Attempting to Clarify Israel and the Misconceptions

 

Why not have us start with the biggest misconception, the desire of Israel to form Greater Israel. This is an accusation which most using it know that it is their really big lie. Greater Israel was the Israeli Empire of Kings David and Solomon (see map below). Their empire reached the Euphrates River at its northern point and the Nile, so to speak, to its southern edge. What one has to remember is that whenever your border met the border of Egypt in ancient times, that was considered as bordering the Nile because between the Egyptian border and the Nile were a few small settlements, and a select group of cities which grew around the defensive fortifications along the used paths of travel to central Egypt, the Nile. So the border of Egypt was basically the border of the Nile River as there was nothing of real substance between the border and the Nile River. So, the story of a Greater Israel is a historical reference to the hundred years largely during the reign of King Solomon and the second half of the rule of King David after he unified the Twelve Tribes and then set out on conquest. King Solomon completed the conquest reaching the Euphrates River fulfilling prophesy and retained a steady and peaceful border with Egypt. The Empire of a Greater Israel was an aid to the Egyptian Empire as it presented a safe border where there was agreement and little possibility of any aggressive actions. Neither Egypt nor Israel desired to go to war with the other as they were of relatively even ability and both would lose in such a struggle. There is no desire for modern Israel to extend her border any further than the boundaries defined by the San Remo Conference, the Mandate System and related treaties as well as Article 80 of the United Nations Charter making the Mandates enforceable by the United Nations. The United Nations is bound by its charter to enforce the promises made under the Mandates which set the eastern border of the Jewish State to be the Jordan River and had absolutely no mention of any Arab entity west of the Jordan River, Palestinian or otherwise. The Mandate set an Arab state east of the Jordan River which initially was named Transjordan and later simply Jordan. Despite all the various resolutions voted upon semi-recognizing an Arab Palestinian state out of what was promised to the Jewish State or the intentional harm allowed by President Obama in the Security Council on the Israel damning UNSC Resolution 2334 under Chapter Six authority which does not permit military force or other coercive force such as embargoes for enforcement, the United Nations under the charter, which overrules all else, must enforce as the eastern border of Israel to be the Jordan River. That is an absolute which any International Court would have to respect and use as the law on the matter. This is why the Arab world has never taken Israel into the International Courts at The Hague as they know any such judgement would further enforce the Jordan River border for Israel. After that has been settled, as if Israel were to sign a treaty giving the land away, which she has yet to commit, the sole means for such an Arab state to be formed, such as Hamastan in Gaza, otherwise Israel’s eastern border remains the Jordan River and beyond that there is no desire for reestablishing the borders reached by King Solomon in modern times.

 

Greater Israel the Kingdoms of Kings David and Solomon Between 1050 and 930 BCE

 

Another slander spread about Israel is the Apartheid accusation that the Jews have rights that non-Jews are denied, specifically the Arab Palestinians. There exist a very limited number of rights which are reserved for solely the Jewish People, but they would not rise to the level of Apartheid. The most obvious is the “Right of Return” for the Jewish People. This was something that the world agreed was understandable and the means by which the Jewish State would operate and be founded upon. Any person whose heritage by birth, or recognized conversion, is Jewish, is permitted to return to the ancient Jewish homelands and become a citizen. This was considered a basic and inherent right under which the Jewish State would operate and as the Jewish State, it would be ridiculous to claim others would have such a right. Jewish citizens upon reaching military age are required to serve in the IDF or perform National Service and this is not required of others with one exception; further the Druze or Circassian Peoples of Israel declared they too would follow conscription and serve exactly as the Jews are required and this was voluntary and decided as a community. Arabs, Christians, Bhai and other religions and peoples residing in Israel are not required to serve in the IDF though they may choose to serve voluntarily. There is a current discussion for expanding military service requirement to the Hassidic Jews. This has not been a right in which Jews are solely privileged to perform, as others are not banging down the doors demanding not to be excluded from inscription. These are the exceptions and beyond these, there is complete equality in Israel. Jews, Arabs, Christians and all other non-Jews have the rights to vote, live in any open community (there are exclusive communities such as religious, Arab, Bhai, Kibbutzim and a selection of similar types), work in any occupation, same healthcare system, join political parties, equality before the law, and everything else just as in any other democracy in the world. The Arab Palestinians do not have these rights because they are not Israelis, they live in their areas under their own governance headed by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The Arab Palestinians have not voted in over a decade because Mahmoud Abbas knows he would lose and that would likely lead to his being dragged before an Arab court and he prefers being President so he cancels the elections every time the time approaches. Israel cannot force them to hold elections any more than Israel could force North Korea to hold open and fair elections. The limitations on Arab Palestinians exist due to the fact that they are a foreign entity and are not Israeli citizens and the only citizenship they had before the Palestinian Authority was the older Arab Palestinian likely hold Jordanian citizenship and the rest are the offspring one or two generations removed from being Jordanian citizens.

 

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad launch rockets or use tunnels to attack into Israel and it results in yet another Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel war, there comes the inevitable charge that Israel is using disproportional force as the fighting results in more Gazan civilian deaths than Israeli civilian deaths. There are any number of mitigating reasons of which the most urgent which are ignored are obvious to those who bother to try to find the reality. The largest reason is despite having sufficient tunnel and bunker space to place all the Gazan people underground and in relative safety, Hamas (and we will use Hamas to infer Islamic Jihad and their other allies) refuses to permit any of the civilians outside a select group who have sufficient wealth to purchase their own and family safety. Instead, they force the population to crowd into areas where Hamas is launching rockets or where Hamas is planning to encounter and fight the IDF. Hamas does this with the intent of causing civilian casualties. What is even more frightening, Hamas has been seen to entice children, using their youthful curiosity, to stand near their rocket launchers when they are launching rockets into Israel with the intent of their being struck when Israel returns fire to destroy the launchers. Additionally, Hamas, and friends, do not exactly wear uniforms and the major difference between a Hamas terrorist combatant and a civilian male Gazan of approximately the same age is, at most, a few grenades, an AK47 or similar assault rifle, possibly a sidearm or possibly operating a rocket launcher or mortar. When one of these combatants is killed, then his weaponry is removed and then they are pictured by the media and counted as a civilian. Additionally, when Israel calls people, drops leaflets, and performs other warning actions that they will be attacking a certain building or location, Hamas will call for people, mostly women and children, and have them stand on the roof of the building or surround the rocket-launching vehicle so that Israel will not attack and this works much of the time. It fails on occasion when Israel is using artillery or missiles and intelligence does not show the civilians who are still at the location despite the warnings from Israel. Too often it is later found from survivors that Hamas ordered the people to remain in a targeted building in order to cause casualties which they can show the media and claim Israel has intentionally murdered these people. There have been cases when Hamas rockets have misfired and struck within Gaza such as when the al-Shifa Hospital and Shati Refugee Camp were struck by Hamas fired missiles. This was proven by Israeli radar trajectory tracking systems which followed the track of four rockets launched (see pictures below) from a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher aimed at Ashkelon where one of the rockets was tracked. These misfires are shown to the media claiming that they were launched attacks from Israel. In Gaza, Hamas actually use civilians as human shields which too often results in civilian casualties. The simple truth is the Hamas does everything they can to maximize civilian casualties as well as using their own dead combatants to be stripped of weapons and also added to the civilian count.

 

Radar Trajectory of barrage launched from within Gaza depicting strike points including the short round strike on the Shifa Hospital which Israel blamed by Hamas and Media accepted Hamas talking point unchecked

 

Israel works in the opposite direction from Hamas et. al. Israel requires new structures, be they apartments, homes, malls, office buildings or anything else, to have shelters capable of providing protection to the maximum expected count of occupants. These shelters also need to be within a certain distance to permit the people to reach them within a safe period of time which should be less than the flight time of any rocket or missile fired at them. Israel shelters their civilians while the IDF are the ones standing in the open seeking shelter only after they have marshaled all civilians into shelters. Israel has developed the means to intercept as many rockets, missiles, artillery and mortars such as the Iron Dome (see picture below). Israel invests millions of shekels if not billions or even trillions of shekels into producing a multi-level anti-missile interception systems including but not limited to the Arrow II, Arrow III, David’s Sling and the new Magic Wand, and these are the ones which we know exist and who knows what else Israeli scientists have designed and built that they have not made public. Israel protects her civilians placing the IDF between the civilians and the danger while Hamas place their civilians between their combatants and the danger. That is the real reason that there are far less Israeli civilians killed than civilians who are an unintended consequence of Israeli actions to defend Israelis when attacked by Hamas.

 

Iron Dome Launch to Intercept Rockets Originating from Gaza
which is Under Hamas Governance and Held Responsible for all
Rockets by Israel Regardless of Who Actually Launches Rockets

 

Then there is the simple fact that disproportional use of force is a new and previously unheard of measure of warfare. Further, of all the recent and current zones where there is active combat or has had combat, the use of the measure of proportional or disproportional force as a measure has solely been applied to Israel. The ratio of military fatalities when compared to civilian fatalities changed drastically between World War I and World War II (see graph below). The United States had far greater than a ten-to-one kill ratio in Viet Nam when counting combatants. The United States has had almost unimaginable numbers of enemy civilian casualties compared to those suffered by the United States. In every war, there has been very few where the casualties, civilian or military, were proportional and the intent of any military for military combatant deaths is to cause the maximum while taking the minimal numbers. Simply stated, in war a disproportional ratio is what is the intent by both sides. The difference in the Israeli wars with Hamas is due to the intent of each side in their military strategies. Hamas aims to maximize civilian casualties on Israel as they target civilian targets while largely ignoring military targets while Israel intends to target Hamas combatants and uses the IDF to protect the Israeli civilians. Further, while Israel does everything in their power to limit civilian casualties on both sides, Hamas attempts to maximize the civilian death and casualty counts on both the Israelis and their own population. Hamas actually desires that large numbers of their population be killed or injured such that they can have as many pictures as possible to plaster over the front pages and lead news stories around the world. That is their operational strategy, have their own population injured and killed as widely as possible in order to accuse Israel of disproportional force while Israel goes beyond what any other military in the world does to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza as well as protect Israeli civilians. Quoting an investigative report into the IDF performance in the 2014 Gaza War found in this article, we quote, “Each of our own armies is of course committed to protecting civilian life during combat. But none of us is aware of any army that takes such extensive measures as did the IDF last summer to protect the lives of the civilian population in such circumstances.” So much for the claims that Israel has intentionally targeted civilians and the other accusations of disproportionality, an aim of every military in the world when entering combat that they will take few losses while causing maximum losses on their enemy forces.

 

World War II Surpassed World War I
Civilian Deaths Against Military Deaths

 

Then there are claims that Israel has attacked the democratic base of their governance. This claim is brought by Israelis as well as many groups from outside Israel. All of these groups have one item in common, they are far leftist groups. Their claim is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has to be fixing the elections to continue to win elections after election. There are a number of problems with these claims. First, one is that Benyamin Netanyahu has continuously led the Likud Party by decisively winning internal party elections time after time. Most of the other parties also have had the same people in the highest positions over the same period. The parties which have changed leadership are more often those which did not perform well or reach the level of representation in the Knesset that their membership anticipated. This is what has led to these leaders being replaced; Likud has done well so they have continued with what has worked. It is use of the formula of, if it is not broke, don’t fix it. Likud has been successful and thus they have been the party to choose the Prime Minister which has been their successful leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu. What these groups and politicians mean when attacking Israel as not being democratic and having murdered the previously great Israeli democratic history is actually very simply, they mean that their favored parties on the left have not taken power. Israel had leftist socialist governance until 1977 election of Menachem Begin. This ended three decades of Labor Party rule. Since then the left has won some elections but have mostly been placed in the opposition. Unfortunately, the far left have two easily identified political principles, the first is that they have a natural right to run the world and every nations in it and the second is that if they should lose elections then the only possible reason is that democracy has failed and broken down thus the reason for conservative governance can only happen by killing democracy. For further proof of this, one need simply look at the commotion gripping the United States and the anger generated by BREXIT across Europe. The election of Donald Trump, election of Bibi Netanyahu, and BREXIT are the recent proof that the world as we know it is going to explode and die and democracy must be in decline as only by cheating can nationalism or conservatism become the majority. Israeli political mood is religious, nationalist and capitalist with a touch of conservatism which means that everything the far left find putrid; nationalism, capitalism, religion and conservatism; are the items which appear to be driving the Israeli population and this must mean that it is impossible for democracy to operate as the left cannot appear to win elections. Trust, Israeli democracy is alive and well and quite active which becomes evident even to the most casual observer.

 

Israel is simply despised because its existence makes so many beliefs people have held for close to two thousand years, namely that the Jews were finished and ready to collapse into extinction any day now. With Israel, we now have Jews with an Army and no longer the easy people to push around and blame for everything. Just because Israel exists and Jews are armed and protecting themselves has not quite sunk in, so the world is still blaming the Jews for everything, just now they are blaming the Jewish nation, Israel. Israel understands this as our history was a record of being conquered by empire after empire until the prophesy was finally realized, miraculously just as predicted by our prophets and written in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible. With the reestablishment of Israel and the start of the ingathering has many people very nervous as they are not quite sure what this means. They fear it might mean the coming of the Messiach will be very soon and nobody believes we are ready for such an event. Others just resent Jews having their own nation and power. Then there is the fact that the land was one under Islamic rule and is in the heart of the base of Islamic power, thus it must revert to Islamic rule and the Jews need to know their place as dhimmis. Then Israel just makes a convenient target as the Jewish nation amongst all the other nations, many of which are of similar backgrounds. The real problem for Israel is it is the only nation with such an identity, a Jewish identity. That makes Israel the lone nation amongst nations which makes her a target. How has Israel responded? We attempt to assist nations in need, we invent technology, medical procedures, new items and all kinds of things which make life better around the world. There is one other item we in Israel have given the world which we like to tell of, we invented the cherry tomato.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

UN Economic and Social Commission Declares Israel Apartheid

 

According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia; after careful, deep, serious and intensive deliberations calmly released their verdict that Israel is an Apartheid nation. In a new report published recently it was claimed after examinations based on key instruments of international law that Israel has established an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Palestinians. The basis for their determination rested on the fact that Israel has had repeated wars. This was stated without any reference to the fact that none of these wars were initiated by Israel and every war had as its cause actions by Arab forces, nations, terrorist groups or other forms of hostility including kidnapping, murder of civilians, cross border violence, weeks of ever increasing rocket assaults across the border and other casus belli for war. Instead the implication is that Israel has initiated these wars in order to enslave the Arab people and subjugate them while stealing their lands. They point to the presumed fact that Israel has annexed lands claiming the lands were not originally denoted by numerous legal treaties, conferences, mandates and even the United Nations Charter was Israeli to start with.

 

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

 

They noted expulsions of Arabs from their homes, businesses and lands presumably because of Israeli violence or threats thereof. There is a small problem here as the only large scale or even documented expulsion or dispossession of Arabs from their property occurred immediately before six Arab armies attacked Israel in May of 1948. This dispossession was caused by the Mufti of Jerusalem who insisted that the Arabs should leave their homes, farms, businesses and lands and escape to safety behind the Arab armies poised on the border of Israel so that their invasion could be simplified and all they need do is murder every person between them and the Mediterranean Sea. That story ended with them losing, not erasing all of Israel. The Arab forces did manage to wrest Judea, Samaria, Gaza and half of Jerusalem from the lands which were rightfully Israeli and because they did not slaughter every single last Jew and the Jews began to actually push the Arab armies back, they had the rest of the world preserve their gains by demanding an end to the war and threaten Israel that their further assaults would be viewed dimly. Israel, the Jews, winning has always resulted in the world demanding Israel cease their belligerence ignoring the small factor that the Arabs began each round of violence. With Israel still in existence, the Arabs decided to retain the Arabs whose lands remained under Israel control and demanded the world recognize these Arabs as refugees of the Israeli war because Israel refused to surrender everything to the Arabs who claim that all of Israel is rightfully theirs.

 

The final point is so ridiculous it is almost an embarrassment to mention. They state the Arabs they have labeled as Palestinians, since the invention of such a people in 1964, have been divided into groups which are treated differently. There are four groups which Israel treats differently and when we list the groups you might notice a particular peculiarity. These groups are the Arabs who are citizens of Israel (they leave out that they are full citizens but why argue over particulars); the Arabs in East Jerusalem; the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; and the Arabs dispersed outside of these areas.

 

Let us take them in reverse order; it will work out shorter this way. The Arabs who once lived within what is today Israel within the Green Line and are now refugees were requested (read demanded) to leave their properties to allow the Arab armies to destroy the Jews and then they could return and enjoy the spoils of the Jew wealth and have been prevented from returning by the Arab nations themselves or the Palestinian authority and Hamas governments in Judea and Samaria, and Gaza respectively. These Arabs were placed into camps and imprisoned there by their own people are not and never have been under Israeli occupation, control and Israel has absolutely no responsibility for the fact that they have never been permitted to settle in the nations where they are presumably refugees. The world is complicit in making these refugees a separate definition and the only refugees whose status is hereditary and passed from father to son and mother to daughter adinfinitum. There are approximately fifty-thousand original refugees left alive from the first Arabs who listened to the Mufti of Jerusalem and suffered for their obedience. The remaining five to six million are their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so forth. None are in any way caused or the responsibility of Israel. Originally these refugees numbered about seven-hundred-fifty-thousand while the Jews forced from their homes in the Arab and Muslims nations of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) numbered in excess of eight-hundred-fifty-thousand. This should have been an exchange of populations in a similar manner as the exchange between Pakistan and India or Germany and France and other refugee exchanges throughout recent history.

 

The next groups mentioned were the Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. The Arabs living in Gaza are living under Hamas governance which we can safely assume is not about to change despite elections. The Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria live under Palestinian Authority rule as a form of semi-autonomous rule. Currently their leader is a gentleman named Mahmoud Abbas who is in the eleventh or twelfth year of his four year term. The Palestinian Authority has apparently had some degree of difficulty in arranging the overdue election which has nothing to do with Israel. Sorry to upset the theory that Israel refuses to allow them to vote as Israel has nothing to do with the Palestinian Authority’s election schedule, that remains the domain of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah Party. The sole Israeli responsibility is to protect the Palestinian Authority government from outside attacks and the Israel Defense Force has arrested numerous Hamas teams whose assignment very well could have been to overthrow Mahmoud Abbas forcing elections which they believe they are assured to win. Should they ever succeed and Hamas take over, things still would not be the Israeli’s responsibility.

 

The final two are actually to varying degrees Israeli responsibility. There are two areas which Israel has annexed, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. The Golan Heights, which the Israelis annexed to prevent the Syrians from murdering Israelis farming or people walking in the Galilee using snipers and occasionally artillery fire, was uninhabited; as it was entirely a military zone under the Syrians. With the current situation in Syria and having the Islamic State often taking border areas as a result of the multifaceted civil strife, civil war, the Israelis annexing the Golan Heights now looks like brilliance. Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, thus reuniting the city, should have been a no brainer as it had been formerly illegally held by Jordan whose annexation had been universally rejected even by the United Nations with only Pakistan and Great Britain recognizing the annexation, was performed simply to reestablish and making the Israeli capital city whole once more. The challenge was what should be done with the Arab citizens who previously had been citizens of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority rejected these former citizens demanding that Israel accept them whole. Israel gave the East Jerusalem Arabs citizenship receiving the benefits of healthcare and free movement in Israel and the right to vote in Jerusalem elections. The remaining right to vote in national elections has been left to be addressed at some future time presumably after final status talks have been completed.

 

That leaves one final groups and the easiest group to explain. These are the Arabs who remained in their homes, farms, businesses and land in 1948 refusing to obey the demands of the Mufti of Jerusalem demanding they abandon their homes so the invading Arab armies could slaughter all they met as everyone remaining was to be considered a Jew, even the Arabs and some might claim especially the Arabs as punishment for not obeying the Mufti. After the war they retained their homes, farms, businesses and land plus were granted full Israeli citizenship along with everyone who remained in Israel during the war. This was regardless of religion, race or any other descriptor imaginable. They have equal rights including healthcare, voting, free access to travel, driving privileges with a driver’s license as well as serving as judges, Ministers in the Knesset, doctors, nurses, salespeople or any other profession. The one right the Arabs were not required to fulfill was mandatory military service. They may enlist, do not get us wrong, it is just they are not required to either serve in the military or do community service. But the majority of the Arabs that this group was all torn-up over their treatment are actually honestly mistreated either by being denied proper, free and open elections as the Arabs in Gaza under Hamas and the ones under the Palestinian Authority or are being held in camps within barbed wire and guarded to prevent escape despite many having direct relatives living just on the other side of the barbed wire and fencing.

 

But perhaps we should take a glance at who are the nations making up the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. These nations are Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, The Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, The United Arab Emirates and Yemen. There are a few items of interest. First thing we noted was that Israel is obvious in its omission despite being located centrally within the area. The next item of interest was the inclusion of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and the Sudan as none of these are in any part of Asia; they are all located in Northern Africa. The last thing we noticed, well, all right, the first thing, actually, was that none of these nations are exactly on the best of terms with Israel. Jordan and Egypt both have a cold peace with Israel with over eighty percent of Egyptians polled desire for Egypt to go to war and destroy Israel breaking the treaty which they find demeaning. Almost every, if not every, nation on the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia are also signatories to the Khartoum Conference where the “Three No’s” were established: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.” In reality all of this is simply another declaration by the same mouths from across the Arab world as those at Khartoum. This is the actual truth of this declaration and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia is that it will be similar in nature regarding Israel and will simply be a paper mill grinding out more and more useless denunciation of Israel with nary a dissenting opinion in similar manner as the General Assembly. Simply ask Ban Ki-moon.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

So You Really Hate Israel… Why?

 

There are two nations on this planet which have entire NGOs and groups who make their millions by hating them and running around screaming about everything they can find or think they know is evil about them. One is Israel and the other is the United States. Well, guess what. Both nations air their mistakes right out front for the world to feast upon if they so desire. They also both quietly go about helping save the world and not asking for anything much in return. Those who have benefited from this help often turn right around and speak evil about both of us and that is just fine because we know who we are. You want to hate Israel? We are not going to stop you, argue with you or apologize for our few problems. But maybe you should look at Israel, and if you hate the United States you better take a long hard look at them too. While you are seeking an honest answer, perhaps you should check yourself and those who have been feeding you this hatred because you will probably realize some problems with your information train. But if you want to hate Israel, go ahead because we can take it, we Jews have been the object of a general hatred for a few hundred years now, close to over thirty-hundred.

 

In case you are having difficulty with the math, allow us to help. Thirty-hundred is three-thousand, yes, three thousand years with most of that time our living right here in Eretz Yisroel. That is why Jews have another name less used these days but it is all over this bestselling book, the bible. We are also the Children of Israel. Why children? Well, that is an easy one. We are His children, Hashem, the Big Guy upstairs. Perhaps you’ve heard of Him. We are His children and will forever be His children and just like all children we make mistakes. We do try to learn from our mistakes but sometimes that is a difficult path. We really messed up badly a few times and paid a heavy price. Our first foray into being less than all we could be got us exiled to Babylonia, but rather quickly our Father forgave us and we returned here to Israel and built the Second Temple. For your information, that was around the time when Buddha, Confucius and a few other well-known fathers to some of the other great Earthly philosophies and religions were just starting out. That was nothing compared to our later mistake where too many of us turned to evil such as idolatry and hating one another. For that we paid an even dearer price. The Second Temple was destroyed and the majority of us spread all over the globe for almost two-thousand years. Our Father, oh, and your Father too, but you hopefully know that or have briefly forgotten about that, He finally allowed His displeasure to subside and we have been given another return home and we are hoping that enough of us can keep things real and on the straight and narrow. Two thousand years of basically being thrown out of your house and told to go stand in the corner is a tough lesson and we had better have learned our lesson.

 

What lesson? Well, to love one another and especially each and every member of our family and to help where and when and how we are able and to give of ourselves for the betterment of humankind and not to turn away from our Father and to pay Him His due. That may sound easy but it is not as people have been getting that one wrong seemingly forever but yet our Father still loves His children, not just us, but all of His children and that includes you. We hope we have learned a few things about truth and the ways of the universe and it is a lot more difficult to grasp or understand than many think. Yes, sure there are tons of nice formulae which describe everything and as the scientists discover more the more they realize they do not know and more recently they have figured out the BIG truth, they will never know all there is because there will be more and it will be beyond their ability to even see the whole picture, let alone figure it out. The real truth is we need to care for what we have and everything else will come in its time.

 

Israel and the United States share a few things. We are usually the first two nations to arrive when there is a natural disaster to assist and we often are the last to leave. We both send our physicians out into the world to teach procedures and other things which a few hundred years ago were considered witchcraft but today we know are simple facts used for the betterment of mankind. Israel and the United States are often the target of unfounded hatreds even from those we have assisted the most. We have treated freely many Palestinians and especially those their own hospitals do not have the equipment or know-how to treat. This has included relatives, close relatives including mothers, siblings, children and even those leaders themselves of both Hamas and the PLO. Why do we help our mortal enemies? They are not our enemies, they just are people who have erred into blind hatred; yet still parts of their reason allows them the ability to turn to that most hated people, the Jews of Israel, and seek us out when their own family is in the most dire place need of help. They turn to Israel knowing that despite their desire to murder all of us, we will help them when they are in need because they are also our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters who are lost. Further, our Father tells us to assist those seeking our help, so we do so. It is that simple.

 

For your information, it is because we refuse to even hate our mortal enemies that they hate us even more. They see their failings and blame us and we do not fight back as that would be something our Father would not abide. We have an obligation to be as wonderful and helping in all cases to all our fellow human beings and not judge their rights and wrongs as that is not our place. We are His children and we must strive to be worthy of that name. We fail and fail far too often to worry about those false accusations as we need to live up to our expectations of ourselves and then go beyond that to His expectations of us. We will never be the perfect people Hashem desires of us but we will pick ourselves up off the floor every time we fail and try harder. That is what drives us and keeps us working at making ourselves and all we touch better. We are supposed to help and fix that which needs repair and leaving alone that which either is already good or that which refuses to be helped. When they then stop the hate long enough to beseech our aid, we give it freely because that is why we are here and why you are here.

 

That dictate, telling all of us about loving thy neighbor as thyself thing, we were first commanded to try and live up to that and we have stumbled. We still work on that principle and we will likely stumble some more, but we will continue to try. Treating the stranger amongst us kindly is also one of the commandments we try to live by. But let me tell you a few things we bet you have never heard about. First thing is the Arabs who are citizens of Israel are fully equal with the Jews. They vote, work as they please, live where they please and have every right to fair treatment as anyone else in Israel and some would claim that we are harder on our fellow Jews than any of the myriad of minorities residing in Israel, citizens or not. The Palestinians you demand so much for, rule themselves within our borders in semiautonomous zones. The reason they are semiautonomous is because we do not demand they raise armies and we would defend them from foreign attacks. They continue to reside here because the majority of the Palestinians would love for there to be peace but outside forces rule them and demand they never make peace. Look up the Khartoum Resolution and the resultant Three No’s and read why there is such a movement of hate against Israel. This conference, as you would read, came about after the Six Day War of 1967. The three no’s, just to save you reading all that Wikipedia propaganda, are “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.” The Khartoum Conference was technically an emergency meeting of the Arab League called in order to end Israeli aggressions. Israeli aggression is defined by our Arab brothers and sisters officially as Israeli existence. The only solution acceptable is the complete and total destruction of Israel, and if truth be told, followed by the hunting down and murder of every Jews, practicing or not, everywhere. By the way, the leaders of this movement are also the people paying for your NGO through many long, convoluted and twisting channels as they desire to be hidden from view. They know that should their backing become common knowledge then they would not have as much backing as they have collected. Personally, I believe they might receive more backing if they went public, but it matters not.

 

Arab League Summit
From left to right: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia,
Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Abdullah Sallal of Yemen,
Sheikh Ahmad Sabah of Kuwait and Abd al-Rahman Arif of Iraq

 

Israel will continue and will seek peace even when doing so appears suicidal. We are commanded to offer those residing in our lands a choice of three options about their residing here. This was also what we offered the Canaanites when we entered here from Egypt, and we know there are historians who claim we never were in Egypt and that is their right to believe as they choose. They were told they could remain and live in peace as long as they observed the Noahic Code, or they could depart over our borders and we would not pursue or harm them without due cause, or they could choose to war with us at which time we would defeat them and destroy every last vestige that they existed, their people, cities, cattle, crops, idols (definitely their idols) and lastly anything else we could find. Many of the Canaanites chose the war option but there were a minority which chose leave or live with us and observe the seven Noahic Laws (see below). The Noahic Code is given in the bible and has also become known as the Divine Code which also has a nice ring to it. Yes, the Noahic Code is also part of the Ten Commandments but is not all ten, it is seven on which a right and decent society must be built or it will fail. The Palestinians claimed they would abide by the Noahic Code but some insist on trying to kill us. As long as one tries to kill us, we will answer them in kind. If they wish peace then we will give peace for peace. It really is that simple, peace for peace, threat for threat, death for death, war for war, eye for an eye and life for a life, it sounds almost Biblical, doesn’t it.

 

Noahic Codes

 

Let us conclude our little conversation and ask a simple favor, if we may. Visit Israel and realize that despite the attractive life in Tel Aviv, that is not our best and finest, just the wealthiest. But then the major cities in the United States is not representative of the heart of America, it is just where the wealth resides. The measure of a person and a nation are similar, gold does not make them necessarily right, it just makes them wealthy and able to be heard louder. Loud does not equal right just quiet also does not impart automatic justness as often whispers are the most devious of all lies as they carry the shroud of being long kept secrets. Often the whispers and the person screaming in the town square are repeating the same oft told lies which many are centuries old. Hatred of the Jews is amongst those ancient hatreds and we were warned that in every generation one would rise to destroy us and unfortunately it has often not been just a single one but often a multitude with numerous leaders and prophets. The Nazis did not act completely alone as some nations have admitted and others still remain unrepentant. Neither did the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Philistines, Nazis, Stalinists, Czars, British, French, Spanish (Inquisition), Ottomans, Assyrians, Persians (Haman the Amalekites, descendant of King Agag), Amorites and now the Islamists. Many of these listed were our friends and turned against us or were our enemies and made eventual peace with us.

 

But do something easy and spend a couple of weeks visiting Israel and travel to the far corners and walk the fields, enjoy the fruits of the land and get to know the people, Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Baha’I, Buddhists, Hindus and the other myriads of people as well. If you prefer take that vacation in Haiti and ask of the Israelis there, or the Philippines, Japan where the quake and tsunami hit worst, or even New Orleans from the hurricane or the parts of Louisiana recently flooded and you will hear that the Israelis came and assisted. As a matter of fact, Israel is one of only a few nations which offers assistance to the United States and does not simply believe they can handle it alone; they do not need or want our help. We know that would be a lie and is simply a reason for not assisting and we take assisting our fellow man in need and try to help whenever we are permitted, even if that means deception about the aid given coming from Israel as the Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) foundation does regularly when a child from an Arab and/or Muslim nation which refuses to recognize Israel and would torture or murder the family if it were known they received our help. These special cases are handled discreetly and they are flown to a neutral nation and brought to Israel on El Al or private airlines and their travel documents never show any reference to Israel as we are helping and not in the business of burdening people who have suffered the pains of a deathly ill child and the only true assistance being theoretically out of reach due to unseemly hatreds.

 

Before you continue with the next Apartheid Israel demonstration or give the Palestinians their own country or whatever the next “thing” protesting Israel, seek a little truth, check out those claims you have been fed, realize there is a silent, quiet, underlying lie in the slanders and a kernel of truth out there if only you seek it. We cannot simply yell from the bell tower as we have limited funds which can be better used helping people, other people who really need the help, than using the money to fight the lies. The lies are backed by some of the richest oil wealth nations whose people often reside in poverty and whose education system indoctrinates, not teach. We could never scream louder than the paid adversaries receiving their ill given hate funding from people who would line every Jew on the planet up and slaughter them ISIS (Islamic State, Daesh or ISIL as President Obama prefers to call them) style and would probably do as did the Nazis and record it for posterity. We would rather save lives whenever possible and that is the reality. Israel has saved more Arabs, children and adults, than we have killed in our defense of our nation and wish that we could only save lives and never be in the position of having to take them. But that probably remains for you to find out for yourself, and we invite you to do so. For the rest who already know and appreciate these facts, we would like to give you our heartfelt thanks for your support at any level or effort. Even your smile towards us is sufficient recognition, thank you.

 

Beyond the Cusp