1) appealing to one’s prejudices, selfish interests, etc., rather than to reason; or, 2) attacking one’s opponent rather than dealing with the subject under discussion.
Malcolm Hoenlein, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the group that represents 50 national Jewish agencies from across the political and religious spectrums, is a master of the ad hominem attack, using it regularly to ward off those who argue against his silence and inaction, i.e., his failure to advocate for the Land and People of Israel.
Rather than deal with the critical issues I raised, Malcolm Hoenliein attacked me personally.
Unfortunately, this was not the first time he has avoided discussing the issues on the merits…he has done it on numerous occasions. This past June, for example, I had invited Mr. Hoenlein and Howard Rieger, CEO of United Jewish Communities, the Jewish Federation network in North America, to a discussion/debate with two prominent thinkers regarding Israel, to coincide with the U.S. Presidential debates. MK Dr. Arieh Eldad, one of the most esteemed members of Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) and a medical doctor who was the head of the burn unit at Hadassah Hospital during the Intifada, and Prof. Eugene Narrett, an historian and prolific author of books and articles relating to the current and historical geopolitics of Israel, both had agreed to participate, and their acceptances were communicated to the two other invited participants. Mr. Hoenlein and Mr. Rieger did not respond to the invitation or subsequent emails, and they failed to display any courtesy, decency or sign of respect by contacting MK Dr. Eldad or Prof. Narrett and expressing their regrets for not responding to the invitation.
Israel and World Jewry are being shortchanged by appointed leaders who lack moral courage and are unwilling to stand up unequivocally and consistently for the Jewish State.
(Ed. Note: I have often said that Malcolm is the Bibi of the United States. Read on to find out why).
The following is an email sent to Malcolm Hoenlein this past December by Buddy Macy after having attended his lecture a few days earlier. I think it is important for all to read now that there has been a change in Administration in America, and the situation has grown significantly more perilous for Israel and the Jewish People. The email has been updated in red, to reflect the current situation.
Dear MR. HOENLEIN! I wrote it this way because when I approached him after the lecture, I called him Malcolm, and he responded: “Mr. Hoenlein.”
I appreciated the opportunity to hear you speak, and to talk directly with you after the program.
At the beginning of Tuesday's speech [December 16, 2008], you provided an account of Chanukah with President Bush. The conclusion you drew from your experience there was: "Look how far we have come -- we got served a kosher meal at the White House." Malcolm, apparently you are so impressed with your own coup, that you have been blinded as to the infinitely more significant reality. The Jewish People have come far? You and a few others get to eat kosher at the White House, while the President and State Department vigorously pressure Israel to commit suicide! This pressure has increased exponentially since President Obama’s election this past November. Hillary Clinton, George Mitchell and others are raining tremendous pressure on Israel to perform self-destructive and suicidal acts upon herself, such as opening the Gazan border (Former Secretary of State Rice’s pressure on Israel to give up control of the Philadelphi Corridor a couple of years ago was one of the key causes of the increased rocket attacks on Israel which made it necessary for the IDF to enter Gaza to protect Israel’s 1,000,000 citizens at risk.) and negotiating the abandonment of her G-d-given, legally-owned land in Judea & Samaria (the West Bank). Your egotistical analysis is analogous to Abe Foxman boasting about his accomplishments in a local case involving free speech, while Israel's Arab enemies fire rockets at Jewish men, women, children and the elderly, causing death, destruction and lifelong trauma.
You received a lofty, god-like introduction on Tuesday. "Tonight's speaker meets regularly with world leaders and is considered by many to be the most influential Jew in America." Based on Israel's peril, easily the most extreme and threatening in her sixty-year modern history and now, significantly more so for Israel, and for Jews everywhere, either you do not have the influence attributed to you, you do not have Israel's and the Jewish People's best interest at heart, or, you're really bad at what you do!
Israel's government desperately tries to give away more land for "peace" this must cease immediately in a Netanyahu Administration while the "Palestinian" Arabs continue to incite violence and hatred against Jews and Israel in their mosques, government, media and schools this has occurred, non-stop, for two generations; and while her peace efforts in the South have led to the constant bombardment of her civilian population and the amassing of a large trained force of terrorists and a huge cache of weaponry less than a kilometer away. Have you been screaming at Olmert, Livni, Barak and Peres to halt all negotiations until their enemies stop preaching hate against them, and until attacks against Israel have ceased completely?We practically had to force you to hold a pro-Israel rally outside the UN during Israel’s necessary war of self-defense this past January. And, why are you not screaming at George Soros and J Street for their recent anti-Israel survey and their constant actions against the interests of Israel – actions that, if successful, would bring about the destruction of the Jewish State?
Barak and Olmert have breached the civil rights of some of the nation's most dedicated citizens in Judea & Samaria, banning some from living in their homes and communities, and subjecting others to administrative detention. Have you protested the middle-of-the-night, terror-filled expulsion of the Federman and Tor families, and the destruction of their home and farm?
Have you screamed at the government for ordering the expulsion of the Jews from legally-purchased Beit HaShalom in Hebron? Your position of Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents does not prohibit you from speaking out on behalf of the most vulnerable Jews among us -- rather, it makes it your obligaton to help! Where have you been???
Jonathan Pollard has been in prison during your entire 20-year service with the Conference.Jonathan’s plight has never been more stark. You were unable to convince President Bush to pardon Pollard before leaving office two months ago. In that time, Israel has made massive compromises with her enemies. She has released thousands of terrorists from her jails...many of whom have blood on their hands.Where was your voice when Olmert was desperately trying to free another 1400 or so terrorists last week before Netanyahu assumed the Prime Ministership? Yet, you could not obtain the release of one man!
Your true colors came to light several months ago when you uninvited Sarah Palin from participating at the "Stop Iran Now" rally. Your excuse for sabotaging your own event was that the 501(c)(3) status of the sponsor agencies would be put at risk were Palin to speak without the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate also present. I find it more than curious that the issue of tax status did not arise while Hillary Clinton was the demonstration's only announced national political speaker. In addition, it was reported that two or three of the rally's co-sponsors had threatened to leave the coalition were Palin to have remained on the program. Come on, Malcolm, do you really think they would have removed themselves from a rally organized to bring attention to a promoter of genocide against our People? Outside of the morality and ethical issues, do you know what type of effect that would have had on their fundraising campaigns? Why didn't you call their bluff? You and I both know the real reason.
In our discussion after your speech, you told me that you advocate for the Jews in secret. You said that when I publicize certain actions, it removes your ability to effect change. Did you work on the Soviet Jewry project in private? Did you ask others to remain silent so that you could help obtain freedom for our fellow Jews in Russia? Why did you encourage all of the MJE participants to call and write about Israel, if you wish to work in secret?
You also told me that you would love to leave the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, but that you won't because you would fear what the group would do without you at the helm. That is not the main reason! Malcolm, you feed on your position of power, influence [perceived?], social standing and financial rewards...not to mention, your membership in the CFR. There are two prominent differences between you and Howard Rieger: You are much smarter, and Howard is honest -- so honest, that he had me and my female friend, a survivor of the Holocaust, escorted out of UJC's Joel Alperson Farewell Brunch by a security guard, even though I held an invitation to the event in my hand. Some reward for my more than 25 years of volunteer service to the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton-Passaic, at which I was considered one of the best fundraisers. But, at least I now know where Howard stands!
Malcolm, we both know that you are first and foremost a politician -- and a very shrewd one, at that. Politicians do not leave office gracefully; especially, when doing so would mean the relinquishing of such an attractive financial, social and psychological benefits package. It is clear to me that you desire your position of Jewish "leadership" more than anything else in life -- so much so that you have long ago decided to sacrifice your principles, including your concern for Israel and the Jewish People, to remain at the 'top'.
This world is full of irony: My fellow unpaid activists and I have become maligned outcasts and "bad boys" by doing the right thing and helping to save our People, while you receive all of the prestige and benefits of membership, including the perceived power to effect real change, by keeping your mouth shut. The justice is: you must ultimately answer to yourself and your Maker.
This article is being written at the end my two week lecture tour of the US. Tomorrow, with G-d's help, I'll be on my way home.
I met with thousands of Jews from diverse backgrounds during this tour. Even some non-Jews came to hear my lectures. Just about all of these people are convinced that America is collapsing. Nobody believes that Obama will really manage to stop the crash - certainly not with the Robin Hood methods that he has adopted.
"Almost every day, another one of my patients is laid off," a successful dentist told me. "People who have been fired from their jobs ask me to remove all of their teeth. They simply don't have the money to treat them."
I don't believe that the dollar will be worth the paper that it's printed on," a Jewish cosmetics chain owner told me.
"Madoff has caused tremendous damage to the Jews," a successful businessman whispered to me. "Nobody talks about it in public, but Americans are very aware of the ethnic identity of the man who stole 65 billion dollars."
It looks like America is marching down the European path and has quietly surrendered to the Moslem offensive. The government department that was supposed to scrutinize the terror being exported from Syria has been dissolved. Iran understands from Obama that it has nothing to fear from America. Almost one billion dollars are being channeled to the "Palestinian" terror gangs in Israel - at the very same time that the US national debt has ballooned to dimensions that make the final collapse just a question of time.
At one of my meetings, an influential woman told me that ten years ago, a short time after 9/11, she read an article that predicted exactly what would take place in the following years. "I don't remember who wrote the article," she said to me, "but I do remember its name: America Already Lost.'"
I found the article for her, written by yours truly. I wrote it after I heard President Bush, in a national address after the 9/11 terror attack, call upon all Americans to pray for America in their "churches, synagogues and mosques." In other words, Bush was calling upon Americans to pray to the same deity in whose name the Twin Towers were destroyed. It was clear to me that the Americans did not understand the intrinsic nature of the war that had been forced upon them. They did not understand who their enemy was and thus would necessarily lose. My article precisely anticipated the American entanglement in Afghanistan and Iraq, the persistence of the Moslem offensive, the economic downturn and the fear of the Jews in its wake:
There won't be large-scale pogroms in America, perhaps small ones, but not the kind we have suffered in Europe. After all, there is something too good about the American people that won't allow it. But how will a Jew show his face in the street when every American is convinced that he has lost his job and his property, that his relatives are being killed in terrorist attacks and in endless war - all because of the Jews?
My return trip to Israel was no picnic. I sat at the airport in uncertainty for nearly 24 hours with thousands of others, until I managed to get aboard one of El Al's air shuttle flights returning the stranded Israelis home.
"If this is the line of Israeli visitors wanting to go home," I thought to myself, "how long will the line be when American Jews rush to come home to Israel?"
(America Already Lost, by: Moshe Feiglin, War of Dreams p.393)
It seems that we are in the midst of a process of rapid change in the world order. Western culture is crumbling in the face of the power of faith of the Islamic world. Post-modernism, which essentially neutralizes the concepts of good and evil, has shattered Western culture's ability to withstand Islamic culture.
The West has an absolute objective advantage over Islam - but it has lost its ability to discern between good and evil. Where there is no God there is no truth and certainly no ability to identify the enemy. The gates of the Western world are open to waves of Moslem immigration, while the immigrants themselves look with scorn upon the infidels and the sand that is rapidly running out of the Western hourglass.
The Moslem offensive already has Europe on its knees. For some time, it seemed that America would stand firm. But a nation that elects a president of Islamic background does not have what it takes to face off against the Islamic threat.
Israel must prepare to stand alone against Iran and against a very hostile world. We must prepare ourselves for a large wave of aliyah from the US and the West while simultaneously dealing with Israel's crisis situation.
We must prepare ourselves for a reality that will be very similar to Israel's War of Independence. We must understand that we can rely on no other nation but ourselves - and of course - on our Father in Heaven.
In the War of Independence, the US ignored Israel. We fought on our own. Then, too, we were facing the threat of annihilation by the entire Moslem world. We can safely say that history is repeating itself - but with one major distinction:
Unlike the previous wars that Israel has fought, the dominant element in the approaching battle is much more religious than national. In a religious war, physical power is not enough. It was not enough for the Americans in their war against Bin Laden and it wasn't enough for us against the Hamas.
We must fortify our spiritual power. In the recent Gaza war we saw that our soldiers are already equipped with faith. We must make sure that Israel's leadership will also be packing that same invincible weapon.
Once again, the Jewish majority won a clear victory in the elections, but is being forced to implement the self-destructive policies of Oslo.
On the night that the results of the Likud primaries were publicized, there was electricity in the air. When the next morning's headline in Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper was "The Feiglin Party," even more people on Israel's Right decided to join the Likud. The feeling was that there was now hope for Israel to get off the suicidal Oslo track on which it has been speeding to its inevitable crash. There was a feeling that the Jewish majority was on its way to a big win.
But that is not what Netanyahu wanted. He pushed Feiglin way down on the Likud list and made it clear that he was committed to the leftist elites. Now that Barak will be joining his government, his plan is complete. Bibi has defeated the Jewish majority.
Bibi's victory is certainly a brilliant political triumph, but it does nothing at all to change the reality in which Israel must survive. What will be the new government's message? Destruction of Jewish outposts? Continuation of all the agreements that have already collapsed and brought about Israel's defeat in Lebanon and Gaza?
Will a prime minister whose government is beholden to Histadrut Labor Union head Ofer Eini be able to lead Israel out of the economic crisis? Or is Netanyahu willing to surrender control of Israel's economy so long as he can rule?
Netanyahu is attempting to protect himself from the wrath of Israel's controlling elites by subjugating the will of the rightist voters who put him in power to the path of the Left. He has no qualms or compunctions. Basic political etiquette such as respect for the party constitution, election bylaws that he himself enacted or will of the voter mean nothing to him.
If Netanyahu will manage to present Israel with a government in the coming week, the arena on which the real battle for Israel will take place will then be within the Likud. The first round will be a new registration drive that Netanyahu is already planning and elections for the Likud Council coming up this summer.
If the faith-based public will wake up now, register for the Likud en masse and work hard to bring in as many new faith based voters as humanly possible, there is a good chance that Netanyahu's government will be a fleeting episode in Israeli politics. But if, G-d forbid, we despair, the division of Jerusalem, selling of the Golan Heights and trampling of the Jewish majority may be our wake up call.
Hypocrisy is a funny thing, and I love pointing it out every time it occurs. Consider the following: Many people in the national camp screamed at Moshe Feiglin for telling his constituents to vote Likud. They claimed that under no circumstances could one support Bibi Netanyahu. Most of these people voted for National Union. They were pure, uncompromising and 100% honest to their ideals. Sounds good but…
After the elections were over, President Shimon Peres met with all parties in the Knesset and asked them who they recommended to build the next coalition. National Union recommended Bibi. President Peres followed their suggestion and gave Bibi the green light to form the government, which he will do in the coming days.
As you can see, on one hand the National Union voters said “no” to Bibi (by not voting Likud) but on the other hand, the National Union leadership said “yes” to Bibi (by choosing him to become the next Prime Minister). And you thought only leftists are hypocritical?
Thanks to National Union, Bibi is now Prime Minister with ZERO opposition. These “holy” and “pure” guys can now scream, wave their orange flags and march all day through Umm-el-Fahm. Bibi is laughing his head off. The four mandates they have mean absolutely nothing. They have no influence, no say and mount no opposition.
Of course, Bibi cannot ignore them totally. He must send them a “thank you” card for recommending him as Israel’s next prime minister. If I was writing the card, here is what it would say:
“Dear Ketzale, Dr Eldad, Uri Ariel, Rabbi Dr Ben-Ari and the 100,000 people who voted for National Union: Thank you for making me Israel’s Prime Minister. I could have never done it without you. I want to especially thank you for not joining Likud where your 100,000 votes would have meant total disaster for me. You probably would have elected a much stronger, prouder Jew than me who is connected to G-d and who would never have made a deal with Ehud Barak and his Labor party. Thank you for staying outside of Likud, for keeping your voters away from Feiglin, for not offering me any opposition and for recommending me to President Peres as Israel’s next Prime Minister. You are very special people. I love your orange bracelets, your orange flags and your orange kippot.
The only bad part about my new Government is that I will not be seeing you around. You are not part of the coalition, not active in my party and not even leading the opposition. I wish you luck in your march through Umm-el-Fahm and hope you keep fighting against that hostile city. This is a very noble cause. Please email me your progress. In the meantime, I will be setting up a PalestinianState, releasing terrorists from jail, removing 20-30 outposts throughout the West Bank and do whatever President Obama asks of me. Thanks to you, I have no opposition and all of my plans should move very quickly. Let’s drink a L’Chaim at the upcoming Knesset Pesach party. I could have never done it without you. Sincerely, Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The only one that Bibi will NOT send a “thank you” card to is Moshe Feiglin. Bibi understands that Feiglin is his ONLY opposition. That is why he worked day and night in his attempts to push Feiglin off the Likud list. When Bibi lost his case in the Tel Aviv Court of Appeals, he went to “Big Brother” in the Supreme Court and succeeded in pushing Feiglin to spot 36. When Likud received only 27 seats in the Knesset, Bibi felt relieved because Feiglin did not make it in. The only problem, however, is that Feiglin is far from throwing in the towel. The TKO that Bibi was looking for is not going to happen. Moshe Feiglin is mounting serious internal opposition to Netanyahu. He is gathering MK’s from Likud, key Central Committee members and leaders of Likud branches around the country to oppose the hijacking of the Likud party - by Bibi - away from the will of people. He will be fighting and challenging Bibi every chance he can and will pressure him in ways that will make it difficult for Bibi to carry out his plans of national suicide for Israel.
Only Feiglin can – and will – oppose Bibi. This does not mean he will succeed at stopping every one of Bibi’s destructive actions but Feiglin – and ONLY – Feiglin will organize Likud members into a solid bloc of opposition. He will mobilize thousands and will be at the center of a major campaign targeted at Likud voters to demand that their 27 MK’s represent them and not the views of Labor. While the “right wing” fades into oblivion and their Knesset members wage silly and ineffective battles, Moshe Feiglin will continue to fight for a strong and proud Jewish State. Go Feiglin!
