Gaza is Pushing too Hard

 

Yes, Gaza has demanded our attentions once again. This time we are doing some version of a follow-up story showing the unfortunately expected breach of trust which we first addressed here. In that article we predicted and also showed that the agreement of trust which was to bring quiet along the Gaza border was not even worth the paper it was written upon. We pointed to the “March of Return” border protests which resemble rioting and other threats including launching incendiary kites and balloons which that day after reaching an agreement, these attacks sparked twenty or so fires. This “March of Return” has been a daily occurrence which always peaks on Friday afternoons after religious services and a good sermon to get the troops riled up and fully loaded with hatred for Israel. We know that when we attend religious services, the first thing that comes to our mind is to run to the border and launch incendiaries attempting to burn down the neighboring nation. Well, no, not really. But this is exactly what has been occurring every Friday, if not every day the entire week, since near the end of March of 2018. How long and exactly how much of Israel must be turned into a scorched earth scene? And the other question is what will it take to end these provocations. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are simply pushing too hard.

 

 

In a recent article, Minister of the Knesset Avi Dichter spoke to residents at Kibbutz Sa’ad which sits in the Gaza envelope between Sderot and Netivot. As one would expect, he attempted to tell these Israelis exactly what they wished to hear. The report included some of what Avi Dichter had stated, namely, he stated, “I have known Gaza for decades. The operational solution to Gaza will be a combat move. It will not take two weeks or two months; we will need lots of patience. This will be the first Gaza war and probably the last one as well. That’s the solution I see. On the defensive issue, we as a committee will deal with problems and accompany the process to ensure that the things presented here will be resolved.” This is the basic boilerplate presentation given by virtually every Likud politician when visiting the Gaza envelope where the highest percentage of these incendiaries strike. Something has to be happening to these Likud politicians as when they get back to Jerusalem, where their party has led the ruling coalition for over a decade, they appear to forget every promise given to those living under fire near Gaza. Instead of taking bold actions as they had promised, they hem and haw debating whether or not it would be wise to engage Hamas and Islamic Jihad and speak of the horrible consequences which will come via Europe and much of the world denouncing any Israeli attempt at mitigating the terrorist attacks and defending her citizens. One would think that the world has it in for the Israeli people from their horrified reactions to every Israeli attempt to remain viable and safe. We recently spoke about how the European Union is building in areas where the Palestinian Arabs are not permitted to build according to the Oslo Accords in order to establish for the Palestinian Arabs facts on the ground such that these projects will force Israel back to her pre-Six Day War boundaries. These structures have no roads, utilities, trash removal or government services necessary to make them livable (pictured below).

 

Illegal European Union structures bearing obvious EU Identification signs

 

We have decided to attempt to take the measure of what need be done to set Gaza on a new track where the people can lead normative lives. To accomplish such, the initial step is to allow them to elect their own leadership instead of having a Hamas led dictatorship where the Hamas leadership decide who amongst them would best marshal the people against Israel. The Gazan governance does not care whether or not most of the people have their electricity rationed as it is not their electricity turned off for all but four to six hours each day. They also do not worry all that much that their waste treatment plant overruns sending tons of semi-liquid waste in torrents down the streets in Gaza City. Operating presumably on orders from either the military wing of Hamas or of Islamic Jihad, a team of rioters destroyed much of the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing including setting the feed lines which bring natural gas into Gaza simply to protest that Israel has gas and after this Gaza did not (pictured below)? Hamas and Islamic Jihad have yet to repair the damaged structures from the last three wars instigated against Israel. We are fully aware that the European Union believed that Israel overreacted when launching an offensive into Gaza after weeks of ever-increasing rocket fire which came deeper and deeper into Israel reaching almost to Jerusalem and reaching close to one-hundred-rockets per day. Their main complaint, and the complaint of the United Nations and almost countless leftist organizations was simple, the Israeli effort was disproportional as more Gazans, mostly Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, were killed than Israelis and IDF forces. They demand that Israel make sure to lose just as many people as died in Gaza. There were reporters and editorials which postulated that Israel must provide Gaza with these Iron Dome defense batteries which has worked miracles in preventing the majority of Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets from striking targets in Israel. This is the kind of logic which much of the world uses when they are attempting to make everything in the Arab-Israeli conflict to come out fair in a no-win situation for all. What we cannot quite find is where this idiotic concept of disproportional casualty numbers in an armed conflict is by its nature unfair and potentially seen as racist, more on that in a moment. Wars are supposed to be disproportional as that is how one wins a war.

 

Gas Pipes Set Ablaze at the Kerem Shalom Gaza Crossing to Israel

 

As reported in, of all places, Haaretz, they delineate how it came to be that Jews became the “super white privilege” people. This has become the latest means of being anti-Semitic while appearing so left liberal. This is sheer idiocy but there is method and motive to their insanity. By putting forth the idea that Jews are the whitest of white, actually over half of the Jews in Israel are from the Middle East and North Africa and not exactly lily-white, this allows for Jews to be denied all sorts of the little things that make life enjoyable such as employment, loans, carnival rides and virtually everything which can be claimed was racist at sometime in the past. This was the idea spread at the University of Illinois at Chicago a couple of years ago as the pamphlets were posted over the campus. Their erroneous claim was that nine out of ten people, that’s 90%, in the 1%, those people we are all supposed to hate, that 1%, they are Jews. First and foremost, the people in the top 1% changes regularly as the economy moves along and new areas of innovation arrive and people get in early such as the Internet businesses. Amazon, YouTube, PayPal and others have sent a number of people from oblivion to the top 1%. People who were financial nobodies are today ruling the 1% and, in another decade or so, it will be those who managed to put together and manage mining of the Asteroids. Fifty years ago, the ultimate 1%er was J Paul Getty, an oil magnate. Jews have only made the big times in the recent past in the United States. One only need remember the firestorm of controversy kicked up when Donald Trump opened Mar-a-Lago permitting Jews and Blacks to become members. The other country club owners did not which one of these they found more repulsive, allowing Blacks or Jews was an anathema to their thinking. Trump, as usual, simply did his own thing working to do what was correct even if it went against the going flow of that time. But it is this new definition of the Jew as the top 90% of the top 1% need be taken down a peg or two by whatever means necessary, and this will eventually result in ostracization, the final form of anti-Semitism before finding some final solution to the existence of Jews, and specially Israel. By this reasoning, Israel is to be considered more privileged and granted more breaks simply because it has been labeled as having super-white privilege. We can see how this is not going to go well.

 

Anti-Semitic Flier used on Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago

 

Gazans, as Arabs, are treated as people of color while many Arabs are as white as the most privileged of that 1% which have white privilege. On the other side, there are significant numbers of Jews of color, Arab, Ethiopian and throughout the Middle East and North Africa they were stripped of their wealth, refused entry to any nation unless they possessed a passport of that nation and over eight-hundred-thousand emigrated going to Israel, the exception once again taking in unwanted Jews. Israel has taken other unwanted peoples including hundreds of Vietnamese Boat People providing them with citizenship if desired and a future in which they could remain free, and more important, alive. So, Gazans and Israelis likely span the color charts with remarkable similarity, thus neither has white privilege or any other advantage other than how they approach life and problems. Hamas and Islamic Jihad see the people of Gaza as cannon fodder to be utilized as human shields for terrorist fighters, rocket launchers, vehicles and buildings. Israel has taken great and extensive trouble to place sufficient shelters for the numbers of people at most locations. If you are in Israel and the rocket attack sirens sound, do not panic and just follow the people who will all be heading for the closest shelter. Hamas and Islamic Jihad spend virtually all their money on rockets, explosives and other instruments of their terror trade. Israel invests in items such as the Iron Dome with which she protects her people even further. Hamas and Islamic Jihad see dead civilians, or a killed terrorist stripped of their weapon and other military equipment instantly becomes a dead civilian, as propaganda wins with which to claim how awful Israel and the Jews have been. Do not think that the terrorist forces and many across the Arab and Muslim worlds see one iota of a difference between an Israeli and a Jew and often use the term Jews when speaking about Israelis.

 

Coming back to the present, this past Friday there were over six-thousand rioters launching grenades, firebombs and slinging stones at IDF soldiers while others flew the kites and balloons with incendiary weapons attached setting at least three fires which were reported. This is despite the presumed agreement to end hostile acts. We doubt that Hamas has lost control as when people demonstrated in Gaza City, Hamas ended the economic protests against their rule with all the finesse of a runaway train beating many of the protesters, raiding their homes and arresting numerous people suspected of taking a lead in these anti-Hamas and Islamic Jihad protests. Zero tolerance would be the apt phrase to describe the Hamas actions on these economic protests. But the rioting along the border, the world is told, is a grass roots movement beyond their control. A better interpretation would be that the terrorist rulers have created a monster who’s protests they have absolutely no intention of bringing to an end. Unlike the economic protests which placed the blame for the horrid conditions in Gaza on Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership, the border riots are covered by the international pages of newspapers reminding everyone of the terrible economic condition in Gaza blaming Israel and their forced inspection of goods entering Gaza. This is ridiculous as if Hamas desires these protests to end, all they need do is stop bussing people to the riot locations, no longer provide the balloons and kites and let us not forget the incendiary packages and this alone would end the border riots and Hamas would not be required to beat severely any of the rioters as they did the economic demonstrators. Hamas does not desire for any of their active confrontations with Israel to end and they also desire to keep it at a level which the world will accept as fair. So, apparently there is a measuring stick which defines when rioters launching incendiary packages into a neighboring nation burning down square kilometers of farmlands, wildlife preserves, forests and residential areas. The Israelis who reside near Gaza are having their lives turned upside-down as these packages explode spreading fire over a wide area. Any person caught in the immediate area when one of the incendiary packages detonates would likely be killed being burned to death which would be dreadful.

 

Minister of the Knesset Avi Dichter was correct in stating what is necessary to correct the injustices inflicted on the Gazan peoples. But there is a serious problem with his idea as it appears that he is in favor of the “mow the grass” scenario for treating Gaza. This requires Israel to send the IDF into Gaza where they destroy rocket stores, bunkers, tunnels, weapons, explosive stores, rocket and warhead manufacturing, chemistry explosive labs, rocket launchers and their positions as well as any other tools of the terrorist trade and perform this every two or three years. There are a number of problems with this concept beyond the most obvious in that it does not solve any of the issues and simply kicks the can down the road. Should Israel continue with this method they will find themselves in a pincer attack when Iran orders her IRGC in Syria to launch and then invade Israel, orders Hezballah to launch and then invade Israel from Lebanon, and have Islamic Jihad and Hamas to launch and then invade Israel from Gaza. This will place Israel in the one place she really prefers to avoid, a multi-front terror war stretching the IDF thin until numbers of reserves can be called up and assembled. Another problem with Gaza, as with most Palestinian Arabs, is that for the past twenty-plus years their children have been raised and suckled on hatred of Israel and Jews, they equate the two often. These youths spend their summers at summer boot camp where they are trained to ready for that final war which will destroy the Zionist entity. These youths are raised to believe that there is no greater honor than to die while murdering Jews and that should such ever occur to them, this is the fastest, most direct path to an eternity in a heavenly environment with green grass, trees, waterfalls, rivers, and they also get seventy-two perpetual virgins who are absolute virgins every time they have sex. Their life there will be filled with sensual earthly delights and a never-ending flow of wine which, while making one very joyous and in good spirits, this wine cannot make one drunk nor cause hangovers. This is simply the icing on the cake as just murdering Israelis (assumed to be Jews) is something which they have been taught brings great pleasure to them and great honor to their family and tribe. They are versed in the Quranic edicts which spell out all the ways that the Jews are set to try and destroy the Arab world through conquest which started with their invasion (arrival actually for a century before 1948) from May of 1948 and how the Arabs were all living peaceably and were thrown from their homes and properties were stolen and that each of the children have their family lands simply waiting for them to return and Allah will make this happen. They are taught that the Jews are almost as demonic as the entities they worship and how they are the accursed of Allah. So, basically, the children in Gaza have been taught how Jews cause all the wars, steal everyone’s wealth and stole these children’s rightful homeland of Palestine (which is interesting as Arabic has no letter P so they call it Falestine) in 1948 and then started a war of conquest in 1967 and again in 1973 referring to the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War respectively. The reality is slightly different as the Arab forces initiated both conflicts as soon as Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships thus blockading the Israeli port of Eilat.

 

Additionally, many of their parents were also raised on this intensive diet of hate for Israel, Jews and everything they believe. They honestly believe that their end-time savior cannot come until they have fought and defeated the Jews, not Israel but the Jew. This is why originally the Hamas charter called not just for the conquest of Israel but the slaughter of every Jew on the planet. Hezballah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah: “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” (NY Times, May 23, 2004, p. 15, section 2, column 1.) That does not sound like anybody Israel could meet halfway, and Nasrallah is probably somewhat less fanatical than Hamas’s new leader, Yahya Sinwar, their former head of their military wing, as if there actually is any difference but the Europeans find having a military wing and a political wing allows them to claim that the political wing is actually separate and desirous of peace and eschews violence. The reality in Gaza is that much of the population is enthralled with Hamas and/or Islamic Jihad and the vast majority of those under twenty-five are unemployed and so desperate to find work or some meaning of self-worth that they are willing to risk life and limb to kill Jews for the rewards they will receive. Hamas has allowed the living and work considerations to fall by the wayside which only increases their ranks as they all know in their heart that their deprivation is all on Israel and their leadership is faultless.

 

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. There is only one means of ending the riotous border events which harm the Israelis residing in that region, and that is to remove Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel knows who their officers are at the top and central command. Israel knows their officers and enlisted men and knows which women are assisting their manufacturing positions, often at a direct threat to their lives. The main problem is what to do with a vast number of brainwashed individuals believing virtually anything they are instructed as they have total faith in their Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups. The only means of assuring that all the terrorist operatives have been removed from Gaza would be to depopulate Gaza and then repurpose the assets such that they are used productively, that there is plentiful clean water, 24/7 electricity, plenty of natural gas, working sewage treatment facilities, probably a desalination plant and a total environmental clean-up making the place inhabitable once more. As for allowing Arabs to return to Gaza, this would be something which has to be performed on a one-at-a-time system where everything is checked and double checked only allowing those who do not have blood on their hands. Israel would be required to take over the school system and begin to teach the children in the means which allow them to find gainful employment. The Arabs permitted to return would still be monitored closely by the IDF ensuring that they do not revert to their former terrorist ways. Needless to point out that the leadership of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as some of their people who were amongst the true believers will require not being permitted to return. Anyone permitted to remain in Gaza caught performing or attempting any terrorist acts would be removed from Gaza and sent out into the world after serving their sentence, and would not be permitted to reenter any part of Israel thereafter.

 

But should Hamas or Islamic Jihad force another confrontation, this time we need to make very sure that it will not be required to do so again in a few months or even years. The next Gaza conflict should be the final Gaza conflict even if Israel need act upon the promise given to Arik Sharon by George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice that should things go wrong from the Gaza withdrawal, Israel retained the right to retake Gaza and place it under their own military rule until everything is worked out. The problem is that Israel does not desire the problems which Gaza would present of which terrorism is in the top ten but not the top five. These five imperatives should Israel retake Gaza would be the lack of utilities, lack of adequate water, malfunctioning or useless sewage treatment and a general improvement such that the Gazans can lead normal lives and Israelis in the Gaza region will be safe from exploding balloons, rockets launched at them, sniper fire and all the other threats posed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Gaza requires being taken in its entirety and for the final time incorporated into Israel. The time for Israel to take control of the regions promised her under International Law and for those Arabs who cannot stand to allow Israeli (Jewish) rule, they can be invited to depart and never darken the Israeli doorstop ever again. There will be those who decide to return to their terrorist past and they will face deportation where they are to be banned from ever returning. It is time that Israel simply take the world to task for their broken promises and force the world to live up to their obligations and promises. The Arabs will scream and protest calling for the United Nations to sanction Israel or even throw Israel from the United Nations. Whatever the price for achieving peace and having the world live up to their promises which they have ignored and refused for so long, it will be worth paying that price as long as it is only required that Israel pay that price but once. The time for a diplomatic solution has very sorely passed and now Israel need act before her enemies decide that perhaps now is the time to test the defensive systems of the IDF such as the Arrow Systems and David’s Sling.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Terror Strikes Sri Lanka

 

Already the death toll has been reported to be approaching three-hundred and is likely to exceed that number when the final count is known plus approximately five-hundred have been wounded after three churches and three hotels were targeted with explosions this Sunday in Sri Lanka. The hotels struck were the Shangri-La, Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand; all of which are high end luxury hotels favored by tourists, specifically European and other Western nations. The churches attacked were St Anthony’s Church in the capital, St Sebastian’s in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, and local media has also reported a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province (maps posted below). The targets are obvious, western tourists and Christians attending Easter Mass. We pray that these are the last of such on this day so holy to much of the world. Yet another attack has been reported at a house in Mahawila Gardens, Dematagoda which caused an ensuing fire.

 

Sri Lanka Map Displaying Terror Strike Locations

 

 

Central Colombo and Terror Bombing Locations in the Capital City of Sri Lanka

 

There is no mystery to why terror strikes holy places on the most holy days of the year. In military jargon, these are target rich environments, when your main two goals are to murder as many infidels as possible and causing fear around the world for as many people as possible. The next question would be, why Sri Lanka. One reason is that the terrorists have easy access and another is these attacks will make the news across the world potentially causing some to forgo Easter Services this year. To some in Islam, this would prove a lack of faith and devotedness by Christians thus proving to them that Islam is the superior religion, the more powerful religion.

 

There have been signs that the Arab and Islamic world, the ones the mainstream media always adds the classification of extremist or other denotation implying that they are not “real” Muslims. But Muslims are encouraged to attack non-Muslims, specifically Christians and Jews (some fatwas include Buddhists and Hindus as well as any idolater, agnostic, atheist or any unbeliever essentially as they have expanded definitions in the Quran over the years broadening the areas and regions which are to be brought under Islam. Eventually, Allah has promised that Islam will be the only religion practiced on the Earth. We found these definitions explaining the difference between offensive Jihad and defensive Jihad and under what conditions each is practiced. Assuming we read them correctly, every Muslim leader is required to employ offensive Jihad against the Kuffar such that there would never be the need for defensive Jihad as the Muslims would always be the aggressors which would so terrorize the Kuffar that they would live in abject fear too frightened to attack the Islamic regions because of their greater strength. From what we read, the Muslims are either performing offensive Jihad to sufficient levels, otherwise they will face defensive Jihad. This would imply that Islamic nations which border any non-Islamic nation, they are either to make periodic attacks, at least once or twice each year, so as to place the fear of the Jihadists to such a point that these nations would never even consider attacking their Islamic neighbors. What if their neighbors had no intention of ever attacking their Islamic nation? This would be interpreted as proving any offensive Jihad was working exactly as in the Quran and the Hadiths. This is a self-fulfilling set of prophesies as if an Islamic is attacked, it is punishment for not being forceful enough in their offensive Jihad and if they are not attacked, that is because they have fulfilled their required offensive Jihad.

 

The terrorist attack in Sri Lanka is not an isolated case. Across the world there have been a consistent number of terrorist attacks mainly on Churches, Synagogues and Temples. There is the ongoing war waged by Boko Haram against the Christians and Animists in the regions centered on Nigeria but spreading across the entirety of the African Transition Zone (see map below). It was in response to these attacks that the French deployed troops to Mali to assist in preventing an Islamic takeover of that nation by force. The problems in Somalia are threatening of spreading into Kenya and there is still ongoing violence by the Sudan against the breakaway nation of South Sudan. Many of these internecine wars have existed for years and have simply become more intense over time. This violence is in addition to the tribal warfare still going on across Libya. And the violence between Islam and the rest of the world is not limited to Africa.

 

African Transition Zone

 

Terror has become a worldwide epidemic reaching into virtually every nation. In France over five-hundred churches have been firebombed or otherwise attacked since 9/11. The number of attacks worldwide is absolutely astonishing as depicted in the map below. We believe the yellow dots are domestic terror attacks such as the referenced “lone wolf” terror attacks while the red are parts of international terrorism. The numbers of attacks are indicative of where Islam is targeting. Currently the concentration has been in the Western world, specifically the regions under Judeo-Christian influence and the regions neighboring Muslim countries. Watching the news, one does not get much of a feel for the frequency and near universal direction where these attacks have targeted. The media attempts to cover up terrorism by downplaying the attacks. Often, as soon as such violence is perpetrated the media and the applicable law enforcement agencies including, or especially, the FBI immediately claiming that the attack definitely is not terror related. Then, after a few days when the news of the attack is all but forgotten comes the admission that it was indeed a terrorist attack. This is already counted as old news as the attack was days ago and the media has moved on thus the admission becomes back page news buried deep in the paper.

 

Terrorism Attacks 1970-2015

 

Eventually, the terrorism will reach such a point that it will no longer be something which can be ignored or minimized. When the people finally call upon the government to stand up and actually act to prevent these attacks. The people will demand that the government not only address the terrorism within the national boundaries, but to attack the sources and remove the people who are behind the attacks wherever in the world they may be found. Until that point is reached, these attacks will continue and only increase in frequency and severity. When will the world finally take the spreading terrorism seriously? Not until it becomes such a problem such that it can no longer be ignored. Government seldom take care of problems when they might be easily addressed but wait until the problem becomes impossible to leave along the side of the media coverage and becomes central to the news cycle as it has risen beyond any reason. This is a growing problem that will be pushed aside and the claim that it is beyond their ability to address as the government will wait until the people are willing to accept further curtailing of their freedoms in response to the attacks. The government never wants to address problems until they can use the problem in order to gain additional power depriving the citizens of rights such that the government gains more control. The government will demand that the people grant it additional power and accept restrictions to their freedoms before they will finally act and accept that the problem exists. Some places have already reached the point where they had no choice but to address the problem such as Israel, African Transition Zone, India and a growing situation across Europe. The United States is trailing Europe by a mere five years or there about. How long before this reaches a head? We wish we could tell you but that is beyond our ability of prognostication.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Eternal Middle East Question

 

This eternal question is what will bring an end to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. The question presupposes that the question has an answer and the world has been chasing this presumably illusive answer for the past hundred years. They had the first worst answer initially as the British along with many others did everything they could to prevent the Jews from reaching the critical mass for them to declare Israel’s birth. The British realizing they could no longer prevent this inevitability simply left as quickly as they could arming the Arab forces while disarming the Jews as they left in one final attempt to prevent the success of the birth of the Jewish State. The Arab war of 1948 was best described by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League at that time, “It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.” Obviously, his expectations were not met and the nascent state of Israel survived the year and a half of war. The main reason that there has not been peace came later as a result of the Arabs to their losses in the 1967 Six Day War. September, after the war, the Arab League met in Khartoum where they passed the Khartoum Resolution which included the Three No’s, “No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, and No negotiations with Israel.” This has continued to be the driving core of the Palestinian Arabs who will refuse any peace in which Israel remains ruled by any other than the Arab Muslims. This conflict has never been altered from the original stated desire of Azzam Pasha, the complete annihilation of the Jews and the total destruction of Israel.

 

So, the question is still being at the center of the Western World in their attempts to placate the implacable. They treat the conflict as a territorial conflict rather than a conflict of annihilation, the view the Arabs still cling to despite the seeming warming by the Sunni Arab states seeing Iran as a greater threat than posed by Israel. Just because they see Iran as a greater threat, this does not mean that they are willing to accept the existence of Israel in any permanence. Should Israel face some disaster leaving it vulnerable, the Arab nations would leap at the opportunity to destroy their nemesis. This is the reality which is not well understood in America and ignored by the Europeans and the United Nations, both of which know the truth. This is the reason that the Europeans are currently warming up to Iran as they see the Iranian nuclear program as the answer which will bring the Arab-Israeli Conflict to an end. They have little problem with the Ayatollah’s declaration that Israel is a one bomb nation. Of course, Europe plays both ends dealing with Israel to gain from their technological advances and soon receiving natural gas from Israel. On the other side, they also continue to provide much of the funding for the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.

 

The Arab view of the conflict, as we have seen, is easily defined, the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish State and the Jews within her. The Israeli side of the conflict is also easily defined, peace. We would very much like for the international community to keep their promises made after World War I and allow Israel the boundaries agreed upon under the British Mandate resulting from the San Remo Conference. That would give Israel an eastern border of the Jordan River and would technically include Gaza. The real problem is what is to be done with the throngs of Arabs who came after the Jews provided a thriving economy, at least under Middle East standards for a nation without large oil reserves. This problem was further exacerbated by the British importing additional Arabs in their never-ending efforts to prevent the Jews from ever reaching a majority. Then there are the Arabs from Jordan transferred from Jordan often without their agreement and the Arab land giveaways to prominent Arab Jordanians who never resided in these lands, they were assigned to provide status and to place virtually over the land Jordan occupied illegally for nineteen years under Arab titles. These land giveaways are used by NGOs currently in order to prevent Jewish building beyond the Green Line. The Arabs will continue to refuse to absorb even a single Arab making any Arabs who might be deported due to their being illegally placed in the region by Jordan would be placed into even more refugee camps which would be claimed were illegally separated from their rightful lands. Any honest history from 1800 forward would document the fact that Arab presence in Israel was a trailing fact, not a leading fact. The Arabs came to Israel after the Jews had already built irrigation and businesses making for the Israeli rudimentary economy. By the beginning of the Twentieth Century there was a burgeoning economy resulting from increased Jewish settlement despite the attempts by the British to choke Jewish immigration into Israel. This was on top of the British making a present of 78% of the British Mandate to the Arabs which is the initial and actual developing of an Arab state separate from the Jewish state. In the intervening years while all remained under British protectorate rule, Jewish settlement in the area of Transjordan (today Jordan) was absolutely forbidden which meant that Jews who owned land east of the Jordan River were robbed of their lands. On the other hand, Arab settlement west of the Jordan River within what was to be the Jewish State was encouraged and often forced upon Arabs. This is the main reason for the current conflict which presents the world with a modern Gordian Knot.

 

The problem can be easily explained using as an example recent events since the arrangement of a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas forces in Gaza. Israel used a very carefully planed and executed selective bombing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad bases and other tactical locations using roof knocking in order to clear the targeted buildings of any Gazans inside including Hamas and Islamic Jihad combatants. This method minimizes civilian and combatant casualties but Israel is so intent on preserving the lives of Gazans that the IDF literally sacrifices opportunities to kill Hamas and Islamic Jihad combatants as well. This is one of the tactics used by Israel that the rest of the developed world militaries are somewhat upset and claim that these Israeli tactics are beyond anything that the Western militaries are willing to employ as their intent to kill their adversaries outweighs the concern for innocents who might be caught up in their bombing. Israel is so dedicated to not harming any unnecessary individuals that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have too often protected their most important strategic buildings by placing women and children on the roofs which prevents IDF fighter jets from delivering their bombs to the target. This is also how they prevent the IDF from targeting their rocket launchers by inviting children to watch the rockets being fired and how they are reloaded and everything keeping them close to the launchers making it a safe zone free from Israeli fire. These are just a few of their tactics which they utilize and then claim that they defended these sights proudly and with great vigor and strength which prevented the Jews from being able to strike them. But these are the small things compared to what came after the ceasefire was agreed upon and the fighting ended.

 

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (pictured below) on the Friday after the ceasefire issued threats against the Jewish State. He spoke at a memorial service for Hamas terrorists who were killed during the clash with Israel. He was quoted as having stated, “I advise Israel not to try and test us again. This time you did not have a lot of casualties and you managed to rescue your special forces. You should not try again, because next time you will have to release thousands of prisoners.” This is a reference of the Hamas strategy of holding the bodies of any IDF soldier killed which the IDF was unable to retrieve hostage demanding thousands of terrorist in Israeli prisons be released in exchange for each body. They currently hold two IDF soldier’s corpses which they are refusing even to name a price for an exchange knowing that it pains their families leaving them without closure. It is just another attempt at torturing Israelis by any means they are capable, pollution of burning tires blown into Israel by the offshore breeze, burning of crops with incendiary kites and balloons, rockets launched into Israeli residential centers in the middle of the night, rioting which is covered on news internationally and boasts of their superiority to Israel in every field of endeavor and particularly in fighting a man’s war.

 

Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar

 

But Yahya Sinwar was not done exchanging insults as he continued by stating, “Our hands are on the trigger and our eyes are open. Listen Netanyahu, and listen whoever will receive the defense portfolio. Anyone who tests Gaza will find death and poison. If we are attacked, we will let the barrage on Tel Aviv do the talking. Our missiles are more accurate, have a longer range and carry more explosives than before.” He is not bluffing on this threat as Israel knows well that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been provided with larger rocket engines allowing for greater ranges and larger payloads. The one limiting factor is the greater the range to their target, the smaller the warhead can be as it is a trade-off between the two regarding the limitations of the fuel. Still, Iran has found the means of providing ever-improved rocket engines and has started to provide Islamic Jihad and Hamas with rudimentary guidance systems just as they are providing for Hezbollah in Lebanon where they are modifying their longest range and largest payload rockets with these guidance systems in preparation for the next Lebanon offensive against Israel. This may come once the fighting in Syria has reached a point where Iran can also provide IRGC forces to attack the Golan Heights simultaneously. They may even attempt to coordinate having Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacking from the south as a preliminary front and then launch their combined attacks in the north from Lebanon and Syria. Such a conflict would inflict likely severe damages in Israel but these would be minor compared to what the response would do to Lebanon, Syria near the Golan Heights and Gaza as Israel would have little choice but to wage all-out war. In such a situation there would be no roof knocking before striking sites, this would be a war to end these threats permanently. Anything less would enrage the Israeli public who are growing impatient with responses which do little to end the threats and make the regions safe permanently, not just for a few months or possibly a year if we are fortunate.

 

Beyond the Cusp