I cannot imagine there is one of us who will not be thrilled to stop receiving phone calls, text messages and emails reminding us of the accolades of the candidates involved in the very-soon-to-be-held presidential election. Nauseating is not a strong enough word to describe the amount of time and money that is spent on these rants. As the messages come in I delete them without reading or listening to them, but that is no comfort. If only this election would bring some closure to all of us with the knowledge that we would be electing a candidate we felt proud and passionate about.
Instead we are facing the total opposite. How comical is it that many of us are hoping to elect a candidate we know is a liar, a thief and a disgusting individual in general. Yet we are hoping and praying he will be there for Israel and in turn for all of us. In truth I am not sure if he can even be trusted with regard to his attitude towards the Middle East. Someday our grandchildren will be told a story of an election that took place in the USA where there were two candidates running, each one worse than the other, and the majority of people who were voting did so painfully.
How many times have I heard over the past few months, “If he were only to close his mouth”? Hopefully by the time our grandchildren are old enough to understand such a story it will be something similar to a fairy tale as they will be living in Eretz Yisroel together with their families and all of us.
How many times did I hear my beloved husband say that in order to be in politics one cannot be honest? Look at Senator Menendez, or how everyone loved Rudy Guliani, especially with how he stood up to the plate during the September 11 tragedy. The list of public servants who were elected by the people seems to get longer each day with regard to the improprieties that they exhibited.
Now there is an outcry to bring back Governor Cuomo to NYC, as in the minds of many, Mayor Adams will not be in office much longer or will not win another election. Oh gosh, is there not a place for honesty and dignity in the lives of elected officials? I am personally embarrassed that the entire world is reading about the trials and tribulations of our elected officials. I guess the only reassuring factor is that when our elected officials go to meet with their counterparts in other countries, they can commiserate as they are all in the same position. One philanderer with another. They at least are on the same page for something.
Our brothers “up north” in Canada are awaiting an election to be called hopefully sooner than later. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who has shown his true colors since the Israel-Hamas war began, has done nothing to encourage provinces to use every legal means possible to remove the encampments on the college campuses which in many cases (McGill) are in the very center of the city. In this particular venue, the organization of SPHR (Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance) was so well organized that they even had a daycare center in their encampment for young children of the protesters to attend. The encampment lasted for 10 weeks, and still students and professors are being harassed on a daily basis. Police in riot gear stood by as the encampment was dismantled. Where was Mr. Trudeau then and now? He has shown his true colors by encouraging the Canada Revenue Agency Charities Directorate to revoke JNF’s (Jewish National Fund of Canada) registered charity status in Canada. The ruling is being appealed.
The mayor of Montreal, Valerie Plante, who by coincidence, just announced that she will not run for reelection, has received many letters from community leaders demanding that she do more to counter antisemitism in Montreal.
Interestingly the electoral system in these countries is totally different from each other. It is has taken years to convince the Jews in the United States that maybe it was time to begin switching their allegiance to the Republican Party as everyone knows, “Jews are Democrats,” and in Canada Jews vote “liberal” even though over the past many years the best candidate for prime minister has been a member of the Conservative Party whose allegiance has been known to be towards Israel. It’s hard to “teach an old dog new tricks.” Hopefully Jewish Canadians have learned their lesson with the mistakes they have made in electing Trudeau. In the next election, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party, who is pro-Israel, will be elected. Hopefully.
We work so hard to teach our children right from wrong. We want to raise them with the best value system, and find ourselves in the embarrassing situation of having to explain to them the disgusting and illegal behaviors of some of our elected officials. Didn’t their parents try to teach them the same moral code? The world is really upside down. Let’s hope that whatever happens next week will be peaceful and with decorum. Emphatically, we all have the moral obligation to vote and let Israel be at the top of our agenda in making our decisions.
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected]
