Israel

Richard Nixon (China) And Barack Obama (Iran): Why Not Try Diplomacy Before War?

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Forty years ago, Richard Nixon, a Republican President, took a bold step and went to visit and negotiate with the government of the People’s Republic Of China, better known in America as Communist China or Red China.

We had had no negotiations or dealings with mainland China since 1949, had made a career of demonizing the leadership of that nation, and had made clear that we would defend the island of Taiwan (Nationalist China) at all costs. We had also fought Chinese troops in the Korean War, and had known of Chinese support of the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War, and were still bombing near the Chinese border.

But with all that, Richard Nixon went to China, negotiated trade and travel and cultural exchanges, and opened up our country and China to the promotion of less fear and more diplomacy and understanding in the interests of international harmony and avoidance of war.

Many conservatives bitterly condemned Nixon for going to China, and reversing his own anti Communist stand of twenty five years standing. But Nixon went anyway, and this occurred in an election year. It was statesmanlike and showed Nixon to be a pragmatic man in foreign policy.

Today, in 2012, forty years later, we are on the brink of possible military conflict with Iran, with which we have not had real dealings since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the fall of the Shah of Iran from power. Iran has become a very belligerent state, heavy on rhetoric and threats, similar to what China was for 25 years. In the case of Iran, it is now 33 years since the two nations, in the midst of tensions and stress, have sat down and tried to negotiate differences.

It may seem as if there is very little hope for a breakthrough with a harsh enemy who wishes us ill, but remember that was the same mentality toward China, and even more so, toward the Soviet Union, during the Cold War years, but still Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and even Reagan all agreed to joint meetings, often in each other’s country, and made progress toward coexistence, and to avoid a direct confrontation that would benefit neither side.

So when the Republican candidates for President, conservative talk show hosts, and many others call for war on Iran, and think the idea of negotiations with Iran are fruitless, remember what Richard Nixon, the ultimate anti Communist did forty years ago this week. He went to the enemy and NEGOTIATED, and prevented any conflict with China, a dramatic and significant moment in world history!

It is time for Barack Obama to show courage and statesmanship, and since the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he is ready for diplomatic talks, it is wise to take him up on it, and see if it can go anywhere. If it does not, and war results, at least we will be able to hold our heads high and say we TRIED! Is Ahmadinejad really any worse than Mao Tse Tung, Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev, or Mikhail Gorbachev?

It is not cowardly to agree to talk and negotiate; it is cowardly to refuse to talk and negotiate, with the possibility of avoiding war that neither the United States citizens or Iranian citizens really want. And it would be better for Israel too, if war could be avoided which would likely have a very heavy toll on their citizens, in a country so small in population, it cannot afford to lose even one hundred people in an unnecessary war that MIGHT be avoidable!

An Outrage And Dangerous Concept For Jewish Newspaper Publisher To Even Suggest Obama Assassination!

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It is absolutely shocking and reckless that the publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times suggested that Israel’s Secret Service, the Mossad, assassinate President Obama, because of the belief that Obama is out to harm Israel’s security.

According to Andrew Adler, Israel needed to strike against terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, attack Iran, and assassinate Obama, to insure the safety of Israel.

While backing away from his statement, which many Jewish leaders denounced, it still should lead to a Secret Service investigation against Adler, for advocating violence against our government and President.

And just imagine the horror if such an event were to occur, whether successful or not. It would lead to a national revulsion against the state of Israel, including calling for removal of all foreign aid to that nation; the end of the US-Israeli military alliance; the condemnation by millions of Americans of Israel as a terrorist nation; and the end, forever, of any possibility of the two nations ever working in support of their common goals in the Middle East. It would transform the Middle East and the geopolitical scene in a very destructive manner!

99th Anniversary Of Richard Nixon’s Birth: Anything To Celebrate? YES!

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Today, 99 years ago, Richard Nixon was born in California, and went on to become the most complex, most controversial, most divisive President we have ever had.

There is so much that is negative about Richard Nixon, and more is coming out from the Nixon Library itself, with the Watergate exhibits, and the constant revelations from the Watergate tapes, and the research being done by scholars in political science and history, and by veteran White House journalists, including a recent book in October on his judicial appointments (Kevin J. McMahon) and a scathing attack on his ethics and policy making (Don Fulsom), due out at the end of this month.

So Nixon will never be able to rest easily in the afterlife, so to speak, but since it is his birthday, can we find anything decent to say about his time in office, in the midst of the mountain of evidence of negativism?

Richard Nixon continued to expand on the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, even while claiming to cut back on the economic and social programs of both Democratic Presidents. After all, he signed into law many initiatives that are now opposed by Republicans who would like nothing better than to repeal what he signed into law.

Nixon accomplished the following in domestic policy:

The Environmental Protection Agency
The Consumer Product Safety Commission
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Affirmative Action for Women and Minorities
Appointed Associate Justice Harry Blackmun
Supported the Equal Rights Amendment for Women
Initiated Wage and Price Controls in a time of inflation

He also had the following successes in foreign policy:

Negotiated Detente with the Soviet Union
Began Economic and Diplomatic Ties with China
Supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War

This list of ten accomplishments in no way makes up for the many negatives of the Nixon Presidency, and the damage he did long term to the institution itself.

This post is NOT an attempt to whitewash the Nixon record of horrible abuse of power, just a recognition that the 37th President did have a positive impact in ways worth remembering, a year before the Centennial of his birth, which will NOT be celebrated quite the same as Ronald Reagan’s centennial in 2011, or the future centennial of John F. Kennedy in 2017, or the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln in 2009!

With Ron Paul Having His “Surge” In Iowa, The Investigation Of His Record Begins!

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Texas Congressman Ron Paul has been very appealing to libertarians, and was in fact the Presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1988.

Having run as a Republican for President in 2008, the only repeat candidate along with Mitt Romney, Paul is presently first in some Iowa public opinion polls as the Iowa Caucuses of January 3 get closer.

So Paul is having a “surge”, as earlier Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich have had. Only Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman have not had a “surge’ as the search for the non Romney candidate continues.

So now that Ron Paul is being paid more attention, let us look at the facts about a man who has been around a long time, and has taken positions on all kinds of issues, meaning at least some will be seen in a positive light, depending on the person looking at Paul’s record. But there is plenty to be disturbed about!

But face the facts: There is no way that Ron Paul can be the GOP Presidential nominee, and if he looked as if he was going to be, there would be such a ganging up on him by the Republican Party, which despite its claims, is NOT a libertarian, isolationist party as Ron Paul basically is.

What is objectionable about Ron Paul, in no special order?

1. Ron Paul has in the past, in a newsletter he now disavows, but was under his name, stated racist, anti Semitic, and anti gay statements. While he is not the only Republican to make racist or anti gay statements, the fact that he said them in a newsletter many years ago makes him even more objectionable, since it is harder to refute.

2. Paul is for taking America out of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and all free trade agreements. He is perceived as an isolationist.

3. He is highly critical of Israel, the only Republican candidate to be so, and yet does not see Iran as a threat for the future with the development of nuclear weapons.

4. Paul is for wiping out most government agencies and their bureaucracies, including Education, Commerce, Homeland Security, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Energy. He also would love to eliminate the Federal Reserve Board. None of this is going to happen, no matter what criticisms there might be of these agencies.

5. Paul promotes letting states decide most matters dealt with by the national government, and thinks climate change is a hoax, and advocates stopping interference with religion’s influence in government, including the teaching of intelligent design over evolution.

6. He is a strong believer in pro-life without exceptions; against any government intervention in the environment; any regulation of guns; and any aspect of affirmative action.

7. Paul opposes any kind of amnesty for illegal aliens, any support of any kind for them, and birthright citizenship for their children born in the United States.

8. Paul believes only in excise or sales taxes, and the wiping out of the income tax, and refuses to support any spending programs that create new debts.

Also, a study by a political science journal, The American Journal of Political Science, came to the conclusion that, overall, Paul has the most conservative voting record of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002!

So the attacks on Ron Paul as outside the mainstream, even of the GOP, is rapidly growing!

A Split In The Jewish Community Over Barack Obama

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The Jewish community in America is badly split over supporting Barack Obama for re-election.

The vast majority of Jews seem ready to endorse and back Obama for a second term in the White House, encouraged by his domestic reform initiatives in the tradition of the New Deal and Great Society, and his policies backing the traditional friendship with Israel and insuring its security. The public statements of the Israeli Ambassador to the United States and the Israeli Defense Minister praising Obama also help insure the support of much of the Jewish population, which traditionally votes Democratic since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But two groups break from that sense of positive support of Obama–the Orthodox Jewish community and many wealthy Jewish businessmen and their families who are part of the “one percent”!

These two groups are willing to endorse Newt Gingrich’s statement that the Palestinians are “an invented people”, to wish for an attack on Iran based on its potential threat to Israel and the West (another preemptive act as in Iraq in 2003), and to be opposed to much of the traditional reform programs of the New Deal and Great Society, in their fierce desire to avoid paying more equitable and fair levels of taxation!

The Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in New York City recently was disturbing in seeing that a minority of Jews have a totally different perspective based on their religiosity, and their desire to avoid paying taxes despite their financial success.

Obama received 78 percent of the Jewish vote last time, although John McCain received 80 percent of the Orthodox Jewish vote. This time, Obama will probably get a bit less, which could be decisive in several states in a close election scenario.

Rapidly Worsening Relations With Iran And Pakistan: A Concern For America And The West

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It is ironic that America has fought two wars in the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, both far from decisive, and now the reality is that the nations most to be concerned and worried about are their neighbors, Iran and Pakistan.

Iran has been clearly developing a secret nuclear weapons program, has been supporting Hezbollah and Hamas against Israel, and has become more and more belligerent as sanctions have been utilized against them. They are, in many ways, a much greater threat than either Iraq or Afghanistan ever were. And now, Iranian students have stormed the British embassy, done property destruction, and installed an Iranian flag in place of the British flag, and as the situation unfolds, it reminds one of the American embassy seizure in 1979 under the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Pakistan, which harbored Osama Bin Laden for years, and has had connections to Al Qaeda and the Taliban for a long time, and whose secret service has worked against American interests in Afghanistan, has reacted aggressively against a NATO strike in Pakistan, part of an anti terrorist counteroffensive, by cutting off cooperation in allowing US and foreign forces to use their air space and roads in military operations in Afghanistan.

It is clear that relations with Pakistan are rapidly deteriorating, a dangerous situation since Pakistan has over 100 nuclear weapons, and in the wrong hands, could be utilized against India, or NATO forces in the area.

American Foreign Policy Challenge: The Top Ten Nations

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We live in an uncertain and dangerous world, two decades after the end of the Cold War, and the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Not only is there the threat of international terrorism, whether state sponsored, or outside the state system, but the challenges that various nations present to us are also imposing.

By areas of the world, without ranking, these would be considered the top ten nations that present a challenge to us for the long term.

Europe
The Russian Federation, with its authoritarian leader, Vladamir Putin.

Middle East

Egypt, with its revolution faltering, and the largest nation in population in the Arab world.
Iran, with its sponsorship of international terrorism in the Palestinian territories, and its development of nuclear power.
Israel, with its problems dealing with the Palestinians and terrorism, and alarmed by Iranian influence growing in the Middle East.

Asia

China, with its growing impact on the world economy, and one out of every four people in the world within its borders.
North Korea, with its maniacal leader Kim Jong Il, and his move to develop nuclear weapons that endanger the security of South Korea and Japan.
Pakistan, with its radical Islamic groups, and a deteriorating relationship with the United States, and dangerous because of its possession of nuclear weapons.
India, with the second largest population in the world, and concerned about the threat of its nuclear rival, Pakistan.

Latin America

Mexico, with its growing drug gangs, presenting an imminent threat to the United States border states, and its government unable to cope with promoting law and order within its national boundaries.
Venezuela, with its maniacal leader, Hugo Chavez, and his anti American foreign policy, and friendship with Fidel Castro

In these difficult times, we need a person who understands the world, and again, ONLY Jon Huntsman can truly challenge President Barack Obama and his strong diplomacy under the leadership and advice of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton!

The Myth About Foreign Aid: Rick Santorum, Of All People, Exposes It!

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During the Republican debate on foreign policy Saturday night in South Carolina, Rick Perry said that foreign aid should be zero budgeted, and nations be evaluated as to whether they should gain foreign aid from the United States.

Newt Gingrich seconded what Perry said, and both talked very toughly. And then Rick Perry was caught in a bind when asked if Israel was part of that strict attitude, with him saying that they were a special case.

Then, of all people, Rick Santorum actually said something intelligent for once, that foreign aid was based on American interests, and that to cut off aid would undermine American foreign policy, using the example of Pakistan specifically as his view that we as a nation need to be engaged with that country, and that Pakistan needed to be a friend, to help counterbalance radical Muslims who have influence in that country.

Santorum was absolutely right, and he pointed out today on MSNBC that foreign aid is only about one half of one percent of our national budget, and that we do not give foreign aid to be nice, but rather for our strategic interests, and that it would hurt us if we abandoned foreign aid, much of which is spent in the United States for military hardware by other nations.

So the great myth about foreign aid was again exposed, but this time by a candidate who generally comes across as not very reputable in anything he believes or says–Rick Santorum.

The average American thinks foreign aid is 10-20 percent of our budget, another indication of how ignorant and lacking in knowledge and insights our citizenry is, and how easily manipulated they can be by candidates such as Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, who should be ashamed of themselves!

Republicans Start To Deal With Foreign Policy Finally! First Mitt Romney And Later Jon Huntsman!

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The Republican Party has been busy trashing President Barack Obama and economic problems in America, but has failed to address the world scene and our foreign and defense policy.

Barack Obama has done a masterful job in many ways on the international scene, often seen as his strong point, particularly with dealing with international terrorism, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Many problems, of course, remain, including North Korea, Iran, China and the Middle East crisis. He has also had a masterful Secretary of State in Hillary Clinton!

But the question arises: Do the Republican candidates have any vision of how to deal with the outside world, considering that only former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has had any real expertise, as former Ambassador to Singapore and China?

Well, now, Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts has announced in a speech at The Citadel in South Carolina, what is defined as a “muscular” foreign policy!

Romney calls for:

1. Increased Naval shipbuilding.
2. Strengthening alliances with Great Britain, Israel and Mexico
3. Keeping aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent against Iran
4. Spending more on national missile defense
5. Renewed emphasis on diplomacy and foreign aid to the Middle East
6. Increased diplomacy and trade with Latin America
7. Figuring out how to deal with Afghanistan beyond 2014
8. Devising a national cyber security strategy

Romney calls for a “new American Century”, with aggressive and hawkish foreign policy reminiscent of Ronald Reagan and the two Presidents Bush. This is in contradiction of the Tea Party Movement followers, and the libertarian, isolationist view of Congressman Ron Paul, an opponent in the Republican Presidential contest and his son, Senator Rand Paul, as well as liberal Democrats who want to avoid military conflicts overseas, which Romney seems clear to be unwilling to avoid if it is seen as necessary to assert American power.

Romney’s doubt about working through the United Nations will also turn many off from his strong foreign policy and defense policy statements, and of course, the question will be how the costs of this new, bold foreign policy will be managed in the present budget mess we are facing as a nation!

Next week, Jon Huntsman will enunciate his views, as foreign policy goes from the back burner to the front burner of American politics, as indeed it needs to do. But the question is can Romney or Huntsman convince the American people that Barack Obama has not, overall, been successful in areas of defense and foreign policy?

One thinks that will be difficult to convince the nation over the next year!

33rd Anniversary Of Camp David Accords Between Egypt And Israel: Greatest Accomplishment Of Jimmy Carter Now In Danger Of Being Lost!

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Today marks the 33rd Anniversary of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, brought about by intense negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, presided over by President Jimmy Carter.

Over ten days at Camp David, President Carter accomplished what is seen as his greatest deed in office in foreign affairs: a peace treaty between two nations who had been in a state of war for 30 years; recognition of the state of Israel by the first Arab nation to do so; and movement toward return of territory gained by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

This was a greater accomplishment than just what has been listed, as realize that President Sadat had warred against Israel less than five years earlier in the Yom Kippur War of October, 1973!

The result was more than thirty years of good relations and peace through difficult times for Israel with its other Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, three years under Sadat until he was tragically assassinated for that treaty on the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War in October, 1981; and then for almost thirty years under his successor, Hosni Mubarak, until his overthrow from power earlier this year as part of the Arab Spring revolts against established authority in Arab nations in the Middle East.

Just a week ago, an attack by Egyptians against the Israeli embassy in Cairo led to a call from President Barack Obama to the Egyptian authorities demanding protection of the embassy and safe passage for Israeli diplomats, this done after an appeal from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the fact of gradual deterioration of Egyptian-Israeli relations is very troubling, and one can wonder IF the Camp David Accords will survive to its 34th anniversary!