With great skill, the White House managed to make Benjamin Netanyahu sweat in order to finally get a meeting at a hotel in New York rather than Washington. The downgrade in the meeting setting was a continuation of the zobor trip that President Biden has been putting the Likud leader through for months. A campaign that succeeded in extracting from the right-wing prime minister a full-left, Oslo-style policy.
But the most dangerous chapter of all is yet to come, and that is the agreement with Saudi Arabia, which the American president described in shimmering colors. They are trying to convince us that this is a two-thousand-year-old Jewish aspiration to sign a paper with Riyadh, but the truth is the opposite: the one who desperately needs this agreement is Joe Biden and his party. And as far as Israel is concerned, not only will the agreement not change anything substantial, it could be dangerous to destructive – from agreeing to a Saudi nuclear program to promoting a Palestinian state.
Against the background of the protest and hostility to the government, Netanyahu's distress is highlighted and the plight of the president and the American administration is dimmed. Biden, who intends to run for the polls in about a year despite his age and poor performance, faces an American public that doubts his ability to be president.
Biden-Netanyahu meeting: "The U.S. will make sure Iran never has nuclear weapons" // Archive photo: Ariel Kahane
Recent polls illustrate the depth of the incumbent president's electoral catastrophe. Not only is there a lack of confidence in his ability to function, his policies are fatally criticized, and even the relative achievements of the American economy are not credited to him.
Despite the great hostility towards Donald Trump, even among some Republicans, and certainly in the American center, even he is tied in the polls against Biden. At the same time, many in the center, those who would not think of electing Trump, will eagerly choose any other Republican candidate. Especially when, facing the leadershipless Democratic camp, some of which is insanely extreme, Republicans have excellent candidates, including Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence.
Donald Trump (archive), photo: AP
Add to that the impeachment proceedings Congress launched last week against Biden on suspicion that he profited from the shady business dealings of his son, Hunter. This move will probably not lead to the practical impeachment of the elderly president, but it could certainly shame his scent and the smell of his party ahead of the race.
Biden's policies have been harshly criticized in wide circles. See, for example, the complete opening of the southern border to immigrants, who are wisely sent by the governors of Texas and Florida straight to the big rotten Democratic apple – New York. New York is collapsing, and with it the conception of government and party.
A concept that begins with lawlessness regarding the refugees and continues with high taxation, castration of the police, crime, problamatic education, the absence of law and order. The American public can't help but notice how states that espouse the Democratic Party are sinking and falling apart, while Republican states are prosperous and flourishing. Voters are seeing how increased local taxes and leniency toward crime and vandalism are causing city centers like San Francisco to be abandoned. How Americans are fleeing California and its ilk, plagued by homelessness, crime, taxes and closed shopping centers, to districts where the Republican view preserves prosperity, liberty and order.
Recent polls illustrate the president's electoral catastrophe. His policies have been criticized deadly, and despite the hostility toward Trump, even he is tied in the polls against him
Against this backdrop, Biden and the Democrats are desperately seeking an international achievement, a kind of regional peace in the crazy Middle East that will finally mark success for the White House – a kind of Uncle Sam's dominance and dominance on the globe. To do so, they need Israel to give up its critical interests and persuade Republicans in Congress to agree.
Israel, on the other hand, really doesn't need this agreement, which won't change anything substantial. On the contrary, it could be disastrous: to provide the Saudis with nuclear capabilities and additional power for Abbas' terrorist entity. The problem is, as usual, the personal interests of Benjamin Netanyahu, who, like Joe Biden, is trying to extricate himself from personal distress through a grandiose international agreement. Therefore, it is important for the Likud leader to know that advancing the agreement at our expense will hurt him personally, that any further strengthening of the PA and concessions on the nuclear issue will bring closer the end of his rule and the poisoning of his legacy.
Looking for an international achievement, Biden, Photo: AFP
Affordable Housing - The Republican System
Among the similarities between the events in the US and Israel is the housing cost crisis. Although most Americans do not come close to experiencing the overcrowding and high cost of our dwarf country, which decrees itself not to build almost in the center of the country, in Judea and Samaria, there is certainly a problem in city centers in the United States. Along with rising mortgage rates, rents are soaring, preventing lower-middle-class working people from finding apartments and homes they can afford. Here, too, while Democratic solutions only exacerbate the problem, in Republican states there is a promising find.
In democratic countries like New York, destructive measures are being taken to deal with the problem, which only exacerbates it. Among other things, they limit the amount of rent and make it almost impossible to evict unruly tenants. The result is the flight of developers from the real estate sector and the worsening of the housing shortage.
The developers are fleeing, New York, photo: GettyImages
But the cost-of-living problem has also arisen in Republican states such as Texas and Florida, especially in light of immigration from Democratic states to them. Because prosperity and demand also raise prices. So to address the challenge, Florida recently adopted the exact opposite approach to progressive coercion: instead of a price dictatorship, incentives for entrepreneurs. Throughout Florida, state, county and city programs have been launched in this vein: developers are encouraged to build and rent out some apartments at reduced prices in exchange for broader building rights. A developer who is willing to build a project for a 30-year rental and designates 40-15% of apartments at a controlled price receives substantial building rights.
In a thriving city in West Florida, developers have been allowed to nearly double their building rights if they allocate 15% to affordable housing. This approach can bring down housing prices here as well. Please catch a flight and study
Affordable housing ("Affordable" or "Etiennebel") is not for the homeless or the poor – these have many other supports. It is intended for teachers, police officers and professionals. These are very important to the community, but their financial ability to take out a mortgage or rent apartments in city centers has been left behind. Those who meet the criteria will receive a discount of 15-10% below the market price, not something that will cause losses to developers in light of the increased construction rates they have received, but will make it easier for renters and the community.
Affordable housing is also for them, New York police officers, Photo: AP
Thus, in a thriving city in West Florida, a long process recently ended, in which it was decided to allow developers to almost double their building rights downtown, if they allocate even 15% of the project to such affordable apartments. The plan changed the local market, with all the developers who planned to continue building and selling frighteningly expensive apartments changing floppy disks and planning apartments for rent. Most of them will be more expensive than the market price, but a small number will be rented at a price dictated by the authorities, for the good, productive residents who earn less.
This approach holds great news for us as well. It demands concessions from the government in taxes, in the price of land, in crushing bureaucracy, but allows for a dramatic reduction in the unreasonable cost of housing prices. Please urgently catch a plane to Florida and study.
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