Memo to Self: Never Play Poker With Bibi

He gambled, and won. 

That article is a pretty nice summary from John Podhoretz which includes the following concise summary paragraphs:

"The Zionist Union won something like 24 seats, an improvement for its core Labor Party from 15 seats just two years ago. But the thing is, Israel’s left doesn’t have any answers to the nation’s pressing problems either — and is seen as too ready to capitulate on hard-core defense and security issues."

"So, in the final days of the election, trapped in his own backfield, the Zionist Union coming hard upon him as Obama and his minions cheered from the skyboxes, Bibi eluded its grasp and made his move. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Bibi pulled off a pretty spectacular piece of footwork in the most exciting election finish I can remember."

I have some other thoughts. 

So inasmuch as this is a victory for the Israeli right and for Netanyahu, it is also a stinging rebuttal to President Obama directly from the people of Israel. 

Something else that hasn't been discussed that much in the English media is the extent to wish the Israeli leftist media monopoly collaborated in the efforts to have "anyone but Netanyahu". The Israeli media, that is to say all of the major Hebrew newspapers and television news shows fed the Israeli public a disgusting and incessant diet of virulent anti-Netanyahu and anti-conservative propaganda 24/7.  They were utterly deranged about it.

Their efforts backfired-yet they clung to their fairy tale exit numbers. 

It was absolutely delightful to watch their faces get completely messed up and watching them lose their composure entirely when the reality started to sink in-live. I just cannot remember enjoying anything on television more in recent years.

The other thing about the Israeli elections that I noted to my husband this morning is that Meretz, the radical left party also went up in flames. And to me, that is a clear indicator that a small, vocal, aggressive minority makes up the far left in Israel. That aggressive, power-hungry minority though-like in other Western countries, yields power that is extraordinarily disproportionate to its numbers.

In Israel, as elsewhere (Canada, America, Australia, etc..),  the extreme left commands the judiciary, the arts, the media, the academy, the higher echelons of the civil service and the public education system.  That's where they most effectively shove their influence down all of our throats. They do that because they can.

But...and it's a big but...when it comes time for actual democratic decisions to be made-like this Israeli election, which was basically a referendum on Israel's security and the existential threat from Iran, the left lost big time. Their monopoly on our lives, their tyranny over our personal liberties can only be sustained through processes that generally entirely bereft of transparency, real choice and honesty.  Now, not everyone chooses liberty over tyranny when it comes down to a vote-but many do, consistently choosing to believe their own lying eyes rather than the stories they are being told to believe.

You know, even Obama sending American taxpayer dollars to Israel to fight Netanyahu through V-15 was a total bust. What will they do with all those t-shirts?

As Mark Steyn pointed out this morning on the John Oakley show, one of the most exquisite parts of this Israeli election story is that Obama's belligerent, relentless, Alinsky intervention is likely to have been a major factor contributing to Netanyahu's stunning victory. How's that for a Mazel Tov?!?!

 It doesn't get much more delicious than that. Pity there isn't a Hebrew word for "butthurt", though yesterday, someone on Twitter suggested that the Hebrew word for "schadenfreude" is "Axelrod".

Pretty sure it's "Axelrod" #Caring RT @daveweigel What’s Hebrew for Schadenfreude?
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) March 17, 2015

I have to tell you, I would pay many, many shekels for a photo of Obama (and frankly, Valerie Jarrett and John Kerry) as the Israeli election results started to come in. So glorious!  Just the thought of it makes me giddy.

Seriously, a thousand camels to the first person who provides me of a photo of Barack Hussein Obama in real time for that moment....I want it even more than the Rashidi tape from the Los Angeles Times.

Obama, the ever petulant, decides "not to weigh in".

LOLZLOLZZLZZ!!

How gratifying it must be right now for Netanyahu to be vindicated and to be compared, and I think rightly so, to a modern Churchillian leader. 

In short, this election is a glorious victory for a great leader and, indeed, for the free world.

P.S: *Goy Alert*

Netanyahu is pronounced Neh (like the Yiddish "feh" but with an "n")-tun (rhyming with sun) yah-hoo.

It just gets mangled a lot so YOU'RE WELCOME.

Netanyahu: Moved By the Responsibility

This is leadership:

"I am moved from the weight of responsibility that the people of Israel placed on my shoulders.."

He will rise to the occasion. 

Israeli Left: TROUNCED

Just say it a few times.

It's more delicious every time you repeat it.

Trounced, trounced, trounced.

Do You Hear That?

It's the sound of a thousand mainstream media journalists paging their shrinks: STAT CALL STAT CALL.

It's the sound of a thousand pharmacies getting a call to renew and up medications.

It's the sound of seething in the White House. 

Glorious.

Just glorious.

More on the Israeli elections later.

50 Shades of Obergropinfuhrer, Or When Life Imitates a Mark Steyn Column

Is it Happy Hour yet?

I could sure use a drink (make mine a nice dry, Kosher red wine from Italy, Israel or France, thankyouverymuch).

It's probably Happy Hour somewhere, right?

When life imitates a Steyn column, it's probably time to head for the hills.

Just Back Away From Da Twitterz With Yer Hands Up And Nobody Will Get Hurt

Starbuck's epic "race together" campaign.

This goes down as a textbook case of 'what not to do on Twitter'. 

This one hurts my brain.

Oy.

First World Problems: Most Britons Do Not Know How To Make A (Proper) Cup of Tea

News you can use!

What would we do without research?!?!?

The Horror of China's One Child Policy: The Lost Generation

A man-made disaster with such terrible, heartbreaking costs to human life and happiness.

Absolutely terrible.

"Is it Time For the Jews to Leave Europe?"

Short answer: yes. 

Longer answer in this essay by Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic.

The problem with this essay is that the answer "yes" is completely clear. Goldberg gets a bit muddled when he talks about the "why", but eventually comes to the correct conclusion. 

Although he does identify the current, most virulent streams of antisemitism, he wrongly places blame on "fascist" and "right wing" roots. He also claims that immigrant disenchantment, unemployment (in short, Marxist explanations) form the roots of the "new" antisemitism.

Here's what I mean:

"But what makes this new era of anti-Semitic violence in Europe different from previous ones is that traditional Western patterns of anti-Semitic thought have now merged with a potent strain of Muslim Judeophobia. Violence against Jews in Western Europe today, according to those who track it, appears to come mainly from Muslims, who in France, the epicenter of Europe’s Jewish crisis, outnumber Jews 10 to 1."

"That the chief propagators of contemporary European anti-Semitism may be found in the Continent’s large and disenfranchised Muslim immigrant communities—communities that are themselves harassed and assaulted by hooligans associated with Europe’s surging right—is flummoxing to, among others, Europe’s elites."

"Muslims in Europe are in many ways a powerless minority. The failure of Europe to integrate Muslim immigrants has contributed to their exploitation by anti-Semitic propagandists and by recruiters for such radical projects as the Islamic State, or ISIS."
 
"Yet the new anti-Semitism flourishing in corners of the European Muslim community would be impoverished without the incorporation of European fascist tropes."

He ultimately comes to the right conclusion with lots of first-hand evidence: there is no Jewish future in Europe. The essay is most disturbing and accurate and enraging when he speaks to real Jews, with real day-to-day experiences with virulent, physically menacing Jew-hate.

Try reading the anecdote about the Jewish physician without getting angry.

"Yardéni wanted me to meet a physician named Charles Bensemhoun, who would explain, she said, the collapsing relationship between Toulouse’s 18,000 or so Jews and its much larger Muslim population."

"Bensemhoun, who is in his mid-50s, is Sephardic, born in Morocco. Three-quarters of France’s Jews are Sephardim, chased from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia in the 1950s and ’60s."

"Many of Bensemhoun’s patients are North African Muslims. “These are people like me, who were born there,” he told me outside the school’s synagogue."

“We speak the same language, literally”—he says he and his patients move easily between Arabic and French—“and we understand each other in very deep ways. They’re very comfortable with me as their doctor.”

"He went on, “But it’s changed in recent years. Now their children are telling them, ‘Don’t go to the Jew,’ ‘You can’t trust the Jew.’ They’ve become radicalized. It’s upsetting. The new generation is anti-Semitic in a way that we haven’t experienced.”

"Are these patients listening to their children? “Yes,” he said. “In some cases, yes.”


 Then, read about how Jews cannot travel safely to their school in 2015 France:

"Once we get here we’re safe,” one of the students told me."

(Really?)

“Getting here from home is the hard part.”

"Many of the students live in distant and equally perilous suburbs, including Sarcelles, the site of anti-Jewish riots this past summer; and Créteil, where Jews have suffered beatings and rapes by anti-Semitic gangs"

This essay also confirms my feeling that the Anne Frank house should be burned down and shut down. It's an industry, has been cynically "universalized", turned into a "brand" and is not particularly Jewish in any way, shape or form.

In conclusion, one can only concur that for Jews in Europe, as one of Goldberg's interlocutors points out, there is only a choice between le cercueil ou la valise—“the coffin or the suitcase.”

Michael Douglas: Finding Judaism and Antisemitism

This is a very forthcoming, reflective essay from actor Michael Douglas. 

I always find it interesting when people describe their experiences with real antisemitism.

Not third-party experiences or hearsay. The real deal.

For myself, I felt it in my bones when I was in Poland with my father-and probably not where you would think. Of course it's in the air in the Auschwitz grounds, but that's not where I felt it most acutely.

It happened in the little municipal records office of my grandmother's town (shtetl), when our taxi driver and translator was explaining to the clerk that we (my father and I) were looking to find the remains of the Jewish cemetery and if they could tell me where my great-grandfather's synagogue/house had been.

The clerk looked at me-if looks could kill-and spat out in Polish that if "she" wanted information "she" would have to go to Łomża. I felt my whole body go ice cold, because what she was really saying, and I could feel it was that Jew can go to hell. 

Another clerk, and our taxi driver were utterly aghast. 

In that instant I remember thinking to myself "that woman would have turned me over to the Nazis", and the second clerk would have hid me. 

That's the most acute antisemitism I have faced directly. I suppose that's lucky. 

Anyway, Douglas' essay is a worthwhile read.

When Saudi Arabia Talks About Nuclear Proliferation...

I'd be inclined to listen very carefully.

"Before I Go": A Stanford Neurologist's Parting Wisdom About Life and Time

This is beautiful and so sad.

It's heartbreaking and life-affirming. 

It made me cry.

"Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past."

"The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described, hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed. Yet one thing cannot be robbed of her futurity: my daughter, Cady. I hope I’ll live long enough that she has some memory of me."

Do read the whole thing.

Just Sayin....

Beware the eyes of Marge pic.twitter.com/G0hdAG7N4X

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 15, 2015

Jewish Mom Reads Three Alpha Male Books in a Row

LOL. How's that for a headline?

I have three books to recommend-all quick reads.

First:

Me, Inc. by Gene Simmons


This is a really interesting book about Gene Simmons' rise to fame-his calculated, clever business acumen, and how he went from being a penniless refugee in Israel, with only his Holocaust-survivor Mom to lean on, to building a veritable empire. There is lots of common sense in the book and it should certainly inspire people to take concrete steps to create a successful life (read: money). I disagreed with a lot of the life advice though-about how many children to have, about when to get married, but I agree that women cannot "have it all".

The other thing that was food for thought, for me anyway, was his admission (via the reality show) that he really almost lost the things that truly mattered (his partner, now wife and his children) because of his philandering and narcissistic tendencies. So it just makes me wonder about the value of that kind of material success if you risk losing the important humans in your life-or risk not having any at all in your life.

He's very, very smart, with lots of great advice, and a very patriotic, charitable person. Worth your time.

Second:

President Me by Adam Carolla



Oh boy this one made me laugh. It's got lots of funny in it, and I snorted out loud on the subway reading the speech to the UN.

Again, lots of common sense in here and as I always say-common sense: not so common!

Last, but certainly not least: Love Life, by Rob Lowe.

I didn't know what to expect from this book, and I haven't read his first one (I will for sure now), but it's a really interesting part auto-biography, part philosophy book and it takes you through his meteoric acting career, the libidinous and alcohol-fueled years and then rehab and settling into the very best roles of his life as husband and father.

I won't spoil the book for you, but I will say that the passage about 'how things end' really was an exceptionally powerful and emotionally riveting part of the book. It was just lovely. I also learned not to trust Jewish redheads-but for that whole story (also very sweet and funny) you have to read the book as well.

The extra awesome thing about the Rob Lowe book, is that I tweeted that I really enjoyed it (I follow him on Twitter), and that the passage on loss, and how things end was  beautiful and poignant and he favourited the Tweet.

So, I had a total fan girl hysterical OMG OMG meltdown moment last night, while my kids totally laughed at me.

He's a very smart guy and quite a substantial writer. I was moved by quite a number of vignettes in the book.

Best Story of the Day: TOM, Developing Products in Israel, In A Three Day Marathon, With the Disabled For the Disabled

"Nothing for us without us." 

I. LOVE. THIS.

Making the world a better place indeed.

THIS is "tikkun olam". The real deal. 

G-d bless Steph Wertheimer and all of the individuals who came together for this.

This is truly amazing. Absolutely inspiring.

The Problem With the European Union

Is primarily that Greeks are living like Greeks, but the bill gets sent to Germany.

It's not realistic to think that all Europeans are the same, work the same, think the same and are inclined to the same levels of productivity and earning power.

Some people like to work and save and some people like to spend, especially when it's other people's money. 

OPA!

The Brilliant David Solway: Let Us Count the Gulags

Utterly depressing in true conservative spirit.

(That's a compliment of course!) 

A must read.

John Kerry: US Will Have to Negotiate With Syria

What could possibly be wrong with that? 

Good thing he already has experience in this area.

Melanie Phillips: The End of Childhood

The currently en vogue trend of hypersexualizing children absolutely terrifies me.

It quite literally keeps me up at night.

"Even those charged with children’s protection have not regarded premature sexual activity as a problem. Children’s homes have regularly shrugged aside the fact that young girls in their care are too often ‘on the game’ outside their walls. You’d hardly think that we have an age of consent."

"Dishing out contraceptives to children is deemed essential by all governments. It’s obvious isn’t it (goes the thinking) that, well, children will inevitably get up to stuff? And so society must accept that they’ll be having sex at 12, 11, ten, whatever."

"All you can do is try to prevent bad outcomes that have an impact on the rest of us. That means babies. So, of course, you dish out condoms to young teenagers. Of course, you offer abortion services to children as young as 11 without informing their parents. And, of course, you give them sex education, telling even primary school children about oral sex and prostitution."

"So the idea that children having sex is always a form of child abuse is dismissed. The only people who could possibly object are by definition religious nuts and reactionaries, right?"

"Well, not so fast."

Pre-Sabbath Update on the State of the World

Otherwise known as the world according to me.

Really, this is just a summary of things that I have been thinking about over the past few days.

Real life remains very busy, but there is still lots to talk about.

I've collected a bunch of links over the week and when I look at them together, they form a pretty dismal picture. The world, like life, goes in waves. Up and down, wave after wave.

From the super doooooper extra special American envoy/Tsar on antisemitism, the admission that "security" for European Jews is just a band-aid "solution" and that many European Jewish communities simply are not viable.

A month after the terrorist attack at her Bat Mitzvah, the family celebrates in Israel-which is really where they should be thinking of putting down roots and not clinging to the fantasy of European Jewish life. It's really not 'living' anymore.

They are "bankrupted" by security costs. European Jewish communities are paying for their own perilous, fragile survival, and it's truly just a band-aid and nobody wants to deal with the fatal, gushing wound

In the UK, the great Douglas Murray surveys the epidemic Jew-hatred in British academia. It's a repulsive picture. Britain is, unfortunately, no longer great, no longer proud of its heritage.

Two Jewish teens are beaten to a pulp outside a Marseille synagogue.

ISIS has a new BFF.

Egypt's Sisi is facing growing pressures and threats, having been abandoned by America. 

Sisi and Israeli PM Netanyahu "talk a lot". Obama has, ironically, by abandoning Israel and Egypt to the wolves, created a warmer peace between the two countries than Sadat!

This is the law of unintended consequences in action!

Many Palestinians want democracy, but their democratic aspirations will fall on the deaf ears of Obama administration.

Iran laughs in all of our faces. 

Evil laughs in our face because the free world is suffering through the second agonizing term of the silliest, most juvenile, narcissistic, empty-suit, ignorant, classless, President in American history. 

America can no longer be called the leader of the free world-just what Obama wanted. Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile in South America-not so great for Jews in Argentina.

Not even the dead ones can rest in peace.

I'm not feeling terribly optimistic right now.

Even in Canada, Jewish blood is cheap. 

Where are the Official Jews on this?

Where is the "Conservative" Party? Where is Prime Minister Harper, where is Jason Kenney? Where is CIJA? Where is the Canadian Jewish News?

Do you hear that?

That's the deafening sound of silence in the face of real threats and violence against Jews and a disgraceful miscarriage of justice. And nobody "official" cares a whit. 

It's pathetic. 

Plus, I have a hunch that Israel is going to swing left in the upcoming elections. 

As usual, people write to me, frustrated and angry asking what to do.

So I will spell it out again.

Don't be afraid.  Fight back with the skills you have, fight what you can-not what you can't.

Love your children, raise them well.  Honour your parents who gave you life.

Love and respect your partner in life.

Give thanks. Smile. Compliment. Hold the door. Say hello. Sing. Dance. Host. Hum. Share. Give. Pray.

These are all essential victories.

Stay in it for the long run.

Live well and Carpe Diem.