which is determined to drive Arabs from all the lands of Palestine and which is exercising an ever-greater power within Israel where the constant need for coalition government gives an outsize power to minor parties.

We outside Israel, Jews who understand persecution from first hand experience, and the US government need to be a counterweight to these fanatics. Peace is not possible as long as they choose to expropriate more and more Arab lands. As Herb Reiner wrote, “As things are now, life is a nightmare for many Palestinians. Lands not yet confiscated are becoming increasingly inaccessible as they are broken by walled barriers. Palestinians are often required to pass through multiple checkpoints to get from their homes to their jobs or fields. New highways are for the exclusive use of settlers or Israelis."

How does such continuing encroachment aid the peace process, or for that matter Israeli security?

Bill Mainzer of Portola Valley, California asks, "Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbors to shell you?" But he doesn’t ask, "Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbor to blockade you, denying you the basics of life including food and electricity?" Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbor to keep encroaching on your lands, and take your homes to build homes for themselves? I asked, "Are Arabs not allowed to defend themselves?" and the response is a deafening silence.

Bill Mainzer says possibly, when both sides are ready to sit down and negotiate a proper peace settlement this can come to a stop. But before that, both Hamas and their supporters, Iran, will need to accept the right for Israel to exist. Of course, but that comes at the end of negotiations, not as a precondition.

But then in that same message, Bill Mainzer adds, "Maybe another Arab state like Syria could absorb the Palestinian people that they too, do not want!" indicating the very mindset that makes peace all but impossible. Palestinians do not want to live in Syria and Syria doesn’t want to have the Palestinian’s, but what this implies is Bill favors ethnic cleansing, which appears to be gaining ground. It is what the settler movement wants. If that is the objective, or even if the Palestinians think it is, then there can be no peace.

But what I find most disturbing is the mentality that the whole world is arrayed against the Jews. First of all nothing could be further from the truth. Germany and a number of other countries have actually made it a crime to deny the Holocaust, and when the Pope stupidly removed the excommunication of a Holocaust denier, Germany and the world at large were up in arms.
It was the world at large, through the UN that gave sanction to the creation of Israel.

Barry Grant of Millford, NJ writes:

"As for the blockade of Gaza, I am sure you are aware that the Egyptians are also blockading Gaza. There is very little complaint about their actions, but then again the Egyptians are not Jewish. I have great sympathy for the innocent Palestinians who have been killed and injured. Just as I had sympathy for them in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan (the good Arab) bombed the Palestinian refugee camps on the West Bank killing more than the Israeli's have killed in all these decades. No one mentions this (maybe because King Hussein was not Jewish) I could go on and on mentioning the response of the world and the media to Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, etc. Where is the outrage when a thousand times as many innocent persons are killed? I find it appalling"

This is simply not true. The Egyptians are blockading Gaza at the request of Israel. Since Hamas has not responded by attacking Egypt, (probably because they are smuggling their supplies and arms from there) there is little focus there. It has nothing to do with being Jewish. As for Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda the outrage is resounding. The number of news articles I have read and seen on this subject and the number of appeals for help I have received by e-mail and snail mail is legion.

Even now the World Tennis Federation is ready to apply sanctions to Dubai for barring a Jewish Israeli player.

The mindset, "Woe is me, I am Jewish" is a relic from another time. I am glad to say that Jews all over the world are respected and have enormous influence in the US and throughout the Western world. AIPAC holds sway over American foreign policy to a degree that few foreign lobbyist organizations have. It was the only foreign lobby that I know of, to which Obama felt it necessary to appeal to.

Barry says, "I found your comments unbalanced and one-sided, although not as one sided as W's 8 years of benign neglect of the problems." But that benign neglect was to lend unswerving support to Israeli policies, which it seems to me is exactly what Barry seems to advocate. If Obama is to be successful in furthering the peace process he will have to build some credibility with Arabs, and the first thing he will have to do is convince Israel to stop expanding settlements and lift the blockade.

Finally, many have argued that Israel gave Arafat a great peace offer and Arafat turned it down. How they arrive at that conclusion is puzzling. How much was offered in the way of dismantling settlements, none of us know. I have read with care Dennis Ross’ "The Missing Peace" and I never found any details of what the offer was. To be sure Arafat had a strange way of negotiating, never making counter proposals and just listening and saying, "No" but it is a poor excuse to say well we tried - they turned it down, and so there is no point in trying again.

If we as Jews in the US want to be true friends of Israel we will support the forces of tolerance and peace.

Toward that end I recommend support of J Street, the Jewish lobby that is the true friend of Israel by supporting the peace movement.

I recommend signing up so as to keep apprised of developments. I also recommend listening to the analysis by a leading Israeli journalist of the recent Israeli election and the peace process, available on that site.

Putting The Israeli/Arab "Conflict" In Context.

An issue as complicated as the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians can hardly be given adequate coverage in one essay. Accordingly I plan to devote more time and effort to this very important issue. In this article I plan to discuss the genesis of the conflict because I believe the comments received as well as the articles cited in those comments ignore the fundamental problems of the conflict, which can only be found in its history.

Jews inhabited Palestine in Biblical times but were driven out by wave after wave of invaders, from Romans in 135 A.D. to the 7th century when Muslim Arab armies moved north from Arabia to conquer most of the Middle East, including Palestine. The rulers allowed Christians and Jews to keep their religions. However, most of the local population gradually accepted Islam and the Arab-Islamic culture of their rulers. Thus while some Jews remained in Palestine they were a very small community with most Jews having become part of the great Jewish Diaspora.

Jews had never stopped coming to "the Holy land" or Palestine in small numbers throughout the exile. Palestine also remained the center of Jewish worship and a part of Jewish culture. However, the Jewish connection with the land was mostly abstract and connected with dreams of messianic redemption.

See here, from which some of the above is quoted and for a complete history.

It was not until the 19th century that the birth of Zionism made a return to Palestine a matter of Jewish policy, at least for some, and Jews started returning and buy land there. However, the Arabs were a feudal society and so the land being bought was purchased from absentee landlords and the “serfs’ who toiled on the land had no say in their expropriation. As far as they were concerned it was the Jews who threw them off their land. Most Zionists were not concerned about the Arab population, which they ignored, or thought would agree to voluntary transfer to other Arab countries. In any case, they envisioned the population of Palestine by millions of European Jews who would soon form a decisive majority in the land. At the same time, Palestine's Arab population grew rapidly. By 1914, the total population of Palestine stood at about 700,000. About 615,000 were Arabs, and 85,000 to 100,000 were Jews.

The history becomes ever more complicated and those who might want more details should go to the web site indicated above but one thing was consistent. Arabs always considered Jewish settlers to be an alien force, which they did not welcome.

With the rise of Hitler many Jews desperately wanted to emigrate from Germany and Austria. None of the Western countries were willing to open their borders to receive them. How many might have been saved from the Nazi “Final Solution” is hard to estimate but it would not be unreasonable to suppose that it would have been in the millions. Many tried to flee to Palestine but the British blocked their path and turned them back.

On Nov. 29, 1947 The UN General Assembly voted in favor of Palestine being divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state with Jerusalem to be put under international administration.

As can be seen the land assigned to the new Jewish state was extremely small with Jerusalem being deep in Arab territory and the border between what was called Trans-Jordan and Israel far west of the Jordan river. Nevertheless The Jews accepted the UN decision, but the Arabs rejected it, and upon Israel declaring its statehood war commenced, which Israel won handily.



Why is it important to focus on this history? It bears on the rights of Jews in Palestine. It shows beyond doubt that the Arabs were always an occupied people, exploited by the Imperialist powers and by their own land-owning class.

We need to ask ourselves if the UN had decided to give a piece of territory for a Jewish state to be carved out of the US, or out of Mexico, or out of Africa what would the reaction of the indigenous population have been? It is safe to say it would have been hostile. So the hostility of the Arabs should not be a surprise nor can it be condemned as evil.

That is why David Ben-Gurion the founding leader of Israel said, “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

Why indeed would they accept that? The answer is reality. Their armies have been defeated again and again. As a result Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Israel. In desperation they have turned to the only weapon available to the weak, terrorism. Does that make them evil? I don’t think so! Since the dawn of time terrorism has been a weapon used. Even in Biblical times Samson brought down the temple on the heads of the civilian population when he was shorn of his strength. The Jews in striving for a homeland in Palestine used terrorism. On 6 November 1944, Lord Moyne (Walter Guinness), the British Minister Resident in Egypt, was assassinated in Cairo. On 22 July 1946 the King David Hotel was bombed by the Irgun, father to the Likud Party, killing 91 people and injuring 46. The Catholics in Ireland resorted to terrorism with the support of many Americans. And let us not forget the Sabra and Shatila massacres! What was the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but terrorism? It is a weapon that we would prefer not to see employed but it has a long and storied history. It does not make those who employ it evil by definition.

But even terrorism hasn’t worked. We have ended up with the worst possible situation for all. Israeli’s continue to live without the security that is every people’s desire, and the Arabs continue to live in the squalor of displaced persons camps, which have now become multi-generational and gives them even less security than the Israelis have.

Let’s give Peace a Chance!!!

But peace cannot happen in the face of an expansionist Israel.

As can be seen from the map above, Israel started and accepted a small piece of territory. As a result of subsequent wars Israel grew. It is now accepted that Israel is entitled to all the territory as shown on the map below. Its border with Egypt has now been straightened. Its lands in the north now encompass all the territory to the border with Lebanon. And in the west it has expanded to the Jordan River and the area up to and around Jerusalem. Yet Israel has not been content with its conquered territories. It has built and continues to build settlements on occupied territory in the West Bank despite protests from every American Administration except for the Bush Administration. While it claims to have stopped building new settlements it insists on its right to expand existing ones and in the process continues to seize Arab lands and to destroy Arab homes.



According to Thomas L. Friedman, writing in the NY Times of February 4, 2009:

“The West Bank is so chopped up and divided now by roads, checkpoints and fences to separate Israel’s crazy settlements from Palestinian villages that a Palestinian could fly from Jerusalem to Paris quicker than he or she could drive from Jenin, here in the northern West Bank, to Hebron in the south.”

This is an intolerable situation. What Israel and the Israeli lobby demands is that the Palestinians quietly accept their oppression, accept their ever-diminishing lands, accept their lack of rights, and never fight back. No people would allow such oppression without resistance.

Israel is armed to the teeth. Yet any attempt for its adversaries to arm is treated as an outrage. Where is the balance?

Palestinians are human beings.

And every resistance, whether it is the "intifada", which consists of the throwing of stones against Israeli guns is treated as an outrage instead of the desperation which it represents.

Even the treatment of Palestinian weak claims of “The Right of Return” is treated as an outrage. To be sure Israel could never allow the refugees to return, for that would mean the end of the Jewish state, something that cannot be contemplated. But that does not mean that one should not acknowledge that this “right of return” has been recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross which holds that persons displaced during armed conflict must be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased even though the language of the Fourth Geneva Convention is not nearly as clear as some would contend. Israel has never, as it should, offered as an alternative the resettlement of Arabs in the West Bank, in permanent communities so they can stop being refugees in their own lands. Israel contends that this is something that the Arab nations need to do, but it is, and must be Israel’s responsibility. With American help, this along with adequate compensation must be the framework for negotiations.

Removing many of the settlements will not be easy, but the problem keeps being compounded by their expansion and by continued illegal (even under Israeli law) settlement activity, which is not being prevented by the Israeli authorities. The increasing support for an ethnic cleansing of Arabs from the West Bank by fanatical orthodox Jews must be denounced and the areas need to be referred to by Israeli authorities as the “occupied territories” or the “West Bank” and “Gaza” and not as “Samaria” and “Judea.”