Northern Nigeria has been transformed into a mini-state under what Boko Haram has defined as their Caliphate which is all a part of the greater Caliphate as Boko Haram has declared loyalty with ISIS swearing their fealty with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Boko Haram in their recent attacks has solidified their controls all of the Borno Province up to and including the borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. There had been the solitary town of Baga along the western shores of Lake Chad which, due to the presence of a military base manned by multinational forces from Niger and Chad, resisted Boko Haram and believed the presence of the military base would continue to safeguard the twenty thousand plus populations keeping them safe. This was despite their being the lone holdout to the area to which Boko Haram has claimed has come under their rule as an independent state. This is part of Boko Haram’s latest claim of forming their own state with their announcing their membership as part of the greater ISIS Caliphate. The brave little township of Baga awoke earlier this week to the sounds of gunshots and screaming which, according to the few townspeople who managed to escape, came from all direction save the west, the direction of Lake Chad. The hope of the population dissolved instantly upon witnessing the military deserting their posts and making their escape leaving the people to fend for themselves without military troops or their weapons to defend themselves. Reports claimed that much of the population took to the lake to escape and are now trapped on an island without adequate food, water or shelter. The reports estimating the potential death toll vary widely from the low end of hundreds to as many as two thousand plus with the eventual death toll hard to estimate if the tens of thousands when adding those who have taken refuge on the Island fall to thirst, exposure or worse, Boko Haram deciding to finish their slaughter by making an amphibious assault on the island murdering the remainder of the citizens of Baga who have taken refuge there. Some reports included not just that there were bodies strewn across the entirety of Baga virtually lining the streets, but that much of the city had been destroyed by fire after looting the homes and stores of anything valuable, The reports appear only to differ by degree with those who escaped later providing the most heinous recounting.
This carnage will most probably be lost in the greater coverage of the attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where twelve individuals were slaughtered, two police including one Muslim officer and ten of the Charlie Hebdo staff including their editor and numerous cartoonists and staff members. There were also at least ten people injured with at least four with very serious wounds. The drama in France continued with a shooting of a twenty seven year old rookie female police officer named Clarissa Jean-Philippe who ‘dreamed of serving her country’. The suspected brothers, Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, from the Charlie Hebdo terror attack were surrounded in a printing house forty kilometers outside Paris where they held a single hostage. The brothers’ hostage was successfully saved when the brothers stormed from the factory firing at the forces surrounding their location. The Kouachi brothers had told officials they were prepared to be martyred and their wish came to fruition. Two police officers were wounded in the exchange with one possibly having succumbed to their injuries. The assassin of the female police officer, Amedy Coulibaly, was cornered in a kosher market where he had killed three people with his entry into the store. Upon the exchange of fire at the brothers’ location the message was sent to the other stand-off that the time for their raid had arrived. Police had accessed the closed circuit security camera inside the shop allowing the police to notice the terrorist kneeling to pray providing them with the advantage necessary for their assault with a maximum advantage and surprise. At least one more person was murdered at the kosher market bringing the toll of innocents to four plus the terrorist who also was killed. Reports list numerous hostages freed from the kosher market where some had stolen away in the freezer inside the market and were among the estimate of fifteen hostages being rescued from the market. This brings this terror attack to a close for which we can be thankful. Our sympathies lie with all the victims of the attacks in France and those being subjected to a living hell in Nigeria at the hands of the heartless, inhuman terrorist heathens of Boko Haram. We hope that the surviving residents from Baga are rescued before even more are murdered in the name of the Caliphate.
France has just been witness to the barbarity which Israel faces on a daily basis. The sole reason we do not read about endless such situations in Israel has to do with a state of constant alert along with the security fence/wall which along with checkpoints, both permanent and randomly placed, which prevent untold numbers of terror attacks. There are at least a half dozen reports which make the news in Israel each week with some weeks breaking a dozen such reports where Arabs are caught with large knives, pipe bombs and worse by the checkpoints, alert Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops, border patrol, and police while private security personnel also prevent attacks often without it ever reaching the news services. One could safely bet that less than half of the attempts to harm Israelis never get reported outside of the security forces reports and records. This speaks only to assaults with regular weapons such as bombs, knives and firearms. Then there are the terrorist attacks which succeed. Recently there was the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick whose crime is desiring to pray on the Temple Mount and to have it permissible for Jews, Christians and anyone else who feels the urge to pray be permitted prayer on this holy site but he was shot at point-blank range four times in the chest by an Arab Muslim whose reason was that he believes that only Muslims are to be afforded the privilege of praying on the holy site of the Temple Mount. Four Rabbis were gunned down and butchered while in the midst of their morning prayers with their Tefillin (phylacteries) and Tallit (prayer shawls) on and prayer books in their hands. There were other rabbis and worshipers who, praise Hashem, were able to escape with their lives though a number had serious but survivable wounds. These are terrorist attacks which were deadly successful in just the last few weeks and are but one side of the terrorism which is committed against Israelis and targeted at Jews almost exclusively.
The most unreported terrorist attacks are those where rocks and fire bombs are thrown at vehicles with Israeli license plates. These attacks happen to such an extent that the police and other security agencies refuse to bother to keep records. The reasoning behind not keeping such records is simple, telling and dangerous. If these attacks were recorded there would be data which those who feel that making peace with the Arabs who perpetrate murderous attacks daily is a recipe for disaster. There is a young girl of eleven years who is currently in hospital fighting for her life and even should she survive, she faces years of surgeries to repair the horrific damages to her face and torso from the fire bomb which broke through the vehicle windshield and exploded in her lap. If not for her father’s quick actions pulling her from the vehicle and extinguishing the flames she most certainly would have died from her wounds. There have been three or four children under the age of four who have been struck in the head by rocks often three inches in diameter if not larger which crashed through the windshields of the vehicles they were travelling in who survived but remained in comas for weeks or months and are going to require years of therapy and even then will never regain full function nor live a normal life. In some cases the rocks are hurled from vehicles speeding in the opposite direction from ambush sites set up by the Arab perpetrators. They have a lookout that waits about a mile up the road waiting for a car to pass with the appropriate targets inside and then signal the vehicle driver by cell phone. The driver than accelerates towards the victim vehicle gaining as much speed as possible and as the two vehicles close on each other passengers in the Arab vehicle hurl their projectiles, rocks, fire bombs or both at the target with the full intent on causing the most severe injury or murder as is possible. One of the most tragic and most well known as the surviving family members not only permitted the pictures of the victims but also the vehicle to be made public but insisted that they be displayed whenever their story was told. You see, many of these unfortunate children are more fortunate than was Yonatan Palmer or his father Asher who were killed when a rock of close to or over five inches diameter crashed through their windshield striking the father in the head killing him outright and thus causing the vehicle to careen off the road and crash into a tree where the impact killed Yonatan before he reached his second birthday. Below are pictures of Asher and Yonatan Palmer and below that their vehicle where it came to rest.
Yonatan & Asher Palmer rock attack victims
Yonatan & Asher Palmer’s Wrecked vehicle after rock attack Arab terrorists
Then there are the regular ambush sites which are set up at holy sites where those coming to worship can be ambushed. The two most well-known to Israelis, and the one well-known to the world, are the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives Cemetery. The Temple Mount has been the target of attacks for the last few months as the leadership of Hamas out of Turkey had arranged for these daily assaults in order to keep the Temple Mount closed to Jewish visitation. The Arabs have learned that if they continue to instigate violent protests on the Temple Mount then the security personnel will close the area off to Jewish visitation as this is considered the best policy to calm the Arab anger and thus alleviate the reason for the rioting. This tactic is now being employed against the Israeli government as the Arabs under the direction and funding by Hams are continuing prolonged periods of violence on the Temple Mount in order to keep the Jews from even being permitted to visit the Temple Mount. Hamas leadership has made clear their intent is to prevent Jewish visitation for a sufficiently long period so as to them argue that the Jews obviously do not hold the Temple Mount to be as holy as do the Muslims as the Jews never take the opportunity to make visits to the Temple Mount. Meanwhile the Arabs are pressing the Europeans and American to insist that the Israeli government take every step necessary to keep the status quo on the Temple Mount which results in the Jews being restricted from visitations while Arab violence is taking place as it is assumed that Arab violence is caused by Jewish presence or their having uttered prayers or simply appeared to have said something construed as prayer.
The Mount of Olives Cemetery is located such that the entry road passes under a sharp cliff on top of which is an Arab school. Whenever vehicles attempt to enter the cemetery they are pelted with rocks thrown from atop the cliff from the school yard above. There have been funerals where those attempting to attend were forced to turn back and attend the funeral from a great distance unless they were willing to brave the gauntlet and have their vehicles suffer the damage which would certainly be inflicted upon it and risk their persons as well. These assaults too are ignored by the majority of even the Israeli media as these events are common and as such not newsworthy unless something tragic occurs. This in and of itself tells a sad story as it means that even the most sacred of events, the burial of a friend, relative or associate is disturbed and those attending assaulted and potentially injured and it is not reported by most media within Israel and almost never, even when tragic results occur, reported outside Israel. Proof is likely as it is doubtful that many have even heard of the event described next where visiting prominent public figures elected to the United States House of Representatives were treated no different than Israelis or any others when they visited the Mount of Olives Cemetery as told as follows. On February 25, 2012, United States House of Representatives members Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, both New York Democrats, were walking in the Mount of Olives Cemetery when they were assaulted with rocks where a “baseball-sized” rock hurled at the group nearly hitting Representative Nadler. The American politician posed for a picture with the offending projectile which is below.
Mount of Olives Cemetery United States House of Representatives Rep Eliot Engel and Rep Jerrold Nadler pose with rock from terror attack
These attacks are made with the full knowledge of Mahmoud Abbas as he is now the leader of the unified Arab Authority over Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and these groups both political and ‘military’ arms. The ‘military’ arms are listed or have been listed previously, and delisted solely so the peace process could be carried forward, as terrorist groups by the United States, numerous European governments, the United Nations and the European Union. The demands that the Israelis make concessions to bring the Arabs to the bargaining table just so they can demand the total surrender of Israel to their maximalist demands and in return the Arabs refuse to promise to end their struggle to free their ‘homelands’ which means no end to the terror attacks like those listed above and still demand that Israel allow as many Arabs as can be found to be relocated within Israel with full political rights transmuting Israel into another Arab state in which the Jews lives will likely be short and brutal. As Jews we fully understand the reason that the Europeans have so little problem with this result. We are even beginning to realize that even the United States is changing politically and Israel can no longer fully depend on both parties to support her. We are still obliged to the American people and to those Europeans who support Israel and we thank each and every last one of them. What the world needs to realize is what happens in Israel eventually will happen outside Israel. Israel is but the front lines but those lines are moving as was evidenced in France and Nigeria this past week. The front lines are moving as has been evidenced in every Arab committed or attempted terror attack. There are two lessons the world must learn and learn quickly. The first is that Israel is no different, just a few years or so further down the road the entire world is traveling down whether they realize it or not. Second is that there are no lone wolves as so many apologists are fond of calling every terror attack. These attacks are all spawned from the same source and are simply the expression of those Islamists who do not have the patience to wait for their numbers to conquer the democracies of the world in the ballot box and desire results now. They believe if they are sufficiently violent then the Western nations and their citizens will cower and surrender to Islam. The one lesson above all else about Islam which must be remembered is that one does not join Islam, one does not observe Islam, one does not convert to Islam, one does not advocate for Islam, one does not attest to Islam, what one does is surrender to Islam, you are to surrender your will to Islam and these terrorist attacks are not an attempt to convert anyone, they are attempts to force you to surrender to Islam. This is a holy war and either you triumph or you will surrender to Islam, there are no other alternatives.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 