Israel Will Not Protect the World Alone This Time

 

Back when Saddam Hussein was actually developing nuclear weapons material and was having the perfect nuclear reactor being built by profiteering interests from France and had bunkers constructed by an equally monetarily enterprising German company and believing they had the world fooled as the Europeans were more concerned by their bottom line and the United States was apparently blithely ignorant of the Iraqi game; so the weight of dispatching the central items of what was potentially the Iraqi nuclear weapons development central point, the reactor was relegated to the Israelis acting alone. The Iraqis were not using the technically challenging uranium differentiation system, which in the early 1980s was a rather daunting challenge, and instead was opting for a plutonium producing reactor. This left the Iraqis with what was apparently an unfettered romp to develop nuclear weapons while appearing to remain compliant to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of which Iraq was a signatory. And so it remained until the morning of June 7, 1981 when the Israelis launched “Operation Opera” to destroy the French built and almost ready to have its nuclear fuel rods installed Osirak Reactor which was capable of producing weapons grade plutonium. The entirety of the Western world opposed any attack on the reactor or accompanying buildings as the Europeans relied on Iraqi oil or had too numerous business dealings and other profitable relations which may have faced difficulties or potential cancellation should Iraq suspect the Western powers in any way supported any such attack. Even within Israel there were the expected and usual detractors against Israeli actions including the then leader of the opposition Labor Party Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Shamir predicting extreme and non-survivable reactions and backlash as well as those in the cabinet who also opposed any attack for various reasons chief of which was the effect it would have on the peace treaty with Egypt. Prime Minister Menachem Begin still pushed the idea for an intervention to destroy the reactor forward in hopes the Cabinet would eventually see there was no other viable choice. There were logistics problems which had to be overcome such as but not limited to removing external fuel tanks on the F-16s in order to equip them with the heavy munitions necessary for the attack, assign F-15s to guard the bombers to, from and during the attack in case of Iraqi countermeasures, as well as training the pilots to fly on the floor to avoid being detected by any Arab radar and choosing a route which would also minimize detection. The final trigger which finally won approval for the attack was the knowledge that the fuel rods had been prepared for shipment from France to Iraq which if installed would have resulted in a radioactive cloud from any assault making the vote a now or never choice. This changed the critical opposition to now support the attack. The original attack date was set but it became necessary to call off the attack and reschedule it for the next month. Fortunately this setback still permitted the attack to be set before the fuel rods were to be installed in the reactor or even be stored in close proximity to the reactor buildings themselves. The Osirak Reactor was destroyed and Israel faced censure at the United Nations with President Ronald Reagan refusing to use the American veto to protect the Israelis as he too felt betrayed by their attack without first having received his approval, something he had all but assured was not forthcoming even had it been sought. The remainder including the Western world’s great reliefs and their acclamations and thanks, even if belated, that they were not facing a nuclear armed Saddam Hussein in either the first or second Gulf Wars.

 

Looking at Iran one might be tempted to claim that it seems like, if we may be permitted to steal a quotation from Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” This time it’s not Iraq but their neighbor, Iran. It is not Saddam Hussein but rather the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. This time it is a Shiite ruler not a Sunni ruler though it is once again an adversary of Saudi Arabia. And just like the last time, the Saudis Royals are not about to launch any attack, especially not on their own and highly unlikely they would ally with and accompany the Israelis. The United States is once again against any such attack and threatens to withhold any usual protection at the United Nations Security Council should Israel choose to ignore their opposition and attack anyways. The Europeans are once again all after the rewards of trade agreements they are already salivating over as the United States takes the brunt of any criticisms for the near obvious bad deal of a lifetime as President Obama is willing to take the scorns and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune if it permits him to construct a new kingdom in the Middle East to replace the old alliances with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel with one where the United States and Iran share the hegemony with Iran the hegemony taking care of the Middle East and the United States free to attend to other concerns. This alliance comes complete with other supporting characters including but not limited to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and potentially Yemen and whichever other nations the ever slowly devouring appetite of the Ayatollahs set their attentions towards. Additionally, the Russians are playing the role of the Soviet Union in the Middle East and beyond with an unsurprising echo of the Soviet past with the Russian President being Colonel Putin formerly of KGB fame and China will be China taking advantage of any situation the world inadvertently creates, like the need by Iran for an outlet to sell their crude oil. Thus the world is hurling full steam ahead towards a nuclear armed nation which remains the inheritors of the Persian Empire’s proud historic past with all of its attitude of empire which they traded in order to name themselves after the Nazi master race Aryan, or Iran in Farsi, and add to such the trait and heritage of the potentially suicidal belief patterns of Shia Islam and these nations central to permitting this nuclear arming of such a nation all claim Israel has lost it and gone over the deep end when they claim that perhaps a second look might be a good idea.

 

There have been more than just a few articles which point to the fact that the world is relying on good old Israel to ride over the hill and rescue the world from itself once more. They even point to the fact that there exist a number of Sunni nations including but not limited to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States which would potentially offer their assistance or at least give spiritual support. There is some bad news for the world; it is going to take a whole different level of support if they really expect Israel to suffer the ramifications of and the promised denunciations, trade embargoes, United Nations sanctions, and other barbs and mistreatments in size and scope potentially previously unimagined. Israel has stated that they are quite capable and up to the task of striking and setting the Iranian nuclear program back potentially months or even for over a year or even two years. That is not the question; the question is whether it is worth the severe and unprecedented ramifications that is the main concern for Israel. Israel has to weigh whether it will be beyond her ability to guarantee that Iran has too much to lose by using their nuclear weapons once they develop and build them, whether that be in ten months or the ten years that President Obama promises, making it thus worth the price which would be guaranteed in the retaliatory strikes by Hamas, Hezballah, Syria, IRGC and a guarantee that Iran will use their first nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv no matter what the cost even should it require using it from aboard a ship making a suicide run for the shoreline beaches of Tel Aviv. The consequences of assaulting the Iranian nuclear sites are well known to Israel as well as her neighbors in the Middle East. These are the very same consequences which have intimidated the other nations who, like Israel, will be threatened by a nuclear weapon armed Iran. It is this threat which may well lead to a nuclear weapons arms race throughout the Middle East and North Africa with Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and even the Gulf States leading the way. This too must also be included in the Israeli calculus. The one thing heard repeatedly is that there is no threats which Israel could use to deter the Iranians from carrying out their threat to launch a nuclear attack on Tel Aviv once they have sufficient a store of nuclear weapons to follow up with further strike should Israel retaliate.

 

That leads us to the question of exactly what threats could Israel utilize to prevent a nuclear attack by the Iranians once they are sufficiently armed. The unfortunate, or potentially advantageously, truth about the threats which would be most effective on Iran is that they would also be very disconcerting and threatening to the rest of the Muslim world. It is obvious that should Iran drop any nuclear weapons anywhere, or everywhere, across Israel that Israel would strike every population center across all of Iran, Syria, Shiite Iraq and Hezballah portions of Lebanon and thus these would not be sufficient deterrence to prevent an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel. But then peer pressure may be exactly what might be required to pressure Iran from striking at Israel. The first targets Israel needs to assure Iran will be targeted beyond her borders should be every holy shrine and city in all of Shia Islam. Going beyond this point would be potentially dangerous for Israel as it would also potentially push what might be uncomfortable allies throughout the Muslim world forcing them to become an ally with Iran against Israel. Still, some concern might be given to such targets as to the two cities which Iran has placed as their most prized desire in all the world and the reason that Iran and Saudi Arabia are so set against one another, Mecca and Medina. These are the most prized cities in all of Islam and before World War I were under the care of the Hashemite Royal Family. That changed with the fall of the Ottoman Empire when the Saudi Royal Family forcibly took control of Mecca and Medina. This was the reason behind the British promise to grant the Hashemite family a kingdom in exchange for their assistance during World War I and thus Jordan today ruled by a Hashemite King. Such a threat though of destroying Mecca and Medina would be a counter attack as a last ditch response after a disastrous attack which had likely destroyed the majority of the Israeli population and economic centers simply by striking central Tel Aviv with any nuclear weapon. With such damage already inflicted on Israel there would be so little left to risk as Israel as a functioning nation would be in serious jeopardy. In a perfect world Israel would not be facing such a predicament but then again in a perfect world President Jimmy Carter would not have given the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the support in dethroning the Shah and thus the Ayatollahs would not be in power in Iran. But in a really perfect world the United States would not have overthrown the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh placing the Shāh Mohammad-Rezā Pahlavi into power reestablishing the Iranian Royal family. Perfect worlds can be so confusing and lead to a tangled web that takes some serious untangling. I guess the world would never be a perfect place and then who knows if we would actually really like what a perfect world might give us as result, who knows.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Anti-Zionism and Anti-Israelism are the Modern Anti-Semitism

 

There are reports that the European Union has distributed a list to its twenty-eight member states detailing sanctions to be taken against Israel as punishment should the Israeli government refuse to bow before European demands regarding activities beyond the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Lines, refusing to reengage in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, though there is no mention that such might be impossible as the Palestinian Authority has been refusing to negotiate until Israel surrenders to all of their demands granting them their state within the entirety of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) with all of East Jerusalem as their capital and total control over the Temple Mount and Old City, or refuse any other demands made by the European Union in the name of as part of agreement with the Palestinians. Of course the list was to remain secret and concealed from the Israelis as per instructions given, according to Haaretz, from the drafters and designers of the sanctions regimen, the European External Action Service (EEAS), who distributed these instructions to the numerous European diplomats. But this economic assault on Israelis as punishment for Zionist activities, defined as inhabiting and claiming the ancient lands of the Jewish ancestors, or Israeli defiance to European directives and demands for their submission to Palestinian demands, attempting to strike at Israel economically is simply the latest of those assaults on Israel and Zionism using economic punishments much as was used against the Jewish people both in periods of European and Islamic history throughout the many states and under numerous rulers within both.

 

Another economic assault on Israel is better known as it has been very public and have made their demands well publicized is known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Movement (BDS). The BDS movements is nothing but the modern-day interpretation to the medieval banishment against permitting Jews to own land which often forced Jews into the towns where they learned trades, dealt as money lenders and financiers, learned sciences and medicine or tended stores becoming the retailers of later ages. The BDS economic assaults on Israel have similarities to the barring of Jews entering many guilds, governments banning Jews from certain professions during the ages of the inquisitions and purifications across Europe or restrictions placed on Jews economically as Dhimmis living in Muslim ruled lands.

 

The history of economic and legal warfare against the Jewish communities during their existence within the Diaspora is well known, well documented and had numerous peculiarities making each episode and each age having their own identifiable peculiarities. There were often cases where Jews were restricted in where they were permitted to live, often in places referred to as the Jewish Ghettos while other times at one end of town separated by a short distance almost as if they were relegated to their own town separate from the non-Jewish peoples. One recent example of a generally held suspicion of Jewish perfidy which existed into the middle of the last century was that the Jewish People had some unfair advantage when it came to business acumen which gave them an unfair advantage over other business people. This suspicion was not actually valid as there were just as many Jewish businesses which failed and the percentage breakdown of Jewish successes and failures were just slightly over the statistical deviance. Still some back then pointed to that slight margin above statistical error as sufficiently significant that without some viable explanation there should be an investigation into why the Jews are more successful. I heard this argument made by some classmates (yes, I’m ancient) and could not help but laugh at which point I found myself challenged to explain what I found so amusing. I asked them if perhaps the obvious reason that Jews might be slightly more practiced and have a wellspring of knowledge within their community was due to the fact that while much of the Christian world was farming Jews were forbidden to own or work land and were forced into the towns where they ran were practitioners of skilled trades, or ran businesses such as money lenders (the predecessor to modern banks facilitating trade), taverns, provisionary, clothiers and other businesses which gave the Jews centuries of experience over those who held the wealth of land ownership or those who worked the farmlands or tended flocks.

 

Back during those earlier times some Jews amassed varying degrees of wealth with some by the twentieth century had become extremely wealthy. The Rothschild family which owned one of the oldest and largest banks in France had amassed sufficient wealth to cause conspiracy theorists to accuse them and other wealthy Jewish families of controlling governments and having unhealthy influences. There were theories during the Middle Ages that blamed the Jews for plagues or other mass illnesses, such as the flu or other viruses, which struck towns which resulted in some instances in pogroms or even the burning at the stake of a town’s Jews. One could interpolate that the same may be behind some of the hatreds and conspiracy theories concerning Israel as simply the ancient hatred and accusations made against the Jewish People have now been adapted, possibly subconsciously, and applied now to the Jewish state. Part of this theory can be proven when one realizes that one of the current demands made of Jews in Europe and was made against the majority of the Jews within the Islamic world from 1947 through the early 1960s where Jews were told with all the hatred and ferocity a society could muster to take themselves to Israel with the rest of the Jews as they were no longer welcome amongst the real citizens and accepted members of the society within whom these Jews resided. Now the exact same thing in reverse is part of the Arab and Islamic demands for the Jews to leave Israel and return the lands to their rightful Arab owners, similar to the demands for the Jews to leave many nations, regions, localities or other dominion which resulted in the Jews often moving from one place to another only to need to relocate once again within a few years or maybe longer time and time again. The Jews were then told to take themselves back to where they belonged, which then was to the Middle East to Jerusalem or anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, exactly where Israel is today. But there are other similarities.

 

When Israel first established her independence she had to fight a war against over a half dozen Arab nations’ armed forces, many militias and forces under the command of the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini who spent almost all of World War II within Hitler’s Germany where he added his approval for the ‘Final Solution’ for European Jews and demanded Nazi assistance in dealing with the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa after they had conquered Europe and moved on to the Middle East and beyond, for which she received little assistance from Western Europe and the United States imposed an arms embargo and despite of which the tiny nascent state of Israel not only survived but gained some lands they had not initially held at the initial time of the intended genocidal invasion. After the initial survival of Israel she became a predominantly socialist, agrarian society which, despite hard work reclaiming their lands from the swamps, rocky terrain and desert which composed much of their new homelands. Early Israel was well received and accepted by most of the world and for the first time in almost two thousand years the Jews were free, in their own ancient homelands, had self-rule and were joining and had a belonging amongst the nations of the world and a member of the United Nations. Slowly the nation of Israel began to develop a more technically advanced society and economy. Upon the winning the release for Russian Jews to make Aliyah and immigrate to Israel the Israeli economy took on a whole new facet and the technology explosion erupted expanding the Israeli economy. Very soon after Israel became a much wealthier nation and also saw the turning away by many of the nations who not long ago were friends but now were siding with her enemies. Many of these nations had gone from their position which immediately after the June 1967 Six Day War had supported and fully expected that Israel would retain some, if not a fair amount, of the lands she had gained as a result of a defensive war started by Egypt and Syria and one day later they were joined by Jordan over Israeli warnings and pleadings for Jordan to remain peaceful, but soon after the October 1973 Yom Kippur War and the fuel embargo by OPEC, these nations started drifting to the Pro-Palestinian Arab position initially fearing further embargoes and eventually as representative of their hate for capitalism and wealth gained by Israel moving from a socialist society towards a capitalist free trade society. Israel returned all of the Sinai to Egypt upon making peace, a somewhat surprising generosity as many had thought Israel would retain the parts of the Sinai east of the central spire of mountains. The largely agreed belief was that Israel would retain the Golan Heights and all of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as retaining these lands would provide Israel with the security of defendable borders, the exact wording from the United Nations resolution which had called on Israel to return lands, not all the lands, just lands, and retaining those regions which would provide for Israel to have defensible borders. Today and since soon after 2008 Israel has been pressured to return to within the Green Line. Israel has been treated with great amounts of animosity from much of Western Europe, much of the Islamic world, the nations which make up the Non-Aligned Nations (NAM), and now even the United States, or at least the administration under President Obama. The increased levels of animosity and hatred from around the world against Israel had been directly proportional to her increasing economic wealth, much like what the Jews faced in many of these same areas as they individually gained wealth.

 

The ironies and insanities displayed by the nations of the world when it comes to Israel, Zionism and the hatreds of both and the Jewish People is astoundingly absurd. Just a few weeks ago Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for the Jews in Israel to return to the nations from whence they had come. The Iranian leader implied that all Israeli Jews arrived from Europe and the United States. There is a gaping hole in this theory which the Ayatollah Khamenei is perfectly aware of, half of the Israeli population originated outside of Europe and North America and instead arrived from across the lands of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) including his own Iran. One must wonder whether or not the Ayatollah Khamenei would be willing to accept the return of the near one-hundred-thousand Iranian Jews and their descendants into Iran with welcoming arms? This has been one of the most persistent and ignorant errors and suppositions about Israel that all Israeli Jews originated from Europe, Russia, Canada and the United States. The truth is that half of the Israeli Jews arrived from the Arab world with many arriving with at best one suitcase, no funds, stripped of their valuable possessions, monies, jewelry, business stocks and other supplies and valuables, homes and anything else of value. This includes such nations as well as Iran of Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Turkey, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan and numerous others. There are a residual group of Jews remaining in some of these nations but there are some which have completely lost their Jewish population just as the Palestinians expect there to be no Jews permitted to remain in whatever lands they make their nation just as has already been executed in Gaza where there are no longer even a single Jews, IDF soldier or Jewish person of any kind. This is despite the fact that Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian spokespeople and other sympathizers continue to claim Gaza as being under occupation. The same can be said for Area A in Judea and Samaria as at the same time that Israel removed all Jewish presence from every square millimeter of Gaza, Israel also removed every last vestige of Jewish or Israeli presence in Area A in Samaria which was made-up of almost a half dozen towns, kibbutzim and farming communities. Somehow, none of these sacrifices are recognized nor appreciated by most of the world with the European Union leading the charge ignorant of the real history of Israel, the British Mandate, Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, the San Remo Conference, or the entirety of the history of the ancient Jewish lands described in the Old Testament. These truths and the obligations of the world to respect their promises to Israel which are being ignored much like the reasons that the Jews were fist permitted to arrive in an area and the economic growth they facilitated when there came a crisis the local leaders found a need for a scapegoat which almost always became those Jews, those who are different from the real and original inhabitants of the lands. The difference is now the locality that is being defined where the Jews are no longer welcome is approaching the entirety of the planet as the Europeans and so many more want to grant the Palestinians the entirety of their defined homeland which they define in their chant which reads, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What Could Happen if the Supreme Court Strikes Down the Health Care Law?

For argument’s case we will assume that the Supreme Court will strike down the individual mandate specifically and then quoting the lack of a severability clause in the Affordable Care Act, rule that the entirety of the Law has to be voided and thrown out. So, the entire two-thousand-plus pages of the Affordable Care Act would be unconstitutional and voided by the ruling. This would include the employer mandate, the disallowing insurance companies using preexisting-conditions as a consideration when considering granting insurance, and every other item even those items which were placed in the law having nothing to do with healthcare but were inserted simply to get these items approved surreptitiously and without serious debate. Will such a verdict be the death knell of the government injecting themselves even further into controlling healthcare in the United States? What will the future hold and will the health insurance companies now need to undo those items they had adjusted in order to begin to comply with the Affordable Care Act? What will be the effect of the uncertainty caused by this strike down of the government’s attempt to set in motion laws and regulations which would eventually lead to their complete usurpation of the healthcare industry in the United States?

My greatest fear is that the Supreme Court striking down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act will simply be the first volley in a war for the heart and soul of the future of health care in the United States. Any actions which have already been implemented by the government and as many adaptations the insurance companies have taken will be attempted to be cemented in place. We can expect Cass Sunstein to implement new regulations to shore up and make these changes and adaptations permanent fixtures going forward with healthcare in the United States. People who have chosen this as their fight to save individual rights and restrain the government from acquiring more influence and power over society and individual citizens’ lives will need to stay motivated and ever watchful to root out and prevent the passing of the mechanisms of the Affordable Care Act as individual regulations included in other pieces of legislation attempting to pass them stealthily. We can expect there to be a series over months of Executive Orders coming out of the White House which will be utilized as a single step-by-step implementation of the individual rules, regulations, and requirements which can be implemented individually as stand-alone regulations directly from the White House without even needing the Congress to vote or consider them. We can fully expect a coordinated effort to implement the entirety of the Affordable Care Act singular item after singular item which will later be woven together forming the completed legislation or a close facsimile thereof.

We have seen such actions in the past by those who wish to transform our country from its republic formulation of governance under which it was established into just another Nanny State top down dictated society controlled centrally with government imposed restrictions on individual liberties choking off our freedoms one small step after another. The one thing I have learned while watching the changes that have taken place during my lifetime and studying how the changes were rooted in actions from the past two centuries is that those who wish to control and regulate every small piece of our lives seldom are forced to step back and when such small wins have occurred, they are always followed by the use of incrementalism to accomplish the same ends one iota after another for as long as it takes. I have often marveled at their dedication to duty shown by those who favor government oversight and influence over all of society and life choices as they never take no for an answer and will settle for small baby steps when their sweeping legislative attempts are refuted or struck down. If those who are opposed to such a takeover of our lives and society by the busybodies of government honestly wish to hold their ground and prevent these usurpations, they will need to gather themselves and stand dedicated and unified in constant diligence guarding against the guaranteed onslaught by incrementalism. This is going to be the battle which will be fought and the sides have been defined. The end result will be totally dependent upon which side can remain relentless, dedicated, focused and determined going forward into the distant future as neither those wishing to regulate, tax, or subsidize every action, thought, possession and individual themselves will never stop proposing their nefarious schemes so those who will rally as the protectors of liberties and freedoms will need to be ready to make an even stronger effort to stir the people to their side and protect those rights spoken so elegantly of in the Declaration of Independence if those rights are to be continued to be enjoyed by our children and their children after that onto the last generations. As we were warned by Wendell Phillips, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!” Lest we not forget for as we were warned by Ronald Reagan, “Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.” We must be patriots of vigilance such that we never need long for the taste of freedom and liberty we have lost.

Beyond the Cusp