Where Does BDS Anti-Israel Movement Get Funding?

 

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)Movement claims to be a grass roots institution simply out to make the world understand the cruelty and inhuman treatment the Israelis foist upon the Arabs and how Israel has its designs on stealing everything through the settlements grabbing up all the Arab lands. About the only thing they do not purport is that Israel is guilty of its seeking a ‘Greater Israel’ which is a reference to the lands granted to Abraham would include everything from the Euphrates River to the Nile River. That is just another libelous accusation made through twisting the words in Torah or some of the accompanying volumes of books of commentary on the Torah, Bible (Old Testament) and even volumes of books commenting on the commentary which in turn have books commenting on those commentaries. When your religion has been around for over three-thousand years you tend to gather a whole lot of commentaries and directives which certain subgroups within Judaism hold sacred and live by them some unbelievable strictly and others close enough. The one thing you are most certainly guaranteed is that any subject you wish to choose you will very likely find Jews in some commentary arguing for the proposed view you seek. Sometimes the position is one actually followed by some group of Jews and other times the person takes that unfavorable side simply to play devil’s advocate and provide challenges to another presumed wise person who abides by the opposing argument. So what we end up having are some commentaries made not as an argument or presumed hope of them being followed but being used as a tool to push some to complete their arguments and frame their discourse more succinctly and more accurately. When somebody comes to you and claims that the Talmud instructs the Jews to do something that sounds somewhat ridiculous or not at all Jewish from what you have observed, then it is most likely one of those Devil’s advocate arguments, which in itself is an odd way to argue when one considers that traditional Judaism does not believe in the Devil or fallen angels and Hell; but that will need to wait for another time when I have been taught Torah and some of those commentaries no matter how obscure.

 

The BDS movement and idea has really been in the news in Israel lately and for good reason. First we had the arch-terrorist Jibril Rajoub (a.k.a. Abu Rami) whose first position within Fatah was to organize and take part in activities in and around Hevron to the detriment of the Jews; this was presumably his responsibility in efforts to end the so-called occupation. In 1968 he was arrested for aiding Egyptian officers in making their way back to Egypt without being caught by the Israeli authorities for which he spent four months in prison. He was only sixteen at this time but still well on his way. While in prison he was influenced and joined Fatah which after serving his prison sentence he took up his assigned duties. In September of 1970 his future terror prospects looked very dim as he was caught and arrested for lobbing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron. Jibril Rajoub was tried and found guilty leading to his being sentenced to life in prison. Well, obviously he did not remain there as in 1985 he was part of a one-thousand-one-hundred-fifty prisoner release in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by the PFLP terror group. His colorful history had him arrested for minor offences, all things considered, and served additional time in prison before being expelled into Lebanon from where he found his way to Tunisia where he worked closely as an aid to the most infamous of the Arab arch-terrorists, Yasser Arafat. As part of the Oslo Accords he was granted a new lease on continuing his efforts to destroy Israel and this past week he played that position to the maximum. As the Palestinian Football Association President presiding over soccer teams he also took the opportunity at the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association or in English International Federation of Association Football) 65th annual Congress which met in Switzerland to announce his intentions to push for Israel to be unlisted and booted from the football world’s governing body which would have denied Israel the right to play in any FIFA tournament or to even play against FIFA teams. Such a ban would probably have mushroomed to other sports and made Israeli athletes persona non grata in the world of sports. Jibril Rajoub played his filing in the media like a trained professional instigator by his alternately claiming he would file the motion and then retract that statement only to deny he had detracted the statement and the world was all titillated watching every nuanced move orchestrated for maximum coverage, and boy did he get coverage. Some might ask what does an Arab Palestinian Authority official have to do with the BDS movement which is a grassroots organizations with no actual structure, simply they have supporters and volunteer organizers and activists which is why the BDS movement does not have official offices or accounts in any banks or financial institutions as there are no payrolls or anything nefarious like an international structure which coordinates the events and spends millions of dollars, Euros, Pounds or whatever currency of the realm is required. We will get to the connection, be patient please. The eventual end to the Jibril Rajoub staged a well-orchestrated routine where he did not file as he was aware from the very beginning that he would not have sufficient support to get Israel banned, but it did give some demonstrators the opportunity to burst into the meeting hall and throw red flags at the Israeli representatives and chant some call to boot Israel from soccer. These were presumably grassroots BDS supporters who just happened to all appear on the same day at the same time replete with red flags to throw at the Israeli delegation and so conveniently so as to garner more press coverage of the idea that Israel was subversive even to something as pure and good as soccer. Never mind the other woes FIFA is suffering right now as everybody knows that soccer is the one sport that united the world, well, apparently except for Israel? Well, not quite as Israel is still a member, a respected member of FIFA.

 

Right on the heels of the FIFA fiasco was the British National Union of Students (NUS) voting to boycott all things Israel including every Israeli company without regard to its location because the BDS movement is growing and realizing the reality that it is not the settlements alone that are the problem, it is the existence of Israel itself and that the Jewish State must be brought down and the Jews punished for existing at all, and to even strive and believe themselves worthy of a state of their own, how nineteenth century is that? They filed Motion 518a which was titled “Solidarity with Palestine: Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” which was tabled. The NUS was the same body which refused to take any measures to boycott or even denounce ISIS at their meetings last year but Israel needs to be brought low. The vote and everything about the BDS movement at the NUS conference was denounced and voided by the Universities UK which is the actual ruling body and has the sole power in areas such as the BDS protests and any divestments, sanctions or boycotts (did I get that all in the wrong order, shame on me for ignoring the BDS name). In a press release the Universities UK stated “firmly opposes academic boycotts on the basis that they are inimical to academic freedom, including the freedom of academics to collaborate with other academics.” They continued emphatically emphasizing “Given the reported perception in Israel that UK universities support an academic boycott. The board of Universities UK wishes to confirm its previously stated position that it is firmly opposed to any academic boycott of Israeli universities.” They added just to make sure everybody understands their position and displeasure with the NUS grandstanding and offensive behavior in this matter stating that, “The board also confirms its view that all universities must uphold, in the interests of free expression of ideas, the fundamental right of academics to question national and international policies.” That put that BDS effort to bed once and for all for this year, it will return next year.

 

Finally we had the little BDS confusion at Orange where their CEO Stephane Richard made comments after receiving pressures from BDS activists in Europe and especially from Egypt as well which cause Stephane Richard to panic and immediately turn to the usual European response when anti-Semites challenge their position on the ‘Jews and their little nation’ Stephane Richard simply agreed and denounced Israel claiming that Orange would break off their agreement with Partner Communications, the Orange affiliate in Israel, except that it would be costly due to potential lawsuits being filed in those unfriendly Israeli courts who would condemn Orange despite any evidences provided claiming they don’t really hate the Jews. For the week following the outspoken and base hatred expressed by Orange CEO Stephane Richard, we have now been serenaded as is Stephane Richard is planning in asking for Israel’s hand in marriage. We have heard what a lovely nation Israel is and how important our good relations are to Orange in general and CEO Stephane Richard in particular. The apology has been laid on like a thick, rich layer of whipped cream atop a luscious ice cream Sunday with three flavors of ice cream and rich chocolate and caramel heated nice and hot poured all over the top until it pooled at the bottom. We must all wonder if next week that Orange CEO Stephane Richard will be buying Israel a beautiful bouquet of roses or will it be an outlandish floral arrangement containing no less than one-hundred flowers, bouquet so large it will take their large truck to deliver the flowers. Actually, it would be best if everyone would stop with the hypocrisy and just let everything lie and it will pass. All the backtracking and false compliment and flattery is getting old and stale faster than they are delivered. A simple ‘We’re sorry but we panicked’ would have sufficed as the Israelis have seen worse than this and even in the past couple of weeks.

 

Now that we have taken a quick look-see of the BDS movements activities for the last couple of weeks one can realize that whoever is financing this effort worldwide has some very deep pockets. The reality is that the financers of these BDS efforts are constantly claiming to be out of money and being unable to pay their employees and if billions, if not trillions of Euros, dollars, Pounds Sterling, Pecos, Ruble, Wan or any other currency and denomination and need it immediately. The BDS movement used to have another name and was started in 1948 around May 14th oddly enough. The original system of boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israel was the Arab League boycott and Arab League blacklist. The boycott is obvious and the blacklist was a long list of companies which either used Israeli provided parts in their products or were otherwise entangled with Israeli interests. For quite a while the Arab League required that every shipment brought into their nations had to sign an affidavit stating that none of the products had Israeli parts and that their company had no relationship including selling to Israel. This eventually caused a problem as that would have meant that the Arab nations would not be able to buy most weapons systems, especially from the United States and many companies in Europe.

 

There was one particular article which revealed much about the BDS movement on Arutz Sheva titled Who is Really Behind BDS? We Can Cut Off BDS at the Spigot”. Here are a few of the more vital quotes which will fill in much of the debate about the BDS movement and after which I will attempt to give some additional information. Much of the article was items many of us realized and knew but the placing them all in a coherent and cognizant manner drew the big picture beautifully. I would advise that we all read the article itself at the link above as the author was quite complete as he traced the history and the current modus operandi of a terrorist organization using political means to further their financially based efforts to isolate Israel as well as politically and socially isolating Israel making even giving minimal support in some meaningless conversation to be an unforgivable sin and breach of polite behavior. What is sickening is how many Jewish groups are out there using very enticing and misleading names who almost exclusively back the BDS movement and are themselves working to destroy Israel. They use Lawfare which is using the courts to attack Israel and tie up any pro-Israel groups in the courts fighting against suits brought merely as nuisances but they are effective in forcing these groups supporting Israel spending inordinate amounts of time defending themselves from the attacks and thus not protecting Israel in the media and through other programs. This was the modus operandi of the IRS auditing an astounding number of conservative or libertarian groups during the year and a half before the 2012 elections thus preventing these groups from campaigning. Many of these groups were small Tea Party groups who made the mistake of calling themselves ‘Pleasant Valley Tea Party Association’ which got them immediate and in depth invasive IRS auditing and slowing requests for tax exempt status where the questions got to the point of being ludicrous, but they did prevent them from campaigning against President Obama, the same tactic appears to be used against many pro-Israel groups.

 

The article pointed out that “The Arab league spokesman confirmed that all data of the Arab League boycott and Arab League blacklist has now been transferred to BDS, working under the control of each PLO legation in more than 100 countries, under the supervision of the PLO Negotiations Department, which coordinates activities with the central offices of the Palestinian Authority.” This is one of the driving reasons that Mahmoud Abbas desires to become a recognized entity and thus allow the Arab Palestine Authority to open embassies and consulates in every nation and major city worldwide. This is important as the article points out the manner as to how the BDS movement is financed when they pointed out, “Since supervision of funds for Palestinian humanitarian services in the PA or UNRWA hardly exists, and since more than one nation provides cash for each of the Palestinian humanitarian services, that means that a cash surplus exists which PA can allocate for BDS activists to finance their operations.” This allows the Arab Palestinian Authority to distribute cash funds to their BDS organizers, instigators, activists and also pay for the establishment of on campus BDS groups who keep up the defamation of Israel year round and often make life on campus for anybody outwardly Jewish to become a living nightmare as they are heckled and hassled everywhere they go on campus and in some instances the harassment reached the point of violence against the Jews much like when the Jews were removed and disallowed from holding teaching positions or attending universities in the late 1930s in Germany.

 

There are two related statements about the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) not ratifying the OSLO Accords and thus being free to act in any manner they wished and not be in violation of the Oslo Accords as they had never ratified the treaty. It was the PLO and Yasser Arafat’s way of crossing his fingers so he could say anything without actually completing the deal and complying with the agreements. The first points out how the public have never been informed of this treachery and deceit despite their once being well known but now not referenced or taught and thus forgotten by most the first commentary pointed out that even a far leftist organization and media outlet found this behavior reprehensible. The article states, “Only three weeks after the Oslo Accords were initialed on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, pending ratification by both sides, a prominent left wing journalist, Pinchas Inbari, reporting for the Mapam (Meretz) newspaper Al Hamishmar from the PLO headquarters in Tunis, reported that PLO leader Yassir Arafat announced that on the day of the scheduled PLO ratification, October 6, 1993, the PLO leader could not or would not convene the necessary quorum for ratification. As a result, the Oslo Accords have gone unratified to this day.” The point that the people were never really made aware of the perfidy committed by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, his second in command, as they point out that, “What has escaped public attention is that the PLO never ratified the ‘declaration of principles’, the most fundamental document of the Israel-Palestinian Oslo Accords, nor did the PLO ever cancel its charter to destroy Israel, which was another major clause in that accord.” The basic truth is that for the entire time since September of 1993 when the Oslo Accords were formally put in place, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the executive council of the PLO and thus of the newly established Palestinian Authority (PA or as we refer to them because they are no different than the Arabs residing or fleeing Syria as well as the Arabs of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, the Arab Palestinian Authority) were recognized of representing an organization which did not actually exist as the Oslo Accords were never signed by the Arab side. The Western nations went along with this facade because the alternative was too horrible for them to even consider, support the Jews and Israel in retaining all the lands promised them by treaty that the Europeans and United States as well as the League of Nations and subsequently the United Nations such that the treaties which affect the defined borders of Israel are the actual International Laws thus everything else is some weird manifestation of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionism. The BDS financial system is known fully well by the Western nations and the Arab nations as they both pour trillions of Euros, dollars, however you wish to measure the financial cesspool the Arab Palestinian Authority and related groups such as Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO, PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), and numerous other groups and families all benefit from this inflow on monies as long as they are sufficiently high enough in the pecking order that they are trusted to use at least a pittance of the cash allotted you to spend on the betterment of the Arab suffering if it is not too much of a problem.

 

The reality is that much of the monies sent to the Arab Palestinian organizations is siphoned off for use in the multi-billion dollar BDS organizational leaders, activists, organizers, and antagonists who all need funding in order to achieve their assigned goals. The full time BDS representatives and leadership that exist on almost every campus and in every city where there exists an Arab Palestinian consulate, embassy, or simply an office, they become the cash delivery resource who are sent probably funding in the millions if not more to finance the BDS movement activities in their assigned region. Such items as fees for using a park grounds for a demonstration, the signs, banners and other items do not simply appear out of the thin air, the microphones, bullhorns, whistles, speakers, tables, literature and everything else which goes into a successful week long demonstration on a university or college campus. These Arab Palestinian Authority outlets, be they embassies, consulates or merely offices and in some cases a completely underground operation, all are used as the pipelines to the BDS main middle managing organizers, publicists, media contact point people, marshals, and such cannot afford to fly to Ramallah every month for their allowance as that just might draw some international attention, though maybe I am giving the world too much credit as the world often appears to be capable of not seeing any of the thousands of rockets fired into Israel at civilian targets and only see the Israeli response and demand Israel stop its aggressions while saying nothing about the rockets, ambush tunnels and expanding use of young children as makeshift bullet proof vests. One has to grant that having a four year old screaming while strapped to one’s chest during a firefight is beyond the cusp and right into the deep recesses of evil insanity which permits such irreverence for life. Meanwhile we have the PLO organized, Fatah manned and Arab Palestinian Authority (PA) financed BDS movement which is simply an extension of the original Arab boycott and blacklist of companies ‘contaminated’ by Israeli exposure. The BDS movement is the PLO terrorist group’s attempt to take their economic war against Israel worldwide and as we have seen in these quotes and these actions that the BDS movement pushes a complete isolation of Israel in all venues including goods and services, music performances, academics, speeches by Israel supporters must be forced to cancel and finally politically isolated until Israel has been diminished and dies a natural death as any living, breathing, compassionate human entity would if left in complete isolation not permitted any interaction and starved of life’s necessities.

 

Fortunately there are sufficient numbers of leaders and strong willed people that are fighting the BDS syndrome by simply acting and being humane and human. Israelis and their government are finally wakening to the damage caused by the BDS movement and other related groups and hopefully there are those who can at least dry up much of the Western monies from financing BDS forcing the dictatorial rulers in the Middle East to pay for all of the BDS. But this fight is far more than just the BDS movement or even the government financed groups which excoriate Israel ranting about the worst treatment or how the Israelis treat the people held hostage and starved in Gaza. Let’s use this as the example. Gaza received two thirds of their electricity and all their drinking water from Israel and Israeli companies are not paid by the Arab Palestinians or their governing representatives. That is but the tip of the situation. Any nations wishing to provide goods for Gaza may do so as long as there are no dual use items or actual weapons included in their shipment and the Israelis will deliver every ounce of it into Gaza for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO or the PA to distribute. Additionally, Israel provides tens of truckloads of food, medical supplies and other items daily even including every single day of last summer’s military operations in Gaza as nothing stops these transfers as the Israelis have no desire to have the people of Gaza suffer in any manner. Unfortunately for the residents of Gaza the same cannot be said for their governing entities. Often Israel had sent the trucks with food which is perishable if not taken and stored properly with some degree of immediacy. These truckloads were simply left in the sun to rot by the rulers in Gaza just so there would be an emergency and food shortage for visiting United Nations, European Union or whoever was scheduled to tour Gaza. Often during these inspections or visits the power lines from Israel are disconnected and once the parliament in Gaza covered their windows with blackout blankets and had photographers take pictures of their meeting in the darkness so they should have stories written about how the Israelis refused to provide sufficient electricity and they are forced to work in complete darkness. The blankets did not quite completely cover the windows and the bright sunlight outside could be seen in many of the pictures, but still there was an international hue and cry demanding that Israel fulfill their obligation to provide the electricity that the government in Gaza had paid for, despite their never having paid one single Agorot, let alone Shekels.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Crystallization and Realization of the Unavoidable Truth

 

Despite my having found much of what I had heard and understood of the teachings of Rabbi Meir David Kahane, as minor as my knowledge back then had been, I was still foolish enough to believe that the Arabs, even Yasser Arafat, had tired of the violence and hatreds making them as ready and willing to make peace as Israel had been for years, decades, millennia. The one truth which is rarely spoken of but is the truthful essence of what constitutes the core of Jewish belief as it matured through the ages and had been its core truth from before the Greek conquest of the Holy Lands and even before the area where these lands were renamed the Holy Lands, the Jews main desire was to be permitted to live freely under our own governance in the lands promised us as written in Torah, the Five Books of Moses. We never desired empire or conquest of the world or anything like such, even the claims that the Jews want to establish a Greater Israel stretching from the Tigress and Euphrates in Iraq to the Nile in Egypt. If there were such a concept of a greater Israel, it would include the lands as described in the division of the lands on either side of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and today even just between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. But then there is the presumed problem of the Arab Palestinian’s supposed rightful claim to some part or the whole of the same lands. Truth be told, the Arabs have no real desire to form another Arab nation of Palestine as they simply desire to erase Israel and rid the world of the Jews.

 

That is partially why I find Hamas and even ISIS as more honorable than Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas and all the world’s claimants and presumed supporters of the “Two State Solution” because Hamas and ISIS make neither excuses nor obstructions of their desires. Both state outright that they desire a world with their form of Islam ruling supreme with all the Jews exterminated and only true (by their definition) followers who have dedicated and surrendered themselves before Allah. What makes these two groups so interesting, or at least peculiarly somewhat fascinating is that Hamas would probably demand all ISIS members swear allegiance to Hamas leadership and ISIS has already declared their intention of destroying Hamas replacing them and all others operating in Gaza with ISIS and a purification of the ranks of these entities and terror groups before admitting any of them into ISIS. The fact that both Hamas and ISIS have declared their intentions as being global conquest and the eradication of all who are not steadfast in their beliefs of their version of Sunni Islam starting with the eradication of the Jews worldwide make dealing with them clear in what position should be taken by anybody not already a member or considering membership in either Hamas or ISIS. Both Hamas and ISIS must be prevented from ever even approaching their goals, though there are those in the United Nations and Europe who believe they can reach an accord with Hamas at least as far as the Jews and especially Israel are concerned, and these individuals and groups fully understand exactly what accepting Hamas would mean.

 

While many years ago I believed the beautiful idea of peace between the Arabs and the Jews and Israel was potentially achievable if only a satisfactory settlement could be attained, slowly but inexorably the reality and truth became more and more clear and this process has reached its conclusion as far as the Arabs, as represented through the ruse of the Palestinians as a people in search of their homelands being restored or established, were concerned and have pretty much solidified on the desires of much of the rest of the world, especially those who are in control of the positions of power around the world. The Arab position is exactly the same as it was in and before 1948 ever since there appeared to be any glint of an idea for a Jewish State on the Jews ancient homelands, the destruction of the Jews and any remnant or idea of their having a state anywhere on planet Earth or the accompanying solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, the Milky Way-Andromeda Galactic neighborhood or the all-encompassing universe and any reality within which that universe may exist and beyond. I doubt that is in any way an exaggeration but potentially merely an approximation of the true intentions of the Arabs, particularly those represented by the ruse of the Palestinian People, a people who never have and still do not exist except as a ploy for destroying Israel and eventually the Jewish People. With this established, where does this leave things both generally and particularly?

 

It leaves Israel to wrestle with this idea that the only division of the land which any Arab known by their false identity of Palestinian is willing to accept according to their leadership and increasingly their people who have been fed a steady and unending flood of indoctrination to hatred of Israel and the Jewish People and anyone else, even the Muslims, residing within Israeli peaceably. The general Arab population in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) usually have little if any opinion concerning Israel, especially as of late with so many other threats from within their own societies spreading violence, death and other horrors throughout MENA putting their lives and everything else in great peril. When polled on their feelings towards Israel or the Jews they will often resort to stating the repeated aims of the dictatorial, monarchial or theocratic leaders have pounded home about the threat the Jews and Israel pose and the need to eliminate both Israel and the Jews universally. The recent polling of the Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria responded to the question of what would be an acceptable and fair peace with Israel by a majority choosing the eradication of Israel replacing it in total with Palestine. Should such a poll be issued from Gaza many experts believe the outcome would be even more extreme thus leaving little doubt that the Arab Palestinian population desires an end to Israel replacing it with Palestine. The interesting point found that the younger the polled person the more they supported the destruction of Israel replacing it with Palestine and annihilating every last Jews in Israel. This was credited to the indoctrination of the media and school curriculum. The truth is that the only acceptable solution to the Arab/Israeli Peace Process for the majority of Arab Palestinians and an excessive majority of those Arab Palestinians under the age of thirty is the eradication of Israel and the Jews replacing both with an Arab Islamic state of Palestine. Such leaves very little room for debate or negotiations.

 

Another truth which can be gleaned from the polling data is that Mahmoud Abbas cannot, and apparently will not, accept any peace deal which does not meet the maximalist demands of the Arab side as a minimal acceptable agreement. Needless to point out that Israel cannot accept such a proposition as doing so would be suicide by another terminology. This became obvious back in 2000 when Yasser Arafat was blind-sided when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak who succumbed to a desperate United States President Bill Clinton who pressured the Israeli Prime Minister Barak to meet all of Yasser Arafat’s demands. The demands in question were part of Yasser Arafat’s best offer which had been slowly and painstakingly extracted by a persistent President Bill Clinton over weeks upon weeks until finally reaching what was presumed to be a historic effort culminating in an actual peace agreement and Nobel Peace Prizes all around. One might further assume that there was an even more enticing offer made from Taba, Egypt where President Clinton and Prime Minister Barak flew after Arafat strode purposely to his waiting vehicle which took him to his standing jet warmed and ready for flight back to Jordan presumably closing off and possibility for a deal. President Clinton was not going to give up on receiving his unprecedented second Nobel Peace Prize so easily, even should such an attempt spell potential eradication of the State of Israel. These deliberations continued with no further offers honestly being reviewed, let alone being accepted until President Clinton was to leave office in early 2001 and Prime Minister Barak had to start his unsuccessful campaign which he lost to Prime Minister Sharon.

 

The demands of the Arab Palestinians have also become far more dire with every attempt to negotiate a peace accord. The cycle has been repeated so many times since the 1993 Oslo Accords that none of the original intent remains. Viability has been replaced with simply erecting a framework from which peace might be discussed. Every single statement has been carefully scrutinized and nit-picked to such a point that the original intended meaning has become lost in a tangle of modifying verbiage. Mahmoud Abbas has set so many preconditions demanded just for the two sides to sit at the table for a brief photo-shoot so the press can be used to depict progress. There has been no progress nor can there be progress. The only potentials for solving the impasse would require honest brokers from all sides, such a point that simply finding such people has taken on a life of its own. Mahmoud Abbas has been left with demanding the impossible as conditions to facilitate meeting and the world’s public barely flinched when reports made it certain that the demands to meet and renew discussions included Israel packing in all of the cities and their suburbs, towns, factories, commercial spaces, shopping malls and housing for an estimated eight-hundred-thousand to one-million Israelis and relocating the entirety of the population and necessary equipment and other items necessary to rebuild and resettle these soon to be made Israeli refugees within the Green Line. This precondition would have been considered a maximalist and completely untenable final solution, let alone initial concession from which further negotiations and potential Israeli sacrifices be made additionally. There have been some talk that all of Jerusalem be turned over to a neutral party such as the Vatican to run the institutions and provide the citizens who live within the greater Jerusalem area protection and freedom of travel while also accommodating those who wished to visit or who worked in Jerusalem. An even more radical solution offered in order to keep Jerusalem undivided the entirety including western suburbs be made the capital of the Arab state of Palestine and Israel would be forced to remove their embassy. All the problems even arranging a sit down and talk should render any realistic hopes for a solution within any time period after which the European Union, NATO or the United Nations would be to impose their concept of a final solution has become the new default position, a position neither party is comfortable with. So, where does this leave the peace process?

 

This is where the rest of the world gets involved and everything gets impossible to explain in one simple posting. Much of our time here has been discussing different aspects, angles, intents and deceits from both sides and each of us have formed our own opinions. By this time we must all have realized that there can be no solution to the situation in its current form. This is where the rest of the world enters the picture. The problem with this is there exists an ugly truth about much of the world; they would like to undo their treaties and conferences by which Israel came into existence. The reason for establishing the state of Israel was largely so the European nations and powers could rid themselves of this subculture which, though loyal citizens, they were apart from the rest of your countrymen and as such caused much turmoil and strife. If one had been truthful back in the time period from the mid-1800s through to the end of World War I they would have admitted that much of the problem with their Jewish population was caused by their very own citizens seeking some place to place their blames for every calamity and this was traditionally the Jews. This was evident during the years of the plague and during every economic crisis and also during wars. No matter what extremes the Jews went to so as to harmonize and fit into the many societies there was one thing which they could not change which made them different and that problem was their Jewishness. Most of these nations were Catholic such as France, Spain and Italy while others were different forms of Protestant such as Germany and the Lutherans, England and the Church of England, the Greeks were Greek Orthodox, the Russians and Russian Orthodox, and so on with one reality being obvious in its absence, there was no state for the Jews and they were always those different people with their different culture. These Jews even ate food prepared differently and would not eat the same foods such as roast pork. The Jews were a problem for those ruling as they never could completely assimilate for as long as they remained Jews.

 

It was a noble idea to return the Jews to their ancestral lands after near two-thousand years. The collapse and defeat of the Ottoman Empire made the returning of the Jews to their ancestral lands become viable and was written into a number of the treaties, conferences and other documents binding most of the world into establishing the nation of Israel. Now the race appears to be to correct some mistake and return the Jewish People to being outcasts and always those others in every community. Even taking this route presents a problem; a very large problem in that roughly half of the Israeli population resulted from numerous pogroms and other persecutions and expulsions resulting in their ending their travels, trials and tribulations by settling in the one nation where they were welcome. Many of these refugees numbering over eight-hundred-thousand, which is far more than the estimated six-hundred-fifty-thousands of Arab refugees, many who fled Israel from Israel to facilitate the easier slaughter of those remaining behind as the combined and impressive armies of seven Arab nations, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon as well as several militias and the Air Forces from each nation against Israel and a few intrepid volunteers who somehow managed the miracle and held their ground and even made series of gains on virtually every front.

 

The question now is how will these nations treat the Jews now that they have their own nation? The answer to that question is readily available by checking their ratings concerning how they treat any Jewish citizens of their own and how do they treat Israel? There has been considerable recent studies on anti-Semitism and how it is increasing throughout much of the world with it being rampant in the MENA area of the world. What was interesting in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was that the location in which one lives has more in determining the tendencies for people holding anti-Semitic feelings. In the ADL survey they tracked the religion of the respondents and in every case by continental regions the Christian and the Muslim rates tracked similar rises in MENA and increasing rates in Europe and lower rates in the Americas and other areas sampled. Europe has been showing a rampant rise in anti-Semitism and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has made gains in unions and across college campuses and even NGOs and governments in Europe. There are the early signs of a coming similar rise in the United States. Results and interactive tools are available at the ADL Survey Results Global Anti-Semitism which grants a good and interesting means of gaining information by regions, nations and other more typical survey informational breakdown such as by age, educational level, religion and others. One can get carried away as there is sufficient information at the site that I may have to spend some additional time there checking out some things of interest. The one unfortunate result from the exhaustive ADL Anti-Semitism Study was the rate of increase it made evident and the levels of hate and ignorance about Jews and how the two items are almost directly linked.

 

This rise in anti-Semitism is celebrated largely through hatred and double standards used against Israel. Both anti-Israel and anti-Zionism are the new faces of anti-Semitism. There is an easy way to tell if somebody’s commentary and critique of Israel or Zionism is actually masked anti-Semitism. This method is often referred to as the 3D Test of anti-Semitism is a means testing for determining if some criticism is actually masked anti-Semitism or legitimate criticism of Israel. The three Ds stand for Delegitimization, Demonization and use of Double Standards. Let’s define each term for easy recognition. Delegitimization would consist of arguments which tend to claim that Israel has no right to exist or should not be permitted to be the Jewish state. Claims that the Jews should not be permitted a state of their own are definitive anti-Semitism as you are making the Jews the sole peoples on the planet who should not be permitted their own country. That is also part of the teachings which claim that the Jews are a cursed people forsaken by G0d and as such have been condemned to always live as strangers subject to the treatment and will of the rest of the world as the Jew is somehow less human due to their being cursed. To make such comparisons easy just substitute Japanese, English, French, Chinese or any other group or nationality for Israel and if it sounds like hate, then it is probably hate and thus anti-Semitism. Demonization is a severe form of the last set of examples but usually goes deeper. Demonization will often be found when Israel is held up as the new Nazis or as genocidal monsters. The easiest way to recognize Demonization is to be well familiarized with the truth and simply measure if the person is falsely accusing Israel of the most heinous of acts and criminal activity. The Israel is a genocidal murdering nation that is ethnically cleansing the Arab Palestinians. As the population numbers continue to rise and there are no mass graves of Palestinians such accusations are totally false and an attempt to cast Israel, and the Jews, of blood libels of murdering people. The oldest of the blood libels is that Jews kill children (from whichever group you are attempting to provoke hatred for Jews or Israel) to use their blood in baking their ‘special holy matzoth.’ This has been a regular cartoon shown in the Arab Palestinian areas in Judea and Samaria by the Palestinian Authority often also broadcast on their television broadcast station. The last is the Double Standard which should be self-explanatory. People claim that Israelis are not being killed by the rockets and mortars while the Arabs have far greater casualty numbers so Israel is using disproportional force is one such form of a Double Standard as every nation in wars uses all the forces they can bring to bear. Actually, the main disproportional force Israel uses is to prevent any casualties of their civilians by investing and producing some of the most proficient anti-rocket, mortar and artillery in the world called the Iron Dome. Israel has extremely effective interception systems for larger rockets such as scuds and also for ballistic missiles which Israel attempts to strike while they are rising from the launcher and before it starts reentry towards its target. On the other side, Hamas and Islamic Jihad actually do everything humanly possible to increase the numbers of civilians killed in any conflict they start. Hamas uses children as bullet proof vests, they drape them around the cars of their high ranking people to prevent any strikes upon them, they place their rockets and most important operatives underground in bunkers with their command and control bunker built underneath the largest hospital in Gaza while they do not permit any civilians to use their extensive tunnel and bunker systems for their safety and Hamas has been caught simply removing the equipment such as any identifying insignia, their rifle and other military items and then claim the person shot and killed by the IDF, and for this person there is video in which the weapon and other similar items have been removed or blurred beyond recognition. There were close to or possibly over a hundred such attempts to list known terrorists as civilians so this is a common problem. As an Israeli politician, possibly Bibi, stated, “We (Israel) use our rockets to protect and save our people while Hamas (Islamic Jihad and company) use their people to protect their rockets.” One cannot say it more plainly than that. What is the major unavoidable truth that has crystallized and become a realization that Israel will now be the target of the haters and anti-Semites of the world as well as a whole new band of people who will believe that their insane preoccupation with Israeli evil deeds are not hateful of Jews or Israel, they are just amongst the few with clear sight. There is a tip off line when anyone in any argument which is against any grouping of people claims, if you only knew them as I know them, then you too would believe as I do. Of course that is nonsense, but take it for the very dangerous nonsense that it is and steer far from those claiming such as it is usually the argument of those with no real facts to back their hatreds, something the vast number of anti-Semites also suffer from, bad data making for bad arguments. The last hint you have found a rare breed of anti-Semite, if the subject is Israel, Zionists or Jews, and just hater is when they resort to shouting slogans at you refusing to permit intelligent conversation.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Actual True Reason Behind the Palestinian Israeli Conflict

The going misdirection of the reasons for the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis revolves on the Jewish Zionists swarmed from Europe with the assistance of Britain and the World and stole the land which made up the Palestinian State of Palestine and are trying to build this murderous and genocidal concept and country of Israel, the Jewish State. The entire situation and violence could be resolved if only those Jews in Israel would allow the Palestinians to reconstruct their beloved Palestine within the borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War. This article is not about whether or not there ever existed a Palestinian State by any name or notation, nor is it about the actual acts of terrorism, the rocket attacks, the suicide bombings, the strikes by a vastly more powerful IDF in presumable retaliatory manner; this is intended to explain exactly what the actual crux of the belligerence and hostilities on each side is all about.

Let us look first at the Palestinian perspectives of what the conflict is all about. The claims made by the Palestinians can often be traced back to be found to be imitations of Jewish ideals and ideas which can be traced back to long before there was even a hint of a conflict with some dating back to before any of the Arabs of those periods had even begun to reside in what is today the regions around Israel. The Palestinians actions over the years going back even before 1948, or even before 1900, belie the argument that all they wish is to have a State of their own. In November of 1947 the United Nations passed a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly proposing a fifty-fifty split in the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea to be shared by a Jewish and an Arab State with much of the Jewish State consisting of the Negev Desert while the fertile Galilee to be part of the Arab State. At this point the term Palestinian was used to denote the Jewish settlers while the Arabs were referred to as either Palestinian Arabs or simply Arabs with both terms referring to those living in what remained of the British Mandate Lands after the British tore off 78% of the Mandate Lands to form an Arab Palestinian State of Transjordan, today called simply Jordan. This offer was refused by the Arab League and also by virtually every Muslim State as they claimed they would never recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish State. It was not the size of the Palestinian State or whether such a State would be attached to Jordan or be independent or anything concerning or referring to the proposed Arab State, the entire rejection was that there be any piece of lands reserved for non-Muslims that were not to be ruled by Muslims, and especially not a Jewish State as that was the most grievous insult one could force upon the Arab Muslims.

This led to what the Israelis refer to as their war for independence but was actually a war brought against the nascent State of Israel with the expressed intent to slaughter every single Jew residing on Muslim claimed lands. When the violence was finally brought to an end through United Nations actions, Israel had actually not only survived, but had actually managed to hold far more land than was originally set aside for them by the General Assembly resolution. The minute the Arab States and representatives rejected the General Assembly Resolution and declared a war of annihilation on the State of Israel, the resolution was thus invalidated and no longer held any weight as it takes full voluntary compliance by both sides for any General Assembly resolution to become validated and thereby become enforceable. Once the ceasefire lines had been established the situation left Israel as defined today as within the Green Line or the 67 Borders and left the Golan Heights under Syrian control, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) under Jordanian control, and Gaza under Egyptian control. With these lands left under Arab Muslim control, the Arab nations holding them could have turned them over to form the presumably so desperately desired Palestinian State but such an idea was never even proposed or mentioned for as long as the lands were under Muslim control, everything was as Allah would wish it to be. What was against the will of Allah was that the Jews still had possession of lands that should have belonged to Muslims as they had once been occupied by Muslims and no land where Muslims have ever had ruling authority can be allowed to be under anyone’s control other than Muslim, this is Allah’s will.

This situation with the Syrian occupying the Golan Heights, Egypt occupying Gaza, and Jordan occupying Judea and Samaria (West Bank) continued until the 1967 Six Day War where Israel was initially attacked by Egypt through the actions of massing an invasion force on the Israeli southern border and their closing of the Straights of Tiran to all Israeli shipping, an act which had been declared as a sufficient Casus Belli for war between Israel and Egypt. Egypt was allied with Syria which had also massed an invasion force on the Golan Height threatening the Israeli northern border. Subsequently, after hearing the Egyptian and Syrian flowing glorious victories they were experiencing and how they were routing the Israeli Defense Forces, Jordan stated their intentions to join in on the perceived route and decimation of the Jewish State. Israeli leaders attempted to persuade the King of Jordan not to enter the war and that the reports he was relying on out of Syria and Egypt were falsification and in reality the Israelis were prevailing on all fronts. Needless to point out, Jordan refused to believe what they were sure were Israeli lies and propaganda and they too declared war on Israel. As history tells, the Israelis retook the Golan Heights and were well on their way to Damascus, taken all of Judea and Samaria stopping at the Jordan River, and not only retaken Gaza but also the entire Sinai Peninsula right up to the Suez Canal. It was at this point that the thought and proposed Palestinian State was born as the lands in question had fallen from Muslim control. This is where many believe that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) came into being; not so.

Feel free to research this yourself, but Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas together with the aid of the Russian KGB established the PLO presenting their Charter on May 28, 1964. The PLO was founded on the proposition that Jihad was the way to remove the Jews from all of Palestine. Yasser Arafat was explicitly referring to all of Israel as he often explicitly indicating while speaking in Arabic including such cities as Tel Aviv, Acco (Acre), Tiberius, Beersheba, and other within the pre-1967 Green Line Borders. It was after the 1967 Six Day War, over three full years after the founding of the PLO, that Yasser Arafat began his new avenue where in English he spoke of peace and the return of the Palestinian people to their sacred and historic homeland and talked of their “Right of Return” and copied virtually every single discussion point that had been used by the Jewish Zionists since the mid nineteenth century while speaking to the Arab audiences in Arabic claiming their right to take all of Israel, the genocidal annihilation of all the Jews of Israel, the riches that would become theirs once they were reclaimed from the accursed Jews, and other calls of war, violence, and terror. The PLO Charter still retains the call for the elimination of the Jewish State, of Israel which was supposedly had been removed to comply with the Oslo Accords but was never actually implemented though discussed at a few occasions when Western observers were present.

As the fight to destroy the Zionist State did not exactly proceed with any great signs of success, other terrorist entities with a different reason d’etre came into being with all pointing to the elimination of Israel as their driving impetus. Where the PLO was mostly a secular nationalist in their origins, many of these new terror groups applied the word Jihad very literally as they were religious in their basis. One of the better recognized of these entities was the spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood, largely out of Egypt, is Hamas with other similar religiously oriented terror outfits being Islamic Jihad, PRC (Popular Resistance Committees), PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), al-Qaeda in Gaza, and even some smaller Salafists. Despite of these groups rhetoric about their desire and longing for the establishment of a Palestinian State, their actions belie that claim. The simple fact is that every offer for statehood presented has not been sufficiently generous as they refuse to accept anything other than the complete surrender, capitulation and end of Israel. Even when Yasser Arafat was granted a generous offer that met virtually every one of the demands he had presented in Paris, instead of offering a counter offer he simply stormed from the negotiations denouncing the entire procedure never to return to negotiations. Numerous times when refusal of Israeli offers would have cost the Palestinians their standing and legitimacy in the eyes of Europe and the United States thus threatening their monetary lifeline, whoever was negotiating demanded the one item which Israel cannot permit, the Right of Return for over five million Palestinians. The entire reason behind the Palestinian refugee situation is the nurturing of a poison pill which if ever forced upon the Israelis will spell the end of Israel as the Jewish State. The resultant influx of the many millions of Palestinian Arabs would give the Arab population of Israel a majority allowing them to turn Israel into just one more Muslim State and once they took control of the government via the ballot box, the elimination of the now Jewish minority could proceed. The one last item that proves the lack of desire for their own State is the often stated intention by Palestinian leaders that should they ever actually liberate all of Palestine, including replacing all of Israel by said State, they would immediately petition Jordan to unify the two States into the real and true Palestinian State.

So, what are the Israeli desires which most definitely are a part of the conflict, but not for the reasons many believe. Israel is often accused of wishing to build a super state often referred to as Greater Israel. This supposed ideal state would reach from the Euphrates River in Iraq to the Nile River in Egypt. The origins of this claim are taken from some verses in the Bible but never has any Israeli claimed the desire to establish this Greater Israeli State. The Israelis holding the most expansive dimensions for the Israeli borders actually derive from a promise given to the Jewish Zionists by none other than Winston Churchill in the 1920s. Upon the dividing the British Mandate Lands into the Arab State of Transjordan (now Jordan) which consumed 78% of the Mandate Lands taking all of the lands east of the Jordan River, the British promised the Zionist Jewish society that the remaining 22% of the lands, all of the area west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea would remain forever undivided and the Jewish Home State of Israel would be built on every inch of these remaining areas of the Mandate. Obviously, the world has conveniently reneged on this promise. Israel has even granted that they would settle for less than every inch of the lands west of the Jordan, something the Arabs refuse to allow in their claims, and proven such by completely removing every single Jewish settler, soldier, policeman, and all down to the last Jewish person and gave these lands to the Palestinian Authority.

The whole of Gaza was then under Palestinian Authority control while in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the area was divided into three sectors, Area A which was under complete Palestinian control and where over three quarters of the Palestinian peoples live, Area B which is under Palestinian governmental control with joint military and security shared between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and Area C which is under complete Israeli control and where over 90% of the Jewish Settlers reside. This was the situation for close to two years until there was an election which was partially arranged and forced on both the Israelis and Palestinian Authority. At the insistence of United States President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hamas was to be allowed to front candidates for office in the elections for the new Parliament. Israel loudly decried this as being very poor judgment and a guaranteed venue to disaster while the Palestinian Authority also expressed severe misgivings in allowing Hamas to be included in the election of January 2006. In the usual arrogance of the United States and its leadership’s over-confident reliance on democracy as the panacea to all political problems, they pressed and forced the inclusion of Hamas to post candidates assuring all that given a choice there was absolutely no possibility for Hamas as a terrorist group to win in fair and open elections. Well, that was not quite the result as the elections resulted in a sizeable Hamas electoral victory as the Palestinians were completely done with the known corrupt governance of the current Palestinian Authority as well as being unsatisfied with what they perceived as an insufficient dedication of the previous Palestinian Authority in eradicating the Jewish State and establishing the free State of Palestine and voted demanding that Hamas live up to their promises to be more vigorous in restoring Palestine and inflicting terror on the Israeli population. Mahmoud Abbas soon dissolved the Parliament which was followed by a coup by Hamas leading to their taking control in Gaza in June 2007. When it became obvious after the Hamas takeover that they were smuggling in weapons and had begun to fire rockets over the border from Gaza into Israel, Israel imposed an embargo over all seaborne traffic into Gaza in order to inspect their cargoes for weapons or items of dual use. The Gaza embargo did not go into effect the moment Israel had surrendered all of Gaza in the disengagement of Gaza in august of 2005 but rather it was imposed after the Hamas takeover almost two years later.

Israel does have some red lines beyond which they are unwilling to compromise. One such is the Old City of Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount, the Kotel (Western Wall and Plaza) and the largest of the Jerusalem suburbs which hold the largest of the Israeli settlements. Israel cannot retreat from the Golan Heights as to allow Syria to station sharpshooters on the Golan Heights and have them shoot at Israeli farmers working their fields, shooting the livestock and generally making life for Israelis impossible in much of the Galilee Valley, and that includes both the Jewish, Arab, and others as at the distance these snipers engage their targets, there is no concern or ability to discern any difference between targets. Israel would not likely give up control of the Sea of Galilee as would wish to retain bases of the IDF along the Jordan Valley in order to allow for an early warning systems be in place to detect any threats coming from the east, especially aircraft or rockets. All of these items meet the United Nations recommendations which allow for Israel to not necessarily pull all the way out of areas beyond the Green Line but rather retain those geographical locations which would prove necessary for secure borders. Israel is tasked only with not interfering with any non-Jews practice of their religions, not necessarily allowing them automatic citizenship, another erroneous expectation the world has attempted to make a vital and necessary part of any agreements. Allowing such is no more feasible than would be the Right of Return and for exactly the same reason. Israelis mostly desire peace and if a total, complete and permanent peace with their neighbors could magically be produced, Israel would likely be generous in what they would sacrifice in order to attain such. But as long as the only peace offered to Israel by her neighbors is the peace of Dhimmitude, then that is a peace they cannot accept. The proof of this could easily be verified provided it could be arranged for the rockets and mortars to stop, the bombs to never again be planted along IDF patrolling routes, the end to suicide, car or any other form of bombings from Israeli centers or gatherings, and end to bullets and anti-tank missiles targeting vehicles and individuals from out of Gaza, then we would just need to wait and see if Israel also ceased all violence. My bet is that not only would Israel end all strikes but that as time passed and peace remained the rule, the embargo would be lifted over time one stage at a time. If somebody could get all the factions in Gaza to agree I am sure there are many Israelis who would push for Israeli compliance with this new norm and such would come with great glee and even anticipation of even better relations.

Beyond the Cusp