Tickets for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech n Congress today would be selling on the black market for hundreds if not thousands of dollars if Congressmen could sell their allotment of one ticket to friends and constituents.

“If I had 100 tickets, I’d be the most popular guy in town,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, told The New York Times.

The ear-piercing crescendo from the Obama administration and anti-Netanyahu bleachers in Israel has had a “Purim” effect by achieving results exactly opposite from their intentions.

Netanyahu stood his ground against demands from his political and media opponents in Israel to cancel the speech, which now has become talk of Washington, if not the entire United States.

“They have made it the most talked about thing in Washington, and I think it blew up in their face,” said Sen. Graham to the Times. “Everything he says, people want to hear, and people want to be in that room to listen, they want to be in person. It’s become a historic speech.”

The tickets are hotter than fresh latkes,” said Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who perhaps should have used the more timely analogy of “Hamantashen.”

“If Taylor Swift and Katy Perry did a joint concert at Madison Square Garden wearing white-and-gold and black-and-blue dresses, accompanied by dancing sharks and llamas, that’s the only way you’d have a tougher ticket,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, told the newspaper.

That may be one of the reasons Obama is so angry over Netanyahu’s appearance.

The Jewish Press reported here yesterday that Americans have a highly favorable view of Netanyahu, even more than Obama.

The New York Times quoted New York Congressman Lee Zeldin as saying, “No one asked to be my guest” at the president’s State of the Union address.”

Approximately 30 Democrats are expressing their loyalty to Obama by planning to boycott the speech.

Their absence will not be noticed.

The harder President Obama threatens and pushes, the more the the NY Times attacks Israel with articles that verge on the outright antisemitic, and the more the sycophants from left leaning Jewish organizations warn Prime Minister Netanyahu that this isn’t the time for his speech, the more apparent it becomes as to how dangerously close the Obama administration is to letting Iran build the bomb.

We’re at a tipping point.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has not hidden their genocidal agenda for the Jewish State.

It was no accident that in January, an Iranian general and other senior Hezbollah terrorists were on the Golan Heights near Israel’s border, ostensibly helping Hezbollah set up a missile system pointed at Israel. For them, the disintegration of Syria is a convenient opportunity to further their plans to destroy Israel.

If Obama’s deal goes through, with the chilling details that we’ve heard so far, nothing short of outright Israeli military action will stop Iran from acquiring the bomb and forever changing the balance of power in the Middle East – for the good of all radical Islamists.

And while outright solo military action by Israel may destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities, it may also bring about devastating responses for everyone in the region.

PM Netanyahu is going to plead before the American people just days before the holiday of Purim, to rip up this evil decree before it happens.

A long time ago, Queen Esther went before the king at great personal risk and danger, when she saw she had no other choice and no other way to save the Jewish people from a similarly evil decree.

Ultimately, Esther, Netanyahu, and we, the Jewish people, must and will rely on the true King, God, for our salvation from this genocidal threat, even as we take all the necessary “hishtadlut” steps along the way.

And like the Jewish people of yore, we must again pray for the welfare and success of the representative we are sending to plead before the King to save us from evil Amalek.

It’s Adar. Time for Purim…

An Israeli Supreme Court judge rejected on Tuesday an appeal by women to allow Israeli officials outside of the country to cast their votes in the Knesset elections in March on a day other than Purim.

Justice Salim Jourban ruled that the Knesset knew the law, or should have known the law, that sets the election date for officials out of the country 12 days before the election  date in Israel.

The appeal was filed the director of the agency for the advancement of the status of women and by Knesset Member Ruth Caldron.

They argued that voting on Purim would be very difficult for women.

Presumably, they would be with their children on the holiday but why that would stop them from voting is not clear, presuming their husbands did not get drunk at a Purim party the night before.

There’s something appropriate that the upcoming Israeli elections are being held so soon after the Purim holiday.

I would venture to say it’s the only explanation for the mishaps, mistakes, and clown-like behavior.

Let’s start with Tzipi Livni (Hatnua).

The polls showed that Livni was unlikely to pass the electoral threshold, yet both Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) courted and chased after Livni as if she was the last girl on Earth.

Like King Achashverosh of Shushan, Herzog offered Livni half his kingdom, though unlike Achahverosh, Herzog doesn’t actually have a kingdom to offer, but then again, Livni doesn’t have anything to offer in return either.

And when these two sycophants agreed to merge with one another (to the dismay of most of the MKs in the Labor party), Livni and Herzog’s “brilliant” campaign strategy to gain votes was to change the merged party’s name into “The Zionist Camp”, a name selected solely as an attempt to outwit the campaign slogans of their competitors and the Right – and not because it has much connection to reality.

(But that’s typical of the Left, hijacking normal words and phrases, corrupting them so badly they can no longer be used in their proper context – just look how they’ve corrupted the term “Freedom of Speech” — now it means shutting down newspapers.)

The two can only hope they don’t confuse and turn off their Left-wing voters who don’t want to vote for the Zionist camp.

And then we have Aryeh Deri. Like on Purim, Deri is drunk on power.

Deri is so afraid of Eli Yishai, as Yishai is considered the better, more honest, the more popular, and the more capable politician, that Deri did everything to push Yishai down and out – even though polls showed that Shas with Yishai at its head would win 2 seats more than Shas with Deri in charge.

As a result, Shas is likely to crash, and whatever new party Yishai forms will do well – which is good, because we know where Yishai stands and what he’s capable of, and his record doesn’t include jail time.

And then we have our friends in Bayit Yehudi – both sides standing up so hard for their principles that they’re just going to split the party that has the potential to become the second largest in the Knesset.

It’s right out of a Purim Shpiel, or maybe just a Greek tragedy.

And finally, there’s Avigdor Liberman.

Yes, Avigdor. The man who claims he is the most responsible adult in the room.

The man, who after the 2009 election, disappeared overseas for days, right in the middle of the February coalition negotiations, forgetting his cell phone at home, and leaving the country stuck in neutral, as he played power games and kingmaker with Netanyahu and Livni.

And yes, here is Mr. Responsible Adult, once again, playing the same childish games.

Once again Liberman won’t say if he will support the Right or Left. In fact he came out yesterday and explicitly said he might very well support Livni and Herzog for Prime Minister.

It sounded earily similar to what Liberman told Radio Kol Yisrael in 2009 (via A7), before disappearing:

“Our position is already clear and I know exactly what I am going to tell President Shimon Peres. In order to know whom we are going to recommend, we will wait six more days. I think it is too early and there is no point saying whom we support. I have met with both Livni and Netanyahu and with additional people in the political system but my position is already clear and solid. When we go to the President we will say very clear things.”

Barring Divine Intervention, the Knesset will vote to dissolve itself but not forever, and new elections likely will be held in mid-March, perhaps the week after Purim.

Elections are exactly what no one in the country wants, except for a few sadists who pose as politicians.

It will cost the country about $500 million, and it will leave Israel without a budget just when there is little shine left on the image of the once-fabulous Israeli economy that has weakened under the weight of government-sanctioned monopolies that extort the public for obscene profits, and under the burden of eternal security unrest, whether it come from Gaza, Syria, Ramallah or Washington.

As The Jewish Press reported here earlier today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Yair Lapid, one of his alleged partners, to stop rocking the boat or get off.

Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party and who was Israel’s glamour boy two years ago when his new party grabbed 19 seats in the Knesset, took the first raft he could find and jumped ship.

With an ego bigger than the size of the fat lady in the circus, Lapid could not possibly accept Netanyahu’s terms to stay in the government.

For his part, the Prime Minister’s ultimatums were a public political flogging of Lapid.

Elections cannot be held until90 days after the end of a government, according to the law that ensures that every Israeli citizen suffer the maximum punishment and still survive.

The projected timeline for new elections is a vote on Wednesday to dissolve the Knesset, with the final decision and date being set next week, revolving around the Jewish holidays. Before then, President Reuven Rivlin will go through the motions to offer someone else a chance to form a make-believe government.

The most likely date for elections is the week after Purim. The second possibility and a lot less likely one is mid-April, when Israel returns to normal after Passover and is involved with Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’Atzmaut.

Lapid and Netanyahu’s lieutenants in the Likud party already are throwing around enough dirt to cover the entire Knesset, which sometimes sounds like a good idea.

Lapid accused Netanyahu of making deals with the Haredi parties to enlist their support by bribing them with money for yeshivas and easing conditions of the universal draft, as demanded by Aryeh Deri, chairman of the Shas Sephardi Haredi party.

Likud ministers responded by throwing poison darts at Lapid’s performance as Finance Minister.

Lapid’s big-ticket populist banner has been the “Zero VAT” panacea that is supposed to make housing affordable for the middle class by eliminating the 18 percent Value Added Tax on the purchase of new homes.

Netanyahu obviously took this into account and figures that Lapid is going to use Zero VAT to try to con the voters into backing him.

If Lapid thinks he can fool all of the people all of the time, the con game would work, but Israeli voters are not as stupid as their leaders. The whole Zero VAT scheme is has so many conditions and so many limitations that it would help no more than a few thousand families.

Lapid knows his popularity in the polls is almost as low as the ethics of certain Knesset Members, as far-fetched as that seems. He is counting on the Israel’s anti-Netanyahu media, with the exception of Sheldon Adelson’s Israel HaYom, to lead his campaign.

Ditto for the pathetic and hapless Tzipi Livni, an intelligent woman who took the wrong turn when she entered politics. Her party of six MKs is another alleged partner in the coalition, in which she has spent most of her time kissing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s pinky for the Peace Process.

She spent Tuesday by calling the Netanyahu government, of which she has been a partner, “paranoid and extremist,” and she said she is different from the government because she is a “Zionist,” about as nasty remark as possible, even for an Israeli politician.

In my previous column I continued to focus on the dusty windows that obscure our Jewish vision. I noted the inexplicable hatred and persecution that has plagued us throughout the centuries.

In every generation there are those among us who try to convince us it is our distinct Jewish appearance, customs and observances that have alienated us from our non-Jewish neighbors.

But how can these people explain the fact that Muslims, Hindus, monks, nuns, and priests who wear special garb do so generally undisturbed, even commanding respect?

Take a look at the yarmulkes worn by the pope and the cardinals of the Catholic Church. And the pope has a special hat, a mitre, which is quite similar to what was worn by the high priest of our holy Temple.

So how is it that we who introduced religious head coverings to the world should be treated with such disdain and brutality?

In our obsession to blend in with the nations we keep shedding more and more of our Jewishness but, paradoxically, the more we try the more we try to be like others, the more we are resented.

In vain did Ezekiel the prophet call out in days of yore that no matter how much we scheme in your hearts to be like all the other nations, we will never be considered the same as them. And he warned us of the terrible consequences of renouncing our heritage, our covenant.

Sadly, despite the admonishments not only of Ezekiel but of all our prophets, we have yet to learn our lesson. We continue to assimilate with fury – an assimilation compounded by our Jewish illiteracy. The great majority of our people have no knowledge of the Torah, the Prophets, or the Talmud. If you were to ask them just for the titles of our sacred books, not even a description of the contents, they would stare at you blankly.

Hashem, who knows the past, present and future, created in His infinite mercy windows for us. Windows through which we would be able to see what our minds reject and our eyes cannot envision. We have forgotten the message, yet it is easily accessible if we’d only look through the windows.

These windows prominently showcase the message of all our Yom Tovim but we refuse to look. In our pursuit of money, assimilation and good times we allow dust to settle on our windows until we can no longer see through them.

I started to write this series of columns between the weeks of Purim and Pesach. Even small children are aware of the magical story of Purim. Queen Esther was prepared to sacrifice her life to save her people from Haman. They know Mordechai was determined to awaken every Jew. But what really happened in that story?

Years before Haman’s ascent, King Achashveirosh called for a great celebration in honor of his marriage to the evil Vashti. All citizens of the empire were invited, including the Jews. Mordechai warned his brethren not to attend. The food would not be Jewish food. The atmosphere would be a desecration of G-d’s Name.

The people chose to ignore Mordechai’s warning. They had their own rationalizations to justify their participation. “It is not good for us to stay away…to refuse an invitation from the king. Persia is our host country. We have a good life over here. We have good relationships with the Persians.”

So they went and took part in a banquet that quickly became a nightmare of unspeakable drunkenness and debauchery.

Nine years down the line Haman was elevated to his position as second to the king. He convinced the king to annihilate all the Jews, pointing out that the Jews had forsaken their covenant. “It’s time to attack! When they abandon their G-d they become putty in our hands.”