When Opportunists Meet

 

Moshe Ya’alon rode his wave of disruption and vitriol for all it was worth on his way out the door after turning a reprimand and offer of peace into a council for war, a war against his former friend, Bibi Netanyahu. The final fuselages fired from Ya’alon’s political muskets were easily deflected by a simple set of truths. There was the open defiance of his generals followed by the expressed displeasure of the serving Prime Minister, the same Prime Minister who had entrusted in Ya’alon with the position of Defense Minister not expecting a challenge to Netanyahu’s right and fitness to lead Likud, a position he was elected to hold by the membership of Likud. Ya’alon sided with his generals and then encouraged them to further make waves for him to ride roughshod over Netanyahu in a naked aggression challenging for the top spot. Even this was not sufficient for Bibi to declare war as he is secure in his position. The Prime Minister followed this insult with a soothing balm in the form of the position of Foreign Minister, a fine appointment most would all but kill for, yet insufficient for the hungry Ya’alon who sees now as his time. Slamming the door behind as he left the building, Ya’alon declared his intentions to replace Netanyahu as leader of Likud at the next opportunity, now he just needed wait for said opportunity. But political ambition is not a patience game and one strikes while the iron is hot.

 

Ya’alon must have welcomed the charging of the Retired Generals in their blistering reports titled Security First penned and presented by a group of retired generals and other security chiefs self-defined with the name “Commanders for Israel’s Security”. Their plans were just a rehash of their defeatist plans of surrender land and expect peace, a trade which despite numerous trials has yet to produce a true peace with any level of security. But when has failure ever altered the political path these other opportunists who have jostled their final military assignments so as to position themselves as the saviors of Israel from a problem many were complicit in forming. We can expect more from these gems in the rough as they polish their acts and each other to a lustrous shine, but diamonds these are not.

 

Former Prime Minister, Defense Minister and opportunist extraordinaire who had played friend, mentor, commander, and opponent all when it comes to his presumed friend for the expedience, an expediency which we can assume has now past, rides in Ehud Barak. One can only fear that Tzipi Livni cannot be far behind, though she would likely be seen and avoided as Kryptonite as every political entity she has touched withered and died unchosen on the vine. Speaking Thursday at the Herzliya Conference Ehud Barak called for a “popular protest” going into the next elections in order to bring Netanyahu down from power. One can only assume he sees himself as the answer as he often has previously. His claim was summed up in the quote, “A fanatical nucleus of radical ideology has taken over the Likud by taking advantages of loopholes in the party’s constitution regarding primaries, and ‘cleansed’ Likud’s leadership of all those who valued democratic values more than populism or a temporary accomplishment.” Why not just call his former boss and prior supporter as well as adversary an adversary again, the time seems right and the correct attacks from the right people appear thick in the atmosphere, but is this political fog one of change or just a low lying haze blinding small men’s sight? Attacking the entire Zionist branch of the populace as well as their representatives in power, Barak went on to restate previously disproven canards declaring where the current dreaded path would lead pronouncing as proven fact that, “Implementing the government’s current policy will necessarily lead to an ‘apartheid state’ or a ‘binational state’ with a Jewish minority within a generation or two, with a high likelihood of being engaged in an ongoing civil war between its two parts.” Population statistics and all other studies performed on any logical assessment of annexation of Judea and Samaria have shown both the apartheid state’ or a ‘binational state’ accusations of unavoidability to be as false as predictable trends can prove, but why let facts get in the way of another attack from the leftist peace through surrender camp. Their previous peace through surrender in Lebanon and Gaza have turned out so well, why not triple down and bet the house one last time, and it will be the last time as those who are fortunate might escape back into the Diaspora.

 

Ehud Barak then pointed out that should Prime Minister Netanyahu take Israel down the dangerous path of annexation, even of the main settlement blocks, it would bring ruin down upon Israel and that the only true path would be to start and start immediately dismantling the Settlements in occupied West Bank and bring them back within the Green Line as such would pacify Europe, the United Nations, President Obama, and, most of all, the Palestinians. There would be peace and flowers would grow on barren soil and there would be peace, blessed peace. There is absolutely no possibility that Mahmoud Abbas would rain rockets tipped with sarin gas down on Tel Aviv at the sight of three soldiers talking as he would claim Israel was massing troops to invade and had to be prevented. The world would then congratulate Abbas for keeping the peace as he destroyed the other settlements temporarily occupied by Israel, the settlements of Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Netanya, Ma’alot, Ashkelon, Beersheba, Dimona, Eilat, Jaffa, Haifa and the rest as they join in the desire with Mahmoud Abbas that Israel, the Jewish State, must be destroyed and destroyed utterly. These are the voices and sounds of the next Holocaust waiting for some fool to facilitate it in the name of Peace.

 

Quoting Jeremiah 6:14 as was so famously performed by Patrick Henry in his speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775, considering ratification of the Declaration of Independence he talked of Peace, peace, but there is no peace, the speech in its entirety, one of the most powerful of all speeches throughout history, he concluded stating (full text of speech can be found here)

Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

 

Ya’alon, for his part, has changed his tune now referring to Iran as a minor nuisance and not an existential threat as he had previously claimed when serving as Defense Minister, something we can simply assure ourselves he was ordered to claim that by the warmonger Bibi in order to frighten the masses into continuing to keep him and his Zionist crazies in power. Never mind that Abbas has said so in just so many words, unfortunately in that coded language which none appear capable of translating or even reading other sources who have translated them for the lazy such as us, there can be no peace as long as even a millimeter of Palestinian Land is occupied. Here is part of a press conference from 2015 where Mahmoud Abbas speaks his truth on occupation, sixty-seven years, since 1948 and the founding of Israel.

 

 

The maps used by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian and UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) schools all show the truth according to the Arab Palestinians teach their reality which has no room for an Israel and especially an Israel as the homeland for the Jewish People. It is the totality demands that resistance of the occupation has been claimed to remain even after any two state settlement may be reached as for the Arabs the only result they will accept is the ‘liberation’ of all of Israel and the eradication of all Jews.

 

 

 

The evidence of the real Palestinian agenda is often laid bare for all to see but most just ignore the evidence and instead believe fairy-tales they have heard repeated by Western diplomats and politicians who want a Nobel Peace Prize which comes along with even a long handshake between Arabs and Israelis. When Soda Stream moved its Judea factory within the Green Line in the northern Negev, they were met by BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanction of Israel) claiming a victory and then made known their new program against Soda Stream. The BDS claim was Soda Stream buckled under their pressure and then they immediately claimed that the new Soda Stream factory was built on ‘occupied, stolen’ land from the Bedouin town of Rahat, Israel. This is simply a case that the only thing acceptable to the BDS campaign is the eradication of Israel and every Jew residing there after which they would likely turn their sights on all other Jews. There is a reason their chant goes as it does other than to rhyme but to express their true goals when they proclaim, From the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea; Palestine Must Be Free!

 

 

These small and inconvenient facts do not bother the likes as the Retired Generals and Security Chiefs nor does it bother Moshe Ya’alon or Ehud Barak as any weapon in a fight is to be utilized and the war against Bibi Netanyahu must proceed despite any dangers which might arise. In this case not only does reality bite, but these opportunists chomp and chomp again at the bit just salivating for their chance to take home the prize. That is the reality that these opportunists live for and what they would be willing to allow all Israel to die for as a result. Just as long as they get to sit in the big chair in the big office being sought by small and petty men, that any consequence be damned as they demand their rightful prize. Further, it is tough out there but before jumping ship, and trust that we have our misgivings about Bibi and would love another choice of a viable and true Zionist, how much tougher will it be when the economic heart and soul of Israel lie smoldering with the acrid stench of death and chemicals fills the air? What is the use of new leadership at the helm steering the ship of state through coral shoals and waters if the mutineers have no true map, just this crazed notion that the sweet song from the shores is irresistible and they must draw nigh ignoring the jagged and sharp rocks and the broken timbers from previous ships who too ignored the warnings and answered the sweet Siren’s song. The sweet song of peace in our time has been tried countless times but there is a way which guarantees that Israel will live, that Am Yisroel Chai, and it comes from the Spartan phrase, the words of King Leonidas,

Molon Labe

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

My Sympathies and Concerns for My Tel Aviv Brethren

 

Like all Israelis and Jews worldwide, my sympathies go out to family, friends and those who knew the young soldier mercilessly murdered at a Tel Aviv train station just as they go out to the family, friends and those who know the innocent young lady mercilessly slaughtered at a ride-stop located in Gush Etzion, which is within Samaria. Both of these young Israelis who represented the epitome and strength of the hopes of a nation and their people will be avenged and their lives celebrated by the continued persistence and eventual vindication and liberation of all of our sacred homelands. There was one disturbing item about the reactions of some to these two related and identical threats to the Israeli people and nation. That was the appearance of initiations that these two deaths were somehow different and that the soldier being murdered in Tel Aviv was somehow a greater threat to Israel than the other which occurred beyond the 1949 Armistice Line and thus was just one of those events which we must suffer because of the ‘occupation’. Truth be told, the Palestinians are no different than the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian or Iraqi peoples as they are all Arabs with the same culture, language, religions, lineage and histories and the idea of a separate peoples known as the Palestinians did not come into existence until 1964 when they were manufactured out of whole cloth. One does not have to believe me as the following quotes will show.

 

First Quote) In a March 1977 interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, Zahir Muhsein, a member of the PLO executive committee, admitted, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

Second Quote) Auni BeyAbdul-Hadi told the Peel Commission in 1937. “There is no such country as ‘Palestine’; ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented!”

 

That put aside, there is no reason for any Israeli, or any Jew for that matter, to place any iota of a difference between Israelis within or outside the 1949 Armistice Line as it is only the demand that any future Palestinian state the Arabs manage to wrest from the body of Israel be free from any Jewish presence that makes the existence of Jews beyond that line of any importance. Further, if one takes the Palestinian stated intentions at the continuously expressed word then Tel Aviv is just as much a part of ‘occupied Palestine’ as is all the lands of Judea and Samaria. It is their definition of all the lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as being all of ‘occupied Palestine’ that makes everything within that definition, and not just Judea and Samaria, part of their reason for violence and terror war against Israel and why Mahmoud Abbas and every other Palestinian leader refuse to agree that any peace accord made with Israel, despite it granting them lands for their presumed purpose of self-determination and independence, will signify an end to their violence and acts of terror in making war on Israel until the entirety of their lands are liberated. It also does not matter to them that the only truly occupied lands do consist of Judea and Samaria and are occupied by them just as it was occupied previously by Jordan and not only do the Palestinian leadership understand that truth, as do the rest of the Arab leadership, the rest of the Muslim leadership, the whole of the European leadership, the whole of the United States leadership, the whole of the Canadian leadership (and at least their government acts on that knowledge and for which I would like to thank them as they deserve the thanks from every Israeli, Jew and lover of Israel), the whole of the United Nations (including all of its various tentacle agencies, courts, conferences, rapporteurs, committees, and other entities) and the majority of educated people worldwide. The sole reason that this exceedingly established set of facts does not quiet the arguments for the liberation of the ‘Palestinian homelands’ is due to the overriding desire to undo what so many, especially the European powers who attended and ratified the San Remo Conference findings and conclusions, across the globe believe to be the greatest error in judgment ever committed by seemingly intelligent people when they made the promise in treaty and obligation to return the ancient lands of the Jewish People to its rightful owners with particular attention to the established fact that between the time of the Roman dispersal of the leaders and armed Hebrews to the ends of their empire to the present time no nation had ever claimed these particular lands to be their sovereign lands nor had any nation or interest named Jerusalem to be their capital city. That is the ugly little and unspoken secret at the heart of the entire effort to make a ‘Palestinian state’ out of the body and ancient heartlands of the Jewish People. This also makes Tel Aviv just as much of ‘occupied Palestine’ as it does Hevron, Shechem (aka Nablus), Beit-El and all of the rest of the lands of Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank, the name given these lands by Jordan when annexing them to remove their traditional and Jewish related original and historic names) are despite the apparent desire by some in Tel Aviv to try and differentiate between those places outside the 1949 Armistice Lines (the Palestinian plans step one) and those lands within the 1949 Armistice Lines (the Palestinian step two) with nary a real difference should the Palestinians ever achieve their true goals.

 

Additionally, there is another truth which is often ignored between times when the northern border of Israel is seemingly relatively quiet with only the occasional disturbance such as exchanges of fire between the two sides, an explosive device being detonated in attempts to murder IDF or other passing Israeli vehicles or the probing infiltrations testing the IDF response times and severity. This truth is the claims by Hassan Nasrallah and other Hezballah spokespersons that the Galilee is an area which Hezballah is capable of taking with a minimum of effort and that the IDF is incapable of preventing as the Galilee is presumably part of Lebanon and also rightfully the southern lands of Syria of which Lebanon is only an autonomous part. This claim to the Galilee is identical to the claims to all of Israel by the Palestinians, completely false and attributable to titles granted the regions between Turkey and Egypt. These general names for this land mass include but are not limited to Syria, Greater Syria, Syrian Province, Judea, Israel, Samaria, Transjordan, Jordan, Palaestina (Roman name mistaken pronunciation of the Jews main historic enemies, the Philistines), Assyria, and Canaan as well as simply being a province within such empires as Babylon, Greek, Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Zengid, Hamdanid, Byzantine, British, French, Egypt, Hittite, Mongol and Caliphate. Despite all of these empires and names given this small area in the Middle East, only the Jews ever claimed Jerusalem as their capital city which was true even under the title of Judea. Despite the historic facts, the leader of Hezballah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made claims and restated his claim recently for the annexation of the Galilee by right of military conquest to the fertile valley of the Galilee once his forces have routed the Israelis. Needless to say, the real target of Nasrallah is not simply the Galilee but to all of Israel even to include the areas currently under semiautonomous control of the Palestinian Authority and probably Gaza from Hamas as well. Before anyone attempts to correct my mention of Gaza being under the rule of Hamas and claiming it is under the unity government of the Palestinians, we all know it is ruled by Hamas and that should Mahmoud Abbas or any other Palestinian Authority leader or member desire to leave the comfort of Ramallah and visit Gaza they would need to procure the permission from the previous Hamas leaders, particularly Ismail Haniyeh, or face a death sentence and summary execution without even the semblance of a trial. Should Nasrallah once again attack across the Israel-Lebanon border, his aims would not be solely to subsume the Galilee region but to also take Jerusalem, the Negev Desert and even Tel Aviv. No Arab or Muslim force which managed to gain the advantage and defeat the IDF would stop at the Tel Aviv city limits and say, oh, wait, this is Tel Aviv which is completely separate and different from the West Bank, Galilee, Negev and every other part of Israel, it is the one place in the whole universe which is recognized as belonging to the Jews and we have no prior or false claim to which we can point as to why it does not belong to Jews so we had better leave it alone. Believe it or not, Tel Aviv in not inviolable and distinct from the rest of the lands claimed not to belong to the Jews, it is just as much a target as the rest of Israel, even my little corner here on the coast of the Galilee. We should and must mourn and defend to the best of our abilities every Israeli, be they Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist or other religion or identifiable origin or, as Benjamin Franklin warned the Continental Congress at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.” It applies to all of us within Israel, we too must hang together or we will hang separately.

 

Beyond the Cusp