The luring to a trap, vicious murder and suspected dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has dominated the news cycles for over a week. Meanwhile, an American who holds an Israeli Identification Card and is a Palestinian Arab real estate agent acting on behalf of a local clan who sold land to Jews in eastern Jerusalem, has been taken by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and has remained detained at Ramallah in an interrogation facility. What is interesting about this second case is that despite Israeli officials detaining of Palestinian Authority Jerusalem District Governor Adnan Ghaith, along with Jihad Al-Faqeeh, regional director of the PA’s intelligence agency, the name of the kidnapped American has still not been released. We suspect that gag order on his name is the result of the State Department, as you really do not have much of a story if there is no name you can attach. Thankfully, as noted above, we now have two names, Adnan Ghaith and Jihad Al-Faqeeh, the Palestinian Officials pulled in, kidnapped if you believe the PA high level of screaming about the illegal questioning and were held overnight. This did get a loud and vehement response from the PA officialdom claiming that Israel had kidnapped their officials. Note that the PA kidnapped an American Israel of Palestinian Arab descent and it is a nonevent which cannot even have the individual’s name attached to the story but the two main PA officers who were in charge of the operation are arrested and taken for polite questioning, no thumb screws or other devices from the Spanish Inquisition and that is kidnapping. The selected references and innuendo are baffling but the main thing is the only reference thus far to a kidnapped American citizen by the PA has been in reference to the Israeli questioning of the PA officials suspected of involvement.
For simplicity, we will for the remainder of this article refer to the American who holds an Israeli Identification Card and is a Palestinian Arab real estate agent acting on behalf of a local clan who sold land to Jews in eastern Jerusalem as BOB in all caps, partly to draw attention to what has occurred, and because we do not desire having to refer to the victim as the victim or write a two line sentence just to refer to BOB. The Ramallah detention facility, on the other hand, often does have some resemblance to the Spanish Inquisition, or so it has been intimated on numerous occasions. Now, the sale of land by an Arab to a Jew within the PA carries a death sentence. That is automatic. The preferred alternative has become life in prison at hard labor, and they do mean hard labor which is designed to shorten life. Should the death sentence be imposed, it then requires Mahmoud Abbas to give his approval for it to be carried out. This is so it can be applied at a later point when nobody will be the wiser and all have already accepted that the person selling to a Jew will never be seen again. Often, the hard labor takes care of such specifics of the situation. We assume that the State Department knows what they are doing by not identifying BOB, as they likely figure that they can work far more efficiently behind the scenes as long as nobody, relatives in particular, especially those in the United States, do not know their loved one has been abducted and will likely never be seen again. Anyway, the State Department is loathe to ever accuse the PA of anything untoward or underhanded as they would not have butter melt in their mouths, the little darlings. But they sure have made a huge deal about Jamal Khashoggi and those horrible Saudis in the Turkish Consulate. There have been demands all over the news for the United States, President Donald Trump in particular, break all relations with the Saudi regime, cancel every arms deal already brokered, and everything just short of invade Saudi Arabia and question Mohammad bin Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia but not a peep about BOB hit the news until Israel started investigating the kidnapping of one of their citizens.
What has been interesting is that we have to call the abducted and likely already tortured for two weeks victim BOB but Israel is now being reported to have abducted or kidnapped two PA officials as that apparently is what police taking two people in for questioning has become called in PA official channels. The two have claimed complete ignorance, which is expected and that will remain their story, as they know Israel will be handcuffed in their investigation. What is the real problem is that the PA has absolutely no authority in Jerusalem, west or east, and thus their Security Forces even entering the city other than those assigned to guard officials is against the law. All of Jerusalem is outside any areas, either Area A or Area B, where they have security jurisdiction, thus any taking of an individual from Jerusalem is a kidnapping. But that is not even the most ridiculous response to this fiasco. This has reached the highest of PA levels as the PA cabinet on Wednesday condemned what it called settlers’ takeover of property in the area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque assisted by protection of Israeli military officials. PA officials have called on UNESCO and other international organizations to intervene to “prevent the occupation from taking over the original Arab cultural heritage in occupied Arab Jerusalem.” This is a residence and has not been declared as a cultural heritage by UNESCO. Well, that is unless you recognize that UNESCO recognized almost half of Jerusalem as not belonging to Israel and their ruling has been utilized to threaten to make the Western Wall forbidden for Jews to pray or assemble, as it is part of the UNESCO decision to grant all of the Old City as a PA heritage site. That would be similar to UNESCO declaring that the Mall in Washington D.C. as a Native American, in particular Iroquois, national heritage site and then the Iroquois demanding that no ‘pale faces’ be permitted to enter that zone including Congress, the President, most of the central United States government agencies and the Smithsonian Institute and many of their museums including the Aero-Space Museum. We know, do not give the United Nations crazies any further ideas.
We would like to see BOB in the light of day and freed and also sanity returned to the situation. Where is the condemnation of the PA for making the sale of any property to a Jew sentenceable by death? Further, if you really wish to get down on the Saudis for their antiquated, Middle Ages centrist laws such as making it illegal for any but believers of the faith, Muslims, and preferably Sunni, to visit much of their land and forget owning a piece of vacation property in Riyadh, or better, in Mecca or Medina. It is interesting that Saudi Arabia can basically ban Jews and Christians and the PA areas will automatically carry out a death sentence on any Jew entering their sacred turf, and that is what this is in Israel, a turf war, and the United States is fine with that but should Israel install a couple of additional checkpoints in order to curb an uptick in terrorism, that becomes something which the United Nations condemns and the State Department demands that they be taken down immediately. This was exactly what occurred after Israel simply put up metal detectors to prevent further stabbings, shootings and other violence on the Temple Mount after two Israeli Security Police were shot and killed. The reasons given were varied and all mostly false. Already there were metal detectors at one entrance to the Temple Mount where non-Muslims were permitted entry. Jews went through a further check to assure that they carried no religiously offensive material which might contaminate this Islamic area and were always escorted by Islamic WAQF Security and should they even whisper, they would be arrested for praying and contaminating all Islam. So, apparently only non-Muslims are a risk for bringing weapons to such an Islamic holy area except that was not the case, was it. Muslims often brought steel rods, gathered rocks and pelted Israeli Security in attacks always coinciding with Israeli holidays such that the Temple Mount would be closed to Jews, then they would settle down. Where is the outrage that Jews can be so visibly humiliated by repeated degradations at the hands of the PA terror enforcement division, also known as riot at any reason when directed. The truth has been long known that the PA, and Hamas and the rest, all direct these riots, terror attacks, and reward those who commit them and provide incentives and training on the best means of assaulting and murdering Israelis and how to identify an Israeli as a Jew. The PA terrorists who committed the Jaffa terror attack where the victim was US Army vet, Vanderbilt student Taylor Force, age 29, and an American tourist but he was seen as a religious Jew despite not being a Jew at all. He had a beard, dark curls or waves of hair and for intents and purposes, to a PA terrorist that means Jew (his picture is below). His death was a tragedy, same as all the other terror deaths at the hands of mostly PA, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in Israel.
US Army Veteran West Point 2009 Graduate Taylor Force
At least Taylor Force’s loss finally woke America and Congress to take steps with the Taylor Force Act. We hope it will be enforced by Presidents and the State Department under all administrations regardless of party. The State Department has already shown their colors making every argument why aid must continue despite ‘Pay to Slay’ continuing because otherwise the most richly subsidized areas on earth might not have enough baby formula or whatever excuse they wish to use (see graph below). As is obvious, it is not even a close comparison and in second is Lebanon from which Hezballah is heavily financed by Iran. Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake where in response the Israelis were the first to have a fully functioning field hospital and the last to depart. Still, the Palestinian territorial regions are the most exorbitantly financed region in the world and has made billionaires out of most of those who have had positions of power or influence and the remainder are well into at least the tens of millions stashed away. Who claims that terrorism does not pay.
Graph of Aid Money to Palestinian Territories and other needful locations
So, in the meantime the United States has a problem with Saudi Arabia for their murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi at their Turkish Consulate while BOB remains completely unidentified and left in the Ramallah PA Detention Center and torture chamber without anybody showing the slightest of attention. The Saudi’s have been a steady ally through thick and thin but must be thrown to the wolves over the death of a Washington Post stringer reporter Jamal Khashoggi who is not an United States citizen but does have three American citizen children resulting from his long-term residence in the United States out of curtesy to a major American newspaper while BOB is left to rot in a PA horror chamber unidentified and with nobody demanding that the United States break off all relations with the PA terror masters whose main use for the United States is to pressure Israel and send more money. OK, take a breath and we apologize for the overly-long sentence. Let’s continue. We would prefer that both people would have at the very least similar attention in the media and from Washington officialdom. That is what would occur in a world where things make sense and people are treated as equals. The problem is Jamal Khashoggi being in the employ of the Washington Post has automatic high publicity and is going to be the darling cause of the left-leaning media. BOB is being held by the darlings of the left-leaning media, the PA, and as such must be kept quiet and out of the spotlight so as not to upset the American public and have the people force and demand action. BOB can be sacrificed all in the cause of the PA, those wonderful people who make life and existence difficult for Israel. The initial hush job is being performed by the State Department, a formidable silencer of bad news when it comes to the PA and an amplifier of any bad news for President Trump. Thusly, Jamal Khashoggi is the most important person to have ever been silenced by the Saudis while BOB is of no consequence. There actually is a thread which connects these two cases, they are both victims of Islamic hegemony and their belief that they write the rules and the world is their apple and must jump when they tell them to do so. The PA hierarchy and the Saudi hierarchy both believe that they cannot be held responsible for their actions as long as they are committing acts which they believe are correct. They both believe that as Muslims they are superior and stand at the top of civilized behavior. The world must bend to both the PA and the Saudis as they are the rulers of the world in the future and this is guaranteed by Allah and is written in the Quran, a perfect and holy book, the only real holy book which contains all the truths and information required. They both believe they are superior to all others and that the world is their oyster and they are the perfect pearl within. They believe that they are at the leading edge of the final conquest of the world by Islam and as such, they do not need to respond to or answer for any actions, especially the death of a minor individual of little importance and a threat to the crown. While Jamal Khashoggi was a threat to the Saudi rulers, BOB was a threat to Islam as he gave away precious and holy lands to a Jew, the absolute worst possible act according to the Islamic concept of the world. These similarities and their belief that they are completely guiltless and are righteous in everything they desire to do, choose to act, elect to believe and demand of others. They believe in their superiority in all things and that the United States and the non-Muslim world are all to be subservient, subjected to their every whim. But we wish BOB would receive at least some attention instead of being just one more person sacrificed to the PA hierarchy and their insistence that they are completely innocent of all wrongs.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 