Israel, Judea, Samaria, and World Idiocy

 

For the unenlightened, that is not an insult, it simply means those who have yet to be informed, yes, we try to inform the untold, that is part of our mission statement. Now, where were we? Oh yea, Judea and Samaria are Jewish lands from the ages starting with King David and King Solomon and were originally an integral part of what was declared the State of Israel on the morning of May 15, 1948 under a declaration by the United Nations despite the objections of the nations of the Arab League and their allies. But that did not deter them from attempting to make a small adjustment to the United Nations declaration and simply genocidally vanquish the nascent state of Israel murdering every last person they found. To this end they gathered forces from seven Arab nations, an untold number of militias, various military officers from various armies from World War II who fought for European nations and the Mufti of Jerusalem demanded that Arabs take refuge beyond the Jordan River, in Lebanon or behind the Egyptian military aligned in Israel’s southern border. The Arabs who remained within Israel fell into two groups, the first was Arabs who truly desired to remain in Israel and live in peace and be a constructive element in Israel’s future, and those who were interested in attacking the Jews fighting to retain their nation from behind. The Israelis had a good idea who were the friendly Arabs and when those whose loyalties were in doubt proved by the action of a large numbers of their population to be a fifth element, that was when the Israelis out of necessity drove many of the questionable Arabs out before their troops after being ambushed a number of times by some of these communities striking from behind. This was behind the initial refugee crisis where those who left their homes were forced into camps as were those pressed out for Israel due to their allying with the invading Arab armies. Further, in the wars which began on May 15, 1948 and ended in an armistice in 1949 resulted in Israel losing parts of Judea and Samaria to Jordan and the Gaza to Egypt. Jordan attempted to annex their gained lands so they changed the name to West Bank and the world, except for Britain and Pakistan, refused to recognize the annexation. It was after the 1967 Six Day War that Israel liberated these very same lands but the deceit had already started with the 1964 founding of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) demanding that an Arab state replace all of Israel. That demand is no different today; it just is demanding it from within Israel instead of in an occupied area.

 

So, let us frame the actual demands as they stand with added notes about the world at large. Israel has reached peace accords with two of her former invaders after a series of wars which though initiated by Arab powers that they either were unable to eliminate Israel but wrested control over some Israeli lands in the process of attempting to eradicate Israel and her non-Muslim populations, as in the 1948-9 war or have lost any advantage gained by attacking without provocation and then having the occupied areas returned to Israel control and even losing additional lands as in 1967 and again in 1973. Israel returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula for a cold peace with often cooperation on security matters which are to both parties’ favor with Egypt. Egypt agreed, nay, insisted on Israel retaining her lands which Egypt had occupied between 1948 and 1967, the area known as Gaza. Jordan subsequently made her peace with Israel surrendering back to rightful Israeli control of the areas of Judea and Samaria as well as Eastern Jerusalem making, once again, the Jordan River the boundary between the two nations as it had been on that fateful morning of May 15, 1948 when Jordanian, Iraqi and Saudi Arabian forces stormed across the Israeli border racing to reach the sea and take control of the port cities. These invading forces were aided by Arab militias under orders from Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the same Hajj Amin al-Husayni who spent the entirety of World War II in Nazi controlled lands raising all-Muslim forces which terrorized and plundered the areas Jewish and Serbian Christian populations with the blessings of the Nazis. Further, he was reputed with having advised at the Wannsee Conference where the ‘Final Solution’ was drafted and the Holocaust was placed in motion. Some reports claim that the Mufti demanded the Germans not simply exile the Jews onto the British Mandate lands in the Middle East thus taxing British and French forces in the area to take care of the refugees but instead exterminate European Jews and once in control of the Middle East and North Africa continue the extermination in those areas as well. These were the forces assailing the nascent state of Israel on her very first day of existence and before she had even gathered any formal military and where some Jews fought the invaders with stones having no arms other than slings. A swift Arab victory and the erasure of Israel appeared imminent but that was a short lived image of the situation.

 

 

Soon their efforts were blunted before they could reach their goals and finally fought to a standstill setting the Armistice Green Line as the new reality where Jordan remained in control until early June of 1967 when Jordan joined Egypt and Syria in the attack the Jordanians had been sold was going well by Egypt and Syria despite their losing on both fronts. That act despite Israeli warnings caused the loss of her occupied lands. On the Syrian front in 1967 Israel gained control of the Golan Heights, which the Syrians had used for snipers to randomly shoot Israelis walking to and from schools, tilling their lands, harvesting crops, driving on roads and other serious provocations known and the like. Israel had annexed the Golan Heights after gaining control of them from Syria during the Six Day War of June 1967. When considering the actions and the presence on occasions of terror groups aligned with al-Qaeda such as the al-Nusra and also forces attached to Islamic State with the occasional artillery or mortar round landing within the Israeli border to show for such volatile situations, Israel has adopted a policy of returning fire upon the offending source as computed by Iron Dome or similar tracking utilities. The Israeli decision to annex these vital hilltops has proven invaluable with the turmoil currently playing out on the border with Syria which is showing no sign of mitigation of the grievances and the introduction of Iranian, Russian and Hezballah forces backing Bashir al-Assad’s claim to the lands he ruled some five years ago when his intransigence on demands for rights and representative governance were refused and the largely peaceful protesters turned upon with regime forces which ignited this strife which has claimed upwards of five million lives with a large percentage being civilians and tens of millions of refugees made homeless who are now making their way across Turkey, Greece or even Italy and on into Europe. That pretty much encapsulates much of the actions over the past sixty-eight years.

 

So, the current situation is easily summed-up; Israel has made peace with three of the four nations bordering her and the fourth is in no shape currently to make any decisions about their mutual border. As discussed, Israel having annexed the Golan Heights is well within her rights according to all International Law as once Israel had returned any sections, let alone all; of the Sinai Peninsula she had fulfilled her obligations for returning lands, not all of the lands, nor the lands, nor any other absolute amount of lands. Israel was also to retain lands necessary for her continued security which was aimed at the time as the Golan Heights and the area of Judea and Samaria west of the Jordan River and many anticipated Israel retaining half of the Sinai Peninsula to the central mountains but Israel surrendered all of the Sinai. Once the peace treaties had been reached with Jordan and Egypt by which all the occupied Israeli lands of Gaza, Judea and Samaria had all claims vanquished it appeared that things in the Middle East between the Arabs and the Jews were settled. That was not to be the case as the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) which was formed in 1964, a full three years before the Six Day War of June of 1967, for the expressed purpose of threatening all of Israel with a challenge claiming the Arabs residing in Israel were actually an ancient culture which had their lands stolen by the Jews in the 1948-9 War and that the Israelis were evil, despicable European invaders and were intent on colonizing the entirety of the Middle East and beyond forming a greater Israel and subjugating the Arab Peoples, the indigenous Arab peoples with a nine-thousand year history going back to the time before. The Arab Palestinians, with generous assistance from the KGB, established these claims against all of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea except for the area under Arab controlled by Jordan and Egypt as these, Gaza, and parts of Judea and Samaria (referred to by Jordan as the West Bank) leaving the Jewish controlled areas as their target to form a new twenty-second Arab state. After Jordan and Egypt had relinquished their claims to any Israeli lands the PLO simply included those areas as their lost homelands which had to be returned to them completely cleansed of the Jews. They would claim that the Europeans must allow their Jews to return home ignoring the known fact that the entirety of the Arab and Muslim worlds attempted to cleanse themselves of their Jews and a vast number of them settled in Israel. There had been no mention of these Jews being returned or accepted as originating from the Arab lands all despite passports being held by these former refugees. There was a reason for the difference between the Arab refugees who are still languishing in refugee camps not included but rather kept separate from their brothers and sisters, all too often literally, while the Jewish refugees were taken in, given immediate citizenship and allowed full rights and became productive members of Israeli society. Their inclusion has been so complete that today it is difficult to tell children from the two groups of Jewish refugees apart as the great number of marriages across the societal lines, an occurrence nearly impossible in Arab society as there has been a stigma put upon the Arab refugees such that no Arab nation desires to include them into their society at large. This insane mistreatment goes so far that it even has led to a large refugee camp attached to Gaza City, an area controlled by Hamas since the 2007 coup, with the refugees camps surrounded with Concertina Wire with that being largely the only apparent difference as the refugees are housed in apartments almost identical to the apartments where the Gazans reside including many of the members of the Hamas ruling terror groups as well as other terror groups permitted to operate from within Gaza such as Islamic Jihad (they are almost co-rulers in the area), al Qaeda and even Islamic State. Hamas permits these terror entities to operate within the area it controls even to the point of permitting refugees to leave the camps in order to carry out terrorist acts against Israel. There are additional refugee camps near Ramallah in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Mahmoud Abbas and again there is little to differentiate the refugee Arab Palestinians from the free Arab Palestinians and even their surnames sound disturbingly similar. One can only wonder what could drive a people so far as to literally imprison their brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends into refugee camps and then refuse to permit them work or any gainful activities outside their camps. Further, the vast majority of these ‘refugees’ are under the age of forty years of age, many under eighteen and have resided within the camps their entire lives. The UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) has taken on the job of tracking any refugee who have gotten from the camps and made a life for themselves in elsewhere, some as far flung as Los Angeles. The truth is according to the United Nations and UNRWA, once a family is designated as Palestinian refugee, then their generations inherit that honor and even in cases of cross marriage, an Arab Palestinian refugee and any other Arab be they Iraqi, Egyptian, Saudi or any other nationality, their children additionally become refugees. There were refugee camps in Syria one of which, the Yarmouk Refugee Camp, was heavily shelled and bombed by Bashir al-Assad once it was learned that some of its refugees had escaped and joined with one of the Islamist groups fighting Assad which made the entire camp a legal target in their now five year old war. The Yarmouk Camp was thoroughly destroyed and many of its former residents now have the unique privilege of being double refugees; they are now Syrian war refugees and Arab Palestinian refugees.

 

The only solution which makes sense since the complete destruction of stable governance throughout much of the Arab lands with Egypt narrowly escaping a plunge into the darkness which is Islamist Theocratic dictatorial rule with the Sunni version of Shia Iran with Muslim Brotherhood Imams sitting with absolute power and the power resting with the Muslim Brotherhood supported by Al-Azhar University was return to military rule until a proper governance was established. There was a price to pay for this salvation and that was a return to the strongman backed by the military and chosen by the military with the present president being the former Chief of Staff General of the Army Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. President Sisi did win an election and the test of whether democratic rule has finally come to Egypt or if they have fallen back under military dictatorship will be realized when the next elections are held and if they have beyond just the trappings of fair democratic elections or are actually verifiably honest democratic elections. Currently it is far too early to tell. Jordan has remained above the fray quite possibly because of the actions of one of the leaders in causing the fighting in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State. When the Islamic State downed a Jordanian fighter and captured the pilot, First Lieutenant Muadh al-Kasasbeh, they could have simply held him or ransomed him or amazed the world and returned him unharmed to Jordan. Instead they very publically for all to watch burned him alive and as he was fully engulfed in flames in a video posted by the Islamic State to the Internet as if it were an enlistment poster for the group. This barbaric act and the rage shared by the people of Jordan and their King may have served to deepen their trust in his honest leadership and saved Jordan from any crumbling before the anarchic forces swallowing the Middle East from Iraq to Monaco. This leaves Israel still facing a potential situation that should the Islamic State gain sufficient power they might decide that Jordan was ripe for the taking and as a result be right on Israel’s doorstep. Should there be either a Palestinian authority Fatah led government or a hybrid Hamas-Islamic Jihad government, either would necessarily fall before the Islamic State with Hamas likely simply merging while Fatah would likely flee into Israel seeking asylum as they would be no match against Islamic State and the leadership would fear facing a horrific death if captured by the Islamic State Islamist fanatics. It is exactly because of the turmoil, confusion, violence and instability of the entirety of the Middle East that Israel must establish the most defendable borders possible against ground attack such as from Islamic State or ground supported by air attack coming from Lebanon as the Syrian war may decide that involving Israel would actually alter the inevitable breakup of the former nation of Syria. That makes it imperative that Israel end the games and simply declare the Oslo Accords in all of its mutated and contorted forms dead from this day forth. Those not connected to violence or terrorism will be permitted to remain but the higher officials will need to find a new home most likely in Europe who appeared to love them and support their hatreds of Israel. Europe is in the state of taking in all the Islamic refugees they are capable, or almost as many as offered, so a few hundred more should not even be noticed except for the media swarm asking pointed questions such as are they planning on a return, will they take their complaints to the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, be assisting one of the various terrorist armies in order to gain favor when they face the Israelis without even a single aircraft, or the ever ubiquitous where are you going from here? I can picture Abbas as he responds to the media as pictured below, and wouldn’t it be the best answer he could ever give.

 

 

 

Any way one slices it, the Arabs have more than sufficient time, offers and Israeli concessions that if they have refused everything up until now, then it may as well be, “Hasta la vista, baby!” Oh, and whatever they say, “I’ll (we’ll) be back” would be the most unadvisable as such would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Walking Peril Facing Europe

 

Yesterday we inundated readers with videos of the different rioters, the Arab youths, the anti-immigrant demonstrators and the old battle of Turks and Kurds now transgressing into Europe. We were depicting the violence from all sides being perpetrated in these collisions of calamities and diametrically opposing factions from Syrians seeking life away from the horrors of a nation collapsing in violence, nationalists demanding these invaders be repulsed, and factions from the Middle East still bearing their grudges hundreds of miles from their natural and contested battle-grounds. We will save you from the videos and leave that up to you. If one desires, you can search the web at your own leisure. Instead let us discuss exactly what these events could bring about in Europe and what would need to happen to make Syria even remotely safe for the refugees to return to their homes and participate in rebuilding a nation torn asunder. Then there is the one question which none of us can truly answer, what would have to transpire to entice these refugees to return to their homes and begin rebuilding their nation? That last question will be the turning point in this continuing disaster. In all of the articles I have read the one item which leaps forth is the lack of any scenario where the Syrian refugees would return to Syria and take part in the rebuilding. The other item which has thrown a wrench into the idea that ending the violence in Syria and Iraq would also end the refugee flood into Europe are the numbers of refugees found to be coming from places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places from the Middle East. Other items are that these throngs from the Middle East are just the refugees from one direction while there is in existence another entire stream of refugees coming from North Africa and beyond such as from Libya, Algeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and other places from the horn of Africa to central Africa and all points north making their way across the Mediterranean Sea in attempts to land in Italy, Greece, France, Sicily or any other of the nations with beaches on the Mediterranean Sea. The one thing which is for certain is that there is no singular solution to all of these separate and diverse origins of these refugees and their disparate routes into Europe and their preferred destinations.

 

What is quickly obvious is that there is no singular origin of the refugees streaming into Europe. With threats, or promises, by al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Hezballah and even Iranian undercover terror proxies who also train, establish and coordinate terror forces worldwide of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to insert their own agents in order to foment terror and other subversive actions; a large part of their plans are to organizing cells for terror purposes and the organizing of Islamic forces across Europe with the intention of changing local laws and setting up Islamic governance throughout the areas the refugees are settling. It is as many of the rioting refugees have been screaming at security personnel, military forces and police that they are there to have the Quran to swallow the Bible. Where many Europeans may not find such a threat as anything which will change their lifestyles and interfere with their secular, religion free lives as they believe that their secularist freedom from religion will be sufficient to prevent any religious intentions from the Islamists. The one item which is threatened is how the world map might look should Islam, especially extreme Islamists take root and control of Europe making one hemisphere look like the map below.

 

 

 

 

This refugee flood into Europe needs to be treated not as accommodating people stripped of their normal lives by a civil war and simply seeking a better place to restart their lives but as what this is, an invasion in force. Many of us are familiar with the Hamas practice of surrounding their fighters with women and children to protect them or their militarily strategic sites with human shields against Israel and how they will place their civilians in the direct line of fire simply to get as many murdered as a consequence of their launching of hostilities as they can then parlay the photos, even if they must invent such horrors, to the media and make Israel appear heartless and as simply murderers of small children, older women or targeting schools or homes. Hamas has been proven to have their own rockets misfire and strike a hospital and then claim it was Israeli artillery and have the mainstream media immediately demand an explanation from Israel for their atrocity of striking a hospital. This will result in the accusation of Israel targeting a hospital to circulate world-wide before the truth is produced which demands but a correction buried deep inside the paper leaving the headlines as believable. The same is about to be used in a slightly different manner against European nations as the refugees including the terror plants stream across Europe and are eventually placed in receiving camps and guarded. Once the invasion hits a snag such as the use of stadiums or camps which still exist from World War II to house the streaming refugees, it will provide their media savvy cameras to take pictures of their suffering and the horrific side of their apparent captivity.

 

Europe is about to meet what in Israel is called Pallywood and is where the Arabs make fake pictures which are sold to the media networks as fact despite the entire scene being manufactured just as the one below was manufactured. The below video about the “Martyrs’ Junction” as covered by 60 Minutes amongst others but the reality is something entirely different than the mainstream media reported. The reason is the Pallywood Production fits the Israel and settlers are evil murderous despicable monsters murdering innocent Arab children while they aided the brave resistance fighters against the massive might of the Israeli war machine. The truth is a bit different and so is what is going down across Europe as the invasion by human wave flooding their cities will eventually employ these tactics if they have not already began filming and giving the world media the unchecked facts they are seeking and desire so completely. Here again we will include this one example but a search for videos using simply “Pallywood” as your search term will supply one with almost uncountable examples taken from across a wide area from before Jenin to the present.

 

 

 

 

There will be some interesting reactions now that the Europeans will very possibly be facing the same tactics which have plagued Israel for the past thirty to forty years replete with faked videos, sobbing testimonies of injurious infractions, accusations of mistreatment, and eventually the elation as freedom fighters self-detonate in pizza shops, fast food restaurants, train stations, soccer matches, discothèques, bus stations and wherever throngs of Europeans can be targeted. Then there will be the media ever ready to suggest that the Europeans had simply drawn such attacked upon themselves and if only they had worked longer and harder on preparing these refugees to fit seamlessly into European society and respect for the Judeo-Christian ethics, which other than being the launching point for numerous wars in Europe, has been the cornerstone of the European society and eventual superiority and gaining the European colonial powers with the tools to spread their influence over much of the world. The presumed colonial possession of the nations of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been alleged to be over what had to be centuries upon centuries robbing these nations of their free will and oppressing their religious lives and all else which the Europeans were not suitably set to understand, let alone rule any Islamic lands. Of course the European colonial period over the nations which make up the MENA block were under Ottoman Empire rule until the end of World War I on November 11, 1918 to the mid-1940s up to around nineteen-sixty-nine which means that at the most the nations of MENA spent under half a century under European rule. Before the Ottoman Empire there was the original Caliphate with the Byzantine before them and Rome proceeded by Greece and Persia on back into the deep past. The entire timeline and explanation can be found on out article Who were the colonizers of MENA Pre-World War I?

 

Perhaps this influx of refugees may change the European love for everything and anything from the BDS movement incriminating against Israel as they have in the past. Sometimes having the shoe on the other foot, namely your own foot, brings an entirely different perspective and appreciation for things that were once so cut and dry. Now that the eerily creepy and sickening pictures can now be placed on the newspaper front pages, the opening story on the nightly news and the main subject on countless political talk show where this one picture from yesterday could send a very different perspective as those pictured in the foreground are the victims of violence perpetrated presumably by European police or Border Patrol Military Special Forces. This image is simply something which could just as easily have been used against Israel displaying it as the result of Israeli Security Forces overreacting on this unfortunate man except it occurred from a standoff in the streets of central Europe.

 

 

 

 

These sorts of images will begin to be common should the Europeans not find solutions which even the most strident Islamist finds acceptable. The problem with such a solution is that it will require a complete surrender from the nations occupied by the refugees. Their first and most important influence is to get themselves qualified and able to vote in elections as that is the initial striking point, electing from their own ranks. Once they can place their people in strategic jobs such as school boards, land management and zoning, as well as the Parliament, be it national or city-wide or any other susceptible; eventually, once the Arab Muslims reach a certain level of power, they will take complete control over an area. This is an invasion which has as its central theme to take the heartlands of Europe by population bombs placed carefully throughout Europe. This war by attrition has an excellent chance for success simply by sending human wave after human wave and conquering Europe without ever firing a single shot. This is exactly what the “Right of Return” for the Arab Palestinians is all about, drowning Israel under a flood of refugees presumably who are the offspring of the Arabs who fled or were driven out due to their attempts to assist by forming a fifth column to attack the Israeli Defense Forces from behind when they were engaged by the Arab armies in May of 1948. Many Arab Palestinians were ready to answer the call to drive the Jews into the Sea as the Mufti of Jerusalem has claimed would be their complete annihilation. In all too many ways what is beginning to happen in Europe will surpass similar attempts used against Israel and only time will tell what the final verdict will be when it is rendered. Currently things look rather bleak for Europe, the once proud and central power that colonized much of the world for a brief period.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

 

Who were the colonizers of MENA Pre-World War I?

 

We hear much talk by the mainstream media and especially the leftist editorialists about how the deprived victims the Arab populations of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) who were subjugated beneath the imperial European (and presumably American) colonizers. Exactly who were these colonizers and for how long had they exploited the citizens of MENA’s lands? Well, according to the liberal and mainstream media story line as they infer, though never quite say outright, were England, France, Italy and Spain. Further, there will be implications of over a century to potentially many centuries these colonial powers ruled over most of the MENA nations with many remaining under colonial control after World War I and even after World War II with the old dynasties lasting through 1970 or even 1979, and the most brash might even claim that there is a colonial power still ruling in the Middle East to this very day, though this last claim is as big a lie as they come. Perhaps a closer look is in order to get an honest picture.

 

Let’s begin with when the nations in MENA first came under imperial control and were placed under the presumed onus of foreign rule. Colonial rule came to the MENA nations in an early period which many of us first heard referenced when we studied the Bible. Perhaps some of the earliest colonial powers are not exactly what many of us would ever consider to be colonial powers yet as these were rulers who conquered other nations and subjugated them, these were the original colonialists. Terms can be applied to situations which most of us never would have considered applicable but when you are weaving a lie it is easy to go overboard in your definitions and apply modern terms to ancient events. The Egyptians would have been the first of the colonial powers many of us knew about despite there were others close to the same age such as the Hittites, Minoans, Mesopotamian, Persian and even Israel under Kings David and Solomon. All of these predated the better known Greek and Roman Empires and dates back to the ancient beginnings of China and Mayan cultures. A handy little timeline can be seen below. For the purpose of choosing a start date, why not begin around the year five-hundred which is after the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire while the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire was limping into the future feebly.

 

 

Timeline of World Civilizations 3700 BCE through 1700 CE

 

 

All the most ancient empires have fallen and for the most part there was peace with each city moving forward loosely attached to Constantinople across the entirety of MENA though the farther west one went across northern Africa, which had less the ties to the Byzantine rule. This left this area ripe for the pickings and a harvester was about to enter the scene. Shortly before the year seven-hundred a new force emerged under the banner of Islam and began its spread heading initially into the heart of the former lands of Babylon, Persia and into Egypt. There was little resistance as the Byzantine Empire was crumbling and unable to field a credible defense. Jerusalem fell in April 637 to the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. The conditions for the surrender were understood to be the conquering Islamic rulers would give guarantees of civil and religious freedoms for the Christians under the rule from Jerusalem in exchange for Jizya, a tax on non-Muslims given in exchange for their protections which also included the Christians acceptance of Dhimmitude, a form of subservient lower class citizenship which was to be protected and tolerated and condoned. The spread of Islam took place largely in three stages, the first during the life of Mohammad, Next under the first four Caliphs, and finally under Umayyad Rule which was the basis for the Caliphate (see map below).

 

 

Expansion of Islam Across MENA and threaten Europe before Ottoman Rule

 

 

After the spread of the Caliphate which continued what was technically an empire which implied colonization over territories beyond the initial founding under Mohammad which was centered around Medina, the beginnings of Mohammad’s power, and included the Mecca region which Mohammad took partially as it was the closes power base, the Meccan rulers denied Mohammad’s claim to rightful ruler and had chased the early Mohammad from their territories as they rejected his preaching and teachings and determined he was a corrupting influence. The Caliphate had followed particular lines of succession which had split early after Mohammad’s death which formed the duality which still splits Islam into competing camps of Sunnis and Shiites. For the largest part the Sunni Muslims outnumbered and were the stronger camp though never quite capable, or more likely never made an effort to unify belief as beliefs can be near impossible to be completely defeated thus any effort would eventually prove fruitless and not worth the efforts expended. Instead the Sunni simply kept expanding their empire and largely tolerated the Shiites unless attacked and given no choice. When the two sects did engage each other the Sunni proved superior defeating and often killing the Shiites and their rulers in battle. The Caliphate continued to rule their lands after and expanding conquering Spain and headed into Frankish territory, early France, where the Caliphate reached is furthest advance. After taking Granada they advanced to the next major city, Tours, where a decisive battle turned the tides in the year 732 CE finally having a definitive defeat of the Caliphate forces. The battle victory is credited to Charles Martellus (the Hammer) Martel, who lost a mere thousand to fifteen-hundred of his forces, would later in history be granted the title of savior of Christianity. The vanquished was Abd Ar-Rahman Al Ghafiqi who was slain during the battle along with an estimated twelve-thousand of his warriors.

 

Beginning at the beginning of the fourteenth century the Ottoman Empire began to make its presence felt which would eventually lead to their conquering the entirety of the Caliphate at their most powerful. Until this point the Caliphate ruled over the near entirety of MENA and had spread into Spain and southeastern Europe. The map below shows the advances and periods of the Ottoman Empire conquering the Caliphate, bringing an end to the successions of Caliphs and temporarily ending the violence between Shiite and Sunni camps. The Ottoman succession follows the lineage of Ottoman Beylik who initiated the spread and domain of his family tribe in the year 1300 as his aim was likely like everybody before them, to conquer the known world. The expansions continued from his death in 1359 through 1451 when the next ruler of the Ottomans who expanded the borders notably during his rule through 1481 was Medmed II. He was followed by Selim I (1512-1520) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566). There was expansion beyond this period where the Ottoman Empire reached its apex before its fortunes began to wane.

 

 

Ottoman Empire Ascending from 1300 through 1683 includes Golden Age of Islam

 

 

The Ottoman Empire caught the Caliphate as it was in retreat after having lost Spain (Andalusia) during the Christian Reconquista which was part of the campaign to rid Spain of its Moorish Muslims as well as the Jews and any other group which was not Catholic and sworn fealty to the crown. This period of the Christian Reconquista was a logical following from the victory at Tours by Charles (the Hammer) Martel and spanned an area of time stretching from its earliest uprisings in the north and northwest in the Battle of Covadonga in the summer of 722, a full decade before the battle of Tours, but this revolt was the very beginning of the end of Islamic rule in Spain (Andalusia). The battles continued until finally the signing of the Treaty of Granada on November 25, 1491. This was the end of the fighting with the turning over of the city of the final southern coastal towns of Granada. It was during the final push that King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile that the infamous Spanish Inquisition was initiated. The Spanish Inquisition lasted from November 1, 1478 through to July 15, 1834. The Inquisition was the attempt, a rather thorough and successful attempt, to convert, drive out or otherwise deal with any residual Moorish or Islamic followers remaining in Spain along with ridding Spain of its Jews who either fled with the Muslims or were chased eventually across all of Europe ending up in Russia and Poland for a while until the Czar’s pogroms drove them into Poland and Germany which set the stage for the Shoah, the Holocaust.

 

There were other adventures which came from Europe somewhat as a response to Islamic Caliphate advances leading up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. These were known as the Crusades which were an attempt to retake the Holy Land after the initial fall of Jerusalem in April 637. There were four separate crusades which took separate routes reaching the Holy Lands and gathered the troops from various countries, kingdoms and City-States they passed through and could find willing, or sometimes less than willing, forces to join in their ‘holy’ missions. The Crusader routes and periods of duration (shown below on map) began in 1095 with the First Crusade which continued until 1099. The Second Crusade began in 1147 and lasted until 1149. The Third Crusade was initiated in 1189 going into 1192. The Fourth Crusade began in 1202 and terminated in 1204. They had limited success and resulted in making some groups and individuals very wealthy, so much so that they remained in the Middle East despite having to live under Islamic rule. As far as having a definitive effect on the course of history, it is doubtful and at best might be credited with a residual effect of engaging forces which otherwise could have assisted with the attacks on Constantinople but not on events thereafter.

 

 

Crusader Routes I through IV spanning 1095 through 1289

 

 

The Ottoman Empire final began to weaken while the European powers were feeling the results of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and soon the industrial revolution. While these events were transforming Europe the Ottoman Empire mostly rested on their laurels and stagnated which would cost them as they began to be surpassed by Western technology and discoveries and inventions which led to superior weapons of war. There were three stages of decline for the Ottoman Empire as indicated on the map below. Parts of the Ottoman Empire were held by them for just over a half century, and were under Islamic Caliphate before that for another seven-hundred to almost a thousand years. The final areas of the Ottoman Empire finally fell during World War I and became the Mandate lands from which Iraq, Lebanon, Transjordan (currently Jordan), Syria and Israel were formed. The European colonialists held lands which were formerly under either Ottoman or Caliphate colonial rule for well over a century while the Europeans held these lands for periods of merely a decade or less to the longest being at most a century and those are the exceptions.

 

 

Ottoman Empire in Decline 1800 through 1914 and Start of World War I

 

 

The next map depicts the lands as they were held by European nations after World War I had established their claims in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The area outlined in red depicts the mandate lands decided by the San Remo Conference in 1922. These demarcations were proposed initially by the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. The United States observed the negotiations but was not a direct signatory as the United States desires no holdings, colonial states, mandate responsibilities and was hopeful that they could have assisted in ending this horrific war and had already made their feelings known concerning the restructuring of Europe and the redrawing of boundaries, founding independent states out of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Eventually the United States was coerced into adding their approval of the Mandate System which many viewed as the most tenuous of the treaties despite the signature of King Faisal signing as the representative for the Arab League.

 

 

Colonial Structure Post World War I defined by Treaties from initial surrender in 1919 through the San Remo Conference setting up the Mandate System in 1922 plus Sykes-Picot redrawing of much of the Middle East

 

 

The final map below depicts the independent states and their dates when their current governments or their freedom from European colonial rule came about. These dates are meaningful as it puts to a lie the claims you will likely hear about how these nations were under colonial rule and only recently gained their independence. There will be other lies which will be half-truths or misinformation by giving one impressions knowing the reality is totally different.

 

 

Dates that the MENA nations received their independence after colonial rule many since the times of the Persians or even earlier

 

 

The actual history which needs to be remembered is that many of these nations have been ruled by outside forces since the very early ages of civilizations while others were once inhabited by a nation which either was destroyed in history or faced a natural disaster which placed their population, that which survived, within another culture where they assimilated and disappeared from history though they often brought skills with them which benefited their host nation which likely made them more welcome. One example of the last occurrence was the Minoan civilization which resided on the Isle of Santorini in the Mediterranean Sea. Everything was going along really great as they had their religion and held their sacrifices, one of which is of interest if you know your Hebrew Bible. The Minoans had a spring ritual which was intended to bring fertility to their crops, their herds, their people and to benefit all parts of their society. In this sacrifice they had to prepare a feast using newly born calf boiled and then roasted and brushed with a preparation made from the calf’s mother’s milk. Anyway, the Minoans were happily fishing and enjoying the wonderful Mediterranean weather until the ground rumbled and the caldera erupted all but destroying the entire Island which has slowly resurfaced in the ensuing years. Santorini is located between the Greek mainland and Cyprus in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (see picture with map insert below). Santorini is still a dangerous place and potentially threatened with another eruption. Like most volcanoes, it is not a matter of if but of when the next devastating eruption pours forth and erases all traces of human development or existence as the Island may be blown completely apart only to rise from the Mediterranean depths with a whole new look and geography just as it has done throughout all of history. The homes and island is beautiful and a jewel glittering in the Mediterranean Sea and we can only hope it continues to glitter from the lights on the porches of the homes and not from lava belching forth from out of the sea.

 

 

Volcano Thera Caldera Santorini Island Ancient Home of the Minoan Civilization until Eruption just ruined their day

 

 

When we look at the history of MENA nations one need remember that much of the area was also the cradle of civilization and as such had a distressing habit of spawning great civilizations which came, expanded as far as they could reach, overreached or had a number of bad years or the next great civilization either defeated and overran their empire or the two had a merger of sorts as exampled by the Greeks being subsumed by the Roman Empire which did not exactly destroy the four Greek sub-Empires as much as they incorporated as the Greeks saw an advantage of being the center of education and philosophy while the Romans knew of the Greek intellect and their ability to fashion weapons. That is not to say there were not conflicts, but somehow both civilizations influenced each other for the better. But even before Rome, before the Greeks, before the Persians there were the Babylonians, the Israelite Kingdom, the Hittite, the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian Empires. Each ruled and the areas of MENA can be said to have survived as best the individual tribes, city-states, empires, nations and peoples could be expected. There were the Ancient Empires which lasted from prehistory through the Greeks of Alexander. Alexander the Great was the last of the ancient empire builders and his would be the first of the new age empires, the actual colonialists of history. From here many empires claimed to be setting out to conquer the world but they also knew that dream could not be realized in one’s lifetime. Even here the states of MENA faced the Greeks followed by the Romans then the Byzantines as Rome broke into two Empires, the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine; and the western Roman or what became the Holy Roman Empire. Even European nations became colonized as there were the intra-European empires such as the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Charlemagne, Napoleon and eventually the Nazis. After the Byzantine Empire collapsed there was the Caliphate followed by the Ottoman Empire, the two main Islamic Empires. During their time in power there were still the Mongols who came to conquer the world and instead converted to Islam by in large. China and India had their effect on the nations of the Middle East and also set up that area for who could take control of the trade routes. It was because of lack of access to these very trade routes which launched the European age of colonization which is the final or modern stage. Where the age of European conquest began in the late fifteenth century with Columbus and the other explorers heading to lay claim to the new lands in the Americas, then started an age of conquest as the natives were not as advanced when it came to warfare. The one advantage of living in the most contested lands in the world is you build up some formidable weaponry and tactics which the native tribes of the Americas were of no match.

 

The lands which form MENA were already colonized by the Ottomans who had a number of other cultures which also fought with their colonizers as all had a common bond which was Islam. This made these lands too much of a threat plus the Europeans had learned to have a healthy respect for the Ottomans and the followers of Islam through the Crusades and the wars which were barely able to constrain the Ottomans from sweeping across Europe. Much of that was due to the King of Poland and Lithuania John III Sobieski who came and relieved the city of Vienna from the Ottoman siege and brought that offensive to a conclusive end. Still, there was little attempt until into the nineteenth century before any assaults were waged on a by then weakened and almost backward sclerotic empire. Taking fair stock on the years of actual colonialization we see that the MENA nations, of which Syria is no exception except like Israel there was an Assyrian Empire which did not extend to anywhere near as vast an area as the more well-known colonizing empires, otherwise Syria has been a colony of somebody for a very long time. The ancient Empires spanned a good three-thousand years or more depending on sources. The middle empires which include the Roman, Byzantine, the Caliphate and the Ottoman Empires lasted almost two-thousand years. The final age was the European age of colonization of the MENA area which lasted less than two hundred years and when we speak of the Middle East itself it is even shorter barely making a century with Syria being far less and Iran almost untouched by the European colonizers. So, when the news reports tell of how these poor nations have been colonies for near an inestimable time and have not tasted freedom until only the most recent of times and even then most were brutal dictatorships, there is some truth. The problem is for the vast majority we were talking of Biblical era and pre Biblical times all the way through the Greeks and to the Roman Empire after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire these lands were ruled by Muslims for the majority of the modern ages.

 

 

Mandate of San Remo for French and British including actual treaty demarcations for each nation

 

 

The Europeans only poured in at the end of the Ottoman Empire as it fell with the final areas which included Syria not falling until World War I thus not becoming a colony of the Europeans until around 1920 and with the areas of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel they were not colonies as much as protectorates being held secure from invasions by the British and the French starting in 1922 with the enactment of the San Remo Conference. The above map shows the League of Nations proposed British and French Mandates with the demarcations for Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Transjordan and Israel. This mandate was carved from the remains of the Ottoman Empire where the nation of Turkey was what would remain as the originator of the entire Ottoman Empire while these areas above plus Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman were brought into being and Saudi Arabia gained complete and uncontested control over Mecca and Medina. These maps and dates should arm those wishing to have the truth behind their arguments readily available to speak to what exactly Europe owes the refugees and victims of colonial rule when in reality it is the Arabian Peninsula, the originator of the Caliphate, and Turkey as the original source for the Ottoman Turks who founded the Ottoman Empire. The Europeans as far as Syria is concerned were a brief caretaker that lasted barely twenty-six years, exactly the same as it did for Israel and Israel has only had to take in over one million Jewish refugees from across the lands that make up MENA as many of them drove their Jews from their lands during the late 1940s and through the 1950s with some from Ethiopia and Russia coming even later and still taking in the Bnei Menashe from India and Israel will continue to take in Jewish refugees from the world over and has also taken in other refugees including but not limited to the Vietnamese boat people and Christians seeking refuge from persecutions. It makes one wonder how many refugees have been taken in by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (who after the Gulf War which freed them from Saddam Hussein thanked the Palestinian workers for the support which Yasser Arafat lauded on Saddam Hussein and flew every last one back to the Palestinian Occupied areas of Judea and Samaria), Qatar (whose Al-Jazeera news service so gallantly praised and supported the uprisings in the hopes of placing the Muslim Brotherhood in charge of as many nations as possible and almost won Egypt and really urged on the war in Syria until it turned so very ugly) or Bahrain. One might expect these wealthy nations to assist their Arab brothers and sisters but nary a word from them except to demand that Europe do their part because the Europeans had colonies in the area for an average of fifty years compared to the one thousand year rule of Islam as the Caliphate and the Ottoman Empires. Europe should offer to take in refugees one for every twenty that the nations of the Arabian Peninsula give refuge to, that would be fair and proportional but don’t hold your breath.

 

Beyond the Cusp