In the 1983 book, Reflections of a Neoconservative, Irving Kristol said that a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. My mugging was 9/11. There was a cousin of mine who sat at the same Seder table as me during the decades of the 1980’s and 1990’s who worked as a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. Alvin did nothing more than go to work seeking to provide for his family on that fateful September morning. He was one of 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who did not live to see September 12.
I have numerous relatives who live throughout the land of Israel. Although in a small country such as Israel, everyone knows someone who has been affected by terrorism, I am happy to report that no relative in Israel has ever suffered the same fate as my cousin from Baldwin, New York.
In my lifetime, there was never a clearer picture of good and evil as September 11. What’s more, our President at the time understood that as well. More than any other President, George W. Bush understood what it meant to live as an Israeli in that dangerous neighborhood, where enemies of the Jewish State celebrate senseless murder as though that was something ordained by God.
As a result of 9/11, I became a foreign policy hawk and a more strident supporter of the State of Israel, which in addition to being the last refuge on earth for the Jewish people, is at the forefront of the battle against Islamofascism. I start with the premise that the Jewish people have a valid, long-standing historical claim to the Land of Israel and have every right to be there. While there may be some validity to the Palestinian claim as well, that does not change the fact of the Jewish claim to the land. In terms of Middle East peace, I do not see Israel being the intractable party refusing to negotiate or make any offers. What I do see the Palestinians having done much more successfully than the Israelis is turn reality on its head and create an alternative history lacking in essential truth.
Socially, I am neither a liberal nor a conservative, generally favoring libertarian positions. My libertarian philosophies began with studying classical free market economics at the University of Virginia. I cannot say that I am completely aligned with libertarian philosophies. The main goal of libertarians is to uphold individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action, advocating either the minimization or the elimination of the state, and the goal of maximizing individual liberty and freedom. As a foreign policy hawk, I cannot always buy into minimizing the power of the state.
Moreover, a true libertarian would be opposed to gun control or mandatory seat belt laws. However, when you can point to statistics that X fewer number of people will die as a result of a societal mandate such as gun control, it is difficult for me to stand on libertarian principles.
On social issues, I would frustrate both the left and the right. For example, while I believe in a women’s right to chose with respect to abortion, I think Roe v. Wade was tenuously reasoned decision, taking an issue that belonged in the democratic process outside of it by inventing a constitutional right. Roe belongs to line of Supreme Court cases commencing with Griswold v. Connecticut in which the Supreme Court invented a right of privacy, stemming from the penumbras and emanations of the Bill of Rights. Now, as a matter of social policy, I tend to agree with the concept of keeping government out of people’s lives. However deciding that as a matter of a constitutional law is merely substituting a judge’s normative value system for the democratic process. That to me is a dangerous idea.
So those of the foundational elements from which I approach an analysis of world affairs. I also intend to post some sports items. I am a huge New York Yankee fan and have been one since my father took me to my first Yankee game in 1965. I moved to Los Angeles around the time of the Showtime Lakers and adopted them as my team after realizing that no New York Knickerbockers team would ever live up to the past image of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave Debusschere, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe and Phil Jackson. I have also become a soccer fan from having coached my daughter in AYSO and do watch a lot of European soccer.
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