Israeli Position Becoming More Precarious

 

One would be inclined to believe that the Israeli position in her Middle Eastern neighborhood could become even more at risk, but it just might real soon. First, allow us to make a risk assessment of her current troubles. To her north, in Lebanon, Israel faces the largest terrorist army in the world in Hezballah. Hassan Nasrallah leads a sizeable military which has been provided for quite adequately by Iran who has armed them with over one-hundred-fifty-thousand missiles and rockets. A fair proportion of these rockets and missiles are capable of reaching anywhere within Israel and beyond even with the capability of striking into Saudi Arabia or even Cairo in Egypt. Iran attempted to provide new targeting capabilities turning rockets into guided missiles but were not as successful as Iran had hoped. Israeli timely air strikes destroyed many of these guidance packages before they reached their destination. Still, many hundreds, if not thousands, of the most dangerous and destructive rockets were transformed into guided missiles capable of striking targets with an accuracy of under ten feet. These are the projectiles carrying the largest warheads and capable of greater distance making all of the central Tel Aviv greater metropolitan region well within the range of these more accurate weapons. The Dimona complex and reactor are also targeted as very likely is Jerusalem, Beersheva, Eilat or anywhere else within Israel they wish to target. These weapons are just the start of Hezballah and their threat posed and would be the initiating strike, should they be instructed to attack Israel.

 

Hezballah Rocket & Missile Threat

 

Should Hezballah be instructed to distract international attention from any undue attention to Iranian activities, Israel will be attacked from Lebanon and even possibly Syria awaiting the Israeli response. One such was the recent call by European nations who were signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, to review very probable infractions by Iran by continuing their nuclear program. Germany, France and Britain warned Iran of their intention to withdraw from the agreement should Iran continue to transgress into areas which the JCPOA forbids. As their actions have yet to pose a real threat to Iran, all is quiet. Should this or any other difficulty begin to make the world close in on Iran, you can expect they will try to get out of the limelight by starting a war with Israel using Hezballah as their weapons of choice. Israel would need to react almost instantly should such a conflict break out as Hezballah is capable of firing thousands of rockets and missiles into Israel every day until they are stopped. This could be taken care of by the Israeli Air Force within thirty-six hours. This still means that all of Israel would be vulnerable to these attacks for a day and a half, something which really would try the Israeli people’s nerves. In our region the attacks would largely be the smaller rockets in greater numbers but unguided, something which is less than encouraging as the numbers would translate into some major damage to the most northern Israeli cities. The real threat comes from the largest payloads and longer ranged articles in the Hezballah arsenal as many of these have been modified with the most advanced targeting packages. These could be used to target vital infrastructure as well as the heart of Tel Aviv and the numerous skyscrapers within that area. Were one of these struck and caused to collapse in the initial strikes, this would result in many thousands of deaths.

 

These very same missiles could also target Jerusalem and the Dimona complex. The Dimona research reactor being struck would spread radioactive contamination over a large region of the Negev potentially reaching the populated regions around Beersheva. In Jerusalem there is always the danger of numerous holy sites being struck, whether intentionally or through random chance with unguided rockets. Hezballah could also strike at Israeli airfields, both military and civilian, which could delay getting all strike aircraft into the air before being required to repair runways. Hezballah would also most certainly strike at communications and command and control centers in their effort to decapitate the military by isolating each unit from command and leaving aircraft without any ground control making takeoffs and landings more treacherous. Finally, Hezballah has set up tank traps and extensive tunnels and bunkers throughout the region south of the Litany River. Hezballah groups are able to move throughout this region without being required to break above the surface as their tunnel system is that extensive. These tunnels and fortified positions are often placed under residential areas with launch and ambush positions often placed within private homes. When fighting, Hezballah forces the residents to remain in their homes while they use them to launch rockets, missiles and mortars into Israel and when ambushing Israel Defense Force troops should Israel be required to enter Lebanon to end the attacks. There is a second alternative where Israel simply unleashes the hounds of war and completely blankets southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in an effort to destroying the Hezballah war machine. Should Hezballah insist that the Lebanese military come to their aid against Israel and any, or many, of their units join in attacking or fighting Israeli forces, then it can be expected that the targeting within Lebanon would be broadened to address the new threats. The Lebanese military had modern equipment provided by the United States, including Abrams Main Battle Tanks, and Russia, including attack helicopters. Such a conflict could easily spread across with attacks coming from within Syria as the IRGC would take such an opportunity to also attack Israel.

 

The IRGC is best described as the Iranian alternative military with close, if not greater, arrays of weapons compared to their formal military. The IRGC is the only military force to be recognized as a terrorist entity and is utilized by Iran to spread terrorist efforts to anywhere on the globe as well as fighting the foreign wars for Iran but providing a small amount of deniability of their actions by the Iranian government. IRGC forces can have uniforms but more often fight dressed as civilians, well-armed civilians. This permits simply taking the weapons of any killed fighter and then inviting the media to come witness the barbarity of Israel by murdering innocent “civilians,” the same “civilians” who were an ambush team which was overrun a short time previous before their identity change from active fighters to deceased civilians. This same tactic is utilized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. This time we hope that Israel minimizes the need for IDF ground troops entering into Lebanon where they would face ambush, potentially at every turn, and numerous casualties would start mounting. It would be preferable for Israel to use almost solely air power and ground-to-ground missiles to decimate all that belongs to Hezballah. A nice finishing touch might be to use a deep penetrator warhead to strike and destroy Hassan Nasrallah and the bunker in which he hides. IRGC units have also been the target of Israeli strikes at their provisions, particularly their missiles and heavy weapons, and also striking any position used to launch attacks on Israel including drone control facilities. Both IRGC and Hezballah forces are engaged in the Syrian civil war and in the coup still fighting in Yemen, the two silent wars as they do not include Israel, thus they are not newsworthy as Israel has been careful in choosing and unbelievably accurate in their strikes on these two terror armies attempting to limit their most dangerous capabilities. Thus far, the IRGC has been restricted to using only their ground troops. This could change at any point with their air force being brought into the fight placing them as far as eastern Iraq presumably to protect them from any Israeli attacks. Such an eventuality if used against Israel would broaden any such war to include Iraq and Iran as viable potential targets.

 

That was just the threats originating in Lebanon and Syria. To the south, Israel faces another dual threat under Iranian control and influence. These are Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the latter simply another Iranian controlled terrorist group and Hamas simply heavily influenced by Iranian desires. Here too the main threats are rockets. Hamas has a rocket they call the Jerusalem rocket simply because the M-75 Ballistic Missile can reach that distance (pictured below). As Israel enforces a blockade of Gaza for the inspection of goods to assure that no weaponry or other implements of war reaching Gaza and Hamas and Islamic Jihad, this has obviously prevented the retrofitting of their rockets with guidance systems making them guided missiles as such systems would be found and prevented from reaching the terrorists. This could potentially have dire results as Jerusalem is about the far edge of the capability of their M-75 rocket, their M-75 unguided rocket. This presents the ultimate irony, the M-75 when fired at Jerusalem is simply pointed in that direction and launched for maximum distance simply to assure reaching Jerusalem, could result in destroying the Dome of the Rock, the al-Aqsa Mosque or both. Needless to point out that Israel would be initially blamed and the media would run with that story for a week or so before printing a retraction and correction somewhere around page C-33 and nowhere near the front page as were the headlines which blamed Israel. Unfortunately, it takes time to gather the intelligence and place the blame on the true culprits. This is another capability which the Iron Dome can and does provide, the computed trajectory of rockets, missiles, mortars and artillery. Once the real data will have been gathered, the article covering the reality where Israel is not the guilty party but rather the Islamic forces which fired the rocket which destroyed precious Islamic sites in Jerusalem will be right next to their retraction and correction. Hamas and Islamic Jihad cooperate to such an extent that they can be treated as a single entity with Hamas the primary force as they are the Gazan government. Should Gaza initiate attacks on Israel in any large number, the IDF will respond in kind and going no further. The retaliatory strikes by Israel often target empty buildings around two or three o’clock in the predawn hours of the morning. Once more, there is no violence or any attacks which are newsworthy until Israel retaliates, a retaliation which the media will transform into the initiating attack only mentioning the earlier terror attacks on Israel in the next to the last paragraph. It should be noted that Hezballah has promised to join any war between Israel and Gaza and Islamic Jihad has responded with their intention to join any war where Hezballah in Lebanon are fighting Israel. They worded their statements implying that Israel was the aggressor despite knowing that such is not the case.

 

Monument for the M-75 Ballistic Missile Named the Jerusalem Rocket

 

Fortunately, the main problem for Israel being caused by the Palestinian Authority (PA) is their paying terrorists or their surviving family with cash payments for life which are greatly more significant than even the PA government, and security personnel are paid a lesser salary than these terrorists. This offer of cash for murdering Israelis, they call it murdering Zionists or Jews, has become a career choice as should you murder one Israeli and then be arrested, you will serve your sentence in a country club atmosphere with more benefits than many Israelis receive from the government. These attacks are largely stabbings and vehicular rammings of pedestrian traffic. The PA, under both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, has rejected every peace proposal by which any land is placed under Jewish rule allowing Israel to survive as is. Their entire effort is performed with the intent of completely destroying Israel. Their main effort is on the international political front where they seek recognition of the PA as a national government and accepting the PA definition of their borders. The PA views their borders as being the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, or more simply, all of Israel. The main reason that there is any semblance of quiet on this front is due to the presence of IDF throughout much of the region and good intelligence work by the Shin Bet and others and because to their east, Jordan has a cold peace with Israel which they prefer not to endanger for reasons which will become clear. The turmoil emanating from the PA will start upon the death of Abbas as he has not been able to groom an acceptable replacement as Arafat had prepared him. But even this is but a minor threat as the PA does not have sufficient strength to wield in any such fight. The rest of the southern border is with Egypt and except for illegal entrants and occasional criminal violence, this border is quiet and problems actually are addressed by Egypt rarely requiring any assistance from Israel.

 

 

The eastern border along the Jordan River and its natural barrier called the Jordan River Valley has been the best-behaved border. Yes, occasional terrorists are out of Jordan and were given their target by the PA and not anyone in Jordan. Jordan is the remaining Hashemite kingdom which was set up by the British after World War I with the other having been Iraq where the monarch was removed in a coup. The Jordanian King, Abdullah II, has sufficient control currently using his military and Bedouin Tribes to rule over the approaching eighty-percent of the population being Arab Palestinians. Jordan is the Arab Palestinians country which was made by cutting 78% of the lands east of the Jordan River to the border with Iraq from the intended Jewish State in order to gift it to one of the Hashemite sons of King Faisal (the remaining 22% was left to form Israel). Under King Abdullah II, there has been peace, or at least tranquility, since the treaty was signed in 1994. But there are some serious rumblings out of Jordan as their economy is suffering poor management as the country attempts to care for many millions of Syrian refugees who fled the country escaping the civil war. The economic drain is being felt throughout the kingdom and this has made many of the residents less than enamored at this situation. Many complain and blame their problems on economic mismanagement and an over-reliance on international aid which has led to the current situation. Rioting in the major cities is almost constant, but the King has bigger problems at the moment. Jordanian Bedouin tribes constitute the backbone of the regime and this is starting to faulter. Bani Hassan tribe has taken an adversarial role with the king releasing an official statement listing their concerns demanding they be addressed immediately. The Bani Abbad and Bani Hamida tribes are supportive of these efforts making matters even more serious.

 

So, what would be the result if King Abdullah II abdicated his throne leaving Jordan without any head for the government? Jordan does have a parliament which would continue to operate after the King leaves, but the question then is for how long. Not all of the problems are the fault of the King as he has given much of his power to the legislature, but he retained the final veto power should he desire its use. The problem would begin with an election where either the Muslim Brotherhood or Iran using largely IRGC units would take control turning the country into another terror base from which to launch attacks on Israelis. One can bet that the Iranians will gain a large influence even if they are not the rulers, Iran will gain influence amongst the populace and deal with Israel sending terrorists into Israel along her eastern border. Such an eventuality would not bode well for Israel. Israel already has factories within Jordan providing good jobs. These enterprise zones run by Israeli companies are a good start but cannot become the main provider of jobs in Jordan. Should the Kingdom collapse, these Israeli firms would probably exit bolting back to Israel. The terror situation would, at some point, bring about a crisis which would threaten the peace potentially ending the blissful relationship previously shared. There is another threat which might come to pass which would worsen the tensions in the Middle East, far beyond just Israel. Iran would woo the Jordanians, particularly their leadership. They would offer arms and rocket and missile systems. The buildup in Jordan would easily outpace that which happened with Hezballah in Lebanon. Iran would really love to have Jordan in their pocket as they border nearly the length of the northern border of Saudi Arabia as well as the eastern border of Israel. Iran recently claimed they have attained the ability to wipe Israel from the map. This is almost a tacit statement announcing their having developed a deliverable thermo-nuclear warhead with which they could wipe out much of the Israelis residing in the greater Tel Aviv region. There is also vital infrastructure which supports most of Israel. Iran would have Israel all but surrounded should they gain control in Jordan. There would be further dangers such as an actual threat of declared war breaking out either with Israel or Saudi Arabia. The initial difficulty for Israel should the Jordanian monarch be dethroned will be increased terrorism with the terrorist using everything in the armory including nuclear weapons should they have the need.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Why Am I not All That Worried?

 

Everyday I hear a similar question in several parts. Perhaps writing articles here at Beyond the Cusp makes them believe I actually know and understands what is going on in the world and especially in Israel. It might also be my record of making predictions which have a great amount of veracity and often coming true almost exactly. Whatever the reason, I realize these questions are posed hoping I can ease their minds or accurately warn them when to start to worry and make plans accordingly. The first part of the question is worded something like, is a war coming in the near term? This is usually followed by asking for clarification as to where. This is when I have had to provide some not so great news. The reason is that Hamas in Gaza in the south has stated that they will join in any war should Israel engage with Hezballah in Lebanon to the north while Hezballah has promised to join any war Israel might engage with Hamas. The answer is it matters little where the next conflict starts, it probably, thanks to orders from Iran, will encompass a two-front war against both Hamas (with Islamic Jihad) in the south and Hezballah in the north. This, fortunately, may not matter for the remainder of this year as my feelings are that there will not be any all-encompassing conflict, or this is my wishful thinking.

 

There have been a slowly increasing escalation from out of Lebanon and Syria where Hezballah and the IRGC are aiding Syrian forces loyal to Bashir al-Assad along with Russian air and defensive support. The escalations by these forces have gone from single or twin drones to a drone swarm and single rockets to multiple rocket launches and the use of guided anti-aircraft missiles against ground vehicles. Hamas in Gaza use rocket launchers, anywhere from two or three to as many as a dozen or two. On both fronts, the Iron Dome has intercepted the majority of these projectiles projected to strike populated regions at an unreal excellence and proficiency. There have been threats made after every exchange with Hezballah always making the claim that Israel started everything and thus they will respond to the Israeli belligerence. The only problem with their claims is that the exchanges are almost if not always initiated by Hezballah or Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas also has their weekly, of more accurately daily, rioting along the border replete with launching of kites, balloons and the occasional drone with explosives and incendiary packages aimed for the destruction of Israel. They love the land so much they are willing to completely destroy everything such that nobody can use the region. These are the situations which many in our circles are concerned about, even to the point where it dominates conversation more than the coming election, but not more than the general banter which makes leaving the house worthwhile.

 

To the best of my discernment, many in our circles are displaying a level of tenseness and apprehension noticeably higher than usual. They claim that my lack of uneasiness with what I write and apparently obsession with the news cycle is unexplainable, even considering that I do not believe a war is inevitable this summer or until late next spring. Tomorrow morning, I fully expect to have this conversation within fifteen minutes of meeting the first of my regular circle leading to the same reaction of head shaking and pressing their feelings of ill-at-ease adding an, are you sure, to the conversation. If I am fortunate, others will not overhear our conversing as that almost inevitably brings others echoing the same questions and disbelief and even some expressing concern for my levels of sanity. I always assure them that I am still as unbalanced as ever. The upside of this tense situation surrounding us guarantees that people will want to converse so they can ask and be reassured that there is nothing coming in the immediate time-frame as none of the enemies of Israel desire having everything they own broken and having to wait for Iran to smuggle in a resupply of the necessary components for their rockets and drones. Outside events often supercharge the conversation and the number of scenarios discussed and presented as reasons why I am confused and unfounded in holding such an optimistic, almost Pollyannaish, attitude regarding the danger level around the threats which are thrown around weekly if not daily some weeks. Between Nasrallah boasting of the competence and preparedness of the Hezballah military units being capable of returning the Galilee to Lebanese control, read as Arab control, from the occupation by the Zionist Entity and Yahya Sinwar who leads Hamas insisting that the Friday (and often other days just peeking on Fridays) rioting will continue until the occupation by the Zionist Entity has been destroyed, we are pretty much guaranteed two to five threats each week depending on the need to distract the people from their poor governance. When one includes spokespersons from Islamic Jihad, commanders of the IRGC, Iran itself and Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian Authority (read PLO) circus all coming at the same demands, that the Jews take their rightful subjugation by their Islamic superiors, we seldom go two days without some threat raising concerns.

 

Hezballah is a terror army with all the abilities of the Lebanese Army in addition to their own forces as two-thirds of the Lebanese Army are members of Hezballah or sympathizers and thus do pose a credible threat. The IRGC is a second military fielded by Iran and are Islamic hardliners with radical beliefs. They are well trained and receive the same if not better equipment than the Iranian Army. This provides them with all the same capabilities as the Iranian Army with the possible restriction of less air support. Add in the Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei with his and the Iranian fanatics chants each Friday after religious services screaming, “Death to America, Death to Israel,” there is an additional guarantee for my conversation. The way I figure things, if there really was a threat of a war coming in the near period, they would have displayed a far higher rate of increase in the attacks and terrorism. There was the latest attack by Hezballah where they fired anti-aircraft guidable missiles at an IDF base targeting the vehicles and striking a field ambulance which could be claimed was an attempted escalation, almost, as they struck a converted Merkava I battle tank, which are obsolete as a main battle tank but make for a far safer ambulance for the rescue of injured soldiers in an active battle scenario, and claimed they had injured numerous IDF soldiers and claimed possible fatalities. The entire scene at this base was set up with mannequins which were evacuated as if being actual injuries. After Hezballah made their bombastic claims, IDF spokespeople revealed the reality that no Israeli was injured or killed and that the entire exchange was a trap which Hezballah took the bait, hook, line and sinker.

 

Still, the situation which Israel faces on a daily basis is serious and threatening. In the Middle East, threatening is the natural condition, and not just between Israel and her neighbors. Syria is in the midst of a long-running civil war, Iraq is fighting its own Kurdish citizens in the north securing the northern routs for Iran to provide supplies, forces and weaponry for the IRGC, Hezballah and forces fighting supporting Bashir al-Assad, Yemen is in a civil war with the Houthis attempting to overthrow the elected government with Iranian support provided by both the IRGC and Hezballah forces, the Jordanian King is facing the threat of massive unrest from the Arab Palestinians plus all the other conflicts surrounding the MENA nations and the remainder of the world. This is also another reason why I doubt that there will be any conflict this year. Iran is behind almost half of the conflicts in the Middle East. The other violence is mostly Islamic forces attacking those of Animist, Christian or other non-Islamic faith across central Africa in the Transition Zone (see map below). There are also conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as the civil unrest on Mindanao in the Philippines among other regions of strife. With most of the Arab and Islamic world facing internal as well as external conflicts, Israel has become less of an issue throughout their world.

 

African Transition Zone

 

This lowering of the level of concern and hatred against Israel as there exists an even more menacing threat, Iran. This has sent Saudi Arabia and many Gulf States to form an almost speaking relationship with Israel. There is far less mention of the Zionist Entity and threats with an exception for the Imams whose entire repertoire consists of hating Israel and Jews. This has caused the uninitiated to express their prediction that Israel will ally with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in order to counter the Iranian threat. Put absolutely no credence in this theme as everything will revert back to hate for the Zionist Entity as soon as Iran ceases to threaten the Sunni Islamic world. Simply put, take Iran out of the equation and the Sunni world will return to their emphasizing the destruction of the Zionist Entity and the return of the region to Arab Islamic rule, their defined norm for not only Israel but to the remainder of the world. Islam has a very simple definition for the world. They divide the world into two camps, Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb; being defined as the world of Islam and the world of war respectively. Making this slightly more complicated, the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims each consider the other to be heretics and thus part of Dar al-Harb. This also explains the high level of animosity between the Sunni Arab states and Shiite Iran. With Iran actively holding heavy sway over Iraq and their total control of Lebanon through Hezballah and Syria where they are assisting al-Assad defeat his opposition for control of Syria; this forms what many refer to as the Shiite Crescent and has all but encircled Saudi Arabia potentially explaining their sudden affections for Israel, the sole military which is capable of restraining Iran from doing whatever they please.

 

Shiite Crescent including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran

 

There is one other reason that we doubt that there will be a war this year, and this includes elections. We can gladly say that the Israeli elections are not the main criteria but the 2020 American elections. Iran is aware that should they be caught pressing for a war anywhere in the Middle East, even Israel, then President Trump would have a free ticket to pose a massive assault on Iran destroying their nuclear program and military ability. As long as after hitting Iran and dealing them a definitive and debilitating strike President Trump departs Iran, then this would leave the rebuilding and possible selecting new governance for the people to do as they see fits them best. Should Iran return to being ruled by a governance nearly identical to their current theocracy, then they would face the same policies from the Trump administration. If the Iranians built a representative governance and called for recognition and relations with the rest of the world, this might be accomplished once their new governance was solidly in place, a constitution or similar document designed and order restored allowing for free and open elections, then perhaps Iran might join the rest of the world. This would require their disbanding the IRGC, ending all support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah and all other terrorist organizations, ceasing their support and control over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen and liberalizing their civil laws allowing for greater human rights and other freedoms. Then the Middle East could return to their natural positions of complete and total rejection of Israel. This would work to relieve some of the terrorist threats on Israel, but all of them would remain and simply be seeking new backers such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabian entities and other support even to include the European Union, United Nations with accompanying agencies, European nations and others around the world. Things would take a while to settle into whatever the new conditions would become, and things would become more unstable as the terrorist groups would start to compete with one another while seeking funding and support. This would make things unsettled and far more dangerous and quite possibly could press a war with Israel to prove they are the real and true threat to the Jewish State. That is the Middle East, “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” the description Winston Churchill gave in a radio broadcast in October 1939 talking about the actions the Russians might take in World War II.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Our Problems with the BDS Movement

 

The BDS Movement, its longer name is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Israel and only Israel, is now being taught as a proper response to the Jewish perfidy occurring in the Middle East where Israel is presumably attempting to conquer all of the Arab lands. The claims made by the BDS Movement are that Israel is an Apartheid State, using ethnic cleansing, seeking to claim lands to form Greater Israel, racial profiling against all non-European ethnicities and various other blatant lies concerning the Jewish State. But the BDS Movement has a secret it uses in order to prevent their adherents from seeing anything which would challenge their propaganda. Should any of those they intend to indoctrinate with their anti-Semitic poison decide they wish to visit Israel to verify the validity or lack thereof of what they have instructed, they tell such a curious individual that part of BDS includes never-ever visit Israel as doing so would incur their spending monies in Israel thus breaking the BDS Movement’s basic attempts to starve Israel economically. But their real fear is that their lies would not hold up to anyone with eyes and an open mind who visits Israel, and even more so should they simply travel as their own guide and watching the interactions of Israelis. Add to this is the completely ludicrous claims that Israel has been attempting to form a greater Israel by conquering lands which belong to the Arabs and are a threat to all of the Arab World. Simply looking at the map below where the Arab (Islamic) World is in green and Israel and all of the lands it covers are in light blue with the lands occupied by the Arab Palestinians are in red.

 

The Truth the Arab League does not Want You to Know

 

There once existed Greater Israel back around one-thousand years before the Common Era under Kings David and Solomon. Israel in these ancient times reached from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt, known then as the River of Egypt as it marked the Egyptian border with the Jewish State. The current claims that Israel seeks in modern times to reform this Greater Israel claim that the River of Egypt must mean the Nile River as the Wadi of Egypt is usually a dry river bed except when rains fall and it floods. The maps below show the two concepts of what formed or will form a future Greater Israel, the one on the left is the conspiracy theorists claims Israel intends to conquer and the one on the right shows the historic Greater Israel that actually did exist. Does Israel, or at least some Israelis, desire making additional lands part of Israel? The answer is yes, many ardent Zionists not only desire, but demand of the world that the United Nations enforce Article 80 of their Charter to continue to enforce and establish the Mandate Lands which include the British Mandate. The British Mandate included the region which today is made up by Jordan, Israel and the disputed occupied lands. The British Mandate was divided between the Jewish Zionists and refugees and the Arab Palestinians in what the world, and especially the British, in a manner which represented some form of equality or lack thereof. This fair and even divide used the Jordan River as the basis for forming the border between Israel, the Jewish State, and Transjordan, later named Jordan and the Arab State. This gifted the Arabs with 78% of the British Mandate and Israel was to be formed by the remaining 22%.

 

Conspiracy Greater Israel and Kings David and Solomon Historic Greater Israel

 

Within a decade of the formation of Israel on May 15, 1948, the Arab and Islamic Worlds exiled and forced out the majority of their Jewish populations totaling over 800,000 Jews after stripping them of their wealth and valued possessions. These Jews largely were taken in by Israel as the European nations refused to accept any of the Jews unless they possessed a passport for that nation. The Arabs, on the other hand, had less than 700,000 refugees who mostly were the result not of the fighting, but were Arabs who obeyed the command by Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini who called for all Arabs living amongst the Jews to take refuge behind the Arab armies of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen such that these armies could simply murder every person they found and then these Arabs would share in the spoils of the Jews after the Arabs reached the Mediterranean Sea. When the Arab armies were stopped from any further advance and were starting to be pushed out of the lands intended for the State of Israel, the United Nations, United States, Russia and most of the world demanded that the fighting be halted immediately. Nobody thought that waiting for the newly formed IDF to clear the lands back to the borders set under the British Mandate was wise, better that Arabs be left occupying lands promised the Zionists and the Jewish People. This was the origin of the Arab Palestinian refugees and later, in September of 1964, the formation of the PLO which initially insisted on liberating all of Palestine which was defined as the lands west of the Jordan River with the exceptions of Gaza which was occupied by Arabs of Egypt and what Jordan called the West Bank occupied by Arabs of Jordan. These lands were liberated from Jordanian and Egyptian rule during the 1967 Six Day War and defended during the Yom Kippur War. Israel also took control of the Sinai Peninsula during these conflicts which was returned to Egypt when they signed a peace treaty with Israel but the Egyptians refused to resume their control over Gaza. When peace was reached subsequently with Jordan, they refused to return to their areas called the West Bank, the Shomron according to Israel, returning them to Israel. This should have allowed for Israel to finally realize the borders promised after World War I (see map below) in a number of treaties, conferences and other legal events and documents all enforceable under International Law.

 

Mandate of San Remo for French and British including actual treaty demarcations for each nation

 

But the BDS Movement has arranged to have their own versions of history and reality. Their claim is that everything which led to the formation of Israel was as a direct result of the Holocaust and a means of alleviating European guilt over the murder of one-third of world Jewry. They deny the existence of the San Remo Conference, the Mandate System and the League of Nations, among other treaties and agreements, has designed the terms and the borders which would define the Arab lands and those of the Jewish State. The borders of Israel were supposed to be defined by what is the current border with Lebanon, the Sinai-Negev border, the Golan Heights and the remainder along the Jordan River. The BDS Movement, or at least their leadership, do not recognize these borders nor the existence of the treaties, conferences, mandates and the League of Nations implementations for restructuring of the borders of much of eastern Europe of the German Empire and Austria-Hungarian Empire as well as most of the Middle East and North Africa borders of the Ottoman Empire. These were the three empires which were on the losing side of World War I. The BDS Movement ignore all of this as well as discarding the entirety of the Mandate System such that they claim that Israel is a European colonial invasion of the purely Arab Muslim Middle East. Israel spent decades fighting to be released from the British Empire as she was a British colony. How Israel could be a colony of anyone other than the British before May 15, 1948, when Israel was finally released by the British and declaring her independence. Further, half of the Israeli citizenship are from the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia, India, South America as well as virtually anywhere on the Earth one might choose.

 

But let us look into the history of the BDS Movement. The origin of the BDS Movement comes from the Arab boycott of Israel which was born at the Khartoum Conference and the “three no’s” resulting from that conference. The “three no’s” are, “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.” This was nurtured spreading the boycott to numerous entities around the world eventually morphing into the BDS Movement. The purpose of the BDS Movement is simply to isolate the Jewish State forming a virtual blockade around Israel preventing anything from leaving Israel going to anywhere else and preventing anything from entering Israel from anywhere. Further, they demand that all cooperation with Israel on any level including academic, scientific, economic, political, social, tourist or any other interaction making Israel a pariah amongst the world’s nations. The problem that the BDS Movement proponents run smack into is that Israel is not at all similar to what they cast her. As mentioned above, the Jewish population of Israel is diverse with a large segment of the population originating from the Middle East and North Africa as well as from Europe and the rest of the developed world. Israel even has organized two separate operations to save Ethiopian Jews who were threatened and called for a savior, and that savior was the same as the one which gave the Jews thrust out of the Arab and Islamic worlds, Israel. The Jews of India have also come to Israel in a fair number of people. Israel is most definitely one of the most diverse populations found anywhere in the world. This puts to lie the BDS Movement’s claims that Israel is an Apartheid country. With Jews returning to their ancient homelands from literally around the world coming from virtually every country. They are all citizens with equal rights including voting in elections, freedom of speech, thought and in virtually every other area. Furthermore, all Israeli citizens have equal rights whether they be Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or any other people or religion even including atheists and secular humanists.

 

But the BDS Movement have decided to blame Israel for the woes and deprivations forced upon the Arabs in Gaza and in Areas A and B of the Shomron as defined under the Oslo Accords. They blame Israel for the two communities of Arabs not having elections in well over a decade. The claim that they have been denied the right to vote, but not by Israel. The reason for their not having had elections is simply, neither Hamas in Gaza or the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Areas A and B of the Shomron have permitted elections. Hamas chooses their leaders often in concert with Islamic Jihad and potentially influence of Iran imposing a Hamas dictatorship over Gaza. The PA is headed by Mahmoud Abbas who knows that he would not win reelection should elections be permitted to be held; thus, he has cancelled every election since 2005 meaning that Mahmoud Abbas has been their leader for now fourteen years of his four-year term. That is merely a decade more than his term was in theory, while in actuality Mahmoud Abbas heads a dictatorial regime. Israel has no influence over elections or who rules in these Arab regions which have self-rule and are semi-autonomous making them independent of Israeli rule but they remain within Israeli official borders. BDS Movement leadership minimizes the amount of independence the Arab Palestinians truly have and completely ignoring Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PA, allowing them to claim that Israel is preventing allowing them to hold elections. They also make the absurd claim that Israel has denied them their right to vote in Israeli elections. These Arabs are not Israeli citizens with most in Gaza formerly either having Egyptian citizenship or that of another Arab nation or are simply Gazans but not Israeli as Israel has disengaged from Gaza allowing that region complete independence. The PA Arabs mostly hold Jordanian citizenship with a lesser number having Iraqi, Syrian or other Arab national citizenship with some having only PA citizenship, but again, not Israeli citizenship. When Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights at the end of 1981, Israel granted the Arabs residing within the region full citizenship. When Eastern Jerusalem was annexed by Israel, the Arabs residing within the region were approved for a form of limited citizenship allowing their voting in Jerusalem and other local elections but are still restricted from voting in national elections until final determinations of their fate will be finalized.

 

The claim by the BDS Movement that Israel is performing genocide or ethnic cleansing is so absolutely ridiculous as to border comical except that it has become accepted as fact in far too many places including the halls of power around the world even in the United States Congress. The refuting of their claim is so simple that it is surprising that these two claims have any credibility. Since 1967, when Israel liberated Gaza and the Shomron, the Arab Palestinian population has grown from just over one million in 1967 to just short of five-million currently. How anybody can extrapolate from an approaching five-fold increase in a population with their suffering from a genocidal ethnic cleansing is utterly ridiculous. The only reasoning that might permit such thoughts is the belief that the IDF is so incompetent that they are unable to perform such a task. The only logical reasoning is that there is no genocidal ethnic cleansing and that the Arab Palestinians are free to survive as best they can under their own leadership independent of Israel. Virtually everything claimed by the BDS Movement are lies, extreme exaggerations and falsehoods fabricated out of whole cloth. The easiest means of proving what Israel truly is, a fully functioning democratic parliamentary nation with all of the rights and privileges which any citizen of most developed nations enjoy would be to come and spend two or three weeks sightseeing and traveling around visiting cities and towns of all sizes as well as the kibbutzim. Israel is a diverse nation whose strengths are largely due to this diversity and the interactions between the many Jews of differing origins. But that is the very reason that at the heart of the BDS Movement is the rule that none of its members ever visit Israel as that would put at risk every iota of propaganda, they have fed their followers. But since many of those purporting agreement with the BDS Movement are professors and teachers, students have no prior knowledge upon which to base judgment of the veracity of what they are taught or the putting to lie these scurrilous accusations made of Israel. The entirety of the BDS Movement is built like a house of cards where, when one lie is unraveled, the entire structure of falsehoods crashes down revealing that the entirety of the BDS Movement has no relevance or reflection of the actualities which are Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp