Watch Israel

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that Americans must keep their eyes on Israel in order to know what will come to the United States.  Israel is like the canary in the mine in relation to the United States.  As long as the canary was alive, the miners knew the mine was safe to enter.  When the canary died, the miners needed to get out fast.

The Arab nations consider Israel to be "Little Satan" and the United States to be "Big Satan."  Arab nations have declared their intention to drive all Jews into the Mediterranean Sea and wipe the nation of Israel off the face of the earth.  They have also declared that they intend to destroy the United States.  What happens to Israel will affect the United States! 

                    Tensions have been building in the months leading up to an appearance at the United Nations by Palestinian Authority President Mahmaud Abbas.  Abbas spoke  at the UN on Friday, September 23, 2011, and to demanded that the Security Council grant immediate statehood to the Palestinians.  He said that his new nation would be "Jew free." 

                    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel with plans to meet with President Barack Obama and to speak at the General Assembly of the United Nations.  He told members of the Likud party in Israel that he was aware that he would "come under heavy pressure" at the UN, "and exactly because of that I think we should go there and present our truth … of a people attacked over and over by those opposed to their very existence.  That is the most basic truth."

                    Netanyahu said that he has offered to meet Abbas several times, but Abbas has always declined.  "I told him the road to peace goes through direct negotiations and not unilateral decisions at the UN."  [The UN decided that the Palestinians and Israelis should do more negotiating.]

                    Netanyahu added that "it is much easier to win applause from world nations by extensive concessions we make, and then we see what we get.  Municipality heads in the north and the south can attest to that.  The danger of a rushed or a unilateral agreement or no agreement is not just rockets on the south or the north, but on all of Israel."

                    Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, told Army Radio that Israel "is ready to negotiate tomorrow" with the Palestinians.  He confirmed that attempts were made to arrange a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu in New York before the UN votes on Palestinian statehood.  Abbas refuses to meet.

                    CBS News reported that frantic efforts were made at the United Nations on Tuesday, September 20, 2011, to avoid a face-off on Friday over Palestinian statehood.  Marcia Kramer of CBS 2 reported that Israel suggested the possibility of an "interim solution" that would allow Palestinians to establish a state within the existing borders of Gaza and the West Bank with all the difficult problems worked out later.  Some of the problems to be worked out later would include difficult issues such as final borders, the status of Jerusalem, right of return for Palestinian refugees, and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

                    The Palestinian campaign for statehood has caused a very sensitive domestic problem for President Barack Obama, and he has been walking a political tightrope while attempting to solve the diplomatic problem between Israel and Palestine.  He spent time talking with both Netanyahu and Abbas before the UN vote.

Jewish votes have historically favored Democrats for almost a century.  Now many orthodox and conservative Jews who support Israel are questioning why they should support Obama if he is against Israel.  Obama is trying to shore up the Jewish vote while at the same time trying to keep from alienating his liberal/progressive base that doesn't care that much about Israel.  Eight out of ten Jewish voters backed Obama in 2008, and Republicans are trying to woo them into the Republican camp.  The Jewish vote could be important in pivotal states such as Florida and Ohio as well as in fundraising.  The Jewish voters in Ohio and Florida are much like those in New York who just voted for Republican Representative Turner in a special election.