Ed Koch speaks to your conscience
Former New York City Mayor and Congressman Ed Koch rips everyone - Israel's supporters, Congress (especially the Democrats) and especially the Jewish community, for their silence in the face of President Obama's assault on Israel (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). The plan I suspect is to so weaken the resolve of the Jewish state and its leaders so that it will be much easier to impose on Israel an American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving Israel's needs for security and defensible borders in the lurch.Will you be silent?
I believe President Obama's policy is to create a whole new relationship with the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and Iraq as a counter to Iran -- The Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Muslim world, which we are now prepared to see in possession of a nuclear weapon. If throwing Israel under the bus is needed to accomplish this alliance, so be it.
I am shocked by the lack of outrage on the part of Israel's most ardent supporters. The members of AIPAC, the chief pro-Israel lobbying organization in Washington, gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she had carried out the instructions of President Obama and, in a 43-minute telephone call, angrily hectored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Members of Congress in both the House and Senate have made pitifully weak statements against Obama's mistreatment of Israel, if they made any at all. The Democratic members, in particular, are weak. They are simply afraid to criticize President Obama.
What bothers me most of all is the shameful silence and lack of action by community leaders -- Jew and Christian. Where are they? If this were a civil rights matter, the Jews would be in the mall in Washington protesting with and on behalf of our fellow American citizens. I asked one prominent Jewish leader why no one is preparing a march on Washington similar to the one in 1963 at which I was present and Martin Luther King's memorable speech was given? His reply was "Fifty people might come." Remember the 1930s? Few stood up. They were silent. Remember the most insightful statement of one of our greatest teachers, Rabbi Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
We have indeed stood up for everyone else. When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters living in the Jewish state of Israel?
If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide. They are willing to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, but they will not allow themselves to be bullied into following self-destructive policies.
To those who call me an alarmist, I reply that I'll be happy to apologize if I am proven wrong. But those who stand silently by and watch the Obama administration abandon Israel, to whom will they apologize?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:52 PM
6 Comments:
Good ol' Ed.
Good for him!!!
Is this the same Ed Koch that said this:
Koch says Palin "scares" him, endorses Obama ticket
September 9, 2008 By The Associated Press
Saying GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin "scares the hell out of me," ex-New York City Mayor Edward Koch endorsed fellow Democrat Barack Obama yesterday.
In 2004, Koch backed President George W. Bush for re-election, saying the Republican was better equipped to combat international terrorism than Democrat John Kerry.
Koch said he has concluded that the country would be safer...
The flip side of things is Moshe Feiglin has warned Likud members that Netanyahu is seeking to follow the path of Sharon... there is already a defacto construction freeze in Jerusalem. According to him, that is just the appetizer before the main course, abandoning large parts of the Land Of Israel, including Jerusalem.
Feiglin: Netanyahu Preparing Another Disengagement
He concludes the bottom line is that Likud members ought to be paying no attention to the Prime Minister's declarations. Watch what is actually going on the ground. What Feiglin means is that Israel will unilaterally withdraw from the Palestinians and draw its own borders with them. Negotiations will not happen and Israel has to fend off pressures from the US on the one hand and prepare for a war with Iran on the other hand. So it is by no means a given that Israel won't do something in the future to take the Palestinian issue off the table.
Carl,
I just forwarded the same article (via Naomi Ragen) to many people in my address book. No, I won't be silent, and I hope my addressees and all of us will not be.
What did he expect? Obama who spent the majority of his life as an anti-Semite, all of a sudden becomes a Zionist?
Obama sees Koch as a useful fool who will be destroyed by the Chicago Machine!
As least Ed Koch is willing to publicly take back his earlier support for Obama. If only the other Jews who voted, spoke, or worked for Obama would do the same!
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