The Metaphorical Coin of Gen. James L. Jones

Before mentioning his coin, I suppose I should first briefly explain who this Gen. James L. Jones is. He's our current National Security Advisor. (I checked with those about me, people who I consider fairly well read, and discovered that most of them didn't recognize this man's name or position.) It's the same position occupied by Zbigniew Brzezinski during the Carter administration and Brent Scowcroft, who, if memory serves me had the job during the elder Bush's administration.

Everyone knows about Brzezinski and Scowcroft. They've written books that make clear that they have little use for Israel. It now seems that Gen. Jones is following in the same tradition. Perhaps, after he's written some books, he'll become a little better known. Oh, one more thing; Gen. Jones is a highly regarded and highly decorated military man with a distringuished record of service. But, then again, so was George C. Marshall, who also didn't care much for the idea of a Jewish state.

Recent press reports had Gen. Jones expounding that Iran and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were two sides of the same (metaphorical) coin. His idea, if I understand him, is that these two problems are linked and that if you make progress on one, you automatically make progress on the other.

And, while this may surprise those who follow this blog site, I actually agree with Gen. Jones. These two international problems are indeed two sides of the same coin, and that coin is irrational bigatry and anti-Semitism. This coin has been passed around for hundreds of years. It can be found throughout the Islamic world. It was also once quite common in the West. Jews had hoped that, with the end of Hitler and Nazi Germany, we would have seen it destroyed for all time. That, of course, has proven to be wishful thinking.

So, now that we concur with Gen. Jones's model tying together Iran with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, what does it tell us. First, it tells us that it gets us no closer to a solution than telling those with hatred and bigotry in their hearts that "we should all get along." Hatred and bigotry are irrational. They do not lend themselves to reason.

When the Israelis left Gaza, they did not destroy the greenhouses that had supported them financially. Indeed, there was a hope in Israel that the Gazan leadership would realize that these Israeli greenhouses (now a Palestinian asset) would help them in providing their people with a means of improving their livelyhood. Or, so you would have thought. That would have been the rational thing to do. But, no, they destroyed them.

It seems hard to admit, but the Islamic culture is simply not rational. Abbas is presented to the world as a moderate and yet under his administration, in Palestinian territories, Arab schools teach their children that the Jews are to be hated. It's pretty much the same curriculum that's used in Iran. The only difference is that in one place they teach it in Arabic and in the other in Farsi.

American generals like Gen Jones are often slow to learn. They don't get that losing in Vietnam, a war we entered to safeguard a corrupt French colony, was the same as the British losing in our war of independence. They didn't get that you can't fight a war against Islamic guerilla forces the way you fight against coherent states. (Here we must give credit to Gen. Petraeus, who did learn the lesssons of Vietnam; one of the few American military men to do so.)

But there are lessons that remain to be learned. Using Mafia forces, as we did in WW II, may improve the immediate problem, but it left us with bigger problems later on. In seeking to defeat Russian ambitions in Afghanistan, we turned to the Taliban. And, that did indeed prove helpful. But, now, it's bitten us where it hurts.

Will we never learn?

Here we go again: North Korea spoils the buttermilk

The solution to North Korea would be quite simple, but for one reality. The solution rests with China. North Korea is a wound on the globe. It is a place unbelieveably cruel to its own people. And, it's run by a nut. It's become clear that rule by such people did not end with Caligula.

Oh, and remind me, what is the U.N. for? Sorry, I forget. It's to threaten sanctions against a democracy like Israel.

But, with China standing behind it, the North Korean dear leader will remain in power until he's taken the last rice bowl from the hut of the last North Korean peasant still able to breath. Let's be clear, North Korea remains a truly serious threat for only one reason: China.

Where is this league of righteous nations who the US wants to join in bringing peace and good will to the nations of the world? Let me alert our leaders: This world exists only in the minds of people like Obama who would harrangue a nation like Honduras and show disrespect for it before the likes of Guatemala and Venezuala.

Surely, even the Tea Party can't provide us with worse leadership than this.

Illegals: Two stupidities don't make for a correct response

Maybe it's me, but I have a problem understanding not only Washington, but also the American people.

Let me first address Washington, or specifically, the administration of Obama. Why can't they understand that our border states need help in stopping illegal border crossings. Why is this so complicated for them?

As to my fellow citizens, why can't they realize that shipping back 10 or 12 millions people is unworkable. What do they intend to use? Boxcars? They say it's the illegal's fault. They say their own relatives had to wait on line. Why couldn't the illegals have done the same thing?

And, these Americans are right. But, it doesn't matter. It's true that providing amnesty to Mexicans who have sneaked over our borders is unfair. It is. But, sometimes life just isn't fair. But, if we had a well guarded and fenced off border, we could now put an end to the unfairness. Criminals and the bad individuals could still be tossed back over the border. But frankly I think most Mexicans are darn fine people. Okay, many did sneak across. But, that was then. Let's focus on now.

I might add that the Mexican president's remarks when he was invited to the White House were in my opinion quite inappropriate. Everyone knows that Mexico has far stronger laws against illegal immigrantion than Arizona. But, I can't blame the Mexican president for his remarks decrying Arizona's laws. If our president acts and speaks such incomprehensible nonsense, why should the Mexican president speak any more intelligently when he addresses the American public.

Obama chuckles

Mohammed: Osama, you shouldn't have called, they're tracing all calls.

Osama: Don't worry. We have a new ally. There is no longer anything for us to fear.

Mohammed: What are you saying? Who is this new ally.

Osama: It's the Baby Satan, Joe Scarborough. I caught him on "Morning Joe."

Mohammed: I over slept. What's he now up to?

Osama: He's working to convince his country, the Big Satan, to stop using drones.

Mohammed: I can't believe it! The drones are doing to us what we did to the Russians with Charlie Wilson's stinger missles. Are you sure you fully understood "Morning Joe?"

Osama: Of course I understood him. He even explained his rational, if that's what it's called.

Mohammed: Okay, I'll bite. What was his "rational?"

Osama: It's really much too stupid, but here it goes: He says that, if his Big Satan doesn't stop using drones, our al-Qaida, and our freedom fighters, and our jihadists will all get angry. He says that his country's drones are killingt too many civilians and that this will turn our people against the Big Satan.

Mohammed: What a nincompoop! But maybe he's right. Maybe we should stop killing the medical people belonging to their various NGO's? Maybe we should stop killing the teachers they send to our villages? Maybe we should stop blowing up the engineers they send to build these stupid roads? Hey, Osama, I'm kidding. But what I don't understand is why he thinks his violence is so bad? We love for our misguided civilians to die, but his Big Satan doesn't. When they kill civilians it's just something called "collateral demage."

Osama: That's the trouble with you, Mohammed. You're always fighting and plotting, fighting and plotting. You should learn to sit back and listen more to what the Big Satan says. Make the time, Mohammed. Okay, I'll explain it to you. First they thought our fighters came from the ignorant masses. That was insulting. I'm certainly not from the masses. You're not from the masses. That guy from Yeman, his father was Minister of Agriculture. And, the Kenyan, he too had a father who was a big shot.

Mohammed: Okay, I get it. And, maybe they now get it too. But, what's their latest theories about us.

Osama: They have no theories. And, that's the good news. An ignorant enemy is the best kind.

Mohammed: But with their drones, what makes them so ignorant?

Osama: First, they didn't invent the drones. It was the Zionists, the Little Satan, who did that. Only later did Big Satan wake up and come to the realization that his Boeing could make drones too. No, what makes them stupid is that they can not understand that our will, our strength, our ultimate victory comes from Allah, the merciful. They can't understand that our object is to make the the unbelievers bow and accept Sharia.

And, as final proof of their stupidity is their having a president who won't permit his people to use such words as "Islamic fanatic," or "Jihadist." It's something they call "politically incorrect."

Mohammed: I can't believe it. It makes me really, really mad. I take great pride in being an Islamaic fanatic. I take great pride in being a proud Jihadist. This Big Satan gets me really pissed.

Osama: Me too Mohammed. But it does work in our favor, so always give thanks to Allah.

Thank you Greece for explaining it to us

Here in the U.S. we've been spending money as if there were no tomorrow. Whenever we needed more, Washington would print it. So what happened? Nothing but a minor bit of inflation.

Bailouts are, presumably, a one time-thing, but entitlements go on forever.

Some compare social security with medicare. That's not correct. Social security is essentially an insurance policy. If it give out more money than it takes in, the solutions are obvious. Make the insured wait a little longer before collecting. And/or charge a higher premium.

Medicare is an entirely different matter. Our cost for delivering medical care is far more than it is for Canada, England, etc. We can, and we should, have a medical plan for all Americans. But, it's beyond our ability to pay for such a plan unless we reduce the cost of delivering such care. That seems to be a job beyond the ability of our Congress. It also seems to be beyond our President's ability.

Bottom line: We find ourselves paying out a lot more than we are taking in. But, now, for perhaps the very first time we can see where this will take us ..........................to Greece.

Victims or Victimizers: The Greek public and the Palestinians

Sounds like a stretch, doesn't it? Trying to connect the behavior of the Greeks with that of the Palestinians? But think about it.



In the case of Greece, the current situation is very clear. The public feels screwed. They've adapted themselves to a certain way of life and now the carpet is being pulled from under them. They're mad as hell, and "they won't take it any more."



There is only one problem; their dreams have been unsustainable right along. They can't have (for more than the time they've enjoyed it) things that can only be had by endless infusions of cash from countries that are more efficient and work harder; countries whose bankers have been buying their Greek bonds.



Okay, so that's clear, but why is this so difficult for the Greeks to understand? Here are my guesses: Greeks like most folks, including my fellow citizens, haven't taken Economics 101. Instead, they've relied on their wise men; their politicians (allow me to pause while I laugh).

Furthermore, these economic forces don't work themselves out in minutes, days, or weeks. It can take years. (That's why we have "bubbles." If events worked themselves out in a shorter time frame, the bubble would never have time to get really, really big.)



Also, the Greeks might have been able to carry on with their unsustainable wishes a bit longer, if their politicians had given them a more equitable tax system; one where you actually collect the taxes owed by Greece's big earners.



The Palestinians too suffer from a similar short sightedness. And, again they can thank their leaders. I use the term "leader" because I find the term "politician" too enobling. The division of Palestine by the UN was unfair to the Jews. However, the Jews were prepared to accept it. That would have given the "Palestinians" a lot more than they can look forward to today.


At that time, Jewish leaders were mostly socialist (leaning towards communism). No surprise there, since so many had come from lands where hated anti-Semitic czarists were deposed by communists. Then too, they loved communist ideology; namely, we are an international fraternity of workers, and from each, according to his means, to each, according to his needs. What's remarkable is that the early Zionists did not pursue this ideology to the murderous extremes witnessed in the Soviet Union.



But, let's go back to the Palestinians. (Actually, before Israel, everyone sharing that land was a Palestinian.) After the UN division, the Jews named their portion "Israel" and left "Palestine" as a decription of territory rather than as one of nationality. (The Arabs in Palestine gave their allegiance to the Jordanians [those in the West Bank] and to the Egyptians [those in Gaza]. )



What united these entities; namely, Jordan, Egypt and those people living in what remained of Palestine, was their Arab, Islamic culture. It was a culture adamently opposed to any nation arising on what they considered sacred Arab/Islamic land. In this hatred of what they considered a foreign entity, they pledged themselves to continuous warfare against "the Zionist entity." So, in the first instance, you can't blame the Arabs in Palestine, who only later were brought together as a united Palestinian people by Arafat, the Egyptian.



The problem with the Palestinians was that, in the first instance, they couldn't have prevented the Jordanians and the Egyptians from launching a war against the Jewish state. Of course, as fellow Muslims, they had little, or no, interest in doing so. But that is besides the point. Their politics was guided by parties beyond Palestinian land.



But, when Jordan and Egypt lost their war of agression against Israel, Israel had every right, as a nation against whom war had been launched by others, to take whatever lands they had gained through self defense. But Israel saw a problem with this situation. Had they taken all the lands to which they were entitled, they would have had to manage a large population of people with a very different culture. It would also have meant diluting the Jewish population. No, far better to let them govern themselves.

Israel has always wanted to have peace with the Arabs around them. But, peace requires that all parties must want peace. This was not so with Israel's Arab neighbors. The villian here was the Islamic culture. The peace that was forged with Egypt after Egypt's attempt to destroy Israel has proven to be a cold peace despite the fact that it was very generous to Egypt. And the peace with Jordan has run hot and cold depending on Jordan's political needs at any particular point in time.

So, the Arabs hit upon a new strategy. Let's wittle away at Israel. Let's make them more vulnerable. Then, when they've been weakened sufficiently, we go in for the kill. Their strategy has been to delegitimize Israel by painting it as a killer of Palestinians and as a usurper of Palestinian land. Their claims to Jerusalem, a city as central to observant Jews as Mecca is to Muslims, is one that makes sense only if you want to remove all meaning to Jews of the Jewish State for Jews.

Nevertheless, the Palestinians are but dupes in the hands of the Saudis, the original source of radical Islam. The Jordanian king, at this point, just wants to be sure that he, and his family, hold on to their throne. The Iraqi's, apre Saddam Husein, are struggling to create a new system of governance. The Afghan masses are still trying to learn to read. And, the Pakistanis are being diverted from creating mischief for the Indians by American insistance that they help in running down al Qaida and its agents. That leaves the 800-lb guerilla; namely, Iran.

Iran wants to be a player and has enlisted such henchmen as the Syrians, Hizbollah, and Hamas.
Now that I think of it, maybe the Greeks aren't in such bad shape after all.

Jews: A Confused and Confusing People

Look, I'm Jewish. But, do I understand Jews. Not for a moment.

Actually, I do understand some Jews. I understand the Orthodox. They are unashamably for Israel, except for the Naturi Karta. But then explaining the Naturi Karta is like trying to explain your crazy uncle.

Then there are the Reform Jews. They want to be part of the warp and woof of the American public (whatever that is). They hate the concept of "exceptionalism." Israel is not exceptional. America is not exceptional. Their leader, a Rabbi Yoffe, enters into a cooperative agreement with the ISNA, apparently oblivious to the fact that if you trace the roots of the ISNA and their legal arm, CAIR, the trail leads to none other than Saudi Arabia.

I have nothing against the Saudis. They too are exceptional with their capital punishment by decapitation, their caning of people caught drinking, their stoning of women who are found to be adulterous, and their abuse of people found to be gay. Yes, dear reader, truly exceptional.
(In their defense, I must confess that when they decapitate, they use a very, very sharp sword.)

Okay, enough of the Reform. Let's get to the Conservative Jews, the group to which I belong.

I see my old friend, Sol, and say, "So, what do you now think about your friend Obama?"
And, his reply, which I've quoted in an earlier blog, was, "for me his health care plan is the most important thing."

I explain that I too am for health care but that the plan passed by an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress won't fly. Its costs are far too enormous.

But, Sol then continues, "Look, I'm first and foremost an American."

Now this stuns me. He knows that I too am an American. But, it's more than that. I am keenly aware that this shouted cry of "I'm an American" raises the issue of dual loyalty. And, of this, I'm deeply resentful. If the Irish can cheer their Catholic brothers in Northern Ireland and the Muslims can cheer the Palestinians, why can't I appreciate the far better arguments of the Jews in Israel? And, if that means opposing Obama and his crew (J Street, George Soros, and the minor leftist party in Israel, who are out to diminish Israel), then it should not require me to defend my patriotism.

I shake my head in confusion. Jews vote, by and large, Democratic. It's something they picked up from their parents who were doing that most sensible thing -- back in the 30's. It's now 2010 and it's the Republicans who they should be supporting. Unfortunately, they're still locked in the mindset of the 30's. What I find incomprehensible is how so many non-Jews can think we're smart!

Apologies to Blankfein of Goldman Sachs

In a posting just prior to the last posting, I recalled from memory an exchange I had seen on TV during Senate hearings between Mr. Blankfein and Sen. Levin. Regrettably, I mispelled Mr. Bankfein's name as "Blankenfien." But since I did identify Mr. Blankfein as being the CEO of Goldman Sachs, I trust everyone understood I had mispelled the name.

There was no mistake made in Sen Levin's name. He was described as he is; namely, a sorry excuse for a U.S. Senator.