Is Third Lebanon War Inevitable?

 

Israel is doing all she is able in order to at least stall war with slim hopes of avoiding it all together. Israel has sent messages pleading with the Lebanese government to end the adaptation of the largest of the one-hundred-fifty-thousands of rockets into guided missiles with within ten-meter accuracy and some even tighter control. Iran has been shipping guidance packages which can be added to normal rockets turning them into guided missiles capable of targeting any Israeli site and be assured of striking them. Israel has made the upgrade of these rockets into guided missiles a red-line which must not be crossed as allowing such leaves Israel under a definitive threat. Needless to point out, but when one places a red line before any of the many Iranian functionaries, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Houthis and Hezballah, Iran will push them past that red-line just to goad Israel by providing a threat level which cannot be permitted on her border. It is bad enough that Iran has stocked Hezballah with over one-hundred-fifty-thousands of rockets of varying sizes and ranges (see table below), but now Iran is providing guidance packages and advisors who taught Hezballah how to retrofit mere rockets making them into guided missiles which transforms the threat level beyond what Israel can permit. This message is being provided to be passed on to Lebanese government, specifically Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri by French President Emmanuel Macron who was to deliver the Israeli warning. The choice is very simple and plainly put, either Lebanon prevents any further retooling of the Hezballah rocket inventory or Israel will break everything Hezballah is utilizing for this purpose and probably somewhat more. This would lay waste to large areas of Beirut as well as the surrounding countryside, the Bekaa Valley and most of the areas south of the Litani River.

 

Hezballah Rocket & Missile Threat

 

According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, Hezballah was not to rearm, was to remove all offensive capabilities including manpower from south of the Litani River, abandon and destroy the tunnel and bunker network north of the Israeli border up to the Litani River and not engage Israel with a threat of her destruction. United Nations forces were to enforce these terms and should they fail, circumventing or contravening any of these stipulations was to be considered a casus belli instituting a state of war. Hezballah has ignored, transgressed and shredded every item in this treaty often using United Nations vehicles to transport rockets, munitions, terrorist fighters and support people almost everywhere south of the Litani River. Hezballah has not only repaired but expanded, extended and more fully integrated their tunnels, bunkers, rocket firing position and storage areas throughout the regions south of the Litani River. Hezballah has restocked and augmented their rockets with M-600’s, Zelzal-2 and Scud-D rockets approaching one-hundred-thousand of these longer range rockets as well as presumably incorporated the entire arsenal of the Lebanese Army at their command should they be required to engage with Israel. Israel has observed this build-up but drew a red-line in the sand that she would not tolerate guided missiles which could be made to strike any specific target within Israel potentially causing grievous harm to Israeli infrastructure and her people. This was why Israel had bombed a number of the recent attempts which were providing guided missiles to Hezballah from Iran. Now Iran has taken a different tactic, they have been providing Hezballah with special adapter kits consisting of guidance fins and a targeting system which refits unguided rockets transforming them into guided missiles capable of striking specific targets within Israel.

 

How does the addition of guidance packages to thousands of long-range rockets really change anything when the sheer numbers of Hezballah rockets meant that Israel could be virtually blanketed by rockets. The reality is while Hezballah has these many tens of thousands of larger rockets and could presumably blanket Israel from the north to the southern tip, by making them into guided missiles they can specifically target nuclear power stations in Haifa poisoning the entire area with a blanket of radiation, the Dimona Research Reactor, the skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, train terminals and any other infrastructure including the larger shelters where thousands of Israelis will have gathered to be safe from the rockets. Striking one of these larger shelters with four or five guided missiles one after the other would likely compromise the structure rendering it unsafe and potentially collapsing the structure killing many hundreds of civilians. Further, there will be a limited number of these larger rockets capable of being fired before Israel would strike the launch facilities including the mobile launchers preventing a second wave. Now that first wave of newly converted guided missiles would be capable of crippling Israeli infrastructure killing electrical power to much of the nation as well as destroying fuel reserves and other vital infrastructure. Additionally, Hezballah has been provided with a number of the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems (see image below). These are the identical units which Russia provided Bashir al-Assad with as a threat to Israeli air operations over Syria. These would require detection and destruction before the majority of Israel jet fighters would be safe flying over Lebanon, especially when making a strike run. The limited number of fifth generation F-35 aircraft would be required to make the first attacks on these systems as their stealth makes them less threatened by this system which uses radar guidance. These systems were a game changer providing Hezballah with advance anti-aircraft capabilities which is capable of intercepting the F-15’s and F-16’s or any other aircraft other than the F-35’s recently added to the Israeli Air Force.

 

Russian Produced S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missiles
with Radar System and Control Vehicle

 

The Hezballah threat which has continued to slowly but surely build its threat level to the point where permitting any further escalation would make Hezballah a definitive threat which Israel could no longer permit to choose the time of any confrontation. The safety of many Israelis depends on the IDF initiating any war with Hezballah should Hezballah initiate such a conflict and posses guidance package enhanced rockets which could be used to target Israeli military and civilian airfields. One could hope that Iron Dome and other interception systems would intercept a large majority, still even should 90% or more be intercepted out of one-thousand missiles, should the current escalation continue for another six months, such still leaves one-hundred missiles striking their targets. This would allow one-hundred rockets, missiles, mortars and other projectiles striking Israel for ever thousand rockets fired. This would mean that Hezballah currently could have fifteen-thousand rockets strike Israel. This is why the Israeli Air Force must be capable of taking out the vast majority of everything from the smallest rockets to the largest guided missiles. International Law permits nations instigating acts of war against any force across any border which is preparing to have and deliver destruction which is beyond the ability of the nation to absorb and survive. For a country such as the United States or Russia, there exist very few nations which could deliver such destruction upon them and none of these nations share a border with them. Israel, by comparison, is the approximate size of New Jersey and her neighboring nations, even the wreck which is Syria, are intent upon her destruction. Hezballah is currently, with heavy Iranian assistance, crossing the threshold beyond that which Israel can tolerate. The other terror group with their own semi-autonomous region, Hamas, has been threatening Israel and has already caused significant damage burning down virtually every field of crops within fifteen miles or so of the Gaza border with Israel. Israel cannot leave both Hezballah and Hamas in a position to strike at her at the time of their choosing, as such, an attack could hinder Israeli abilities to respond with sufficient swiftness.

 

With Iran controlling Hezballah and the two main terror groups in Gaza, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Israel might very well wake one morning with a war engaging from the north or the south and by the end of the day have a second front break-out on the opposite border thus requiring Israel to commit to a two fronts war. This is not the best of scenarios and would require nearly shutting the country down and calling up virtually all combat reservists. Israel practices such a call-up ever two years just to be able to iron out any difficulties which may erupt as a consequence of such a training mission. When performing such a difficult call-up during a two front war, there would be guaranteed confusion which would take some precious time to iron out. Some of the Commanding Generals on the General Staff have claimed that Israel is incapable of fighting a two front war against the two groups in Gaza and Hezballah in Lebanon. What could make matters even worse would be if IRGC Iranian troops as well as the Iranian Quds Force also attacked Israel along the Golan Heights and rest of the Syrian border with Bashir al-Assad providing protection from aircraft with his improved S-300 antiaircraft systems as well as giving them air support and artillery support as well. There is even the possibility of the Russian forces in Syria allowing the deploying of their S-400 anti-air defense systems, the most advanced systems the Russians currently deploy. The Russians allowing the use of their advanced F-400 systems might be sufficient coverage against the Israeli F-35 stealth fighters, but maybe not. Such would be the first use official test of the presumed superiority of the F-35 stealth fighters in actual combat against the Russian anti-aircraft systems. Israel would gladly forgo any such war as any time spent in a state of war, especially if it required calling up significant numbers of reserves as that is what results in shutting down much of the Israeli economy. That is what makes any war so costly to Israel, and that is before we have to count the devastating loss of life, especially innocent life on either side.

 

Israel has attempted to express the problem in a number of different ways. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made the threat of the conversion of rockets into guided missiles the central theme of his United Nations speech. He laid out exactly where the underground facilities carrying out the conversion were located including pictures of the soccer field under which two of these conversion sites were operating. He covered the southern Beirut neighborhoods where support operations and coordination was being handled. Prime Minister Netanyahu told that Israel could not allow this threat to continue and grow any further and that should Iran continue using Hezballah to be their proxy with which to attack Israel, that Israel knows the real power behind those forces attempting to destroy the Jewish State. Israel stated that the continued operations to make these missiles into existential threats would force Israel to act and implied that under some circumstances, Israel might find it to her advantage to engage Iran directly to end her supplying Hezballah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas with weapons to use against Israel. Trying to avoid an inevitable war has to be frustrating. Where does an Israeli leader turn for help in preventing such a war. There have been messages sent through France, the United States, and even been mentioned in the Al Hayat newspaper where it stated that Israeli National Security Adviser Eitan Ben-David has told French officials that Israel was seeking a diplomatic solution before embarking on a military operation. They cannot claim that nobody warned them any longer and perhaps it is their intention to provoke a war with Israel, but perhaps not at this time. In part of Netanyahu’s speech, he warned Hezbollah that, “Israel knows what you are doing, Israel knows where you are doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it.” Also, this past January, Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, wrote an op-ed to a Lebanese newspaper in which he directed a warning to Hezbollah that their efforts to manufacture rockets inside Lebanon would plunge the region into war. There is not much more Israel can do yet still the leadership of Hezballah insists on continuing to upgrade their rockets into guided missiles coming ever closer to that number where Israel chooses to act. The resultant war would also be devastating for Lebanon and would almost wipe everything south of the Litani River with the length and breadth of the Bekaa Valley as well as much of Beirut where this work is being conducted. One item which is often overlooked is that Israel also has rockets and numerous guided missiles with which to strike at targets including those buried deep underground. This little fact is also of supreme importance to one individual and any in his bunker with him, dear Nasrallah, we know where you are hiding and even when you change locations, so; you better look out, you better not shout, no threats to Israel you spout and running all about, for the IDF is coming for you.

 

This threat of war can be dismantled and not intentionally made worse and worse until Israel absolutely must strike as leaving such a number of guided missiles ready to strike at the heart of the nation killing untold numbers due to the increased accuracy. Should these guided missiles be utilized on central Tel Aviv striking many of the towers, bringing any of them down would result in a massive loss of life. Such would be an Israeli 9/11, something nobody outside of the Arab and Muslim worlds desire seeing. There would be candy handed out in the streets of Gaza and around the Middle East in celebration of the death of so many Israelis as any who happened to be Israeli Arabs, well, that is what you get for working alongside Jews. These forces including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah, IRGC, Quds Force, Palestinian Authority, PLO, the leadership of Iran and others around the Middle East and North Africa, all fight for and pray for and hope for the eventual taking back of the land where Israel currently stands. These forces love this land so much they are willing to burn it to the ground and leaving it a slag heap of radioactive debris which would leave it uninhabitable for the next few decades if not centuries. That is how much they love the land, but it goes with their mantra which states that they love death as Israelis love life, and that is why they will defeat Israel. Their accusation is absolutely correct except that they will not win, as life is stronger simply because it is based on love and light and not on hate and darkness as their culture of death has become. Israel desires to build, invent, plant, nurture and make advances which will benefit all of humankind while they desire to kill, destroy and tear down and then cannot figure out why they are incapable of advancement. Life, light and love must win out here in Israel otherwise the world is at risk of falling into a prolonged dark age which will take science and industry back about a thousand years and leave much of what has been built fallen to the ground in twisted ruins. That is the future we must, as the human race, choose between, light, love and life or darkness, hate and death. We choose life. We give love. We spread light to chase away the darkness. Remember that a single candle with its tiny flame can illuminate an entire room chasing out its darkness even from the corners.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Secret of Israel

 

Israel seems to be a secret to the remainder of the world. That becomes obvious when you listen to the idiotic ideas coming from so many when referring what they believe is Israel. We have read of and heard some claiming that Israel wants to establish a “Greater Israel” by expanding her borders. We have covered this claim before explaining that the term “Greater Israel” simply refers to the times of Kings David and Solomon. They will infer that Israel is supremacist, started the conflict and numerous other ways of saying that Israel is the bully. Actually, the Ottomans started it when they joined with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Germany against the Allied Powers during World War I. Just for the record, they lost and the world decided to end these empires which were considered the aggressors, thus the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was divided up and the Balkan nations were born along with the rest of Eastern Europe, Germany found their borders slimmed at the edges and the Ottoman Empire was carved up with the separate parts placed into Mandates with the presumed intention of making them into little democracies with some effort. Another large idea of the age was the reestablishing of originalist nations returning areas to their original rulers such as Finland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania which dotted the new Eastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire was carved up making the nations making up the MENA nations of the Middle East and North Africa (see map below). One of those Mandates established the ancient homeland of the Jewish People, Israel, and an Arab state of Transjordan (later simply Jordan) which was designated the homeland for the Arab Palestinians. Another pair established was Lebanon and Syria where Lebanon was supposed to have been Christian while Syria was supposed to be Arab Syrians in their historic lands.

 

(MENA)
Middle East and North Africa
Including Turkey and Iran
With North Central Africa

 

Initially, the Arabs residing in all four nations claimed they were Syrians. The French Mandate, which included Syria and Lebanon, claimed to be simply all part of Syria while the British Mandate, which included Israel and Jordan, claimed to be in southern region of Greater Syria. The idea was that they would take all of the area and make their Arab state of Greater Syria. The Arabs believed that all the lands which had been the Ottoman Empire were to remain under Arab and Muslim control. They refused to recognize the Mandates established by the various treaties including the San Remo Conference, the Treaty of Sèvres amongst others. That has been the main problem which has led to the difficulties between Israel and her Arab neighbors which continue into our daily news. Lebanon is no longer a Christian nation, simply a Muslim nation where the Christians are permitted to remain as long as they behave. The Islamic name for such is called a Dhimmi, a form of second-class citizenry. For intents and purposes, and in reality, Hezballah is the current ruling power in Lebanon. That means that Iran has direct control over Lebanon, the Hezballah terrorist military and the Lebanese Army which includes quite an amount of United States military weaponry including Abrams main battle tanks.

 

Back to what it is Israel honestly wants from the rest of the world. This includes the Muslim nations, the United States, the Europeans, the British, the Russians, the Chinese and everybody else. It is actually the thing that the Jewish People have prayed to have for the past two-thousand-plus years. We would like our little plot of land promised to Abraham which extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, from the Egyptian Border north to, originally the Litani River (see map below), but we will be just fine with the Blue Line as already inspected and approved by the United Nations after the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000. Any people within this region who desire relocating voluntarily, we will give them generous assistance. Those who prefer to remain will need to understand that they will be residing under the laws of the State of Israel. Any terrorist act will result in their being deported and not permitted to return. After this has been settled and we are securely within our border, then please just allow us to tend to our needs and as long as we are left in peace, we will leave the remainder of the world in peace. There will be advantages for the world should this be accomplished. Any medical, technical, agricultural or other discoveries or inventions performed in Israel will be shared with the rest of the world. Israel will be able to make greater strides when we no longer are required to prepare for a war to start at any moment.

 

Twelve Tribes of Israel and the Original Borders for Israel

 

As far as what will be occurring within our borders, that is a simple matter. We will have a large segment of the Jews praying to Hashem while also working to build a better future. We will likely rebuild the Temple making the Third Temple, and hopefully final Temple, a reality and do so with the minimal upset to other religions to the greatest of our ability. Those fearing that this means we will reengage in animal sacrifice, allow us to give a modicum of relief and peace of mind. The first Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, who some claim believed that animal offerings will not be reinstituted when the Third Temple is rebuilt, thought that only grain and vegetable sacrifices would be reinstituted. His commentary on the Siddur on the sentence at the end of Shemoneh Esrei, “Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to Hashem as in the days of old and as in the ancient years,” Rav Kook wrote, “In the future, the abundance of knowledge will spread to and penetrate even animals…and the “sacrifices” which will then be from Grain, will be as pleasing to G-d as in days of old (when there were animal offerings).”* This would limit the Third Temple to only vegetarian offerings.

 

Israel will not make demands on other nations and instead will do as we are bid by our Torah, to lead lives worthy and honoring Hashem and then our lives will not want for anything. Judaism has a unique feature not found in the other two Abrahamic faiths in that we do not proselytize nor do we insist that others must follow out religion or even believe in Hashem. We simply request that we be permitted to follow our religion and be left to our own ways within our borders and, in return, we will share any great bounty or discoveries we find with the world. In Judaism we are instructed only to tell those who come and inquire about Judaism and not to press any to convert and even to ask those who request to convert why they would want to do so. There are numerous rules and rituals which are required of those following strict Judaism which is why we question why one would desire to take on these potential burdens in their lives when there is no pressing requirement for them to do so. In Judaism, Hashem loves the Jewish People and also loves all people for we are all His children and thus all receive his love. The Jews, it is often stated, believe they are special as the Chosen People. Well, yes, in a warped way. One need understand that being the Chosen People is defined in two ways, the first is the well-known that Hashem chose the Jews, or at least Abraham, Isaack, and Jacob plus likely Moses. Remember, Hashem also chose Noah and gave him the Noahic Code, the Seven Laws for a civilized society. The other side of being the Chosen People is the Jewish People have chosen to follow the Laws given us at Mount Sinai through Moses and written in the Torah which demand of us performing six-hundred-thirteen Mitzvot. (Here is a list drawn up by Chabad for comparison and a second opinion.) So the Chosen People works in both directions and does not mean the Jews are special other than they have agreed upon the laws and customs they are to observe, for which we get to live an orderly life and no special compensation beyond what every other individual receives from Hashem for living a good and honest life.

 

 

Israel, much like Judaism, desires only to be permitted to live within our borders as described above or as shown in the map above. Nothing would make us happier than to be allowed to tend to our own business within the ancient lands of our forefathers. Yet there are those who insist that the Jews never resided in this region despite the historical evidence to the contrary. Of course, some of those making these statements claim that the history of mankind, or at least the only history that matters, started approximately fourteen-hundred years ago with the revelation of the Quran to Mohammad in Mecca and finishing in Medina. The history of the Jewish People dates back slightly more distant with Kings David and Solomon residing over three-thousand years ago and Abraham almost a thousand years before that. That is a very long time ago, but that was the beginning and was where much of what is the beginnings of the basis of the democratic institutions and the Judeo-Christian ethics upon which much of European and American history is based and on which many other cultures base their beliefs. Israel, under Kings David and Solomon attempted to gain empire, as that was the way of the world three-thousand years past. That ended poorly soon after King Solomon when the kingdoms split into a northern and a southern kingdom and the added lands of empire revolted successfully gaining their independence only to be swallowed by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. The Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria and then the Southern Kingdom, Judah, fell to the Babylonians. The existence of the Northern Kingdom is somewhat a mystery as they are referred to as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel though some are claiming to be returning in these modern times of the reestablishing of Israel. The Jews, based on the Kingdom of Judah, once conquered by Babylon were prophesized to have to spend four-hundred-thirty years in exile but when Cyrus the Great and Persia conquered Babylon, he freed the Jews to return and build their Temple anew and were only required to pay a tax to Persia in return. The Jews built their Second Temple and were doing quite nicely and then Alexander the Great and his Greeks arrived. The Jews had only been in Babylon for seventy years and had they lived according to the Torah and the laws of Hashem, then they would have lived happily ever after. The Jews failed at living the good and decent life and that is why they were returned into exile and the Diaspora, but more on that later.

 

The Greeks conquered Judea in 322 BCE and except for a few short spans where foreign rule was thrown off, remained conquered through the Roman Empire, the Caliphate, Crusades, Ottomans and finally the British until May 14, 1948. This is where things get interesting. Prophesy has lost some of its wonder in the modern era, but the reestablishing of Israel should put a little polish and a new shine on ancient prophesy. These prophesies provided the core of the Jewish People’s hopes for over two-thousand years along with the knowledge that Hashem promised that we would be returned to our homelands miraculously and our dispersal and exile would end. The promise gave a date according to Ezekiel who said the Jews were to be punished for 430 years because they had turned away from Hashem. This was to become the Babylonian exile. The Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians, as mentioned above, and freed their Jewish captives about 70 years after Judah lost independence to Babylon. This left 360 years which the Jews would require a second exile to fulfill as one must pay Hashem when one strays. In Leviticus 26:18, Leviticus 26:21, Leviticus 26:24 and Leviticus 26:28 the Torah spells things out quite clearly, should the Jews not fully repent their sins they would be punished increased by a factor of seven. Since most of the Jews freed from Babylon decided to live in the Persian society and adopted pagan ways, which is not exactly repenting, their remaining 360 years were multiplied by seven meaning their time in the Diaspora or under foreign occupation became 2,520 years on the original lunar Jewish calendar which translates to 2,484 years. Count from 536 BCE forward 2,484 years and you arrive at 1948. Further, Isaiah’s prophecy Chapter 66:8 states: “Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.” Israel was established exactly as Isaiah prophesized in a single day. Who said prophesy was dead, certainly not us.

 

We took a long time and the ingathering prophesized in the story of the Dry Bones. That was the prophesy from Ezekiel 37:1-14 telling of the restoration of the Jewish People using the parable of the Valley of Dry Bones. The prophesy tells of the ingathering of the Jewish People being brought from the four corners and renewed. The prophesy also speaks of taking tribes of Israel (Joseph) and the tribe of Judah and make them one foretelling that the House of Israel will be a united house once more as it is. The verse goes on to say that being observant and true to the Mitzvahs, the Commandments, will be made easy for the people in Israel, something we can attest to as this has been our case as religion has come upon our souls and persons and following the Commandments of Torah have been placed within reach. Of course, not all are finding returning to their former religious ways as easy as one might hope. The rate at which this would come about once the nation was reestablished was made to appear slow as the bones took time to gather, gain sinew, muscle, skin, and eventually the return of their soul, their religious zeal. This means that Israel is still a work in progress but the love of her people will eventually overcome all obstacles.

 

That brings up to this past week. Very early Thursday morning, Iran fired approximately twenty rockets towards Israel aimed at the Golan Heights. The Israelis residing in the region were awakened and told to take shelter which they were kept secured within for a few hours. These rockets largely fell short of their mark and most of the remainder was intercepted by the Iron Dome systems guarding the region. Despite the entire evening and night previous to the launch having been completely peaceful and quiet, the IDF was tipped to the coming attack when hearing Syrian broadcasts claiming the Israeli forces had attacked a series of positions held by Hezballah within Syria. Despite not having left their positions in the Golan, the IDF knew from experience that this was the signal for “retribution” by the Arab forces, actually in this case, the forces were Iranian. There would be an Israeli attack, but it came subsequent to the launching of multiple, at least twenty, rockets at Israel by Iranian Quds Force (videos below) and Israel retaliated and struck a large area and numerous Iranian and Hezballah bases and munition stockpiles (see map below). There will be claims that the Israeli response, wait for it, was “disproportional” to the Iranian attack launched at Israel. Since when has combat become a proportional enterprise? The entire reason for striking back after the Iranian Quds Force attack is to dissuade any future attacks by making the cost too steep. You do not prevent an aggressor from attacking you by trading them blow for blow, you strike them as hard as you feel is necessary, and if they try such again, this was the third Iranian attack in several weeks, then you make the cost spiral even higher. When a bully picks a fight and the targeted youth gains the upper hand, they do not just allow the bully to walk away without further harm, they bloody the nose of the bully and perhaps a few extra punches for good measure making any future attack out of the question. Iran is the bully in the Middle East along with their terror proxies Hamas, Hezballah, Islamic Jihad and their foreign IRGC forces who practice terrorism throughout the globe as the Ayatollahs desire. Hamas is currently, along with Islamic Jihad, making a spectacle on the Gaza border which is supposed to climax over this weekend and on through Monday in celebration of Nakba Day, the day that six Arab armies attacked the newly declared state of Israel and proceeded to fail to destroy all of Israel and had to settle for winning Gaza and areas of Judea and Samaria which Jordan annexed illegally and called the West Bank. These were and are lands which the League of Nations and United Nations, under Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, promised and guaranteed to be an integral part of Israel. They are also hoping that their month plus rioting and general mayhem would prod the United States into postponing the opening of their Jerusalem Embassy. They obviously have not yet understood President Trump and the changes which came with his taking office.

 

 

Locations of Israeli Counter Strikes Against Iranian and Hezballah Targets

 

There will probably also be great amounts of attempted disruption coming from the Palestinian Authority which they will launch from Eastern Jerusalem. This will be an unofficial protest, but there has not been a Nakba day which was not also made into a Day of Rage since the first intifada was launched back in the 1980’s. We are fairly sure that part of the reasoning behind the Iranian rocket attack was also to place pressure on the United States to not relocate their embassy. We can only hope that the response they suffered in response to their rocket launches will be sufficient to deter their future thoughts for such misadventures. We simply want to live within our borders in peace and security and in return will share our discoveries with any in the world finding them advantageous. We do not want a war but as has been proven in the past, we will fight if one is foist upon us. We surrendered land to Egypt for peace and made peace with Jordan. We withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza with hopes for peace and received terrorists waging wars in return. Now much of the world demands we give away land overlooking the heart of the nation to the Palestinian Arabs who are ruled by the PLO, a recognized terrorist organization, and the world is aghast that we do not wish to commit suicide. Next we will have the United Nations demanding from the General Assembly for Israel to answer for these attacks on Syria despite their knowing full well Israel was attacked first. But it does not matter that Israel was attacked first, what matters is the Jews are defending themselves for the first time as an independent nation in over two-thousand years. It will take the world a little getting used to but they had best get used to it faster, please. We will not suffer to be attacked and just sit back and plead that everyone stop being mean to us, we will act like what we are, a proud and independent nations fully capable of fighting to protect ourselves. Strike at us and we will respond, that is the reality. Israel is a nation and a member of the United Nations which means we have the same rights as every other nation and we will protect ourselves and our rights. If we are left in peace, then all will be peace, but if we are attacked, then we will return violence with violence of our own, that is just as much a promise as is our promise for peace.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

* Olat Reiyah, Volume 1 (Jerusalem 1983) 292