Poway California Synagogue Shooting and Other Hot Topics

 

Here we are once more with a Synagogue being attacked with the shooting taking at least one life. The media will play this horrific episodic hate the full coverage as the perpetrator is apparently an alt-right White Supremacist. The condemnations will come from all corners with much of the media attempting to link this shooting with Trump. The logic is that those on the right are all exactly identical in their beliefs, politics and thoughts. To the leftist media, President Trump is conservative and nationalist and these alt-right hatemongers are presumed to be conservative and are nationalist, thus they are identical. This breaks down exceedingly quickly once people take the time to think. Many on the alt-right favor a fascist dictatorial government while President Trump supports a Constitutional Democratic Republic. These are definitive and separate ends that these groups seek and there can be no overlap between them. The White Supremacists desire doing away with the Constitution and its guarantees and giving out selective citizenship excluding most, if not all, minorities, this would definitely include Jews, and allowing only those who agreed with them completely any real rights under the law. Should the government ever be taken over by these groups, the United States would be over. If these White Supremacists are such a great problem, why are most of the public comfortable in that they hold no power. Perhaps this is due to their percentages of the population are in the single digits and in some states near to nonexistent. The alt-right have no political power throughout most of the United States and the majority are already known to law enforcement officials at multiple levels. But, so very unfortunately, one or two of these crazies perpetrate horrific crimes such as the Squirrel Hill Synagogue shooting of October 27, 2018, and now, a mere six months later, the Poway California Synagogue shooting. The only fortunate thing from this latest criminal attack upon Jews at worship was that the congregation reacted to prevent further casualties. Their threat of force against the shooter sent him cowering and fleeing as soon as he realized there was going to be resistance. According to officials, the suspect is a nineteen-year-old adult white male from San Diego. Initially, he fled the scene, but later surrendered to police.

 

Chabad of Poway Synagogue

 

But if it is as the facts point out, that the numbers of white supremacists, Nazis in particular along with other anti-Semites on the alt-right, have been steadily decreasing, how can it be the anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts have been steadily rising? The most obvious answer is that there must be another source of anti-Semitism which is rising precipitously. One of the first hints as to the source of this growing anti-Semitism is that it is found to be quite prevalent on the nation’s college campuses. Some have even struck into the mainstream media. Our first example was from before the armed assault on the Poway synagogue, the international edition of the New York Times ran a cartoon depicting a blind Trump wearing a yarmulke being taken for a walk by a dog sporting a Star of David. If this cartoon does not reek of the anti-Semitic trope that the Jews or Israel controls the United States, in this case the American President. But what about biases from other angles which refuse to report news which would favor Israel as it would depict a Palestinian as wanting to commit terrorism within the United States.

 

There was a report in American newspapers this week, where you saw headlines such as, “Wisconsin Mom Accused of Spreading Support for ISIS” to “Wisconsin Mother of Seven Charged with Trying to Recruit for ISIS” and “Wisconsin Woman Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charges.” We found these reports and more which we will allude to from an Israeli editorial titled, “Just don’t call her a Palestinian Arab! US media plays a game” by Stephen M. Flatow. There was a secret the media did not see fit to share with the American public and the world about this energetic mother, Waheba Issa Dai. For example, NBC News.com didn’t even mention that she was born in Jerusalem while the New York Times and the British Daily Mail went so far as to transpose this Palestinian Arab born in Jerusalem into being born in Israel. Could this mean that the media has realized that Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel and not contested lands? Not a chance as they will be declaring that eastern Jerusalem must be made Jew free and become the capital of historic Palestine which is a KGB invention by which the Arabs would be better able to victimize the Jews. Why would the media go so far around the truth when an Arab Palestinian was recruiting for the Islamic State while planning for a high casualty attack in the United States for which she was reportedly manufacturing biological weapons in her home. Perhaps they figured that the average American or citizen of the world would automatically know from her name, Waheba Issa Dai, everything about her origins, nationality (claimed and actual), along with virtually every other particular which they decided was not necessary to report. Imagine if it was someone who actually was an Israeli and not a Palestinian Arab who was doing such activities. You would know everything including interviews with neighbors from the old community down to whether they served in the IDF and every other extraneous fact they could glean.

 

The new anti-Semitism has nothing similar with the historic, classic anti-Semitism of generations ago; today anti-Semitism is most often expressed as anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism and these slurs are used to incorporate all Jews who are unwilling to expressly denigrate and condemn everything about Israel and to become their Jew vanguard behind which they crouch ready to devour any Israel supporter, Jewish or otherwise. For a Jew to be innocent of being part of the Israel conspiracy, which is defined as the Jews of the world having their dual-loyalty and working undercover to control the world and every nation where they reside, they must accept the BDS Movement and support SJP. Jews are providing organizations which Jews are able to join with other Jews for the expressed purpose of supporting every anti-Israel protest, sign every anti-Israel petition, produce their own versions of anti-Israel literature, editorials, letters to the editor and comments on social media. These Jews have lavished praise showered upon them by most of the media, the Arab driven anti-Israel often terror-tied groups, anti-Semites everywhere pointing to them as the good Jews and even the alt-right use them for cover for their hatred of Israel because of its Jewish nature. All of these are very active on the American college scene and are influencing the future leaders of America and Europe. You do not have to scour the news for examples as three were recently elected to the House of Representatives and two of them have been quite vocal and quotable, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

 

All of this hatred against Israel and its infection of the colleges and universities where the future leadership arises is troubling to say the least. Many claim that the main place which will face a troubling future due to these changes is Israel. Unfortunately for many nations of the world, Israel will be affected largely by having the vast majority of world Jewry coming home to a warm and gratifying welcome. Israel, people claim, is too small to accommodate a doubling of the population from a mass emigration of the world’s Jews making Aliyah. There are two problems with their claims, one is that we are probably at best talking half or possibly as high as three-fifths of the world’s Jews coming home as the remainder will remain blind to what is happening and believe that they are amongst the good Jews who are safe. In the end, there are no good Jews and their safety will dissipate in an instant and they will be shocked by the ensuing events; and two, Israel has one third of the country sparsely populated just waiting for Jews to come and transform the southern regions of the Negev Dessert into something unimaginable until it has been completed. Some see a new high-tech center where every form of advanced research and production will take place and lead Israel into the brightest of futures along with those nations who are not taken over by an anti-Semitic rage. It will be the nations where these anti-Semitic haters of Israel and Jews become the ruling elite as once they have the power to execute a transformation to a new system of governance and laws by enacting Sharia instead of the Constitution, Magna Carta, the latest French Republic (currently on number five but who knows when six will be required) and the governing laws and jurisprudence and laws of the land of others as well.

 

As we reported yesterday, there may be an inevitable clash brewing in the Middle East which will be largely about, you guessed it, oil. The United States, more accurately President Trump, is poised to end the waivers granted to numerous Asian states which imported a fair amount of their oil from Iran. The United States and the Gulf Nations are stepping up production to meet these nations’ needs but Iran receives forty-percent of their annual revenue from their oil sales. Preventing the sale of Iranian oil has always been a red line with Iran though President Trump will likely point out he is not banning their selling their oil, just warning that doing so comes at a cost. If the world prefers doing business with the United States over buying Iranian oil, then that is their choice. Such will not sit well with the Mullahs of Iran, many of which have been itching for a fight with both the United States and Israel. Yes, should a shooting war erupt over the Strait of Hormuz and potentially the Bab-el-Mandeb where the Red Sea exits past Yemen at this choke-point, perhaps that is the reason for having one aircraft carrier stationed on the Mediterranean side of that waterway. Such an outbreak will be sold by many on the left as President Trump fighting this war for Israel claiming that Iran has never done anything to America. Well, perhaps the validity of that claim needs some inspection.

 

We will start this review looking at the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings in which caused the deaths of three-hundred-five victims constituting two-hundred-forty-one United States military personnel, fifty-eight French military personnel and six civilians while destroying United States Marine Corps barracks at the Beirut Airport along with the Ramlet al Baida in Beirut where the French troops were billeted. The 1998 United States Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania have also been linked and attributed to sources within the Iranian government. Both Iran and Sudan have been found to be complicit in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole docked in Yemen for refueling at the time of the attack. Iran has been supporting the revolution by the Houthis in Yemen as part of their efforts to surround Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States with the intent of eventual conquest. It has been brought to light that the 2003 United States Riyadh Compound bombings were planned and trained in Iran and received Iranian assistance as well as protection. Iran is thought to have provided aid for the Taliban against American forces. Please allow us one last mention, the 2011–12 Strait of Hormuz dispute which included at least one American vessel being struck by a mine and the ensuing naval battle between American naval forces and Iranian naval forces. This one-day battle was dubbed Operation Praying Mantis by the United States launched in retaliation for the mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts resulted in American units sinking one Islamic Republic of Iran Naval frigate, one gunboat, and as many as six armed speedboats and seriously damaging a second frigate. These are just some of the altercations between the two nations since the 1979 takeover of Iran by the Grand Ayatollah and new Supreme Leader of Iran Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini.

 

The only reason that Israel could become involved in such an altercation simply rides on the fact that the Iranian leadership has stated emphatically that any attack by any forces from the Western world will result in Iran immediately loosing attacks upon Israel. Their logic is that the only reason any nation would take up arms against Iran would be due to the Israeli and Jewish ability to have other nations fight her wars. Israel has never threatened to enter into armed conflict with Iran. The reason Iran makes this threat is because they believe it would make a difference in the plans by the United States or other Western nation as they would be concerned for Israel. That is not of any real importance to the United States or others as they would leave any attacks upon Israel up to Israel to defend against and take whatever required steps may be deemed necessary. If the past is any way of measuring the future, Israel was specifically ordered to stand down during the two Iraq wars as a means of not forcing the Arab allies from removing their support. Israel was attacked by Saddam Hussein’s forces as they launched a series of Scud missiles in the direction of Israel. Israeli sources reported that eight Scud missiles had landed within Israeli territory, three in Tel Aviv, one in Haifa, three in largely unpopulated areas in remote regions and one in an unknown location. What any future Middle East conflict will take is anybody’s guess but one thing will probably be true in such a conflict, the Americans and any European allies will insist Israel do their best to intercept incoming missiles but to leave all military actions to the allies, especially if they have Arab allies. The one Arab ally which America can depend upon other than Israel is Saudi Arabia. The problem with any altercations breaking out between Iran and the United States is that Iran currently commands the areas not only of Iran but of Iraq, Lebanon, most of Syria as well as good relations with the rebel forces in Yemen who control much of that nation and with the Sudan. This is an area almost equal in size to the United States and does not include the Hezballah camps such as the one in the South American three borders region. These truths in the world and the media will continue to stress the story-line that all anti-Semitism comes from the alt-right which they link to President Trump despite all evidence to the contrary even to include the alt-right denouncing virtually everything President Trump has done which benefits Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Trust Betrayed but By Who?

 

In the midst of what is being called a betrayal of trust, hurtful acts to friendship and making United States Israeli relations into a partisan issue; there has been a few items likely to have been overlooked. Nobody is paying much attention to one side’s actions to put this whole vitriolic sniping into perspective. The news is full of the accusations of betrayal by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming that his speech to Congress will be hurtful to American/Israeli relations. He has been warned not to state any of the terms in the framework of the agreement which President Obama is intending to sign in the near future as that might hurt the chances for the framework to be ratified. Meanwhile, another White House unnamed source gave comment which appears to counter the entire flow of aspersions when they stated that the speech was not going to have any effect nor would it in any way harm the talks the administration was holding as part of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. If the negotiations will be unaffected then what is the entire brouhaha all about? When you add the statements at AIPAC by Netanyahu where he praised President Obama and stated that this is a disagreement about policy, not about anything personal and that such disagreements have existed before and the relations and personal interactions survived them all and some even became actions which were later appreciated though not at the time of the disagreement. Probably the best example of this was when Israeli Prime Minister Begin ignored President Ronald Regan’s insistence that Israel stand down and not potentially set off explosions across the Middle East which bombing the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq presumably would cause. Israel still dispatched six fighter-bombers and escorts and destroyed the reactor and somehow there were no actual fireworks and President Bush later thanked the Israelis for not listening as if they had not struck the reactor it was very possible that Iraq would have had nuclear weapons making any actions against Saddam Hussein next to impossible. Even President Obama appeared to be talking back the acrimony stating that where there may be “substantial disagreement” over how to achieve the shared goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, such disagreement would not be “permanently destructive” to American/Israeli relations. The difficulty is the mixed message as the President and Secretary of State Kerry also have sharply pointed to previous warnings from Prime Minister Netanyahu such as the claims that the interim agreement gave Iran too much leeway and was not providing sufficient enforcement while sanctions were being relaxed and this has not led to any disasters.

 

All of these accusations will only be validated or invalidated by the results down the road. There has been one point of contention which is undisputable, Prime Minister Netanyahu has pointedly made the case that Iran must never be permitted to have nuclear weapons capabilities while President Obama’s entire case is that by postponing the attaining of nuclear weapons by Iran, they will be put off by a decade or possibly even fifteen years and that the entire attitude of the Iranian government will likely change rather noticeable and for the better in the ensuing years and especially if the United States is able to put the past behind and initiate relations with Iran which can only help to alleviate any difficulties the West has with Iran. This is very likely minimizing the differences as Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israelis have noted that the terms of the framework will allow Iran to reach almost breakout conditions though not verifiably have the capability to actually produce nuclear weapons and by allowing such is tantamount to risking Iran clandestinely producing nuclear weapons in the dark and outside of the ability of the IAEA inspectors to monitor. This was made all the more obvious recently with two reports. The first report came from the lead inspector of the IAEA who pointed out that Iran was not forthcoming with satisfactory answers to concerns placed before them for explanations which might allay fears that Iran was well on their way to militarizing their nuclear program. The second came from the same dissident group which had initially made the extent and scope of the Iranian nuclear activities known to the Western nations who have come forth stating that an additional nuclear plant for the processing of uranium had been established and was ready to be activated. The processing plant was presumably close to Tehran sitting underneath existing structures which had also served to shelter their activities from satellites and other detection abilities including especially drones. The news of such a facility makes fears that Iran intends to produce nuclear weapons despite any agreement far more probable should this reported plant be actualized and hopefully be placed under IAEA inspections, something unlikely when one also finds that the IAEA requests to inspect the Parchin Military Base where suspected weaponizing tests and manufacture of the detonators for a nuclear weapons were carried out. Recent reports also inform that not only had the buildings reputedly used for such experimentation and perfection of their triggering detonators been razed and the ground turned up and replaced with earth from another location, but now new buildings are being constructed over the site making inspections next to impossible. Such obstructionism does not bode well for Iranian compliance with the terms of any agreement.

 

Additional threats and demands have been levied and amongst them the demand that the Israelis not state any of the terms they suspect are a part of the framework largely because the administration has gone to such extremes to avoid allowing the Congress to vote on any agreement as such would require allowing the terms to be known. This request was made even before the elections which placed the Senate under a Republican majority. It has been the secrecy under which the administration has operated these negotiations which has initiated the suspicions which were apparently substantiated by the information received by the Israelis before they were locked out of the loop on any further updates by the United States. This will likely mean that Israel will now be just as ill-informed as the other Western members of the negotiations team as much of the framework has appeared to have been crafted in one-on-one meetings between Secretary Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. We will see today what effects the admonishments from the administration will have had on the address before Congress by Prime Minister Netanyahu as he gave little indications at his AIPAC speech as to what today’s speech will contain. Largely the Prime Minister’s speech was to show the appreciation that his administration and all Israelis have with their brothers and sisters living in the United States, the second most Jewish population state. Initiating his speech the Prime Minister gave thanks to Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, for his support of Israel and his nation’s historical support of the Jewish state. Likewise he thanked Canadian officials, including outgoing Foreign Minister John Baird, for being “champions of Israel.” He gave a warm greeting to the packed audience greeting them with, “My friends I bring greetings to you from Jerusalem, our eternal undivided capital!” He also quipped receiving thunderous applause with, “I also bring to you news that you may not have heard. You see I’ll be speaking in Congress tomorrow.” Beyond the personal thank you statements and introductory ice breakers to put everyone at ease, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke of the ties between the United States and Israel like that of a family that despite any disagreements remain closely related and such disputes do not make the family dysfunctional. Netanyahu stated, “You’re here to tell the world that reports of the demise of the Israeli and American ties are not only premature, they’re just wrong. You’re here to tell the world that our alliance is stronger than ever. And because of you… it’s going to get even stronger in the coming years.” He also stressed, “My speech is not meant to show any disrespect for President Obama or for the office that he holds, I have great respect for both.” Prime Minister spoke of the long period where Jews were as in the wilderness with no real home and subjected to the whims and provocations of those under whom they lived often facing terrible degradations and compared that suffering with the reality that now we once again have our homelands where we can finally fight for our rights and respect and rule ourselves. The Prime Minister initiated this telling that, “For 2,000 years my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, voiceless… we suffered relentless persecution and horrific attacks.” And then concluded stating, “Well, no more! The days when the Jewish people are passive in the face of threats to annihilate us, those days are over!” He also pointed out that the current disagreement with the United States is not over the goal we both desire but over the best method for achieving said goal. He pointed to our shared values of “liberty, equality, justice, tolerance, compassion.” You can hear the speech and judge his language and emotions yourself as his speech is embedded below.

 

 

 

We covered the framework’s rough draft a few days ago in the article “P5+1 and Iran Six Month Working Nuclear Agreement” which included the CNN released draft. We will not bore everyone repeating that article which had a few of our observations and cautionary quote made us the most ill at ease as we thought it was for too restrictive and presumptuous to assume to speak for the Congress while refusing to allow their input and advice. Today’s speech by the Israeli Prime Minister will be reviewed by many journalists and editorialists many of whom will have their best, sharpest and longest knives bared to stab and cut off the juiciest morsels they believe they can use to smear and defame the Prime Minister while others will have their most favorable glasses on and perfumed stationary on which to reveal their admirations and near love affair with Netanyahu, and any truth likely lies in the middle. Well, we will see what we will see and perhaps hear something unexpected but whatever is to come, by tomorrow all will be done except the media shouting, and who knows how long that may last and who from the political side will jump in and mix things up further. No matter what is said to Congress, the rest of the world continues to spiral out of control with the Libya ISIS terrorists still threatening to attack Italy and sac Rome, ISIS taking hostages with which to incite more hatred with their horrific offerings, Iran now being given the lead in the bombing war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Russia still eyeing the entirety of the coast of the Ukraine and drooling over the other former Soviet bloc nations and finally there is China manufacturing a blue water navy complete with continental missile carrying boomer submarines and aircraft carriers in their attempt to supplant the United States as the hegemonic power in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait, the Tsu Shima Strait, the Korea Strait and lastly adding the Pacific Ocean to their ownership of both ends of the Panama Canal. The world just keeps on getting more interesting and the nations within better and more dangerously armed and the little people, you know, you and us are simply not any part of the equations beyond statistical estimations on how many of us and in which regions we will be sacrificed in the next attempt to do what has been attempted throughout history, conquer the known world which finally actually means the whole world. Isn’t that just wonderful?

 

Beyond the Cusp