The hard truth - it don't take a genius
The hard truth - it don't take a genius

That age-old maxim that posits that one can tell much about someone by their choice of friends is invariably true, and yet, when applied to the political arena, it is even less telling than one’s choice of advisors. Witness the case of Hillary Clinton, a political chameleon who, despite every effort to be all things to all people, can be readily and transparently identified by those under whose cloak she hides: her advisors.

Political advisors, chosen carefully by aspiring presidential candidates, are often the window by which one can view the policies yet to follow. The very choice of these advisors allows one to understand that “it don’t take a genius” to know what’s coming next. President Obama, influenced by his Middle East mentor (and notorious PLO spokesman) Rashid Khalidi, subsequently filled his dance card with Valery Jarrett, Samantha Power, John Kerry, Ben Rhodes, and yes, Hillary Clinton. And today, we have a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran that even its architects now shamelessly admit was passed through Congress, with a supportive blessing of the media, as a result of duplicitous power brokering.

No, it don’t take a genius.

Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state who is hard-pressed to list her own accomplishments, has chosen her own advisors as part of her inner circle. It begins and ends with Sidney Blumenthal. And, silently in the shadows, his son Max. 

Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton friend and advisor for many years and her confidant formulating her failed Libya policy – even despite a strong admonition by Obama during her stint as Secretary that he be distanced from State Department policy-making – continues to be the Svengali behind the scenes. A Clinton electoral success in November guarantees that Blumenthal emerges from the shadows to the great consternation of all friends of Israel. And, at great expense to American efforts to maintain a stable Middle East.

Until Obama, Israel had been viewed by virtually every chief executive as the moral imperative when counting allies in a world where the United States found fewer friends than foes. A Clinton presidency would be disastrous and do little to right that wrong.

The reluctant release by Clinton of her many secret emails have revealed a disturbing picture that ought to shake up all friends of Israel. The Blumenthal plan is one which calls for isolating and then breaking Israel. But it might be too late. Polls indicate that the American Jewish vote will again be quite heavily Democratic, despite the fact that the Democratic platform will be completely incongruous with their strong desire that American support for Israel never be compromised. And the damage that will be done will be immeasurable. Yes, it’s time to panic. Better now, than the day after the presidential election.

And yes, it’s time for Israel’s supporters to look beyond the Democratic Party.

Abraham Lincoln is credited for having opined that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Well, sort of. In November 2016, approximately 130,000,000 million voters will determine the US’s future, and the course that it charts. The Democratic Party has found a formula that allows it to fool over 67 million people, all of the time. Enough to have won the last two elections with a candidate found wanting on so many fronts. You see, it seems not to matter. African Americans will vote overwhelmingly Democratic. As will the Hispanics, and yes, American Jews as well. Unless, in the coming months, we succeed in getting them to wake up to the truth. The hard truth.

One cannot recall in recent history a presidential election which pitted two candidates whose ideological base has been so contrastingly different, on policy matters, both domestic and foreign. And few foreign affairs are more important, more challenging, and more portentous than the volatile Middle East. In defense of Western values, proponents of a strong and secure Israel, which includes, of course, the tens of millions of America’s evangelical Christians, need to pay careful attention.

As Clinton’s foreign affairs guru, Sidney Blumenthal’s view of the Middle East, fashioned so closely to the vitriolic anti-Israel writings of his son – who questions Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State, who refers to Israelis as Judeo-Nazis, and who ironically supports the global boycotts of the Jewish State – is cause for alarm. Decidedly proud of his son Max, an apologist for Hamas, the elder Blumenthal has on several occasions expressed equal pride in getting Hillary Clinton to read his scathing screeds, and remarkably, to comment quite favorably.

The antipathy of Blumenthal to Israel is well known, and very much ignored, remarkably in Jewish circles as well, particularly by those who support the Clinton campaign. This inexcusable attitude, suspended halfway between ignorance and indifference, carries with it consequences unlike ever before.

It don’t take a genius.

Someone needs to speak the truth. The hard truth. The traditional supporters of the Democratic Party, must confront, nay, stop the Obama/Clinton machine from fully deserting the only democracy in the Middle East or be judged by future generations as those who surrendered to willful negligence at best, and to fascist totalitarianism from the left at worst. The path to peace will not come from the euphemisms that the Clinton camp uses to shroud its platform. And it will not be realized by vilifying Israel and glorifying the assault against it. By every measure, the Democrats have failed, miserably, in an arena that will soon be threatened with an Iranian nuclear capability – while Hillary Clinton boasts of being a significant architect of that endeavor.

It is therefore imperative that Donald Trump use his platform to speak the truth; enough to convince a significant enough segment of the voting population – those few percentage points that so often determine an election – that the Obama/Clinton train is fast approaching an unavoidable precipice.

In the movie "Wall Street," Gordon Gekko barks out: “I’ll make you a deal. You stop telling lies about me, and I’ll stop telling the truth about you.” Well, given the unyielding assault on Israel, fraught with its many euphemisms from the Obama/Clinton camps, and perpetuated by all those that hide under the mantle of progressivism, it behooves proponents of Israel to continue to tell the truth.

Meir Jolovitz is a past national executive director of the Zionist Organization of America, and formerly associated with the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies.