With Trump Comes Stark Reality

 

Already this last year of the Presidency of Barack Obama there has been a dozen terrorist attacks which have been verified as such. In one mere twelve hour stretch in September the American people found out it may not be safe to go shopping in a mall in Minnesota, go running a five kilometer not so fun run in New Jersey or walk window-shopping on the streets of New York City without risk of terrorism striking and potentially injuring or taking one’s most precious life. The United States has faced car bombings, remote detonated bombings, suicide bombings and shooting sprees where the attacker was only stopped when shot dead by an armed citizen or law enforcement officer. All of these terrorist styled attacks were first perfected against Israel where initially they received minimal notice by the Western World media as it was just Israel. Often any reporting on such terror attacks in Israel were covered in such a manner that it appeared as if the Israelis had shot the terrorist who then retaliated with his bombing, shooting or whatever attack as the title was often Palestinian shot by Israeli Defense Force or Palestinian Killed by Israeli Police or other misleading phrasing. As such attacks spread to Europe and across other Middle East and North African Arab nations where their Christian, Kurdish, Hindu or Buddhist minorities were often the targets with some attacks were Sunni-Shia violence and these made the reporting even in Israel more accurate. Now that attacks have spread to the United States the reporting has become stark noted by the insistence after each attack initially the authorities deny any possible tie to terrorism and warning against jumping to any conclusions that Muslims were at all involved in the attacks. Eventually the reality brakes through and the terrorist ties were obvious to the most casual of observers from the start and are finally admitted.

 

The lag time between attacks being perpetrated in Israel and their coming to the United States has thus far been measured in years if not decades granting Americans a reprieve from the more recent types of attacks used in Israel. Apparently this lag time has been shortened considerably with the terror attack at Ohio State University. The car ramming and following stabbing spree until shot by law enforcement officer November 28th brought that lag time down to the slimmest of measure as such are only the most recent of attacks even in Israel. This is not good news for Americans as there are no safe spaces from car rammings and stabbing attacks making everyone almost everywhere potentially under threat. The last couple of years in Israel had seen numerous car rammings which were all part of what was informally referred to as the Stabbing Intifada which has tailed off but not really completely come to an end. We all pray here in Israel, as you do in the United States, that this will be the only time you suffer from such an assault on your persons and communal safety; but we all know the unfortunate reality. Once a new form of terror attack is used it will continue until mitigating means are found for defeating such attacks. Here in Israel train stations and bus stops now have thick five centimeter diameter, cement filled posts a embedded deep into the pavement protecting the people from vehicle rammings. Stabbing attacks are only avoided through vigilance and a communal reaction making the attacker into the hunted as through mutual defense we are all safer.

 

Recently, though largely uncovered by Western media, Israel suffered yet another massive terror assault upon the entire nation through forest fires largely set by Arab arsonists. Neighboring nations, including Croatia, Greece, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Russia and Turkey, responded with firefighting manpower and equipment for which we are grateful. The United States sent its “Supertanker” which is the largest firefighting aircraft in the world. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a coalition of eight fire trucks and 40 firefighters which were used largely in Judea and Samaria as nowhere was immune from the horrors. In the single week during the final days before the rains came but whipped by the high winds accompanying seasonal weather changes Israel suffered one-thousand-seven-hundred-seventy-three separate fires which consumed approximately thirty-two-thousand acres with most located in the Haifa region. In some cases fires were set and once the fire-stations responded fires were set at the station houses themselves. Despite over a hundred people suffered injuries there were no fatalities this season. Over five-hundred homes were completely destroyed while tens of thousands were evacuated at some points. As of last counting there have been over thirty arrests of arsonists all of whom have proven to be Arab terrorists. Apart from the horrific damage to the parks and some neighborhoods the next most distressing reality of this past arson season was the repeated lack of coverage in the Western media once again the reality of “it’s only Israel” coming through loud and clear. There were no Israeli lives lost and, just as important if not more so, no terrorist arsonists shot resisting arrest or in the act of setting fires. Had a single arsonist been shot or otherwise injured, the cries of using disproportional and unnecessary force would have echoed from Rome to San Francisco and from Athens to Chicago and all stops inbetween. Instead, with lack of recriminations to be aired against Israel, the wave of arson was met with deafening silence.

 

The recent car ramming and stabbing attack does pose as a warning shot before the bow on the streets of America as it signaled a closing in the delay time between introduction of a newer terror wave in Israel and its application in the United States. We have already witnessed the use of ramming in Europe with the van being driven through a Nantes, France crowded market injuring almost a dozen and killing one victim plus the absolutely horrific Nice, France assault where a van filled with grenades and weapons was driven through a crowded 14th of July Bastille Day celebration killing eighty-four people, which included several children. The short delay from the wide use in Israel of car and vehicle rammings and stabbing attacks to their use across Europe and then to the United States bodes a troubling future for all three. Other places across Europe and Canada suffering ramming terror attacks have been but not limited to Glasgow International Airport attack in Scotland; Dijon, France; plus another attack with the Saint Jean sur Richelieu attack which occurred in Quebec, Canada on October 20, 2014. Now with the Ohio State University attack the United States has suffered its second vehicle ramming, the other being the SUV attack at the University of North Carolina. Then there were the greatest and most horrific rammings of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, Pentagon and the foiled attack which was brought down by the heroes of that day, the passengers on Flight 93 southeast of Pittsburgh.

 

Nice, France Van Terror Attack Carnage

 

The fear now should be from arson attacks, especially those set upwind a relatively short distance from built-up areas such as apartment complexes, business parks and housing developments. Also vulnerable would be deserted areas within some of America’s cities where a fire could be sparked that would then threaten downtown areas where urban renewal borders deserted areas yet to be rejuvenated. There should be some research performed to determine if previous fires may have been started as a form of terrorist attack as such arson attacks often target not only forest and scrublands but also target close-by developed regions. Israel has faced these firestorm attacks twice yearly, the spring winds and the fall winds which provide the necessary impetus for the use of directional winds to fan flames towards their real target, people. One can only pray that through vigilance and the formal fire-watch systems in place in the United States Park Systems stems any arson and other fires before they can rise and threaten people’s lives and property. Sufficient damage occurs already and needs little boost from intentional arson fires set with damage of people and structures as their actual target. Then there were the recent fires in Tennessee which are still being investigated by authorities.

 

But with the coming of the new administration of President Trump there will be a new attitude towards terrorist attacks and how they are treated by the FBI, Justice Department and other enforcement agencies within the government. No longer will the initial reports be that there is absolutely no indication that what appears to have been a terrorist attack actually is a terror attack. Rather any caution shown will still recognize that terror is always a potential cause and if it looks like terror, feels like terror and sounds like terror, then there will be the recognized likelihood that terror was a possibility. Under President Trump there is not to be the candy-coating of reality and the American people will be trusted with being given truth, often unvarnished truth as they will finally be seen and treated as grown-ups who can handle the truth. There will be no condescending hierarchy who claim that the American people cannot handle the truth and that only they, the elite have the capability to handle the truth and thus they claim they stand on the wall deciding what you deserve to know and what you must be protected against. We will have to wait and see which Americans are capable of handling the unvarnished, unsoftened, straight truth and which Americans will be demanding safe-spaces placed and trigger warnings with their newscasts. With a more open and honest evaluation of reality and the inclusion of the American people in the decision process by having an open debate, the United States will likely return taking their place as a leader of the free world. It will likely make most Americans pleased to be treated as the adults they presumably are, and we pray we have not misjudged our friends across the waves. It will be wonderful to have an ally back.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Rampant Roiling Anti-Semitic Hatred Rising

 

First and foremost, anti-Semitism rarely happens in a vacuum, it is almost always accompanied by another plague, the coarsening of the public to the needs of the less fortunate such as the handicapped, mentally challenged, reality challenged and hardened hearts against the unwanted unborn, a misnomer if ever there was one as almost every baby would be treasured if only allowed to be adopted instead of aborted. That is an issue for another time but first this must be stated. Adopting a baby in the United States has reached a point where Federal, State, Local and Federally mandated State requirements weed out the majority of families simply because they lack sufficient funds and do not know the right people and were unaware that today one need hire a lawyer for anywhere, depending on the aims of which child one wish adopt, of as high as a quarter of a million dollars and starting at over twenty thousand dollars just to clear the government regulations. Then there are financial requirements so a family who wishes to offer a young child love, affection and do everything they are able may not pass the litmus tests to adopt a child in the United States. Perhaps returning the responsibility for vetting potential adopting parents where it once was, with our religious institutions might return sanity to the current pay-to-play system.

 

The main plague which comes with anti-Semitic hatred is it never stops there and there is always the next group, and this time in the United States it may well be Native Americans who practice their native religions and honor their gods soon after by the Christians of all denominations and will eventually target the secularists who place their faith in mankind and government. Along the way there will be more than desirable targeting of the LGBT community as the dreamed of perfectly multicultural societal mixture is obtained where the United States population closely represents the official numbers claimed to exist in the world’s population. While this will be occurring there will be the continued drumbeat detesting the unproportional amount of “Islamophobia” defined as the illegal and undesired persecution of people of the Islamic faith far above the average of any other hate crimes. This is a politically correct smokescreen and a lie and in the more extremist corners of the Islamic society where this canard was hatched as a weapon actually means that the American people are not falling all over themselves seeking to convert to what they consider the only true religion to which all must belong. The graph below depicts the percentages of hate crimes for 2014 which is indicative of the average over the last fifty years including 2001 and 2002 after the 9/11 bombings. If the figures were proportional to population, then Islamic hate crimes should have been a mere one percent making the reported hate crimes sixteen times their population numbers, while Catholics are twenty-one percent of the population and had six percent of the reported hate crimes; so obviously there is a greater out of proportion of Islamic hate crimes. But that pales compared to Jews who are less than two percent of the population receive fifty-seven percent of hate crimes which is twenty-eight and a half times their population which, unlike what is often quoted fact, the anti-Islamic hatred is not the worst in the United States. The numbers do not tell the half of the story as anti-Semitic acts have grown at nearly double the rate of any other group simply in numbers which grows worse if population proportions are included. The numbers in Europe are even worse for the Jews who have begun to vacate the entire continent. The snakes of anti-Semitism are slithering freely in the world.

 

 

There is another strange occurrence when it comes to anti-Semitism, it is found in some of the more remote corners of our little world, even those where there is no record of a Jew having lived or even conducted trade thus there having been no recorded contact with anything Jewish yet they exhibit anti-Semitic feelings. Recently the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) did a world-wide survey to measure the current levels of anti-Semitism in the world. A graphical representation of the main findings of their one-hundred nation survey is pictured below with greater map at the site linked above along with the entire report and updates. Looking at the map it becomes quite evident where the largest resentment, one might claim hatred, of the Jewish people arises. It should also not be surprising to know that the majority of the nations making up MENA (Middle East and North Africa colored in brown) evicted over ninety percent, some even one-hundred percent, of their Jewish populations in the decade after Israel was founded. These Jews by in large resettled in Israel as other nations made requirements that they have family or other stipulations to avoid taking any significant numbers while others simply refused any entry. These non-European Jews make up close to half the Jewish population and as intermarriage between European Jews and MENA Jews are common as is intermarriage across all ethnic lines within the Jewish community, that making any reference to a difference is rapidly becoming a moot point. Israel is rapidly approaching having simply Jews with no reference to nations or continents of origins and efforts are being made to further make the society one even to having a single Chief Rabbi when the next selection is made. Israel is facing a second influx of European Jews as anti-Semitism recently has grown worse in much of Europe.

 

World Anti-Semitism Survey

 

The worst regions for anti-Semitism have also demonstrated other signs of bigotry and hatred. One example of such was the attempted genocidal erasure of the Yazidi People in Iraq by the Islamic State. There has also been systematic persecution of the Kurds as well as Sunni-Shiite violence going back centuries. Many MENA nations having basically rid themselves of their Jews are now working on eradicating the next group on their infidel roster, Christians. One of the least discussed bigotries and subjugations and eradications is the treatment of Christians in the world. A direct result of anti-Semitism is anti-Christianism. The usually noted path starts with the Jews and once the Jews have been eradicated comes the persecution of Christians throughout the world where Christianity is in the minority. What makes such hatred so dangerous today is that Christians are approaching minority status in many parts of Europe and the numbers of Jews in Europe is falling at an ever increasing rate which places the persecution of believing Christians ever closer and immediately behind them will fall the secularists, especially the professed atheists, as they will be identified as wayward Christians who have served their purpose of continued silence or even active participation in the removal of Jews and/or Christians. For those questioning how such will come to be, research history from around the year 620 through to 750 and consider that Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Spain and more were predominantly Christian and Jewish and before 615 there is no reference to Islam or Muslims in any name or form (see map below). Even the Saudi Arabian Peninsula from the Iraq and Southern Syrian borders to and including Yemen were almost entirely Christian, Jewish or idolaters many of which worshipped their Moon god ‘Hubal’ at the Kaaba where Mecca stands today. Hubal is reported to have gained favor over another of the pagan gods often referred to as ‘Allah” though many Islamic sources denounce this. Let us simply leave this as contested and not given the weight of fact until otherwise validated.

 

Expansion of Islam Across MENA and threaten Europe before Ottoman Rule

 

The reality is that should the uncontrolled influx of Islamic ‘refugees’ continue there will erupt even greater and more frequent violence. Many of the self-defacing lessons about Christian barbarism against Arabs and Muslims such as the Spanish Inquisition and the various Crusades were not offensive actions without prior historical facts of the Christians being forcibly thrown from their lands, remaining Christians enslaved or persecuted even crucified for denying Allah and Mohammad as their deity and prophet and renouncing Jesus as more important than Mohammad. The real downside came for the Jews who were persecuted by both Muslim and Christian always accused of assisting the other no matter who had won the day. Islam has attempted through three main pushes to conquer Europe with the first being tuned back at the battle of Tours and the other two stopped at the gates of Vienna. The defeat of Islam which is being avenged currently includes the sieges of Vienna and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire which replaced the first Caliphate and is often referred to as the last Caliphate. Turkish President Erdogan fancies the reestablishing of the Ottoman Empire and has started his quest by attempting to take Aleppo and Mosul while eradicating the Kurds. We discussed that recently here. There are other leaders who envision their rise to caliph such as the leader of the Islamist State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, or the Supreme Leader of Iran, not necessarily the current person but more some future Supreme Leader which will posthumously grant the predecessors with the honor of the title as well. The Saudi Royal Family should not be included as we do not intend to slight anyone. Once upon a time Saddam Hussein considered himself the next to conquer the world for Allah and become Caliph. Oh to dream…

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Khamenei Frightening Regret of Nazi Defeat

 

Iranian Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei in a speech on September 18, 2016, while denouncing President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calling for more investment in the economy rather than increasing military spending also made commentary which was far more disturbing. Khamenei lamented the results of World War II and insisted that military spending continue to be the highest priority even if the people are made to suffer economic hardships as Iran must not suffer the same fate which was the fate of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. What makes this all the more threatening is for Iran to suffer such a fate would require their placing themselves in a similar situation threatening other nations to the point where warfare is thrust upon much of the world in a determined effort to resist the threat of world conquest be a single minded nation led by people determined to commit genocidal cleansing of the world of all who are not subservient to them and their philosophy, or in the case of Iran, surrendered to Islam, and that would be Shia Islam. Khamenei was disturbed by the forcing of Germany and Japan into submission and forced to be disarmed which was, according to the Supreme Leader, a humiliation which Iran must never be made to suffer. Khamenei lauded the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) as the key to the success and completion of the Islamic revolution which was started in Iran in 1979 and is expected to enforce the Quranic call to conquer the world for Allah. This was the cause which Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini set as the purpose of all efforts and dedications of the Iranian people onto perpetuity. Khamenei has reinvested Iran in the dreams and goals set forth by Khomeini thus making more than their names sounding so similar as so is their dedication to the supremacy of Iran and Shia Islam.

 

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini

 

For most nations to be led by a dictatorial leader with dreams of world conquest there would not be any serious concern as it is unlikely that they could build sufficient military to potentially pose such a risk. Muammar Gaddafi often made speeches telling his people that their suffering would be alleviated once they defeated the nations oppressing them and denying them their rightful place as leaders ruling over much or all the Earth depending on his feelings of bravado on any given day. After pushing his terrorist sponsoring too far he faced a severe kick in the ego from the United States when President Reagan struck Libya responding to a Libyan terrorist strike on the “La Belle” nightclub in West Berlin which killed three people including one American Serviceman. The American and allies response came on April 15, 1986, in the early morning hours striking numerous targets throughout Libya including the Bab al-Azizia barracks, Murat Sidi Bilal camp, Tripoli military airfield, Benina military airfield, the air defense networks in Benghazi and Tripoli and Muammar Gaddafi’s house in an attempt to kill the dictator himself. Muammar Gaddafi, with his family, rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound just before the bombs dropped. The warning phone call came from Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi. Among the estimated sixty killed was one infant girl who was used as an attempt to vilify the American raid. Her name was Hannah and she was displayed before Western reporters with the claim she was the recently adopted daughter of Muammar Gaddafi. All things considered, this raid ended any claims from Muammar Gaddafi of Libya being a world leader and destined to lead the entirety of the world. Libya was never actually a threat to attempt world conquest and that claim was made to excuse a retrograde economy and the suffering of the population from the failed economic state. Iran has sufficient oil which as long as the price per barrel remains above approximately $50 to $75 Iran makes a profit from a percentage to all of their wells as their oil is thick and of poor quality thus costing more to draw from the ground. This is part, if not most of the reason for Saudi Arabia pumping out close to full capacity oil production to force the price per barrel below that $50 price. This has the additional effect of starving Russia from large oil profits and makes American fracking no longer cost effective thus having a deleterious effect on every oil producing nation with whom the Saudi Arabian Royals are having difficulties.

 

Still, Iran is currently cash flush thanks to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), better known as the Iran P5+1 Nuclear Deal, plus other additional payments made by the Obama Administration with a reported four-hundred-million dollar payment for presumably a broken arms deal with the Shah and definitely not a ransom for the released four American hostages. But wait, there is rumored to be more as that four-hundred-million dollar payment for the arms deal has been rumored to have been followed by another payment more than three times that size; a staggering one-point-three-billion dollars claimed to be interest of the original payment. As this payment was delivered in a secret aircraft delivery in actual American cash, thousands of hundred or even thousand dollar bills, hard currency, something unimaginable but somehow true. One can only wonder whether President Obama is going to further finance the military build-up before leaving office, and if so, how much more will he send? Additionally, even by the assessment of President Obama himself, the Iran nuclear deal will allow Iran to be within a few months of attaining nuclear weapons status after the ten year deal expires and there will be nothing to prevent Iran from building a nuclear stockpile challenging that of the United States within a year or soon thereafter once the deal has expired. But don’t worry, Iran will have calmed in that time and will no longer be set on world conquest in a decade or so. Just because Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei just declared the need for Iran to be so militarily powerful that should they set out to conquer the world they will not end as did Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan and be humbled in failure a full thirty-seven years since the 1979 revolution when the military path was first set upon. Sure, of course Iran will be a happy and cooperative nation in a decade or two, sure they will, right? Well, time will tell.

 

Still, one has to understand that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is seventy-seven years of age and in unknown health as such is a very secretive piece of information. Besides that, in a decade he will be eighty-seven (higher math skills paying off) and even with good health that is an advanced age. There is a possibility that he will have stepped down and a new Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah have been selected by the Assembly of Experts (aka Council of Experts) and now setting the direction of Iran. There could be a turn around and the next Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader will decide that the economy and the lives of the people are far more important than the destruction of the Great Satan (United States), the Little Satan (Israel) and/or the Wahabbist menace of Saudi Arabia. You doubt this? But President Obama has set the hopes of the free world on Iran becoming another nation happy to be a member of the community of nations and live in harmony with the rest of the world including those mentioned above. Come to think about it, you are probably right and things will probably get dicey. How dicey will depend on what the rest of the world does and the outcome of the Islamic infusion into the Western World and whether they assimilate or set on conquest, and the reaction to whichever path is chosen. The leadership in the Western World and beyond over the next decade or two will be very important and revealing on the importance for the continued freedoms of the developed Western World. Why am I so seriously concerned over this outlook?

 

Beyond the Cusp