From Israel for Your Information

 

Just as the world’s media downplayed or simply ignored not only the massive forest and other fires where many were proved to be arson, there are some other stories which might not have reached the rest of the world we thought you might desire hearing all about. We will start out with lighter fare and work our way through to wherever it leads us. One factoid which became known this week has supposedly struck some in the Arab world as distressful, that there has been a steady increase of Israeli Arabs joining the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Another was the breaking up of a terror cell of eight Hamas backed Arab residents from the Sur Baher and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The cell was preparing to carry out shooting attacks in the Israeli Capital of Jerusalem and surrounding areas, including against an IDF base and targets on Mount Scopus, home to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. The cell had reconnoitered some of their targets and were about to attack the IDF base in North Jerusalem on Mount Scopus. The cell was apparently started by Hamas back in 2015 after many of its members were released from serving their sentences for previous “nationalistic” crimes, a euphemism for terrorist attacks. A statement released by Shin Bet reported, “The disruption of the [terror] network preventing a number of serious terror attacks in Jerusalem and its discovery again highlights the danger posed by terrorists with Israeli ID cards, who benefit from the freedom of movement and access to firearms, making it relatively easy for such individuals to carry out terror attacks.”

 

In plain English the point was that the instigating tactics and inflaming of anti-Israel and anti-Semitism exists and has been growing amongst Israeli Arab, especially those who received citizenship when East Jerusalem was formally annexed and the residents granted Israeli identification cards. Many of these who have taken to terrorism were initially educated by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and never were honestly integrated into Israeli society and still dreamed of the destruction of the Jewish State. This was also a further warning of some of the problems which now exist after so many decades of Arab incitement throughout their society and particularly in their education indoctrination schools and camps. The silence from the world’s media on these two stories stem from the same inadequacy, or better put, were filtered from the news by the same principle, no news which backs the Israel or Jewish side of this conflict must be permitted. On the other hand, every time an Arab is harmed even through a verbal slighting, no matter what the reasoning this must be blown out of proportion and be used to show the racism in Israeli reporting by the European and leftist world media. The simple fact of breaking up a terrorist squad one would think could be a good news story but only if it takes place in Paris, Rome, Berlin, London or any other Western metropolis as preventing terror in these parts is part of the “War on Terror” while the same events in Israel is part of “other news” and not the slightest degree of equal importance. The media would have you believe that terrorism in Israel is separate and totally different and unrelated to terror outside of Israel. According to too many media news editors, Israeli terrorist attacks are deserved while all terror outside Israel is horrific and actually Israel’s fault in the first place and thus can be reported and even blamed upon Israel if even the most tenuous connection is possible.

 

This brings us to our last story before more opinion comes your way. The United Nations, that great arbiter of beneficial actions has decided to vote next week in the General Assembly to fund a blacklisting of Israeli and international companies operating in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and in Judea and Samaria. There will be no distinction as to whether these companies employ Palestinian Arabs or that by boycotting them they are acting in a hurtful manner as we can assure you that in virtually every company which had facilities outside the Green Line is employing both Israeli settlers and Palestinian Arabs. Why, you may ask, would the international community boycott or otherwise target Israeli companies who employ Palestinian Arabs with equal rights and salaries as Israeli citizens possibly causing these Palestinian Arabs who this is done to support their good paying jobs. The reason is as sick as it is disgusting. These Arabs, who work alongside Jewish workers, hold management and supervisory position in equal percentages as Jewish workers with some supervising Jewish workers, despite what you may have been told, are not helping the cause of proving Israel to be an Apartheid state which segregates against Arabs. All Palestinian Arabs must be dependent on Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, UNRWA, and be providing ample fodder for the terror mills. Israeli employed Palestinian Arabs make often half again higher wages that even the PA security forces are paid and this makes for bad news. These Palestinian Arabs are considered by the world media to be collaborators and that can only be an evil Zionist plot to employ these Palestinian Arabs and provide them jobs and equal treatment and what would happen should the world find this out. When SodaStream was boycotted and maligned sufficiently that they closed their Judea plant and this cost nearly a thousand Palestinian Arab jobs but this was heralded as a good thing as it presumably cost the Jew settlers their jobs, but it did not because they have Israeli Identification Cards and thus just had a farther distance to drive to work and kept their jobs. The Palestinian Arabs would need to receive special work permit identification cards which would also have required clearance from the PA as well as Israel and these papers were slow if ever coming at all thus all that was accomplished by the boycott of SodaStream was the loss of Palestinian Arabs’ jobs making for another group of PA Arabs that Israel would not permit to work. Now there is a story they did report but did so making it seem like SodaStream had simply fired their Arab workers at their Judea plant and never noting it was the media that hounded them in closing that plant.

 

Many of these to be blacklisted Israeli companies will either move their companies within Israel or simply go bust and close up all together. Palestinian Arabs will lose good jobs and Jews residing now near their work will need to take transportation or drive further to reach their work. This blacklisting makes for some added stress for the Jews working in Judea and Samaria for these companies but it denies the PA Arabs of jobs which serves the propaganda campaign against Israel. If PA Arabs must suffer so Israel will look bad, well then to help these PA Arabs we must first destroy their jobs and lives. They are destroying workplaces where Jew and Arab work together in peace and with mutual respect in the name of helping the Arabs who without this help would have nowhere to turn, but it is more like because of this help they lose it all and then have nowhere to turn. These lost jobs are then trumpeted in the media of a wickedly evil within Israeli society refusing to hire Arabs despite the reality that it was the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) Movement which stole the existing livelihood from these PA Arabs who they now lament lost their jobs. It is one of the worst cases of it works so let’s fix it which leads to destroying a better life for PA Arabs because the story line must read Israel denies PA Arabs the opportunity to work. How can these NGOs demonize Israel if Israeli companies are treating PA Arabs as equals in their factories in Judea and Samaria, those “settler” companies? That is a question the media refuses to admit to facilitating.

 

The reality that the world is not being told about is that it has been the PA leadership which has refused to make any deal with Israel as they still adhere to the Khartoum Conference’s Three No’s which are, No Peace with Israel, No Negotiations with Israel, No Recognition of Israel. This was the agreement reached in an emergency session of the Arab League. It was his going against these agreements for which the Muslim Brotherhood, potentially but unproven assists from the Arab League or other Arab nations, arranged the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after he Negotiated with Israel, made Peace with Israel and thus Recognized Israel. Anwar Sadat was a brave soul who knew he was tempting fate when he initiated talks with Israel meeting in Jerusalem with Menachem Begin. For reaching an agreement with Israel, Egypt was returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula with its small but profitable oil fields, its Sharm El Sheikh Resort community and with the destruction of twenty-plus Israeli settlement communities being removed and the Israelis taken back within Israel. That last bit is proof positive that the “settlements” are not an impediment for peace. If a true and real peace required their destruction, then such would become a definitive possibility, but the world does not want a peace or any settlement of the Palestinian Arab situation, the world wants it to fester and to become ever more dire with the Palestinian Arabs without jobs such that the destruction of Israel becomes the cry of the day. Mahmoud Abbas has flat stated that he will only accept a peace which destroys Israel as a Jewish State and is perfectly fine with an Israel ruled by Arabs. The fact that the Arabs he desired be moved to Israel include every Arab in any refugee camp including the camp in Jenin and the camp outside Nablus and even the camp attached to Gaza City. Yes, there are three massive refugee camps for Palestinian Arabs with their being held prisoners within lands under Palestinian Arab autonomy, complete rule when speaking of Gaza under Hamas. These Palestinian Arabs are guarded by Arab security forces and some even meet with family through the barbed wire topped fences. One need understand that these Arabs must be kept separate from their brethren because they are the political hammer and crowbar with which Israel is to be destroyed and as such they are only useful if they are kept as refugees in their own lands. And yes, the media, the Western governments, and the United Nations all know about these refugees left in these camps for the purpose solely of bringing about the destruction of Israel and they all agree that this is the end to be desired even if it leads to every Israeli Jew and Christian being slaughtered along with many Arab Muslims who are deemed to be traitors to the cause for being Israeli citizens and having a good life with all the benefits of being an Israel over being a Palestinian Arab inside the fences of Jenin, Nablus and Gaza City. Oh, and one last thing, there are no Arab refugee camps within Israel and Israel took in the same numbers if not more refugees of Jews forced to flee their homelands in Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa. None were placed in refugee camps and left to languish in misery just to make a political point, they were taken in as brothers and sisters as they are just as much family as the Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted to Israel when their homelands turned on them and they needed a new home. These are all realities you will never hear from the media hype of mean horrible Israelis victimizing Palestinian Arabs with genocidal rage and hatred.

 

Israel being the good guys is rarely covered and when it is it has often been Israelis rushing to some of the world’s worst disaster places to assist in helping in any way possible. Israel has civilian corps and military units which are trained to provide assistance, do search and rescue, set up and man a complete field hospital including OBGYN, delivery rooms and a nursery as well as fully capable operating rooms and clinics which can treat people where they live and are injured plus perform triage of a sort for the main field hospital. One of the best examples was Haiti after their devastating earthquake and the Philippines after a horrific typhoon. Israel was at Japan after the earthquake and tsunami which destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant meltdown and destruction. Israel assisted in New Orleans after Katrina and in New York City and all its affected surrounding areas after Superstorm Sandy. Israel has assisted in Turkey, Nepal and just about every nation willing to accept Israeli help.

 

Top left Haiti Earthquake Top right Philippine Typhoon 2014
Bottom left Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant explodes
Bottom right remains of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

 

Israel has a group of heart specialists who assist with special cases where children require specialized help. The group is known as Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) and will go to any length including flying children and parents to a third country or even a fourth in order to bring them to Israel to receive the medical care not available to them at home. SACH also trains pediatric heart doctors the world over, especially the developing world, sets them up with entire treatment facilities and thus spreads their good work to many more children the world over. For any wishing to enjoy a benefit symphony to benefit SACH being held Sunday, January 29, 2017, in the Los Angeles area, please find information and link at the very bottom of this article and please visit the SACH link above if you are at all curious of their entire range of assistances provided.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Blessings We Have Found in Israel

 

Israel gets some bad public relations if one depends on the news, editorials, talk radio and just about any mass media, even movies and other entertainment. Living in Israel very quickly dispels all the lies. Are there a few choice people who might make one take a less than superb view, but such are rare and even they warm with time. Needless to say, not knowing or speaking the language causes some difficulties but there is almost always somebody there to lend a translating hand. There was the time we were at a McDonalds and the woman at the counter spoke no English and two what had to be young High School age girls came in and realizing the communication problem immediately became our translators without being asked. Generally there are those who willingly offer to give directions to whatever place you need to find in ten minutes to make the appointment and it is your first time in the city and you got off the bus where you thought was the closest stop. That time we only missed by one or two stops and had to walk about a mile or so, you get used to walking in Israel because so much living is city center style European life, an initial system shock after life in the outer suburbs in the United States.

 

Our friends, acquaintances and relatives are quite surprised when we relate the ease and general atmosphere in Israel. When we tell them that we have found Israel more accommodating and generally having a softer and more easy and comforting nature they tend to express great surprise. One might expect that in Israel life would have an edge on it with the constant threats from virtually any direction and the added unpleasant surprise with the Iranian nuclear threat and President Obama and his team’s animosities and threats thrown at Israel but they would be quite wrong. Probably the best description we could give as a true barometer of Israel and Israelis would be to take everything ever attributed to Israel and her people by the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Commission or virtually any other United Nations agency etcetera and take it all and place the initials of the United Nations in front of them but in small letters and then read the entirety as one word. An easy example would be if some United Nations commission claimed Israelis harbored a genocidal hatred then all one need do is take the two words and place the letter un in front giving you ungenocidal and unhatred and you would produce an honest appraisal. Sure it would take ignoring your spellcheck and do some translations where ungenocidal would become accepting of others people who are different and unhatred would become lovers making the entire accusation translate into accepting and caring for peoples who differ from Jews and accepting, caring and considerate of people who are of any other stereotypical, racial, religious or nationality different from Israeli or Jewish. A closer inspection of Israeli actions around the world will better exemplify this example.

 

When Haiti was struck by that devastating earthquake, the Israelis were amongst the first to have responders on the ground evaluating any special needs. Israel had the first field hospital which was equipped with X-ray equipment, a gynecological unit, a neonatal unit, burn center, surgical rooms, prosthetics and physical therapy, emergency room, and virtually every department and specialists which was on the ground and set up within six days of the earthquake. This hospital remained on the ground even after the search and rescue units had stood down. Israel also opened clinics in areas where urgent care not requiring the abilities of a full hospital were present and when the Israelis left Haiti a number of these clinics remained completely equipped with diagnostic, monitoring and other equipment and Israel had trained people in the area such as orphanage, school or other personnel who would be capable of offering care after the Israelis had left.

 

When Typhoon Haiyan spread destruction throughout much of the Philippines, Israel arrived with an one-hundred-forty-eight person team, including search, rescue and medical services and a fully functioning field hospital with one-hundred tons of aid. Making rescue and aid assistance even more difficult was when the typhoon struck, the region was still reeling from the Bohol earthquake in October before. One of the more interesting reports on the Israeli presence at the time was on television news where an on the scenes reporter had been directed to a small village not on one of the main Islands by the Philippine government when she requested assistance in reaching the “most remote village” to report on how they were coping with the aftermath of the storm. Imagine her surprise to find a clinic operated by Israelis already set up and operating while training the local villagers on how to treat people for emergency aid and familiarizing them with the equipment which the Israelis would leave behind as well as the clinic itself with one Israeli aid worker to remain behind and work for the next six months or so with the villagers to assure that they have received whatever training might arise.

 

When Nepal recently had their massive earthquake, once again Israel was amongst the first to respond and the operation was much like the one in Haiti with one exception which was remarkable; Israel took care to the most remote of places, some of which had rarely if ever seen support even from the Nepalese government where Israel set up satellite care units often referred to as clinic in a backpack, though we would hate to have to carry such a backpack, they are quite heavy (pictured below). These remote aid clinics provided urgent and critical care close to the, and often on the, mountain slopes treating climbers and vacation goers as well as native Nepalese citizens. They also operated as a remote triage for when victims were stabilized and given what treatment was available at the clinic and once the patients were stabilized for transport having them taken to the main Israeli or other field hospital.

 

 

The Israeli and Nepalese medical staff who operated the IsraAID mobile clinic in the village of Tar, ten hours northeast of Kathmandu. (Photo credit: Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)

 

 

Israel has sent aid groups to other areas struck by natural calamities with teams having gone to Japan after their earthquake and tsunami disaster, Myanmar after the tsunami, Turkey after they suffered an earthquake and offered assistance to the United States after hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans and destroyed entire fishing towns along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and reportedly one of a very remote few to offer assistance to the United States. When one considers the Save a Child’s Heart program and how it saves children of all ages who have debilitating if not life-threatening heart problems as well as setting up entire departments in hospitals around the world and training their staff and physicians on how to diagnose and treat these children including training the heart surgeons on how to perform these sensitive and vital surgeries, Israel leaves all the equipment the staff was trained on with the hospital.

 

And the Israelis you meet, see, work with and just generally run across are some of the most patient people and really do try to help in their own manner. They may sometimes have difficulty in expressing things in English but many are actually happy and anxious to use their English and respond well when one states the words in the correct syntax as that is important to them. Sentence structure in Hebrew is different than in English and thus literal word for word translations quite often makes for what at first one takes as Yoda speak from Star Wars, perhaps it was direct translation of Hebrew to English that was the basic transference used to make Yoda syntax. Our Hebrew is embarrassingly inadequate to even make a scheduled appointment and get the day of the week correct not to mention the time as some places use a twenty-four hour clock which reminds all of military times.

 

Then there is a tight knit group of what are referred to as Anglos, basically English speakers, and we have events, trips, sightseeing, Torah, Talmud and Bible classes for men and women and we have found our level of social activities is vastly more active and on a level of friendliness equal to our best of times and friends back in the United States. Another thing which leads to such is that Israel is a rather small nation, approximately the size of New Jersey, though that is misleading as the southern two-fifths, or forty-percent, of Israel is made up of the Negev Desert which is rather sparsely populated. Where New Jersey has a population of nine-million, Israel’s population is just over eight-million. Of course there are some groups who pretty much stick to their own group of like-minded and religious viewpoints such as the Haredi. In much of Israel where there is a mix of Arab and Jewish populations there is no evident difference in the treatment and the interactions are natural and as normal as humanly possible. In the area we reside there are Arab and Muslim stores and employees in larger stores or other places of employment are seamless as to their fitting into the society as a whole. At the regional hospital there are Muslim and Arab nurses, physicians, technicians and all positions and everything functions, as we said, seamlessly. The street signs are all written in Hebrew, Arabic, and English with some towns sporting French or Spanish or Russian, though we have yet to see one which had more than four languages and usually just the three required languages. What is always amusing is when a store has its name actually an English name but the letters on their sign is in Hebrew. What gets confusing is that when you read some of these signs you try to think what the prefixes and suffixes are as Hebrew has many words result only in a letter prefix or suffix. Some examples of prefixes are the ‘v’ which means ‘and’ along with an ‘h’ which means ‘the’ while the suffixes often give one the gender of the word as well as if it is singular or plural or includes the speaker or listener in the plural group and so on. Over half of learning Hebrew are the prefixes and the gender and singular versus plural of the words. Someday we will get a reliable translation program for our phones, or should we call them what the phones have become, life assistants and general applications from pictures to recordings, getting e-mail, surf the Web, record our every move and change of mood on Facebook, well, not quite, and most important movie or still camera and recorder.

 

Basically, virtually everything UNcomplimentary about Israel are UNtrue. Contrary to popular belief they are not contrarians. Israelis are like all peoples, there are the great, the good and the we wish they were nicer types. Many fall all over themselves attempting to make our lives as stress free as possible which had to be stressing on them. Of course it might be that as the ancient Hebrew scholars made a point of hammering into our stories and writings, people will only treat you as well as you treat them and life can be like a mirror to one’s soul which is revealed by ones actions when it appears nobody is watching, because, as we are taught in Judaism and is likely taught though with a slight difference, there is always somebody watching us from on High and nothing escapes that view as our innermost thoughts to our most expressed emotions. We can also count that such observations tell whether we’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Still, there is something else which permeates through the society at large. There is an air of optimism and hopefulness. You feel a vigor for living life and finding meanings where other places simply ignore and accept things as is. In Israel there is this striving to be better as a people and as individuals. There is also a level of acceptance which makes one more comfortable simply being themselves as all will be just fine in the end. There are more young children than we were used to in the United States. This too adds to the optimism as a society with declining populations is what is destroying Europe right before our eyes. They are dancing their last dance in Europe and if things continue as has been the scenario we in Israel will become all the more isolated and an Island of freedom and democracy in a sea of misfortune. There is still hope for Europe but only if they turn their ship of state around and rediscover what gave them the impetus to live life to the fullest and explore the world, that spark of life which made passing their ideas and ideals on to the next generation, something difficult to do when there are so few children born to the indigenous Europeans. Israel will only grow stronger as the Jews of Europe make their final decision and that plague may soon prove to be a prophesy for the United States though that need not be their future written in stone. The United States has a far better opportunity to reverse the slipping trend before the slope becomes too steep and wet for any traction and down becomes the only direction. We are both glad we have come to Israel and Israel has proven to be a wellspring of optimism and life, a future of light and enlightenment, more than a completion as it is an opportunity to grow with such splendor and a kaleidoscope of choices each colored so vividly and vibrant. It is really hope eternal or as close as we have seen on Earth. It is great to be at home, the home which was destined and a good, no, great home it is and will grow from there. Needless to say, but we do not expect the United Nations to understand as they are the people of ‘UN’ and that sums them up in total.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

An Answer to Israel’s Detractors

 

Israel received some interesting detractions which broke new grounds for originality and contrariety. The leadership of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement entered new, though not so surprising, grounds by condemning the Israeli relief efforts providing medical, search and rescue as well as other aid to Nepal and the victims of the disastrous earthquake. Allying with these efforts was Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Tweeted the following diatribe, “Easier to address a far-away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza. End the blockade!” Not to be outdone, Max Blumenthal, a Jewish anti-Semite who has risen to prominence in the BDS campaign took to Twitter with this disgusting gem, “For a country responsible for so many man-made catastrophes, natural disasters can’t come often enough.” Meanwhile, the editor of Electronic Intifada, Ali Abumiah added to the Twitter insult-fest with his two cents worth of, “Propaganda operation goes into high gear to exploit Nepal earthquake to improve Israel’s blood-soaked image.” These pitiful reprobations of the Israeli efforts in Nepal and the assigning to them such a sinister convolution of the intent of Israel’s reputation for being amongst the first to arrive to provide aid and the last to leave as they follow up long after the news crews and their cameras have gone is beyond sickening.

 

Still, there is a ray of hope that such statements and the hatreds they reveal which are as evil as the accusations are beyond the pale, or should we have said beyond the cusp, is that there is no actions, no matter how noble in spirit or kind, which will not be twisted into some unrecognizable convolution reeking with evil intent and desperate hate proving once again that the only action acceptable to these entities which Israel could perform would be a complete surrender to the powers who wish her annihilation and baring the necks of her people to the blades of their knives. There is no middle ground sought by those who are out for Israeli blood and the worst of these are those Jews and especially Israeli Jews whose self-hate is so deeply rooted that their souls have been darkened and their twisted views of reality are beyond any moderation and they are as far gone as their lies themselves. Even writing about such slanders is so distressing that there are times the fingers hang over the keyboard unable to return to striking the keys as if the entire system of thought to words to keystrokes has missed a gear and vapor-locked the connection from brain to fingers. There is little that can be done to reason with such hatreds as they know no reason beyond their desires for the destruction of Israel. When providing aid to the victims of such a horrific catastrophe such as the earthquake which struck Nepal becomes a subject for defamation and contempt, the discussion has gone beyond reason and entered the realm of the absurd.

 

Despite the extremes these hatreds have driven those who make such absurd commentary reaching such disgusting depths as to turn acts of kindness and complete altruism into nothing more than banal contrivances meant to whitewash a sullied image, especially coming from the besmirchers themselves, is simply exhaustive on the emotions to the extreme driving even the saintly to the cusp of evil inferences. Fortunately some of us are not beyond such assaults though to stoop to such a level only serves to give credence to the lies, insults and defamations with which Israel has been inundated. The truism we were taught growing up was to simply ignore those who throw insult through invective and lie as the evilness behind such attacks will soon enough be revealed and they will have gained only bringing the insult upon themselves, well, I’m waiting. Apparently our mothers likely knew that such was not true when applied to the Jewish people or now their nation, the only piece of lands they ever desired. The claims we hear about how Israel dispossessed the Palestinian Arabs from their homeland is such a contrivance, and obvious at that, the fact it has been adopted now by so many who it is known know the reality and are simply feeding the lie with layer upon layer of lies. Many of Israel’s foremost friends and allies took their lead from the leadership of Israel and the Jewish societies in the Diaspora and let the liars lie refusing to dirty themselves in a battle of mudslinging. We were told how such slanders would crumble from the preposterousness of their lies. They did not so crumble and instead continued to grow as the anthill became a molehill became a foothill and have now grown to the point of having a life of their own piling heap upon heap of vile recrimination which has climbed so far beyond the cusp as to stretch credulity. The problem is there are so many who desperately want to believe and that begs the question; why is it they desire to believe hatreds against Israel without proof that they would demand piles of proof were the same accusations leveled against any other nation?

 

The reality and answer lies with one of, if not the, oldest of hatreds known to mankind, anti-Semitism. The truth actually lays in something very fundamental, politics. We all remember when Israel was the darling of the left and supported by much of the Western World. That all changed somewhere between 1967, June to be exact, and 1973, around mid-October. Before June of 1967 Israel was the little nations which miraculously survived what was obviously unimaginable odds in 1948 and 1949 in what was euphemistically referred to as the Israeli War of Independence. The claim was that name gave Israel an actual beginning like most nations have at their origins, a war to free themselves from their colonizing force. That was not the actual case for Israel as the colonizing force were the British who could not vacate fast enough knowing what was about to be unleashed. Part of the British desire to leave may have had something to do with their efforts in attempting to make the Jews as helpless of victims through disarming them and giving the confiscated arms to their Arab neighbors plus the writing on the borders where the Arab armies had been massing for the final two months of the British Mandate requirements. Israeli victory was and still is seen as nothing short of a miracle, and I am not about to argue. As Israel settled down and got to being a nation, her earliest days were as an agricultural economy which favored a socialist system of governance as well as structure in the Kibbutzim. This gained her the reputation of a socialist paradise with great strides in bringing the deserts and swamps to fields of produce and flowers. Everything was considered idyllic, whether it was or not. The combined armies under Gamal Abdel Nasser who ruled the United Arab Republic (UAR), which was the manner in which the combined nations of Egypt and Syria, massed troops on Israel’s northern and southern borders once again posed an unimaginable force against Israel, who was still viewed as not being much of a military power, but Israel herself had taken numerous steps to fortify the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and had some impressive leadership commanding the IDF. Once the war had begun, even despite the entrance of Jordan to the fray on the second day, the entirety of the war lasted six days. There is no telling how much farther the war might have lasted had the United States, France, Britain, Soviet Union and virtually the entire United Nations not demanded Israel cease hostilities otherwise, well, there was no actual threat, just an insistence that Israel not cross the Jordan River, Suez Canal, and retreat back to the Golan Heights from partly on the road to Damascus. Israel gladly complied with the request as doing so would assure she took no additional casualties, a major consideration in every such use of force. The Six Day War, as it became known, was the proof that little Israel had grown up and was a formidable military presence in the Middle East, a concern that did not escape the notice of United States President Lyndon Johnson.

 

With the realization of military capabilities of Israel after the Six Day War the Western powers realized they likely had little direct control over Israel and that Israel was becoming an equal partner and not so much an underpowered nation requiring Western assistance to survive. This became extremely evident when it became known that Israel was developing a jet fighter which would have capabilities equivalent to the United States F-16 which was also just entering preproduction. This information was cause for alarm at the Pentagon as the cost for the F-16 and F-15 was to be deferred through foreign sales which depended largely on these aircraft not having competition other than from the Soviet Union which was unavoidable as the United States would not be selling military hardware to the Warsaw Nations or other nations under communist influence. Israel had to be bought off and thus the United States made an agreement with the Israelis that if the Israelis would take a sweetheart of a deal on a package of F-15s and F-16s and end their research and development of aircraft, then the United States would provide Israel with front-line aircraft and guarantee them air superiority into the future. Along with these guarantees it was also implied that the United States would continue, or begin, to provide Israel with cover at the growingly aggressive United Nations, particularly in the Security Council. In what may prove to be the second biggest mistake in Israeli history, they accepted this deal. If this acceptance of assistance from the United States ever proves to have played a crucial part in the development and the signing of the Oslo Accords with the United States having worked behind the scene with Simon Peres and the other Israelis which were trusted to keep their deliberation completely secret, proof that Simon Peres can keep his mouth shut, then this deal vaults into the number one slot because of the ramifications. Between these items and the eventual hard won victory of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 that the world was forced to take a second look at Israel and the glossy shine of that plucky little country forever changed to that borderline world power of the Middle East. Add to that the progression from an almost purely agricultural economy into the start-up nation which leads the world in agricultural technology, security software, personal messaging software, cellphone technology, military hardware and software, and numerous other technological expertise has added the dimension to the Israeli persona of a capable leader in modern technology which has also engendered jealousy. It has been this jealousy which has many willing to believe anything which proves that Israel has attained her level of accomplishment through means other than honestly.

 

Israeli accomplishment has become the new target for hatred which the Jews have suffered through all their existence simply because they often were willing to put in the time and sought the education beyond that of the majority of their peers within human civilization. Israel hatred is the millennial anti-Semitism, plain and simple. This is why there is no answer to why there exists so much venomous hatred targeting Israel expressed in the most vile and vulgar terminology. One cannot find an answer to unvarnished hatreds; one can only make the price of such hatred sufficiently high that it dare not raise its head. Unfortunately, or more likely fortunately, we no longer exist in the type of world during which King David lived where if your neighbor threatened your people or began spewing hatreds and threats you girded your lions, gathered your sward and shield and went to war and may the best side win. As far as the Jews are concerned, the best side did not always win right off, but eventually the Jews outlasted their adversaries. Such a victory today is looking more and more dire every day, but as anybody living in Israel with their eyes open knows, miracles happen every single day and around virtually every corner. Could we use more miracles? Everybody can use more miracles, but you take what the good L0rd provides and are thankful. The greatest miracle of recent memory came during the operation in Gaza last summer called Operation Protective Edge. We reported back on September 26, 2014, in our article titled How to Fight Terrorist Fanatics Unless You’re Israel, how the otherwise near perfect Iron Dome battery fired three times upon a missile out of Gaza whose calculated trajectory placed it in central Tel Aviv hitting either the main train and bus depots or one of the towers which make up the Tel Aviv skyline and missed all three times. I know, that is a disaster, not a miracle, but wait, are not most miracles that which turns an otherwise catastrophic situation into something which has the heart to leap out and scream, “There is a G0d!” This was no different as at the last instant a wind rose from the east and pushed the missile out into the Mediterranean Sea. What makes this even more of a miracle is that missiles are designed to be resistant to the effects of bursts of wind and it would take such a blast of air that the wind itself would have caused massive damage in Tel Aviv. This was no ordinary wind; this was the hand of G0d.

 

Perhaps such miracles as that is also part of the reason for the curses. It was reported that when a Hamas commander was pressed about the less than exemplary success of his units rocket batteries he replied that, “Even when they are on target their G0d shoves them away.” If this is amongst the reasons the Israel is to face the scorns of so many, then allow me to bare their scorn with pleasure, pride and faith that the L0rd is with Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp