2008 Rino Party
Posted on 04/09/2007 12:33:32 PM PDT by veronica
If there is one certainty in politics it is that you can never be certain about where Presidential candidates stand on the most important issues of the day. Scripted by political consultants who are maniacally risk-averse, most Presidential candidates speak in platitudes and generalities, always railing against something but afraid to be for anything.
Luckily, the 2008 Presidential election offers voters a compelling alternative to the prototypical candidate in Rudy Giuliani, a battle-tested leader who has made a career of staking out clear and uncompromising positions, and, more importantly, fulfilling those commitments.
For the American-Jewish community, the stakes for the 2008 campaign could not be higher. While the physical trauma of 9/11 may be past, the psychological angst remains. Like a metastasizing cancer that can be detected but not thwarted, the existential threat posed by Islamists continues to spread and wreak death and destruction in its path. As target "1" and "1A" of the Islamist miasma, the US and Israel are a band of brothers, thrust into a war that neither wants but ignores at their own peril.
Pro-Israel
In this fraught-with-danger geopolitical landscape, American Jews thirst for leadership that promises certainty in the most uncertain of times and moral clarity in the midst of a dangerous trend towards moral relativism. Mr. Giuliani’s campaign is precisely about this kind of leadership: resolve, strength, confidence, and determined leadership.
Even his critics would agree that, during his tenure as Mayor of New York City, Mr. Giuliani was a great friend to the Jewish community and a strong supporter of those who are pro-Israel.
A cynic might point out that a successful mayor of America’s most populous Jewish city must be solicitous of the Jewish community, making Mr. Giuliani’s track record, the cynic would say, irrelevant to his credentials for the Presidency. This skepticism, however, is belied by a couple of anecdotes that demonstrate just how dogged Mr. Giuliani’s disdain is for the enemies of America and Israel. His record shows the intrepid lengths to which he willing to go in order to act on what he believes.
Saudi’s $10 Million
Everyone remembers Mr. Giuliani’s reaction to a Saudi Arabian prince’s offer of $10 million to New York City in the aftermath of 9/11. As mayor at a time of crisis, Mr. Giuliani could have accepted the hush money, offered manifold rationales for doing so, and escaped criticism.
But then, that would not have been Rudy Giuliani.
All Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal did after all, was offer his check along with his condolences to the people of New York. But then, after the ceremony at Ground Zero, he released a statement suggesting that the US "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack."
In his statement, Mr. bin Talal said the US "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause."
"While the UN passed clear resolutions numbered 242 and 338 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip decades ago, our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek," his statement said.
No Moral Equivalency
To Mr. Giuliani, who promptly—and very publicly—tore up the check, the money had become tainted. He flatly rejected the prince’s position, telling him publicly that to suggest there was a justification for an event such as 9/11, "only invites this happening in the future."
But Mr. Giuliani’s rebuke of the prince went further. Mr. Giuliani suggested one of the reasons for the 9/11 attack was "because people were engaged in moral equivalency, not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the US, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism."
"Not only are [Mr. bin Talal’s] statements wrong, they’re part of the problem," said Mr. Giuliani.
Yasir Arafat
Unlike other political figures, Mr. Giuliani benefited from moral clarity about terrorism even before 9/11. None of us who were around, will ever forget his 1995 brush with the PLO terrorist leader, Yasir Arafat—and this episode came after Mr. Arafat had signed the 1993 Oslo Accords.
In 1995, fresh off the heels of Oval Office meetings and a Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Arafat strode into New York a rehabilitated man, at least in the eyes of much of the world. Although an unreconstructed terrorist who preached suicide bombings at home while refining the art of double speak in the US, Mr. Arafat was being feted by world leaders, including those in the Clinton White House, as a man of peace and vision.
As part of the festivities surrounding the United Nations’ 50th anniversary, the New York City Host Committee, an organization run by Mayor Giuliani, sponsored a concert at Lincoln Center for visiting world leaders. Although Mr. Giuliani had removed Mr. Arafat (and a few other thugs) from the invitee list, the PLO leader still managed to finagle an invitation and showed up, essentially uninvited, at the event.
When Mr. Giuliani spotted Mr. Arafat and his entourage making their way to private box seats near the stage, he overruled objections from the Clinton White House and the State Department, and had the PLO leader ejected from the premises.
Fallout
The fallout was immediate. The New York Times ran an editorial entitled "Taking Exception to the Mayor’s Manners;" a spokesman for the Clinton administration, which had worked hard to fortify Mr. Arafat’s stature as a statesman, termed the mayor’s action "an embarrassment to everyone associated with diplomacy;" and former Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch held a joint press conference to denounce Mr. Giuliani, saying he "has behavioral problems dealing with other people."
But two days later, an unrepentant Mr. Giuliani said, "I would not invite Yasir Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. I don’t forget."
What he did not forget, he said, was that ten years earlier, in 1985, the disabled American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by Palestinian terrorists who had hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship. As a US Attorney investigating the case, Mr. Giuliani found Mr. Arafat to be complicit in the Klinghoffer murder, as well as numerous others.
Integrity
These vignettes reflect an integrity of leadership that is sorely lacking in the other Presidential candidates. It is ironic that in a Presidential field full of US Senators who have been at the forefront of US foreign policy for decades, only Mr. Giuliani has been unafraid to characterize terrorists groups, and the regimes that support them, as thugs, murderers, and barbarians.
While the US Senate was toasting Mr. Arafat in the 1990s, Mr. Giuliani was expelling him from Lincoln Center! This is not a man who follows a script written by anyone but himself. This is not a man who is afraid to act on his values, and he has shown what those values are.
Rudy Giuliani’s work is part of public record, and those interested should check his website (http://www.joinrudy2008.com/), read his book (Leadership), and Google his name. The picture that will emerge is consistent and predictable: steadfast leadership, moral clarity, and measured outspokenness and decisiveness about the existential issues that surround us.
Victory over Islamofascism
This is not an election in which American Jews can afford a leap of faith. The question before our community is simple: Which candidate do we believe is capable of confronting the greatest threat mankind has faced since Nazi Germany?
Epochs of uncertainty demand leaders with certainty, conviction, and courage. US history is replete with iconic leaders that rose to meet the challenges of their generation: Washington and the Revolutionary War, Lincoln and the Civil War, Roosevelt and WWII, and Reagan and the Cold War.
We need a President of that ilk to lead us to victory in this war against Islamofascism. Let’s make sure that Rudy Giuliani is elected as our next president.
The Jewish Voice and Opinion is a politically conservative Jewish publication which present news and feature articles not generally available elsewhere in the Jewish or secular media. Articles may be reprinted in their entirety with attribution.
FYI...
My tag line says it all. I would like to hear one concrete plan from Rudy about how he will run the War on Terror.
((((RUDY PING))))
2008 Rino Party
I agree. He sure has shown his values alright.
Then we can vote on who is capable of best serving the country, not just win a war. (Wishful thinking alert).
The biggest problem the GOP is going to face in 2008 is figuring out how to run as Republicans while distancing themselves from any notion that the debacle in Iraq is really part of the "war on terror."
Get ready with your rugs and berkas Sharia law is coming to the Senate soon.
Much to be applauded in this column. Give Mr. Mayor his due. He’s a warrior when it comes to the WOT and he had nailed Arafat and the Islamic fundies well before 9/11.
ENOUGH courage to do that When NYC clearly needed the money. I lost my job 1 month after 9/11 and it took me 1 whole year and a half to find another job here. It took alot of courage I would say. Considering Cynthia McKinney and other Democratic Congress Critters tried to get the check back! How quickly everyone forgets!
My word. You guys can criticize anything.
Baloney. Before 9/11 Rudy Giuliani had one specific instance in which he -- in his official capacity as mayor -- had to deal with an act of terrorism in New York City. That was the 1997 multiple shooting attack on the observation deck of the Empire State Building by a Palestinian malcontent whose intent was to kill as many people as possible at a major tourist destination in the largest city in the U.S.
This "warrior when it comes to the WOT" could never even bring himself to describe this attack as an act of terrorism. In fact, within about 48 hours he took it upon himself to use the attack as a prop in his zealous anti-gun crusade.
"Warrior," my @ss. This guy has never been anything more than a liberal, effete, authoritarian, big-city lawyer who probably can't even make a fist.
The last thing this country needs is a liberal, effete, authoritarian big-city lawyer to "lead" the nation in a "war on terror" (whatever the heck that even means anymore).
LOL! I hadn't heard that, but I have no trouble believing it.
Your love for Rudy is showing!
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