Not This Idea Yet Again!

 

I thought we had buried this stupidity long ago, but leave it to the current General Staff, the one that claims that religious officers might be too out of touch, retired officers from previous command level positions, Avigdor Lieberman and rumored others from the Security Cabinet have started debating how to provide Gaza with a port and possibly an international airport. The reasoning is to relieve the economic malaise such that they will no longer be facing a collapsing economy and thus be happier and stop rioting and attacking us. So we really need to say this again? Well, if we must as it appears to be necessary, here goes. The Gazans are not attacking us because they are poor, they are poor because they are attacking us. If they were using most of their production in wealth accumulation and their own betterment, Gaza would be one of the most luxurious places on the planet. The Arabs in Gaza receive some of the highest per capita wealth resulting from the aid provided. They are not lacking for assistance, what they are lacking is the use of the aid provided. One example is when cement is provided for rebuilding damaged homes and structures, it is estimated that Hamas is siphoning off 95% of the cement transferred into the Gaza. The stealing of aid shipments reached such levels that the United Nations suspended aid until Hamas provided assurances that they were not stealing the aid, which Hamas promised they would never ever commit such a horrible crime and the United Nations was satisfied that all would be well and reinitiated the aid shipments. This was absolutely remarkable, but then it was the United Nations. Apparently, with the speed and numbers of tunnels being constructed by Hamas, aid levels must be astronomical providing Hamas and Islamic Jihad with all the construction material they require for building the means for attacking Israel. But there are those in high positions in Israel who actually think that there is a dearth of provisions and aid, especially food and medical equipment and supplies despite Hamas refusing an aid shipment of medical supplies by Israel. But not to worry, there are discussions to build an island or use Cyprus or have some method to permit inspection and then direct movement of goods into Gaza. The current method is to use the port in Ashkelon and delivering almost all of approved goods the same day or the next morning in dozens of tractor-trailers every day when the level of violence permits (see image below). What is even more encouraging in showing the appreciation by Hamas and the Gazans of the aid provided, one of their favorite targets is the Kerem Shalom crossing where the aid is provided forcing the aid to be delayed which then the media blames Israel for not providing aid efficiently. Note in the last link that the rocket barrage held up approximately one-hundred tractor-trailers of aid from being delivered and they believe that this current means is inadequate. What are these crazies smoking and can we get some.

 

Tractor Trailer Trucks Lined Up to Enter Gaza with Supplies Daily

 

The idea of building a dock on a man-made island around three kilometers off shore with a causeway which will have a disconnect section which could be used to cut off travel along the causeway connecting this dock with the shore in case of violence flaring is just as insane now as it was six years ago when it was first floated. If they are actually planning for threats from the shore, then you can bet such will be forthcoming. We would predict that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will launch a major offensive using fishing boats, submersible craft, scuba forces and possibly even finding a way to prevent the causeway being secured and attacking taking the port island supported by sniper fire from the shoreline. If the port is being guarded and manned by international inspectors provided from the United Nations, as they will demand that Israelis would be too controlling and constrict the most critical aid, they will hand the entire island and docks functionally over to Hamas. Basically, within a few weeks, months at the longest, the entire port, which was initially predicted to cost three-billion-dollars and likely resulted in costing ten-billion-dollars, will be required to be bombed out of commission simply because it was taken by the terrorists and bombing it would be less dangerous than attempting to take control back. But what is wrong with the using Cyprus idea? What is the means of taking aid from Cyprus and getting it to Gaza. There is no land route from the island of Cyprus to Gaza. So a shipment pulls into the dock in Cyprus, is unloaded, inspected and then reloaded onto another ship and taken to where? Probably Ashdod or Ashkelon and then taken overland by trucks to Gaza? Perhaps the ships from Cyprus would be permitted to dock at the Gaza docks. Would each ship, likely seven or more per day, receive a military escort by the Israeli Navy to prevent their being loaded with rockets, weapons, ammunition and other military provisions up to and possibly including tanks while going from Cyprus to Gaza. Maybe the Israeli Navy will double in size and have a merchant marine division which will take the shipments from Cyprus to Gaza which will eventually result in a kidnapping of one of the personnel by Hamas, possibly an entire crew, as they attack one of the ships possibly even in such a level as to take control of the entire ship. Everything they think of will provide additional layers, actually take longer, a fraught with danger and troublesome difficulties and reasons why they are simply plans which will result in dangerous situations to Israeli personnel or of Hamas takeover leading to no supervision of what they import while plans are made to destroy the structures leading to using the system already in place. There is no problem getting the aid to Gaza and if the Israeli leadership wish to improve the vision of how aid reaches Gaza, the best means would be to invite the United Nations to come and observe the entirety of the process and allow them to remain until they are satisfied that Israel is passing almost all aid into Gaza with the omissions being items obviously having a strong military use. All these half-baked ideas which bleeding heart leftists propose on a regular basis are a smoke screen which had the intent of causing Israel to question their system which is working perfectly well currently and needs no improvement or a whole new system which will simply lead to failure and a return to what is already in place or Hamas and Islamic Jihad having completely open importation of weapons, additional fighters and anything Iran cares to send their way.

 

Let us state the reality in as straight forward a manner as we are able. Gaza has plenty of aid and there is even a wealthy class made up of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, smuggling families who run the black market and supply the terrorists, the people who command the tunneling and an assortment of people in tight with Hamas. Allow us to give you proof from an earlier article titled Wrong-Headed Policies Pursued on Gaza which explains and displays the difference and why there are wealthy and those who Hamas has relegated to virtual homelessness and also the article Gaza which explains the use of the large quantities of cash and the threat Hamas and Islamic Jihad have acquired with the aid packages and the items smuggled largely from Iran. These two articles pretty much cover both sides of the equation of where the aid money ends up, either it ends up in the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad pockets or is invested in better rockets and even missiles and incendiary grenades they attach to balloons and kites to set Israel fields, forests and wildlife preserves afire as has been happening for the past three months. What the General Staff and all the rest of those leading this misadventure need to think about is how can they hit targets in Gaza which would maximize the effect to end the rioting, fire-kites and balloons and the intermittent rocket fire. A simple and direct plan would be to send a small detachment to Tehran clandestinely in order for them to assist the demonstrators with their biggest problem and remove the entirety of the political class starting with the Mullahs and working their way through the IRGC commanders and other necessary individuals in order to allow the protests to actually have a clean slate to develop a new governance. That is highly unlikely despite the temptations which make one dream of such. Our other means would be, as we stated in one of the articles, to strike those lovely places where the Hamas leadership enjoy the good life. Take out the new mall, the new water park, the lovely hotels along the shoreline, the really nice homes where the leaders reside, the fine dining restaurants and everything else we pictured on the right side in the first article’s pictorial of the two Gazas.

 

But as far as wasting time and resources on a new procedure to provide the Gazan people better procedures for providing aid, the system in place is probably about as good as it can get and Israel and the outside world cannot do anything about the actual problem, Hamas stealing the people blind and destroying any chance for a functional economy all to continue to try and drive the Israelis from their land by murdering as many as it takes for the rest to flee. That is never going to happen and should Hamas continue as they have, what may be the eventual result of their attempts to drive the Israelis from their lands will be the people of Gaza, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all, being driven from Gaza and Israel sweeping it clean to make rebuilding it far easier. Hopefully, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad have driven the Israelis to demanding that the problem that is Gaza be remedied with a finality, the General Staff will have spent sufficient time worrying about plans for every eventuality, including this situation, instead of thinking of how they can complicate the method of providing aid to Gaza such that Hamas can import directly, after a small effort to take over an island Israel built replete with port facilities, and have a plan for removing the terrorist leadership and true believers and allowing the Arabs who simply wish to live a normal life to rebuild their region with Israeli aid. Eventually Israel will be forced to retake Gaza. The media has attempted to tell the world that everybody in Gaza is protesting Israel. The reality is that under 3% of the Gaza population have been involved in even the presumed largest day of rioting. This includes those who decided that rioting for a day was a great way to make $300 for showing up so they could tout a whole fifty-thousand protestors. The population of Gaza is approximately one-million-eight-hundred-thousand. So, even if we were to believe that there were twice of many who just were unable to make it to the protest on the busiest day, that would still mean that 90% plus of the Arabs in Gaza have no intention of joining in the rioting along the border and have no real desire to join the invasion of Israel. These people should be permitted to live a normal life, elect their own government, and not be left imprisoned in a virtual jail which is just as enforced from within by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as it is from the Israel side to prevent terrorist infiltrations. Israel accepted 6,000 Gazans for medical treatment in past four months. This was despite the fact that Hamas regularly prevents Gazans from being allowed to cross into Israel for medical treatments. Perhaps Israel is not the problem where Gaza, their economy, medical treatment and aid reception, just maybe the problem is the dictatorial governance made up of Hamas and Islamic Jihad imprisoning the population and stealing even the food from their mouths is the problem. Just maybe that is the real problem.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Secondary Effect of Israeli Founding and Other Truths

 

Let us first speak about the misconception that Israel was founded by Europeans as an apology for the Shoah, the Holocaust. The idea and beginning of the Mandate given the British to establish the Jewish State began during World War I and was part of a series of peoples returning to their ancient homelands. The Arabs had been promised lands and numerous tribal leaders were promised to have the rule over lands and there were promises to many Balkan nations and across the entirety of the MENA States.* These regions were divided up and were to be established by different nations who were amongst the victors of World War I. The nations from Europe established colonial governments which tied these nations to their European nation and were eventually granted independence and Israel was amongst those nations declaring their independence mostly after World War II (see map below). Surrounding Israel, who declared their independence on May 15, 1948, we have other nations who also declared independence with Jordan in 1946, Lebanon in 1946, Syria in 1946, Egypt in 1922, Saudi Arabia in 1932 and Iraq in 1930. Looking at the map, we see there were other MENA States whose independence was after Israel such as Libya in 1951, Yemen in 1967, Algeria in 1962, as well as Bahrain, UAE, and Qatar all in 1971. So, Israel declared her independence in the second wave but there was a third wave which came much later with all having reached independence by 1975 with Iran having gone from the Pahlavi Dynasty which was Persian rule to the Mullahs which is Islamic Theology in a coup which occurred in 1979. Iran was never held as a colony by the Europeans as they did not take part in World War I and were never subdued and conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

 

Dates that the MENA nations received their independence after colonial rule many since the times of the Persians or even earlier

 

There is another map of the MENA States which shows a different reality which many either have never known about or have ignored as it breaks with their preferred notion of Israel as a purely European peopled nation with none living in Israel from outside Europe and North America. That is a falsehood which need be eradicated from the conversation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the realities. The reality was that by 1960 the population percentage of Jews expelled from Arab nations made up between thirty-five to forty percent of the Jewish population in Israel. As time has continued, with the Aliyah of the Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel in three operations named Moses, Joshua and Solomon, and the Aliyah of the Bnai Menashe from India, the numbers of non-European Jews has reached close to fifty percent if not over half. Further, there has been a fair amount of mixing through marriage with Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews as well as Mizrahim, Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, Bene Ephraim, Ethiopians, Yemeni, and other even smaller populations all within Israel with others coming from places which stretch the imagination even to include from Japan, China and the Philippines. The world must disabuse themselves of the misconception that Israel is simply a place where the European Jews fled and are still fleeing from Europe, Russia, North America and the Ukraine. The Jews from many Arab nations across the width and breadth of the MENA Nations did not flee; they were expelled by threats, pogroms, expulsion where they were forced from their homes which they had held for some thousands of years and most many hundreds of years. They were denied taking their wealth and their businesses were left to be spoils for the Arabs as well as their homes, farms, herds, jewelry, money and anything else of any worth. They often were allowed one suitcase each which were searched and anything within the searcher desired, they took. These Jews landed in Israel next to destitute with their skills and nothing more. Israel in the 1950’s was not the economic powerhouse she is today; she was a farming economy which did not even have sufficient housing for these over half a million Jews. These Jews were refugees which outnumbered the Arabs displaced during the 1948-9 attempt by six Arab armies to destroy Israel in her cradle. The difference is the Arabs placed their brothers and sisters displaced by their war to annihilate Israel that failed, though they did take control of Gaza and regions of Judea and Samaria which Jordan renamed West Bank, placed them into camps and refused to permit them to work, own land, vote, have citizenship or anything resembling a normal life while the Jews who were expelled and came to Israel were given homes and accepted into Israeli society and treated as any normal society treats their kinfolk. That is why there are Palestinian refugees and not MENA Jewish refugees also in equal numbers in camps. If the Arabs would treat their brothers and sisters as family as Israel did their refugees, there would be no problem. But the Arabs demand that there be a problem and that Israel is to blame, refusing to accept any responsibility themselves.

 

Jews forced from Arab World Between 1948 and 1972

 

Still, the constant BIG LIE is told over and over and over until the world has come to believe and repeat as if an actual known fact that Israel is a European Colony and has no history or reason to be in the Middle East. This BIG LIE ignores the half of the population in Israel which has at least one parent whose lineage comes from other than Europe, Russia, Ukraine or North America. This must be corrected and the reality is that first, even the European Jews have a genetic link to the Middle East and the other half of the population is from the Middle East or North Africa. Half of the Israeli population originates from the Arab and Islamic world where they resided for centuries upon centuries. They had times where life was very good and they were treated almost equally and there were times when they faced pogroms and forced conversions and even times they were forced to flee the persecution of one area leader and reestablish themselves under a different Sheikh or Mufti where they would be treated better. Often the position of Dhimmi was the best the Jews could hope to find. Many of these Jewish families had histories which went back in their location to the time of the Caliphs and the Islamic conquest and back before Islam with some residing in what became the Arab and Muslim world even before the time of Jesus. We know this because of writings from the Talmud and other Jewish texts and historical writings. Additionally, there have been Jews living within the Promised Lands since the establishing of the initial conquest by Joshua. These are Jews mostly from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the Priestly classes of Kohanim and Levites. The main cities where these Jews lived included Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva and the other ancient cities of Eretz Yisroel (see map below).

 

Important Cities of Ancient Israel

 

These Jews which were expelled from the Arab World were almost as numerous as were the initial influx of European Jews by around 1955. This is the truth which the world ignores when they demand that the Jews simply return to wherever they came. Let’s imagine the Jews trying to return to the place they originally came from. Well, if you track the Jews back through their family tree say to around 1000 B.C.E., then you will find that their family origins is in the holy land as ruled by King David. Jerusalem has been conquered and is the capital city and declared to be the Eternal Capital of Eretz Yisroel. This was the beginning of the Israelite empire which eventually reached the Euphrates River in the area which is northern Syria near Iraq (see map below). This was the highpoint in the history of the Jewish People which then divided when the Northern Ten Tribes refused to accept the son of Solomon as King and broke from Judah which then established the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judea. Israel fell in 722 B.C.E. to the Assyrians and the people were assumed to have assimilated and all but disappeared. Judea fell in 597 B.C.E. to the Babylonians leading to the Babylonian Exile which ended when Persia under Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and bid the Jews to return and rebuild the Temple and worship Hashem in their custom but were required to pay a tax to the Persians as their rulers with Judea being a province. Eventually came the Romans who, after the Jews had revolted and thrown off Roman Rule twice, decided to disperse the Jewish People throughout their empire as was the Roman method of destroying a people removing them from history. This was how the Romans dispersed the Carthaginians after the Third Punic War.

 

Eretz Yisroel as formed after the conquests by the Kingdoms of King David and King Solomon; both of whom allowed the Principalities of Edom, Moab and Ammon to be semi-autonomous as long as they and their armies supported Eretz Yisroel

 

We wish all the best of luck in finding any Carthaginians in the modern world. The Jews only survived because, though our religion is based on our ancient lands and Jerusalem and the Temple, it is also centered on the Torah and the rules it gives us in the form of six-hundred-thirteen Mitzvoth, rules by which to live. This provided the core of the Jewish People for close to two-thousand years along with the knowledge that Hashem promised that we would be returned to our homelands miraculously and our dispersal and exile would end. The promise gave a date according to Ezekiel who said the Jews were to be punished for 430 years because they had turned away from Hashem. This was to become the Babylonian exile. The Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians and freed their Jewish captives about 70 years after Judah lost independence to Babylon. This left 360 years which the Jews would require a second exile to fulfill as one must pay Hashem when one strays. In Leviticus 26:18, Leviticus 26:21, Leviticus 26:24 and Leviticus 26:28 the Torah spells things out quite clearly, should the Jews not fully repent their sins they would be punished increased by a factor of seven. Since most of the Jews freed from Babylon decided to live in the Persian society and adopted pagan ways, which is not exactly repenting, their remaining 360 years were multiplied by seven meaning their time in the Diaspora or under foreign occupation became 2,520 years on the original lunar Jewish calendar which translates to 2,484 years. Count from 536 BCE forward 2,484 years and you arrive at 1948. Further, Isaiah’s prophecy Chapter 66:8 states: “Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.” Israel was established exactly as Isaiah prophesized in a single day. These are just two prophesies which predicted the return of the Jewish People and the reestablishing of the state of Israel. There are a whole series of prophesies which tell of the future of Israel and the events which will transpire. A partial list can be found here. We figure this would be a great place to simply remind everyone that the Jews are being gathered literally from the four corners, or the far corners of the globe from every nation and every region. The miracle which Hashem promised is being realized and Israel is anything but a European colony, it is the realization of the promise by Hashem, it is that simple.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

MENA States = the region and nations in the Middle East and North Africa

 

Syria Attempting to Broaden War Threatening Israel

 

Israel sent her warplanes into Syria this past weekend in order to intercept yet another attempted shipment of weapons potentially including advanced anti-aircraft missiles into Lebanon arming further the Hezballah terrorists who rule the Bekaa Valley and most of Lebanon south of the Litani River. Hezballah has already taken control of most of Lebanon and has indirect, more like reviewing rights of any actions or laws, of the Lebanese government, an improvement of sorts over the direct rule they held a few years back. Apparently trying to rule and fight wars with Israel was taking too great a threat of Israel holding Lebanon responsible. Now Lebanon has been afforded plausible deniable for Hezballah military actions which has not helped much with the events across the border and within their borders with Syria. The length of the reach by Hezballah included their required approval of choice for the new Prime Minister when the new government was formed. Full display of both Lebanon’s difficulty and the threat to Israel are obvious in the map below. Syria will try to drag Israel into the war once again so they can claim to be fighting a holy war against the Zionist entity and will use all of Hezballah’s abilities if need be to accomplish this. That makes the weapons Hezballah already possess and any they are able to smuggle all the more important and why Israel must prevent certain weapons systems of ever being smuggled into Lebanon and to Hezballah forces there. That was the reason for the raid and why there may be more in the future with each one presenting the same difficulties.

 

Map Depicting Hezballah Control in Lebanon
Thanks to Syrian and Iranian Assistance

 

Israeli sources including Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman reported the raid was a success and that all planes returned and were undamaged. The Syrians reported things differently claiming to have shot down one Israel aircraft and damaging another. No pictures of the destroyed Israeli plane were provided to back the Syrian claims and they have made similar claims on previous occasions including once against American aircraft under President Obama’s brief attempt at a Syrian campaign against Islamic State. The Syrians also fired four missiles into Israel with one being intercepted by the Arrow III system which was the first real world use of the system which operated well in all aspects. The remaining three landed in open areas, two in the Israel area of the Jordan Valley and the final one landed in Jordan reportedly causing no damage or loss of life. The attempt by Syria to provide their Hezballah ally with rockets is far from new and Israel has taken to only intercepting weapon systems which would provide Hezballah with additional capabilities with the most serious being anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles. The Iranians have been attempting to provide the Hezballah terrorists with the Chinese C803 anti-ship missiles as well as SAM missile batteries of a more advanced series than those in the Bekaa Valley already. This probably requires an update on the extent to which Hezballah has been rearmed since the United Nations, United States and European Union guaranteed after the Second Lebanon War as part of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the doubling the size of the UNIFIL forces who were assigned to prevent Hezballah from rebuilding their tunnel and bunker systems and rearming with rockets, let alone missiles.

 

The UNIFIL forces have been photographed allowing and even assisting in loading their trucks to move Hezballah munitions, armaments, rockets and personnel around in southern Lebanon south of the Litani River, the area where they are presumably tasked to prevent Hezballah from accomplishing such minor details. Hezballah had completely restructured their tunnel systems, underground bunkers, and massively extended these systems and improved their command and control as well as their communications systems and networks. This will have massive positive effect on their abilities and lethality should there ever be a need for Israel to attempt to blunt their threat to Israeli existence. Before the Second Lebanon War Hezballah was suspected of having stocks reaching as high as thirty-five-thousand rockets of which a very small percentage were of the larger varieties able of reaching beyond Haifa and even fewer which had any guidance whatsoever. This had vastly changed. Their current armaments include tens of thousands of missiles with ranges reaching the entire length of Israel carrying as high as five-hundred kilo warheads which also makes the nuclear arms capable. The various names are easy to remember and they are with their range, diameter and payloads as follows:

Katyusha approx. 132mm diameter range 10 kilometer with a 5 kg payloads
FAJR-3 approx. 240mm diameter range of 43 kilometer with a 45 kg payload
FAJR-5 approx. 233mm diameter range of 75 kilometer with a 175 kg payload
Fateh-110/M-600 approx. 0.61 m diameter range of 300 kilometer with a 500-650 kg payload
Zelzal-2 approx. 610 mm diameter range of 210 kilometer with a 600 kg payload
SKUD-D approx. 0.88 m diameter range of 700 kilometer with a 1000 kg payload

The map below indicates the ranges as they pertain to Israel and the danger becomes evident, very evident. This is one of many reasons that Israel has developed the world’s most advanced layered missile defense systems and is working on secondary and triple level means of intercepting all varieties of indirect weaponry including missiles, rockets, artillery and mortars. Israelis are thankful as many lives have been saved and apparently more will need these systems in the future, which is unfortunate.

 

Hezballah Rocket & Missile Threat

 

Hezballah has not just tens of thousands of rockets and missiles but somewhere approaching two-hundred-thousand of varying sizes and capabilities. Additionally, there have been reports that through captured weaponry from various Syrian rebel groups that Hezballah has come into possession of a limited number of American MANPAD anti-aircraft weapons as well as similar systems designed from Russian and Chinese types of anti-aircraft weapons of a similar nature. These anti-aircraft and any anti-ship missiles which the Iranians have managed to provide to Hezballah are amongst the most dangerous should another war break out. The last war already provided ample indications that Hezballah has received numerous effective anti-tank rockets and have developed very effective tactics for their deployment. This was one area which the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) needed to develop some form of countermeasures. The greatest threat is to the Israeli public as Hezballah’s numbers of missiles are sufficient to use for swarm attacks as they can lose large numbers to interception providing they are able to get some percentage through the Israeli defenses. The numbers of missiles makes air superiority a necessity which is why Israel cannot allow large numbers or advanced air defenses to be provided to Hezballah as only through air superiority can Israel successfully destroy the stores of missiles and their launchers before they are sent in numbers over Israeli cities such as Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheba and numerous others.

 

The difference between Hezballah and Israel is a familiar one but still important to mention while we are on the subject. First, Hezballah uses identical tactics as does Hamas and will the PLO, which is to say the Palestinian Authority when they decide they have gained all they can through blackmail and using the world to demand Israel kowtow to demands for their surrender and return to their terrorist ways, which means firing from behind the people they claim to protect while Israel does everything possible to protect civilians, both Israeli and Palestinians. Hezballah has placed their rocket launchers inside civilian homes and place their command bunkers under hospitals, schools and even Mosques. They defend their positions using civilians and store their weapons and rockets in civilian’s homes, Mosques and schools. Hezballah builds tunnels and bunkers in which they secure their fighters and civilians are forced to remain on the surface usually near Hezballah fighter locations. Further, Hezballah uses villages and towns as their operations centers and builds fighting positions within these locations often people’s homes, schools and other public locations. The Hezballah tactic is to maximize civilian deaths, hardships and destruction of civilian structures all such that at the end of the conflict they can show this destruction to the media as proof of Israel offenses claiming the Israelis simply attacked civilian homes and structures out of spite and not because of their being used as military enforcements. Often the media can tell the claims are bogus as they can see the fortifications and still take their photographs using such angles so as to avoid displaying the fortifications while maximizing the obvious damage. Often the media has their photos and stories edited by Hezballah and in order to be permitted to return and cover future events each media outlet is required to follow the Hezballah story otherwise their entire news service will be barred from covering anything in Lebanon. Meanwhile, in Israel the media is permitted complete freedom and is free from any forms of censorship whatsoever which is why often the bad stories come out about Israel while Israeli enemies always get star treatment by the media. Israel suffers from the identical media difficulty that the United States also faces with total freedom of the media. When you have no operational control over the media and their stories and your enemy exercises total media control and is willing to lie and the media willingly follows along with their messages, it should be no surprise that Israel has the media difficulty.

 

The final warping of the media coverage is the often result in civilian casualties between Israel and her enemies. The extensive efforts that Israel goes to in order to keep its civilians protected, its enemies all spend seemingly an equal amount of effort to maximize the destruction of civilian structures and the numbers of dead and injured civilians they are able to produce. This leads to a high civilian casualty count while Israel often suffers minimal civilian deaths and casualties. Israelis are well trained and are conscious of the closest shelter when there is a war and are willing to drop anything including prayers to head to their closest shelter. Israel’s enemy governments and terror forces consider shelters as a waste of resources which could be better used to purchase weapons. This leads to a civilian casualty count in Israel often approaching zero while her enemies who place their fighting forces and weapons stores and rocket tubes within civilian homes and use civilians as human shields suffer civilian casualties in the tens, hundreds or unfortunately thousands. Still, it has been shown and witnessed that Israel does far more than any other military to protect and avoid civilian casualties on either side even to the point of calling off strikes to avoid civilian casualties even when the civilians have voluntarily gathered to protect terrorists. The IDF is amongst, if not the, most moral military in all history. Don’t take our word for it; listen to Colonel Richard Kemp in the video below giving evidence to the United Nations.

 

 

An example came when the IDF had three terrorist leaders holed up in a Mosque in Gaza. The IDF troops refused to enter the Mosque as this is something they avoid out of respect for a house of worship (you never want to see what Israel’s enemies do to captured Synagogues). Hamas radio called for women to rush to the Mosque with some extra burkas and within minute’s two dozen women in burkas and some carrying burkas entered the Mosque. Soon afterwards, the women left the Mosque as a mob hiding the three terrorists wearing burkas somewhere in the group. The IDF officer ordered his men to simply leave as the alternative would have been unthinkable for IDF soldiers to potentially appear to accost Muslim women.

 

In conclusion, the problem facing Israel also involves Russia as the ally and enforcement arm of Syria. Israel coordinates with the Russian commanders before sending any aircraft into Syrian airspace such that Russian and Israeli aircraft are not in conflict. Thus far, by all information, the Russians have not been sharing such information with the Syrians intentionally but there is obviously some leakage. When Bashir al-Assad’s military commanders receive hints or information of an imminent Israeli strike they inform their militias and other unattached forces who have been armed and often actually are Hezballah and receiving support directly from Iran. Syria would love to open a front against Israel in the hopes of internationalizing the war and bringing it before the United Nations General Assembly where Israel will be once again denounced. The end result will be a front opened across the Golan Heights with Hezballah attacking from the Israeli northern border backed by the Lebanese Army which is American armed including tanks and aircraft. As they have already been given these arms, the merging of the Lebanese Army with Hezballah being placed under their control, Israel may be facing the combined forces of Hezballah, Lebanon, Syrians and presumably independent militias all of which are backed by Russia. Russia is not in any means taking action against Israel and with Iran gathering forces and aligning forces under a unified command group independent of the Russians, is going to put Putin into a delicate position. When these forces finally open a full force assault upon Israel in an attempt to bring things before the United Nations where Israel will be blamed for initiating the violence and this will place Russia in the position of deciding whether to pull out of Syria demanding that their port facilities in Latakia as Russian protected territory and otherwise Russian forces will stand down and release Syria to its fate or Russia continuing to back Syria and very possibly be drawn into a war with Israel. Should Russia engage Israeli forces, be it on the Golan Heights or against aircraft in Syrian or Lebanese territories, then what does the United States do and NATO and the United Nations. There is a distinct possibility that the United States will use these events to press Israel into making a crippling series of concessions to Abbas giving him his state with the Green Line as a border as a prerequisite for continued aid while facing the war on the Israeli north against Syria, Lebanon, Hezballah, and full Russian assistance and Iran who will also add another front at some point using Hamas on the Israeli southern border along Gaza and with aid of militias along the Sinai-Negev front. This would soon include the Palestinian Authority as Abbas would be overthrown immediately after the forced peace and the withdrawal of the IDF either by ISIS or Hamas bringing this as well as the final front. This could lead to Israel fighting a war with fronts on all borders even to include the Mediterranean Sea leaving Israel in a desperate war for her existence and Israel would at best finally establish her borders as the Jordan River and hold the southern borders while establishing the Litani River and Golan Heights as their northern border and end these wars by establishing defendable borders with the downside of the entire nations requiring the rebuilding of her entire infrastructure. It would take Israel over a decade to rebuild but once the restructure has been completed, Israel would be the envy of the world when it comes to infrastructure and the Third Temple would be constructed and the Arabs who are unwilling to live supporting the Jewish State deported and finally a bright future before her.

 

Beyond the Cusp