Road side signs of the plastic type on short wire frames are popping up all over the place – a fair number during the Primary last month but exploding in number as the election draw neigh. Being a news / political junkie, I pay attention to them: whose signs are placed where, are they Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or other? Have they put out a single or a string of signs? Are they “one in a flock”
And then, once in a while, you get the kids’ game of “which is not like the others?” Like this one which I was a bit surprised to see it amongst another proper candidate signs.
Now to be honest, a lot of folks during the campaign season have asked, given the deficit spending that the Obama Administration has been doing, why don’t we just stop ALL spending on other countries. OK, I “get” that – no discrimination; we cut everybody off.
But the anti-Israel / Pro-Palestinian / Pro-Hamas / Pro-Hezbullah movement is discriminatory. It has learned from the race baiters in this country (e.g., Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and of course (given the latest video to surface), Obama and his Pastor Jeremiah Wright). It knows that if it can win the PR war, Israel is cooked. The Palestinians (and their Arab / Muslim backers) are not out for a separate Palestinian State.
You have to realize that Israel is our biggest ally in that region and the only truly functional democracy in the same vein as ours. Yes, we give them a lot of foreign aid – but we also give the Palestinians a lot of aid as well – but that message and amount is rarely discussed. Since 2008, we have averaged about $600 million / year exclusive of the funds given to the UN that make it to the Palestinian (the PA and Hamas, the latter a terrorist organization with ties to Iran) and close to $4 billion overall since the 90s (from the Congressional Research Service):
As you can see, since Obama took office, aid to the Palestinians has soared – they are not being ignored. Given the slights that he has given to the State of Israel and its leaders, few believe him or his minions when it is proclaimed that Obama has been the biggest friend of Israel ever.
Now, unlike Egyptian born Mona Eltahawy who decided to silence the free speech of others by claiming her right to free speech allowed her to deface signs in the NY Subway system, I left them there. The answer is offensive and vile speech is always more and better speech, calling it out for what it is, so I left it there.
But decided to speak up. Given current events, it is a badly disguised version of anti-Semitism.
