As Long as They All Hate

 

We have always held that if you are going to be denounced, sanctioned, held as a diabolical daemon in the United Nations General Assembly, receive threats from the European Union and member states and bludgeoned with words of war from the Arab world and generally made a pariah; then you may as well do whatever serves your needs and to hell with everyone else. We have seen the guaranteed death of the two state solution in any number of ways. The Palestinian education, or should we say indoctrination, system has set their belief structure that the only peaceful solution left to them is the complete destruction of Israel and the death of every Jew. Just for clarification, they teach the death of every Jew, not Israeli and not just Israeli Jews but all Jews everywhere which is possible only should they conquer the world. The PLO Charter has fairly similar wordings, goals and aims as does the Hamas Charter which also calls for their conquest of the world. People laugh when they are told these things and claim that nobody is so delusional as to believe they are going to conquer the world, that’s just plain crazy. Well, yes, it is crazy but that does not mean they do not believe they will actually conquer the world. It does not matter if the leaders know that world conquest is a pipe dream, as long as the people are sold on that idea, they will fight until their dying day, which their fighting may advance by years through another senseless death in a war that cannot be won and also will not end until totally and utterly defeated. Keep in mind that the Islamic State also expects to conquer the world, Iran’s leadership sells the people on their conquering the world; the Imams in Saudi Arabia believe they will conquer the world under Wahhabism; the Imams teaching at Al-Azhar University in Cairo (pictured below), Egypt, the leading center for Islamic knowledge in the world, also sells their Imams on the fact that Islam is destined to conquer the world and it will be their version of Sunni Islam which will accomplish this; and the Ottoman Turks also set out to conquer the world and succeeded in conquering the Islamic world, or at least a good part of it. In Islam, world conquest is one of the main tenets after the Five Pillars of Islam which are Shahadah which means belief that there is only one god, Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s messenger; Salah which means prayers are to be given Allah five times a day; Zakat which means giving alms, charity, of 2.5% of income; Hajj which is making the pilgrimage to the house of Allah in Mecca at least once during your life; and Fasting which is the fast from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan. So, why not just add another pillar and admit that Islam demands that Muslims not rest until the entire world has fallen before them and all have either converted or been put to the sword. The Jizya tax for unbelievers to pay as protection under Islam is a temporary fix which in time is presumed to pass and the other two alternatives are to be implemented, convert or die. So, what does one do knowing that their problem with the Arab Palestinians can only be resolved to their satisfaction with your death and the conquest of your country by whatever means are necessary and that no rest can be afforded Israel as the land has been declared a Waqf which means that “every grain of sand is a holy piece of Islam” according to the definition of Waqf being a religious endowment of an area, in this case all of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea according to the Palestinian leadership.

 

Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt

 

So, the enemy refuses any compromise and is willing, as we have already witnessed, to send all ages of youth starting with ten year old children armed with knives who are sworn to jihad and will attack as long as they have life left in them even if mortally wounded they will still attempt to kill whomever comes close including aid personnel who are attempting to treat their wounds. That is the level of fanaticism faced currently in Israel and coming rapidly to Europe and possibly beyond into the United States, Canada and anywhere else taking in the “Syrian refugees” who have numbers of males between the ages of fourteen and forty and who are unaccompanied by a wife, girlfriend or children. These are not refugees people, this is a fighting force, an advance column which will be learned in quick order, ask the French as they are entering the first phase of the Islamic war for the conquest of France. Israel has been dealing with this war from day one when on May 15, 1948, when Israel was first declared a nation with her borders defined as being from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, sounds familiar doesn’t it, and six nations’ armies invaded from every border with the genocidal intent of slaughtering every Jew and taking their wealth and possibly enslaving many of the women to be used to propagate more Muslim children. They promised wealth, herds of sheep, free land and houses, all the belongings of the Jew and all other spoils of war as defined in the Quran, which includes the enslavement of their defeated opponents women and the taking of children too young to be educated and have a strong attachment to any religion and might make good Muslims after being indoctrinated. That definition of the rewards for jihad against Israel and the Jews has not changed and if you die while performing jihad you go instantly to Islamic heaven where there are lush fields of grass, waterfalls, rivers, wines, and seventy-two permanent virgins who regain their virginity after you take them such that they are always fresh young, virgin, raven haired and beautiful. You cannot make this stuff up, well, apparently you can but your name would need to be Muhammad as such is beyond our imagination. Our imagination is so poor that we can only find one answer to this situation and it will not make even many of the Israeli politicians happy as they are mired in a false promise which was made at Oslo in the accursed Oslo Accords. There was the invention of two states for two peoples living side-by-side in peace and security. There was only one problem with that agreement, one side lied. The actions of Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian indoctrinated generations since 1993 and even before have proven that the Arab Palestinians will not accept two states for two peoples living side-by-side in peace and security, they want it all and they want it now or whenever as long as it takes to force the Jews from their lands or murder them where they stand and take the lands which Oslo defined as to be shared; they have decided they do not wish to share or play well with others. This is the reality from which Israel has to decide what she wishes to do.

 

So, what are the choices and how can we rate them for viability? Well, we can continue to offer new and slightly different proposals for establishing the two state solution as we have been doing since 1993 in September. It was a sunny Monday afternoon on the White House Lawns in Washington D.C., the thirteenth of September to be exact, and the negotiations have continued ever since. Since that time the Israelis have been systematically driven back one concession at a time while the Palestinians refused to even ratify their acceptance of the Oslo Accords, everybody has simply assumed their accepting it formally and never checked, or cared to check. Their one necessary concession was to change their Charter so it would no longer call for the destruction of Israel and they were only pressed once where the United States State Department joined a session of the Palestinian Parliament to witness their vote to change the Charter and they took a vote and passed a measure calling for a committee to be appointed to assess a proper and acceptable alteration to comply with the agreement to change the Charter. They never appointed the committee and never changed a word of their Charter which remains calling for the complete destruction of Israel. Since then Israel had gone from the original plan where Israel retained Area C, the Arab Palestinians retained Area A and the sides were to negotiate where to divide Area B to now where there are demands for Israel to return to the borders from before the 1967 Six Day War and surrender the entirety of the Old City of Jerusalem which has numerous Jewish holy sites and all of Area C which also holds valuable and precious Jewish holy sites and historic locations and there have been hints that Israel should also surrender a path to Gaza straight across the midlands of Israel cutting the Jewish State into halves and even calls for surrender of much of the Galilee and most of the Negev Desert. The aim is obvious, make Israel completely indefensible and then destroy it in quick order after every inch which could be negotiated had been taken through combination of threats and twisting world opinion, and that world opinion had been very generous to the Arab Palestinians as they are willing to sacrifice all of Israel as long as doing so comes with a promise to end all Islamic violence in the Western world and they are willing to take their word for that. The catch is they need Israel to agree and that point has yet to be reached, but give the world and the masters at giving concessions, also called the Knesset, time and we might get there. The Knesset actually approved the gifting of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority who within a short period lost it to Hamas who has since used it as a launching area of rockets into civilian areas of Israel and for tunneling into Israel with the intent of accomplishing raids resulting in kidnapped IDF or civilian Israelis. That was how the Gilad Shalit abduction and ransom was conducted. The world also seems to be fixated on Israel controlling their border with Hamas and Gaza despite tons of goods, food, medicine and other non-military goods transferred through the operative crossing daily where any government or NGO can have non-military goods transferred to Gaza simply by shipping their goods through the Ashdod, Israel port as Israel has legitimate need to assure that no military use goods are given over to Hamas, a recognized internationally as a terror origination. What is curious is these same nations have no problem with the complete closure of Gaza’s border with Egypt where nothing passes through in either direction legally for months and even years at a time. Israel has treated Gazans in Israeli hospitals including Hamas leader Haniyeh’s daughter treated in Israel. At another time, if you trust Israeli new reports, Hamas leader Haniyeh’s mother-in-law was also treated in an Israeli hospital. And according to Reuters in their last line almost as an excuse our mention of this but, one of Haniyeh’s granddaughters was treated in an Israeli hospital. But Israel is accused of committing genocide in Gaza. They keep using that word and I do not think it means what they think it means.

 

So, we have an intransigent enemy which will only be satisfied when they are walking on our graves as they would have long ago been destroyed as who needs a Jewish cemetery in the middle of an Arab Muslim Palestinian entity, which also happens to be dysfunctional and a failed entity incapable of supporting itself and completely dependent on foreign funding just to feed its people. And we have Israel, the only Jewish State in a sea of Arab and Muslim states despite the Arab Palestinian argument that there are no Muslim nations, which is true because their claim is there is not one such nation and they are correct, there are twenty-one Arab Muslim States and they desire to be the twenty-second. The world is willing to grant the Arabs Palestinians their demands as long as these demands are couched in polite terms and do not completely eradicate Israel, at least this is quite true in the United Nations General Assembly but thus far has not survived and passed in the Security Council where a veto threat always seems to succeed in preventing such a measure of passing and has even prevented such from being presented as their voting it down would set a bad precedent, or at least that has been the reason given by the Arab Palestinian leadership. Recent developments have shown that the veto protection has become something which some have decided can be used as a bludgeon to force Israeli leadership to toe a line drawn outside of Israel. This threat has been intimated but has yet to actually been publicly deployed though the possibility that it was threatened in private discussions between high officials in both nations has been breached as having been a possibility in many an editorial. Still, the fact that one of the candidates for the highest office did spend close to or possible more than a half hour berating the Prime Minister of Israel because he had the audacity to present the Israeli position regarding the Iranian nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 (the permanent members of the Security Council which are the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France and the plus one was Germany and, of course, Iran) which are claimed to permit Iran to continue parts of their nuclear research and increasingly over a decade be permitted greater range of research and development with their potentially producing nuclear weapon as soon as eight years according to some and definitively after the decade when all restrictions would end (the entire deal can be read here in a translation of the Russian copy into English and reformatted for easier reading). Another little tip of something not well known, Iran had been arming Hamas in Gaza and has also been trying to find inroads to arm and aid thus bringing into their influence the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.

 

So, what can be done about this untenable situation? How about a one state solution and the Arab Palestinians will be permitted to vote in their own local elections within Areas A and B while both Palestinians and Israelis will be permitted to reside in Area C but Arab Palestinians will not have voting rights as they will be considered resident aliens within Israel. Israel gets what was promised as their minimum border according to the original intents and promises under the Oslo Accords, as that at the very least should be recognized and granted. By the way, nobody other than Israel gets a vote on that decision. Arab Palestinians will have free travel throughout Israel with checkpoints initially and as the violence ends, the checkpoints will correspondingly end. Any Arab Palestinian desiring to take advantage of an opportunity to reside outside of Israeli influences can take a buyout offer which will include a generous price for their assets such as property, business and other recognized assets plus a flight to a neutral nation and then the flight to their chosen destination, they will need proof their destination will accept them, and an additional sum as determined as a resettlement assistance. Such an offer will be available for a set period, perhaps one year, and afterwards the remaining Arab Palestinians will be considered to be resident aliens with semiautonomous rights in Areas A and B. Any act of terrorism such as attacking people with no cause other than jihad or other terrorist acts will result in deportation either immediately or after serving any prison sentence handed down by the courts. Eventually, it may become possible to allow Arab Palestinians to apply for Israeli citizenship, but that will take time and the terrorist violence will need to have ceased before such can even be considered. The Arab Palestinians will retain the right to own property and to practice their religion freely. Initially the Madrassas will be monitored to assure they are not teaching jihad or Muslim supremacy doctrines and those crossing these lines will be warned once and if their transgressing the set limits continues they will be closed. The UNRWA schools and other public education will come under Israeli control and will retain any Arab Palestinian teachers and staff but will now teach an approved version of the Israeli basic education, especially when it comes to history, the sciences and Hebrew will be a required course so that when the time arrives that incorporating them if they choose into Israeli society as full citizens they will speak Hebrew which is an aim of the education system in Israel as well as the absorption programs for Jews making Aliyah. The Arab Palestinian leadership, especially the upper levels of Fatah and the PLO will necessarily be deported as there is no path which appears possible to incorporate them peaceably into this solution. They will not be granted any remuneration as they have stolen sufficient monies over the years to cover any relocation they choose even if it be a mansion along the Riviera. This may not be a perfect plan but what exists now is far worse for both the Arab Palestinians and the Israelis. Israel cannot be expected to continue this charade where their citizens are but targets which the Arab Palestinian school system teaches do not deserve to live and are a mortal enemy and are going to murder the Arab Palestinians unless they kill all the Israelis first. That has to end as it has ruined the lives of two generations of Arab Palestinians by filling them with hatred and nothing else to base their future upon. They are taught that as long as Israel exists their lives will be worthless and the Jews have stolen all opportunities and the only path to retrieve opportunity is to destroy Israel. That is not an acceptable situation and there is but one way to resolve that, end the Arab occupation and indoctrination on what is legally under all international laws Israeli soil. Publish the Levy Report and act on it as this situation is untenable for all involved and is destroying the Arab Palestinians’ futures by selling them destruction as their only option.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Final Weeds in the MENA Garden, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran

 

In a nutshell Syria has a fair measure of the powers in play in the Middle East and into North Africa. In addition we will also need to mention areas centered on Nigeria where Boko Haram is centrally located making war on Nigeria and all her neighboring states. Then there is Yemen and two straits, Bab el-Mandeb and finally the Strait of Hormuz which are all parts of the Iranian designs which start with the Shiite Crescent from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and control of the two most important waterway choke points in the Middle East affecting everything from the eastern tip of Asia to the Western tip of Europe including the British Isles. But it all starts with Syria and the last block to the Shiite Crescent.

 

Iran sits conveniently at the eastern edge just beyond the Arab Muslim Empire and as such is mostly a different peoples east of the Zagros Mountains which have served as a defensive barrier thousands of years. This was the secret of the Persians and why despite falling to Islam they remained separate and distinct. Still, if Iran was ever to claim the right as the head of a Caliphate they were going to need to establish two things, a connection unobstructed to the Mediterranean Sea and thus full access to North Africa and South Europe and a mass alteration of Islam making Shia Islam dominant over Sunni Islam. The first is a major step towards the second. The hope was once Iran had access to the Mediterranean cutting across the Middle East gaining direct or implied control over much of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon they would appear, as Islam claims to be the superior, the strong horse and thus could influence many that Sunni Islam was weak and Shia Islam was dominant and thus start the conversion of Sunni Muslims to Shia Islam and thus become the dominant force reestablishing both the historic Persian Empire and taking over the new Caliphate and the lead position over nearly two-billion Muslims.

 

Iran had taken control of Lebanon when they took sponsorship of Hezballah which initially was a universally recognized terror group which was fighting the Christian militias and had also fought against the IDF using terrorist strikes in an attempt to wear Israel down and force their capitulation and return to south of the recognized international border known as the Blue Line. Eventually a left leaning government bent to the protests and declared an end to what they called a tragic period in Israeli history completely forgetting the reasons, the valid reason that brought Israel into southern Lebanon. Israel replied to the hue and cry of the Christians of southern Lebanon as Syrian troops invaded Lebanon aiding Hezballah who were facing being slaughtered and Israel responded to an intense threat of a human disaster in the making as had already been committed to the initial Christian communities near the Syrian border. Israel, Ariel Sharon in particular, was blamed for a revenge strike on Sabra and Shatila massacring the Muslims which were carried out by the Christian militias and not the IDF. Still the world could not blame the Christian militias as they were irregular fighters and as such were not sufficiently organized with a command structure and as such their silence made finding those responsible became impossible so the work picked the next best thing, Israel. Europe had what seems like a default setting that if it happens in the Middle East, then when in doubt, blame Israel.

 

Once Israel retreated from southern Lebanon the Lebanese military was supposed to move in with United Nations oversight. Neither occurred and in many instances the United Nations aided Hezballah in their efforts to set up a series of tunnels as well as arms caches and command and control bunkers. This eventually led to another Israeli incursion into Lebanon after Hezballah kidnapped, and subsequently murdered three Israeli soldiers and killed five other soldiers at the point of the ambush inside Israel when they caught a patrol vehicle off guard and unsuspecting any incursion across the border from Lebanon. Iran uses Hezballah as their threat against Israel and has armed them to a point which is truly frightening as Iran has stocked Hezballah with at least one-hundred plus long range missiles and uncountable limited range rockets which have as much as a fifty kilometer range. Amongst the longer range missiles are stores of Zilzal-2 and Fateh-110 provided by Iran bringing them into Damascus and shipping them over land often on their own mobile vehicles. This is the threat Iran would threaten to unleash on Israel had Israel actually struck at Iranian nuclear sites and likely will be the first strike against Israel whenever Iran decides that they will attack the Jewish homeland. The total is well over two-hundred-thousand rockets and missiles from ten to twenty kilometer Grads, Fajr series, Shahab series and Ghadr missiles. Then there are the mid-range Scud series of ballistic rockets and then the more advanced guided missiles which the most advanced has two stages and Iran can strike Israel from Iran with these longer range Missiles so Lebanon can not only strike Israel but also northern Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as all of Turkey and anywhere within Syria or Jordan and much of Iraq. With these longest range missiles stationed in Iran and Lebanon the range brings them to command coverage over the entire Middle East and beyond, a definite threat to the heart of Sunni Islam, exactly what Iran envisioned as their way to claim command over all of Israel. Their problem, Syria collapsed and nobody can claim complete control over Syria as well as over Iraq, the two breaking Iran’s Shiite Crescent in two.

 

Iran is not the only outside power with an interest in Syria. The most straight forward national interest belongs to the Russians who have one main port at Latakia and potential other locations along the Mediterranean shoreline which provides them a warm water port with easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. The Russian plan is likely to reposition a fair share of their Black Sea naval forces to the Syrian ports thus placing them beyond the Bosphorus which could easily be closed any time that Turkey might decide they are upset with the Russians. The teetering of the relationship between Turkey and Russia became very evident a few months ago when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet claiming it had flown into Turkish air space, something very likely as Russia has been bombing locations in support of Bashir al-Assad who has lost control over much of the nation he once ruled unchallenged. Now there are a number of militias and terror groups each commanding their own parts with Assad, the Kurds and Islamic State have the largest locations under their control. Other areas are controlled by the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda offshoot, Free Syrian Army, Jaish al-Izzah, Levant Front, Alotfecat Brigades, and offshoots divided into Syrian Opposition-al-Qaeda network, Federation of Northern Syria, Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State. Each of these groups have so many offshoots that it becomes cumbersome to even begin to list them but for those who desire a detailed list one can be found here With al-Assad opposing these groups are the remains of the Syrian Army, Russian Naval and air support, Hezballah and some Druze militias are fighting in support of Bashir al-Assad whose control is limited to the westernmost areas of Syria including Damascus and the port cities which the Russians are defending with occasional air attacks flown against the terror forces but usually avoiding the Kurds and Islamic State and striking the weaker forces which al-Assad might be better poised to defeat.

 

Military Situation in the Syrian Civil War Areas of Control
by Major Force Divisions as of June 3, 2016.

 

The Kurdish Militias are holding the northernmost areas largely against the Islamic State. Turkey has provided bombing targets used for the United States air strikes as President Obama micromanaging their actions by putting their orders for strikes to Turkish intelligence. This has resulted in many of these strikes instead of targeting the Islamic State side of the conflict line are instead striking the Kurdish side making the situation more favorable for the Islamic State. The saving grace was that the Russians protested the NATO air strikes as interfering with Russian air strikes and set where the United States and Turkish fighter jets are restricted to a corridor which has actually favored the Kurdish forces. This became serious after Turkey shot down the Russian Fighter Jet. What is not discussed publically is the agreement between Russia and another air force in the area allowing for Israel to conduct tactical strikes in response to any attacks against Israeli forces on the Golan Heights. This was negotiated between President Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Moscow early in the Russian intervention. This has proven necessary a number of times as the different forces have intentionally fired on IDF troops damaging vehicles and causing some injuries which required at times a more serious response than a couple of artillery or tank shells as a position required removal. These strikes barely make comment even within Israel but there have been some reports in a few of the smaller nationalist and Zionist sources online and in print.

 

Likely the most notable forces have been those of the Islamic State due to their early success largely in Iraq. They took control of the Sunni northern and central areas bordering southern Syria as the mostly Shiite Iraqi army forces simply fled or attempted to melt into the public. Their difficulty was that many of the Sunni civilians who these troops had tormented got their revenge turning over those Shiite soldiers who were guilty of such inter faction fighting. The Islamic State after their fast conquest of largely open areas and a few key cities in Iraq have now settled into defensive posture as they were close to overextension which had allowed for some key cities and towns being reclaimed. The Islamic State holds large open areas in Syria which are mostly desert and open scrublands which were sparsely populated. Their supposed massive victories were somewhat overblown in the hyperventilating Western media as they were hungry for a big story so every gain of the Islamic State, even those which were made in areas where they were unopposed were claimed to be grand expansion of their military control. The main story they should have never strayed from was the Islamic State’s brutality. This alone is the reason that the Islamic State deserves being liquidated by whatever means are necessary and this fight should be carried out largely by indigenous troops. Any support by Western forces should be limited to providing air support and precision strikes on such targets as command and control facilities and fixed positions as well as taking out the Western armor and other Western equipment. Other than such air support and potential cruise missile or drone strikes the Western ground forces should not be placed in harm’s way as such assistance is more often not appreciated and often used as reasons for protests and resentment. They should not risk being dragged into what may prove to be a prolonged number of operations in order to clear out pockets of resistance. As far as Syria, that too should not require any Western ground forces and be left to indigenous forces with support from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and potential financing from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

 

Yemen Battle Map

 

The other front that needs addressing also has an Iranian contingent in Yemen. Iran is also attempting to gain the ability to completely disrupt all maritime trade by holding military threat over two of the most sensitive straights in all of the Middle East, Bab el-Mandeb and finally the Strait of Hormuz. The Bab el-Mandeb cuts off Israeli maritime access from the Red Sea on the way to the Indian Ocean and on to the rest of Asia and the Pacific as well as blocking any use of the Suez Canal by cutting off its southern access. The Strait of Hormuz has a large portion of the world’s crude oil shipping. Iran already holds threat over the Strait of Hormuz as one side of the entire Persian Gulf borders Iran (a huge ‘no duh’). This threat Iran has had and used since the Islamic takeover in 1979 requiring the United States to intervene as well as to bring in minesweepers to clear mines which Iran had strewn as part of their cutting off of the Strait of Hormuz. The Bab el-Mandeb sits off the southwestern most border of Yemen which borders the southernmost Red Sea. This is the other choke point other than the Suez Canal itself. The Suez Canal is safely within the borders of Egypt between the Sinai Peninsula and main body of Egypt which has only faced a force other than Egyptian when Israel held the Sinai briefly in 1956 and for a number of years after the Six Day War in 1967 until Egypt and Israel made peace in 1979. Israel never threatened to close the Suez Canal though it may have been risky using the Suez Canal during the 1973 Yom Kippur War as initially Egyptian troops were pouring across into the Sinai and within a few days after Israel mobilized and struck back were crossing the Suez Canal and for a while held both shores but withdrew back across the Canal into the Sinai after the world demanded Israel cease winning the war and immediately stop advancing on Alexandria and Cairo. Funny, there was no call for Egypt to stop their advance across the Sinai intending to strike into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I guess Egypt advancing and defeating Israeli defenders is completely different than Israel advancing and defeating Egyptian forces. Should Iranian Houthi rebels take control over sufficient areas of Yemen and a peace leave the areas in the southeastern end of Yemen then Iran would have access to blocking the Bab el-Mandeb and blocking the Suez Canal which would end all oil and maritime trade with Europe forcing those hardy enough to try having to circle the south end of the African Continent. That used to be a difficult and dangerous route before the canal and the main reason the Suez Canal was built. Iran desires to hold a stranglehold over maritime trade and oil trade thus being able to threaten the world and especially threaten Europe. That is why Egypt is assisting in Yemen and the West had best have an interest in what happens in Yemen, even if not as much in Syria.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Obama May Have His Deal but Who Will Inherit His War

 

Thanks to the economic and other sanctions which have hobbled the Iranian economy to the point, about eighteen months ago, it resembled a dying man crawling on his belly in tattered pants and the shreds of his shirt, shoes scuffed to the point that their original color was indistinguishable and two vultures already discussing which would get which of the choicest remains, had Iran at the brink of civil revolt. That was when President Obama held back door negotiations where he released some of the most effective of the sanctions which brought the distant oasis to the parched lips of the Iranian economy saving them to make the better deal. It is that deal President Obama, the hero of the Iranians government, is claiming is the best deal and the only option outside of war. But is this claim of peace in our time really just peace for a while in our time? The comparisons between the Munich Accords of 1938 and now President Obama is desperately seeking the same adulation for this close relative to another situation of a nation spreading its tentacles and preparing for war and barely even concealing their arming and their aspirations which have been laid out in writing. The desires for world conquest and the elimination of the Jewish People was laid out step for step by Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf and the Iranian Shiites (and also the Sunnis just to be fair and even; after all we would not want to take sides now, would we?) in the Quran and the Hadiths where the world is divided between ‘Dar al-Islam’ (Arabic: دار الإسلام‎) which translates to House of Islam and ‘Dar al-Harb’ (Arabic: دار الحرب) which translates to House of War. The followers of Islam are instructed to continue their struggle to spread their religion until it becomes the only religion practiced anywhere in the world. There are many Muslims residing in Western nations who refute any charges that Islam is to be spread ‘by the sword’ should more passive means prove unproductive and there remain some who adamantly refuse to accept Islam which is simply intolerable.

 

Then there is the Islamic State which has denuded entire cities and swaths of lands in which they have taken control of those who practiced any religion other than not only Islam but their very narrowly defined version of Sunni Islam. The marauders of the Islamic State may have been the Junior Varsity in the eyes of United States President Obama but are anything but the Junior Varsity when it comes to torture and coming up with ever more imaginative ways to ever more slowly murder their victims making sure that they suffered the most mental anguish, even if not the maximum pain, as they progressed from beheadings to burning alive to slowly being lowered in a steel cage into water to drown victims and other horrors and then posted their murderous ways using them as some form of sick recruiting tool. What is even more disturbing are the numbers of those who have rushed from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the Western World to join the Islamic State. The only productive news concerning Iran is they oppose the Islamic State and desire to eliminate this horror from the world. But then one must ask themselves, is replacing the Islamic State horrors with Iranian, Syrian and Hezballah horrors really a step in the right direction or simply replacing one murderous and fearsome army turned government with another murderous government using its army.

 

These are the leaders of a nation of approximately seventy-eight-million-five-hundred-thousand largely Shia Muslims of which the vast majority are what are referred to as “Twelvers” with the remainder of the population being also largely Muslims following Sunni Islam. The remaining under one-percent of Iranians follows the following religions in order from largest to least; Bahá’í, Gnostic, Christian, Yarsanism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and least but with a very nice Synagogue, the Yusef Abad synagogue in Tehran pictured below, Judaism. Interestingly, there are more Jews of Iranian heritage residing in the United States than remain in Iran which according to the 2011 Iranian census stated this threatened populations of Jews at eight-thousand-seven-hundred-fifty-six souls the majority spread between merely ten families, six of them related by marriage. There are those who inflate the numbers of Jews remaining in Iran to over one-hundred-thousand largely in an attempt to portray Iran as an accepting nation granting equal rights to non-Muslims despite the fact that the minorities walk quietly and taking care to be aware of their surroundings at all times and making sure to keep their heads bowed and their gaze fixates on the ground before them and to never under any circumstance stare any Shiite Muslim in the eyes and to always speak in hushed tones speaking in slow and respectful manners and subservient language never to sound challenging or to ever, ever appear as an equal lest one be reported to the police for such an affront and pay the price for challenging their superiors. There is a very good and solid description of life in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution for Jews and other minorities given by Karmel Melamed, an award-winning, internationally published journalist and attorney based in Southern California who writes the Iranian American Jews blog. This article titled ”The Iranian-Jewish Tragedy in Iran” which gives the chilling view which the Western World needs to understand before they permit the fascist, supremacist dictatorial leadership to once again, in the brief history from 1900 to the present, to allow a cancer which believes they have a right to destroy the world in order to save the world. The history of Iran in that same time period just might give people some pause to realize the direction Iran has taken since 1900 and the path is chilling.

 

 

Yusef Abad Synagogue (Persian: Kenise e Yusef Ábád کنیسه یوسف آباد‎, Hebrew: בית הכנסת יוסף-אבד‎) in Tehran as originally appeared during the 1950s before its restoration. The person who had just completed returning a Torah to the ark will stand as a reference to the size of the main hall. The main hall of the Synagogue was built and completed in the early 1950s. She was a very ornate and majestic house of worship which will soon fall silent after enjoying hearing prayers recited for almost seventy years.

 

 

Yusef Abad Synagogue (Persian: Kenise e Yusef Ábád کنیسه یوسف آباد‎, Hebrew: בית הכנסת יוסף-אבד‎) in Tehran as it appeared after its restoration work. It was with the help of local community leaders headed by Avraham Yusian, the construction of the new facade was completed in October 1965. She was a very ornate and majestic house of worship which will soon fall silent after enjoying hearing prayers recited for almost seventy years. The brightened tiles and golden hue will unfortunately turn a pale shadow of itself as there will be no prayers to give her the joys she had exalted in over her years.

 

 

Iran did not exist in the year 1900 as all the way back then it had a name that most will recognize and for the Jews had a varied history where it went from savior to creeping to the edge of committing genocide against the Jewish People except for the bravery of one Jewess, Queen Esther. All the way back as recently as March 20, 1935 the nation was known as Persia. This name of Persia could be traced back to Cyrus the Great, the leader of Persia who conquered Babylonia and granted the Jews the right to return to their homelands and rebuild their holy Temple which many Jews chose to do while some of their brethren remained in Persia. Years later when Persia was ruled by King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) the Grand Vizier, Haman the Agagite persuaded King Ahasuerus that the Jews were plotting against his rule and needed to be dealt with. This seems to be a repeating theme and almost always leads to someone coming up with the idea that murdering the Jews will make their nation greater, and the order was issued. The problem was that after the King created a vacancy after executing his wife for refusing his orders and generally insulting his authority for which he held a beauty contest, hopefully a contest which took into consideration more than beauty as that had worked so well with Vashti. Well, he chose Esther who the night before the order was to be carried out bravely entered the King’s court without having been invited, punishable by death, begged the King’s attention and broke the news that if his Grand Vizier Haman’s order was to be carried out they could start with her as she was also a Jew. Haman and his sons were executed on the very gallows they would have murdered the Jews of Persia. Haman, Hamas, I wonder, could there be a connection?

 

On March 21, 1935 Reza Shah Pahlavi officially renamed Persia changing the name to Iran. There are two very different theories for the change. One refers to numerous ancient references varying from the Sassanid, the Zoroastrianism, the Romans and other historical references mostly to deal with language. A more modern take takes the date and the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany and the theory of a master race, the Aryans, or the Persian word for the racial designation, Iran. The actual reason is likely was only honestly known to Reza Shah Pahlavi and he will not be giving us any hints. Another item while we are comparing modern day Iran and the Aryans from World War II as a potential enemy; the only war which Iran had fought directly was, to their credit, something which will seldom be found in these editorials in any source, was as a result of Iraqi initiated assaults as Saddam Hussein attempted to grab the Iranian oil fields. That war lasted near to a decade where some of the most horrific and destructive tactics were utilized by both sides. Despite the Iraqi military’s reputation as one of the largest and best trained and equipped in the Middle East outside Israel, Iran held them at bay and often made gains but eventually the war resembled a World War I trench warfare than world war highly mobile and technical war. The most remarked attack in this horrific war came when the Iranians needed to clear minefields and needed to do so with some degree of speed so a fairly brutish and head-on system was necessitated. The Iranians initially attempted to stampede mules and donkeys across the minefields but once the first animal struck a mine the others would scatter and run back the direction they had come from. This led to one of the most disturbing tactics where children were volunteered and upon their death their parents were financially compensated for their patriotic donation to the war efforts. The children were given plastic keys which they were told would unlock the door to heaven for them. In response to the condition of the returned remains led to the wrapping of the children in wet blankets so as to retain their parts when they hit a mine. Such fanaticism and willingness to sacrifice for the religious leadership was horrific and also showed a commitment almost beyond rational belief and which shows the length the Iranians might resort to against an enemy.

 

The question remains as to whether President Obama is saving the world from a war with Iran with his deal or allowing Iran to build up their military and potentially arm themselves with an arsenal of nuclear weapons, potentially thermonuclear warheads and the ICBMs with which to deliver them anywhere on the globe. They may even develop ICBM missiles capable of irregular flight characteristics making anti-missile systems near useless in preventing their striking their targets. Additionally, the Iranians could readily develop cruise missiles and master the ability to launch them from freighter container ships as they have done with some of their fifteen-hundred to two-thousand mile largely unguided rockets, or possibly a poorly guided missile. Of course, if the rocket has a nuclear warhead, exactly how accurate does one need to be? I mean, as long as you strike within a few miles from the intended region and, just as with hand grenades and horseshoes, close counts. What is most worrying is how the situation came to this juncture with the sanctions being weakened by President Obama allowing Iran to continue to limp along while the President and the State Department Team, which included a number of the same people who were responsible for the agreement with North Korea which led directly to their becoming nuclear armed nation, and Secretary of State Kerry appeared to trip over each other seeing who could surrender point after point and succumb to Iranian demands the fastest. The sign that Iran is about to use a fair amount of funds which will represent but a drop in the bucket of the one-hundred-fifty-billion-dollars being unfrozen and gifted to the Mullahs and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as they have already made arrangement to purchase Russian S-300 anti-aircraft-and-missile systems, one-hundred-fifty Chinese Chengdu J-10 sophisticated jet fighters with Israeli avionics and finally, two-hundred-fifty highly-advanced Russian Sukhoi-Su-30MK1 heavy-fighter-bombers as well as one-hundred IL78 MKI tanker aircraft; or simply put, Iran is purchasing an entire air force and air defense systems taking them from almost no air power worth mentioning to air superiority by comparison and potentially air superiority over the Kurds, Islamic State, and almost every nation in Northern Africa and many European nations as well. As the nations which Iran is most likely to face if they decide to expand their borders and acquire the airfields and staging areas of southern Iraq, as it appears that President Obama is fully supporting the IRGC forces and eventually other Iranian military forces to operate from within Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State with the United States providing air strikes and air support operations one has to wonder how President Obama might react should Iran decide to turn their forces southward and strike across the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian oil fields in response to what they could claim was mistreatment of Shiite Muslims by the two nations after incidents were instigated.

 

The other front we can expect to come from Iran is for their expanding the influence of Shia Islam across formerly Sunni strongholds spreading their control over Madrassas potentially replacing Wahhabi Madrassas after they have swarmed across the oil fields, complete their control through the Houthis of Yemen and then using a pincher attack from the north and the south in order to capture Mecca and Medina and thus controlling the heart of Islam. This would also complete Iranian control of the Red Sea and the Bab El-Mandab Strait. From that jumping off point it would not be difficult for Iran to then establish a beachhead from which to operate starting in Somalia and spreading from there through Eretria and Djibouti in order to spread through the Sudan and from Iraq and Saudi Arabia into the Sinai thus being on Egypt’s southern and eastern borders. Should Iran also desire to place a substantial force injected into Syria to assist Bashir al-Assad retaking the lands he has lost and using Hezballah to cement their control over Lebanon then Iran could have a northern and southern fronts on Israel and even more troubling should they also gain access to Gaza supplanting Hamas and Islamic Jihad in controlling the area. We can also expect that Iran will fortify their ground forces with purchases of armor most likely light armor to facilitate fast swarm style attacks overwhelming any defense an opponent would be likely to have at any front relying on lighter resistance and by overwhelming the initial positions and driving deeper into any nation they intended to strike thus appearing unstoppable and gaining a perceived position of strength which would also give the Islamic State considerable challenge especially when one considers that Iran will have a very well-armed air force, something completely missing in the Islamic State’s arsenal of abilities. The likelihood that President Obama would take any position opposing any Iranian moves in the entirety of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) as such would be viewed as Iran simply doing exactly what President Obama desired, Iran stabilizing the entirety of the Islamic world, and what better way of being the hegemonic power than to also control all of the valuable lands and suppressing every potential adversary.

 

It would not be a complete surprise if should Iran manage to take control in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood might ‘see the writing on the wall,’ so to speak, and decide they had been in error about the lineage and correct successors of Muhammad and turn to back a Shia Islam. The truth is that there will either be a war with Iran or Iran will bring the war to each and every corner of the world one site at a time. The only question is at what point will their expansions be one bite too many and at what disadvantage will the world be in when facing the Iranian threat. History will point to the past decade and a half as the period when Iran could have been collared with minor losses and as being an opportunity squandered placing the world at risk. Once again, it appears the greatest threat building in the world is being left to Israel to stop. Let’s hope that Israel gets the necessary support of those others facing the same dangers or be willing to take on the task themselves. This is one time we can know that the United States has nobody’s back or if they do, then it is the worst of all possible scenarios placing Washington solidly behind Iran as President Obama had tilted his entire time in office, even with his efforts to place the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Egypt or turning a blind eye to Erdogan suppressing Turkey turning it into a Sharia state and potentially joining with Iran. At the very least, a combining of the regions and its people into an alliance of Israel, the Kurds, the Druze and the various Christian strongholds be brought together and aided to eliminate the Islamic State, thus putting Iran on notice that they should carefully consider their next moves as they will make all the difference in the world. As a result of removing the Islamic State, regions of Syria and northern Iraq will now be known as a state for the Kurds in the area originally promised the Kurds for Kurdistan at the end of World War I but not fulfilled due to the Mosul oil fields and politics as usual. The Druze will likely be granted some degree of autonomy within those areas in Syria where they reside and the refugees should attempt to put their lives and country back together and learn to live with a multi-ethnic nation. Further, as Hezballah has shown so much concern for Syria perhaps they can live there and maybe the Bekaa Valley but the rest of Lebanon is to be a Christian refuge free and resolute to act with favor on the Christians of the entire area and make a nation from the ruins left by Hezballah. Such a solution would be so nice and clean which is why it is unlikely to come into fruition. As Winston Churchill told the British Parliament “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” and additionally from his writings from “The Gathering Storm,” “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds are against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.” May some heed the warnings that many in the leadership positions in Israel be joined by those in Europe, in France, in Germany, in Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and even Greece raise their voices and call for those who cherish the G0d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob not succumb to the forces of those of Abraham, Ishmael and Mohammad, Amen.

 

Beyond the Cusp