Sanders Foreign Policies Even Worse than Obama

 

Democrat candidate for President attempting to catch and pass Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, has less foreign policy knowledge and absolutely no grasp of the Arab Israeli conflict beyond that of President Obama and Possibly even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His knowledge on these issues and others were illuminated by the Washington Post using an interview from the transcript from the New York Daily News interview by their editorial board. We took both and other commentaries and attempted to choose those items which we found the most revealing concerning those items we here hold in value. We will attempt to use his own words wherever convenient and not overly challenging.

 

One somewhat rare plus was Senator Sanders answer to the question of whether Israel should be left as a Jewish State to which he replied “Of course (pauses) that’s the status quo.” From here things get murky at best and otherwise troubling. After some urging Senator Sanders finally fleshed out some visions he holds including this quote, “Here’s the main point that I want to make. I lived in Israel. I have family in Israel. I believe 100% not only in Israel’s right to exist, a right to exist in peace and security without having to face terrorist attacks. But from the United States’ point of view, I think, long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area. And I think that for long-term peace in that region, and God knows nobody has been successful in that for 60 years, but there are good people on both sides, and Israel is not, cannot, just simply expand when it wants to expand with new settlements. So I think the United States has got to help work with the Palestinian people as well. I think that is the path toward peace.”

 

Uncle Bernie Wants You

 

Well, that does leave some wiggle room for policies that range from full support for Israel to Israel needs to save the Arab Palestinians from their own leadership. Israel must make sure that the Arab Palestinians have sufficient employment, reasonably priced homes and apartments, sufficient resources and plenty of opportunities and fiscal success. That would be the same as demanding that the British assure the economies, health, and general prosperity of the Australians, Indians, Pakistani, Americans, Israelis, Jordanians and all their other colonies succeeded when they were granted freedom and self-government and France do the same for her colonies and the Spanish and Portuguese all supported and maintained a functioning economy and government and the people had health care and everything at a similar level as is available in the colonizing nation. This expectation is ridiculous beyond measure as Israel was herself a colony which suffered an assault intent on genocide immediately starting on the morning of Israeli independence where Israel lost the areas which would come to be known as the Gaza Strip and West Bank. This thinking falls into the trap that the Jews of Israel having worked and established successful businesses and making revolutionary discoveries, new software and hardware, innovative medical procedures, and developed a system which provides opportunity to develop intuitive new concepts allowing for intellectual freedoms leading to successful ventures but the world, including Bernie Sanders, see Israeli success as stealing opportunity from their Arab neighbors who are impoverished because if Israeli success. Such reasoning is insane as well as faulty.

 

When Bernie Sanders was challenged on the 2014 Gaza War he danced with great skill around committing to supporting one side or the other. Eventually a longer answer which had some red meat to it was presented. When asked pointedly, “And I’m going to look at 2014, which was the latest conflict. What should Israel have done instead?” where Bernie struck forth replying that, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed. Look, we are living, for better or worse, in a world of high technology, whether it’s drones out there that could, you know, take your nose off, and Israel has that technology. And I think there is a general belief that, with that technology, they could have been more discriminate in terms of taking out weapons that were threatening them.” And when the New York Daily News pressed further on the Gaza conflict of 2014 and the Arab Palestinian casualties Bernie provided a slightly deeper view stating, “I don’t have it in my number…but I think it’s over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”

 

Bernie Sanders Says, “Shhh, Quiet it’s a Secret”

 

These are the most egregious quotes from the transcript that we found with simply a cursory review doing a few simple searches for keywords such as Gaza, Israel, Human Rights and Crimes. The real root problem of Senator Sanders making such statements derives not from any validity that they might have, nor from the fact that these claims are coming from a candidate for President of the United States as they have because they come from the Jewish candidate for President of the United States. That fact makes these statements all the more credible and gives them the veneer of truth and places their validity beyond repute making them valid and truthful accusations because of their source more than anything else. When Bernie Sanders uses such statements that place the number of civilians killed, and he may as well say murdered, by the IDF at 10,000; even though he qualified it with the fact that he did not have the exact number and was working from memory, it validates that number as a point any detractor of Israel can now use with impunity. Add the rest of the quote which reads, “My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been and now you have the makings of admitted war crimes by the IDF.” And add in the earlier quote where Senator Sanders stated, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed,” and that simply adds more fuel to the fire. It will not matter that Senator Sanders is not an expert or that he is not an ardent supporter of Israel or that he has voted against Israel funding and defense packages as his desired use for such funding is in social spending and domestic spending and he would all but cancel all defense spending in favor of his pet social issues spending is all meaningless. The only thing which those who oppose Israel Defense Force actions and Israel generally will see is the Jewish candidate has made these accusations thus they will take on a life of their own and these quotes will be used everywhere as they can be quoted in context with no fear that Israel’s defenders can cut them down when they can be attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders.

 

This is part and parcel of the problem with much of what Senator Sanders says on the campaign trail where he plays fast and loose with facts and factoids which it often appears he just makes up figures and his own facts using anything which will sound right and further his campaign. Should these facts and figures result in throwing Israel under the bus, then it must really suck to be Israel as all is fair in the arena of the hunt for that November candidacy spot on the ballots. These quotes we found here all came from a transcript which has been published and is now a part of the public record and there is nothing that can be said which will erase or excuse the fact that they have been added to the arsenal of quotes which will now be used repeatedly with the full veneer of truth. There are those who claim rightfully that Israel does not spend sufficient time, money or effort to counter the many mistruths, half-truths and outright lies which are spread far and wide against the Jewish State. Where such is a valid point, statements such as these by the Jewish Presidential candidate and you have something which cuts much deeper, the seeming proof due to their source. Senator Sanders making such statements would grant such statements validity but Jewish Presidential candidate Bernie and these accusations take on a life of their own and can now be used with impunity claiming them to be the gospel truth. Where we would not think to demand that Senator and Presidential candidate Sanders state, though we wish we could invalidate some of his statements, full and uncompromised support for Israel, antagonism is not a supportive policy position. Even if we were to have the reach his statements have, we would not have the instant credibility he gives to them simply by his being Jewish. Such things and truths about facts are not fair but then that is life and life never was promised to be fair. When Senator Sanders talks, there are legions of Israel’s detractors who are documenting his every expressed factoid as the gospel truth as only a Jew could express them. It matters not if Bernie expresses truth or simply grabs numbers from the thin air, either way his statements will be quoted time and again and marked up as truth and no amount of proof will be capable of erasing their stains on the reputation of Israel or her soldiers. That is the crime here, and it is a crime, will be the irrefutable truth set in stone by the Sanders campaign and the listings of the presumed crimes committed by Israel, the IDF and in their name as attributed by the Sanders campaign. The entire election taken into consideration, there is but one currently viable candidate who fully supports Israel, and it just had to be Ted Cruz, didn’t it.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Beware of Bidens Bearing No Peace Plan

 

United States Vice President Joe Biden is kicked off a Middle East tour Monday in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) but we all know where the trip will end and what the build-up will do for expectations for pressure to be placed on the Israelis in order to beg and grovel to get Mahmoud Abbas just to have him insult us and make broad claims of Israeli intransigence and refusal to make the needed sacrifice for peace. The reality is, and everyone in governments of Europe, the United States, United Nations and every corner of the globe is that Mahmoud Abbas cannot afford to make peace as doing so would lose him the one thing which keeps him alive and in power, the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) working intelligence and preventing any challenge or takeover by Hamas, Islamic State or any other terror group which would unseat and behead the leadership of the PA (Palestinian Authority) within days, weeks at the longest, of the Israelis pulling from Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. West Bank). Further, if Mahmoud Abbas did reach an accord and established his presumed dream of an Arab state named Palestine, or any other name, then he would have to actually provide real services to a much larger area as Israel provides most of the services in Area B and all the services in Area C which combine to make around three-quarters of the contested areas. Combine these additional government responsibilities and services with the fact that the amounts of aid received by the PA would soon dry-up as there would no longer be any conflict with Israel after such an agreement and without the conflict with the Jewish State the Europeans and United Nations would move on to some other pressing problem like forcing Israel to accept ten million Syrian refugees which Europe was refusing to accept. Without the funds the PA, now a real state, would simply become the latest failed state incapable of providing services or meeting the payroll leading to rioting and the eventual complete collapse of the state of Palestine while the exhortations by Mahmoud Abbas pleading for financial assistance in order to at least reach some form of equilibrium and functionality as without aid, Abbas might even threaten that they would need to declare war on Israel to force the world to take notice.

 

 

United Nations Headquarters
and Piece of New York Skyline
including the Trump Tower

 

 

The announcement before Biden left Washington last week was that neither President Obama nor anybody from the administration expects the visit to produce anything concerning the peace process as Biden will be discussing military aid package for the next decade with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the military command of Israel. If past experience is any indicator of future events, which it more often than not is, then there will be no military aid without concessions for peace and the Israeli leadership will be pressed and pressed and then threatened with an end to military aid, cancelling the F-35 JSF jet fighter deal, withholding of the United States veto in the Security Council on moves for Arab statehood, thus granting Palestinian statehood using the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Line, which the Arab League demanded never be used as a border ever. There might be threats that the United States would assist and encourage the French to go forward with their plans for final peace talks which if they failed, then the world through the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations in a universal accordance would establish Palestine. There may even be floated the idea that Israel not only take whatever steps required to allow the formation of an Arab state named Palestine but also be made responsible for assisting and coordinating with the new state and held as the guarantors for its successful function. Granted this sounds preposterous, but this is not as far-fetched as you might first believe. Israel had been tasked with assisting the PA Security Forces assuring their functioning in Area B before the United States took to training the Palestinian Security Forces in Jordan for urban warfare and other tactical exercises under the command of Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton who succeeded Lt. Gen. William “Kip” Ward in December 2005. Their training has been similar in nature to elite infantry training in the United States. Why such training is provided to a security force which is not responsible for military tactics, but that is what the United States feels the security forces for the PA are going to need.

 

The reason that the United States may have for the extreme training would be believing they might be required to defend an actual nation of Palestine from any threats. But what threats as the neighbors of such a state would be Israel and Jordan, neither of which would have any reason for attacking the PA state unless attacked by them first. The only real threat would be terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, al-Qaeda and Islamic State. In case of any of these entities attempting to take over any PA State would also pose direct threats to both Israel and Jordan thus it would be in both neighbors’ interest to assist the defense of the PA state if such was requested or possibly even if it was not, as long as the assistance was temporary as nobody desires a reinstating of any occupation. But this training was likely at the behest of the PA leadership which then begs a different question, why would the PA desire an offensive trained security force as security militaries are usually designed to hold their own ground and not having full infantry assault training as they are not exactly going to be forging beachheads from the West Bank as the Jordan River, Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee are the closest bodies of water. Still, there has to be a reason for the PA to have their security forces trained in general combat techniques and in urban warfare in addition to anti-terror operations. The anti-terror operations has an obvious reason, they wanted to understand the methodologies of how the IDF would respond to any major terror campaigns so as to be capable of blunting IDF efforts. Urban warfare training might be applicable against any attempt by Hamas to make an overt takeover of Judea and Samaria as they had done in Gaza. Of course the PA forces in Gaza had been trained and still managed to lose the entirety of Gaza within a few days when the final push came and the PA forces proved useless.

 

That leaves the question of what further use might having military operations training and general combat techniques be useful and what goals might the PA security forces, which number in the thousands of officers, be used towards? The only other target which the Arab Palestinians have ever claimed beyond driving the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea has been to overthrow the Monarchy of Jordan and allow the Arabs, who identify with the cause and quest for power of the PA against Israel, take complete control over Jordan. The main obstacle has been their lack of training and the fact that King Abdullah II’s military consists largely of tribesmen loyal to the crown which shows them preferential treatment and favor over the larger Palestinian population. This does not mean that the Palestinian people are not treated well and they do receive much support from the King and the government but the loyal tribesmen, especially those serving in the military and making up the reserve forces, serving the King in a show of gratitude. King Abdullah II has gained major support of the people from his actions when the Jordanian pilot captured by the Islamic State was tortured and executed in a barbaric manner burning him alive while trapping him in a cage and using the video as a message of superiority over Jordan and as a recruitment tool. Still, there have been those Jordanian Arab Palestinians, who have joined the Islamic State, as have peoples from all of the surrounding Arab Sunni states, but generally the population of Jordan are more sympathetic with the Arab Palestinians in Israel and desire that their military be more supportive of the fight against Israel even to the point of directly aiding the PA in any general uprisings such as the current intifada.

 

 

Jordanian Armed Forces Crest

 

 

One must also remember the attempt by Yasser Arafat to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy and government in the early 1970s. The attempt to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy and take control of Jordan, something the many Bedouin tribes would oppose and who make-up the officer core due to their loyalty to the King, resulted in routing the coup attempt by Yasser Arafat. Their failure in Jordan was what forced the PLO into Lebanon where they quickly attempted a takeover of the Lebanese government resulting in Syria attempting to grab control over Lebanon taking advantage of the turmoil and confusion. This led to the Israeli intervention at the invitation of the Lebanese Christian militias. This resulted in a prolonged Israeli presence creating a buffer zone protecting the Israeli north. This interventional force did suffer a steady number of casualties from suicide bombings and other attacks which the left and the media in Israel used to apply pressure with sizeable demonstrations often by foreign financed NGOs from the left leading to Israel ending the interventional force presence. This permitted Hezballah to set-up their bunker systems and rocket launchers in the extreme south of Lebanon which eventually led to the very costly Second Lebanon War. One must also remember that Hezballah was a direct result of the PLO efforts to overthrow the Lebanese government in the mid and late 1970s.

 

The PLO was the direct progenitor of the PA which is as the PLO before it a direct arm of power projection of the Fatah movement. Any attempt to paint the PA as democratic is a farcical effort as there have been no elections, free or otherwise, since the debacle brought on by United States pressure to hold open elections which were won in large part by Hamas and not Fatah. This led directly to the Hamas flexing of their abilities and mastery and control in Gaza to oust the PA which had denied them their proper victory by basically imposing Fatah supremacy using the Presidency of Abbas. He assumed the position after Arafat’s demise as Arafat’s number two since the founding of the PLO, taking over of Arafat’s roles as leader of Fatah, the PA, PLO and presumed President for Life of any future state. The final straw for Hamas was the cancelling of Presidential election which they were sure to oust Abbas, something Abbas refused to permit as he exercised every bit of his powerful position to put a clamp on all PA and other political functions and preserve what he could.

 

All of this has not altered the grand plan of the PLO, and thus perhaps the PA, of a grander scheme and power play toppling the governances around the area and setting up their claim to be the true leaders of the Arab world. These efforts failed in the 1970s and are no closer to fruition today as Fatah is only holding on to power in the contested areas of Judea and Samaria, oddly enough, because of the efforts by Israel to keep Hamas and others from replacing them The PA would easily be toppled which would lead to a catastrophic terror war emanating from the then former PA controlled areas with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and who knows who else all perched on the southwest in Gaza and direct east in Judea and Samaria overlooking central Israeli population and industrial heart of Israel. This could lead to a far more disastrous rocket war from Hamas with their rockets all but incapable of missing vital targets in and around Tel Aviv and the central core of Israel, a heavily developed area. That is the reason that Israel has supported allowing the PA to remain in Abbas’s incapable and bumbling hands. The alternative is the devil Israel does not know and does not want to know. What they do know is that Abbas has less ability to control anything beyond incitement against Israel. Abbas is in a particularly uncomfortable position of needing to continue aggressions against Israel while making sure not to force any overt actions from Israel. Abbas is also relying on Israeli intelligence and presence in the contested areas of Judea and Samaria to prevent his being overthrown and very likely murdered even by those in the PA who believe him incompetent, or at least impotent in the face of Israel and their ‘occupation’ of the Israeli ancestral heartlands, Judea and Samaria.

 

Eventually this house of cards, which is the toothless PA, will unify, overthrow Abbas and believe they are ready and prepared to topple Israel. And on that day the contested areas will no longer be contested but in open revolt, a very temporary revolt, after which there will be imposed a one state solution and the end of incitement and the presence of the United Nations monstrosity that is UNRWA in Judea and Samaria. The truth is that the only result to the contested areas is complete and total control by Israel. Even if the world were to force the Arab state of Palestine on Israel, it would be a defenseless state, complete nonfunctional and failed state, and from the very beginnings would only devolve from there, with the ever fractious shards attempting to destroy the others and make a name by attacking Israel. Eventually Hamas or worse would emerge as the central power and this would lead to a costly and final war as Hamas or worse cannot be allowed to occupy any of the highlands overlooking central Israel. To allow such is suicide by the immediate thousand cuts made by inexpensive rockets needing no real guidance to strike at the heart of Israel. When such events do unfold, which are all but inevitable, Abbas will likely be the very first casualty and potentially at the hands of the very troops who now guard him, dying as every Caesar before has fallen. As soon as they are not paid their exorbitant salaries their loyalty will wane evaporating into the mists from whence they were born, and that will be the end of the PA. Very soon thereafter Israel will necessarily need to end the entire fiasco before it causes irreparable harm to Israeli infrastructure with attacks against her civilian populations where thousands are affected daily, and not the sparsely populated Negev regions.

 

The similar threat by Hamas and their longer range Iranian provided rocket engines and the ever larger payloads they carry deeper into the Israeli center which sparked the last Gaza War and will eventually lead to the final Gaza war which will result in the decimation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the crippling of any other sizeable force. The entire Arab Palestinian existence is that of two failed states whose only lifeline is their threatening Israel and being paid to do so. That cannot be permitted to reach its final goal of destroying Israel and murdering the six million plus Israeli Jews. The threat will eventually become sufficiently capable or sufficiently destructive despite their lack of credible force, only credible destruction, that will ultimately cause the quick and violent end of the Arab Palestinian autonomous states, Hamas’s Gaza and Fatah’s PA in Judea and Samaria. That is the sole finality and the one out for the PA is a successful takeover of Jordan giving them the arms necessary to bring on their destruction that much faster as the use of these weapons’ systems on Israel is an overt act of aggression and declaration of war, the final war.

 

Perhaps the best Israel can do is send Biden home joining those awaiting the election with the premise that it can’t get any worse. We are aware the Russians and Iranians are doing whatever they can, knowing that for them nothing could be better than Obama.
Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel, Different Expectations but not Treatment

 

Often in discussions over the different reactions to Israel few and far apart acts of lawlessness against the near constant acts of lawlessness and sheer brutality committed daily by the Arabs comes the accusation that Israel must accept different treatment because of the Chosen People and the claims to our being an ethical people. There are points made in those claims if only they were not used as an accusation, used as a club with which to berate Israel in an effort to force her to surrender to any aggression perpetrated against her without ever reacting or lashing out in an act of violence by one Jew despite the lack of support for such acts which so obviously follow and the fact that such acts are punished, not rewarded as with the Arabs who pay their terrorists in Israeli prisons an exorbitant salary and give large compensation and a stipend salary to those families of fallen terrorists. The Duma arson case was an example in full view of any who bothered to follow the case. Israel requested the Palestinian authority to look into the possibility that it was a feud or other Arab on Arab violence as such was within their autonomous region so they held complete security and civil jurisdiction and even before their response was returned claiming a clean investigation the Shin Bet was investigating the possibility this was as it appeared, an Israel crime. Where some questioned the depths and tactics used by the Shin Bet, they did unravel the case and found at least a pair of the culprits and will continue investigating mostly by monitoring the two suspects and other means to see who, if anybody, else may have had a hand in the perpetration of the heinous crime or the planning or subsequent cover-up trying to hide any knowledge or evidence from the authorities. While there will still be many recriminations against the Shin Bet and their techniques, especially the continuing to hold suspects they had completely cleared of any fore knowledge, subsequent potential cover-up or any accessorial guilt for additional weeks of questionable investigative intolerances. But the depth and severity of the investigation and the wide net thrown over not only the two suspects but every and anybody within their social network and beyond put on display the extents beyond the norm anywhere else including the detention of individuals who at best had even a remote possibility of having knowledge as to who dunnit and the use of bringing in family members of those most closely suspected to both glean any additional clues and to be a form of added pressure on the main suspects in attempts to have them crack. In the end it will be, unfortunately, for the political and other lawmakers and the Attorney General and Courts who approved the extraordinary tactics which bordered on torture to decide if things actually got out of hand and if perhaps they were a little too fervent in their efforts against an entire community for the deeds of two miscreants who will be facing serious time in prison should they be found guilty, the evidence will be presented in court and likely not before except through dribs and drabs leaked to the media even against gag orders being in place.

 

Place the events when an Israeli commits a crime, even a crime of passion where they were responding to overbearing personal turmoil reacting to the constant events of Arab stabbings, assaults, vehicular rammings into crowds, firebombings as well as what has been a daily occurrence for more years than we care to count of large rock and even cement blocks hurled at passing Israeli cars even on the two highways between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, spitting and cursing at Jews in religious garb, assaults on the same, periodic stones and rocks thrown down on Jews praying at the western Wall from above on the Temple Mount, heckling by organized and salaried throngs of women yelling at Jews chasing them on their entire trip to visit the Temple Mount, the recent further change in the status quo adding the latest change of forbidding Jews in particular and often also Christians from praying or even expressing emotion when finally being permitted a few brief moments visiting the Temple Mount before being brusquely hustled to the closest exit terminating what often is a once a year and even once in a lifetime visit to this holiest of sites, and other assaults and indignities which would never even occur in the Western world as such behavior is not a part of daily life because the occurrences are far too prevalent to incarcerate all of the offending miscreants. This is what will become of the daily stabbings as they continue apace since their onset months ago and already they have passed from the news and are being treated by the media as just a common event to be suffered by the Jews for living in Israel and daring to leave their homes. After all, why are we complaining as we should expect such treatment after all we are Jews, what did we expect?

 

Right there is the crux of the problem, we are Jews, what did we expect. Well, we expected the common courtesy expected by any other human being but apparently there are far too many in the world who still believe that Jews are lesser beings deserving of shaming and degradations one would not even commit to a feral dog, but for Jews we must expect such treatments as it has always been and always should continue to be our lot in life and to expect different is all so typical of the Jews demanding better treatment. We are not demanding better treatment as in above others; there we are but demanding equal treatment. The better treatment we might be demanding is better treatment than we currently receive in places beyond Israel throughout the globe where Jews are often made to feel denied acceptance and often intimidations and belittlement at the hands of others often when the Jew is alone and comes upon by a group of his so-called peers. Not having the typical expected appearance that such individuals would believe a Jew would appear, having blond hair in my youth with blue eyes, I was too often discomforted to witness such events which would always spur me to act which for reasons which escape me (though I have been told by friends I have this uncanny ability to scare people) would always bring such actions to an abrupt end, much to my satisfaction. I had at times been accused as being a Jew lover, an accusation I happily and proudly would wear as a sign of enlightened pride. Even when I told people I was Jewish they would not believe me, too bad.

 

That is where the problem continues to exist and the recent actions of the European Union and those governmental agencies and NGOs and companies, unions, organizations, boards, musicians and Stephen Hawkins and he claims to be of higher intellect (though I suspect the falling to the BDS pressure was a decision made by his handlers and he was never informed but that might be granting him more credit than he is due as it could have been his decision) who have caved to pressure or peer demands and joined the BDS movement or refused to visit or perform in Israel should be ashamed of themselves for caving to such bullying unless they secretly or not so secretly do hold Jews in disdain and believe them not to be quite as human as they and the rest of mankind. There is a part of the BDS movement as does all anti-Israel or anti-Zionist and definitely anti-Semitic, which the first two are but variations of the last, want to convince everyone to hate Israel but Heaven forbid ever visit Israel even if it is to witness where their religion also began. Ever stop to think why the BDS movement is so adamant against allowing anyone to even visit Israel? Well, let me clue you in on this, they so not want you to see the truth with your own eyes as doing so will guarantee the average person that the BDS movement is empty of any validity and is simply the product of bile and hatred. Any visit to Israel and inquisitive inspection will give the average person a clue, namely except for those wearing obvious attire which denotes their religion, there is no visible difference in the actions of Jews and Arabs no matter the attire. Further inspection will reveal that even those wearing their religion on their sleeves are treated exactly the same. There is no social divide between the average Jew or Arab in Israeli life, culture, law, treatment or social acceptance and standing. This is the dirty little secret that those who hold a deep and personal hatred of the Jewish State, and all too often of Jews in general, is that the entirety of their movement is about hatred of the Jews and has no bearing or truth behind it beyond their desire to discredit the Jewish State because it is Jewish and they must prevent any visitors as just spending a two week vacation traveling around Israel to Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya (really nice beaches), Tzfat (very nice artwork as many artists reside here), Tiberius (Roman Ruins and other ancient sites and on the Kinneret, Sea of Galilee), Beer Sheva (dessert area and close proximity to Masada and building from the time of Herod the Great, or as I prefer, Herod the not all that great as he was not that nice to those he was supposed to rule and represent) and if you can take a helicopter ride to see Israel from the air you will realize exactly how small Israel is as the helicopter will be constantly banking and anyplace else you will see people going about their daily lives with much more important things to get done than treat anybody with anything other than general acceptance and humanity.

 

Israeli Defense Forces
Seeking Far Horizons
Pursuing Lasting Peace
Through Eveready Force

 

 

So, should Israel accept a double standard? Well, not one any more severe than the one we hold ourselves to and that we do hold ourselves to such high standards, it would be nice for an occasional recognition of the fact. We hold the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) as it holds itself to the highest and most professional of standards. These standards are so high that Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff General Dempsey stated about their practices in the Gaza War:

 

 

 

 

or an Interview with British officer Colonel Richard Kemp on the Israeli operation in Gaza he stated:

 

 

 
or if you have the time there is the full UN Testimony of Col. Richard Kemp on Gaza Inquiry where he witnessed and stated under considerable pressure to mar the IDF as others had attempted, he told the inquiry:

 

 

 

 

or listen to a European Union Lawmaker and former reporter who stated despite interruption:

 

 

 

 

or lastly Lt. Colonel Geoffrey Corn, former United States Army Law of War Expert and Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law witness testimony before the UN Gaza Inquiry where he stated under oath:

 

 

 

 

All of these experts cannot be simple pawns of the Israeli and part of the mythical Jewish Control the World Conspiracy, can they? Lt. Colonel Geoffrey Corn was witnessing on evidentiary review he carried out into the Gaza War and the criminal charges presumably leveled against the IDF in a trial attempted to be carried out not in a court of law, or even international of United Nations panel for the purpose of holding a public flaying of the only Jewish State by the ‘most ethical dictatorships in the world’ who could be depended on to have made their judgment in the womb but as standing as an impartial judgement of facts over propaganda and was witness before the United Nations on at least two occasions (the other video can be found in our article A Law Whose Time Has Come.

 

The seeming world-wide efforts to witness Israel into a shame both imagined and underserved which many of these so-called ‘witnesses’ of the ‘known facts’ which are ‘obvious and evident’ to even the ‘most discriminating observer’ after ‘considering the mountains of factual evidence and factual’ commentary, and we left commentary outside of quotes as they are real and exactly that, commentaries often from some of the most blatantly biased and coming from the most dependable of witnesses such as Richard Faulk, Saab Erekat (PA Spokesman and official), Khaled Mashal (Hamas spokesman and officer), and even Justice Richard Goldstone who was hand-picked chairman of the U.N. Gaza Inquiry with the usual wink and a nod as his position was known well ahead of his being selected and even with such a bias he eventually relented that his entire efforts and that of his entire inquiry were decided before their first sitting and could have written the report before hearing the initial first witness and saved the world a two or three thousand trees wasted on the daily coverage in European and American leftist newspapers such as the New York Times castigating Israel and IDF as the most evil and vicious collection of rogues and daemon possessed individuals who were capable of such acts which could not be discussed in polite company. The reason they could not be discussed before polite company was that in such a setting the lies would be exposed, but then these were not polite company and lies were the coin of expressions in the Howled (as in feral dogs over a juicy bone) Halls of the United Nations and all the actions one could expect from such depths of human depravity. The one truth is that the IDF and the UN should seldom be used in similar vein despite too often forced into close proximity but fortunately only in news print and editorials. This is as it should be as they are opposite reputations amongst polite company, otherwise known as those who speak to the truth of their witness because their name and honor are too important to them to sell them to the besmirchers of the world.

 

The reality is that Israel and the IDF are held to a different and higher set of expectations compared to their peers and gladly accepts this difference and commit each to achieve and surpass even the most lofty of expectations, even if they are often self-imposed. In the IDF any mere hint of impropriety is thoroughly investigated and it has been known and expected for soldiers in the same unit, platoon, squad or weapons system to report even the slightest crossing of the strict rules of war and deportment expected of every member of the IDF. When such bad apples are discovered they are removed from service and more often than not incarcerated for their ill-conceived efforts. Israelis in general and Jews in particular, especially those amongst what is known as the religious Zionists, are expected to live and act morally and aim for the highest heights of moral rectitude and to admit their shortfalls not for shame but as the first step of improvement as no one amongst us is incapable on self-improvement. The highest of expectations are accepted as a challenge we deserve as we aim to be a moral society to which others can look for inspiration and motivation to act morally as Israel is moral and still manages to function and make contributions to the world in virtually every field. The unethical and unequal judgement is another matter, especially as it is so often wielded as a weapon of mass destruction aimed to destroy Israel just for the sake of destruction of the Jewish State. That is unacceptable as Israel sits in a high enough judgements over their actions and moral rectitude and deploring every shortfall where ever found that such is sufficient and outside judgments which are used to defame and not to seek out truth, that is when the unequal treatment, expectations and misuse of the truth simply for the sake of destruction and spite to the Jew, even if that Jew is a multicultural nation where equal treatment of all citizens is the law and fulfilled in all venues and areas of Israeli life. As for the Arab Palestinians, they are citizens of an autonomous region under self-rule and the lack of elections, the most often leveled accusation is Israel will not allow them to vote, is due to Mahmoud Abbas refusal to risk losing his position of power which also provides him with the ability to order the flow of funds, much to his own family and that of his cohorts in despotism.

 

Beyond the Cusp