Obama exits – Trump enters…writes Michael Kuttner
As Barak Obama leaves the White House and Donald Trump takes up residence, self-proclaimed liberals still cannot accept reality.
These champions of liberty and freedom have taken to the streets not only in Washington but also across America and the world to demonstrate against the elected President. Writhing in self-righteous indignation, disparate groups have undertaken a campaign to declare the recent election results as illegitimate and its winner an illegitimate leader. Representing a cross-section of every imaginable sector of society and encouraged by a generally biased and unbalanced media these guardians of “progressive” political correctness still do not understand why Hillary was rejected.
Michael Kuttner
Those of us living in Israel who face delegitimisation campaigns on a daily basis can only look on in amazed bemusement. When Menachem Begin won the elections against the odds back in 1977 and broke decades of socialist party domination, the same combination of progressive liberals demonstrated and wailed. The same forecasts of doom were shouted out at demonstrations by those who could not accept the will of the electorate. The media although stunned at first by their massively miscalculated predictions soon performed according to the leftist script and proceeded to undertake a script of undermining those whom the majority had chosen.
Today the traditional established media finds itself under threat as social media bypasses their efforts to censure and present slanted news. This is what Donald Trump discovered and used so effectively to reach masses of citizens already turned off by the blatant bias of editors and journalists in mainstream newspapers.
This is also the weapon which Israel must employ in order to reach millions of people whose exposure to the daily drip feed of unbalanced news is having such toxic results.
One of the first results of the refreshingly wind of reality now emanating from the White House is the acknowledgement by the new Administration of the threat of Islamic terrorism. For the first time in eight years these words have been rescued from the excommunicated territory to which they had been banished. In his inauguration speech, President Trump stated loud and clear that this posed a mortal danger to not only Americans but also democratic societies worldwide. One cannot fight against evil until one recognises exactly what it is. Obama then and European leaders today by failing to acknowledge what really motivates Islamic terror prefer instead to blame everyone and everything else for its rise and spread.
Thus, it is far easier to blame Israel and the convenient bogey of settlements rather than a belief system which considers non adherents to be infidels for promoting terror. Just as it has always been easier to blame the Jews for the plague and black death and invent conspiracy theories so today it is the cop-out option to blame the Jewish State for the death and destruction now ravaging the Middle East and threatening Europe. By ignoring the real cause of terrorism, refusing to tackle it at its source and failing to punish its promoters, Obama and fellow leftists have contributed to its spread.
A clear proof of this failed and disastrous policy can be exemplified by the Iranian nuclear deal. Flush with billions showered on it by a shameless Administration and mendacious international community Iran is funding the activities of terror groups and developing technology to deliver weapons of mass destruction against Israel and others. Very few if any of those marching in Washington and elsewhere give a moments thought to these facts.
It is not only the Iranians who have benefited from the last eight years of fatally misguided policies initiated by the progressives of this world.
The corrupt and terror facilitating Palestinian Authority has also been a major beneficiary. The billions of foreign aid which have poured into the bottomless coffers of the PA have not been utilised for resettling refugees or improving the lives of citizens. Instead, salaries and pensions have been paid to terrorists and their families and whatever was not siphoned off has been squandered for other nefarious purposes.
The latest scandal came to light this week as it was revealed that in the last few hours of their Administration as Obama and Kerry were literally exiting the White House and State Department they issued instructions for another $221 million to be sent to Ramallah. Authorising this bonanza of American taxpayers’ money flies in the face of a Congressional decision to withhold such payment until strict safeguards can be guaranteed that the funds will be used in a more accountable manner. The fact that the departing President and Secretary of State defied Congress and secretly authorised this transfer as they walked out the door, illustrates their disastrously flawed and failed agenda.
In some sort of reality check the State Department apparently cognisant of a new wind blowing from the Trump White House has put a stop to the actual transfer until further investigations can be made.
Meanwhile, in the face of threats of Arab mayhem and murder, the EU true to form, issues more condemnations of Israel. The incredible aspect of this obsession is that on International Holocaust Day they will all solemnly assemble and memorialize murdered Jews while hypocritically ignoring the fatal consequences to living Jews if ever their current campaign against the Jewish State was to succeed.
It is early days yet but we can only hope that the new decision makers in Washington will cause some serious rethinking in Europe. The time has arrived when Europe and the UN are finally made to suffer the consequences of their ongoing double standards.
Maybe we will at last witness reality trumping hypocrisy.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
