For those of you who vote in Nassau County, New York
Dear Friends,
My friend, Republican Elizabeth (Liz) Berney is running for the Nassau County legislature this Tuesday November 8th.
It is important to make sure that Liz wins this race, in order to stop county tax increases.
Liz is a fiscal conservative with a tax policy background (she studied tax policy at the University of Chicago Law School). Liz also has extensive contracts negotiations experience. Liz is determined to stop tax increases, and has the background to do this.
The opponent (liberal Democrat incumbent Judi Bosworth) has repeatedly voted to raise our taxes. Bosworth voted for: - A 3.9% county property tax increase for 2008-2009 - A new onerous 2.5% home energy tax (on all home energy - heating oil, gas, electric, even firewood) - A 4-year budget with another 16% of county property tax increases (for 2010 - 2013) - A $12 million fast food tax The incumbent Democrat also voted against repealing the energy tax and other taxes in 2010.
We cannot afford more tax increases!
Please vote for Liz Berney on Tuesday November 8th!
For more information, Liz's website is LizBerneyforNassauCountyLegislator.com
Also, here is some brief information on Liz's background: - Cornell University B.S. - University of Chicago Law School J.D. (focused on tax policy) - Worked as a tax lawyer at a prominent New York law firm (Dewey Ballantine) for the first 4 years of her legal career - Prosecuted numerous fraud and safety and other cases; - Extensive contracts negotiations experience - Long-time Great Neck resident - Republican committeewoman - Frequently writes published articles on tax issues, safety, and the Middle East.
Liz is committed to stopping tax increases! Liz will also work on disaster preparation, public safety and the sorry state of Great Neck roads.
Thank you for taking the time to vote for Liz Berney on November 8th!
Ros-Lehtinen foreign aid restrictions barely make it out of committee
With a $14.5 trillion deficit and the country mired in a deep, double dip recession (which has looked more like a prolonged single dip), you would think that there would be better uses for American funds than supporting the likes of the 'Palestinian Authority,' revolutionary Egypt and Pakistan. Well, Congress agrees with you, writes Liz Berney, but just barely.
The Republican Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, recently introduced H.R. 2583, “The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2012,” which seeks to de-fund U.S. foreign aid to Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority unless these regimes meet certain critical conditions, including the following:
• Further aid to Pakistan would be conditioned on Pakistan: assisting “investigating the existence of an official or unofficial support network in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden,” including access to bin Laden’s relatives and former compound in Abottabad; facilitating visas to U.S. citizens engaged in counterterrorism efforts; and complying with existing strategic assistance requirements to cooperate with the war on terror. (H.R. 2583, Section 982)
• Lebanon would not receive further aid if a member of Hezbollah (or other terrorist organization) serves in any government policy position. Hezbollah currently dominates the Lebanese cabinet; thus Lebanon would need to change this to receive further U.S. aid. The proposed law would also require the Lebanese government: to comply with the Special Tribunal investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; to dismantle foreign terrorist organization infrastructure; and to engage in anti-terrorism vetting and tracking of Lebanon’s security forces benefitting from U.S. assistance. (Section 962) These are all eminently reasonable conditions. We should not be funding a government dominated by the very same Hezbollah terrorist organization that perpetrated terrorist attacks which killed hundreds of U.S. marines, and that is now pointing 45,000 missiles at Israel.
• Further aid to the Palestinian Authority would be conditioned on: the PA finally terminating its anti-Israel incitement in the media, schools, mosques and other government-controlled institutions; no member of Hamas or other foreign terrorist organization serving in any government policy position; the PA finally meeting its obligations to dismantle foreign terrorist infrastructure, confiscate unauthorized weapons, pre-empt terrorist attacks and fully cooperate with Israeli security services; the PA’s recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; and anti-terrorism vetting and tracking of security services benefitting from U.S. assistance. (Section 971) These are also eminently reasonable conditions. U.S. foreign aid should not be sent to terrorists or to governments that incite terrorism or break their agreements to thwart terrorism.
• Security assistance to Egypt would be prohibited unless the U.S. President submits a report certifying that the Egyptian government: (i) is not directly or indirectly controlled by a foreign terrorist organization, its affiliates or supporters; (ii) is fully implementing the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty; and (iii) is detecting and destroying smuggling networks and tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. (Section 951) These items reflect Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen’s call for “the unequivocal rejection of any involvement by the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists who may seek to exploit and hijack these events to gain power.” (By contrast, the Obama administration, through its prior spokesperson Robert Gibbs, said that the new Egyptian government “has to include a whole host of important nonsecular actors.” In other words, Obama insists that the new Egyptian government must include the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization that promotes arms smuggling into Gaza and wants to tear up the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.)
Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen’s bill would also require the Secretary of State to submit a report that the Egyptian government is adopting and implementing legal reforms that protect the religious and democratic freedoms of all citizens and residents of Egypt. The last item is aimed at stopping the horrific recent Islamist slaughters of Egyptian Christian Copts.
H.R. 2583 also contains “national security waiver” provisions permitting the President to waive above-mentioned conditions on foreign aid if the President determines this to be vital to U.S. national security.
On July 21, 2011, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen’s bill passed out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 23 to 20. Every Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee voted for the bill. Sadly, every Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee (including our local Congressman Ackerman) voted against this worthy legislation. It is particularly disappointing that Ackerman voted against the bill, in light of some recent constructive comments that Ackerman made condemning the PA’s incitement of terrorism and favoring defunding a Hamas-allied PA. Ackerman should “vote where his mouth is.”
After passage out of committee, Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen’s terrorism defunding bill ran into an even bigger wall of Obama administration and Democratic Party opposition. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote a blistering letter to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, charging that the proposed defunding law would be “debilitating” to Mrs. Clinton’s “efforts to carry out considered foreign policy and diplomacy.” Since when does any sane “considered foreign policy and diplomacy” include sending our tax dollars to terrorist regimes? It is Congress’s right and duty to place restrictions on foreign aid: The Constitution doesn’t give Mrs. Clinton and the State Department “carte blanche” with our tax dollars.
Outrageously, Mrs. Clinton also complained that the restrictions on aiding governments containing terrorists were “crippling.” She also wrote that certifications regarding the involvement of foreign terrorist organizations in governments and the Palestinian Authority were “burdensome and infeasible” for the Obama administration. In other words, it’s too much trouble for the Obama administration to determine whether our tax dollars are going to terrorists!
Mrs. Clinton also specifically objected to a portion of the bill that requires the President to finally move the U.S. Embassy to Israel’s capital (Jerusalem) by 2014.
Mrs. Clinton’s letter also threatened that she will urge President Obama to veto H.R. 2583. Obama has no doubt already decided to veto the terrorism defunding bill if it passes both houses of Congress: the Obama administration has been sending more foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority than any past president, as well as aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza. And Obama promised $1 billion in loan forgiveness plus $1 billion in loan guarantees to the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced new Egyptian regime.
It is believed that the Democratic-controlled Senate will vote against H.R. 2583. (Moreover, the Senate version of a foreign affairs authorization bill, S. 1426, introduced by Democratic Senator John Kerry, contains no restrictions on sending foreign aid to governments that include terrorists or incite terrorism.)
Shamefully, there isn’t a single Democrat in either house of Congress who has supported Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen’s sensible, much-needed bill.
But there's no chance that American Jewry will consider not voting Democratic in 2012, let alone vote Republican. None at all.
Former Republican candidate for Congress from New York Liz Berney writes in the Great Neck News, New Hyde Park Courier & Williston Times on May 26, 2011, about a meeting with Rabbi Moshe and Leah Goldsmith of Itamar. Rabbi Goldsmith is the Mayor of the town and described what happened on that horrible night of March 11 when five members of the Fogel family HY"D (may God avenge their blood) were murdered by 'Palestinian' terrorists.
On Monday evening, March 28 Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith, the mayor of the town of Itamar, Israel, and his wife Leah spoke at Great Neck Synagogue. The couple spoke about their love for their town, and described and showed pictures of the town's organic farms and school for disabled children. The Goldsmiths also explained Itamar's historic Jewish roots. The town was built (and named after) the nearby burial place of Itamar and Elazar, the sons of the Biblical figure Aaron (Moses's brother). (Unfortunately, these Jewish burial places are now located in Awarta, a neighboring Arab village, which prevents Jews from praying at the gravesites. Awarta is also the frequent launching pad for attacks on Itamar's families, including the murder of the Fogel family.)
The Goldsmiths also described the vital strategic importance of Itamar to all of Israel. Itamar sits on the critical hump of the mountain that watches over the entire coast of Israel and the Jordan Valley. Keeping Itamar is thus a "must" for the whole country's security. The Palestinian terrorists understand how essential Itamar is to Israel's safety; this is why Itamar has been a prime target of Palestinian attacks.
The Goldsmiths also provided details about Palestinian terrorists' highly planned brutal murder of the Fogel family (including both parents, two small boys and a three-month-old baby girl) on March 11, as well as other Palestinian attacks on innocent Israeli civilians in Itamar. I wish that everyone could have heard rabbi and Mrs. Goldsmith's talk, since the real story of the murder of the Fogel family is quite different from how the story was portrayed in The New York Times.
The New York Times portrayed the murders as the "unplanned" work of unaffiliated Palestinian teenagers merely bent on stealing a few weapons as a "test of courage." (NYT, 4/17/11) (Using The New York Times' standard, the 9-11 attacks on America were also merely a "test of courage" by a few teenagers.) If fact, the attack on an innocent Israeli family was carefully planned, by trained Palestinian terrorists who knew exactly how to evade the town's security systems so that they could murder innocent Jewish parents and children.
Rabbi Goldsmith explained that there was a "blind spot" in the security fence surrounding Itamar, not in view of the cameras placed on the security fence. (Israeli budget constraints kept the town from having a sufficient number of cameras.) The terrorists knew exactly where the blind spot was, and went over the fence at that location shortly after 9 p.m. on Friday evening (the Jewish Sabbath). The fence alarm sounded at the town guards' location, and the two individuals on guard duty drove to the location to investigate. The terrorists knew that the fence alarm would be triggered, and knew where to hide (in the nearby forest) until after the guards checked the fence. The terrorists also deliberately chose a rainy, overcast night for their attack, when it would be difficult to spot them. The guards saw nothing, and thinking that an animal had tripped the alarm, returned to their station.
After waiting silently in hiding for the guards to return to their station, the terrorists moved towards homes in Itamar. The Palestinian terrorists entered a home whose occupants were away for the Sabbath (the Cohen home), which had a view of the inside of the Fogel's home. The terrorists stole a gun, and then remained in the Cohen home for over an hour, watching the occupants of the Fogel home celebrating the Sabbath, and waiting until the Fogels fell asleep and would be easier to kill.
After waiting and watching for over an hour until the Fogels were quiet, the terrorists entered the Fogel home through the unlocked front door. The Palestinian terrorists then locked the front door from the inside. The Palestinians then murdered Udi (age 36) and Ruth (35), and their young sons Yoav (age 11) and Elad (age 3) and baby girl Hadas (3 months) by stabbing them to death and slitting their throats. The terrorists avoided using the guns in their possession, because gunshots would have attracted the attention of others in the town, who would have come running to the family's defense.
The Palestinian terrorists left the front door locked, and exited through a window. In order to exit through the window, the Palestinians actually stepped on the Fogel's two-year old son, who was sleeping on the sofa under blankets. This son survived because, miraculously, he did not awaken while he was being stepped upon, and was not noticed by the terrorists.
The terrorists returned to Awarta through the same "blind spot" in the security fence through which they had entered Itamar. The fence alarm rang again, but the terrorists were nowhere in sight when the guards reached the blind spot in the fence to investigate.
The Fogel's older daughter Tamar (age 12) came home at around midnight, and was frightened when she saw that the front door was locked, and that muddy footprints led from the open window. She ran to a neighbor for help. The neighbor helped her open the door. Tamar then entered the house, and found her parents, little brothers and baby sister murdered, in pools of blood - a horrific scene.
Read the whole thing. There are things in there (like the drills for the coastal cities) that I have not seen anyplace else.
I was originally sent an internet version of this article to which I was going to link, but it turned out that version was incomplete. The entire article was then sent to me by email, and I was asked to publish the entire article, which I am now doing.
The article was originally published in the Friday, May 13 edition of the Great Neck News under the title Great Neck's Wiesenfeld right on CUNY honorary degree, and was written by Liz Berney, who was a Republican candidate for Congress in New York's 5th Congressional district.
The adage “no good deed goes unpunished” has a new victim - Great Neck resident Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY). Mr. Wiesenfeld bravely stood up to oppose an outrage about to take place at CUNY’s John Jay School of Criminal Justice – and now Mr. Wiesenfeld is being subjected to a slew of attacks.
For those of you who have not been following this story, here is some background:
If the world’s greatest physicist stated that “it would have been better if blacks never existed,” there isn’t a single university in America that would even consider bestowing an honorary degree on such a hateful, bigoted individual.
Yet, CUNY’s John Jay School is about to award an honorary degree to a mediocre, propagandizing playwright, Tony Kushner, who has made a career out of spewing similar hateful statements at Israel, and who serves on the board of radical leftist organizations such as the so-called “Jewish Voices for Peace” which promote anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and other campaigns aimed at destroying the State of Israel. Playwright Kushner called Israel's founding a "mistake" (Ha’aretz, 4/7/04) and stated "it would have been better if Israel never happened" (NY conference reported in NY Sun (10/14/02). Kushner also falsely accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "behaving abominably towards the Palestinian people" (Yale Israel Review, winter 2005), falsely accused the Israel Defense Forces of “brutal and illegal tactics” (London Times, 5/7/02), and blamed Israeli policies for the PLO massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich. Another Tony Kushner “gem” was: "The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community and Israel itself has got this disgraceful record.” (Ton Kushner in Conversation, ed. Robert Vorlicky, Univ. of Michigan Press, 1998, pp. 83-84.) Kushner also edited a book of essays, Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003), condemning every aspect of Israeli life and law including Israel’s right to defend herself from attack.
Kushner’s screenplay for the movie “Munich” was atrociously inaccurate. The film was criticized by Professor Alan Dershowitz, former U.S. Holocaust Museum Director Dr. Walter Reich, CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting), and a slew of others. Kushner’s “Munich” falsely depicted Israelis as bloodthirsty, money-obsessed, unjustified, sloppy, guilt-ridden avengers, morally equivalent to terrorists. The film falsely blamed Israel for “dispossession” and “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, and portrayed Palestinian terrorists sympathetically, as, for example, middle-aged poets, teachers and ordinary family men. According to former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy, Kushner's screenplay for the movie Munich "had no relation to the truth or the facts." Leon Wieseltier wrote that “Munich” equated counter-terrorism with terrorism. (The New Republic, 12/19/05)
Senior editor Gabriel Schoenfeld’s thorough analysis called Kushner’s Munich “pernicious” in its espousal of a “cycle of violence” theory and “the most hypocritical film of the year.” (Commentary, Feb. 2006) Schoenfeld also noted that Avner Kauffman, the real Mossad agent in the counter-terrorism effort, remained a patriotic Israeli afterwards, certain that the counter-terrorism mission was necessary. In reality, Kauffman and the other Mossad agents felt much like the Navy SEALs who were involved in the bin Laden operation must feel. Yet, Kushner falsely portrayed Kauffman as guilt-ridden and so disgusted and tormented by the “treatment” of Palestinians that he abandoned Israel. (In Kushner’s world, America’s SEALs should be so tormented and guilt-racked about having killed bin Laden that they will reject America.)
Schoenfeld also explained that the movie never gave any inkling that the PLO’s massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich was preceded by decades of unrelenting Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, abetted by Arab governments – including the PLO bombing of a Swiss Air flight bound for Tel Aviv in 1970 (killing 47 passengers), hijackings and attacks on passengers at European airports, and PLO sub-group PLFP’s attack on passengers at Israel’s Lod airport (killing 26 passengers) five months before Munich. Instead, Kushner made it seem as if Israel did something horrible prior to Munich which instigated the PLO terrorism there. Nor did the movie reveal that the post-Munich counterterrorism operation was also necessary to prevent future attacks. Instead it portrayed counterterrorism as encouraging future attacks.
As bloggers have noted, Mr. Kushner’s anti-Israel, pro-Arab propagandizing is downright bizarre in light of the fact that Kushner is a self-proclaimed gay Jewish socialist. He would probably be murdered on the spot if he stepped foot into the homophobic Palestinian / Arab territories whom he lauds over the tolerant State of Israel.
To return to our brave fellow Great Neck citizen: Mr. Wiesenfeld (whose parents are Holocaust survivors) was rightly outraged when he learned of plans to confer an honorary degree on anti-Israel propagandist Kushner. At a CUNY Trustees’ meeting on Monday night, May 2, 2011, Mr. Wiesenfeld spoke up about Mr. Kushner’s anti-Israel views and the growing acceptance of anti-Israel views on CUNY campuses and elsewhere. (Hurling false accusations at Israel is the current form of the ages-old scourge of anti-Semitism.) In the ensuing vote, Mr. Wiesenfeld and four other trustees (Judah Gribetz, Peter S. Pantaleo, Deputy Mayor Carol A. Robles-Roman and Charles A. Shorter) voted against the Kushner nomination, thereby defeating it. (Nine out of the 12 trustees must approve an honorary degree nomination.) The CUNY Trustees also voted overwhelmingly, 10 to 2, to table any further discussion of the Kushner nomination, rather than to take it up again. (NYT, 5/5/11 & 5/6/11)
Unfortunately, the story did not end there, as it should have. Kushner “defended” himself by issuing a statement claiming that he “supports” Israel while reiterating his false anti-Israel views and justifying them on the basis that other Jews (the ill-informed and/or self-hating variety, no doubt) share his “outrage, grief, terror” and “moments of despair” that the “brunt” of the “ongoing horror in the Middle East . . . has been born by the Palestinian people.” (Tell that to the Israeli Fogel family – including the 2-month-old baby girl and two little boys who were brutally murdered in their sleep last month by Palestinian terrorists. And tell that to the Chasids returning from praying at Joseph’s tomb two weeks ago, who were gunned down by Palestinian policemen shouting “Allahu Akbar.”)
Kushner also claimed that he is not an extremist, while Jeff Wiesenfeld rightly pointed out that accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” crosses the line and constitutes an extremist blood libel against the Jewish people. Wiesenfeld asked, if Kushner is correct that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, then why are one million Arabs living in Israel, under better conditions than in Arab countries? Mr. Wiesenthal’s statement read:
“All of us on this board have voted for hundreds of honorary degrees since I've been on the board; people of all persuasions, and quite a few critics of Israel. The qualitative difference with Mr. Kushner were his claims that it would have been better had Israel not been created, a denial of Jewish nationhood that he would deny to no other people and his accusations of ethnic cleansing by Israel. The Jewish people and the State of Israel are among the few peoples of the world never to have had a policy of ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing is Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda and the like. The accusation is a blood libel against the Jewish people for which they've paid dearly through history. A million Arabs live in Israel in conditions better than in virtually any Arab state; were they subject to ethnic cleansing like Christians in Arab lands, they would not be there.
As for Mr. Kushner's "support for Israel", I do not know of many people who support Israel and lament her creation, nor do I know too many people who charge her with ethnic cleansing who celebrate her creation. Were Mr. Kushner to renounce just these libelous statements, which cross the line, even I would cast my vote for him. Why? Because then he is like any other critic of Israel, expressing views with which I greatly disagree, but not accusing Israelis in a libelous manner of a universally unforgivable crime.”
Certain groups insisted that Tony Kushner should still be honored, and that Jeffrey Wiesenfeld should be thrown off the CUNY Board of Trustees! According to the respected New York Academy of Sciences: “A campaign against Wiesenfeld has been launched by the PSC-CUNY faculty union, almost entirely dominated by members of the extreme Left, who have never been shy about their anti-Israeli and anti-meritocratic sentiments.” A writer for the Guardian (a paper that is always ready to viciously attack Israel) compared Wiesenfeld and the CUNY Trustee’s vote to the McCarthy era. (No one is impinging on Kushner’s first amendment rights; the vote merely reflected the fact that Kushner does not deserve discretionary accolades for his hateful propaganda.) A one-sided New York Times blog (5/6/11) claimed that the vote stifled “freedom of thought and expression” at CUNY and spoke of Kushner’s supposed “extraordinary talent,” without mentioning any of Kushner’s extreme anti-Israel statements.
Incredibly, pro-Israel former Mayor Ed Koch wrote to CUNY Board Chairman Benno Schmidt, demanding Wiesenfeld’s removal from the Board of Trustees, and demanding that, despite the vote against him, Kushner should receive the honorary degree. Koch stated that Kushner’s personal views should have nothing to do with honoring him, and asked, “What does Kushner receiving an award have to do with criticism of the State of Israel?” (Id.) Similarly, Chairman Schmidt publicly stated that political views were irrelevant to the granting of an award.
Really? Hateful views don’t matter? Would CUNY ever confer an honor on David Duke, even if Duke invented a cure for AIDs? And, here, Kushner is being honored for the same written work which espouses and is permeated by his false and hateful views!
Shamefully, as of the writing of this article, it appears that the Chairman of the CUNY Board of Trustees will capitulate to Koch’s misguided letter and the leftists’ campaign. Chairman Schmidt scheduled a meeting of the 7-member Trustees’ Executive Committee (which he is believed to control) for Monday evening May 9, to apparently overrule the full Board vote and to grant Kushner the award.
I hope our community will support Mr. Wiesenfeld for standing up for what is right. Feel free to write to The New York Times, or to CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein (535 East 80th Street, New York, NY 10075) or Inside Higher Education (on the web) or any other appropriate publication. If a college trustee such as Great Neck’s Jeff Wiesenfeld is removed from his post for refusing to honor an anti-Semite, we are all in trouble.
On Sunday, there was a Support Peter King rally in Manhattan. King is the Republican New York Congressman who is currently conducting hearings into radical Islam in the United States.
Here's Liz Berney, who ran for Congressman Gary Ackerman's seat in November, addressing the rally. I've mentioned Liz many times on this blog.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: David D).
And here's Helen Freedman from Americans for a Safe Israel.
Let's go to the videotape.
I can't believe Marc Schneier thinks he's a Muslim. Oy vey....
I've mentioned Liz Berney - who ran for Gary Ackerman's seat in Congress - several times on this blog, most recently here.
This is from the description of the video you're about to watch:
On January 10, 2011, at an event in Manhattan, Liz Berney expressed to MK Tzipi Hotovely that the 'Palestinian Authority' needs to be accountable for not complying with agreements to stop terrorism, incitement, and collecting illegal arms. Liz Berney also expressed in order for the Americans to really support Israel, that Israel has to take the most aggressive posture possible. This is yet another illustration of Liz Berney's excellent positions and leadership. Liz Berney, a Republican, ran against ultra leftist Gary Ackerman in the NY 5th Congressional District in 2008 and 2010. Ackerman is a strong supporter of the Obama agenda.
While MK Hotovely has some good positions on the issues, one thing she must overcome is her concern about the reaction of the International Community. This is something the vast majority of the 'leaders in Israel' worry about. It's foolish on their part. Leaders of other countries are going to criticize Israel regardless what it does. Hence, why not take a proactive aggressive approach! If Israel follows the blue print of the Creator of the Universe, everything will take care of itself.
At the beginning of the video, the person Liz Berney was referring to is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu. Like 'Bibi', MK Tzipi Hotovely is a member of the Likud party.
Let's go to the videotape.
Liz - the first speaker - obviously gets it. Tzipi Hotovely, who responds to her, is one of our better MK's, and hopefully will get it real soon.
Ackerman's J Street cutoff is a step in the right direction
In an earlier post, I reported that Congressman Gary Ackerman has cut his ties with J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peacepro-Obama lobby.
Liz Berney was the only true Republican to contest Ackerman's seat this past November. Some of you may recall that she was defeated in the Republican primary by a Democrat who was an Ackerman stalking horse. I emailed Liz to get her reaction to Ackerman's announcement. Here's what she wrote back.
This IS good news! I'm very pleased to see that Congressman Gary Ackerman is finally ending his relationship with the anti-Israel J-Street (which raised funds to re-elect Ackerman and endorsed Ackerman's position of pushing for further dangerous Israeli concessions). Congressman Ackerman's relationship with J-Street outraged people throughout our Congressional District.
However, several aspects of Congressman Ackerman's accompanying cut-off statement are of concern. First, we do NOT need any more so-called "aggressive pro-peace pro-Israel" organizations, as Ackerman states. J-Street is not the only culprit, and it is very troubling that Ackerman says that we need more organizations of the same ilk as J-Street. All of these leftist organizations (e.g., Peace Now, Brit Zedek v'Shalom, Israel Policy Forum, etc.) have a history of supporting policies that endanger our ally Israel’s security and continued existence. For instance, Brit Zedek recently defended Palestinian school textbooks, which preach hatred of Jews, Israel and America. These textbooks incite a new generation of Palestinians to continue violent attacks on Israel. The leftist organizations also continue to pursue the flawed "land and more and more concessions for empty promises of peace" model which has been proven time and time again to damage Israel's ability to defend herself (e.g. the Gaza withdrawal resulted in thousands of rocket attacks on southern Israel).
Second, when Ackerman calls Israel's unilateral lifting of hundreds of West Bank security checkpoints and 10-month settlement freeze "gestures of good faith," he misses the point that these "gestures" should never have been made, and were only made as the result of pressure from Obama and his administration (and perhaps due to Ackerman's own comments in Congress criticizing Israel and Israel's much-needed checkpoints). The lifting of checkpoints resulted in Palestinians murdering and injuring Israelis at locations which were previously protected by the checkpoints. The one-sided settlement freeze made life miserable for Israelis (while Palestinians continued to build thousands of homes in the West Bank) and gave the wrong impression that settlements are an obstacle to peace. The real obstacle to peace is continued Palestinian intransigence, terrorism, and determination to destroy Israel.
In addition to cutting ties with J-Street, Congressman Ackerman should also consider donating the money that J-Street raised for his re-election campaign to an organization that assists American and Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism.
In any event, thank you, Congressman Ackerman for taking a step in the right direction.
Elizabeth (Liz) Berney, Esq.
Republican Committeewoman and attorney Liz Berney ran against Ackerman in 2008 and 2010.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
Dear Friends,
