The Forgotten People are the Israeli Public

 

We hear almost incessantly about the plight of the Palestinian Arabs never stopping to wonder how their lives differ from that of Israelis. We are referring to daily life along with the occasional trip to see a doctor, go to Tel Aviv to get goods not available in our town, take a trip to Jerusalem to visit government offices or to simply look at all the sights or a myriad of other items. The first things we will talk about are the regular obstacles and things which make up an average week. Should we decide to go to either mall in town, there will be the checkpoint where we walk through a magnetometer checking for metal no matter how small and any bags you have are gone through by one of the people at the checkpoint. Just to get this out of the way, there are checkpoints all over Israel even to include restaurants, office buildings, train stations and on and on meaning that it is possible to have to pass through three or four or more on a badly planned day. Additionally, there are security cameras in places throughout town. Some are looking for shoplifters while others are actually for security. Checkpoints and monitoring cameras are simply part of life in our current state of the world. We take them as a necessary part of our being kept protected and safe. Even with all the precautions keeping one safe, often you just worry if you really are being kept as safe as possible, and you accept that some balance has been attempted, but, yes, checkpoints can be a hassle, more so when you are late and barely have time to catch the right train.

 

The biggest difference between residing in Israel and the Palestinian Arab regions is economic. Do not take that to mean that there are no wealthy Palestinian Arabs, as there are many who have gotten quite wealthy often through providing the terrorists with their tools of their trade. Others were favored by the leadership, be they Hamas or Palestinian Authority (PA), and thus given special treatment which provided them with a steady and quite sufficient cash flow. This is much the same as it is in many places except theirs is on steroids. If the PA or Hamas are not getting their “rightful” cut of your business, then you will soon find yourself out of business and replaced with somebody more appreciative. In Israel there are stratification in wealth with some who have become extremely wealthy and those who are barely getting by. The housing makes this quite apparent. The main difference is in Israel the government is restricted by the rule of law under which the government and its officials are constrained to work. The Palestinian Arab governments are rule of man where the people with political power can use such unrestrained for their own purposes. In Israel everything lives within the same set of rules, not so much under the PA and even worse under Hamas. Your opportunities being greater in Israel is largely due to the fact that the government is constrained and not taking half of the profits and using it in a terror war against Israel. This also puts a damper on the Israeli economy as there is the added cost of providing security which requires a virtual war footing 24/7 and yet Israel has managed to be a successful economic nation.

 

There are a few things which Israelis suffer through silently, for the most part with this article an exception, which the Palestinian Arabs do not suffer of which the most obvious is the fear of being caught in a terrorist bombing. We hear some claiming that they have to fear being caught in a bombing raid from Israeli fighter jets, this we will get to in a later paragraph. Then there are terrorist attacks such as stabbings, vehicular ramming, shootings, stones slinging and other forms of attacks. Fortunately, these are a rarity in our little town, probably because we are considered to be in the boondocks and rarely merit attention, which can be a good thing. Still, when we take a trip to Haifa, our chance of being in a terror attack likely doubles, Tel Aviv it becomes four-fold and going to Jerusalem makes such nearly ten-fold a problem and we will not even talk of Hevron or visiting Joseph’s tomb or other places which require visiting around 2:00 AM with a full IDF escort platoon or company as if the visit is discovered, the visitors will require a military styled extraction as a riot with fire-bombs, rocks, bottles and anything else being hurled at the “invasive Jew.” Even visiting the Temple Mount, one runs a risk of having a riot break out or a shooting to occur threatening their safety. Visiting the Western Wall one can sometimes find that there are those from upon the Temple Mount hurling sometimes sizable rocks down on those praying below and this is a three to four story fall where the rocks pick up their share of momentum. All of these terrorist threats do not exist for the Palestinian Arabs as the Jews are not seeking to murder every last one of them as they are attempting, or at least desiring, for us.

 

About that threat of being caught in an Israeli airstrike, that is a fairly rare occurrence with the exception of when there is open warfare. If one reads the reports on the Israeli retaliatory strikes, they will find that any number of buildings have been hit and there are no or extremely few casualties and rarely fatalities resulting. The IDF is ordered to strike buildings known to be vacant and often when an Israeli strike has been provoked, Hamas or the PA make sure to keep their forces out of harms way. Further, Israel targets military forces and structures and attempt to avoid civilian structures with the exception of targeted strikes on leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups. When strikes are formulated by the Palestinian Arabs, they target Israeli civilians and often the most vulnerable, our children. One deadly example is pictured below where a mortar struck a kindergarten play area fortunately a mere hour before the children arrived. The attacks are often planned to coincide with the times when children are on their way to or from classes. Even the disjointed and varied schedule has little effect as they simply observe and choose the best times for killing the children to attack. Israeli strikes are usually executed in the early, early morning when there are few if any people who might be hurt or worse. That is a major difference. Israel attempts to minimize civilian casualties while the terror groups target Israeli civilians, which includes sometimes Israeli Arabs.

 

Remains of Tail Section of Mortar Striking Kindergarten Play Area

 

Mind you, there is one threat which actually targets our little town along with everywhere within Israel, and that is Hezballah. Hezballah is a terror army under direct control of Iran who also has provided them with weaponry including a large supply of rockets and missiles. The estimates range around one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles. The fortunate break, if it can be considered as one, is that as we are a smaller city and reside rather close to the Lebanon border, the rockets (rarely missiles as we do not have targets that important to the terrorists) they strike us with have smaller warheads, usually between fifteen and forty pounds of high explosive or incendiary agents (see tables below). Still, having three to five hundred of such projectiles striking in and around your town can make for a really bad day. Have it happen for ten, twenty or over thirty days in a row and life approaches unbearable. This is something which, believe it or not, you get accustomed to as just one additional potential threat which can ruin one’s life. We understand that the damage caused by these “smaller” warheads is nothing compared to four-hundred-pound warheads on their larger missiles. Still, one really does not wish to be anywhere close to a missile strike. These threats were much of the impetus for the development of Iron Dome which is capable of severely reducing the risk for Israelis being struck in any such attack. The problem should Iran order Hezballah to start launching their rockets and missiles in great numbers, when they are launching hundreds of these every hour, even the Iron Dome has its limitations.

 

Hezballah Rocket and Missile Types and Sizes

 

There is one other threat which Israelis face that the Palestinian Arabs only need worry about misfires or faulty guidance systems, and that is the threat of an attack directly from Iran. Such an attack would most likely be targeting Tel Aviv metropolitan region, nowhere in Israel is all that far outside of this area and thus potentially could be struck. Iran would only be firing missiles and there is the potential for these warheads to carry anything from explosives and incendiaries to nerve agents, biological agents and other chemical agents. The nerve, chemical and biologic agents are all qualified as weapons of mass destruction and constitute war crimes should they be employed. Iran could not care less about such niceties. They would launch anything and everything if it might add to the body count in Israel. This includes nuclear warheads should Iran possess such weapons, and we fear they have a stock of nuclear warheads and potentially thermonuclear warheads. These missiles would need be intercepted by David’s Sling or the Arrow systems which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, exactly the variety Iran would utilize in such an attack. Are they as effective as the Iron Dome? We need remember that we only know of the effectiveness of the Iron Dome because it has been tested in actual conditions during the last set of rocket barrages out of Gaza launched by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We hope to never find out exactly how well the anti-ballistic missile systems work as we would just as soon avoid any situation under which they would be tested. The fact that the United States placed a THAAD system in Israel to provide further defensive capabilities should Iran attack Israel is another sign of how serious the situation has become. This was a precaution provided for these times when tensions between the United States and Iran are running high and keeping in mind that Iran has promised to destroy Israel within an hour after any American attack upon Iranian assets. This means that Iran already has missiles targeting Israel ready for launch as soon as the word is given. But you get used to such things.

 

Life in Israel is good and always a bit interesting. Fortunately, these interesting items mostly include trying something new for lunch, watching the local schools play sports, wondering if the movie will be any good, and other normal items. Then, in the back of your mind, you have these other little elements which cause an entirely different kind of excitement, the not so pleasant kind. We all know of the threat and sometimes even discuss what we expect, what we should expect and what we fear we need to expect. One-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles is a terrible and real threat. Hezballah is the largest and best armed non-state military. The reality is that Hezballah is to Lebanon what the IRGC is to Iran. So, the next time somebody complains about how the Palestinian Arabs have to pass through checkpoints, please inform them that Israelis also are required to pass through checkpoints as part of their everyday lives as well. When their complaint is that the Palestinian Arabs have such a poor economy compared to Israel, tell them it is their terrorist governments which steal most of the funds and take a lion’s share of the economy to operate their terrorist attacks and to line their own pockets. And lastly, when they claim that the Palestinian Arabs reside under constant threat of attack, please do not let that lie pass unchallenged as the attacks Israel directs are targeting buildings used by the terror outfits and Israel attempts to minimize casualties while the threats against Israelis are targeting the public at large. Finally, there is always the threat sitting on the northern border of Israel in the form of Hezballah and the threat off in the east known as Iran, and that last threat very probably is a nuclear armed state. The main difference is that the Israelis do not have a propaganda system in place around the world financed by billions of petro-dollars and supported on virtually every college and university campus in the forms of BDS and the plethora of Palestinian Arab rights groups and other groups disguised as human rights groups which are in reality anti-Israel teams used to attack any time Israel defends herself. These are the realities which are clouded in a storm of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic hatred which is poisoning much of the Western World and already has inundated most of the third world nations. Strip away the lies and propaganda and the picture radically changes, but we do not expect such a miracle for the time being and still hold out hope the Messiach will soon arrive and all will be repaired one way or the other.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

There Are No Lone Wolf Terrorist Attacks

 

Ari Fuld, a forty-five year old father of four, American-Israel dual citizen was stabbed in the back for two simple reasons; first was because he was an Israeli and likely a Jew and second because he was preoccupied talking on his cell phone in English. The seventeen-year-old Palestinian Arab from an Arab village near the shopping center told security police that he was seeking to murder an American Jew. He had reportedly entered a nearby store and asked the lady working the counter if she spoke English and her response that she did not probably saved her life. Ari, despite being fatally stabbed in the back and near his heart still managed to chase his attacker and wound him using his legally carried handgun before collapsing thus preventing the terrorist from reaching the woman he was chasing to take a second victim. As the terrorist claimed that he was not a member of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, ISIS or any other terrorist group, the reports claim that he was a ‘Lone Wolf’ and as such there was no possible means of preventing his attack. ‘Lone Wolf’ has become the catch-all phrase by which governments are able to claim that there is no means of predicting and preventing such terrorism. ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists, we are told, simply wake up one morning and get the idea that they simply wish to go kill somebody or make a single bomb and murder a group of people. Some of these ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists actually come in small terrorist bands which plot and plan some fairly sophisticated attacks by getting the required information on the Internet for making an explosive device and even the means for hiding their operations and how to maximize the deaths and other casualties, all found on an on-line library. These Internet sites are not placed there by ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists; they are placed there by terrorist instigators who provide these sites as acting terror groups in the hope that they will be used to commit attacks. The entire arrangement is part and parcel with incitement by Imams and other agents from the many and numerous terrorist organizations, and that is what they are, organizations, working to inspire youths to reach life everlasting in a land filled with lush meadows, numerous rivers, lakes, palm trees, wines which you drink without any negative effects and seventy-two raven haired perpetual virgins through martyrdom.

 

When one takes this ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist ruse to explain terror attacks, it is utterly ridiculous as the PLO or the Palestinian Authority or Fatah or some obscure source possible from Mahmoud Abbas’s stolen millions are giving rewards to the families of terrorists for the murdering of Israelis. They get bonuses if they are an Israeli citizen, come from Jerusalem and the family gets a bonus if they are martyred. They are compensated if their terrorist family member is imprisoned with bonuses commensurate with the length of their sentence and additional payments for every additional murder victim. There have been terrorists who have admitted to Israeli authorities that they committed their terror acts in order to provide for their families. They murdered Israelis in order to provide a permanent income promised by their governing bodies for their families and because they were unable to find employment in the Palestinian Authority governed region. The terrorist who murdered Ari Fuld was, in all honesty, a paid assassin from the Palestinian Authority government through a subordinate organization.

 

Ari Fuld

 

Ari Fuld was an Israeli hero, a super hero to many, a superlative representative of Israel and Zionism, part of his village’s security detail and a person held in esteem and looked up to by many of all ages. Ari Fuld was killed in the shopping center which is built around the supermarket where Israelis and Arabs shop and work together. There are a number of these kinds of shopping centers across all of Israel and they exist near the larger communities in the Shomron. There is something very interesting about these shopping centers which is not often reported; they seem to attract these ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists. Then there are bus stops which also have this propensity to attract ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists. Buses themselves have also collected their share of ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists. If you are beginning to think that almost anywhere you have a probability to be attacked by a ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist, you are not far from wrong. The truth is in the Shomron (disputed territories), Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv metropolitan area or other cities to a lesser degree proportional to their population, then you do run the risk of being murdered by ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists. What is interesting is that only Israelis, almost exclusively Jews, have been the victims of such attacks though there have been Arabs who have been attacked similarly but the total number is far less to the point of being virtually inconsequential.

 

Palestinian students hold up axes during an anti-Israel protest

 

There are many things which the world tends to ignore simply because, for the most part, people are not all that concerned with Israelis who fall to terrorism. What is even more worrying is that these same people get up in arms and start criticizing and protesting against Israel should a single Palestinian Arab be killed. This is an old story which has stretched across history from Ancient Egypt through the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persian, Greeks, Romans, Caliphate, Crusaders, Ottomans, British, Nazis and as well as the periods between these conquests. All too often, killing the Jews has all too often been the actual policy of the governing bodies which ruled over communities of Jews. These are known throughout history with the two most infamous have been the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi Holocaust. The Arabs would like to join that infamous list as was stated very clearly by Azzam Pasha speaking of the Arab intent for the 1948-9 Arab Israeli War where Arab forces grabbed the Shomron (West Bank) and Gaza from what was recognized under International Law as the borders of Israel stating, it will be “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.” This has not changed as there are signs warning Israelis, actually Jews, that their lives are endangered should they proceed further and that it is against Israeli law to enter the Arab ruled regions (see picture below). The interesting corollary does not exist, as there are no signs or warnings for the Arabs that entering into Israeli and Jewish areas, as it would endanger their lives. Arabs, both Israeli and Palestinian, are able to travel around Israel, shop in Israel, eat in Israeli restaurants or eateries, swim at Israeli beaches, receive medical care upon approval from the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, hike in parks, visit playgrounds and do anything that an Israeli is permitted and do so in perfect safety. How is this possible that the Arabs can walk freely in Israel and Israelis will likely die should they do the same in the Palestinian Arab or Hamas controlled regions? The murder of an innocent Israeli as well as the table of the “compensation” of terrorist families for the murder of Israelis is all here in this article. This is another article which references the instigations from Mahmoud Abbas in a number of videos. And then there was another ‘Lone Wolf’ terror attack of a family eating Shabbat dinner as well as the infamous Nablus blood sacrifice of two IDF reservists who took a wrong turn entering Arab controlled areas.

 

Sign Warning Israelis it is Illegal to Enter Arab Region for Safety Reasons

 

These are the realities in Israel. The Arabs have equality and are permitted to travel wherever they please. Are they often required to pass through a checkpoint? Of course they do as they are technically entering a foreign country. Israelis, particularly Jews, are forbidden, for good reason, from entering into the Palestinian Arab regions. Obviously, the Jews would not survive entering Gaza as even Palestinian Arabs from the Palestinian Authority have faced explosive devices in attempts to murder them, so one can only imagine what might happen to any Israeli attempting to enter Gaza under Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. Jews who would enter the Palestinian Authority regions would face a near identical result as evidenced in the picture in the last link above the picture. As far as the ‘great inconvenience’ we hear from the Palestinian Arab spokespeople about the requirement for checkpoints, Israelis, all Israelis, are required to go through checkpoints to use the trains, entering malls, going to a concert, entering an area to watch a parade, entering virtually every public event, going to vote, entering a political rally and numerous other places where security requires such especially where there will be large numbers of people. In Israel, for our own safety, requires their going through checkpoints even for something as trivial as eating out at a restaurant, and prices of goods reflect such in their prices as these checkpoints are not free. We have come to expect such and simply accept the checkpoints as being for our own safety and peace of mind. What is not acceptable is the ‘pay to slay’ program run by Mahmoud Abbas and his terrorist leadership and that where Jews must be restricted from entering these Palestinian Arab regions, the Arabs roam freely within Israel enjoying all the same rights and pleasures any Israeli can. Truth be told, a Palestinian Arab walking around within Israel has a likelihood of being the victim of a terrorist attack, but that attack would be committed by another Palestinian Arab mistaking them for an Israeli Jew, and yes the two population have a wide area of similarity in appearances. This has been why most terrorists seek out religious Jews because their clothing identifies them as Jews and as they are not targeting other Arabs, even Israeli Arabs. These are the realities in the bare truth as we can best put the truth.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Growing Anti-Semitism Causing Concern

When the subject of anti-Semitism is discussed many areas in the world are more likely to be included before anybody would even think of including the United States as a place of major concern. The most often chosen discussed areas where there is growing anti-Semitism are the Muslim Middle East and North Africa and Europe. The Muslim anti-Semitism is often claimed to be driven mostly over Israel and the Palestinian statehood issue. This is not the entire truth and more than likely being chosen as the reason behind anti-Semitism is done so as not to need to address the historic anti-Semitism which has risen periodically throughout Muslim lands since the inception of Islam in Mecca and especially Medina. Another misrepresentation has been the claim that after the Holocaust and the end of World War II that anti-Semitism had disappeared from Europe and the West. The truth is that anti-Semitism had simply retreated beneath the societal radar and had become unacceptable which only served to put it in apparent remission but did not cure these peoples of the disease called anti-Semitism. The proof of this having been the case is the rapid growth of the national socialist political parties which have adopted much of the original Nazi racial puritan ethic which has a definitive anti-Semitic strain driving the movement. This has been most evident in those countries which are experiencing economic difficulties or other stressful pressures on their social fabric. Still, much of the public try and dismiss these political groups as passing blips on the political spectrum and simply if ignored they will pass away before they cause any real harm. If my memory serves me, that was exactly the thoughts of polite European society about the rise of the national socialists in Germany and elsewhere prior to their rise to power in Nazi Germany, and the rest is, as they say, history.

 

North America and the United States in particular are considered to be paragons of acceptance where anti-Semitism is something which has been relegated to a miniscule minority whose numbers are so minute as not to be any actual concern. If this were only true. What masks much of the anti-Semitism is that it exists in the form of either anti-Israel or anti-Zionist political movements. The claim that virulent anti-Israel and anti-Zionist adherents are protesting only Israel and do not necessarily have any hatred towards Jews is more often a false premise than truth. This article is not intended to argue this point but rather to address the rise of anti-Semitism within North America and particularly within the United States. Where in the general society there is not much evident anti-Semitism in any of its incarnations; but in the arenas from which our future leadership is being molded and educated, the elite colleges and universities, the growth of anti-Semitism is extremely troubling. The initial foot in the door has been the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and pro-Palestinian movements and in particular the BDS Movement which demands Universities and whomever else they can persuade to fight Israel through Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions. The one item which these groups will stress and go to great lengths to emphasize are that under no circumstance are they or do they condone in any form anti-Semitism. To quote Macbeth, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

 

The truth is in their actions and we need to judge these people by their actions and not simply listen to their words. On many campuses there exist different main events behind those utilizing the political difficulties concerning Israel in order to promote their masked anti-Semitism. These are BDS Protests and Palestinian Solidarity Weeks or Months. These events are often accompanied by general measures taken presumably to demonstrate the “sins” of the State of Israel. One such is to present eviction notices to certain students that they are to leave their dorm room within the next few hours as they are scheduled to be destroyed. This is done implying that Israel simply randomly destroys Palestinian homes for absolutely no reason other than just because they are Palestinian owned homes. The students whose doors receive the fake eviction notices are known Jewish students, Hillel members, and those known to support Israel. Another event is to place checkpoints around the campus where any students wearing Star of David jewelry, Yarmulkes, or other ways are known to be Jews are stopped and treated roughly and demeaned simply because they are Jews and presumed to support Israel. The truth is they seldom give such treatment to Christian or other supporters of Israel. Then there are the Walls of Shame where they place a wall that supposedly represents the anti-terror fence which in urban areas or areas where snipers have targeted Israeli homes and vehicles they erect actual walls but the vast majority of the barrier uses fencing. Often this wall is covered with the names of Palestinians who have been arrested by Israel on terrorist charges, also the names of terrorists Israel has killed in the commission of acts of terror and even the names of those who died in suicide bombings for which they blame Israel. As these demonstrations have grown in size and numbers there has come with them a general atmosphere on numerous campuses where all things Israel are condemned and anybody who supports Israel is scorned and many professors are known to grade these students harshly with some even being failed. Some campuses the atmosphere has grown so toxic that Jewish students have taken to hiding the fact that they are Jewish and those who have not taken such precautions are physically attacked. The situation has reached such epidemic proportions that there are currently lawsuits filed against Universities for not providing a safe and secure educational environment and not protecting students from religious persecutions in Federal Courts under civil rights laws.

 

But the problems of today will pale in comparison to what is likely to be coming in the near future. Directly resulting from the poisoned educational environment which casts Israel directly and Jews by inference as evil and undesirable entities and such premises tainting administrations especially in the social sciences will produce a core of future leaders tainted to varying extents as a result. The percentage does not need to be as significant as many would like to believe to do immense damage. The reality is that should the current trends continue to grow at the same rate as they have been growing in recent history, the problem will soon become a major influencing factor in our advanced educational systems. Studying such occurrences throughout history produces a very troubling picture where what begins as a small movement within the elite educational society will rapidly gain adherents and reach a societal movement often as quickly as a decade and more readily within three decades. The anti-Israel and anti-Zionist movement infecting the elite educational societies in the United States and in Canada are already closing in on their first decade and have grown significantly to the point that even some traditionally Jewish colleges and universities have supported BDS protests and Palestinian solidarity protests. One of the hotbeds of these movements has been the California College System, one of the largest university and college systems in the United States. The one factor which guarantees that these events and support structures driving them will remain well funded and will have all the resources they require is the simple fact that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and other Muslim organizations will continue to supply monetary support. This support has been most evident when one researches the Middle East Departments of almost every American major university where Arabists hold most of the positions of power and influence. Where much of this problem has remained largely out of sight and is not covered in any depth in the mainstream media, the ramifications and ramifications of this situation will produce its foul and rotten fruit which will unfortunately become evident and recognized likely far too late to avoid the worst results even I might predict. This coming from one who is often dismissed as a pessimist but too often prove out in time to have been a realist.

 

Beyond the Cusp