A very interesting post from www.DebbieSchlussel.com about Barack Obama's visit to Israel. This follows this post about al-Qaeda on the anniversary of the Madrid bombings.  This follows this article about American energy independence and preventing money from going to hostile countries such as Iran . For more about what is happening in the nation now click here. In the meantime, you can read two very interesting books HERE.

Obama Boycotts Israel’s Elected Parliament for Hand-Picked Liberal Americans; EXCLUSIVE Account From an Israeli Friend

By Debbie Schlussel
Why is Barack Obama snubbing Israel’s Knesset (its parliament) and instead choosing to meet with 100 “Israeli youths,” instead? Because he has no respect for the country and is seeking to sow the seeds of liberalism and further Israeli amputation through concessions to the terrorist Palestinians.

Much has been made of Barack Obama’s lack of visits to Israel for his entire first term, but to be fair, we must note that neither Ronald Reagan nor George H.W. Bush ever visited Israel when they were President, and George W. Bush only visited in the last year of his second term, when he made two visits to Israel. That said, when Obama visits Israel, this week, he’ll do what Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu would never think of doing here in the U.S.: skipping Israel’s democratically-elected governmental body. It’s an interesting choice in a Middle East where he continues to insist on democratic elections by the barbarians who surround Israel and, yet, snubs the one real Western democracy’s elected leadership, which by the way includes several Arabs (some of whom openly support HAMAS). An Israeli Facebook (join me on Facebook) friend of mine, David Weiss, has the inside scoop, which is even more insulting to Israel:


Debbie, I spoke earlier today with one of my Knesset friends about getting me into the Knesset to see Obama’s speech in the plenum. Guess what? He’s boycotting the Knesset! When George Bush came here as president, he spoke in the plenum for 30 minutes and took time to shake each of our hands afterwards. Obama, by contrast, is only speaking to “students and Americans” at the international convention center which seats several thousand. As an American and as a Hebrew University student, I checked into tickets. He is only allowing 3 Hebrew U. students to come and 100 hand-picked Americans. Not only is he snubbing his nose at the Israeli leadership, he is snubbing the Israeli people. What is more, he is going to shut down half of our capital city for a show-speech in front of very few people. This is a HUGE contrast to President Bush’s visit to our country. Amen to that. It’s insulting and disgusting. If you’re an American President (even one with Muslim sympathies who doesn’t like Israel), show a modicum of class and behave like a leader of the Free World. Israel is an American ally–the closest, most supportive American ally there is (look at the U.N. votes of the two countries).
Don’t defecate on Israel when you are visiting it, Obama. Get some class . . . for once in your fraudulent, Walter Mitty fantasy life (with apologies to Walter Mitty and his fantasies for the comparison).
More on what is at play here:

Mr. Obama will meet Mr. Netanyahu and other leaders across the region, but administration officials see public appeals as a way to build rapport and stoke public pressure for the peace process. With that in mind, Mr. Obama will bypass the Knesset, Israeli’s Parliament, and instead will speak to thousands of young Israelis at Jerusalem’s convention center.

And, again, as David notes, these are NOT young Israelis, but carefully selected liberal Americans who happen to be in Israel. Like visiting Kardashian fans who are on vacation in Cancun and saying they represent Mexicans. Same difference.
And a total slap in the face to Israel.

A Book Review: Next Hundred Years

This is a book that I recommend from www.Stratfor.com because it gives advice on foreign policy, in particular with the near term threats of the Middle East, China, and Russia. You can get this at your library here or from a bookstore such as Amazon at the links below.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century
http://www.stratfor.com/free-reports

Is This How It Will Go?
By Eric Mayforth

When one takes into account the staggering advances that took place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is a brave forecaster who would even attempt to predict the course of our (still relatively) new century. George Friedman undertakes this task in "The Next 100 Years".

Friedman opens by taking the reader through the twentieth century at twenty-year intervals, showing how the concerns in any given time period are quickly forgotten and replaced by new concerns. This prepares the reader to see that the twenty-first century will also be anything but static, either, as America will not be facing the same set of challenges by 2020 as we did on September 11, 2001, and will be dealing with many different issues as the century progresses.

The author is a very incisive thinker, relaying stunning insight after stunning insight in demonstrating how we arrived at where we are now, with Europe having been supplanted by America as the world's focal point.

Friedman contends that, far from declining (as many fear), America is just beginning its rise. The century will be characterized, he predicts, by regional powers attempting to form coalitions to limit American power, and America attempting to prevent the formation of such coalitions. This will ultimately result at mid-century in a war that will have many similarities with World War II--the war will begin with a surprise attack on a key American military target, will be fought against a familiar foe, will result in the development of stunning new technologies, and will be followed by a new golden age redolent of the one following World War II.

This book also takes a look at the worldwide population bust--policy debates in American politics will be driven in part by debates about the number of immigrants needed as a result of the bust. The author asserts that our politics operates in fifty-year cycles, and that both transition points of American politics in the twenty-first century will be driven by immigration. One of the predictions in the book is almost made as an aside--the author is really hanging his neck out on the line, since we will be able to see in not 20 or 50 years, but within the next two years whether the author is correct in his prediction about how much President Obama will be able to roll back the basic policies that President Reagan put in place in the early 1980s.

The book closes by examining some of the technological breakthroughs such as robots and space-based energy that will transform life later in the century, and asserts that the end of the century will be characterized by increasing disharmony with Mexico over the American Southwest.

Anyone interested in what the future might hold (that is, just about everyone) would enjoy reading "The Next 100 Years". The only regret you will have when you have finished reading it is the realization that you will not be around in 2100 to see if all of the predictions in this supremely fascinating book come to pass.