Buerger Bites

Gandhi’s Self-Inflicted Wound

On January 9, I blogged about an awful post on the Washington Post’s website by Arun Gandhi, grandson of the famous Indian preacher of non-violence. Bizarrely, he declared that Israel harps too much on the Holocaust and should simply lay down its arms to get along better with its neighbors. The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree

Arun was the president of M.K. Gandhi Institute. Some called his remarks anti-Semitic; I called them plain ignorant. Well guess what? Arun Gandhi offered his resignation and it was accepted on January 24.

I welcome that news because there is no room for such uneducated discourse, especially from the leader of a “non-violent” institute.

My only concern is that the announcement came from Joel Seligman, President of the University of Rochester, home of the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. Seligman is Jewish and naturally people will blame it on the Jews. In reality Gandhi himself caused his own demise.

They Said No

George W. Bush went begging to Saudi Arabia in hopes that his friends would help him with a problem.

The high cost of oil was affecting the one thing he hoped he could leave as his legacy: a strong economy. Bush and the conservatives believed his tax cuts that helped only the wealthiest Americans would benefit the entire nation.

Six years later, we’re heading for a recession with the challenge of threats of inflation due to higher commodity prices like oil. So Bush tries to butter up his friends to increase oil production to meet growing global demand. An increase supply would lower the cost of oil.

Just after Bush left, Saudi Arabia made news. It would now be legal for women stay in a hotel by themselves! Huge. Gee, what rights women are now garnering in the Islamic nation.

How sad are we that our president has to go begging for lower oil prices? What really bothers me is that the Saudis are not the idealistic democracy that Bush has been pushing in the Middle East. Woman have little rights. They can’t drive or vote. There is no freedom of religion. Oh, and they sponsor terror against Israel.

All that qualifies them for a great friend to the U.S and Israel.

But in the end, OPEC and the Saudis said no. Is anyone surprised that this nation that teaches hatred against America and Israel would say no to increased production?

What is surprising is that Bush would even think they would.

Some Energy Plan

Finally, President George W. Bush has an energy plan.

Almost seven years to the day that he took office, six years and four months after 3,000 Americans died on 9/11, and after hundreds of innocent Jews have been killed in Israel in a bloody intifadah, the man has a plan.

Here it is in simple terms: The most powerful man on Earth goes to a leader of a country that can’t feed its people and begs him to produce more oil so gas prices drop.

There it is! Like it? 

President Bush was in Saudi Arabia after a photo-op trip to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. He dined with the King and told him that it would help Americans if oil prices were lower. (Remember: Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Remember: Every gallon of gas/oil we purchase inflates prices on the global markets, enriching U.S. and Israeli enemies.)

President Bush unveiled his grand plan the same day a Palestinian rocket landed in Baltimore’s sister city, Ashkelon, not far from a playground hundreds of Baltimoreans built two weeks ago during an Associated mission. Five other rockets landed in Sderot, seriously injuring a five year-old girl.

Unfortunately, this is not a joke. This is what our energy policy has come to. We beg terrorist sponsoring countries to be kind to us so we can feed our oil addiction.

I just hope more Americans and Israelis don’t die waiting for a strong leader willing to lead our country into using alternative energy sources.

By George, The Anti-Bill

Some times, we have customs in Judaism that are the result of wanting to be different than Christians. Take flower giving: before embalming, Christians would use flowers to cover up the smell of a decaying body. Now, it’s just a kind gesture. Jews had no real need to use flowers because we traditionally bury our dead within about 24 hours. Still today, Jews don’t give flowers to honor a person’s death. It’s just too Christian.

Now take presidential legacies. When Bush 43 moved into the White House, he set himself up to differentiate himself from his predecessor. What ever Bill would do, Bush would do the opposite. Clinton worked well into the night and was a 24/7/365 kinda guy; Bush was more of a 9 to 5 man. In fact he took the summer of 2001 off while al-Qaida put the final touches on the 9/11 terror attacks.

Bill Clinton worked tirelessly in his last year in office to make his legacy be peace in the Middle East. Yasser Arafat made more guest appearances in the White House than Clinton’s big donors. Clinton departed empty handed, save for a successful Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.

Bush 43 didn’t want to stain his hands like Bill. But he quickly had his hands full with war in Afghanistan and Iraq. No time to get mired in a 2,000-year-old conflict.

Fast forward to 2008, less than a year for George to create some kind of legacy. With that clock ticking, Bush decides he has to do something after failures in nearly everything else he’s touched—from the economy, to education and, of course, Afghanistan and Iraq.

So he hops over to Israel for his first trip to the Jewish State as president, and buddies up with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Bush tells his equally unpopular new friend that he needs him to do something to create peace between the Israelis and Palestinians so he can leave some sort of legacy.

Sounds like Bush, who tried so hard to distance himself from Bill, moved so far away on the circle that he’s come back again. Rather than being miles away from Clinton, he’s sitting right next to him and hoping that with 365 days to go, the Palestinians and Israelis will bail him out, giving him something to show for eight years of work.

Better send flowers; Bush’s peace plan is all but dead.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

I have writer’s block.

It’s not that I don’t know what to write about; it’s just that I’m speechless. I just finished reading a blog on the Washington Post/Newsweek website written by Arun Gandhi, grand son of the famous Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, at the University of Rochester in New York.

His blog is on the On Faith section with international religious leaders commenting on the PBS series The Jewish Americans.
Rather than focus on the great contributions Jews have made to American society – in the arts, civic, and medical arenas, Mr. Gandhi preferred to make up commentary about Jewish aggression in the Middle East. Apparently, he won’t let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Nor does he explain why he focuses on Israel and not America.

His vitriolic diatribe maintains two points. Israel’s existence plays too much on the Holocaust and that Israel should lay down its weapons, take down its wall so it will get along well with its neighbors.

I can’t even call this anti-Semitic. It’s just horribly, horribly ignorant and misguided.

Just today the New York Times ran a front page story detailing how “Sderot…has been hit over the past four years with some 2,000 rockets of improving range and explosive power — 22 in the last eight days.”

Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t a real big fan of the Jews. He felt that we should not resist the Germans nor use force to protect Israel. That may have worked with the English. Not so good with Nazis or Muslims.

His grandson stakes out some horrible opinions:
“Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don’t befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.”
But, reading the comments posted by readers are even more frightening. While I don’t feel threatened physically as a Jew in this world, I am saddened by people’s uneducated perceptions like “while Israel has WMD that we helped them get...and they use them against their enemies who have become our enemies (remember the axis of evil?).”

Not to mention the mere fact that Israel and India are close economic and military allies.

I have writers block on how to comment to these people. You?