New York Times Admits Palestinian Reality

 

It took the Palestinian Authority (PA) government to fold for them to finally be recognized by the New York Times (NYT). We just have to quote their first paragraph just for the sake that it is so telling in revealing the lie which the NYT has tendered for years that the Palestinian Arabs were occupied by the oppressive Israeli government. It negates their insistence that Israel prevented the Palestinian Arabs from ever being permitted to vote. Now, all of a sudden there was this entity, the Palestinian government, which prevented their holding elections because, as we have pointed out incessantly, Mahmoud Abbas knew he faced no chance of winning another term and he and his family simply were making too much money to surrender their stranglehold on power. Paragraph also tells us that there is a political terrorist entity which rules the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, it is called Hamas. Imagine that, the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank (Shomron) and the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza both had their own government and in neither case was Israel involved. With that said, allow us to quote their first paragraph.

“The government of the Palestinian Authority tendered its resignation on Tuesday, a move that reflected rising public discontent and the failure of efforts to reunite the West Bank, where the Authority is based, and the Gaza Strip, controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas.”

There are some qualifying follow-on statements which have a bearing on what exactly will be the near future. First, as the NYT provides, “The cabinet’s resignation still has to be accepted by the Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, and cabinet officials said it would continue to function until a new government was formed.” This requires some further elucidation as its true meaning is, as is almost always the case when Mahmoud Abbas is involved, obscured and needing of explanation from those who are a little closer to the problem than New York City, a whole lot closer. Mahmoud Abbas will hold up accepting their resignation until his demands for his having strict control over who may be permitted in the next government. His continuance as President of the PA will need be accepted such that he need not run or face even the weakest of opposition, and he will, of course, have some say in who may and may not rule for any positions. The demands have already begun and in order to appear not involved, it was Fatah which recommended that the next government have a, “stronger political component, to be made up mostly of members of Fatah and possibly some other factions, but excluding Hamas.” What one need know about this is that the Fatah Chairman is also Mahmoud Abbas, so when Fatah states something, it is actually Mahmoud Abbas who is stating something.

 

The NYT had to bring in a completely unrelated slant concerning Israel when stating, “uncertainty and disarray that has characterized Palestinian politics after more than a decade of deep divisions between the West Bank and Gaza, and with peace talks with Israel long at an impasse.” What the peace talks with Israel, which have been refused and held up by, you guessed it, Mahmoud Abbas, has to do with anger from the Palestinian Arab people is that they have been denied elections for over a decade and there has been no unification between the PA ruled region and the Hamas ruled Gaza. The anger from the Palestinian Arab people has had no component aimed at Israel and they are not concerned with Israel; they want to have representative governance and are tired of the Abbas dictatorship. According to the reporting, the last straw was apparently, “a new tax to finance a fund to cover pension benefits, proved particularly unpopular.” The reasoning presumably for this anger was explained by Ghassan Khatib, a political scientist at Birzeit University in the West Bank, who the NYT quoted as saying, “The public became unhappy with the whole idea, mainly because it has no confidence in the stability of this authority, or in the performance of the government on such a huge project, and because of other factors like corruption.” Did they say corruption? The leadership of Hamas has made three men into billionaires and Mahmoud Abbas and family are probably not far behind, something difficult to determine as their wealth has been secreted away for a very long time. Abbas was the understudy of Yasser Arafat whose wife continues to lead a life of excess on the wealth Arafat left her with her main concern being how she will get the rest of the cash he hid in Swiss accounts and did not live long enough to give her the information. We can be assured that the Abbas family could go and live along the Rivera and never need to worry about money, people attempting to murder them, perhaps that might be a concern, but money would not be a problem.

 

The final paragraph quotes Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem stating, “It is a new blow to unity by Fatah, overriding all reconciliation endeavors. The only beneficiary of this decision is the Israeli occupation.” We can see immediately why the NYT decided to end their article with this particular quote; it again brings in the completely spurious mention of Israel. Israel does not gain or lose anything by the continued turmoil within the PA or their inability to find a means of cooperating with Hamas. The problem is easily explained and has to do with the founding principles of each of these ruling dictatorships, both of which claim to give the people a say in their government. The PA was the construction of an entity which would basically remain as the terrorist group the PLO but would have the world turn a blind eye to their terrorist ties so as to force Israel into concessions which, if some of those behind this had often prayed, eventually leading to the dissolution of Israel. The PLO, and the PA after it, were both established during the pan Arabist period of Arab nationalism and is a secular-nationalist based. Hamas was established as a religious Islamist based organization which based their rule and authority on the Quran. Their claim against Israel was more general and based on the simple fact, under the Quran the Jews are to be ruled solely by their Islamic superiors. Further, Hamas includes in their Charter the following statement, “The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination.” As is often the case with Islamist institutions, they refuse to recognize anything which was performed by, and most especially, Jews as well as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists henceforth and so on to include everything not Islamic, and specifically in agreement with their view of Islam. Hamas originally had a very dim view of Iran due to their being Shia and not Sunni, but once Iran provided needed cash and weapons, specifically improved rocket motors and larger rockets, then all of a sudden, their purity was shifted aside to allow the benefits Iran proffered. Apparently, the fact that Iran was at least Islamist became sufficient. But as the PA is Arab nationalist and Islamist, Hamas cannot find any bridge with which to reach an accord. Add that on the PA side, Mahmoud Abbas refuses to allow anything which might get in the way of his living out his days in the comfort of being protected by Force 17 and living the life of a sultan in the new headquarters and living accommodations which, unsurprisingly, has billets for a couple of platoons of troops to guard the building and its most important individual, Mahmoud Abbas (see picture below). Does anybody want to talk about imperial presidency? Mahmoud Abbas is very much self-impressed and will never loose his grip on power until he takes that final trip which we all face eventually, and at over eighty-years of age and not even near perfect health, that time cannot be too far and he probably can hear the footsteps closing in on him.

 

 

What is remarkable is that any left-leaning news source would actually admit that the Palestinian Arabs are ruled over by their own governance, let alone that both those in what they call the West Bank and those in Gaza each have their own governance. They actually admitted in the NYT that Mahmoud Abbas is the President and that he ordered the government dissolved responding to an order by the Palestinian Arab top court, and has left the 98% of Palestinian Arabs of the region residing under it with the sole governance being simply the dictator, Mahmoud Abbas. For years, all they have ever been capable of claiming about the poor, oppressed, never allowed to vote and facing checkpoints to get into Israel Palestinian Arabs was how they suffered under the Israeli occupation. They never ever and consistently refused to recognize that the Palestinian Arabs were under their own self-rule which had suspended elections because the sitting President knew that he would not be reelected but somehow their not voting was because of the occupation and Israel would not let them vote. Well, of course Israel would not let them vote in Israeli elections and the reason was the same as for the checkpoints; they resided in a separately governed regions which was basically a nation protected by Israel from invasion, as if any Arab nation would ever invade them, and as such they were foreigners. Foreigners go through checkpoints to enter another nation, it is often called Customs, and foreigners are not permitted to vote in other national elections. But when it came to Israel, these were foreign ideas and not worthy of print because they did not fit the Israel, the Jewish State, is a horrid monster which should be abandoned and left for the buzzards. Now, except for the few attempts at slighting Israel, we cannot expect the NYT to completely surrender their favorite punching bag, they finally admitted that the Palestinian Arabs have a pair of governments, one for Gaza called Hamas and one for the Arabs of the Shomron called the PA. Perhaps their reason will be clarified as time continues as we fully expect that the NYT will be criticizing Israel as Mahmoud Abbas finds reason after reason to postpone or terminate any plans allowing for the election of a new government unless he is guaranteed his position does not get challenged by his needing to face election and the preferences of the people, something he dreads as he knows the result, and that he has control over who can and cannot run so as to have the echo chamber he desires. Abbas desires to have the same control as the Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah in Iran and, just like Iran, he wants it to be referred to as a democratic state where the people get to vote. The NYT will laud any announcement of elections though one will have to wonder at some point why there are announcements every few months about the pending Palestinian elections and never any results announced. The answer is easy; they are always cancelled because Abbas knows the result would be Hamas taking over and his head on a post.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Whole and Ugly Reality Surrounding Israel

 

We all know that there are extreme levels of threats surrounding Israel. Many of these fronts can be traced back to Iran, but more on that after we give measure to some of the realities. Through polls, random samplings and quotes given by people in Gaza we know that they are amongst the most anti-Zionist, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic of populations on the planet. They are even more hateful than the population of Jordan, the nation which usually outpolls all other Arab and Muslim nations in all three areas. This would make Gaza the world leader if it were to be considered a nation. And there is the other truth the world likes to ignore, Gaza, for all intents and purposes, is a nation run by Hamas and should simply be called Hamasistan. The next most anti-Israel-Zionist-Semitic region on the planet is Southern Lebanon which no longer has much of a Christian population and is largely Hezballah families and rabid supporters of the terrorist groups. Hezballah has, as of the last election held recently; taken complete control of the entire nation as their actions and intimidations has emptied Lebanon of a majority of its former Christian population as any who could move very likely left. Lebanon also needs a name change to Hezballaland. Their solid area in southern Lebanon would fall in right behind Gaza and all of Lebanon would be close behind Gaza and closing on the Palestinian Authority areas.

 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) area is only less anti-Israel-Zionist-Semitic because many of the people work alongside Israeli Jews in the factories and other Israeli Jewish businesses. This allows some PA residents to find out the awful truth, Jews, even Israeli Jews from beyond the Green Line, “Settler” Jews; they do not have horns, drink blood of children or any of the other wonderful lies, myths and deceits most often told about Jews and Israelis and especially Zionists, which defines the majority of the “Settlers” are false and they are simply people just like the Arabs are people providing they have not swallowed the hatred pill and become ravaging vengeance machines. Still, if elections were to be held in the PA ruled regions, Hamas would win holding at least two-thirds if not four-fifths of the legislative body and would easily defeat Mahmoud Abbas and any other Fatah candidate for President. This would still leave Abbas as Chairman of the PLO and leader of Fatah, the latter just barely. There is one Fatah candidate with any chance of winning the Presidency of the PA and that is Marwan Barghouti who is imprisoned in Israeli prison serving five-years plus for the murder by terrorism of five of the many his plans and executions have murdered. It is exactly his being one of their most celebrated terror masterminds which makes Marwan Barghouti such a favorite.

 

Marwan Barghouti Wall Painting Demanding
His Freedom from Israeli Incarceration

 

As we have seen, Gaza, Jordan, Hezballaland (Lebanon) and slightly more civil PA really take the cake when it comes to hatred and seething, molten iron hot, murderous hatred of Israel and every Jew and any other non-Muslim within almost completely envelops Israel leaving the southern border with Egypt and the Golan Heights area with Syria actually bordering Israel though one might make a case that maybe six or seven inches of Israel at the southern tip shares a border with Saudi Arabia snuggly nestled between Jordan and Egypt. Let us take Syria first as it is the far more simple border as well as smaller. This is another border along with Gaza and Hezballaland where Israel faces terrorists allied with and provided for by Iran. In Syria Israel faces, on top of Hezballah, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) forces, as well as the fanatical Quds Force which is manned by nearly rabid fanaticism with the explicit focus on the destruction of Israel, murder of all Jews and we are told the conquest of al-Quds, which is the Islamic name for Jerusalem. From this front Israel faces a determined enemy which will use any form of weaponry, it is just a matter of time. Sooner or later Iran will fire a barrage of rockets all topped with Sarin Gas warheads such that if a single rocket evades the Iron Dome or is considered to be falling in a harmless open area and any Israel breathes in even a minute amount, providing they get appropriate medical attention almost immediately, will face a life where they will be challenged performing simple daily routines and at least twenty years less life. Without immediate treatment or if a stronger amount is inhaled, the result is certain death after convulsions and searing pain. What would be the Israeli response to a Sarin Gas attack, the use of a WMD on her population, I would not want to even hazard a guess. Whatever the chosen response, it would be definitive and near absolute in nature, carefully planned and decided and executed with a firm resolve beyond imagination. The people most likely to execute the response, providing the response is not simply nuclear missiles as responding in kind, would be the same people who removed over a ton of classified information from a secured and secret location in Tehran replete with pictures of the building, the inside of the building, a map of its location in Tehran and the complete documentation of the Iranian nuclear program from before the year 2000 to the present in the form of folders of documents, compact disks; to be exact it was reportedly 55,000 pages of evidence and a further 55,000 files on 183 CDs relating to Project Amad.

 

Top is the view of the building storing the information
Bottom are the folders and CD’s brought to Israel from Iran

 

Now we face Egypt, a place with probably one of the greatest disconnects concerning Israel. Where we have no actual idea of what President Sisi or any of the rest of the ruling elite in Egypt feel towards Israel, but we do know that they really would prefer not to engage in a war or exchange of hostilities and rather work on their national economy. The Egyptian government does, at times, coordinate with Israel on their two mutual problems, Hamas in Gaza and terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt has even requested Israeli assistance in the Sinai Peninsula and given Israel permission at times to operate in the Sinai to remove terror threats as these threats are against both nations. These times of cooperation are always of benefit to Egypt and usually also Israel though there have been some times where the benefit of an Israeli action was likely more beneficial to Egypt. Then there are the people of which the vast majority believes that Egypt should engage Israel militarily and wipe Israel from the map. This is their thoughts as they also have been taught that Egypt has won every engagement with Israel and is the vastly more powerful nation. Without any evidence to corroborate or contravene what they have been told, they take the information provided by their government at face value. Eventually, the Muslim Brotherhood will regain rule in Egypt and then the cooperation will end and the countdown to a new war to push the Jews into the Sea, to quote Nasser, will commence with who knows allied with Egypt this time, Iran, Syria, Hezballaland, all of the above, who knows.

 

This is pretty much the situation here in paradise. Surrounded by entities almost wholly dedicated to our extinction, Israelis live an absurdly normal lives. Yes, ever few years, somewhere in Israel her citizens head into shelters at varying speeds from frantic urgency to a brisk walk when they hear the sirens scream their warning of incoming rockets or other projectiles. Despite the unrivaled efficiency of the Iron Dome systems in intercepting projectiles, Israelis still head into shelters as well as we celebrate life. Actually, this is one of the taunts we receive by which we are presumed to be the less powerful and guaranteed to lose the conflict with the Arab World simply because, as Hamas spokespersons have stated, “Hamas loves death like Israelis love life.” This is often quoted around the entirety of the Islamic war zones which ring the borders of the Islamic world where their presumed strength is their willingness to die for the cause. The real problem is that they are not only willing to die but they insist on taking as many innocents as possible, either Israelis or their own people as the terror leaders believe that their own dead civilians are an asset which can be utilized through the pictures they will make available for the media to spread for them with subtitles of their being killed by Israel. There will be no mention of their serving as human shields simply so they would be killed. Still, mostly our lives are very similar to anywhere else in the developed world. Traffic jams, rush hour, grocery shopping and all the other chores and pleasures of life. We are all living driving distance from the Mediterranean Sea, some of us just a few blocks walking distance from the same Mediterranean Sea as makes up the coasts of France and Italy and all those famous beaches and communities of film and literary fame. There is always the chance of a scare, a threat or some unsettling news which you soon learn to ignore as these horrible things seldom develop. Israel has found the secret to remaining peaceful, make the price for breaching the peace too terrible to contemplate and complete enough to make prolonged continuation nearly impossible. Eventually there will be another attempt on each of these fronts, most likely one or two at any given time. Should the Arab forces be foolish enough to all make a move against Israel in total accordance with one another, then Israel would be pressed to end the confrontation as rapidly and completely as humanly possible. This would mean that Israel would be forced to blunt every force and cause the greatest possible numbers of casualties so as to end the attacks as immediately as possible. It would be the order no Prime Minister would feel good giving, but then watching the country of Israel die is not an alternative which would be acceptable to any elected leader.

 

Israel lives on what could easily be called a knife’s edge, but our balance is good and we make do with the hand we have chosen. We realize this and accept it as part of the package of reclaiming our homelands. That is all we wish to have, our ancient homelands where the twelve tribes were originally mapped out, nothing more and even an amount less. There are groups of Israelis who desire for the Temple to be rebuilt and believe it will occur within their lifetimes. The Arab, Christian, Muslim, Bahia, Buddhist and other religions all live here with complete equality and enjoy all the freedoms and privileges which all Israeli citizens enjoy. One need understand that the Palestinians have their own governances, in Gaza, it is Hamas and in the PA regions, it is Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah. They are responsible for their own laws and when to hold elections, which by all measures is never. Israel relented on such control long ago and the presumed occupation by Israel has nothing to do with the lives of the Palestinian Arabs, it has to do with everyone else. The occupation is the sheer existence of Israel and her people. When the surrounding Arabs and Muslims claim they want to end the occupation, they mean Israel, not their own miserable governance. When you hear the word occupation, hear Israel and then you will understand exactly for what they are screaming. They are screaming for the end of Israel as that is the only land we “occupy” and that is what causes them so much anger. The reality of the situation is that easy to interpret, replace “occupation” with “Israel” and it all becomes clear and makes sense. It really is that simple.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Jerusalem Coming Attractions Next Week

 

Jerusalem will become a driving nightmare next week while both United States Presidential security and Secret Service plus Israeli security for the Prime Minister and close to half the Knesset, Mayor of Jerusalem and a list of unknowns who deserve safety as well all gathering at the scene of the dedication and opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem, the capping off of President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital City of Israel, even its eternal Capital. We have been informed through rumor and unofficial reports and semi-official reports that, as we stated yesterday, Donald Trump’s Daughter Ivanka and Husband Jared Kushner will be making an appearance at the grand opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. This means, Presidential level security or higher will be in place. The Secret Service will be thoroughly, exhaustively efficient and competent in their security put in place and attention to detail in assessing threats. Their work will probably be set just that little bit higher level as this is Jerusalem. Then there is the Israeli security which will be in place to protect Donald Trump’s Daughter Ivanka and Husband Jared Kushner above and beyond that in place for the Israeli VIPs who will be attending plus possibly other important people. This will mean that certain roads, bus routes and other forms of travel will be diverted, in some cases for no reason which is obvious or understandable. Some of these obstructions will be familiar to Jerusalem natives who have experienced these inconveniences before but they will probably complain that this time they went too far. The only reality that matters is that nothing untoward occurs to those attending the opening, traveling to the opening, leaving the grand opening, or simply visiting Jerusalem will be very safe almost anywhere within the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem corridor with an emphasis on Jerusalem and Ben Gurion International Airport. The safest place on Earth will be this area of Israel during the three days around the opening of the American Embassy coinciding with Israel’s 70th anniversary. The Embassy will initially be located in the Arnona neighborhood, in a modern building that now houses consular operations of U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem.

 

The reports that President Donald Trump is also potentially considering attending will make little difference to the level of required security. It likely will not even make any difference in the roads blocked and the detour routes and all the other security arrangements. Granted, should the President attend, and we really wish he would be there, as it would add much to the meaning of this dedication. He began this with his Jerusalem announcement and this would be the exclamation point which could only help. If the President is concerned about his attending making peace more difficult, not to worry, as long as Abbas and Hamas are in existence, then peace will not happen, as they do not desire peace, they desire all Israelis dead. President Trump should most definitely come to celebrate the fruits of his efforts. He signaled the importance and direction he intended for the emphasis of his foreign policy with the selection of his Ambassador to Israel, his choice of Ambassador to the United Nations and his establishment of a special group to affect his policies in the Middle East. This was further established with his statements about the unviability of the Iran Nuclear Agreement and his slowly sliding towards pulling out of the agreement and placing embargoes back on Iran, which President Donald Trump announced Tuesday where he called the 2015 agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) an “embarrassment” that “should never have been reached.” The President added, “After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its new funds to build nuclear capable missiles, support terrorism, and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond.” President Trump stated pointedly, “The agreement was so poorly negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time. The deal’s sunset provisions are totally unacceptable.” This and his declaration recognizing that Jerusalem was exactly as King David declared, the eternal capital of the Jewish State. Some things simply are beyond man’s ability to alter, something all the previous Presidents thought their wavers prevented the truth; it did not. One thing which was definite, the Jerusalem Municipality welcomes transfer of United States Embassy.

 

Jerusalem Municipality welcomes transfer of United States Embassy

 

The Palestinian Authority, PLO, Fatah and every other organization which has any relation to Mahmoud Abbas have all called for everyone officially attached to their organizations, parties, governing groups, terror organization or any other identity to boycott the establishment of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. This, they believe, will ruin the reality of the establishing of the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem. They all have a very high view of themselves and we ask what difference does their refusal make and who actually expected them to come and applaud the opening of the United States Embassy, especially in Jerusalem. Hamas has decided that they will breach the border fence between Gaza and Israel and storm Jerusalem foiling the attempt to establish the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. Hamas has sworn that this will be the finale to their Gaza month of riots and it will be a grand spectacle. Some people are risking the lives of the youths who unfortunately believe what they have been fed and even believe their efforts will prove invincible and they will overwhelm the Jews. They have been fed a regular diet about the cowardly Jew who cannot find the strength to stand up to their grandness of will and their Arab will which Allah uses to make them into the weapons of the new caliphate and thus impervious to the IDF soldiers. They have been told that their rushing an IDF position will so frighten the Jew soldiers that they will drop their weapons and flee in terror and then they can use those weapons to kill the fleeing soldiers. Many of them believe the entirety to be a lark, a game where they play the part of the indignant and insulted party and the Jews are not going to use force to prevent their efforts because, well, because that is what they are told to believe and all too often the IDF appears reluctant to use deadly force. This has reinforced this idea in their heads that the IDF is scared to actually shoot them. It is honestly a sad reality that the reluctance of the IDF to take lives needlessly and without overwhelming need might lead to them needing to shoot into a crowd of hundreds of youths who have been told by their Hamas leaders that their time to storm the fence and march on Jerusalem has finally come. These Hamas leaders will be right behind them all the way, about two or three miles behind them. Hopefully non-deadly force will be all that will be necessary to prevent the youth from reaching a point where deadly force is the only option left to the soldiers.

 

This brings us to the question of what happens if the worst-case scenario should come to pass. There are several such scenarios. The mass of youths breaching the Gaza fence is the most obvious and among the most dangerous. The best scenario with this would be water cannons and other nonlethal crowd control methods, even to include sound amplification methods, will be sufficient to prevent an extended breach. Should the Hamas effort include people shooting at the IDF from within the breaching crowd, that will leave no choice but to return fire and hopefully snipers can pick off only those with weapons and the IDF troops not be forced to fire into a crowd of apparently unarmed individuals simply because they are taking fire from somewhere within the group. This was a tactic used before in the Gaza Wars where Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters would grab a younger child and run from one position to another position holding the child to their torso using them as a bulletproof vest. This has been brought up at the United Nations by Ambassador Haley.

 

The other item which must be guarded against, and this is where preparations and intelligence serve as the best hopes, is to be ready to intercept and prevent any attack on the ceremonies by terrorists or other forces. Hamas has rockets which are capable of reaching Jerusalem and Hezballah and the IRGC have many missiles which could be used to target specific targets within Israel, anywhere within Israel including Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority does not have the rocket capability compared to Hamas and the Iranian backed Hezballah and IRGC, but it would not take much of a rocket to cause an international incident. Such an attack does not even need to be remotely accurate, simply anywhere within a number of blocks would be sufficient to shut down the ceremony unless serious orders were given to ignore the distraction, as the dedication cannot be prevented by such an act. Such a decision could only come from one of two people, President Trump or Secretary of Defense Mattis. There is only a chance that one of these gentlemen will be present to give such an order, and he is still undecided. There are other threats which will overshadow the preparations and potentially the ceremony itself. The preparations are the antidote to any interference with the ceremony, but that does not mean there might not be some surprises. We hope all will go smoothly and, to be honest, we have sufficient faith in the Israeli intelligence and IDF to feel confident that everything will go smooth as silk.

 

Beyond the Cusp