Attempting to Clarify Israel and the Misconceptions

 

Why not have us start with the biggest misconception, the desire of Israel to form Greater Israel. This is an accusation which most using it know that it is their really big lie. Greater Israel was the Israeli Empire of Kings David and Solomon (see map below). Their empire reached the Euphrates River at its northern point and the Nile, so to speak, to its southern edge. What one has to remember is that whenever your border met the border of Egypt in ancient times, that was considered as bordering the Nile because between the Egyptian border and the Nile were a few small settlements, and a select group of cities which grew around the defensive fortifications along the used paths of travel to central Egypt, the Nile. So the border of Egypt was basically the border of the Nile River as there was nothing of real substance between the border and the Nile River. So, the story of a Greater Israel is a historical reference to the hundred years largely during the reign of King Solomon and the second half of the rule of King David after he unified the Twelve Tribes and then set out on conquest. King Solomon completed the conquest reaching the Euphrates River fulfilling prophesy and retained a steady and peaceful border with Egypt. The Empire of a Greater Israel was an aid to the Egyptian Empire as it presented a safe border where there was agreement and little possibility of any aggressive actions. Neither Egypt nor Israel desired to go to war with the other as they were of relatively even ability and both would lose in such a struggle. There is no desire for modern Israel to extend her border any further than the boundaries defined by the San Remo Conference, the Mandate System and related treaties as well as Article 80 of the United Nations Charter making the Mandates enforceable by the United Nations. The United Nations is bound by its charter to enforce the promises made under the Mandates which set the eastern border of the Jewish State to be the Jordan River and had absolutely no mention of any Arab entity west of the Jordan River, Palestinian or otherwise. The Mandate set an Arab state east of the Jordan River which initially was named Transjordan and later simply Jordan. Despite all the various resolutions voted upon semi-recognizing an Arab Palestinian state out of what was promised to the Jewish State or the intentional harm allowed by President Obama in the Security Council on the Israel damning UNSC Resolution 2334 under Chapter Six authority which does not permit military force or other coercive force such as embargoes for enforcement, the United Nations under the charter, which overrules all else, must enforce as the eastern border of Israel to be the Jordan River. That is an absolute which any International Court would have to respect and use as the law on the matter. This is why the Arab world has never taken Israel into the International Courts at The Hague as they know any such judgement would further enforce the Jordan River border for Israel. After that has been settled, as if Israel were to sign a treaty giving the land away, which she has yet to commit, the sole means for such an Arab state to be formed, such as Hamastan in Gaza, otherwise Israel’s eastern border remains the Jordan River and beyond that there is no desire for reestablishing the borders reached by King Solomon in modern times.

 

Greater Israel the Kingdoms of Kings David and Solomon Between 1050 and 930 BCE

 

Another slander spread about Israel is the Apartheid accusation that the Jews have rights that non-Jews are denied, specifically the Arab Palestinians. There exist a very limited number of rights which are reserved for solely the Jewish People, but they would not rise to the level of Apartheid. The most obvious is the “Right of Return” for the Jewish People. This was something that the world agreed was understandable and the means by which the Jewish State would operate and be founded upon. Any person whose heritage by birth, or recognized conversion, is Jewish, is permitted to return to the ancient Jewish homelands and become a citizen. This was considered a basic and inherent right under which the Jewish State would operate and as the Jewish State, it would be ridiculous to claim others would have such a right. Jewish citizens upon reaching military age are required to serve in the IDF or perform National Service and this is not required of others with one exception; further the Druze or Circassian Peoples of Israel declared they too would follow conscription and serve exactly as the Jews are required and this was voluntary and decided as a community. Arabs, Christians, Bhai and other religions and peoples residing in Israel are not required to serve in the IDF though they may choose to serve voluntarily. There is a current discussion for expanding military service requirement to the Hassidic Jews. This has not been a right in which Jews are solely privileged to perform, as others are not banging down the doors demanding not to be excluded from inscription. These are the exceptions and beyond these, there is complete equality in Israel. Jews, Arabs, Christians and all other non-Jews have the rights to vote, live in any open community (there are exclusive communities such as religious, Arab, Bhai, Kibbutzim and a selection of similar types), work in any occupation, same healthcare system, join political parties, equality before the law, and everything else just as in any other democracy in the world. The Arab Palestinians do not have these rights because they are not Israelis, they live in their areas under their own governance headed by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The Arab Palestinians have not voted in over a decade because Mahmoud Abbas knows he would lose and that would likely lead to his being dragged before an Arab court and he prefers being President so he cancels the elections every time the time approaches. Israel cannot force them to hold elections any more than Israel could force North Korea to hold open and fair elections. The limitations on Arab Palestinians exist due to the fact that they are a foreign entity and are not Israeli citizens and the only citizenship they had before the Palestinian Authority was the older Arab Palestinian likely hold Jordanian citizenship and the rest are the offspring one or two generations removed from being Jordanian citizens.

 

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad launch rockets or use tunnels to attack into Israel and it results in yet another Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel war, there comes the inevitable charge that Israel is using disproportional force as the fighting results in more Gazan civilian deaths than Israeli civilian deaths. There are any number of mitigating reasons of which the most urgent which are ignored are obvious to those who bother to try to find the reality. The largest reason is despite having sufficient tunnel and bunker space to place all the Gazan people underground and in relative safety, Hamas (and we will use Hamas to infer Islamic Jihad and their other allies) refuses to permit any of the civilians outside a select group who have sufficient wealth to purchase their own and family safety. Instead, they force the population to crowd into areas where Hamas is launching rockets or where Hamas is planning to encounter and fight the IDF. Hamas does this with the intent of causing civilian casualties. What is even more frightening, Hamas has been seen to entice children, using their youthful curiosity, to stand near their rocket launchers when they are launching rockets into Israel with the intent of their being struck when Israel returns fire to destroy the launchers. Additionally, Hamas, and friends, do not exactly wear uniforms and the major difference between a Hamas terrorist combatant and a civilian male Gazan of approximately the same age is, at most, a few grenades, an AK47 or similar assault rifle, possibly a sidearm or possibly operating a rocket launcher or mortar. When one of these combatants is killed, then his weaponry is removed and then they are pictured by the media and counted as a civilian. Additionally, when Israel calls people, drops leaflets, and performs other warning actions that they will be attacking a certain building or location, Hamas will call for people, mostly women and children, and have them stand on the roof of the building or surround the rocket-launching vehicle so that Israel will not attack and this works much of the time. It fails on occasion when Israel is using artillery or missiles and intelligence does not show the civilians who are still at the location despite the warnings from Israel. Too often it is later found from survivors that Hamas ordered the people to remain in a targeted building in order to cause casualties which they can show the media and claim Israel has intentionally murdered these people. There have been cases when Hamas rockets have misfired and struck within Gaza such as when the al-Shifa Hospital and Shati Refugee Camp were struck by Hamas fired missiles. This was proven by Israeli radar trajectory tracking systems which followed the track of four rockets launched (see pictures below) from a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher aimed at Ashkelon where one of the rockets was tracked. These misfires are shown to the media claiming that they were launched attacks from Israel. In Gaza, Hamas actually use civilians as human shields which too often results in civilian casualties. The simple truth is the Hamas does everything they can to maximize civilian casualties as well as using their own dead combatants to be stripped of weapons and also added to the civilian count.

 

Radar Trajectory of barrage launched from within Gaza depicting strike points including the short round strike on the Shifa Hospital which Israel blamed by Hamas and Media accepted Hamas talking point unchecked

 

Israel works in the opposite direction from Hamas et. al. Israel requires new structures, be they apartments, homes, malls, office buildings or anything else, to have shelters capable of providing protection to the maximum expected count of occupants. These shelters also need to be within a certain distance to permit the people to reach them within a safe period of time which should be less than the flight time of any rocket or missile fired at them. Israel shelters their civilians while the IDF are the ones standing in the open seeking shelter only after they have marshaled all civilians into shelters. Israel has developed the means to intercept as many rockets, missiles, artillery and mortars such as the Iron Dome (see picture below). Israel invests millions of shekels if not billions or even trillions of shekels into producing a multi-level anti-missile interception systems including but not limited to the Arrow II, Arrow III, David’s Sling and the new Magic Wand, and these are the ones which we know exist and who knows what else Israeli scientists have designed and built that they have not made public. Israel protects her civilians placing the IDF between the civilians and the danger while Hamas place their civilians between their combatants and the danger. That is the real reason that there are far less Israeli civilians killed than civilians who are an unintended consequence of Israeli actions to defend Israelis when attacked by Hamas.

 

Iron Dome Launch to Intercept Rockets Originating from Gaza
which is Under Hamas Governance and Held Responsible for all
Rockets by Israel Regardless of Who Actually Launches Rockets

 

Then there is the simple fact that disproportional use of force is a new and previously unheard of measure of warfare. Further, of all the recent and current zones where there is active combat or has had combat, the use of the measure of proportional or disproportional force as a measure has solely been applied to Israel. The ratio of military fatalities when compared to civilian fatalities changed drastically between World War I and World War II (see graph below). The United States had far greater than a ten-to-one kill ratio in Viet Nam when counting combatants. The United States has had almost unimaginable numbers of enemy civilian casualties compared to those suffered by the United States. In every war, there has been very few where the casualties, civilian or military, were proportional and the intent of any military for military combatant deaths is to cause the maximum while taking the minimal numbers. Simply stated, in war a disproportional ratio is what is the intent by both sides. The difference in the Israeli wars with Hamas is due to the intent of each side in their military strategies. Hamas aims to maximize civilian casualties on Israel as they target civilian targets while largely ignoring military targets while Israel intends to target Hamas combatants and uses the IDF to protect the Israeli civilians. Further, while Israel does everything in their power to limit civilian casualties on both sides, Hamas attempts to maximize the civilian death and casualty counts on both the Israelis and their own population. Hamas actually desires that large numbers of their population be killed or injured such that they can have as many pictures as possible to plaster over the front pages and lead news stories around the world. That is their operational strategy, have their own population injured and killed as widely as possible in order to accuse Israel of disproportional force while Israel goes beyond what any other military in the world does to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza as well as protect Israeli civilians. Quoting an investigative report into the IDF performance in the 2014 Gaza War found in this article, we quote, “Each of our own armies is of course committed to protecting civilian life during combat. But none of us is aware of any army that takes such extensive measures as did the IDF last summer to protect the lives of the civilian population in such circumstances.” So much for the claims that Israel has intentionally targeted civilians and the other accusations of disproportionality, an aim of every military in the world when entering combat that they will take few losses while causing maximum losses on their enemy forces.

 

World War II Surpassed World War I
Civilian Deaths Against Military Deaths

 

Then there are claims that Israel has attacked the democratic base of their governance. This claim is brought by Israelis as well as many groups from outside Israel. All of these groups have one item in common, they are far leftist groups. Their claim is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has to be fixing the elections to continue to win elections after election. There are a number of problems with these claims. First, one is that Benyamin Netanyahu has continuously led the Likud Party by decisively winning internal party elections time after time. Most of the other parties also have had the same people in the highest positions over the same period. The parties which have changed leadership are more often those which did not perform well or reach the level of representation in the Knesset that their membership anticipated. This is what has led to these leaders being replaced; Likud has done well so they have continued with what has worked. It is use of the formula of, if it is not broke, don’t fix it. Likud has been successful and thus they have been the party to choose the Prime Minister which has been their successful leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu. What these groups and politicians mean when attacking Israel as not being democratic and having murdered the previously great Israeli democratic history is actually very simply, they mean that their favored parties on the left have not taken power. Israel had leftist socialist governance until 1977 election of Menachem Begin. This ended three decades of Labor Party rule. Since then the left has won some elections but have mostly been placed in the opposition. Unfortunately, the far left have two easily identified political principles, the first is that they have a natural right to run the world and every nations in it and the second is that if they should lose elections then the only possible reason is that democracy has failed and broken down thus the reason for conservative governance can only happen by killing democracy. For further proof of this, one need simply look at the commotion gripping the United States and the anger generated by BREXIT across Europe. The election of Donald Trump, election of Bibi Netanyahu, and BREXIT are the recent proof that the world as we know it is going to explode and die and democracy must be in decline as only by cheating can nationalism or conservatism become the majority. Israeli political mood is religious, nationalist and capitalist with a touch of conservatism which means that everything the far left find putrid; nationalism, capitalism, religion and conservatism; are the items which appear to be driving the Israeli population and this must mean that it is impossible for democracy to operate as the left cannot appear to win elections. Trust, Israeli democracy is alive and well and quite active which becomes evident even to the most casual observer.

 

Israel is simply despised because its existence makes so many beliefs people have held for close to two thousand years, namely that the Jews were finished and ready to collapse into extinction any day now. With Israel, we now have Jews with an Army and no longer the easy people to push around and blame for everything. Just because Israel exists and Jews are armed and protecting themselves has not quite sunk in, so the world is still blaming the Jews for everything, just now they are blaming the Jewish nation, Israel. Israel understands this as our history was a record of being conquered by empire after empire until the prophesy was finally realized, miraculously just as predicted by our prophets and written in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible. With the reestablishment of Israel and the start of the ingathering has many people very nervous as they are not quite sure what this means. They fear it might mean the coming of the Messiach will be very soon and nobody believes we are ready for such an event. Others just resent Jews having their own nation and power. Then there is the fact that the land was one under Islamic rule and is in the heart of the base of Islamic power, thus it must revert to Islamic rule and the Jews need to know their place as dhimmis. Then Israel just makes a convenient target as the Jewish nation amongst all the other nations, many of which are of similar backgrounds. The real problem for Israel is it is the only nation with such an identity, a Jewish identity. That makes Israel the lone nation amongst nations which makes her a target. How has Israel responded? We attempt to assist nations in need, we invent technology, medical procedures, new items and all kinds of things which make life better around the world. There is one other item we in Israel have given the world which we like to tell of, we invented the cherry tomato.

 

Beyond the Cusp