Time for Israel to Be for Israel

 

The time has more than come for Israel to be for Israel and simply do that which will best serve Israelis and the nation of Israel. We know full well what the Arabs will not rest until they have attained, and that is the destruction of Israel and either the subjugation and oppression of the Jews of Israel or possibly a second Shoah, a second Holocaust. We further understand that should Israel fail that it would likely be the death knell tolling for Judaism worldwide. There is no solution to the Arab problem that will result in an end to their terrorism and constant assaults on our people. We have witnessed this from their actions. We have witnessed it by reading the material they use to educate their children to continue the war without end. We have witnessed it through their claims on all of our holy sites which in fact predate Islam but they attempt to claim them as Islamic sites. We have witnessed the willingness of the United Nations to coddle and accept that the eventuality they must support is the subjugation or elimination of the Jewish People and of our national homeland of Eretz Yisroel, of Israel for those demanding the vernacular reference. There being no compromise which would satisfy the Arabs, the only satisfactory result then is to comply with their wish that all the rest of what remains of our recognized and rightful claims to our legal and defined by treaty and reinforced by our Biblical defined lands be kept as a single nation; we simply need to take complete control over these lands.

 

 

Eretz Yisroel the Israel Solution to Problems is One State Solution with Citizenship for Anybody Who Desires Living in Peace with Equal Rights Responsibilities and Worshiping as One Pleases

 

 

The first and biggest challenge to the formal implementation of claiming that which is defined by the San Remo Conference and all ensuing guarantees and final determinations accepted by the world through the League of Nations and by that through the United Nations, we will be tasked and challenged to come up with a satisfactory plan for the Arabs who claim to be an independent nation of Palestine. The offer we should allow is the gifting of the areas defined as their lands under both political and presumably all other manners as indisputably their lands; Area A and the attached areas from Area B should be proportioned as a semi-autonomous region which will remain as the Palestinian territory under semi-autonomous self-rule and defended against any infiltration or act of war against their semi-autonomous lands by the IDF. These lands are theirs for as long as they take no action against Israel or allow for terror strikes to be coming from their semi-autonomous region; otherwise, they will have forsaken their claim to live peaceably with the people of Israel and at such time that our living together has been proven by acts of terror to be impossible, then impossible it is.

 

Once this has become the proof, then Israel will do that which Israel must do and we will terminate the state of allowing any semi-autonomous regions within our lands and reestablish our rightful claims to the lands of Judea and Samaria and the Arabs who claim “Palestinian Identity” will be given an offer of accepting a fair price for their lands and a generous additional stipulation as a resettlement award and free airfare for them and the shipping by most expedient manner of their personal possessions and they will have forfeit any claims to a connection of the lands within the nation of Israel. Should the Arabs desire to remain and live within the nation of Israel, we will welcome them much the same as any nation would accept a number of people living within their borders and are dead set to destroy your nation would do, expel those who refuse to live peaceably despite it being a monstrous act. And as far as it being an inhospitable solution, by doing so we are making the land safe for everyone else. That is the sole acceptable behavior as the representatives of those blessed to reestablishment of the nation of Israel. We would likely, as a nation and responsible People, grant the Arabs some manner of acceptance and admittance to the nation of Israel.

 

 

Eretz Yisroel from back in the time immediately after Exodus and before the additional conquest by King David and King Solomon with the original division of the lands between the Tribes covering both sides of the Jordan River. The Israelis and Jews in general could attempt to demand that Eretz Yisroel, the Land of Israel be made whole as was First Apportioned by Hashem.

 

 

 

Needless to point out that we would not be accepting them as an enemy within our borders dead set on the destruction of our nation, but we could be accepting of granting them a home. We would instead accept them as Israeli citizens with all the rights as Israeli citizens once they have completed the required courses in our People’s history and the righteousness of our claims to these lands. Upon completing such an education and proving their having understood and accepted our ownership of the lands of Israel, they will be rewarded a trial citizenship status which will permit their voting in regional elections for the towns designated as regions permitted them within Israel. They would be informed that any act against the nation and the peoples of Israel could and very likely would result in their entire family being deported. We must make it understood that we as the proper and legal nation in these lands have taken control of our entire lands and they have forfeit any claims for self-rule. Should they refuse such an offer we would have little choice but to grant them one last opportunity to live within the lands of Israel as an alien national residing within our borders. As such, these alien nationals residing within our borders would have legal restrictions under which the one thing we could and would not be capable of countenance and that would be any acts against the State of Israel or her peoples. Any acts of terror would result in the deporting of the offending individual and a legally defined settlement offered their immediate family if they desire joining their family member and be expelled with their family member. Any such choices would be considered final and any deported person would be dealt with by imprisonment for the sentence announced and having been deported merely as an alternative to prison thus any return would result in their imprisonment.

 

Those who had passed their citizenship course and been accepted for a trial citizenship would have a defined manner through which to attain full citizenship. The first requirement would be the swearing of allegiance and faithful service to the nation of Israel and the denouncing of any other allegiance. Then they would need to serve a period where they would have local vote and would be granted regional vote and within a decade be granted full citizenship provided they and no member of their family had committed any actions against the nation or its laws during the decade of trial and stepped implementation aiming for the incorporation of full rights as a citizen of Israel. Israel would make every attempt to accept as many Arabs as desired to live within Israel and under her rule of law and meet the criteria set forth at the time of reincorporation as full citizens of the nation of Israel.

 

Israel would need take over the education of all Arab children teaching them about the lands and the history of these lands during the times under Jewish rule up until the final Roman dispersion and the end of our direct control of the Jewish homelands and resulted in our becoming strangers in lands controlled by an alien people who would enforce an alien culture upon the People of Israel residing within their borders. This exile was the reason we were instructed to adapt and obey the rule of law of the lands within which our exiled Peoples found themselves. This gives us a special understanding of being a people within lands where you are not understood or completely accepted. We understand people’s desires when residing in a foreign land with a foreign culture and would try our best to grant accommodation and respect of the cultures of these people just as we desired when we were the strangers and because we are told to treat the stranger amongst us as if they were full citizens as we were strangers in the land of Egypt. This would not mean that Israel would suffer from granting peoples residing within our borders freedom to attempt to destroy our nation and would apply our laws to all within our borders.

Those who were involved in the Arab terror attacks and ruling and commanders over these terrorist activities would be expelled along with their families. Such would be final unless these people were able to convince the citizenship board by reasonable actions and assurances as to why their remaining would serve Israeli purposes. Their claim to be the rightful people to rule the Arabs within Israel would definitely not be an acceptable reason as their previous role as leaders were rogue terror units or the government which turned a blind eye to these acts against the People of Israel. As for those serving sentences in Israeli prisons, they will be expected to complete their sentence and then they would be evaluated in much the same standards as were the other Arabs before them during the annexation and liberation of the remaining lands. Those serving life sentences would be made an offer of serving twenty years followed by expulsion or remain in prison for the remainder of their lives. Such an offer is more than fair and likely never before permitted by any nation; but then Israel set new boundaries for such tolerance from the very first hours of her existence when every Arab residing within Israeli borders were to be granted to be treated as a full citizen within the nascent State of Israel, those accepting that offer and their children and their children’s children for all times are now Israeli citizens with the full rights which come with citizenship. The Druze, Bedouin, those practicing Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá’í Faith who were residing within Israel are today amongst her citizens. There are no restrictions by ethnicity or religion within Israel permitting that the individual is a law abiding person willing to accept citizenship in Israel placing such above any others and accept the sovereignty of the State of Israel.

 

 

Eretz Yisroel as formed after the conquests by the Kingdoms of King David and King Solomon; both of whom allowed the Principalities of Edom, Moab and Ammon to be semi-autonomous as long as they and their armies supported Eretz Yisroel

 

 

Will there be a backlash from amongst the other nations of the world? You bet there will be and prepare for it to be loud and ferocious in as far as verbal noise will go. There will likely be very few challenging the move legally as the nations all realize the legality backed by agreements and treaty. There is a distinct probability that some nations in and around our neighborhood who might threaten a violent action; but that too will prove to be simply louder noise. Then there will be the filing of complaints against Israel in the International Courts which will bear a distinct resemblance to others which have been refused previously. If they suddenly become acceptable then we will produce the necessary records, deliberations, treaties, agreements, conferences and even the United Nations Charter, so let them file away. Should the General Assembly demand that Israel make her case and explain these actions we have stood before General Assembly sanction before and survived. Should the Security Council even murmur about our legal acts and decide they desire sanction against Israel then so be it, but they should prepare to be without all that Israel invented and produces, then so be it. Should the Security Council even hint at revoking Israeli membership at the United Nations, then so be it. The United Nations has served its purpose and the dye has been cast and we who are the people of Israel can and will accept whatever decision made by the United Nations. Should there be any murmurings calling into doubt the legality of Israel, we will grant them all the importance they deserve all but ignoring them. Instead Israeli leadership should join the protest in favor of redrawing the set-up of the Security Council. We should demand Israeli inclusion as the sole representative of a nation without a region and promise to be the voice of the smallest island nations of the Pacific as many have been kind with us. Additionally, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Australia, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic should be added as permanent members to the Security Council for good measure. Further, the laws covering vetoes must be changed such that four of the permanent nations must cast a veto for any measure to be automatically vetoed by the Security Council, all because such alterations have been a bone of contention for some time. Any way the world would desire to slice things, Israel need to simply ignore there inanities and have a healthy laugh at their desperate antics. This is especially if Israel were forced to take any overt measures to establish her rightful borders and place amongst the nations. Israel, with a three thousand year history before most of these nations even had been populated by civilizations need not suffer the chaotic prattles and unbearable cacophonous objections as we finalize that which should have been restored long ago. Israel, of course, will show mercy and not demand an apology for the two millennial delay of our recognition and will simply allow it to pass as a necessity demanded by Hashem in all His wisdom.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Who Will Pope Francis Blame When ISIS Slaughters in Jerusalem?

 

Pope Francis, during his visitation to the Holy Lands, was sure to make a very public statement over the plight of the Palestinian Arabs as he made a highly publicized stop at the exact section of the security barrier where Pope Francis claimed to make a prayer for a unified Arab Palestinian State emphasizing the proposed relationship to, as scrawled on that very section of the barrier, the similarity of the Warsaw Ghetto’s walls and the Israeli built security barrier, a separation object that is largely a fence but along certain stretches is required to be an actual wall such as within heavily built up areas so that it also keeps bullets and explosives from being easily launched into Israeli areas safeguarding both Arabs and Jews of all religions and all others from terrorist assaults on their lives and which has resulted in a highly effective tool in preventing homicide/suicide bombers, homicidal vehicle attacks and sniper attacks of various varieties bringing such attacks down to becoming a rarity compared to previous attacks before the barrier was constructed. Further, Pope Francis made it publically emphasized that his trip began with meetings with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Palestinians which he made sure to enter from Jordan flying initially into the Jordanian capital city of Amman specifically to avoid any possible meeting with Israeli officials. The Pope went further as he make a long procession, almost a victory parade, accompanied by numerous Arab Palestinian leadership from Bethlehem to Jerusalem emphasizing in his remarks the plight and flight from Bethlehem of its once predominant Christian population making heavy implications that such a sorry state of affairs had everything to do with Israeli ‘occupation’ and the hardships caused by the Israeli government, meaning the Jewish People, completely absolving the Arab Palestinians and their history of antagonism and persecution of the Christians causing the massive flight in fear for their lives from threats and actual terrorist aggressions.

 

This was followed by a visit to Israel where Pope Francis had a totally different persona becoming somewhat aggressive and antagonistic demanding the Catholic Church be granted their inalienable rights to ownership of large areas of Jerusalem with special emphasis on newly made claims to the building which houses the gravesite of King David claiming the room above King David’s tomb was a possible Christian Holy Site where the Last Supper had recently been claimed to have taken place moving it from the previous traditional spot where there were no contentious claims to this aggressively contentious place where it placed this Christian site above and over a highly Jewish site and further the Pope demanded rights to offer prayer services, a privilege granted and almost immediately abused by attempting to hold such prayers specifically on days where Jews had particularly offered up prayers from the site and taking assurances to hold these prayer before the scheduled Jewish services thus intentionally making the site void for Jewish prayer. The Pope was far from done with his assault on Judaism as well as launching additional assaults on Israel and Israeli claims within the Holy Lands in general at times appearing to insinuate obliquely that the Jews were without any religious claims as they were no longer recognized as having any religious rights having been supplanted and superseded making void any Jewish religiously made claims having been replaced by Christianity.

 

This particular claim made by the Pontiff has ramifications beyond the replacement theology where it is postulated that the Jews have become damned as replaced as the chosen people by the Christians, the Pope would claim the Catholic Church, and no longer favored by the L0rd and cast forth from Jerusalem specifically and without claims throughout the Holy Lands. Pope Francis has, by renewing the replacement theology of the past, set the precedent that Hashem can and has broken vows and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and others which identified the Jewish People as those chosen to carry His Message to the rest of the world has been abrogated and transferred to the Catholic Church which makes the supersessions claimed by Islam claiming that the Christians have themselves been cast off as were the Jews making the Muslims not only the replacement in eyes of Hashem but also the final chosen peoples to carry forth the messages of Hashem and, going one step further, the ones chosen to rule all of humanity going even further afield of a similar claim indigenous to the Christian faith as Judaism never held that the world would be their inheritance, they claimed only a rather insignificant measure of land strategic only in its central location to Europe, Africa and Asia being the region where the three continents converge and having ports which can connect the two main trade routes which have since been serviced by the Suez Canal.

 

The reassertion of the policy of the Catholic Church having replaced the Jews as those having a covenant with Hashem has left the Catholic Church also subjected to being replaced as the chosen of Hashem which is exactly the claim made by Islam. Carrying the replacement and the sole holy religion has also seen both Catholicism, in the more native guise of Christianity, and Islam to thus interpret such to authorize their sovereignty over the entire planet in order for them to properly prepare for the return of Jesus which had been carried one step further by the Islamic extremists claim that their religion being the sole religion Divinely inspired as the replacement, the final replacement of both Judaism and Christianity not only should rule over all of Earth but also be the sole religion practiced by all mankind. This has been carried out to the letter by ISIS as well as being the stated end goal by Iran, Hamas, Hezballah and various other claimants to being the sole pure remaining practitioners of Islam as defined by Muhammad and is behind a very real threat being made by ISIS and a number of their adherents. The agents for ISIS in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), why that redundancy is required by all that is politically correct makes me really desire to cease the practice, and I shall endeavor to do so going forth, are requesting for a list of all the Christians residing in (East) Jerusalem and their addresses to be given to those ISIS representatives by the faithful of Muhammad, note that not all are claiming faithful to ISIS following the practice of deference when outnumbered and until gaining sufficient numbers, somewhere around twenty percent, before becoming more forceful and soon thereafter, around thirty-five percent, taking rule by force and demanding total and complete allegiance followed by choice of becoming part of the faithful as defined by ISIS to the sword, otherwise death. They want these lists as soon as possible such that they can make the necessary plans and make sure they have the necessary power and people to carry out an ethnic cleansing of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem. They have not requested such a list of the Jews residing within the area as they likely believe that those entire neighborhoods are easily known and identifiable.

 

This list will necessarily be assembled with an assault plan in mind by which the vast majority of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem will be forced from the area implied by the sword and not by choice but such will probably be a logistics driven decision. The ISIS planners will take the precaution of having sufficient deployment of forces such that each unit will have a flanking unit on either side or at a close proximity allowing the massing of forces should any resistance be mounted such that they can quickly and without sacrificing their intended missions gather sufficient force to swarm any resistance counting on numbers to turn the tide of battle. Such has been the tactic used by ISIS as well as preparing the area for their assault before-hand. Not possessing sufficient artillery ISIS instead uses vehicle bombs and homicide/suicide bombers to soften their intended targets instilling confusion and disorganization amongst their intended target before they follow-up with swarming the target neutralizing any recovery minimizing their target any time to regroup and form a coordinated counterattacks or even an organized defense with overlapping fields of fire and the other considerations usually carried out well in advance and practiced including tactics of the enemy being interjected at unannounced times to test procedures for just such scenarios. The target in this instance is basically a cleansing operation intended to either clear an area of any opposition or make clear that certain types residing within an area should necessarily depart before they too face the determined business end of an ISIS representative’s weapon. Their announced target date for this cleansing of the population for Allah is the final day of Ramadan which falls in July 16, 2015.

 

The first determination which must be realized by Israeli police and military forces is whether to act as an intervention in force early on and prevent the organization of ISIS forces, wait until they have gathered so as to maximize arrests, intervene as soon as the assembled ISIS forces pose a threat or to simply ignore the threat and only respond to calls in an usual manner leaving the Arab Palestinians pretty much to their own ability. The final option is actually an option not supported by Torah and Jewish Law as we are directed to protect human life as even the lowest amongst us, the beggar, the infirm, the stranger and others we might normally divert our attentions from are still lives we are commanded to care for and keep safe. The concept that each life is potentially an entire nation thus if one saves one life it is as if one has saved a world. That basically means that Israeli defense and law enforcement forces must be prepared for and the one which is most feasible resulting in there being no loss of life be the ones sent for further considerations. Another consideration should be by which of the tactics that prevents any innocent casualties would allow for the most ruinous of setbacks for ISIS and at the same time making their claims of bringing the reincarnation of the Caliphate into question. There needs to be one more principled consideration, the threat to Israeli personnel and citizens, not to claim that any one life is of greater importance than another as that is beyond our ability to reason and is best left to the Creator who knows all things, Hashem. There is one consideration which must be made initially; which is whether or not this threat posed is valid and thus worthy of making and practicing for such an eventuality. Most ISIS threats issued have proven to be real and worthy of notice, but that does not necessarily mean that this attack threat must automatically be considered valid. This threat might be being presented to gauge the level of Israeli response to threats in order to more closely study the anatomy of such a response. Whatever the reasoning behind such a threat, Israeli leadership can be assured they will be held totally responsible for any casualties outside Israeli personnel. Any other nation would be the recipient of sympathy and offers of assistance with the aftermath with support in repairing any damage, aid money to augment responses training in preparation as if there is a singular attack response which would be universally applied to every attack and resolve all problems and serious planning for special situations such as a visit and speech by another head of state.

 

The importance of responding both effectively and forcefully against any initial attack while not going to an overboard approach cannot be overestimated in this instance. Should Israel present an overly cautious and overt response to this particular threat, then ISIS planners would have an effective but simple approach to fomenting fear within Israel by simply pretending to plan an attack and allow the overt, heavy-handed Israeli ramping-up of security measures. Fortunately, for actual events such as parades, speeches and other events or places where people congregate such as train and bus stations and malls; Israel does a fabulous and renowned level of successful security to meet the requirement necessary for each location and expected crowd. Since all ISIS would need to do to estimate the Israeli response to any situation would be to go study any previous similar situation and view the control of the threat level caused and they would have their answer. Pushing a threat against Israel on her own soil and thus giving her home field advantage will simply make everything that much more difficult for ISIS. In this instance Israel will be required to bring to the table an actual threat assessment and response plan as should ISIS actually follow through on a mission to slaughter as many civilian innocents, almost especially any of the numerous minority populations, as Israel is held to the highest expectation of levels possible in the world. Israel is the only nation expected to be capable of providing on a consistent and near universal level security superior to any European nation, any Western nation and even particularly the United States. Israeli security is expected to match when provided for the most insignificant of those amongst us a level of public security roughly the equivalent of that provided the Queen of England, and Israel has thus far throughout her brief but situation filled history met that challenge almost universally; Baruch Hashem. Anybody wishing an actual example of similar situations and the difference between Israeli response and another nation with proper expectations of being capable in a security situation such as a hostage crisis, simply compare the handling of the 1972 Olympic Games abduction of the Israeli team in Munich where most of the Israeli team consisting of six Israeli coaches and five Israeli athletes were taken hostage and ended up murdered along with one German police officer while five Black September members were eliminated in the regrettable failed rescue attempt where the plans for the rescue operation were poorly executed and all of the requested aid did not arrive on scene until two hours after the stand-off and siege began leading to the conflagration that murdered most of the Israelis tied up in the helicopter which was detonated with a grenade thrown by one of the terrorists compared to the Entebbe raid by an elite IDF unit responding to the hijacking of an Air France flight and the holding of Israeli and Jewish passengers and crew numbering over one hundred victims at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, a distance of over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) in Operation Entebbe, as it came to be known, on July 4, 1976 (giving Israelis a reason to celebrate on as high a level as the people in the United States could on that nation’s bicentennial celebrations) where all but four of the one-hundred-six hostages were rescued with the IDF team suffering five injured and a sole fatality of one of the team commanders and older brother to a future Israeli Prime Minister, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, and all of the terrorists either killed or injured along with almost half of the approximately one hundred Ugandan military troops providing security for the terrorists. Israel had offered assistance and even to handle a rescue attempt with the German government who not only refused the Israeli offer but informed Israeli government officials that any Israelis sent to Germany would be refused entry at the airport and returned to Israel as this was a German operation and Israel had no right to interfere. Perhaps the Germans should have turned it over to the Israelis and thus make Israel responsible for the results.

 

But what is it they say about history, it is what it is and physics has not yet figured out how to alter history, only politicians and the media have such power. That is why when the history is written about the July 16, 2015 ISIS Ramadan assault intending to murder every Christian possible throughout Eastern Jerusalem the only credit or blame for this intended catastrophe in the manner of the cleansing of Mosul, the destruction of the two-thousand-eight-hundred-year-old capital of the Assyrian empire, Khorsabad, including its seven gates and the city with its most highly regarded sixty-four foot wall erected around 713 BCE by King Sargon II during his reign and nearly completely demolished in the beginning of the twenty-first century (or the fifteenth century on the Islamic calendar), parts of which have been preserved in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago; destroyed thousands of books in libraries across the lands they have savagely rampaged with some of the books such as the rare books in Mosul are irreplaceable and singular remnants of wisdom and writings from ancient to the modern times; reintroduced slavery on a massive scale and especially the selling of woman as sexual slaves to the highest bidder, some women have been returned for receipt of a percentage of her resale price; burned, drowned, prisoners alive; shot, and beheaded people sentenced to death for even minor offences or taken prisoner; crucified Christians; blown apart prisoners shoved into a car with anti-tank missile; taken sledge hammers to ancient sculptures, vases, pottery destroying ancient displays in museums; and promised to bring this parade of horrors to every corner of the globe should they be allowed that possibility. This is the assembly of monsters across continents with fellow travelers identifying and subjugating their will all in a similar vein such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad; and other equally offensive and revolting acts all threatening to replace the comfortable lives of the decadent Western world should they be given that chance. That is their promise and where is the response from the supposed civilized world? They are either leading from behind or covering the back of the leader leading from behind all in all leaving Israel to fight the world’s war and stop the advance of those who desire a return to the tenth century, a backwards jolt on either calendar, especially the Jewish calendar which is in the fifty-eighth century.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What ISIS Jordanian Pilot Barbarity Means for Humankind

 

While the United States was debating which retread political sloganeering to rally around for the next two years and the White House was deciding how next to interfere in Israeli politics and Egypt faced another terror menace in the Sinai and much of the world continued attempting to ignore the greatest threat to advancing humanity called ISIS, one leader depicted exactly how all of us should have reacted to the most barbaric sign of human regression since Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were plaguing mankind with their versions of barbarity, namely Jordanian King Abdullah II. His speech was not the most eloquent and did not draw upon high sounding words or propose great sweeping plans; his reaction was visceral, his anger tangible, and his resolve absolute. The man spoke of action and he then mobilized a nation unifying them behind his resolve to strike back at the evil that is ISIS. He ordered an immediate reprisal by the execution of two terrorists who sat on death row in Jordan, one of whom ISIS had bargained to exchange for the Jordanian pilot despite having already murdered him. Then on Thursday King Abdullah II visited the mourning tent of the fallen pilot, Lt. Muath Kassasbeh, which quickly escalated into a pro-war rally, with young men pledging their “blood and soul” to wage war against ISIS. There have been rumors that the King plans on leading airstrikes personally, though this is unlikely as though he is a skilled and able pilot, his experience is in rotary winged craft such as the Cobra in which he was trained when enrolled in the United Kingdom’s Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in the 1980’s. Where the brutality by ISIS was intended to intimidate pilots from the coalition currently striking ISIS largely from the air, the effect on the nation of Jordan has been the opposite as the King has taken the lead and the nation has rallied behind him. King Abdullah II has a long and storied experience of hands-on training and working with the Jordanian military and is well respected amongst the officers and men. He previously commanded Jordanian Special Forces and has often flown himself on inspections of the military and situations around the nation.

 

The releasing Wednesday of satellite images of the pilots’ homes and an offer of a 100 golden-dinar-bounty by ISIS was intended to threaten other Jordanian pilots causing them to defect or at least refuse to fly further missions. After the video was released showing the gruesome fiery death of Jordanian Pilot Lt. Muath Kassasbeh, the Jordanian response has been exactly the opposite as one group of pilots overflew Lt. Kassasbeh’s village after returning to Jordanian air space after flying sorties against ISIS positions in Syria. This was just more evidence that the mood in Jordan has turned from slowly growing resistance against Jordanian missions in the coalition to one of total war footing to avenge this wrong done against every Jordanian, especially her pilots. The King showed his support for the pilot and his origins in the Bedouin community as he donned the traditional red Bedouin kefiyah passing on his message of tangible empathy with their pain when addressing the nation thus pledging the nation to stand in unity to avenge this national challenge. During King Abdullah II visit to the family’s grieving tent, Mohammed Kassasbeh, the pilot’s cousin, declared his desire to join Jordan’s military stating, “Muath was not the first martyr and will not be the last martyr for this country. We are at war and we are all prepared to fight.” His reactions were simply another piece of evidence of the changed mood in Jordan which has rallied behind the King and against ISIS.

 

Signaling what may be the next step in the Jordanian newly declared war with ISIS, says Jawad Anani, a Jordanian senator and former foreign minister, stated, “The Islamic State declared war on Jordan, its pilots, and security. We are going to see a military escalation, and the dispatch of ground forces is the next logical step.” Jordanian State media has run some stories indicating such a move possibly to gauge public sentiment and degree of backing for such a move. The potentially troubling reality is that over one-thousand-five-hundred Jordanians are estimated to have joined ISIS with dozens having risen to leadership positions. This provides ISIS with detailed intelligence of Jordanian society, its military and potential security weaknesses. These Jordanian volunteers within ISIS are suspected of assisting in the recent revelation of the names and even home addresses of Jordanian military pilots. Reactions on both sides of this now critical divide will prove telling over the coming weeks. Still, these events are making for an unusual pairing of anti-ISIS forces as Jordan and King Abdullah II have not had the best relations with Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad yet both find themselves opposing ISIS though it would be foolish to expect any cooperation between the two countries or their militaries. It may have been partially due to the perception that ISIS was opposed to Syria and al-Assad which caused some Jordanians to join ISIS though that may be giving these volunteers too much credit for their knowledge of the political realm as they may simply have been drawn to join ISIS for the same vainglorious reasons that other youthful recruits have done so.

 

Where the Jordanian heated response will likely provide some additional force to the fight against ISIS, Jordan alone will not be sufficient to turn the tide against them all that much faster. Much will depend on whether Jordanian troops are injected into the fight on the ground, the component which is sorely needed if ISIS is to be degraded and defeated with any alacrity. The best of situations would have included other nations, especially the members of the GCC (Gulf Cooperative Council) led by Saudi Arabia, which had made gestures not long ago of their desire to include Jordan amongst its members, signaling their intentions to join Jordan in their efforts and also joining Jordan in the denunciations of the barbarity shown by ISIS in their burning alive of the Jordanian pilot. Such has not been the case and by all initial indications, the remainder of the Sunni world remains mostly asleep and blissful in their ignoring of the threat posed by ISIS.

 

The remainder of any efforts to crush ISIS will unfortunately fall upon a leaderless Western coalition which appears to be paralyzed waiting for someone to take the lead. The obvious leader would normally have been the United States but alas the President is too full of waging his war on the Republicans to bother with saving the world from the barbarian at their gates. Much of President Obama’s actions, such as his hypocritical denunciations of the Judeo-Christian world for their barbarity of six to fifteen hundred years ago as a reason to disqualify them from passing judgment on any barbarity being waged against the world currently during his speech delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. this past week, tend to equate historical shortcomings of Christianity with similar barbarisms committed today in the name of Islam. With Washington asleep at the switch, can the world honestly expect anybody else to step up and take the lead and join Jordan in what may prove to be the beginning of the singular greatest challenge of the coming century? If such a national leader exists, please have them hurry as the world awaits its savior despite the probability that whoever steps forward will more likely be pilloried as a wild, warmongering hooligan than hailed as the potential new leader of the civilized world. By all appearances, the old powers of civility, that would be the members of the European Union, the great moralizers when it comes to Israel, the United States, and especially the exceptional positions taken in the last few years by the Canadians, apparently are content to quake in fear that Russia might turn its ravenous gaze in their direction to worry about the growing menace in the heart of the Middle East. The other potential leadership might come from Israel except that such a move would be more likely to band together the forces of the Arab and Muslim worlds to stand with ISIS than to stand against ISIS.

 

The problem is that many in the Middle East view ISIS as a problem between Syria and Iraq and their allies Iran and Hezballah than as a threat to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt or the rest of the GCC membership, thus they are content to sit on the sidelines as much as possible hoping that ISIS and the Iranian axis will beat each other to death and thus remove them as viable challenges in the future. The problem with such a view is there is just as much a possibility that Iran will come out the winner of the struggle against ISIS and in the process cement their influence and domination of the areas surrounding Saudi Arabia and her GCC allies and in a position to strangle their oil trade. Iran with its Houthis allies now taking the preeminent position in Yemen are now also threatening to seize control of the mouth to the red sea and thus be in a position to block all sea traffic passing through the Suez Canal which would deliver the deathblow to the Egyptian’s fragile economic situation. Should Iran control both the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, they would have a complete stranglehold on the Gulf oil kingdoms and all trade between Europe and Asia by controlling the southern exit from the Red Sea and thus the Suez Canal. With Iran threatening such complete control over the maritime trade routes, especially those of oil and Euro-Asian trade routes, they could quickly bring the world to its knees within weeks. Further, combining this with their land hegemony including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, they would also block the major land routes between Europe and Asia. The main stumbling block may currently be ISIS but they will not be able to withstand a full on assault by Iran, especially once Iran completes their negotiations with the west in March and retain their supposed right to enrich Uranium. That is the sole item they need to ensure they acquire from the negotiations with the P5+1 (United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany) over their nuclear program; and if they succeed, then G0d help us all.

 

The current sticking point appears to be over the numbers of centrifuges that Iran will be permitted to keep operationally and interconnected as the United States was initially pressing for hundreds while Iran has demanded the full nineteen-thousand as well as the right to continue research into even more advanced centrifuges and the right to produce and substitute them as they become available. The initial approval for Iran to retain their ability for the continuation of their research into even higher speeds and greater yield potentials from their centrifuges and the implementing the newer and higher capacity centrifuges replacing older models as they become available has all the appearances of being a done deal. Recently Secretary of State Kerry allowed to slip out the negotiating prerogatives of the United States when he stated that the United States would continue to present their positions and those that the Iranians balked on or rejected would simply be ignored and the next point brought forward for discussion. The implication was that the United states desired a deal, any deal, to such an extent that they are willing to forego any and every demand and restriction they had sought just so a deal would be attained by the fast approaching March 24 deadline. This mention of the latest surrender by the United States and their intention to surrender all the way to a deal, if that was what was required, leaves those hoping that the United States had actually intended to prevent Iran from reaching nuclear breakout point without any real restrictions to their achieving nuclear weapons production, presumably before anybody being able to detect their doing so, let alone actually taking measures to prevent such an occurrence, now must prepare for the world with a nuclear armed Iran.

 

The United States default position now appears to rely completely on deterrence and to have surrendered on prevention of a nuclear armed Iran. Does anybody honestly believe that Iran would not announce their breakout to nuclear weapons nation by dropping two or three tactical nuclear devices of limited yields onto ISIS positions in order to bring their threat to a halt while letting the rest of the nations in the area be stunned into submission. That would simply be the starting gun on nuclear proliferation across the entire Middle East with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and who knows who else is racing to gain nuclear parity with the Iranians as quickly as they are able. After the entire Middle East and North Africa attain nuclear weapons capability, how long before somebody uses their nuclear weapons to preemptively strike another nation or clandestinely provides a nuclear device to terror entities for delivery anywhere in the world. That is the future which is rapidly approaching and this will only be further facilitated as claims will initially be made that nuclear weaponizing the military was a necessity in order to prevent the spread of ISIS which then becomes prevent the spread of who next and then after that what happens. This could be made less of a possibility if only somebody from the Western world would stand up and take the lead as the United States is in permanent surrender mode for the time being. That much should have become evident by now, so who wants to take the lead until the world comes to their senses, if it ever does?

 

Beyond the Cusp