When Opportunists Meet

 

Moshe Ya’alon rode his wave of disruption and vitriol for all it was worth on his way out the door after turning a reprimand and offer of peace into a council for war, a war against his former friend, Bibi Netanyahu. The final fuselages fired from Ya’alon’s political muskets were easily deflected by a simple set of truths. There was the open defiance of his generals followed by the expressed displeasure of the serving Prime Minister, the same Prime Minister who had entrusted in Ya’alon with the position of Defense Minister not expecting a challenge to Netanyahu’s right and fitness to lead Likud, a position he was elected to hold by the membership of Likud. Ya’alon sided with his generals and then encouraged them to further make waves for him to ride roughshod over Netanyahu in a naked aggression challenging for the top spot. Even this was not sufficient for Bibi to declare war as he is secure in his position. The Prime Minister followed this insult with a soothing balm in the form of the position of Foreign Minister, a fine appointment most would all but kill for, yet insufficient for the hungry Ya’alon who sees now as his time. Slamming the door behind as he left the building, Ya’alon declared his intentions to replace Netanyahu as leader of Likud at the next opportunity, now he just needed wait for said opportunity. But political ambition is not a patience game and one strikes while the iron is hot.

 

Ya’alon must have welcomed the charging of the Retired Generals in their blistering reports titled Security First penned and presented by a group of retired generals and other security chiefs self-defined with the name “Commanders for Israel’s Security”. Their plans were just a rehash of their defeatist plans of surrender land and expect peace, a trade which despite numerous trials has yet to produce a true peace with any level of security. But when has failure ever altered the political path these other opportunists who have jostled their final military assignments so as to position themselves as the saviors of Israel from a problem many were complicit in forming. We can expect more from these gems in the rough as they polish their acts and each other to a lustrous shine, but diamonds these are not.

 

Former Prime Minister, Defense Minister and opportunist extraordinaire who had played friend, mentor, commander, and opponent all when it comes to his presumed friend for the expedience, an expediency which we can assume has now past, rides in Ehud Barak. One can only fear that Tzipi Livni cannot be far behind, though she would likely be seen and avoided as Kryptonite as every political entity she has touched withered and died unchosen on the vine. Speaking Thursday at the Herzliya Conference Ehud Barak called for a “popular protest” going into the next elections in order to bring Netanyahu down from power. One can only assume he sees himself as the answer as he often has previously. His claim was summed up in the quote, “A fanatical nucleus of radical ideology has taken over the Likud by taking advantages of loopholes in the party’s constitution regarding primaries, and ‘cleansed’ Likud’s leadership of all those who valued democratic values more than populism or a temporary accomplishment.” Why not just call his former boss and prior supporter as well as adversary an adversary again, the time seems right and the correct attacks from the right people appear thick in the atmosphere, but is this political fog one of change or just a low lying haze blinding small men’s sight? Attacking the entire Zionist branch of the populace as well as their representatives in power, Barak went on to restate previously disproven canards declaring where the current dreaded path would lead pronouncing as proven fact that, “Implementing the government’s current policy will necessarily lead to an ‘apartheid state’ or a ‘binational state’ with a Jewish minority within a generation or two, with a high likelihood of being engaged in an ongoing civil war between its two parts.” Population statistics and all other studies performed on any logical assessment of annexation of Judea and Samaria have shown both the apartheid state’ or a ‘binational state’ accusations of unavoidability to be as false as predictable trends can prove, but why let facts get in the way of another attack from the leftist peace through surrender camp. Their previous peace through surrender in Lebanon and Gaza have turned out so well, why not triple down and bet the house one last time, and it will be the last time as those who are fortunate might escape back into the Diaspora.

 

Ehud Barak then pointed out that should Prime Minister Netanyahu take Israel down the dangerous path of annexation, even of the main settlement blocks, it would bring ruin down upon Israel and that the only true path would be to start and start immediately dismantling the Settlements in occupied West Bank and bring them back within the Green Line as such would pacify Europe, the United Nations, President Obama, and, most of all, the Palestinians. There would be peace and flowers would grow on barren soil and there would be peace, blessed peace. There is absolutely no possibility that Mahmoud Abbas would rain rockets tipped with sarin gas down on Tel Aviv at the sight of three soldiers talking as he would claim Israel was massing troops to invade and had to be prevented. The world would then congratulate Abbas for keeping the peace as he destroyed the other settlements temporarily occupied by Israel, the settlements of Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Netanya, Ma’alot, Ashkelon, Beersheba, Dimona, Eilat, Jaffa, Haifa and the rest as they join in the desire with Mahmoud Abbas that Israel, the Jewish State, must be destroyed and destroyed utterly. These are the voices and sounds of the next Holocaust waiting for some fool to facilitate it in the name of Peace.

 

Quoting Jeremiah 6:14 as was so famously performed by Patrick Henry in his speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775, considering ratification of the Declaration of Independence he talked of Peace, peace, but there is no peace, the speech in its entirety, one of the most powerful of all speeches throughout history, he concluded stating (full text of speech can be found here)

Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

 

Ya’alon, for his part, has changed his tune now referring to Iran as a minor nuisance and not an existential threat as he had previously claimed when serving as Defense Minister, something we can simply assure ourselves he was ordered to claim that by the warmonger Bibi in order to frighten the masses into continuing to keep him and his Zionist crazies in power. Never mind that Abbas has said so in just so many words, unfortunately in that coded language which none appear capable of translating or even reading other sources who have translated them for the lazy such as us, there can be no peace as long as even a millimeter of Palestinian Land is occupied. Here is part of a press conference from 2015 where Mahmoud Abbas speaks his truth on occupation, sixty-seven years, since 1948 and the founding of Israel.

 

 

The maps used by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian and UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) schools all show the truth according to the Arab Palestinians teach their reality which has no room for an Israel and especially an Israel as the homeland for the Jewish People. It is the totality demands that resistance of the occupation has been claimed to remain even after any two state settlement may be reached as for the Arabs the only result they will accept is the ‘liberation’ of all of Israel and the eradication of all Jews.

 

 

 

The evidence of the real Palestinian agenda is often laid bare for all to see but most just ignore the evidence and instead believe fairy-tales they have heard repeated by Western diplomats and politicians who want a Nobel Peace Prize which comes along with even a long handshake between Arabs and Israelis. When Soda Stream moved its Judea factory within the Green Line in the northern Negev, they were met by BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanction of Israel) claiming a victory and then made known their new program against Soda Stream. The BDS claim was Soda Stream buckled under their pressure and then they immediately claimed that the new Soda Stream factory was built on ‘occupied, stolen’ land from the Bedouin town of Rahat, Israel. This is simply a case that the only thing acceptable to the BDS campaign is the eradication of Israel and every Jew residing there after which they would likely turn their sights on all other Jews. There is a reason their chant goes as it does other than to rhyme but to express their true goals when they proclaim, From the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea; Palestine Must Be Free!

 

 

These small and inconvenient facts do not bother the likes as the Retired Generals and Security Chiefs nor does it bother Moshe Ya’alon or Ehud Barak as any weapon in a fight is to be utilized and the war against Bibi Netanyahu must proceed despite any dangers which might arise. In this case not only does reality bite, but these opportunists chomp and chomp again at the bit just salivating for their chance to take home the prize. That is the reality that these opportunists live for and what they would be willing to allow all Israel to die for as a result. Just as long as they get to sit in the big chair in the big office being sought by small and petty men, that any consequence be damned as they demand their rightful prize. Further, it is tough out there but before jumping ship, and trust that we have our misgivings about Bibi and would love another choice of a viable and true Zionist, how much tougher will it be when the economic heart and soul of Israel lie smoldering with the acrid stench of death and chemicals fills the air? What is the use of new leadership at the helm steering the ship of state through coral shoals and waters if the mutineers have no true map, just this crazed notion that the sweet song from the shores is irresistible and they must draw nigh ignoring the jagged and sharp rocks and the broken timbers from previous ships who too ignored the warnings and answered the sweet Siren’s song. The sweet song of peace in our time has been tried countless times but there is a way which guarantees that Israel will live, that Am Yisroel Chai, and it comes from the Spartan phrase, the words of King Leonidas,

Molon Labe

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Vladimir Putin Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin is among the nominees for receiving the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize is strangely amusing in a sick way but is nothing compared to the reasoning given by the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World, a Russian advocacy group that broadly pursues peace, for their nominating him. They claim that since United States President was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize and was reputedly on the verge of launching minimally a withering bombing attack against Syria and Bashir al-Assad as a response and fulfilling a threat for the use by the Syrian military of chemical agents in that nations raging civil war, and as it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who interceded and prevented what could have resulted in a horrendous loss of life including many innocent victims, then fairness dictates that President Putin also should be awarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee will be meeting in the near future to begin to whittle down the choices from the record setting two-hundred-seventy-eight nominees to a more manageable number somewhere around forty, then subsequently to around twenty-five, then to a slim dozen or so and then finally to a single winner which will be announced some time in October.

 

On what I hope is a more serious note, some of the other nominees are Pope Francis; Denis Mukweg, a physician who for more than a decade “has given medical treatment to survivors of sexual violence and in 1999 he founded the Panzi Hospital in Bakuvu, DR Congo;” Edward Snowden; Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning (and these people wish to be taken seriously?); the protesters against the governments of Thailand and Venezuela; Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper “set up in 1993 at the initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev, who devoted part of his Nobel Peace Prize money for the purpose. The newspaper has since experienced the killings of several of its journalists. Its website has been exposed to numerous cyber-attacks;” and finally the one I would proudly support, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was shot by the Taliban because of her outspoken support for the education of girls who was a nominee last year and should have already been awarded this prize. With the history of some of the modern awardees of the Nobel Peace Prize such as Albert Gore for his work on global warming or Yasser Arafat for what, introducing the concept of hijacking airliners for political concessions and forcing the release of terrorist murderers? Yes, some Nobel Peace Prizes have been well deserved having the status, accomplishments and selflessness of a Mother Teresa, a worthy Nobel Peace Prize Awardee. I am sure we all would desire that the Nobel Committee would actually award what should and could be a most prestigious of international awards to less controversial and obviously political awardees such as President Obama who apparently was given one for getting elected President of the United States and the aforementioned Al Gore and Yasser Arafat. We will hopefully get an awardee worthy of Albert Nobel’s original intents and purpose returning some of the presumed dignity that a Nobel Peace Prize should confer. Edward Snowden; Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning; and this is supposedly a serious list? Puleeeeze!!

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Russia and Ukraine Face-Off

A face-off between Russia and the Ukraine would have been more welcomed on the ice at the Olympics in Sochi a few weeks back. Instead the world is facing a heated and anxious situation as Russian troops have entered the port city of Sevastopol, Ukraine which serves as the home port for both the Ukrainian Navy and the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Russians are claiming these troops are within agreed upon levels by treaties they have with the Ukraine and have nothing to do with the recent changes in the Ukrainian governance. For obvious reasons, the new government in Kiev is viewing this other than normal infusion of Russian troops in the areas of the Ukraine populated largely by Russians who were placed there by Stalin during his rule over the Soviet Union. A underlying level of animosity has existed between the Russian and native Ukrainian population which has only intensified as a result of what those Ukrainians who feel a close affinity to Russia feel has been an illegal coup by those who have recently claimed to have replaced the former government of President Viktor Yanukovych after months of protests. Further aggravating what is definitely a delicate situation are the rumors that the Russians are also providing a safe haven for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who has yet to actually fully accept and acquiesce to the fact that there is a new governance going to be elected come May 25^th unless something alters the current situation.

 

United States President Obama has expressed concern and warnings to Russian President Putin not to interfere with the “natural progression” currently evolving in Kiev and across the Ukraine. It is highly doubtful that President Putin will be anything other than mildly amused by President Obama issuing warnings as he has had more than enough experiences with the United States President’s Red-Lines. This begs the question why President Putin would only send in a limited force and whether the restraint is due to modest goals or a test to discern what the reactions will be from the rest of the world. Our guess doubts that Putin cares one whit about how the rest of the world, the United Nations included, will react to his placing troops in the Russian areas of the Ukraine. What is far more likely is Putin is only interested in the safety of the southern port at Sevastopol, Ukraine which allows for the Russian entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and from there the Atlantic Ocean and through the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean and beyond. There are more than sufficient Russian reserve troops poised on the Ukrainian border along with a fleet of aircraft should a larger assault prove necessary. The fact that the Russian presence is limited in both scope and numbers and basically simply holding two airports in the eastern and southern regions and the port city of Sevastopol, one is led to believe that the Russians are simply protecting critical infrastructure and military infrastructure and may have no intent to challenge the evolving politics in the Ukraine. On the other hand, we may be witnessing the first stages of a repeat of the Russian intervention into Georgian Republic where Russian military forces took by force the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which have large ethnic Russian populations similar to the eastern and southern areas of the Ukraine.

 

The responses available to the nascent leadership in Kiev will be completely dependent upon the support or lack thereof from the Ukrainian military. One can expect that the Ukrainian military would not be overly anxious to test their abilities against the Russians, and it is no wonder why. The basic truth is that whatever Putin decides he wants to do, he has the military power and resources to accomplish and this includes reversing the overthrow of President Yanukovych’s government. This has been further enabled as the Russian parliament unanimously voted to grant President Putin permission to mobilize the country’s military to utilize in the Ukraine. The European Union does not actually have sufficient military to enforce anything and are likely to at most sound some bluster and noise that will have little effect. As far as President Obama, he is far more interested in disassembling and paring down the United States military forces and capabilities than he is about preventing Putin from having his way in the Ukraine. The truth is that the United States under the auspices of President Obama has no international intentions and has basically surrendered all foreign policy decisions to the rest of the world. President Obama has decided to vote “Present” on all things beyond the maritime borders of the United States and maybe not even that far out to sea. His entire foreign policy can be summed up in one goal, force Israel to capitulate to as much of the Palestinians demands as possible and hoping that is sufficient to get a Palestinian state founded and he and Secretary of State Kerry a Nobel Peace Prize. Everything and everyone else, best of luck without us, the US. As we said when President Obama was first elected, welcome to Jimmy Carter on steroids. Jimmy Carter gave us the Ayatollahs ruling Iran and Barack Obama is giving the Ayatollahs a free run at manufacturing their own nuclear weapons. Russia imposing their will on the Ukraine, though a sad affair and unfortunate for those who fought so long to win a fresh start for their nation without corruptocratic rulers, a nuclear armed Iran will result in a far more damaging future and it is all thanks to Barry.

 

Beyond the Cusp