"A Reason to be Hopeful?" Or, More Obfuscation?
President-elect Barak H. Obama has appointed Rahm Emanuel as his Chief-of-Staff.
From The Jerusalem Post:
From Haaretz:
Now, as Daled Amos writes, we Jews will grasp at any reason to be hopeful. I know I am.
From The Jerusalem Post:
President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday offered the job of White House chief of staff to Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who reportedly accepted the offer. Emanuel is the Chicago-born son of a former Israeli.
Obama, right, smiles as he listens to US Rep. Rahm Emanuel, during an unscheduled stop at the Chicago Sister Cities International Rally in Chicago in June 2008.
The 48-year-old Emanuel is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community of Chicago and grew up speaking Hebrew with his father, a pediatrician who was a member of the Irgun, the Jewish resistance group in Palestine, before the War of Independence in 1948.
From Haaretz:
A day after winning an historic election to become the first black American president, Barack Obama on Wednesday stepped into the role of president-elect, inviting Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill) to join his administration as his White House chief of staff, Democratic officials.
Emanuel is the son of a Jerusalem-born pediatrician who was a member of the Irgun (Etzel or IZL), a militant Zionist group that operated in Palestine between 1931 and 1948.
Now, as Daled Amos writes, we Jews will grasp at any reason to be hopeful. I know I am.
Comments
What's the politics of this Ram? No doubt he's Left.
(what you're saying re Olmert & Kurtzer is true, though; darn.)
B) What does the Chief-of-Staff DO?
C) I am watching and waiting.
What the heck does Hashem WANT from us?
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/155397
Obama's Jewish Aide Directed Rabin-Arafat Handshake
(IsraelNN.com) Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's new Jewish Chief of Staff, was active in the Oslo negotiations and choreographed the Rabin-Arafat handshake at the White House.
"It was an emotional moment for him," according to public relations consultant Richard Mintz, who worked with Emanuel. "He would like nothing more than to participate in another peace agreement signing."
As for Emanuel, he could be very influential in a positive way--or he may feel he has to bend over backwards in order not to seem too pro-Israel.
There are no guarantees
Ye'hi:
A)Yes. But that doesn't mean the future is not affected by our actions: we can get there by a different path, as we still have retzon hofshi. You know Mashiach will come, but there are several scenarios by which he could get here: the easy way, or the hard way. So far, we Jews and Israel and the World are taking the latter...
B) The Chief of Staff some say is the 2nd most powerful position in Washington due to the powerful nature of the job. The duties include overseeing the actions of the White House Staff, managing the President’s schedule, and deciding who is allowed to meet with the President. That’s why the Chief of Staff is sometimes referred to as “The Gatekeeper” or “The Co-President.”
(See how smart I am?)
C) Me too.
D) Beats me. Just kidding. I know exactly what Hashem wants from us, and from everyone else on the planet: to stand up to evil, and do Tikkun Olam (G-d reads my blog) and make the world good. I have a direct line…(boy am I gonna get comments on this one)
And Ye’hi, yes, I also saw that little tidbit of information about Rahm E. and the famous (disgusting) ‘handshake.’ Batya was probably right (about Rahmi being LEFT). It was “an emotional moment for me” too, when I read that…but I controlled myself and didn’t push the button.
Daled Amos: Righto. As far as Rahmi goes, yes-especially in the light of what Ye’hi wrote about him. I think I’m getting depressed again. . .