My Sympathies and Concerns for My Tel Aviv Brethren

 

Like all Israelis and Jews worldwide, my sympathies go out to family, friends and those who knew the young soldier mercilessly murdered at a Tel Aviv train station just as they go out to the family, friends and those who know the innocent young lady mercilessly slaughtered at a ride-stop located in Gush Etzion, which is within Samaria. Both of these young Israelis who represented the epitome and strength of the hopes of a nation and their people will be avenged and their lives celebrated by the continued persistence and eventual vindication and liberation of all of our sacred homelands. There was one disturbing item about the reactions of some to these two related and identical threats to the Israeli people and nation. That was the appearance of initiations that these two deaths were somehow different and that the soldier being murdered in Tel Aviv was somehow a greater threat to Israel than the other which occurred beyond the 1949 Armistice Line and thus was just one of those events which we must suffer because of the ‘occupation’. Truth be told, the Palestinians are no different than the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian or Iraqi peoples as they are all Arabs with the same culture, language, religions, lineage and histories and the idea of a separate peoples known as the Palestinians did not come into existence until 1964 when they were manufactured out of whole cloth. One does not have to believe me as the following quotes will show.

 

First Quote) In a March 1977 interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, Zahir Muhsein, a member of the PLO executive committee, admitted, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

Second Quote) Auni BeyAbdul-Hadi told the Peel Commission in 1937. “There is no such country as ‘Palestine’; ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented!”

 

That put aside, there is no reason for any Israeli, or any Jew for that matter, to place any iota of a difference between Israelis within or outside the 1949 Armistice Line as it is only the demand that any future Palestinian state the Arabs manage to wrest from the body of Israel be free from any Jewish presence that makes the existence of Jews beyond that line of any importance. Further, if one takes the Palestinian stated intentions at the continuously expressed word then Tel Aviv is just as much a part of ‘occupied Palestine’ as is all the lands of Judea and Samaria. It is their definition of all the lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as being all of ‘occupied Palestine’ that makes everything within that definition, and not just Judea and Samaria, part of their reason for violence and terror war against Israel and why Mahmoud Abbas and every other Palestinian leader refuse to agree that any peace accord made with Israel, despite it granting them lands for their presumed purpose of self-determination and independence, will signify an end to their violence and acts of terror in making war on Israel until the entirety of their lands are liberated. It also does not matter to them that the only truly occupied lands do consist of Judea and Samaria and are occupied by them just as it was occupied previously by Jordan and not only do the Palestinian leadership understand that truth, as do the rest of the Arab leadership, the rest of the Muslim leadership, the whole of the European leadership, the whole of the United States leadership, the whole of the Canadian leadership (and at least their government acts on that knowledge and for which I would like to thank them as they deserve the thanks from every Israeli, Jew and lover of Israel), the whole of the United Nations (including all of its various tentacle agencies, courts, conferences, rapporteurs, committees, and other entities) and the majority of educated people worldwide. The sole reason that this exceedingly established set of facts does not quiet the arguments for the liberation of the ‘Palestinian homelands’ is due to the overriding desire to undo what so many, especially the European powers who attended and ratified the San Remo Conference findings and conclusions, across the globe believe to be the greatest error in judgment ever committed by seemingly intelligent people when they made the promise in treaty and obligation to return the ancient lands of the Jewish People to its rightful owners with particular attention to the established fact that between the time of the Roman dispersal of the leaders and armed Hebrews to the ends of their empire to the present time no nation had ever claimed these particular lands to be their sovereign lands nor had any nation or interest named Jerusalem to be their capital city. That is the ugly little and unspoken secret at the heart of the entire effort to make a ‘Palestinian state’ out of the body and ancient heartlands of the Jewish People. This also makes Tel Aviv just as much of ‘occupied Palestine’ as it does Hevron, Shechem (aka Nablus), Beit-El and all of the rest of the lands of Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank, the name given these lands by Jordan when annexing them to remove their traditional and Jewish related original and historic names) are despite the apparent desire by some in Tel Aviv to try and differentiate between those places outside the 1949 Armistice Lines (the Palestinian plans step one) and those lands within the 1949 Armistice Lines (the Palestinian step two) with nary a real difference should the Palestinians ever achieve their true goals.

 

Additionally, there is another truth which is often ignored between times when the northern border of Israel is seemingly relatively quiet with only the occasional disturbance such as exchanges of fire between the two sides, an explosive device being detonated in attempts to murder IDF or other passing Israeli vehicles or the probing infiltrations testing the IDF response times and severity. This truth is the claims by Hassan Nasrallah and other Hezballah spokespersons that the Galilee is an area which Hezballah is capable of taking with a minimum of effort and that the IDF is incapable of preventing as the Galilee is presumably part of Lebanon and also rightfully the southern lands of Syria of which Lebanon is only an autonomous part. This claim to the Galilee is identical to the claims to all of Israel by the Palestinians, completely false and attributable to titles granted the regions between Turkey and Egypt. These general names for this land mass include but are not limited to Syria, Greater Syria, Syrian Province, Judea, Israel, Samaria, Transjordan, Jordan, Palaestina (Roman name mistaken pronunciation of the Jews main historic enemies, the Philistines), Assyria, and Canaan as well as simply being a province within such empires as Babylon, Greek, Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Zengid, Hamdanid, Byzantine, British, French, Egypt, Hittite, Mongol and Caliphate. Despite all of these empires and names given this small area in the Middle East, only the Jews ever claimed Jerusalem as their capital city which was true even under the title of Judea. Despite the historic facts, the leader of Hezballah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made claims and restated his claim recently for the annexation of the Galilee by right of military conquest to the fertile valley of the Galilee once his forces have routed the Israelis. Needless to say, the real target of Nasrallah is not simply the Galilee but to all of Israel even to include the areas currently under semiautonomous control of the Palestinian Authority and probably Gaza from Hamas as well. Before anyone attempts to correct my mention of Gaza being under the rule of Hamas and claiming it is under the unity government of the Palestinians, we all know it is ruled by Hamas and that should Mahmoud Abbas or any other Palestinian Authority leader or member desire to leave the comfort of Ramallah and visit Gaza they would need to procure the permission from the previous Hamas leaders, particularly Ismail Haniyeh, or face a death sentence and summary execution without even the semblance of a trial. Should Nasrallah once again attack across the Israel-Lebanon border, his aims would not be solely to subsume the Galilee region but to also take Jerusalem, the Negev Desert and even Tel Aviv. No Arab or Muslim force which managed to gain the advantage and defeat the IDF would stop at the Tel Aviv city limits and say, oh, wait, this is Tel Aviv which is completely separate and different from the West Bank, Galilee, Negev and every other part of Israel, it is the one place in the whole universe which is recognized as belonging to the Jews and we have no prior or false claim to which we can point as to why it does not belong to Jews so we had better leave it alone. Believe it or not, Tel Aviv in not inviolable and distinct from the rest of the lands claimed not to belong to the Jews, it is just as much a target as the rest of Israel, even my little corner here on the coast of the Galilee. We should and must mourn and defend to the best of our abilities every Israeli, be they Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist or other religion or identifiable origin or, as Benjamin Franklin warned the Continental Congress at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.” It applies to all of us within Israel, we too must hang together or we will hang separately.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Election Talk in Israel; Real Desire or Simply Idle Gossip?

There are polls, editorials, talk show topics and all of the regular chatter and undertones that the current government is losing the support of the people or that the Prime Minister may call for elections while he feels certain his party will take the plurality, as a majority in Israeli politics of a political party of one for each citizen, or at least almost every whim having its own party even if simply to fill the ego of some of the most self-important people. This time the talk has some echoing reverberations which may find sufficient resonance to become amplified and actually have more than its rumored strength to the point of forcing real change, and in Israel change always means a new government, as does expectations of cemented static voter preference of the current Knesset representation. That is what makes following Israeli politics more like a carnival target shoot where each barrel has different warping causing their own spins and diverging paths which may not remain identical for more than two consecutive shots. You pay your monies and you take your chances. The only certain truths of the current situation is that a majority in one poll claims they desire new leadership in the Prime Minister’s office while another poll the same week has its largest plurality finding no one more preferred or qualified to be Prime Minister than the present Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu. So, what is the world to believe if the majority desires a different leader but a plurality of the population claims to desire the same party which would be sufficient for the reappointment of Netanyahu? All of these debates and polls and gossip leads to one critical question; is there anything that Prime Minister Netanyahu could possibly change in order to return faith in Israeli governance or are Israelis doomed to continue stumbling along reelecting the same parties and getting the same limited choices of leaders who change little and continue walking the same worn out paths leading one nowhere.

The truth is actually easy to ascertain as there are demands the majority of the Israeli people now support and if these stands taken by the people would only be reflected in the governance then there would be only a faint echo calling for new elections which would come solely from the somewhat-so-loyal opposition as expected even in the best of times. The problem for any leader tasked with being Prime Minister is that he has to attempt to stride a line so narrow full of twists, and turns forcing any leader to jump through hoops and perform stunning acrobatics in order to mollify all of the demands and interests which demand his acts satisfy their specific demands. The biggest problem is that apparently that many of those influencing or holding sway over the path that Prime Minister Netanyahu has chosen to tread are not Israelis but rather are the many external demands and pressures from such as European Union and individual European governments as well as the United States out of Washington and from New York the United Nations, the Arab and Muslim worlds and the threats and dangers they pose and other pressures from international sources. The average Israeli may believe they understand these forces and the powers behind them and how they might weigh on a Prime Minister’s mind, but until you have led at such a high level, these influences are probably as foreign to you as they are to most of us. There have been some who I have heard who believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu has given far too much weight to satisfying those external influences at the cost of shorting on many of the internal Israeli expectations. So, what might be the steps that Prime Minister Netanyahu might take by which he could once again receive the support he once enjoyed.

Perhaps looking back to the point where Prime Minister Netanyahu had his support take a dive in the polling might provide some insight. After the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens by Hamas terrorists and during the three weeks of searching for them and their abductors and before their deaths had become a certainty, Prime Minister Netanyahu held a steady level in approval in polling, though as nearly the entirety of the Israeli public was holding their breath and praying and hoping, even as such required greater leaps of faith as time passed, made polling somewhat unreliable as it had a definitive reflection to the level of that hope. The following continuing and increasing rocket barrages by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror entities out of Gaza led to apprehensions and a general holding of the Israeli collective breath waiting for the other shoe to fall. After that shoe fell and Israel mobilized and set a date and time for a cessation of the rocket fire came and went triggering the Israeli military operations to disrupt and terminate the rocket fire began. During the periods of open warfare with intermittent ceasefires, most of which Israel agreed to ceasing operations while Hamas and fiends continued their offensives, the Israeli public support for Prime Minister remain high well into the conflict. Eventually the support began to wane but not for the reason many would like for the world to believe. The ire represented was due to timidity being shown by Israel in accepting virtually every offered ceasefire while the rockets continued to target Israeli population centers. Approaching fifty days the conflict approached a crucial point where for Israel to extend their military operations any further would have required a decision of whether the offensive was meant to end the rocket offensive or was it meant to retake Gaza and replace the Hamas government once and for all. The decision made by at the least a plurality of Israeli public, if not an obvious majority, boisterously called for retaking Gaza and split on whether to return it to Palestinian control or retain it retaking complete control over Gaza repealing the disengagement initiated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a decision which eventually led Benyamin Netanyahu to leave the cabinet and coalition supporting Ariel Sharon. Instead, Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted and bent over deeply to ensure that Hamas would also accept the ceasefire. This resulted in Prime Minister Netanyahu suffering a severe nosedive in his polling and it has yet to rebound completely. This is the challenge facing the Prime Minister and potentially the Israeli public as well.

Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be leaning to favor the demands for Israelis to disengage from any confrontational activities or military actions and return to negotiations, even with the unity government which includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad, universally recognized terrorist groups, which originate with the Europeans both as individual governments as well as the European Union and the plethora of NGOs directly financed by numerous European governments, both within Israel and within Europe, as well as the administration of United States President Obama who also is insisting that Israel also be prepared to make grand sacrifices and concessions even accepting demands from the Palestinians which cross numerous previously demanded Israeli red lines. Apparently President Obama has a similar disregard for Israeli red lines as he had for his own red lines he timidly refused to enforce when Syrian dictator Bashir Assad used chemical weapons against the Syrian people and rebel forces in an in your face dare proving that the United States under current leadership has no stomach for confrontation. Perhaps some of the gossip concerning new elections in the near future is part of Prime Minister Netanyahu testing the waters to discover how much trouble he might have bought for himself with his lack of boldness during the confrontation with Hamas and his refusal to execute the coup de grâce and put a permanent end to Hamas rule or even their participation in the Unity Government. Whatever the source, Prime Minister Netanyahu should realize that even should the Israeli not see anyone they particularly feel would be prepared and able to take the position of Prime Minister, that does not mean that an election season with the campaigning that nobody could make the case that they would be more responsive to the Israeli people and less so to the Europeans and to President Obama thus propelling their party into controlling the formation of the next government. The one guarantee is that should somebody from the Zionist or right wing of Israeli politics such as Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman or somebody else were to try and form a government, should Benyamin Netanyahu as leader of Likud refuse to join such a government holding out hoping that person fails in making a coalition and then he would be able to swoop in a save the day, such a move could prove very costly in the future as it might be perceived by the public as being a bit pretentious.

Is there another and potentially more productive path that the Prime Minister might consider? The simple answer is, yes. If Prime Minister Netanyahu instead of worrying about what the Europeans or the United States President thinks or desires and instead put the needs and concerns of the Israelis as the first and most important by far influence over his actions he might even do the unthinkable, actually win a majority for Likud in some upcoming election, well, maybe not an actual majority but sufficient votes to have a strong unarguable mandate. It is hear from all corners of the planet that everybody knows exactly what the final terms will be in making an agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Really? Is this well-known and unavoidable agreement be anything like what everybody knew would be the end agreement back in September of 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed and the only consideration was where exactly the demarcation would be in splitting Area B to set the borders between the Palestinian and the Israelis with the Palestinians retaining Area A and the Israelis Area C? Could this known result for an agreement be anything like what was thought when the United Nations decided that Israel should return some part of the lands gained after the Six Day War which then everyone knew that all of the West Bank would remain part of Israel, especially after the Jordanians refused any claim when making their peace with Israel? Where will this well-known agreement be in twenty years when the Palestinians are also demanding the majority Arab Galilee and the Bedouins are demanding their own state in the Negev? Perhaps it might be to the advantage of the Israeli people if the Prime Minister more clearly demanded that which Israel feels would be a fair and acceptable settlement instead of constantly listening obediently to what others demand that Israel agree to. The Prime Minister of Israel should represent that which is to the advantage of Israel and not what will mollify any foreign or international entities. And if the problem is presented that without the friendship of the Europeans and the United States as well as so many others then Israel might find herself defenseless as none of the weapon systems would be able to attain critical and necessary parts then perhaps Israel should not have permitted entire sectors of her defense capabilities to be so critically dependent on foreign suppliers. Israel may have entered into a Faustian deal with the United States because they feared the competition of Israeli weapons manufacturers, especially the competition from the Israeli aircraft industry so they offered a very enticing deal whereby Israel got two top of the line aircraft for the price of not producing one. At the time that must have been irresistible and back then who could have foreseen that someday there would come to be a President of the United States who was potentially antagonistic to Israeli desires and needs. Who would have said back a decade or so that in the middle of a conflict between Israel and terrorist forces backed by Qatar, Iran and who knows who else, that both the British and the United States would threaten or even embargo arms or parts shipments even those items which had already been agreed upon and paid for, but that is what Israel faced during Operation Protective Edge. The lesson might be that Israel needs to make every weapon system within Israel and not depend on others for our parts and resupply. Israel already has made some inroads in the defense market and there would very likely be a well-received response to any future weapons systems including but not limited to aircraft and even naval vessels not to mention the possibilities for dual use systems such as long-range capable bombers which could also be utilized by El Al for passenger transport making everybody happy all around. Surely if Japan feels capable of entering the air carrier market there might very well be room for an Israeli entry. The time is likely ripe for Israel to reconsider some basics and perhaps choose a path of self-reliance and forge forward no longer being dependent on others. The newly found resources off the Israeli coast make such even that much more of a possible direction as Israel will soon be an energy exporter for the foreseeable future granting her a very much stronger influence, especially once Israel becomes an alternative source for natural gas for the Europeans outside of Russian influence. Perhaps Israel requires another strong Israel first Prime Minister who decides to make decisions mainly with Israeli needs in mind and instead of waiting for the world to define the boundaries of Israeli actions and even her actual boundaries the next Prime Minister can do the delineating. Perhaps it is time to end the silent building freeze and address the silent intifada and then take on addressing the not so silent foreign demands. Anyone who would act with such bravado would win the hearts and minds of the majority of Israelis and possibly win a permanent preeminent place for their party as well. The ball is currently in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s court and his to strike, may he choose the direction and spin into a different direction and begin the march to present a strong Israel which sets her own agenda and goes forward with a necessary defiance, if that is what it requires.

Beyond the Cusp

The Quest to Deliver Israel by President Obama

President Obama once again delivered a shot across the bow immediately before Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC earlier this week with an interview given to Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg where he stated, “I have not yet heard… a persuasive vision of how Israel survives as a democracy and a Jewish state at peace with its neighbors in the absence of a peace deal with the Palestinians and a two-state solution.” This was President Obama’s way of reinforcing the threats which have become part and parcel of Secretary of State Kerry and the rest of the Obama Administration demanding that Israel must surrender to the Palestinians’ endless demands and preconditions immediately because it has no other option and the United States will not be capable of finding reasons or excuses necessary to protect Israel from the consequences the world will demand. The small and inconvenient fact is that there has been definitive proof that Secretary of State Kerry has been assisting and facilitating efforts to further the boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) pressures on European governments. The leaning on Israel while coddling the Palestinians in the recent negotiations has been reminiscent of the early efforts to rectify the imbalance which Obama perceived in the Israel-Palestinian peace process where he not only sided with the Palestinian cause but actually introduced concepts and demands on the Israelis which even the Palestinians had never had the audacity to propose. A couple of examples of these initiatives which originated from the mouth of President Obama and have now become the central demands of Mahmoud Abbas and the other Palestinian negotiators are the concept of Israeli building and construction freezes in Judea and Samaria, the return to the pre June 1967 Armistice Lines drawn after Israel defended successfully against over a half dozen Arab armies which attacked the nascent Jewish State immediately after her independence in May of 1948, the establishment of the Palestinian Capital City in Eastern Jerusalem and the return of the entirety of East Jerusalem including the Old City and the Temple Mount to Palestinian rule, and Israel granting some recognition for the Palestinian Right of Return by permitting a partial repatriation of Palestinian refugees possibly numbering as high as two or three million. All of these trends beg the question of whether or not Israel will be capable of weathering the storm and wait out the remainder of President Obama’s last term in office or will they be pressed beyond the breaking point.

 

There is one path which Israel could take which would end the ability of any nation, even the United States, to pressure Israel any further and would give President Obama the definitive proof that Israel does have an answer to the challenge by President Obama’s demand, “I have not yet heard… a persuasive vision of how Israel survives as a democracy and a Jewish state at peace with its neighbors in the absence of a peace deal with the Palestinians and a two-state solution.” Israel has the option which has stronger support in International Law than do any of the claims made by the Palestinians based on the San Remo Conference which was a treaty approved by 52 League of Nations members in 1922 and by the United States which was not a member of the League of Nations but approved it by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1922 and in a separate treaty, the Anglo-American Convention of 1924 making the claims that Israel, the Jewish State, be defined as all the Mandate Lands west of the Jordan River not only valid under International Law but also the law of the land defining the position of the United States into the future in perpetuity.

 

The presumed problem Israel would need to address to the satisfaction of the United Nations, European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and a plethora of other NGOs and entities is once all the lands west of the Jordan River were annexed officially and incorporated as part of the State of Israel, would be providing a path through which the Palestinians will be included as full citizens with complete rights incorporating the people along with the lands. The first promise that Israel could make would be to extend water, sewage treatment, waste disposal, electricity, gas lines and all other infrastructure to include all of the Samaria and Judea bringing the services to all the new areas now under Israeli autonomy. There would also need to be a proposed path through which all those who desired to become citizens of the State of Israel could realize that goal. Giving all of the current Palestinians instantaneous citizenship would not be feasible as Israel should not be forced to grant the privilege of citizenship to those who had been convicted of acts of terrorism until some means of gauging the renunciation of such animosities had been met and a period of good faith passed without any further acts against the State of Israel and her peoples. Furthermore, Israel could offer a monetary package to those who desire to refuse Israeli citizenship and instead desire to make their home anywhere else in the world thus, making their accommodation of that desire easier to facilitate. Israel also should make their position firmly known and understood that any person found guilty of acts of terrorism will be deported as soon as possible without any enumerations as those funds are reserved for those choosing to resettle and not to criminal elements being deported. This is one of the available options out of many others which are defined as the One State Solution.

 

The principle item which would also require the assistance and cooperation of the world is that the descendants of the refugees would need to be incorporated and resettled somewhere other than within Israel. The refugees themselves largely left their homes under the auspices and direction of the Mufti of Jerusalem who claimed that their departure would allow the invading Arab forces could simply annihilate everyone they came across without need to determine whether they were Arab or Jew. They were promised after a few days and the quick victory by their imposing and unstoppable assault they could return and enjoy the spoils of war taking possession of the wealth and properties that formerly belonged to the Jews. The idea that not only the original persons who left or fled automatically instil the definition of refugee on their children and their children on into perpetuity is preposterous and a definition which the world only has attempted to apply to the Arab refugees of the War to Annihilate the Jews of the new State of Israel and on no others. The fact that this definition for refugee is solely applied in the case of the Jewish State of Israel meets the definition of an act of anti-Semitism and not an act of justified accusation on Israel as a state like any other. The correction of this travesty and the incorporating the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) agency responsible for Palestinian refugees removing them from the corrupt and politicized United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which has a self-interest in perpetuating the refugee status into a permanent class of people that can and will never by fully satisfied. UNRWA has proven that it has long since become an agency whose unofficial job is to bring about the end of the Jewish state and the submission of Israel to Arab Islamic rule. That travesty must be terminated.

 

Beyond the Cusp