Abbas Blockading All Peace Efforts

 

The reality is there for all to witness if they take even the most causal of observations, the Palestinian Authority (PA) refuses to accept any peace in which the State of Israel is permitted to remain Jewish. World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ron Lauder published an opinion piece in the New York Times on March 18, 2018, titled, “Israel’s Self-Inflicted Wounds” and is a commentary equating Israeli sins of a presumed occupation and Arab government supported terrorism for preventing any hope of peace. The entire self-hating piece has been proven to be a wrong-headed concept with no validation in the real world. His errors are legion starting with the idea the Arabs are forced to live under Israeli rule when well under five percent of Palestinian Arabs live in areas under Israeli rule. All one need do is read and understand the definitions of the three areas in Judea and Samaria and how each is to be ruled to see the reality. Area A is under PA rule and security where sixty percent of Palestinian Arabs reside. Area B is under PA rule and joint PA-Israeli security and where forty percent of Palestinian Arabs reside. Area A was intended to be the core of the Palestinian Arab State while Part B was where the division between Israeli and Arab and intended to be negotiated. Area C has a minuscule Palestinian Arab population and contains 100% of the Jewish towns, cities, industrial parks and is under Israeli control for both security and rule. Area C was presumed to remain with Israel under the Oslo Accords. PA lies and obscurations  have combined with an eager world attempting to erase as much Israeli presence as possible to expand the PA claims to include all the areas divided between the parties by the Oslo Accords.

 

Ever since the final offers by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made in 2008 were rejected by Mahmoud Abbas, there have been no negotiations as Abbas has refused all invitations to negotiate. During the eight years of the administration of President Obama, Mahmoud Abbas got accustomed to America pressing Israel to make obviously dangerous concessions which Israel refused to accommodate leading to an appearance of Israel being the party resisting any peace proposals. During this time it was beneficial for Mahmoud Abbas to refuse any Israeli offer for face-to-face negotiations and instead allow President Obama and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to press Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to literally fall on his sword and surrender all of the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria. Prime Minister Netanyahu gallantly fought against these efforts from Washington D.C. while also giving loud protestations and prescient warnings of the dire future being carved out of the Middle East by the Iranian Nuclear Deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA). Mahmoud Abbas watched as the United States had moved slowly but inexorably away from supporting Israel to adopting every last attribute of the PA demands of Israel reaching its apex at the end of the Obama Presidency.

 

Netanyahu Falling on His Own Sword

 

The inauguration of President Trump brought all the good times crashing down around Mahmoud Abbas’s ears and he still had not figured out the new lay of the land. This might be attributed to President Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson whose Arabist credentials are impeccable. Well, good old Rex is not around any longer as he and his boss, President Trump, were not seeing things eye-to-eye. Rex supported the JCPA, Trump wants to kill it; Rex supported Qatar, Trump placed embargoes on Qatar; Rex supports a Two State Solution, Trump favors Israel; Rex is an Arabist through and through, Trump is an America Firster; Rex was the anti-Donald, the President is Donald Trump so Rex is unemployed and President Trump made a statement on a large number of issues where policy had been ambiguous due to the Secretary of State having his own and contrary agenda. The biggest change in the Middle East came to a head over the Jerusalem announcement which Rex Tillerson opposed quite vehemently which probably was the last straw breaking the camel’s back. President Trump made his announcement that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. President Trump would really like to officially open the temporary Jerusalem Embassy on May 14 of this year coinciding with Israeli seventieth birthday. Strangely enough, Israeli bureaucracy may prevent such from happening as they are dragging their feet on approvals for the needed changes so the current consulate building can also serve as an embassy until the actual building can be constructed. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon tweeted President Trump (see below) promising to do all within his power to facilitate all items required for moving the embassy in mid-May. His Tweet was sent in both Hebrew and English so all on both sides would understand where the Israeli Finance Minister stands, and it is with President Trump and simply getting things done, the bureaucracy, not so much. One might come to believe that the Israeli Deep State is working with the United States State Department Deep State.

 

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon Tweet to President Trump

 

Abbas decided to throw a temper tantrum upon the announcement of the United States recognition of Jerusalem and the Israeli capital city and their intent to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. He denounced the recognition of Jerusalem to be a Zionist plot pointing out the obvious, that the Jews were running the United States and had control over President Trump. He denounced the United States claiming it had lost its ability to be an arbiter in the peace process and these were things just for starters. Abbas has refused to attend a twenty nation, including seven Arab Nations and Israel, White House Conference on Gaza which Abbas refused to join and included this into his rants referring to this as a ruse by Zionist entities. As we have noted before, Mahmoud Abbas obviously intends to burn all his bridges after crossing them and is burning the fields in a scorched earth practice intending to get President Trump to wither before his onslaught of political suicide and dive in to save him. Apparently President Trump is perfectly willing to allow Mahmoud Abbas to destroy any chance that the Palestinian Arabs have for peace. Abbas with his personal attacks on the American President are only serving to further push the United States into fully supporting Israel. Just like Kim Jong-un has noticed, these antics which instilled trepidation into the veins and arteries of former Presidents, this President, Donald Trump, is made of sterner stuff and these childlike antics simply bounce off him and fall forming embargos against the nation throwing the tantrum. These antics by Abbas has already ended United States support of UNRWA and further embargos have been set against the Arabs in Gaza for their part in aiding Hamas build tunnels within Israeli areas where the IDF patrols, thus finding these tunnels and destroying them. President Trump also appears to be the anti-Europe faction on all items concerning Israel. President Trump has announced that negotiations can begin and be held wherever the parties decide with no preconditions or inducements, just meetings to do the difficult work of hammering out a complete peace deal forming recognized borders ending many centuries of struggles and hardships suffered by both peoples. Abbas appears content with living in his new house built with European donations and allowing time to pass and hopefully Trump will soon pass with time. What Abbas has yet to realize is that the settings have changed and that neither he nor the Europeans are able to turn them back as long as Trump is standing at the switch. These self-destructive antics are simply another diversionary tactic by Abbas waiting for the world to be so disgusted by the lack of peace that they will try to force the European Union’s peace concept on Israel. Such a peace would not be supported by the United States though the United Nations General Assembly would back any plan which would likely harm Israel. But Israel need not worry as there is still time and contrary to predictions and doomsday reports about demographics giving the Arabs within Israel a plurality, such has been proven incorrect with the new numbers which depict the Jewish majority to continue and increase. The future is a bright and wonderful Israel. This too put Rex and the Donald on opposing sides as Rex believed the Arabs would eventually defeat Israel. Let us pray they are correct and Israel does eventually become the beacon and light onto the nations. Then the words of Isaiah 2:4 shall become a reality and “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Oh to live to see that day come, that would be a dream come true.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel and the Netanyahu-Trump Effect

 

There was hope across the growing Zionist public spanning Israel when Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the United States elections. There was hope that finally the Israeli government would be freed to act as they had promised. The end of President Obama and his opposition to Israel claiming dominion over land legally theirs under International Law was seen as the dream of a promise realized. The “settlers” would finally be permitted to be brought under Israeli law and the end of Jordanian rule in Judea and Samaria and most definitely the Temple Mount. Finally Israel would be freed from the opposition and constraints imposed by President Obama, the United States State Department and could finally ignore the European Union and its venomous spitefulness. Prime Minister Netanyahu could finally make good on all his promises to extend Israeli law to Judea and Samaria allowing Arabs to sell land to Jews and ending the dictatorial oppressive rule by Mahmoud Abbas. Israel could bring the remainder of our land under public rule ending the military occupation of our own lands granting full civil, property and economic freedoms and liberate these areas from military rule. Civilian police would soon be empowered and there could be real election under Israeli and international supervision which would guarantee the end of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority death grip over the Arab populations. The end of the Palestinian Authority and the empowerment and economic development which would follow such an extending of civil rule replacing military rule and would soon change the entire emotional realities as the graft and theft of resources by their governance would be reduced hopefully soon to negligible to completely nonexistent. This was the dream viewed by many once Donald Trump assumed the Presidency and the Israeli government would be free to act on its Zionist imperatives.

 

Something went horrifically wrong and the signs were strong and immediate. What was terrifying is that none of these horrific events originated in the United States. From the Administration of President Donald Trump we received the best announcement with which to launch such as the expected Zionist actions from the Israeli leadership. President Trump stated his immediate intent to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem. Here it was, the opportunity of their lifetimes and they dropped the ball, almost every last one dropped the ball and then kicked the ball out into the Mediterranean and back into Trump’s face. The immediate hemming and hawing if not outright rejection, as one Minister of the government reacted, of the announcement of the intent to move the embassy was outright embarrassing. What should have had people out in the streets celebrating with our leaders out in front of the parades instead had our government leadership hanging their heads slowly shaking them mumbling things like, “I don’t know about this embassy move” or “we had better check with the Arabs and see what they think” and “well, this is kind of sudden and we need time to think” or finally, “we should not take this as an indication that Trump will be helpful or do anything that might be risky.”

 

There would be no parades or street celebrations because our leadership is suffering a terminal case of Stockholm Syndrome. They have yet to recover from their shell-shocked barraged existence not only for the past eight years but since 1967 when the government did not act and declare our return to our rightful homelands and annex all of Judea and Samaria right after the Six Day War. International Law backed our doing so then and still applies as these are our lands, have always been our lands even when Jordan illegally occupied and militarily held them, and especially now that we had liberated them from that occupation. Had Ehud Olmert as Prime Minister acted in such a manner, or even Golda Meir after him, then Israel would not have faced the ever growing demands from the rest of the world to sign away our rights to our ancient homelands. We should have understood that the world was going to fight to steal our lands and deny us that on which our history played out. The problem the world has faced has been one simply truth, it is land which rightfully belongs to Israel and only to Israel with the only exception being if Israel can be forced to sign these lands away. We will watch as George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are lionized going down in history as amongst the greatest of world leaders as they dazzled Israel with promises of grand support and baffled us with promissory notes supporting our rights getting Ariel Sharon to rearrange his entire government forming a new coalition and sliding, nay, breaking every rule of forming a coalition in the middle of a term without holding elections and finished the deal with the Prince of Crawford giving away the Gaza Strip. We all have witnessed how well that has turned out and learned the exact worth of all the promissory notes, letters, words and smooth talking of Condoleezza cooing in Ariel’s ear a pleasant song of misdirection. Now we have taken the approach of mowing the Hamas sawgrass every few years and now we are actually thinking of repeating this mistake.

 

With great effort Netanyahu, with a huge assist from Lieberman and the not so loyal opposition, forced President Trump to now be rethinking moving the embassy and has spoken the words “two state solution” and all this after taking his first step towards allowing Israel to realize every Zionist dream. We have turned an American President from a Zionist supporting friend into a puzzled and retreating American President rubbing a bruise over his offer to move the embassy to Jerusalem delivered not from Abbas but from Netanyahu and Lieberman and fellow travelers. The most right wing government in Israeli history, or at least that has been the accusation, has become the government which turned the tide of victory back into defeat. In a single month they turned a pro-Zionist Washington into a repeat of any normative Washington reserved and wary of pushing anything which might be too pro-Israel because taking such a road appears to upset the Israeli government. We bet Mahmoud Abbas is laughing and was Trump’s best friend during their phone call during which resulted in Trump inviting Abbas “to visit the White House soon to discuss ways to resume the (Palestinian-Israeli) political process,” according to official Arab-Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Abbas’s spokesman. This turn around forced not by trickery or smooth talking and threats from the Arab world but by buffoonery and rejectionism of the best offer of friendliness Israeli leadership was ever going to receive from Washington. We took promises of freedom to act and perform that which we felt necessary with the greatest leeway imaginable and threw it back in President Trump’s face screaming how dare you make us so vulnerable to the hatred of Europeans and the Arabs and maybe even infuriating Iran making things dangerous. News flash, this rejection of a hand extended in sincerity offering to assist us in building a single nation with a Jewish majority and possibly having a large number of legal resident aliens who may have been offered Jordanian citizenship or resident aliens without a country at worst. Why worry about the rest of the world as with the full support of Washington for the next four years minimally we could have outlasted the ire of the world which would have died down within two or three years at the longest. Now we will take those same two or three years even to get to the point where President Trump will feel comfortable with moving the embassy to Jerusalem but apparently he will be doing so against the will of any Netanyahu governance as now Netanyahu has discovered that Iran does not like Israel and until that is settled he cannot be bothered with any Judea and Samaria talk.

 

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu

 

Yes, you read that correctly, Iran might not love Israel. This is something that has just taken seat one on the Prime Minister’s mind. Nothing else can be countenanced for discussion until this problem is resolved. Don’t talk crazy about embassies and moving them to Jerusalem, worry that Iran might target Jerusalem some day. Annexing Judea and Samaria or even just Area C which Oslo Accords awarded to Israel and do not even bother mentioning annexing the largest and closest settlement blocs as right now we must all think Iran, Iran and only Iran. That is the message the Prime Minister’s Security Cabinet was given. When one member began to mention “Judea” he never got the following words out, they might have been “and Samaria” but we will never know because he was met with the glare from the eyes before the head even turned which froze his lips right there. That was the end of discussions of Judea, Samaria, Embassy to Jerusalem, Trump as our best friend, Trump as our best opportunity, even discussing the plans for developing the Galilee which is already presumably in the works and it had best continue on its own as Netanyahu has Iran Fixation!

 

Iran Fixation is a rare disease brought on by the opportunity to do whatever we desire within our Internationally legal borders which allows for the head of the government to continue enjoying traveling to any nation in Europe and enjoying the high society soirees with his wife while never hearing the mention in Europe or at home of Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem. Iran Fixation allows one to have a ready excuse for any and everything which anybody might want to raise as an issue as under Iran Fixation the answer to every question is, “Iran is the number one threat and has our entire attention right now as it should be and ‘whatever the questioner asked’ cannot take the government away from the Iranian threat.” This Iran Fixation would necessarily end all discussion of anything other than Iran and how to ready the military to face this Iranian Fixation, theirs and the Prime Minister’s as they keep chanting “Death to Israel” and he keeps chanting, “Iran threat.” So, our fellow Zionists, we have bad news and it begins with the words, “Iran Fixation” and ends with the words, “Prime Minister Netanyahu.” Somewhere in there is the plea that we manage to survive this bout of Iran Fixation which is plaguing our Prime Minister and his government. Iran Fixation is paralyzing our government from taking actions which would have been proudly and gladly backed by the United States under President Donald Trump. The unfortunate thing was when President Trump entered office and exclaimed his intent for moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, not just to Peta Tikva, but all the way through Peta Tikva onto Jerusalem, he was met by the Israeli Defense Minister declaring that Israel must take great care not to push Washington too far” which he could only have meant that Israel hold back Washington from being too much an unhindered friend for Israel and guard Washington from itself by keeping the present restraints in place and the Prime Minister screaming that first we need to talk about Iran. We can only imagine the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu when they met in the White House for their first face-to-face. Trump asked, “How soon can we move the embassy to Jerusalem?” and Netanyahu answered, “As soon as we solve Iran.” So Trump queried, “How soon can we advance the settlements?” and Netanyahu answered, “As soon as we solve Iran.” Starting to worry, Trump cautiously advanced, “How soon should the United States make Abbas hold real elections?” and Netanyahu answered, “As soon as we solve Iran.” Finally, in complete exasperation after over an hour of Netanyahu answering, “As soon as we solve Iran,” Trump asked, “Should we go and meet the media waiting outside?” and Netanyahu answered, “As soon as we solve Iran.” Somehow Trump wrestled Netanyahu out of the Oval Office and demanded he stop saying, “As soon as we solve Iran;” so they could hold their photo op and press meet. Fortunately Netanyahu managed to say more than, “As soon as we solve Iran.” Unfortunately he has returned to stating as an answer to everything, “As soon as we solve Iran.” And his Iran Fixation simply will have to pass with time and hopefully he will recover before Trump leaves office or Netanyahu may find himself leaving office.

 

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