The Score is not Over as of Yet

 

Bibi Netanyahu proudly announced that a ceasefire has been attained from the leadership of Hamas through the efforts of Egypt. What number ceasefire is this, ten, fifty, a thousand, is anybody counting or does anybody really care? We will be celebrating those who have fallen in the terror war which this year will include four additional souls who were sacrificed for peace. This was the phrase which Israelis heard constantly during the Oslo Accords as the Labor government labeled those killed by Palestinian Arab terrorism as those sacrificed for peace. They were the casualties of the peace process. This last round Hamas fired over six-hundred rockets into Israel and Israel responded with the usual, the Israeli Air Force carefully bombed the same series of empty buildings, yes, empty buildings. Hamas, or Islamic Jihad or both, fired a series of heavy bombardment on Ashdod testing the efficiency of the Israeli Iron Dome Systems and they learned that these systems have limits, even the vaunted Iron Dome, and a percentage of rockets pierced the Iron Dome shield. The terrorist army of Gaza (Hamas and Islamic Jihad plus whoever else is backing them as there could even be some IRGC forces from Iran behind some of these attacks) now knows that they can overload their attack and get a small percentage of rockets past two or three Iron Dome batteries. This tells them just a small amount as to how three or four systems would protect say Tel Aviv, as some have allowed their lips to part and their tongues to utter the reality we all knew, that rockets on Tel Aviv is a red line which if crossed will bring the full weight of the IDF into action. But such makes the people of Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be’er Sheva and all of southern Israel feel as if they are not worthy of protection as those in the wealthiest of cities in Israel. They question whether it is because Tel Aviv is where many of the “heavy-hitters” and the “movers and shakers” all reside within the Tel Aviv metropolitan areas, so is this what is required to be worth actually acting against rockets being fired twenty-four hours a day throughout the weekend but if they do not target Tel Aviv then the terrorists are mostly safe? The people of Israel, outside of Tel Aviv (and a fair number within Tel Aviv as they know they will reap the knowledge of how to beat Iron Dome when their time comes) are reaching a point which can only be described as ugly. The people living under these constant barrages are well beyond scorching angry. The kind of anger and feeling of hopelessness as the government appears to be failing them is best represented by one phrase from the movie Network, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Even if you never saw the move, never heard of the movie, this scene has taken on a life of its own and when people approach this state, then governments know they can no longer ignore the people, ignore the problems, ignore the situation which is causing the rising discontent and they start to consider actually doing something more forceful and directly targeting a solution.

 

 

But Israel just had an election and chose to continue with Bibi Netanyahu as our Prime Minister despite having other options. We are not talking about the Blue-White Party with its list of Generals from the IDF or the fact that they had three former Chiefs of Staff on their list. These three former Chiefs of Staff are partly responsible for the situation we face as they were instrumental in the decision-making process. These were the same Generals who tout that if Israel would just give the Palestinian Arabs their state, then everything would be rosy and it would shower lemon drops with the sunshine. They were not the solution needed but the political situation in Israel is a sticky problem. As long as the threats remain as they are, and as long as there does not arise a leader who generates the confidence and resolve to address these problems and end the suffering of the Palestinian Arabs as well as the Israelis under rocket fire, then Bibi Netanyahu knows that he is all but guaranteed to remain as Prime Minister for as long as he desires to lead the Likud Party. But there will come a day, hopefully not too far distant, where such a person will rise and challenge Bibi from the right rather than trying to best him from the left. The person we believe who could fill this bill is a man who is soft spoken but firm and strong. One who can excite people through his sincerity and the fact that he means exactly what he says and says what he means. A man of his word with a pedigree which would make for a challenger to Bibi who may arise sooner rather than later.

 

One person many have thought could be that man is a woman, Ayelet Shaked. She had an understanding, or at least this was what people believed, that she would not upstage Naftali Bennett. Now that Bibi targeted their New Right Party a couple of days before the election when he announced his intent to extend Israeli civil law to the settlements in the Shomron, the main point which Bennett and Shaked had been running their campaign around; they fell below threshold while Bibi gained as much as five additional mandates as he also took from the Combined Right led by our party, Jewish Home, though we still passed threshold. Bibi and Bennett have a history which may have fueled Bibi targeting Bennett’s Party which he formed when he all but destroyed Jewish Home the day after elections were called and he left the party taking the number two and number four people from what was our present Knesset list along with his position as chairman of the party. Jewish Home was leaderless and the New Right took half of our Knesset list as they ran out the door leaving destruction in their wake, but we rose in a stronger position in our belief. We weathered the storm and, in the end, may have found just what Israel needs and a potential answer to who could possibly replace Bibi and instill the faith of the people of Israel to trust a new leader with a new direction and new answers to the most vexing of the problems Israel faces.

 

Think of a man who spent their early years in the IDF as a combat helicopter pilot. Helicopters are not the easiest of vehicles to master, ask any pilot, fixed wing or rotary wing. He retired as a Brigadier General and was the Chief Rabbi for the IDF. That right there should answer any questions as to whether you can trust what this man says. On the other side, he understands combat and the risks and would not risk the precious lives of our IDF soldiers in any empty actions for political gain. He has a soft demeanor but commands respect and when he speaks, it is with a quiet strength which makes his words heavy with the force of truth behind them. The Israelis may get their first glimpse as the coalition is cobbled together. This person has already faced a form of challenge to his leadership within our ticket which was a group of parties with one led by a man with great drive and energy who thought he could force his way to unseat the chosen leader. This likely got him a nice quiet, calm, patient and even understanding reading of the riot act and he then settled down knowing he was not to try such again. There were no theatrics, no shouting, nothing that even the news reporters could discern which might have made for a tasty morsel in their articles. Things simply were straightened out and the rules cemented. Now comes the bigger game, the coalition and what price for the support of our group. This will be interesting as this person we have been describing has made it perfectly clear, annexation of Area C of the Shomron will be required to be largely annexed such that all the towns, cities, neighborhoods and industrial zones will be annexed and be placed under civil law and removed from military rule. This and the other lesser points will make for an interesting measure of who is the more forceful and stronger man between Bibi Netanyahu and Rafi Peretz.

 

Rafi Peretz had to be convinced to take the helm of the party as he had little if any desire for entering politics. That might make one believe that this would make him less likely to be anything other than the man filling in for the time being. General Peretz is not the kind of person who would take such a position with such an attitude. No, he was convinced that the Jewish Home Party required a person of his stature and caliber in order to make the Party credible again. A political party does not lose its leader and the next in line along with yet another critical member and just shake it off and continue on. When you are not one of the main parties in the polls, early ones had Jewish Home with zero mandates and we ended up with four or five depending one how one places the division between the three parties which made up the Combined Right group. Rafi Peretz was quoted speaking with Arutz Sheva soon after the Monday ceasefire took effect stating, “This battle needs to result in one thing: a clear sense of deterrence – but we didn’t not achieve that. We need to continue work to prevent attacks, continue to hit critical targets which we have the opportunity to strike at. We can’t stop this [campaign].” His words appear measured and not the words of a man satisfied with the current results. The one good thing about this ceasefire is that it was reached pretty much all on Bibi Netanyahu’s head as there is no real government seated currently. In the current Security Cabinet, you have people who will not even be in the next Knesset and missing some of the people who will be heads of departments and included in the Security Cabinet such as Rafi Peretz. We suspect that should there be another string of attacks from Gaza which result in as unsatisfactory an end as occurred this time, the coalition will be the cost as it is highly probable that Rabbi Rafi Peretz would pull our group from the coalition which will probably be sufficient to bring new elections. That is unless Bibi has something entirely different in mind.

 

Jewish Home Leader Rafi Peretz

 

We have covered the possibility for Bibi Netanyahu to find a peace through the recognizing of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority as the core for forming Palestine in our article “Expectations of Next Netanyahu Government.” This scenario would still exist but would also spell the termination of Bibi Netanyahu politically and clear the way for new leadership in the Likud and a shaking up of the right with unknowable results. The Likud would be divided by such a move as described there which would make it possible for one of the other right-wing parties to take in numerous disgruntled and angry former Likud members. But even without Bibi having a complete meltdown, there will come a period which will forever be known as the post-Bibi era. When that era arrives, we would be proud and pleased for the next Prime Minister after Bibi to be Rafi Peretz, but the smart money is split between Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. Nobody has counted them as out, simply as down but the count has not reached ten. It will be interesting to see what they do, whether they stay together or split and exactly what Bennett will do to resurrect his party the New Right. We can guarantee one thing; Bennett will not pin his campaign on any single item but will have at least three points upon which he will base his hoped-for return. Fortunately, for the foreseeable future, Jewish Home and the Combined Right will be led by Rafi Peretz and this will be interesting to watch. Bibi may be the consummate political operative, Rafi Peretz was of command rank, well educated, capable as a helicopter pilot, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF and best of all, was not overly interested in entering politics and did so for the good of Israel, and it may be for that good which will end up propelling him into becoming Prime Minister. In the meantime, Rafi Peretz will pressure Bibi from the right and perhaps cause him to be more proactive in responding to provocations by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and whatever other terror group attacks Israeli citizens in any manner.

 

And that brings us back to the current imbroglio with Hamas. The way this ceasefire was reached remains murky and the reason behind making such a hasty arrangement could have everything to do with the Eurovision Song Contest which is being held in Tel Aviv. They should have insisted on holding it in Jerusalem as Hamas has not proven they can reach Jerusalem while we know they can reach Tel Aviv. Bibi was probably under quite a great deal of pressure to get things settled and settled immediately no matter the cost. This is not the way to be able to negotiate when your opposites know that you are desperate for the quiet which they control. What is the main problem is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not exactly known for keeping their word or observing ceasefires. This recent weekend of rockets, over six-hundred at last count we saw, occurred during a ceasefire but somebody thought it might be fun to set off a barrage of rockets and once it started, well, it got out of hand. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are both aware that the reprisals from Israel largely strike the same targets over and over of which one is the Hamas training field which resembles a soccer pitch which bombing does little to destroy such a facility. Furthermore, much of Hamas’s and Islamic Jihad’s machine shops which make the rocket motors and bodies, chemical explosive production and other assets are buried deep underground and likely beneath hospitals, schools, mosques and other buildings which Israel is reluctant in striking as they would prove to be propaganda and news nightmares. Imagine the news wire streaming reports from Gaza that Israel bombed a Mosque, school, nursery or any other such sensitive target. No matter how much proof Israel could produce subsequent to such news that there existed a chemical shop making rocket warheads and fuels or a machine shop underneath making the rocket components or other military type targets placed underneath the sensitive structure, the European Union, United Nations, numerous United Nations Agencies, dozens if not hundreds of NGO’s would be screaming and headlines would persist for weeks and it would be a black eye for Israel as the world does not care about Israel’s right to defend itself, the majority of the world simply desires Israel to be erased and will do everything possible to assist in her demise. There is only one question which the world need worry over, will the Eurovision Song Contest continue through to its conclusion without a hitch or will it prove too wonderful a target for Islamic terrorist entities to resist. The whole idea of a singing contest is, to these supposed purists, completely anti-Islamic and sacrilegious. It would almost be a holy imperative for them to strike at the Eurovision Song Contest. This ceasefire which was so hastily cobbled together almost out of the blue may dissolve just as quickly and prove to have been a ruse to try and give Israel the idea that a respite was coming where there would be no rockets for quite some time. It seems we are always reaching ceasefires we hope are going to give us a respite and before we turn around, we hear the sirens, or reports of sirens depending on location, and people are sleeping with their children nestled around them in bomb-shelters. This is something which we are fairly sure that Rafi Peretz will insist that more definitive actions be taken should such occur while he is in the coalition.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

When the World Offers no Solutions

 

Back in the year 2000 the world demanded that Israel surrender the final remainder of the areas liberated when they were captured during the Six Day War in 1967 and defended in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and suffered numerous terror wars ever since. Israel was pressured to allow the Palestinian Authority to have an opportunity completely free of any and all Israeli support or interference and show their ability to form a functional society with a firm economy in Gaza. In 2005 Israel pulled all Israelis out of Gaza including every settler, every last of their dead were reinterred fearing what would happen if their graves were left behind. History has taught that their bodies would be desecrated if not removed and reinterred safely within Israel. Finally, the final steps were performed in early September of 2005 as the IDF closed their bases and after destroying that which could not be transferred, the final IDF forces left handing the keys, so to speak, to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. This was the stagnated state that Gaza remained stuck in as there was little or no effort at development or improving the life of the average Gazan and terrorism continued unabated. In 2007 the tipping point was reached and Hamas declared open warfare with the Palestinian Authority. In bloody fighting, Hamas persevered taking over Gaza and have ruled the region as a dictatorial power appointing each leader rewarding those who were the most active in their war to destroy Israel. Hamas allowed for Islamic Jihad to also set up in Gaza as well as to a lesser degree the Islamic State and a collection of other terrorist entities and criminal gangs. Gaza has remained in this hellish state without any attempts to establish any economic engine other than those necessary for their war on Israel and a small sector servicing the terror leaders and their families and the relative few who have gathered great wealth servicing the terror war or operating the black market.

 

The average Gazan has a bleak outlook of the future as the economic structure of Gaza deteriorates with every offensive against Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad always set their rocket launchers in neighborhoods other than their own and thus have slowly destroyed much of the Gaza Strip ruining economic opportunities and making more people destitute without any future worth living. It should be no surprise that the majority of Gazans would prefer nothing more than to relocate and live anywhere that life could approach normalcy. There has been a slow and mostly illegal emigration out of Gaza without any program to aid these Palestinian Arabs in setting up a new life. Currently, the majority of electricity in Gaza is provided by Israel. The majority of natural gas comes from Israel. Much if not all of clean water comes from Israel. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad elite make sure that these provisions power their homes and lives to a far larger extent than that provided the remainder of Gazans. This is the sorry excuse for the governance in Gaza and the economic situation which it has degenerated into threatens to make Gaza into merely a terrorist engine. As far as the Hamas rulers of Gaza are concerned, the lack any semblance of an economic engine for the majority of the entire region forcing more and more Gazans into terrorist ranks is great as makes their breeding of future terrorists a far easier endeavor. For Israel, Gaza is a problem with no easy solutions and one obvious one. The unfortunate reality is the world, led by Europe, refuses to even couch the only solution for the people of Gaza, Israel and Egypt, namely for Israel to sponsor an exit strategy for the Gazans who desire starting their lives elsewhere. The European Union demands that Israel deal with Hamas through Egypt or the United Nations making ceasefire after ceasefire which they know Hamas and Islamic Jihad will break within weeks leading to their demand that a new ceasefire be negotiated with Israel being made to pay an ever greater price in blood, the cost of the interceptors and the death and injury of her people along with the lost economic production. Perhaps the time has come to ignore the United Nations, the European Union, foreign governments and every other busybody and do what will serve both Israel and the Gazan people the most favorable results to solve the situation to the satisfaction of all involved who are not involved with terrorism.

 

The Two Gazas with One Pristine and the Other Ravaged

 

The problem can be permanently resolved but only if the rest of the world simply allow Israel to resolve the challenge in a manner conducive to all involved by removing the terrorist governance and reintegrate the region under Israeli control. The first stage would come in response to the upcoming rocket barrage from either Hamas, Islamic Jihad or whatever Gazan terror outfit which decides to restart hostile action. Israel should provide the United Nations, European Union and the rest of the notable busybodies that the next failure to keep peace in Gaza will result in Israel retaking Gaza as was presumed to be what would be the result of any failure of the Palestinian Authority. As the Palestinian Authority lost control in 2007, Israel was supposed to retake Gaza immediately after Hamas took control. This was the promise of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and United States President George W. Bush when the Gaza pullout was agreed upon by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Well, when Hamas took over Gaza in a coup in 2007, those American politicians apparently had a very serious case of amnesia and Israel was not provided coverage by the American administration to retake Gaza as they had promised. The rest is, as they say, history. One of the problems is that every rocket which is detected and determined to likely strike an inhabited region, the interceptor launched to destroy each one coasts approximately fifty-thousand-dollars in order to prevent what is likely a fifty to five-hundred-dollar rocket. That is another price which Israel could live without its necessity. Every Israeli saved by the Iron Dome is priceless, but there is still a price attached to every interception. This situation as it currently exists is unsustainable for Israel and even worse for the people of Gaza.

 

The solution is to allow Israel to conquer Gaza removing the terror entities forcing their leadership into exile and starting to undo the ecological and economic disasters which have resulted from their terrorist governance and its complete lack of concern for the people and the ecological situation leading to the Gazan groundwater being unfit to drink. The lives of the average Gazan outside the wealthier strip along the Mediterranean Sea, lives in an ecologic disaster area where when the tires are being burned along the border and the wind changes and blows from out of the east, the air is choking, as already stated, the ground water is undrinkable and the economic opportunities are all but nonexistent outside of joining the terrorist armies. The solution is the same as was applied to Eastern Jerusalem where the Palestinian Arabs are permitted all rights outside of political and even there they are permitted to vote in Jerusalem and neighborhood elections. Their sole restriction is from national elections as this will need to await decisions on providing them with full Israeli citizenship at some distant time. The Gazans can be permitted to have political rights within Gaza and its cities but remain under Israeli security with the IDF being fully operational within Gaza. Gaza would be returned to Israeli rule with their former autonomy reversed as was supposed to occur should the experiment fail, which it did in magnificent fashion. As the Palestinian Authority has failed repeatedly to form a unified governance with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, then it should be the right for Israel to retake control over Gaza replacing their terrorist governance. No nation should or is forced to live with terrorist ruling a region on their borders, let alone a region which technically remains part of Israel legally. Once Israel removes Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the first step would be to offer Gazans with an incentive to relocate in such a manner that nations who desire to provide the Gazans with a place to relocate would receive incentives in proportion to the numbers they allow to relocate within their borders. The incentives will overcome the trepidation for some nations and these relocation incentives will be split between the Gazans and the nations accepting them. Then the rebuilding and cleanup of Gaza can begin. With time Gaza will once again become productive. This is the only means by which Gaza can be made livable for those who remain. Why the United Nations, European Union and so many others wish to force the Gazans to live under such oppressive and unhealthy an environment under terrorist rulers just to impose a constant threat against Israel is beyond disturbing. Such disregard for human life is horrifying and just causing Israel difficulties is not sufficient reason that these people to be left at the mercies of such horrific conditions and it does not serve Israel to permit this situation to fester. The time has come for Israel to exercise its rights under the original agreement reached for the Gaza disengagement and reestablish her rule over the region. And if such works in Gaza, then next it should be applied to the Palestinian Authority regions in the Shomron where there already is some level of such cooperation. The Palestinian Arabs should be permitted to enjoy much the same benefits as Israeli Arabs with the possibility of further political rights over time. Israel needs to do what serves her the best and if such improves the lives of Palestinian Arabs, then all the better.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Hamas not Observing Ceasefire as Usual

 

We all have likely seen the cartoon or the rephrasing of the main idea of the cartoon and Hamas observing a ceasefire. Well, they are at it again having launched over ninety rockets this otherwise quiet Shabbat morning. Saturdays are Hamas’s favorite time to launch broadsides at Israel as most troops are off base for the weekend and the ones remaining may not normally be assigned the positions they may be manning. This time it comes after sporadic firing on Friday afternoon along with continued rioting along the Gaza border which included shooting by Hamas into Israel at the IDF positions put in place to prevent Terrorists from infiltrating Israel and murdering Israelis. As we type this abbreviated report, we realize that this is not news, there are no big surprises and it goes without saying that Israel struck back eliminating two rocket launchers. We could list the places where warning sirens wailed, the casualties were one boy injured while dashing to make it to a shelter in time and a few cases of shock. There were reports that rockets struck highway 4 and inside one community doing minimal if any actual damage. In Israel some of the potholes on the roads are where rockets struck because they were not tracked to strike anywhere there were people. The Iron Dome did intercept dozens, let us stress, dozens of Hamas rockets which might have done inordinate amounts of damage and potentially killed or injured Israelis.

 

All of this from Hamas and Islamic Jihad comes possibly as an Iranian ordered increase in activity against Israel as a response to President Trump having cancelled the issuance of any further waivers for importation of Iranian oil. The Mullahs in Iran had threatened to attack Israel should the United States take such steps while also threatening to strike at American forces in Middle East including especially the Persian Gulf region as well as along the Strait of Hormuz which they also threatened to close to all outgoing oil shipments. This would terminate as much as thirty-percent of world oil shipments. The Iranians are not insane, they just act as if they were. They know that attacking the American fleet would bring horrific retaliation ordered by President Trump. Having Hamas and Islamic Jihad pound away at Israel causes minor resultant strikes by Israel at the usual targets more as an effort to calm the Israeli public by pretending to have actually done something. We have been writing slowly and reading social media and what few news reports we can find. Saturday, Shabbat, is not the easiest of times to receive reports, but some is getting through. There have been additional rockets fired, one home has been struck but fortunately the family has escaped, one woman has been reported to have been seriously injured and the barrage remains off the international radar. It is only Israelis being inconvenienced and there has been no war started against Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israel has obeyed the rules and not struck anything vital and has avoided hurting any of the world’s precious little Palestinian friends.

 

Let us talk about something which is seldom mentioned. That is the economics behind these attacks. These rockets being fired out of Gaza are inexpensive ranging from a mere tens of dollars to potentially possibly as high as a thousand dollars for their highest range and largest rockets. Then we look at the Israeli side of this economic equation and we find that each interceptor costs approximately fifty-thousand-dollars each. As Israel has very probably intercepted dozens of rockets, that would likely require anywhere from exactly two-dozen to as many as several dozens of these Iron Dome interceptors. This runs the cost of this one day of protection for all Israeli citizens from half-a-million-dollars to as high as two-and-a-half-million-dollars. Yes, what you read is accurate and is also the major differentiation between the two sides. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both receive or steal from supplies provided into Gaza by Israel after it has been checked for weapons and certain military use materials. Still, Israel is consistently forced to permit tons, literally tons, of building provisions such as cement, concrete, steel, aluminum and others which Hamas and Islamic Jihad take over ninety-percent of these provisions leaving the Gazans without sufficient materials to rebuild their shattered lives. Hamas and Islamic Jihad use these materials to construct bunkers, tunnels, underground rocket firing positions and infiltration tunnels which Israel largely (if not entirely) detected and destroyed which simply drove Hamas and Islamic Jihad to simply build more believing Israel has just been getting lucky.

 

This theft of material and other criminal activities conducted by the Gaza terrorists is what is causing the financial, economic, societal and environmental collapses and the destruction of those items most necessary for life. There have been reports that virtually all ground-water in Gaza has become undrinkable and may soon reach the tipping-point where it will become unable to support normative forms of life. This has been a direct result of a total disregard for the people, their health and the environment by those who rule in Gaza. This has nothing to do with Israel. Some Gazans, when they are assured of having total anonymity, have expressed their desire for Israel to takeover Gaza such that their lives would improve. Similar reports have also come from the areas under the Palestinian Authority. Many Palestinians are becoming very sick and tired of having their lives destroyed by the very people who are supposed to care for them. In Israel there are some who also call for the retaking of Gaza and of all of Judea and Samaria removing the terrorist infrastructure and remove the terror leaders who are behind much of the terrorism. In Gaza the children are trained in school to hate Jews and Israel and are indoctrinated into believing that if they give their lives while murdering Israelis they will go to heaven and live a life they could only dream of living. Mahmoud Abbas has gone further by paying the Palestinians for murdering Israelis at such a rate that their family could live comfortably on such a stipend. This will eventually have two effects, numerous families, eventually a majority, will rely on these payments for their support. Both societies are dysfunctional and becoming worse and less stable. The governances are unstable as they steal from the economies slowly destroying the society and all which is dependent upon a solid and steady economic stability. These kleptocracies are destroying their societies through their steady theft of resources draining resources as the leadership enrich themselves. Despite the Palestinian Arabs being the most well-supported groups receiving far more aid than any other group (see graph below), despite the receipt of the greatest amount of aid by the Palestinian Arabs, outside of the terror leaders and criminal gangs, the people themselves are amongst some of the poorest. That is far more accurate in describing Gazans while there are some who have found a means of enriching themselves through shrewd dealings but the average Palestinian leads a meager life compared to their counterparts within Israel.

 

Graph of Aid Money to Palestinian Territories and other needful locations

 

What is further troubling about the rockets out of Gaza is that they are occurring in the immediate aftermath of the establishing of another ceasefire. It has become the signature of almost every Hamas agreement to the imposition of a ceasefire. For their firing rockets, launching incendiary kites and balloons, shooting at IDF units and other offensive attacks for hours beyond the official time set for the ceasefire, their hopes are that Israel will react strongly and then they will scream to the European Union, the United Nations and to countless NGO’s pointing at the Israeli breaking of the newly established ceasefire. The fact that Israel was responding to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other violence against Israel is considered inconsequential as attacking Israelis using terror is considered a normal activity and thus must be understood, not reacted upon. The world basically desires for Israel to simply take whatever punches are dealt to us; while were they attacked by one-thousandth the terror in a single attack on their nation, then they would be screaming war and demanding blood. But Israel is supposed to tolerate the terrorism against us. After all, did not Israel build the most awesome interception system called Iron Dome? That keeps you safe as we have noticed and the poor Gazans do not have such a device. This is not Israel’s fault as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have spent more on terrorism than Israel spent in the development of the Iron Dome; so it is obviously a matter of priorities. The Israeli priorities are the safety of their people and the preservation of life while Hamas and Islamic Jihad invest in destruction and deal in death, both their own people and Israelis. Hamas and Islamic Jihad use the death of Gazans as a weapon against Israel and use all their funds in attempts to develop means of destroying Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim they love the land but their every act appears to be attempts to completely destroy that same land. But what is the worst are the actions of the world in their demands that Israel absorb all the terrorism thrown at her while allowing every other nation to react militarily against any group perpetrating terror violence against them. That is the worst of all the double standards Israel receives. It is completely uncovered in that Israel is forced to accept rockets launched into her territory for the hours ensuing the initiation of a ceasefire as if the ceasefire actually states that Israel cease hostilities at some adopted time while the terrorists get to continue shooting at Israel for a number of hours after the onset of the ceasefire. This double standard is unsustainable.

 

What the world is unaware of is that many Israelis are becoming sick and tired of the double standards and being a punching bag. Many have come close to the end of their patience and others have reached the end of our wits. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Bibi, is the master at doing as little as required to get around actually addressing the situation. His reluctance to act has thus far worked to continue to allow him to remain as the Israeli Prime Minister. The fact is that Bibi is seen as the most capable to protect Israel from much of the world including those hotbeds of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic activists such as the United Nations and the plethora of organizations it supports. While Bibi is pretty much safe from any challenge from the left, something this past election proved as he faced what many in the media predicted was going to be his final comeuppance. Where Bibi is vulnerable is from a competent leader with the correct view willing to propose ending the terrorist governances threatening Israel from within her borders. A candidate who would inform Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that no longer would Israel tolerate their terrorism nor would it tolerate their subjugating their people to line their pockets. A leader who promised a new day where Israel would no longer tolerate terrorism of any nature and if necessary was willing to take over the regions and replace their terrorist leadership. The main idea which would cause a challenge for Bibi is somebody finally coming out and credibly laiding out the plan to address and end terrorism either by the Palestinian Arab leadership otherwise Israel will take all the steps required to end these threats. All Israel requires is just such a leader, if only we knew where to find such a person.

 

Beyond the Cusp