Election Letter to my American Friends

Election Letter to my American Friends

By Sherwin Pomerantz

My fellow Americans, on Tuesday, November 6^th you will go to the polls to elect, among others, the president and vice-president of the United States for the next four years.  I urge you to vote against the re-election of President Obama because, in my opinion, he has not earned the right to be re-elected as he is neither good for the US nor Israel. 

On the US side it is abundantly clear that Americans are surely not any better off today than they were four years ago.  Some examples:

·         Fuel prices have quadrupled;

·         Unemployment continues to hover around 8% (and it is only that low because so many people have opted out of the work force altogether);

·         The national debt is now over $16 trillion ($51,600 for every man, woman and child in the US), 60% higher than it was when Obama was elected;

·         15.7% of Americans are living in poverty, the highest number in the last 50 years.

As such, does he merit re-election?

From a foreign policy standpoint, the president and his advisors have clearly demonstrated that they do not have a coherent approach to the issues at hand.  For example, in spite of the president’s attempts at pacifying the Muslim world by regularly apologizing to them on behalf of America, the level of respect for the US among Muslim countries is at low ebb.   US embassies are attacked, diplomats are killed, the US flag is burned and anti-American riots are commonplace.  America’s reluctance, under Obama, to support those who demanded regime change in Iran, or the rebel fighters in Syria or initially the anti-Mubarak protesters in Egypt have convinced the Muslim street in this part of the world that American leadership is vapid.  And, sadly, so it is.

As such, does he merit re-election?

As for those of us living in Israel, the re-election of President Obama makes most of us fearful of the next four years.  In principle a second term US president always has the potential of being bad for Israel as that person harbors no concern about the politics of re-election.   However, even more so in this case, when Obama is perceived here as being, at best, neutral on Israel’s survival and, at worst, actually anti-Israel. 

For sure everyone will say, and it is true, that strategic security cooperation between Israel and the US has never been stronger, and that is true.  But such cooperation results from a confluence of strategic interests and is generally not dependent as much on who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.   The president’s words of support for Israel notwithstanding, my sense is that 95% of Americans living here and voting, as well, in the US, are not comfortable with Obama as a second term president.

Even Obama’s former Harvard Law Professor, Roberto Ungar, who was squarely in the president’s corner four years ago now says that the “president must be defeated in 2012” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160715/Obamas-Harvard-law-professor-Roberto-Unger-says-defeated-2012.html). 

Most of Prof. Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.  And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr. Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.  Prof. Unger argues: “He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.”  He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims “to put a human face on the program of its adversaries”.  The professor concludes by saying: “Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.”

The saddest aspect of this whole election, of course, is the fact that the alternative is hardly the best America can offer.  But, as happens more often than not these days, we tend to vote against a specific candidate rather than for the opposition. 

In a word, America cannot any longer afford Obama nor can the world afford an America that does not lead. 

44 years ago, Hubert Humphrey, the 38^th Vice President of the US said “For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, (and) the power to bring time to an end.” That statement is even truer today than it was then.  I don’t believe that the current president has earned the right to another four years at a time in world history where, once again, we stand at the brink of the apocalypse.

On November 6^th, do the right thing, please for the sake of all of us!   

Breaching the Public Trust…Is There a Recovery?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

Israel’s current parliament voted itself out of existence this week in the run-up to elections which are now scheduled for January 22^nd.  The Prime Minister, unable to patch together sufficient support to pass a budget decided this was the only way to solve the problem and, having sufficient votes to move in that direction, the die is now cast.  In reaction and in preparation for the elections, some interesting events have taken place this week.

Item

The Shas party, which represents the political wing of the Sephardi orthodox community whose philosophical head is the venerable Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, has decided to revamp its leadership.  Where for the past few years Deputy Minister and Minister for Internal Affairs Eli Yishai has headed the political arm of the party, in the coming election the leadership will be shared among three people.  Yishai will be one, Housing Minister Ariel Attias will be the second, and Aryeh Deri will be the third.

You may remember Deri’s name.  In 2000 he was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes, committing fraud and breach of public trust while serving as Interior Ministry and was given a three year jail sentence as his punishment.  He was released in 2002 after serving 22 months with time off for good behavior.   Current polls show that the position of Shas in the next government will be strengthened by the addition of Deri to the ticket, the same Deri who was earlier convicted of a breach of the public trust.

Item

Former Prime Minister and former Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert has also announced that he is thinking about running for Prime Minister again in the next election at the head of a new centrist party and has just agreed to cooperate with former Kadima head Tzipi Livni as well.  They have also agreed not to compete with each other.

You will also remember Olmert.  He was forced from power a few years ago when there were suspicions that he had misused the power of his office for his personal benefit.  He was tried and the court also found him guilty of breach of trust but, somehow or other was given a relatively light sentence and fined somewhat less than $18,000 and a one year suspended sentence.  The state prosecutor, incensed at the light sentence, is considering an appeal on behalf of the state of Israel.

Current polls show that a centrist party headed by Olmert, the same Olmert convicted of breach of the public trust, might edge out the Likud party headed by Bibi Netanyahu.

Item

On Tuesday of this week Jerusalem police arrested Anat Hoffman, the leader of Women of the Wall, a group that defends the right of women to pray at the Western Wall. Her offense?  She was leading a group of women [many of whom were in Israel to celebrate Hadassah’s 100th Year anniversary] in the public vocal recitation of the Shma, the twice daily reaffirmation of our allegiance to God and his laws.  The official charge was “singing out load at the Kotel and disturbing the peace.”

As a result, she was kept in jail overnight in a cell with a prostitute and some other low life, had to sleep on the floor and was passed food on a tin plate under the door at feeding time (her description of the time there).  She was finally released the following morning and ordered to stay away from the Western Wall for 30 days.

Anat Hoffman served for 14 years as a member of the Jerusalem City Council and is the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal and advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel.  The Women of the Wall Group which she heads has been battling for many years for the right of women to pray publicly at the Western Wall wearing tallitot (i.e. prayer shawls) along with a number of other issues the group considers critical to religious life in a democracy.

The courts earlier deemed it impermissible for women to wear men’s tallitot at the Western Wall just as it supports the equally insane law that makes it illegal for Jews who ascend the Temple Mount to actually pray there, lest our Arab cousins be offended.

Conclusion

Looking at all that has happened in this space over the past week, I don’t think it is a stretch to conclude that a country that permits people who have been convicted of breach of the public trust to re-enter national politics (and even have a reasonable chance of “going for the gold”) while arresting a fellow Jew for reciting the Shma out loud at the Kotel or preventing any Jews from praying on the Temple Mount, has totally lost its moral compass.

This is a time in world history where we are actively engaged in moral conflicts on so many fronts.  As such it behooves all of us not to remain silent in the face of such outrageous acts.

Martin Luther King Jr. had it right when he said “The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”   

  

Even When the Arabs Benefit From Us They Can’t Say So

By Sherwin Pomerantz

It is always amazing to me that the depth of the Arab world’s unhappiness with our presence in this part of the world makes it impossible for them to recognize the benefits that some Arab governments have received as a direct result of our being here.

A case in point is the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) which exist in both Jordan and Israel as a result of the peace agreements we signed with both countries and through the cooperation, as well, of the United States government.

In principle, the QIZ concept developed during the Clinton-Rabin years, allows for products manufactured in both countries to be exported to the US duty free as long as there is a small percentage of the product with “Israeli content.”  So, for example, Standard Textile Inc. of Cincinnati produces hospital linen in their plant in Jordan.  The fabric is cut in their factory in Israel then shipped to Jordan for finishing, where the operational costs are significantly lower than they are here in Israel.  The Jordanians then get to export these garments with a “made in Israel” label so that they can enter the US duty free in accordance with the terms of the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Israel.

This is all a bit less important today than it was when it was implemented as now Jordan also has a free trade agreement with the US.  But statistics a year ago showed that fully a third of Jordan’s exports came from the QIZs located there.

A similar situation exists in Egypt, which does not have a Free Trade Agreement with the US and, thus, needs the QIZ framework to be able to export products to America duty free.  
According to multiple press reports this week, Egypt’s Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Hatem Saleh said that Egypt wants to lower from 10.5% to 8% the value of Israeli content required in goods made in QIZs that receive duty-free treatment when shipped to the United States. Egypt’s economy is continuing to struggle in the wake of last year’s popular uprising and Saleh said amending the QIZ agreement would provide an economic benefit to Egypt’s raw materials sector. Press sources note that about 700 factories in Egypt are currently operating in 15 designated QIZs, employing some 100,000 workers, mostly in textile and apparel production.

Now isn’t it amazing that one never hears about this at all from the leadership of Egypt (or Jordan for that matter)?  This is the same Muslim Brotherhood leadership that saw fit to go to the UN two weeks ago and suggest, as President Morsey did, that the Egypt-Israel peace treaty should be re-examined because Israel has not kept to its side of the bargain and Egypt has not received any benefit from the peace with Israel.  Really?  No benefit?  700 factories operating there employing 100,000 people and that does not constitute a benefit?  In Jordan a third of the country’s exports come from the QIZs there and they too can say there is no benefit from the peace treaty?

I attended the Global Business Conference at the invitation of US Secretary of State Clinton in Washington in February.  At one meeting I was sitting with the Jordanian representative on my right and the Egyptian representative on my left.  When the subject of QIZs surfaced, neither one of them wanted to acknowledge the Israel connection or the fact that this was a significant benefit of the respective peace treaties.  It was only after four or five attempts by me that the Jordanian rep finally admitted the facts to the surprise of everyone in the room.

It is one thing to be nationalistic and take pride in one’s country but it is something else altogether to totally disregard positive facts simply because they don’t fit in to the government’s anti-Israel rants.  I have no doubt that the 100,000 people working in those 700 factories in Egypt and their compatriots in similar situations in Jordan are very happy with the fact that those countries made peace with Israel as it has put food on their individual tables and guaranteed a better future for their children.  So sad that their leadership cannot acknowledge it as well.

(For those who are reading this in the US, perhaps this should be called to the attention of your congressional delegations as well for use when they consider renewing US benefits to the current Egyptian government.)