Reasons for NOT Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem

 

This has been the most and greatest coverage we have seen since the Inauguration of President Trump when covering his promises and the possibility that he might falter. Every article has mentioned different choices predicting which promises the President Trump would renege upon. Many claimed he would never build the wall along the Mexican border. Some kind of cheated by claiming that he would merely use a fence or even cameras with computer monitoring for motion detection and alerting the Border Police instead of building a wall along the entire border. Some would claim that the terrain would prevent it being a wall along the entire border but these arguments were disingenuous as the wording of a “wall along the Mexico border” simply meant closing the border through the use of combined deterrents, walls, fences or monitoring through advances of technology in the most difficult terrain or least used crossing locations and simply closing the border using all means necessary and required. Others claimed he would be unable to deport all the illegal immigrants as promised. First off, that was not the promise. He promised to deport illegal immigrants with felony convictions and to work at finding an equitable solution in which deportation may be an integral part of the equation.

 

The one item which made virtually every article’s list was the promise to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Almost, well, honestly every article we read claimed that President Trump would not be capable of moving the embassy as the threats, dangers, political pressures or even that Trump would use moving the embassy to force the Israelis to make the next concession of dividing Jerusalem and returning to the 1949 Armistice Lines with very minor land swaps making a final peace deal. What the problem with the claim is that the Congress passage and the signing into law of the Jerusalem Act “recognized Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty.” That makes an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty United States law and thus holds any President to standing either actively for the undivided capital of Israel as being all of Jerusalem or remaining silent, no matter how President Obama attempted to divide Jerusalem as he disregarded numerous laws including the United States Constitution. Even some Israeli media has come up with lists for why President Trump will not, or should not (Haaretz), move the embassy to Jerusalem claiming things so extreme as stated by Haaretz, “Relocating its embassy to Jerusalem would mean the U.S. taking a partisan stance on a central and sensitive issue, a source of controversy between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and the international community.” That is a falsehood unless moving the embassy to western Jerusalem would be taking a position that western Jerusalem would remain part of Israel. Is Haaretz indicating that Israel should leave western Jerusalem and if that is the meaning, then what else should Israel surrender or does Haaretz stand with the most extreme position such as that expressed by Helen Thomas who stated on May 27, 2010, when asked whether she had any comments on Israel? “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,” she replied. “Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not Germany, it’s not Poland.” When further asked where they should go, she answered, “They should go home.” When asked where’s home, Thomas replied: “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

 

 

The American Embassy could easily be moved to even the most western edge of Jerusalem and be as far as possible from any lands under dispute and still there would be whole hosts of people screaming that the United States is persecuting the Palestinian Arabs and determining to cheat them out of their homeland. This might at first glance appear as a ridiculous position to take as it could be so easily repudiated except that the Palestinian Arab claims include all of Jerusalem. The reality is the United States has already made a statement that is determined to cheat the Palestinian Arabs out of their homeland by leaving their embassy in Tel Aviv as the Arab claim is to all of Israel just as the students chant in campuses across the United States, Europe and beyond, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.” The Palestinian Arabs are actually the entire Arab world’s crowbar and will be their implement by which they continue to wage their war to destroy all of Israel. The truth is the existence of a United States Embassy is an affront to the Palestinian Arab claims to their “rightful” country which would be built on the ruins of the Jewish State as anything less would be an aberrance to their stated demands and eventual goals. This is part of why Mahmoud Abbas, and Yasser Arafat before him, refused even offers which granted them with over 90% of Judea and Samaria along with all of Gaza and east Jerusalem as their capital when offered in 1999, 2000 and in 2008.

 

So, why should President Trump move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem according to us here at Beyond the Cusp? Well, we could use our favorite reason when trying to win an argument as kids with our parents when life got between us and a promise to go somewhere fun, “But you promised,” but we know that does not wash when things are on this level. First, it would send a message that there really has been a change in Washington D.C. and that the change will very likely be permanent for all intents and purposes. The world’s train is racing towards oblivion and nobody is manning the breaks. The old steam engine is racing with its speed balls spinning full out threatening to blow off their spinners. Everything about the old globe is screaming, whistles blowing and rivets near popping and the boiler exploding and the Deadman’s switch rig disabled and there is nobody in the cabin. Well, there was nobody in the cabin. This was the picture of the world not long ago and hopefully things will be saved before we hit a sharp curve and it all goes off the tracks. Brexit was step one and President Trump is step two but nobody knows how many steps it will require for sanity to rescue the world. Will the needful steps be taken or will the next cataclysm strike before the world regains sanity. What are the necessary steps that will bring the world back within the bounds, who can tell? The world has been slowly gaining reckless speed slowly slipping out of control and towards untold violence. There are those forces which would welcome the untold violence. They loudly proclaim their love for violence and the death it brings. They claim to worship death and that this allows them power over all who worship life. Their claim is that death conquers life. Those who love life claim that death is the rest one receives after a full, long and hopefully well spent life. These are opposing views which cannot be reconciliated, one must prevail. The good news is that President Trump is aware of the challenge though he has spoken only about it through allegory and indirect references. Moving the United States Embassy would be a strong message when it is announced as a definitive and executable policy decision. Perhaps that is the future for the moving of the United States Embassy, a declaration that the United States and life will declare over death and those who believe it is primacy. Yes, perhaps the moving of the Embassy will be a greater declaration than what the debaters believe it will be. Perhaps there is a grander plan than we are aware, perhaps the plan is greater than men and from beyond our understanding. This may be a greater issue than a mere embassy and the city in which it sits. Jerusalem had been more than a city and perhaps this is more than a simple embassy. Lastly, if the reason not to move the embassy to Jerusalem is because it reportedly will inflame Muslim passions moving them to further animosity and in turn greater acts of violence, then there is no reason not to move the embassy as from all observations of the Middle East, especially Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya and both Sudan and South Sudan as well as the levels of terrorism in Europe, more so Western Europe and also in the United States, though there it has been reported as anything but terror, especially Islamic driven terror, the levels could not conceivably be any higher. Violence, thy name is Islam, has become a truism of our times and thus simply move the embassy as there is no possible additional levels other than war, and that will happen whether the embassy is moved or not. If we had our way and the United States had not already purchased the land, then we would call for the embassy not only to be moved to Jerusalem but to the Jewish sector of the Old City as well. After all, did not Trump promise that his Presidency would be a brave and bold rebeginning for America and her relations with her friends? Well then, let’s get it off on the right foot.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel Prepares for New Reality

 

For quite some time Israel has seen the writing on the wall and knew she was not prepared for what lies ahead in her future. She had absorbed influxes of immigrants over the years with varying levels of effectiveness. There was the initial pouring in of European Jews who survived World War II and the European death camps. This is the only influx of immigrants most of the world remembers and thus get the warped opinion that Israel is simply a European colony. The second influx of immigrants laid that misconception aside as false as these were the nearly one million Jews expelled from across the Arab and Muslim worlds from Pakistan to Morocco and Turkey to the Sudan to Yemen and beyond. These Asian, Middle Eastern and North African Jews comprise almost half the population of Israel at the time of the Six Day War in June of 1967. There have been subsequent waves of immigration with the largest single source being Russian Jews many of which spent time in work camps while others simply took advantage of a means to leave the Soviet Union. Other immigrant waves were less in numbers but some of those Israel is most proud to have found the means to settle and incorporate into the population. There were the Ethiopian Jews who have been airlifted from camps in Ethiopia and other Ethiopian Jews have made their way to Israel through airlifts and some by their own volition. There were the Bnei Menashe Jews from India and various other groups of Jews from the world over.

 

Israel is truly a multi-ethnic nation as well as multi-religious with approximately twenty percent of the Israeli population made up of Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, who enjoy the full rights as citizens of the State of Israel. There are Arabs in the Knesset, they are judges, doctors, nurses, teachers and virtually every other profession one can think of and have their own churches and Mosques worshiping as they please. They vote in all elections and are equal citizens in every aspect bar none. There is also a community of Bahá’í who have two shrines in Israel, one near the recognized heritage site outside of Akko on Israel’s northern coast and the other on Mount Carmel in Haifa (see image below). These are the resting places of Baha’u’llah and the Bab, the founders of the Bahá’í Faith. Israel and India are the sole nations with such Bahá’í religious structures and grounds. The Bahá’í Faith was founded in Iran in the mid-19th century in Iran where the religion is all but outlawed today.

 

Bahá’í Gardens in Haifa

 

Things in Israel are about to change with yet two more waves of immigration by Jews to come. The first has already started and will result in the many European Jews and remaining Jews throughout the world with two main exceptions, Canada and the United States, will begin their exodus to Israel though a fair number of European Jews may choose to immigrate to the United States given half an opportunity. The European influx has already begun with France, Sweden, the Ukraine and the Balkan States being the early entries as anti-Semitism grows once again across the continent. Perhaps by now we should call it the Dark Continent of Europe as its history of anti-Semitism dates back to the early Greeks through the Roman and Byzantine Empires and continued through every age of Europe with Jews often keeping a couple of suitcases packed in case the family had no time to pack before leaving. There were those who believed anti-Semitism was a monstrous evil which had been put in its grave but alas that did not even prove true for Europe, let alone the MENA States (Middle East and North Africa). What was disparaging was one particular result of the worldwide anti-Semitism study which found that some seventy percent of those considered anti-Semitic said they have never met a Jew. That has to be one of the most vexing discoveries from the universal study of anti-Semitism in the world today. Still, such does not alter the fact that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and if truth be told, also in the United States. There remains approximately one and a quarter to one and a half million Jews across Europe which is one reason there has been such a concentration on building new apartments within the Green Line and any demographic scientist would point out that Israel does not have sufficient lands to support the entirety of the World Jewish population, though that is a definitive possible future. Where Israel would face incredible difficulties would be should the nearly six and a half million Jews from the Americas (North, South and Central America) move in great numbers to Israel as this would be a doubling of the Israeli population when adding in the coming Europeans whether these Europeans first settle in North America or come straight to Israel. These demographic bombs are part of the reason that Israel must insist that she be granted what was promised by the Oslo Accords and be permitted to annex at a minimum the lands of Area C.

 

That brings us to the election of Donald Trump, a man who might become the most supportive President concerning Israel. It is undeniable that the Republican Platform plainly states that they no longer support the two state solution. President elect Trump has stated he does not see the “settlements” as a problem for making peace. One advantage Donald Trump has is that he fully understands contracts and can read the Oslo Accords and the promises and preconditions placed into that agreement and the related United Nations Resolution and realize at no point does anything demand Israel vacate all of the lands won in their defensive war in 1967 and the Six Day War and 1973 and the Yom Kippur War. It is obvious that Israel having returned the Sinai Peninsula and given up Gaza has already fulfilled any obligation for returning lands and that the main reason there has been no peace reached between Israel and the Arab Palestinians has been the Arab intransigence demanding the total destruction of Israel as a Jewish State, let alone the Jewish State. Between the Republican Platform and statements from Donald Trump an end to this decades’ long nightmare might actually be forthcoming.

 

This likely also explains the opposite voting patterns between American Jews residing in the United States and American Jews residing in Israel. In the United States it was reported that approximately, if not more than, three-quarters of Jews voted for Hillary Clinton while Israeli Jews and Orthodox Jews in the United States voted over three-quarters for Donald Trump. This last fact, especially orthodox Jews, of Jewish support for President elect Trump should dispel the ugly rumor that Donald Trump harbor anti-Semitic feelings. He will be the first American President with Jewish grandchildren as well as a daughter who has converted to Judaism (see images below). Trump’s chosen Middle East and Israel advisors support Israel and the Zionist enterprise of reestablishing the ancient home of the Jewish People with Jerusalem as its political and religious Capital City. Of course everything remains to be seen and what will be borne out after the State department gets their say into the mix will remain to be seen.

Ivanka Trump with Jared Kushner
and daughter Arabella Rose and son Joseph Frederick
and Ivanka with youngest son Theodore James

The final concern which Israel very well may face in the future would be the near unthinkable of anti-Semitism becoming so strongly engaged by populations the world over that Israel becomes the sole refuge from the storm. This would most certainly double the population of Israel and as what starts with the Jews rarely ends there, the potential for certain, if not all, Christians becoming victims of secular purges where any religion outside secular humanism are chased from the world’s societies. There are many who claim that the numbers of Christians would prevent such from ever coming to fruition in the Western world. The problem is looking at the Western world, especially Europe, and one sees a land destitute of Christians. The churches and cathedrals stand with empty pews Sunday after Sunday with some being sold to be torn down, used for Mosques or any other assorted uses. Should Christianity face the same withering assault from secular purists they too might seek refuge where religion still has a home, Israel and certainly areas in South America and Central and Southern Africa and Asia. There can be little denial that much of Western society no longer finds a place for religion and in a couple more generations such a trend to believe in mankind and the governments that man creates could lead to a cleansing of what would be viewed as a backward and suspicious practice with archaic structures and beliefs which would have no place in the perfect world presumably designed by man dedicated to pure intellect. For me, just leave me be and let me know how that works out in the end. I have my suspicions and they do not appear to be pretty, at least not as pretty as the secular humanists like to paint their bleak existence.

Beyond the Cusp

Hubris Thy Name is France

 

French diplomats told Haaretz, describing the situation after the meeting between French envoy Pierre Vimont and Israeli officials Monday where the Israelis restated their refusal to cooperate with the French peace plans, the French representatives stated, “Envoy Pierre Vimont’s discussion with Israeli government representatives in Jerusalem was sincere and difficult. The negative Israeli response was predictable, and we will take Israel’s position into consideration. However, we plan to carry on promoting our peace initiative.” Apparently the French establishment is determined to pursue their designs on formulating a peace proposal based on the defunct two state solution, which they feel and believe is fair and acceptable to the nations they are able to gather by year’s end even if Israel is not included in the formulation of the solution. Israeli refusal is based on the insistence for direct party to party negotiations to resolve any differences. Since Israel rejected the French proposals, the Palestinian Authority (PA) accepted the French proposal and is seeking for the Arab League and Nonaligned Nations (NAM) joining the French negotiation in order to formulate a proposal which will facilitate the eradication of Israel through Arab Palestinian refugee and their descendants right to return to within Green Line (1949 Armistice Lines), all five to eight million making Israel just one more Arab majority state which will vote to deport, murder or otherwise deal with their Jewish minority. The PA is simultaneously seeking a preferably binding Security Council Chapter Seven resolution making all Israeli existence beyond the Green Line illegal under International Law believing that United States President Obama will not veto and might even propose such a measure in his closing weeks before the new President, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, a decision still being voted upon as we write, is inaugurated and such returns to being a dicey issue which remains a third-rail issue.

 

The French, with Egyptian assistance, have already made one run at this which started to be setup back in February 2016 and held in June, with no agreement being accepted by the attending nations and the French vowing to hold a follow-up by the end of the year. France is intending to form a coalition of the willing to reach a completely fleshed-out agreement accepted by and signed onto by the majority of the attending nations whether either concerned party, the Israelis or PA, approve or even accept the invite to join and assist in the drafting a resolution. The French believe that their record as world leaders stretching back century after century to the modern day giving them the right to design, implement and enforce any solution resolved by their conference. The first failed attempt consisted of largely European, Arab and Muslim nations plus the United States breaking-up with acrimony and disagreement leaving the French empty-handed with no two-state agreement to implement by any and all means necessary. How the French plan on forcing any agreement has also not been discussed with some believing that the French conference would be the first step to a Security Council Chapter Seven initiative then enforced using troops under the United Nations command relieving the French of posting an enforcement military contingent. The French even had to pull from the military contingent of NATO as they were unable to continue to provide their share, despite the limited demands being asked, and preferred to sit snug realizing there could be no actual threat to their nation as the Soviet Union threat was gone and any other threat would require hitting France’s neighboring countries thus giving them ample warning time to seek a solution.

 

All this still begs whether the world is ready to place military troops inside Israeli borders engaging the IDF in a general state of war? Would Russia sign on to a second front in the Middle East against the one nation capable of assisting their efforts in what remains of Syria and working against the Islamic State? What about China? China and India are both trading partners with Israel and potential recipients of military and dual use technologies as well as advanced in crop production, irrigation, resource management, computing sciences and numerous other scientific and social areas of research and development from Israel and these trade and sharing relations, to quote a song, have only just begun. Neither nation is to be expected to turn against Israeli interests making an antagonistic enemy out of a developing friendly nation. Other nations from the Middle East are currently so involved in internal conflicts that their participating in any joint military endeavor is next to or absolutely impossible. Examples include but are not limited to Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and others. Whether the United States would be even approachable to participate depends heavily on who becomes the next President and which party controls Congress. Canada is currently one nation which can be expected not to attend any such conference, let alone actively participate in any actions against Israel. There are other nations which would never act against Israel even if simply because of emergency aid received often starting early after the emergency and almost always remains being amongst the last to depart and giving a level of aid only matched by the United States. Such nations would include Haiti, Japan, Philippines, Nepal and others. These facts might make fielding a military force capable of engaging the IDF adequately with sufficient force to alter the current realities on the ground. Further, placing troops for making an assault against Israel might be problematic as Jordan and Egypt both have peace treaties with Israel which would preclude their permitting any military force to be mounted from their fronts, their borders.

 

The dream the French envision will not only be a nightmare for Israel should some agreement be concluded but also a nightmare for any and every nation choosing to join in being resolved to force any two state solution which addresses also the right for the Arab Palestinian refugees being relocated within Israel and splitting Jerusalem. Those opting to provide troops will be on the front lines of the war prophesized to incur the greatest casualties of any war throughout history making the blood and bodies to be piled deep upon the plains at Megiddo and others being cut to pieces against the sharp shards of the injurious bolder which is Jerusalem. The New Testament relays the story in Revelations which describes a final battle between good and evil. This is, in appearance, exactly the plan by the French as they appear to include initiating a war solely for and by themselves where no others are pressed into war. But even if France is foolhardy enough to initiate such a war believing that such a conflict would not soon balloon up and explode in their faces, then they are horribly ignorant or simply foolhardy to such a point taking risks beyond any an informed and sane person would pursue. But then again we are speaking about the forcing of an Arab Palestinian State, which would soon fall to Hamas or Islamic State if not a marriage of the two, against Israel so completely losing one’s sanity is all but required when addressing this problem.

 

Armageddon Before and After

 

Where the French may dare to go has been covered by their leadership though there does appear to be minimal wiggle-room such that they could back down from the threatened result even should the French proposals fail to gain any traction. This determined alternative was stated as France officially recognizing a Palestinian State and potentially delivering them with France even recognizing the actual borders. Should France take such a foolish direction it would all but guarantee a raised level of conflict and a far lesser possibility for the two parties negotiating one with the other. The PA has always had a singular goal from its very start as the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization, a terrorist group) back in 1964, a full three years before the Six Day War of June 1967 when the perverse concept that Judea and Samaria along with Eastern Jerusalem including the Old City, the Kotel and the Temple Mount were being occupied by Israel, not liberated from the nineteen years of Jordanian occupation; and that is, was and continues to be the destruction of Israel, all of Israel by any and all means necessary. The reality is that Judea and Samaria were Jordanian occupied lands before their liberation by Israel in the Six Day War. That is the dirty little lie the world has swallowed and used to attempt to assist the Arabs in destroying Israel. Each time a nation recognized an Arab state anywhere in Judea and Samaria and especially any part of Jerusalem the possibility that the Arabs, many of whom were placed there by Jordan during their occupation from 1949 through June 1967 were and remain the real “settlers” as they were in many cases forced to resettle so as to create the appearance of Jordanian ownership. In some cases they were moved into the homes the Jews lost when they were forced from their homes, lands and businesses by the Jordanian troops as Jordan refused to permit a single Jew to remain on their lands during the occupation. That is the reality which in far too many cases is driven by anti-Semitism in the form of either anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism; the three are interchangeable as to hold any one implies your support for the other two.

 

France is not forwarding anything new and the PA is continuing with their enforcement of the Khartoum Resolution of 1 September 1967 which included the Three No’s. These Three No’s are, no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel. This was broken by Egyptian martyred President Anwar Sadat. He broke the silence and negotiated peace with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin while United States President Jimmy Carter was presumably facilitating but later it was learned that Carter kept pressing Sadat to demand more of Israel and almost cost the two nations’ peace. President Carter was a virulent anti-Israel politician and thought Egypt should have demanded the Israelis return every inch of land and admits the Arab refugees and their children and children’s children making Israel simply another Arab state. Sadat was more interested in making a real and lasting peace. He attained his vision before the Muslim Brotherhood had succeeded in assassinating this man with a vision. That has been a problem in the Arab and much of the Muslim lands, few leaders have visions of peace and there lies the wall the French will hit. The question is will they learn or simply recognize a state where the sole desire is the destruction of an existing state and after that returning to their respective tribes leaving the land barren again, as it was in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century when the first Zionists returned joining the remnants of the Jewish Israelite civilization still residing in Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem and throughout the Galilee, Judea, Samaria and even the Negev Desert. There is another reality; the land was mostly empty until the Jewish Zionists constructed the waterworks irrigation systems. After much of that work had been accomplished, the Arabs arrived for the better economy and that is their reason for remaining. Should the world end their payments to these terror masters, they would leave never to be seen again. The few who would remain would be those willing to work and make something with their lives and with those Israel will be capable of negotiating a lasting peace. Think about that France, if you can see past your hatreds and anti-Semitism.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

*Tomorrow Reaction to President Elect Donald Trump and what that entails for the future.