The Gaza Proof on Palestinian Problem

 

People who have for years heard about the plight of the poor Palestinian Arabs under the harsh yoke of Israeli (Jew) oppression in propaganda paid for by leftists and Arab nations and groups. Billions upon billions of dollar and Euros have been spent on these campaigns. There have been further investments in the Palestinian Arabs with billion of dollars from the United States and billion of Euros from the European Union (EU) and its member nations a well as a good amount of funding from Arab nations and non EU European nations. Much, if not most of the money has gone for terrorism. Of the remaining funds, the vast majority of these presumably go for public works projects of which Mahmoud Abbas’s sons own the companies who supposedly do the work. Often the work is signed off as completed when in reality nothing was performed. The remainder is used for actual benefit of the Arabs. The Palestinian Authority (PA) uses their heavy financing for bribing cooperation from Hamas who are less well financed as the United States and the EU recognize their terrorist agenda. Still, the Hamas terrorist ruling dictatorial regime has found ways of regularly playing hard to get followed by relaxing their demands once the “desperate to unify with Gaza” Palestinian Authority offers sufficient support. We recently witnessed another fake reunion brokered by Egypt which, as expected by many who follow these events, has already began to crumble and will be dust blown into the crevasses of history soon to be forgotten. Now that Hamas has received the cash, they could stop the pretenses and soon what had appeared to be mended splits in their relationship returned to tearing the two apart. Unfortunately, all of the Hamas outstanding bills are paid and there is a terror organization on the Israeli border flush with cash and this means rockets returning to the border areas aimed at Israeli civilians. And there is the lesson of Gaza and the proof of what another Palestinian Arab state would be like.

 

Polls taken in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) of the PA Arabs on what governance they would desire and overwhelmingly they choose Hamas over the Mahmoud Abbas Kleptocracy. This was the exact situation when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush came up with the perfect way to prove exactly how civilized and ready to have a normative democratic state under the rule of law willing to live peacefully side-by-side with Israel. They pressed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon until he gave in and allowed the PA to rule Gaza so they could prove their competence and desire to coexist peacefully, possibly even cooperatively. The Arabs of Gaza proved what many Israelis knew, they do not want a state, they want Israel destroyed and the Jews murdered. Within two and a half years, Hamas had stirred a popular uprising and taken control of Gaza throwing most of the PA officers and near all their security officers from Gaza and, as happens with every coup, more than a few PA officials and supporters were purged from our Earth. The periodic wars with Israel initiated by Hamas rocket fire into Israel reaching levels unacceptable and the terror tunnels and everything else that goes along with a governance set very few things, terrorism, destroying the state of Israel, murdering every Jew on the planet and self-enrichment. Much of this is included in the Hamas Charter and as such is not a secret. The Arabs living under PA rule poll similarly to the polls taken in Gaza around 2002. Should Mahmoud Abbas and the PA be granted their own state it would result in the same result with one exception, Israel could not survive an intense rocket barrage from the Judean heights which overlook Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Netanya, Ariel and the bulk of Israeli population and industrial and power production. Israel is merely nine miles wide at these points.

 

Nine Mile Wide Israeli Waist

 

Let us discuss the eleven-year history between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the actual reasons the media gave insufficient and inadequate coverage and where they concentrated their animus every action taken by Israel. Let us play a game called what if you lived there, what would your nation do. The there we are asking about could be south of the Falafel Restaurant on Hertzl St, in Hofit, Israel a short distance west of the northwestern end of Gaza. Let us take the first two months which eventually lead to an Israeli incursion and then we will discuss the after incursion events and why they could make Israeli leaders in a democracy wary of resorting to an intervention. The first week of this two-month period was not too abnormal for you and your friends in your neighborhood as the usual one rocket a month struck just south of town. The difference was that near every community was hit with a rocket, or at least another twenty or so. The next week is much the same, except that this has doubled the number of rockets you receive each month, but this week there were thirty other rockets. When a rocket lands in the center of town the next week, no fatalities and only a few people treated for shock and damage to a parking lot; you are too busy thanking Hashem that nobody was actually hurt. This time, escaping your knowledge as you were avoiding the news, over one-hundred rockets were fired into communities surrounding Gaza, mostly the northern half. By this time, many mayors and town councils are petitioning the government in writing and even in person from the larger communities such as Sderot where there was a concentration of rockets fired this week, a full one fourth landed within their area. So, with such a provocation your country would have responded with more than simple words. Thusfar, the only reaction from then Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been to address the media that his office is handling this as best is possible considering the situation. This was supposed to calm the population and it does, at least where the rockets are not falling.

 

Week three is much as was week two and the same for week four except there were twice as many total rockets. The new month, a five-week month even, and now two hundred rockets fall each day resulting in protestations from the government and finally direct contact and demands from Jerusalem to the Hamas Gaza government. The result, Hamas took the warnings well and again doubled the numbers of rockets and now over a half-dozen are falling in your general area. Week six and another doubling then week seven it doubles again then week eight and there are over two-hundred rockets fired from Gaza into Israel with a couple of dozen longer range rockets hitting Ashkelon and Ashdod. The warnings coming from Jerusalem have become terse and border threatening. Week nine and there are over a thousand rockets a day and some are striking the southern parts of Tel Aviv and the entire Tel Aviv population is up in arms. Tel Aviv can mean all the difference in an election and when they scream the government listens. Finally, the IDF is given orders to end the rocket fire from out of Gaza. This let loose the hounds on both sides and the number of rockets coming out of Gaza seem to multiple as they use up their entire stockpile of short-range rockets which means your town is next to uncountable and much of the population has left to live with relatives and citizens in northern Israel are opening their homes to any from around Gaza or wherever the rockets strike so they can both be and feel safe.

 

How many rockets would other nations tolerate before retaliating and ending the danger to its citizens? Let us see what we might guess might be the response. Mongolia fires five rockets into Russia and we would guess half of Mongolia would be wastelands under Russian military rule and the Mongolian government and military leadership stood against walls and shot. Mongolia decided it is time to target China as it has been a few centuries and the end result would be much the same as Russia except more violent. What if in a foolish rage, Mexico fired seven rockets into Texas? This might be one time that the country would not have an opportunity to act; Texas might take care of Mexico all by themselves. Pick a nation and the story would be much the same. Even South Korea acts against North Korea when fired upon unless the United States intervenes. What happened when the Iranian backed Houthis fired one missile at Riyadh, the Saudis launched a full-on air assault on the missile’s launch location immediately afterwards. There is not a single nation with military capabilities which would not respond when hundreds of missiles are launched into their territory daily with the singular exception of Israel. This is due to the singular fact that the Israelis know that one of Hamas’s main tactics is to launch from heavily populated areas, hide behind civilians and do all they can to maximize civilian casualties. Israel actually takes the civilian casualties of the civilians in Gaza into account as well as the Israelis. For the sake of the people of Gaza that the Israelis do not simply attack at the first rocket as Hamas fires at least one and sometimes as many as five to ten each month when they have sufficient stores.

 

So, now that we imagined that possibility and you realize that Israel takes weeks of provocation, let us discuss what the media sells the world, even some of the Israeli media as we have extreme left leaning reporters and editorialists here just as left as the NYT. When the first sortie is flown by the Israeli Air Force (AIF) the media lights up with headlines about Israel bombs Gaza and not until the, most often, next to the last or there abouts paragraph do you read that it was in response to Hamas rocket fire into Israel. They always say Hamas rocket fire so that it sounds like Hamas fired one rocket and Israel bombed twenty locations. Eventually, in the reporting over the next few days, once the average reader is tired of reading the same story day-in and day-out, the media will finally tell that Israel faced two months of ever increasing rockets fired into their civilian areas and once they hit Tel Aviv Israel reacted. Afterwards, when reporting on such events the media returns to the singular use of rocket and always second so it sounds as if Hamas fired in defense, not Israel. These incursions are as short as feasible as Israel tries not to maximize the damage done. The bombings by the IAF are military types of targets. When you read that Israel bombed a blacksmith shop and the owner cries, “about why did they bomb my store, now I and my family will go hunger,” know that he was making rocket parts for Hamas. This even goes for when Israel attacks schools, something done with IDF ground forces so as to minimize damage, it is because it is also being used as a weapons storage as the UNWRA supervisor admitted. Israel attempts to minimize civilian casualties but Hamas desires maximizing civilian casualties even to the point of disarming terrorists who died in battle and then taking pictures of what is claimed to be a slaughtered civilian as their fighters wear exactly the same clothing as the civilians. Hamas leaders take pride that their children, women and elderly are used as human shields openly declaring, as in the video below, “Saying to the Zionist enemy: ‘We desire death like you desire life.’” Their children are taught this in their schools and in the UNWRA schools as well as being taught a poisonous hatred for Jews particularly and all those who do not follow Islam.

 

 

The Middle East is the most anti-Semitic region on earth; further 93% of Palestinians are holding anti-Semitic beliefs, most a pure and unadulterated hatred. As stated above, the anti-Semitic propaganda is taught as curriculum in their schools, preached in their Mosques and ubiquitous in their society with those unwilling to die when called for immediately murdered in front of everyone else as an example. This teaching of hatred and genocide against the Jews is not limited to Gaza, the Arabs residing in the PA ruled lands hear the same from their teachers and Imams as witnessed in the video below. Should the Arabs currently residing in the areas ruled by the PA be granted the state Mahmoud claims they desire, they will assist Hamas in a coup taking over these lands as well. Once Hamas has taken over their area, then Tel Aviv and the surrounding region will be under the range of even the smallest rockets with a ten mile range as Israel is a mere nine miles wide at her waist.

 

 

This is the problem Israel would face within a few years, if not months or days, after Hamas replaced the PA and proceeded to continue their war just as they have in Gaza except now Tel Aviv can be fired at directly. Europe is fully behind allowing for Palestinian Arab takeover of the entirety of Judea and Samaria all the way to the Green Line. Such a state would result in rockets fired along line of sight into downtown Tel Aviv and place aircraft taking off from Ben Gurion International Airport also within direct line of sight as they taxi along the runways and taxiways. Israel would be cut in half with a huge swath across the middle before Israel could react. Hamas taking control of these areas would result in the Hamas dream, the depopulation of the State of Israel and an end to the Zionist dreams. That is why there was an article titled An appeal to Alan Dershowitz – Renounce two-statism! Alan Dershowitz had been a great voice for Israel but his continuing to push the dead and buried two-state solution. One can only hope that Mr. Dershowitz at least read one if not both of these articles and learns the error of his ways. One can only hope he learns as his voice is written into the NYT as the near sole voice backing Israel in that publication. Change need come and the reality of today is required and not repeating an old story even rejected by the PA even before the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993. Actually, as we have pointed out repeatedly, Yasser Arafat, and after him Mahmoud Abbas, have rejected every last offer no matter how generous even those which included half of Jerusalem, acceptance of refugees and lands in 90% or more of the area within the Green Line saving Israel in the process. Please tell us we do not need post this picture yet again to prove the point.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Is Netanyahu About to Pull an Ariel Sharon?

Since the very first day after Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu accepted as the first party into his current coalition the Hatnuah Party and placed its leader Tzipi Livni as the new government’s Minister of Justice and placed Ms. Livni as the lead negotiator of the Israeli negotiations team with the Palestinians, I have had a creeping suspicion that Netanyahu was going to fall on his sword in order to satisfy President Obama and allow anything to be bargained away if it produced a treaty. What made things even worse, Netanyahu announced that she would have complete freedom and full latitude to do whatever she believed was necessary to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians in the model of the two state solution. The presumed safety catch that would limit anything that Minister of the Knesset Livni may eventually give away was presumably that there would have to be a Knesset vote to ratify any potential treaty and then if particular lands given away met the criteria, then there would also be a referendum of the Israeli people to decide whether or not any treaty would be accepted and ratified. But even here there are some suspicions and recent events and announcements have only served to deepen my qualms that all is not well in Jerusalem.

 

Before we theorize on the future and what we believe are the signs we will need to be on the lookout for and where such paths lead, perhaps we should review some of the most pertinent facts from the Gaza disengagement fiasco and what the steps were the last time such events transpired. The first item was that the President of the United States was George W. Bush who was perceived to be a good friend of Israel and one who, while not perfect, at least was not going out of his way to destroy and compromise Israel. The Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, who despite her misconceptions and misgivings such as believing the Palestinians were being persecuted in a similar manner to the Black Americans during the Jim Crow era; despite her idiosyncrasies, Secretary Rice honestly thought she was working towards a good end and really pursued peace and a better future for all, both the Palestinians and the Israelis; and despite their intents, the Bush Administration fell into a number of traps which doomed their efforts we can claim with some assurance as to its validity that they had honest and good intentions. Their first misstep was their decision to force Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into disengaging all Israeli presence from the Gaza Strip and turning it over to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians presumably so that the Palestinian leadership could demonstrate their abilities to rule and manage their own areas and live at peace alongside the Israelis. The thought was that once the Palestinian leadership had proved to administrate the Gaza Strip while preventing any terrorist attacks on Israelis or their territories, then the final formation of a Palestinian State could proceed without any further problems.

 

The next set of problems followed rapidly one on top of the next. President Bush gave Prime Minister Sharon guarantees that after Israel had released their control over the border areas between Egypt and Gaza, also known as the Philadelphia Corridor, that the European Union monitors and real-time remote video monitoring by Israeli security experts would prevent the movement of weaponry into Gaza as well as monitoring the passage of people interdicting any suspected terrorists. Soon thereafter it was time for the Palestinian government to hold elections. Big mistake number two was cued up as Secretary of State Rice insisted, with the backing of President Bush, that all factions be permitted to field candidates for the Palestinian Parliament, of course including Hamas. Despite warnings from Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, and numerous Middle East experts who warned that allowing Hamas to field candidates would guarantee that Hamas would take the majority of the seats and rise to unseat Fatah as the majority in the Palestinian Authority, the elections were held allowing Hamas candidates who won a majority of the seats as the Palestinians voted for anybody but Fatah as they perceived that Hamas would not commit fraud anywhere near the levels which had been rampant to date in the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas victory scared the living daylights out of Abbas who feeling certain that Hamas would also replace him as President and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority forcing him to cancel elections for these offices in order to preserve his positions. The Americans saw no problem with this as the overwhelming Hamas sweep in the Palestinian parliamentary elections had shaken their trust that they understood the Palestinian’s moods and proclivities. Soon the worst of the disasters that followed one after another came to fruition as Hamas executed a violent coup and took complete control over the Gaza Strip forcing Fatah and their portion of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza to Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. With Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, the European Union monitors made a quick retreat from their posts back to their hotels in Israel never to return to their posts after which the Hamas personnel who took control of the Rafah Crossing destroyed the video monitoring equipment. This forced Israel to rely on the good graces of Egypt to monitor the Egypt-Gaza interchange which fortunately was more successful than one might have originally expected. As it turned out, the Egyptians had issues with Hamas as Hamas was directly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood which gave Egyptian President Mubarak reasons to be suspicious and to actually monitor the border.

 

Today the President of the United States Barack Obama is considered not exactly a trusted friend to Israel and some of the members of his Administration are equally not to be trusted by Israel. Some of those who cause both politicians and residents in Israel the most qualms would include Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and some might add Vice President Biden though his record is not as adverse as others are. As anyone who has been watching the news out of Israel and the Palestinian areas has noted, the negotiations have been reinstated but at considerable cost to the Israelis who were cajoled and pressed into releasing over the period of the negotiations up to one-hundred-four terrorists who were serving life sentences, some multiple life sentences, and had much Israeli blood on their hands in order to entice and give proper cover for Mahmoud Abbas to agree to negotiate. Of course Israel only received the privilege of holding talks for their unprecedented concessions. Even with such a sacrifice by the Israelis in releasing many terrorists whom they had refused to release numerous times before, this momentous gesture was challenged by the Palestinian leadership who demanded even more. They demanded that the borders for their state be debated from the standpoint that they were to be assumed to be starting on the 1949 Armistice Lines and included every inch of the contested areas of Judea and Samaria plus they insisted they include all of Eastern Jerusalem including all of the Old City and Temple Mount. Israel refused to grant such a request but it has been leaked that Secretary of State Kerry assured Abbas that he would steer any discussion over borders in a direction that would meet his demand. Then, almost immediately after the first meeting when the Israelis announced their intention to build housing in parts of Jerusalem and the surrounding Israeli towns which the Palestinians claim is on their lands the Palestinians threatened to terminate the negotiations unless the Israelis instituted a building freeze immediately and were prevented from realizing such plans. This fortunately blew up in their faces as Secretary Kerry, to his credit, announced that the Palestinians had been offered a building freeze but had chosen the prisoner release instead and that they had been informed that such an announcement of the building was coming within the near future and they had not objected at that time. This squelched their threat to end the negotiations.

 

The negotiations are supposed to be held in complete silence with nothing to be released to the press or announced in any other manner. Thus far that criterion has unfortunately held. The first sign that trouble is on the horizon came this week when Shelly Yachimovich announced that the Labor Party is ready, willing and very able if not anxious to replace Bayit Yehudi and Naftali Bennett in order to assure that any treaty will be enacted without any difficulties. Here are some of the signs that we need to look for in the coming months of this presumably nine-month series of negotiations which are to produce a workable treaty. There will be meetings out of which there will be no announcements or release to the press held by Prime Minister Netanyahu with his inner cabinet, the same people who voted to allow the release of the hundred plus terrorists. Lead negotiator Tzipi Livni will be noticeable at each of these meetings and may even appear to have a spring in her step and a bright smile that refuses to droop. Eventually there will be disagreements which at some point will lead to a rearrangement of the makeup of the coalition. We will begin to hear rumors that Naftali Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi are being marginalized and may soon be replaced in the coalition. At the same time it is possible that Yair Lapid and the Yesh Atid Party may also be mentioned as inhibiting certain objectives and may join Bennett in being replaced in the coalition. The new coalition will replace these two Zionist parties with Shas and Labor both of whom will willingly and enthusiastically approve virtually any peace agreement hammered out by Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat.

 

Many people would claim that this would not make any difference as any peace treaty if it requires surrender of any sizeable amount of territories must face a referendum of the people and the Israelis would never allow Jerusalem to be divided or for all of the lands beyond the Green Line to be forfeited to the Palestinians. The problem here is the wording as I have been led to understand is rather vague on which lands being forfeit would require a referendum by the people. The last item which will signal an imminent disaster will be the start of a debate in the United States over providing peacekeeping troops to be placed in the new Palestinian State to prevent terrorist attacks and keep everything quiet between the new Palestinian State and Israel. Needless to point out that the American peacekeepers will provide little protection and instead simply provide the terrorists a plethora of targets until they are pulled due to overwhelming demands by the Americans themselves as their ire is raised over mounting casualties. Once we get to the point that there are debates in the United States over providing peacekeepers the only salvation which Israelis may pray for is either the American public raising a holy eruption of indignation that prevents President Obama from following through with his promise to provide peacekeepers or for Heavenly intervention. My prayers will be for Heavenly intervention.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

A Few Facts Tying Syria to American Change in the Middle East and the World

The efforts originated in Iraq where the idea was to replace an evil dictator and inject democracy and free the people allowing them to live as they chose. That was supposed to be relatively fast and painless transition. Something went terribly wrong as it turned out the United States leadership did not understand some basic premises about the Middle East. The problem that plagued the efforts of the United States in Iraq were a direct result of European decisions made facilitating their rapid exit from the ever growing expense of holding on to colonies especially in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The mistake was countries were formed with the advice from those who were to be placed in power when the Europeans departed and these new leaders each desired to assure they would rule over those who were historically their enemies. This led to borders including different sects, tribes, families and former national interests within each new nation with Europe choosing the rulers who would end up holding power through subjugation often of ancient enemies. This led to growing mistrust of Europeans and constant strife. Iraq was formed containing three distinct groups within its borders; the Sunni, the Shia, and the Kurds; along with a few smaller groups such as Christians and Jews. When the United States was presumably liberating Iraq it was also setting the tables for retributions of past injustices and ended up facing the dilemma of trying to make sense and peace of the mess which the Europeans had sewn when they hastily departed.

The exact same miscalculation was made by the same people who misjudged the situation and challenges of Iraq when dealing with the Palestinian autonomy when they decided to meddle in the Palestinian elections. Never mind that Mahmoud Abbas pleaded with President Bush and his point person, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not to include the Hamas terror group in the election process as they would easily defeat any challengers. Never mind that the Israeli leadership unanimously agreed with Mahmoud Abbas and his warning about the imprudence of including the Hamas terror group in the election. Surprisingly, at least if you read the reports in the United States, Hamas won a significant majority of the legislative seats in the newly elected Palestinian Parliament. This caused the situation which exists today where the Palestinian Authority holds on to power in Judea and Samaria, aka West Bank, while Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a quick and violent coup. Mahmoud Abbas, in order to retain any semblance of power, decided to cancel the elections for President of the Palestinian Authority as it was obvious that Hamas would easily win such an election. The two separate leaders of the Palestinian people, Abbas representing a nationalist influence and Hamas representing a theocratic influence, have been in opposition with every attempt to cobble together a ruling coalition agreement eventually collapsing as the two views do not mesh well.

So, was there any hope once the power in the United States changed and the new President, Barack Obama, came in promising a new vision to repair all the previous problems and to change the face that the United States showed the world? In his first term the new American President has most definitely charged through the Middle East and changed the face of the United States and done even more transformational face-work on the Middle East. Where there had been at least the semblance of cooperation forged in Iraq, the precipitous removal of the influence by the United States has allowed a regression in Iraq where the old Sunni-Shia animosities are running rampant and the Kurds have formed their own virtual state in the north severing most of their ties and concerns from the government in Baghdad. The picture in Afghanistan is not much prettier as the United States had begun secretive negotiations with what were termed the better interests of the Taliban. The government of Hamid Karzai was forced to attempt to forge his own agreement with those Taliban who might have been more friendly with his government and not completely defiant. The result has been the Taliban retreating from both negotiations and simply deciding to outwait the United States who has promised to completely leave Afghanistan when they can simply sweep into power either through election or other means. Meanwhile, for some unperceivable reason, sarcasm intended, the Afghans have steadily grown less and less friendly with their American counterparts and many feel betrayed while others prepare to return to their separate factions and Afghanistan is likely to return to the same problems that have plagued the remote lands since before Alexander the Great attempted to force some sense of order by marrying off daughters of his generals to the tribal leaders in order to allow Greek influence to be maintained. There are likely a number of general’s daughters in the United States who are very happy that the United States would never try the same approach.

The next grand step was the great speech of Cairo where the nascent President of the United States, Barack Obama, apologized for the sins of the United States and promised to stand with those who would choose to forge a new and people-empowering future throughout the Middle East. Egyptian President Mubarak pleaded with the American President not to make the speech and implored that he at least not invite the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned group in Egypt since the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Needless to say, the President of the United States insisted that he knew best and was fully aware of what he was doing and that the President of Egypt should calm down and everything would be perfectly wonderful. Within a short period the world began to witness the changes which were birthed that day in Cairo with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle East much as Hamas rose to power after the previous Administration had meddled against the strident warnings of those who live in the Middle East. Since then we have witnessed the spread of Middle East democracy through North Africa and now into the heart of the Middle East. As the initial birth pains of democracy have spread around the Middle East it has spawned the birth of new governance which has meant the Muslim Brotherhood just as Egyptian now former President Mubarak has predicted. What has become evident is that there was a difference between the rise of Hamas through George Bush and his Administration’s miscalculations and President Obama and his Administration’s intentional empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood. The rise of Hamas was not the intended result that the Bush Administration sought but it appears that the Obama Administration knew full well that their efforts would result in the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood. That leaves the world with a simple question; will the Muslim Brotherhood allow further free elections or will their rise to power result in simply the replacement of nationalist dictatorial rule with theocratic rule.

After the change in power in Tunisia and Egypt the wave hit a couple of snags in Libya and Syria where the removal of their dictators was not smoothly attained through a couple months of demonstrations as had been the case in Tunisia and Egypt; the changes in these countries took full blown civil wars. This also attracted al-Qaeda and other terror interests to join in the change of power and has spawned what one hopes was an unintended consequence, the arming of terror entities by the efforts of the Europeans and the United States. This has been most evident each time the Egyptians have prevented shipments of arms from Libya terror influences heading to Hamas in Gaza. There has been far less success in preventing the weapons injected into Libya from reaching their counterparts in Syria most often through Turkey. Recently the flow of weapons into the Syrian rebels has shown a marked increase and reports have mentioned that the logistics are being aided by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The reports have also noted one troubling side effect; the arms are not necessarily ending up in the hands of the secular rebel forces and are instead being used to arm the Islamist rebel forces. This begs another question; is the arming of the Islamist rebel forces an oversight or intentional? It actually should not be all that surprising if this is a result of planned program instituted by the Arabist Islamic influences in the United States State Department and Muslim Brotherhood influences throughout various elements in the United States government.

This then may continue to play out much like the falling of dominoes across the Middle East with these same arms being transferred from one targeted country to the next. The current number one candidate for next is very likely Jordan. There will be no ability to prevent arms and Islamist influences from entering Jordan from the north once Syria has fallen, providing such is as inevitable as has been advertised. Where the transformation of the Middle East will finally run out of steam is anybody’s guess. The question which needs to be answered is whether the transformation of the Middle East and the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood will end in the Middle East or spread into Europe starting in the Balkans and Greek Islands. The other question is which influence will prove to be foremost in the Middle East, the Shia centered in Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood mostly in Egypt. Before anybody jumps to a decision, it might be best to reveal who is sided with each side. In the Iranian corner we have the Russians and Chinese while in the Muslim Brotherhood corner we have the United States and the NATO allies in Europe. This brings up another item of recent interest, Cyprus.

The bailout which has been implemented in Cyprus is tantamount to a declaration of financial war between the West and the Russians. The naked aggressive theft of as much as twenty-five-percent from deposits over one-hundred-thousand Euros from the Cypriot banks is a financial assault on the Russian interests who have deposited large quantities of presumably laundered monies with these banks. Whoever thought that was a good idea must have a large vacuous space between their ears. This move will not go unpunished and will possibly lead to a financial war between the Western nations and the Russian alliance of interests. The ramifications from this financial assault will be interesting to watch over the coming months. Also, is gifting Greece with ownership of some of the Cypriot banks really prudent seeing as Greece is not exactly the rock of economic strength. This appears to be a case of the blind leading the blind but it is a case of birds of a feather being flown into ruin together. Next we get to wonder how long before the Euro zone starts to collapse and throw out the weaker nations until only a select few remain and the European Union slowly sinks beyond the horizon and into history. Are we having fun yet?

Beyond the Cusp