Why Does Israel Continue to Exist Today?

 

Ask the average American irreligious or slightly religious Jew, many call them secular Jews or twice a year Jews who only visit the synagogue for the High Holidays and celebrate Hanukkah almost as if it were the Jewish Christmas even to having what they call a Hanukkah Bush (it really is a Christmas Tree with a six pointed star on top instead of a five pointed star). Ask the Jewish leadership of the Anti-Defamation League. Ask Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism. Ask Gideon Levy who writes for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Ask J-Street, B’Tselem, Peace Now or any of the plethora of misnamed human rights groups which act as Palestinian Arab critical support and fifth column against Israeli interests. The list of people and groups one can ask extends throughout Europe and the entire world with an ever growing number vocally screaming foul over the latest law passed by the Knesset which makes the Jewish communities anywhere west of the Jordan River legal, even those in the, dare we say it, West Bank, formerly known as Judea and Samaria for close to three thousand years. All these protesters keep repeating that this law will destroy the Israeli democracy and disenfranchise Arabs in Israel. This is total bunk. The Israeli Arabs will not be affected by this law in any way or by any means, period. Arabs will still be permitted to work in any position they are qualified to and desire, they will continue to be doctors, nurses, lawyers, Ministers in the Knesset, judges including on the Supreme Court, drivers, construction, engineering or anything they can dream. They will still own their homes, live where they choose, attend schools of their choice, attend church, Mosque, Synagogue or other religious institution of their choice, drive, ride all forms of transportation, vote in all elections and everything else as citizens of Israel. Guess that democracy thing will survive.

 

I hear the yelling already, “What about the Palestinians voting?” Well, tell you what, whenever Mahmoud Abbas decides that elections are due, then they can have elections. Abbas is serving his twelfth year of a four year term which started in January 2005. The reason the Palestinian Arabs have not voted is because the Palestinian Authority, which means Mahmoud Abbas who has become its dictatorial ruler, has suspended their democratic processes as Abbas knows he would never win in a fair election and the deceit necessary to have him win is beyond his personal ability to manage as there are those standing ready for any opportunity to replace him. Israel has absolutely no control over elections for the Palestinian authority any more than it has over elections in Gaza ruled by Hamas. Where Israel is often faulted for the lack of opportunity to vote for their government by the Arab Palestinians, it has no validity and nothing to do with Arab Israelis who have full rights and do vote in Israeli elections. What happens to the Palestinian Arabs has more to do with their true intentions and the actual and real meaning and purpose of the State of Israel. We will try and clarify both in the remainder of this article and hope we can at least set a few misconceptions straight.

 

First, let us cover the easiest misperception, that Israel was founded to be a democracy. Not even slightly true. Israel was founded to be the homeland for the Jewish People. It is that simple. Read the Balfour Declarations (see image below) and you will see nary a word about democracy throughout. Read the San Remo Conference and again nary a word about elections, democracy or anything covering governance. Everything in every treaty, conference, document and even the Mandate Rules written by the League of Nations have no reference to democracy or anything about how the State of Israel was to be governed. The main points were that it was to be the homeland for the Jewish People and it could not deprive the residents residing in the land of their freedoms to own property, practice their religion and all civil and religious rights but says nothing about political rights. According to all of the laws etcetera regarding the making and founding of the State of Israel, the form of governance is completely unmentioned leaving it up to the Jews, the Zionists, to decide as they formed their nation. Technically, Israel could legally limit the right to vote to Jews or even to practicing Jews. Israel did not take that path. Israel gave full rights to their population whether Jewish or not. That is why Arabs are full voting citizens of the State of Israel as are many other peoples who were present or have been allowed citizenship as refugees from persecution. The Arabs who remained in Israel did not join the Arab forces who attacked Israel in the 1948 Arab War of Genocidal Intent launched by the Arab World on Israel’s founding morning of May 15, 1948.

 

Balfour Declaration and
Initial Proposed Map and Lands

 

As a result of that war, what in Israel is euphemistically called the Israeli War of Independence and is celebrated as a victory as Israel survived, yet the reality comes to territory where Israel lost major parts of Judea and Samaria to Jordan who renamed that area the West Bank while Egypt took over the Gaza Strip. There were some Arab villages which harbored fighters which attacked the Israeli forces from behind the lines which lead to the Israeli forces dispossessing the entire village as that was the expedient way of addressing the situation most efficiently and immediately deciding that the villagers were at the least partially responsible for the use of their areas for staging a rear attack and that they were acting as a fifth column. Much has been misrepresented about these actions claiming that these villagers were dispossessed of their lands simply because they were Arabs and nothing else, ignoring their harboring of Arab forces which were planted in order to attack Israeli forces from behind and cutting off their routes of supply and assaulting the civilians claiming that every Jew was a legitimate target. These differences will never be resolved and can only be mitigated by what means will allow.

 

We have settled that the only real meanings behind the founding of Israel was to take some desert, swamp lands and rock strewn hills into the Jewish homeland. The few people residing in these lands at the end of World War I, a sparse set of peoples strewn here and there, were guaranteed their civil and religious rights such as continued ownership of lands, herds, business, residence and other properties as well as rights to worship in their traditional methods and follow their religions freely. The existing residents were not guaranteed political rights which were reserved technically for the Jewish People if this were the decision of the Zionist Congress upon the founding of the state. When Israel was founded on May 15, 1948 one might say that everything hit the fan as forces from more than a half dozen Arab armies and militias attacked Israel from every possible direction. Peace was not achieved for over a year and when the decision of governance was finally addressed the leadership from the Zionist Congress and the other groups such as the Haganah reached the decision to extend full political rights to all the residents in the nation, Arabs, Jews, Christians, Bedouins, Druze, Baha’I and other smaller minority groups all as one democratic nation. This was the first actual decision on using a democracy and it is notable that the democracy was all inclusive of those who were not opposed to the Jews having their own state. This is how and why Israel is a democracy.

 

When the State of Israel was founded, the Palestinian Arabs were not citizens of Israel but were Arabs residing in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia as well as some Iraqis, Turks, Yemenis and others who were part of the invading forces and who remained on the lands or were actually driven onto the lands by their governments in order to make what have become known as facts on the ground. The claims that all of the Palestinian Arabs came from inside Israel is a common factual lie which has been repeated so often with such force and echo-chamber reinforced, the world now accepts it as factual. This is the main drive behind the two state concept as the claim is Israel owes the remnant of her invaders their own nation. This misconception has poisoned the waters so permanently that a solution would be difficult if this was the sole difficulty. There is a further problem in that the Arabs do not believe that the Jews have any right to a homeland within what they see as the Muslim Ummah. Their claim is that throughout all history, which for the Muslims begins in 625, there have been no Jewish lands within the lands they conquered and colonized. The reality is that the Arabs have the longest running and most extensive colonial enterprise in world history. They also are under the belief that the problem with the world is that it has not yet, emphasis on yet, come under the rule of Allah and the dictatorial rule of Islam. Until they are disabused of this notion, Israel, as well as the world in total, can never feel safe from the next Islamic offensive, something the Europeans should remember from their own history as Islam has attacked through Spain only to be turned at Tours by Charles “the Hammer” Martel and twice from Turkey Ottoman Empire being turned back at the Battle of Vienna, the first attack being stopped in 1529 and the second assault turned back by Polish King John III Sobieski in 1683.

 

Israel, conceived, initiated and founded to be the homeland of the Jewish People has faced the difficulty of a Palestinian Arab irascible obstinacy demanding they are the rightful owners of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and that the Jews have no rights in these lands and deserve to be exterminated. This has been their first, second, and final demand and they refuse to compromise and accept anything less. Their demands are often couched in coded verbiage such as their demanding they receive their 22% of the Mandate Lands. The western leadership will almost always take that to mean that they are demanding 22% of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea this meaning Judea and Samaria or Judea, Samaria and Gaza. What Abbas actually means and has explained as his meaning is 22% of the entire of the Mandate Lands, the 22% which consists of all the lands not taken to make Jordan which was 78% of the original Mandate Lands, the entire of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Yasser Arafat and after him Mahmoud Abbas both demanded that Israel be destroyed and replaced by Palestine. Abbas has actually offered one compromise; his idea of a two state solution. His two state idea is for an Arab Palestine which will be completely free of Jews and an Arab ruled State of Israel where the Jews have no rights and are allowed to live at the indulgence of their betters, the Arabs which will include over five million Arabs brought from refugee camps from around the Arab world and even within Judea and Samaria and Gaza and who knows how many additional Arabs who simply claim to be refugees seeking economic betterment. Anyway one cuts it, finding a solution which will satisfy the Palestinian Arab leadership and their Arab League backers, it would require sacrificing the Jewish State making the Jews once again stateless.

 

The problem with the Arab reasoning is that history did not begin in 625 AD, especially in the lands of Judea, Samaria and the rest of the lands of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (see map on right below). The Twelve Tribes of Israel were founded when Joshua crossed the Jordan River and defeated the first Canaanite King of Jericho. This was followed with another victory at Ai and continued until the Holy Lands were conquered following numerous tactical routes first heading through the central Judean hills, then southward and finally the northern areas (shown in the left map below). This conquest began approximately 1275 BCE. Since that time virtually every conquering empire outside those in the Americas, China, Japan, and Russia but even to including the Vikings if one believes that the Greeks were originally Vikings who found the Greek climate preferable to Scandinavia, surprise, surprise, and their Triremes were modified Long Ships; they all have invaded and occupied without ever naming Jerusalem as a capital city even for a province unless the province was expressly for the Jews as was the case under the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great. The Jewish People have an extensively long history uninterrupted with Jews residing in the lands and especially in Jerusalem constantly starting soon after the entrance of Joshua through the expansive times under Kings David and Solomon through the First Temple Period, their Babylonian exile of most of the population and their subsequent return and building of the Second Temple and expanding the Temple Mount and the remainder of their history through to the modern period. That is the real history and Israel was founded recognizing the entirety of the history, not just that which is fancifully convenient for the Islamic sensibilities.

 

Israel Through the Ages Joshua Enters to the Twelve Tribes

 

Then there is the biggest fallacy of them all, that Israel conquered Palestinian Lands in the Six Day War in 1967. First thing is there has never been anything called Palestine for their land to be stolen. Palestine is the name of the region and the original use of the term Palestinian was for the Jews during the British Mandate period where the Arabs were referred to as Arabs or Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Druze, Bedouins, Egyptians or other designation of origin or tribe. When Israel regained the lands of Judea and Samaria in the 1967 Six Day War they were not conquering new lands, they were liberating their own lands which had been occupied by the Jordanians since the 1948 War. The only occupation of Judea and Samaria was by Jordan and the claim that Jordan gifted these lands to the Palestinian Arabs is a great misconception, a great invention of propaganda. The lands were originally and always Israeli and were occupied by Jordan. One cannot give away stolen lands and thus Jordan could not gift the lands to the Palestinian Arabs as it was stolen land occupied illegally by Jordan. The entire world with the exception of Britain and Pakistan refused to recognize these lands as Jordanian. Even Egypt and the Arab League refused to recognize the Jordanian occupation. Lastly, Jordan signed a peace with Israel surrendering the occupied lands of Judea and Samaria back to Israel and it was not until two years after that treaty that Jordan officially claimed to have gifted the lands to Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Arabs. That makes these lands doubly not Jordanian to give as they were not even occupying the lands when they claimed to have given them away. What is next, the Iranians claiming they gave away Hollywood to the Arab Palestinians community of Southern California? That would be just as legal as the Jordanian claims to have given land they did not even possess at the time to the Palestinian Arabs and they even made the claim retroactive to attempt to grant it some degree of validity. That simply does not wash and the land remains Israeli until such time as Israel gives it away in a treaty, something seeming more and more remote by the day.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Anti-Semitism’s Israeli Amplifier of Inaction and Timidity

 

The existence of anti-Semitism across Europe, Canada, the United States and the rest of the developed world, particularly on college campuses, is growing and will soon be beyond control and spread throughout society. The first waves will soon break out as today’s college students being steeped in anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic programs and virtual pogroms graduate and bring their toxic views into the political world and then the workplace and society as a whole. These indoctrinations are presented as presumed pro-Palestinian protests such as Israel Apartheid Week, mock checkpoints, demonstrations blocking campus access portraying the Israeli security barrier as the modern version of the Berlin Wall or the Warsaw Ghetto Walls as well as faux eviction notices placed on Jewish and pro-Israel students’ dorm rooms claiming their rooms are to be demolished as protest of terror home demolitions and simple, straight out physical intimidation of Jewish and pro-Israel students. For further observations and documentations one can start with these two articles; Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain and Hotbeds of Anti-Semitism in British Academia or use the results from a simple search engine results for anti-Semitism on college campus we performed as a free service to make life easier.

 

This article is not out to bang the drum which already has been accomplished to the point that a complete percussion section has been added to the anti-Semitism orchestrated noises around the world just covering college campuses and in some cases it spreading to public high schools. This is following a normal progression for many politicized items as has been tracked with other subjects such as global climate change, equal opportunity, affirmative actions, LGBTQ rights and other highly charged political subjects from our modern societies. We will be taking a different tact driving to perceive what is probably the one major change which if taken would help rid the entire developed world from this pernicious evil. We will leave the proof to the links above and what will probably be more than sufficient numbers of articles which are sure to continue to surface. That could change and do so with a rapidity that would astonish the world and could be right around the corner if only some specific events and particular actions taken by some crucially critical people would materialize, but such things are unfortunately not looking ready to occur. So, let’s dive in and see what needs to be shaking.

 

Anti-Israel Protests

 

One of the first items which everybody a week ago thought was fair accompli and about to happen as soon as all the arrangements were done and ground was broken was the repeated statement once more by a candidate for President of the United States that the American Embassy in Israel would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Candidate Donald Trump promised, and we quote, “We will move the American Embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem,” speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in March. Further he stated this important add-on stating, “The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable.” Well, here we are in week one and already the moving of the American Embassy to Jerusalem has gone from we will to a process where ramifications and complications must be weighed and a cost/benefit analysis performed and all the other irrelevant items being spit out all in an effort to say we are going to do the same old same old. We have already heard of Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab allies having warned the White House of severe repercussions should it proceed with the move. The threats included a threatened review of bilateral relations with both the US and Israel plus warnings of an upsurge in violence should the embassy be relocated. Please do not tell us that the Trump campaign were not aware of these ramifications when they followed the well-worn path of lying to AIPAC knowing full well that they would turn everything over to the State department and Pentagon and either or both would come back with a report warning against such rash actions as they would inflame the world and the ramifications far outweighed any benefit if there could even be an argument that there exists a benefit. Further, they would question the expense and warn that such simply was politically risky should any of the threats of violence be traced to having moved the Embassy, which the State department would warn they would most likely find as the cause of any terrorism targeting American facilities overseas.

 

So, Trump is not going to be as pro-Israel as advertised, and why should he? Expecting President Trump to be more pro-Israel than Israel is ridiculous, as it should be. We learned this centuries ago and it was most succinctly stated by Rabbi Hillel who wisely asked, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” When, as we mentioned yesterday, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted unanimously to delay discussion on any law annexing Maaleh Adumim, can we expect for President Trump to stick his neck out and move the American Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem when the Israelis main decision makers unanimously refused to even consider annexing just a suburb of East Jerusalem? Of course that would be ridiculous. For proof just read Hillel above and it plainly states that step one will always be us being for what we hold dear before we can expect others to act similarly in our interests. Perhaps it would be a good idea to inundate the members of the Knesset’s e-mails with copies of Hillel’s quote followed by a simply Yiddish question, “Nu?” implying to ask what have you done recently which changes anything. Israel acting weak and timid reflects on everything worldwide simply because Israel is the exemplary representation of Jewish pride and strength and of late Israel has shown neither for quite some time.

 

When Israel acts decisively and boldly projects strength and confidence taking whatever steps necessary to protect their people and the future of the Jewish State, it becomes reflected in the actions by Jews in the world and affects the way Jews are treated. When Israel demands respect as she did during the first half of her brief history, the world respected the Jews and allowed for Jews to be proud and live holding their heads high. As Israel has mired herself and given concession after concession with nothing to show for any of it as the land for peace more represented land for terrorism and Israel appeared weak and Jews started to wear long faces and are soon, if not already, hang their heads and shuffle along giving once again the image of the Jew ready to be kicked and ill-regarded. The ghetto Jews, as it had been called throughout much of modern history, was again the view. The Jews were those people who are to be blamed for all the ills in the world, all the wars, all the hatreds, all the destitution, all of any and every evil imaginable and the Jew could be kicked and spat upon and they would shuffle off accepting any scorn. This persona has become accepted on all too many college and university campuses in the developed world. As Israel is demeaned and seen as threatened and not really taking actions to protect themselves, this places the Jews across the world in jeopardy of attack and other forms of anti-Semitism. These acts have already made numerous cities across Europe actually dangerous to Jews to even so threatening that, as in Malmo, most of the Jews are packing up and departing. The numbers of Jews making Aliyah from France this past year was the highest since the end of World War II and many times the average for any year in the past half century. Further, the Arab world is using their oil wealth to finance those NGOs who coordinate numerous campus groups in anti-Israel and anti-Zionist programs with very obvious and well-coordinated demonstrations and events demeaning Israel and Zionism and by an extension anti-Semitism as many times these actions also lead to direct targeting of the Jews on the campus sometimes placing their lives and health in danger.

 

As noted in the articles linked above, there are campuses in Britain where Jews do not even apply as the atmosphere is that toxic. This is a direct result of Israeli passive resistance to terrorism and apparent trepidation to acting boldly to suppress those acting against her. This has to end but for that to come to pass Israel will need to elect a far more active and bold leadership. This can be done but first an election is necessary and the Israeli Zionists and related activists will need find and promote someone to lead one of the existing parties and then support that party with sufficient votes that they either are the party making the coalition or be the main partner in a coalition with sufficient influence to force definitive action. The United States election set in place an opportunity of a lifetime. The election of Donald Trump as President and the fact that for the first time in memory the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White House and soon even the United States Supreme Court will be Republican or conservative making support for Israel, especially as a fair percentage of Democrats in Congress also support Israel, a given, freeing Israel to act without any ramifications from Washington. This is a situation which has not been seen since the founding of the modern state of Israel and may never return again should it disappear in the next election, a certain possibility as the opponents to President Trump will throw everything they have to at least take back the House of Representatives if not also the Senate. There are no guarantees in American politics but the stars and planets have aligned along with the Congress and White House to favor a bold and take-action Israel, now all that is necessary is leadership willing to take action which will define the state of Israel and the state of Israeli politics for the foreseeable future.

 

The unfortunate unanimous vote by the Prime Minister’s Security Cabinet to delay considerations on annexing Maaleh Adumim must be laid in the lap of Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as any leaders of the presumed Zionist and Religious Zionist parties who are represented in the Security Cabinet such as Naftali Bennet. There can be no excuse other than fear of retributions from European nations who are acting with ill will already towards Israel and also allowing similar disregards for their Jewish citizens throughout their college and university communities and even in many cities and towns. The BDS movement is making strides thanks to the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2334 which was facilitated by President Obama who had been rumored was personally involved along with his Secretary of State John Kerry as a means of tying incoming President Trump’s hands in dealing with Israel and in the Middle East. The best way to counter the disastrous implications of that UNSC Resolution is strong and defined actions performed as an in your face Israeli response. The UNSC will not be following up and passing any similar or other damaging resolution against Israel as President Trump will reinstate the American veto of such damaging resolution in the UNSC. The message must be delivered to the Knesset that the irons are hot and it is time to put the hammer to anvil and beat out a favorable fait accompli. The time to annex not only Maaleh Adumim, but Bet El, Ariel, Betar Illit, Modi’in Illit, Har Gilo, Gush Etzion at the least and all of Judea and Samaria returning the PLO, Fatah, and all other terrorist affiliated persons to Tunis or wherever in Europe they would be welcome and give the Arab Palestinians their first hopes for a bright and unencumbered future free of the kleptocracy which has stolen all hope from them for the past near quarter of a century. Will the world, particularly Europe, explode in indignation? Probably, but ride out their initial explosion and with time they will tire of complaining and when things here in Israel settle and the Arabs are slowly but surely incorporated into Israeli society and their lives improve immeasurably, there will be less and less reason to protest eventually leaving no reasons to protest. The future with a secure Israel, and this should be the sole consideration of the Knesset, is with Israel with all the lands promised us between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and not sharing it with any terrorist nest guaranteed to feed the world’s need to hate Israel, and by equal measure hate Jews. Israel could do more to guarantee her future and destroy anti-Semitism by simply annexing all of Judea and Samaria, removing those who would continue being a menace and reward those Arabs who desire living in peace with equality and security for all. By acting to assure Israel’s future and boldly protecting Israel, Israel would herself be combatting anti-Semitism in the world with better efficiency than any other actions could dream of accomplishing. The first question is can Netanyahu act or is he so damaged by the strains of leadership that he is no longer capable of acting definitively and securing the Israeli future? The last question is are the Zionist Israelis organized enough to start and continue programs and demonstrations demanding that the Knesset and the Prime Minister with his Security Cabinet act definitively with a minimum of delay as time is precious, and if we might repeat Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

We Have Lived These Dangers Before

 

Long ago in Israel there were enemies in the areas which today we call Gaza and Syria and Lebanon. Gaza had the older enemy, the Philistines, an Egyptian offshoot community which arose from Egypt separating soon after the Israelites arrived and conquered Canaan or a remaining Canaanite tribe which survived the Israelite advances for quite some time. They were capable warriors who used variants of Egyptian fighting methods as the Canaanites had been vassals of Egypt and were often included in Egyptian campaigns against the Hittites who ruled much of the lands north of Canaan. Their units would include chariots with archers as well as spear and sword men as well as drivers. This required slightly larger and heavier chariots which were equally hearty and difficult to destroy in combat. They also used heavy and light infantry, standing archers and slingers and limited horse cavalry. This made them a very formidable enemy for the Israelites who relied heavily on infantry, mostly light infantry which would utilize geological landscapes to great advantage. During their series of wars the Philistines had the distinct advantage in the flatlands while the Israelites fared better in the Judean hills and mountains. These hills and mountains rendered the chariots unusable and limited the advantages for horse cavalry. Hills and mountains also would wear out heavy infantry rather quickly as their heavier armor, shields and weapons rendered then exhausted while the Israelite light cavalry moved well and was very familiar with these lands. Still, often the Israelites fared well even on open flatlands against the Philistines, especially when under the rule of King David and King Solomon. David had a particular knowledge of the Philistines having lived and fought amongst them with a group of close friends and followers while hiding from King Saul who wished him dead. In the end it was Saul who committed suicide after his son was felled in battle which was ill advised and proved disastrous for the Israelites. Following the death of King Saul, David rose to the crown amid great celebrations and fanfare. Initially David made peace with the Philistines but that peace fell apart and a great war ensued. Eventually mention of the Philistines vanished with little explanation and their tribe was subsumed by other tribes and the Philistines simply ceased to exist. The Philistines have absolutely no genetic or other ties to the Arabs claiming their heritage from this Biblical tribe. Another influence on the Philistines was our other group, the Phoenicians. This was thought due to their seafaring economy and types of ships. Either way, the animosities between the Philistines and the Israelites was obviously due to their both being very capable and strong tribal communities and being neighbors naturally led to incursions and their inevitable conflicts.

 

Empire of Kings David and Solomon
including the Philistines and Phoenicians

 

The others were the Phoenicians who too were one of the stronger Canaanite tribes with Egyptian ties. The Phoenicians were the great maritime and commercial traders sailing the eastern Mediterranean Sea (Great Sea). There were also found to be some Hittite influences and possible interbreeding between the two civilizations in the early periods in Phoenician history. One of the most lucrative trade items they dealt in was a deep purple, a royal purple, dye necessary for robes of royalty as well as the Israelite Priests and many garments of the Tabernacle and later the Temple. The Phoenicians were eventually pressed by the invading empires of Babylonian, Persia and Greece that they took to their ships and settled in Northern Africa, some claim they became Carthage, and traded with people as far as the British Isles. History lost the Phoenicians per se and if they became Carthage they were exterminated with the remnants strewn across northern Africa or enslaved by Rome after the Punic Wars. The Phoenicians also warred with the Israelites with varying results over the years just as the Philistines had done though they survived beyond the Greek conquest and enslavement of the Israelite Tribes.

 

Greek and Phoenician Civilizations 800 to 550 BCE

 

The Babylonians had conquered and took us from our lands while the Persians, Greeks, Assyrians and initially the Romans simply ruled over us in our lands. There was one consistent reason for our defeat each and every time, infighting between the different tribes, political divides, different sects or whatever divisions which kept us infighting when we needed to be united to save our homelands. The Persians also had a large number of Jews decide they preferred living remaining in the cities which had been Babylon, moving to the capital or other large Persian city, anywhere but under Torah and living as one people in one land. This may have been a contributing factor to subsequent losses and leading eventually to the great Roman dispersion spreading us to the far corners of the Roman Empire and everywhere between all in all as slaves with no rights and an expectation that our culture and people would perish. This was how the Romans destroyed the remnants of the Phoenician Empire when they destroyed Carthage and dispersed their survivors. That was the end of any mention of Carthage, Carthaginians or Phoenicians in the rest of history. The Romans not only dispersed the Israelites, by then the Judeans, resulting from the great division of the Israelite nation into Judea and Israel, of which Israel and its Ten Tribes were conquered by the Assyrians and disappeared from history until being found in tribes from the far corners of the globe, and the Romans took care of the remainder, or so they thought. The twelve distinct tribes were ruled separately with their sharing of the Priestly tribes amongst them as their common thread. They were finally unified under King David starting the Israelite “empire” and made a great power with King Solomon (see maps below). This divide resulted in two kingdoms, one took the name Israel and the other took the name of its predominant Tribe between Benyamin and Judah thus became Judea. The name Judea was eventually shortened until the remnants of the Tribes of Judah and Benyamin along with their priestly classes simply became Jew. After the Assyrians capture the ten tribes of Israel they disappeared from Biblical history and many feared they had assimilated completely into the peoples with whom they settled. This may explain why today we are finding tribes claiming to be Jewish who genetically have many of the marker genetic makeup which has historically been defined as being an Israelite descendant. Further explaining such was the Roman dispersion which went further than the far corners of the Roman Empire as Jews were also sold to neighboring countries and empires such as India, China, Mongols, Arabs, Egyptians, and even the European and African barbarians plus escaping enslaved Jews would immediately target the closest non-Roman tribes they could find. The miracle was that for the large part the Jews kept themselves fairly separate once there had risen a Jewish community. It is even assured that many a Jewish parent would send to distant relatives or known Jews who may have resided in proximity in order to have their children marry within the faith, within our peoples.

 

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

 

The Assyrians and Romans as well as the Babylonians all conquered a divided people too stubborn to work together to resolve differences and agree on the best and strongest means of representing the entirety of the Jewish People. The divisions often were over trivial matters or vital matters where Torah interpretation was always a critical matter which often went unresolved while manner of worship, sacrifice, or other religious obligations were minor items which should have easily been resolved. The reality was that all too often in Jewish history, Israelite history, was that we allowed divisions in our family and this led to our destructions. Under Roman rule we could not have been a more divided people with groups proclaiming their leader was the Messiah and all of them proved to be wrong. Even Rabbi Hillel falsely believed that Bar Kokhba was the Messiah, something for which he paid a horrible price as did many others after that rebellion was squashed by Roman legions. We defeated ourselves throughout history yet when we were united we proved to be formidable. Just look above at the conquests by King David and then King Solomon who reached the Euphrates River in what is today northern Syria almost in Turkey. We suffered from such weakness being self-inflicted throughout three thousand years of history with only a few bright spots where it took a Moses or Joshua, it took King David and King Solomon and after each of these pairs we fell into fighting ourselves again.

 

One would think that as smart as we are presumed to be we might have finally learned. Nope, we have not learned anything. Sure we were kind of united in 1948 once the Haganah, the Irgun, the Sternists, Lehi and other splinter groups realized it was fight as one or die individually. Even then there was the wasteful and unnecessary destruction of the Altalena due to a struggle over power with David Ben-Gurion opposed and attempting to suppress Menachem Begin and, in absentia, Ze’ev Jabotinsky which resulted in the shelling of the ship the Altalena off the Tel Aviv beach (see image below). That was the second confrontation between Irgun and Haganah branches of the newly forming Israeli Defense Force during the 1948-9 Arab genocidal intended invasion where they conquered and illegally occupied Judea, Samaria (Jordan) and Gaza (Egypt). In future wars up through the June 1967 Six Day war, a response to overt moves and imminent invasion by Egypt and Syria under the orders from Egyptian President Nasser with assistance from Syrian Dictator Assad. When Jordan joined the fight the next day over pleading and warnings from Israel, the Israelis appeared surrounded but broke through and ended this attack rather rapidly liberating Judea, Samaria and Gaza and gaining the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights from Egypt and Syria respectively. Even though the October 1973 War caught Israel flatfooted and unprepared, the Yom Kippur War as it became known still resulted in an Israeli victory. As per usual, while Israel appeared to be being defeated the world was almost enveloped in an astounding silence but as soon as Israel was almost to Damascus and approaching Cairo the world found their voice and from the United Nations in New York, the White House in Washington D.C., the Kremlin in Moscow and any number of other capital cities, especially across Europe all demanded Israel cease all military activity and return immediately to the armistice lines from the Six Day War as Israel must not be permitted to actually defeat any of her enemies, that would upset the world’s balance.

 

Shelling and Sinking of the Ship the Altalena off the Tel Aviv Beach

 

So where do we sit today in Israel. Well, the Arabs have formulated a false flag operation called the Palestinians. Using the Arab Palestinian against Israel instead of the armies of Egypt, Syria (well, not so much Syria now), Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iran and whatever other Arab nation all attacking making Israel the underdog, they use the Arab Palestinians and place them as the poor, unarmed underdogs. With this ploy the Arabs continuously claim ownership of lands sometimes going back to Ottoman Empire deeds. When there is a set of conflicting deeds with one held by any Arab, even one living in America who never even walked this land and the other a Jew who has built a home and has a valid deed, the Arab is almost always considered the owner by the Israeli Supreme Court which leans so far left they may as well convene in Paris and rule as if they were a European Union Court. This has allowed the Arabs to watch as Israel slowly but inexorably eats itself to pieces throwing Jews from their homes, now from entire neighborhoods, all without any real court hearing the claim and ruling on actual ownership. More often than not, when the time comes for a court to actually hear a claimant, the Arab usually drops all claims and all paperwork which once was used to destroy a Jewish life of their home has disappeared into thin air. Does this lead to the Supreme Court reversing their decision, of course it does not. Any Jew thrown off the lands that the leftists on the Supreme Court still believes belongs to the Arabs and no Jew should be permitted to walk there, let alone build a home or community. The Arabs watch as Jews destroy Jewish homes and they riot in celebration. Then the circle starts again usually now with a “Jewish” leftist group such as Peace Now, B’Tselem, Jews for Justice in Palestine, Rabbis for Peace, J-Street and a plethora of other far left Jewish groups many of which are mostly if not completely funded by European governments, the European Union, George Soros, American Jews, and some like J-Street are largely made up of American Jews; all will file often singularly and sometimes in small groups as each time they succeed their funding is increased enriching the leaders of these groups. Once filed directly with the Supreme Court without any need for a court ruling on the properness or even legality of the claim, the Supreme Court jumps to force Jews from their communities. What the claim is these groups are helping the Arab Palestinians who are poor and kept down because Jews are living beyond the Green Line in areas almost devoid of any Arabs or others. The fact that these communities include businesses and manufacturers who employ many Arab Palestinians and when they are shuttered and must relocate within the Green Line the Arab Palestinians they employed lose their employment. These Jewish companies pay premium wages as far as any Palestinian not on the government take is concerned. Arab Palestinian companies pay less than half the going wage paid by the Israeli companies, but by removing these businesses they are helping the Arab Palestinians, especially the ones who were employed there, right?

 

Meanwhile there are often demonstrations within Israel where Zionists protest the destruction of Jewish homes without an actual court decision on who really owns these lands. As stated, most of these deeds are either falsely identified, forgeries or actually never existed.There is just some Arab these groups find and pay to tell the court that the identified lands belonged to their family back before the Jews stole the lands. Many of these were denoted as state lands and the Jewish communities went through every required search and received the blessings and even some funding from the government but as soon as an Arab says the magic word, “Mine,” then the Jews must be removed without any further considerations, after all, why would the poor man lie about such an easily proven true or false claim? Maybe because you never validate their claims before ruling the destruction of Jewish communities and even after there is proof from a lower court you still insist your original order be carried out and after the homes and businesses are destroyed you will talk about a review. That almost helps, doesn’t it? The current target is Amona, again. The Israeli government obeyed their Washington D.C. masters and did as President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded, destroying over nine thousand Israeli lives and giving all of Gaza to the Arab Palestinian Authority (PA) so they could prove how capable they could be at running a state of their own, and they failed miserably. Never mind they have a semi-autonomous fiefdom around Shechem (Nablus) which they have been misallocating billions of dollars and euros over the years making first Yasser Arafat and his cronies overly wealthy and since his departure Mahmoud Abbas, his three sons and all of his cronies and security detail, without which he would be dead and add in the IDF and Shin Bet foiling a Hamas plot to murder Abbas about every four to six months, but they needed Gaza and it be made Jew-free before they could accept the land. Well, they received the lands around mid-August of 2005 and by June of 2007 after over a year of on again off again fighting Hamas, had finally secured all of Gaza and went about executing any Fatah person not convincing enough in their denial of being a part of the PA and pledging their undying loyalty to Hamas, assuming they lived out the week. Many PA leaders had departed ahead of this collapse and despite training by United States Special Forces under the supervision of General Dayton, all performed out of sight in Jordan, the PA Security Forces were unable to prevent a Hamas takeover of Gaza. The Arabs still only noticed that the Jews were removing Jews for the Arabs to take the land and use it to attack Israel with even more lethal arms including any rocket they get the knowhow to build. Iran has been very helpful in providing Hamas and Islamic Jihad with the plans and motors for even larger and heavier rockets until now they can strike Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from Gaza and possibly as far north as Haifa. Now the Arabs are watching the Jews remove Jews from area after area in Judea and Samaria and they are beginning to envision the total destruction of the Jew using the entirety of the Judean Hills overlooking the heart of Israel and her population and manufacturing and power generation centers. There are desalinization plants, natural gas powered electricity plants, refineries, homes, schools, kindergartens, nursery schools, synagogues and the docks of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ashdod and Ashkelon all visible from and within easy range of the Judean Hills.

 

On the other side of the argument are the “settlers” themselves backed not only by the Zionists, as one would suspect, but also by a large majority of the people. One might query as to why if the majority, and a clear majority at that, favor annexing most if not all of Judea and Samaria does the elected government not act more forcefully to implement such a solution. Ah, now that is the question. Perhaps, as some of the most ardent Zionists have claimed, Israel just does not have the right government in place and Netanyahu has been so worn down by the friction and pressures that he is simply paralyzed and unable to act according to the desires of the people. That begs why has he been Prime Minister for such an extended period, longer than any other Israeli? This comes down to a single statement in our opinion and that comes from this past election. The last election had many varied and twisted variables. One was V 15 or V 2015 and was a foreign funded and based NGO from the United States at the direction of President Obama whose leader, Jeremy Bird, had been President Obama’s reelection campaign chairman and closely tied to One Voice which was funded by the usual suspects as well as George Soros and registered as if an Israeli based NGO just as so many European NGOs have done to interfere in Israeli day to day political decisions. V 2015 worked to elect the Labor Party ticket and had made some inroads, at least as far as the polls showed. The day before the election Netanyahu made a plea of seeming desperation and as the week or two before the person topping the closest right wing party which might challenge Netanyahu, Naftali Benet, had stated he was unsure if he truly was ready to be Prime Minister. This may have been a play at humility, but what it became was a landslide of Jewish Home voters to Likud in response to Netanyahu who then won with a comfortable margin but marginalized Jewish Home and their ability to affect government. With the United States with direct, though unprotested, White House interference in the Israeli election and to have the Zionist, nationalist, right wing parties still dominate the election, what more proof does it take to know the Israeli public favors annexation of Judea and Samaria and addressing the Arab Palestinian problem afterwards.

 

As near as we have been able to determine from our beachfront town of Nahariya, which is on the Mediterranean coast, we are as settled Israeli as Tel Aviv; but from our sense from people we cross, they are favoring a one state solution with the Arabs permitted limited autonomy or simply being bought out and encouraged to leave and settle elsewhere as wealthy people if that is what it would take. There is the feeling that any solution requires the removal of Mahmoud Abbas, his cohorts and henchmen, otherwise known as the PA Security Forces and particularly Force 17. Then there would need to be fair and open elections which Israel would need to monitor and, in order to satisfy a suspicious world, United Nations, European and United States and maybe Russia and China and who knows who else, but not the Arab League, to monitor the fairness and openness of the elections, something completely missing in any votes taken currently. It is possible that many Arab Palestinians would enjoy the freedom and opportunities for economic growth and freedom from oppressive governance that Fatah used in Judea and Samaria and Hamas oppresses in Gaza. Gaza, unfortunately, is beyond help unless Israel, the next time thousands of rockets rain down each week, possibly daily, out of Gaza simply cleanses Gaza of all terror related rocket and weapon factories, storehouses and the people involved in such activities once and for all and allows them an open and semi-autonomous region and assistance in economic recovery. Oddly enough, granting the Arab Palestinians the opportunity to become economically viable and independent from their dependence on charity from throughout the world and the graft that produces and the other sins soon attached, is something the United Nations, European Union, many European governments, the United States State Department, the Arab League, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and who knows who else, would fight against with all their might as they enjoy their power to attack Israel without any direct ties or involvement. The world will eventually have to realize, Israel has been reestablished and is going to remain against any and all odds.

 

But what are the world’s Jews doing about all of this? We are fighting one another and beating our heads together for no solution. Our stance explained in the following is favoring the Zionist arguments as that is where we place ourselves. The solution is for a single state owned and protected by the IDF with the Arab Palestinians enjoying their semi-autonomous rule within Areas A and B while Israel settles Area C and the Jordan Valley, period, end of discussion. There is a great need for revamping how Justices are chosen for the Supreme Court and after that every other court of civil law. There needs to be a drafting of a Constitution which iterates the make-up of the government, what powers are vested where, the procedures for making a law and limitations on adjudication such that there cannot be any legislating from the bench. Judges apply the law using the letter of the law and not some dreamed up insanity that no normal human being could dream came from some law. That is what is needed and with this the annexation of all of Judea and Samaria. Any Arabs desiring of leaving, there will be a buy out of your property and a generous benefit package to assist with your relocation along with finally a free airline first class trip to whatever nation is accepting you. We will wish you luck. From the semiautonomous region ruled by Arab Palestinians we only demand that you obey the Noahic Code and not pursue violence against Israeli citizens. Should this advisory not be heeded then we will assume you have decided to wage a war of separation which will result in a complete and total response by all of the forces short of nuclear weapons required to decimate all of the area, structures, homes, businesses, wells, charcoal mounds and people in a conflagration which will not soon be forgotten by those watching. We, on the other hand, will simply return to living happily either before such an episode and it not being required or afterwards safe in the knowledge that there is no longer even a hint of a threat from former members of the PA, period. All of the alternatives will be of your choosing and we have explained our responses, you decide. Thank you in advance for your participation.

 

Beyond the Cusp