Thursday, February 18, 2016

Ted Cruz and His Israel Position

Nadene Goldfoot                                              
The question that begs asking is how strong would Ted Cruz be in supporting Israel in a time of crisis?  What has his record been as that of a US Senator and as a man?

His whole name is Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, and he is an American politician and the junior US Senator from Texas since 2012. He's a Baptist.   Now he's a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the USA in 2016.  He's only 45 years old,  and has been a Senator for 3 years since 2013, having been born December 22, 1970, but in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Foothills General Hospital. His parents had been living in Calgary for 3 years and were working in the oil business as owners of a data processing firm for oil drilling.  They were both mathematicians and computer programmers.  When Ted was 4 years old, his father left his mother and moved to Texas.  Later that year they reconciled and relocated in Houston.

 How can he run for president when the requirements are that he must be a native USA citizen first?  The answer is that his mother was a USA citizen.  She is Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson Cruz nee Darragh, a lady of 3/4 Irish and 1/4 Italian heritage who had married Rafael Bienvenido Cruz.  She originally was from Wilmington, Delaware.  "The only requirements of a president is that he must be 35 years old,  a resident "within the United States" for 14 years, and a "natural born Citizen," a term not defined in the Constitution.  He left Calgary at age 4 and has lived in the USA ever since, but didn't realize he still held Canadian citizenship even though he had left the country.  So he held dual citizenhip: USA and Canada because he was born there.  Evidently his parents had ignored this fact.  He has renounced his citizenship and has received this from Canada:  
"This is to certify that the person named above has formally renounced Canadian citizenshp and pursuant to the Citizenship Act will cease to be a citizen on" May 14, 2014, " the letter read.

His mother also attended college and has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rice University in Houston, Texas in the 1950s where she met Rafael.

Rafael was born and raised in Cuba and his father was from the Canary Islands in Spain.  Ted's father left Cuba in 1957 after being tortured  and imprisoned in Cuba.  He immigrated to the USA to attend the University of Texas in 1957  in Austin and stayed using  political asylum which he received after his 4 year student visa had expired.  Then he started a small business in the oil and gas industry.  After moving to Canada,  Rafael then earned Canadian citizenship in 1973, then returned to the USA  and became a naturalized US citizen in 2005.    Then they divorced in 1997.  Today Ted's father is a pastor in Dallas.

Since Ted was hoping he would win over the Evangelicals, it may be that he is familiar with Pastor John Hagee, the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational evangelical church with an active membership of over 19,000 people in San Antonio, Texas.  Pastor Hagee is a very strong supporter of Israel and has written the book, "IN DEFENSE OF ISRAEL", the Bible's  mandate for supporting the Jewish State.  Hagee had made friends with Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg and learned about the Jewish history with his help.

Ted  married Heidi  in 2001 and they have 2 daughters, Caroline and Catherine.  He has attended  Princeton for his undergraduate BA degree where he became an award-winning debater, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992 and then attended Harvard Law School in 1995 and is a lawyer from Texas.  He became the Solicitor General for the State of Texas.  He's done things like having defended the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms and defended the 10 Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol, and also the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Ted says he's been a tireless fighter for liberty his entire life because his family knows what it is like to lose it.

He's been against Obama's work, like Obamacare, and works against giving  amnesty to illegal immigrants.  Ted is for the 1st and 2nd Amendments and our Bill of rights.  He's promised to tell the truth, yet his competitors charge him with telling lies.

Ted arrived in Washington 4 years ago, and has been Israel's most avid defender in the Senate.  In July 2014, Cruz used his authority as a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to get the administration to end the ban on US flights to Israel's Ben-Gurion airport!  This was during Operation Protective Edge.  Ted said he would put a hold on all State Department appointments until the administration justified the flight ban, which evidently they couldn't, so they restored the flights after 36 hours.  

Cruz has led the opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran.  He brought activists by the thousands to the Capitol to be in a rally he organized calling for Congress to vote down the deal.  He invited Donald Trump to join him at the rally, which he did, and his participation ensured that the event was covered by the press.

He feels, as he stated in an interview,  that America's alliance with Israel is in our national security interest with sharing the same democratic values.  Israel is an important ally in a very troubled region of the world.  The military assistance the USA provides Israel with gives security benefits to America.  He believes that the the single greatest national security threat facing America is the threat of a nuclear Iran, so he has that in common with Netanyahu's thoughts.

Ted has publicly called for John Kerry's resignation as secretary of state and is the 2nd time he has done this.  The 1st time he called for it, John had suggested that Israel could become an apartheid state, which is slander.  Terrorists say this.  Recently John accused Israel of terrorism, which is a blatant lie.  Ted tells the difference between Palestinian terrorist antics murdering innocent women and children in response to the relentless incitement from Hamas and the PA. He explained that there's a QUALITATIVE difference between that and the IDF defending the safety and security of Israel.  John Kerry didn't see that difference with his suggestion that they are morally equivalent.  This is wrong, harmful and deeply offensive.

If Ted were president, he would not dictate the terms of a peace settlement like Kerry has been doing.  When Israel chooses to negotiate (not now as the situation is not the time) and reach a settlement with the PA, it is Israel's  right to do this, and he could help provide a fair forum for negotiations.  He said it is not the role of the American government to attempt to lecture the Israeli people or dictate terms of peace.  He knows that no one has a greater incentive to seek peace than the people of Israel who have lived with the daily threat of rocket attacks or knifings or terrorist bombs.  He knows the history of the Palestinians turning down every reasonable offer of peace, and America should stand with Israel.

The USA should reconsider funding the PA and has been giving them about $550 million annually.  Taxpayers are giving money to a government in unity with terrorists and makes no sense.  We should not be funding people who want to kill us.  This is in direct contrary to the USA national interests.

Obama-Clinton-Kerry foreign policy is deeply misguided in asking Israel to stop building beyond the 1949 armistice lines or that it is causing terrorism.  The USA can't dictate where Israelis should live, and if they choose to live in Judea and Samaria is not reason for terrorism or murder.  This is false moral equivalency.
                                                                         
Thomas Sowell has endorsed Ted Cruz.  
Thomas Sowell, born in 1930 in North Carolina,  grew up in Harlem, New York ; a Conservative intellectual and economist  and has endorsed Ted Cruz for president.  He's afraid that Hillary will beat Trump if Trump is the lead contender of the Republicans.   

Has Cruz been lying about his support for Israel?  His actions in Congress for this brief 3 or 4 year period shows he is not lying.  He believes that Israel is deserving of the USA support.  I don't know about his Christianity allowing  political lying to gain favor in the polls, but I know that evangelicals as a rule are very supportive  of Israel thanks to Pastor Hagee.  

"January 21, Pastor Mike Bickle, another evangelical preacher who has used the same Hitler hunting the Jews were under during the Holocaust, endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz's bid for the White House." and evidently Cruz was happy with his endorsement.   I must mention that before Pastor Hagee had run into Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, he had been much like Bickle.  Bickle today has denounced Gays and Jewish people.  Oy, Cruz.  You need votes, and are accepting them from questionable people with Bickle, unless you are planning on handing him over to your wife for some re-education.  
Update on Bickle: http://forward.com/opinion/333993/why-ted-cruzs-preacher-sidekick-is-no-friend-of-the-jews-or-israel/  bad news for Jews-wants us to accept Jesus.  For Cruz, evidently is taking all the endorsements he can get no matter what.  

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Ted-Cruz-A-fresh-approach-to-American-foreign-policy-and-US-Israel-relations-429752
http://www.biography.com/people/ted-cruz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
https://www.tedcruz.org/about/
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/article/2013/may/09/ted-cruz-eligible-under-constitution-become-presid/
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-13/ted-cruz-has-a-real-birther-problem
http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/16/thomas-sowell-endorses-sen-ted-cruz/
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/11/3748743/ted-cruz-defends-endorsement-from-pastor-who-believes-hitler-was-hunter-sent-by-god/
http://www.jta.org/2016/02/11/news-opinion/politics/cruz-campaign-stands-behind-pastor-accused-of-intolerance-toward-jews

2 comments:

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  2. WHERE TED CRUZ STANDS ON ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!!! Jerry

    Sen. Ted Cruz stuck to his guns regarding his support for Israel even after being booed by some audience members at a Christian dinner event. The tenacious senator from Texas was speaking at a Gala Solidarity Dinner for In Defense of Christians (IDC), a group that aims to raise awareness of persecuted minority communities in the Middle East, highlighting the plight of Christians in that region. Cruz was the keynote speaker for the sold-out dinner gala held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. According to The Daily Caller, Cruz said that “Christians have no greater ally than Israel.” Some audience members reacted negatively, booing and yelling, “stop it!” Interruptions intensified as Cruz continued:

    “Those who hate Jews hate Christians. If those in this room will not recognize that, then my heart weeps. If you hate the Jewish people you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ. And the very same people who persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who behead children, are the very same people who target Jews for their faith, for the same reason.”

    The booing continued, prompting IDC president Toufic Baaklini to come to the stage to ask for the crowd to listen to Cruz. The senator, never known to be shy, had had enough. Cruz concluded:

    “If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you. Good night, and God bless.”

    He then left the stage.



    http://www.msfanpage.link/ted-cruz-walks-out-of-christian-dinner-over-pro-israel-comments/


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