International Affairs

The Jerusalem Post reports Monday that Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin (Likud) was barred from the Temple Mount holy site by an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As Feiglin does on the 19th of every Hebrew month, he planned to pray at Temple Mount. He has been doing so monthly for the past 10 years. 

I have been blessed to have spent quality time in Israel on eight different occasions. It is without a doubt my favorite place in the world, besides my beloved USA. So many of my colleagues have called, Skyped, texted, emailed, or whatever to express their impressions of our president's recent visit.

I find it fascinating that every time North Korea or the Iranians continue to make progress on weaponizing a nuclear device, our leaders say, “Yeh, but they’re still years away from developing a bomb …”

Like that’s supposed to make me feel better? Pretty soon, the future becomes the present, and then what do we do? What’s with this attitude that something (or someone) will take care of our enemies’ hatred?

These are dangerous times in Egypt.

I was in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last week for the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak.

On the square, the opposition demonstrators were shouting the same slogans that brought down Mubarak: “The people want the downfall of the regime.” I don’t think that Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who was democratically elected only seven months ago, will suffer the same fate as Mubarak, whose rule was marked by corruption and nepotism.

Briefly: The big surprise in the Israeli election was the sudden rise of Yair Lapid, a handsome and photogenic MSM celebrity “known for his chic, casual black clothing,” as The New York Times wrote, seemingly out of nowhere. But in politics, nothing comes out of nowhere and spontaneous awakenings like Lapid’s come in reaction to something else. Israel has recently been through a critical sequence: In October, Benjamin Netanyahu called for early elections to maximize his chances of reelection. Rockets fired from Gaza in mid-November attempted to intimidate the Israeli electorate. They did just the opposite and awakened a warrior instinct. Suddenly Israel then began to hear about the young Naftali Bennett, “the Zionist pin-up blazing a trail,” and his equally young colleague Ayelet Shaked, who rose to the Knesset in the Jewish Home Party with a determination to defend Israel.

"It makes no difference who is sitting on the throne," Moshe Feiglin writes from Jerusalem this week in his commentary on Torah. “What really matters is where the heart of the nation resides." Feiglin is writing about how Pharaoh sees the great power he is, a power telling him he is god the river, and god the creator of all that is, as it disintegrates around him and the world awaken again from the wreckage with Aaron and Moses. It is a fully appropriate reading for this week as Israelis prepare to go to the polls. The creations of Pharaoh appear on the verge of falling into the river, and Israel on the verge of finding its heart.
 
The questions we have asked here since Sandy, the storm, and Sandy Hook — guns, federal aid, psychotic movies passing as high culture, fascist computer games — suggest symptoms. Mentioned here recently, China has stepped away. Germany recalls its gold from the world. And on Jan. 22, Israel steps away from America.

The Obama administration is weighing what kind of military support it can provide to France, which has launched an airborne and ground-based offensive in Mali against Islamist rebels linked to al Qaeda.

What is under discussion is the likelihood of a direct threat against the U.S. homeland, and therefore whether vital U.S. interests are engaged. The same considerations caused President Obama to “lead from behind” on Libya. Yet so far, on Mali, the U.S. response is even more timid. And while the policy discussions continue in Washington, North Africa is in flames.

We should turn our attention again to the Middle East, but not necessarily Israel and the Palestinians. We should focus on Egypt, where the people have decided that they will not tolerate a power grab by President Mohamed Morsi disguised as maintaining order.

Those too young to have been there might have caught the clip on YouTube — the final scene in the Monty Python classic, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," where the mad peasants are being dragged away by the hair by London bobbies. They take advantage of the moment to shout at the TV cameras, “Look! The violence inherent in the system!” It was classic strategy of the trained apparatchik of the day to use the moment to politicize a greater purpose. In time things improved. Watergate maybe cleared the air, and people for awhile began to talk straight again. But this is what we are seeing again with Susan Rice on Capitol Hill.

The Obama administration’s clumsy attempt to mollify the Republican opposition in the Senate to a possible nomination of Susan Rice as the next secretary of State has not only opened another can of worms on “Benghazigate” but may have fatally damaged her prospects.

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said yesterday there are “no unanswered questions” about Rice’s appearances on the Sept. 16 Sunday shows after the Libya attack and the talking points that she used, “provided by the intelligence community.” “Those questions have been answered,” he said after Rice and CIA acting director Michael Morell met privately with three key senators.