Personal Observations of Reactions to Jerusalem Recognition

 

Amongst my friends and acquaintances the most used comment boils down to, “It is about time,” or similar comment. The next most stated idea was, “Wow, somebody finally noticed,” along with, “At last,” or similar sarcastic comment. But most of my friends and associates are relatively to extremely religious Israeli Jews, many from the English-speaking world as well as a good number of native Israelis. The reaction of my social circle was fairly even and supportive of the idea of the United States recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and that President Trump added its historic importance as such was an added bonus. This did not alter the opinion of those amongst us who supported Hillary Clinton from still hoping Trump would be charged with some, any form of malfeasance, preferably one worthy of impeachment any more than it changed the minds of his supporters. The reaction in our little corner of Israel is generally that this was wonderful and that it was about time.

 

The most interesting and disconcerting commentaries have been those of the media. They appear claiming that the entire world, particularly the United States, Canada and Europe had best brace themselves readying for waves of Islamic terror attacks. The media have almost amplified the threats that recognizing the three thousand year history of Jerusalem being the Capital City for Israel. What is even more interesting is that Jerusalem has been the capital only of the Jewish people and no other have ever declared any actual importance to Jerusalem and most of the media has all but ignored that. Their specific focus has been to press the criticism that by recognizing a three-thousand plus year old reality, President Trump has painted a target on every American’s back making them specific targets because of his recognizing Jerusalem and starting the moving of the embassy there. We all watched some of the media coverage the other day and it was horrific. Believing the newscast one would believe that all of Israel was ignited in random and terrorist violence and that people were locked into their homes scared to go outside. In our little corner of Israel, not a blade of grass is out of place and life continues on unchanged, unaltered. The days after President Trump made his supposedly universe-altering proclamation appear unchanged from the days leading up to his announcement with only the brighter look on people’s faces and a new vigor in their steps. Have there been violent demonstrations? Sure, as many of you have seen on your televisions as have we.

 

Fortunately, these pictures on your television sets have been the exception, nowhere near the rule. Most lives in Israel remain unchanged, owed much to our blessings. The riotous demonstrations we saw were pretty much restricted to the Temple Mount and Old City neighborhoods as well as Bethlehem and other areas in Gaza, Judea and Samaria and even then restricted to Arab neighborhoods. There have been spotty reports of demonstrations in some of the Arab Israeli Cities in addition to the Arab regions previously reported. None of these were unexpected as Hamas, Hezballah, Fatah, PLO, the PA, and Islamic Jihad had agreed to have three days of rage. Once this had been announced, it really made little difference whether President Trump had made his expected speech as there would have been no stopping the Arab populations from committing to the rioting we have witnessed. One British Newspaper reported a sensationalized “protests sweep Muslim world.” Their reporting noted that possible thousands demonstrated in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt and a few other large Islamic cities, but the general firestorm had not erupted worldwide as predicted before the announcement. Factually, much of the explosive reactions to President Trump and his earth-shaking announcement have failed to materialize. Check the image below and see the pattern of terror attacks from 9/11 through to sometime in 2015 or 2016. After viewing this image, kindly explain how terrorism could actually be worse. The nation completely covered at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea are Israel and Lebanon and the other heavy area is slightly but just as serious as it nearly covers Iraq. There continues to be terror attacks striking inside many of the areas covered by several attacks already as if you live in an area where terrorism had occurred, then those same areas are more likely to be struck by renewed violence. But as far as general mayhem throughout the globe, that will not be occurring.

 

 

The reality is that the majority of the violence will be restricted to predominantly Islamic regions and neighborhoods. This is both an unfortunate and, in another way, a fortunate result. The unfortunate result is that the Arab and Muslim worlds will erupt into violence over one nation recognizing one of the oldest surviving capital cities, Jerusalem. Let us think about the concept that Tel Aviv is the real capital city of Israel. The nation of Israel is a three-thousand year old concept with her capital as Jerusalem since before 1000 BCE and which existed for a thousand years while Paris, London, Berlin and Washington D.C. were all swamplands or forests, completely undeveloped or, at best, a small village. Not only had Jerusalem existed but was one of the major cities where a number of trade routes interconnected making it an important city. King David was the second King of a united Hebrew, Jewish State who moved the Capital City from Hevron, and Jerusalem remained the capital of the Jewish people ever since. That is over three-thousand years. Jerusalem is mentioned throughout the Jewish Bible, more than any other holy book. The Old City of Jerusalem has buildings older than the United States while the western areas of Jerusalem are a modern and vital city with modern buildings and commodities which leads to quite a vital difference. You have shops from the Shuk with its open booths to a modern three level mall with everything one would expect from a modern mall. Jerusalem is definitely the city where one can find everything, be it old or new, and depicts the difference that is Israel, an ancient land with some of the most amazing and newest innovations and inventions from cell phones to cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv was founded on April 11, 1909, which makes it one-hundred-eight and a half years, just a little younger than Jerusalem itself by just over three-thousand years. Quite a disparity and one which really gives Jerusalem and her claim as capital of Eretz Yisroel a slight advantage and we are glad to accept the United States in joining our reality even if it took a controversial President to drag them forward to recognize the past.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Europe Taking Israeli Price of Peace Path

 

In Israel back during the early days, before and immediately after the Oslo Accords, Israel would take the position officially that the deaths from terrorism were a price we needed to pay for peace. This mantra was echoed by the liberal and leftist politicians and much of the mainstream media in Israel and was accepted broadly by left-wing and leftist Jews across the United States. In Israel this mantra became to strike sour notes really fast when the Second Intifada was launched by Yasser Arafat claiming the lives of over a thousand Israeli civilians and tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of injured, many with debilitating and horrific wounds which left them crippled, disfigured, scarred and in mental anguish not just for years but for the remainder of their lives. The price Israel was asked to pay for peace by the left was what has led to the public turning to the right to govern as they promised not to accept such a price and claimed they would get a peace with dignity. That is where the problem arose and which the world refuses to accept, that the Arabs do not desire peace, they demand total victory and the Jews dead or gone. The European Union and most European governments refuse to accept such and instead blame Israel for the lack of peace. This has also been the driving force behind the United States means of reaching a peace demanding that Israel continuously make sacrifices and concessions for peace while not demanding any reciprocal sacrifices or concessions from the Arabs. The Europeans, United Nations and United States all historically have demanded that Israel meet one demand from Arafat and then Abbas after demand after demand every time there is a decision to drive the peace process forward. The problem is as long as the Arabs are gaining concessions for refusing to negotiate, they will continue to not negotiate and simply demand more concessions and wait for the United States in concert with Europe and the United Nations to force these concessions out of Israel. This has finally had the breaks applied and Israel is starting to resist the continued concessions. It remains to be seen whether President Trump will be different though, as we covered in our article “Will President Trump Really Demand Same Old Concessions of Israel?”, it initially appears that he is planning on at least initially demanding concessions of Israel. From there we will see but should Israeli Prime Minister make too many concessions he can expect his time as Prime Minister to be limited as the Israeli public has realized the fruitlessness of that game.

 

Europe has also taken the concept that terrorism is the price they will need to pay while their Islamic populations adjust to European philosophies and lifestyle. The last three months have seen major terror attacks striking in Berlin, London and Stockholm yet Europe continues living responding to these attacks as if stating, “Terrorism is simply something we need tolerate for now as our societal norms are stronger than Islamic terror.” I think we all know the Islamic terrorist response, “We love death more than you love life”. This was made obvious on numerous other occasions in Paris, London, Madrid, Zurich, Normandy, Nice, Brussels and on and on and the list will only grow until Europe disappears or stands up. Anybody with a modicum of common sense can figure out who will win this fight, and it is not European traditions. The problem goes so much deeper than attitude. Currently Europe is in the driver’s seat and if they were to return to what built Europe, then they could salvage their society and their way of life for their grandchildren. As things stand now, the average European born today should at least reach adult life before having their entire existence challenged by the forces of Islam, radical Islam, forcing them to either live in the shadows worried minute to minute what might befall them or fleeing to the United States or South America. Should the trends remain as they now stand, their children if born in Europe will be Muslims with traditional Muslim beliefs and not one whit of European traditions born of Judeo-Christianity.

 

 

The problem Europe is facing is theirs is an aging society which stopped having sufficient children to replace the population, let alone support their aging pensioners. In order to support their elderly and continue the engines of their economy, they brought in immigrants from what they call Asia but most of the world knows as the Middle East, the Arab world plus Turkey and many North Africa countries, the MENA Islamic community. Many of the nations, despite appearing to operate in normal fashion, have actually been failed states with marginal economies having many of their population eking out subsistence farming to survive. This left these immigrants educationally deficient for the European economic model with modern factories and high tech industries. But the problem when it comes to terrorism was not with these immigrants from years past but with their children who feel cheated and abandoned by their European governments and the converts to Islam who often were radicalized from the very start. This has caused a growing problem and with the latest surge of refugees these problems have only become exacerbated. The liberal and leftist governments across Europe were determined to make the refugee influx into their elixir to solve the growing economic problems and thus were invested heavily in refusing to recognize the growing problems. They took on the exact mantra which had been adopted by the liberal and leftist Israeli politicians, that terrorism would prove temporary and that with time the refugees and second generation Muslims would acclimate and blend into the population. Their mistake was they never took the necessary steps to incorporate the Muslim populations into their workforce or to educate and train them adequately and thus they left much of the Muslim population living in the slums where radicalization became to be viewed as a way out, the way to force the Europeans to grant them the solution which they view as Sharia. The problem with this is Sharia and European secular democratic multiculturalism are mutually exclusive and only one or the other can prove dominant. If Europe refuses to insist on retaining their democratic and secular culture, then Sharia will become the new normal and Europe as we know her will die a cruel and terrible death never to rise again, ever.

 

Europe Islamist Terror in Snap Shots

 

Israel realized this in time but Israel has an advantage, a higher reproductive rate which is sufficient for a growing society gaining in numbers amongst its Jewish and Christian populations. Israel, and not Europe, is the mainstay where Christianity is actually growing and healthy as is the Israeli religious Jewish population. Israeli secular left population suffers a similar but less severe fate as does the secular left populations suffers in Europe, a reproductive rate well below two children per woman. Replacement rate is somewhere between two-point-one and two-point-three children per woman and that is simply to sustain population numbers. The graph below shows the by nation numbers and what becomes immediately apparent is that the nations with the closest to replacement reproductive rates are the nations where there is also larger Muslim populations such as France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland, Norway and Sweden almost attaining replacement rate and their native population reproducing closer to one-point-five and with Turkey, an Islamic nation, actually attaining minimal replacement rate (and Ireland is unexplainable as usual but this time that is almost a good thing). Until Europe can reverse their sagging reproductive rates without taking in ever increasing immigrants, then the continent will continue to be a dying culture incapable of sustaining itself. Simply put, despite having a culture dripping with sexuality from every corner in its commercials, media, entertainment and almost every other means, they use that sexuality apparently purely for recreation and not for procreation. Unless the Europeans get serious and change their cultural attitude where everything is about the immediate pleasures and forget the future and return to their former nurture and natural society which had been based on Judeo-Christian ethics but does not necessarily need to return there, as long as they find some meaning which produces a future population to carry on what they have built. Anything less will bring to an end the Europe which has attained one of the more advanced cultures and civilizations known to mankind, a society now teetering on ruin.

 

 

Accepting terror deaths is not a future, caring about the future is the only future. That means the “now” culture must be placed in the dustbin of history or Europe will be placed in the dustbin of history. If the average European refuses to take even the slimmest of concerns for the future, then those now flooding into Europe will definitely give them no concern. We might ask whether they care about what they are leaving for their children, but there lies the problem, all too many Europeans are not having children at all. Having no children is the quickest path to extinction and Europeans are on that path as a lifestyle. The question the leadership of Europe must find the answer for is how to have an entire population made up largely of narcissistic childlike adults who refuse to leave the playpen into responsible adults who desire a future and offspring to populate and build it. Religion had been the driving force which made propagation a principle worth pursuing. What they are going to replace religion with is a mystery to us here as we remain attached to our religion. The saving grace in the United States is the share of the population who, if we can borrow a description used by President Obama, “cling to guns or religion” and could have added Bibles and children. The other saving grace is the main religion of the immigrants who are coming from south of the border is Christianity. Europe is importing a foreign culture which is incompatible with their historic culture and only one will survive unless Islam has a reformation and decided that the Mecca Quran should supersede the Medina Quran, and not the other way around as they now interpret abrogation. One of those pressing for just such a reformation is Egyptian President Sisi but he has friends who are fighting for the same thing, they are just rather less visible as they are not the leaders of the largest Arab Muslim population. We can only hope they can succeed where former attempts have failed.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Listen to the Left and Ignore Reality

 

The recent horrific terror attack driving a massive truck into the crowds shopping for the holiday at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market murdered at least twelve people and at least fifty people were injured. There have been accusations that the German authorities were too lax and did not respond to terror warnings that just such an attack was potentially imminent. The critics claim that all that was necessary to protect the shoppers at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market was a dozen or so Jersey barriers, heavy concrete barriers with curved sloping sides designed to stop even the largest of trucks including the kind used in the attack. In defense of German authorities, one also need consider exactly how many outdoor Christmas malls such as the Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market exist in all of Germany and then figure the number of Jersey barriers would have been required. That would bring the total of Jersey barriers from around a mere dozen to a number somewhere in the tens of thousands. Were there lapses in Germany? What would be a better question would be are there lapses throughout Western nations from Germany to Britain to Italy and Poland, from Greece to Spain to Finland and Sweden, even across the pond to the United States and Canada? The answer is, of course, yes. Even in Israel where such attacks have occurred for a longer period the placement of large posts anchored into the pavement at bus stops, light train stations and other places where people might congregate is still an ongoing, though urgent, series of installations. This is understandable as first these places must be identified, as bus and light rail stops are simply the initial places requiring these instillations while taxi spots and even busy crosswalks in places in downtown Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as well as other cities take further research to identify and will hopefully eventually be discovered and protected. Of course the rule in terror attacks is whatever preventions are taken will simply change the threat making complete terror-proofing quite impossible; all one can do is alter the targeting.

 

Truck Driven into Christmas Shoppers at
Berlins Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market

 

But just to prove that even the most rudimentary of efforts of prevention will be met with scoffing and ridicule, came care of Britain where there was a credible deterrent which some left wingers were rather critical. One of them wrote: “Safety is the last message this presence is sending out. It’s sad, and an extreme over reaction to a very slim chance of a terrorist attack. More likely to be hit by a drunk driver.” Such noble words of appreciation over even a modicum of effort to protect the public make one shake their heads in amused ridicule and disbelief. Can these people ever be pleased? Imagine the screams and protestations should there have been an attack even with the efforts which drew complaints over the effort. The leftists would be demanding heads of government officials responsible for the lack of sufficient efforts to prevent such an attack. It is understandable that not all terror can be prevented though it can be mitigated to minimal effect which while minimizing the deadly results of mass attacks such as in Germany, as has occurred in Israel, stabbing attacks still have the potential to inflict fatalities and injuries no matter anything short of a complete security provided by an actual police state. Every state need to decide what level of damage would be tolerated by the general public and then assure that their security levels are sufficient to surpass the level of expectation and assure that the people will feel secure. Failing to plan sufficiently will result in your facing the same level of disaster that is being faced by Chancellor Merkel and her government. But leftist trouble with reality is on even greater display when it comes to Israel.

 

France’s leftist government is once again planning to hold a conference to address a new solution to the Arab Israeli conflict. Their plan is to have representatives from approximately seventy countries gathering on January 15, 2017 for a conference to throw the weight of the international community behind the two-state solution. Thursday’s announcement included the news that neither Israel nor the Palestinians will be present at the meeting. But France intends to invite Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Paris some time afterward to brief them on the outcome of the talks, according to the foreign ministry. Meanwhile, the new French Envoy to Israel said two weeks ago that the conference would not contain any novel ideas on how to solve the Middle East conflict, but is mainly intended to prevent the issue from disappearing amid other global crises. “What we propose is nothing new but [we are] trying to keep the subject on the agenda and not letting it down because there are other crises in the world,” Ambassador Hélène Le Gal said. “We continue to propose things and it’s always in a very good spirit toward Israel.” Keep the Arab Israeli or Israel Palestinian conflict in the new? Have they ever read any newspaper, the New York Times, Washington Post, Haaretz, Paris Guardian, Berlin Morgenpost or Pravda recently? I guarantee that not more than two or three days go by without at least two-thirds, that would be four of the six, would have at least one front page reference to the West Bank, Jerusalem, Temple Mount, Kotel, Settlement, Gaza, Palestinian or Israeli acts against Arabs almost all of which will be negative against Israel. You will likely see more front page news on the Arab Israeli conflict than on the violence in Iraq and even with if not more than Aleppo on an average week in the news, especially if you include television and radio news where time is more limited than is space on the front page of a newspaper. But the brilliant minds in Paris are afraid that the Arab Israeli conflict, particularly the plight of the poor and oppressed Palestinians, might be slipping from the public consciousness. Perhaps the reality is something different, but that can wait for now.

 

The next item is the latest concern of the Security Council which was scheduled to vote on a resolution condemning Israeli building in Judea, Samaria (West Bank) and (East) Jerusalem and considering including in the resolution banning any further Israeli construction beyond the Green Line. The presentation of the resolution was postponed after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to have spoken with President-elect Donald Trump who probably was the person who influenced Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who responded positively to discussions and pressures which desired that the proposal, at the very least, wait until after the Paris conference. Netanyahu likely is also hoping that any proposal will not be considered until after January 20, 2017 at 12:00 noon such that President elect Donald Trump will officially be sworn in as President and Nikki Haley will be representing the United States in the Security Council and a new sheriff will be in charge, this apparently was not the case. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has stated, “The delay of the vote is an important step; however we realize that this issue is not yet resolved. We are continuing our diplomatic efforts on all fronts to ensure that this disgraceful resolution will not pass the Security Council.” All efforts came to naught except likely those from the White House from President Barack Hussein Obama who, sticking to his anti-Zionist and anti-Israel positions and vindictiveness toward Prime Minister Netanyahu and all Jews who are not 100% supporting the destruction of Eretz Yisroel and standing by President Barack Hussein Obama’s side, pressed to have this resolution voted upon immediately such that he and he alone would be recorded by history to have finally ended any Israeli compromises and granting the Arab Palestinian terror masters a blank check towards their desired goal of the destruction of Israel and the genocidal elimination of over six-million Jews residing in Israel, who had a strong arm in pushing New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela (a nation which has no toilet paper, food, prescription drugs or any other vital items) brought the motion back to the floor after Shabbat had started in Israel. The motion passed unanimously with fourteen nations supporting and the United States, in their idea under Obama of a grand gesture, abstaining as if that makes them almost righteous. More on this in a subsequent article early next week as certain particulars become clear.

 

The French are not the only people on the left who believe that the Israeli Palestinian conflict has not been addressed or given the necessary effort in order to solve it. President Obama was almost constantly complaining that this situation was not getting the amount of attention it deserves. Hillary Clinton had mentioned her intent to give this conflict the attention required to solve the problem. The French are also all-in on the situation and the new Canadian Prime Minister has supported the French efforts claiming that such an international conference is necessary because the world has not put forth the effort and solved the problem. This is despite the near constant addressing and passing of General Assembly Resolutions every year like clockwork at the opening ceremonies, the November 29th annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Durban Conferences and any other opportunity the Arab League or individual Arab leaders decide they need to renew their investment in their own standing at the cost of the Zionist entity, Israel, and present their own resolution condemning Israeli something or another as the what is irrelevant as the target of Israel is all that matters. Yet we have the French with atta-boys coming from every leftist leader on the planet backslapping them for their bravery in calling this conference and their claims that this effort will finally be the effort which brings forth a solution if only Israel can be pressed to make the needed sacrifice for peace.

 

In closing, let us discuss the concept of “bring forth a solution if only Israel can be pressed to make the needed sacrifice for peace.” Israel was required by the world through United Nations resolutions, and the wording was made specific after much debate and every word was carefully checked and rechecked, and Israel was required to “return lands” and not return all lands or any set percentage or even a majority of the lands, just return lands and this return was to be governed by providing Israel with safe and secure defendable borders. These were the requirements and not in any way shape or form demanding a return to the pre Six Day War borders of the Green Line. Repetition of the lie that Israel must retreat completely has been given validity solely through sheer repetition but has no backing in truth. Once the Israelis returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula when making peace with Egypt they had more than met all the demands of the United Nations resolutions. They had more than exceeded most expectations as there were many who felt that Israel would demand to retain the western half of the Sinai Peninsula making the central spine of mountains the new Israel-Egyptian border. Whether returning all of the Sinai Peninsula was a wise move will remain undetermined but will appear as a good deal as long as there is no attack from Egypt in the future. Add the granting of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, who almost immediately lost it to Hamas causing the constant terror threat of rockets, mortars and other attacks from Gaza onto and into Israel, simply added more to the lands returned by Israel. Israel would be completely within their rights to retain all of the remaining lands gained in their defensive wars of 1967 and 1973 which were the six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Despite this truth the French and much of the world believe that Israel has not given enough and would probably accept that Israel had not given enough even if they did return within the Green Line. The Arabs believe that as long as Israel exists, then Israel has not given enough. If the French would like to have a hint as to what would be acceptable to the Arab League and the Arab world, here it is in a simple concept, the end of Israel and the disposing of the Jews residing there by whatever means necessary with their annihilation being the preferred method by much of the Arab world. That will never happen and Israel will be retaining much of Judea and Samaria and if the Palestinians cannot handle that then Israel will gladly just retain all the land, period. That will make the leftists squirm as they really have a problem with assertive Jews; even the leftist Jews have a problem with assertive Jews. We know as we have witnessed such discomfort simply by walking into a Synagogue in much of the United States, and that is a shame, the real shame.

 

Beyond the Cusp