January 9, 2008
Steve Collins
President-Elect Obama was advised this week by the writers in Newsweek Magazine’s January 12, 2008 issue to “Get Tough With Israel.” This is especially worth noting as Newsweek Magazine is so dominated by members of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) that it is practically the weekly magazine of the CFR. For example, CFR- and Trilateral Commission-Board Member Fareed Zakaria is a regular columnist and featured-article writer for Newsweek. CFR President Richard Haass also writes Newsweek articles, including the featured article in the November 3, 2008 issue of Newsweek (“The World that Awaits [Obama]”). In the 1-12-09 issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria praises the late-Samuel Huntington, who wrote a very seminal piece in the Summer, 1993 issue of Foreign Affairs (the bi-montly publication of the CFR) entitled “The Clash of Civilizations?” which predicted the inevitability of conflicts between Western and Islamic civilizations. When the CFR speaks, even Presidents are expected to listen.
I should also state that I am not a knee-jerk xenophobe who believes the CFR is a conspiratorial “shadow government,” as some have alleged. Indeed, it is clear that some CFR writers are brilliant analysts. Some articles in the CFR publication (like Samuel Huntington’s) prove to be quite prescient. That is why Foreign Affairs and Newsweek are on my list of “must read” items. However, having said that, it is also clear that the CFR has a brazenly obvious agenda: promoting a globalist agenda. One would have to be a blind soul, indeed, not to see this agenda. In my opinion, the CFR speaks for the “unelected” establishment of world leaders. In their publications and articles, they advise or instruct the elected leaders concerning the globalist agendas that the CFR wishes them to pursue and implement. The CFR usually, but not always, gets its way in world geopolitics.
It is in the above context that this blog is devoted to examining the “advise” given to Obama in the 1-12-09 issue of Newsweek Magazine. Their “advise” should be of major concern to all those who are friends of the Israeli nation. The featured article is “A Plan of Attack for Peace” by Daniel Klaidman. Another article, by Aaron David Miller, is entitled “If Obama is Serious” in the print version of Newsweek, but the website version of this article includes a subtitle “Get Tough With Israel.” The article writers set forth an argument that peace in the Mideast must be obtained not by “getting tough” with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic extremists who want to kill off the Israeli nation and rain missiles down on Israeli civilians, but, rather, by “getting tough” with the Israelis who are trying to defend themselves against that malignant threat.
Mr. Klaidman advises that Jerusalem be divided as it “must serve as a capital to both states,” (i.e. Israeli and Palestinian states) and note my emphasis on the word “must.” He calls for “a NATO-based international force in the West Bank that would later transfer control to the Palestinians” (emphasis added). He further suggests that Jerusalem’s Old City become a “Holy Basin” which would be “placed under international supervision.” He appeals to another suggestion which appeared in print in the CFR magazine, Foreign Affairs, regarding the “refugee problem,” and then makes an assertion which almost drips with guile. This statement is: “…many Israelis and American Jews hope Obama will be willing to deliver the sort of tough love to the Israelis that Bush…refused to do for eight years.” This statement gives an impression that a majority of “Israelis and American Jews”‘ want Obama to get tough on the Israelis instead of the Palestinians. Mr. Klaidman’s statement may not be a falsehood because he used the emphasized word, many, not the word “most” in his assertion. To be truthful, I think one could state that “most Israelis and American Jews” would actually prefer that Obama get tough with the Palestinians and make them face the reality that Israel is “here to stay” and that the Palestinian refugees will have to become permanent citizens in Arab nations. Mr. Klaidman firmly states that Obama “…must be willing to pressure the next Israeli Prime Minister to make difficult concessions.” Notice the emphasized word “must” again. Mr. Klaidman is getting rather “bossy” toward Obama, I would observe. At some point President Obama might resent being told by unelected people what he “must” do when he is in office. On the other hand, he may end up doing exactly what he is told that he “must” do. Mr. Klaidman further calls for the Israelis to cede “a land corridor connecting Gaza to the West Bank…for the free flow of [Palestinian] people and commerce…” Sheesh! Is Mr. Klaidman trying to be the new Palestinian negotiator? He wants all the tough concessions to be made by the Israelis–he does not call for these to be balanced by tough concessions by the Palestinians. Mr. Klaidman’s “advise” (if implemented) would give to the Palestinians via outside “pressure” what they could not possibly hope to ever win by warfare. He asks that in order to spare a possible Palestinian state the pain of being physically divided, the Israeli state should be physically divided. Make no mistake: If such a “corridor” comes into existence, the Palestinians will soon claim sovereignty over it.
Mr. Miller’s companion article (which has the tougher subtitle on the website version) also states “…the days of America’s exclusive ties to Israel may be coming to an end…the new administration will have to be tough, much tougher than either Bill Clinton or George W Bush were…” Notice again the imperative tone of the “advise” given to Obama. Why shouldn’t Obama be advised to get “much tougher” on the Palestinians to abandon their fantasies about killing off the Israeli nation?
A third article in the 1-12-09 issue (“Israel’s Arabs are the Answer”) openly meddles in the pending internal Israeli election by urging the leftist Israeli bloc of parties to include the Arab parties in a governing coalition–something never previously done in Israeli politics. Such radical “advise” is given by the CFR-friendly Newsweek writers because they dread the possibility of an Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a tough-minded leader who would take positions that are actually in the interest of the Israelis–an attitude the globalists do not want in an Israeli leader.
Watch closely the outcome of the February Israeli elections. If Netanyahu wins, expect him to take a more hard-line pro-Israeli approach in governing than the current Israeli leaders. Indeed, a cynic would be tempted to observe that the current Israeli invasion of Gaza was as much motivated by the desire of the current leftist Israeli leaders to forestall a Netanyahu victory as by the need to protect Israeli civilians who routinely run for cover due to Hamas rocket attacks. If Netanyahu loses, expect an Israeli coalition to take office which will pretty much implement what the CFR-friendly Newsweek writers advise “must” be done in the Mideast.
However, the CFR (and everyone else) is ignoring the desires of the biggest “player” in world geopolitics. The Creator God of the Bible will have the final “say” in what happens. He Divinely foretold over 2500 years ago that the Jews would have a nation in the Mideast in the latter days of our age and the Bible specifically foretold Ashkelon (a city targeted by Hamas rockets) would be part of the Jewish nation (Zephaniah 2:1-8). Zechariah 12:1-3 also foretold that God would make Jerusalem a “burdensome stone” and a “cup of trembling” for “all people.” Has that ever happened! The city of Jerusalem is the “immoveable object” in the way of any “peace process” in the modern world. Zechariah 12:3 also warns that those who “burden themselves” with Jerusalem will be “cut to pieces” even if “all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” If even the USA turns against the Israelis, this prophesied situation may come to pass.
I know that God’s prophesies will be fulfilled, but no one knows all the details of how his Divine Will will be implemented. A wider war may occur if Hezbollah enters the fray or their may be a grand peace settlement in the Mideast in which the above-cited CFR agenda is implemented in exchange for the right of the Jews to build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Both options could occur. Keep your eyes on the Mideast and especially the city of Jerusalem. The eyes of the world are fixed on it. Zechariah 2:1-8 also tells us that Jerusalem is “the apple of [God’s] eye,” and verses 9-13 add that God will eventually become angry enough to personally intervene in the situation to impose his will on the nations. When verse 13 is fulfilled and God “is raised up out of his holy habitation,” all flesh will be shocked and will “keep silence” before Him. That day is coming.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177840
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177716
