Submitted Comments RSS Feed Comments by Liz Berney for Congress
Posted in: Ackerman, ripping Obama critics
Obama's Syria policy, supported by Ackerman, IS appeasement, and has been so even before the administration took office. Here is a bit of the record: During the 2008 campaign, Obama sent one of his foreign policy advisers and Hillary Clinton sent one of her finance chairs, Hassan Nemazee, to meet with Syria's President Bashar Assad. (President Bush had downgraded relations with Syria after the Syrians joined with the Iranians to sabotage Iraq. President Bush properly removed our ambassador to Syria after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, due to Syria's complicity in the assassination.) Less than two weeks after Obama took office, on Feb. 2, 2009, the Obama administration partially lifted the sanctions on Syria to help Syria overhaul and modernize Syrian-state-owned airplanes. In response, on Feb. 26, 2009, Israel's wonderful supporter, brave Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced H.R.1206, entitled "To strengthen sanctions against the Government of Syria, to enhance multilateral commitment to address the Government of Syria's threatening policies." Virtually all the co-sponsors were Republican. Obama sent numerous envoys back and forth between Syria and Israel starting in the early months of his administration, to pressure Israel into a suicidal treaty involving Israel giving up the Golan Heights. Obama reiterated in several speeches (including his April 6, 2009 address in Turkey and his Sept. 23, 2009 UN Speech) that pursuing such an Israeli treaty with Syria is one of his main goals. (Giving up the Golan would leave Israel with an indefensible northern border, according to military experts.) Obama also stood with Mahmoud Abbas in the White House on May 28, 2009 when Abbas demanded that Israel give up the Golan. On May 5, 2009, Ahmadinejad visited Assad in Damascas, where both reaffirmed their support for "Palestinian resistance." Ahmadinejad visited Hamas chieftains and other radical terrorists harbored by the Syrian regime in Damascas. The Obama administration (and Ackerman) were silent. In July 2009, Obama announced that he would send an ambassador to Syria. Also last summer, the Obama administration set up a mechanism to fast track further exceptions to the Syrian sanctions. Obama and his administration (including George Mitchell's January 7, 2010 interview) have repeatedly stated that the administration's plan is the so-called "Arab Peace Initiative" a/k/a "Saudi Peace Initiative" which calls for Israel to give up everything (including the Golan, "rights of return" and more) in return for nothing. In 2008, Ackerman told my district that Obama "would be good for Jews and Israel." I warned that Obama would be bad for Jews and Israel. Sadly, I was right. Liz Berney, Esq. (Republican candidate - CD 5 in 2008 & 2010 (Ackerman's opponent) & 2008 local "surrogate" for McCain campaign) LizBerneyforCongress@gmail.com LizBerneyforCongress.com
Posted in: Schumer to Bibi: How about that $1,800?
If Senator Schumer would really like to live up to his pledge to be a "Shomer" (guardian) of the Jewish people, here are a few concrete suggestions for him: 1) Don't run to Florida and other Jewish areas to tell the Jewish community to vote for Pres. Obama again in 2012. Schumer did this in 2008, despite the clear signs that Obama would be the worst president ever for Israel, including Obama's anti-Israel advisers and pre-election "cycle of violence" statements (which equate terrorists with IDF defensive actions and flip-flop on Jerusalem. Better still, advise the Jewish community to vote for Obama's opponent this time. 2) Start speaking up and criticizing Obama, Clinton and others in the Obama administration every time Obama and his administration accuse Israel of the "occupation," and otherwise attempt to delegitimize and pressure Israel. Oppose the administration's outrageous demands for settlement freezes, building freezes in Jerusalem, releases of Palestinian terrorists from prison who will go on to murder again, lifting of checkpoints and roadblocks needed to save lives, and funding to the Palestinian Authority and Gaza with our tax dollars. 3) Support strong effective action against the Iranian nuclear threat, including selling Israel bunker busting bombs and refueling planes, providing fly-over access, and an American military strike option. As Ambassador Bolton explains, the sanctions bills (which have not been reconciled or signed by the president) are "too little, too late." Curiously, at the AIPAC Northeast Regional Dinner, Senator Schumer misleadingly told the crowd of 1500 that the sanctions bill was now "law." At least now he admits that this is not the case. 4) Insist that the administration must abide by the signed 2004 American commitment (the 2004 letter from Pres. Bush to Prime Minister Sharon plus the Congressional resolution endorsing this commitment) that Israel keeps West Bank Jewish populated settlements. (The administration, including Hillary, Obama and others, and Congressional Democrats such as Congressman Ackerman now claim that this commitment is no longer binding on the U.S., as they keep pressuring Israel.) 5. Insist that the administration should stop pressuring Israel to give up the Golan Heights, which would be suicidal in light of Syria's current chemical weapons and other weapons capabilities. 6. Investigate and bring civil rights actions to stop the Arab-funded rampant anti-semitism and Israel bashing on U.S. campuses which our college students are subjected to. P.S. If Senator Schumer does all this, I'd be happy to personally give him the $1800, although next time I hope that he'll call a cheaper cleaning service. Liz Berney, Esq. LizBerneyforCongress.com LizBerneyforCongress@gmail.com
Posted in: Hillary Clinton's AIPAC speech: The video, the transcript
A useful analogy: Blaming the building of Israeli homes in Jerusalem for the lack of peace in the Middle East is like blaming Michele Obama's redecoration of the White House for the lack of peace between America and al Queda. Liz Berney, Esq. LizBerneyforCongress@gmail.com
Posted in: Hillary Clinton's AIPAC speech: The video, the transcript
Shameful speech on so many levels. Among other things, notice how Mrs. Clinton deliberately avoided condemning Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority for their continuing refusal to recognize Israel, continued incitement of violence and hatred, and naming of a square in Ramallah after terrorist Dalal Mugrabi, who murdered 38 Jews, including 13 children. As Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton is well aware that Ramallah is the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, that Mahmoud Abbas has his headquarters in Ramallah, and that Abbas and Salam Fayyad participated in the ceremonies honoring terrorist Mugrabi. Yet, incredibly, Mrs. Clinton's speech blames the naming of the square totally on Hamas! Clinton stated: "When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones in this conflict." In addition to attributing this outrageous incitement by Abbas and Fatah to the wrong terrorist entity, Mrs. Clinton's statement is outrageous for equating the murder of innocent Israeli civilians to losses of life by suicide bombers and other terrorists. Similarly, Mrs. Clinton blames the Palestinian incitement regarding the re-dedication of Hurva Synagogue on unidentified "instigators." Later in the speech, Mrs. Clinton praises Abbas and Fayyad for reforms, claims that Abbas put his country on the "path to peace," and misleadingly urges them to "redouble their efforts put an end to incitement and violence." We would of course be in even worse trouble if Abbas and Fayyad "redouble" their efforts, since unfortunately, Abbas and Fayyad's "efforts" have consisted of honoring terrorists at every opportunity in television specials, textbooks and the media; naming public squares, children's schools and sports competitions after terrorists; and holding up maps of Israel with Israel entirely wiped out and replaced with "Palestine," and repeatedly stating that they do not recognize Israel. Mrs. Clinton's use of the term "redoubling" falsely implies that Abbas and Fayyad have done something constructive to stop incitement - which is clearly not the case. And, of course, Mrs. Clinton's insistence that the building Israeli homes in Jerusalem and the West Bank is an obstacle to peace is completely untrue. Thus, demanding so-called "confidence building" concessions from Israel will not bring peace. The real obstacle to peace is exactly what Clinton refused to condemn -- the Palestinians' continued incitement of violence. Liz Berney, Esq. LizBerneyforCongress.com email: LizBerneyforCongres@gmail.com
Posted in: Top Reform rabbi: Freeze building in 'East Jerusalem'
It is mind-boggling and truly shameful that a Jewish leader attacks perfectly legitimate Israeli policy and remains silent about the outrageous actions of Israel's sworn enemies. Rabbi Yoffie should be condemning the Palestinian Authority's ceremony last week naming a public square in Ramallah after terrorist Dalal Mugrabi, who murdered 38 Jews, including 13 children, and wounded 71 more. And Yoffie should condemn the rockets launched from Gaza which fell on Israel today, killing one person. And Yoffie should display some real courage - and attack the Obama administration's criticism of Israel for building needed homes in its own capital. LizBerneyforCongress.com
Posted in: Obama on peace talks: Stop talking about talking, and start talking
Each of the last 5 agreements (Oslo I, Oslo II, Wye River, Hebron accord, etc.) signed by Israel and the PA during the last 16 years REQUIRED the PA to stop incitement of terrorism. Yet, despite their written agreements, Palestinian incitement of terrorism against Israelis (and against Americans and Jews all over the world) continues to this day in daily PA television programs, in PA television specials such as the recent one honoring Dalal Mugrabi (the murderer of 37 Israelis including 12 children in the Tel Aviv Coastal Road Massacre), in PA schools, textbooks, other media, mosques, soccer teams, and most recently, the Fatah convention which called for Israel's destruction. We should demand that the Palestinians must finally keep their existing commitments, before even considering further concessions or agreements.
Posted in: Podhoretz's Jewish question
It was interesting that Ms. Raivich mentioned FDR in relation to the Jewish voting patterns issue. FDR received 82% of the Jewish vote in 1932 and 85% of the Jewish vote in 1936. However, throughout most of his administration and WW 2 (until the belated establishment of the War Refugee Board in 1944), FDR maintained absurdly low immigration quotas - thereby impeding the escape of millions of Jews trapped in Europe. In 1939, FDR refused to allow the St. Louis ("voyage of the damned"), which was filled with Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany (including my great grandmother), to debark when the boat reached the coast of Florida, and instead turned the ship back to Europe. Two-thirds of the ship's passengers thereafter perished at the hands of the Nazis. Nonetheless, 90% of American Jews voted for FDR in 1940. FDR thereafter refused to bomb the railway tracks to the death camps, which could have slowed down the Nazi killing machine. Nonetheless, again in 1944, 90% of Jews voted for FDR. As with Obama's policy of pressuring Israel to make dangerous concessions on every front, many American Jews were misled, uninformed or did not fully comprehend the consequences to their brethren overseas of the FDR administration's policies. But perhaps some simply did not care enough. Liberals believe that they care about others more than they care about themselves. Hopefully, they will extend that caring to the innocent Jewish citizens of Sderot and other beleaguered Israeli communities, Hondurans, Poles, Iranians crushed by Ahmadinejad, and, of course, fellow Americans, all imperiled by the Obama administration's policies. Liz Berney, Esq. LizBerneyforCongress@gmail.com
Posted in: Israel, Jewish groups seek to discredit new U.N. report on Gaza war
The Goldstone report is filled with huge inaccuracies from cover to cover, which reveal the anti-Israel bias of its authors. For instance, the "report" repeatedly refers to Israel's "continuing occupation" of Gaza and states that Gaza is "Occupied Palestinian Territory" (or "OPT") (see, for example, report paragraph 1654 on page 515 and report paragraph 1694 on page 526), despite the fact that Israel withdrew from every inch of Gaza years before Operation Cast Lead. The report also uses the Hamas estimate of casualties (1400) , despite the fact that this oversstates the number of real casualties by over 50%. (See paragraph 1682 of the report.) The report also provides so-called damage costs to Gaza, while ignoring the enormous cost of the damage which Hamas rockets inflicted on Sderot and other Israeli towns and villages over the 8-year period during which these rockets fell on Israel on a daily basis. The report also asserts the absurd conclusion that because the Israeli operation was planned, it must have been directed at the people of Gaza (see paragraph 1680) - rather than at stopping the rocket attacks. Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli citizens had increased to 150 rockets a day when Israel commenced the Gaza operation to protect her citizens! In fact, the planning by Israel was designed to keep Palestinian civilian casualties as low as possible, and succeeded in doing so. An unplanned operation would have inflicted far more casualties. Indeed, most of the casualties were if fact Hamas terrorists (or "militants" or "Palestinian armed groups" as Mr. Goldstone prefers to call the jihadists who made life unbearable for Israel's innocent citizens with their constant rocket attacks). The report also claims (through a second hand report) that a Gaza's people show resilience and dignity because a teacher wanted to "resume" "human rights education." (See paragraph 1695) Far more reliable sources (for instance, Palestinian Media Watch - http://www.pmw.org.il/ ) have documented what is really taught in Gaza's schools - namely, unmitigated hatred for Israel, Jews and Americans, lies that Israelis are putting Palestinians into ovens and taking their body parts, praise for terrorists who kill Israeli citizens, and encouraging students to destroy Israel and kill Jews and Americans. I could continue to list the enormous inaccuracies with this shamefully shoddy "report" all day. LizBerneyforCongress@gmail.com LizBerneyforCongress.com
Posted in: Op-Ed: Choose civility
I agree with the importance of civility - meaning, sticking to the issues and avoiding name calling. However, we should not remain quiet in the name of civility when the very existence of the U.S. and Israel and our other allies is endangered. Jewish leaders (and all of us) should courageously scream to the rooftops if need be about issues such as Obama's attempt to blame lack of peace on "settlements" instead of where the blame really rests (the continuing Fatah and Hamas terrorism, incitement and opposition to Israel's very existence). We should be outspoken about the Obama administration's inaction in the face of Iran's imminent nuclear weapons capability and Iran's intention to strike Israel and the U.S. with such weapons. And we should not remain quiet in the face of constant demonization of Jews, Israel and the U.S. by the enemies of our people.
RSS Feed Breaking News
Updated 02/09/12 @ 05:54PM EST
- A poll showed that nearly half of likely voters believed the United States should use military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
- Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a major figure in Reform Judaism, died in Toronto.
- The application for a proposed Hebrew-language charter school was accepted by the District of Columbia Public Charter School board.
- A truck driving calves from Eilat to the Golan Heights was hijacked into the West Bank.
- U.S. Rep. Howard Berman introduced legislation that would allow eligible Israeli nationals to receive non-immigrant investor visas in the United States.
- Poll: Half of U.S. voters back strike on nuclear Iran
- Reform leader Rabbi Gunther Plaut dies
- D.C. Hebrew-language charter school accepted for review
- Op-Ed: Kick the reaction addiction on campus
- Berman moves to grant investor visas to Israelis
- Holy cow! Calves hijacked into Palestinian territory
- Report: Israeli journalist also works for prime minister
- Larry Greenfield tapped to lead JINSA
Posted in: Ackerman and J Street, the full exchange
01/26/11 12:41 PM
This IS good news! I'm very pleased to see that Congressman Gary Ackerman is finally ending his relationship with the anti-Israel J-Street (which raised funds to re-elect Ackerman and endorsed Ackerman's position of pushing for further dangerous Israeli concessions). Congressman Ackerman's relationship with J-Street outraged people throughout our Congressional District. However, several aspects of Congressman Ackerman's accompanying cut-off statement are of concern. First, we do NOT need any more so-called "aggressive pro-peace pro-Israel" organizations, as Ackerman states. J-Street is not the only culprit, and it is very troubling that Ackerman says that we need more organizations of the same ilk as J-Street. All of these leftist organizations (e.g., Peace Now, Brit Zedek v'Shalom, Israel Policy Forum, etc.) have a history of supporting policies that endanger our ally Israel’s security and continued existence. For instance, Brit Zedek recently defended Palestinian school textbooks, which preach hatred of Jews, Israel and America. These textbooks incite a new generation of Palestinians to continue violent attacks on Israel. The leftist organizations also continue to pursue the flawed "land and more and more concessions for empty promises of peace" model which has been proven time and time again to damage Israel's ability to defend herself (e.g. the Gaza withdrawal resulted in thousands of rocket attacks on southern Israel). Second, when Ackerman calls Israel's unilateral lifting of hundreds of West Bank security checkpoints and 10-month settlement freeze "gestures of good faith," he misses the point that these "gestures" should never have been made, and were only made as the result of pressure from Obama and his administration (and perhaps due to Ackerman's own comments in Congress criticizing Israel and Israel's much-needed checkpoints). The lifting of checkpoints resulted in Palestinians murdering and injuring Israelis at locations which were previously protected by the checkpoints. The one-sided settlement freeze made life miserable for Israelis (while Palestinians continued to build thousands of homes in the West Bank) and gave the wrong impression that settlements are an obstacle to peace. The real obstacle to peace is continued Palestinian intransigence, terrorism, and determination to destroy Israel. In addition to cutting ties with J-Street, Congressman Ackerman should also consider donating the money that J-Street raised for his re-election campaign to an organization that assists American and Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism. In any event, thank you, Congressman Ackerman for taking a step in the right direction. Elizabeth (Liz) Berney, Esq. Republican Committeewoman and attorney Liz Berney ran against Ackerman in 2008 and 2010.