Israel Standing for the World Day In & Day Out

 

This tale begins on the borders of Israel and the community known as the MENA* States. In the southwest, Israel has a present provided her by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which has all the fingerprints of being hatched in the Deep State parts of the Department of State, the only department in the American government to get every decision wrong from day one. They supported paying the ransoms and protection demands from the Barbary Pirates and were willing partners in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) which also goes by the name of the Iran Nuclear Treaty. They advised against recognizing Israel in 1948 and have opposed providing arms to Israel in every Arab Israeli conflict and were behind the Liberty intercepting Israeli military communications and providing them to Egypt, the real reason behind it being struck was because of said spying. They advised President Reagan to punish Israel for striking the Osirak reactor where Saddam Hussein was planning to make nuclear weapons. They supported President Obama in revealing sensitive information shared by Israel as agreed in private treaty when Israel told of several plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites by shaming whichever Arab or Islamic state had agreed to provide some level of aid from Saudi Arabia to Azerbaijan. They also told Israel that nothing could go wrong in permitting the Palestinian Authority (PA) an opportunity to show their honest desire to create a working and normal democratic state by pulling completely out of Gaza and turning it over to the PA. Within two years they lost it to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and friends and the rest is history. The State Department also supported providing aid money even knowing that much of it would be given to Hamas and has worked tirelessly against President Trump at every turn. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson fit in at the State Department like a hand in a glove which is why he was likely fired. We figure that if violence were to flare up between Gaza and Israel over the Israeli habit of destroying infiltration tunnels constructed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the State Department would claim that the two terror groups had a viable complaint as these tunnels are expensive and rebuilding them prevent the rebuilding of apartments and other structures destroyed from the last two wars thus Israel is causing stress and difficulties for the people of Gaza and doing so without feelings of remorse.

 

Further south, Israeli border problems take a very strange turn for the unpredictable. Here they border the Sinai Peninsula belonging to Egypt but controlled by Islamic State, Hamas, Islamic Jihad (last two based in Gaza), al-Qaeda, criminal gangs, Muslim Brotherhood backed groups, Wilayat Sinai, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Tawhid al-Jihad, Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Hasm Movement, Jund al-Islam, Takfir wal-Hijra and a myriad of other names and tribes of whom you have likely never heard. This was the situation which the al-Rawda mosque in Bir al-Abd was attack and over three hundred people were murdered and a Russian passenger plane was bombed falling from the sky and so many other attacks that Egypt has secretly granted Israel freedom to engage and even requested assistance on a few select occasions. The Sinai Peninsula has some of the roughest areas on the globe in its central spine where one could hide an army from easy detection, let alone strike forces from terrorist groups and training facilities (see image below). Israel has acted with great caution only attacking in support of Egyptian troop movements providing air support. Israel does not intend to take such measures such that she gains a new active border to add to her already serious border problems. Israel will attack when struck from the Sinai Peninsula, especially when such attacks come from Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other Gaza entities. There have been any number of such instances and the responses from Israel eventually included attacking their training places in Gaza. Israeli willingness to strike within Gaza for those attacks out of the Sinai quickly brought such attacks to a close as there was no longer any benefit if Israel was going to strike Gaza as part of their response.

 

Mountainous Sinai Peninsula

 

Moving to the opposite end, at the north there is Lebanon which means Hezballah. The world must accept that Lebanon and Hezballah are one and the same as Hezballah is now part of the government and the ruling coalition, has taken control of the Army meaning they have also taken control of Abrams main battle tanks, M-113 armored personnel carriers, M-198 Howitzers and other American aid provided by President Obama after receiving guarantees that the Lebanese Army and Hezballah were completely separate entities. The fortunate item is these American arms did not include fixed wing aircraft. Still, Lebanon has capable fixed wing aircraft of Russian manufacture plus they have taken an unknown number and types of weapon systems from the war in Syria where they are allied with Syria and thus Russia and Iran.

 

This brings us to the Golan Heights in the North East bordering the sausage grinder known as the Syrian Civil War. Syria also has Hezballah and all their gained weaponry. Russia is there but has stood down concerning Israel and appears to have reached some agreement with Israel for sharing Syrian airspace. This is what has permitted Israel to strike Syrian, Hezballah and Iranian targets in Syria without facing Russian aircraft in combat. The dangers to Israel in Syria come largely from Iranian and their IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) forces which are in reality a second and possibly larger and better-trained military augmenting Iranian regular military placed in charge of foreign insurgencies and operations. These were the units which aided in the planning and commission of the attacks on the AMIA (Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association) and Israeli Embassy bombing and very likely took part in the murder of Natalio Alberto Nisman, Argentine Prosecutor of the AMIA bombing case. Iran has a long arm with the IRGC, not to mention a great degree of credible deniability. The destruction Iran can deliver virtually anywhere on the globe was proven with the AIMA bombing (see image below). On October 11, 2011, United States officials alleged there was a plot tied to the Iranian government to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in the United States. The entire width and breadth of Iranian perfidy may never be known, but the one thing history has proven is such evil must be faced as early to its discovery as the reality is waiting only permits it to grow stronger and the forces which will have to eventually fight it grow weaker.

 

Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina Building Bombing Aftermath

 

There is one more front which is to the east between Israel and the Jordan River which the world calls the Occupied Territories. The reality is it was the occupied territories before the Six Day War when Jordan occupied lands which were promised Israel under the San Remo Conference and several following treaties all the way forward to Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. After the Six Day War, eventually Jordan reached a peace treaty of 1994 where Jordan released her claims to these lands and they should have reverted to Israel. The Arabs residing within these territories mostly held Jordanian citizenship and should have been deported to Jordan or permitted to resettle wherever they chose outside of Israeli lands. The world decided that instead they would use these Arabs as tools to destroy the Jewish State. Over time the Palestinian People were invented and a mutated copy of Jewish history was woven and the world decided that this was reality. This front might actually be the most stable and predictable front and the one which poses the least problem at this point in time as it is the only one not under Iranian influence as of yet. There is a current continuing series of stabbings and vehicular rammings which are being spawned by a bounty put on every Israeli’s head. If the terrorist is imprisoned, they receive a healthy salary and if they are killed their family receives a healthy pension. The reward presumably lasts for as long as the PA has money. This is also the front where the European Union and a number of European nations practice their shams to make Israel look evil. The European Union places housing presumably for Palestinians to live in but the homes are placed in an illegal location with no planning, no electricity, no plumbing and below any reasonable building codes and are uninhabitable. These houses are put up for one reason and only one reason, to force Israel to destroy them at which point European politicians decry the demolition of these homes. Immediately thereafter the European Union puts these uninhabitable homes back up and when Israel destroys them again the same politicians claim how horrible the destruction of Palestinian homes has become. Believe it or not, the European Union reconstructed these homes again and the same results. We are waiting for the fourth construction which is sure to follow, look for it. That completes the tour as thusfar Jordan has not presented any problems but things can change.

 

Now we will cover the main problem, Iran. One might say that Israel has Iran to the south of her, Iran to the north of her, Iran to the northeast of her, and Iran now capable of taking position to the west of her on the Mediterranean Sea using Syria and Lebanese ports for supplies. Additionally, there is the threat of the Iranian bomb, the Iranian nuclear bomb, the Iranian thermonuclear bomb, the Iranian thermonuclear bomb miniaturized and packed atop any of the myriad of Iranian missiles, many developed in conjunction with Iran’s nuclear and missile developmental partner, North Korea. What we have always found difficult to understand, how is it that North Korea has developed a complete range of nuclear weapons and guided missiles, and Iran has shared in the development and testing of those missiles, how is it that the Iranians were completely left out of the nuclear weapons development. We fear they were not and have just as complete an armory of nuclear weaponry and the missiles to deliver them over a very wide area of the globe (see map below) which is made far greater by the addition of the territories in Syria and Lebanon as well as the Tri-Border-Region in South America. Given the additional launching locations, Iran can strike almost anywhere on the globe. This is why intelligence agencies in the West must make determining exactly what armaments the Iranians already posses their number one priority as to procrastinate this task would be criminal or an idea the State Department would convince Congress was wiser.

 

Ranges of Iranian Missiles

 

Iran is the greatest threat to the world, even greater than North Korea, China, Russia and anything else one might propose. One of the reasons is that Iran has its paws into numerous pies, many of which are terrorist in nature such as Hezballah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They also have the IRGC which has a global reach and well trained in the commission of terrorism including but not limited to bombings and assassinations. They have already established their Shiite Crescent reaching from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea passing through from Iran to Iraq and Syria and Lebanon and with Yemen they gain control over the Red Sea and thus the Suez Canal. They also have influence in Gaza with direct influence over Islamic Jihad and often are able to make deals with Hamas. They also arm Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezballah. They operate training in South America in an area where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil seen in a map here. Iran is attempting to take control of the Islamic world and should they take control over Mecca and Medina as well as the Saudi oil fields, they might be able to claim to become the leader of Islam and have Sunni Islam be replaced with Shiite Islam as numerous Arabs convert pledging their support for Iran. This could lead to Iran controlling the entirety of the MENA nations which would leave Europe vulnerable. Iran is a threat gathering and this is a storm which if left ignored would be an even greater error than the Munich Pact. What makes this even more perilous is that this time it will not require anybody signing an agreement, that has been done already with the JCPA, but only require good men to do nothing while evil men plot, scheme and make irreversible gains.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

*MENA means Middle East & North Africa

 

Let’s Complete the Peace Process the Only Way Possible

 

Currently there are two processes ongoing which sound very similar, share much of the same terminology but have diametrically different end results targeted. Allow us to break down the ideas on the Israeli side and see what their actual desires really are, and then we can take the Arab side. There are at least two separate paths being traveled by the Israelis, each with their own divergent groups; so we will follow the first two and perhaps comment on such divergences. The first group is the dreamers, whose links, or even contacts which can barely be described as attachments, with reality are dubious at best. This group is made up of largely wonderful and loving people who dream of a world which is described in terms and terminology which speaks to the heart and has one’s spirit soar. Just thinking of their descriptions of life and the potential future should their dreams and designs ever actually materialize leaves one almost star-struck. They view the world seeing potential utopias coming at them from every crevice, every corner, every fold and through every door. It was from amongst these dreamers along with a few manipulators working for fame, glory and gold who banded together to give Yasser Arafat a fresh start and a makeover by giving the PLO* a new name with respectability calling it the Palestinian Authority (PA). These individuals who operated in quiet behind the scenes avoiding notice from media, officials, other party leaders, their own party leaders not included or necessary, and with the aid of the United States State Department and the Norwegian Foreign Office. The Israelis chasing peace above and beyond all other reason or consideration believing that through peace all other solutions would naturally flow were:

Yitzhak Rabin — Israeli Prime Minister during the Oslo peace process
Shimon Peres — Israeli Foreign Minister during the Oslo peace process
Yossi Beilin — Israeli negotiator during the Oslo peace process
Yair Hirschfeld — Israeli negotiator during the Oslo peace process
Ron Pundak — initial Israeli negotiator with Hirschfeld before official Israeli involvement
Uri Savir — former Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, head of the Israeli negotiating team

 

The United States State Department and Norwegian Foreign Office participation were facilitators who took advantage of weak willed dreamers whose connections with reality were, and for some still are, tenuous at best. Neither the United States State Department and Norwegian Foreign Office were or are friends of Israel and simply used their ability to make the necessary connection for allowing the Israeli members of the team to hand Israel out to dry with peace as the shining treasure always just beyond reach. They were more likely working with Yasser Arafat then and Mahmoud Abbas now to facilitate the destruction and terminating of the Jewish State, seemingly the preferred and pursued aim of the United States State Department and Norwegian Foreign Office. At every turn, there was a State Department or European Union official right on the scene to suggest the little gift which Israel needed to, not just offer, grant the Arabs some simple concession and recognize the Arab intentions as honest and worthwhile pursuing their lead for peace. These men would have been wise to read more Torah and Bible, Jeremiah, Chapter 6, Verses 13-15 which read:

For, from their smallest to their greatest, they all commit robbery, and from prophet to priest they all deal falsely.
And they healed the breach of My people easily, saying, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace.
They shall be put to shame since they have committed abomination. Neither are they ashamed nor do they know to feel disgrace. They will, therefore, fall among the slain; at the time I have visited upon them, they will stumble, says the Lord.

 

These men have fumbled and been shamed and accused of having committed abominations yet they appear not to have felt ashamed nor felt disgraced despite all the horrors and losses the ensuing terror wars and other violences and wars visited upon the Israelis and the Arabs as a result of their actions. Their initiatives for peace made a swamp in which Israel was mired and what began as a few starry-eyed Utopian zealots being led down the yellow-brick road seeking the Emerald City only to fall into endless dream-state hypnotized by their dream and willing to destroy their homeland just to be recognized as one who was willing to go to the farthest ends for the illusional peace always held just beyond reach. For closing on a quarter of a century, a mirage of peace was painted on the horizon while stumbling blocks were placed in the way by the Arab Palestinian leadership. The Palestinians and their Arab allies were willing to pay any price and suffer any embarrassment to destroy the Jewish State. This had been the efforts in the initial war of Jewish annihilation in 1948-49 (the war misnamed the Israeli War of Independence), the War to Drive the Jews into the Sea (The Six Day War of 1967), the Second War to Drive the Jews into the Sea (the Yom Kippur War) and two Intifadas: First Intifada from December 8, 1987 through September 13, 1993 and Second Intifada from September 28, 2000 through February 8, 2005. The first Intifada was fought largely with rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, guns, rifles, vehicles and suicide bombings. The toll on both sides of the first Intifada were: Israel suffered 277 killed, 175 civilians and 102 security-forces with the Palestinians suffered 1,962 killed, 1,603 killed by Israelis and 359 killed by Palestinians. The second Intifada was fought with the same weaponry as the first with a higher reliance of firearms, vehicular assaults, bombings suicide and planted devices, rioting, stabbings and other life-threatening types of assaults. The Second Intifada was far more violent than the first and the numbers support this fact. The toll on both sides of the second Intifada was: Israel suffered 1,053 killed, 719 civilians and 334 security-forces with the Palestinians suffered 4,789 killed, 2,204 civilians, 1,671 combatant and 914 unknown. These numbers are challenged with them ranging from far more combatant fatalities to all civilian fatalities on the Palestinian side. The United Nations and Red Cross both refused to give what they would term as definitive results and regularly simply pointed to numbers given by the Palestinian Authority. All of these efforts have been to find some additional forms of piece by the Arabs, whatever pieces of Israeli territory they could force through military action to negotiations to outside foreign pressures for Israel to calm the savage violence through sacrifice to simple blackmail of agreeing to end violence for the surrender of land or the alteration of boundaries granting the Arabs additional land.

 

The reason there can never be an agreed peace agreement is because while Israel is seeking peace, the Arabs simply want every piece of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This reality can be witnessed at many of the college and university pro-Arab demonstrations usually sold as being pro-Palestinian. There will likely be a slogan chanted which goes, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free.” That pretty much sums up the entire Arab side of the entire Peace Process which they see as a Pick up all the Jew Pieces Process. It is the Arab Piece Process running concurrently yet in opposition to the Peace Process the world claims they are operating and demanding more cooperation from Israel in the form of giving the Arabs what they desire most, pieces of Israel. Resultant from the Six Day War there was quite a lot of Israel to take. Egypt succeeded in grabbing the greatest part when they traded a cold peace agreement for the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan simply traded Peace for Peace refusing to demand return of what they had renamed the West Bank, as they were probably well aware that their continued hold of these lands was illegal, as they had occupied them since 1949 against International Law. They had gained these territories, the areas of Judea and Samaria, from Israel by a war of aggression making the seizure illegal. Syria, well, Syria was never getting the Golan Heights returned simply because this area had been used by Syrian snipers to murder Israeli farmers and others who were within range driving down the road, walking to the market or simply tending the garden or repairing their house. Currently, there is no Syria to negotiate with in all reality. The problems with Lebanon resulted in two wars and eventually Israel returned every inch of land according to United Nations inspectors and surveyors, which did not satisfy Hezballah who has demanded an area which had belonged to the Golan Heights and Syria claiming it for Lebanon, and strangely enough, Syria agreed. Anything for the cause.

 

There is one guarantee which must be dealt with before any true Peace Process can move forward, and until it is settled, there will only be a Piece Process. That is what is used as the final stumbling block which is that Israel must either be destroyed or given over to Islamic rule and the Jews either enslaved or removed by whatever means are required. There is a piece of history which would shine the light of truth on this entire situation and the Arab demands. The originator of the Arab demands was also the most influential individual in one young Egyptian’s life, one Yasser Arafat. Quoting from an article in the Washington Times titled “Yasser Arafat: Nazi trained”, “Since he was a teenager in the 1940’s, the co-winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize has ordered the murder of thousands of civilians while waging war against the Jews.” The article continues, “Mr. Arafat’s mentor, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, indoctrinated him with hatred toward Israel. The grand mufti led Palestinian Arabs from 1920 until Mr. Arafat succeeded him in 1967.” Then, speaking of Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem as well as a native Egyptian, the article informs that, “During World War II, the mufti journeyed to Nazi Germany where he personally begged Adolf Hitler to invade British-ruled Palestine and rid it of Jews. The mufti received sympathy, but no help, from Hitler. Nevertheless, he broadcast radio tirades approving Hitler’s ‘final solution’ of the Jewish problem.” The article also tells that “In 1929 and 1936, the mufti personally led large-scale riots against Jewish settlers.” The article then moves on to Yasser Arafat reporting, “Palestinian politics and was the first Palestinian nationalist to declare, ‘Violence is the only solution,’ that ‘Liberating Palestine could only take place through the barrel of a gun.’” We are told that Yasser Arafat was an Engineer yet he made his life as a terror master and deceiver. We are finally informed that Yasser Arafat was somewhat less than popular once he left Israel and entered Arab countries where, “Mr. Arafat and his ruthless PLO terrorists were violently expelled from three different host countries: Syria in 1968; Jordan in 1971; and Lebanon in 1982.” We are told that Arafat supported Saddam Hussein during the 1990-91 Gulf War and closes hoping that, “Mr. Arafat now seemed discredited.”

 

Yasser Arafat had an understudy, Mahmoud Abbas. Both were trained by and supported by the KGB who was instrumental in the 1964 founding of the PLO. The founding date for the PLO is very informative in and of itself, as it was founded in 1964 to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine, before the Six Day War by almost three full years. What was the Palestine they were founded to liberate? Jordan held Judea and Samaria and Egypt held Gaza which leaves Israel within the Green Line. That was exactly what the PLO was founded to liberate and their Charter gave the destruction of Israel as one of the goals, just as the Hamas Charter names the destruction of Israel as one of its goals. The biggest difference between the two Charters is that Hamas also calls for the completion of the ‘Final Solution’ and the killing of every Jew on Earth. Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas have played one consistent part of the entire negotiating process; they are the final backstop who will accept only the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish State and anything short they reject. Their usual card of last resort has been the repatriation into Green Line Israel with guaranteed full citizenship of five to eight million Arabs who they claim are refugees or descendants of refugees or their descendants onto the future with no end date. The United Nations set up UNWRA** to care for the original Palestinian refugees, most of which were people who obeyed the Mufti’s demand that all Arabs leave Israel for the neighboring Arab states so that their invading armies could murder everyone on sight. The majority of Arabs left Israel and those who remained are today, along with their descendants, full citizens in Israel with full rights including the right to vote in any and all elections, serve in any profession, live wherever they please and anything else any other citizen of Israel is entitled. UNWRA decided that not only were the refugees permitted refugee status but so would their descendants and their descendants henceforth and forever into perpetuity. All other refugees have their status die when they die and their descendants are resettled into whatever country they may be located, but not the Arab refugees who can be utilized as another means for destroying Israel and as a bludgeon with which to smash any hope of peace. Israel cannot allow the resettlement with full rights of these Arabs as that would end Israel and the Jewish State instantly. This is the Ace in the Hole which is pulled out and demanded as the Demand of Last Resort to make any peace deal untenable to Israel. The Palestinian Arabs then claim that Israel broke off negotiations and are completely unprepared to make peace and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The European and American leftist media jump all over the Arab story and rejoice in skewering Israel in news and editorial. This becomes the story that the world celebrates while they berate Israel for their intransigence and that is when they destroy Israel ‘in pieces’ comes into play. Now the United States, often at the behest of the State Department or the President on the advice of the State Department, along with the European Union, the United Nations and the Arab League with countless NGO’s operating on petro-dollars plus European funding and State Department grants all demand that Israel make penance for their refusal to commit suicide and now surrender some property, some lands to the Palestinian Arabs. This is accomplished either by redrawing boundaries or by ripping up plans to build in Area C, the area according to the Oslo Accords intended for Israel to retain, or the destruction of housing already with Jews residing within the community tearing down their homes and businesses all to mollify the Arabs who refuse to be mollified. Then when the next President is elected or before one is leaving office, the world starts again with the mantra, pressure Israel and make them bend to our will and if that means the Jews must go, that is just fine with us.

 

Food for Thought

 

It is simply remarkable how the world looks at the Jews who, in a whole, have been such an advantage and given the world so many wonders, and their share of evils as well, though the good far outweighed the rest. Just as it was during World War II and during the Russian pogroms, the Spanish Inquisition, the Purification of France, the expulsion of the Jews from Britain and numerous other persecutions of the Jewish People, the world today still wants the Jews and especially the Jewish State gone. Things were not all that rosy for the Jews in the Arab world who were forced to live as Dhimmis with limited rights and no legal right to vote or in court or any standing in society. Sure there were times and places where the Jews lived productive lives both in Europe and in the MENA^* states of Islam but these times were never permanent. The MENA nations from 1948 through 1960 expelled almost one-million Jews as their reaction to the founding of the Jewish State. Unless these refugees who had their wealth stripped, their jewelry confiscated, even their precious metal picture frames taken before being deported, had relatives in Europe or the Americas; they were rejected by virtually every nation on Earth except, you guessed it, Israel. This made Israel a far richer nation with a much more diverse population. Israel has also taken in Ethiopian refugees, Indian Jews and Russian Jews amongst Jews from all the corners of the globe. Still, the Arabs will continue to hold out for the destruction of the Jewish State. The recent appearance of warming has simply been a reaction to the Iranian threat to the Sunni Arab supremacy. Once that passes or some means is found to rejoin Shiite and Sunni Islam, the destruction of Israel will return to front and center of their demands.

 

President Trump is the first President to break with business as usual and appears to listen to the voices of the State Department, the European Union and member nations, the United Nations and the Arab League as well as Iran and other Muslim nations very politely and then do something else, something which he desires and can live with. He does temper his statements just enough so as not to destroy everything from the past, but he makes his preferences known and what he expects understood. The Arab world now realizes that there can no longer be any doubt as to what city is the capital of Israel, though President Trump did leave open the possibility for Jerusalem becoming a shared city if both sides so desired. The Arabs have already adjusted and their latest demand is that all the religious sites must remain as Muslim only. These include the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Joseph’s Tomb, Rachel’s Tomb, Shechem (now Nablus) and even now the Western Wall as their aim now that they will be unable to separate the Jews from Jerusalem, from Zion; their aim is to now separate the Jews from the Holy Sites in all of the lands as the next best way to deny the Jews their history. The Arabs are plating strategy where if they can remove Zion from Zionism they believe the Jews will just shrug and give-up walking away. They are a young religion almost fourteen hundred years while Judaism is amongst, if not the, oldest religion on Earth, older than Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto and many others including every Christian religion coming in at over four-thousand years old. Jews have survived half of that time largely dispersed and without any true homeland or nations of their own and still retained their native language and feeling as a People returning to their ancestral homeland making the Jews the only People and religion to perform such a miracle. With everything the Jewish People have survived, a little additional hardship will not foil our efforts to return to our homelands no matter how much time it will take; we have waited longer than Islam has existed; how could they believe they will outlast the Jews, the eternal people.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

* PLO = Palestinian Liberation Organization, a recognized terrorist group founded in 1964
** UNWRA = United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
^* MENA = Middle East and North Africa

 

Israel Cannot be Another United States

 

The first and most obvious reason is size, though that is the least important reason. But the long version of the title for this article should read, “Why Israel cannot be another United States and why the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) are in such a mess.” Then the first sentence would change. So, let us start again. Israel cannot and must not be made into a small version of the United States in the Middle East any more than Japan made into United States Asia Pacific, Thailand made into United States Southern Asia, Tanzania made into United States Africa or Poland made into United States Europe. In every case, these are nations which have been homelands to a particular people in some cases since before written history. The Jewish People are directly traceable to the southern nation between the two nations of the Hebrews who came out of Egypt. The two nations were, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judea whose people became known as Judeans which over time, and for ease of pronunciation, became Jews. The northern kingdom of Israel was the northern ten tribes with their priest lived in the tribes of Judea and the far smaller Benjamin and their priest, which resulted in the tribe of priests, the Kohanim and the Levites divided between the two kingdoms. As the newly reformed nation invites all of the tribes of Israel and Judea to return, the older name Israel was chosen for the nation of the Jews.

 

Let us now speak to why there are so many wars and unrest throughout the nations making up the area called MENA. The problems derive from the decisions made on how to break up the areas which had belonged to the Caliphate and then the Ottoman Empire as the Ottoman Empire had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the losing side. The Allies; Serbia, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and the United States were left to decide the new boundaries for the losing forces. The decision was decided to return lands to their indigenous peoples with the exception of the Ottoman Empire as these lands had been transformed into Arab-Muslim lands under Arab rule with their original indigenous tribal demarcations pretty much erased. Germany and Austria-Hungarian Empire were redefined with new borders defined for Germany with their losing areas to Poland and France. The Austria-Hungarian Empire was broken up into numerous nations which were again divided after the fall of the Soviet Union leading to the nations Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Romania and Serbia today (see map below). These divisions were presumed to make nations too weak to begin a new war as Austria-Hungarian Empire had, forcing the Great War. As further punishment, Germany was restricted in the size of their military and police, forced to pay prohibitive reparations and was forbidden from making air or naval power sufficient to threaten England, France or Russia. Obviously, that plan had failed, as it was one of the mitigating factors leading to World War II. We can only pray that the divisions made of the lands of the Ottoman Empire do not cause World War III.

 

Austro-Hungarian Empire Break-up into Independent Nations

 

The division of the Ottoman Empire came under two main rulings, the first resulting from the San Remo Conference and the Treaty of Sèvres which was restated and included in the Treaty of Lausanne. Many ask why all of these treaties, conferences and other agreements from World War I, especially what became known as the Mandate System, and the reason is Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. Article 80 states, in simple English rather than Legalese, that all these agreements from World War I are enforceable by the United Nations and remain recognized and applicable. Two men had met before the end of World War I and decided between them how to “fairly” divide the Ottoman Empire with much of the lands being turned over to, you may have guessed, France and Great Britain. These two men were the Frenchman François Georges-Picot and the British sent Mark Sykes who together drew up the lines which became the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement gave colonial powers to the various allied powers including Spain, Italy, France and Great Britain. Subsequently, all of these powers have relinquished their rule permitting independent states (see map below). We must note that the 1979 date for Iranian independence notes the Islamic revolution and coup which removed the Shah and in his stead placed the Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini (Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی‎‎) into power of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These lines were drawn willy-nilly, as the British might say. There was no regard given for tribal lines, or at least that is the normal reason given. We hold to another more sinister reason for these lines, a combination of complete laziness and the idea that each nation would be near ungovernable. The borders below (see map) are drawn with slight regard for obvious boundaries such as rivers and very straight lines. By dividing peoples into different nations and splitting up tribes in like fashion while placing numerous tribes within every nation, Sykes and Picot guaranteed that rule could only be established through a dictatorial strongman such as Saddam Hussein, Muammar al-Qaddafi and Bashir al-Assad.

 

Dates that the MENA nations received their independence after colonial rule many since the times of the Persians or even earlier

 

This very likely was the plan, leave nations near ungovernable and leave tribes and peoples split between different nations preventing their coming together to try to establish their natural homelands. This was the opposite of the European plan where they returned lands to the local peoples while in MENA they mostly did the opposite with select exceptions. These exceptions included the Mandate areas which were divided between Arab Muslim from Christian and Jewish lands granting Lebanon to the area Christians to rule and Israel to its indigenous peoples, the Jews and other tribes of the Hebrews. Thus, Jordan and Syria were made Arab Muslim lands. The Kurdish were promised their own lands but the discovery of oil and a lucrative agreement with King Faisal I (Arabic فيصل الأول) and the British (read Getty) left the Kurds divided between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Of these countries, Turkey and Iraq were the two most determined to remove their Kurdish presence through genocide if required. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons amongst other horrific methods against the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey would do to the Kurds what they did to their Armenian people starting in 1913 and continuing through to nearly the end of World War I in 1917. There were also the added struggles between Shiite and Sunni Moslems with these differences felt the most severely in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and many of the Gulf States. This is in part what caused much of the violence during the Arab Spring.

 

The Arab Spring very quickly became and remains the Arab Winter except where the state was strong enough and willing to use that strength to squash any rebellion. That was how Saudi Arabia treated any rebellion amongst its fellow gulf states with the best example being Bahrain where Saudi Armor poured down all lanes of the connecting causeway to the main island bringing the demonstrations and any ideas of a revolt to a very fast and permanent end. There are still numerous revolts in various levels of violence ongoing in Libya, Syria and Yemen with possible problems still existing in Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. There is also the continuing violence committed by the Sudan on the recently established South Sudan. This is a sectarian struggle pitting the Islamic fighters from the north against Christians and Animists residing in the south. This war between the Islamists against the Christians and Animists continues across the continent of Africa in what is referred to as the African Transition Zone (see below). Eventually these lands will form borders based on their tribal affiliations. Even then, there will be those who believe as if it were their religion that it is their destiny to expand over more lands. If one were to ask how many more lands, their answer would be all of the lands and they and their children will fight until all lands belong to them and their beliefs. Fortunately, their claim to land is limited to those lands where mankind live, so founding colonies on other planets simply provides them with more lands which must be brought to the one true faith. That is their religious law until the Imams decide otherwise.

 

African Transition Zone

 

Therein lies the answer, convince their Imams to change the law or at least how they interpret their laws. We are far from alone in this proposal as some have proposed this before and others continue this cry for hope in their future. They see that continuing on the path of eternal conquest can end only one way, one greatly destructive conflagration. These almost singular voices are all but undiscernible over the cacophony of the raging world around them. One such voice has even carried his plea to the center of Islamic teaching, Al-Azhar University. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has walked into the den from which the most renowned and influential of Imams graduate. Al-Azhar University is the Oxford University for Imams. President Sisi has taken the lead position with his appearances and demands for transforming Islam and teaching coexistence, cooperation and acknowledgment of other religions leading inevitably to peace and possibly harmony for mankind at long last. There is the Muslim Reform Movement which are standing for just such a change as are those mentioned at the end of this article. These are people who should be provided prominence as an option worth consideration.

 

To some extent, the allied powers from the First World War, or at least Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, is responsible for the discontent and violence which had ravaged the Arab Muslim world for the past quarter a century or so. Then, on the other side, the allied powers did not actually do such a great job with Europe judging by the ensuing World War II. The truth is the exact reason why the resurgence of Islam must be handled with a sense of urgency as well as tactfully. If the near future is bungled, then the result could very well be World War III. The entire problem was born of World War I and led to World War II and must be prevented from ending with World War III. All one need remember is the answer Albert Einstein gave when asked, “What weapons will World War III be fought?” To this Einstein replied, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Perhaps it would be best not to test the validity of Einstein’s prediction of a possible future.

 

Beyond the Cusp