Netanyahu’s Stealth Building Freeze

When is a building freeze not officially a building freeze? When it is kept unannounced and enforced simply through not signing permits allowing for any building to take place. This is what has apparently been imposed upon Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and has been the case since soon after United States Secretary of State Kerry’s second visit when he first began the latest push to press Israel to make concessions which were presumed necessary to bring Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas around to allowing resumed peace talks. From as near as can be assessed, Secretary Kerry has likely promised to force Netanyahu and Israel to meet Abbas’s precondition of applying a building freeze on all lands claimed by the Palestinian Authority. Kerry probably allowed for this building freeze to be an unannounced building freeze so as to allow Prime Minister Netanyahu to deny its existence at least for long enough to persuade Abbas to return to negotiations. Secretary Kerry likely believed that once it became obvious that there was in fact a de facto building freeze that Abbas would proceed with negotiations and forgo his other preconditions. Unfortunately for Secretary Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu this scheme was doomed to fail as Abbas cannot agree to rejoin peace talks and remain in power which is the real purpose behind the preconditions.

 

This became evident when thinking that there was no possibility that Prime Minister Netanyahu could convince his newly formed government to allow a building freeze that Abbas implied to Secretary Kerry that if there were to be a building freeze he would consider rejoining the peace talks and forgive his remaining preconditions. Well, Secretary Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu came up with an idea that they could put a building freeze in place without announcing one and that they could get Abbas back to the negotiating table before Netanyahu was forced to admit the freeze and pay a political price for imposing a stealth building freeze. The whole plan fell apart when after about a week of the stealth building freeze being imposed President Abbas demanded his preconditions of a wholesale prisoner release, Netanyahu provide a map of his proposed borders, making the Green Line the basis for borders, and hinted at adding the removal of IDF and Israeli security personnel from all area of the West Bank. This was basically the end of any attempt of bringing the two sides together to reconvene the peace process. Unfortunately, this has placed Prime Minister Netanyahu in a very uncomfortable position along with Secretary Kerry. For Kerry to have any credibility or possibility to ply Abbas to return to the peace talks then this stealthy building freeze would have to be kept in place indefinitely and knowing he has Kerry leaning on Netanyahu making the latter’s political life in a sensitive and untenable place, Abbas will just play the old place an offer forwards then alter it as soon as it is met and continuing collecting as many different concession and then pocketing them assuming that having forced these concessions once means that they are things Israel will always be forced to surrender. This is an even more sinister and deceitful scheme than the usual tactic of joining talks playing for juicier offers to pocket for the next round before walking out, otherwise known as the Arafat Bribe Me Ploy.

 

Now it has become evident that there is a stealth building freeze imposed on Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Jewish residents in these areas are losing their patience and have slowly been rising to a point of royally upset. Even a stealth building freeze eventually becomes visible as the cranes, trucks, bulldozers, backhoes, and supply trucks can remain motionless only so long before people start to ask pointed questions which in turn are picked up and asked by Knesset Members, especially the nationalists in the coalition. Eventually this could threaten the viability of the Netanyahu government which would hopefully bring the stealth building freeze to a building frenzy termination. The only real pressure that would have even the slightest possibility of forcing Abbas to return to the peace talks is for Israel to proceed with building on a broad front all across Area C. Then announce that Israel has annexed all of Area C as necessary for the future viability, security and a first step towards establishing defensible borders of the State of Israel. Follow this announcement by requiring any Palestinian Authority residents within Area C to either agree to take compensation for their lands or sign an application for Israeli citizenship along with a loyalty oath in order to remain within the Area C boundaries. Once this needful announcement has been declared, all of the Israeli leadership must stand behind this as an irrevocable truth and established fact. This move should be made immediately after informing Secretary of State Kerry of Israeli intent to take this necessary step as it is beyond any reasonable expectation to force Israel not to act in their basic interests which are valid and permissible under United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. Then, while Secretary Kerry is calling the White House the announcing statement must be released followed immediately by an announcement made before the Knesset with as many Ministers attending as can be persuaded to be supportive and televised to all of Israel. After the announcement there must be no concessions or backtracking from the new borders. Then it should be made evident that all future negotiations with the Palestinians will use these borders as established fact and future discussions will be over the division of Area A and B. Israel should follow this with a concerted and strong campaign claiming their right and the rights of every Jew to be allowed free and safe access to every single holy site within the contested areas and if it should become necessary to extend Israeli jurisdiction and sovereignty over these sights to assure such rights, Israel is prepared and ready to enforce whatever is required to assure these rights. The time of Israel forced to accept the submissive role in the state of affairs between them and the Palestinians has proceeded far too long and needs to be terminated. Israel has the superior legal claim to these lands and need not apologize for her existence or over being the stronger militarily any longer. No other nation or people throughout history have been anywhere near as understanding and quiescent or shown respect in the face of such insult and denigration as has Israel. The times of Israeli timidity need to end and end with a firm resolve and an exclamation of Israeli absolute rights and integral dignity. No more excuses, apologies, regrets or marginalization should be accepted from the Palestinians period. Afterwards, whatever the world decides, the world decides and let them learn to live with Israel which is proud and assertive, no more apologies for Jewish existence, and no more compromise on Jewish rights, and no more surrender of ancestral Jewish lands.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Refuting Myths Against Israel and the Jews Made Simple

There are an unbelievable number of lies, distortions and misconceptions about Israel, the Jews, the Palestinians and the histories of each. First thing that is needed to do is to dispel some of the most common myths. The Jews were given Israel as retribution made because of the Holocaust the biggest lie. The idea of Israel as the Jewish State in modern times began with the first Jews returning to Israel in the 1850s. The Zionist movement was founded by Theodore Herzl as a response to the Trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus for treason by France which has become known as the Dreyfus Affair. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly accused and convicted of treason on the flimsiest of evidence, a single scrap from a note, mostly because he was a Jew. The scandal was eventually revealed after Émile Zola wrote his famous article, J’accuse. All of these events took place before 1900 and eventually led to the Balfour Declaration which was written in November 1917. The League of Nations set aside lands for the Jewish State to be founded upon under the Mandate System which established the French and British Mandates; the British Mandate was tasked with the establishment of the Jewish State in July 1922 and became effective following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne in September 1923. All of these events were as a response to the end of World War I and were made between the winning nations and signed by representatives of the losing nations with the addition of representatives for the Jewish Zionists and the Arabs independent from the Ottoman Empire, which was dissolved as part of the settlements. Finally, the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement, which recognized and formalized the Balfour Declarations and related treaties and accords, was signed by King Faisal bin Hussein representing the interests of the Arab World and Dr. Chaim Weizmann representing the World Zionist Organization in January 1919. With all of these steps in place the formation of Israel as the Jewish State was set in motion and ratified by every conceivable interest more than a decade before the first stirrings which led to World War II and the Holocaust.

 

Another myth is that the Jews, Zionists and Israel have never made any territorial concessions. On this topic one can almost ask as to where should one begin? Let’s begin by taking things in reverse chronological order. The latest territorial concession Israel made was the complete and total removal of every single Jewish resident and IDF troop and any other Jewish or Israeli citizen or interest from the Gaza Strip turning it all over to the Palestinian Authority. When this was completed in August 2005 there was no Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip as none was deemed necessary while the area was under Palestinian Authority control. After Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip after a revolt in June of 2007, Israel then initiated the blockade in order to prevent Hamas from having the ability to import heavy weapon systems and larger rockets and missiles with which to launch attacks on Israeli civilians living in neighborhoods and towns near the Gaza Strip. When incorporating the Oslo Accords Israel relinquished both security and civilian control over all towns, cities, and lands within Area A and relinquished civilian control with coordinated security responsibilities within Area B in Judea and Samaria which is also called the West Bank in 1993.

 

When Israel and Jordan reached their peace agreement in 1994, Israel offered to return most of the West Bank but Jordan relinquished any claims to these lands leaving them under Israeli possession. Previously, when Israel and Egypt signed their peace accords in 1979, Israel returned all of the Sinai Peninsula after removing more than twenty Israeli settlements which had been constructed south of the Negev Desert in the Sinai while Egypt relinquished any claims to the Gaza Strip. This was a major compromise made by the Israelis as had they retained the Sinai Peninsula, which was an option available as they had won the territory in a defensive war, as it gave them access to one side of the Suez Canal, complete control over the Straits of Tiran, and they surrendered lands which would have quadrupled the size of the State of Israel. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 Israel was required to retreat from the disputed areas retaining those lands as deemed necessary for the security and defense requirements of the State of Israel in order to secure the peace in the future. Israel had technically met all requirements of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 once they had relinquished their control over the Sinai Peninsula. Just for the record, perhaps it would serve to denote the first lands which the Zionists relinquished and the guarantee they received in return for their sacrifice. After all of the papers, treaties, accords and Mandates had been established, the British were left with one nagging problem, their promise to the Arabs during World War I for their assistance with Lt. Colonel T.E. Lawrence, the Hashemite Family in particular who had lost their positions ruling over Mecca and Medina to the Family Saud. The British approached the Zionists demanding that they relinquish the lands east of the Jordan River for the establishment of a Palestinian Arab State ruled by the Hashemites. In return the Zionists were offered a guarantee that they would retain all lands west of the Jordan River and that these lands would be indivisible in perpetuity. This agreement is known as the Churchill White Papers of 1929, an agreement also ratified in principle by all the victors of World War I. The lands east of the Jordan River are today the nation of Jordan while the indivisible lands which were promised the Zionists west of the Jordan River are currently being divided up with the acquiescence of those same nations. So much for guarantees initiated by the British and backed up by the promises of the signatories to the Versailles Treaty among numerous other agreements, treaties, accords, and Mandate.

 

The last libel we will discuss is the claim that the Jews have no claim to any lands in the Middle East, never resided in or around Jerusalem, the Jewish Temples never existed, the Jews have had no presence in the Middle East for at least 2000 years, and the Jews in Israel are exclusively from Europe. As noted earlier, Jews started returning to Jerusalem and the lands around Jerusalem, especially in Judea and Samaria, since the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Even after the dispersion of the Jewish people by the Romans there has been a remnant of the Jewish people living in and around Jerusalem for the last three-thousand years. Even if one does not care to believe either the New Testament or the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) which both denote the Jewish existence in Jerusalem and surrounding areas including Judea and Samaria, there is corroborative evidence from Egyptian pictographs, Persian hieroglyphs, Greek historical records and manuscripts, Roman manuscripts and historical records, Byzantine records, Crusader histories, Ottoman tax and historical records, British histories, censuses and agreements, and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and other writers bibliographies of their travels in the Holy Lands over the past two millennia. For the decades after the founding of the State of Israel there were over three-quarters of a million Jews expelled from across the Arab and Muslim Worlds, many of which ended up residing in Israel as well as some remnants in the United States and Europe. The population of modern Israel is almost of equal parts Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Modern DNA testing has revealed a common maternal root for both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews that predates their separation.

 

With the volumes of records from separate sources detailing the presence of Jewish communities in and around Jerusalem and their related histories, those pressing a denial of these facts are simply relying that most people will not do any research on their own and will simply accept their propaganda. With the historical contempt for the Jewish people throughout history, they are very likely correct that people will simply take their lies as facts as they simply reinforce their preconceived prejudices. Everything above can be validated simply by entering the names of the people or agreements into any search engine and follow the links. Some of these links will also tend to mention other histories but the original documents are available online and can be read in their unadulterated form. The body of evidence backs the right of the Jews to reestablish their historic homelands. There are other ancient peoples who also are entitled to their homelands but have been denied such by history and the powers which shaped it. Some examples, but not a complete list by far, are the Kurds who were victims of the European redrawing of the Middle East after World War I and their overriding preoccupation with their Arab allies, and the Tibetan Buddhists who had their country erased by Mainland China (it is non PC to call them Communists anymore) and have been victims of forced relocations and the involuntary immigration of Chinese citizens from all sides of the Chinese peoples. Perhaps the day will come when the indigenous peoples who have, despite the ravages of history and circumstance, kept a higher than normal cohesiveness will be permitted to reestablish their ancient homelands. Just because other such dispossessed peoples have yet to regain such privileges is no reason to prevent the Jewish People from reestablishing their ancient homelands, especially since they possess a guarantee in a treaty, the Churchill White Papers.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Looming Disaster in American-Israeli Relations

What would be a faster way to turn the American public against Israel than to have United States troops returning in caskets from Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, where they were serving as peacekeepers presumably protecting the Palestinians from the Israelis and vice versa. If such a thing exists we have been unable to think what it might take. The problem is that the path that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry may be taking in order to force a peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis includes American troops placed within the new Arab State of Palestine as a guarantee to Israel to prevent terrorism and a guarantee to the Palestinians against any Israeli interferences and guarding against IDF responses even if somehow a terrorist event should be committed. This idea is fraught with potential calamities and disasters beyond all imagination. Judging from the current situation in Iraq one can easily envision exactly how useless American troops would be in preventing all terrorist attacks while also being committed to performing their tasks while obeying all restrictions and limitations placed upon them by the Palestinian leadership. Add that the main function of American troops as peacekeepers would soon be realized that they are actually just potential hostages held whenever such were needed to make demands for concessions from either Israel or the United States. The best bet is that American peacekeepers stationed in Palestine to act as a deterrent against terrorism and to be guarantors of peace while enforcing the agreed upon border would be pulled either at the insistence of the American public or the demands of the Palestinians within the first year.

 

The path leading to this catastrophe waiting to happen will occur quickly and be in place before anybody either in Israel, the United States or the Arab World has time to react and prevent such idiocy. The most likely scenario will go something like this. Secretary of State Kerry will convince Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to forgo his litany of preconditions in return for a guarantee that the 1949 Armistice Lines, also called the 1967 Lines, will be the basis for the borders and that the Palestinians will have their Capital in East Jerusalem with complete control over the Temple Mount. Secretary of State Kerry will coerce Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to the talks by guaranteeing that the United States will enforce Israeli access to all Jewish Holy Sites especially in Jerusalem and that the United States will be the guarantor preventing any future terrorist attacks including rocket attacks. There will be a great meeting very likely in Washington on the East Lawn or the Oval Office with a signing ceremony where a tentative peace agreement will be signed. The agreement will spell out a proposed solution to such final issues as borders, Palestine being a non-military State defended by the United States, a solution to the Palestinian refugee resettlement with some ten to twenty thousand who have provable claims to lands lost within Israel being accepted by Israel with the remainder being absorbed by Palestine and possibly some remaining in the countries where they have resided with some having lived there over sixty years. And the cherry on top of this peace of cake will be American peacekeepers placed in the State of Palestine as the guarantors of all the implementations, peace, safety, and security for both sides. Presto, instant Americans placed in harms’ way under what will be the worst possible of conditions.

 

In order to appease the Palestinians, the American troops will answer to the Palestinian leadership operating under similar restriction as the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), who operate in a nearly complete ineffectiveness in containing Hezballah in Lebanon from rebuilding south of the Litany River, having to request permission in order to operate outside of their bases and perform any of their supposed duties. The American troops will find that their service will be utilized in such a manner that they will only have the effect of preventing any Israeli response to terrorism. The ability of the American forces to control or prevent terrorism will be virtually nullified by restrictions placed on them by the Palestinian government. They will become a protective force for the terrorist functions by blunting any operational abilities of Israel in anti-terror operations within Palestine, the only thing restricting terrorism on a massive scale currently. Eventually there will be American soldiers kidnapped by such groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Salafists or even al-Aksa Brigades, who are part of Abbas’s Fatah Organization, should the Americans actually manage to hold any terrorists from any of these groups or simply to make demands for any purpose from freeing terrorists held by Israel or any country worldwide or any other purpose where a hostage would give sufficient leverage. The American troops would also be living day and night wearing a virtual target on their backs and be targeted by any terror groups or individuals who are not supporters of Mahmoud Abbas; this is a very large and possibly majority of the Palestinian Arab population. Once Americans are taken hostage or murdered while presumably making Israel safe from the Palestinians, and this is how it will be played in the press and across the media, the relations between the American public and Israel will begin to grow strained. At some point Israel will likely ask that the Americans cut their losses and return to the United States as the price of American troops being harmed would be too high a price that Israel would rather the United States not pay. Israel has, in their entire history, never requested for American troops to come to their aid. Israel has always preferred to be responsible for the security of her people and country and have been consistently reluctant to allow others to be placed in harm’s way preferring to take such risks for their security themselves. This idea of injecting American troops into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is an awful idea whose time must be avoided and seen as poisonous to Israeli-American relations. Nothing positive can come from such a mistaken idea, such an abhorrent and noxious idea.

 

Beyond the Cusp