Change the System!

Gridlock isn’t confined to Washington DC and Foggy Bottom. It’s a human condition.

Even in the Holy Land.

Reading a report on Israel’s elections this week left me dizzy. Most polls show a virtual dead-heat between Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, and challenger Benny Gantz’s Blue and White. Yet when voters were asked specifically who is best to lead the country, Netanyahu’s numbers were most impressive; in most he had at least a 12-point lead over Gantz. There is also the specter of the Arab voting bloc causing problems and making the race much narrower.

Gantz has pledged that he will not form a government with Arab parties.

So the question must be asked: why does Israel continue with a parliamentary system in which voters pick a party rather than a specific candidate? It is an important distinction because it allows a boatload of parties to paralyze the government, holding it hostage to each of their lists of desired goodies.

Israel went through a seismic change in national government in the 1970s, when Menachem Begin defeated the Labor Party. It was the first time a party (in this case Likud) other than Labor led the country.

One wishes Israel would go to a system in which voters pick an actual, living and breathing candidate. I can’t imagine that Netanyahu wouldn’t win handily.

Another flaw in their system is the presence of kingmakers like Avidgor Liberman, who can hold the country hostage by virtually deciding which lesser parties can cobble together to prevent a candidate/party (in this case Netanyahu) from forming the required 61-seat majority. Today, a story ran that Liberman claims Netanyahu told the Jordanians he would not annex the Jordan Valley, which would be the opposite of Likud’s public statements on the matter.

Liberman hates Netanyahu, so he can carry out personal vendettas.

Netanyahu’s corruption trial starts March 17, and that is also looming. During an interview this week with Mark Levin, Netanyahu seemed unusually relaxed. He was his usual charming self, in command of facts and savvy with the media. Despite a pivotal election and crucial trial, this is also the man that has seen combat, lost his brother Yonatan to terrorism, and has maneuvered through a whole host of other problems. He seems unflappable.

Let us pray for Israel this week and in the coming weeks especially, and for the man we admire, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

The Locusts Are Coming

I met Philip Haney a few years ago at a conference. I was speaking too, but frankly, he was head-and-shoulders above the rest of us. I sat transfixed as he spoke about his experiences in the intelligence community. A founding member of the Department for Homeland Security, Phil was literally on the frontlines of the battle for civilization. That’s no hyperbole.

In the early months of the first Obama term, Phil ran into a sinister effort to whitewash Islam, and how it had infiltrated our country. If you know anything about this, you know that the Muslim Brotherhood is the head of the snake, and they want to impose sharia law in every country. As insane as that sounds, they work day and night to do it.

And they have very much infiltrated the U.S.

Phil discovered that Obama operatives were scrubbing important data from intelligence files—data that exposed the true threat to our country.

When I heard him speak at the conference, it was clear he was a different breed of cat. He spoke confidently, but he was also a down-to-earth guy. His book, See Something, Say Nothing, is chilling in its description of the threats we face from the likes of MB, CAIR, Hamas, and various operatives in Washington.

In addition to his tremendous work in intelligence, Phil loved Israel. He was a believer and one wonders what marvelous stories he had about our Israeli friends.

I woke up this morning to news that Philip Haney was found murdered in San Francisco. He had been missing for two days. He’d been shot in the chest.

A friend this morning told me that Wednesday evening, the evening he went missing, Phil had been discussing the locust of Revelation 9 with another friend.

Ironic.

We don’t know exactly where we are on the prophetic timeline, but we do know we are living in very unusual times. Israel, while enjoying a wonderful reprieve with Donald Trump, is also continuing to be squeezed by diabolical enemies. As I like to say, this is the clearest sign we are living in the last days.

I feel something big is relatively close. I don’t often say this.

And the point I really want to leave you with is this: we don’t know the details of the future, especially our own as individuals, but we should always be prepared to see the face of our Lord. Much good is in the world, and heroes walk in it, but malevolent forces do, as well.

Phil Haney was ready to meet his Maker. The cowards that killed him will find Justice at some point. But any of us that seek to share truth must consider that to be a privilege.

See you soon, Phil.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com