Gaza is having another of its all too frequent crisis with electricity at the lead amongst other crises. Not to fear, the free electricity provided by Israel is continuing to be provided free of charge, not exactly the best of principles at work there. Israel cannot be blamed this time and Arab nations are willing to sell Hamas the fuel which they could afford except that the Palestinian Authority (PA) demands they pay the extortionary tax on the fuel which the PA is refusing to forgo this time around. This is simply the PA attempting to extort more money from whoever ends up paying the fuel bill with their taxes added. Meanwhile the Gaza desalinization plant has had to shut down for lack of power, as have most manufacturers, as they cannot afford to run on generators and still realize a profit. The farms are being swamped with wastewater which is poisoning the crops which will lead to food shortages in the future. But the world will be glad to know that the luxury hotels and swank top end shops, restaurants and the mall are all operating as usual, as there are priorities, they just do not include the regular Arab residing in Gaza. There is one industry which Hamas claims is operating with such proficiency that they are ready to start an export business to the Arab nations surrounding Israel of missiles with which they too can launch attacks on Israel. They claim to be producing the highest quality missiles in quantities. But they are unable to rebuild the apartments destroyed over a year ago in their last war with Israel. Their tunnel and underground cement reinforced bunkers and tunnels are also coming along up to Hamas’s expectations while they appear to have run out of cement for rebuilding schools, clinics and residences.
It should not be too long before an emergency meeting of the European Union declares that Israel is not doing enough to assist the Gazans in their time of crisis and that Israel must once again allow tons of rebar and cement to be provided to Gaza for the rebuilding of schools, clinics and residences. This would be the third time that this demand would be being made. Apparently the European Union and it member states believe they did not provide near enough rebar and cement the first two times, even when combined, to rebuild these structures. Israel was guaranteed that the last time such provisions were provided that if progress were not seen that then the Europeans and the United Nations would give some degree of credence to the Israeli claims that these provisions were being diverted. Expect soon after the European Union begins screaming for the United Nations to jump ugly on Israel for not providing sufficient provisions, fuel, water, electricity and for not providing repairs to these functions in Gaza. Never mind that no Israeli would be permitted to enter Gaza to make such repairs and if Israel did go to make such repairs then Gaza would claim Israel had attacked them and demand an end to the Israeli incursions. It starts to get confusing when trying to figure out exactly what is expected by the European Union, United Nations and so many other governments and organizations when they claim Israel is to blame for the squandering of funds by the PA and Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Congressional Research Service report entitled, “U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians” states: “Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990’s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid.” The report continues to show the extent that it has been mismanagement and corruption which has led to a complete breakdown in governmental aid and normal function at the public level leaving the entirety of the Arab Palestinian governance in complete disarray mired in its own misappropriations and inability to form a functioning society at any level. The one thing that the PA has proven successful at is providing positions throughout the Security Forces for terrorists from the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. The corruption, nepotism and graft are at such levels that perhaps one dollar out of every five makes its way towards governmental operations for the public such as power, water and other services. In Gaza, the main area funded is the production of rockets, missiles, tunnels and underground bunkers with almost nothing making it in any way to assist the people. There is no government service and recent polling indicates that the vast majority of people in Gaza would leave for anywhere else given the opportunity to leave. This desire comes without any demands for financial aid or assistance, just simply open the border and they would be heading for elsewhere.
The article Gaza: Let their people go! by Dr. Martin Sherman opens stating, “If the borders opened for one hour, 100,000 young people would leave Gaza” – Rashid al-Najja, vice dean, Gaza’s Al-Azhar University; “…I’d go to Somalia, Sudan — anywhere but here” – Salim Marifi, student, Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, in Al Jazeera, May 6 2015. We would like to thank Dr. Martin Sherman for some of the other figures we use in this article. Obviously, something is rotten in Gaza and we would bet that similar feelings exist in the PA controlled areas. The PA controlled areas are somewhat better off solely because their infrastructure is almost completely kept in repair by Israel, as the systems are interconnected. Further, the PA areas are under semiautonomous rule while Gaza is completely separate from Israel. The so-called blockade is in reality simply a filter which attempts to limit imports into Gaza which are considered to be dual-use weapons grade equipment and supplies. Examples are such things as saltpeter, potassium, sheets of copper, rebar, cement, steel sheets, certain piping and other items of a similar nature. Even with such items readily defined by international agencies, Israel has often made exceptions under international pressure and every time, no matter who makes the guarantees, Hamas and Islamic Jihad divert the vast majority of the provisions into weapons, rockets, missiles, tunnels, bunkers and cement reinforced positions all in preparation for their next war with Israel. After detections of the diversion have become undeniable, the guarantor then professes innocence and claims they had been tricked and had honestly believed Hamas and friends when they claimed they would behave this time. Of course they knew full well that Hamas would not act in the promised manner and would use almost everything provided to arm up and make Gaza a far more treacherous place with ambushes and traps set all over the Gaza City and other built up areas and have interconnected tunnels plus bunkers with tunnels leading into Israel to try and kidnap Israelis and tunnels into the Sinai to infiltrate people in and out for terrorist acts against Egypt as well as providing other assistance to terrorists in the Sinai and to launch rockets from the Sinai into Israel opening yet another front.
These betrayals of Israel by the United Nations and European Union are no different than the demands time after time that Israel makes concessions to the PA in order to pretend to restart the peace process. Let us be honest, there never has and never will be a peace process, there is only the concessions process by which the PA is enabled to demand and receive additional lands and other concessions in exchange for promises which will never be kept. Mahmoud Abbas is heading for Washington to meet with President Trump where he will once again spin his yarn about how desperately the Arabs desire peace with Israel if only Israel would allow them to have the Green line and half of Jerusalem as the basis for their promised nation. All Israel need do is withdraw back to the pre Six Day War lines and surrender claims to the entirety of the Old City of Jerusalem and not to fear, the PA will permit universal access to the holy sites of other religions. This was the same promise made by Jordan and by the PA in Hevron and in all cases, it was a deceit. Visiting Josephs Tomb in Hevron requires IDF escort performed at two o’clock in the morning and the visit has to be completed before the sun rises. The trip need be made in an armored bus and often upon arrival; they find the tomb has once again been destroyed. Then arrangements are made with the IDF for Israelis to steal in at night to repair the tomb only to have the Arabs destroy it again. The truth is the Arab Palestinians do not recognize any other religion other than Islam thus there is no other religious site to worry about and if it is not Islamic, then it must be destroyed.
There is a simple truth which is understood by most in the world about the Arabs in general and the Palestinian groups in particular, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO, Fatah, Palestinian Authority and various other smaller groups, that concerns their claims to wanting a state of their own. That is a lie and everyone knows this full well but they continue to play the game because they cannot think of another option. There is no imagination which can understand that the only thing the Arabs, especially the Palestinian groups, desire, and that is the end of Israel. What the world fears is what would happen should the Palestinians game stop being played, and thus they were forced to make it on their own within the remainder of the Arab world. The answer is actually easy to figure out. One needs look no further than Kuwait after they regained their homes from Saddam Hussein after Gulf War I. The PA leadership, Yasser Arafat, sided with Saddam Hussein in that war and this sat rather uncomfortably with the people and leaders of Kuwait so when they returned and finished extinguishing the oil rig fires they turned their minds to their next item on their to-do list. It was an easy choice and they simply evicted three-hundred-thousand Palestinian Arabs out of Kuwait with absolutely no concerns for their safety of future. That is pretty much, what would happen should they ever seek somewhere to live in the Arab world; they would be rejected and left without anywhere to go and this worries the European Union and the United Nations. The fact that by pretending and playing the Palestinian Arab game, that its endpoint would be the eradication of every Jews and possibly Arab and others in Israel, is apparently far less of a strain on their consciences. Perhaps they believe they can continue this song and dance indefinitely and somehow Israel will survive, after all, she has done quite well despite all the obstacles, hasn’t she? Israel is resourceful and will find a way to continue and somehow remain a light unto the nations when they have disasters or need medical advances or unbelievable software not to mention being the great start-up nation all while producing more Nobel Prize winners per capita than any other country. Why would not the Europeans, Americans, and the world believe they could snipe and victimize Israel just as they always have and not simply expect the Israelis to rebound and continue making amazing contributions in virtually every field?
But, what if Israel no longer is willing to be denied the promises made by the entire world including King Feisal representing the Arab world signing the agreements from the San Remo Conference to the Mandate System and the numerous agreements all after the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. There are a growing number of Israelis who are becoming less and less willing to accept compromises and the stealth theft of lands promised the Jews and Zionists. We are speaking of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and particularly the lands of Judea and Samaria, the lands illegally occupied by Jordan who forced Arabs to move into these lands and then refused to accept their return after Israel liberated these lands in June of 1967. The majority of Palestinian Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria who resided in the area during the Six Day War still hold Jordanian passports and identification papers. This is another dirty little secret which is never spoken of as it leads people to the truth. Another little secret is that there exist large Palestinian Arab refugee camps within the PA areas and in Gaza ruled by Hamas, many of which have relatives on the other side of the barbed wire yet these Arabs are held separate and refused the right to work, travel or act in any way as if living a normal life. They are kept as prisoners whose only crime was believing the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem when he swore that the Arab armies would destroy the Jews with little trouble and then they could simply return home and share in the wealth the Jews would leave behind. Only one thing went wrong, the Jews did not completely lose the war, they just did not secure all the lands which had been promised the Jews in every treaty. The time is near when the Israelis will finally demand the world deliver on their promises and this will include finding nations to take the to be refugees who desire to relocate, and that should be the end of this circus.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 