Generally the Generals Create Great Problems

 

In a recent article titled Israel’s demographic suicide? by the ever readable and insightful Caroline B. Glick we were given views of a recent meeting between the new Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman and the General Staff of the IDF. From what we understood, Minister Lieberman came into the meeting with a rightful, honest and workable solution to numerous problems mostly caused by the presence of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its insidious effects over too large an area and over too many institutions all of which they brought to holy jihad against Jews and Israel. During the meeting and facing an allied and unified front or Perfumed Princes, generals as known to the public, he was convinced that the best approach to the coming elections this fall in the local elections throughout the PA where Hamas is expected to take control over many, if not a predominant number, of the local government thus preventing and PA security forces from presumably fighting terrorist enterprise would be best averted by peremptorily ceding complete planning and zoning authority in Area C to the PA. Our position is the surrendering Area C will fail in every conceivable way possible. But the Perfumed Princes appear to have converted Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to their side of the argument where the military basically gifts the PA with complete control over the lands in Area C which will lead to the removal of all IDF forces replacing them with PA Security Forces and the settlements will immediately become untenable and the hundreds of thousands of Jews and other Israelis residing in these cities, towns and frontier settlements will be forced to retreat behind the Green Line and holding any claim on East Jerusalem will become all but untenable. Basically, the Perfumed Princes idea is to repeat Gaza except this time with the entirety of Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the entirety of the Old City to the PA who once the IDF and other Israeli assets have retreated will lose all the lands to Hamas who are far more motivated than the PA forces, many of which are more loyal to Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as the Islamic State than they are to Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the PA. Such a plan worked so wondrously in Gaza that the Perfumed Princes believe that doubling down with the safety of Tel Aviv is the best course of action. The best course of action is and has always been the settlement of all the lands given by Hashem and to above our greatest joy to place Yerushalayim, the city conquered by David and beautified by Solomon which includes Tower of David in Yerushalayim.

 

Tower of David in Yerushalayim

 

The news of this reached us soon after we had responded to a challenge to put forth a plan which would benefit Israel in dealing with the PA which we presented in our article As Long as They All Hate where we presented basically the opposite of the plan presented by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and assorted other IDF commanders. Their basic premise is that should Israel respond to the threat, that Hamas will win numerous townships and potentially even Ramallah, which would be the ultimate loss for the PA and be the end of Mahmoud Abbas as their leader; that by turning over the remainder of Judea and Samaria and deserting any responsibility for those residing already in Area to PA rule, whatever that may mean after the fall elections, and this will prevent Hamas from winning local elections across the currently PA controlled areas. Sure, surrendering all control over what Jordan renamed the West Bank and is actually a good part of Judea and Samaria simply because of a threat that Hamas might take control of areas now held by the PA will invigorate the PA and not have any similar effect on the Hamas leadership which is obviously what scared the IDF COGAT commanders. Are we the only ones who see a grievous error in their logic? If anything, such a move should guarantee Hamas taking control with even less opposition of Judea and Samaria and raining rockets supplied by Iran through Jordan, even if Iran must eliminate Jordanian King Hussein and the entirety of the Jordanian military, assuming they do not simply change sides in the interest of continued breathing and potentially positions in the coming Iranian puppet state.

 

The Perfumed Princes could not have presented a more backwards and illogical plan had that been their intent. The actual problem is that these Generals are tired of actually performing their duty and they realize that their power does not stem from protecting Jews and Israelis in Judea and Samaria but in deadly threats making the continuation of the state of Israel dependent on them. The real problem is actually the same problem as Israel faces in their legal society where judgeships above the lowest level is controlled either directly or indirectly, the higher the court the more directly, by the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the head of the Lawyers’ Guild and a small and overwhelmed few members of the elected governance, that being the Knesset. Such a panel is so far left as it could only be equaled by the average garden party held by the effete elite of Tel Aviv and the COGAT Command and most other commands outside of combat arms are also Perfumed Princes for similar reasons. These leftist control the levers of choosing their replacements and refuse to permit any Zionist, and especially religious Zionist, to ever enter their ranks even if it requires setting up high ranking Zionist religious officers for a situation where proper actions can bring charges of undue force and doing nothing brings charges of dereliction of Duty. Thus the High Command of the IDF, the Supreme Court, the justice system, the ranking legal and other administrative commanders are all Tel Aviv leftist anti-Zionists who are determined to make Israel a binational state where Jews become a minority as the leftist socialist anti-nationalist post-Zionists are haters of Judaism and Judeo-Christian morality and are willing to make Israel into an Islamist run nation in the belief that they can take control of such a governance and forge their communist wonderland free of nationalism and religious influences. Simply stated, these lunatics are willing to destroy Israel, hand it to the Muslims, all in an attempt to forge their socialist dreams and they do not figure in their formulae that they will be amongst the first ones beheaded under any Islamist governance. This disease exists through much of Europe and is taking hold in the United States where President Barack Obama was the initial introductory Presidency and Hillary Clinton will be the final step should she be elected, but the Americans are as blind in many leftist circles as are these Israeli leftist socialist communists.

 

Israel has one viable future which cannot and will never be realized as long as we suffer these fools who hate Zionism and hate Judaism and are willing to bow before Ba’al and sacrifice everybody else’s first born son if that is what it takes to destroy the Jewishness and Zionist enterprises within Israel. They, like their Western counterparts, hate Judeo-Christian ethics and nationalism to such an extent that they are willing to blindly accept anything which is also against such viable and moral leadership. They are incapable of seeing past their red hot hatred of Judaism and Zionism that sacrificing all of Israel to the observers of Allah and betraying Hashem and all that comes from his love and rules for a moral and good life where all are cared for by the deeds of others. They do not see that charity is amongst the central pillars of Judaism and believe that nobody would sacrifice a single shekel of their monies to help the needy and only through the force of government can the poor be cared for. They believe this as they are wanting to ever ‘waste’ a Shekel of their monies willingly and believe all are as dead hearted as they. They judge others by their own selfishness and are blind to the generosity of others whom they hold in contempt quite likely because they do see these others are better persons than they and thus must be destroyed to make a perfect government controlled system which does not depend on the generosity of others but on the power of the all-powerful state.

 

Further, these Generals, Perfumed Princes, realize that by surrendering Area C they will no longer be the ones to blame should there come terrorism from these areas as they will no longer govern them. They tire of governing Area C and protecting those Jews, who are mostly religious, Zionist or both as these are the very Jews and Israelis they hold in contempt. They would rather allow the Arab Muslims behead and murder every last Israeli and Jew currently under their mandate for protection. They have already performed so well at this protection that the two items which have kept these Israelis safe have been the outstanding performance of the troops charged with such protection who take their positions of protecting the innocent seriously, and the security forces each community has appointed or empowered volunteers who manage the security including electronic surveillance and boots on the ground day and night throughout the week and even on the Sabbath as life is precious in Judaism and every life is worth saving and assisting such that it can live. Many of these elitists have completely lost track of these basic terms and instead think only of the power of the state and not the empowerment of the individual. These leaders require a complete house cleaning and replacing with those in whom the safety and future of Israel and the Jews can be trusted with complete faith that they will take such charge seriously.

 

The one obvious failure are the General Staff and their complete infiltration or possibly permanent ability to replace their retiring officers solely with the officers from the legal division or from amongst their own known circle, the tea, brie and fondue party gang as we like to call them. The time has come to change a few things even beyond the heads at the top. The first thing is the legal busy beavers should be required to spend their initial training and a one year service in an infantry company. This should be their being farmed out randomly amongst infantry companies as privates such that they understand the life of the rank and file soldier. They should also be charged with achieving a certain rank before being commissioned as a lawyer and officer in the IDF and those unable to cope with such service should be barred from the legal divisions. The IDF deserves officers who will be making life and death decisions to fully understand the position and dangers the average soldier faces to achieve the position where they may be deciding whether they get to take the shot or stand down. Currently the order to stand down is the failsafe and preferred command decision unless every last requirement has been verified, checked, rechecked and further checked to see if the position has held its ground and still has the shot available after fifteen-twenty minutes of lunacy by command before allowing the infantry or other assets to take the shot.

 

Perhaps we need a basic and simple pair of examples of situations which will clarify. Let us assume one is a fighter pilot carrying ordinance, bombs for the less aware of the language, and he is approaching the target and he does not see any civilians blocking his approach and now requires clearance from the legal beagles before he can release his ordinance. Now the lawyers order a second aircraft, a reconnaissance drone or piloted aircraft to fly to the locations which can take up to five or ten minutes while the pilot with the ordinance has been circling his target in danger of being shot upon. During this time the target inside the building has left, taken shelter in a special area of the basement or possibly called for women and children to be brought to the rooftop knowing that a single civilian is a sufficient screen which will prevent most bombings from being executed and any doubt results in the initial pilot landing with ordinance still attached, an unadvised and very dangerous task as the shock of landing can activate the ordinance and with another simple bump detonate the ordinance if it was set for immediate blast after drop. Even if the target of the bomb was the third floor of a seven story building where the ordinance is set to punch through the five levels which would mean that the ordinance would count from the rooftop as the first punch placing it in the seventh floor, then another to the sixth and another to the fifth and another to the fourth and another to the third with a tenth of a second delay and detonation sufficient to kill all on the third floor or just those in a central room and still leave the building though structurally compromised, remaining standing. Even such ordinance is thought to take out the roof by the lawyers making the drop/no drop decision. The bombs today are so completely different than in previous wars fought that many people are unfamiliar or completely ignorant of the special situational conditions for which rounds can be optimized.

 

 

An even more dire and dangerous situation would present itself when a sniper has spent two or three days sneaking into his optimum firing position and has the subject in his sights and now he waits for his number two to give him the signal to fire. All parameters are met but what if he gets an officer who insists on covering his position and orders a drone to reconnoiter the area before approving the shoot. This might lead the target to take cover or they could depart or return inside taking away the opportunity while waiting for approval. Many times a sniper is not within secured areas and is operating within enemy controlled territories and even making radio contact can create a dangerous situation for the sniper and his spotter. Many of the officers whose approval is required before taking a shot have never actually qualified with a weapon or if they have it was with a sidearm and not the variety of weapons used by most combat infantry or sniper or other combat individuals. This situation is rather dangerous for the troops and other individuals who must attain clearance before executing their final command to engage. In any situation an order to refrain from engagement makes the position more dangerous and even could lead to capture or death. These are things these soldiers, and they are presumed to be soldiers and not lawyers, have most often never been familiarized with and thus are making their decision considering a perfect scenario with a perfect and clean target and almost no situation in combat or flying support missions ever present a clean target and the wait time might even make a clean target unfit for execution as the situation changed while awaiting approvals. This is why the main part of any decision to engage needs to be left to the troops in the field or aircraft and the IDF depend on their morality and training, two things Israeli men and women in uniform are not just amongst the best but are the standard which other armed services in the Western developed world know they could not match the IDF and its morality in combat and others agree in even stronger language.

 

The conclusion we draw is obvious, Israel requires some basic appointment channels to be altered. We will not go into how the actual civilian legal divisions, the courts, particularly the Supreme Court and Attorney General, are chosen and concentrate on the command positions at the top of the IDF. The very first item is the appointment of IDF commanders must not be subjected to trial by newspapers, television and radio news, political talk shows or even approval by the Supreme Court. Appointment of the commander of the IDF must be made in order to choose the man most capable of commanding the defense and other military services as demanded by or commanded by the civilian government. They must be capable of performing the necessary oversight and give the orders which will complete any mission the IDF will be assigned and do so with a minimal loss of life for both the IDF and innocent civilians as understood to be defined by international law. The commander must be somebody the troops will respect and look up to. The IDF Commanding General does not need be acceptable to the Supreme Court, the tea and brie bridge club from Tel Aviv or other members of the moneyed elite, and the upper class who hold monetary aloof positions on all the correct social lists and definitely not be made to suffer the approval of Haaretz or other news outlet. They are a combat leader and being polite is not a required job performance though it would be a nice addition after they are chosen for their military command knowledge. The supporting General Staff need be chosen in like manner and should be fully capable of commanding a war for the national survival of the Israeli state with thirty seconds warning before launching troops ready and standing on alert. They need know the call-up procedures and who is the person to set that in motion as well as their subsequent commander and have the remaining list of the rest of that command at ready and known position for quick reference. The entirety of command should be stripped down and chosen solely for their love of country and ability to move into combat at a moment’s notice. There are no requirements for garden parties and the other frills such as performance at charity balls or other social ills. Such commanders should be religious, Zionist or both with the Zionism being a main requirement as they are best suited for trust to be centered within and being religious grants one deeper insight to the solutions required though one still performs their duty at the behest and under the set goals and limitations directed by the civilian governance. Such generals need understand that any command received is meant to be executed immediately if not sooner unless directed otherwise. This will necessitate a reassessment of the current General Staff and their replacement, as it has been found that those currently serving are lacking in any manner of intestinal fortitude or desire to serve the nation of Israel and its founding Zionist spirit. As goes the General Staff goes the military. If the commanders are soft and indecisive or lack in love of country, then the troops will reflect the same. This is why the General Staff need be religious and Zionist with love of Torah, love of Hashem, love of Israel, and lastly most obedient of the commands to settle the lands that Hashem has gifted to us to care for as these are the lands of Hashem. This need be the central reason for the IDF which is included in the motto, “Honor, Torah, Israel, People, Zion and Yerushalayim.”

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

One Unsafe Concept and One Ineligible to Lead

 

We have two great threats from within which we have yet to discuss. These are on top of the elite group of ex-military and security leaders who are dead set on surrendering our natural and ancient homelands of Judea and Samaria without even getting a thank you from the Arabs simply in the hope that they will be viewed with great honor and be permitted to travel Europe safely. They are flawed in their proffered solution to a problem that needs not their faux-expertise and equally wrong that the Europeans will forgive their military service and now love them. To Europe they are still war criminals and they would still be tried should they disembark and walk on sacred European soil; may it give forth as they give unto Israel, bitter yields. But there are other dangers; so shall we end this tribute to last week’s disasters and move to this week’s and the other long standing.

 

The long standing is the easier and more simple but still a threat in the wings. It has long been understood by the majority of Israelis outside Tel Aviv that the Labor party, despite its allure, poses a threat Israel dare not take. The threat is their concept of what is an acceptable risk for peace. Their current leader and poseur of greatness of which we can only allow his image to exist in his mind as should he ever make good on his dreams we would all get to live his nightmare. We refer to Yitzhak “Bougie” Herzog, the current leader of the Labor Party who has shown his willingness to go to any extreme in the hope to realize his dream of being Prime Minister and making the peace that has eluded all before him. His real ambition is to live up to his pedigree with his family tree including almost innumerable greats including but not limited to President Chaim Herzog and Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Israel’s first Chief Rabbi; Yaacov Herzog served in the Haganah and was a political adviser to David Ben-Gurion; and as an in-law, Abba Eban. Bougie is going to need more than his cute moniker to measure up to the towering greats who preceded him. The question as to what he might do if he should ever be Prime Minister has now been answered.

 

It had become public knowledge that before the past election that in anticipation of his being Prime Minister, Labor Party and ‘Zionist Union’ co-head, Yitzhak Herzog took it upon himself to negotiate, if that is the right word, a letter of intent, we might say surrender, with Mahmoud Abbas in which they presumably reached an accord on the principles for peace. In this agreement Israel was to surrender 96% of Judea and Samaria and surrender an area equal to the last 4% from within the Green Line, though which land was left undetermined, surrender half of Jerusalem yet somehow Israel would retain the Western Wall and plaza known as the Kotel while surrendering the Temple Mount as an international zone and remainder of the old city, while Jerusalem would remain under a single governance. How Jews were to make their way across Palestinian controlled lands to visit the Kotel was also not made evident, perhaps helicopter tours where they rappelled in or some such method, we do not know. Further there would be some undetermined number of ‘Arab refugees’ permitted to return into Israel to be reacquainted with their presumed lost family heritage and properties. This too was left in the air. The one thing probably not left in the air but simply refused was any recognition of Israel as the home of the Jewish People. That was still probably beyond what Mahmoud Abbas could grant even in this form of a make believe dream of Yitzhak’s grand dream. As we all can now rejoice, Yitzhak Herzog and the ‘Zionist Union’ did not get to form a ruling coalition and we were literally saved from these evil designs. The one other great saving grace Israel received from these revelations is we now know beyond any shadow of doubt that the Labor Party, its figment of imagination and misnomer of ‘Zionist Union’ (which is neither Zionist nor Union as Tzipi Livni’s party is now a party of one, or maybe two) can never be permitted to be even included in a unity coalition even if such would appear to be to the advantage of the state as their designs on fame and fortune would endanger the nations as even with the slightest sliver of power they would sell out Israel for the ability to claim there was now peace.

 

As in the words made famous over two centuries ago when Patrick Henry made his impassioned plea to the Virginia House of Burgess imploring them to join and sign the Declaration of Independence he entreated them, “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace.” The same now applies in Israel and we too need to make and apply as our answer our own Declaration of Independence. This declaration must include the liberation of our lands, all of our lands; especially the lands of Judea and Samaria from which the idolaters who worship death must be driven out as were the Canaanites who too worshiped death in their sacrifices to Ba’al. This is our sacred duty and we can do it now while things are not so desperate or we can make a situation which will demand of us to take the lands as rockets rain down upon Tel Aviv and the heartland of our Israel because we foolishly gave the Judean Hills overlooking the midsection of our nation allowing the enemy to press their boot upon our necks and attempt to choke the life out of our country. There is no manner of safeguard which can be applied which would save the thin neck that surrounds Tel Aviv once we allow the Arabs free will upon the highlands overlooking this densely populated area. There was a reason all our brothers and sisters who led us in our biblical fights for survival always dragged the battles into the hills of Judea and Samaria as we held those highlands and forcing them to attack from below gave us the advantage we needed. Our enemies relied on cavalry and chariots both of which lose their advantage when fighting uphill in rough terrain. Now we will give those same hills to an enemy making us the ones who now have the chariots known as tanks having to climb the hills from below allowing making them easy targets for anti-tank missiles. The very missiles which Iran will flood the Arab areas with as soon as the IDF leaves and they have their terror state. Iran will arm them with rockets, mortars with which to initiate the war at their time of choosing and also provide the anti-tank armaments and all the tools of war including mines to prevent easy approach and to set traps for men and machine alike. That is the reality if we ever give the Arabs their desired lands and we will pay the price for such foolishness. There is but one solution and the world may hate us for taking our land but at least our children will be safe and the world cannot hate us twice as much as hate is hate. They all know that all the land is our land legally which is why there has never been a case brought in the international courts. The only place where the land is not ours is in the court of foreign opinions and they do not reside here and will never face the barrage of rockets they salivate waiting to force us into the compromise which would seal our doom, but we can simply resume our proper rule over our lands and the Arabs residing there can either accept reality or leave, and if necessary, as they attack we can arrest them and declare them as foreign agents expelling them once and for all. Those who wish to remain peaceful can even be allowed citizenship after they prove their knowledge of our historical right to the lands and willingly sign a pledge of allegiance to the State of Israel and homeland of the Jewish People and should they ever break that pledge we can once again invite them to leave and never return. We will not need to force anybody from their homes, only those who are known aggressors who have already proven they refuse to recognize our legitimacy would be forced to leave. The rest would choose themselves and if they prefer being compensated for their lands and property, then so be it, it would be money well spent. Yes, we would pay them in dollars as the shekel is not worth much in Syria or the rest of the lands where they would be at home.

 

Our other threat which appears to be gaining some official recognition and even acceptance is the idea of a manmade port attached to Gaza by a causeway where ships can come and load and unload and the wares coming into Gaza be checked and cleared before being sent by truck into Gaza and where these same trucks can bring their exports for loading for transport to their destinations. How this is different other than location from the current system of using the port at Ashdod escapes our sense of reason (picture of port below). The crazed idea is to spend over a billion shekels, likely closer to five-billion shekels, to build an Island and port facilities some distance, presumably safe distance, out into the Mediterranean Sea from Gaza and connect it to Hamas held Gaza, the Hamas held part is very important, by a multi-lane two way causeway where trucks would transport goods both into and out of Gaza allowing for presumably easier, more efficient and more independent transference of goods in both directions. Since there would also presumably be an agreement that all incoming and outgoing cargo would still be checked and approved by Israeli security inspectors, it completely escapes us as to how this is any different than the current system where trucks take whatever cargo need go in either direction to Ashdod where the port there, a very capable and already functioning port, and inspections are carried out by Israeli security inspectors. But we do see one vital difference; so please follow with us below.

 

Port of Ashdod

 

This port island which would be built within Israeli territorial waters, meaning under three or at most generous five miles, would still be well within artillery range and even within guided rocket fired anti-tank missiles like the Kornet missile which was fired at a school bus from Gaza in Israel injuring the driver and murdering the lone young student still on the bus. The bus had just discharged the remaining students with the one exception remaining onboard so he could visit his grandmother further in Israel and was taking the bus there (picture of remains of the bus below). Expecting that the inspectors, in consideration of their safety, would be located on the manmade island where the trucks would be loaded and unloaded and this would be most convenient to do along the piers as the goods are unloaded and prepared for loading. There would be stationed IDF troops, probably a platoon or maybe two when suspicions were high, guarding the entry to the port island giving each truck a quick inspection before allowing it access to the port itself. Needless to point out that securing this new facility would in and of itself be an expensive endeavor as there would also likely be some naval support made readily available in case of an incident as any troops could be attacked by a joint operation of engagement by rocket fire from Gaza while a number of trucks crash any barricades and deploy terrorist troops in an attack to oust the Israeli inspectors and IDF troops taking over the facility with deadly results.

 

School Bus which was struck by a Russian made Kornet
anti-tank missile murdering one teen remaining
in the bus to reach his grandmother visit

 

After such an attack is the probability that it would be timed in order to unload contraband known to be on a ship the Iranians sent under a false flag. The unloading and making way back into Gaza with any such shipment of contraband would be completed before Israeli forces could retake the port, another expensive in cost and lost soldiers and inspectors lives as Hamas would not be taking too many prisoners of the IDF troops, just the inspectors would serve their purposes. The entire idea of such a port is a nightmare for security services and design. The port for security would need a cement wall between it and Gaza in order to prevent direct fire from striking the port facilities, personnel or ships docking there. Troops would need to be stationed in blockhouses to keep them safe from snipers and allow them to watch the coast of Gaza for any threats and have sufficient firepower to neutralize any threat. The system used on the land side of Gaza with cameras and remote fired weaponry, often fifty-cal. machine guns, have proven effective and safer for personnel but also an added expense. These blockhouses would also prove to be prime targets for Hamas and Islamic Jihad or others and repair and replacement would also prove prohibitively expensive. The possibility that tanks and heavy artillery or other heavy weapons and larger rocket motors or guidance systems could be smuggled in either well hidden within cargo or through raids, such as described above, provides another threat which would need be considered and weighed when considering such folly. No matter how one describes this venture and despite any designs or other precautions, the truth is this port would end up in the hands of Hamas and there is no humanly way of securing this facility from eventual, and likely fairly quickly, falling into Hamas’s hands and remaining under their control as it simply was realized that it was too risky and otherwise adverse to continue to retake and defend the indefensible.

 

The expense to build the facility, providing it did not get constantly attacked and workers killed by snipers making even building it next to impossible; after erecting it and attempting to defend it, we would eventually face an even more expensive reality, destroying it and re-sinking the island. The destruction would generate great amounts of additional ire and the European Union and who knows who else would call for turning the port over to Hamas as having Israeli control of the new Gaza port facility would be an aberration unacceptable to Israel’s uncountable enemies. The United Nations General Assembly would from day one be hearing announcements from Mahmoud Abbas, Turkey, Iran, Europeans and who knows how many others calling for the port to be released to Hamas and then the sea embargo would be resumed and denounced anew with greater fervor. Israel would be placed in a lose-lose situation after great expense which even if there were international backers who promised to assist in the cost, no funds would ever see their way into Israeli hands; so we would pay for the entire fiasco.

 

The end result would be Hamas having a well built and very modern and functioning port facility at which Iranian cargo ships could freely unload one after another filled in their bellies with rockets, missiles, potentially aircraft and who knows what else. We could expect Iranian warships to be docked there and patrolling what would now be Gazan and Hamas international waterways. Once Gaza has the port, there would be no way of preventing Iran from assisting in rebuilding the international airport which could be opened for air resupply from Iran and who knows where else. There would soon be squadrons of fighter jets and trained Hamas and Islamic Jihad pilots to fly them and Gaza would be sitting at the United Nations recognized now as its own nation and there would be nothing Israel could do to prevent these scenarios from playing out within a year or two of having built and provided Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest a port which would very likely provide an entry point to the Islamic State to enter and prepare attacks upon Israel. What would enter Gaza from the sea and soon thereafter from the air would facilitate their claim to be a nation and the Europeans would apologize after they supported such with their votes in the United Nations and their eagerness to allow Gaza to open embassies in their capitals so they could be amongst the first to recognize this glorious terror state. Europe has seldom if ever missed an opportunity to place Israel at further risk if they thought it would divert a single terrorist from attacking them. For the Europeans they see Israel as their shield meant solely to absorb the punishment of any Islamic anger just to keep them believing they are safer. Their folly knows no bounds and this port would only serve as yet another idea which can only end poorly. How about we skip this one, OK?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Weeds in the MENA Garden

 

 

If one were to ask the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and the world media who is responsible for the unrest throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) the resounding echoes would continue to scream Israel for likely the rest of eternity, but is that an honest assessment or simply a knee jerk automatic programed response spurred by anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic hatreds? The easiest way to tell would be to take a quick whirl around the MENA nations and see what the truth is. Let us start our excursion at the western edge and head to the east and see what we will see.

 

A map of MENA nations is almost up to date and is only missing the Sudan, and as the Sudan was split after years of tribal and religious violence, South Sudan; and some go so far as to include Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Eretria, and Somalia.

 

Coming into the North of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean the first country we would visit would be Western Sahara where we would find Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in violation of resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and International Court of Justice ruling. Any efforts to dislodge Morocco from Western Sahara have been blocked directly by the United States whose full support of the Moroccan occupation shows no sign of relenting. The conflict reemerged as the “Independence Intifada” in 2005 which has remained as depicted in map below. Despite numerous efforts to defuse the situation the standoff remains.

 

Occupied Western Sahara
by Morocco Shaded Area
and Western Sahara Unshaded

 

Continuing on from the Morocco-Western Sahara conflict we next visit Mauritania which has had a rocky recent history including two military coups, the first was in 2005 followed eventually by elections for a new president in 2007 followed by the second coup in 2008. General Abdul Aziz took power after the coup but found the nation had few supporters amongst them predominantly were Morocco, Libya and Iran while the United States and European nations rejected the legitimacy of the coup continuing to refer to Abdallahi as the legitimate president of Mauritania. After the resignation of Abdallahi there were elections which allowed Abdel Aziz to become the civilian president. In February 2011 there were waves of unrest as the Arab Spring spread to Mauritania demanding President Mohamed Abdel Aziz institute political, economic, and legal reforms. The unrest culminated in April of 2012 as thousands of people in Mauritania attended demonstrations in the capital calling for President Mohamed Abdel Aziz to resign. Currently the nation is under military rule with the legal system based on Islam and Sharia.

 

Heading across the southern end the picture in Mali, Niger and Chad is the constant internal strife between Christian governments and Islamic uprisings with much of the major horrific attacks conducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram which literally means Western education is forbidden. Boko Haram follows Saudi Wahhabism and has pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State. Along the north there has been steady unrest in Algeria and especially Libya since the NATO backed coup where President Obama declared that the United States was leading from behind in the ouster of and eventual execution (murder) of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In Libya the nation is in fractious rule of numerous terror groups and tribal armies with some having declared alliance with the Islamic State. In the south east there is the Sudan which bled in the south especially in the Darfur area. Eventually the Sudan was force to divide allowing South Sudan to become independent. In October of 2015, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a decree establishing twenty-eight states in place of the ten constitutionally established states. The decree established the new states largely along ethnic lines. He took it to the parliament for approval as a constitutional amendment in November and the South Sudanese parliament empowered President Kiir to create new states.

 

This brings us to Egypt where the recent history has played out live and large in the Western media. The Arab Spring riots led to the removal of President and military strongman Mubarak. The elections were held fairly soon after Mubarak was forced to step down largely by the United States backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. These elections overwhelmingly approved Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi to the presidency and a large Muslim Brotherhood majority in the parliament. Within the year new rioting broke out protesting the implementation of Sharia despite warnings from Turkish President Erdogan to the Morsi government to slow their radical changes or face resistance. This led to the military removing Morsi and arresting him for election fraud. New election instated former General of the Army Sisi as President though he still had an Islamist and presumed Muslim Brotherhood controlled parliament. The Obama administration refused to recognize Sisi and demanded that Morsi be reinstated; a request which was roundly ignored. Unrest still exists between Egypt and the United States which will be resolved by the Presidential election this November in the United States. As to what either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump might choose to do is a complete mystery at the present time as neither has addressed foreign policy beyond Hillary’s claim to deep knowledge claiming her time as a Senator of New York and a stint as Secretary of State under President Obama which included the Benghazi, Libya fiasco amongst other miscues and Trump claiming to have conducted business deals with numerous foreign governments and met many world leaders though particulars remain largely unconfirmed. Egypt has also faced unrest largely from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State where both are vying for control of the Sinai from where they would presumably unseat Sisi and retake the presidency. Hamas in Gaza was seen as providing assistance to these and some Iranian backed groups in the Sinai thus earning themselves a complete sea and land embargo enforced by Egypt from their waters and land borders with Gaza. The Egyptian blockade is often ignored with the large amount of attention paid to the Israeli “blockade” which is actually an inspection of goods before allowing their delivery to Gaza usually within one or two days done to assure that weapons are not being imported by Hamas and the other terror groups which rule Gaza. Egypt too is a work in progress.

 

We will return to Israel subsequently but meanwhile on to Lebanon where the terror groups Hezballah runs the government with an opposition often afraid to act to remove the terror group as previous attempts have resulted in untimely deaths. Lebanon cannot be addressed without discussing Syria and the state of war which has more facets than hewn crystals. The main three forces are Syrian dictator Bashir al Assad who has retreated to the Alawite tribal areas along the Mediterranean coast and Lebanese border. Assad is backed by Iran and their proxy, Hezballah, out of Lebanon. These are the Shiite forces which also receive tactical support largely in the form of air strikes by the Russians who are protecting their port area along the Mediterranean coast. Inland there are Sunni groups, oft referred to as terror groups, supported largely by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Finally there are the forces of the Islamic State which stretch into Iraq where they face the Iraqi Army backed by Iran who uses mostly IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) placing Iran at either end of the Islamic State. The Islamic State has been largely self-financed though there have been rumored support from Qatar. There is another group in northern Iraq and extending into northeastern Syria which is controlled by Kurdish Militias which are opposed strongly by Turkey. The Kurdish forces were at one time rumored to be receiving training by Israeli trainers on a clandestine mission though many have refuted that this was just a means of explaining the Kurdish forces resilience and holding their own against Islamist forces considered to be better equipped.

 

This takes us to the Saudi Peninsula and Jordan which we can count as a single unit of the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) which is a group backed mostly by Saudi Arabia which includes Kuwait and the Gulf States and to a lesser extent, Jordan. Saudi Arabia has a close working relationship with the Egyptian government of President Sisi who are jointly facing terror groups including those supported or aligned with Islamic State as well as Iranian backed terrorists and the Houthi Tribes in the Yemen civil war, a front where Iran backed and Saudi Arabian backed forces are in direct confrontation. The United States has opposed and presumably attempted to prevent, though with little success, arms shipments to the Houthis by Iran and also opposed the bombing sorties from Saudi Arabia with equal lack of success and the belligerents continue to fight on. In the southernmost areas of Yemen, the prized areas which overlook the narrow passage from the Red Sea into the Arabian Sea, called Bab el-Mandeb Strait are a group of fighters originally claiming alliance with al-Qaeda but recently changing their alliance to presumably the Islamic State. These groups have benefited directly from Saudi raids as has the currently recognized Hadi-led government.

 

Yemen Battle Map

 

Lastly let us finally look at Israel. On the Golan Heights IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have returned fire when fired upon by intention and otherwise has unofficial drop points for wounded individuals, civilian and combatant though no difference is noted, wounded and in need of treatment. IDF soldiers take these wounded and treat them in their field facility with the more serious cases transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment. After treatment the individuals once sufficiently recovered are returned from whence they came at same drop points. All sides can view the individual drop points and all points are respected by other fighting factions in an unarranged agreement as all sides use this treatment method and no one side wishes to risk being cut-off from Israeli treatment and have to rely on whatever resources they have available. We have no information as to whether any Iranian forces have received treatment from the Israelis though if placed in civilian clothing they would receive the same treatment as any other individual. The Israeli border with Lebanon is currently quiet as Hezballah has sufficient on their plate with forces in the Syrian conflict and rumored even to have some fighting with IRGC or Houthis in Yemen. Intelligence believed to be accurate estimated that Hezballah has stores of rockets of varying size and capable of striking Tel Aviv, Bathsheva and even Ashkelon as well as guided missiles from Iran capable of striking anywhere in Israel including the southernmost port city of Eilat carrying warhead as large as two kilos and potentially five or ten up to one-hundred kilos warheads on their short and medium ranged rockets of which they possess as many as one-hundred-seventy-five-thousand. On their larger missiles they have warheads of as much as seven-hundred-fifty kilos on modified Zilzal-2 with a four-hundred km range and which they possess an estimated one thousand. Their Fateh-110 missile has a range three-hundred km range striking at Mach 3.5 carrying a four to seven-hundred kg warhead of which Hezballah possess more than twenty-thousand and lastly there is the Shaheen-II two stage missile which has a range of two-thousand km making able to strike anywhere in Israel and into Egypt. Each missile is capable of flight altitude of up to three-hundred km, is GPS guided, and varies a one-thousand plus kg warhead making it potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and retaining it guidance hardware. It is doubtful that Iran has, let alone provided Hezballah with a deliverable nuclear warhead. Such is not far from the horizon for Iran but their providing Hezballah with such a weapon is doubtful.

 

The remaining fronts for Israel are with Jordan and Egypt which are both peaceful and with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria as well as with Hamas and ally Islamic Jihad and other terror and criminal groups in Gaza. The front with the PA is largely one where there are terror strikes which can be planned by Abbas and the his PLO terror groups or the less planned but instigated through calls for violence from PA figures, PLO figures or any of a litany of groups most of which are either headed by Mahmoud Abbas or are willful practitioners at his beck and call. The most recent round were stabbings carried out largely by Palestinian Arab and some Israeli Arab youths as well as car rammings along with rock and Molotov cocktail throwing with rioting which are carried out routinely by PA controlled terror groups, the Tamini family instigators who work closely with European Union and other European NGOs whose main aims are to cause any violent response by Israel which is filmed and the instigation causing the defensive act is edited and with careful editing and juxtaposition of stock footage, prerecorded footage or actual footage with any questionable instigations by the Arabs edited over or out completely compiled into the final product which is then transmitted throughout European news agencies within a matter of a couple of hours and they run with it unedited as if it were an actual news story followed by their governments and the European union then condemning Israel for use of disproportional force or the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Gaza front is another area where Iran attempts with some success to smuggle arms mostly containing rocket motors and rocket parts and technology. Funding for Hamas comes from UNRWA as well as from the PA making the European Union, United States, United Nations and individual European nations as well as numerous Arab countries direct or indirect financiers of Hamas terrorism and rocket attacks as well as Arab instigations and propaganda which permeates their entire society from their media to the schools, summer camps soccer leagues and every aspect of childhood and raising the children to hate Jews as well as Israel. The Hamas Charter calls not only for the annihilation of Israel but of Jews worldwide. Similar language is found in Islamic Jihad and Hezballah pamphlets and charters or constitutions. The hatred goes well beyond Israel and includes Jews everywhere as well as Western culture and societies. Hamas and their allies as well as Hezballah desire a world caliphate under Sharia and openly claim so. The main difference is whether the caliphate would be Shiite or Sunni, for the rest of us that is a minor comfort.

 

Beyond the Cusp