Netanyahu’s Risky Response to World Threats

 

There have been the usual threats and accusations along with rumors and rumors of rumors all of which indicate the possible move announced through trial balloons may be the biggest threat of them all. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has again found no problems in Syria, well, one general denunciation of the needless violence, no such complaints or other commentaries on Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea or any of the other spots on the globe except for a number of mentions of supposed Israeli wrongs. Israel was blamed for spousal violence and honor killings in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories as apparently the presence of IDF troops assisting in keeping the calm and Abbas in power in the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) was the driving cause. There were other minor complaints which can be generally placed under the same old same old perfidies accused of Israel all stemming from the mere existence of the Jewish State.

 

 

 

But the United Nations has been busy on another front, the front of historic and significant places. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has determined the historic relevance of the Temple Mount, the Mosques, Churches and Shrine upon it, the Western Wall and Plaza and all surrounding areas are of solely Islamic origins. Apparently the wall built by Herod in the years before the start of the Gregorian calendar was actually built solely for Muhammad to tie up his first magic steed which transported him in his dream to the farthest Mosque, which happened to be present despite not being built for another two to three centuries where he strode upon second magical beast which carries him through the planes of Heaven where he met Moses, Gabriel, Abraham and a who’s who of Biblical greats and Allah as well where he was bid to write the Quran which would eventually be understood by the great sages of Islam instructed them to spread Islam across the face of the Earth until it was the sole religion putting to the sword all others in a final struggle.

 

Such decrees from UNESCO are not new and have the same weight as a feather blowing in the winds of war in Syria had of ending that carnage any time soon. Still, when these are added to the rest, we wonder why the Catholic Church and the other Christian religions who are bid to care for the holy Christian Churches on the Temple Mount which were included in the general gifting of the entire area and transforming those as well into Muslim shrines are not up in arms. The same can be asked of the Israeli government and Jewish Chief Rabbis; where are their protests and indignations? Meanwhile there is the idea that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) may be pulled from their presence in Area A of the West Bank where they have assisted the Palestinian Security Forces with subduing terrorism including any attempts by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and we can guess potentially the Islamic State from toppling Mahmoud Abbas and setting up shop launching suicide bombers and rockets into Israel and other violences including the favorite pastime of hurling rocks through the windshields of passing vehicles in attempts to crash the vehicles and kill its occupants. One can only wonder where the impetus for such an idea could have arisen.

 

There was that interesting idea flushed out in the Huffington Post article titled To Save His Middle East Legacy, Obama Must Recognise a Palestinian State Now written by Ibrahim Fraihat, a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center and Affiliate Scholar at Georgetown University in Qatar. In the article it was put forth that President Obama should recognize Palestine declaring its existence and potentially its borders as a final stab at preserving any legacy for President Obama in the Middle East, to finally earn his Nobel Peace Prize apparently given him in the promise that he would establish Palestine, and make a final, in your face, insult to pay back Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for his insults and actively campaigning in the United States for the Republicans against President Obama in his bid for his second term. It also stated that the United States would eventually recognize Palestine and why should President Obama allow such a great prize slip through his fingers and fall to some subsequent President. The piece de resistance was noting how once leaving office Presidents and other high officials from the United States government had all readjusted their positions on Israel and the Palestinians after leaving office and no longer falling under the pressures and influences of that eternal damnation (extra descriptors from our impressions) of the Israel Lobby. The prime example coming from that fairest of judges, Jimmy, Israel and the Jews be damned, Carter who never missed an opportunity to pile more grief and shames upon Israel at every turn.

 

Add the UNESCO rulings, the Human Rights constant irritations, the Huffington Post floating an idea for President Obama and the pulling of IDF troops from Area A allowing for the possible declaration of that area, the one guaranteed the Palestinians in the Oslo Accords where Area C was preserved for Israeli expansion and Area B was to be donated as to who got what and the then required borders which such would imply. The immediate reaction came from Yair Lapid among others who view themselves as Israel’s next Prime Minister warning of renewed suicide bombings, buses exploding on the streets of Tel Aviv and throughout Israel and a terror wave of unprecedented proportions as these attacks could now be organized and launched without the usual IDF and Shin Bet intelligence warning of the imminent attacks. May these warning be nothing more than political maneuvering and second guessing, there still is a grain of truth but Israel would not likely be the initial target, and there is the fly in the ointment. Without the IDF and other intelligence gathering there is a distinct possibility, some might say likelihood, that Hamas, or worse, Islamic State could launch a successful coup potentially using many of those exact same Palestinian Security Forces to assist their takeover. Where would the United Nations, European Union and all the other myriad of forces be in blaming Israel for such an eventuality and the instituting of a true and recognized terrorist takeover in the Palestinian governance? This would result in the unbelievable response where Hamas would be recognized as now being the new democratically chosen leaders and Gaza would no longer be that threat thus leading to demands for Israel to lift the embargo. But wait a moment, was there not a mention out of Turkey that Netanyahu had promised to lift the embargo and assist Turkey in building a sea port in Gaza as part of the reconciliation between the two nations. That simply places the cherry atop the giant ice cream sundae which apparently is in the offing if all these floated ideas come to fruition.

 

As to how much of this is valid we can only guess. The IDF pull back from Area A is very doable and would not particularly be a disaster and actually only an inconvenience in the loss of intelligence which would be nowhere near as serious as some have implied. The real danger of an IDF pullout is the possibility that Abbas would lose control and be replaced by somebody or some group worse than the Palestinian Authority. One must remember that the actually elected Palestinian Parliament has a majority of Hamas and allied ministers which would imply their having the real support in the West Bank, or at the least in Area A. The latest polling out of Gaza show the majority of the people asked actually called for the replacement of Hamas by anybody more attuned to their needs and less concerned with terror tunnels and rocket construction and more dedicated to rebuilding their homes and shopping areas and the rest of the destruction which has been all but ignored as the lion’s share of the concrete and building materials have indeed gone into terrorist infrastructure and largely tunnels which have been collapsing with an unbelievable frequency. It is notable that the people of Gaza have tired of the war every two to three years against Israel where Hamas assures the maximalist damage and the minimalist repair afterwards such that the next conflict starts with great photoshoots of destruction already in place before Israel fires their first salvo. How absolutely convenient if you are the media seeking a story condemning Israel or Hamas assuring their narrative of woe has a maximalist effect with the aid of the media.

 

All of these items start with the truths of the United Nations through UNESCO and the UNHRC and their decisions condemning Israel and all Israeli claims especially to any religious or historical sites. The declaration of the entirety of the Temple Mount and surroundings is right in step with the Cave of the Patriarchs where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Leah are all buried in the cave which Abraham bought using foreign monies so as to differentiate his claims from that of the Canaanites. That along with Rachel’s Tomb and Jacob’s tomb have all been designated Islamic holy sites if memory serves us correctly (validations or corrections would be accepted and appreciated). The article calling on President Obama to recognize Palestine though containing numerous and generous falsehoods is real and the rumor of an imminent IDF pull back from Area A is also real. What they all add up to is anybody’s conjecture and one is as good as any other unless you possess the demonstrable predictive powers of a Nostradamus, through writing in cryptic quatrains assisted in his being applied to any and every situation or event or more. Finally, any conclusions which imply the end of the Jewish State are great exaggerations with absolutely no connection to reality as we are not going anywhere, period. Lastly, the future is the one item where any prediction is usually malleable enough to at least contain a grain of truth otherwise who would believe them other than those already firmly in the camp from whence such preposterous prediction arise. One of our favorites for consistency is indeed former President Jimmy Carter who will always denounce Israel and praise Cuba, what a man of foresight, everything he represents is basically upside down and consistently so. He and the United Nations are two institutions where you can hardly ever go wrong opposing.

 

For your viewing pleasure, here is an outtake from the latest CNN Democrat Presidential debate where Hillary and Bernie square off over Israel, enjoy and do not take anything said by Hillary as denoting actual policies she would enact. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel and the Jews

 

Allow us to revisit some of the items we have had in articles and draw them together here in one article. This will not be a rehashing of the legal matters, treaties, conventions and other documents and agreements. This is about the Jewish People and the Land of Eretz Yisroel and there are effects which can be observed often only through experiencing and seeing the changes and other effects between the Jewish people and Israel, the land itself. The first thing is that Israel in modern times attracts Jew for any number of reasons. There are two main groups which sometimes cross over and merge for some Jews. There are Jews who feel this strange pull that can only be fulfilled by making Aliyah and return there to their ancestral home which is exactly how many Jews explain there coming to Israel. For some it is the commandment to settle the land which commands the Jewish people to sojourn and commit their only expansive conquest taking the lands promised to Abraham, Izsak and Yaakov in Genesis in the Bible, the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible. Some come to Israel to escape anti-Semitism as Israel is the sole nation which promises to take whatever necessary actions to protect Jews from persecution.

 

Despite the actions of the world to tie Israel’s hands by court threats, protests world-wide, coordinated violence from the Arabs both within Israel and from the areas of Judea and Samaria which have been granted autonomy where their government rewards families whose members attack and murder Jews with higher rewards for more Israelis murdered or mutilated for life. This is what drives the suicide bombers as they know their family will receive a greater salary for life called a pension for a martyr of the cause of freedom, which means literally that they died in the attack, often due to being a walking human bomb, making their family honored and given a pension which is often higher than most Arabs make even those working for their government. This pension, blood money, is an incentive for Arabs who find they are poor and have little hope of providing for the family, often a wife and more than four children that the only way an Arab may decide that a suicide assault on the Jews is their only hope for their family. There have been Arabs from the autonomous region, who have charged at IDF soldiers at a checkpoint with a knife in their hand hoping to be caught and not shot so they can be sent to an Israeli prison as, and some have confessed this, their life would drastically improve where he would have better food and general conditions. Some attacks are carried out by the younger males in a family who know that they will receive next to nothing as an inheritance and for a farming family that is close to a condemnation to poverty and helplessness and they believe their only hope is to kill Israelis so their family will receive a pension should they be martyred and a salary should they be caught and imprisoned.

 

Jews native born to Israel, Sabras (Hebrew: צבר‎), is the name of a cactus Opuntia cactus (pictured below, known in Israel as “tsabar” (צבר) and as the fruit of the Sabra cactus has a hard and thorns outside and its fruit is sweet, soft, juicy and did I mention sweet. That description is really fitting in describing many original Israel born native Jews, some of which are my family. A few native families have resided in Israel since the early and mid-1800s while others have their family’s tree going back beyond and to before the 135CE and earlier 70CE Roman destruction of the Holy Temple and dispersal of the Jews from their land. This was executed in the hope that would destroy the Jewish people as they would no longer be attached to the land. This had worked just as they had done to the remnants of Carthage and possibly numerous other civilizations which we never knew as they did disappear from the face of the Earth. Some have family records which show their families having returned to Eretz Yisroel from the Babylonian Exile when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the Babylonian Empire on his way to establishing the Persian Empire, one of the largest and most storied in all history. Cyrus the Great gave the Jews his blessings to return and rebuild the Holy Temple and serve Hashem as directed by Torah. Some Israeli families arrived from Europe after the calamities of the Shoah and World War II. An equal or potentially greater number were expunged and forced from the Arab and Muslim nations of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) as well as Iran through edict, pogroms or legal restrictions making life next to or actually impossible. In most cases all property and wealth was confiscated and in the worst instances, forced out with one suitcase per person and those were inspected and anything of worth was removed.

 

 

Sabra Cactus with
Fruit and Flowers

 

 

When they claim that the Jews of Israel return to their real homeland they are actually there. When the demand is for the Jews return to the lands where they arrived from, do they include the approximate half of Israelis whose former nation was throughout the Islamic world. Further, look at Europe with the European Union and their labelling of products from parts of Israel and the numbers of Jews literally fleeing European nations such as France, Sweden and others as well as the clincher, the unapologetic denunciations of Israel in every manner such that these are so egregious as they can only be described and blatantly anti-Semitic coming from the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom. Her inflammatory accusations and denunciation along with her prejudging determinations which would be ruinous for Israel and against every agreement, convention, treaty, Mandate and other legal arrangements and pronouncement or still to be determined through formal negotiations and not the decree of some other nation not involved or even mentioned as a party to the situation are simply over the top. An example of her adamant refusal to take any moderation of her views is easily displayed in this recent debate in the Swedish Parliament where a member demanded of her an explanation of her extremist views shown below.

 

The lands of Israel have been conquered by nearly every empire which showed out of the Middle East, Europe and even from the Mongols from Asia and Egypt from Africa. The only empire to ever get production from the lands of Israel, which did not include simply ruling over and taxing Jews working the lands, were the Egyptians. There are those who claim the lands which today make up the nation of Israel, even if one were to concede Israel all the lands except Gaza from the Jordan River west to the Mediterranean Sea, were originally inhabited by a group of peoples, numerous tribes and city states, known as the Canaanites. This was a valid point in the times of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but by the time the Israelites left Egypt this was no longer the case as the Egyptians collected taxes and provided protection against the Hittites who resided further north possible within what is today Turkey, and from any other invaders. As the Exodus from Egypt was a revolt against Egypt, there would be a natural series of events that a group who had been originally welcomed and over time and a change in the lineage of the Pharaoh that they had been enslaved as had much of the Egyptian people who revolted with a shove and assist from Hashem who arranged ten incentives to persuade Pharaoh to allow the Israelite nation to leave and have their own homeland. The lands the Israelites took forty years later, give or take a few months, was land which belonged to the Egyptians and it was the tribal chiefs and some Egyptians that were defeated over some time and finally the lands were solidified by King David and King Solomon with a fair bit to spare. This marked the end of Israelite expansive designs. Here are some maps of the areas in question.

 

 

 

 

Eventually the land fell to the Babylonians who forced the Israelites into exile working them in Babylon. What is interesting is that the records show next to no Babylonians remaining in the Promised Land more than likely because it refused to produce a decent crop or provide grazing lands. The Persians having some knowledge about the Hebrews and the Promised Land had those Israelite who desired to return to their lands to do so and required only a tax be paid each year. This arrangement worked for a while and the Persian Empire finally fell to the Greeks led by the Macedonian Alexander the Great. The land was again worked by the Israelites but rifts politically had split the lands with the norther ten tribes taking the name of Israelite with them and the southern kingdom was largely made up by the tribe of Judah along with the considerably smaller Benjamin. These were called Judea and had control of Jerusalem and the Temple. The northern tribes were conquered by the Assyrian Greeks and were dispersed throughout their holding and eventually went their separate ways becoming the ten lost tribes of Israel, literally. Judea fell eventually as well but remained in the lands. The Romans replaced the Greeks and from this point forward the life of the lands of Judea and their people who were called Judeans which eventually shortened to Jew.

 

The next part of the lives of the Judean, Jews, was related by a former MK Yaakov Katz in an editorial 407,118: The up to date number of Jews in Judea and Samaria, not counting Jerusalem. In the article he gave a description of what is a Jew which I hope to never forget as it was very relevant to Jewish history, our history. He said that the way to define a Jew is to define us by what others destroyed in order to eradicate the Jewish People, a depravity which has a way too often horrific number of repetitions throughout human history. The Egyptian by restricting us through slavery kept us from our Promised Lands yet we did not simply accept their gods, their idols or leaders who claimed they were gods. The Babylonians destroyed the Holy Temple hoping that would dishearten us and we would assimilate and they would be done with us. Then the Romans dispersed us such that we were scattered with only a few families in any one location which the Romans had done to others to destroy their cohesion and family. This, the Romans hoped would put an end to the Jews. Eventually, after many centuries it was the Catholic and, in turn, other Christians who forced conversion and removed us from our Torah and normal prayers hoping this would end the Jewish problem. Finally we would face the Nazis who decided they would simply annihilate the Jews and finally solve the Jewish Problem. So, if we learned anything, it is that we are defined as Jews by all of our enemies starting with the Egyptians through the Nazis and we find a Jew is the Promised lands of Eretz Yisroel from the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A Jew is the Holy Temple, may it be built in our lifetime. We find a Jew is community and one another as then we have a support group with whom we are more able to remember our commandments and perform mitzvahs and observe the Sabbath. The Jew is nothing without Torah and finally the Jew celebrates life. So, what is a Jew? A Jew is the Promised Land as we were made for each other as well as we are enriched by the Holy Temple which allows for certain Commandments to be fulfilled as they require the Holy Temple and we are to complete the Commandments but those remain unfulfilled. Our need for community becomes evident when after the Roman dispersal we quickly gathered where and how we could and made our little communities where we observed our customs which with time were adapted to the world around us. A Jew without Torah is a Jew unstuck and disconnected from the commandments and mitzvoth which was part of the reason that the greatest of the Rabbis wrote commentary and put the oral law into writings. And finally, a Jew is all about the celebration of life and the great gifts that Hashem has shared with us. What is a Jew in the fewest words possible? I will give it a try. A Jew is the land of Israel with the Temple in Jerusalem and community to be a part of with Torah and celebrating life, Torah, Mitzvoth, and Hashem.

 

All the empires, the Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Assyrian, Roman, the various Islamic and Christian conquerors, the Ottomans and the British all could not make the land bloom; but bloom they finally have done. But that works both ways. The Jews make the land and the land completes the Jew.

 

Coming home to Eretz Yisroel was the most wondrous thing in my life and has lifted burdens from me in ways I find impossible to quantify, let alone to define. For the first time I feel accepted to an extent which surpassed even Colorado in the 1970s and I thought that was heaven yet that barely compares with the coming to Israel. I often need to go look out the window to once again impress on me that I truly am home. The people I meet are mostly willing to go out of their way to help and their efforts mostly are beyond belief as they put up with us not having learned to speak Hebrew. We have found a couple of closely defined niches where we can speak freely and not fear being told to never return. As I explain, we have finally found the Jews we had searched for in the United States and they are all mostly here. I have likely been exposed and learned more about being a Jew here in the last couple of years and the rate of learning is only increasing daily. There are so many people making sure I get things correct that my biggest hope is that I remember one third and I will be far wiser than I was upon our arrival. How would I sum up Israel and the Jews in the fewest words possible? Mutual Fulfillment.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Abbas, PLO, and the Endless News Cycle

 

Why does the world sympathize with the Arab side of things against Israel? Sheer volume of noise coming from Mahmoud Abbas, Dealer of Lies, alone even without including Bassem al-Tamimi and family with the endless incitement of the IDF every Friday; Saeb Erekat and his once or twice news condemning the Israelis for some super-critical impingement of the Arabs from some right or freedom; Marwan Barghouti and his updates on the horrific treatment of Arabs by the Jews from his almost country Club prison accommodations; the nearly endless parade of NGOs, Human Rights groups, media stringers feeding stories to the mainstream media usually at times most convenient for European news cycle with some intended attention to the United States media as well; independent research group hoping to find that singular item which propels them into the limelight; college or university campus holding demonstration against Israeli mistreatment, victimization, incarceration, crushing of spirit, demeaning or other Israeli criminal adventure against some innocent Arab; Independent research group reporting on Israeli crimes as fed them by Fatah Party; Yasser Abed Rabbo twice monthly complaint of Israeli criminal actions; Knesset Minister Zoabi or Tibi or other Arab or pro-Palestinian or Israeli leftist complaints against Netanyahu or other fascist government entity or group within the Knesset making their representing the Palestinian cause near impossible; or any number of Pallywood releases against Israel; governments imposing embargo, labeling, pulling from nation’s store shelves of Israeli products; the Israeli blood-libel or two of the week be it the old Israelis stealing organs and limbs from bodies of terrorists, who died while conducting attacks on Israeli civilians, returned to PA; and lastly the denial of some Arab’s right to free expression by ramming their vehicle into crowded bus stop or bombing some Pizza Parlor.

 

Every single story which conceivably might have occurred with film showing the action of the complaint is immediately sucked up by some European media outlet or leftist United States media and then this one story is repeated day after day as it winds its way to production with each rendition of the story having ‘new’ details as reported by some obscure but Arab sounding name at least once every other month. I have lost count of the number of times beautiful blue eyes have been removed from some Arab corpses and replaced with the brown eyes from the Israeli wanting the blue eyes but the sister, brother, mother but rarely father (not quite sympathy grabbing as the other options) remembering solemnly and tearfully how they loved their son, brother or whatever relation, eyes switched before turning them over to the Arab PA officials which is provable by the sheer numbers of Jews with blue eyes as if it were impossible for a Jew to have blue eyes (and I assure all that my blue eyes are original equipment for my body and have been blue since my birth) though apparently fairly common for Arabs. But the volume of complaints, charges, demands and endless cycling of condemnations of Israel, Netanyahu, the Zionist criminal of the week, crime against Arab of the moment, demand for recognition, denunciation of the heartless Zionists, settler story, stolen fruit from Arab grove which the Israeli was seen stealing the fruit after tilling, planting, pruning and all other care but the reaping the fruit was one thing too many, after all, what did the Israeli expect living beyond the all-important Green Line.

 

 

Abbas Speech in Geneva October 28 2015 to Human Rights Council
Demanding Peacekeeping Forces to Guard Terrorists Stabbing Israelis

 

 

Never mind the realities that even if the Jews generally, the Israeli government, or any Israeli politician or activist particularly, attempted to file a report and seek an interview to state their case in some similar story that nary a reporter would even bother to file a report without them needfully being vetted and validated and then questioned by their being asked some pertinent question starting with a statement as if it were fact followed by this ending, ‘and how long had that illicit torturing of Arab babies been happening and when do you plan to ever stop such acts?’ The propagation of almost exclusively the Arab narratives, and the most radical stories always have some victim who was now forced from their home overlooking the Sea of Galilee and are now forced to reside in their main much less roomy home, please do not remind all the second house is a villa on a mountain top with only a dirt driveway reaching the front door (the implication is undeniable that the Israelis were the reason why there was no paved road). Such is the reporting news cycle after news cycle. If you do not believe us then please try this little experiment, it is a rather easy experiment; first choose a leftist newspaper such as the New York Times or television news such as CNN or some easily identified newswire such as AFP (Agency France Press) or radio on the hour news such as the BBC or even a leftist Israeli newspaper such as Haaretz and simply tally the number of stories filed, one can even restrict their search to front page above the fold newspapers that way they need not actually buy any newspaper as they can read that much simply browsing newspapers at the stand without purchasing one. Now that you have your sources all you need do is to log reports in the main section and grade each from a one to a nine where one is heavily pro-Israel and nine pro-Arab and do this until you have collected one-hundred stories which usually will take about eight weeks or so and you will have your data, the lengthier the sampling period the more accurate the results. All one need do is add together all the scores and then divide that by the number of stories and then you will have your newspaper’s honest reporting quotient which can be rated as follows; a score of one to two and the news source is untrustworthy as they are whitewashing everything using a strongly pro-Israel position; from three and a half down to but not equaling two the news is definitely slanted towards Israel; from higher than three and a half to four the news is slanted towards Israel; if your news hits the sweet spot of between four to five then your news is respectfully reporting on both sides, but such a source would be difficult to find as even here we slant towards Israel while trying to give credit and criticism where demanded; from five to almost six and a half the news is slanted towards the Arabs; from six and a half to almost eight the news is slanted pretty far towards the Arab side; from eight to nine, the news source is untrustworthy as they are whitewashing everything using a strongly pro-Arab position.

 

 

 

 

With all of that out of the way, now we can, each and every one of us, can grade our news services by their printed, spoken words. Truth be told, we all know on which side our bread is buttered and towards which end of the political spectrum our news sources slant the news and we would like to think that our readers know we support Israel but endeavor to call things straight up reporting on Israeli aggressions just as we do Arab Palestinian aggressions. As with many news services the slant comes just as much on how we represent our side and how we admit to the truths presented from the other side.

 

We report a lot on what President/Chairman/and whatever other titles he has taken Abbas quotes simply because he provides new material far more frequently than does any other person we cover and often says things with which we disagree and thus we try to refute those positions he takes which we find dishonest. We also attempt to present facts with links where such are found. Some of the statements made about Israel simply make no sense at all considering the facts. The statements that the Israelis are threatening to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque are ludicrous and when the rebuilding of an ancient synagogue which was gutted and left to fall by the Jordanians as they did to for too many Jewish religious sites after their gains made taking Israeli lands of Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem in the 1948-9 war for the annihilation of Israel and her people led by the Mufti of Jerusalem; the same war the Israelis emphasize as their War of Independence as they knew if they had lost the war outright instead of losing some territory, though much of the territories lost held either great historic and religious importance as well as tactical importance, there would have been no Israel and another Holocaust, though of lesser magnitude, would surely have ensued. Perhaps we could look at some of these as Mahmoud Abbas claims all of these sites as being exclusively Arab and/or Muslim sites. The Cave of Machpelah (also called Cave of the Patriarchs as it is the cave holding the tombs of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. It sits in its subterranean areas under a building built by Herod the Great, a large, rectangular enclosure over the caves, the only fully surviving Herodian structure from the period of Hellenistic Judaism. Herod’s building, with 6-foot-thick stone walls made from stones that were at least 3 feet (0.91 m) tall and sometimes reach a length of 24 feet. Muslims added a roof and renamed this Jewish holy site the Ibrahimi Mosque. Additionally are Kever Rachel (Tomb of Rachael) north of Bethlehem and Kever Yoseph (Tomb of Joseph). There had been numerous Synagogues of which any were located on the Old City of Jerusalem and thus were conquered and held under occupation by the Jordanians who destroyed the vast number of these centers for prayers and learning.

 

 

 

 

This is another of Mahmoud Abbas’s favorite areas to make grand statements denying the Jewish holy sites and along with that denial he denies there having ever been any holy sites for the Jewish people in all of Israel and goes further claiming that the Jews who returned to Israel were not even the original Israeli Jews but rather some sect of Europeans who converted to Judaism though this is a common libel against European Jews. One need also remember that Mahmoud Abbas was awarded his doctoral degree based on his study which proved that the Holocaust never happened and that only a small number of Jews were ever used for labor or simply murdered claiming instead that the entire idea of a Holocaust was perpetrated by the Jews and Nazis so as to be able to conquer the world together. Abbas was amongst the Arab officials who perpetrated the Jenin slaughter which even a United Nations investigation proved was not the case and that the majority of those who died in Jenin were actually fighters from both sides. Abbas had been known to also give credence to the idea that Israelis murdered Yasser Arafat and that Arafat’s death was anything but due to natural causes or a natural result of Arafat’s life style. Personally, my thought is that often when one lives for seventy-five years it is entirely possible they died of being seventy-five years old as not all of us are permitted a life reaching to one-hundred-twenty years. Unfortunately, all too often much of what Mahmoud Abbas claims are simply spun from the same cloth as were the Emperor’s new clothes yet just as all were far too scared of what the Emperor might do if they revealed the truth so nobody was willing to step forth and tell the Emperor that he had been played for the fool and that he was parading about the city in his royal undergarments. I keep waiting for someone with a decently loud voice to carry the message far and wide that the Emperor is wearing no clothes and that Abbas spins tales of woe and incitements to murder just as he lies claiming that he is the one true peace-seeker despite turning down peace agreement after proposed agreement always without a counter demand as he fears that he will demand too little one day and the Israelis will accept and then he will find himself in the same trap that Arafat found himself almost trapped.

 

Along these lines, Abbas recently outed himself in a rare moment of crystal clear truth sneaking its way out his mouth when he stated he had refused an agreement offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert which granted him virtually everything he had ever claimed to want in order to make peace. This admission is the real truth which Abbas skirts around like a professional ice skater pirouetting around the elephant in the middle of the ice rink, a large pink and orange stripped elephant which can actually speak one phrase over and over while Abbas continues to skate. The phrase the elephant speaks as Abbas twirls and jumps making a great spectacle stating, “Slow down and make peace before you trip and fall getting hurt and the peace walks away as do all elephants on the room or on the rink if you ignore their proffers one too many times.” The problem is Abbas claims that even should he agree to make peace, peace does not include surrendering the Arab claim to all the lands and their struggle to replace Israel with Palestine, not share the lands. That is the definitive problem, which Abbas wants to continue the struggle indefinitely which will only lead to one final outcome, the Arabs receiving nothing and being forced from the lands of Israel, all of Israel. Abbas knows the reality is that all the lands are Israel under International Law and that the occupying entity are the Arabs who refuse to recognize Israeli rule or who wish to overthrow the government of Israel and slaughter the Jews taking their lands. This dream that they will possess all the land will lead to their residing on none of the land as if they insist there can be only one nation, then so be it and may we observe the admonitions of Torah and make every inch of the lands given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob be settled and the claims settled once and for all if it is to be all or none, we will take all and Abbas will have let his people down as he could have had so much and his risky game will result in no land for the Arabs who oppose Israel and the national home to the Jewish People from ancient history our return had been known, prophesized; and going against the prophets is a very risky business.

 

 

This is the model of the plans for the restoration and rebuild of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The Synagogue was originally constructed in the 1860s and was destroyed when the Jordanians dynamited the original Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue along with virtually every other religious or significantly Jewish building in all ot Eastern Jerusalem which includes the entirety of the Old City Jerusalem which includes structures over two thousands of years in age and other built throughout the centuries. These destructions were wanton, senseless, vile acts for which there was no outcry in 1948 as the world turned a blind eye as has proven to be the reaction to virtually every terrorist or destructive act towards Israel and particularly the Jews residing therein.

 

Beyond the Cusp