Democrat Party Opposes Israel Again

 

There were more statements by Democrat Party Presidential hopefuls stating that aid to Israel should be used to force Israel to surrender more lands to the Arabs. They are falsely claiming that “official United States policy” supports the two-state solution. The actual official position for the United States is fully defined under the The Anglo American Treaty of 1924 in which the United States joined the rest of the allies of World War I in support for the Mandate System and the Balfour Declaration including the provisions from the San Remo Conference. All of these paint a very simple picture, under international law, Israel has the rightful possession and ownership of all the lands west of the Jordan River stretching to the Mediterranean Sea. That includes the regions of Judea and Samaria or the Shomron or West Bank, no matter what you choose to call these regions, it all still belongs to Israel and that is the official United States policy under treaty. But why should we expect any historic knowledge to have any influence when the popular leftist belief is Israel is pure evil and should be punished simply for attempting to exist and have relative safety. We have spoken of this before and expect the position on Israel with the Democrat Party to simply continue to slide to an ever harder and rash position as time progresses.

 

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren

 

There are those who have proclaimed that supporting Israel has become a partisan issue with the Democrat Party taking a strict line supporting the Arab Palestinian demands and insist that Israel is the obstacle to peace while the Republican Party has pledged to support Israel completely without regard for the propriety of their actions. Knowledgeable Zionists paying attention would probably give a less optimistic view of the United States. They would likely agree on the view given describing the positions of the Democrat Party but partially missed the reality about the Republican Party. Many of the old guard elite and the alt-right are completely opposed to even the idea of a Jewish State believing the founding of Israel was a grievous mistake of judgement and point to all the difficulties as their proof. What is true is that, despite the accusations of his being anti-Semitic, President Trump is a strong supporter of Israel which has been proven by his actions including recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and Israeli ownership of the Golan Heights. President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” has still to be released and that will be the final exam on how far he will back Israel. The rumors have run the gauntlet from it all belongs to Israel to some form of the two-state solution. Of course, anything short of it all belongs to Israel falls short of international law and obligations as written in existing treaties. This reality will become completely evident when the problem is adjudicated on the stage of the World Courts in Geneva. Just to place a cherry on top, Article 80 of the United Nations Charter also places the power of the United Nations in support of the Mandate Systems as defined by the League of Nations.

 

All of this is not something which should come as much of a surprise to most people. All one need do is read just a little about the atmosphere at virtually any of the top and largest colleges and universities and their progressive articulation of every problem in the world. The propensity of these campuses is to hold BDS conventions, Palestinian Solidarity Weeks and a plethora of other anti-Israel demonstrations and events. Add to this that their teachers often hold hard leftist positions which leads to their lessons slanting against Israel seeking to meet the demands of heavy Islamic pressures which come with their donations and founding of Middle East departments with the professors all meeting the criteria set by the donors. AOC along with Tlaib and Omar are the new Democrat norm along with Sarsour and almost all, if not all, of the Democrat hopefuls for President in the upcoming 2020 elections in America. This slides towards ending the good relations between the United States and Israel. The State Department has opposed Israel since her inception. The Defense Department has supported Israel as their testing grounds of their equipment in actual combat. This has led to some crucial adjustments to military hardware which were overlooked during their design. Fortunately, as pointed out in the article linked above, Israel is no longer dependent upon aid from the United States which now does more for providing sales for the American defense industries. If necessary, Israel could resume producing their own aircraft, the first since the Lavi fighter which was the initiating factor to the Israel-American military cooperation.

 

Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

Dependent upon which party takes control of the White House and Congress in the 2020 elections will be whether the United States will continue their friendly relations with the Jewish State of Israel. The reality is that politics is heading away from Israel and eventually rejecting everything related to the Judeo-Christian ethics. This shift in the politics of the entirety of the Western World will inevitably lead to their complete break with Israel blaming Israel for being the originating force behind the Judeo-Christian ethics and continuing to believe in the core beliefs which would become the eventual basis for Western society. The newest view is that Western civilization spawned all the world’s evils despite being the driving force which has eradicated the vast majority of slavery and numerous other evils. But the new view of the social sciences is behind much of this as it rejects any goodness resulting from Western civilization. Should everything reach what is the obvious end of these teachings and philosophy, Israel may end up as the last bastion of Western Judeo-Christian ethics. What will be unfortunate of such an eventuality is that Israel may not find any allies to stand with her and, if fortunate, will find at least a few nations who will not stand against her. Europe may already be on the verge of becoming lost as far as Western and Judeo-Christian society being at its core and replacing it with Sharia and the United States along with the remainder of the Western world might not be all that far behind. The Democrat Presidential hopefuls, some of the new members of Congress and the long-standing anti-Israel position taken by the Congressional Black Caucus all indicate the continuing movement which will lead to Israel being rejected by United States political leadership. Currently, such would be largely a part of the Democrat Party, but this does not excuse Republican Party which will probably follow along behind the current trends. Prophesy expected there to come a time when Israel would be forced to stand alone. This has never looked more possible than when watching the current political rhetoric.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Why Leftists Love to Hate Israel

 

With the General Assembly of the United Nations holding its annual opening ceremonies, we are once more likely to have Israel condemned in any number of resolutions between now and the start of 2020. These condemnations will be voted on in the General Assembly during their opening ceremonies, as they have done almost every year, then again on November 29th as the day that the United Nations proposed in the General Assembly to divide the lands left west of the Jordan River between Arabs and Jews evenly with the United Nations retaining the regions around Jerusalem. This day has become a festive period celebrating the Palestinian Arabs in their efforts to destroy Israel. This should strike anybody who knows history as quite absurd as the Zionist Jews accepted this division and it was the Arabs who refused. Their reason was simple, they intended to invade Israel at her birth and destroy the country and kill as many Jews as they were able. There was one flaw in the Arab plans by which more than six Arab nation’s forces made that attack on the morning of May 15, 1948, but failed to destroy the Jewish State. Instead they took control of Gaza and the Shomron, what Jordan renamed the West Bank. These two areas have been used by Arab forces ever since to launch terror attacks and wars against Israel. During this period leading up to the next year, the United Nations will also denounce some of the Arab and Islamic nations but in total, less than the number of articles leveled against Israel. This includes nations such as Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the many others who have abhorrent civil liberties and human rights.

 

But there are reasons that Israel, and also the United States, are also chosen for the locations for large and extensive protests and so many other places are left as untouchable. For example, there are often gay pride parades in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the capital and largest cities in Israel but one has never heard of gay pride parades in Damascus or Aleppo in Syria, Bagdad or Mosul in Iraq, Tehran or Qom in Iran, Riyadh or Mecca or Medina in Saudi Arabia, Cairo or Alexandria in Egypt or any capital or largest city in any of the Arab and Islamic states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Going one step further, in Israel there are the beaches of Tel Aviv, the coffee bistros, fine dining, great night life, five-star hotels, personal freedoms, security from crime and all the amenities which make the liberal and modern life more enjoyable. In Israel there are no dress codes as long as you actually are dressed and all the modern civilities first world protesters have become so comfortable enjoying. These things are not so easily, if even attainable at all, found throughout the MENA world. There is one thing these leftist protesters demand for the privilege of being made to appear evil, restrictive and closeminded regardless of how open and accommodating the society is in reality; that they have all their creature social comforts. Further, for the European leftists, Israel is relatively close by and can be reached on a Mediterranean cruise.

 

When it comes to protesting of and often in Israel, it often appears that all the stops are taken out. According to United Nations Watch through their Executive Director Hillel Neuer in his reported Tweet, Israel will be condemned twenty times against the remainder of the world amassing a mere six (see tweet pictured below). For a deeper look into the biases against Israel in the United Nations, the European Union and the world, there is this article by the JCPA*. Many pro-Israel and Zionists have met the all too common accusation that the facts do not bear out their complaints about the specifying Israel for scorn and condemnation above and beyond all others by these agencies while they never produce any actual data. The claim remains resting on the old canard that the Jews are whiny liars who play on other people’s emotions to excuse their criminal behavior. This was a principle argument against Jews who were relegated to being money changers, the ones who made trade and economic growth throughout much of Europe, Jewish merchants accused of placing a thumb on the scale and overcharging the non-Jews while treating their fellow Jews honestly and numerous other items and libels. Take all the mistreatment the Jews have suffered over the millennia and one can now see how Israel has become the Jew amongst the nations and must practice all the horrid things which the Jews were accused.

 

United Nations Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer Tweet

 

There is another reason why such misrepresentations continue and is also contingent to Israel for not going forward with a strong counter propaganda campaign based on the truths about the Jewish state. This is a common complaint coming from many sources including numerous confounded and confused Jews over this lack of national gumption. The problem is easily explained, though many refuse to accept such reasoning. The anti-Israel conglomerate of various agencies, NGO’s, international agencies, United Nations and their agencies and far too many nations and individuals spend hundreds of millions if not billions annually financing their propaganda and directed efforts against Israel. Israel does not have the financing to counter such an insurmountable effort backed by such financing. Israel had made efforts against these defamations attempting to get more of the truth out before the world, but much of the world does not wish to even hear the reality that is Israel. Then there are the efforts of numerous personal efforts, such as many of our articles tracing the basis for international law, another bit of reality being ignored by all the anti-Israel condemnations and demands of Israel to surrender lands west of the Jordan River as they do not belong to Israel. We advise those believing this read the San Remo Conference reports and the League of Nations Mandate System and all the rest of the supporting treaties and agreements through the Anglo-American Treaty and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter (we wrote about much of this here). These efforts against Israel will eventually fail and potentially damage the nations taking positions within the anti-Israel condemnations and other efforts with them. There is one thing about Israel which will eventually erode and quell the condemnations against her through her efforts to better the planet and her work in Africa and often Israeli help being amongst the first to arrive and the last to leave after disasters almost anywhere around the world, from Haiti to the Philippines and elsewhere in-between. Also, much of the world has benefitted and seek out Israeli innovations, inventions, medical cures, agricultural developments and expertise in almost every field imaginable. The good that Israel performs often without receiving even the slightest amount of thanks while other times rave reviews come from the oddest places such as the below from a report by CNN. The Israeli efforts in Haiti was not the exception, it is the rule when it comes to assisting in the recovery and rebuilding anywhere in the world where they are permitted to do their best for any nation absorbing the costs herself.

 

 

The reality of Israel is one of charity and humanitarian efforts leading such work in so many efforts and locations where a need exists. We have written about some of these efforts, and nowhere near even a majority of such efforts, numerous times such as here, here and here. Another achievement for which Israel received more criticism than accolades was a private effort to place a lander on the moon named Beresheet. Israel was the fourth nation to place their spacecraft on the lunar surface even if the final engine firing failed and she crashed, it still hit the moon and this was on the first try by an Israeli company. There are efforts underway for a second attempt and we fully expect that Israel will not need a third try to be the charm, we believe the next launch will succeed. What many people miss about Israel are the number of inventions for which much of the technology and research was and is attributable to Israeli efforts, both public and private. Cell phones, instant messengers, security software, drip irrigation, desalination and other water purification systems, special arid climate crops and so many other advances, techniques, procedures, programs, medical miracles etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (if we may quote Yul Brenner from the movie The King and I). The problem is it is chic to be critical of Israel and numerous college campuses are churning out more and more anti-Israel graduates as they kowtow to Arab petro-dollars receiving endowments and entire departments build with oil monies all with the intent of turning the next generation of American and European leaders against Israel, as if things were not an up-hill battle already. We have seen these efforts pay dividends with the likes of AOC in the House of Representatives along with Omar and Tlaib, though only Tlaib and AOC received her education at western universities. This trend will very probably escalate unless things take an unexpected turn, but for the time being, Israel is here and plans on remaining as one of the most viable democracies in the world representing its people, though currently we find our public very evenly split. The political problems Israel faces are a direct result of her being a democracy with equal rights for Jews and non-Jews alike as well as for Arabs, Druze, Christians, Muslims and Bedouins, and we will together determine the future of Israel, not some dictator or religious fanatic as with too many in our neighborhood. Israel is the country you have heard so much about and still likely know next to nothing of the reality. Come and visit and take in a gay pride parade and see exactly how tolerant Israel actually can be and is. To our Jewish readers, Shana Tova, have a happy new year and may your year be as sweet as the honey we dip our apple slices into.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

*JCPA = Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

 

Trump, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel

 

Mark Langfan wrote a very insightful article reflecting on what the lasting effects of President Trump’s firing of John Bolton and how this could lead to Trump not being reelected. Of course, the final repercussions from letting John Bolton go will play out in ways that none of us will likely get completely correct. As Mr. Langfan points out, with Bolton out of the administration, the voice for stronger actions even unto direct attacks on Iran has been silenced. This is not to infer that there are no other voices purporting for stronger reactions to Iranian belligerent actions. We had pointed out that there was an uneasy relationship between President Trump and his advisor John Bolton as Trump prefers to find economic solutions rather than resorting to using the military and Bolton was far more militaristic having no qualms about resorting to force. We had mentioned reports of heated arguments between the two men as their views were about as far apart and different as possible. But Mr. Langfan was correct in stating that John Bolton served a potentially precious purpose, he was the stick always in the ready countering the carrot dangling Trump making any implied Trump threats of using force more credible. Whether Mr. Langfan’s conclusion that the Iranian attack on the Saudi oil fields and that we can expect more Iranian perfidy and violent attacks on Saudi Arabia may or may not come to fruition depending on numerous factors which we will try and explore.

 

There are credible rumors that after the elections in Israel, and assuming that a government is formed led by incumbent Bibi Netanyahu, President Trump will propose a mutual defense pact between Israel and the United States. The problem is that should Prime Minister Netanyahu be able to form the next Israeli government, he would be predisposed towards accepting such an agreement. Anyone reading our last article would likely see some of the plethora of reasons for Israel to refuse such an offer. We understand that such a position would be difficult to defend by most standards, but here goes. We have one reason and only require this one reason. We have no problem forging agreements with supportive nations for the supply of military hardware, weapons, aircraft, armor, ammunition and other munitions and bombs but we would draw the line on allowing a single soldier from any other nation coming to fight alongside our IDF. The reason is relatively obvious to anyone who has felt the sting of Judeophobia (anti-Semitism). We hold a fear that should American young people come and fight to aid Israel should a war, or should we say when a war breaks out, when any of these young soldiers should be killed, it would be the quickest way of turning great numbers of current Israeli supporters into rabid Israel haters and possibly having them become Judeophobic. The idea of sacrificing good Christian young men and women in a war to save the Jewish State, which would be seen as Christians being sacrificed for the Jews, would turn many average Americans against Israel, against the Jewish State. This is true for the United States and would stand true for any nation sacrificing their young military men and women for Israel or in any other foreign war. Citizens of most nations fully understand using their military youth in a necessary conflict to protect their nation and people but such understanding wanes rapidly when those sacrifices are being made for other people and nations. Add in that in this case the nation would be the Jewish State and the waning would become an abatement leaving a mere trickle of support for aiding Israel. Israel must be prepared to defend herself by herself with as little reliance on outside forces, specifically troops, coming to their aid. Materials are one thing and people, especially young people who make up the fighting forces, facing possible death and some actually being killed in such a war would increase anti-Israel and Judeophobic reactions swaying the majority of the people to decry such activities. This is a situation which Israel would be advised to take every possible measure for self-dependence and never allow non-Israelis from ever fighting in an Israeli war and especially being injured, or worse killed. For this reason, amongst others, Bibi Netanyahu or any other Israeli Prime Minister should refuse to agree to any mutual defense agreement no matter which nation might be offering such.

 

Another reason not to enter such an agreement is even more obvious, Israel also needs to avoid ever being dragged into a conflict, especially one in the Middle East or Northern Africa, the Arab and Islamic world, through any treaty as the IDF is not as large an army as those of other nations around the world. According to Global Fire Power, the IDF ranks as the seventeenth most powerful military, a ranking largely due to the advanced weaponry, especially defensive weaponry such as the Iron Dome and other anti-missile systems and not their number of troops. This ranking rates Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan all ranked as more powerful militaries. When it comes to active duty personnel, Israel does not even rank in the top twenty-five coming in at around twenty-eighth in the world with numerous Arab and Islamic nations with far larger numbers of active duty personnel. Israel would become excessively vulnerable were she required to station numbers of her active duty troops outside the country. That is an easily observed part of the reality in which Israel lives.

 

Should Iran actually be emboldened by the departure of John Bolton, this would initially likely take the form, as Mr. Langfan predicted, of attacks on Saudi Arabian assets such as the recent attack with drones on their oil fields relatively close to Iran. Targets within Saudi Arabia have the advantage of allowing Iran to offer disclaimers of their involvement pressing other potential entities to be responsible. Some of these would include but not be limited to claiming the attacks were the work of the Houthis in Yemen, allied forces from Iraq where Iran can pretend they were acting independently as well as blaming non-state actors such as Hezballah, the IRGC, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Iranian operative groups. Mr. Langfan left out other potential targets which Iran might attack via their proxies such as Egypt or Israel amongst others. Currently, there are some low-level altercation and skirmishes along both the northern and southern borders of Israel. These are utilizing Hezballah in the north supported by IRGC forces and Iranian provided rockets and missiles, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the south out of Gaza using rockets and incendiary and high explosive balloons, kites and drones being used to turn much of southern Israel into a smoldering wasteland. There will also be the potential for increased terrorism anywhere around the world driven by Iran through their proxies some of which train and operate out of the tri-border region in South America. Iran might even decide to be so bold as to attack the United States indirectly through their international terror network. The only question is how far will Iran go in taking risks of having the United States retaliate. Even were the United States able to discover Iranian involvement in such attacks, their response would be measured and relatively proportional. This is one position which President Trump has mentioned, the concept that military actions need to be measured and proportional to the acts which precipitated such a response. This is a modern concept which has infected the developed world paralleling their belief that the natural state of the world is to be at peace in order to develop the economies and all interactions between nations would be related to trade. Apparently, they have a very warped view of history which is not realistic and may be a potential disaster waiting to happen. Should Iran start to wage a low-grade terror and indirect attack methodologies, the United States would eventually reach a point where such could no longer be ignored, especially as the media would be taunting President Trump for his inaction and timidity in the face of what they would call an obvious war. Further, should the United States be dragged into a war in the Middle East, the last thing Israel needs is to have a mutual defense treaty potentially dragging them into the conflict. But Israel also will have their potential difficulties with an emboldened Iran.

 

 

Israel has Iranian proxies in Gaza with Hamas and Islamic Jihad and in Lebanon and southeastern Syria with Hezballah, the IRGC and even Iranian military forces. Of the two threats, Hezballah is probably the greater one with potentially over one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles of various sizes and warheads including numerous which are capable of striking anywhere in Israel and even beyond (see table above). Further, both Hezballah and Islamic Jihad, which will drag Hamas along with them, have promised to provide the other a second front against Israel should hostilities break out. This would include coordinated attacks potentially coming from Lebanon, out of Gaza in the south and along the Golan Heights attacking from Syria as Iran has Israel within their or their proxies’ sights almost circling the tiny Jewish State. Then there is always the final threat Israel could likely face, and that is Iran itself. Iran has numerous rockets and missiles which can reach Israel launched from Iran or Iraq as shorter-range weapons could be launched from Iraq which is much closer to Israel not to mention Iran could launch from within Syria as they have done on several occasions in the recent past. Currently, Hezballah has things remaining at a low boil, but this could change without notice should Iran so choose. Israel would be pressed too close to her limit were Iran to actively enter into hostilities. The fear then would be whether Iran would be launching weapons of mass destruction such as nerve agents, biological agents or possibly nuclear warheads, the greatest of their potential threats whether they are atomic bombs of thermonuclear weapons with the difference being scale. Any Iranian attack on Israel which would be directly traceable to them would require Israel to respond well outside of President Trump’s concept of proportionality. This would be one time when that charge could be leveled against Israel and we would probably simply plead guilty and continue as we are talking the survival of the nation and nothing less.

 

In summation, Israel has sufficient troubles without signing onto a mutual defense pact with the United States. We are unsure that the United States would respond honoring such a treaty made while President Trump is in office after he leaves office and even more so should the Democrats take the White House. Further, President Trump may have emboldened Iran which may have been demonstrated by the recent attack on the Saudi oil fields. This could lead quickly to escalations throughout the Middle East and potentially the world of both terrorism and further potential wars. For those who did not yet read the article by Mark Langfan linked to at the top of the article, we can only advise giving it a perusal. And please allow us to end with one last new thought, Iranian leadership believes that they are the ones who are chosen to rule the world and spread their version of Shia Islam until they have converted the entire population of the planet while beheading those who refuse to convert. This includes bringing the world to the verge of extinction setting much of it in the flames of destruction, nuclear if necessary being broadly used, so as to force the arrival of their chosen messiah. Does this sound eerily familiar? This has been the driving force of the worst conflagrations in our history and this promises to make them all seem like small skirmishes by the time they are done.

 

Beyond the Cusp