Israeli Election Midway Report

 

As many have realized or have been told, most of us here at BTC are Religious Zionists and this author belongs to HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) Party and, as previous writing made obvious, thinks very highly about Rafi Peretz as a capable and outstanding leader. That should take care of relating from what perspective we are viewing the political field and the events within. Most of the activity appears, by the reporting we have seen, to be taken on the left-leaning side of the political landscape. Still, there are some events on the right-leaning side of the map which are moving equally slowly as it appears neither side is in any hurry to actually present a final picture to the Israeli public. What is apparent on both ends of the political spheres is to shore everything up forming the largest coalition to present to the public in their attempts to assure that their side receives the mandates necessary to control the next Knesset and choose the Prime Minister. Fortunately, both sides are having an apparent equal measure of difficulty in herding all their parties into a single coalition such that no votes go unrepresented. As close as the last elections were, which was unsuccessful in forming a majority coalition forcing this unprecedented election immediately following an election; hopefully, no matter which side it turns out to be, this coming election will present a winner and Israel can once again have leadership which will hopefully also be an improvement over the current limbo we find ourselves suffering.

 

 

The events on the left are hair-raisingly frightening, or threatening, depending on your particular view. What has developed is the potential for ghosts from the past attempting to rise back to their former glory, or at least this appears to be their view of the coming elections. The first sign that the past is attempting a return in the near future was the announcement of a new party on the left formed by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak which will be called The Israel Democratic Party. This is the new wrinkle calling his party by a name which appears to be initiated in order to confuse voters and disguise a new look Ehud Barak attempting to distance himself from his former disastrous political history. Part of the new look presented by Ehud Barak is his growth of facial hair as part of the new look Barak. Ehud Barak has not presented any list of names, famous or obscure, who will be part of who he presents to the voting public. This might be due to the fact that what he is attempting to do is have other parties merge with his new party and use it to chisel out a spot at or near the top of such a merged coalition. Where attempting to find some means of corralling a top spot on a list via new parties or simply stating an intent to be listed in such a list without even bothering to form a party, Ehud Barak is aware that his leading a new party will not provide him much if any of a chance of breaking threshold nor making it into the Knesset. But if we have Ehud Barak pegged accurately, his intent is not just to make it into the Knesset, he will also probably demand a share in the roll as Prime Minister perhaps demanding that he be granted at least one if not a two year stint as Prime Minister for the use of his name which he will claim has gravitas. Of course, Ehud Barak would likely be happy to simply be guaranteed a top portfolio such as Foreign Minister or as Defense Minister should a left-leaning coalition be formed.

 

Ehud Barak and His New Look and Beard with Same Worn Out Two-State Ideas

 

But Ehud Barak is far from the most contentious announcement from the left-leaning side of the political spectrum, at least he formed a party. Approximately six months ago, upon the dissolution of the coalition between the Labor Party and the Hatnuah Party led by Tzipi Livni, Tzipi announced her retirement from politics and her acceptance that her Hatnuah Party had no possibility of reaching threshold. Tzipi Livni has apparently refused offers for the Hatnuah Party to join either the Labor Party, with whom she was previously aligned and has a new leader, or join Ehud Barak and his The Israel Democratic Party and instead making a grand offer, though we are willing to bet she would believe it to be her sacrifice to save the left in Israel. Tzipi Livni has hung out her tempting offer that were the entirety of the left form a grand coalition, she would accept a place within their list from which she would be guaranteed to be a Minister of the Knesset and also, she is likely to demand an important Ministerial position in the Prime Minister’s cabinet.

 

Both Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni are names closely associated with the “Two-State Solution” as the only means of reaching peace with Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority Arabs. Apparently, neither of these politicians has noticed that an ever-growing percentage of the Israeli public has put that era and thinking far behind them and hope to never return there in the future. They have also failed to come to the realization that Mahmoud Abbas, just as Yasser Arafat before him, refuses to accept a Jewish State no matter its borders. The Israeli government could place an offer on the table where all Israel would retain is the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area and Abbas would reject it as insufficient sacrifice by the Jews. Abbas views Israel and the Jews in a manner resembling that of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, namely that the Jews need to be protected by their superiors, the followers of Islam. Like the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Abbas refuses to accept the existence of Israel if it remains ruled by Jews. But both Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, as well as Blue-White co-leader Benny Gantz, believe that there is some magic compromise where land for peace can produce an agreement with the Palestinian Authority. One can only fear what their solution to the threats from Gaza and Hamas with Islamic Jihad who are directed by Iran and Khamenei would be. Both of these politicians as well as the former generals, as a rule, are still living about two or three decades in the past when Israelis generally believed that there was some compromise which would provide for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. After the rejection of the deal offered in 2000 by Ehud Barak and the deal offered in 2008 under Ehud Olmert, Israelis began to realize by in ever-growing numbers that there was no such magical distribution of land between the two parties which would be acceptable and produce peace. For this reason alone, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak would actually cost any coalition including them votes as just their names on the list would be sufficient to scare numerous centrist Israelis into voting for the Likud or one of the right-wing parties. Yes, we list Likud separately as there have been some surprising and dismal political experiences which came from the loins of the Likud. There was Arik Sharon who was Prime Minister during the Gaza withdrawal, though, granted, he had to for the Kadima Party in order to manage to allow this to take place. Kadima was a party which took numerous left-wing politicians from Labor Party and some of the centrist to left-leaning members from Likud, one of which was Tzipi Livni, forming a new government without having new elections, something rather peculiar. Should the left-wing of Israeli politics, which is largely secular, continue to hold to the position that land for peace is still a viable path to peace and that surrendering parts of our ancestral home and parts of the lands which were part of the Mandate reserved for the Jewish State and only prevented through occupation by Egypt (Gaza) and Jordan (Judea and Samaria) after the 1948 war of intended annihilation of the nascent state of Israel by six Arab national armies, then they will soon find themselves politically irrelevant.

 

Not to be outside, there are equally insane movements and problems on the right side of the political scales. In the position most resembling Ehud Barak, we have two candidates, Zehut chairman Moshe Feiglin and New Right chairman Naftali Bennett. Neither of these two parties were able to clear threshold but should they form a coalition then the chances are very good that they would make it into the Knesset, though it would still be close. They are having a small number of difficulties currently. The first and potentially most serious problem concerns Bennet and his New Right Party which he and Ayelet Shaken formed when they split from Jewish Home. Currently, it is unknown whether or not Ayelet Shaked will remain as the number two behind Naftali Bennett or whether she will be placed on a list without her necessarily joining any party or if she might jump to another party. There were discussions about her joining the coalition in which Jewish Home is a member, the United Right (who comes up with these names?) providing she was placed in the top slot. This was thrown into serious doubt when the chairman of Tkuma, Bezalel Smotrich, publicly stated his total support for retaining Rafi Peretz at the top of their coalition, this pretty much put the kibosh on placing Ayelet Shaked in the top spot. There have been rumors surfacing twice and thrice every week that Ms. Shaked has joined Likud, has returned to the New Right, is going to run with the United Right or some scenario closely aligned. None have proven true as of yet and, if anything, Ayelet Shaked appears to prefer that all the religious-Zionist parties combine and that she be allowed to lead such a grand alliance. Meanwhile, Moshe Feiglin and Naftali Bennett have been having one of the most glorious arguments that has almost been delicious to observe. Both have made the claim that they should take the top spot in any combined list with the other taking the second spot. Why this has been so amusing is that almost no matter how they decide and having done so, actually clearing threshold, the person at the top of their combined ticket is not going to become Prime Minister. But this is just the introduction, the remainder is where it really becomes weird.

 

Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett

 

Every so often, advice from upon high comes down to the religious-Zionist and right-wing parties. We suspect that this holy advice can easily be traced to the apparent permanent Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu. Why and what are we referring to? That we can tell you with a single phrase, unwanted meddling. There comes one of the Likud Ministers every week to ten days advising the political parties with which Likud expects to form a coalition to all of them get over their minor squabbling and just form on nice big amalgamation party and be done with it. Of course, every time one of the Likudnics gives out these pearls of wisdom, the Likud goes up in the polls for next couple of days while a near equal number of mandates for the rest of the political right drop. This is a temporary situation but we expect that somewhere around three days before the September 17, there will start a steady stream of commentary about how the Likud Party needs ever vote that the right can spare and that if right-wing voters really want their votes to count, the Likud is their safest place. We cannot blame the Likud Party for attempting to maximize their list even at the potential loss for our own party, they want to make it clear that Bibi Netanyahu has to be chosen to form the next coalition. This method of scare tactics in the final days leading to the election actually cost Bibi last time as had he allowed for merely one or two percent of the Likud voters to have drifted to Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s New Right allowing them to clear threshold, then the Likud might have lost one Ministerial position but the right-leaning parties would have gained a net of three seats allowing for a coalition to have been formed. Bibi will never learn that lesson as he simply insists on running his campaign against the left-leaning parties until three days before the election when he trains his sights on those who are presumably going to be his allies in any government simply because he cannot help himself. Bibi must reign supreme, even at the cost to those who will be supporting him.

 

Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett and Moshe Feiglin continue to argue over who can bring in the most voters. Bennet points to his New Right falling just short of threshold versus Feiglin not even coming close. Feiglin, on the other hand, points out that as Bennett likely will not have Shaked joining him this election, and that she was the main vote getter, not he, thus Feiglin holds the claim to bringing the most votes. If Feiglin proves correct, then both of them better swallow their obviously high-octane egos and merge with one-another if not with the United Right. This is where it will get interesting as should all the parties to the right of the Likud merge, who gets to be numbers one, two and three on down the list. Rafi Peretz probably has the inside track and, in his case, it is not ego as much as it is that he was happily heading his Yeshiva and otherwise retired with little if any interest in becoming embroiled in politics. When Bennett and Shaked left Jewish Home and the party was lurching in need of a stabilizing influence and somebody to strike a definite direction and give the party the organization it required, Rafi Peretz was approached and originally declined and was subsequently persuaded, implored, swayed and finally convinced that he was not only the man for the job, but very likely the only person for the job. We have researched the gentleman and met him finding him gracious, personable but also with a stature and demeaner which while inviting also demands respect. None of this is surprising as just one part of his life, his career in the IDF, would make for a Hollywood movie. Rafi Peretz initially piloted a combat helicopter, quite admirable in its own right, retired from the IDF as a Brigadier General (our answer to the Blue White Party and their four generals) and was the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces. The rest of his life was equally amazing as we covered here when describing the fifteen to twenty minutes we spent speaking with Rabbi Peretz at a Central Committee meeting. We just wish everybody in Israel could spend that amount of time talking with Rafi Peretz, but if that were to come to fruition, then Bibi would need to worry as Rabbi Peretz would quite likely become the next Prime Minister.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

As If Israel Did Not Have Enough Problems

 

Let us start with the most bizarre of all the problems facing Israel, though this one is easily repaired, simply ignore it and it will wither on the vine, so to speak. This one comes from a nation which once upon a time was a friend to Israel. France sold Israel Mirage Jets through the 1950’s and much of the 1960’s. Those were the days, my friends, but just like the song, they did end. Now France has demanded access to prisoners by insisting for their Parliamentarians to have access to whomever they wish access whenever they are in Israel. Imagine the chutzpah French Foreign Ministry displayed releasing this statement, this audacious demand, upon Israeli authorities Monday stating they would bar entry to the country of a group of French politicians seeking to visit jailed terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti. Their hope was to raise their movement for the release of this terror master and murderer of numerous Israeli civilians so he can replace Mahmoud Abbas as the next leader of the PLO, Palestinian Authority (PA), and Fatah to continue the war to destroy Israel. This is just the most recent face of the European and world efforts to bring to fruition the destruction of Israel.

 

On the Israeli northern border along the Lebanese border (the Blue Line) and the Golan Heights from the Syrian border there lies Hezballah. They have been invigorated with fresh troops from the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and better weaponry direct from Iran are believed to be considering the means by which to calm the suspicions of the Lebanese people that Hezballah is simply using them as a base and are actually servants of Iran and Syria, nothing more. Despite that being the reality which has become obvious even to the most casual of observers, Nasrallah likes his comfortable life in the peaceful hills of Lebanon and believes it would really be a shame if he needed relocate to the burnt hills of Syria. The word has leaked that Nasrallah may be pinning his hopes to calm the rumors in Lebanon by forcing a confrontation with Israel possibly from the Syria border so as to avoid the fighting spilling into Lebanon. The entire concept would be risky as the support for such an assault would almost necessarily need be launched out of Lebanon as that is the location of the majority of the hundred to hundred and fifty thousand rockets and missiles of various size and range held by Hezballah. Such an escalation would definitely gain a response in kind from Israel which would then bring the war onto Lebanese lands. Whether Nasrallah will risk the bloodshed and ravages of another war with Israel remains to be seen. All of Israel hopes he decides not to risk the peace, safety and lives of his people and of Israel as we prefer peace but will act according to the realities presented to us.

 

Another group in the Iranian camp is Hamas and there is always the possibility that they too might decide that by provoking Israel by attacking her civilians, towns, cities, farms, kibbutzim and population centers with barrages of rockets will please their sponsors in Tehran. Further, Iran may demand of them to attack Israel ever escalating their attacks over time in order to find exactly where Israel will draw the line and respond in kind. Hamas might also be a second prong of a pincer attack striking from the north with Hezballah and the South with Hamas. Hamas, along with Islamic Jihad, have been building terror tunnels to use to infiltrate Israel intending to use them during attacks or to abduct Israelis to hold hostage and demand the release of terrorists from Israeli prisons. This has become a point of contention in some circles in Israel.

 

Then there is the rumors about a grand plan being worked upon in Washington D.C. based on the Two-State Solution. President Trump will soon attempt to bring about another round of negotiations between the PA and Israel. The rumors are that there will be concessions asked of both sides. We have been here before where the concessions from Israel are concrete sacrifices on the lands and in assigned borders granting additional facts for the PA to claim more areas while the PA and Abbas are only requested to make promises which they will never keep. It has been the same ever since the disaster brought upon Israel by the crafters of the Oslo Accords; Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, Ron Pundak, Yitzhak Rabin and their select group of advisers and negotiators. Since then there have been a select group who have continued to believe in the Oslo Accords and protected them always holding to the concept that should Israel only find the exact formula of concessions and enticements, then peace will break out and roses will bloom. This has been the political Achilles Heel of Israel.

 

The Truth Arab League Wants You to Know

 

Then there is a growing rift which has grown between the American Jewish communities, particularly those of a leftist political alignment. This rift has not grown between the traditional Orthodox who largely still supports Israel just as they have since her conception seeing Israel as the realization of the dream. Meanwhile, the leftist Jews are mostly made up from the Reform and Reconstructionist movements and have recently invented a new branch designed to strike from another angle, these are the New Orthodox, Open Orthodox or whatever name they will jump to using once these names has been exposed as false branches and not truly Orthodox. These pseudo-Orthodox factions believe in same sex marriage, inter-faith marriages and numerous other leftist political positions which run contrary to Halacha. They have used this front to augment the push by the leadership of nontraditional Judaism to demand Israel bend and hold to the leftist principles followed by these sects which long ago placed their leftist politics above Halachic Judaism. They demanded a mixed gender place where women could wear Tallit, put on Tefillin, and even read Torah and Israel tried to meet them on this demand. The section was not used and remained deserted but when the Israelis decided to close the section to save resources, the hue and cry went up that Israel was drawing lines on who was a Jew and who was not. Their most damaging attempt was the demand that Israel accept any conversion to Judaism from any Rabbi or source with no regards for qualitative demands, religious knowledge of the convert, desire of the convert to live an Halachic life or even make an attempt to be Jewish in any manner or fashion. The reason behind these attacks is to label Israel as rejecting their Jewishness and not hold themselves at all responsible for their complete desertion of all things Jewish exchanging them for leftist politics and their holy revolution.

 

Another peril for Israel is the rising anti-Semitism in Europe and starting to spread throughout the world. This is an Israeli problem as Israel has a responsibility to fight to protect the Jews everywhere. By fight, we do not mean literally but politically and socially. The best antidote for anti-Semitism is a strong and proper Israel and Israeli people living proper and Torah observant lives. Israel must also be the refuge for any Jews who find themselves threatened where they reside giving them a place to which to flee should things turn that badly. This was the case throughout the 1950’s as Jews faced pogroms and exile from their homelands across the MENA region as the Arab and Muslim rulers demanded their Jews flee after stripping them of all their wealth. This was the case as the Jews fled the Soviet Union in the 1970’s through the 1980’s. This will be the unfortunately necessary case when Europe decides they no longer care to countenance their Jewish populations. This will be far from the first time that Jews have been expelled from European nations or threatened with genocide should they not exit quickly enough. This was the reason the Holocaust came about as Hitler initially demanded that the Jews be permitted to return to their homelands in what would become Israel. The British who controlled the lands at the time responded to Arab rioting at the idea of permitting European Jews to flee to Israel refused them entry. Now there is no external power preventing Israel from being the last and best hope for the Jewish People. If or when places around our world decide to expel their Jews, today there is a land which will gladly give them a home and assist them in adjusting to their new life, and that is Israel. We have heard people argue that the United States would accept Jews in distress but all we can ask them is if they have ever heard of the steamship St. Louis. Usually their answer is no and they need be educated that this was evidence of exactly what the United States did when Jews were in desperate need of assistance and were within sight of the American shoreline as well as the Coast Guard ships escorting their slow cruise along the eastern seaboard on their trip back to Frankfort. Israel is the guarantor that such a travesty never happens again. Israel is the enforcement behind the phrase, “Never Again.”

 

And now another disaster appears on the horizon. Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday he is seriously considering running for Prime Minister. There are also reports that he has been contacting leaders of several parties and is most seriously considering joining the Zionist Union assuming the top spot from Labor chairman Avi Gabbay. Ehud Barak was quoted by Hahadashot stating, “Today I am more mature and qualified to lead the State of Israel than any candidate around.” Yes, Ehud Barak never has suffered from excessive modesty. But please do not take our word for this, from his own mouth, “I do not need reinforcements – I am immodest enough to notice that in terms of record, experience, international familiarity, intimate familiarity with security problems, economics, etc. I am now more mature and qualified to lead the State of Israel than any of the candidates around, including Netanyahu.” This from a man who has never found any proposed sacrifice as being too excessive if their might be a Nobel Peace Prize for finally reaching a deal with the PA. Ehud Barak has taken great hope from a poll which he claims he does not know the source, really likely, which he describes stating, “I also have a poll, which I do not know who initiated, but on the question, ‘If there was a direct election for prime minister and Netanyahu and Barak were candidates, who would you vote for?’, I beat Netanyahu among the secular public.” He probably has not heard that Israel while being a secular state politically, is a largely religious state. This explains the sabotage and condemnatory statements regarding Prime Minister Netanyahu over the past eighteen months while claiming to have no interest in running for political office. We have suspected he was once again planning on running for Prime Minister as he cannot believe he is not running everything from Israel to the United Nations, the Nobel Committee and the planet, after all, he is not “immodest” by admission. Who are we to argue with Mr. Perfect?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Mahmoud Abbas Makes Peace Impossible

 

The world loves to claim that Mahmoud Abbas is Israel’s best prospect for peace. The shocker is that we agree with that statement and claim that this makes peace impossible. What people do not realize is that Mahmoud Abbas is Israel’s savior from its own mistakes. More than once Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed to make sacrifices for peace which would have very possibly mortally wounded Israel. Had these offers been accepted the Arabs would have been able to fire rockets directly into Tel Aviv using line of sight aiming which would have crippled all economic life and life in general for the majority of Israelis. But Israel has a strange savior because Hashem works in strange and mysterious ways and often with a sense of irony thrown in just for amusement sake. That savior is the man who cannot afford to accept any peace because doing so would cost him everything. That man is Mahmoud Abbas and he knows the minute that he makes peace with Israel and the IDF and Israeli security personnel withdraw from Judea and Samaria that his life would not be insurable with Lloyd’s of London at any price, and they have an odds price on virtually anything. Once Abbas makes a peace with Israel he would be wise to leave before Hamas makes their move as the result will be identical to the fight over Gaza except this time those Hamas does not like will have nowhere to run. Abbas knows his name tops that list and that only the IDF and Israeli security forces stand between Hamas and his neck, thus he will never make peace. Still, he is Israel’s best chance for peace as there is no other and that is the sole reason, and the world knows this as well.

 

Then why does the world, especially the European Union and the United Nations insist that Israel make sacrifices to bring Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table? They do this for two reasons; first because they want to compromise Israel, and second because they know Abbas will never make peace thus they can make Israel destroy itself safely and without getting their hands dirty. Their plan is to shrink Israel piece by piece which is funny as that is also the Arab plan for the destruction of Israel, by stages peace by peace. Prime Minister Netanyahu also knows the truth about Abbas and his delicate predicament and that Abbas is happy with things just the way they are. You need to understand that Mahmoud Abbas has another interest in keeping everything just as they are because the European Union and the United Nations plus certain European nations along with the United States continue sending millions of dollars atop millions of dollars annually from which Abbas and select groups amongst the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership and PLO hierarchy, of which Mahmoud Abbas is the top person in each, are taking their generous share off the top making themselves unbelievably wealthy. Abbas is not about to kill the geese which continue laying golden eggs for him and with whose gold he uses to retain loyalty and stays alive. These are the realities and everybody involved is quite content with the status quo, well, except for Netanyahu and the majority of Israelis, and that brings us to other realities we all know are real and true.

 

This is where International Law enters the picture and the realities of treaties, conventions, mandates, charters and hard facts come in. What all of these do is paint a picture of another reality which Abbas knows as does everybody else who is playing the music that they are all dancing to. The truth is that all the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea belongs to Israel and will remain Israeli unless Israel signs treaties giving the land away. That is how they stole Gaza and Israel learned a hard lesson there. Israel also knows that should they ever again be forced to fight and gain territory, not to return it but to exercise the law of nations that allows that lands gained in a defensive war may be retained by the aggrieved nation. This lesson was the lesson of southern Lebanon where once Israel returned the lands taken in the war with Hezballah they returned in force and now that area has approximately one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles aimed at every target imaginable throughout all of Israel all the way down to Eilat at the southernmost tip of the country. Israel has learned that every inch of land which she allows to be given to her enemies, be it Israeli lands or those gained in defensive struggles, are immediately taken by the terrorist enemies and become a launching pad for future wars and terrorist raids and continuous threat for more death and destruction. Yet this is exactly what the world demands that Israel concedes to, giving lands to those who will immediately utilize it as a staging ground for the eventual destruction of the Jewish State. But fortunately Mahmoud Abbas must refuse any offer no matter how generous as he proved when offered over ninety percent of Judea and Samaria, half of Jerusalem including the Old City and Temple Mount, and lands from within the Green Line equal to the lands retained from Judea and Samaria. This offer was refused twice, one when offered by Ehud Barak in 2000 and again in 2008 offered by Ehud Olmert. Perhaps Israel should be wary of any leader named Ehud in the future, especially Barak and Olmert.

 

Israel has a world seemingly hungry for her to sacrifice pieces of her ancient homelands and half her Capital City of Jerusalem and much of the historic lands of the Bible. Places that Christian and Jews hold sacred, Biblical Places, such as Bethlehem, Jericho, Hevron, Bethel and numerous others. They would demand that the Temple Mount be made Islamic only grounds where they would picnic and play soccer while Jews and Christians would be denied to come to their precious lands. These are the demands the world makes and then relies on Mahmoud Abbas to refuse any offerings so they can claim they are the ones standing for peace if only Israel would satisfy the Arab demands. We are back to the fact that everybody on all sides are familiar with the Arab demands and that they will only accept the Jews living under Arab rule begging for each day and praying that it not be their last. The Arabs cannot allow Israel to exist because their pride is challenged as the area once was theirs. They have the same problem with the lands of Andalusia, what we recognize today as Spain and Portugal. They also believe that the lands all the way to the gates of Vienna should be returned to them as the Ottomans twice extended their reach to the gates of that city. The Europeans also know that Israel is like the plug in the bottle and without Israel they stand even more vulnerable than they presently find themselves, and that brings us to the final story.

 

Biblical Israel a Historic and Accurate View

 

Europe and the remainder of the free world and developed world are facing the same threat as Israel, Islamic terrorism. The United States has taken a partial step in preventing further infiltration, though it is currently being debated in the courts, briefly, as the restraints on immigration will stand the test. Europe has been open to infiltration and has reaped their just rewards and the people have begun to stir in a number of nations. The terrorism threat has reared its ugliness throughout much of Europe but media and the current leaders are doing all they can to downplay these incidents. Many Europeans feel betrayed by their leadership which has these leaders worried as facing their public come next elections. Some are proposing an administration which would control the media acting as a Ministry of Truth. Their quoted intention was to prevent “fake news” and to act as fact checkers, but the facts they check could be to further their power or at least try to protect them until after the next elections. The left realizes that they have backed themselves into a corner and the troubles the people have realized is being placed at their doorstep. BREXIT and the election in the United States of Donald Trump as President and a Republican Congress have sent shivers through the entire left-wing political hierarchy which has completely controlled Europe for over a decade. Now they feel threatened and still have not realized why the people are displeased. The next set of elections in Europe might bring about a seismic shift in the political alignment of the continent. The real question is to how long the populations will remain engaged and retain a more measured and conservative leadership in power. The balance is precariously balanced and unless the people remain vigilant then one more round where the left gains control of the Western nations there may be no road back. Should that become the reality then the Tytler Cycle of Power will advance and history teaches us that the cycle will not return to freedom for generations. The next decade or two will be determinative in the future we hand our children and their children for too many generations to be contemplated.

 

Beyond the Cusp