Remember Bibi – you are only mortal

I WOULD HAVE loved to have been a fly on the wall of the Oval Office when Bibi Netanyahu had  finally been crowned the winner of the Israeli general election. The hugging-loving, golf-addicted, narcissist  president who now manages the affairs of the United States, and, God help us all, the world as well; must have been cursing the Gods when Bibi foiled his ambition to get rid of him via his interference in Israel's election.

               

                Sky News, and the BBC, were (using the Israeli exit polls) insisting it was neck and neck between the two candidates; and when Bibi Netanyahu appeared in front of the cameras to declare himself victor 'somewhat prematurely' they thought; the media must have thought he was attempting some kind coup. For such a declaration went against what they were telling their viewers in the desperate hope that the Left might still find a way of forming a coalition following the tight result they were predicting.

                

                 As it turned out Netanyahu, in terms of the Israeli system of proportional voting, achieved against every expectation from Western liberals – a landslide. Even if it only meant 30 seats: Likud can now govern comfortably with other centre-right parties.

                

                If you believe the liberal spin; the moment when Netanyahu made a final appeal to his voters on the eve of the poll, was the turning point. Why so? Well, because he warned his Likud constituency, and the other right of centre constituencies, that the Arab vote was being mustered to help keep a Likud coalition from office. Harretz, the left-wing Israeli equivalent to the  Guardian, was also reporting the same news independently of, and before Netanyahu's final appeal. But when Netanyahu warned his own voters of the same  news, he was called a racist.

                

                The Arab-Israelis account for 20% of the population and could therefore have had a significant impact on any Left of centre coalition if the Left had won the 30 seats the Likud Party achieved. Bibi Netanyahu knew this and he did what any shrewd politician would have done in similar circumstances (although, admittedly, there are very few circumstance to be compared to Israel's); he rallied his troops like Henry at Agincourt. He had earlier addressed the American Congress with a brilliant précis of the threat to the West, as well as Israel, of Iranian nuclear ambitions.

                

                 His speech to Congress was Churchillian in its analysis; comparable to the great man's warnings in the UK parliament of the rise of Hitler in the 1930's. Like Bibi Netanyahu, Churchill was seen as a warmonger by his political enemies for forewarning of the danger to democracy of Hitler's rise to power. In this imaginary comparison I would place President Obama alongside Neville Chamberlain. At least Chamberlain was probably driven by memories of the First World War, and no doubt these played a part in  his judgement when it came to Hitler - but Obama has no such memory to excuse himself from trusting Iran.

ISRAEL, ALTHOUGH MANY on its Left cannot admit to it, is a country currently surrounded by enemies who wish the Israeli state dead and buried; and what after-ward will be left of the Jews, will be driven out and once more back into the Diaspora (ala Obama). The Palestinians want the territory that is Israel for their own. They want the Jews out – but the Western liberals chose to ignore the inherent racism of such an ambition; yet continue to support such an ambition: and they do so without realising that they themselves are racist in the true sense of the word by supporting such a manoeuvre. The liberals only hide behind a two state solution to justify their attack upon Israel. When however Hamas start landing its rockets onto Israeli soil and Israel has to respond for the sake of their own people's survival; the Western liberals go into disproportionality mode whenever Israel is forced to respond in the most effective they know way of defending their people.

                

             Bibi Netanyahu is Right-wing – and so what? Churchill was considered Right-wing; and in the mid 1930's was meeting the same response to his warnings  of the rise of Nazism in Germany as Netanyahu is meeting today over his warning to Congress about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

               

             The Israeli liberal opposition sought a trouble-free way  to a negotiated two state solution; when there is no such effortless way out. The Palestinians are determined to see the Jews evicted from the Middle East. If you do not believe it then read the Palestinian web-sites – particularly Hamas's.

THE STATE OF Israel is an unconditional entity. A Jewish state is as bona fide as, if not more so, than the United States of America who replaced their native Indians, in a kind of mini-holocaust, with the detritus from Europe over centuries to help make the modern USA.

               

                Israel has as much right to exist on this planet as any other nation: indeed far more so than those who, through colonialism, laid claim to the world – including America. The Jews were the original settlers of Judea. The wailing wall in Jerusalem was not constructed by Palestinians.

               

               Ancient Judea was ruled by who else but the Jews. The Jews are the rightful residents of ancient Judea, which is now part of modern Israel.

PRESIDENT OBAMA hoped that the liberal opposition to Likud would have won out. He could have then orchestrated a two-state solution with a friendly, and he hoped, easily manipulated, Left of centre Israeli government who he could have used his undoubted rhetorical ability upon to flatter; and  who he hopefully could have settled the long serving conflict between Palestinians and the Jews; and  thus by doing so helped transform his presidency into such greatness; that it could only be comparable to  that of Abraham Lincoln.

                

                Obama won his presidency on his undoubted gift for rhetoric. But words can only go so far. They may get him past the first hurdle into the White House; but when it comes to  praxis far more is required than Obama was able to deliver . He is a wordsmith; a rhetorician of the first mould and a showman. But he is not a practitioner of the political arts; just a rhetorician.

                

                 Bibi Netanyahu  is a master of the political game – and if Obama had, instead of removing the bust of Churchill from the Oval Office, had, like Bibi, studied the great man, he may not have found himself moping in the Oval Office today.  

                

                 Obama is first and foremost, America's first black president - this was his first ambition; because whatever he did afterward, this would have readily given himself his place in American presidential history  – even if he spent the majority of his time on the golf course during his second term; leaving the world to fend for itself.