Hamas once again provided proof of their intent to destroy Israel one home at a time if necessary. The escalation recently includes two rockets fired at Tel Aviv just over ten days ago. Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a responsive strike on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza. These strikes by the Israeli Air Force were the usual empty buildings which have been hit before again and again in the name of responding to attacks from Gaza. Some in Israel have begun to refer to these bombings of empty building as the line from the movie Casablanca after Rick shoots the Nazi Commissioner, “Round up the usual suspects.” The bombing of empty buildings has become a farce even within Israel and the reaction of shock by the Europeans reminds us of another scene from Casablanca when it is “discovered” that there is gambling in Ricks bar/casino and the chief gendarme exclaims, “I’m shocked, shocked” and many people like to add “I tell you,” but that is not in the movie. We promise, no more quotes from Casablanca. The rocket attack on Tel Aviv, according to Hamas, was an unfortunate accident and never intended and they plan to conduct an investigation into the firing. This explanation was mostly accepted by spokespeople in Israel, much to everyone’s amazement. That was just over ten days ago, so enjoy the two clips and we will talk about the latest attack afterwards.
This past Sunday, Hamas once again had an unfortunate accident once more, but this time the results were nothing short of a miracle that nobody was killed. This “accidental” rocket firing also went deeply into Israel, close to fifty miles from the Gaza border. The rocket landed in the Sharon region and struck the house of a sixty-year-old woman whose extended family was apparently visiting or live with her. It was reported by Magen David Adom that seven people were injured, the a sixty-year-old woman who is in moderate condition suffered shrapnel wounds and burns, while a thirty-year-old woman who is in moderate condition suffered shrapnel wounds and five people who were lightly injured including two infants. Several others were treated for shock, as often is the case when high explosives detonate within your neighborhood. The house which was struck was completely destroyed and looking at the photos it becomes apparent that it really was a miracle nobody was killed. Below are two pictures taken from this report which contains videos and more pictures for those desiring to see additional footage. The second picture shows a crib which we assume was where the infants were when the house was struck. The excuse that the rockets were fired accidentally, or they were fired without being authorized, neither argument makes those residing in destroyed buildings who survived solely because of a miracle not have grievous injuries or those whose nerves were shattered feel an calmer than if these had been authorized and intentional attacks. The truth of the matter is these were intentional attacks by whomever built the rocket, those who fashioned the explosive warheads, the ones who constructed the launchers and the individuals who launched the rockets all doing their part in an intentional attack intending to murder as many civilians as possible. By allowing such an excuse to basically stand, all that is accomplished is guaranteeing that there will be dozens of “unintended” rockets fired at targets in Israel and then soon there will be hundreds of “accidental” firings of rockets a week and then that number will become daily. Israelis have watched this song and dance before and realize that every rocket is fired with malice aforethought and with the full intent of causing as much harm, death, destruction and shock amongst whatever else these strikes may cause only to increase steadily until Israel responds with force. They also know what comes next.
Home Destroyed by Hamas Rocket Attack
Inside Room with Crib of Destroyed Home
The entire escalation by Hamas, despite their plaintive excuses, is a response to the lack of Israeli push-back over the border rioting which has been continuous over the past year. Yes, we said continuous over an entire year and showing no sign of letting up. The rocket firings only serve to show that things are about to get out of hand. Last week or so ago, while meeting with Egyptians trying to mediate a cessation of the border hostility, Hamas promised to end the border rioting yet it was while they were meeting that the two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. There were two other rockets fired at the same time with one heading out into the Mediterranean and the other did not clear Gaza falling inside their area. Hamas convinced the Egyptians that they had nothing to do with the rockets fired as they could not be suspect of firing rockets while meeting with the Egyptian mediators. Who ever thought that this statement had the slightest measure of validity obviously knows little or nothing about Hamas and their terroristic duplicity. Of course they would pick such a time to fire rockets at Tel Aviv knowing that Israel would not respond as long as the Egyptian mediators were meeting inside Gaza. Israel has fallen victim of timidity due to the desire for acceptance by the world. The idea was that as long as the damage caused by the rioting on the border was limited to closely within the border area, then it was tolerable and the powers that be decided that it was not worth responding and getting the European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), numerous anti-Israel NGO’s or those in the United States who desire that Israel not cause them any distress all up in arms about disproportionate responses. This was even more important right before the AIPAC convention where too many still believe that two states for two peoples living side-by-side in peace and security is the proper and viable solution if only the two sides could agree on borders. This would also be important so that when the Israeli Prime Minister and others from Israel spoke, they would be well received and there would be no cause for uncomfortable questions from those who always claim to side with Israel while all-too-often condemning Israeli actions as being disproportional. Let’s discuss this disproportionality utter ridiculousness.
Firstly, in our discussion, let us take a tally of World War II deaths by nation on each side. Looking at the Iraq War which removed Saddam Hussein from power, the allies with the United States suffered less than four-hundred deaths while the dead for the army of Iraq suffered an estimated fifty-thousand to many hundreds of thousands as well as approximately one-hundred-thousand civilian deaths. On the eastern front of World War II the Axis Powers suffered slightly over five-million dead while the Soviet Union suffered just under ten-million killed. World War II on the western front had the Allied Powers suffering three-million dead while the Axis Powers suffered over five-million dead. The War in the Pacific has two sets of casualties which have a very telling story behind them. As far as military deaths are concerned, Japan suffered over two and one half million dead while the Allies suffered four-million plus dead. Civilian deaths tell a horrid story with Japan suffering just over one-million deaths and their victims suffering somewhere over twenty-six-million deaths. One might wonder why such a disproportional difference in the civilian deaths between Japan, who had two entire cities wiped from the map by the two nuclear bombs dropped ending the war, while they inflicted such a horrendous toll against the civilians of the regions they conquered before being defeated. The reason is very simple; the Japanese troops butchered and murdered Chinese civilians in excessively large numbers simply out of their racial hatreds of the Chinese and a form of revenge for the wars fought between the two adversaries over their long histories. The one item which is apparent from these numbers, and are true of every war, one side always suffers more deaths and other casualties than the other side. Throughout history, if one were to plot the deaths of all the wars, it would become apparent that more often than not, the side which loses has the higher casualty numbers than does their victors. In ancient history this is very true as often the side that won the conflict either took the vanquished as slaves or simply slaughtered their adversaries entirely. This made the difference between the two sides far more disproportional. The casualties in war are always going to be disproportional as each side attempts to kill as many of their enemy as possible and by whatever means they have at their disposal. It has only been since the advent of nuclear weaponry that sides in a conflict limited what weapons they used avoiding exchanging in a nuclear Armageddon. There is one foreboding reality which need be of great concern; there has never in all of human history been a weapon invented which did not become the weapon of choice in a future war. Thus far in human history, nuclear weapons have been the exception such that after the two, rather small by todays weapons, nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there has not been another nuclear weapon used in any conflict, and allow us to emphasize, Yet!
That yet at the end of the last paragraph should stand as a warning. There are nations now developing or already possessing nuclear weapons which do not fear their use. They know of the devastation and suffering caused by the bombs which were dropped on Japan and they see this as an invitation for placing their enemies on their knees or worse. Iranian military and civilian leaders and spokespeople have often referred to Israel as a one or two bomb nation. Such commentary cannot be referencing any non-nuclear weapons currently existing. This reference can only mean using nuclear weaponry, and Iran is one of those nations who saw what damage was done to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and think of this as an invitation for using nuclear weapons and not a warning against their use. They are not even concerned over any potential Israeli retaliation, even an Israeli nuclear response. The Ayatollah has stated that he would willingly sacrifice all of Iran if doing so would eliminate Israel. This threat should frighten any logical thinking person, but the world simply goes along with the Europeans trading feverishly with Iran because there are Euros to be made and Iran is still flush with dollars provided by the United States as an enticement for Iran to join in a treaty which simply was presumed to push their developing nuclear weapons and building an arsenal by eight to ten years. That was simply kicking the can down the road leaving the threat for the next President or the one after and all but guaranteeing that Iran would be a nuclear-armed nation by the end of the ten years. If you are counting, that would be in about another seven and a half years. We are willing to go beyond these visions of a world which is not going to explode soon and warn that there is but a slim chance that Iran does not already have not only the plans for building nuclear weapons or simply many of the components to build thermonuclear weapons, the really big bombs, or simply the technology to miniaturize nuclear weapons for use in warheads atop ballistic missiles, but that Iran has already built at least fifty thermonuclear warheads and has them ready to be placed atop their ballistic missiles and use them, the question being how they would employ them. Many scenarios have them launching these weapons at Israel which would require their using all or the majority of these warheads if their hope is to pierce the Israeli anti-missile systems. Fortunately Israel has a layered interception set of systems such that these weapons can intercept incoming missiles at different places on their trajectory. The other most favored scenario has the Iranians using one or more weapons as EMP devices over the United States destroying their electrical grid and simultaneously using a nuclear weapon against the American fleet off their shores in the Arabian Sea. We pray that Iran manages to replace their leadership with people far less fanatical and definitely with greater sanity.
As for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and, according to certain estimates, the Islamic State, all of which are presumably operating in Gaza, should they continue to allow rockets to be fired into Israel, even willy nilly, as they would like Israeli leaders to believe, their will be a point where Israel will provide an excellent example of disproportional casualties. Israel is one of the few, if not only, nations to have ever gone Biblical on their enemies. The Israeli people are growing tired of the menace in the south and equally anxious over the enemies in Lebanon and Syria all, like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and friends, under the control of Iran and doing the bidding of the Mullahs. Hamas and friends need to know that there are a growing number of Israelis who do not care or even concern themselves in the slightest as to what the EU, UN, NGO’s and the rest of the world’s busybodies think or might say when Israel defends herself. Should Israel continue to be pushed and threatened, the reaction at some point will be intended to be highly disproportional and they will not care. In Israel, we look at these threats as real intents to destroy our little piece of Heaven on Earth and this does not please us in the slightest. We do not desire to have war under almost any circumstances, but when there are those who are making a real effort to destroy your nation and kill almost everybody residing within your borders, please do not tell us not to take it personally. Such a request is well beyond its use-by date as it applied way back in the 1960’s and even the 1970’s but does not make sense for the world as it is today. Europe may be on the verge of committing suicide by immigration and the United States has many who appear to be emerging from the dark side, but we in Israel simply wish to help those we can, live and share with those who wish to do so, and for those who wish us dead, well two can play that game and you really do not want to go there. Live with us in peace and it will result in a mutual advantage in which we will share what we discover in the many various fields in which Israel has endeavors. But desire to destroy us and then we will have a problem which will not end well, yes, potentially mutually not end well, but we can guarantee that it will not end well for our opponents. Simply look at history and the empires and nations which desired the destruction of the Jewish People, the destruction of Israel, and where are they today. Allow us to list just a few of them from across history and perhaps you will get an idea of what the future holds for those bent on our destruction. These former entities which believed they would wipe us from the face of the Earth and make us at most a footnote in history consist of Pharaohs’ Egypt, Philistines, Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire (and they gave it their best just as they had the Carthaginians), Byzantine Empire, Caliphate, Ottoman Empire, Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This list has some of the former greats of history, but they are former greats and we are still here and making great strides as we have throughout history. Perhaps Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) defined the Jews best and more succinctly than anybody else with his essay “Concerning the Jew,” which we will sign off with it below.
Concerning the Jew
“If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 