New Israel Fund Targeting the Heart of Israel

 

Most, or at least many, are fooled into thinking that the New Israel Fund (NIF) is a charitable NGO which has to be doing wonderful things for Israel; nothing could be further from the truth. Reality shows that the NIF’s aim is to completely remake Israel into their utopian image where it becomes just a democracy which has no Jewish identity, is completely nonsectarian, accepts anybody seeking refuge, and has no defining image or soul. Many people will ask, so what is so bad about that? Let us look a little deeper into what would result. First things which would happen is that Israel would be overrun by Muslim refugees, both those from wars such as in Syria and those simply seeking to escape their failed nation such as Iraq, Libya or Somalia. Further, the NIF wants to solve the Arab-Israeli Conflict by making Israel the nation state of all her “citizens” by incorporating Gaza including Hamas and Islamic Jihad plus the Palestinian Authority along with five to eight million “Palestinian Refugees” because Israel is protected by the rule of law. They believe that Israel is successful because it is a democracy and that it being the home for the Jewish People had nothing to do with that success. They believe that even after the Jews of Israel become a minority overwhelmed by the Arab numbers that Israel will remain a pluralistic state with equal rights for all because that is what the law states. There is no possibility that a nation of ten to twelve million Arab Muslims, the majority of which belong to one of three terrorist groups, and just short of seven million Jews, Christians, Bahá’í and other non-Muslims could never be turned into a Sharia State after the first election with the new demographics. They actually do realize all of this but hate the Jewish faith, and particularly religious Orthodox Jews with such a fervor that they would gladly sacrifice Israel just to prove that their secular humanism is superior in oh so many ways. They are so tragically wrong but believe that their superior morality would win the day and make everything wonderful. Further, most of the membership of the NIF does not reside in Israel and many of them who do are not in Israel permanently and spend most of their time in Europe and North America.

 

The tragic horrors that would follow the successful implementation of what the NIF claims they desire would be sufficiently worrisome, but they have a new idea they are preparing for launch. They have decided that the elimination of their nemesis would be the best means to their ends, and the end justifies the means. They have decided they will drive a stake through the beating heart of religious Zionism. They have released a booklet in Hebrew which we attempted to translate but had formatting problems we were unable to address. The parts of their booklet which we were able to get the gist of shows them targeting religious Zionism with their first and foremost target being the Jewish Home Party starting with Naftali Bennett and going from their to Ayelet Shaked and should they continue eventually almost the entirety of our staff would become targets. They also will be targeting selective members of Likud, of course including Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and are hoping to elect somebody more to their liking and taking control of the political government in Israel by placing their political allies in the far left into the Knesset. They are following the example of the means by which minority interests took political power through the destruction of those parties with which they disagreed. They plan on using media attacks on their political opponents with ad-hominem attacks on individuals and using Lawfare to destroy others. They will be using fringe leftist groups they almost wholly finance and thereby control. The NIF has used similar tactics in dispossessing Israelis living beyond the Green Line by presenting often-fraudulent claims by nonexistent Arabs to owning the lands where Jewish “settlers” resided to the Supreme Court while filing the claim in lower courts knowing that the Supreme Court would rule before the other case came to trial. Once the Supreme Court had ordered these homes be destroyed, they then withdrew the lower court filing thus never having to prove the legality of their ownership claim. Eventually they simply ignored filing with any court other than the Supreme Court. Part of their problem now is that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has changed the political tenor of the Supreme Court and further transferred all land claims, including decisions for house destructions, to the lower courts where proof of these claims will be required. This is why the change in tactics and particularly their desire to hurt the Jewish Home Party from whence the Justice Minister came. Eventually the NIF project will meet with failure if for no other reason than the love for Israel throughout the religious Zionist and secular Zionist members will overcome any and all obstacles to save our nation and its being the home of the Jewish People.

 

Now more on who are those who make up the NIF. The majority are Jews, very misguided Jews. Later we will address what can be done to prevent their efforts from taking any traction, but first about their main membership, the active arm of the NIF. They work a double blind game. On their fundraising side, they are all charm and warm thoughts about the future of Israel. They leave particulars mostly to each person’s imagination. They paint a picture of an Israel which is a copy of the United States, an America in the Middle East. They claim that it will be warm and welcoming to all allowing their targeted donators believing that this warm welcoming will resemble the type and procedures being used currently. They do not tell what they really wish to do; they would rather play the Zionist and trick people into donating. Some here are reformed leftists who know how they work the fundraising, they glad-hand people schmoozing telling them all along the wonderful nirvana they will be forming with their funds and how they support all the correct other NGOs and how NIF is a clearinghouse for funding wonderful NGOs. The reality is they do donate to these other Zionist NGOs but well over 75% of their monies go directly to far leftist causes many of which work towards the replacement of Israel with an Arab majority state and the slaughter of the Jews upon their conquest completion. The NIF is either blind to this reality or do not care as their goal is to replace the Jewish religion with secular humanism which cannot occur as long as the Orthodox Rabbinate remains intact. The NIF is loosely connected to the Open Society Foundations and receives generous donations and approval from George Soros, never a friend to Israel. Their tactics come almost directly out of the Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals which is in reality an instruction manual for subterfuge and the overthrowing of a democratic governance and the destruction of the government it so powers. Saul Alinsky starts the book with a dedication of a sort shown below.

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”  

 

What could we ever add to that? The main point is that the NIF will use any method to establish their vision from direct misrepresentation to deceit to outright lies. Their mission, in their minds, is so important that to save the world from Israel as a religious Jewish entity they are willing to practically sell their souls to perdition.

 

The way to bring the attempted tyranny of the NIF to an end would be to simply not give them any funds. That would injure them as they receive, and would continue in increased amounts to receive, donations from those with whom they share common cause. There are, unfortunately, more than enough Jews who believe that Israel should be an open country more like Canada or the European models of France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. These Jews get upset by the tactics used when Israel defends herself and the NIF can be honest with them about wishing to take over the government through the ballot box, at least so far, and make Israel simply wonderful. They claim theirs is the only solution to the Arab Israeli Conflict and to continue to insist that Israel is the Home of the Jewish People is to continue that war forever. In this, they would be correct, but not for the reasons they provide. They blame Israel for every Arab-Israeli war since 1948, including the initial war started immediately after Israel was declared a nation. The problem is not Israel, for Israel would accept a real peace at any point, but not the peace the Arabs desire. What is frightening is the peace the Arabs desire is the end result the NIF is driving to achieve. A pluralistic state where under the guise of accepting the Palestinian refugees Israel is overrun by Arabs and the Jews lose. The only solution the Arabs will accept is the death of the Jewish State and many would go further and desire the death of the Jews. NIF is willing to meet them halfway and allow Israel to be ruled by the Arabs believing that they would treat the Jews well.

 

 

Educate those who love Israel that the NIF is the path to the destruction of Israel. Any Zionist who contributes to the NIF is allowing for Israel not to be the destination they desire to hopefully soon move. The best means for self-declared Zionists to counter NIF is even easier, make Aliyah and come home. Every Zionist does more for Israel when they reside in Israel. Your Zionism for building the Jewish State does not end once you step off the plane into the lands Hashem gave us, that is actually only the first step as you realize once here. There is so much that needs doing and the NIF supports none of our dreams. The building of the Last Temple, or Third Temple if you prefer, to the building of Jerusalem and the fulfilling at long last the instructions from Hashem to settle all the land and then to be a Light unto the Nations, something Israel is already accomplishing, and so much more. Live to be an example and show that a Jew’s place is Israel no matter how well you are doing in the diaspora. You will be better in Israel simply because you are in Israel and the remainder will take care of itself. If you are an executive, open a branch office in Jerusalem and another in Tel Aviv and realize the wonders which are Israel. Better, you also make yourself the person responsible for the Jerusalem office and bring your family home, to Jerusalem where you cannot be any more home than there. Jews building Israel into a strong economic wonder, all while your becoming closer to Judaism than you have ever felt, is the wondrous prize you receive simply by relocating to Israel. It is simply magical what this nation does every single day; it is a complete and total miracle in working order. Sure, we have a few wrinkles to iron out; it is a country and not a mythical destination.

 

The main efforts to prevent the realization of the NIF vision are to become united in the cause of saving both Israel and traditional Judaism. This is not going to be an easy task to accomplish. Naftali Bennett’s suggestion that the Rabbinate be unified with a single Chief Rabbi would actually be a great first step. Further, Judaism need find the path for unifying the separate variations within the faith. Another means towards this end would be the establishment of one singular prayerbook and set of prayers. The unifying of the service and other practices which will require debate on accepting some new holidays such that all Judaism has a singular calendar with the same holidays which we all celebrate is also a necessity. Fragmented Judaism provides a weakness which we, as a people, have suffered from throughout our existence and has been our downfall previously. Unless traditional Orthodox Judaism becomes established such that it combines all Jews who are religious from the Ethiopians to the Haredi all operating from the same set of rules and practices, Israel will suffer from the fragmentation which currently infects life, both religious and political. On the other front, Zionism, it is necessary that the passion which drives us must be shared and invested into the souls and hearts of as many Jews as possible. The way to prevent the NIF from weakening Israel and Judaism is by steeling Judaism which can be performed by rallying around Israel through Zionism. The final step is we need to find a path to forgive one another and blur our differences allowing a general merging of our faith into a single Judaism, an Israeli Judaism infused with Zionist nationalism, and this may be the greatest challenge that modern Israel faces. One would think that remembering the loss of the Second Temple due to our infighting and indifference to those with whom we have but the slightest differences would have left some memory and feelings of guilt which would drive us to unite. That is our challenge and we need find the path where we all become a single faith with Torah as our central pillar.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel’s Jewish Problem and Other Ramblings

 

This past week United States President Barack Obama went to great lengths to establish his argument for his not holding any shred of anti-Semitism and then transgressed his own standard. His definition for one being an anti-Semite included people denying such items as recognizing that Jews have had a difficult history, been plagued by hatreds of all varieties, have an ancient and valid claim to their lands where the historic lands of the Israelites existed and one last and special quality of holding Israel to a different standard than one holds other nations. As Carolyn Glick stated in her article Barack Obama’s anti-Semitism test “As Obama reads Israeli history, the state’s founders didn’t only seek to build a Jewish state. They set out to build Utopia.” This alone might lead one to ponder how any person could be so deeply compartmentalized in their thinking processes that they could clearly see Israel and her governance intending to build a Utopian society and still treat them as they would any other nation, or does President Barack Obama view every nation as setting out to build a Utopia. One might be capable of arguing that every nation set out and has attempted to build their nation to be a utopia even if that utopian vision does not wander too far from the ruling elite. That would permit the leaders of a nation to sentence the entirety of the previous government to death after taking power by force and not the voting will of the people, or even with the voting power of the people. Utopia can be interpreted in many and varied ways. Still, claiming a nation is going all-out to build a Utopian Nation one could then hold that nation to your perceived notion of how a utopian society would act and not view them as a nation acting solely in their own best interest but instead seeking where they might sacrifice for the benefit of others even to the point of placing their nation in peril.

 

That is exactly what President Barack Obama did when addressing the Adas Israel congregation, a Jewish congregation following the Conservative branch of Judaism, located conveniently in Washington D.C. where most of the congregants are either liberal Democrats or extremely liberal Democrats, but their being in Washington D.C. makes noting their liberal bend to be repetitive. When President Barack Obama explained his views and definitions on anti-Semitism the attending congregants were enthused. When he then proceeded to state that as an Utopian State Israel would, in his judgement and from what he learned and what formed his view of Israel and the heart and soul of the nation from “Moshe Dayan, and Golda Meir, and the sense that not only are we creating a safe Jewish homeland, but also we are remaking the world. We’re repairing it. We are going to do it the right way. We are going to make sure that the lessons we’ve learned from our hardships and our persecutions are applied to how we govern and how we treat others.” He subsequently added the altruistic view and concern he believed Israeli leaders should consider, “The rights of the Jewish people… compel me to think about a Palestinian child in Ramallah that feels trapped without opportunity. That’s what Jewish values teach me.” This led President Barack Obama to believe that in order to make a Utopian offer and placing the Palestinians’ needs above their own, Israel should pull back completely within the Green Line, the 67 lines, the 1949 Armistice Line also labeled the Auschwitz Borders as Abba Eban spelled out for the United Nations as quoted by the Jerusalem Post of August 18, 1995 by columnist Moshe Kohn:

“We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history.”

My thoughts upon reading in several articles what President Barack Obama had stated both as his definition for anti-Semitism and then on all items concerning Israel he made assessments and judgments which placed Israel at the maximum disadvantage, facing the utmost threats and claiming all these compromises and surrenders were to be forced out of Israel in order to allow Israel to repair the world. From what President Barack Obama stated he must be reasoning that the existence of Israel is the greatest problem thus the Israeli government must take all steps possible and allow the empowerment of even Israel’s worst enemies while forcing Israel into the most vulnerable position possible. If that is not a duality of treatment and expectations then I have no idea what one might call it.

 

Here is a quick review across the board on items concerning Israel and the Obama response and what we think Israel should do within legal structures by treaty and other binding international agreements.
Boundaries and expectations for the state of Israel, President Obama’s Ideas versus Our Responses.
President Barack Obama: President Obama insists that Israel be forced to pull back to the boundary lines from before the Six Day War and establish a terror state armed to the teeth on the high grounds overlooking the most vital and densely packed areas in Israel and also perched to cut Israel in half by a simple nine to twelve mile advance anywhere on a front which runs one third the length of Israel and perfectly centered on Tel Aviv.

BTC: If Israel desires to survive and have strategic advantages on the ground then Israel must retain the Judean Heights which run one third the length of Israel making all of Israel vulnerable. Israel must have control over the entirety of the Jordan River where it meets their current positions in all of Judea and Samaria. Finally, the Arabs claiming to be Palestinians should be granted their own autonomous zone where they provide the police and govern their areas completely but Israel maintains control of these lands in case of an attack and the autonomous Arab entity will not be permitted heavy weapons or other tools of war and if there should be terror attacks, the autonomous region may be dissolved by a vote in the Knesset.
President Barack Obama: President Obama has a grand plan which lasts ten, twelve, twenty, twenty-five, and forever all depending on which clause one is addressing. This plan will prevent Iran from actually producing nuclear weapons though they may continue all efforts to design and improve the nuclear weapons they might potentially build in the future but not for at least ten, twelve, well, depends on how you define nuclear weapon. The agreement promises that Iran will not build any nuclear weapons for ten years and there is no possibility they might break the treaty and produce weapons in secret and away from the agreed imposed inspections.

BTC: Again, should Israel intend to survive beyond the ten, twelve, whatever number of years your cumbersomely structured agreement leaves most everything open to several different interpretations. Technically Iran could produce all the required parts to form a nuclear warhead or bomb and simply not fully assemble them and have instant nuclear warheads after minor assembly. Even ten or twelve years is not all that long and the Iranian leadership will not leave willingly and thus all the treaty actually does is place certain steps as outside the agreement and Iran could be all ready to assemble the first of numerous nuclear weapons within a few hours after informing the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) that they are no longer bound by the agreement with the United States as President Obama made this deal and is no longer the President so the deal is now worthless as we did not get the word from the new President as to whether he would meet the United States obligations.

 

All this aside, there is a deeper problem for Israel, the average American Jew defines their Jewishness by their support for the Democrat Party because that is what liberals do. It does not matter if the Democrat is anti-Israel or anti-Zionist or even anti-Semite because these Jews believe that if the time returned for the Jews to be rounded up for the slaughter that surely they are of particular value and will thus be spared. These are the ‘It cannot happen in my country’ and ‘even if it does, I will be excepted as I am assimilated and value being a good little democrat than I do Israel or Judaism.’ The bad news is not only can it happen again, and happen in your country or spread to your country, but is already starting to happen. The BDS boycott divestment and sanction protesters are having such an influence in the United States that some of the Bible Belt states, counties, cities and municipalities are invoking new laws to expressly refuse to give contracts or have any business which supports the BDS aggregation and their demands while in some of the largest cities certain retailers now refuse not only products which may have come from a factory in Judea or Samaria but just to be safe, they stopped carrying anything Israeli. What is so ridiculous about the BDS craze is that for many Arab Palestinians, their employment despite working in the same enterprise and often sharing work space with Israeli Jews, they actually love their jobs and working conditions as they are superior to anything else available to them and the insurance and salaries are vastly superior and these are the companies and factories the BDS crazed and glazed eyed useful idiots are trying to destroy. The leaders of some of the BDS chapters, if you can credit them with that much organization, are actually Jews who are through and through pro-Arab Palestinian and tout the Israel as the colonial oppressor of the indigenous Arab population who have a written and proven history as the mythical nation of Palestine. Then there is the lobbying groups J Street headed by Jeremy Ben Ami who is a Jewish self-hater who despises everything that makes Israel the Jewish state. His drive is to flood Israel with as many as five or even ten million refugees with at their core is a sizeable group who entertains any demand or concession the Israelis could possibly make and additionally they desire to allow the right of return of five or maybe ten millions of Arabs into Israel within the Green Line and not simply into the Arab entity making Israel a binational state which will set to repairing that situation and taking Israel on a wholly, or should we say unholy, future with the eradication of those Jews unable or clueless enough to remain in Israel for any longer than the first elections, or should we say the truthful term of last election, especially if the new citizens forced Israel along with the world, including if not led by Jews living outside of Israel, the right to vote. As soon as they get organized, that will spell the end of Israel and with that the end of Judaism within our lifetimes.

 

There was a time when it could have been claimed and evidence provided that many Jews voted with a concern for Israel that was or rivalled their most dearly held political beliefs. The vast majorities of those Jews no longer vote in their former nation’s elections as they became Israeli citizens and viewed voting as such in their previous nation to be fraudulent. Even if these Jews were to vote in their former nation’s elections they would hardly make much of a difference. The last two elections for United States President had the highest total of formerly American Jews living permanently in Israel and being Israeli citizens, but are able to vote as dual-citizenship between Israel and the United States is recognized, voted in the Presidential election and voted well above 80% against President Obama. That should give anybody a hint as to how President Barack Obama is viewed here. In the United States the Jewish vote was 70% give or take a little for President Barack Obama. That plainly tells one of the differences between the views of these disparate sets of Jewish populations. The American Jews often support financially groups which work directly against Israel but have a devious manner where they use catch phrases such as “justice”, “fairness”, equality”, “equal opportunity” and “Tikkun Olam” which they interpret as “repair the world” which is accomplished, in their minds, as supporting every leftist cause, the more extreme the better. They give donations to the New Israel Fund which they defend by questioning accusingly how you could ever doubt their sincerity when it comes to supporting Israel as after all the New Israel Fund helps many groups and there are very supportive groups and they can usually list at least three or four. When anyone brings up that the New Israel Fund or J Street and numerous other charitable or political action groups and criticizes these groups the chorus is almost dutifully the same almost singing their response where they claim that these groups support Tikkun Olam, which they conveniently define as repairing the world and that means taking an active role and even trying pathways and making the hard choices required to repair the world and make the world more peaceful and diverse, never mind if diverse does not include Israel. One would never last ten seconds in a discussion should they point out that Tikkun Olam is not a banner one waves to forgive and forget what they were supporting as it is the supporting that is important, not to whom you give support as long as they claim to be for peace, the two state solution, respecting the dignity of the Palestinian cause and opposing that dreadful Prime Minister who oppresses Arabs, destroys their homes, refuses to enforce the law and arrest those Jews who destroyed olive trees during the harvest when the trees are cut back to a point where they appear dead but is necessary to have them produce fruit more rapidly and a better grade of olives and then there is the constant use of the IDF destroying homes and lives in Gaza so often. These are people who are truly Israel’s friends according to their assessment, after all they read the New York Times which is owned by a prominent Jewish family and they read Haaretz which they renew their subscription every year so they are getting all the real news. That is their closing argument and it works because hearing this given in such a condescending way as if to dismiss anything you say as invalid as it has never appeared on the front page of either the New York Times or Haaretz therefore it does not exist. As has been said before, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

The problem is Israel has more than sufficient enemies or nations who would actually celebrate if Israel was ever defeated. This was made obvious during the Yom Kippur War which had it started from the borders currently being demanded there would be no Israel today. There were no calls for the Arab forces to stop their advance at a certain spot and not go further than the Green Line. Fortunately Israel still held the Sinai Peninsula which allowed just barely enough time as those troops placed on the eastern side of the Suez Canal bought Israel the necessary time with their lives. They knew that every minute they held their ground that gave many troops the needed gathering time which was made more complicated as many soldiers were in synagogue and not near their home phones as this was well before cell phones were even in use so they had to go from synagogue to synagogue and interrupt the service and announce the general call up as a war had been launched on Israel. The world saw an almost defenseless Israel and nobody lifted a finger while they watched news broadcast after news broadcast waiting for the fateful news that the Egyptians had taken Tel Aviv and were well on their way to devouring Israel erasing it from the map. There was not a single attempt to prevent Israel being overrun, something which appeared inevitable in the first hours of the war but Israel regrouped, got her aircraft into the air and their tanks rolling and soon the tide changed and the Israelis not only thwarted their attack but had chased the Egyptian army back across the Suez Canal and were heading straight for Alexandria and Cairo when the world let loose with a mighty clamor demanding that this horrific assault by Israel stop immediately, not try to reach any major city nor advance any further and for the Israeli troops and armor be returned to the east bank of the Suez Canal. Egypt overrunning Israel, good for them according to the civilized world out there but have Israel routing Egyptian units and crossing the Suez Canal, horrific war crime, stop and retreat immediately, how dare Israel think they can be permitted to advance on Cairo or Alexandria.

 

It is no different today as the Arabs can riot and even murder Israelis, men, women, children, the elderly and even the three month old Hadas Fogel who had her throat slashed and her chest stabbed and opened removing her heart which was never found. She was brutalized along with almost the whole family with Rabbi Udi Fogel age 36, Ruth Fogel age 35, Yoav Fogel age 11, and Elad Fogel age 4. The father and infant Hadas were found by the terrorist Arab cousins asleep so they first slit the Father throat and finished killing him before he could react and then initially leaving the infant but one of the cousins returned after they had left the house to kill baby Hadas and brutalizing her corpse in an inhuman mutilation. Thanks to threats from across all of Europe as well as the United Nations and the United States, Israel is the only place on the planet where policies have been enacted and enforced sometimes up front and outwardly so the population of Israel understands these restrictions on the Jews and some quietly, almost silently so nobody will be upset. Some of the worst of these are that Jews may not build a house to live or even add a deck to their existing home as all building must cease or else. Jews are not permitted to defend themselves any further than the minimal amount required to escape as Jews when confronted are expected to surrender and run away. Jews are not permitted to pray on the Temple Mount. It is a law passed by a Muslim council and enforced by Israeli police. Jews are forbidden the right to pray at the holiest of all places upon this planet for Jews, the place where the First Temple and Second Temple stood. What can be ever so absurd as Jews being forbidden to pray not only in Israel but at the holiest of sites to Jews anywhere on Earth and Jews are forbidden even to move their lips as that might be payer, not allowed to bend their knees too much and especially both at the same time while stopped as that might be an act of prayer, not permitted to read from a book as they might be praying, and every group of Jews, sometimes every individual Jew will be accompanied by an Arab representative of the Waqf, the committee which forbade Jewish prayer within Israel on their holiest of sites, who makes judgements as to if one is perceived as praying and should this official claim you attempted prayer there is an Israeli police officer present to arrest them for praying. I think if I ever get a chance to visit the Temple Mount I am going to get arrested and there will little doubt as to whether or not I was praying as I will likely pray out loud, not loudly, simply out loud.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Who are Driving the Peace Process?

What was made obvious by the years of no progress and no meetings between the Palestinians and the Israelis in order to further the peace process, as it is euphuistically called, is that the two sides had exhausted all avenues and concurrently decided not to further the insanity wasting time and resources in fruitless pursuit of an unattainable agreement. What is obvious to all of the world is not always what is pursued by politicians who, despite their comments to the contrary, are just as aware of the futility of actions which they pursue despite all reason. The reason behind these actions are usually two-fold; first they do not end up on the receiving end of the consequences and second they are able to claim they are pursuing some noble quest seeking to accomplish that which every previous attempt had failed to resolve or accomplish anything measurable but they assure that they are different and have the previously attempted and true answer. Their real motivation is the shining prize of great accomplishment that shines all the brighter against the background of all the previous failures and, in the case of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process, the nice shiny Nobel Peace Prize which just happens to come with a rather sizeable monetary reward as the cherry on top. One further point that makes attempts at this prize even more tenable is that one does not even need to actually accomplish anything as long as they are able to hold a signing ceremony as was the sole accomplishment with the Oslo Accords which resulted in Nobel Peace Prizes for both Simon Peres and Yasser Arafat.

 

So, who are the contestants in this round of repair the irreparable Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process? This time around the politicians contending for the golden ring are United States President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. What makes this all the more despairing is that their method is the same old tried and futile path of forcing concessions from the Israelis while simply begging the Palestinians for any crumbs while promising to force Israel to give the Palestinians whatever they demand in return for favoring the third party with something they can wear as a cloak of great accomplishment. The problem is that the more one observes these expeditions into fruitlessness are that the Palestinians deal duplicitously not solely with the Israelis but with those third parties who imprudently entered the minefield of broken promises.

 

It becomes obvious at some point that the Palestinian enter into these numerous attempts throughout history with three specific aspirations they wish to attain, most important they wish to draw as many and as critical concessions from the Israelis as possible, exiting the negotiations at sufficiently early a stage so as to assure there have been no concessions required from themselves, and final to leave the negotiations at such a time and place as to maximize the insult to both the Israelis and whatever third party so foolishly initiated the entire process. Under Yasser Arafat the Palestinians had mastered this ploy and this is another accomplishment of which Yasser Arafat was a true master just as he was the father of modern terrorism. Since his demise the Palestinian leadership fell to Arafat’s second in command, Mahmoud Abbas who is a far cry from the original. This has been made even more evident in the most recent attempts at furthering the peace process in that the Palestinians under Abbas walk away from negotiations at the very start. In all manner of deceitful negotiating the current Palestinian leadership appears to lack the finesse and delicacy required to maximize concessions while continuing negotiations right up to the point where they themselves must make a concession. This would normally be a blessing as this deficiency minimizes the damage these negotiations should produce.

 

What negates the aforementioned blessing is that the protagonists in these negotiations, President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, have absolutely no regard and even a possible undisclosed desire to maximize the concessions forced from the Israelis even to the point of causing irreparable damage to the Israeli people. This was first made evident as far as President Obama is concerned when almost out of the chute in his first term President Obama demanded the Israelis apply a formerly unheard building freeze on all Israeli properties, towns, and settlements in the lands acquired during the Six Day War when the Jordanians joined the conflict and lost the areas west of the Jordan River. This action by President Obama broke all existing limits on how far any third party would go in order to attain the cooperation of the Palestinians. Never before had anybody in their initial attempt at forging some amount of reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israelis taken the liberty to actually demand an Israeli concession as their introduction into the process. Such an initiative showed a complete and utter disregard for the Israelis positions and may also have been an indication of insults to come. When one also figures in that the very first foreign leader called from the Oval Office after the Inauguration by President Obama was to none other than Chairman of the PLO and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as the insults in appearances shown Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when in his first visits to the White House in Washington DC as he was made to enter and leave meetings with the President by entrances other than the main entrance, an insult not foisted even on enemy heads of states which are antagonists of the United States as well as President Obama leaving in the middle of negotiations with the Israeli leader in order to have dinner with his family and doing so rather abruptly with instructions Prime Minister Netanyahu and his staff should take the time and reconsider their positions and attitudes and if they decided to amend their ways they should tell some functionary who would relay their acquiescence to the President’s demands.

 

Secretary of State Kerry, while not having an obvious record of anti-Israeli positions, has shown distaste for Prime Minister Netanyahu if only due to their differences in political outlook. The one act thus far which might tend to make one suspicious of Secretary Kerry’s opinion of the Israelis was his decision to appoint Martin Indyk as the mediator for the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Mr. Indyk was one of the politicians in the United States who as a former Ambassador to Israel was approached for his opinion on the Israeli disengagement from Gaza to which he claimed it showed great promise to lead to a full Palestinian state with new and friendlier leadership and a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This was the same disengagement that eventually led to Hamas taking over the Gaza in a violent coup and afterwards raining rockets onto Israeli towns, kibbutzim and farms neighboring Gaza. This was also the same disengagement which drove Netanyahu to resign from his Ministership position in Prime Minister Sharon’s Cabinet. Further, Mr. Indyk at the inception of these negotiations was a member of the board of the New Israel Fund, an extreme left, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel NGO which draws its monetary support almost exclusively (records show near or over 80% funding) from the European Union, European individual governments, George Soros, Arab Governments and other extreme leftist anti-Israel NGOs. Put all of these pieces of evidence together and you have an accurate picture of a situation designed to maximize damage to Israel in the pursuit of false praises from extreme leftist interests and the Arab world. The one hope for Israel in these times and under these conditions including enemies whose hearts are hardened is for the L0rd to soften their minds such that they become unable to exercise rational thought and thus become incapable of taking full advantage of the opportunities which have potential to destroy the Jewish State.

 

Beyond the Cusp