Attempting to Clarify Israel and the Misconceptions

 

Why not have us start with the biggest misconception, the desire of Israel to form Greater Israel. This is an accusation which most using it know that it is their really big lie. Greater Israel was the Israeli Empire of Kings David and Solomon (see map below). Their empire reached the Euphrates River at its northern point and the Nile, so to speak, to its southern edge. What one has to remember is that whenever your border met the border of Egypt in ancient times, that was considered as bordering the Nile because between the Egyptian border and the Nile were a few small settlements, and a select group of cities which grew around the defensive fortifications along the used paths of travel to central Egypt, the Nile. So the border of Egypt was basically the border of the Nile River as there was nothing of real substance between the border and the Nile River. So, the story of a Greater Israel is a historical reference to the hundred years largely during the reign of King Solomon and the second half of the rule of King David after he unified the Twelve Tribes and then set out on conquest. King Solomon completed the conquest reaching the Euphrates River fulfilling prophesy and retained a steady and peaceful border with Egypt. The Empire of a Greater Israel was an aid to the Egyptian Empire as it presented a safe border where there was agreement and little possibility of any aggressive actions. Neither Egypt nor Israel desired to go to war with the other as they were of relatively even ability and both would lose in such a struggle. There is no desire for modern Israel to extend her border any further than the boundaries defined by the San Remo Conference, the Mandate System and related treaties as well as Article 80 of the United Nations Charter making the Mandates enforceable by the United Nations. The United Nations is bound by its charter to enforce the promises made under the Mandates which set the eastern border of the Jewish State to be the Jordan River and had absolutely no mention of any Arab entity west of the Jordan River, Palestinian or otherwise. The Mandate set an Arab state east of the Jordan River which initially was named Transjordan and later simply Jordan. Despite all the various resolutions voted upon semi-recognizing an Arab Palestinian state out of what was promised to the Jewish State or the intentional harm allowed by President Obama in the Security Council on the Israel damning UNSC Resolution 2334 under Chapter Six authority which does not permit military force or other coercive force such as embargoes for enforcement, the United Nations under the charter, which overrules all else, must enforce as the eastern border of Israel to be the Jordan River. That is an absolute which any International Court would have to respect and use as the law on the matter. This is why the Arab world has never taken Israel into the International Courts at The Hague as they know any such judgement would further enforce the Jordan River border for Israel. After that has been settled, as if Israel were to sign a treaty giving the land away, which she has yet to commit, the sole means for such an Arab state to be formed, such as Hamastan in Gaza, otherwise Israel’s eastern border remains the Jordan River and beyond that there is no desire for reestablishing the borders reached by King Solomon in modern times.

 

Greater Israel the Kingdoms of Kings David and Solomon Between 1050 and 930 BCE

 

Another slander spread about Israel is the Apartheid accusation that the Jews have rights that non-Jews are denied, specifically the Arab Palestinians. There exist a very limited number of rights which are reserved for solely the Jewish People, but they would not rise to the level of Apartheid. The most obvious is the “Right of Return” for the Jewish People. This was something that the world agreed was understandable and the means by which the Jewish State would operate and be founded upon. Any person whose heritage by birth, or recognized conversion, is Jewish, is permitted to return to the ancient Jewish homelands and become a citizen. This was considered a basic and inherent right under which the Jewish State would operate and as the Jewish State, it would be ridiculous to claim others would have such a right. Jewish citizens upon reaching military age are required to serve in the IDF or perform National Service and this is not required of others with one exception; further the Druze or Circassian Peoples of Israel declared they too would follow conscription and serve exactly as the Jews are required and this was voluntary and decided as a community. Arabs, Christians, Bhai and other religions and peoples residing in Israel are not required to serve in the IDF though they may choose to serve voluntarily. There is a current discussion for expanding military service requirement to the Hassidic Jews. This has not been a right in which Jews are solely privileged to perform, as others are not banging down the doors demanding not to be excluded from inscription. These are the exceptions and beyond these, there is complete equality in Israel. Jews, Arabs, Christians and all other non-Jews have the rights to vote, live in any open community (there are exclusive communities such as religious, Arab, Bhai, Kibbutzim and a selection of similar types), work in any occupation, same healthcare system, join political parties, equality before the law, and everything else just as in any other democracy in the world. The Arab Palestinians do not have these rights because they are not Israelis, they live in their areas under their own governance headed by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The Arab Palestinians have not voted in over a decade because Mahmoud Abbas knows he would lose and that would likely lead to his being dragged before an Arab court and he prefers being President so he cancels the elections every time the time approaches. Israel cannot force them to hold elections any more than Israel could force North Korea to hold open and fair elections. The limitations on Arab Palestinians exist due to the fact that they are a foreign entity and are not Israeli citizens and the only citizenship they had before the Palestinian Authority was the older Arab Palestinian likely hold Jordanian citizenship and the rest are the offspring one or two generations removed from being Jordanian citizens.

 

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad launch rockets or use tunnels to attack into Israel and it results in yet another Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel war, there comes the inevitable charge that Israel is using disproportional force as the fighting results in more Gazan civilian deaths than Israeli civilian deaths. There are any number of mitigating reasons of which the most urgent which are ignored are obvious to those who bother to try to find the reality. The largest reason is despite having sufficient tunnel and bunker space to place all the Gazan people underground and in relative safety, Hamas (and we will use Hamas to infer Islamic Jihad and their other allies) refuses to permit any of the civilians outside a select group who have sufficient wealth to purchase their own and family safety. Instead, they force the population to crowd into areas where Hamas is launching rockets or where Hamas is planning to encounter and fight the IDF. Hamas does this with the intent of causing civilian casualties. What is even more frightening, Hamas has been seen to entice children, using their youthful curiosity, to stand near their rocket launchers when they are launching rockets into Israel with the intent of their being struck when Israel returns fire to destroy the launchers. Additionally, Hamas, and friends, do not exactly wear uniforms and the major difference between a Hamas terrorist combatant and a civilian male Gazan of approximately the same age is, at most, a few grenades, an AK47 or similar assault rifle, possibly a sidearm or possibly operating a rocket launcher or mortar. When one of these combatants is killed, then his weaponry is removed and then they are pictured by the media and counted as a civilian. Additionally, when Israel calls people, drops leaflets, and performs other warning actions that they will be attacking a certain building or location, Hamas will call for people, mostly women and children, and have them stand on the roof of the building or surround the rocket-launching vehicle so that Israel will not attack and this works much of the time. It fails on occasion when Israel is using artillery or missiles and intelligence does not show the civilians who are still at the location despite the warnings from Israel. Too often it is later found from survivors that Hamas ordered the people to remain in a targeted building in order to cause casualties which they can show the media and claim Israel has intentionally murdered these people. There have been cases when Hamas rockets have misfired and struck within Gaza such as when the al-Shifa Hospital and Shati Refugee Camp were struck by Hamas fired missiles. This was proven by Israeli radar trajectory tracking systems which followed the track of four rockets launched (see pictures below) from a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher aimed at Ashkelon where one of the rockets was tracked. These misfires are shown to the media claiming that they were launched attacks from Israel. In Gaza, Hamas actually use civilians as human shields which too often results in civilian casualties. The simple truth is the Hamas does everything they can to maximize civilian casualties as well as using their own dead combatants to be stripped of weapons and also added to the civilian count.

 

Radar Trajectory of barrage launched from within Gaza depicting strike points including the short round strike on the Shifa Hospital which Israel blamed by Hamas and Media accepted Hamas talking point unchecked

 

Israel works in the opposite direction from Hamas et. al. Israel requires new structures, be they apartments, homes, malls, office buildings or anything else, to have shelters capable of providing protection to the maximum expected count of occupants. These shelters also need to be within a certain distance to permit the people to reach them within a safe period of time which should be less than the flight time of any rocket or missile fired at them. Israel shelters their civilians while the IDF are the ones standing in the open seeking shelter only after they have marshaled all civilians into shelters. Israel has developed the means to intercept as many rockets, missiles, artillery and mortars such as the Iron Dome (see picture below). Israel invests millions of shekels if not billions or even trillions of shekels into producing a multi-level anti-missile interception systems including but not limited to the Arrow II, Arrow III, David’s Sling and the new Magic Wand, and these are the ones which we know exist and who knows what else Israeli scientists have designed and built that they have not made public. Israel protects her civilians placing the IDF between the civilians and the danger while Hamas place their civilians between their combatants and the danger. That is the real reason that there are far less Israeli civilians killed than civilians who are an unintended consequence of Israeli actions to defend Israelis when attacked by Hamas.

 

Iron Dome Launch to Intercept Rockets Originating from Gaza
which is Under Hamas Governance and Held Responsible for all
Rockets by Israel Regardless of Who Actually Launches Rockets

 

Then there is the simple fact that disproportional use of force is a new and previously unheard of measure of warfare. Further, of all the recent and current zones where there is active combat or has had combat, the use of the measure of proportional or disproportional force as a measure has solely been applied to Israel. The ratio of military fatalities when compared to civilian fatalities changed drastically between World War I and World War II (see graph below). The United States had far greater than a ten-to-one kill ratio in Viet Nam when counting combatants. The United States has had almost unimaginable numbers of enemy civilian casualties compared to those suffered by the United States. In every war, there has been very few where the casualties, civilian or military, were proportional and the intent of any military for military combatant deaths is to cause the maximum while taking the minimal numbers. Simply stated, in war a disproportional ratio is what is the intent by both sides. The difference in the Israeli wars with Hamas is due to the intent of each side in their military strategies. Hamas aims to maximize civilian casualties on Israel as they target civilian targets while largely ignoring military targets while Israel intends to target Hamas combatants and uses the IDF to protect the Israeli civilians. Further, while Israel does everything in their power to limit civilian casualties on both sides, Hamas attempts to maximize the civilian death and casualty counts on both the Israelis and their own population. Hamas actually desires that large numbers of their population be killed or injured such that they can have as many pictures as possible to plaster over the front pages and lead news stories around the world. That is their operational strategy, have their own population injured and killed as widely as possible in order to accuse Israel of disproportional force while Israel goes beyond what any other military in the world does to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza as well as protect Israeli civilians. Quoting an investigative report into the IDF performance in the 2014 Gaza War found in this article, we quote, “Each of our own armies is of course committed to protecting civilian life during combat. But none of us is aware of any army that takes such extensive measures as did the IDF last summer to protect the lives of the civilian population in such circumstances.” So much for the claims that Israel has intentionally targeted civilians and the other accusations of disproportionality, an aim of every military in the world when entering combat that they will take few losses while causing maximum losses on their enemy forces.

 

World War II Surpassed World War I
Civilian Deaths Against Military Deaths

 

Then there are claims that Israel has attacked the democratic base of their governance. This claim is brought by Israelis as well as many groups from outside Israel. All of these groups have one item in common, they are far leftist groups. Their claim is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has to be fixing the elections to continue to win elections after election. There are a number of problems with these claims. First, one is that Benyamin Netanyahu has continuously led the Likud Party by decisively winning internal party elections time after time. Most of the other parties also have had the same people in the highest positions over the same period. The parties which have changed leadership are more often those which did not perform well or reach the level of representation in the Knesset that their membership anticipated. This is what has led to these leaders being replaced; Likud has done well so they have continued with what has worked. It is use of the formula of, if it is not broke, don’t fix it. Likud has been successful and thus they have been the party to choose the Prime Minister which has been their successful leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu. What these groups and politicians mean when attacking Israel as not being democratic and having murdered the previously great Israeli democratic history is actually very simply, they mean that their favored parties on the left have not taken power. Israel had leftist socialist governance until 1977 election of Menachem Begin. This ended three decades of Labor Party rule. Since then the left has won some elections but have mostly been placed in the opposition. Unfortunately, the far left have two easily identified political principles, the first is that they have a natural right to run the world and every nations in it and the second is that if they should lose elections then the only possible reason is that democracy has failed and broken down thus the reason for conservative governance can only happen by killing democracy. For further proof of this, one need simply look at the commotion gripping the United States and the anger generated by BREXIT across Europe. The election of Donald Trump, election of Bibi Netanyahu, and BREXIT are the recent proof that the world as we know it is going to explode and die and democracy must be in decline as only by cheating can nationalism or conservatism become the majority. Israeli political mood is religious, nationalist and capitalist with a touch of conservatism which means that everything the far left find putrid; nationalism, capitalism, religion and conservatism; are the items which appear to be driving the Israeli population and this must mean that it is impossible for democracy to operate as the left cannot appear to win elections. Trust, Israeli democracy is alive and well and quite active which becomes evident even to the most casual observer.

 

Israel is simply despised because its existence makes so many beliefs people have held for close to two thousand years, namely that the Jews were finished and ready to collapse into extinction any day now. With Israel, we now have Jews with an Army and no longer the easy people to push around and blame for everything. Just because Israel exists and Jews are armed and protecting themselves has not quite sunk in, so the world is still blaming the Jews for everything, just now they are blaming the Jewish nation, Israel. Israel understands this as our history was a record of being conquered by empire after empire until the prophesy was finally realized, miraculously just as predicted by our prophets and written in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible. With the reestablishment of Israel and the start of the ingathering has many people very nervous as they are not quite sure what this means. They fear it might mean the coming of the Messiach will be very soon and nobody believes we are ready for such an event. Others just resent Jews having their own nation and power. Then there is the fact that the land was one under Islamic rule and is in the heart of the base of Islamic power, thus it must revert to Islamic rule and the Jews need to know their place as dhimmis. Then Israel just makes a convenient target as the Jewish nation amongst all the other nations, many of which are of similar backgrounds. The real problem for Israel is it is the only nation with such an identity, a Jewish identity. That makes Israel the lone nation amongst nations which makes her a target. How has Israel responded? We attempt to assist nations in need, we invent technology, medical procedures, new items and all kinds of things which make life better around the world. There is one other item we in Israel have given the world which we like to tell of, we invented the cherry tomato.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Bloodletting is About to Strike Election Rhetoric

 

The combination of Donald Trump’s infamous acceptance of personal attacks against his business acumen and denials about his self-worth in billions of dollars and Hillary Clinton’s lack of real qualifications other than gender and susceptibility to attacks on her integrity, honesty, and dedicated corruption, there will be much muckraking, ridiculing, disparagement and name-calling. Both sides will trade blow for blow, assault for assault, insult for insult, derision for derision and snideness for snideness. The effect of both candidates taking to the low road will simply act to snowball the crudeness and vulgarity of the exchanges until it serves the purpose one side has intended, driving people from voting for either candidate and going shopping at the mall, watching movies at home, cleaning out the garage or even cleaning the gutters and windows; anything to take their minds from the elections due to the disparaging carnage of the campaigns. You want to ask why either candidate would desire forcing people to be so revolted from the nature of the campaigns such that they prefer not voting or voting third party just as long as they are not responsible for electing either candidate as both would appear unacceptable as the leader of the free world. It would be a campaign gone so low that no revulsive act or revolting comment or other conduct beyond the pale would be left out as each candidate tries to out-defame the other with all decorum left long behind. So, why would either candidate take this as their planned campaign strategy? Because one of the candidates will need for the turnout to be as low as can possibly be forced and may be willing to do whatever it takes to reach such a point.

 

Donald Trump would like to keep diehard Democrats from voting and would desire to have what has been identified as the Trump voters get out and vote. Still, he would not desire for low turnout all the way across the board. Donald Trump may have a core group of voters who would come out to vote for him no matter what, but such voters would make up but a minor set of the public. On the other side, Hillary Clinton is fully supported by the power elite in the Democrat Party and they have core constituencies which would vote for the Democrat candidate regardless of any distraction or detraction. This means in a super low turnout where only the core voters from each camp came out to vote, Hillary Clinton would swamp Donald Trump and coast to possibly the largest Electoral College wipeout even possibly surpassing the Reagan near sweep in his second election to the Presidency. With a depressed turnout of a general and sweeping measurable amount where record low turnout was recorded in every state, Hillary Clinton could conceivably even win in Oklahoma and Texas only losing in Wyoming to Donald Trump. So, we have a reason for taking the election campaign to such a low point that large sectors of the electorate was so revolted by the nature of the campaign they refused to support either candidate. So, that raises the question of whether or not Donald Trump could show the class not to respond in kind to such a berating assault on all levels from an intentional classless campaign by Hillary Clinton. Many claim that he would lack the necessary self-control to resist such attacks.

 

We have already seen Donald Trump at his worst during most of the republican primary campaign especially in his exchanges with FOX’s Megyn Kelly and the exchanges about the size of his hands in relations to something far more crass and even an attack on the wife of Ted Cruz or about the facial attractiveness of fellow candidate Carly Fiorina. These were definitely Donald Trump at his worse. We can only wonder if we have seen Hillary Clinton at her worst.

 

Blame Game Starring
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

 

The problem and main reason that the campaign of Hillary Clinton for President would be going low is because of her lack of a laudable record which she can tout. Her short stint as Senator of New York was about as lacking in highlights as any on record. Her record as Secretary of State is fraught with problems as it brings into the conversation Benghazi, e-mails and the record with Libya and the Arab Spring; all of which her campaign probably would rather avoid. Even her time as First Lady there was her disastrous attempt to secretively fashion a healthcare system which even the Democrats in Congress refused as well as the entire bimbo explosions including Monica Lewinsky who could also be referred to as the “devil in the blue dress.” For those with really good memories for trivia, they may even remember Hillary Clinton making a comment about how she could have settled for staying home and baking cookies as a disparaging remark. Truthfully, Hillary Clinton has more challenge potential than accomplishments in her political history with some definitive explosive mines which if triggered could prove devastating. Many a political advisor had pointed to disparaging Donald Trump as a look at how horrible and distasteful a person Trump is and would be as President and he is completely unmanageable and unpredictable and sell herself as stable by comparison without ever pointing to any qualifications on her side and simply throwing accusations at Trump hoping he explodes and self-destructs. The less reaction the Clinton Campaign elicits out of Donald Trump or his campaign personnel, the more radical and shrill the Clinton campaign and echo-chamber mainstream media will become claiming ever more absurd and insane accusations against Donald Trump. Every last bankruptcy any organization, company or other business interest has ever experienced, every little old lady who may have been evicted to make room for any project which Trump or any related group was involved in and the thousands coming out of the woodwork filing suits against Trump over Trump University false representation and other suits over anything conceivable will be filed hoping to bury Trump under quantity of assaults even if many have absolutely no quality or substance. Everything will be launched at Donald Trump hoping anything sticks while the lawsuits will expose Trump to bad media coverage and hoping to tie him up with so many lawsuits such that he has no time to campaign. The assaults will be ever escalating only to evaporate as soon as Election Day arrives.

 

Ugly, ugly, ugly, thy cause is Clinton and everything ugly which can be implied, applied, decried or provide to shame candidate Trump claiming his being unfit to hold the office of President. All will be pulled from the deck in order to deflect any and all attention from the suitability of Hillary Clinton holding the office of President. The entire Clinton campaign will be composed around the unsuitability of Donald Trump and some light suitability qualifications pertaining to Hillary and of course the fact that she would be the first woman President, probably her only true qualification, if being the first is something the Americans should use as the singular qualification for President. Rather than beat this dead horse, possibly the only thing that Donald Trump will not be accused of killing, we should just bow aside and let the candidates test one another and see if Donald Trump can remain calm and scripted and how completely out of her mind a calm Donald Trump will send one Hillary Clinton and how the media will blame her meltdown on Donald Trump’s misogynistic tendencies.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Temple Mount and What it Says About Palestinian Peace

There exist a number of truths which can be seen simply by observing the realities, actions, reactions, denunciations and accusations and comparing those realities with the numerous presumptions of what an Israeli-Palestinian (or Arab) peace will produce. The reality which much of the world believes to be valid and the realities are often simply the proof that the propaganda by the Palestinians and the cooperative actions of the world media in repeating such propaganda almost word for word in news articles represents them as descriptions of realities. These are often accusations poignantly and passionately expressed claiming Israeli crimes and pejorative actions which are actually projections of the Palestinian actions against Israelis (especially Jews) thus turning the tables trying to turn the victims into the victimizers. The media seldom comes to witness the realities on the Temple Mount and accept whatever reports and pictures provided by Palestinian propaganda producing monitors who write inflammatory accusations against the Jews or Israelis accusing them of the crimes actually committed by the Palestinians which are given further credence with photo images and short and chopped, spliced and edited film clips which leave out the instigations and only represented the reactive force used to restore order as the unnecessary violence perpetrated against innocent Palestinian worshippers and attempts to prevent Palestinians from gathering to worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the very station where rocks, fireworks, Molotov cocktails and other weapons to be used against Israeli security officers to force a response which will be filmed as proof of Israeli miscreancy.

For the sake of clarity let’s get some facts out in front. Of the many entrances allowing unfettered access to the Temple Mount to almost everybody, especially tourists except those tourists wearing anything denoting their Jewishness, including all Palestinians, except under certain times when restrictions become necessary defined shortly, the Jews, especially Israelis, are restricted to a single entrance where access to this entrance is over narrow bridge which has been repaired and reinforced numerous times after engineers declared the bridge unsafe for pedestrian traffic. Every time this bridge has been declared unsafe it takes many weeks or even months of struggling with the Waqf, which is appointed by Jordan and has complete authority over all activities on the Temple Mount, simply attempting to get permission to repair the bridge. Many attempts have been made to replace this inadequate structure but all requests have been denied out of hand. Even when the crossing is open the Jews are subjected to searches to assure they are not carrying any religious items onto “sacred Islamic land” or any other forbidden items. Christians have been forced to remove crosses and had their prayer books held by security at the entrances as only Muslim religious items are permitted except for certain periods such as Christmas and Easter when the bans on Christian items is relaxed in the interest of selling trinkets and other tourist objects. Every Friday afternoon immediately after prayers there is a Muslim riot attacking Israeli security police on the Temple Mount. Whenever Israeli Jews are finally permitted their limited access which is limited to ten minutes per person and groups not exceeding a half dozen, or occasionally a few more, are permitted and are shadowed by Waqf and Israeli Police and should the Jewish visitors even move their lips they are considered to have been praying and are immediately arrested at the insistence of the Waqf monitors. Sometimes the Jews do not receive Waqf monitors and such should make them very nervous as that usually is a good indicator that they will be subject to screaming Palestinian women and children right in their faces with older teens and young men behind them often hurling rocks at them to punctuate the insults. When these riotous attacks are committed the Israeli police immediately take actions and rush the Israeli Jews off the Temple Mount and close the Temple Mount to further Israeli visitation for the rest of the day and even the rest of a week or longer. The Palestinians bring heavy construction equipment onto the Temple Mount at night, and even during daylight hours it has gotten so brazen, in order to dig up any archeological relics and precious items which might prove the Jewish history and the existence of the First Temple and Second Temple in efforts to remove any evidence of a Jewish existence throughout history. The Muslim rioting on the Temple Mount has reached levels of intensity that it has forced the closure of the Temple Mount to Palestinian males between fourteen and forty-five in order to restore order and have even a semblance of control over the situation. Because the Palestinian riots are a daily event and only Israelis are victimized it is not news even when Israeli Knesset members visit the Temple Mount and are pelted with rocks and taunts. But when Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount it did make news at the demands of Yasser Arafat so as to give an excuse for the ensuing Intifada which had been planned for months, then a Jew visiting the Temple Mount made news which read that Ariel Sharon defiled Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim holy sites are located. Ariel Sharon never entered a single building and had received permission from the Islamic Waqf before visiting and his visit was fully expected which might explain all the pictures taken that appeared in news articles. These are some of the basic facts which are denied the light of day as they do not serve the correct news filters which demand that the Jews are causing the Palestinians misery and denying them their rights or ability to live or practice their religion in peace while the Jews run wild on the Temple Mount committing blasphemes and desecrating Muslim holy sites and attacking Muslim women and children daily when they finally are permitted by the Israeli police to spend a few precious minutes on their Temple Mount.

The main stories which are reported even by the leftist press in Israel and through much of the leftist media especially in Europe and North America tell of every instance when the Israelis place restrictions against Palestinian males between fourteen and forty-five in order to restore some semblance of order after particularly serious rioting by Palestinians on the Temple Mount. These reports usually simply note that the Israelis have once again closed the Temple Mount to Muslims. Often they go so far as to omit that the closure is solely for males between certain ages as if this additional information were included there might be some who might inquire why such limits were imposed and what had Palestinian males between these ages have done to warrant such a closure and denial of access. Then there are the reports which the reporter filing the story can claim is accurate and truthful to the best of their knowledge which will state that Palestinians security forces have reported serious rioting on the Temple Mount by teens which required security forces to use force to quell the rioting. There is no claim who was rioting or who actually was forced to use force to restore order, it is only reported that Palestinian security force personnel reported thus leaving the supposition that the rioters had to be Israelis and the Palestinians had to restore order. In order to see such slanted news at work one needs look no further than the coverage of the opening ceremonies at the United Nations late last month. There will be quotes from speeches blaming the violence between Israel and Gaza on Israeli belligerence and claims that Israel initiated the conflict. The slanted and inverted coverage and the placing of permanent victim status in the Palestinians and stigmatizing the Israelis as the universal aggressors who are constantly rejecting the Palestinians and their advances for peace and willingness to sacrifice if only Israel would agree is identical to the topsy-turvy coverage given the Temple Mount and virtually everything else concerning Israel and the Palestinians.

The news coverage reports how the Palestinians are ready to meet the Israelis once Israel meets their obligations for peace. The problem is the Palestinian definition of obligation is defined under the precepts of Sharia which states that any demand made by the Islamic side is automatically defined as an obligation for the non-Islamic side of the equation. When Mahmoud Abbas claims that the Israelis have refused to meet him on even grounds to negotiate peace he is actually claiming that Israel has refused to meet the conditions he has set out as his preconditions in order to facilitate a lasting peace. Mahmoud Abbas has some very simple preconditions which include Israel agreeing to returning inside the 1949 Armistice Lines, the ‘Right of Return’ for some five million Palestinian refugees to within Israel, the existence of a Palestinian military with the right to hold training exercises with other nations, free access between Gaza and the West Bank free from any Israeli interference, East Jerusalem as the Capital for the Palestinian State which will leave all of the Old City, Temple Mount and Western Wall within Palestine and beyond the reach for Israelis just as when Jordan controlled the same areas and numerous other demands. The easiest understanding of what it is that Abbas demands are to simply research the outstanding issues and especially the final status issues and these are the items which Abbas demand that Israel agree to the maximalist Palestinian demand on each one before he will negotiate. The real question is if Israel were to meet all those demands, exactly what would be left to negotiate. How much of the rest of Israel the Palestinians will be given control over? In case you think that that is going too far, let me add one last demand Abbas has always held to and brings out when he desires ending negotiations, that is his demand that any agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinians will not mean the end of Palestinian resistance until all of Palestinian lands have been liberated. Yep, that’s right, the Palestinians actual position is that the war against Israel will not be over until all of Israel has been destroyed and the Palestinians have made their lands free of any Jewish existence, just as they demand that any lands under Palestinian control be made free of all Jews just like the Jordanians did before them.

Beyond the Cusp