Why Israel Loves Donald Trump

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Luke Ford

If Trump is upsetting to delicate Jewish sensibilities, how come Israelis love him? Maybe Trump is only upsetting to wimpy spoiled Jews. Cucked Jews are upset by Trump. Real Jews, aka Israelis and Orthodox Jews, love Trump.

If Israel wants to kick out its Arabs, do you think Donald Trump would try to stop them? Do you think Israelis who chant “Death to the Arabs” fear Donald Trump?

Politico: This might be the most surprising poll from a wild, unpredictable 2016 campaign: One in four Israeli Jews would vote for Donald Trump.
The real estate mogul does not have a coherent position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, except to break with decades of Republican orthodoxy and announce that he would be “neutral.” His GOP rivals repeated that line endlessly, hoping it would blunt Trump’s rise in the polls. It didn’t.
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His campaign, run in the style of an authoritarian strongman, has earned him sharp criticism from American Jews, the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. And his backers include a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who hopes Trump will “rehabilitate” Hitler’s image, a statement that ought to give pause to anyone in Israel. Indeed, the big question looming over this week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention is just how many delegates will walk out during Trump’s speech.
Yet, a recent poll found Trump was by far Israel’s favorite GOP candidate, and the second-most popular overall. A plurality even thought he would be best at “representing Israel’s interests,” better than Hillary Clinton, with her decades of advocacy at the highest levels of government.
Those numbers could rise further still, after a spate of positive coverage in Israel’s most widely read newspaper, Israel HaYom, owned by billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. After months of scant coverage, the shift is a sign that Adelson—a major force in both Israeli and American politics—is reluctantly embracing Trump.
All of this presents a major dilemma for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has worked for years to align Israel with the GOP. The party’s presumptive nominee is now being spurned by the same establishment figures, men like Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who make up Netanyahu’s “base” in Washington. Trump has no emotional attachment to Israel. And his success has upended the long-held belief that Republican voters care deeply about a candidate’s position on Israel.
In the United States, Trump has scrambled the political map, shattering the decades-old alliance between social conservatives and the Republican economic elite. In Israel, the confusion could become even more acute. Trump has already violated some of the tenets of the “special relationship.” And while his tough-guy persona and hostility toward Muslims have earned him surprising support from Israeli conservatives, his ascent is also a source of unease for policymakers: It creates a schism between an Israel that needs to work with Trump, and American Jews who despise him—and it could end up undermining the marriage between the GOP’s pro-Israel foreign policy elite and the broader Republican electorate.
“The government is in a bind,” says Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak. “Trump in this respect is so unpredictable. If I were advising Netanyahu, or indeed if I were Netanyahu himself, I would shut up for a few months.”

…His negative comments about Muslims don’t hurt him in Israel, either. “The Israeli public is getting everything through the Israeli media in Hebrew, so it’s not like they see everything,” says Tal Schneider, an Israeli political analyst. “They don’t grasp the entire candidate, they just see his anti-Muslim sentiment, and then they say to themselves, ‘ah, obviously we know that, because we live with the Muslims here.’”

Dr. Camil Fuchs, a well-known pollster who worked on the survey, says party affiliation also played a role in the findings. “Clinton is viewed as cooler to the Israel issue” because she’s a Democrat, he says. “Anything Republican is seen as better for Israel.”

…The umbrella organization for Reform Jewry, the largest community in the United States, accused him of “sowing seeds of hatred and division in our body politic.” Jewish commentators from across the political spectrum describe his rallies as “Nuremberg-esque” and accuse him of inciting violence. His views on Israel are barely a tertiary concern; the criticism is about how Trump’s campaign undermines social and political norms…

Trump did endorse Netanyahu before the 2013 election, calling him a “winner,” the highest praise in the mogul’s vocabulary. But Trump’s candidacy appears to have cooled their relationship. Trump announced with much fanfare in December that he would visit Israel after Christmas. Netanyahu, who has mostly kept silent on the election, quickly distanced himself from the candidate, denouncing Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Trump took the hint and cancelled his visit; Israelis suspect he harbors a grudge.
One Israeli journalist who covers Netanyahu half-jokingly imagines the dialogue at the first Trump-Netanyahu meeting: “Listen, you Jew, your slick ways aren’t going to work with this White House,” Trump might warn. “Stop those f**king settlements now.”

…Netanyahu might soon have little choice but to meet with Trump, so the mogul needs a new image amongst the Israeli public. Several observers pointed to the Chicago rally as a turning point: It offered a compelling narrative, a tough right-wing leader besieged by angry liberals, that would resonate with Israelis who resent their own left.

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Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society: As Jews, It’s Now Our Job to Help Other Refugees

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Luke Ford

Do you want more Muslims in your neighborhood?

JNS.org – The Torah reiterates, no less than 36 times, versions of the commandment to love the stranger as ourselves, for we know the heart of a stranger, as we were once strangers in the land of Egypt. The Exodus narrative is not just about the suffering and flight of the Jews, but it delivers a universal message about Jewish commitment to human rights and refugee protection.

HIAS was established 135 years ago to protect refugees — Jewish ones — who were fleeing the pogroms of Czarist Russia. HIAS, which always refers to itself as the “global Jewish non-profit that protects refugees,” is not searching for a new mission. We remain true to the original one of refugee protection. What HIAS has done is moved from its “Exodus” period of our first 120 years, in which HIAS focused on bringing Jews from oppression to freedom, to our “Leviticus” period, in which we fulfill Jewish values and assist refugees of all faiths and ethnicities based on our own Exodus experiences.

The changes to HIAS’s work are not just theologically motivated. They are based on the lessons of history, especially from the Holocaust period when HIAS, the Jewish community, and the world failed to protect the 6 million Jews who perished. The evolution of HIAS is about fulfilling our community’s promise that never again will we permit anything like the Holocaust to happen. What is the most effective strategy for doing this? By acting only when Jewish refugees are in danger, or by constantly advocating for the universal protection of all refugees? HIAS has chosen the latter path.

One reason we failed during the Shoah was that, at that time, the world had no internationally recognized right to flee and seek refuge. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol — heavily advocated by the Jewish community, Israel and HIAS — now provide us with the principles to help ensure that never again will refugees be pushed back into the hands of their persecutors.

We cannot protect ourselves by being only for ourselves. We can only protect ourselves by protecting and implementing universal principles of human rights.

In Washington and in meetings convened by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, HIAS advocates for the US government and the international community to respect the principles of refugee protection that arose from the ashes of the Holocaust. HIAS is already working on five continents to protect refugees of all faiths who have fled ethnic cleansing and other forms of persecution. In addition, we resettle 3,500 refugees each year through our U.S. network, primarily consisting of Jewish Family Service agencies. These partners, like HIAS, have decided to continue programs welcoming refugees even though most refugees whom they now resettle are not Jewish.

And, as you should expect, when there are refugees who are Jewish, HIAS is still there to make sure they receive help. This year, HIAS continues to bring Jews from Iran, the Middle East, Ukraine, and other parts of the former Soviet Union to safety and freedom.

With the largest number of refugees and displaced persons since the Second World War, HIAS’s mission is as relevant as ever. In 1881, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was established to help refugees find welcome, safety and freedom. HIAS has not strayed from that path. Today, HIAS does not help refugees because they are Jewish. HIAS helps refugees because we are Jewish.

Our bubbes would be proud.

Mark Hetfield is president and CEO of HIAS.

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Jewish group on Brussels attacks: ‘Shots at the heart of Europe’

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Luke Ford

Has any group done more than Jews to bring more muslims into the West?

If you find snakes in your bedroom, do you hate the snakes or do you hate those who put them there?

From JTA: Jewish groups expressed shock and anger following a series of attacks that left at least 34 dead in the Belgian capital.
Kenneth Bandler, director of media relations for the American Jewish Committee, linked the attacks to the slaying of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in May 2014.
“What began with the jihadist fatal attack on the Jewish Museum nearly two years ago has now reached the airport and metro,” he wrote in an email about the Tuesday morning attacks in Brussels.
Two explosions at Zaventem Airport, including one by a suicide bomber, killed at least 14 people, and was followed by an explosion at the Maelbeek metro station, where another at least 20 died, the Het Laatste Nieuws daily reported on its online edition.
Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national in his 30s who is said to have fought with jihadists in Syria, is currently on trial in Brussels for the May 2014 museum shooting.
“This is yet another shocking, appalling and deadly attack on innocent Europeans by radical terrorists,” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said in a statement. Kantor called the attacks “shots at the heart of Europe” that he said should galvanize counterterrorist actions.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, in response to Belgium’s participation in the U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said his organization is “united in prayers at this hour with the families of the victims and the injured.”
Goldschmidt called the attacks, whose perpetrators have not yet been publicly identified, the “latest act of war of Islamic fascism against the capital of Europe,” adding: “As in the biblical story of Esther, which will be read in all the synagogues later this week, evil can and will be destroyed only by recognizing it and fighting it.”
Sources from a Belgian intelligence agency said the attacks may have been carried out as revenge for the arrest Friday in Belgium of Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French Islamist whom authorities suspect had a key role in a series of deadly attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November. An unnamed intelligence source told the Het Laatste Nieuws daily that the attacks must have been planned a long time ago but may have been carried out earlier than planned to retaliate for the arrest.

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Why Does Reality Favor Donald Trump?

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Luke Ford

This must scare the Jewish left.

From Breitbart: Billionaire and 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told Breitbart News on Tuesday in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview that in his estimation, the terrorist attack in Brussels, Belgium, proves terrorists are winning the war against the Western world. The Islamic State, or ISIS, has taken credit for the Brussels attacks.

“The terrorists are totally winning,” Trump said in the interview that lasted more than 30 minutes. “The terrorists are making us look like fools.”

Trump continued by noting that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—the Democratic presidential frontrunner who Trump is most likely to face in the general election, assuming he can seal the nomination in the next few months—is likely to be significantly negatively impacted by the rise of terror on the world stage.

“The terrorists will cause Hillary Clinton to lose the election,” Trump said. “She’s weak on borders. She’s weak on crime. She’s weak on anything having to do with controversy other than controversy with herself. She’s weak on the police. She’s weak on anything having to do with strength. Hillary is so weak on the borders, and so afraid to talk negatively about protecting our people, that it will end up costing her the election in my opinion.”

Trump said his previous warning, in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, that Brussels was in danger is why he’s winning in the presidential election.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m leading in the polls by so much,” Trump said.

Trump also bashed the New York Times for mocking him—which it did back in January, over that Bartiromo interview—for making the Brussels prediction.

“The New York Times wrote an article because the New York Times doesn’t have a clue,” Trump said. “That’s why they won’t be in business too much longer. I call them ‘the failing New York Times.’ They wrote a mocking article, and so many people have called me about the New York Times article being so wrong. Brussels is a disaster. Brussels is a tinderbox. Brussels is a place I went to years ago—it was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and totally safe. Now, it’s catastrophic what’s happened to it. Many, many people are saying I was right about so many things. So many things.”

When asked how the United States prevents this type of attack—and prevents the devaluing of western and U.S. culture by installing pockets of non-assimilated people like the community in Stockholm, Sweden, that now is called “Little Mogadishu” from popping up—Trump quadrupled down on his call for a temporary ban on all Muslim migration.

“By not allowing the people in,” he said. “That’s how you prevent it, not allowing the people in. There has to be a moratorium. We have to find out what’s going on. Every city you look at, you take a look at Paris, you take a look at—the police don’t even go into the areas, the police are afraid of the areas. Look at the case of this fugitive. He was the number one fugitive in the world, and he was living right next to where he lived. All of those people knew that he was there and nobody turned him in.”

In Sweden, just this week, 60 Minutes Australia news crews released footage of its trip to Stockholm’s Rinkeby district where young men used a car to run over one of the cameramen’s feet. Police didn’t want to accompany the news crew into the neighborhood, either, as a local political activist walked the television crew through how the migrants from East Africa have a particularly difficult time assimilating into Western culture.

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Geert Wilders: ‘We Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Luke Ford

From Breitbart: Dutch Party For Freedom (PVV) leader and prominent counter-Islamist campaigner Geert Wilders has spoken exclusively to Breitbart London in the aftermath of this morning’s major terror attack and has lamented it is just the beginning of growing Islamist violence.

Mr. Wilders said: “I fear that we ain’t seen nothing yet. According to Europol 3,000 to 5,000 European jihadists, who went to Syria to fight in the ranks of IS and similar terrorist groups, have meanwhile returned to Western Europe. Some of them hid among the hundreds of thousands of Islamic asylum seekers that entered Europe from Asia and Africa.

“Two of last November’s terrorist in Paris had fought in Syria. So had the terrorist who, last August, attempted to attack the high speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. So had the two terrorists who, in January 2015, massacred the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo. So had the terrorist who, in May 2014, shot four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels”.

Belgian police have recently said at least 90 returned fighters from the Islamic State are living at liberty in Brussels, many of them in the infamous Molenbeek neighbourhood. European Commission insider Hermann Kelly told Breitbart Radio this morning he was concerned so many lived just miles from the political capital of the European Union.

Mr. Kelly said: “This is amazing to me that these people can kill people abroad, come here, and then walk free in the centre of Brussels”. On this, Mr. Wilders remarked: “Returned Syria fighters are a huge threat. They are dangerous predators roaming our streets. It is absolutely unbelievable that our governments allow them to return. And it is incredible that, once returned, they are not imprisoned.

“In the Netherlands, we have dozens of these returned jihadists. Our government allows most of them to freely walk our streets and refuses to lock them up. I demand that they be detained at once. Every government in the West, which refuses to do so, is a moral accessory if one of these monsters commits an atrocity.

“The government must also close our national borders. The European Union’s Schengen zone, where no border controls are allowed, is a catastrophe. The Belgian Moroccan Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind of last November’s bloodbath in Paris, travelled freely from Belgium to the Netherlands on multiple occasions last year.

“This is intolerable. Open borders are a huge safety risk. Our citizens are in mortal danger if we do not restore control over our own national borders”.

Speaking earlier today Mr. Wilders lamented that commuters were killed in “cold blood” and said “The cause of all this bloodshed is Islam. We need to de-Islamize the West. That is the only way to safeguard our lives and protect our freedom”.

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