Israel Further Divided is Israel No More

 

How many times can Israel be divided down from the original British Mandate until there is no longer any viable Israel? Would taking away seventy-eight percent of the lands make Israel untenable? History would indicate that was not the case as Israel survived two Arab mass attacks to try and eradicate her. The division was made when the Palestinian Arab State of Jordan was granted to be ruled by the Hashemites and Israel was left with the twenty-two percent of the Mandate west of the Jordan River. The first assault came within hours of the State of Israel being declared established where half a dozen Arab States attacked across every border and yet Israel survived. Again in June of 1967 Israel was attacked across her three land borders by Syria, Egypt and Jordan and survived. Then again in 1973 Israel was again attacked by Egypt and Syria but survived due to still holding the Sinai Peninsula otherwise Israel might have been lost. But with Israel having returned all of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt for the promise of a future of peace, a cold peace, but peace just the same, well, thus far; Israel was shrunk back to controlling merely the twenty-two percent of the original British Mandate west of the Jordan River. Still, this was too much land for Jews to hold according to the rest of the world, at least all of the world which was making any noise. What then followed is frightening but nowhere near as frightening as what the future potentially holds.

 

Since March 26, 1979, when the Camp David Accords was formally signed and peace broke out between Egypt and Israel, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egyptian control with the proviso that it remains limited in military powers being stationed by Egypt with any exceptions as required being established with the full knowledge and permission of Israel. This peace has been a cold peace much of the time but both nations have kept the agreements. There was a short period where the peace appeared to be potentially in danger while the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi won an initial election after President Obama assisted in forcing President Mubarak from power. The Egyptian people, or at least a fair percentage, appeared to protest the ill effects of the Muslim Brotherhood rule and the Egyptian military returned to power with President Sisi being elected after the Military removed President Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood from power. President Sisi did at least resign from his position as head of the Egyptian Military before running for President but his election was assured by his leadership in removing the Muslim Brotherhood from power. Israel and Egypt remain at peace and presently there are additional allowances for Egyptian military activity in the Sinai Peninsula to address terrorist activity which has blossomed with Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood and various other terror and criminal enterprises taking control of much of the Sinai Peninsula.

 

During President George W. Bush Administration and his plan for Israel-Palestinian Peace named the Roadmap, Israel was pressured in removing every Jewish settlement, industry and other presence from Gaza and a number of other communities in northern regions of Judea and Samaria in order to allow for the Palestinian Authority to be able to establish semiautonomous rule in Judea and Samaria and complete autonomy to establish a working state in the surrendered lands of Gaza to prove that the establishment of a Palestinian State was not only possible but would pose no threat to Israel and could live peacefully side-by-side. The Bush Administration also issued a letter granting fourteen guarantees to Israel as a protection for their taking what could prove to be a huge risk if it went wrong. Since then President Obama basically voided every guarantee granted by that letter claiming there was no promise or guarantee despite a near unanimous approval of these promises by the congress. President Obama’s destruction of those promises was done unilaterally without any council or consent by Congress. Further, within two years the Palestinian Authority lost control of the Gaza to Hamas who has utilized it as a staging area for launching rocket attacks, mortar fire, sniper shootings mostly at Israeli civilian targets and three wars and counting in order to end increasing rocket fire which was ramped up almost in a regularly scheduled timeframe which shortened with each confrontation. Further, the range and accuracy of the rockets have grown significantly placing much, if not all, of Israel within range of rockets fired from the very same locations which had been under the control of the Jewish communities which were removed from Gaza. All told the surrender of Gaza to the Palestinian control turned out to fulfill every single worst possible scenario as predicted by many Zionists and nationalists. Despite the debacle which resulted from the Gaza withdrawal, the world is demanding that Israel now withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria allowing the Palestinian authority another opportunity for displaying their ability to rule and live at peace with Israel. They are demanding this despite, or possibly because of, the fact that Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to use any such withdrawal as an opportunity to destroy the remainder of Israel and murder every Jew residing between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The world claims that he does not really mean his threats and Israel should give him the opportunity to prove he does not desire to destroy Israel, kill every Jew he can find and take every inch of land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea even if he must burn everything to the ground and lay waste to all of Israel. Actually, he claims to desire and do exactly that and has repeated that threat consistently. But the world is sure that it would be worth it for Israel to test his resolve on this as nobody other than Israelis are threatened and they believe that by sacrificing Israel the terrorism which has spread to their lands will cease because the Arab and Muslim world do not really mean it when they claim that Allah promised them they were to conquer the entire planet and rule it as the lords over all humanity and thus make Islam the only religion and political power on the Earth. What could possibly go wrong, after all Gaza was the exception and the threat does not also transfer to Judea and Samaria, let alone the entire globe.

 

The problem comes when one realizes the tactical position of superiority giving over all of Judea and Samaria gives the Palestinian Arabs as they take the high grounds and have a direct line of sight over Tel Aviv, Haifa and all of central Israel and the major structures, industry, residential areas, the sole international airport and major docks in all of Israel. There is an article which has a series of pictures taken from what would become Palestine overlooking Israel with detailed description of some of the major targets which would become vulnerable which can be read here which we recommend highly. Below we will post two of those pictures which we feel are pretty much self-descriptive though the sight has information on both and far, far more.

 

Ben Gurion Airport Plane Vulnerability from Palestine
(c/o Dr. Martin Sherman and Arutz Sheva)

 

Trans-Israel Highway Route 6
(c/o Dr. Martin Sherman and Arutz Sheva)

 

Israel could always make things more difficult for the Arabs by constructing a little wall about two-thousand feet in height and thick enough to withstand a few direct strikes by rocket fire or artillery and then station around five hundred or a thousand Iron Dome Batteries with hundreds and hundreds of interceptor missiles costing approximately $50,000.00 firing one at probably three-fourths of the $50.00 rockets fired over the wall and Israel could afford to do this for almost three weeks before going so far into debt that the nation would financially fail. But of course Judea and Samaria could never turn into Gaza II and Hamas would never be capable of overthrowing the Palestinian Authority a second time and the Islamic State would also have no interest in staging in Judea and Samaria against both Israel and Jordan at some point. And the world would be so appreciative of Israel taking such a risk for peace that they would have Israel’s back should everything go so terribly wrong just as they have with Gaza. Oh, wait; they have not had Israel’s back unless stabbing Israel in the back counts as having our back. Remember that the United Nations had demanded Israel cease attacking Gaza immediately after the IDF fired a single round in counterstrike for a rocket fired using back-tracing technologies which allow a strike to hit nearly exactly where a rocket originated within less than a minute and often mere seconds after the rocket was tracked by an Iron Dome or radar array. Then, when after the numbers of rockets approached almost one thousand per day and Israel sent troops into Gaza to end the barrages the United Nations, European Union, numerous governments and any number of NGOs began accusing Israel of using disproportional force because insufficient numbers of Israelis were being killed despite the overwhelming number of those killed in Gaza proved to be terrorists and others were largely human shields used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to protect their rocket firing positions and in order to wage political war against Israel. Do not even try and tell me that this time things will be different, they will not and everybody knows they will not except this time there will be massive Israelis killed as well which at least will remove the disproportional force dialogue, but that claim will continue as the Palestinian Authority releases inflated numbers of dead and the world takes their numbers at face value while questioning any numbers released by Israel. Oh, and when the investigation by the United Nations verifies exactly what Israel reported and proved that the Palestinian Authority was making up numbers when claiming there was a massacre, say Jenin for example, the world will continue to claim there was a massacre despite all evidence to the contrary, like Jenin for example. Please spare us the inanities as the stories and empty promises will not sway the majority of Israelis, we have about had it with the double standards and the false pretenses and are fed up and not taking it any longer.

 

We do not need to explain the reasons why the Arabs have no valid claim and never used Jerusalem as a capital city for any nation and how there was never a nation called Palestine and how it simply denoted a region which has also been referred to as southern Syria but that does not make it Syria any more than it is Palestine. The treaties which make all the lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Israel, are reserved exclusively for the Jewish State and which cannot be used for any other purpose without the consent of Israel are well known which is why nobody had taken Israel before the International Criminal Court. The entire world of politicians and professors and experts and whoever else is knowledgeable knows, as soon as the case is heard in The Hague the game is over and it will be verified that Israel controls the lands between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, all of it, period. The sole exception is Gaza which Israel ceded to the Palestinian authority and should Israel take it back from Hamas, then there would be an argument which could be heard that it should be returned to the Palestinian Authority. That would lead to another coup as even the Arabs do not wish to live under the Palestinian Authority as their mismanagement and stealing of funds is legendary even to their own people. That would start the question of how many times would the Palestinian authority have to lose Gaza before Israel could simply keep it and allow the Arabs residing in the Gaza to have semiautonomous lives basically ruling themselves while still under the security provided by the IDF to prevent terrorism and any forced takeover by outside forces such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Islamic State or other such forces.

 

But the world will not sit still and allow Israel to live in peace because the world cannot accept that the Jews are ruling themselves. The world demands that the Jews live under the thumb of others who are their betters and know to keep an eye on the Jew and keep them from ruling the world which they would do if permitted. If one does not believe the Jews run the world then why is the entire world despite all its other problems always holding hearings and conferences to decide what to do next with the Jews and Israel? Obviously since the world concentrates so much energy and time worrying about what the Jews and Israel are up to then there must be something nefarious going on with the Jews and Israel. So much effort is put into dividing Israel into smaller and smaller chunks until it can be erased completely must have some actual reason other than people hate the Jews, they must deserve to be cheated out of the lands so foolishly granted them after World War I and the conferences which followed. Why the Jew must be made subservient just as they have been for the past two and a half thousand years as see how much trouble they have caused even when under the thumb of others, imagine the problems they have caused with their own nation. There have been an inordinate number of resolutions, hearings, conferences, approaches and what not simply to wrest all of the land of Israel from Jewish control so there must be a good reason. Hatred and anti-Semitism cannot be the explanation; it has to be the Jews who are the problem, not the rest of the world. It is entirely impossible for the entire world to be wrong and Israel to be right, isn’t it? It has to be the Jews as the world would not spend so much time, effort, treasure and all else that’s holy just to destroy little old Israel if the Jews were not the problem. This appears to have been the reasoning of the Europeans, the Americans, the United Nations, the Arab World, the Russians, Chinese, and whoever else one cares to name because otherwise everybody has been wasting so much time all about nothing other than hate. Could it all be that simple, could it all be about hatred of the Jews, a three-thousand-plus year problem that the world just cannot seem to get past?

 

That would be insane as the entire world knows that if the Jews were to be left alone and in peace in the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, that entire 26,184 sq. km., the entire 0.005% of the Earth’s surface, then left to their own devices the Jews of Israel, a whole 0.1% of the World’s population, allowed freedom to invent, research, work and live and share their discoveries and inventions with the world, these Jews who are a remnant of the world population residing on a mere scrap of lands at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea would somehow manage to ruin the lives of everyone else and own everything within a mere decade, maybe two decades? Is this the fear the world has because we often hear of this “Greater Israel” which would come about should Israel not be hampered and driven into extinction by those who have a reliable and valid fear, right? Is it really too much to ask that the world leave us alone and allow us to run our lives, study our Torah and make wondrous discoveries which we will share, invent new applications, programs, devices and miracle cures for diseases and maybe even cancer and share them and do all sorts of what might be seen as miracles and share them all and do it all and remain on our little patch of soil and nothing more. We do not wish to conquer anything and would not have agreed to every proposition made; even when the United Nations proposed on November 29, 1947, against Article 80 of the United Nation’s own Charter, to divide the remaining Mandate Lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in half and make the Jewish half be made up of over one third Negev Desert; the Zionist Congress speaking for the future Israel and the Jewish nation agreed and the Arab League refused demanding all the land or threatening war, a threat they carried out the very morning of May 15, 1948, the morning of Israel’s founding as a new state, as over a half dozen nation’s armies with militias attacked the nascent Jewish State and somehow a miracle, Israel survived.

 

About that war where Israel survived but lost Judea and Samaria, renamed West Bank by Jordan, and lost Gaza to Egypt and still Israel celebrated as we Jews had a homeland in the vicinity of our ancient homelands. Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria illegally and even the Arab States refused to recognize their annexation, an annexation they cancelled in order to make additional Arab refugees after the Six Day War, a war Israel begged Jordan to refrain from joining but Jordan saw those pleadings as weakness and found out different. That was the Six Say War where Israel liberated Gaza as well as Judea and Samaria while also conquering all of the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, another area given away by the French and British in order to deny it to the Israelis and give Syria the high ground overlooking the Galilee. Here is the really interesting item about the lands lost by Israel in 1948-9, the Gaza, Judea and Samaria. These are the very lands that today the world is demanding that Israel surrender to make another Arab State called Palestine. These are part of what the world claims was the ancient land of Palestine though there is no record of any nation ever in all of history called Palestine. There is a region known as Syria Palaestina under the Romans but that was a region ruled from Rome, like Prince Georges County in Maryland, ruled from Washington D.C. but never would one call it a nation. Still, for the eighteen plus years that Jordan and Egypt controlled these regions there was not a single call to form a state called Palestine. There was the formation of a terror group called the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, a full three years before the six Day War and the liberation of Gaza, Judea and Samaria by Israel from Egyptian and Jordanian control respectively and the start of the Arab League deceit of stealing land called Palestine. The PLO did claim they were going to liberate Palestine but they were not interested in Gaza, Judea or Samaria as these lands were already in Arab hands. The Palestine they declared they would liberate was Israel, all of Israel, and that is exactly the area they desire to liberate today, all of Israel and not just Gaza, Judea and Samaria. What is so sad is that almost the entire world appears to desire to assist them in exactly that goal and assist them in their conquest of all of Israel. That is the truth and that is why there are seventy nations conspiring in Paris to imagine a new and inventive way of destroying Israel and gifting it to the Arabs who will ignore the land within a few years and move on as they never did populate the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea until the Jews returned and an economy was born. Read Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Herman Melville and others descriptions of these lands when they visited the Holy Lands before 1900 and get a taste for the reality and not the fiction being sold as real history by the fabricators and their revisionist history which suits their political ends over the truth. Once you know the reality, please pass it along with some advice that the Jews be permitted their little scrap of land and we will promise to repay in kindness and miracles almost beyond belief.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

American Liberal Jews, Israel, Funding, Freedom and Self-Respect

 

American Jews just supported Hillary Clinton in impressive style garnering her an impressive over three-to-one count, just a little shy of their support for Barack Obama averaging his two runs. Their claim that they supported President Obama despite his stance on Israel, especially after his first term betrayals of the Jewish State at every opportunity, because he actually was doing Israel a favor by cutting ties. They promised after the Iran deal not to be taken again and here we are back at square one with one blessing, they lost the election. We need to take a closer look at some of the American Jewish leftist groups and reveal truths about them. Some come right out and claim they want to destroy Israel as the Jewish State in order to save Israel as a democracy. J-Street is one such group and apparently are unable to figure out that if they got their way, then there would be no Israel should the need ever arise in the future for Jews to run to safety. The American Jews should ask themselves whether they are really serious when they wish to sacrifice Israel on the altar of Progressive Leftist Liberalism. Many will answer that doing so is the best alternative for Jews as their real future is within the United States and not trying to relive ancient history. They will claim that we Zionists are the ones who require a reality check because there is no Hashem which will gather the Jews back and make a great nation of Israel after two thousand years because the Torah was just some old scroll written by Moses if he ever really existed. They will further place as evidence the differing writing styles as proof that Torah was written in different periods by groups of political-religious philosophers who wrote some very handy parables but Torah is no more than a fiction which holds no real value to the reality of Jews today. These are the same people who also claim that the American Constitution is a living document which must be reinterpreted by their leftist leaders so it applies to the society they intend to build and not to preserve a society built back some two-hundred years ago. They make a similar claim about both the Torah and the Constitution, they claim both are great reads but have no real relevance to the world today and need be put on the shelf while they move forward with building a Utopia.

 

The reality is that the American Constitution was a work of brilliance with minds of a group of patriots who were the best America had to offer at that time and their experiences with the Crown of England and the Articles of Federation gave them a real look into what the soul of a governance need be and they worked very hard to craft a document that was to be the frame for the future of the United States and to survive intact and be applied for all time. To them it was not a work in progress but the culmination of everything they knew and loved and was supposed to be set in stone and applied exactly as written. They wrote it in the common language not using Latin or legalese but plain English such that every American would understand its plain language. Where there is vagueness it is partly due to language having changed and for some wiggle-room but not to be used to apply legal crowbars until the document is split wide open.

 

Torah is an even more carefully worded document and is also a history of the Israelite People, the forefathers of today’s Jews wherever they may be found. The stories in the Torah and the Old Testament have withstood archeological research and as time continues there comes more and more cases of proof of the stories, the histories, told in Torah. Torah is to be applied literally and there have been volumes of writings by Rabbis over the ages dissecting every world with the greatest volumes being included in the writings of the Talmud. The Oral Code is the miracle for adjusting Jewish life to fit the times and perhaps with time there will be further works compiled as well as new writings giving us a better fit with the Oral Code as it is to be followed today. Until then we will simply live with what is available and work first to rebuilding our homelands and gathering our flocks home, those willing to join in the making of the final Israel and readying her for the coming of the Messiah. This is the splitting point between the American leftist Jews and the majority of Israeli Jews including those who made Aliyah from the United States. This also might explain the complete disparity between the two groups voting patterns where Trump was more supported in Israel by near equal a ratio as Clinton won the American Jewish vote.

 

There is one point where we differ from many Israeli Jews from the United States and actually agree with the leftist American Jews though for entirely different reasons. Odd as it may sound, ending the suckling of Israel to the tune of billions of dollars is an idea whose time approaches and would be a great offer for Prime Minister Netanyahu to give President Trump as Israel’s present to assist with the United States balancing their budget and putting their house in order. Granted Israel will still require the financial arrangements for acquiring the F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) as the new mainstay for the Israeli Air Force as already set in place and agreed upon. But if Israel can arrange that we end the military ties where Israel is dependent upon the United States as a junior partner requiring the largesse of the United States to survive can and should end. Israel would also gain from such an arrangement as this would bring any future Israeli mainstay for our Air force home to be designed and produced in Israel. Would we require purchasing parts from other nations such as the possibility of procuring jet turbine engines from Boeing or McDonald Douglass, Lockheed-Martin or Pratt & Whitney? Yes, and we would also be free to buy Rolls-Royce power plants choosing between the three companies (see below images) and any others for the best deal for the Shekel. Relying on Israeli designs and Israeli production for as much of any future aircraft as can be done in Israel would boost the Israeli economy, provide tens of thousands of jobs over the years and make Israel a competitor in the military aircraft industry. Israel could partner with whomever they choose without having to receive United States approval for every step which could only strengthen Israeli ties with other nations such as India, Brazil, Britain, Russia, China or who knows as the possibilities are magnificently broad and open. And of course Israel could still team with the United States and doing such might be the best natural fit, time will tell. After all, does not Israel manufacture one of the best main battle tanks, the Merkava IV currently if we remember correctly? Why, yes, they sure do.

 

Top left Pratt & Whitney right Rolls-Royce
Bottom Lockheed SR71 Test with Full Afterburner

 

In so many other areas Israel and the United States share many common interests but the Palestinian situation has not been one of the stronger ones. Contrary to what many American Jews are fearing, President Elect Donald Trump is not a racist, not an anti-Semite and not any of the phobic identity titles Leftist Progressives love so much to throw in the faces of people they don’t like. The Republican Party is not anti-Israel and probably passed the most pro-Israel platform since President Truman took to task every advisor who demanded the United States not recognize Israel as doing so would upset the Arab world and recognized Israel anyway. The fact that this recognition was immediately followed by the placing of an arms embargo against the United States selling arms to Israel is another matter. At least there was no great effort to prevent private citizens from shipping Israel weapons through circuitous channels or through well disguised and concealed manners. There is no denying that the United States has been a reliable and friendly partner to Israel even if the only manner was the use of their Security Council veto to prevent the crushing of Israel by international forces mostly powered through Arab oil monies and their threat of embargo of the precious fluid, especially to European nations so dependent upon the oil from the Middle East and Russia. This may become mitigated in the future as natural gas replaces oil in many power production facilities and Israel is sitting on two very large offshore reservoirs of natural gas. The production and sale of this will serve to lower electrical costs to Israelis while also being a profitable export resource with which to formulate new and better relations throughout Europe, providing the Europeans are willing and still capable of controlling such agreements without setting off riots in the streets. Sometimes we here at BTC believe that there is absolutely little if any future for Jews to live in Europe without being under constant threat. We pray often that those still residing in Europe escape before anything horrific will come to pass. We feel this way about all Jews as we are a family as well as a People and far more than a simple religion as too many Jews believe. Coming to Israel for an extended visit, one will see the reality and perhaps then make the fateful and correct choice to make Aliyah. Then again, there are those who will never come here as it is too Jewish and this we understand and regret. The truth is it is so much easier to be a good and religious Jew in Israel than almost, if not every other location on Earth.

 

Let us talk briefly about the difference between the Democrat and Republican Party Platforms. It was probably snuck into the Democrat platform recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and that efforts towards moving the embassy there should be made, well, at least pretend to make moves and blame the State Department once more as a President Hillary Clinton would have signed the necessary waver to prevent such each year as has been the case since forevers. The Republican Platform recognizes Jerusalem as the Capital City of Israel and President Elect Trump has stated repeatedly his intent to move the Embassy to Jerusalem. He could use the Consulate as it was built as a secure facility with intent for it to eventually, should the President ever not sign the waver, be utilized as such. What is interesting is that President Trump in order to make the move for the United States Embassy to Jerusalem has simply to do nothing. That’s right; nothing. In order to prevent the move the President is required to sign a waiver twice each year stating that for reasons of international concerns and other consideration moving the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not possible and would be damaging. Below are the particulars from the legislation which has passed both houses of congress and been approved by President Clinton.

 

Sec. 7. Presidential Waiver.

(a) Waiver Authority.—
(1) Beginning on October 1, 1998, the president may suspend the limitations set forth in section 3(b) for a period of six months if he determines and reports to Congress in advance that such suspension is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.
(2) The President may suspend such limitations for an additional six month period at the end of any period during which the suspension is in effect under this subsections if the President determines and reports to Congress in advance of the additional suspension that the additional suspension is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.
(3) A report under paragraph (1) or (2) shall include—
(A) A statement of the interests affected by the limitation that the President seeks to suspend; and
(B) A discussion of the manner in which the limitation affects the interests.
(b) Applicability of Waiver to Availability of Funds.—
If the President exercises the authority set forth in subsection (a) in a fiscal year for the purpose set forth in such section 3(b) except to the extent that the limitation is suspended in such following fiscal year by reason of the exercise of the authority in subsection (a).

 

It will be readily obvious whether President Trump makes good on his promise as stated to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) where he stated the following: (video of entire speech can be found below)

But when the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States.
We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.
And we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.

 

Donald Trump Full Speech at AIPAC
Policy Conference on March 21, 2016

 

The media and majority of American Jewish organizations with the most obvious exception being the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) who stood almost alone in not rushing to denigrate Donald Trump as a racist anti-Semite nor to stand with Hillary Clinton completely ignoring the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semites who were a critical part of her team and have been advising and winning asseverations from her filled with encouragement and petition to carry on with the good work. These individuals are well known and include but are not limited to Huma Mahmood Abedin (father, mother and brother to the Muslim Brotherhood), Sidney Blumenthal, Max Blumenthal (Closest advisor on Israel with emphasis on Palestinian Arab support even at the cost of Israel) , Sandy Berger (Advised forcing Israel from all of Judea and Samaria to aid Abbas and make him stronger despite his also believing that any deal would place Hamas ruling the West Bank and Abbas in exile or dead), Anne Marie Slaughter (who advised e-mailing Hillary, “Suppose we launched a ‘Pledge for Palestine’ campaign,” and “Such a campaign among billionaires/multi-millionaires around the world would reflect a strong vote of confidence in the building of a Palestinian state.” And Hillary wrote back, ““I am very interested-pls flesh out. Thx.”), Thomas Pickering, George Soros and others with some listed here. Hillary Clinton was not alone in casting stones at Israel and religious Jews in general. The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) is a leader in pointing out anti-Semitism but also appears to be planning to go off the rails and defames conservatives falsely and defends anti-Semites rights in the courts, something many believe to be unconstructive. One such example was Stephen Bannon who was defended by Morton A. Klein, President of ZOA.

 

An article detailing the path we can expect from the ADL’s new president, Jonathan Greenblatt, is intending to take the organization making attempts to make it into a progressive movement which fully backs leftist causes even at the expense, or possibly because of their expense, against Israel. The supporting of anything progressive, leftist and uber-liberal has become Jewish canon which is their new interpretation of Tikkun Olam (Hebrew: תיקון עולם or תקון עולם’). The claim is it means “repair the world” and they interpret that as meaning to perfect governance and make the general welfare of all equalized and marrying various progressive ideas and ideals. They miss the other side which would have the Jews spread the word of Hashem through perfecting ourselves and living a life which is exemplary with success from serving Hashem and committing to all the Commandments. The idea is that one must first look within and repair the self and through this set an example others will desire to follow as Avraham did by digging wells for water wherever he traveled and by being a supportive and respectful neighbor while seldom speaking ill of any other person. He also made a great effort to arrange his affairs openly and make any land and other purchases with great care, truthfully, and before numerous witnesses laying out precise terms which were clearly defined and everything delineated as in the form of a legal contract. Repairing the world must start with repairing oneself and that alone often takes a lifetime and even then most require even longer. Judaism, non-Orthodox Judaism is or has lost its way depending on your congregation and Rabbi and the only cure we see is to make Aliyah and open your eyes and heart to Hashem and find what it is Hashem desires of you, nothing more and definitely nothing less.

 

What the last few elections have proven is that approximately three-quarters of American Jews consistently show signs of having lost their way and latched onto Progressive, liberal, leftist and even extreme leftist ideas and ideals. They have replaced their Torah with the Progressive Left’s propaganda swallowing its swill hook, line and sinker. They need to look back at the previous Progressive track record and compare it to today’s Progressive playbook and note the similarities and how deeply it is offensive to Torah and one might say also Hashem. The Progressives first advanced the concept of Eugenics and perfecting humanity through genetic selection. This was a belief held by American aviator Charles Lindbergh as well as by the author of “Looking Backward” where socialist author Edward Bellamy mused about “race purification.” Among the more notable progressives to embrace the practice, as listed by Discover the Networks.org, were the anarco-communist Emma Goldman, NAACP founder W.E.B. Dubois, author H.G. Wells, political scientist Harold Laski, socialist reformers Sidney and Beatrice Webb, biology instructor/atheist Edward Aveling, economist John Maynard Keynes, playwright George Bernard Shaw, World Wildlife Fund founder Julian Huxley, sex theorist Havelock Ellis, and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. Move to today and the Progressive movement still supports Margaret Sanger’s project, Planned Parenthood. The institution of Planned Parenthood is still in the Eugenics movement and serving the Progressive aims of building a better world through selective breeding. According to Life News, Planned Parenthood, according to new research, shows the abortion business targets blacks and Hispanics by placing 79% of its abortion clinics in minority neighborhoods. Corroborative information can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.

 

Finally, should one look objectively at the politics in Europe and the United States, they will see the greatest concentration of anti-Semites as well as anti-Zionists and anti-Israel feelings at the furthermost left end of the spectrum. This is a trend which has occurred before and is once again raising its ugly head and will soon rise to its feet and the enormity of this monster will become evident. Yes, yes, yes, we admit that there is a core at the hard right who are anti-Semitic and these include your KKK, neo-Nazis and supremacist groups (particularly white supremacists) and that they are a constant problem; but they have been checked and marginalized to the point it is the ACLU who represents their right to march, and even when they win in court the court of public opinion, often turns out five to ten or more times the numbers of counter-protesters than these groups can muster for their march. This has reached a point where they get their court order but seldom march and instead hold an ineffectual rally. The groups on the right, the David Dukes, are such lost causes that most conservatives ignore them hoping they will simply go away quietly and never darken the door again, and that is often the case. Will a David Duke grab a headline for supporting Trump? Of course he will but had he supported Hillary Clinton nobody would have heard his endorsement as it would somehow simply not make news as it would not serve the leftist cause. How many articles have you read about former Senator from West Virginian Robert Byrd and his joining the KKK which he honestly admitted was “the greatest mistake I ever made.” Had Donald Trump made a similar error in judgement does anyone honestly believe his campaign could have survived such a report? Of course he could not and his candidacy would have died on the spot, period, no questions and no explanation required, desired or ever to be reported upon, he would have disappeared, period. The far left Progressives are, as Hillary Clinton stated revealingly that she admired, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Progressive movement. One must wonder if she realized that this movement believed that Hitler, Mussolini and the leaders of the Eugenics Movement were wonderful and were going to bring us a better world by removing the defective genes from the gene pool by sterilization and eventually extermination as it turned out. The evil, lesser, genetically inferior included any handicapped whether physical or mental, those deemed idiots or morons with lesser IQs, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, the Polish, Russians, Ukrainians and we are sure the list would continue until there was one single human left. The early Progressives were not the altruistic people Hillary likely believes they were as they believed in a new deity, science. Science was the answer to every problem and simply by having the government applies scientific principles, proven principles, to their laws and regulations then the world would work like a Swiss watch. Fortunately the world dodged a bullet and perhaps the United States will come and return to reason and collect what remains and build anew, build better and stronger America. And at the same time perhaps Israel can find the means to cut the umbilical cord and walk on her own two competent, strong and steady feet.

 

Giving Trump a present of an end of supportive aid to Israel would benefit both nations in the end and Israel needs more opportunities to hire people to produce her own weapons’ systems which requires her to walk free and independent. We can then work with the United States, the Americans, as equals with both sharing expertise and at the end of the day Israeli research is Israeli and there will be no begging for approval from the United States to sell a few weapons or radar or other system as Israel will have all Israeli designed and produced systems. Israel has a proven record in this field and would also be the perfect exit from President Obama’s funding trap where all monies must be spent in United States companies and Israel will get none of the aid money. If Israel is not permitted to use the aid for herself unless her companies are sold and become American and leave Israel releasing their workers, why should we continue with such an atrocious deal? Let President Trump have the few billion dollars to repay the Social Security funds in the “lockbox” which is a figment of the government’s imagination, who knew they were that advanced. Of course listen to any and all offers from President Trump when Netanyahu meets him and encourage the weapons storage in Israel be updated and restocked and thank him for all he desires to do and tell him that should he simply move the embassy to Jerusalem, our Capital City, that would be payment in full for all that each has done. Stress we are better together by choice than tied at the money belt as that makes one the beggar and the other the owner and Israelis are demanding more from our government and the governance than having us suckle at the American foreign policy trough. Further, making it on our own will also remove the fear and pressures from the State Department as they will no longer have an override on anything as Israel will have paid her own way and in full. Such an arrangement will prove healthier for both nations, so thanks but no thanks to the money and maybe that will free America from also paying the Arab world equal amounts to every state. The example Israel sets could change the Middle East remarkably as Israel will truly be a free nation owing nobody. That is freedom.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Family that is Israel

 

Friday was a special day as we had family come and visit us making the long trek from southern Israel almost to the northern border where the train tracks end and go no further. We had a slow lunch enjoying good company and pleasant conversation enabled by somewhat relaxed service as the place was crowded and the kitchen was probably a place of ordered confusion. But the leisurely service mostly passed notice as we were lost in conversation with my cousin playing the role of translator since she is fluent in a number of languages, or at least in Hebrew and English, which was all that was required. We also took a strolling paced walk to the shuk and they got some fruits and such for their Shabbat and then had to make the trip home so as to arrive before sunset. This visit made me all the more aware of family and the warmth and closeness one can feel when in their company. There is a serenity mixed with enthusiasm and excitement making for a cacophony of emotions which blend making even diametric opposite coexist in a smooth and yielding blend satisfying the soul. This completeness felt from the all too short, as such pleasantries are always too short, time we were enjoying being together also leaves a lingering warmth and joy that makes one aware of other such relations some of which opens one’s eyes to things which otherwise are missed or simply taken for granted.

 

The next Morning, Shabbat morning, I started my trip, a short walk for most but a strenuous traversal which requires a few rest stops at spots now memorized as suitable, to attend services at the synagogue where my Torah Shiur Rabbi presides and leads the Shabbat service after the initial prayers have been chanted and leading to and performing the reading of the Torah and Haftorah. As my wanderings take me past a few other synagogues and there are other worshippers whose paths cross, we often wish one another a polite, and oft friendly, “Shabbat Shalom” and almost always dotted with a warm smile and a brightened countenance from the exchange. But this was but my initial realization that my view may have changed and become brighter, more optimistic and hopeful. The realization and recognition of this transition came upon my arrival slightly before services were to start as I require that I leave some extra time just in case my strolling pace is less efficient than normal, not to imply my walking speed approaches normal. This cemented the realization that in Israel we really are a family just as Torah teaches.

 

The Synagogue I attend may be graced with a Rabbi who speaks both Hebrew and English but for the large part the congregation speaks only Hebrew. Still, despite our language differences the other congregants treat me with warmth and friendship which came home more today as I was sensitized to see and realize the acceptance which has greeted me honestly from the first service I did partake of a Shabbat morning services there. This got me to thinking and realizing the many people who have become like friends at the various stores where we shop. In every store there are those who have taken the initiative to befriend us and make our lives so much easier and, better yet, warmer. Without these friends our lives would be more difficult, not impossible, but more difficult and far more cold. The difficulty would be overcome with technology, cellphone translation software and the fact that money honestly makes people desire to understand you and for more so in a town with mostly smaller family run stores. But even technology has its limits and life would be far less enjoyable without these wonderful people. Yes, there have been exceptions but even some, if not most, of these more difficult people have come around with time and their realization that we have made Aliyah and truly are here to stay. These people have become our extended family. These people we meet in our weekly ritual of shopping are but one family but there are others.

 

There have been developed groups within the Anglo communities which provide social, religious and study groups which add much to enrich the lives of us from the Anglosphere who have made Aliyah to our little corner of Israel. There are Torah study groups, social events around the Jewish holidays, expeditions to the near countless historic and religious sites which exist throughout Israel and other events which are simply for entertainment such as game nights. Much of this is possible as there are a fair number of Anglos who are retired or work via telecommuting thus giving them the time to shift work around events. But the reality is that despite many of us coming from many completely different backgrounds, completely disparate locations both within the separate nations as well as around the globe as the tentacles of the British Empire reaches into the farthest corners of the planet. The camaraderie is unlike anything I have ever experienced even in other Jewish communities. Probably the closest to the trust, cooperation, acceptance and mutual respect I have found in Israel was the camaraderie in my infantry platoon in the military and even there it was not as universal nor was it as close as the feelings and friendships I have found here. The mutual relations amongst our Anglo community are, as one might expect, made all the more obvious by the brightening of each other’s faces when we run into one another in unexpected meetings during our daily travels. The same bright eyed and extra bounce in their step is evident with those who have befriended my wife and I in the locations where we stop and despite the claim that most Israelis do not know how to treat people, customers, the many people we have met have gone to great extents to provide any and all assistance we have ever needed. But it goes further as even when we run into a problem in a store while shopping and there is no one we know to assist, often out of the blue a customer steps up, often a stranger and other times somebody we barely know, such as somebody we have interacted with during other completely unconnected matters, will step forward and take as long as required to make sure that every and anything required has been done to take care of whatever the problem or requirement you needed. Sometimes this even has the effect of the store or wherever you are, going the extra step and finding what it is you requested even after initially believing they had none in stock, a very surprising but not actually all that unusual case, just was not the reputation of the particular instance we recently experienced.

 

The ultimate test of a society is how they react when a person appears distressed, especially somebody they do not know and likely may not have even ever crossed paths. Suffering, as I do from a disability which often limits my ability to walk distances which are embarrassingly short on my worst days that I often end up sitting on low walls or the benches at bus stops and around town, of which there are numerous as this is a resort location, and I am usually breathing rather hard and sweat rather profusely partially from physical exertion and additionally likely due to the cocktail mix of medications physicians assure us are required for our betterment as they will place our blood tests and other medical tests within their preferred ranges. Needless to say, I make quite a site at times when I am out and around and more often than I may be completely comfortable though I am very appreciative and would probably be more ill at ease if things were the opposite and everybody just passed a person in distress by without any concerns sufficient to stop and offer to help. These good citizens will even seek the assist from another to work as a translator just to make sure you are not in need of medical or other assistance. This would have been a real rarity before I made Aliyah as my limitations are far from something new and I had sufficient opportunities to test the situation before reaching Israel.

 

Many of you are probably wondering if I have lost my mind or is there something towards which I am working and you would be correct. As many of us have been reading here there has been a steadily increasing levels of violence with stabbings, vehicular assaults, rock attacks, Temple Mount rioting replete with assaults on the police and some shootings as well. Further, there have been calls from Hamas for Arabs to start using poison on their knives as well as to start utilizing homicidal suicide bombings. The idea behind the terror assaults, the rocket attacks and every other form of attacks against Israeli citizens and the IDF are intended to accomplish two things, first to chase the Jews out and destroy Israel or second to murder every Jews thus destroying Israel. There is absolutely no desire to actually form an Arab nation called Palestine unless it replaces Israel after which Fatah and Hamas allied with Islamic Jihad will fight to see who gets to rule on their state founded on the corpses of the six-million plus Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly enough it often appears that the Europeans and the United States State Department and others from all over the globe, as indicated when the General Assembly voted to accord an Arab state of Palestine non-Member Observer State status in the United Nations with one-hundred-thirty-eight in favor and nine against which were Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Panama, Palau, United States and with forty-one nations abstaining. One-hundred-thirty-eight nations decided to recognize an Arab state which has refused to accept any offer for a state from the initial offer in 1948 to have the lands divided evenly between Israel and an Arab state, and again including a series of times during the last weeks of the Clinton Administration while President Willian Jefferson Clinton worked with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offering over ninety percent of Judea and Samaria with the remainder covered through land swaps as well as all of Eastern Jerusalem including all of the Old City and the Temple Mount even to include the Western Wall and the plaza before it where Jews currently pray as close as possible to the location of the Holy First and Second Temples on the Temple Mount. Then there was the nineteen years when the lands were occupied by Jordan in Judea and Samaria and Egypt in Gaza when there was no desires, claims, votes at the United Nations or calls about occupation over the presence of Jordan and Egypt in the lands now being recognized by the United Nations as an independent nation with overwhelming accordance.

 

The reason which will stop the aims of Fatah, PA, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO plus additionally Iran and the Islamic State who have also expressed their desire to destroy the Jewish State of Israel, or the Zionist Entity if one listens to their propaganda, is this family feelings between the majority of Israelis and particularly within the religious Zionist community which has been and continues to gain new adherents every day. Even in Israel there are those in the political classes who are attempting to take whatever they can to prevent the eventual surge in the religious Zionist camp from coming to the forefront and take control of the Knesset and the office of Prime Minister. What has been holding these groups back have been efforts to subvert their rising power in the right wing parties, a conflict here in Israel which might come close to the same resurgence in the United States of religious right in the Republican Party. It is just with the political zoo of parties in Israel such subversion is sometimes accomplished by some being driven by the old party power structures while others are lost through the foolish rivalries within this community which in too many cases are due to differences too insignificant for many to even understand. But politics are the same across the world and often make little sense to the average person but apparently are humongous in the political realms. Politics aside, in the real world within Israel, as best as I have been able to discern, there is an attitude which bodes well for the future and the taking on the challenges no matter what the world might try to throw our way. It took close to two-thousand years for the Jewish People to return to our ancient homeland making Israel the first nation to return into existence from exile twice (thrice if the four-hundred years of slavery in Egypt) and one of the few peoples to keep their original language and genetic integrity while in such an extended existence spread over as many differing nations as was the case of the Jewish People. This was extremely well worded in a recent article we read where it was simply stated,

 

“Israel, rooted in the Jewish people as an Abrahamic people, is a prototypical First Nation or aboriginal people, just as the Jewish religion is a prototypical aboriginal religion, the first of the Abrahamic religions. In a word, the Jewish people is the only people that still inhabits the same land, embraces the same religion, studies the same Torah, hearkens to the same prophets, speaks the same aboriginal language – Hebrew – and bears the same aboriginal name, Israel, as it did 3,500 years ago.”

 

The central congealing, central, and treasured truth which held these numerous communities was Torah. Torah cemented our history. Torah preserved our language (even if many of us have yet to remaster our ancient language, the language from where the first two letters, Aleph and Bet gave the English language the word ‘alphabet’). Torah retained our laws. Torah safeguarded our covenant with Hashem reminding us of our special responsibility to work the lands of Eretz Yisroel. Torah gave us hope during the darkest hours. Torah also challenged us through the ages to be better people despite the events which were often collapsing around us. Torah taught us the importance of reading and study. And Torah steeled us to remember our roots in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Exodus with Moses and the entirety of our history and some of the wisest and most sagely rules and advice on life, relations and virtually any situation we might encounter in life. It was the Ten Commandments and the rules establishing moral codes establishing the basis for Judeo-Christian society and the teachings of Psalms and Proverbs which filled out the basis for conscience and morality when most of the world still worshipped idols sacrificing children and others before great stone edifices.

 

 

Ten Commandments
Arranged in Hebrew
Reading from Right to Left
with English Translations
Underneath the Hebrew

 

Much of the basis for a just society was everything opposed by the Nazis as evidenced in this song sung by the Hitler Youth;

“We are the joyous Hitler youth
We do not need any Christian virtue
Our leader is our savior
The Pope and Rabbi shall be gone
We want to be pagans once again.”

That about says it all and many in the Arab Palestinian leadership and the leaders in Iran and other Arab and Muslim nations, terror groups, Islamic religious organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Semites, anti-Israel and anti-Zionists such as the leaders and members of the Islamic State all share an admiration for Hitler’s and the Nazis’ stand on exterminating the Jews with a special note for perhaps one of the main influences to inculcate these thoughts and concepts into Islamic and especially Arab Palestinian thought was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Hussein, the man who mentored Yasser Arafat and had a great deal of influence on Mahmoud Abbas who all dream of causing another Shoah, another Holocaust while a number which includes some of the Iranian leaders, other Arab and Muslim leaders both political and religious, as well as some like Mahmoud Abbas whose doctoral thesis revolved around a version of Holocaust denial. A few final thoughts which need telling, the Arab Palestinians are being fed lies about their state being denied them by the Jews in Israel as it is their leadership which will only accept replacing a destroyed Israel and placing their nation on the corpses of six-million plus Jews and the people, especially those being forced to remain in refugee camps are all being denied basic human rights by the Arabs who refuse to assist their brethren as they would hurt and impose hardship on generation after generation in the hope these refugees descendants will be permitted to flood Israel and vote their subjugation of all the Israeli Jews when they elect the leader who will surrender the lands to the Arab Palestinian state ending any two state solution making all the land between the Jordan River and the Sea one Arab nation and the Jews in Israel stand ready to enforce their idea which is summed up in a single concept, “Never Again!” As we actually are a family whose tree dates back to Abraham and Sarah over four thousand years ago, and yes such things matter and they matter to our family greatly.

 

Beyond the Cusp