Anyone concerned with Israel - or with Palestine as well - should consider this essay REQUIRED READING and bring others into this group to read.... THE DOG ESSAY! . ************************************************** ************************************************** September 1, 2014 The final piece of advice which Republican President George Bush Jr. gave to President-elect Obama (a Democrat) was this: . Whatever you do, pick a pardon policy and stick with it. . Bush, by appointing Ronald L. Rodgers as US Pardon Attorney only a few months before Obama took office, had actually selected Obamas pardon policy for him. . See . There is an historic parallel to the advice Bush gave to Obama as Bush was leaving the White House. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat) invited Repubican Richard M. Nixon to the White House, and advised Nixon that there was a voice-activated tape-recorder in the Oval Office which was very convenient for recording the Presidents historic words. . The failure of Nixon to reject Johnsons advice on this matter led to Nixons forced resignation in the context of the Watergate scandal. . Obamas greatest scandal is not the ridiculous level of NSA spying on everyone, but rather - in the same manner as Nixon - his failure to reject the advice given by his predecessor of the opposing party, in a perfect historic parallel. . Obamas greatest scandal has not yet fully erupted on the front pages of newspapers or in television newscasts or in Congressional hearings yet - but it will, because the damage from Obamas pardon policy is so extensive and so terrible. . When Nixons Presidency was discredited by Watergate, the adverse consequences for Israel included the Yom Kippur War and the OPEC oil embargo. The enemies of Israel decided to take advantage of the power vacuum caused by President Nixons decline in credibility and power. This was a worldwide power vacuum which included in its many aftereffects, even after Nixon had resigned from office, the civil war in Angola and the fall of Saigon. . Obamas precipitous fall in popularity, and the fact that his credibility has vanished, is having an effect very similar to the ebbing influence of the USA worldwide, from the spring of 1973 until 1976; which is exactly why Hamas chose this moment to attempt to defeat Israel by warfare. Hamas did not intend to destroy Israel, but rather to inflict a defeat to the extent that their limited capabilities permitted - and that, they succeeded in doing. The root cause of this is not to be found in Hamas, but in the failed Obama Administration and its fall from glory, and in the subsequent power vacuum which is still with us. Until this root cause is rooted out, no guarantee of peace can truly benefit Israel for very long - as is illustrated pointedly by the way Hamas TOYED with cease-fire arrangements during the entire summer of 2014. . Nixon could have avoided Watergate, simply by ripping the taping machine out of the White House on his first day as President - or, he could have had the tapes destroyed prior to the Supreme Court subpoena. (Nixon thought that the tapes would vindicate him, and perhaps over the long reach of time, this will be true - but in the immediate context, Nixon could not overcome Watergate.) . Obama can still avoid the inevitable downfall which will come as the result of his greatest scandal. But Obama is incapable of doing this on his own or with the people who surround him in Goverment - many of whom are obsolete Bush-era and Republican-machine security apparatchiks; or blatant lobbyists for corporate interests whose very presence in Government amounts to a conflict of interest; or simply corrupt people trying to feather their own nests; or Fascist lookouts, whose loyalty to both Obama and to the United States Constitution is highly inevident. Obama does not like to fire people. If he hired someone to take his dog for a walk, and that person lost the dog, Obama would probably keep that person on the payroll for at least one to five years, until he finally managed to come to a Presidential decision that yes, the dog has been nowhere in sight for a while, and there is no longer any need to pay someone to walk a dog that is no longer there. Unfortunately, the management of a Presidency is a serious responsibility which calls for more accountability and better administrative skills than we have seen from President Obama. . President Obama should know better than to refuse to grant pardons in obvious cases of blatant injustice or courtroom misconduct by prosecutors. But this is his pardoning policy, and he is sticking with it on the advice of George Bush Jr., who is nothing but a mouthpiece for Karl Rove - the same Karl Rove who used the corrupt US Justice Department to bring about the prosecution of honest Alabama governor Don Siegelman, who now has been waiting for a Presidential pardon for over five years and seven months. . International pressure, which may have to rise to the level of international condemnation of the United States over the issue of Obamas pardoning deficit and the surfeit of idiotic Government spying for which his administration is now world-famous, is an absolute necessity if the United States is going to be straightened out. . The United States of America is Israels only consistent major world ally. Israel cannot afford for the Obama Administration to be chronically unable to restore confidence in the word of honor of Government in the USA under his watch as President. In fact, Israel cannot SURVIVE that unabated condition until January 20, 2017. Such a chronic mess amounts to a long war of attrition against Israel by the United States, in effect! By logical extension, PALESTINE cannot afford this either - after all, if Israel goes down, Palestine goes right down with it, in todays new configuration of the Middle East. (Not too many Palestinians are leaving Gaza or the West Bank lately to take refuge behind the growing perimeter of ISIS). . Israel can use its influence, pulling out all the stops to advise President Obama to straighten his crooked path along the lines proposed in these links, as follows: . . . . . . The issue is past the ability of the Obama Administration, or Congress, or even the American people in the mass, to remedy. The condition of this Administration, and the international reputation of America, is so far gone that only concerted action by ALL of the countries which are Amerian allies in any way, can save this Administration from itself. No country has benefited more from America, and no country on earth has more caringly or disproportionately assisted by the American people, than Israel. Israel therefore has a primary responsibility, more than any other nation, to get America back on track; and to support those who have been victims of injustices inflicted by government in the United States of America. . If Israel does not do everything possible NOW to assist vulnerable people in the United States who have been unjustly and unjustifiably stranded by Government, and have been twisting in the wind in fear for their very lives; then Israel itself will be stranded in exactly the same way. . And only by following the suggestions and blueprint for peace designed by Scott Davis, can Israel save itself from itself. . . Very truly yours, SCOTT DAVIS Chairman, Committee of 37 Peace Initiative PO Box 877 Edgmont, PA 19028-0877 USA .
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:08:57 +0000