Thursday, December 4, 2008

Israel's "Barracuda"?

The recent terrorist events in Mumbai had a profound effect on the Israelis. Now that the details are revealed, the story of a young Rabbi and his wife that ran a local Jewish center is tragic. They volunteered to run a student center called the Chabad House in Mumbai which provided assistance to Jewish tourists and worked to help the poor in India. This young couple was in their late 20's and had a toddler son who thanks to an Indian nanny was pulled aside and rescued from being executed. His young parents were not so lucky. An autopsy revealed that the Rabbi and his wife were violently tortured before they were executed with a gun shot to the head. Four other Jews were killed the same way during that siege. The coroner that performed the autopsy said that he had never seen violence like that against a human being before, and never wants to even think about it again.

Jewish communities around the world are in shock and angry. And the Jews do not forget. The Mossad (Israel's CIA) is acknowledged to be the most competent intelligence agency in the world and anyone connected with this terrorist attack should consider updating their Last Will and Testament.

As a global political addict, and someone who has spent time in Israel, and for years conducted business with the Israelis, I have always been interested in the politics of the Middle East, especially since in many ways it is the root of Islamic extremism. Many conflicts involving radical Muslims lead back to Israel and the Palestinians. Starting with Jimmy Carter every President has cajoled, negotiated, shook hands, visited the holy land, signed agreements, and 30 years later here we are with zero progress - the Palestinians still hate the Israelis and vice verse.

Iran is now the major threat to Israel. They fund the terrorist groups Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon and have openly advocated the extinction of Israel. With Iran now close to the development of a nuclear bomb I am sure the Israelis feel their backs are against the wall. Their unofficial national slogan is, "There will NEVER be another holocaust" so I am sure they feel they must make a decision on the Iran issue soon. This week we read about Israel preparing for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities even without the USA. That is probably political bluster aimed at Iran and the incoming President Obama, but I believe this could be the next major world conflict and Obama's first real test as President. The truth be known, many Mideast countries are probably quietly in favor of an Iranian attack by Israel or the USA because they are afraid of Iran also.
Recently Ehud Olmert the Prime Minister of Israel has resigned while being investigated for corruption and his party elected Tzipi Livni as their leader and the new Prime Minister. Most Americans do not even know who Tzipi Livni is. She is not a career politician, but a former Mossad agent and she is a tough lady. Although she is called a "liberal", in Israel that has a much different meaning. Her mission is peace in a country that has been at war for 60 years. She has been the lead negotiator with Palestinians in the most recent peace negotiations and appears to be the first Israeli leader in many years willing to seriously compromise and do what is required to insure Palestine finally becomes an independent state.

But Israeli politics are different from ours, and she had to put together a majority coalition of other political parties in order to take charge, and she could not do that. Many "hard liners" are opposed to any concessions with the Palestinians, so new elections must be held in February, 2009. As a result, Obama does not even know who he will be dealing with as the Prime Minister of Israel. It appears to be a tossup as to who will be elected to the top spot in Israel next year. It could Livni and if so, we could see real progress towards peace in the Middle East for the first time in a half century. She will be fighting a "hard line" network in Israel and a "hard line" culture with Muslims who do not believe women are capable of anything.

Like Sarah Palin, Tzipi Livni could be a leader of the future. Who knows, maybe the women of this world can straighten things out - we men certainly do not have a very good track record.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Back to work

I have had writers block the past few weeks. Perhaps it's the holidays or a post election depression, but after a great Thanksgiving with my family it's time to get back to work.

Here are some random thoughts:

One of the liberal platforms in this country is gun control: "We need to keep those wacko militias in Montana from acquiring AK 47's". After the attacks in Mumbai how far do you think gun control legislation will go in our next Congressional session? I don't carry a gun, but we do have guns. You have to wonder if law abiding citizens in India were allowed to carry guns how much those ten terrorists would have accomplished. Here were ten terrorists that kept a city of 18 million frozen for almost three days. If just a few of those hundreds of innocent people had access to a gun what might have been different? It just continues to prove that guns don't kill people - criminals kill people. Do you think those terrorists would have followed gun control rules? Another comment on this thought - why is it politically "incorrect" to refer to Islam as a violent religion?

The day after Thanksgiving we all read about the poor Wall Mart "greeter" who was trampled to death because people wanted to be the first to get a plasma TV on sale. It was tragic and his family will be wealthy for life, since there is already a civil lawsuit underway. But what good is being wealthy if one of your loved ones is killed in such a violent way. This tells us more about our culture than anything else - greed and material possessions. Question: If you were charging into that store to get a great deal on a plasma TV and you stepped on a body on the ground, would you have stopped? It would probably have been impossible for you to stop, but would you have fought to do so? Those shoppers did not.

At Thanksgiving my kids asked for my advice on the economy and what to do with their 401Ks. With all of my experience as a chief executive, businessman, and small business owner I had to tell them, "I have no idea". "Bailout" was the Merriam Webster word of the year, but the process has become ridiculous; billions, even trillions to bailout individuals, companies, and state governments that were mismanaged (some criminally), and our Congress has no clue so they throw money at the problem. Throughout the past few months of this economic disaster a majority of the American public has been in favor of just letting the pain happen and if companies were mismanaged, let them go bankrupt. But our Congress knows better and has been issuing money at a rate that cannot be sustained - money the country never had in the first place. I feel sorry for our kids and grand kids and although I am not an economist, look for the possibility of hyper inflation in the future.

So far Obama has moved toward the center with many of his cabinet picks - who knows how he will govern. The economic disaster will probably limit his options with regard to all of his "socialist" intentions. I predict in a few years he will have budget deficit so large that both he and the Congress will have no choice but to raise taxes and cut spending. The future will be very interesting.

As for me, now I'm going to relax with a martini and listen to Christmas Carols - Merry Christmas everyone! It's hard not to feel good during this season.