NETANYAHU: Facing me, right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this august chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land. And before the people of Israel entered the land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today. (speaking Hebrew) "Be strong and resolute. Neither fear nor dread them." My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength, and hope. May God bless the state of Israel, and may God bless the United States of America.
RUSH: Okay, so we've had all the meaningful, relevant Netanyahu sound bites and we've highlighted Obama's reaction to it, which is angry and petulant and feeling put upon, all of which is understandable. We've had Netanyahu acting like the leader of the free world. Netanyahu is a perfect example of a foreigner coming here to do the jobs Americans won't do. How about that? Benjamin Netanyahu, a perfect example of a foreigner coming here to do the jobs Americans won't do. In this case, behaving like a president, which is exactly what he did.
If you haven't see the Netanyahu speech, watch it. It's worth an hour of your time to see a leader address the Congress. It's been so long.
Now from Legal Insurrection, one of my favorite blogs,is an examination at the Anti-Semetism sweeping higher education. Here are the highlights:
...Israel’s first crime is that it is a Western nation. In the minds of Israel’s critics, to be Western is to be suspect, especially when your country is juxtaposed with non-Western nations. Israeli actions are confused with colonialism by those who erroneously insist that, to this day, imperialism drives relations between Western and non-Western peoples. To attack Israel is to give non-Westerners a leg up in these supposedly colonial interactions.
Israel’s second offense is that it is pro-American. It is little surprise that Israel’s fiercest opponents are also militant critics of the United States. They deride America’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as modern-day imperialism and look forward to a day when America will be forced to relinquish its superpower status.
Because Israel and America have such strong links, Israel is tarred as a mere instrument of America’s supposedly nefarious interests abroad. Bashing Israel is just their way of expressing contempt for the policies of the United States, and as such serves as an outlet for virulent anti-Americanism. They treat the Jewish State as America in the Middle East.
Israel’s third “flaw” is that it is economically and politically successful. To far-left academics, students and activists, success must necessarily come at the expense of others. They adhere to the discredited, primitive notion that development is a zero-sum game. If someone becomes rich, someone else must have been made poor as a result. To them, accomplishment is synonymous with an oppressor status.
Palestinians serve as the victim in Israel’s success story.
As Israel became wealthier — thus supposedly freeing itself from the “oppression” of relative poverty — it increasingly became the villain, the persecutors of the unfortunate Palestinians. Ironically, this perspective degrades the Palestinians by treating them as mere victims rather than historical actors capable of exercising their own judgment and taking control of their own future.
A point on this. Israel has received billions in aid over the decades but for that you have a first world nation in the middle of third world hell holes. Kinda like the one good looking house in the middle of da hood where an old couple actually take care of their house. But the PLO and PLA (or whatever it's called this week) has also received billions over the decades and the Palestinians have what to show for it? They live in tents, don't have running water or flushing toilets. They live in squalor and Arafat (and his successors) live in five star hotels. From 60 Minutes, not exactly "the vast right wing conspiracy".
Arafat's Billions: One Man's Quest To Track Down Unaccounted-For Public Funds
Yasser Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to insure his political survival, but a lot more is unaccounted for.
Jim Prince and a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry - are combing through Arafat's books. Given what they've already uncovered, Arafat may be rethinking the decision. Lesley Stahl reports.
"What is Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority worth today?" asks accountant Jim Prince. "Who is controlling that money? Where is that money? How do we get it back?"
So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion -- with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.
Now we go on.
And finally, of course, Israel is Jewish. Casting aside all pretense that they could distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, a South African student union recently voted to expel its Jewish students for being Jewish, adding that this expulsion applied especially (but not exclusively) to “Jews who do not support the Palestinian cause.”
This typical anti-Semitic scapegoating demonstrates that opposition to Israel is often driven by the ancient anti-Semitic belief that Jews ought to be denied the right to self-determination and rendered permanently stateless. Attacking Israel is a convenient way for anti-Semites to target Jews while simultaneously reinforcing their supposedly “progressive,” anti-Zionist label.
Whenever I discuss the ongoing vilification of Israel, I am usually met with the same questions: Where are the protests against Israel’s immediate neighbors? Why is there no talk of the repression of gays and women throughout the Middle East, or of modern-day slavery and gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia? And are these self-appointed moralists aware of China’s occupation of Tibet, Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus or Morocco’s occupation of the Western Sahara?
The answer? Those countries aren’t Israel.
Very well said Julius Kairey, very well said.
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