Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Marco Rubio: on Israel, he is not right for America ... by gimleteye

My connections to Israel run deep, and Marco Rubio will never get my vote on foreign policy. I lost my grandparents at Auschwitz. My father survived Nazi work camps in World War II. After the war, he worked for two years relocating Jewish refugees to Palestine before emigrating, himself, to the United States and working through college to eventually achieve the American Dream that Marco Rubio, among other candidates, invokes in his own story.

For the New York Times, opinion page editor Andrew Rosenthal recently blogged about Rubio and Israel, in a way that resonates for me. At Eye On Miami we've followed Rubio's improbable rise through the Florida legislature, helping to shepherd anti-environmental and anti-citizen legislation that few news outlets have followed.

The politics in Israel are even more fractious than in the United States. The pro-Israel far right, represented by AIPAC and billionaire donors like Sheldon Adelson, is still organized by the same war hawks who dominated the George W. Bush White House. They wrote off Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton even earlier. The pro-Israel far right want a president who stands toe-to-toe with Israel on threats to international security -- which every candidate for president whether Republican or Democrat has pledged to do -- but that's not all. They want a president who promises to see the world through Israel's eyes and will not freelance on issues of nuance. The pro-Israel far right want another George W. Bush in other words --, and that someone on the Republican side increasingly looks like Marco Rubio.

Rosenthal: "... what’s really wrong with Mr. Rubio’s commercial, and his candidacy, is that he offers not the slightest idea of what he would do as president to combat terrorism — other than to further undermine Americans’ civil liberties under the guise of counter-terrorism and to turn away legitimate refugees because they happen to be Middle Eastern Muslims."

In recent weeks, investigative journalists have started scrutinizing Rubio's raw ambition, reflected through his very first action after his single victory to the US Senate from Florida. The next day Rubio flew on Norman Braman's private jet to Israel. Rubio, in other words, put his marker down with the far right in Israel as soon as he was elected to the US Senate by Floridians. It made the impression he wanted to make.

Here is what Rosenthal wrote for the Times:
Marco Rubio’s Empty Rhetoric on Terrorism
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL NOVEMBER 23, 2015 1:17 PM November 23, 2015 1:17 pm 81 Comments

At first glance, Marco Rubio’s first television ad as a presidential candidate seems unassailable. He says the world is facing a “civilizational struggle between the values of freedom and liberty, and radical Islamic terror.”

“What happened in Paris could happen here,” Mr. Rubio says, looking slightly less bewildered than usual. The Florida senator goes on to say:
“These aren’t disgruntled or disempowered people. These are radical terrorists who want to kill us.”

So far, so good.

Then he said that “they” want to kill us “because we let women drive, because we let girls go to school.”

While it’s true that radical Islam rejects women’s rights, Mr. Rubio’s analysis is just as shallow as the argument that European nations’ colonialism or more recent acts of American stupidity, committed primarily by President George W. Bush, excuse acts of sociopathic mass murder.

But what’s really wrong with Mr. Rubio’s commercial, and his candidacy, is that he offers not the slightest idea of what he would do as president to combat terrorism — other than to further undermine Americans’ civil liberties under the guise of counter-terrorism and to turn away legitimate refugees because they happen to be Middle Eastern Muslims.

Mr. Rubio talks about the assault on “Western values” by Muslim terrorist groups, but he supports proposals to freeze the entry of some 10,000 U.N.-designated refugees from the Middle East, based on a series of lies he and other Republicans like to tell about President Obama’s refugee policy.

“The president and Hillary Clinton are completely out of touch with reality,” he said on Fox News last Thursday. “What needs to happen here is you can’t let people in unless they complete a background check.”

Sounds good, except that the refugees in question have completed background checks and will have to complete many more before they set foot on American soil.

Richard Clarke, a counter-terrorism adviser to President George W. Bush, pointed out on ABC News last week that refugees must go through a long process to enter this country. “If there’s any doubt at all, they’re not allowed in,” he said. “It takes 18 months, 24 months, while these people sit in wretched refugee camps in Turkey, in Jordan, in Lebanon and if there’s any doubt, they’re not allowed in. Marco Rubio doesn’t know what the process is. There is a process, and it’s worked.”

Mr. Rubio also seems confused about the right way to discuss things like terrorism and national security in a presidential campaign. On Fox News on Sunday, Chris Wallace rather hilariously asked Mr. Rubio if he thought his “foreign policy credentials” (which are nonexistent) were giving him a “boost with voters” after the terror attacks in Paris and other places.

“I obviously am not happy about the events,” he said, to everyone’s great relief, “but I think it’s a positive development that it suddenly has forced Americans to confront more carefully the issue of national security.”

Mr. Rubio said: “I hope that we focus on that more, not just for political advantage, but because the world has become a very dangerous place.”

Maybe Mr. Rubio can start with himself. Instead of just seeking political advantage after the horrors in Sinai, Lebanon, Paris, Mali and elsewhere, perhaps he could come up with something useful to tell voters about why they should entrust him with the job of president.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any Candidate who feels it necessary to campaign in front of foreign flags and at same time panders tho crime survivors, wile decrying the proper labeling of goods produced in occupied territory under such foreign flag, should be disqualified and labeled a panderer.

Anonymous said...

Netanyahu is WBush with a bar mitzvah.

We re-elected WBush for a total of 8 years for which we still suffer the consequences.

Netanyahu was Prime Minister from 1996-1999 and 2009-present.

Israel needs to get rid of this pandering racist clown...who has so much in common with our pandering racists clowns in WBush and Rubio.

Sandy Oestreich said...


While FL House Speaker,Rep. Rubio lied to me on camera that he would meet with me to discuss his position on Florida's Resolution (bill) to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment that needs only 3 more states' legislatures to vote to ratify.

That would make rape, domestic violence, discriminatory wages, (see ERA for Women at www.2passERA.org for a more detailed list of sex discrimination against American girls and women) a Violation of the US Constitution.

Rubio has refused absolutely to meet with us though we have probably worn a hole in the black leather couch in his office.

He has made it clear that he abhors the idea of female gender-equal treatment: He once sent his minion out to the outer office filled with waiting people,only to scold me publicly,loudly, saying, "Sandy, your bill's not going anywhere." Asked
Why?, he replied, "Because it's not important."

Wow, THAT will not earn him women's votes,right?

There's more to the story, such as when Rubio chooses to contact someone by email, THERE IS NEVER ANY WAY TO REPLY WHATSOEVER...just that his message to one seems to drip with courtesy about how he is so glad to hear from me and I should feel welcome, as his constituent, to contact him for any possible question. [just TRY]

Besides, don't overlook the fact that he must be the winner of the Malarkey Science Award, as he denies climate change altogether!
Or, that he claims heartily that The World as we know it is 600,000 YEARS OLD!

SERIOUSLY? You want to elect a person This Stupid to the presidential offices?

INCREDIBLE how far America has fallen...

REALLY,
Shouldn't we be electing ADULTS?

Diane Lawrence said...

Sandy Oestreich, I don't know you, but I love what you wrote about Marco Rubio. He is such a nothing. I'm afraid he may be their nominee when this circus ends. I worked on the ERA in the early '70s and it is hard to believe that we never got enough states to ratify. Now with the state houses controlled by them, things are looking bleak. We need to get the word out about him somehow. Not everyone reads Eye on Miami, but they should. And young women should be aware of the ERA and what still needs to be done.

Sandy Oestreich said...

THANKS,Diane.

CORRECTION TO MY COMMENT:

RUBIO CLAIMS THE WORLD IS ONLY 6000 YEARS OLD, NOT 600,000 AS I INACCURATELY POSTED.

ps We Do reach out to young women, too, of course--been doing it ALL for going on 16 YEARS. ERA history isn't even taught in schools anymore, so the young'uns run up to ask WHERE DO I SIGN!? Older women are our mainstay, esp. those with doctorate degrees!

They are ALL fabulous, so are you. DO be in touch; we've a lot in common.

PS Our FL ERA ratification resolutions are filed once again for 2016: HCR 8001 by Rep. Berman, and SCR 074 by Sen. Joyner, again.

sandyo

Diane Lawrence said...

Sandy, I'm assuming these ratification bills never make it to the floor of the House or Senate. I will write my state senator and state representative and ask them if they will 1) co-sponsor; and 2) help get the bills on the floor. If these two Republicans are not in favor of ratification, I'm going to ask them to tell me why.

Diane

bill losner said...

AIPAC,S only mission is to facilitate and nourish PRO-ISRAEL relationship to feed poor Jew's and to ensure that ISREAL receives the funding of 3.5 Billion annually in order to maintain her qualitative military edge.

Anonymous said...

Today, the dominant organizations, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as a raft of self-appointed community leaders, have swung to the right. They have made unquestioning solidarity with Israel the touchstone of Jewish identity—even though majority Jewish opinion is by no means hawkish.

Noting that the collapse of the latest US efforts for peace talks, as well as Netanyahu’s de facto rejection of the possibility of an independent Palestinian state (despite his previous grudging commitments to a two-state solution), liberal Zionists have reached a dead end.

Liberal Zionists must now face the reality that the dissenters have recognized for years: A de facto single state already exists, where rights for Jews are guaranteed while rights for Palestinians are curtailed.