A Test of True Zionism, Yerushalayim

 

The true test of a Zionist and of Zionism generally lies with the answer to a single question, where does your heart lie when you think of a Jewish State. There is but one acceptable answer, ‘My heart lies with Jerusalem and with the building within of the Temple, the Throne of G0d.’ This is true as we proclaim every year at the end of our Passover Seder in every Jewish home, “Next year in Jerusalem.” The final truth lies within Psalms in the powerful words within the lines to the “Song of Babylon” written in Psalm 137 which reads:

1) By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2) Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
3) For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us mirth.
4) How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land?
5) If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6) Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I fail to count Jerusalem the greatest of all my joys.
7) Remember, O LORD, against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; who said: ‘Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof.’
8) O daughter of Babylon, you will be destroyed! A blessing on anyone who pays you back for the way you treated us!
9) A blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and smashes them against a rock!

This is the test which the new Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu as there will be calls from much of Europe and the Western World with a few notable exceptions; Canada will oppose such a demand be lain upon Israel for as long as Stephen Harper remains their Prime Minister and likely carried on for as long as his Conservative Party holds on to power in the Canadian elections. There is also a strong possibility that Great Britain will also not favor the division of Jerusalem providing the Israelis put forward a strong face of determination to never allow the dividing of their Capital City or the loss of the Temple Mount and all the importance which that holds. Other than these two it would fall to any conservative or traditional party to take the lead for any other nation to oppose such a demand. The crux of why this may become an immediate crisis belongs to President Barack Obama who as the leader of the United States will be left to direct and dictate the manner that United States Ambassador Samantha Power will vote and whether or not she would utilize the United States veto power to block any Security Council Resolutions which would call for Israel to return to the Green Line which describes the armistice lines from the 1948 – 1949 War launched by over a half dozen Arab States to annihilate the nascent State of Israel which divided Jerusalem. Many wish to demand that Israel grant Eastern Jerusalem to the Arabs to use as the capital for their state, ignoring the fact that Israel annexed the entirety of Jerusalem after reuniting the two halves of Jerusalem in 1967 and by doing so included all the Arab residents who had resided under the Jordanian occupation permanent resident status which makes the individual to hold all rights as an Israeli citizen with the exception of political rights. The Israelis actually are only required to grant any Arabs or other non-Jews all rights but withhold political rights according to the San Remo Conference and the British Mandate, both included as valid by the United Nations Charter in Article 80. Israel went as far as to grant the former Jordanian citizens who were included in the reunification annexation of Eastern Jerusalem partial political rights when they were permitted voting rights in Jerusalem city elections. This one further indication proving that all of Jerusalem belongs to Israel and it will never be permitted peaceably to be torn in half; to this too do we say “Never Again!”

 

Any government which would permit the division of Jerusalem will find itself on the wrong side of the people of Israel who in polling have supported and demanded that Jerusalem remain unified and the Capital City of Israel for this time and forevermore into the future and never ending usually surpassing 75% and even reaching over 90% in numerous local polling. Thus we can easily conclude that any platform which supports the division of Jerusalem as one of their main planks in their platform can forget gaining a majority no matter what their social programs or other money promised to particular groups in order to convert their opposition to splitting Jerusalem muted while they are a part of the coalition such a party might manage to make. The problem is that such a government would be extremely unstable for as soon as a vote came to permit the splitting of Jerusalem or the making of Jerusalem an ‘International City’ presumably managed and run by an agency of the United Nations the promises made not to vote against such a resolution brought before the Knesset would probably not be honored by a significant number of Ministers from such parties who would vote against any such resolution. Furthermore, the Israeli Supreme Court has recognized the annexation of Jerusalem and thus they also might step in to invalidate anything passed through the Knesset and signed by the Prime Minister making any such deal void and without support by the government without opposing the Supreme Court and facing dissolution of the government and new elections. This would place the central issue of the ensuing campaign the division of Jerusalem and losing any possibility that the rights of Jews to visit holy sites in the Old City and around and on the Temple Mount as once the Arabs have control over Eastern Jerusalem such attempts by Jews to visit these sights would result in their death as soon as they were identified. This situation itself, and such extremes required to visit other holy sites described above, are sufficient to reject any proposal for peace which would preclude access by any Israeli to the Temple Mount or the numerous holy sites of Judea and Samaria.

 

That brings up the other point which is often claimed about the universality of the holy sites and their access being guaranteed for all peoples. This was part of the claim made when the IDF was pulled from Hevron and the majority of the city was relegated to Arab control. This required the strong presence of Israeli security personnel to keep the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Cave of Machpelah, in order to make it safe for Israelis to visit this holy site. The worst case scenario comes from Joseph’s Tomb, Kever Yoseph (Hebrew: קבר יוסף) which is located in the outskirts of Nablus and is completely within Arab areas of control, as they enjoy an almost completely autonomous region within the parts of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) of Area A and B, which according to all agreements is a place of holy pilgrimage or visitation for prayers and other religious purposes and is set apart as to be made available and safe passage to and from this holy place of great importance to the Jews. The reality is something completely different. There is one visit permitted each month, with permitted being very loosely defined, which is arranged by the IDF were one or two busses, heavily armored made bullet proof and strongly reinforced to withstand mines, and a convoy of IDF troops fully armed for security who escort the few fortunate visitors to the tomb somewhat after midnight and steal away back to the safety of Israeli governed lands making very sure they have left at least an hour before sunrise. Even with this covert action there have been times when the convoy was set upon and for reasons of security the trip is cancelled and a retreat to safety becomes the main objective. The trip can be cancelled right before they were to depart if IDF intelligence reports that trouble such as an ambush is a definitive probability. Part of the time spent at each visit is used to cleanup and repair as much of the destruction done to the tomb since the previous month’s visit, whether it was a single month or three or more months since the last visit. The tomb is violated every time after the Israelis try to make it presentable and given the honor it deserves and the Arabs apparently do similarly but have little respect or honor felt towards Kever Yoseph.

 

The manner and security required for visits to Joseph’s tomb, Rachel’s Tomb, Kever Rachel (Hebrew: קבר רחל), which is a place where women will visit for special prayers the first of each Hebrew calendar month and also require heavy security as it is located northern outskirts of Bethlehem which is within the disputed areas and under shared Arab and Israeli security and Arab semi-autonomous rule and this often leads to the Jewish women being assaulted with rocks and other items hurled at them which most often do not strike within the high walls placed around Rachel’s grave and the women are completely safe within the rebuilt dome which grants them freedom from assault as they pray and neaten the area making the tomb a more honored place. This would be the requirement and limitations placed on the Temple Mount and the Western and other walls of the Temple Mount, the final point of defense in days which are hopefully permanently behind us as Jerusalem deserves a future free of strife and sacking as has been its unfortunate history and may Jerusalem never again feel deserted by her faithful servants whose hearts are gladdened by a visit to her ancient walls and its grasping for a degree of modernity. Israel must demand that all of Jerusalem remain under complete Israeli rule as it has only been since June 1967 that every religion is permitted their rights to visit the Temple Mount and witness the city, both its centuries old buildings intermixed in areas with modern structure thankfully mostly in a style which has them more blend than clash with their surroundings. Let us end with the most remembered lines from Psalm 137 lines 5 and 6 as they speak strongly and resonate at least in this Israeli’s heart, mind and especially and primarily my soul.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I fail to count Jerusalem the greatest of all my joys.

 

Beyond the Cusp

Is Netanyahu About to Pull an Ariel Sharon?

Since the very first day after Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu accepted as the first party into his current coalition the Hatnuah Party and placed its leader Tzipi Livni as the new government’s Minister of Justice and placed Ms. Livni as the lead negotiator of the Israeli negotiations team with the Palestinians, I have had a creeping suspicion that Netanyahu was going to fall on his sword in order to satisfy President Obama and allow anything to be bargained away if it produced a treaty. What made things even worse, Netanyahu announced that she would have complete freedom and full latitude to do whatever she believed was necessary to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians in the model of the two state solution. The presumed safety catch that would limit anything that Minister of the Knesset Livni may eventually give away was presumably that there would have to be a Knesset vote to ratify any potential treaty and then if particular lands given away met the criteria, then there would also be a referendum of the Israeli people to decide whether or not any treaty would be accepted and ratified. But even here there are some suspicions and recent events and announcements have only served to deepen my qualms that all is not well in Jerusalem.

 

Before we theorize on the future and what we believe are the signs we will need to be on the lookout for and where such paths lead, perhaps we should review some of the most pertinent facts from the Gaza disengagement fiasco and what the steps were the last time such events transpired. The first item was that the President of the United States was George W. Bush who was perceived to be a good friend of Israel and one who, while not perfect, at least was not going out of his way to destroy and compromise Israel. The Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, who despite her misconceptions and misgivings such as believing the Palestinians were being persecuted in a similar manner to the Black Americans during the Jim Crow era; despite her idiosyncrasies, Secretary Rice honestly thought she was working towards a good end and really pursued peace and a better future for all, both the Palestinians and the Israelis; and despite their intents, the Bush Administration fell into a number of traps which doomed their efforts we can claim with some assurance as to its validity that they had honest and good intentions. Their first misstep was their decision to force Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into disengaging all Israeli presence from the Gaza Strip and turning it over to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians presumably so that the Palestinian leadership could demonstrate their abilities to rule and manage their own areas and live at peace alongside the Israelis. The thought was that once the Palestinian leadership had proved to administrate the Gaza Strip while preventing any terrorist attacks on Israelis or their territories, then the final formation of a Palestinian State could proceed without any further problems.

 

The next set of problems followed rapidly one on top of the next. President Bush gave Prime Minister Sharon guarantees that after Israel had released their control over the border areas between Egypt and Gaza, also known as the Philadelphia Corridor, that the European Union monitors and real-time remote video monitoring by Israeli security experts would prevent the movement of weaponry into Gaza as well as monitoring the passage of people interdicting any suspected terrorists. Soon thereafter it was time for the Palestinian government to hold elections. Big mistake number two was cued up as Secretary of State Rice insisted, with the backing of President Bush, that all factions be permitted to field candidates for the Palestinian Parliament, of course including Hamas. Despite warnings from Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, and numerous Middle East experts who warned that allowing Hamas to field candidates would guarantee that Hamas would take the majority of the seats and rise to unseat Fatah as the majority in the Palestinian Authority, the elections were held allowing Hamas candidates who won a majority of the seats as the Palestinians voted for anybody but Fatah as they perceived that Hamas would not commit fraud anywhere near the levels which had been rampant to date in the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas victory scared the living daylights out of Abbas who feeling certain that Hamas would also replace him as President and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority forcing him to cancel elections for these offices in order to preserve his positions. The Americans saw no problem with this as the overwhelming Hamas sweep in the Palestinian parliamentary elections had shaken their trust that they understood the Palestinian’s moods and proclivities. Soon the worst of the disasters that followed one after another came to fruition as Hamas executed a violent coup and took complete control over the Gaza Strip forcing Fatah and their portion of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza to Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. With Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, the European Union monitors made a quick retreat from their posts back to their hotels in Israel never to return to their posts after which the Hamas personnel who took control of the Rafah Crossing destroyed the video monitoring equipment. This forced Israel to rely on the good graces of Egypt to monitor the Egypt-Gaza interchange which fortunately was more successful than one might have originally expected. As it turned out, the Egyptians had issues with Hamas as Hamas was directly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood which gave Egyptian President Mubarak reasons to be suspicious and to actually monitor the border.

 

Today the President of the United States Barack Obama is considered not exactly a trusted friend to Israel and some of the members of his Administration are equally not to be trusted by Israel. Some of those who cause both politicians and residents in Israel the most qualms would include Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and some might add Vice President Biden though his record is not as adverse as others are. As anyone who has been watching the news out of Israel and the Palestinian areas has noted, the negotiations have been reinstated but at considerable cost to the Israelis who were cajoled and pressed into releasing over the period of the negotiations up to one-hundred-four terrorists who were serving life sentences, some multiple life sentences, and had much Israeli blood on their hands in order to entice and give proper cover for Mahmoud Abbas to agree to negotiate. Of course Israel only received the privilege of holding talks for their unprecedented concessions. Even with such a sacrifice by the Israelis in releasing many terrorists whom they had refused to release numerous times before, this momentous gesture was challenged by the Palestinian leadership who demanded even more. They demanded that the borders for their state be debated from the standpoint that they were to be assumed to be starting on the 1949 Armistice Lines and included every inch of the contested areas of Judea and Samaria plus they insisted they include all of Eastern Jerusalem including all of the Old City and Temple Mount. Israel refused to grant such a request but it has been leaked that Secretary of State Kerry assured Abbas that he would steer any discussion over borders in a direction that would meet his demand. Then, almost immediately after the first meeting when the Israelis announced their intention to build housing in parts of Jerusalem and the surrounding Israeli towns which the Palestinians claim is on their lands the Palestinians threatened to terminate the negotiations unless the Israelis instituted a building freeze immediately and were prevented from realizing such plans. This fortunately blew up in their faces as Secretary Kerry, to his credit, announced that the Palestinians had been offered a building freeze but had chosen the prisoner release instead and that they had been informed that such an announcement of the building was coming within the near future and they had not objected at that time. This squelched their threat to end the negotiations.

 

The negotiations are supposed to be held in complete silence with nothing to be released to the press or announced in any other manner. Thus far that criterion has unfortunately held. The first sign that trouble is on the horizon came this week when Shelly Yachimovich announced that the Labor Party is ready, willing and very able if not anxious to replace Bayit Yehudi and Naftali Bennett in order to assure that any treaty will be enacted without any difficulties. Here are some of the signs that we need to look for in the coming months of this presumably nine-month series of negotiations which are to produce a workable treaty. There will be meetings out of which there will be no announcements or release to the press held by Prime Minister Netanyahu with his inner cabinet, the same people who voted to allow the release of the hundred plus terrorists. Lead negotiator Tzipi Livni will be noticeable at each of these meetings and may even appear to have a spring in her step and a bright smile that refuses to droop. Eventually there will be disagreements which at some point will lead to a rearrangement of the makeup of the coalition. We will begin to hear rumors that Naftali Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi are being marginalized and may soon be replaced in the coalition. At the same time it is possible that Yair Lapid and the Yesh Atid Party may also be mentioned as inhibiting certain objectives and may join Bennett in being replaced in the coalition. The new coalition will replace these two Zionist parties with Shas and Labor both of whom will willingly and enthusiastically approve virtually any peace agreement hammered out by Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat.

 

Many people would claim that this would not make any difference as any peace treaty if it requires surrender of any sizeable amount of territories must face a referendum of the people and the Israelis would never allow Jerusalem to be divided or for all of the lands beyond the Green Line to be forfeited to the Palestinians. The problem here is the wording as I have been led to understand is rather vague on which lands being forfeit would require a referendum by the people. The last item which will signal an imminent disaster will be the start of a debate in the United States over providing peacekeeping troops to be placed in the new Palestinian State to prevent terrorist attacks and keep everything quiet between the new Palestinian State and Israel. Needless to point out that the American peacekeepers will provide little protection and instead simply provide the terrorists a plethora of targets until they are pulled due to overwhelming demands by the Americans themselves as their ire is raised over mounting casualties. Once we get to the point that there are debates in the United States over providing peacekeepers the only salvation which Israelis may pray for is either the American public raising a holy eruption of indignation that prevents President Obama from following through with his promise to provide peacekeepers or for Heavenly intervention. My prayers will be for Heavenly intervention.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Fall Upends Obama Middle East Aims

It has been reported by the <a href=http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/03/29/obama-promoted-egypt-iran-turkey-alliance-in-tense-israel-meeting/>World Tribune</a> website the absolutely shocking and controversial content of President Obama rendition of the future for the Middle East which the United States as their policy goals for his second term in the White House. The Israelis did not respond in any manner and allowed President Obama to enthusiastically reveal every detail of his vision for solving all the problems in the Middle East simply by building an alliance under a triumvirate of shared absolute power by Shiite Iran teamed with Sunni Egypt and Turkey. It was in the pursuit of this end that President Obama pressured to the point of threatening Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into apologizing and committing to a complete capitulation to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara terror incident when a Turkish backed flotilla attempted to run the Gaza blockade. When the prearranged ambush was sprung on the IDF soldiers, who boarded the ship armed with paintball guns loaded with pepper spray balls, beating them with metal rods, large knives and other bludgeoning weapons (some reports included gunshots coming from the ship’s attackers before the IDF soldiers responded) as well as taking one soldier below decks and throwing two other IDF soldiers overboard, the IDF soldiers resorted to live fire, as they feared for their lives, killing nine of their attackers. This exchange was the cause of Turkish President Erdogan breaking off relations with Israel and demanding a formal apology and paid retribution for the families of the slain attackers aboard the Mavi Marmara. It was said that the Israelis were in a state of shock but heeded their instruction not to question or comment on anything presented by the American leader.

The plan which has President Obama so enthusiastically engaged calls for the strengthening of Iran, Turkey and Egypt, the Egyptian strengthening has begun with the shipment of F-16 fighter jets to be delivered during this year, and having these three strengthened Muslim nation cooperate and through such cooperation form a single Muslim federation. President Obama claims that such an arrangement would relieve any troubles that might have developed due to the Iranian drive to attain nuclear weapons. President Obama informed the Israeli leaders that once his plan was executed that with Iran now allied with Turkey and Egypt the threat of a nuclear arms race between the various Muslim and Arab nations would no longer be a threat so nobody would need fear a nuclear armed Iran in this scenario. I am sure that this calmed the Israelis being informed that allying Iran with Egypt and Turkey would remove any threat of Iran nuclear weapons being used against the other Arab and Muslim nations and that there would be no adverse results to a nuclear armed Iran as long as the three nations were responsible to each other. President Obama apparently believes that Iran would refrain from attacking Israel with nuclear weapons because Turkey and Egypt would object and prevent such actions. Yes, sure they wouldn’t.

Another nation that is most conspicuous by their absence from President Obama’s new Middle East scheme is Saudi Arabia. The implication was that Saudi Arabia along with Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar and the rest of the nations of the Arabian Peninsula would be under Iranian control making the land to be renamed the Persian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. The betrayal of Saudi Arabia and all of the other member nations of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) as a sacrifice given for the honoring of Iran and to reward them for joining President Obama and his plan super Caliphate where the Iranian Shiites along with the Turkish Sunnis and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Sunnis all lie down together in harmony and bliss for the good of the Muslim World with President Obama as the great facilitator. This is where the little upheaval in Egypt becomes far more than an inconvenience as for President Obama to make his plan work must have the Islamists in control of each of his three chosen nations, and the Muslim Brotherhood just lost Egypt. Of course this dream Islamist coalition shoves aside the centuries of Sunni-Shiite hatreds in the immediate timeframe in order to unite the adversaries into an irresistible unified force for Islam and return to the glorious Caliphate such as was the Ottoman Empire at its height. What President Obama has caught on to as the solution to all the world’s ills, especially the Muslim World, is the simple walking back the results of World War I, the repealing step-by-step the entirety of the Treaty of Versailles and the Mandate System as they pertain to the world of Islam. No more separate Arab and Muslim nations or any other arbitrary lines and chosen potentates which were put in place just to serve the colonialist European powers, those decrepit and corrupt enslavers of all who were different than they. This is President Obama’s vision, the end of the ill effects of colonialism on the Muslim World and by ridding the Muslim World of this European imposed crippling systems and divisions, the Muslim World will be returned to its golden age.

There are a few major items which might cause this stratagem to fail and fail in a splendid and admirable fashion, a failure unequalled in all of human history, rivaling the Tower of Babel and other epic failures. The most glaring is that the Shiites and Sunnis only know one method for burying the hatchet, and that is to bury it as deeply as possible in the other’s skull which tends to settle any argument. Another problem for President Obama is to get Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to agree to share power and make compromises even with the Muslim Brotherhood approved leader of Egypt, assuming that President Obama can manage to reinstate the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, no easy task all things considered, let alone the Shiite Grand Ayatollah in Iran. Further problems might arise as I seriously doubt that Saudi Arabia (especially the Royal Family and the Wahhabis), Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman or Bahrain would be enthusiastic about being handed to Iran no matter what the reasons. Looking at just the countries which have experienced governmental changes as a result of the Arab Spring one will be witness to a collection of train wrecks where the whole idea was for elected governments to be in place and improvements in every aspect of society with the most advancement coming financially and in personal rights and freedoms. Instead we see a state of affairs better described as having entered an Arab Winter with Libya, Yemen and Syria still experiencing internecine violence as the different factions and tribes struggle for preeminence and control where those interests vary including tribal groups, al-Qaeda and Hezballah fighters, the Muslim Brotherhood forces, State Militaries, and Mujahedeen fighters from throughout the Muslim World and the four corners of the Earth. And last but not least, little Israel would definitely fight to the last soul against any attempts to remove the Jews from their homeland as they have just started to get it together and hit high gear towards rebuilding their society and gathering in their lost children from every corner of the globe.

President Obama may be enthusiastic and all excited, one might even say all atwitter, over the concept of redrawing the Middle East and the rest of the Arab and Muslim Worlds to suit some grant strategy to reconstruct and usher in a second Golden Age of Islam. The idea that the borders between countries, even those borders as artificial as those drawn mostly by the French and the British, can be erased with a few words and there would not be any resistance to turning everything everybody has known in their lives upside-down is foolish and not something worthy of the man who is the leader of the United States. There should be somebody within the Administration to advise the President that his plan is simply not possible. But then we need to remember who the real people are who make up President Obama’s inner circle of advisers. Recognizing that we are counting on Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, among others, to give sagely, well thought out, wise and experienced advice to President Obama reveals the crux of the deficiencies surrounding the President. The problem is that each of these high Administration officials have little if any experience in foreign affairs and other than John Kerry and Chuck Hagel the rest of these Presidential Advisors have spent the better part of their lives as agitators for social justice and social transformation and would be more at home designing government mandated single payer healthcare regulations than advising on anything to do with international affairs. And the fact that one has to resort to Chuck Hagel and John Kerry for astute, intricate and nuanced advice should be sufficient to send shiver down one’s spine and a cold chill throughout one’s body filling them with a strong sense of anxiety and trepidation. I can assure you it does so for me.

Beyond the Cusp