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

 

May These be the Last Victims of this and All Intifada

 

Eleven year-old Ayala Shapira and her father, Avner Shapira, were the latest in a long line of victims who have suffered from the rock and firebomb attacks along Israeli roads in the Israeli ruled Area C of Judea and Samaria when the vehicle they were traveling home in was struck by one of those firebombs. Ayala currently lies next to death in the burn center at Sheba (Tel Hashomer) Hospital where she is on life support and the physicians are doing all they are able to save her young life. While her father’s injuries were less severe and he has received treatment, Ayala suffered much more severe burns, as well as other injuries, and is under intensive care and as reported by Professor Ze’ev Rothstein, Director of Sheba Hospital, “It is not clear at this point if her life is in danger. We will do everything possible to save her.” Our prayers and support go out to Ayala, her father and to their family, friends and all who share the effects of this tragedy. May Ayala soon be out of danger and make a speedy recovery followed by a successful long term therapy as may be necessitated to restore to her the level of life and comfort she knew before this assault. May her mental scars fade as well and as quickly as any physical scars fade.

 

She and her father were driving on a side road between Ma’ale Shomron and the new community of El-Matan when their vehicle was struck by a firebomb thrown from another vehicle with a number of young adults inside. The attack is being treated as a terrorist attack and the authorities say all efforts possible are being taken to find and arrest the culprits. Both Ayala and her father were able to free themselves from the burning vehicle but not before suffering severe, life-threatening injuries including burns. Below is a video courtesy of Arutz Sheva News which can also be viewed here. This attack was special only in its results as rock assaults on the roads in and around Jerusalem, as well as throughout much of Israeli countryside, have become daily occurrences with such terrorizing acts being committed numerous times per day. They have become so common as they have received little coverage unless a child is severely injured or even worse, murdered, that the media barely give them any note.

 

The same can be said for the assaults and rioting being carried out on the Temple Mount with the expressed purpose of denying Jews the right to visit, let alone pray which is forbidden Jews and what is meant by maintaining the status quo, by PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as well as leaders of Hamas out of Turkey who claim to be the ones financing and carrying out such violence. The Temple Mount riots consist of more than simply assaulting the police and security personnel with rocks but also include the use of pyrotechnics which have resulted in numerous instances where security and police personnel have caught fire and suffered burns though fortunately most have only required first aid and only minimal numbers have required sustained hospitalizations. Hamas leadership as well as other Arab leaders, who represent some of the numerous Arab groups under the network of the PLO and Abbas, have openly described the elevated levels of violence as being an actual Intifada though Abbas attempts to deny such terminology as he fears it may have an effect on the levels of funding his many groups receive from Western nations and NGOs. The continued levels of violence, which are most likely activities being established by Hamas, are likely part of two separate but mutually reliant on the sustained violence directions, the denial of Jewish rights wherever and whenever possible and stirring the cauldron to keep it boiling and near to explosive levels as part of the Hamas efforts to appear stronger and more active in fighting and terrorizing Israelis so that they will win any elections should they ever be permitted by Abbas.

 

This brings us back to two items, the current Arab petition before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the threats made by Abbas should it fail to be approved and the unity government and the likelihood of elections being scheduled before the unity government collapses due to Hamas dissatisfaction with the lack of elections as agreed and their executing other plans they have for garnering complete control over both Gaza and the West Bank. First off, according to the unity governing agreement there were to be elections held within the first six months, a severe failure which was supposed to negate the agreement and return the Arabs to having two governing bodies, one over Gaza controlled by Hamas and one over the West Bank controlled by Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), chairman of the PLO and the leader of the Fatah Party. The Hamas-Israel war over the summer was the initial play by Hamas almost immediately after the agreement for a unity government was formed. The reason behind the Hamas war was to force Mahmoud Abbas into a position where he appeared to be taking all the moves aimed at ending the war on Israel while Hamas continued to resist reaching any agreement, and thus far only a ceasefire exists as no peace or even permanent armistice has been reached and signed, thus molding an image of Western tool carrying out the demands which favored Israel around Abbas through his work to attempt to reach an actual peace or at the least an armistice while the leadership of Hamas was seen as taking the fight to Israel and surviving even to the point of having claimed victory. Just the image of a strong Hamas fighting the good fight against Abbas appearing weak and passive has made Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas in Gaza, well ahead of Abbas in polls taken including both Gaza and the West Bank and his sole competition to be Mashaal who is the Hamas leader in Qatar. Abbas would lose to either of the Hamas main leaders.

 

This brings us to the same point of the Arabs opposing Israel and demanding their own state, with Abbas claiming to represent their desires, claims to have been facing off phantom menaces, using that to assure elections do not appear for numerous years and again do not appear to be in the cards for any time in the near future. Abbas refuses to hold elections as he realizes that should he lose the election he would likely lose a whole lot more. Abbas, and probably his sons, would be arrested and tried for stealing funds, refusing the will of the people, corruption and whatever other charges the newly elected and most likely Hamas controlled Arab leadership could find to charge them over. The result of such a trial would be Abbas spending the rest of his life in prison, but on the bright side that prison sentence might only last a few very short weeks ending with the execution of Abbas if for no other reason than you do not allow your competition to remain alive and capable of potentially taking back their position and holding you for trial and then executing you. I am pretty sure this is covered in the “President for Life Handbook” (no such book exists to the best of our knowledge) on page three. There is further evidence for this hypothesis as Abbas would likely already have been murdered as part of a Hamas coup attempt which was thwarted by the Israeli Shin Bet (Intelligence Agency) with an assist by the IDF as they arrested a number of the senior members and planners from Hamas who were readying to launch their violent takeover of the West Bank from Abbas which was funded and they armed by Hamas with all control, arms and finance originating with the Hamas leadership in Turkey under Saleh Al-Arouri. Most every act of willful violence over the last approximately nine months since the agreement for the Hamas leadership to stand aside and allow Abbas to continue as leader of numerous groups under separate titles and areas of assigned expertise has been instigated by Hamas, financed by Hamas, planned out by Hamas, lead in the field by Hamas activists and aimed at both Israel and Mahmoud Abbas. The actual acts of violence were aimed at the Israelis in general and the Israeli Jews more specifically while also meant to erode any popularity or visages of coordinating any effective resistance, terror activities, by Mahmoud Abbas and in his stead making Hamas look like the real and true opposition working actively to force the Israelis out of Muslim lands. Abbas is also aware of this offensive smearing his character and supplanting his leadership with the more popular and seemingly competent Hamas leaders.

 

That leaves the demands Abbas appears to be forcing within the United Nations Security Council which states that negotiations will begin on the inception date when the authorized resolution has been enacted and last no longer than one year (twelve months is one unofficial wording we have found which would be interesting as there are three separate and quite different calendars in use between all the parties) followed by Israel being forced from Arab lands and to return to the pre 1967 Six Day War boundaries which were originally set by the armistice signed ending the conflict in 1949 by no later than the end of 2017. One might inquire why the one year of negotiations are necessary if the end results of such negotiations are already spelled out in the next parts of the resolution. The only item not completely resolved would be the Arab claim of right of return within Israel proper meaning the Green Line as apparently it has been established that none of the refugees originated from the lands the Arabs are claiming for their state but all originated within the armistice lines from 1949. This might explain why there are refugee camps in Gaza and within Area A which is under complete Arab control and currently ruled by Mahmoud Abbas who has not seen fit, as Hamas have also ignored, to free the refugees within the refugee camps on lands ruled by their fellow Arabs and instead demand to place them within Israel. Further proof that Abbas is playing a game and not serious about the demands before the United Nations Security Council for their adjudication came when immediately after meeting with United States Secretary of State John Kerry and hearing from the United States officially that they would be using their veto to prevent any possibility for their resolution to be passed, Mahmoud Abbas took to the press and restated his ultimatum to pursue other legal manners to gain statehood for the Arabs living within his autonomous areas plus Gaza making the point that he now represents the entirety of the Arabs and that Hamas is no longer controlling Gaza, well, not officially at least. Mahmoud does not expect nor desire for his resolution to be recognized as should Israeli security apparatus not remain functioning at its current high level of efficiency then Hamas may just execute their next planned coup and that would be the end of Mahmoud Abbas. Very simply, Abbas remains alive for as long as Israel remains in control of the security through most of the lands Abbas is demanding they surrender in his resolution in the UNSC.

 

Even the amended demand added for the year of negotiations is a fantasy which is why it was not in the initial draft and was added pushing the date for the forced Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands back from end of 2016 to the end of 2017. The proof for this is the simple fact that nothing else in the resolution was altered when the negotiations were added as Abbas has no intention of negotiating thus the desired results must be determined independently from this added Band-Aid only added to placate the desire of a number of European Union and the United States desired said negotiations. Another reason that Mahmoud Abbas has little if any desire for Arab statehood is that once that accommodation has been achieved then he and the rest of the Arab terrorist infrastructure will have to actually rule the people and will not have the occupation to blame for any problems, especially about faulty water and electrical service and the foreign funding will begin to decline and eventually, much sooner than Abbas would like, end altogether and the Arab governance will have to make everything run on funds raised from within their soon to be failed state. Sometimes receiving what you demand results in exactly those things you have resisted for the past fifty years which will be beyond one’s ability to perform. Abbas has been continuing the same game that Yasser Arafat played before him which requires burning the candle at both ends and finally Mahmoud Abbas may be running really short on candle and the flames just might be meeting in the middle real soon and guess who will receive the judgment from their own people, a people who will not be in the mood for more excuses. Abbas has problems rushing towards him from every direction and much of that has been of his own doing. Perhaps his chickens are coming home to roost.

 

Beyond the Cusp

Once More Down the Rabbit Hole

 

The number of demands coming from virtually every direction and so many counter to many of the others, it is remarkable that the leaders of Israel are not even further round the bend and must often feel like they’ve taken that trip down the rabbit hole. First, let’s take Europe, both the European Union and the majority of European governments. The going theme is that Israel needs to take every opportunity to do whatever Mahmoud Abbas, the man of peace if the Europeans are to be believed, demands in order to make peace so that the ever growing and vocal Muslim populations residing in Europe will not be further provoked to demonstrate or act out violently. Israel, according to the Europeans, must never ever take any military steps to defend themselves from Arab attacks or terrorist attacks and must instead sympathize with the desperation which drives the rioting and violence perpetrated regularly by the Arab population within Israeli borders set forth by the San Remo Conference and backed by the United Nations through Article 80 of the United Nations Charter which validated the agreements including the Mandate system set up by the League of Nations at the conclusion of World War I. Two lines of faulty reasoning drive the European demands, the first being the desire to placate and remove any instigations for their Muslim populations to cause violence and secondly they are reverting to their default position steeped in anti-Semitism except this time their anti-Semitism is targeting the Jewish state initially and against their Jewish populations only as a secondary front presumably due to the refusal of the Jewish state to follow the dictates of the European and other betters. The particulars of the Arab demands coming from Mahmoud Abbas and the other Arab leaders are irrelevant to the European demands that they be met as the Europeans would support any demand fully expecting Israel to comply simply for the reason that it would make the situation in Europe presumably less unstable and potentially of turning violent. It does not even matter that even when Israel complied and gave the Arabs complete autonomy and rule over Gaza that such did nothing to lessen the level of Arab violence in Europe and if anything caused it to increase rather than abate. The Europeans simply cannot understand why Israel refuses to capitulate to the Arab demands as the Europeans have done and this angers them as they appear weak and ineffectual in comparison and that is another humiliation which they believe they should not be forced to suffer. Additionally, there are those in Europe such as George Galloway and Richard Faulk and his wife Hilal Elver who simply hate the Israelis for being the nations of the Jews and needs no other reason to fully back the Arab demands and to even attempt to go the Arabs one better in demanding the violent destruction of the Jewish state and it being replaced by an Arab state. The problem is that even should the Arabs destroy Israel tomorrow, the Europeans would continue to have a problem with the restive and growing Arab populations and would have no Israel to blame, but then they would probably transfer their animus to the United States claiming their War on Terror was riling the European Arabs and that the United States should learn from Europe and find an accord with the Arab and Muslim worlds instead of always attempting to force the world to fit the American ideals and ideas.

 

Then there is the United Nations and their love to hate relationship with Israel. Their problem with Israel might have a little something to do with the fact that there is one Israel against the twenty-two Arab states plus another Thirty-four Muslim nations as well as the additional fifty or more nonaligned nations which make up the largest single group of nations within the General Assemble which most often vote as a block in unison. Additionally there are the anti-United States and anti-Israel nations and then the western nations who make up a minority of the General Assembly but still often vote against Israel or at best split half and half on either side depending on the particular vote and the result is there are often easily over one-hundred-twenty-five nations which will vote against Israel on every vote brought before the General Assembly of the United Nations. Then the makeup of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) there are forty-seven member nations out of which at any given time there will be easily between thirty and thirty-seven member nations which will vote to censure Israel on any issue and the HRC is one of the only bodies in the world which has in its bylaws a requirement that every session must open with a vote condemning Israel before addressing any other business, and this even applies if their entire docket contains additional motions for denouncing Israel for any variety of reasons. Researching the United Nations other than the Security Council, where the five permanent nations have an overriding veto power, and the most denounced and censured nations is Israel with the bulk of these motions originating in either the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations General Assembly where the Arab-Muslim-developing nations block has an overwhelming and unopposable majority one finds a preoccupation with denouncing or investigating Israel and echoing every accusation emanating from the Arabs under Abbas. Some wonder why Israel even bothers to remain as a member of the United Nations as there is little for them to gain from such a membership except that it might possibly become even worse were Israel not represented, though how it could be any worse is beyond my understanding.

 

Now let’s attack the root of the problem and Mahmoud Abbas and the alphabet soup of groups his three organizations presumably encompass and represent. He is the Chairman, President or whatever title he assumes each morning of the following entities: the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Fatah Party (Fatah), the Palestinian Liberations Organizations (PLO). As head of the PLO he oversees in theory the following: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Islamic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (IFLP), Islamic Jihad, Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), Palestinian People’s Party (PPP), Arab Liberation Front (ALF), Palestinian Democratic Union (Fida), Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF), Palestinian Arab Front (PAF) and potentially some we have not heard of or found in research but feel confident will pop up some time in the future to give a list of grievances and demands. Independent of these is Islamic Jihad which along with Hamas, al-Qaeda in Gaza, ISIS in Gaza and a number of criminal families who double as terror enablers and are tasked with some kidnappings for which they have shown a degree of expertise it becomes mind-boggling. With all of these groups to oversee and each with their own leadership and structures and some having multiple leaderships in different countries as example Hamas has Haniyeh who is usually in Gaza, Mashal who is most often in Qatar and the currently most active and tasked with running the Temple Mount daily riots, the riots throughout Jerusalem and much of the terrorism in Judea and Samaria committed by Hamas is Saleh Al-Arouri who is located in Turkey. So, this is a basic view of the infrastructure, now for the really confusing items.

 

Currently there exists the Arab demand before the United Nations Security Council which demands an end to negotiations, more on that in a moment, within one year of the enactment by the Security Council and the removal of Israel from all of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem back behind the Green Line, the Armistice Line from 1949 which existed until the Six Day War in June of 1967, before the end of 2017. The result of the negotiations is for the Israelis to be forced to retreat from all the lands occupied illegally by Jordan against the dictates of the San Remo Conference and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter from 1949 until Israel liberated these lands regaining her assigned borders by international law of the Jordan River surrendering their rightful heartlands to Mahmoud Abbas and his merry bands of terrorist groups. The negotiations will result in the same result every negotiation has produced since the Oslo Accords set up the Arab kleptocracy in 1993, with the Arab negotiators making supremacist demands and refusing every Israeli demand. Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the supporting various leaders and functionaries have repeatedly stated that they will never in any manner or form recognize Israel as the Jewish state, they will never relent from their right to resist the occupation which is their code for terrorist activities, they will continue the resistance until all of Palestine has been freed from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea, and they demand that every Jew be removed and forbidden from entering Arab lands despite often claiming they will recognize other religions’ rights to visit and have access to their various holy sites while adding later that there are no Jewish holy sites anywhere in Palestine from the River to the Sea because the Jews never lived anywhere near Israel and Israel is an invented occupying colonial western force used as a plot to deny the Arabs their rightful lands in which they have resided for nine thousand years (sometimes the period is less but always more than the three-thousand-five-hundred years which is often the reference for when Abraham and Sarah first arrived in Hevron, but Abbas claims that both Abraham and Sarah along with Moses, Noah, Jesus, Adam and Eve were all Muslims and they were never Jews as the Jews were a recent inventions which he has claimed worked with the Nazis. Senator and former American Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan once stated, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts,” he probably never met Abbas and his enablers. Abbas has recently upped the ante by threatening to break off all relations and cooperation with Israel should the United Nations Security Council not agree to pass his maximalist demands and he is further calling for the vote within a short period of a week or two, meanwhile, there has not appeared to be any great rush thus far at the Security Council plus Abbas has been informed by United States Secretary of State John Kerry that the United States will use their veto on his proposal. Such news only appeared to double Abbas in his demands and insistence that everybody simply must do as he demands or else he will, what was it, oh yes, refuse to cooperate with Israel, refuse to have relations with Israel and demand that Israel assume their role as an occupying power. There is one small problem with Abbas and his reasoning, he has forgotten that without cooperation with Israel there is no Oslo Accords which he had already previously defiled and broken its provisions repeatedly by taking unilateral actions while refusing to actually negotiate while demanding Israel surrender to his every demand otherwise he will, you will love this, join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and bring charges against Israel for crimes against humanity and various war crimes. Of course, the fly in the ointment is that once they join the ICC they can be brought up on charges themselves for every terror attack by any and all the various incarnations atop which sits none other than Mahmoud Abbas, second in command for so long under Yasser Arafat and now the number one terror chief of the entire alphabet soup of terror enclaves.

 

These threats made by Mahmoud Abbas are all aimed not at Israel but at Europe, the United States and anybody else who chooses to panic. There is one simple reason why Abbas will not carry through on a single threat he makes, once he totally refuses to pretend that he will follow the Oslo Accords and leaves everything to Israel he will end up murdered by the terror groups he claims to lead. Then the most viscous of the terror groups will rise to the top by any means necessary and Israel will be freed to liberate the real moderates who are now kept muted and under thumb. The terrorists will be cleansed from the lands of Israel and the Arabs will either be given autonomy in the areas where they hold total majorities such as in Ramallah and Area A and the few Arab enclaves in Area B while the Arabs living in Area C will be granted a path to citizenship, a phrase given a whole definition by the United States immigration policy interests, or an option to sell their properties and resettle in the Arab autonomous regions or emigrate to other countries. The problem then will be placed in the laps of the nations holding refugees which they had kept separate in the hopes of sending them to infiltrate Israel in an attempt to destroy the Jewish majority of Israel. UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) will be dissolved and these refugees will be placed under UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) which will resettle them within the nations where they reside and no longer will their children and their children into perpetuity be classified as refugees, they will have citizenship and be able to have real lives as normal human beings. Abbas and his sons make far too much money, sending funding to the companies, straw entities meant to collect funds under false pretenses, from the billions of dollars given to the agencies for the care and comfort of the Arabs they represent. The Arabs are the real losers to Abbas and cohorts kleptocracy which steals the food and funds right out of their pockets by misappropriating the majority of the funds they are able to lay their hands on. Nothing will change because too many entities are making money on the misery of the Arabs under the rule of the terror entities and by keeping the causes and charges against Israel operating the rest of the world can continue to claim that it is Israel which is at the center of all the problems in the world. Should Israel finally be left to simply live in peace then the entire house of cards would collapse and there would be nearly countless people out of work looking for employment and it is difficult to find position for which the job requirements call for laying blame and lying while stirring up hatred in the name of making themselves the authors and definers of what is correct and what is unacceptable. Further, what would the United Nations do if Israel was no longer the target most acceptable for all blames and denunciations? Their funding requirements would be decreased to half what it takes today or lower. How can we bring this about, any hints?

 

Beyond the Cusp