Category: Politics

The Israel Surrogacy Law

On Sunday a strike has been called, and will be supported by Labor unions.  It is a strike of protest against the recently passed law on surrogacy, where women can bear children for others and then give them to waiting parents who can not have children.  What is the reason for the strike?  It is that the law did not take into account the desires of the LGBTQ people in Israel.  They desire that men and women singles can become parents through surrogacy and that the state will pay for it.  The man and women can be any adults according to their own self identification (they can be bi-sexual, transgender, etc. etc.)  The law only allowed surrogacy for married hetero sexual couples and single women, and single women can include lesbian single women.  Israel does not marry homosexuals. What a sorry state we are in that such a strike can be called.  Here are some thoughts.

    1. What should my tax dollars pay for surrogacy?  We are taxed to the hilt and there is so much demand for funds from poorly funded education, to research, to welfare.  I am against surrogacy in principle.  I think parents should adopt children that do not have good homes.   I support international efforts to bring down the costs so it is doable for most people who could be good parents.  Then we pay a woman to bear a baby for someone else?
    2. Secondly, the far left and the sexual libertines simply do not want to face the massive studies that show again and again that the best situation for raising children is a family situation of a father and mother in a stable good marriage.  One of the great characteristics of the far left is the great flight from empirical evidence.  They paint a subjective picture of the way they want the world to be and will not bring that picture to the bar of empirical evidence that shows the consequences.  We see this with the socialists who will not face what socialism does and with sexual libertines that will not face what their new “family” arrangements do to society.

And wait for the push for the rights of poly amorous communities to adopt.

That this movement has such support in Israel is really depressing.  That our Prime minister was going to sign a bill that supported such broad acceptance for parents and surrogacy is alarming.  In this case, thank God for the Orthodox community that pushed back against it, but the bill still goes to far in supporting surrogacy and single mother parenting.   I was raised by my widowed mother, but had much to overcome by not having my father.

The Bible shows the way to health and would that it would be a greater influence on the way we see.

The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in Geneva.

I hate to leave Israel during any of the major Feasts and am not wanting to be here for the first part of Sukkot. But Bedig Nassanian with Hope Geneva, our dear friend and husband to David Rudolph’s daughter Rebecca, was very convincing, so Ben and I came.

There are several things to note about this conference and celebration. First, Bedig has an amazing networking gift. That he can pull in leaders from the Swiss Reformed Church, the leader of the Evangelical Alliance, Pentecostals and restorationists is amazing. We have some who teach with depth on the Reformation, some that teach with passion about the power of God and evangelism and more. The emphasis was passing on the heritage, and they sought to have fathers and sons, both literally and spiritually share. It was wonderful to have a back to back session with my son Ben who did a wonderful job on the key seven points that he learned from my life and theology.

The Reformation was a great gain for the world. Though it was not perfect, the Word of God was spread like never before. Education was democratized so all could read the Word. The light of the Gospel and the Word gained at a great level.

Many of you know I was saved in a Reformed Church and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church. My history was before the Messianic Jewish movement. I learned a ton from this Reformed background and am forever thankful. So for me, a Messianic Jews, to speak about the gains that came from Calvin and Calvinism and then to share what was not yet attained was a great pleasure. One of those things was the discovery of the continued importance of the Jewish people in God’s plan, the still elect Jewish people. The Puritans just 50 years after Calvin would begin a great step forward in understanding.

PRESIDENT TRUMP PULLS OUT OF THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR DEAL

The debate over the Iran nuclear agreement was fierce.  Israel was fiercely opposed and this included the right, left and center large parties.  In the United States, leading Democrats opposed the deal and not only Republicans.  The Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer, was opposed.  So was Senator Menendez of New Jersey.  The opposition was by partisan.  Candidate Donald Trump voiced his opposition to the deal and said it was not changed he would pull out.  He continued to make the same stand after being elected.  Despite the urging of the leaders of France, Germany and Great Britain, President Trump did just what he said he would do.  This was done with the great support of Israel and Trump’s new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and the new National Security Advisor, John Bolton.  The facts are well known, but each side in the debate emphasizes different facts though both agree to the same facts.  It is a matter of human judgment that brings the argument. So here they are.

The facts for staying in are:  1. Iran has stopped production of the enrichment of uranium that could be enriched to produce a bomb.  2. Iran has dismantled the centrifuges that could to this enrichment.  3.  Iran has allowed for inspection at its main nuclear sites.  These facts are said to be sufficient for it to be worth staying in.

The facts for leaving are:  1.  Iran lied about its earlier program, and truthfulness about that program was a requirement of the deal, so Iran has never been in compliance with the deal.  2.  Iran does not allow military sites to be inspected or only inspected after a long period of preparation (more than 3 weeks).  Nuclear research of some kinds may be going on there.  3.  Iran is producing ballistic missiles whose primary purpose is to carry and deliver nuclear bombs.  4.  Iran has a sunset clause so that after ten years they are free to pursue whatever they want to in regard to nuclear enrichment or bombs.  5.  Iran has used the release from sanctions to build their military and to expand their military control and engagement around the Middle East to great destruction and to threaten Israel.

Those for staying in say that as the time for the deal comes to expire that new pressures can be put on Iran for a new deal.  In the interim, the world buys time and the big bomb is on hold.  Those for getting out say that if we do not have sanctions re-imposed now, Iran will be much stronger in military and economic might and will not have the incentive to stop their progress toward a bomb in the future.   The West today is feckless.  The desire to appease is so strong.  The desire is to avoid present pain and danger at the cost of much greater future pain and danger.  This is human nature.  It was amazing to see President Trump resist incredible international pressure and pull out of the agreement.   The view from Israel is overwhelmingly that he made the right decision.  This is my view as well. 

An Ideological Mindset

Some of my friends on the right and left seem too ideological. You can pick this up for when I post their responses are too predictable. So this is for my more ideological friends. I am a conservative, but not a radical ideological one. I ask my friends to check themselves to see if they are in group think. But I especially want to ask my more liberal and even leftist friends to check themselves for group think and always discrediting conservative writers which I quote. In checking myself, I have found 8 positions that are rejected by very conservative people. Here they are.

1. I believe in universal health care. I believe that insurance in this modern technological age has to also be regulated to offer basic and adequate coverage. I believe all must be in the system, and that vouchers should be given on a sliding scale to be able to purchase it. However, there would be competition by insurance companies, and hospital and doctor services with public records of quality, tort reform, and more. Competitive universal coverage. I know freedom purists think the government should not be involved at all, but political decisions is based on not a purist ideal, but the best that can be passed. I think this can.

2. I believe in income supplements for the poor but in a workfare orientation.

3. I believe that the day may come when robotics so replaces jobs that the wealth generated may need to be shared with those who lose jobs due to this. Right now we are not there, but futurists see the day coming when there simply are not jobs for all. But all can be required to serve to be given support.

4. I believe in legalising the non criminal illegal aliens in the United States (not citizenship for them but for their children). I believe, however, that going forward we need reasonable immigration control. I don’t believe that the illegals are only costing us money, but really do believe when they work they boost the economy and help with labor shortages.

5. I believe in estate taxes which is the closest thing to the Jubille redistribution of land in the Bible. They should not be onerous and should allow family business to survive. The funds should be used to train and for small business loans to give others a new start.

6. I believe in a strong urban policy for the poor underclass, including vouchers for private and charter schools that prove that they work, parent training, child care so the women work and more. I believe in very strong investment incentives in those area, but police protection needs to be such that it is save to invest.

7. I believe in a moderate progressive income tax. However, I do think that high tax states should not be helped by unfairly making their taxes deductible which makes lower tax states residents pay more to the fed.

8. I believe that we should look at drug legalisation to defund gangs and criminal. Then all this money that is being spent would be in massive anti-drug programs of all kinds just like programs against cigarettes. The fight against drugs should be massive, but in a different way.

I would challenge my liberal friends on Facebook to write their views where they agree with conservative. Let’s see if you are ideologues.

Black Lives Matter and the St. Louis Verdict

The verdict of not guilty for a policeman that killed a black drug dealer a earlier this year has sparked new protest and riots in St. Louis. The video looked incriminating, but the trail judge could not see sufficient evidence for conviction.

It is sad to see the destruction of minority businesses as part of the protest! Such unbridled anger does not advance any good cause.

But I continue to believe that Black Lives Matter, but that the issues of the Black underclass are not served when the primary focus is on police behaviour. Rather, the problem is based in wrong analysis and the terrible abandonment of the black underclass community by the political leadership, both conservative and republican. The left continues to believe that if they pour in money they have done enough. The support the union schools and shut down alternatives. The right does not care and believes the lie that simply expanding the economy will reach all. Not true!

I still believe that the problem in the black underclass community is a massive need for education/discipleship. This has to include training in family values and discipline. We have to work to restore the black family. It includes a disciplined school environment that really educates and trains. It includes targeted tax policy that develops local businesses that employ. And it includes a massive police presence that makes drug dealing and violence impossible.

The anger is justified, but the analysis of the Black Lives Matter movement partially askew. But they are right to feel abandoned.

Leave your comments below and I’ll respond,

Daniel C. Juster

Completing Capitalism: Meeting Bruno Roche

One of my great pleasures in my week in Geneva was meeting Bruno Roche, one of the leaders of the Mars Incorporated. He has written a book called Completing Capitalism. If is one of the few books I have read that in my view applies Biblical principles to economics and business development in a solid way.

On my Facebook page, I have sometimes responded to my liberal friends with astonishment that they do not understand that socialism leads to greater poverty for the greatest number, at least over the long haul. But the answer is not unbridled capitalism. It is rather and incentivised capitalism that rewards business that expand opportunity for the many and share profit with the employees and not only maximizing profit for share holders and owners. The tax structure of nations should reflect this orientation. Roche and the Mars Incorporated are working on a model of capitalism that is heavy on the emphasis in human capital (human beings as the resource), social capital (the cohesiveness of human community and relationships in business) and finally resource and environmental capital. They actually develop metrics to measure such things, and also hold out for patterns of compensation that are fair to the risk taking business leader, the employees and that seeks to expand opportunity in poor communities around the world.

I think they are getting at the truth. The answer is not socialism and leveling, nor is it greedy and abusive capitalism, but is a new humane capitalism. I greatly recommend this book.