Update on IDF Soldier Who Shot Terrorist in Hevron

 

This report has some good news which has to be tempered by the remaining realities. There was a crowd estimated to include many hundreds at the Tuesday hearing and a fair number again yesterday all in support of the soldier demanding all charges be dropped (see video below which shows the front of the protests). There are some who have called for the soldier to receive a medal as he was a hero acting to protect both the other soldiers and the civilians who were present at the scene. There were also the B’Tselem instigators as well as some civilians at the scene of the shooting where some were yelling that the terrorist might have a bomb under his heavy coat, something which has occurred with some other stabbings and always a potential threat. The soldier reported that he reacted to the terrorist who was reaching under his coat which the soldier feared was the terrorist reaching for a detonator, the same terrorist who had already taken part in the stabbing of another soldier. One need remember that the soldier in question had arrived on scene a mere minute or two before suspecting the terrorist might have a bomb. The young man had not been briefed as to whether the terrorist had already been searched and suspected the worst case. At the Thursday hearings the government military prosecutor dropped the murder charges and requested they be replaced with simple manslaughter charge against the soldier. Where we here at BTC are glad over the dropping of the murder charge; we would rather the soldier be at worst be given a verbal warning and have him receive and the rest of his company receive additional training, especially on how to react in chaotic situations where there is confusion and threats are not fully determined. There were speakers including some Ministers of the Knesset and while such support is appreciated we will not list them as this story is about the future of a soldier who reacted in an effort to eradicate a severe threat he was witnessing.

 

 

The military prosecutor chosen for this case is Lt. Col. Adoram Rigler who stated that his review of the evidence which has been gathered strongly implied “serious suspicions,” and therefore asked to extend the soldier’s detention by another seven days. Part of continuing holding the soldier in detention limits greatly his opportunity to work with his defense team and collect the many “experts” in numerous fields which claim his shooting was understandable and possibly demanded by the situation. This was due to the information the soldier had and the actions of the terrorist which resulted in his being shot by the soldier. There have been “experts” of human motion, all military laws and “Rules of Engagement” and anything which will raise one’s stature in order to receive attention and do interviews. This has led to many people claiming things they believe were the events which led to the shooting. They are spread across the spectrum taking positions both for and against the soldier’s actions. The bevy of various NGOs concerned with “human rights” but whose actions are usually targeting IDF and Border Police doing their assigned tasks attempting through provocations to produce a shooting just as what occurred last week. The videotaping by B’Tselem at the scene makes one all the more suspicious that this was a set-up where they were hoping to produce an active confrontation. One need remember that B’Tselem receives the bulk of their funding not from Israel or Israelis but from European governments and other leftist European sources all of which are looking to destroy Israel in any manner possible. This corrupts the B’Tselem claim to be concerned with assisting the IDF and other security sources with their “human rights” considerations. Their release and supporting their carefully edited videos and not approaching the IDF and attempting to receive opportunities to brief and possibly instruct the soldiers in a more proper manner of handling situations damns their actions as intended to damage the IDF, not assist the IDF.

 

 

Hevron Shooting Suspect Soldier
with Defense Team Being
Escorted into Hearing

 

Perhaps we should look beyond this specific case and look at IDF actions and the surrounding influences and limitations and decide whether such Rules of Engagement (ROE) restricting their actions and even at times their ability for self-defense are placing the soldiers in far greater harm as well as the public or whether they represent prudent limitations on the use of force. In all too many cases the IDF hierarchy and high command immediately rush to back any accusation made against their troops. This lack of supporting the troops in any time of such conflict where accusations fly around coming from every corner will only result in troops refusing to serve beyond the Green Line or in Jerusalem likely causing far more dead troops and civilians. The commanders and especially the Defense Minister, Prime Minister and one would hope the Ministers from the Knesset, with some obvious exceptions, would back the soldier or at the very least remain neutral and simply state they hope the soldier’s actions prove to be proper but are awaiting the investigation which will be conducted in an orderly and professional manner. Instead we have had the Defense Minister, Knesset Ministers and commanders trying this case in the public taking the view that the soldier must be punished as his actions could never be justified no matter the situation. That is unprofessional and quite an unhelpful approach as it sets an atmosphere where those handling the case have to feel that they are being pressed to go after this soldier with every tool and twisting of facts required to validate these expectations. We are not asking for the General who commands the IDF to make a public announcement that they back the soldier 100% and see no reason to investigate the shooting. What we want is the making of no comment and not simply throwing the soldier to the piranhas from media who are already out for blood on the shooting. The displays of prejudging this case before all the facts have been gathered and findings made public and allowing the system to handle the aftermath has been disgusting at best and horrific at the worst. Everyone has decided the fate of this young man and is sending a message to the troops that a terrorist’s life is far more precious than are the soldiers of the IDF; and when commanders also take this position acting more like perfumed princes seeking public favor from the wealthy leftist influences which have abounded in this case the troops lose morale and start to doubt the support they were taught would back them.

 

Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, which belongs to Abbas’s Fatah have lauded praises upon terrorists who shot Israelis near Hevron on Friday. There were two attacks on Friday involving shooting by terrorists, the first was where two teens were wounded by terrorist gunfire near the Cave of the Patriarchs, and the second targeted a soldier wounding him in a separate shooting attack at Beit Anun. These shootings are an escalation which started a few weeks back as the stabbings and attempts to ram pedestrians and people waiting at bus stops with vehicles continues. This has been the trend of past intifadas where there is a slow but steady progression from throwing rocks to throwing boulders attempting to murder the occupants in passing vehicles. This inevitably leads to stabbings and the attempts to use vehicles to ram and run over people which were a new twist that started soon after the stabbings. The slow escalation with shooting slowly ramped up has thus far succeeded in keeping the media, with a few exceptions, ignoring the new phase and thus giving any reports almost an afterthought and not worthy of the headline on page one. This simply furthers the mood and understanding of the situation we have placed the IDF, Border Police and other units into as the increasing deadliness of attacks being ignored lulls the public into thinking that the terrorist attacks have not necessarily crossed into a mood where the soldiers feel more of a threat and thus become more urgent in their handling of terrorist arrests or detentions. The situation having escalated it should be accepted that troops would be expecting suicide bombings as that is the progression after shootings start with a few weeks between each start. It is the old adage of placing the frog in a pan of water and slowly raising it to a boil and the frog does not move but attempting to throw the frog into already boiling water the frog resists and attempts to immediately jump from the water. The public are the first frog and the IDF and others on the front line the second, which explains part of the disconnect between much of the public and those actually under threat. Fortunately, most Israelis, outside of those refusing to ever see terrorism by the Arab Palestinians, understand the tactics and remain aware of the actual level of violence being faced by the soldiers as well as members of the public who could become targets of these shooters. The exception is the media which often takes the extreme leftist view of situation as their living in a bubble where their communities are fenced and guarded and they work in the safest of conditions and thus do not feel the same threats as do the public.

 

 

Picture of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade Terrorists
at Rally Backing Shooting of Israelis

 

The trial of this soldier will continue and the longer it drags on, the better, as the media will lose their interest and the leftist agitators are already planning their next confrontation. The best hope is for the matter to be out of the public eye when there is less or no pressures to convict the soldier making him a sacrificial lamb sacrificed to the leftist agitations paid for by European money. The fact that these NGOs are permitted to operate as if they were actually Israeli funded and indigenous groups when often “experts” from Europe often come and work with the NGOs in preparing and sometimes actually participating in provocations which are always filmed so that they can be released, well, after some heavy editing as some actions must be hidden. This type of slanted actions by the media was also very evident in another case from April of 2012 where Europeans had gathered some Arab Palestinians and they began a convoy on a major thoroughfare blocking and slowing traffic in one direction. When confronted by an IDF unit the provocations rose significantly. Lieutenant Colonel Shaul Eisner was commanding these troops and was at the scene. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner, who was filmed striking a protester with his rifle butt which was all one heard for weeks on the media covering this “serious breach of protocol and loss of control” by an IDF commander. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner was made a sacrificial lamb on the altar of political correctness and was reprimanded and was barred from command positions for two years. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner stated that he regretted hitting activist “in front of cameras,” always in front of the ever-present cameras used at the confrontations. What was left out of every video and conversation in the media was the fact that the Lieutenant Colonel received a broken finger after one of the European “human rights” activists grabbed his hand and attacked the Lieutenant Colonel breaking his finger. That provocation was of little if any coverage as he should remain completely unfazed by such an assault and injury.

 

 

Lieutenant Colonel Shaul Eisner

 

 

The disconnect is first that the terrorism suffered in Israel is considered by most Western media, experts and others to be completely separate from the terrorism suffered in the West and other places outside of Israel. Somehow the Israelis are treated as if they deserve the terrorism they receive and that the Arabs shooting and bombing in Israel have no connection or links to the terrorists striking Paris or Brussels or Boston or San Bernardino. This is a false assumption and should the West be interested in what kind of terrorism they will be facing in the coming years as the numbers of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) “refugees” continue pouring into their countries they need look no further than Israel and the current level of violence and watch the escalation and learn. This is a war between two competing social orders, the freedom and liberties of the West against the stifling oppressive theocracies of MENA and the levels of violence and restriction on the media and life in general. Eventually, and it should not take too long, the West will awaken and realize they have a big and growing problem on their hands wrought by their own altruistic fallacies that permitted a snake to make its way into their tents and now even into their sleeping bags making life endangered. We do not expect the West to wake up until the war is all but lost but please leave Israel alone to at least fight the rising menaces in the Middle East. Do not moralize us as you do not understand and when you figure out the problem we will be glad to offer what assistance and advice as we are able and requested. We do not tell you how to treat terrorist acts in your house; please do not interfere with our handling terrorism in our house.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Final Palestinian Israel War Declared at United Nations

 

Yesterday Arab Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave a screed at the United Nations General Assembly opening ceremonies, which have been going on all week, filled with invectives and pure bile and hot hatreds against Israel, civility and the general decency which differentiates the human race from the base beasts of the wilds. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gave his response today and fortunately spent little precious time addressing Abbas and his inflammatory speech simply stating that Israel was prepared to meet and negotiate with no precondition for the formation of an Arab state which would be demilitarized living beside Israel immediately and hoped that Abbas would take this opportunity. The video and the transcript for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s United Nations speech can be viewed on our special page. Much of the rest of the Prime Minister’s speech entailed the problems which will hatch as a result of the ill negotiated Iranian nuclear deal and impressed that Israel would take whatever steps deemed necessary to protect the Israeli population of Six Million Jews as well as its one-million-seven-hundred-thousand Arabs and the remainder of just over one-third a million other peoples. Where the Prime Minister spent but a small section of the ending of his speech to address the situation with the Arab Palestinians and the refusal since the signing of the Oslo Accords that is the refusal of Mahmoud Abbas, and Yasser Arafat before him, to reach any peace deal as doing so would require them to rule. This would bring to an end the gravy train of funds siphoned off from every Euro, Pound and Dollar received into their foreign accounts. Even this was a waste of time and needless as any recognition given Abbas and his grandstanding only further serves his aggressions against all of Israel. So, what has been the main development between the speeches by Abbas and Netanyahu?

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered, as usual, an excellent speech but accomplished little by doing so. The forty-five seconds of silence may have been the most effective use of his time. Mahmoud Abbas may have delivered the most important address of which the initial effects may have already been felt. The Arab Palestinian Chairman delivered, to find the essence of his speech and deliver it in as short a set of terms as possible and as succinctly as possible, he delivered a declaration of war. There is no other way to interpret what Abbas’s speech was about. With the PA disbanded, as it was a construct of the Oslo Accords, we are left with Fatah which is synonymous with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) which was originally founded in 1964, a full three years before there existed any “occupied territories” and the charter read as their mission to complete the tasks necessary to erase Israel and replace Israel with another Arab and Muslim State. This PLO terror instrument never altered their aims of eradicating the Jewish State but had tabled any mention of such while under the guise of the PA, thus the PLO went dark. Still there were those who supported the far more belligerent struggles who eventually either joined Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda or even Islamic State and if remaining attached to Mahmoud Abbas, though he would regularly claim otherwise, he still listed himself as their commander. There was the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which would every so often claim responsibility for a terror attack but found their survival more easily maintained if they just kept quiet about their operations. Well, perhaps the sole advantage is that now the leadership can declare their ownership of violent events and potentially take credit for their dastardly deal. Abbas and the rest of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Islamic State and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades can proudly exclaim and praise their “brave warriors” when they assault unarmed Jews with lethal projectiles such as bricks, boulders and anything else, even bullets. The bullets were scarcely used as the projectile of preference as they immediately conveyed the concept that any such attack was attempted murder. Rocks the size of basketballs hurled into a windshield from a pickup truck with five or six youths riding in the bed each with such a rock as well as some softball or croquette size rocks as secondary ammunition and these projectiles were fired from a truck speeding in the opposite direction often at speeds over one-hundred KPH. Below are a collection of rocks that were hurled and a rare few had articles with actual pictures of these projectiles, though usually they simply report that rocks struck a vehicle. Such reports were always a bit strange and would leave one scratching their head and wondering to oneself how in all that is holy did rocks just leap out of nowhere to strike Israeli licensed vehicles.

 

 

 

What Israel, her people and especially her rulers must realize, internalize, and refuse to rationalize and instead proceed to actualize is this new information and new situation between Israel and the PLO is an actual declaration of war upon Israel. The very first item is no Zionist should ever mutter the Arab Palestinian Authority or PA as that institution was murdered by Abbas at the United Nations. The next step is to form a near immediate change in policy where any Israeli citizen, which includes the Arabs residing in East Jerusalem, throwing rocks or setting off pyrotechnics should be immediately arrested while any Arab noncitizen committing a similar act should be given a ticket on an El Al aircraft and flown to either the nation they chose or the closest such nation willing to accept them until their flight on an additional ticket boards to complete their transport to wherever they desire outside all of Israel permanently. The only other option is to build extremely large detention centers and in one section hold those who as Israeli citizens assaulted others in a nationalist terror manner under current definitions to keep them imprisoned for the duration of the conflict and the rest of complex built to hold those who are not Israeli citizens who will simply commit an act of war and been captured and must now serve their term until the war is finished and a permanent peace has been established. Abbas declared war and the leader of the nation which was named in the Abbas’s declaration of war, Israel, offered to sit and work out a peace agreement which could also lead to making peace with and having all Arab States agree to end their incitement as well. That is not going to happen anytime soon.

 

Israel is at war with the Iranians who have made it evidently clear that one of the first endeavors for their nuclear weapons within the next decade will be to eradicate Israel wiping it from the face of the Earth. Israel is at war with the Islamic State though that front will likely not become an active front for a number of years. Israel is at war with Bashir al-Assad and Hezballah along with any others including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, in particular their al-Quds force which is dedicated to conquering Jerusalem, in Syria fighting for al-Assad or even a fair number of the other factions. Then there are others with whom Israel is still technically in a state of war such as Lebanon, Syria and other Middle Eastern nations from all the way back to the initial war to destroy Israel and slaughter every last Jew they could find from May 15th of 1948 where the war broke out before the ink could have dried on the speech read by David ben Gurion declaring Israel to be born with borders being between the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev Desert including Gaza as within Israel, the Lebanese northern border pretty much exactly as it is with a few small and minor areas to be debated and a border with Syria which gave Israel within her rights but the fence they erected was done inside Syrian borders and lastly Jordan with whom the original border was the Jordan River. These should be the borders Israel demands as a sovereign nation amongst the fellowship of nations. But the immediate war is the one which is taking place within our border. It would not surprise me that if allowed the latitude to control and area of the now defunct authority that Mahmoud Abbas may attempt to parlay his membership and recognition in a number of United Nations committees and call for Iran to come and assist in defending the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque. The danger of such an eventuality must produce actions of purpose and heightened reality and the brotherhood prevented entrance into any of these fronts.

 

The first fatalities of this newly redeclared war, the war was initiated originally by Mohammad when he altered complete verses and declared Mecca, not Jerusalem as he first indicated, to be the holiest of cities followed by Medina where Mohammad realized his victory over the older established religion of Judaism. There are many stories and explanations as to the reasons for the enmity which existed between the Jews of Medina and Mohammad and the Muslims. The problems reached their climax with the beheading of nearly one thousand Jews from the Banu Qurayzah tribe. This supposed trial and finding of guilt leading to the execution of every single adult aged male and the sale of the women and children into slavery was but the first step. The most famous victory of Muslim forces against the Jews at the very beginning of Islam took place at the battle at Khaybar where the remainders of the Jews of Medina were slaughtered and their wealth, women and children were sold into slavery. This has led to the modern day Islamic tradition, the chant “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud,” translated means, “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning,” and is used as a battle cry when attacking Jews or Israelis. That has been the chant on many a university campus and other anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic gathering often protesting the lack of a lasting peace having been negotiated between Israel and the Arabs claiming to be from a mythical construct which has never existed called Palestine. This war has now returned full bore and charging into another attempted bloodletting of Israel be Islamic forces from near and far coming again as was the case in 1948-9, and again in 1967 for the Six Day War, and to a lesser extent in 1973 for the Yom Kippur War. The problem is that with modern weapons on both sides, and once Iran turns nuclear forcing a similar development in Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and who knows who else, the potentials for destruction on an unimagined scale is staring back at us from some future date when humanity becomes a forgotten trait and barbarism rules the day and the carnage will be immeasurable.

 

In the meantime the initiation of war had been announced and the first casualties have paid with their lives in the latest ambush of Jews by Arabs from the Fatah Party of Mahmoud Abbas, the purported angel of peace. This final war over the claims that the Jews have no rights or place being in Israel, and more so Jerusalem and never ever had any claim or Temples on the Temple Mount is imminent. This war began with the riots instigated by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini in the 1920s and on through the declaration of the State of Israel where he then led the local Muslim militias in the war of annihilation brought by over a half dozen Arab armies against the nascent state of Israel with genocidal aims to destroy the Jewish state in its crib. This latest and hopefully last war began in the year 2000 when Yasser Arafat declared what has rightfully become known as the Oslo War as it was as a direct result of the ill-fated desire for a civil peace where the Jews and Arabs could prosper together was the initiation of the efforts by some Pollyannish efforts to renew the moribund peace process which brought back the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat as well as his trusted and close number two, Mahmoud Abbas. The Oslo Accords were entered into by Arafat and Abbas in order to regain a foothold that would lead to their long hoped but never quite attainable victory over the Jews and a second Holocaust would ensue, that was and still is the dream from one side of the “peace process.” This last wave of assaults has largely targeted Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as Abbas is fully aware that if he can chase the Jews from the Temple Mount, from all the Jewish holy sites in Judea and Samaria, and chase the Jews from all of the Old City of Jerusalem he will have decapitated the Jewish people and cut us from what is to us our lifeline which we have longed for for almost two-thousand years and has been the greatest joy, our strength, and our redemption. The initial threats were words which led to screaming mobs bumping and jostling IDF guards on duty hoping to capture some film or picture which could be interpreted as a frown on the face of a soldier and blow that up into an international incident. Then came the stones, then larger stones, then fireworks, then more even larger stones, then simply more stones at the ambush sites, then boulders followed by firebombs and it had to get here eventually but now it has become bullets, deadly bullets.

 

 

 

Pictured above are the parents so brutally murdered as explained in the caption above which reads, “Eitam and Naama Henkin and four of their children were in the car when the ambush was sprung and the shooting began. The children were unhurt in the gunfire but both parents were brutally and cold bloodedly murdered for the crime of being Jews. This was the first volley of the coming war which Mahmoud Abbas declared this past week when he told the world that any semblance of peace was over. This was the first volley as Mahmoud Abbas has thrown the Oslo Accords aside torn, tattered and burning into ashes, and Abbas has turned the clock back to 1964 and the PLO’s original Charter which called for the slaughter of the Jews in Israel, another Holocaust, another Shoah the murder of six-million Jews again to start another world at war, once again into the breach except this will be the final war which we have dread would come.” This is probably the farthest thing they could ever imagine, the being the initial victims of humanity at its most inhumane of levels and plotting for much, much more in the coming days, weeks, months and possibly the rest of the time mankind will have as an advanced species, which begs the question of how we can call ourselves advanced when we cannot even share a small square kilometer of space in what most agree is a holy city of peace, or that is what she has been named, Yerushalayim, Zion the city of peace.  ירושלים, ציון עיר השלום

 

Taking full credit for this gruesome slaughter in a hail of gunfire was senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed who told Hamas’s Al-Quds TV, “the attack is a natural response to the crimes of the settlers and every action has a reaction.” These crimes of the settlers are nothing more than the fact that they live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This is the crime for which all the violence since the nineteenth century starting as early if not even further back with the 1834 looting of Safed (ביזת צפת בשנת תקצ”ד) where Jewish homes were looted and burned, synagogues were similarly looted and burned including the burning and other desecrations of the Torah scrolls and raping of the Jewish women and the murder of many of the Jews who remained in Safed as this continued for over a month. Furthermore, al-Aloul was noted by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) as having written on his Facebook page, “The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah, accepted responsibility for the Itamar operation carried out against settlers, leading to their deaths.” The Itamar operation carried out against settlers, translates to the cold blooded murder by the forces of evil this time reaching out to grasp and harm the most innocent as that way the terror is of the greatest shock value and terrorists aim for shock value as well as unarmed and unsuspecting people and seldom soldiers on duty but their war is against the innocent. We will hear from the pro-Arab Palestinian, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic protesters on some university campus or at some erudite cultural poetry reading where a Fatah representative will be present to read their poem, Ode to being Odious which tells of their great victory of the brave Arab Fatah freedom fighters, they must never be called terrorists as that might hurt their feelings and harm their self-esteem, and telling the tale will win him admiration and acclaim as the latest poetic genius.

 

Sometimes the anger at the senseless slaughter of innocent people and the news coming as it did leading into the Sabbath and one must now challenge themselves to rid their mind of disturbances thinking of the poor young children and the oldest two all of which will miss the love and care only a parent can provide. Others can do the exact same things, say the exact same words, be the same in every way except they are not the child’s parent and the child will know that difference which is why this has taken away innocence and replaced it with the hard and cruel reality of the fruits of hatreds. Bat-Sheva Sadan wrote the following in Hebrew but translated here about the challenges and the affects and effects of the loss of both their parents on their younger siblings. The deep emotion makes this a definitive read and I would beg that you take in the depth of feelings put into what would be mere words but this combination spoke to us here. The one item I might have to say is that when they feared the youngest might not remember the parents at all, not any number of things but they included smell. That may not be correct and will be proven likely at some point when the youngest is a little older and gets solemn for no apparent reason as they are walking in a mall, to synagogue or strolling along the beach boardwalk and when asked what is wrong their answer will be, ‘Nothing, really, just the last lady’s perfume reminded me of mom’ and it will come out of the blue and all will enjoy their own little memory that day all because small is the strongest and longest lasting of impressions especially between a mother and child.

 

The deaths of Eitam and Naama Henkin may be the deaths which history will remember as the initial shot fired which started the final conflict. They may be the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie who were murdered which set things into motion resulting in World War I. This just may be another possible echo from history. These echoes always seem to be worrisome as they are usually repeating things we would prefer not to repeat. We must pray this Sabbath and every Sabbath as these are dangerous times where simple events can take on gargantuan meaning, and this double murder is of great enough magnitude that it receiving more is beyond the cusp and all that is safe and sane.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Two Tons Rocket Parts Headed for Gaza Reconstruction

 

Palestinian terrorists this week tried to smuggle two tons of rocket-making material into Gaza. Of course they were not exactly labelled honestly; they were labelled as building supplies. They were intercepted by Israeli security, something which due to international pressures Israel has not been able to prevent tons of concrete from entering Gaza. The Europeans guaranteed they would monitor all concrete usage in Gaza. Well, we have some unfortunate news, not so much for Europeans but for Israelis, most of their guaranteed indivertible concrete has somehow ended up lining the walls of the latest rebuilt tunnels. There is no need to take it from me, take the word from the Gaza branch of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade from their newly reconstructed three and a half kilometer, border crossing, infiltration tunnel in the video below. We do not blame the Europeans for not exactly following through on their promises to inspect the usage in Gaza of concrete, we blame the Israeli leadership for believing that when Europeans promise to inspect and assure things crossing into Gaza will meet the intended uses as they had a perfect example of European and world promises when Israeli leaders allowed their promises to monitor the Gaza crossings after Israel disengaged from Gaza. The Europeans promised to monitor the crossings between Gaza and Egypt and they almost lasted a week before permanently retreating to their hotels rooms in Tel Aviv and there were rumors they may have actually glanced in the general direction of the crossings during their afternoon drinks at the coffee and tea café across the street from their hotel. Soon they hatched a brilliant plan about the Gaza-Egypt border and put it in to effect the next day at Ben Gurion International Airport when they flew home and allowed open crossing of terrorists and terror supplies crossing freely. As strange as it might sound, the Gaza-Egypt border is better guarded by the Egyptians under President Sisi, even if it is to keep his own soldiers safe from Gaza terror strikes into the Sinai Peninsula. It is always better to trust things to those who have a reason to assist and not those who simply promise in order to end a temporary discomfort, especially if you are one of the parties to their discomfort.

 

 

 

 

The provisions in question were the same type of fiberglass as used by Hamas to make the long range rockets Hamas fired into Israel last year during Operation Protective Edge. These were the larger and heavier rockets with more destructive warheads many of which launched from deep within Gaza City and which landed between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashdod. It was very likely that this exact variety of rocket which took the life of a four-year-old Israeli boy who did not have sufficient time from the Code Red alarm sounded to make it to a shelter. These rockets also caused damage, serious damage to some structures which were outside of Iron Dome coverage. Granted the coverage of Operation Protective Edge spent most of the time speaking of Gazan deaths and often asking why so few Israelis had died despite the seemingly ineffective rocket fire from Gaza. We will not bore you with the facts that Israel invested billions in research and with assistance from the United States were able to make nine such batteries, which were not as free as many believe as Raytheon was given schematics, software and all other necessities so the United States could incorporate such effective technologies into their systems, a small price. Instead we will simply repeat what Hamas has prided themselves in saying repeatedly and with great pride, and we are proud of their pronouncement about our beliefs as they portray them. Who would have ever thought that we Israelis would be proud of those things Hamas would accuse us. But their words have weight and explain much about the two societies and they have framed and explained the disparity in casualties succinctly. Hamas has often stated, “They worship life and we worship death.” We will not be so presumptuous to speak for Hamas, who may very well speak for the residents of Gaza, but we in Israel do love life, worship might be a bit strong as we worship Hashem and through Hashem we love and possibly worship life.

 

Where this shipment of rocket body material was intercepted, how many others were missed and will return raining onto Israel and if not intercepted possibly taking another young child’s life, the greatest loss possible. But we will do what is possible to make our children safe and if only our neighbors would learn the preciousness of a child’s life and spend their efforts on peaceably raising their precious children and allow us to raise ours and that would produce peace. The Europeans are always asking what it might take for Israel to make peace with the Arab Palestinians. Well, a good first step might be for those who worship and celebrate death to try life for them and allow us the same and that would produce a lasting peace and all sides would gain and be blessed with peace. Now if the rest of the world would also allow the Jews to live in peace it might be a better place for all.

 

In the Outremont area of Montreal a Hasidic man was severely beaten after leaving a bank around 7:15 Friday night. According to witnesses the attacker was a white male in his twenties. The witnesses told police that when they exited the bank the attacker was sitting on the bench outside the door holding a water bottle in his hands. They said there was something cold and sinister about the man who gave them an uneasy feeling. They had gotten to the corner when they heard a commotion and turned in time to chase the attacker off. The suspect pouring a liquid all over the victim and ran when the witnesses started towards him and the Hasidic man who was lying on the ground. One witness who preferred to remain anonymous, “It reeked of gasoline. I’m 100 percent sure, there was no car close by, it’s whatever he poured on him that smelled like gasoline.” The victim was bleeding heavily from the side of his head. Reports from the hospital said there were signs the man had been severely choked and had other abrasions. Initial reports said there were no signs that the Hasidic man had been robbed and police say they are waiting for the victim to recover consciousness in order to gather more information on his attacker. The police stated that they had insufficient information to determine if this was a hate crime and the man had been attacked because he was Jewish. We can answer that question for them and from what we read and a general agreement and collation of hunches says that it definitely was a hate crime and the Hasidic man was attacked for being Jewish. But just in case, we will wait for further reports though we doubt it will make the news here half way around the globe.

 

Then there is a report from London of anti-Semitic vandals desecrated the Jewish memorial in Whitechapel to the memory of Edward VII. The memorial has an inscription reading, “In grateful and loyal memory of Edward VII, Rex et Imperator, erected by subscriptions raised by Jewish inhabitants of East London, 1911.” King Edward VII ruled United Kingdom (UK) from 1901-1910. This was a horrific and startling act of hatred against King, Country and Jews whose dedication and loyalty to the Crown and Country were on display for all to see for time immemorial. The statue was desecrated with a pig and pig parts and blood as can be seen in the image below, a picture well documented on Twitter soon after the crime was reported. Local resident Lauren Justice discovered the defilement and immediately contacted the authorities and then posted images taken of the memorial’s statues, one holding a pig carcass and pig parts and blood strewn over the other statue, to her twitter account. She was quoted commenting on the atrocity, “I just think it is disgusting. It is a memorial. I do not know if they think it is funny or what, but it cannot be allowed to stay up like that. I find it offensive.” The Tower Hamlets Council stated that it was investigating the incident. Anti-Semitic acts have been steadily rising within the United Kingdom with them increasing with their numbers in the first six months rising from two-hundred-twenty-three acts in 2013 to three-hundred-nine in 2014 to four-hundred-seventy-three acts in 2015. The increase from 2013 to 2014 was 38.5% while the increase from 2014 to 2015 was 53.0% which is a definitive ramping with the increase rate of change of over 37.5%, a vigorous rate of climb which is just as frightening as it is sizeable. The rest of Europe has figures increasing in similar rates as in the United Kingdom and are beginning to show trending within the United States, Canada and other places around the world, even in places where the Jews are such a minor percentage of the populations that it makes one wonder where the people in such locations even come by their experiences with Jews that one would expect was necessary for anti-Semitism to even be perceptible, let alone grow. Such is most definitely troubling to say the least, very troubling.

 

 

Anti-Semitic Vandals Desecrated the Jewish Memorial in Whitechapel to the Memory of Edward VII, Rex et Imperator. This Memorial was Erected by Jewish Inhabitants of East London in 1911. This was a horrific and startling act of hatred against King, Country and Jews Whose Dedication, Respect and Loyalty to the Crown and Country were on Display for all to see for Time Immemorial. The Memorial Stands in Direct Contrast to the Craven Hatred Displayed with the Smearing of Pig Parts, Blood and a Carcass Strewn in Offense to All Britain and her Peoples.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp