The U. S. Embassy In Havana

"An Insult To Israel!!"
Updated: Friday, July 3rd, 2015

      This week -- July 1st, 2015 -- America's brave and decent two-term President, Barack Obama, made modern history by officially announcing that the United States will open an embassy in Havana and Cuba will open an embassy in Washington. That's the now white-haired President Obama above flanked by two first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- both of whom are "top tier" Republican presidential candidates bidding to succeed Mr. Obama in the White House as President and Commander-in-Chief. Within moments after the historic presidential announcement yesterday, Cruz and Rubio, not unexpectedly, were quick to issue flagrant and, frankly speaking, very stupid and very undemocratic tirades against the President, who is merely and very bravely doing what most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and most people in the world want him to do in regards to Cuba. The Cruz and Rubio comments are too brazen and uncalled for to repeat here, except for the stupidest, most unpatriotic, and most outrageous one. Senator Ted Cruz said that the opening of a U. S. embassy in Havana "is an insult to Israel." A U. S. embassy in Cuba will be an insult to Israel? That's what he said and we're supposed to believe it.

    The "insult to Israel" comment by Ted Cruz illustrates anew that Cruz and Marco Rubio actually believe they can say anything and do anything in regards to Cuba and it would not and will not cost them a single vote or a single donation on their paths to the White House. Their assumptions, of course, are based on the fact that, since 1959, Cuban-American extremists and their right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress and in the Bush dynasty have reserved the right unto themselves to make all rules and all laws related to the annihilation of Revolutionary Cuba and the recapture of the plush island. Those assumptions are based on the belief that the majority of Americans are too ignorant or too scared to even express sane opinions on the subject of Cuba. For example, in 1976 when George H. W. Bush was CIA Director, a child-laden Cuban civilian airplane was blown out of the sky by famed CIA/Cuban exile operatives. When Emilio Milian, Miami's top Cuban-American newsman, complained about such things, he was car-bombed. When Jim DeFede, the Miami Herald's top columnist, excoriated members of the U. S. Congress from Miami for coddling and protecting {to this day} the most famed and most vicious Cuban-American terrorists, he was fired. Today -- in July of 2015 -- there is not a single mainstream journalist in the United States that has either the courage or the integrity to even ask Cruz, Rubio, Jeb Bush, etc., about their associations with the most infamous anti-Castro Cuban Americans in Miami, including Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles. Therefore, a Cruz, a Rubio, or a Bush in the White House beginning in 2017 would signify that the Batistianos had captured the United States before re-capturing Cuba. Yet, pusillanimous Americans -- propagandized to accept any assault on Cuba, including Cubana Flight 455 -- still probably wouldn't utter a peep regardless of what the next Commander-in-Chief after Obama does to Cuba. Also, programmed Americans, with the demise of mainstream journalism in the U. S., accept flagrant ignorance such as Ted Cruz's "insult to Israel" comment in denouncing Obama's opening of an embassy in Havana. As "USA Today" explained again this week, Cruz and Rubio are successfully courting a bevy of famed Jewish billionaires and reaping tons of money for their presidential campaigns. Thus, expect more pro-Israel than pro-American comments from Cruz and Rubio, even as they assume there is nothing they can say or do related to Cuba that Americans will either understand or oppose. It's been that way for decades in the United States.

Of course.....................

.........you'll never see this expression on Jeb Bush's face.

        If television journalists asked tough questions, they would never get talking-head pundits, politicians or publicists on their sets. Then they would have to actually go out and cover the news, which is a lot more expensive than self-promoting talking heads at an anchor desk. So relax, Jeb. You have over a billion dollars to buy your own ads to tell us why America needs another Bush in the White House. Plus, as a celebrity talking head coveted by all the cable news outfits, you can have an additional millions of hours of free airtime...without ever having to be asked about Orlando Bosch or anything of that unsavory nature. 

       And, of course, Jeb, as a young politician in Miami trying your best to ingratiate yourself to the most extreme anti-Castro zealots, you never asked your father, the President, to do you any big favors in that regard, such as asking for and receiving a pardon for Mr. Bosch. Of course, not. That would have been using your last name as your lone asset in making political and economic headway in Florida...right, Jeb? 

    One thing Americans don't comprehend about U.S.-Cuban relations is this: Many of the highest profile Cubans on the island -- including key minister Josefina Vidal and top journalist Cristina Escobar -- would actually prefer either Rubio or Cruz in the post-Obama White House than Jeb Bush. Vidal and Escobar have made it a point to become experts on all things American, because they believe Cuba's existence as a sovereign nation depends on such expertise. Vidal's rationale is this: If another Bush is Commander-in-Chief, Cuba will prepare for war; if Rubio or Cruz becomes Commander-in-Chief, Cuba will continue to use diplomacy in its contentious dealings with its superpower neighbor. Escobar, on the other hand, is among the influential Cubans not too enthused about the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Escobar's rationale is this: Even in Democratic administrations and especially in Republican ones, the U. S. has used its 7-story Interests Section building in Havana to fund, create, and encourage dissidents on the island. In a U. S. Embassy, Escobar believes, more U. S. spies will fund and create more dissidents. She also believes that, soon after the embassies open, Cuba will resist the cultivation of dissidents and expel some U. S. diplomats; then the U. S. will expel a like number of Cuban diplomats in Washington. That will, Escobar believes, continue and expand until both sides agree to close the embassies. Also, Escobar agrees with Vidal that even a Rubio or a Cruz would be preferable to another Bush in the U. S. White House.

        Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, led the Cuban diplomacy that has, incredibly, led to the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. President Obama defied the Cuban-American extremists when he accepted Vidal's primary demand: That Cuba be removed from the U. S. State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism list. Vidal for several years longed to send the imprisoned American, Alan Gross, back to his Maryland home but she believed his continued imprisonment pleased the extremists in the U. S. because they could use it to assail Cuba. Yet, Vidal managed to send Gross home, where he quickly received a $3.2 million check because, uh, the people who sent him to Cuba on a "dangerous" spy mission were apparently responsible for his 15-year sentence. And Vidal, amazingly, negotiated the release of the famed Cuba 5 from U. S. prisons. Vidal's diplomatic skills and Obama's desire to change a Cuban policy that had harmed America's image for decades combined to create the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington, which Ted Cruz, uh, calls "an insult to Israel." Meanwhile, Vidal has expressed to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry that she is "more than a little displeased with the incredible number of U. S. agents masquerading as diplomats currently operating in the Interests Section so they can fund and encourage dissidents." She has been told that such undiplomatic behavior will be curtailed and that "dissident activity will not be a prime feature of the new U. S. embassy in Havana." That pacified a still-skeptical Vidal but it is one she will closely monitor. She told U. S. counterpart Roberta Jacobson, "The United States will not tolerate anti-American activity from Cuban diplomats in Washington, nor should it. And we will not tolerate further anti-Cuban activity from U. S. diplomats in Havana. If that is not understood, Roberta, why are we even discussing expanding Interests Sections into full-fledged, possibly explosive embassies that we'll both regret?"

     
      Gerardo Hernandez was the most famous, or infamous, of the Cuba-5, the five young Cubans sentenced 15 years ago by a Miami court to long prison terms in the United States. Gerardo was sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years. He was firmly incarcerated in a maximum security prison in California. No one expected him to ever be released. But that was underestimating Josefina Vidal's negotiating skills and President Obama's determination to normalize relations with Cuba. Gerardo arrived back in Cuba as a heralded national hero on December 22, 2014.

      This AP photo shows Gerardo Hernandez touching the stomach of his beloved and very pregnant wife Adriana. She had not seen Gerardo in fifteen years but the child inside Adriana was his. It turned out that a friendly U. S. Senator, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, had somehow arranged for Gerardo's frozen sperm to be flown from California to impregnate Adriana at her request. She wanted a baby by a husband she never expected to see again. When he arrived in Havana on Dec. 22-2014 she was almost ready to give birth to their beautiful and healthy daughter, just another unforgettable chapter in the enigmatic U.S.-Cuban saga. 

    Cuba's twentysomethings, as epitomized by Cristina Escobar, seem poised, if necessary, to take on the post-Obama Bush-Rubio-Cruz craze atop the U. S. government. She is already Cuba's most popular and most influential journalist, ubiquitous on Cuban and regional television. Fluent in English and a consummate Cuban patriot, Cristina is tightly attuned to the U. S. treatment of Cuba. Back in December she spent 10 days at journalism seminars in California. At the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session in Washington, she stunned her media counterparts with her beauty, talent, and audacity as she fired a series of tough but pertinent questions at White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest during a crowded and informative news conference.

      This Bloomberg News photo shows Josh Earnest as he recognized that the blistering series of questions was coming from a rather attractive and inquisitive Cuban female. Her most significant question was: "Will the U. S. diplomats at a new embassy in Havana be respectful of Cuba?" Earnest gave a detailed and scripted reply, but the tone of Cristina's question had alerted all to the fact that she didn't believe U. S. embassy personnel would respect Cuba based on what she considered the "disrespect" U. S. diplomats at the U. S. Interests Section in Havana have long shown to Cuba. She concluded her statement-like questions with this: "Can we expect President Obama to visit Cuba in 2016?" Earnest indicated that the President would "love to visit Cuba, especially Havana." From that point on, it has been assumed that President Obama, who is very popular on the island, will indeed visit Cuba in 2016. He has already announced that Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Cuba to open the U. S. embassy. Pope Francis will in Cuba in September, President Obama in 2016.

     Young Cubans like Cristina Escobar and her boyfriend, shown here on vacation, will predicate the future of Cuba...unless nefarious forces off the island dictate otherwise. It has been reported that she has been offered "many tax-free dollars" if she will defect to the U. S. where her photogenic and telegenic image alone would "insult" Cuba...even more than the opening of a U. S. embassy in Havana would, as Ted Cruz opines, "insult Israel." But it appears Cristina is not for sale. During her recent journalistic trip to Washington, she went out of way -- in one-on-one interviews and during speeches around town -- to stress that, "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." Twentysomething Cubans like Cristina and her boyfriend are well educated, healthy, and patriotic. They want to leave their imprints on Cuban sand, not in Miami's Little Havana. President Obama is trying to afford them that opportunity...without, uh, "insulting" Israel.

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