Secondary Effect of Israeli Founding and Other Truths

 

Let us first speak about the misconception that Israel was founded by Europeans as an apology for the Shoah, the Holocaust. The idea and beginning of the Mandate given the British to establish the Jewish State began during World War I and was part of a series of peoples returning to their ancient homelands. The Arabs had been promised lands and numerous tribal leaders were promised to have the rule over lands and there were promises to many Balkan nations and across the entirety of the MENA States.* These regions were divided up and were to be established by different nations who were amongst the victors of World War I. The nations from Europe established colonial governments which tied these nations to their European nation and were eventually granted independence and Israel was amongst those nations declaring their independence mostly after World War II (see map below). Surrounding Israel, who declared their independence on May 15, 1948, we have other nations who also declared independence with Jordan in 1946, Lebanon in 1946, Syria in 1946, Egypt in 1922, Saudi Arabia in 1932 and Iraq in 1930. Looking at the map, we see there were other MENA States whose independence was after Israel such as Libya in 1951, Yemen in 1967, Algeria in 1962, as well as Bahrain, UAE, and Qatar all in 1971. So, Israel declared her independence in the second wave but there was a third wave which came much later with all having reached independence by 1975 with Iran having gone from the Pahlavi Dynasty which was Persian rule to the Mullahs which is Islamic Theology in a coup which occurred in 1979. Iran was never held as a colony by the Europeans as they did not take part in World War I and were never subdued and conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

 

Dates that the MENA nations received their independence after colonial rule many since the times of the Persians or even earlier

 

There is another map of the MENA States which shows a different reality which many either have never known about or have ignored as it breaks with their preferred notion of Israel as a purely European peopled nation with none living in Israel from outside Europe and North America. That is a falsehood which need be eradicated from the conversation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the realities. The reality was that by 1960 the population percentage of Jews expelled from Arab nations made up between thirty-five to forty percent of the Jewish population in Israel. As time has continued, with the Aliyah of the Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel in three operations named Moses, Joshua and Solomon, and the Aliyah of the Bnai Menashe from India, the numbers of non-European Jews has reached close to fifty percent if not over half. Further, there has been a fair amount of mixing through marriage with Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews as well as Mizrahim, Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, Bene Ephraim, Ethiopians, Yemeni, and other even smaller populations all within Israel with others coming from places which stretch the imagination even to include from Japan, China and the Philippines. The world must disabuse themselves of the misconception that Israel is simply a place where the European Jews fled and are still fleeing from Europe, Russia, North America and the Ukraine. The Jews from many Arab nations across the width and breadth of the MENA Nations did not flee; they were expelled by threats, pogroms, expulsion where they were forced from their homes which they had held for some thousands of years and most many hundreds of years. They were denied taking their wealth and their businesses were left to be spoils for the Arabs as well as their homes, farms, herds, jewelry, money and anything else of any worth. They often were allowed one suitcase each which were searched and anything within the searcher desired, they took. These Jews landed in Israel next to destitute with their skills and nothing more. Israel in the 1950’s was not the economic powerhouse she is today; she was a farming economy which did not even have sufficient housing for these over half a million Jews. These Jews were refugees which outnumbered the Arabs displaced during the 1948-9 attempt by six Arab armies to destroy Israel in her cradle. The difference is the Arabs placed their brothers and sisters displaced by their war to annihilate Israel that failed, though they did take control of Gaza and regions of Judea and Samaria which Jordan renamed West Bank, placed them into camps and refused to permit them to work, own land, vote, have citizenship or anything resembling a normal life while the Jews who were expelled and came to Israel were given homes and accepted into Israeli society and treated as any normal society treats their kinfolk. That is why there are Palestinian refugees and not MENA Jewish refugees also in equal numbers in camps. If the Arabs would treat their brothers and sisters as family as Israel did their refugees, there would be no problem. But the Arabs demand that there be a problem and that Israel is to blame, refusing to accept any responsibility themselves.

 

Jews forced from Arab World Between 1948 and 1972

 

Still, the constant BIG LIE is told over and over and over until the world has come to believe and repeat as if an actual known fact that Israel is a European Colony and has no history or reason to be in the Middle East. This BIG LIE ignores the half of the population in Israel which has at least one parent whose lineage comes from other than Europe, Russia, Ukraine or North America. This must be corrected and the reality is that first, even the European Jews have a genetic link to the Middle East and the other half of the population is from the Middle East or North Africa. Half of the Israeli population originates from the Arab and Islamic world where they resided for centuries upon centuries. They had times where life was very good and they were treated almost equally and there were times when they faced pogroms and forced conversions and even times they were forced to flee the persecution of one area leader and reestablish themselves under a different Sheikh or Mufti where they would be treated better. Often the position of Dhimmi was the best the Jews could hope to find. Many of these Jewish families had histories which went back in their location to the time of the Caliphs and the Islamic conquest and back before Islam with some residing in what became the Arab and Muslim world even before the time of Jesus. We know this because of writings from the Talmud and other Jewish texts and historical writings. Additionally, there have been Jews living within the Promised Lands since the establishing of the initial conquest by Joshua. These are Jews mostly from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the Priestly classes of Kohanim and Levites. The main cities where these Jews lived included Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva and the other ancient cities of Eretz Yisroel (see map below).

 

Important Cities of Ancient Israel

 

These Jews which were expelled from the Arab World were almost as numerous as were the initial influx of European Jews by around 1955. This is the truth which the world ignores when they demand that the Jews simply return to wherever they came. Let’s imagine the Jews trying to return to the place they originally came from. Well, if you track the Jews back through their family tree say to around 1000 B.C.E., then you will find that their family origins is in the holy land as ruled by King David. Jerusalem has been conquered and is the capital city and declared to be the Eternal Capital of Eretz Yisroel. This was the beginning of the Israelite empire which eventually reached the Euphrates River in the area which is northern Syria near Iraq (see map below). This was the highpoint in the history of the Jewish People which then divided when the Northern Ten Tribes refused to accept the son of Solomon as King and broke from Judah which then established the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judea. Israel fell in 722 B.C.E. to the Assyrians and the people were assumed to have assimilated and all but disappeared. Judea fell in 597 B.C.E. to the Babylonians leading to the Babylonian Exile which ended when Persia under Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and bid the Jews to return and rebuild the Temple and worship Hashem in their custom but were required to pay a tax to the Persians as their rulers with Judea being a province. Eventually came the Romans who, after the Jews had revolted and thrown off Roman Rule twice, decided to disperse the Jewish People throughout their empire as was the Roman method of destroying a people removing them from history. This was how the Romans dispersed the Carthaginians after the Third Punic War.

 

Eretz Yisroel as formed after the conquests by the Kingdoms of King David and King Solomon; both of whom allowed the Principalities of Edom, Moab and Ammon to be semi-autonomous as long as they and their armies supported Eretz Yisroel

 

We wish all the best of luck in finding any Carthaginians in the modern world. The Jews only survived because, though our religion is based on our ancient lands and Jerusalem and the Temple, it is also centered on the Torah and the rules it gives us in the form of six-hundred-thirteen Mitzvoth, rules by which to live. This provided the core of the Jewish People for close to two-thousand years along with the knowledge that Hashem promised that we would be returned to our homelands miraculously and our dispersal and exile would end. The promise gave a date according to Ezekiel who said the Jews were to be punished for 430 years because they had turned away from Hashem. This was to become the Babylonian exile. The Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians and freed their Jewish captives about 70 years after Judah lost independence to Babylon. This left 360 years which the Jews would require a second exile to fulfill as one must pay Hashem when one strays. In Leviticus 26:18, Leviticus 26:21, Leviticus 26:24 and Leviticus 26:28 the Torah spells things out quite clearly, should the Jews not fully repent their sins they would be punished increased by a factor of seven. Since most of the Jews freed from Babylon decided to live in the Persian society and adopted pagan ways, which is not exactly repenting, their remaining 360 years were multiplied by seven meaning their time in the Diaspora or under foreign occupation became 2,520 years on the original lunar Jewish calendar which translates to 2,484 years. Count from 536 BCE forward 2,484 years and you arrive at 1948. Further, Isaiah’s prophecy Chapter 66:8 states: “Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.” Israel was established exactly as Isaiah prophesized in a single day. These are just two prophesies which predicted the return of the Jewish People and the reestablishing of the state of Israel. There are a whole series of prophesies which tell of the future of Israel and the events which will transpire. A partial list can be found here. We figure this would be a great place to simply remind everyone that the Jews are being gathered literally from the four corners, or the far corners of the globe from every nation and every region. The miracle which Hashem promised is being realized and Israel is anything but a European colony, it is the realization of the promise by Hashem, it is that simple.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

MENA States = the region and nations in the Middle East and North Africa

 

Update on IDF Soldier Who Shot Terrorist in Hevron

 

This report has some good news which has to be tempered by the remaining realities. There was a crowd estimated to include many hundreds at the Tuesday hearing and a fair number again yesterday all in support of the soldier demanding all charges be dropped (see video below which shows the front of the protests). There are some who have called for the soldier to receive a medal as he was a hero acting to protect both the other soldiers and the civilians who were present at the scene. There were also the B’Tselem instigators as well as some civilians at the scene of the shooting where some were yelling that the terrorist might have a bomb under his heavy coat, something which has occurred with some other stabbings and always a potential threat. The soldier reported that he reacted to the terrorist who was reaching under his coat which the soldier feared was the terrorist reaching for a detonator, the same terrorist who had already taken part in the stabbing of another soldier. One need remember that the soldier in question had arrived on scene a mere minute or two before suspecting the terrorist might have a bomb. The young man had not been briefed as to whether the terrorist had already been searched and suspected the worst case. At the Thursday hearings the government military prosecutor dropped the murder charges and requested they be replaced with simple manslaughter charge against the soldier. Where we here at BTC are glad over the dropping of the murder charge; we would rather the soldier be at worst be given a verbal warning and have him receive and the rest of his company receive additional training, especially on how to react in chaotic situations where there is confusion and threats are not fully determined. There were speakers including some Ministers of the Knesset and while such support is appreciated we will not list them as this story is about the future of a soldier who reacted in an effort to eradicate a severe threat he was witnessing.

 

 

The military prosecutor chosen for this case is Lt. Col. Adoram Rigler who stated that his review of the evidence which has been gathered strongly implied “serious suspicions,” and therefore asked to extend the soldier’s detention by another seven days. Part of continuing holding the soldier in detention limits greatly his opportunity to work with his defense team and collect the many “experts” in numerous fields which claim his shooting was understandable and possibly demanded by the situation. This was due to the information the soldier had and the actions of the terrorist which resulted in his being shot by the soldier. There have been “experts” of human motion, all military laws and “Rules of Engagement” and anything which will raise one’s stature in order to receive attention and do interviews. This has led to many people claiming things they believe were the events which led to the shooting. They are spread across the spectrum taking positions both for and against the soldier’s actions. The bevy of various NGOs concerned with “human rights” but whose actions are usually targeting IDF and Border Police doing their assigned tasks attempting through provocations to produce a shooting just as what occurred last week. The videotaping by B’Tselem at the scene makes one all the more suspicious that this was a set-up where they were hoping to produce an active confrontation. One need remember that B’Tselem receives the bulk of their funding not from Israel or Israelis but from European governments and other leftist European sources all of which are looking to destroy Israel in any manner possible. This corrupts the B’Tselem claim to be concerned with assisting the IDF and other security sources with their “human rights” considerations. Their release and supporting their carefully edited videos and not approaching the IDF and attempting to receive opportunities to brief and possibly instruct the soldiers in a more proper manner of handling situations damns their actions as intended to damage the IDF, not assist the IDF.

 

 

Hevron Shooting Suspect Soldier
with Defense Team Being
Escorted into Hearing

 

Perhaps we should look beyond this specific case and look at IDF actions and the surrounding influences and limitations and decide whether such Rules of Engagement (ROE) restricting their actions and even at times their ability for self-defense are placing the soldiers in far greater harm as well as the public or whether they represent prudent limitations on the use of force. In all too many cases the IDF hierarchy and high command immediately rush to back any accusation made against their troops. This lack of supporting the troops in any time of such conflict where accusations fly around coming from every corner will only result in troops refusing to serve beyond the Green Line or in Jerusalem likely causing far more dead troops and civilians. The commanders and especially the Defense Minister, Prime Minister and one would hope the Ministers from the Knesset, with some obvious exceptions, would back the soldier or at the very least remain neutral and simply state they hope the soldier’s actions prove to be proper but are awaiting the investigation which will be conducted in an orderly and professional manner. Instead we have had the Defense Minister, Knesset Ministers and commanders trying this case in the public taking the view that the soldier must be punished as his actions could never be justified no matter the situation. That is unprofessional and quite an unhelpful approach as it sets an atmosphere where those handling the case have to feel that they are being pressed to go after this soldier with every tool and twisting of facts required to validate these expectations. We are not asking for the General who commands the IDF to make a public announcement that they back the soldier 100% and see no reason to investigate the shooting. What we want is the making of no comment and not simply throwing the soldier to the piranhas from media who are already out for blood on the shooting. The displays of prejudging this case before all the facts have been gathered and findings made public and allowing the system to handle the aftermath has been disgusting at best and horrific at the worst. Everyone has decided the fate of this young man and is sending a message to the troops that a terrorist’s life is far more precious than are the soldiers of the IDF; and when commanders also take this position acting more like perfumed princes seeking public favor from the wealthy leftist influences which have abounded in this case the troops lose morale and start to doubt the support they were taught would back them.

 

Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, which belongs to Abbas’s Fatah have lauded praises upon terrorists who shot Israelis near Hevron on Friday. There were two attacks on Friday involving shooting by terrorists, the first was where two teens were wounded by terrorist gunfire near the Cave of the Patriarchs, and the second targeted a soldier wounding him in a separate shooting attack at Beit Anun. These shootings are an escalation which started a few weeks back as the stabbings and attempts to ram pedestrians and people waiting at bus stops with vehicles continues. This has been the trend of past intifadas where there is a slow but steady progression from throwing rocks to throwing boulders attempting to murder the occupants in passing vehicles. This inevitably leads to stabbings and the attempts to use vehicles to ram and run over people which were a new twist that started soon after the stabbings. The slow escalation with shooting slowly ramped up has thus far succeeded in keeping the media, with a few exceptions, ignoring the new phase and thus giving any reports almost an afterthought and not worthy of the headline on page one. This simply furthers the mood and understanding of the situation we have placed the IDF, Border Police and other units into as the increasing deadliness of attacks being ignored lulls the public into thinking that the terrorist attacks have not necessarily crossed into a mood where the soldiers feel more of a threat and thus become more urgent in their handling of terrorist arrests or detentions. The situation having escalated it should be accepted that troops would be expecting suicide bombings as that is the progression after shootings start with a few weeks between each start. It is the old adage of placing the frog in a pan of water and slowly raising it to a boil and the frog does not move but attempting to throw the frog into already boiling water the frog resists and attempts to immediately jump from the water. The public are the first frog and the IDF and others on the front line the second, which explains part of the disconnect between much of the public and those actually under threat. Fortunately, most Israelis, outside of those refusing to ever see terrorism by the Arab Palestinians, understand the tactics and remain aware of the actual level of violence being faced by the soldiers as well as members of the public who could become targets of these shooters. The exception is the media which often takes the extreme leftist view of situation as their living in a bubble where their communities are fenced and guarded and they work in the safest of conditions and thus do not feel the same threats as do the public.

 

 

Picture of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade Terrorists
at Rally Backing Shooting of Israelis

 

The trial of this soldier will continue and the longer it drags on, the better, as the media will lose their interest and the leftist agitators are already planning their next confrontation. The best hope is for the matter to be out of the public eye when there is less or no pressures to convict the soldier making him a sacrificial lamb sacrificed to the leftist agitations paid for by European money. The fact that these NGOs are permitted to operate as if they were actually Israeli funded and indigenous groups when often “experts” from Europe often come and work with the NGOs in preparing and sometimes actually participating in provocations which are always filmed so that they can be released, well, after some heavy editing as some actions must be hidden. This type of slanted actions by the media was also very evident in another case from April of 2012 where Europeans had gathered some Arab Palestinians and they began a convoy on a major thoroughfare blocking and slowing traffic in one direction. When confronted by an IDF unit the provocations rose significantly. Lieutenant Colonel Shaul Eisner was commanding these troops and was at the scene. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner, who was filmed striking a protester with his rifle butt which was all one heard for weeks on the media covering this “serious breach of protocol and loss of control” by an IDF commander. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner was made a sacrificial lamb on the altar of political correctness and was reprimanded and was barred from command positions for two years. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner stated that he regretted hitting activist “in front of cameras,” always in front of the ever-present cameras used at the confrontations. What was left out of every video and conversation in the media was the fact that the Lieutenant Colonel received a broken finger after one of the European “human rights” activists grabbed his hand and attacked the Lieutenant Colonel breaking his finger. That provocation was of little if any coverage as he should remain completely unfazed by such an assault and injury.

 

 

Lieutenant Colonel Shaul Eisner

 

 

The disconnect is first that the terrorism suffered in Israel is considered by most Western media, experts and others to be completely separate from the terrorism suffered in the West and other places outside of Israel. Somehow the Israelis are treated as if they deserve the terrorism they receive and that the Arabs shooting and bombing in Israel have no connection or links to the terrorists striking Paris or Brussels or Boston or San Bernardino. This is a false assumption and should the West be interested in what kind of terrorism they will be facing in the coming years as the numbers of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) “refugees” continue pouring into their countries they need look no further than Israel and the current level of violence and watch the escalation and learn. This is a war between two competing social orders, the freedom and liberties of the West against the stifling oppressive theocracies of MENA and the levels of violence and restriction on the media and life in general. Eventually, and it should not take too long, the West will awaken and realize they have a big and growing problem on their hands wrought by their own altruistic fallacies that permitted a snake to make its way into their tents and now even into their sleeping bags making life endangered. We do not expect the West to wake up until the war is all but lost but please leave Israel alone to at least fight the rising menaces in the Middle East. Do not moralize us as you do not understand and when you figure out the problem we will be glad to offer what assistance and advice as we are able and requested. We do not tell you how to treat terrorist acts in your house; please do not interfere with our handling terrorism in our house.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

They Have Actually Started Eating Each Other

 

The differences between Hamas and Fatah have been well documented and their 2007 open warfare for the control of Gaza was simply the Super Bowl which had one merciful fact, it lasted just under one week from June 10 to June 15, 2007. The official casualty count was one-hundred-twenty Palestinian combatants and thirty-nine Palestinian civilians and two UN personnel. This was the most famous and heavily reported violence between Palestinian factions though there have been numerous breakouts of violence between different family groups, crime entities, competing terrorist groups and sometimes even violence between individuals. Most of the violence has been ignored by most of the world’s media as reporting on violent disagreements between separate Palestinians would detract from their normally presented angelic image usually used to paint the darlings of the mainstream leftist media. If Israelis had problems anywhere near the level of the animosities often overlooked between Hamas and Fatah it would lead every newscast and top every newspaper in the world. Unfortunately for the mainstream media the animosity between Hamas and Fatah and the charges Hamas levels against the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas has been such that it has demanded coverage from time to time. Just to give an idea of the extent that differences and threats between even Hamas and Fatah and the President of the Palestinian Authority just this past week Mahmoud al-Zahar, an ranking officer with Hamas, leveled challenges to the rule of Mahmoud Abbas calling his continued rule as illegitimate as he has not stood for election and thus Abbas’s term as “president” expired years ago. He further accused Abbas of “treachery” for allowing for security coordination and cooperation with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Zahar also equated Abbas’s name as an “embarrassment” to every Palestinian. Zahar also addressed the charge that Hamas was working to form their own Palestinian state in Gaza by presenting that Hamas would not be satisfied with a state in Gaza or in the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) as their intent is intent on the complete destruction of Israel. Mahmoud Al-Zahar further stated, “If we succeed in setting up a government in Gaza, autonomy, civil administration or any other framework on a portion of the land of Palestine, that does not mean that we give up on one other grain of Palestine.” Just one week earlier Al-Zahar demanded an end to the Palestinian Authority and explained that the “honeymoon period” was over as was any hope of continuing the “unity government” calling for a return to the “armed struggle.” Of course none of this was reported on the evening news throughout much of the world even including some newscasts in Israel. These little spats cannot be permitted to spoil the view that everything between the factions within the Palestinian Arab families might have even the slightest possibility of hitting a rough spot.

 

The truth is that rough spots is the norm between Hamas and Fatah or even Hamas and the Arab Palestinian Authority and have been that way since the elections in 2006 when Hamas won the Parliamentary elections and Abbas decided that there was no need for having an election for his spot as the President of the Arab Palestinian Authority as he had just succeeded the Late Yasser Arafat just over eighteen months earlier and extended his term until the next elections in 2009. This problem was the result of the hubris of the United States, surprise, surprise. President George W. Bush and his then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that the Palestinian Parliamentary elections of 2006 had to be open to all the parties of the Arab Palestinian Authority, both Fatah and Hamas. Somehow they missed insisting on Islamic Jihad but why quibble over degrees of disasters. Mahmoud Abbas pleaded with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reconsider informing that allowing for Hamas to field candidates against Fatah would result in a disaster and a Hamas victory, the only variable was the scale of the disaster. Prime Minister Sharon also demanded that this open election not be pressed as it would all but guarantee a Hamas victory which Israel pressed would be a disaster for Israel, any hopes for peace and might even result in a new war. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remained adamant and the rest is history, Hamas won a majority in the Parliament and all elections going forward would end up cancelled after the Gaza War which led to a Hamas government in Gaza and a Fatah controlled Arab Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

 

There was a new wrinkle this past week when violence flared in Judea and Samaria between different segments of the Arab Palestinian Authority, of different Fatah factions. The latest flare-up has broken out in two locations, Jenin, once the location of a false massacre that to this day is still used to attempt to besmirch the IDF despite the fact that even the United Nations, not exactly the best friend when it comes to defending Israel, investigated the battle and found that for all intents and purposes the casualties were virtually all combatants and the numbers were minimal and nowhere near the numbers claimed by Palestinian spokespersons or numerous international NGOs, and Nablus, historically named Shechem since the times of ancient Israel of nearly three-thousand years ago. Both Jenin and Nablus are within Area A which places them under complete Arab Palestinian Authority control which includes both civil and security. The laws in these two cities and surrounding areas is made by the Arab Palestinian Authority Parliament and is enforced completely by the Arab Palestinian Authority Security Forces personnel. All of this was spelled out and stipulated part and parcel in the 1993 Oslo Accords and was intended to allow the Arabs to prove they were capable of self-rule and managing their own areas, the results of this have been mixed at best. The violence which broke out this week was not a sign that things are going neither well in Jenin nor in Nablus. Let us take the two locations separately.

 

Jenin has been a powder-keg as the refugee camp there has been the home of numerous different terrorist squads and crime within the camp has been a running problem as the refugees are denied employment and are prime candidates to join terrorist squads or turn to crime as any manner of escape from the camps is highly desirable. The fact that there are Arab Palestinian refugee camps within Judea and Samaria as well as within Gaza is virtually beyond belief. These Arabs are living in what can only be described as government provided apartment buildings similar in design to the government housing in the inner cities in the United States, permanent structures made of concrete forms and fully furnished just as any other apartment building except that these apartment buildings hold Palestinians denoted as refugees living amongst Palestinians in a Palestinian governed area. Should the world decide tomorrow to end the farce which is the Palestinian refugee permanent and festering situation where if either of your parents were refugees then you will grow up as a refugee and your children and their children yet to be born will also be refugees. The violence, which was reported in some news media given the kind of coverage where it was not a leading story, broke out on Friday between members of the Fatah Party, possibly from their “military wing” the al-Aqsa’s Military Brigades, and Arab Palestinian Authority Security Forces, the “military and police forces” of the Arab Palestinian Authority which is made up mostly if not entirely by Fatah members in central Jenin near the refugee camp. This was simply the latest in a series of firefights between the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades forces and the Arab Palestinian Authority forces. One such incident resulted in the Arab Palestinian Authority Security Force Headquarters being engulfed in a hail of bullets where fortunately and miraculously nobody was injured.

 

The amazing thing is the Fatah and the Arab Palestinian Authority both have Mahmoud Abbas as their leader. Abbas is the Chairman of the Fatah Party and the President of the Arab Palestinian Authority, so this pitted armed men from one side under Mahmoud Abbas shooting and engaged with armed men on the other side under Mahmoud Abbas, and this is a normalcy within their society with its dualities often drawn to separate the so-called refugees from the rest of the population. The next day, Saturday, in the Balata “Refugee Camp” in Nablus, the car of a leading Fatah activists, Fayiz Arafat, was set on fire. Several days before his vehicle was burnt, he was the target of an apparent assassination attempt which the local people placed the blame on the Arab Palestinian Authority Security officers. These shootings have been escalating under the radar for quite some time and only recently have they spilled out of control and thus started to be reported in some reports within the communities, both refugee and normative Arab Palestinians. These outbursts of violence have been escalating with their having been two main sources leading up to these escalations, coup attempts by Hamas and the influx of ISIS supporters starting to form cells which are then seen as rivals leading to their targeting by the long-standing forces from within Fatah, some of which also serve in the Arab Palestinian Authority Security Forces. Last year there was being formed a larger force by Hamas operatives for the purpose of launching a coup against Fatah and taking over the Arab Palestinian Authority in a similar escalation which resulted in Gaza being run by Hamas outside of the Arab Palestinian Authority control and rule. The Hamas growing threat was detected by Israeli forces who arrested the leaders of the cell and the cell collapsed fragmenting without its leadership.

 

The breakout of firefights between Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade forces and the Arab Palestinian Authority Security Forces is a surprising development. The supporters of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades forces lay all of the blame for instigating this situation by pressing their efforts against Fatah Activists Fayiz Arafat as part and parcel of their attempts to also take control over the Balata Refugee Camp wresting it from its local control and enforcement by the Fatah forces. This is not as far-fetched as it may at first appear as there has been any number of these situations recently. Some of the violence has occurred before but then mostly as isolated incidents. There was also the arrest and breakup of an ISIS cell in Hevron earlier this month and more such threats promise to appear as ISIS has gained strength by garnering recruits from both Fatah members and Hamas members plus anyone who have lost their faith in the faction’s ability to deliver on its promises of destroying Israel and instead seek out ISIS who have a record of being the stronger force capable of delivering on their promises for actions in place of words though we have seen little reservations. Should these differences continue to fracture the Arab society and place each group at the other groups’ throats with the violence constantly ramping upward becoming more serious, eventually destroying any hopes of the entire Arab community. Turning to ISIS will simply represent the Arab society proving that their intent was never to form their own state but solely to destroy the Jewish State of Israel. Such irreconcilable truth being exhibited will only serve to refute even their most ardent supporters’ claims that their intentions are of a limited nature and not having the complete destruction of Israel as their lifelong goal. Turning to ISIS will signal the end of the ability of even the Europeans and the lunatic fringe extreme leftists from denying the claim that the aims of the Palestinian society is destruction of Israel and not the construction of their own state.

 

Beyond the Cusp