France’s Misconception and a Look at Palestinian Refugees

 

There has been the conference in Paris which claimed that it would arrive at the perfect solution that would restart the ‘Peace Process’ and lead to a final resolution based on fairness and recognition of both people’s desires and claims and settle all disputes over property based on the 1967 Lines, a term for the 1949 Armistice Lines, with the shared capital of Jerusalem which could become an international zone, another term for briefly protected and kept by United Nations or the European Union until the first terrorist attack kills some of their forces and then it would be surrendered to whoever could get there first. This was such a lovely idea and the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was explicitly informed that his presence was not required or desired and that he was basically persona non grata might make one just a tad suspicious. On the other hand there was an open slot for Mahmoud Abbas who surprisingly decided he preferred not to attend as such a conference had the possibility of recognizing the Jewish State and Abbas refuses to admit that the Jewish People have a right to a state or even the right to live anywhere in his Palestine which extends from the River to the Sea and all of it is what he demands for free. The French had invited numerous Foreign Ministers and a collection of around a couple of dozen met for the conference in Paris, who doesn’t want to spend a week all expenses paid in Paris? At the end of the week they issued their groundbreaking decision, they would try and meet again before the end of the year as they understand how whatever they plan to do will require that President Obama be in office and as the Americans are not able to reelect this great man whose stature garnered him a Nobel Peace Prize and he has been seeking a reason ever since. But why the great panic in Paris which drives the French and their desire to be the ones seen as the great friends of the Palestinian cause?

 

Well, some believe they might be driven as a response to a few minor disturbances such as the events in Toulouse, Paris, Hypercacher, Charlie Hebdo, the Batkalan Pub, Stade de France Stadium and three restaurants. In case you are still confused think crazies with guns shooting people and threatening further violence and screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ between firing entire clips through their fully automatic unlicensed firearms. Yep, they are pushing this in a response to the terror attacks which have been ramping up and happening more frequently. This also represents the growing immigrant population from mostly the Middle East and North Africa. The theory is that by forcing Israel to grant a Palestinian State and the formation of two states for two people side by side in an area about the size of New Jersey they will codify the terrorists leading the Frenchies to be left alone. There is a small problem to this theory, the French never bothered to check with the terrorists, especially those from the Islamic State which appears to be the newest source for terror, and they did not fully check with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian population to see if their theory had any validity or possibility of resolving their problem. What they would have found might have shocked them.

 

The first thing the French would have learned is that the Islamic State and most other terrorists today could not care less about the Palestinians and especially Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. The Islamic State and the Salafists from where the main body of terror originates are Islamists and strongly religious and follow strict Sharia while the Palestinian Authority is a nationalist and secular organization which is only mildly concerned with Islam and thus hated by the Islamic State and the Salafists. The going driving forces in the Muslim world currently are Islamist religious forces which strive to establish a world Caliphate under Sharia and would just as soon replace the Palestinian Authority and would be more likely to murder Mahmoud Abbas. These groups would fit far more comfortably with Hamas and Islamic Jihad with Islamic Jihad being the preferred as Hamas is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and off/on with Iran. So, the French idea that they could pacify and ameliorate the Islamic terrorist entities was simply wrongheaded and virtually counter-productive. What France is actually broadcasting is that they are weak and pliable and will offer up compliance, even if wrong-headed attempts, and are ready and willing to roll-over and play submissive in response to terror attacks. The French are signaling that they are incapable of fighting and will not act aggressively no matter how violent the threat they face. They have basically lit up a flashing neon sign claiming their target status with it saying, “Terror attacks will be treated with submissive behavior and coddling of any Islamist demands even if we are so ignorant that we will sometimes, possibly often, support the wrong cause, we are trying, trust us.”

 

What the French have not observed are the real rulers of the people in the Palestinian Arab areas. Their last election, and it will apparently remain their last election, the winning candidates were all Hamas representatives who took over 60% of the vote and even higher in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and that Mahmoud Abbas assumed the office of President after the death of Yasser Arafat and won a questionable election with his four year term ended in 2009 and immediately before the election which he was obviously going to lose to Hamas whose candidate was not even able to campaign as Abbas refused to allow anyone from Hamas in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas after they lost Gaza to Hamas in a coup in June 2007. So the election was cancelled and all subsequent elections cancelled means that there is no legal governance and Abbas is an assumed dictator who has taken all power to himself denying the people their vote and representatives in government. So, the French were attempting to mollify Mahmoud Abbas in the hope that the Islamists, who would just as soon kill him as speak with him, would attack elsewhere. One has to wonder who the brains behind such wrongheaded thinking are. On the other hand, who really cares? What would be more interesting is what the latest direction the Palestinian planners have decided to take their exploits.

 

The latest intentions are not decisively different still aiming for the same goal of replacing Israel and taking over everything from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and eradicating the Jewish population and then the Christian and then any other non-Muslim populations. Of course they do not use that language when speaking English, that would be counterproductive. In English they are all about fairness, democracy and egalitarian acceptance of all people, races and religions. They do talk about genocidal intentions and ethnic cleansing as well as accusations of an Apartheid government and other such crimes against humanity which are presumably being waged by the Israelis. They claim that the Jew settlers are stealing lands and changing realities on the ground and moving into areas which are forbidden because the lands are reserved for Arabs and Muslims only. They also speak of equality for all Palestinians no matter their current residence whether they are living in the Palestinian areas or the refugee camps in the Palestinian areas or in the diaspora or anywhere else in the world. They comment how the Palestinians in the diaspora refuse to live outside of small compounds where they retain their identity. Then there are their comments that they demand full and equal election where all are permitted to vote on the future of the land no matter their current residence. But there are some minor areas of disinformation in the Palestinian presentations; actually all of it is disinformation of one sort or another. So, what is the truth, the reality?

 

The first problem is their accusations made against the Israelis. There has been no Apartheid governments since the one imposed by the Jordanians after they invaded and conquered Judea and Samaria, renamed it West Bank and ejected or murdered every Jew stealing their properties and giving them to Arabs granting them deeds for the properties and these are the deeds they claim Israel is dispossessing when the properties were returned to the Jewish families who had owned the land before the Jordanian invasion in 1948. The same goes for the residences in the Jewish Section of Jerusalem, a name the area has had since before the Crusades and ever since the Muslim invasion stole most of the city for themselves in the seventh century. They stole Christian lands which had been owned for over five hundred years by these Christians and Jewish homes which had belonged to their Jewish owners in many cased for fifteen hundred years since King David conquered Jerusalem in the tenth or eleventh century BCE. The lands Jordan took and Egypt took were cleansed of all Jews and the vast majority of Christians and theirs was an Apartheid governance. The war in 1948 was not a Jewish invasion stealing the lands as the morning of May 15, 1948 before the first shot was fired the Jewish State of Israel’s borders were the Jordan River, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sinai/Negev, the Golan Heights and the Lebanon/Israel Blue Line. The lands which were taken by force were Judea and Samaria to Jordan along with the Golan Heights to Syria and the Gaza to Egypt. The war had armies from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen all attacking the newly formed and recognized by the United Nations State of Israel. The Naqba, their catastrophe was that they were, with these forces and massive number and arms advantage, unable of defeating and destroying the Jewish Zionist nation of Israel.

 

Their claim that the refugees remain in their communities refusing to integrate into the nations in which they are held is not because they do not wish to integrate but rather they are contained within the refugee camps under guard and denied entry except for limited numbers to do jobs nobody in their camp location desire to perform. They are held prisoner by their fellow Arabs because the few times they have been permitted incorporation into the population they abused their freedoms and attempted to overthrow governments succeeding in one after a long and sustained effort through subversions and threat. When permitted freedom and rights in Jordan the forces of the PLO soon drove to overthrow the monarchy as they had lost taking the government in an election. The King of Jordan loosed his military and drove them out when they then fled to Lebanon and began a civil war in Lebanon. This brought Syria into Lebanon and in defense of the Christians in southern Lebanon who pleaded for Israeli protection which Israel provided. For the story of survival in these contentious situation of war, read Bridget Gabriel’s autobiography of her life during this period titled Because They Hate. This is a story of life and death and a transitional trip of awakening that changed the author’s life. This was her look back and the realizations she experienced, including crawling with her mother on their stomachs in order to reach a small stream to fetch water as, if they stuck their heads up, the PLO forces would have shot them as they resided in the Christian section of what was left of their town. And that was how her entire teenage life was not a time of self-awakening but one of perpetual terror. The book is a riveting read. Eventually the Israelis drove out the PLO and were closing in on Beirut and capturing Yasser Arafat but were warned not to enter Beirut by the Americans who threatened repercussions if the Israelis touched Arafat who the Americans plucked off a rooftop in Beirut along with his top staff including Mahmoud Abbas and moved them to a safe house in Tunis, Tunisia.

 

They accuse the Israelis ethnic cleansing and genocidal murdering of the Palestinian population. This is despite the fact that the Palestinian population had gone from approximately 650,000 to 800,000 in 1948 to over 5,000,000 today. If the Israelis are committing genocide or ethnic cleansing they must be the worst perpetrators of such policies. Their most recent claim along these lines had to do with the knife intifada, also called the third intifada and the car intifada. These names cover the two main weapons, knives and cars with knives used to stab Israelis at bus stops, the light rail stations or just out on the street and the cars were used to run-over Israelis or ram them into crowds at bus and light rail stops or other places where Israelis might congregate. These attacks were almost without exception suicidal martyrdom attacks where the terrorist would continue stabbing. If attacking with a vehicle, they would continue targeting with the vehicle until the car was crashed or otherwise disabled. Then they would continue attacking on foot with knives or even hatchets and axes until stopped by force. This led to many of the perpetrators being shot with many killed to prevent further attacks. The Palestinians refer to these defensive actions as street assassinations of innocent Palestinians who have committed no crime other than using the streets and minding their own business. To the Palestinians it is a natural thing for them to walk down the street, or run as was often the case, stabbing every person they pass indiscriminately and qualifies as walking innocently down the street. Should any of these stabbers be shot, then it is an assassinations, a genocidal attack on an innocent. 0Killing Israelis is considered a natural state of action and considered innocent and perfectly natural thing for them to do and any act to prevent or stop such an assault is an injustice as defending Israelis is a criminal act in their society; it is a form of denying them their natural rights. If the media would ever take the time to translate any of their leaders speaking in Arabic or translate their school books and children’s shows and report on them this would surprise nobody. Many such television shows and other news stories of all varieties from print to radio to television are provided with translations on the web through sites like MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch and Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

 

The talk of desiring a free and open democracy with equal rights without restriction and acceptance of all religions and inclusivity in all things in a single unified state where Arab and Israeli can live in freedom and all the Palestinians can join in ruling the lands together with the Jews is a crock pot of simmering falsehoods. The catch here is their demand that all the Palestinians wherever they currently resided and especially from their “voluntary” refugee camps, the ones where the foreign governments refuse to permit them outside the camps and ring these camps with concertina wire and with armed guards tell the story better than anything we could claim. This is another way of calling for the ‘right of return’ where another five to eight million refugees, nobody knows how many and with the ‘Syria refugees’ flooding into Europe and the news now reporting that the refugees outnumber the numbers of refugees from Syria as it is now known that these refugees include refugees and immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and even Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and further nations as far as Bangladesh. If Israel were opened up to ‘Palestinian refugees’ the untold millions which would flood into Israel would be criminal, literally, just as Europe is being flooded even from across the Mediterranean Sea from Northern Africa and even the Horn of Africa. Does anybody believe Israel would be any different? And once this single state was established with who knows how many Arab refugees including Islamic State infiltrators and then there was an election with close to eight to ten million Arabs mostly refugees and Islamist infiltrators and five million to six million Jews and other than Muslim and a government was elected, can anybody guess what the result would be? How long before the Jews were being hunted down and shot on sight? The election would be the equivalent of five hundred ducks and one thousand wolves voting on what’s for dinner. Of course Israel is being called names by these Palestinian one state supporters claiming that the Jews are racists and refuse to permit the Palestinians the right to vote for their own government even. The person preventing any election is Mahmoud Abbas as he is completely aware that Hamas would win or possibly Islamic State, either way he would be dead as soon as they took over as would many of the PLO and Palestinian Authority elite. This is why they have such a large security force including a special core simply to protect them and keep order. These were independent of Israel and they could hold some version of an election whenever Abbas decides it is safe, don’t hold your breath.

 

Ein Beit el Ma refugee camp in Nablus
is one of the poorest camps in the West Bank
Picture from Occupied Palestine فلسطين

 

Further, these camps are not what one thinks when you hear refugee camps as these camps are cement construction apartment buildings and other than being fenced off they appear exactly the same as the buildings outside the camps(see above). Another item which boggles logic is why are there Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority areas in Judea and Samaria? Are these Palestinians not permitted to be free even in their own controlled and ruled areas? Why does Mahmoud Abbas force Palestinians he claims should be freed from the camps to remain as refugees in camps walking distance from his office? Somehow this makes no sense. Why is there a refugee camp for Palestinians inside Jenin and bordering Gaza City? Anyone have an answer? There is no answer beyond the fact that having the maximum numbers in refugee camps fuels their propaganda and they do not have jobs for them and they get millions of dollars and euros through UNRWA which they and Hamas use for weapons and feeding their Swiss bank accounts. Explain how the five top men in Hamas live in palaces in Qatar and are worth close to or over one billion dollars with the leader, Khaled Mashaal, “Estimates around the world are that Mashaal is currently worth $2.6 billion.” Add that Abbas is building himself a pleasure palace in Ramallah (see below) which will also house troops to defend the house and its owner. Who said that terrorism doesn’t pay?

 

 

The end result of anything from the Palestinians always includes the same end result, they get from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and their land must be cleansed of all Jews. They claim that every refugee gets to return and is given the lands they claim to have lost. The children are given assigned names of cities inside Israel where they claim they were born. This starts in preschool and each child and their matched city is registered in their school paperwork and that assigned city goes with them for the rest of their lives and it has the effect of convincing them they should be living in some beautiful house inside Israel and when the great day comes they can go claim their new home once the Jews are all gone. And they wonder why the Israelis do not trust them. Imagine that.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Weeds in the MENA Garden

 

 

If one were to ask the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and the world media who is responsible for the unrest throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) the resounding echoes would continue to scream Israel for likely the rest of eternity, but is that an honest assessment or simply a knee jerk automatic programed response spurred by anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic hatreds? The easiest way to tell would be to take a quick whirl around the MENA nations and see what the truth is. Let us start our excursion at the western edge and head to the east and see what we will see.

 

A map of MENA nations is almost up to date and is only missing the Sudan, and as the Sudan was split after years of tribal and religious violence, South Sudan; and some go so far as to include Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Eretria, and Somalia.

 

Coming into the North of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean the first country we would visit would be Western Sahara where we would find Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in violation of resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and International Court of Justice ruling. Any efforts to dislodge Morocco from Western Sahara have been blocked directly by the United States whose full support of the Moroccan occupation shows no sign of relenting. The conflict reemerged as the “Independence Intifada” in 2005 which has remained as depicted in map below. Despite numerous efforts to defuse the situation the standoff remains.

 

Occupied Western Sahara
by Morocco Shaded Area
and Western Sahara Unshaded

 

Continuing on from the Morocco-Western Sahara conflict we next visit Mauritania which has had a rocky recent history including two military coups, the first was in 2005 followed eventually by elections for a new president in 2007 followed by the second coup in 2008. General Abdul Aziz took power after the coup but found the nation had few supporters amongst them predominantly were Morocco, Libya and Iran while the United States and European nations rejected the legitimacy of the coup continuing to refer to Abdallahi as the legitimate president of Mauritania. After the resignation of Abdallahi there were elections which allowed Abdel Aziz to become the civilian president. In February 2011 there were waves of unrest as the Arab Spring spread to Mauritania demanding President Mohamed Abdel Aziz institute political, economic, and legal reforms. The unrest culminated in April of 2012 as thousands of people in Mauritania attended demonstrations in the capital calling for President Mohamed Abdel Aziz to resign. Currently the nation is under military rule with the legal system based on Islam and Sharia.

 

Heading across the southern end the picture in Mali, Niger and Chad is the constant internal strife between Christian governments and Islamic uprisings with much of the major horrific attacks conducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram which literally means Western education is forbidden. Boko Haram follows Saudi Wahhabism and has pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State. Along the north there has been steady unrest in Algeria and especially Libya since the NATO backed coup where President Obama declared that the United States was leading from behind in the ouster of and eventual execution (murder) of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In Libya the nation is in fractious rule of numerous terror groups and tribal armies with some having declared alliance with the Islamic State. In the south east there is the Sudan which bled in the south especially in the Darfur area. Eventually the Sudan was force to divide allowing South Sudan to become independent. In October of 2015, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a decree establishing twenty-eight states in place of the ten constitutionally established states. The decree established the new states largely along ethnic lines. He took it to the parliament for approval as a constitutional amendment in November and the South Sudanese parliament empowered President Kiir to create new states.

 

This brings us to Egypt where the recent history has played out live and large in the Western media. The Arab Spring riots led to the removal of President and military strongman Mubarak. The elections were held fairly soon after Mubarak was forced to step down largely by the United States backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. These elections overwhelmingly approved Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi to the presidency and a large Muslim Brotherhood majority in the parliament. Within the year new rioting broke out protesting the implementation of Sharia despite warnings from Turkish President Erdogan to the Morsi government to slow their radical changes or face resistance. This led to the military removing Morsi and arresting him for election fraud. New election instated former General of the Army Sisi as President though he still had an Islamist and presumed Muslim Brotherhood controlled parliament. The Obama administration refused to recognize Sisi and demanded that Morsi be reinstated; a request which was roundly ignored. Unrest still exists between Egypt and the United States which will be resolved by the Presidential election this November in the United States. As to what either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump might choose to do is a complete mystery at the present time as neither has addressed foreign policy beyond Hillary’s claim to deep knowledge claiming her time as a Senator of New York and a stint as Secretary of State under President Obama which included the Benghazi, Libya fiasco amongst other miscues and Trump claiming to have conducted business deals with numerous foreign governments and met many world leaders though particulars remain largely unconfirmed. Egypt has also faced unrest largely from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State where both are vying for control of the Sinai from where they would presumably unseat Sisi and retake the presidency. Hamas in Gaza was seen as providing assistance to these and some Iranian backed groups in the Sinai thus earning themselves a complete sea and land embargo enforced by Egypt from their waters and land borders with Gaza. The Egyptian blockade is often ignored with the large amount of attention paid to the Israeli “blockade” which is actually an inspection of goods before allowing their delivery to Gaza usually within one or two days done to assure that weapons are not being imported by Hamas and the other terror groups which rule Gaza. Egypt too is a work in progress.

 

We will return to Israel subsequently but meanwhile on to Lebanon where the terror groups Hezballah runs the government with an opposition often afraid to act to remove the terror group as previous attempts have resulted in untimely deaths. Lebanon cannot be addressed without discussing Syria and the state of war which has more facets than hewn crystals. The main three forces are Syrian dictator Bashir al Assad who has retreated to the Alawite tribal areas along the Mediterranean coast and Lebanese border. Assad is backed by Iran and their proxy, Hezballah, out of Lebanon. These are the Shiite forces which also receive tactical support largely in the form of air strikes by the Russians who are protecting their port area along the Mediterranean coast. Inland there are Sunni groups, oft referred to as terror groups, supported largely by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Finally there are the forces of the Islamic State which stretch into Iraq where they face the Iraqi Army backed by Iran who uses mostly IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) placing Iran at either end of the Islamic State. The Islamic State has been largely self-financed though there have been rumored support from Qatar. There is another group in northern Iraq and extending into northeastern Syria which is controlled by Kurdish Militias which are opposed strongly by Turkey. The Kurdish forces were at one time rumored to be receiving training by Israeli trainers on a clandestine mission though many have refuted that this was just a means of explaining the Kurdish forces resilience and holding their own against Islamist forces considered to be better equipped.

 

This takes us to the Saudi Peninsula and Jordan which we can count as a single unit of the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) which is a group backed mostly by Saudi Arabia which includes Kuwait and the Gulf States and to a lesser extent, Jordan. Saudi Arabia has a close working relationship with the Egyptian government of President Sisi who are jointly facing terror groups including those supported or aligned with Islamic State as well as Iranian backed terrorists and the Houthi Tribes in the Yemen civil war, a front where Iran backed and Saudi Arabian backed forces are in direct confrontation. The United States has opposed and presumably attempted to prevent, though with little success, arms shipments to the Houthis by Iran and also opposed the bombing sorties from Saudi Arabia with equal lack of success and the belligerents continue to fight on. In the southernmost areas of Yemen, the prized areas which overlook the narrow passage from the Red Sea into the Arabian Sea, called Bab el-Mandeb Strait are a group of fighters originally claiming alliance with al-Qaeda but recently changing their alliance to presumably the Islamic State. These groups have benefited directly from Saudi raids as has the currently recognized Hadi-led government.

 

Yemen Battle Map

 

Lastly let us finally look at Israel. On the Golan Heights IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have returned fire when fired upon by intention and otherwise has unofficial drop points for wounded individuals, civilian and combatant though no difference is noted, wounded and in need of treatment. IDF soldiers take these wounded and treat them in their field facility with the more serious cases transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment. After treatment the individuals once sufficiently recovered are returned from whence they came at same drop points. All sides can view the individual drop points and all points are respected by other fighting factions in an unarranged agreement as all sides use this treatment method and no one side wishes to risk being cut-off from Israeli treatment and have to rely on whatever resources they have available. We have no information as to whether any Iranian forces have received treatment from the Israelis though if placed in civilian clothing they would receive the same treatment as any other individual. The Israeli border with Lebanon is currently quiet as Hezballah has sufficient on their plate with forces in the Syrian conflict and rumored even to have some fighting with IRGC or Houthis in Yemen. Intelligence believed to be accurate estimated that Hezballah has stores of rockets of varying size and capable of striking Tel Aviv, Bathsheva and even Ashkelon as well as guided missiles from Iran capable of striking anywhere in Israel including the southernmost port city of Eilat carrying warhead as large as two kilos and potentially five or ten up to one-hundred kilos warheads on their short and medium ranged rockets of which they possess as many as one-hundred-seventy-five-thousand. On their larger missiles they have warheads of as much as seven-hundred-fifty kilos on modified Zilzal-2 with a four-hundred km range and which they possess an estimated one thousand. Their Fateh-110 missile has a range three-hundred km range striking at Mach 3.5 carrying a four to seven-hundred kg warhead of which Hezballah possess more than twenty-thousand and lastly there is the Shaheen-II two stage missile which has a range of two-thousand km making able to strike anywhere in Israel and into Egypt. Each missile is capable of flight altitude of up to three-hundred km, is GPS guided, and varies a one-thousand plus kg warhead making it potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and retaining it guidance hardware. It is doubtful that Iran has, let alone provided Hezballah with a deliverable nuclear warhead. Such is not far from the horizon for Iran but their providing Hezballah with such a weapon is doubtful.

 

The remaining fronts for Israel are with Jordan and Egypt which are both peaceful and with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria as well as with Hamas and ally Islamic Jihad and other terror and criminal groups in Gaza. The front with the PA is largely one where there are terror strikes which can be planned by Abbas and the his PLO terror groups or the less planned but instigated through calls for violence from PA figures, PLO figures or any of a litany of groups most of which are either headed by Mahmoud Abbas or are willful practitioners at his beck and call. The most recent round were stabbings carried out largely by Palestinian Arab and some Israeli Arab youths as well as car rammings along with rock and Molotov cocktail throwing with rioting which are carried out routinely by PA controlled terror groups, the Tamini family instigators who work closely with European Union and other European NGOs whose main aims are to cause any violent response by Israel which is filmed and the instigation causing the defensive act is edited and with careful editing and juxtaposition of stock footage, prerecorded footage or actual footage with any questionable instigations by the Arabs edited over or out completely compiled into the final product which is then transmitted throughout European news agencies within a matter of a couple of hours and they run with it unedited as if it were an actual news story followed by their governments and the European union then condemning Israel for use of disproportional force or the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Gaza front is another area where Iran attempts with some success to smuggle arms mostly containing rocket motors and rocket parts and technology. Funding for Hamas comes from UNRWA as well as from the PA making the European Union, United States, United Nations and individual European nations as well as numerous Arab countries direct or indirect financiers of Hamas terrorism and rocket attacks as well as Arab instigations and propaganda which permeates their entire society from their media to the schools, summer camps soccer leagues and every aspect of childhood and raising the children to hate Jews as well as Israel. The Hamas Charter calls not only for the annihilation of Israel but of Jews worldwide. Similar language is found in Islamic Jihad and Hezballah pamphlets and charters or constitutions. The hatred goes well beyond Israel and includes Jews everywhere as well as Western culture and societies. Hamas and their allies as well as Hezballah desire a world caliphate under Sharia and openly claim so. The main difference is whether the caliphate would be Shiite or Sunni, for the rest of us that is a minor comfort.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Suicide Bus Bombing Returns

 

An Egged bus this Monday was viciously bombed in Jerusalem leaving at least sixteen wounded, with the inclusion of one very critically and two seriously wounded amongst those struck. The initial police investigating the scene reported they suspected the explosion was a terror attack but that report was quickly silenced replaced with a more cautious report simply claiming a bus had exploded with the source being unknown and a second nearby bus which held whatever it was that exploded (see pictures below with captions linked to their supporting articles). Doctors reporting on the injuries their patients had suffered removed all doubt in our eyes, and eventually law enforcement came around as well to the knowing this had been a terrorist bombing and likely an attempted or successful suicidal homicide bombing. Many of the patients had the telltale wounds caused by flying nuts, bolts, screws and nails which had apparently been packed within the explosives. Such wounds do not occur naturally even when the object of the explosion was a bus. The busses contain more rivets than nuts, bolts and screws; and they never contain nails as part of their construction. One of the physicians treating the patients from the attack was quoted stating, “Some of the wounds of the victims who arrived to us are from nails and bolts that penetrated their bodies. It gives the impression of wounds from a terror attack.” The two buses were destroyed in the ensuing fires and a civilian vehicle was also damaged. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations have praised this still potentially deadly bombing as the most grievously wounded are still not out from danger.

 

 

Two Egged Buses on Fire Resulting
From a Suicidal Homicide Bombing

 

 

The attack could have resulted in far more injuries had not the bus adjacent to the bus with the bomb on it being emptied before it caught fire and fire consumed it relatively slowly. This latest escalation of the assaults upon civilians comes amidst a terror wave starting back middle to late September and has claimed thirty-four innocent victims’ lives and wounded hundreds upon hundreds physically and one can only guess at the thousand who have suffered psychological trauma or emotional stresses with any number of which requiring treatment and rehabilitative services. Often the thoughts do not go beyond those whose blood spilled from wounds of varying nature and tend to ignore the other injuries which often strike just as deep as the nuts, bolts, nails and screws often dipped in strychnine or other poisons in order to maximize the injuries and traumas to the bodies of their victims. One has not received reports indicating such yet in this most recent attack but often the full effects of such poisoning do not fully show until a day or more later. Most of the injuries were suffered on the one bus which had passengers and the private vehicle whose injured are somewhat lost due to the greater magnitude of injuries in the bus. The second bus was empty of passengers but is still a doubling of the damages to the Egged Bus Company and their insurers. The advantage to the reports finally proving to have been a terror bombing is it enables the victims to avail themselves of government funds to pay for all care not otherwise covered and even permits insurers to file complaints of losses.

 

 

Remains of the First Bus Which Caught Fire in the Explosion

 

Minister of the Knesset (MK) Bezalel Smotrich called upon Netanyahu to cancel the planned withdrawal of IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) forces from Palestinian Authority Area A as we reported yesterday in our article Netanyahu’s Risky Response to World Threats cited Monday’s bus bombing as “a reminder” of what could happen. Furthermore, MK Bezalel Smotrich stated “Anyone who needed a reminder of what would happen if the IDF will stop operating in the major Arab cities in Judea and Samaria got {it} today. It was fourteen years ago that the Park Hotel was attacked during the Passover Seder; that terrible terror attack that came after a long period of {deadly terror assaults} in which one-thousand people were killed and it was that {bombing} that led to Operation Defensive Shield, and from then on the IDF took back responsibility for ensuring the safety of Israeli citizens.” It truly was the Park Hotel Seder which so outraged Israelis as the victims were mostly older Israelis and resultant deaths with some being Holocaust survivors and to have them die in such a horrific attack upon Jews simply because they were Jews was a doubling of the pain for an entire nations and to others far from the shores of the Mediterranean, the backdrop for such a horrific act of blatant hatreds. MK Smotrich closed stating, “We must never return to the mistakes of Oslo, which cost us so much blood. I call on the Prime Minister to reject the proposal and the concessions [plan] and end the terror [wave] by removing the motivations that have fueled it.”

 

 

Burned Out Hulls of Two Busses Completely Gutted
by the Ensuing Fire from the Bomb Blast

 

 

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in heartfelt prayers conveyed his sympathies to the victims and their families, relatives, neighbors and friends as well as the nation as a whole, as these acts of violence strike at each of us in their own way, stated, “Our prayers for a speedy recovery go out to those injured in the terror attack, being treated as we speak in hospitals across Jerusalem. On such a day – when thanks to the dedicated work of the security services, this morning the discovery was revealed of a terror tunnel in the south, and in the evening frightened citizens returning from their daily routine are being rushed to hospital {paused, continuing emphatically} it is clear to us all, that the struggle against terrorism is ceaseless. We will pursue and we will reach all those who wish us harm, until quiet is assured.”

 

 

Closer Image Showing Burned Bus and
Two Private Vehicles Also Caught and
Destroyed in the Flames of Terrorist Attack

 

 

Revealing their truly hate filled hearts, as empty and blackened as the remains of the buses, the Hamas terror organization approvingly applauded the horrific carnage and bombing of buses and their civilian passengers, riding a known Jerusalem bus route which does not serve any contested areas, stated definitive with awe and praise the bus bombing that it was “the natural response to Israeli crimes, particularly the field executions it conducts, and the assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” Further and in support of such senseless carnage and taking of even more innocent lives whether through injury eating their spirits the rest of their lives or worse, death as all are not out of the woods yet, Islamic Jihad also justified the attack, presenting their praise claiming that it “delivered the message that the Intifada would continue.”

 

 

Montage of Fire from a Distance with Inspecting First Bus and Wires and
Destruction of Driver Side of Bus and Final Frontal View of Burned Out Bus

 

Police reported at the close of their inspections of their efforts yesterday, Monday, stating that an explosive was placed on a number twelve bus line which detonated under or within a bus that was empty of passengers but which led to the wounding of the passengers in an adjacent bus and a private car. They also believed that the person most critically injured was likely the terrorist who set off the explosives as their body was found ripped open nearest the actual bombsite. Daniel Katzenstein, a member of the Psychological-Trauma-Unit for United Hatzalah of Israel speaking to Arutz Sheva informed them of some background tying it to this bus attack referencing that this attack reminded him of the bus attacks of the Second Intifada from between 2000 through 2005 where there were many serious and traumatic bus bombings, many even more damaging and lethal than this particular bombing. He relayed that, “Unfortunately that’s were United Hatzalah gained a great deal of its experience, in responding to bus bombings.” He further expounded explaining that the medical teams began evacuating the wounded, saying, “there were many people who were far too dangerously close to the bus when it was burning. The first task was actually to get them to a safe place and then to begin to treat them.”

 

Our prayer go out to all affected by this horrific crime against humanity though we advise not holding one’s breath waiting for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon or President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry to denounce this as a cavernous act of cowardice and as a striking of every person residing in a free and diverse state which are all threatened by such terrorist violence. Additionally, with the discovery of a Hamas tunnel which reached over a mile into Israel and the obvious use of construction material allowed into Gaza for rebuilding of infrastructure and residence for the people being diverted almost completely to the building of terror infiltration tunnels, many of which have collapsed being besides the fact, the misuse should cut off all building supplies into Gaza. The residents of Gaza who are still without places to live and without work as their place of employment has yet to be rebuilt and finding the only work available is to advance the terror goals of Hamas will unfortunately continue to suffer. Such a move will not affect their woes but will prevent further expansion of the Hamas tunnel terrorist infrastructure, the seemingly sole use of every last inch of concrete, rebar and other building materials. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest of the terror structure do not care about the people of Gaza which was made obvious through their not permitting them to seek safety in their tunnel system during the conflict, have not permitted the homeless shelter and food in their tunnels reserving such for their youth and supporters and finally did not use their upper-class homes as places from which to fire the rockets into Israel thus tempting return fire destroying their nice mansions while placing the people’s homes and apartment houses, schools, clinics and other needful places and things as legitimate targets once used for launching rockets. One can also almost hear echoing around the globe the howling which would have arisen had Israel targeted only the multi-million dollar and Euro homes of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and main beneficiaries as that would have been called extrajudicial war crimes which were disproportional as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s house was not struck so why were the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad mansions destroyed. They would have claimed they had no military purpose completely missing the fairness of including their homes as they risked the targeting of the peoples, those they consider lesser people who must sacrifice so they can live luxuriously. This was another war crime committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they only risked the regular people’s homes, their peasants and lessors of their societal importance and structures. This should be the lesson for every Gazan, that ultimately every home and shopping center, school and clinic, workplace and shopping market of the normal working Gazan that will be sacrificed and never rebuilt for as long as they allow Hamas to run their lives and distribute the goodies to their friends and fighters making terrorism the only occupation in Gaza. That is how a nation becomes a true terror state. One need look no further than Gaza to know what a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria would become and thus making it obvious why Israel must always maintain security rights even if that limits the Palestinians to a semi-autonomous statehood and not complete separation and independence as that would result in another failed terrorist state where terror would be the sole industry.

 

Beyond the Cusp