Jon Kyl Invites Geert Wilders to Washington to present Fitna

This is an interesting story that might get buried in everything else that is happening in Washington this week.

It looks like Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has invited Geert Wilders, the Dutch film maker and politician, to present the film Fitna to the United States Senate later this week.

For those of you unaware with this film, it has stirred up international controversy, as it explores Qur’anic motivations for terrorism in the Netherlands and beyond.

If you have yet to see Fitna, here is some of it:

It should be expected that this will draw some protest in Washington and beyond.

Update: Glad to see this story has recieved a good deal of attention!

Will Kadima maintain power of Likud?

According to the latest exit polling from Channel 1, Channel 2, and Channel 10 (Israeli Television stations), it appears that Kadima (center-Left), led by Tzipi Livni has the lead over Likud (right wing), led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since returns are still coming in, I don’t want to delve too deep into any likenesses between their election and the one we just had in November, but please check back over the coming hours as I post updates and any other observations.

If you haven’t followed Israeli politics before, I strongly urge you to try and become immersed in this election as the final results come in.

What’s great about Israel’s electoral system is that unlike the United States, you only need to receive 2% of the vote to be a viable candidate, courtesy of a well organized multi-party system. This means that there is no “absolute control” of government, and alliances are usually a must in order for the government to be successful.

What’s also unique about this election is that this year two parties have been banned from the election: United Arab List-Ta’al and Balad, both Arab political parties. It’ll be interesting to see where that voting block decides to go.

Here are some early updates (from Ha’aretz):

Channel 1:

The Channel 1 poll gave Kadima 30 seats, Likud 28 seats, and Labor 13 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu is predicted to win 14 seats, according to the poll.

Channel 2:

According to the Channel 2 poll, Kadima will hold 29 seats, Likud will take 27 seats and Labor 13 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu will have 15 seats in the new Knesset.

Channel 10:

The Channel 10 poll indicated that Likud will take 28 seats, Kadima will hold 30 seats and Labor 13 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu will have 15 seats.

Real-time Updates:

Obama’s first move as President-elect is a good one

While I’m sure there are still millions of Republicans throughout the country mourning John McCain’s electoral shortcomings, there is another group within the Party that realizes that you have to suck it up and move on.

Even though some might not like it, the fact of the matter is that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.

It would be too easy for me to just sit back and attack the prospects of an Obama presidency, so instead of being another talking head, I figure that for the time being, I’ll just call things as I see them. If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you know first hand that I don’t subscribe to Party talking points.

Rahm Emanuel, 2009 White House Chief of Staff

With that, it brings me no dissatisfaction to praise President-elect Obama in his selection of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff.

Despite that fact that Rahm Emanuel and I disagree on many issues, I think that he brings a point-of-view that will be healthy for setting the tone of the Obama Administration.

Yes, I’m sure you think I’m crazy right about now. However one of the biggest doubts that people have about Barack Obama is whether or not he’ll be able to make the right decision should the United States, or one of our allies face significant conflict.

For those of you who know about Rahm Emanuel, odds are you also know that he comes from a very devout Jewish family (he’s Orthodox) and is one of the most ardent supporters of Israel in the United States Congress. In fact, during the Gulf War, Congressman Emanuel even volunteered to serve with the Israel Defense Forces.

I think it’s extremely symbolic for a candidate who was attacked for allegedly being Muslim and anti-Israel, to make a modern-Orthodox and openly pro-Israel Congressman the first pick of his Administration.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that in Congress his nickname is “Rahm-bo,” due to his aggressive nature of getting things done. Don’t expect him to hide his opinions from President Obama, especially when it comes to issues (like Israel) that he is passionate about.

The Chief of Staff is one of the few people in the Administration that havs daily access to the President, so there should be no doubt that Rahm Emanuel will play a key role in President Obama’s decision making process.

While I don’t think that I’m going to agree with all of President-elect Obama’s choices, I definitely believe that he has started his trek to the White House on the right foot by picking Congressman Emanuel.

Question for Obama #6, Topic: Israel

From the New York Sun:

One of your foreign policy advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has been an outspoken and harsh critic of Israel. What role would Mr. Brzezinski play on Middle East policy in an Obama administration?

One of the few times I’ve disagreed with the Israeli government

Very rarely are there times where you’ll find me holding a position that is opposite to one that is held by the Israeli government, at least to the point where a blog post is in order. I firmly believe that Israel has been, and remains to be a great example of the power of democracy and one of the United States’ best friends. However, today Israel made a move that I have an extremely hard time comprehending.

In a deal that would bring back the bodies of two Israeli soldiers (1st Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser and Sgt. 1st Class Eldad Regev.), the Knesset agreed to release five militants they have been holding in their prisons. However, what was even more unique about this swap, was that one of the prisoners included Samir Kuntar, by far one of the most horrific murders I’ve ever heard of.

While I’m not a fan of gorey details, I do not believe it’s possible to understand my frustration without knowing more background on what landed Kuntar in prison. This is something that has received very little news attention here, but I think it’s an extremely important story.

From CNN.com:

A member of the Palestine Liberation Front, Kuntar led a group of four men who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat in 1979. They killed a police officer who came across them. Then they took a 28-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter hostage.

Kuntar shot the father dead at close range in front of his daughter and tossed his body in the sea. He then smashed the girl’s head, killing her. In addition, a 2-year-old girl from the same family suffocated as her mother tried to stop her from crying while they hid during the violence.

Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison.

In the United States, not only would this have landed you in an electric chair, but it also would have led to the first pay-per-view execution.

As an American, these actions made absolutely no sense to me. However, since I’m not an Israeli, I went and sought the opinion of someone who is there, knows the culture, and the rationale. The following is a reitiration of an online conversation with Tal Siach, Israeli blogger at Walyou.com.

If you want to know my thoughts, we the Israelis are very moral. To bring back dead bodies is important to us; they (the terorists) don’t care about it too much. They didn’t say if they’re alive or not until the last second and they made their family believe they are alive.

It’s not human whatsoever to me, Kontar killed someone and we let him go for bodies. As you can see its not an eye for an eye, I hate that, but you can do an eye for an eye with animals. I respect the families and happy their soldier will be buried in Israel, but on the same note sad for the mother who lost her son and her murderer is free now.

I don’t like the fact that the terrorists can think now that’s OK to not keep prisoners alive since dead bodies are value to us, and they know it, unlike them.

That is personally what i think.

I believe in peace and want it to happen, but there are ways every human been should act. How come we are bringing the prisoners alive, and not in coffins? Why do we keep them, feed them, and they kill ours.

me:  i read he got a college degree while in prison I’m guessing that was at your expense

For sure, we are very moral. The citizens pay for his stay, while the Hezbollah kills everything they see. Yeah , really they’re not humans, what the press is showing is not the truth; they bomb Israel.

There  are good people who do want peace in the Arab countries, I believe that. I have good friends here online, from Iran, too. But where democracy fails, it’s hard to get peace.”

While it’s extremely easy for me to illustrate my point of view, my frustration is nothing compared to what must be going through the minds of many Israeli’s today.

Even though I have a very limited number of readers in Isreal, to those who do read my blog, I encourage you to share your thoughts on this as well.

Again, a special thanks to Tal Siach for helping me get a better understanding of this. Please visit Tal’s blog here.