Tag Archives: Politics

Post-Mortem Message: Go Lower

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By GORDON GLANTZ

GORDONVILLE – Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this national nightmare of another Donald Trump presidency.

As I struggle to understand how an individual who never worked a hard day in his life and who ducked out of Vietnam five times with phantom bone spurs can emerge a working class hero, this eulogy is about the Democratic party that is only expert at repeatedly shooting itself in the foot.

It’s the same Democratic Party that absorbed a lopsided loss in the 1972 presidential election, with Tricky Dick Nixon carrying 49 states to George McGovern’s one (Minnesota) but rose from those ashes — exemplified by having to endure the ignominy of a television telethons to raise money for itself — to elect Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Even though the pendulum swung back to the right with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and back to the left again with Bill Clinton in 1992, it shows you can reinvent yourself. Remember, before the scourge of Nixon in 1968, the Democrats owned the 60s with JFK and LBJ and important advancements in social issues like civil rights.

Trump was not only reelected, but is now positioned for complete control with all branches of government (Senate, House and Supreme Court) tucked his obnoxious overcoat designed to hide his beer gut.

There is now a steep hill to climb to again become the party of FDR and Obama, but history has shown that it is possible,

America loves a good comeback story, which is probably why a 34-time felon and serial abuser of women was just absolved in the court of common misconception.

Before Barack Obama burst onto the scene in 2008, there was the disheartening election of 2004. George W. Bush had ignored warnings prior to 9/11 and displaced his aggression by making the response more about Iraq and less about the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, as poor kids were fighting the rich man’s war on two fronts, tax cuts were dulled out to the wealthy, screwing up the economy.

The Democrats seemed to have the ideal cure to this scourge in a Vietnam War hero, John Kerry, but that was turned around fast by a disinformation campaign.

While Bush had a soft military record (although a Red Beret, compared to Trump), Kerry commanded a Swift boat during a tour in Vietnam, a rarity for a Yale graduate. He earned thee Purple Heart Medals, a Sliver Star Medal and the Bronze Star Medal.

Gotcha now, right?

Wrong.

By the GOP Convention of 2004, he was openly mocked about his service and about a few issues he had dared to change his mind about, and we all know that nuanced thinking is viewed as weakness by the right.

The crowd had props as well: Flip-flops with Kerry’s face on them. Whenever he was lambasted by a speaker, they chanted “”Flip Flop” and waived these flip flops in the air.

Sounds juvenile, but in he kangaroo court of common opinion, he was doomed to ultimate defeat (even with Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. on his side).

Fast forward to the current election, where vice president Kamala Harris had to take over the candidate for aging Joe Biden, I remembered these antics and wondered why Democrats couldn’t rip a page from that playbook of lowdown trick plays.

While there were inspiring speeches from the stage, there was not enough sheer hostility.

I know all about Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high” message, but the messaging needed some updating.

Remember when Trump grudgingly visited Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and proceeded to throw paper towels at people as if they were dog fetching a bone?

How about organizing games of Paper Towel Dodge Ball or Basketball, or both, on the Convention floor?

Remember hearing how we thew ketchup against the wall in a temper tantrum after realizing that he couldn’t overturn a free an fair election?

How about ketchup throwing contests.

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We all know about him getting out of Vietnam altogether — five times — with phantom bone spurs.

There are veterans groups out there who are vehemently against Trump, They should have been front and center, perhaps with shirts saying “Look, Ma, No Bone Spurs.”

It sounds silly, especially to come from the more educated left, but we need to take the temperature of the country better and let it know if it is suffering from a fever (you know, like COVID, which he flat-out bungled and destroyed the robust economy he inherited from Obama).

How about telling the truth about immigration, in lieu of echoing the venom in a lesser form)?

The reality is that undocumented workers commit crimes at a lesser rate than citizens. Without them, agriculture is going to suffer.

Say that. You’re allowed.

Trump lied so much in both debates that independent fact checkers could barely keep up. Those lies should have and could have been deployed in commercials and social media almost in real time.

Were they? No, not really.

I really don’t know who was running the Harris campaign, but they should never be in national politics again.

I could go on, but you get the point. The Democratic party, my party, needs what they call a Come to Jesus Moment. And, really, it needs to stop being all things to all people. Define a simple message and stick to it. Find an ideal candidate now, send him to the tailor and make sure he fits the suit. Send him to the barbershop and make sure he looks the part.

Going back to JFK, he looked better than a sweaty Nixon in a 1960 televised debate, the first of its kind. Those listening on radio had it scored evenly, those watching were enthralled by Kennedy’s looks and charisma.

I know a lot of women near and dear to me felt the sting of Hillary Clinton losing in 2016 and then of Harris falling this time.

While neither helped themselves with their choice of running mates. it was clear the country wasn’t ready for a woman when Clinton ran (even though she did win the popular vote, much to Trump’s chagrin) and wasn’t ready for a woman of color his time around.

The Democrats need to be a bit less PC, sorry to say. No female candidate. No gay candidate, no matter how qualified. No extremely progressive candidate talking about issues that really don’t affect the whole.

The top of the ticket needs someone like California governor or Beto O’Rourke of Texas. Although Maryland governor Wes Moore and New Jersey senator Corey Booker are beyond qualified, the Democrats might want to step away from anyone of color, even at the bottom of the ticket. for 2028.

We have dug ourselves a steep hole here, and time to start digging out starts now — and with clear heads and minds.

With an Ear to the Street …

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By GORDON GLANTZ

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

You know the old saying.

With the currently complicated mess between Israelis and the so-called Palestinians, it is hard to keep Hamas or its human shields closer, but we can endeavor to put an ear to the street and listen to what they have to say.

This comes with a warning: We may not like it.

This is not being filtered through the sympathetic lenses of the likes of the BCC and CNN, which seem wired to tell a one-sided story.

We will listen to the pre-war words of women, children, clergy and “elected” leaders of the so-called Palestinians.

While some fellow self-hating Jews try to tell me that our enemy is not unified in its pure hatred of all things Zionist (code for Jewish, via the birth of Israel), the reality is that 99.99 percent believe in the “from the river to the sea” ideology, with the only wiggle room being that a few may not mean it literally.

Very few.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s take a deep into quotes from Palestinian TV (yes, the oppressed somehow had that). These are the same civilians/human shields who gleefully celebrated in the streets of Gaza — and the West Bank — as if they won the World Cup on Oct. 7.

The women hostages, while being raped, likely heard the celebration.

And, for context, remember these words from Golda Meir: Peace will come when they love their children more than they hate us” as you take all this in.

The women interviewed — from mothers to grandmothers to Kindergarten teachers — all strike a general theme that they are on earth to urge their sons toward Jihad, And it begins from infancy, as Jihad is the direct path to being next to Allah. Martydom is a badge of honor for a family

“Death is inevitable, so why not die as martyrs?” said one woman.

Another said it is why they give birth to such large numbers of children. They are not doing so to make society a better place, but so there are more martyrs.

With the clergy, we again need context. While we all tend to coexist and respect one another’s beliefs — or lack thereof — the more radical Islamic clerics are still fighting the crusades.

What the West, with rose-colored glasses, doesn’t grasp, is that they are coming at it not as a private matter but as a public one. It is a political worldview, and one with little variance.

I saw one Imam with a long white beard (I suppose to create an aura of wisdom) talk about the need to leave no Jews on the earth.

And, if they don’t mention the Christians directly, they hint at it.

While we see clips of starving children, I saw clips of children barely potty trained training in terror methods (albeit with toy guns).

“We asked Hitler why he left some of you alive,” said one who can apparently communicate with the great beyond. “He did so in order to show how wicked you are.”

The words of the political leaders pretty much close the door on a realistic two-state solution any time in out lifetimes.

Examples?

Sure.

–“The existence of Israel is illogical.”

–“Everything we do is justified.”

–“We shall never recognize Israel.”

In a fight described as “eternal,” they openly preach about killing Jews .

–This is our principle, or ideology, and it’s not up for compromise.”

It is curious that the antisemitism mostly comes from the left when 20 percent of Generation Z identifies as nonbinary or LGBTQ, something that will get you a short flight of a tall building in Gaza or the West Bank.

While there Israelis on the far right who are not accepting of an alternative lifestyle, they are not for the death penalty.

As a point of a note, the conservative party in Israel has an openly gay member in parliament.

The world can have its opinions but we Jews know the facts.

We know what our friends think — at least we think we did — but the thoughts of our enemies seem to make a dream of a lasting peace akin to a LSD trip.

Have any of us heard our mothers, grandmothers, rabbis, elected leaders — even those on the far right — call for the outright genocide of Arab Muslims?

Not Golda Meir.

The Abandoning of Gaza by its Brethren

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By GORDON GLANTZ

Do you find it odd the worldwide protests
against Israel, the target of the Oct. 7
atrocities, were almost simultaneous with
the terrorist attack?
It was almost as if it was coordinated.
And these protests have quickly devolved
from the nonsensical comments about
being “anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic” to
calls for Israel (and Jews) to be completely
obliterated from the map for the crime of
ever existing in the first place.
That is another discussion for another time,
however.
The ire directly just at Israel – and Jews in
general — is particularly curious when one
considers the cold shoulder the vast

majority of the Arab world has given to its
alleged brethren.
It is not new.
There is a long and bitter history there, and
seemingly remains swept under the rug.
Let us not lose sight of what was about to
occur before since Oct. 7, as a peace treaty
between Israel and Saudi Arabia seemed
imminent.
Saudi Arabia still has not slammed the door
on the mutually convenient concept.
Meanwhile, other countries — UAE,
Morocco and Bahrain — didn’t even
withdraw their ambassadors from Israel
(Jordan only did because it has a sizeable
Palestinian population).

Back in 1982, at the time of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon, there was a massacre
at a Palestine refugee camp (Shatila).
Carried about by Israelis? Nope.
Lebanese forces killed as many as 3,500
civilians.
And just three years after the Shatila
massacre, in 1985, something started called
the “War of the Camps” took place. That
was Lebanese Shia, backed by Syria and
Iran, laying siege to the Shatila and Bourj el-
Barajneh camps for close to three years
with untold numbers of dead and wounded
among the Palestinians.
Back in 1975, in the early days of the
Lebanese Civil War, a Palestinian refugee
camp in East Beirut was leveled.

Why don’t we hear about this sordid
history?
Because it doesn’t fit the anti-Israel and
anti-Semitic narrative, that’s why.
While supporters of Israel tend to paint Iran
as an ardent backer of Hamas, it is a more
complicated marriage of convenience.
Experts actually don’t think the Iranians
planned the Oct. 7 attack, with Hamas
doing the dirty work, but they do agree they
weren’t too bothered by it, either.
Iran had to know, though, that Israel would
strike back, and strike hard, and really
hasn’t gotten too directly involved.
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Lip service aside, the Arab world has left
Gaza hanging out to dry.

This disturbing history of the Palestinians
being the black sheep of their own family
can be traced back even further.
The 1967 war — and emergence of the PLO
as the representative of the Palestinian
people — was a key turning point, as the
Palestinians had effectively been a function
of other Arab states and Arab militaries
The 1967 war forced hundreds of thousands
of Palestinians into exile, following their
brethren from the 1948 war with Israel.
Many wound up in Lebanon and Jordan,
and were given enough autonomy to run
the camps.
Still, the Arab states, particularly those
around Palestine and Israel, never wanted
to see an independent Palestinian
movement, let alone a state.

Why? The Arab states didn’t really want a
war with Israel after getting taken out to
the woodshed by the neophyte Jewish state
in the 1947-48.
The 1967 war – a.k.a. the Six Day War — put
an end to dreams of the conquest of Israel,
and it gave rise to the PLO as a somewhat
independent force.
That is what led to Black September, a
militant wing of the PLO, and its 1970 aim
to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy.
It should be noted that the Syrians withheld
the air support for the Palestinians they had
promised. The air force was under
command of a general named Hafez al-
Assad (later ruler of Syria), who reportedly
loathed the Palestinians.

While street rhetoric in the Arab world was
pro-Palestinian, the Arab governments
basically turned their backs.
In Syria – and also Jordan and Egypt – there
were open campaigns against the PLO.
There is no Palestinian population – at all –
in Egypt, which bristled at Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken’s suggestion that the
Egyptians absorb refugees from Gaza (even
temporarily).

Displaced Palestinians walk next to the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, on February 16, 2024 in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. – Nearly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are trapped in Rafah — more than half of Gaza’s populations — seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

They have a wall, in fact, that would put Donald’s Trump’s wet dreams to shame (see above).

And, yet, you see no Egyptian flags being
burned at protests. There are no chants and
signs about recalling aid, of which it
receives plenty, from the U.S.
Then again, Egypt, saw the threat in 1970
when the Jordanian prime minister, Wasfi
Tal, was assassinated in Cairo by Palestinian
activists who were literally so literally bloodthirsty that one reportedly knelt down
and drank the blood of the victim (you can’t
make this up).
Yasser Arafat, who later reneged on peace
accords with Israel that would have led to a
two-state solution well before all of this
current loss of life, claimed responsibility.
Arafat, who died in 2004, reportedly
diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to
himself, under the guise of his “political
survival,” but reports are that much more
was left unaccounted for to this day.
Consider all that – and the bad blood (pun
intended) between Arabs and Palestinians —
while watching the starvation on TV.