Eric Cantor - American First

Eric Cantor, the House Republican Majority leader, lost his re-election bid. I'm totally fine with that. I am staunchly against his politics and policies. However, what struck me were the two different tones regarding his defeat.

National American media outlets spoke of his job, his history, his campaign, what his loss means to politics in general and the Republicans and Tea Party specifically.

Israeli and local Jewish media outlets spoke about him being the last Jewish republican in the House.

America won and tribalism lost.

This disparate method of framing the conversation, those discussing politics and those discussing religion, reveals why America is great and why tribal logic is so dangerous.

To Americans, Erica Cantor was an American politician. To Jews, mostly around the world as few Jews are present in his district, he was a Jewish politician.

America has shown that assimilation and integration creates equality. Now compare that to Israel - a theocratic, autocratic, semi-democracy, run on the concept of tribalism and at war since its founding because of racial, ethnic, gender, and religious differences.

Everybody Hates the Jews

Thats what Jews say. If ou have a different opinion then you must hate Jews.

Imagine: a US senator states the obvious, America is drowning in debt and is borrowing money from China to give aid to foreign nations. The senator says 'let's not give money to anyone because we are broke.' He didn't say, stop giving money to Israel, or f#* those Jews. He said, let's stop borrowing money to give away to anyone. And what happens? HE HATES JEWS is the outcry.


http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-senate-democrats-reject-tea-party-leader-s-call-to-cut-israel-aid-1.340601


Even the headline from Haaretz and all the other newspapers is completely misleading. He only mentioned Israel when after he said, 'we're broke, we can't afford to keep giving foreign aid.' the first question he was asked was, 'do you mean we should stop giving money to Israel?'

and then the headline becomes: Senator calls to cut aid to Israel. You know why? Because HE HATES JEWS.

How disgusting and perverse.

Israel without America

Pox Americana

The real damage to Israel has come over the years from the special relationship itself.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/pox-americana-1.291381

"Yonatan Touval is a foreign policy analyst with several Israeli NGOs dedicated to advancing final-status agreements between Israel and its neighbors."

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Can Israel survive and even thrive without America as its special friend?

The writer of the above article, Yonatan Touval, makes a point I have heard by many Israelis, that Israel might be better off without America's support. He even goes so far as to confuse nations with actual real people with real emotions.

In every deal with a bank in which I've been involved, the loan officer always talks about the "relationship" between the bank and the client. Try paying your loan on time and perfect for ten years and then going to the bank and telling them that now its their turn to commit to this "relationship." Tell the bank that you need a few months of non-payment to get over some hurdles and see what happens. You won't even be dealing with your original loan officer, they left that bank years ago.

And here, as it pertains to global politics, this writer seems shocked that nations actually have their own best interests at heart and not the sole interests of their "special friend" with their "special relationship."

Are the people in charge of thinking and writing and analyzing these issues really that foolish? 

Does Touval really believe that Israel would survive as any sort of protection for Jews or economic power or force of any sort with the protective cover of a superpower?

Sure now Israel, with Nukes, can offer mutually assured destruction. Great. That's a great long term solution. The fact is that whether it was the French or the USA, Israel has only survived by getting weapons, supplies and money from other superpowers.Unless of course you are religious and believe that God makes miracles. Otherwise, everyone understands that the country with more resources in a war has the best chance of winning. And Israel has been supplied the best by the best.

And on an economic front, does anyone believe that microsoft and google and every other major company would be in Israel without the cover provided by superpowers?

I am not knocking Israel for getting protective cover from superpowers. You do what you have to do. Don't fool yourself into thinking that your past abilities to survive trouble is any guarantee of future success, especially when you want to kick in the teeth of your biggest backer. 

Israel's real problem is people like Touval having any influence on policy. People who take dangerous and emotional and foolish positions because their ego can't handle the idea that Israel actually needed and needs outside support to survive and thrive.