Meanwhile, Here in Israel

We realize that the United States is currently turning inwards towards their own particular challenges. We have watched the news about horrifically high crime rates with numerous cities setting records of homicides and other violent crimes. Smash and grab assaults on retail outlets in places across the country, not just in California, without facing prosecution are reaching unacceptable levels. We understand those expressing fear over calls for national police, with powers beyond those limiting the FBI, will be heeded, much to freedom’s demise. Then there are the confrontations between parents and teacher’s unions closing schools favoring remote learning (a true oxymoron) or over the choice of curriculum. Fears over potential rule changes concerning the Senate filibuster, the Electoral College, nationalizing elections, adding Justices to the Supreme Court, statehood for Washington DC, open borders, overheated Covid scare coverage and other potential political battles cannot be simply dismissed as inconsequential.

Fancy Star of David

Currently, there exists one area causing Israel some degree of concern, Iran and their drive for thermonuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them. The United States will gain nothing and very likely give Iran lenient terms in a desperate effort to reach any agreement. Israel may as well assume that unless we prevent the unimaginable, Iran with thermonuclear warheads and ballistic missiles with which to deliver them anywhere on Earth, then Iran will present an existential threat to more than just Israel, but the United States, Saudi Arabia and any other Sunni Islamic nation refusing to convert to Shiite Islam and the entire world in general. Such an assumption means should Iran fire any number of ballistic missiles targeting Israel, we will have to assume the weapon is nuclear armed and our response must be in kind. This would present the world with problems none of us wish, especially we Israelis. On a more personal level, inflation in the United States can lead to problems for retirees residing here in Israel and anywhere outside the United States. Furthermore, we expect the midterm elections will fail in being a solution beyond the promise of gridlock with nothing damaging being accomplished. Perhaps we are placing too much faith in the presumed conservatives to hold the line.

Beyond the Cusp

What a World We Wrought

President Biden and his administration have taken the entire world on a wild and soon to be destructive jaunt basing far too many decisions on simply to do the opposite of most Trump positions. We will list those which threaten the world from our Middle East view.

Russia appears to favor using malware attacks upon American companies, civic entities, utilities and public offices and services in order to extract sufficient cash inflow sustaining Russia. Thus far President Biden has entertained the ruse of brushing aside these attacks as minor ripples not worthy of response.

Communist ruled China has brutally beaten almost all freedom in Hong Kong while the world, including Trump to some extent, did barely an action and not too much more in denunciations which carried the weight of sanctions. But this has not been sufficient for mainland China to have absorbed Tibet in 1950 displacing thousands of Tibetans and importing twice that number of Chinese into Tibet. This was called ‘Normalization.’ Hong Kong is being aggressively Normalized in a planned efficient, and brutal, if necessary, and rapid manner.

But wait, there’s more. China has announced their intent to reabsorb their temporarily lost province of Taiwan. Escorting this pledge was a Chinese message that any interference would face the entire wrath of the CCCP. The Chinese specified that this includes their intent to use thermo-nuclear weapons in a first strike against Japan and the United States within their sphere of control. Theirs is not an empty threat. China long ago claimed they would gladly lose as many as five-to-eight-fold casualties in a war with the United States and Chinese numbers alone would prove the victor.

What me worry?

The Biden administration repeatedly states they are at war with an internal evil infecting the United States. This evil has a name, White Supremacy. Purges are already ongoing with an enormous emphasis on the military and enforcement institutions such as the FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, BATFE and more… Should the violence in the cities begin again in earnest next summer, expect that towards the fall the violence to begin their inexorable expansion into the suburbs until the calls for protection at any cost begins. That usually comes immediately after a truly shocking event such as the Reichstag Fire from February 27, 1933 Berlin, Germany. The current obsession with January 6, 2021, will dwindle into nothing and will be completely eclipsed by whatever event the government is able to stage. We admit that events are becoming more than simply a little spooky moving quickly to imminent catastrophic disasters; yes, plural!

Finally, and closer to home, Russia and China are arming and funding, with an assist from the Biden administration, Iran. This will present further violence in Yemen, and spilling ever more often into Saudi Arabia, as well as into Syria. Iran also arms Hamas in Gaza and Hezballah in Lebanon which makes up much of the Iranian sponsored distress, death and war in the Middle East. Iran also had assisted Osama ben Laden and other al-Qaeda fighters and leaders; as well as the Taliban which will soon rule Afghanistan plus far more including a training base in the Tri-border region in South America. There is one other little matter, Iran is enriching uranium as quickly as they are able with, what we would observe, full intent towards making and threatening and even using thermo-nuclear warheads within three years, before the Biden-Harris administration is defeated in 2024.

Iran, followed immediately by China, are the nations we fear are the greatest threats at this time. Fortunately for Israel, we are not even target one for Iran and are probably not even appearing on the Chinese tactical maps. Iran has strong determination to rule over the Two Great Mosques, the cities of Mecca and Medina, which places Saudi Arabia sharing highest priority with the United States on their list of targets. Yes, Israel comes third on that list which is why so much has been invested in defensive missiles with rather good track records.

While more threats such as population-replacement, inflation, spiraling-crime and governments which no longer believe they are answerable to the population; we have an answer first given us by one of the last century’s greatest and most overlooked philosopher who relayed the message, “What, me worry?”

Beyond the Cusp

British Choose Conservative Party While People Riot in Iran

 

The British elections led to a victory and mandate to complete BREXIT with Boris Johnson as their Prime Minister. But there was a secondary message coming from these elections, namely that the British renounced the hateful racism and anti-Semitism which had become part of the messages coming from the Labour Party in general and from Jeremy Corbyn in particular. The British elections were just the next step coming from Europeans demanding their nations return to their independence and away from the European Union (EU) and centralized rule from Brussels. We have to add that most of the distrust of the centralized power without any input, that the EU intends to spread over all of Europe, has come from former Soviet nations which perhaps remember their former results from centralized power ruling from Moscow.

 

Boris Johnson

 

These results will be used by some in the United States to boost their arguments about President Trump, both pro and con. These sorts of arguments are best just left behind as one walks away, as arguing with such people from either side, using the British elections as a predictor for the upcoming 2020 elections in the United States is simply a waste of one’s time. Yet, the results of the British elections will not be affecting much on the world’s stage as the central focus of the world revolves around two nations, the obvious is Iran followed by the favorite nation for United Nations General Assembly to condemn, Israel. Of these two, Iran is the larger problem which the world needs to find something to remove the current Judeophobia, prevent Iranian hegemony of the Middle East and, in a perfect world, return control over Iran to the Iranian people. These problems are far more important keeping a careful watch over Iran and the effects of her involvement in the Syrian strife and violence as well as her influences in places such as Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond. Currently, the ball is on the Iranian side of the court leaving more room for speculation backed only by feelings. So, what do we expect in the coming future?

 

News about the internal struggle spreading throughout Iran has been sketchy at best and totally suppressed about the remainder. Meanwhile, the people of Iran are fighting for new governance which is more representative of the Iranian people. There is a large and growing undercurrent eroding at the power wielded by the Mullahs currently ruling in Iran through use of force. The situation in Iran is exactly as one might presume, with fixed elections and other shams giving a pretense of democratic elections. This is what has led to the current round of rioting and protests against the current rulers. News about the spreading protests has been relatively disorganized at best and imposed silence at its worst. This leads to much news being pure speculation mixed with hope for the Iranian people.

 

Our biggest fears are that this atmosphere of rejection targeting the ruling Mullahs could lead to an irresponsible set of actions by the Mullahs. The most feared scenario includes a nuclear attack on the American Fifth Fleet of the United States Navy assigned to patrol the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean as well as the nations bordering these waters. Their mandate includes Iran. Often another scenario is mentioned where Iran starts their offensive in earnest against Saudi Arabia while simultaneously launching a massive attack upon Israel used to distract the world’s attention. Such an attack would be played in Iran as their leadership taking care to protect the people from these outside menacing forces. We do not foresee Iran using force against Israel beyond the consistent launching rockets by the IRGC in Syria as any escalation could trigger a larger Israeli response. Iranian leaders are aware that Israeli leadership would be required to respond to missiles detected coming from Iran well before they would strike their targets and possibly crippling Israeli capabilities. Israeli leadership would need to decide how severe any Iranian attack might be as well as which warheads were launched, specifically as to whether any WMD’s were included in such an attack. Such weapons include chemical and bio weapons as well as nuclear warheads. Any such attack from Iran would be hopefully largely, if not totally, intercepted by the layered protective spheres of the Israeli anti-ballistic missile defenses.

 

Talking about any Iranian strike, our belief is that Iran has absolutely little if any desire to exchange ballistic missiles with Israel as they are aware that such an exchange would result in the destruction of much of Iran with potentially minimal destruction in Israel as Iranian missiles were intercepted by Israeli defensive systems. Should Iran strike anyone, the most likely target would be the American naval ships off her coasts. Iran has been observing how President Trump has pulled American forces from much, if not all, of the Middle East battlegrounds. This has probably led to their concluding that President Trump would avoid any direct conflict initiated by Iran. They likely feel that such an attack could lead to concessions from the United States in order to avoid further American casualties. Such presumptions are the perfect setting for an ever-escalating exchange between Iran and the United States where Iran would be the loser. The United States would not consider herself as the victor as the resulting protests against the use of force and against Trump would prove to be a divisive and destructive force in the country.

 

This leads to our final vision of the future and the results of the people rioting across Iran demanding new governance and an end to the rule by the Mullahs. We fear that the results from these protests will be the deaths of thousands of Iranians as the Mullahs will refuse to go down without a monumental fight. In the end, the rulers of Iran will unleash the IRGC and the Basenji Militias upon the protesters. It will result in a near exact copy of the 2009 protests except with far higher casualty count for those protesting. Should the pro-democracy Persians, the actual and correct name for most of the Iranian people, start taking to the streets in vast numbers, their success or failure will be dependent upon what response and potential arming the Iranians receive from the United States. The knife edge upon which the world currently sits has Iran and the United States in direct opposition to one another. Iran could initiate problems in any number of means. Iran could stop all the oil tankers from entering or leaving through the Strait of Hormuz or block the Bab el Mandeb (see map below) blocking the only exit and entrance to the Suez Canal from the south.

 

Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait

 

The Bab el Mandeb blockade would also negate the sole Israeli port in the south, Eilat, from access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Preventing access to shipping lanes is considered an act of war. Well, that is, except if the nation in question is Israel. That aside, the most likely conflict will break out between the United States and Iran and not Iran and Israel. Should the conflict turn to being between Iran and Israel, the world (aka General Assembly) will immediately blame Israel with minimum opposition. This is the one item you can bet and rest assured of a win. The world’s ‘blame Israel’ reaction is the one constant in this rattled and violent world. Directing hatred towards Israel is the latest Judeophobia spreading around the world. We can only pray that the world awakens and removes their blinders and finally accepts that Israel has been reborn as predicted in Torah and related commentaries and this time, we are returning home and have little if any desire to leave. Hopefully, the world comes to grips with their unsupportable Judeophobia before it leads to another great war which will result in much of the world being destroyed and a death toll beyond any other war.

 

Beyond the Cusp