Where Might Iran Strike First Becoming Increasingly Important

 

I was reading an article titled “Watch: Huckabee Declares ‘Iran’s Ultimate Goal is the US’” which triggered a slight case of déja vu as we had declared that at the top of the Iranian list for nations to strike once they have the nuclear capability and could attain sufficient staging abilities would not be Israel but the United States in our article “Iran Negotiations Continue Going Downhill” on April 15, 2014. For the sake of ease, below is the YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

With the technical out of the way, time for our comments on the statements in the video given by Dr. Joseph Frager and Former Governor Mike Huckabee in the video. Where we agree with the commentary that the United States is the ultimate goal that Iran desires to target, we go an additional step and claim that Iran desires to strike the United States before they make any attempt to strike Israel. We base this on a number of items with the simple fact that when Iran makes their claims they always place the United States as the Great Satan while Israel is the Little Satan. Another example were the yearly conventions held by Iran under Ahmadinejad when he was their figure head of a president which were named “A World Without the United States and Zionism” which featured a theme pictured in a photo of two balls crashing at the bottom of an hourglass with one representing Israel and the other the United States where the United States ball was already sitting at the bottom broken while the one representing Israel was falling towards its similar demise (see below). Many followers of the Middle East hold that everything done in the theater of politics and foreign relations, no matter how small or insignificant it may appear to some, is done in a particular manner with an exact meaning which must not be overlooked or dismissed as irrelevant. The fact that the sphere representing the United States is already broken and the sphere representing Israel is still falling towards its designated fate could be taken to depict the order Iran planned to strike. That would place the United States destruction taking place before the destruction of Israel; or it may be completely meaningless. Still, the picture combined fact that the United States is the Great Satan and Israel merely the Little Satan and the conference name placed the United States ahead of Zionism for being deleted from the world’s stage all add up to give solid evidence that Iran has placed the destruction of the United States as its primary goal and destroying Israel is a secondary aim and is considered less vital and important than the United States. Neither destruction, regardless of the order, is desirable nor should have any reference to such destructions be taken as simply political bluster used for consumption within Iran and the Muslim world having little if any meaning or signifying an actual battle plan and order of attack in the future of Iran.

 

Iconic picture depicting Iranian conference theme of “A World Without the United States and Zionism” hosted by Ahmadinejad

 

Mike Huckabee then goes into theoretical mode claiming that the United States should do what it can to support those Iranians who desire to replace the Ayatollahs and their theocratic and oppressive governance with a democratic government and begins to reset the relations of Iran with the rest of the world. He also claims that removing the sanctions was unwise, something almost everybody is on board and in agreement over with the possible exception of a few hardline Obama supporters who still hang on his every utterance. Then Mike Huckabee stated that the Iranian people do not represent the same views, desires and ends that the Ayatollahs, a questionable assumption when it comes to the Iranian nuclear program. Polls over the years have drawn a disconcerting line depicting a slow but inexorable rise in the support the Iranian people show towards continuing their nuclear program even should the Mullahs and their cohorts be removed from power and replaced with some form of democratic or republican form of governance. He is correct in his calls for supporting any future uprising though he fails to completely flush out exactly how far such support should go and whether the idea of support intends to place American boots on the ground, provide air cover as well as arming the revolutionaries, simply provide small arms along with some limited heavier weaponry or simply provide logistical and surveillance technical assistance and leave the rest to the people to fight to overthrow their oppressive government without direct assistance from the United States. He then concludes repeating his call for aiding Israel politically and militarily by taking a “stand with Israel and take whatever action is necessary to make sure there is no such thing as a nuclear Iran.” These statements are pretty much the standard boilerplate stands former governor Huckabee has stated as his core principles and the platform on which he stands. His standing firmly with Israel is greatly appreciated and may he be successful and find a route to elected office which is tenable and realistic such that his views for supporting Israel have a venue where their being expressed and used as a base for voting, especially on those items which most directly affect Israel.

 

Mike Huckabee handed the microphone to John Catsimatidis, a former New York mayoral candidate and also the owner of Gristedes Foods (a century old New York area supermarket chain), who added commentary of an economic war being waged using oil prices and being designed with respects to Saudi Arabia who he claimed are fighting Canada, the United States Iran and Russia. I am appreciative that he breached this subject as I have been mulling my thoughts over this lately and have a somewhat different take. Mr. Catsimatidis is correct that Saudi Arabia is fighting a war using the price of oil and that this is aimed at Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia is not considering Canada in their equation and if Canada is suffering due to the lower price of oil, it is an unfortunate circumstance. Saudi Arabia is also taking a shot over the bough of the United States and President Obama in particular. This spurred my interest when at a recently held OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting to discuss the price of oil the Saudis insisted that only the representatives of the OPEC nations invited to its conference were to be permitted access to those proceedings. This barred the media as well as any uninvited nations who may have had a desire to be included in the meetings and make their feelings known and potentially attempt to pressure some of the participating nations to help push their agenda. The Saudis also insisted on complete secrecy until the conference was completed at which time a press release was to be given, but there was not to be any question and answer with the press which likely left a number of upset media types who believe their being part of the media gives them special privileges. Saudi Arabia first target, as we all likely know, is Iran and the Saudis know that Iran needs to have oil prices somewhere around one-hundred to one-hundred-twenty dollars a barrel to make even a small profit and prefer even higher prices as their heavy oil is more difficult to process and makes a poorer breakdown producing less of the preferable products such as gasoline and diesel. Secondarily, the Saudis also potentially desire to place Russia in a tight spot though they most likely do not wish to be obvious about such a maneuver. Russia’s oil is also somewhat heavy, though not as poor a quality as is Iranian oil, thus they too prefer a higher price. Additionally, the Russians economy is being almost completely supported by their oil sales which derive much less revenue with these lower prices thus they too suffer. Canada is an unfortunate casualty as there are no hard feelings between the Saudis and Canada which is wonderful for Canada as far as that goes. But for the United States, this action by Saudi Arabia is a slap in the face of President Obama as they have partially crippled two of the national economies, or at least wounded them at least moderately, which the United States administration has been acting favorably towards even to the point of slighting traditional allies dumping them for Russia and especially Iran. This was a brilliant move by the Saudis though perhaps the brilliance was not so much on figuring how to put some hurt to three of the nations causing the Saudi Arabian leaders, government and others fitful nights’ sleep and general indigestion caused by feelings of rejection and indifference to their situation and desires when it came to foreign policy and such small items as preventing by whatever means were required a nuclear armed Iran. This pushing the price of oil lower was a direct threat to the United States administration and President Obama directly that if the United States was not going to bring the mullahs down to earth and make them toe the line of nuclear nonproliferation or face serious sanctions and potentially a military response to their continued flouting of the nuclear agreements, denying inspections while refusing to answer direct questions of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) then Saudi Arabia was going to apply their own sanctions by pushing the price of oil down to a point where Iran would find it near impossible to make any money from the oil sector of their economy. This controlling the price of oil and keeping it low was also part and parcel of the way that President Raegan financially strangled the Soviet Union leading to their eventual downfall, and Saudi Arabia is at it again this time without the need for an American request, not that one such request was even in the making. The other interesting item is that a majority of the OPEC nations agreed with Saudi Arabia and will be following the Saudi lead in keeping the price of oil deflated for the time being. It will be interesting to see what Saudi Arabia would do should the Iranians test fire a nuclear device. They might respond by dropping oil prices to a point where they would be making next to nothing for each barrel of their oil sold, and their oil is considered to be light sweet crude oil, the finest grade one could hope to receive at their refinery. Setting the price for oil that low would require Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, amongst others, to open their oil spigots full bore and place as much oil as they humanly could produce onto the market making for a glut and thus forcing the price to bottom out. The bright side of an all-out oil war where lowering the price by Saudi Arabia would determine a winner would also make the average European and American driver also a winner as they could very easily realize gasoline prices below a dollar a gallon, potentially well below. This would be the case of inside every black cloud (Iran being at breakout point on nuclear weapons) there is a silver lining (Iranian and Russian economies near collapse due to low oil revenues) with a golden center (gasoline prices at lowest levels in over fifty years potentially).

 

Dr. Joseph Frager followed up asking Mike Huckabee about anti-Semitism in the world and what might be done about confronting it. Mr. Huckabee pointedly stated that the rise of anti-Semitism was obvious the world over and that the government of the United States has added to the rise through their incitement against Israel. Furthermore, he spoke of it being evident in Europe and other parts of the world but finds it laser focused on Israeli Jews and Israel. Mr. Catsimatidis added that the slow economic growth and dire economics in many places was the impetus to find somebody on whom to place blame and that it always the Jews who are blamed. He mentioned the point that the United States has always been brotherly with Israel though he has his doubts that the Israeli government trusts the current American government in Washington. He also postulated that Israel would be unable to attack Iran as they could not be assured of any support and backup. He closed quoting the Obama slogan of change except the change he implied was for a new governmental outlook towards Israel which would be more favorable.

 

There is much to evidence that the critical and adversarial attitudes coming from the administration of President Obama has poisoned the wellspring of acceptance of the Jews especially in Europe. The severity of the assaults and the abundance of slurs and verbal abuse along with the defacing of Synagogues, destruction of Jewish cemeteries and the assaults on Jewish citizens and Rabbis have been committed by more than just immigrant populations in Europe. There has been an effort by many in the European media and in the governments who have attempted to explain the increased anti-Semitism completely on their immigrant population but too many of the reports have identified European indigenous populations with perpetrating attacks and other forms of anti-Semitism. There has also been a steep rise in anti-Zionist and especially anti-Israel hatred coming from all spots on the globe. Even places where there are literally a majority of the population who have never met or seen a Jewish person where the hatred still pours forth. That phenomenon is next to impossible to explain except that the pervasive anti-Semitism in the world’s media and on the Internet which has spread that anti-Semitism is not only acceptable but also warranted and really is the cause of all the evils and suffering in the world. When people are polled all over the globe and blood libels are claimed to be valid there is little more that needs to prove that anti-Semitism has become more of an epidemic than any disease as is apparently more communicable than any infectious disease known to modern medicine. The complete irony is that the anti-Semitic demonstrators and rioters often scream and charge the Jews to remove themselves from the nation and take themselves to Israel and then the same faces are in the crowd the next day demanding that Israel be erased and given to the Arabs for another Arab state. How any rational person can rectify holding such diametrically opposing views is beyond explanations. That is but one of the sets of beliefs which is beyond the cusp of having any sense of logic or consistency.

 

There have been claims that Israel is an Apartheid state despite the known fact that there is an Arab serving on the Israeli Supreme Court, a number of Arabs who are Ministers of the Knesset, Arabs go to the same schools, own land, own apartments, drive cars, work in hospitals, are doctors, nurses, lawyers and every other profession imaginable. If it exists in Israel, then an Arab is almost as likely as a Jews and all have equal opportunities and possibilities for their lives. There are Jewish managers who manage both Jews and Arabs, Arab managers who manage both Jews and Arabs, Arabs serving in the IDF, Arabs in the police force, Arabs in every walk of life. Jews and Arabs live peacefully and intermingle in most towns and cities in Israel. There are Synagogues, Churches, Mosques, Buddhist Temples, Shinto Shrines and Bahá’í gardens and worship house all within Israel and open to freely practice all religions. Yet it will be the Arab state the world is attempting to force onto Israel and to be cut from the Jewish heartland of their ancient homelands which will be free of Jews as demanded by Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has recognized the right of the Arabs to their state as an Arab state but the Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as the homeland for the Jewish People. The Arabs have claimed that they would be willing to allow Israel to continue to exist and end their incitement and terror war against Israel providing that Israel be changed such that it becomes an Arab Muslim run nation and the Jews accept their status as a protected people and as Dhimmi left to live at the pleasure of their Arab Muslim masters while Israel gives total freedom to the Arab citizens of Israel who have the right to vote, hold office, work where they please, live where they please and pretty much do as they please within the same laws as the Jews live under. The Arabs who would make up the Arab state which Mahmoud Abbas as chairman of Fatah and leader of the PLO and unity government where Hamas is an equal member along with Islamic Jihad and Fatah all currently live in their own semi-autonomous region where they have their own leaders who have not stood for an election before their people since 2006 and have cancelled or simply refused to schedule elections for fear that they may not be elected again and this proposition makes holding elections impossible. Meanwhile, the Israelis are about to hold another election as it appears that the Israelis prefer having elections to finishing their terms in office. When the Israeli elections are held on March 17, 2015 all Israelis of voting eligible ages, Jews, Arabs, Christians, Muslims (both Shia and Sunni), Bahá’í, Druze, Bedouin and any other Israeli will get to vote. All of these votes will be equal in their weight; nobody is granted special consideration or relegated to a lesser inferior status. Still, after the elections there will be those claiming that some group was denied their rights to vote or they were unable to vote because they did not get their voter package as they moved two years ago and since then they have not received any government notices or communications and they do not know why, oh wait, fill out a form, at the post office and also tell the city office of your new address; who knew?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Time Come for Divorce of Israel and United States?

Israel has made concessions in almost every area imaginable in order to satisfy demands from the United States and has been doing so for since the very beginning. Israel halted their attacks when the United Nations Security Council under the lead of united permanent member nations, China, Russia, Britain, France and of course the United States during the on again-off again War for Survival also referred to as Israeli War of Independence. These halts often permitted the combined Arab forces to rearm, reassemble units, realign forces, replace badly defeated and ineffective units, and bring in needed supplies and reinforcements. The Israelis also used such ceasefires to bring in what arms and supplies they were able to purchase despite arms embargoes by most of the Western nations. Many thanks need go to Czechoslovakia which provided many desperately needed shipments of arms. At many times truces were arranged while Israel was making advances and might have resolved the war through gaining a victory and liberating all of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but instead Israel honored all calls for stopping the hostilities. Again in 1956 when the Israelis while allied with the French and British in the conflict to force Egypt to reopen the Suez Canal, Israel honored the demands which were delivered by President Eisenhower to return the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula which she had gained in the initial period as other threats of attacks and negotiations were in play. Some have claimed that much of the pressure on Egypt came from the advances being won by the Israeli forces just as much if not more than the threats from France and Britain. Egypt had been calling the bluff of the two European powers with impunity but was facing Israel perched on the eastern banks of the Suez Canal and thus situated and positioned to force Egypt from control of the Suez Canal and have Israel open the canal on their own initiative. President Eisenhower demanded an Israeli full withdrawal and Israel complied and withdrew back within her initial borders from before the contest began without any hesitation or debate.

 

In every Arab Israeli war since once the Israelis gained the upper hand and were advancing towards Arab national capital cities, often both Cairo and Damascus, the United States would demand a ceasefire followed by an armistice often demanding Israel to retreat behind defined lines returning hard won ground back to the very same adversaries who had initiated the warfare. This was true in Six Day War of June of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. When Israel had designed and manufactured prototypes of the Lavi fighter jet, the United States made an offer that Israel basically could not refuse which demanded that Israel trust their future aircraft supplies, repairs, and other developments and use solely aircraft manufactured by the United States and end all development of any home produced aircraft. During the first War with Lebanon which was more of a conflict with Yasser Arafat and his PLO forces the United States demanded Israel stop their advance short of Beirut, Lebanon and allow the United States to provide Yasser Arafat, a terrorist who had American diplomats including an Ambassador on his hands, and the rest of the ranking members of the PLO an escape airlifting them off the roof of the United States embassy taking them to safety in exile in Tunisia. This one act made possible the Oslo Accords as it continued the existence of the PLO and also allowed the remnants of the PLO who melted initially into Lebanon to form Hezballah a short time later.

 

Once the Oslo Accords were drafted and ratified, the farcical parade known as the peace process began with its litany of concessions after concession which the United States with a big assist by the State Department and the full support of the United Nations and European Union and numerous European governments insisted Israel make to placate and mollify the Palestinians who refused to meet without bribes just to talk attempting to gain advantages and then walking away only to demand the next session include everything they had previously gained. Through this repeated message the Palestinians have pushed Israel to the brink of destruction changing the balance from the original position where Israel would have retained at least three-fifths of Judea and Samaria to where Israel is now fighting to retain Jerusalem realizing they now stand to lose access to the Temple Mount and Western Wall and are facing threats within the Green Line from various groups of Israeli Arabs and Bedouin who are claiming indigenous rights in the Galilee and Negev areas. All of these pressures for concessions and sacrifices by Israel have come with full guarantees that this will be in Israel’s best interests and that just one more concession and the United States will forge a permanent peace. Then the Palestinians walk away and the United States proves to be powerless to force any agreement or any will to push back the Palestinian gains leaving Israel in a current position where her back is against the wall and she is being squeezed back within the defenseless borders which facilitated Arab attacks.

 

There are those who like to point out that Israel receives a generous amount of United States aid monies including military aid. They love to point out that Israel receives more military aid than any single Arab nation. What they do not relate is that Israel receives only a fraction of the military aid from the United States when compared to all the United States military aid to Arab nations which through history have included Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey and a number of others. Add the additional military aid received by the combined nations standing against Israel from Russia (as well as formerly the Soviet Union), China, France, Britain and other weapons’ providers you get even greater odds against Israel. But this will possibly be considered the good times as the forces combining to the detriment of the Israelis across the United States, Europe and much of the advanced industrial world on their college campuses and through the advances in the politicking of many anti-Israel NGO’s, many of which receive millions upon millions of Dollars and Euros from government forces, the United Nations, and numerous other NGO’s and charitable agencies prefer to oppose Israel from a stand-off position. A simple research of the BDS efforts to force universities, governments, industries, companies and investment agencies in efforts to impose Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions on Israeli companies, universities, academics and political leaders displays the enormity of the forces gathering. There are the efforts to bring charges against as many Israeli military and political leaders as possible and new efforts are even going after any soldier in the IDF.

 

The slow slide to bringing many, if not almost all, nations to be against Israel and her existence calling for the eradication of the Jewish State have been growing year after year for as long as I am able to remember. I used to tell people that this inexorable slide against Israel was gaining speed and starting to be an unstoppable downhill force since the middle 1960s and was ridiculed even into the new millennium. Not any more as it has begun to dawn on many who follow the news reports especially with the increasing anti-Semitism around the globe with many of the worst trends infecting Europe. The recent ADL research survey reported that one out of every four people actually will inform a survey taker that they hold anti-Semitic views and feelings. If one in four admit to being anti-Semites and having disdain to outright hatred of Israel and the Jews, then what is the actual number as there could easily be as many if not more who hold those feelings but are careful to hold their tongue when surveyed. The increase in the growth of anti-Semitism worldwide of the recent past has become so ominous and frightening that many friends and acquaintances have apologized and admitted their startled surprise at how much anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatreds have grown and become almost mainstream and ask how I realized this trend was on the horizon. My usual response is I was just unlucky enough to see it and stand alone for quite a while, but I would have preferred to have been dead wrong.

 

Now we have the spokespeople from the State Department answering the press’s queries on statements made in public by Secretary of State Kerry and Middle East Envoy Martin Indyk telling them that they never made the reported comments or that what they said did not mean what they think it means. I sometimes feel I am watching a loop of the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya, in the Princess Bride talking to the leader and planner, Vizzini, asking him, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The actions of the Obama administration and the State Department have removed all doubt that the sooner Israel realizes that only she by herself is interested in her survival and her survival is vital because without Israel the Jewish People will have no haven when the next attempt at extermination takes ahold of mankind yet another time. It is so absurd as the Europeans have been telling the Jews to go back to their own lands and leave Europe while the Arabs also forced their Jews from within their borders in great numbers decimating their Jewish populations within the decade after Israel was founded and now everybody is telling the Israelis they have no rights to the lands on which Israel sits. If the Jews have no acceptance throughout much, if not the vast majority, of the world and the same world denies the Jews their nation of Israel, then where are the Jews to go? Answering the Arab demands that the Jews return to their European homelands, where should the nearly one million Jews from Arab nations return along with their descendants who now total almost four million? The vast majority of the Sephardic Jews are from numerous Arab nations, many of which had their family roots going back over a thousand years, and in some cases two thousand plus. Europe, make up your minds, are you willing to accept the Jewish people amongst your populations or leave us Israel and stop attempting to destroy our home. You must not have it both ways as the Jewish People are not only Jewish but are people, get it? We would be simply joyous to remain within the lands that the European allies and the Japanese defined at the San Remo Conference and which was one of the many parts and settlements of World War I which in general the Ottoman Turks agreed and King Faisal signed onto representing the Arab nations after World War I. We would likely even accept the western partial which the British guaranteed would remain undivided and never contested in exchange for the surrender of the larger eastern sections which became Transjordan and later Jordan. The United States with the British enjoined and signed the Anglo-American Treaty of 1924, which refers to the Balfour Declaration and includes, verbatim, the full text of the Mandate for Palestine. Below is one of the statements which is a summary much of the agreement’s terminology.

“Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

U.S. State Department Anti-Israel Hyperventilation

The loud protestations seeking targets to blame since the collapse of the latest incarnation of the Palestinian Peace Process have largely zeroed in on the Israeli settlers and the announcement to build additional housing units in Gilo, a suburb south of Jerusalem which both the Israelis and Palestinians have agreed is one of the areas which will be retained by Israel by swapping lands within the Green Line in one of the land swaps that even United States President Obama has referred to as part and parcel of any peace agreement. The most vocal and reported upon whiners and complainers who have decided that the entire failure of the peace process lies with the Israeli announcement for tenders to be presented to build additional residential units in the South Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and the weeks of threats to “blow up the peace talks as soon as the last group of terrorists were released” which was threatened by numerous Palestinian spokespeople had absolutely no influence on the situation and their immediate filing to numerous United Nations and international conventions immediately after Israel demanded that the Palestinians make some guarantees to complete the negotiation and reach a real solution before they released the final terrorists of which most were serving multiple life sentences for murders of Israeli men, women and children. This line of criticism placing the totality of blame on the Israelis for announcing the intent to build is all the more ridiculous when one finds out that when the Palestinians were asked what concessionary bribe they demanded from Israel just to bring them to the table to talk, they chose the release of one-hundred-four terrorists who were serving life terms for murdering or complicity through terrorism planning murders of multiple Israeli citizens and passed on demanding a building freeze. Upon the Palestinians announcing their preference for terrorist releases the Israelis informed both the Palestinians and the United States that this would allow them to continue with any building plans even as peace talks continued. From the very onset of the talks the Palestinians started demanding that Israel also enact a building freeze as they truly desired to have their terrorists and a building freeze as well. Even United States Secretary of State Kerry admonished the Palestinians for their near constant plaintive demands that Israel be forced to enact and announce a building freeze despite turning such an option down instead choosing terrorist murderers’ release from prisons. But since the collapse of the talks, nobody allowed for reality and the truth of the original agreements and foreknowledge of what each side planned to commit to get in the way of laying all the blame anywhere but with the world’s permanent victims, the Palestinians.

 

Numerous Palestinian spokespeople all but lined up and the media all but formed a greeting line to meet, greet and quote the latest line on exactly what sins and provocations the Israelis were guilty of performing that ruined this latest and greatest opportunity to finally find the true and only path to universal world peace. The ultimate wounding to the Israelis was not this conga line of blame coming from the Palestinians as such a spectacle has been witnessed numerous times to the point that most cognitive people simply hear such claims of blame and react with a been there, heard that, don’t care or accept as that complaint won’t play any longer. The ultimate wounding came from Secretary of State Kerry and Special Envoy and former Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk who within a couple of weeks each gave speeches blaming Israel completely and exonerating the Palestinians from any responsibility or blame for the failure of the peace talks. The really disturbing reality is that virtually every expert of the Middle East predicted with relative accuracy the manner in which the talks would fail even before the first meetings had concluded. Many had even foreseen that the Palestinians would use as their excuse for terminating the negotiations the Israeli refusal to release additional terrorists, which was one of the demands that was being voiced by some Palestinians as necessary for the talks to continue, or that they would demand a building freeze or bolt should the Israelis actually announce any intention to build despite the fact that they had been forewarned that Israel reserved the right to build as it was not part of the initial demands by the Palestinians when they chose the concessionary bribe required to begin talks. Those who had made these predictions were not seers or prophets; they were realists who have lived through so many past experiences that prediction of how these negotiations were likely to end without anything even close to an actual peace agreement took simply choosing the most probable scenario that fit the current negotiations and concessions demanded by the Palestinians initially and the other demands they would make continuing through the talks threatening to balk if they were refused additional stroking and additional concessions. As the song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu says, “We have all been here before.”

 

Going forward we can expect the European Union, United Nations, Arab League, and numerous other people and organizations to jump on board the blame Israel for every failure wagon. We can expect the Palestinians to manufacture a world tour demanding the whole world compensate them for the damage done by the evil Israelis ending with a trip to the United Nations demanding that statehood with borders of their design be granted them and the armies of the world to enforce the decision on Israel. This has been their intended plan from the start of Oslo as the Palestinians never actually desired to negotiate with Israel, they figured they could persuade the world of the evilness of the Jewish State and get the world to ally with their cause and impose the desires and nightmares of the Palestinian minds upon Israel. This has been the aim of Arab and Palestinian propaganda which has since become the mainstream argument accepted by the Europeans and much of the world’s leftists who gladly allied with some far right nationalist socialists in blaming the Jewish State Israel for all the world’s ills. This has been proven time and again when polls of European nations and select political groups and even more and more Americans who place Israel as the greatest threat to world peace amongst all the nations of the world. The logic which places Israel as a greater threat to peace than Syria, China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia and numerous Arab nations is mind bogglingly absurd. But these are not the most distressing of the people blaming Israel first.

 

The individuals who have chosen to blame Israel first that are most distressing are the Israelis doing so. Tzipi Livni, Isaac Herzog and Zahava Gal-On attacking Prime Minister Netanyahu are all understandable as each of these party leaders honestly believe that they should be the next Prime Minister once the current governing coalition collapses. Tzipi Livni is the most interesting of these stalwart whiners as her party is a member of the coalition and polls show her party possibly not even clearing the threshold to make it into the next Knesset. Yair Lapid has also made some comments blaming Netanyahu for the lack of reaching an agreement but has tempered his criticism by also placing a large share of the blame of Naftali Bennett despite having formed an alliance between their two parties in order to guarantee both were included in this government. Another set of groups which cause distress are the numerous NGOs who falsely claim that because their membership is predominantly or completely made up of Jews that they are therefore automatically to be considered pro-Israel yet they take every opportunity to condemn Israel by echoing virtually every Palestinian accusation. These groups while claiming to be pro-Israel, pro-Zionist, Pro-peace and Jewish take positions repeating and amplifying every accusation against the IDF, amplifying by consent any dispersion against the Jews living in the settlements including those in the major settlement blocks that all sides agree will remain as a part of Israel. These groups often join with leftists and anarchists from Europe in staging riots and challenges of IDF soldiers at checkpoints or on patrol with the intent of producing highly edited video which they then release on YouTube and other on-line sites in the hopes of casting aspersions and defaming Israeli soldiers and hopefully placing doubts in the soldiers’ minds which might lead to their not performing their required duties and thus placing lives at risk and making the world safer for the terrorist acts perpetrated against Israelis. It is truly sad how the world can so readily accept any aspersion against Israel without the slightest proof and often against all evidence which is readily available requiring only the slightest curiosity and a smidgeon of effort to acquire and learn the truth. But I can expect that there will be those who will accuse me of ignoring the real truth and claiming that Israel controls the media and the United States and other governments and world bodies and claim that the fact that there has been no peace reached with the Palestinians as the proof of their claims. The frustrating portion of these entire circumstances is that the protestation made by certain Israelis wither for political calculation or potential gain or because of leftist secular views of leftist secular Jews by birth who despise the idea of the Jewishness of Israel who give the other voices validity by their damning protestations which are inspired by world or political views which cloud the issue and actually have almost nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict. The reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be summarized by the three no’s from the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967, where at an Arab League Summit it was decided that there would be no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel and that the only solution which would ever be acceptable would be the complete eradication of Israel. This is also the aim of Hamas, Fatah, the PLO, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority, the complete eradication of Israel, whether through stages or in one glorious jihad genocidal assault, and that is the real truth of why these talks and all that follow will all end without any solution, Abbas and whoever should follow when elections are eventually held cannot and will not accept anything less than the complete eradication of Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp