State Department and Their Moment of Clarity

 

The United States Department of State released annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – describing the status of religious freedom in every country. This year the report had a remarkable citation which had previously been explained away by blaming the victim and excusing the oppressive doctrinarian persecutor which practiced religious and societal supremacy despite their societal dysfunctionality. The hiccup, if you’ll admit the slang, was a report that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was indeed committing anti-Semitism and broadcasting it on their television and radio broadcasts. There were also criticisms of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia Wednesday for having laws that infringe upon religious freedom citing blasphemy, apostasy and anti-conversion laws. The report succinctly stated, “Such laws conflict with and undermine universally recognized human rights,” referring directly at one state’s actions the report went on to state, “Saudi Arabia penalizes blasphemy with lengthy prison sentences and lashings, often after detention without trial, or so-called protective custody, according to legal experts.” Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken stated at an event announcing the report, “In far too many countries, 2015 witnessed appalling patterns of significant restrictions on religious practice, as well as societal intolerance of, restrictions on and even violence against members of religious minority groups. Bigotry and intolerance can be found in every part of the world, including the United States, but every country has an obligation to respect religious liberty and freedom of conscience.”

 

But in the area of Israel, where we will concentrate our commentary, the report brought some needed fresh air. The State Department, and especially under President Obama, criticizing the PA for their open and blatant anti-Semitism is as surprising as it was welcome. As far as any actual actions or further recognition, that remains to be seen though we expect very little to come of this. Reports are, after all, written to please, aggravate, motivate or mitigate situations while having minimal effect or amelioration before being filed on a shelf next to the report from previous years which had also made new or original bold statement only to settle on the shelf awaiting the next year’s report to brace it from the open end. This report shall be no different and likely be even of less consequence as the elections in the United States will soon suck all the oxygen from the media rooms across the world, be it the United States elections or the German elections by five of sixteen states in the build-up to the next year’s federal vote where it is fully expected to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from a decade of dominance due to the refugee crisis. Changes are coming in Europe and perhaps in the United States as well. All of this we will watch and see and then wait for any changes both local and internationally. Despite belief by President Obama that he controls the fate of the world, this report was likely about the upcoming elections while ignoring their boss, the man holding the world currently.

 

Obama World and he can hold the whole thing like a basketball but just like a basketball he is clueless what to do with it

 

Closer to home at our small corner, and we emphasize small, of the Mediterranean the State Department report will be accepted as a breath of fresh air as a known reality has finally been recognized in writing by what has been and likely remains an adversarial United States Department of State. This report may simply be the State Department setting a note in their records just in case there may be coming a drastic change in the Executive Brach of the United States governance. Despite the hyperventilating over the great lead Hillary Clinton has theoretically built up in the past month according to the United States media, even FOX, in the most respected and neutral polling this past week she held less than a five percent lead, less than a single point in one, over Donald Trump, a lead within the margin of errors. This probably has the great minds at the State Department fearing that the light they see down the tunnel is not the opening to the broad outdoors but the headlamp of an onrushing train and they figure better to be safe than left out on a limb with little support as a new President starts sawing their branch off before they can scamper back saving themselves and their appointed positions. Moving to the center is done by places beyond candidates who have been forced away from the center during a primary challenge. This may be nothing more than centering the State Department ship before it lists so far over they capsize.

 

Then again, perhaps there is another reason for the state department report stating in blatant terms that the PA broadcasts and other activities are peddling anti-Semitism. There is also the possibility that the extremes reached have finally crossed a previously uncrossed level which placed their actions beyond even the State Department’s ability to excuse with their normal euphemisms. The previous State Department reports had blamed the Israeli “occupation” and Israeli “oppressions” and “treatment of the Arab Palestinian” as the reasons for which any hatreds originating from the PA and their society as understandable and even excusable. The fact is official members of the PA governance are making statements over the broadcast channels to instigate further attacks on Israelis anywhere and everywhere including blatantly calling for violence within Israel inside the Green Line in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, Jerusalem, Ashdod as well as Hevron and other areas in Judea and Samaria. Further calls were broadcast calling for Israeli Arabs to attack and murder Israelis and some calls to violence was more general demanding the attacks and terrorism to murder Jews. There were also the calls for rioting on the Temple Mount where there was no difference drawn between Israelis and tourists whether Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or even Shinto. What will remain to be seen is the follow through, should there be one. But will the policies demand of Israeli sacrifices and concessions while forgiving any and every crime committed by the Arabs both under PA rule and Hamas rule in Gaza. One need remember that Hamas was overwhelmingly elected in honest elections over a decade ago by both the Arabs in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria and no elections have been permitted by the ruling Hamas or Fatah, both terror parties, ever since. The Arab Palestinians have what can be laughingly referred to as third world democracy, one person, one vote, one time.

 

Reports recognizing the near universal anti-Semitism and religious hatreds which permeate the Arab world where even minority sects of Islam are denigrated and subjugated to similar treatments as the Christians, Yazidis, Baha’i, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians and other minority religions spread across the Islamic world as well as the Arab world have previously been rare and oft ignored. Reports and even speeches may bring attention to these problems but there needs be actions backing up the words. This will be what needs be watched and see if policies are altered to reflect this report. All of this will depend heavily on the next elections throughout Europe after the first installment of reaching towards three million and possibly as much as five million “refugees” have inundated the continent from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with over one million taking up refuge in Germany alone. The fact that approaching eighty to ninety percent, depending on locations and reports, of these “refugees” being males between the ages of thirteen to forty without women or children accompanying these military age males paints an ominous picture for military planners and security forces alike. Then there were the New Year’s Eve sex crime wave which struck central celebration areas in cities all across Germany and in spotty locations in Scandinavia and other European hot spots, the terrorism increase and a general increase in crime. While what the level of assimilation to which these mostly Muslim immigrants will accomplish with their adopting a more European outlook cannot yet be ascertained but initial data leaves one with an uneasy feeling about the grim prospects of there being any degree of assimilation. Some are blaming the BREXIT on the immigrant crisis where the reason the British voted to leave the European Union was so they could place blockades against further infiltrations. As the “refugees” have yet to penetrate into Scotland and Northern Ireland or the Irish Isles has been stated by those who voted in large sectors from England as the reason these areas are considering rejoining the European Union independently. If these nations from the British group expect that they might be voted from Britain with the English possibly deciding to go it alone relying on the English to act as a cork on the European bottle protecting these nations after they reapply to the European Union from direct infiltrations by MENA refugees halting them at the Chunnel blocking any crossings of the English Channel, they are hoping that the English will be responsible for them while they continue the jolly life as members of the European Union protected from the decisions in Brussels by England, the adults on the islands. The English would be hard pressed to allow the “refugees” to pass through to the northern lands as that would place their presence on both borders making their infiltration a greater danger by far.

 

Meanwhile, Israel likely is going to have this paper, this report by the State Department, touted by the government with every party claiming either their contribution to forcing the admitting of the problem or claiming they will patiently await actions which speak louder than worlds. Those who take credit for the report by the State Department are making grand claims with likely little real or hard evidence of their complicity in the formation of this report. This admission of the sins committed by the PA was and will continue to be just a centering of State Department positions in anticipation of a possible shift in White House positions after the election and thus the adoption of a more nuanced position from which the department can slide whichever direction the President will lean upon arrival. The State Department simply has noted that whichever candidate wins the election, be it Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, there will be little if anything that the State Department will be capable of performing which will alter either candidate’s preferred and preset position vis-à-vis Israel. As for determining the position either candidate will take may appear easy, it also may be less well known or predictable as one might suspect.

 

Our talks with actual Israelis, Sabras (native born Israelis) who have never visited the United States, they are confused as to which candidate will win the election. Many feel that Hillary has this as her election to lose as if she cannot beat Donald Trump then she was not cut out to beat anybody. Many fear Trump as much as they do Clinton. The one thing we have seen as a constant is their asking us what we think will happen and pleading that we grant them good news and reinforce what they already hope for from the elections. One item these Israelis have been made aware of comes through a quote, we like quotes as we cannot be fully blamed for their content, the quote we turn to was reputedly from Joseph Stalin where it was stated in Boris Bazhanov’s Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary, published in 1992 and only available, so far as we know, in Russian where it stated, “You know, comrades that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this, who will count the votes, and how.” When we receive puzzled looks we point to the claims that in certain districts there were more votes tallied than there were registered voters and some have claimed that entire voting districts had absolutely no votes recorded for any candidate other than those for one of the two main parties. This often does not clear their puzzled look as much as add a degree of obvious fear or ominous foreboding to their puzzlement.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Who Will Pope Francis Blame When ISIS Slaughters in Jerusalem?

 

Pope Francis, during his visitation to the Holy Lands, was sure to make a very public statement over the plight of the Palestinian Arabs as he made a highly publicized stop at the exact section of the security barrier where Pope Francis claimed to make a prayer for a unified Arab Palestinian State emphasizing the proposed relationship to, as scrawled on that very section of the barrier, the similarity of the Warsaw Ghetto’s walls and the Israeli built security barrier, a separation object that is largely a fence but along certain stretches is required to be an actual wall such as within heavily built up areas so that it also keeps bullets and explosives from being easily launched into Israeli areas safeguarding both Arabs and Jews of all religions and all others from terrorist assaults on their lives and which has resulted in a highly effective tool in preventing homicide/suicide bombers, homicidal vehicle attacks and sniper attacks of various varieties bringing such attacks down to becoming a rarity compared to previous attacks before the barrier was constructed. Further, Pope Francis made it publically emphasized that his trip began with meetings with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Palestinians which he made sure to enter from Jordan flying initially into the Jordanian capital city of Amman specifically to avoid any possible meeting with Israeli officials. The Pope went further as he make a long procession, almost a victory parade, accompanied by numerous Arab Palestinian leadership from Bethlehem to Jerusalem emphasizing in his remarks the plight and flight from Bethlehem of its once predominant Christian population making heavy implications that such a sorry state of affairs had everything to do with Israeli ‘occupation’ and the hardships caused by the Israeli government, meaning the Jewish People, completely absolving the Arab Palestinians and their history of antagonism and persecution of the Christians causing the massive flight in fear for their lives from threats and actual terrorist aggressions.

 

This was followed by a visit to Israel where Pope Francis had a totally different persona becoming somewhat aggressive and antagonistic demanding the Catholic Church be granted their inalienable rights to ownership of large areas of Jerusalem with special emphasis on newly made claims to the building which houses the gravesite of King David claiming the room above King David’s tomb was a possible Christian Holy Site where the Last Supper had recently been claimed to have taken place moving it from the previous traditional spot where there were no contentious claims to this aggressively contentious place where it placed this Christian site above and over a highly Jewish site and further the Pope demanded rights to offer prayer services, a privilege granted and almost immediately abused by attempting to hold such prayers specifically on days where Jews had particularly offered up prayers from the site and taking assurances to hold these prayer before the scheduled Jewish services thus intentionally making the site void for Jewish prayer. The Pope was far from done with his assault on Judaism as well as launching additional assaults on Israel and Israeli claims within the Holy Lands in general at times appearing to insinuate obliquely that the Jews were without any religious claims as they were no longer recognized as having any religious rights having been supplanted and superseded making void any Jewish religiously made claims having been replaced by Christianity.

 

This particular claim made by the Pontiff has ramifications beyond the replacement theology where it is postulated that the Jews have become damned as replaced as the chosen people by the Christians, the Pope would claim the Catholic Church, and no longer favored by the L0rd and cast forth from Jerusalem specifically and without claims throughout the Holy Lands. Pope Francis has, by renewing the replacement theology of the past, set the precedent that Hashem can and has broken vows and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and others which identified the Jewish People as those chosen to carry His Message to the rest of the world has been abrogated and transferred to the Catholic Church which makes the supersessions claimed by Islam claiming that the Christians have themselves been cast off as were the Jews making the Muslims not only the replacement in eyes of Hashem but also the final chosen peoples to carry forth the messages of Hashem and, going one step further, the ones chosen to rule all of humanity going even further afield of a similar claim indigenous to the Christian faith as Judaism never held that the world would be their inheritance, they claimed only a rather insignificant measure of land strategic only in its central location to Europe, Africa and Asia being the region where the three continents converge and having ports which can connect the two main trade routes which have since been serviced by the Suez Canal.

 

The reassertion of the policy of the Catholic Church having replaced the Jews as those having a covenant with Hashem has left the Catholic Church also subjected to being replaced as the chosen of Hashem which is exactly the claim made by Islam. Carrying the replacement and the sole holy religion has also seen both Catholicism, in the more native guise of Christianity, and Islam to thus interpret such to authorize their sovereignty over the entire planet in order for them to properly prepare for the return of Jesus which had been carried one step further by the Islamic extremists claim that their religion being the sole religion Divinely inspired as the replacement, the final replacement of both Judaism and Christianity not only should rule over all of Earth but also be the sole religion practiced by all mankind. This has been carried out to the letter by ISIS as well as being the stated end goal by Iran, Hamas, Hezballah and various other claimants to being the sole pure remaining practitioners of Islam as defined by Muhammad and is behind a very real threat being made by ISIS and a number of their adherents. The agents for ISIS in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), why that redundancy is required by all that is politically correct makes me really desire to cease the practice, and I shall endeavor to do so going forth, are requesting for a list of all the Christians residing in (East) Jerusalem and their addresses to be given to those ISIS representatives by the faithful of Muhammad, note that not all are claiming faithful to ISIS following the practice of deference when outnumbered and until gaining sufficient numbers, somewhere around twenty percent, before becoming more forceful and soon thereafter, around thirty-five percent, taking rule by force and demanding total and complete allegiance followed by choice of becoming part of the faithful as defined by ISIS to the sword, otherwise death. They want these lists as soon as possible such that they can make the necessary plans and make sure they have the necessary power and people to carry out an ethnic cleansing of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem. They have not requested such a list of the Jews residing within the area as they likely believe that those entire neighborhoods are easily known and identifiable.

 

This list will necessarily be assembled with an assault plan in mind by which the vast majority of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem will be forced from the area implied by the sword and not by choice but such will probably be a logistics driven decision. The ISIS planners will take the precaution of having sufficient deployment of forces such that each unit will have a flanking unit on either side or at a close proximity allowing the massing of forces should any resistance be mounted such that they can quickly and without sacrificing their intended missions gather sufficient force to swarm any resistance counting on numbers to turn the tide of battle. Such has been the tactic used by ISIS as well as preparing the area for their assault before-hand. Not possessing sufficient artillery ISIS instead uses vehicle bombs and homicide/suicide bombers to soften their intended targets instilling confusion and disorganization amongst their intended target before they follow-up with swarming the target neutralizing any recovery minimizing their target any time to regroup and form a coordinated counterattacks or even an organized defense with overlapping fields of fire and the other considerations usually carried out well in advance and practiced including tactics of the enemy being interjected at unannounced times to test procedures for just such scenarios. The target in this instance is basically a cleansing operation intended to either clear an area of any opposition or make clear that certain types residing within an area should necessarily depart before they too face the determined business end of an ISIS representative’s weapon. Their announced target date for this cleansing of the population for Allah is the final day of Ramadan which falls in July 16, 2015.

 

The first determination which must be realized by Israeli police and military forces is whether to act as an intervention in force early on and prevent the organization of ISIS forces, wait until they have gathered so as to maximize arrests, intervene as soon as the assembled ISIS forces pose a threat or to simply ignore the threat and only respond to calls in an usual manner leaving the Arab Palestinians pretty much to their own ability. The final option is actually an option not supported by Torah and Jewish Law as we are directed to protect human life as even the lowest amongst us, the beggar, the infirm, the stranger and others we might normally divert our attentions from are still lives we are commanded to care for and keep safe. The concept that each life is potentially an entire nation thus if one saves one life it is as if one has saved a world. That basically means that Israeli defense and law enforcement forces must be prepared for and the one which is most feasible resulting in there being no loss of life be the ones sent for further considerations. Another consideration should be by which of the tactics that prevents any innocent casualties would allow for the most ruinous of setbacks for ISIS and at the same time making their claims of bringing the reincarnation of the Caliphate into question. There needs to be one more principled consideration, the threat to Israeli personnel and citizens, not to claim that any one life is of greater importance than another as that is beyond our ability to reason and is best left to the Creator who knows all things, Hashem. There is one consideration which must be made initially; which is whether or not this threat posed is valid and thus worthy of making and practicing for such an eventuality. Most ISIS threats issued have proven to be real and worthy of notice, but that does not necessarily mean that this attack threat must automatically be considered valid. This threat might be being presented to gauge the level of Israeli response to threats in order to more closely study the anatomy of such a response. Whatever the reasoning behind such a threat, Israeli leadership can be assured they will be held totally responsible for any casualties outside Israeli personnel. Any other nation would be the recipient of sympathy and offers of assistance with the aftermath with support in repairing any damage, aid money to augment responses training in preparation as if there is a singular attack response which would be universally applied to every attack and resolve all problems and serious planning for special situations such as a visit and speech by another head of state.

 

The importance of responding both effectively and forcefully against any initial attack while not going to an overboard approach cannot be overestimated in this instance. Should Israel present an overly cautious and overt response to this particular threat, then ISIS planners would have an effective but simple approach to fomenting fear within Israel by simply pretending to plan an attack and allow the overt, heavy-handed Israeli ramping-up of security measures. Fortunately, for actual events such as parades, speeches and other events or places where people congregate such as train and bus stations and malls; Israel does a fabulous and renowned level of successful security to meet the requirement necessary for each location and expected crowd. Since all ISIS would need to do to estimate the Israeli response to any situation would be to go study any previous similar situation and view the control of the threat level caused and they would have their answer. Pushing a threat against Israel on her own soil and thus giving her home field advantage will simply make everything that much more difficult for ISIS. In this instance Israel will be required to bring to the table an actual threat assessment and response plan as should ISIS actually follow through on a mission to slaughter as many civilian innocents, almost especially any of the numerous minority populations, as Israel is held to the highest expectation of levels possible in the world. Israel is the only nation expected to be capable of providing on a consistent and near universal level security superior to any European nation, any Western nation and even particularly the United States. Israeli security is expected to match when provided for the most insignificant of those amongst us a level of public security roughly the equivalent of that provided the Queen of England, and Israel has thus far throughout her brief but situation filled history met that challenge almost universally; Baruch Hashem. Anybody wishing an actual example of similar situations and the difference between Israeli response and another nation with proper expectations of being capable in a security situation such as a hostage crisis, simply compare the handling of the 1972 Olympic Games abduction of the Israeli team in Munich where most of the Israeli team consisting of six Israeli coaches and five Israeli athletes were taken hostage and ended up murdered along with one German police officer while five Black September members were eliminated in the regrettable failed rescue attempt where the plans for the rescue operation were poorly executed and all of the requested aid did not arrive on scene until two hours after the stand-off and siege began leading to the conflagration that murdered most of the Israelis tied up in the helicopter which was detonated with a grenade thrown by one of the terrorists compared to the Entebbe raid by an elite IDF unit responding to the hijacking of an Air France flight and the holding of Israeli and Jewish passengers and crew numbering over one hundred victims at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, a distance of over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) in Operation Entebbe, as it came to be known, on July 4, 1976 (giving Israelis a reason to celebrate on as high a level as the people in the United States could on that nation’s bicentennial celebrations) where all but four of the one-hundred-six hostages were rescued with the IDF team suffering five injured and a sole fatality of one of the team commanders and older brother to a future Israeli Prime Minister, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, and all of the terrorists either killed or injured along with almost half of the approximately one hundred Ugandan military troops providing security for the terrorists. Israel had offered assistance and even to handle a rescue attempt with the German government who not only refused the Israeli offer but informed Israeli government officials that any Israelis sent to Germany would be refused entry at the airport and returned to Israel as this was a German operation and Israel had no right to interfere. Perhaps the Germans should have turned it over to the Israelis and thus make Israel responsible for the results.

 

But what is it they say about history, it is what it is and physics has not yet figured out how to alter history, only politicians and the media have such power. That is why when the history is written about the July 16, 2015 ISIS Ramadan assault intending to murder every Christian possible throughout Eastern Jerusalem the only credit or blame for this intended catastrophe in the manner of the cleansing of Mosul, the destruction of the two-thousand-eight-hundred-year-old capital of the Assyrian empire, Khorsabad, including its seven gates and the city with its most highly regarded sixty-four foot wall erected around 713 BCE by King Sargon II during his reign and nearly completely demolished in the beginning of the twenty-first century (or the fifteenth century on the Islamic calendar), parts of which have been preserved in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago; destroyed thousands of books in libraries across the lands they have savagely rampaged with some of the books such as the rare books in Mosul are irreplaceable and singular remnants of wisdom and writings from ancient to the modern times; reintroduced slavery on a massive scale and especially the selling of woman as sexual slaves to the highest bidder, some women have been returned for receipt of a percentage of her resale price; burned, drowned, prisoners alive; shot, and beheaded people sentenced to death for even minor offences or taken prisoner; crucified Christians; blown apart prisoners shoved into a car with anti-tank missile; taken sledge hammers to ancient sculptures, vases, pottery destroying ancient displays in museums; and promised to bring this parade of horrors to every corner of the globe should they be allowed that possibility. This is the assembly of monsters across continents with fellow travelers identifying and subjugating their will all in a similar vein such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad; and other equally offensive and revolting acts all threatening to replace the comfortable lives of the decadent Western world should they be given that chance. That is their promise and where is the response from the supposed civilized world? They are either leading from behind or covering the back of the leader leading from behind all in all leaving Israel to fight the world’s war and stop the advance of those who desire a return to the tenth century, a backwards jolt on either calendar, especially the Jewish calendar which is in the fifty-eighth century.

 

Beyond the Cusp