Hamas, Abbas and the Lack of Peace

 

Hamas and Abbas have more in common than the fact they rhyme. Hamas insists that any peace which they will accept will have no Jews living in Palestine and that Palestine replace all of Israel. The average person, were they to actually analyze things, would realize that Palestine replacing all of Israel and their insistence that there be no Jews leaves a problem, what will happen to the over six-million Jews currently residing in Israel. The average protester will provide an easy answer which should, according to the average uninformed protester thoughts, solve everything. Their response is so simple that it actually makes sense to much of the uninformed public. This solution is for the Jews to return to the country from which they, or their parents or grandparents arrived. This is not anything even close to a viable solution and would only be put forth by those who have no idea of the history of Israel. To those behind such a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict by sending Jews back to the source of their roots; so, are Germany and Poland actually ready to accept much of the Israeli populations of Jews? Add to this the need for numerous Islamic societies to take back the Jews and their progeny from the over eight-hundred-thousand Jews they expelled. Even the United States would seek a means for refusing to permit Jews who made Aliyah from the United States from returning just as they not only refused to permit any of the Jews from the Motorschiff St. Louis to reach the otherwise open borders of the United States. The State Department assured that these Jews, who once refused were to be taken back to Nazi Germany, were not to make it to the American shores and the MS St. Louis was provided Coast Guard escorts to prevent anyone attempting to swim to the American shores. So, there should be a precondition as a caveat that if these nations, organizations and other elements desire replacing Israel with an Arab country, they need first arrange for a new location which will accept the Israeli Jews. If this location chosen to take the Jewish refugees, it should also be prepared to take twice the number of Israeli Jews as the developed world prepares to expel their Jews or find some other variation of a means to be rid of the Jews.

 

One can check these protests against Israel, which is actually a protest against Jews, and the one item completely lacking their solutions is anywhere that the Jews can rule themselves. Many of the protesters will actually claim that whatever happens to the Jews is something they deserve. Does this sound at all familiar? Probably not to most of us but we can tell you that this was the attitude of the United States, British and all the remainder of the allies during World War II. Very few nations were willing to take in Jewish refugees during World War II. The British and United States governments both were completely aware of the Concentration Camps and the reality that the Jews were being exterminated with the intent of murdering every single Jews on the Earth. They refused to take any action to protect the Jews even going to the extremes to prevent disturbing the Nazi extermination processing of the Jews. There existed a junction of railway tracks which could have been bombed in either of two locations less that ten miles apart. Both the United States and Britain refused to strike the closer of the two junctions concentrating on bombing to further location. What could be the difference and why was it important that they only bombed the further junction of train tracks. The answer is uncertain as it is impossible to prove, but the circumstantial evidence is damning. The second junction mostly prevented trains from heading eastward, the closer junction also would have blocked train traffic resupplying the eastern front. The junction which the allies ignored carried the trains to Auschwitz Birkenau carrying the Jews to their deaths. That set of tracks were not to be bombed, only the junctions which, though preventing the same train traffic, had nothing to do with the transport of the Jews to the camps was bombed and the one used to transport Jews were left intact. What is the most surprising thing is that Japan provided safe-haven for Jews refusing Nazi demands that they turn over their Jews which Japan refused to comply protecting their Jews. The Japanese protected the Jews residing on the Japanese Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, the Philippines and to a lesser extent in other regions under Japanese control. Yes, we know the Japanese were the enemy to the United States and the forces fighting the Nazis. True as that may be, the Japanese refused to allow the Nazis to touch their Jews, and that is something potentially more admirable than the acts of the allies when it came to rescue of the fated Jews.

 

Now let us look at the present. Mahmoud Abbas has already decided that the “Deal of the Century” being proposed by President Trump is to be refused in its entirety. Hamas, well, they simply refuse any peace because they simply refuse to recognize that Israel exists because the Jews are presumably incapable of performing the necessary tasks to actually rule. They know this as it is written in the Quran, or at least that is their theory as they believe that only Muslims are permitted the luxury of assuming positions of rule and power. The Quran states this as a reality by which the followers of Islam are to believe and live and imprint upon their world, the entirety of their world, which just happens to include all of planet Earth. The Quran tells that the followers of Islam are destined to rule over mankind and be the sole religion followed on Earth. This is something which has become believable as the most likely result of the current world situation, at least to many who follow the Quran. This is the basis under which the Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader of Iran Khamenei and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and other Islamic groups fighting around the globe such that they will prove victorious and rule the planet. This is an inevitability which many Muslims believe must be the future as the Quran is infallible in their beliefs. The only question is which form of Islam will rule the Earth.

 

Sunni representing ninety percent of Muslims or Shiite which represents much of the remainder of believers in Islam. Many think that Shiite Islam, representing merely ten percent of Muslims, could never become the main player amongst the players of the Islamic world. This would mean that Iran should not be considered a threat as they are Shiites and thus far too insignificant to rule Islam. Iran knows a little secret, that in Islam the followers are told to follow the strong horse. Iran believes that they will be that strong horse and that if they can wipe out the Jewish State, then they would become that strong horse. Add to this their conquest of the Saudi oil fields and take the strip along the Red Sea which would include Mecca and Medina and then after taking the Gulf States and their oil fields, then Iran would become the strong horse of Islam and the ruler of the two holy cities. Iran already is establishing their Shiite Crescent across the Middle East and surrounding Saudi Arabia from the north and south (see map below). Even the green star is part of the hunger of Iran as they cover the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. They also will control the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb which controls the southern exit from the Red Sea and controlling the southern exit of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal as well as blocking the only Israeli maritime route to the rest of Asia and the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Iranian plans for conquest are currently likely going along perfectly as they had hoped. The question is what is the next desire by Iran, once they finish reestablishing Bashir al-Assad as ruler of all of Syria, take control of Yemen through their Houthis and complete their control of Lebanon and Iraq, the next question is which way will their appetite turn.

 

Shiite Crescent including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran

 

So, how does Iran fit in on the questions over Israel and the Palestinian Arabs? Iran currently is doing what they are able to arm Islamic Jihad and Hamas who together rule Gaza. Iran is seeking inroads to the Palestinian Authority but have thus far been rebuked by Abbas as he refuses to share his power with anybody, even Iran. Further, Hezballah is about as close as any terrorist army could come to being an offshoot of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) which is tasked with running the Iranian worldwide terror forces. Iran takes in any terror outfit which it is able to bribe or otherwise cajole into allowing Iran to arm them. There is a future price which will be required when the crucial time arrives, that they follow and join in the Shiite push to rule the world. Hezballah are assisting Iranian forces in Syria and Yemen while still working on expanding their threats upon Israel from Lebanon and Syria where they border Israel along the north and the Golan Heights. Add in the Iranian influence over Hamas and Islamic Jihad and it should be realized that Iran can order violence on either the northern or southern borders of Israel and if they manage to gain control over the Palestinian Authority, they will also have another front along the eastern regions of Israel. Iran has already boldly stated that should a war break out between the United States or other Western nation, then Israel will face destruction within a matter of hours if even as long as a single hour. Their threat implies that upon any violence breaking out between Iran and the United States, Iran would immediately call for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah, and the IRGC forces assisting in Syria to all attack Israel with barrages of rockets. Hezballah has at a minimum one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles with numerous, if not the majority, being guided and sufficient range to strike anywhere within Israel and numerous are able to strike Saudi air fields and even Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt and all of Jordan. Iran and their developing Shiite Crescent are becoming a hegemonic military force in the Middle East with designs on much far beyond just the Middle East, they view the world as eventually becoming their own personal apple in their eyes. The Iranian leading Ayatollahs also have almost no care about the use of nuclear weapons or of Iran being destroyed in an Armageddon style conflagration as such would simply be a step upon the way to the return of the Twelfth Imam who is destined to lead Shiite Muslims to ruling the world at the end of such a world at war. They believe this will start with the destruction of Israel.

 

Meanwhile, Hamas, which rules in Gaza, is threatening Israel with increased violence along her southern border should Israel annex even an inch of the disputed territories. By disputed territories, in this case Iran means the region liberated from Jordanian occupation during the Six Day War of 1967 where Israel also liberated Gaza from Egyptian occupation, the Golan Heights from Syria and took the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. Israel has returned the Sinai Peninsula when making a peace with Egypt and later reached peace with Jordan but both Egypt and Jordan released any claim to the lands they formerly occupied. This should have signaled the end of the conflict except that Jordan and Egypt refused to allow their Arab brethren from moving with the changed borders forcing them to remain on the lands surrendered to Israel. That is what has perpetuated the conflict and has been invigorated by the Arab League, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran because these and other followers of Islam refuse to allow the Jews self-rule. The Quran explains that the Jews and Christians require the guidance and rule from their betters, the followers of Islam. Other religious people are considered to be either idolaters, polytheists or other various forms of heathens all of which must be brought into the fold believing in Islam or death. The Jews and Christians are permitted to live providing they adjust their belief from their erroneous and contaminated beliefs caused by their following their mistaken and mistranslated bibles which are different than the only valid word given as the Quran. They believe that the Jews and Christians were originally given the word as in the Quran but strayed from the proper path changing and polluting the original word. They believed that the Quran is the final word from heaven given through Mohammad. The means that this works is actually simply. The Quran was originally given to Adam, the first Muslim according to Islam. Abraham received the Quran as it was provided again but Abraham and his progeny made changes which invalidated their bibles. Then Moses again misrepresented the true Quran at Mount Sinai. The Jews continued to change the word until it was unrecognizable. The Christians added to the Jewish text with a New Testament which replaced the Jewish Bible. Christianity also claimed to have replaced Judaism and the Protestants replaced the Catholic Church as well as leaving the Jews further separated. When Islam came into being in the Seventh Century, they claimed not only to be the replacement for both Judaism and Christianity, they did not leave any chance for another word from heaven by claiming that theirs was the final word. The Quran is what both the Jews and the Christians had an opportunity, according to Islam, to follow and if Jews and Christians would simply return to their original word, which is presumably the Quran, then they will be considered to be good Jews and Christians when in reality a good Jew or Christian, by their definition, is actually a Muslim. Should Jews and Christians refuse to become followers of Islam and take the Quran as their holy book, then they are considered to affirmed that they are apostates from the only true faith, which they presumably originally were to supposed to have believed, and as apostates they would be sentenced to death.

 

Hamas has made a number of recent threats against Israel with the most recent coming less than a week after Hamas reached an agreement through Egypt with Israel presumably ending their violence including launching rockets and incendiary balloons and kites along with the border riots. The morning after the agreement was reached, Hamas permitted thousands of Gazans to riot along the border thus ending any sign that they might actually curtail the violence. These riots included launching incendiaries into Israel sparking twenty or so fires across southern Israel. Hamas also almost immediately demanded that Israel provide them with five-million dollars which would presumably be provided by Qatar. Since 2012, Qatar has provided Hamas with over one-billion dollars, all of which has been used to pay for terrorism. They have used this money and the provisions provided for rebuilding their infrastructure for the building of tunnels and bunkers within Gaza which includes hidden rocket firing positions as well as infiltration tunnels under the border into Israel in order to use them to kidnap and murder Israeli civilians. These are the investments which Hamas and Islamic Jihad believe are the most important areas for their budgeting for actions beyond lining the pockets of their leadership. The same is true for the Palestinian Authority, which is actually a domesticated PLO in theory, where they actually pay their citizens, and Israelis if they can be bribed (see image below), to murder Israeli civilians or enforcement and IDF personnel (see table below) with bonuses for multiple murders and other specifics. This has made terrorism and the murder of Israelis by far the highest paying employment the Palestinian Arabs under their rule can find. Murdering Israelis pays even higher than the Palestinian Authority Security Forces salaries except for the top officers and the group, Force 17, that protects Mahmoud Abbas.

 

Palestinian Authority Remunerations for Terrorists

 

There is one final reason why the leadership of all the various groups who rule the Palestinian Arabs, be they in Gaza or under the Palestinian Authority or even as Hezballah in Lebanon, that provides them with such a reward that making peace would deny them the millions upon millions of dollars and Euros they skim from the investments made by the United States, United Nations, European Union and numerous European governments in addition to the monies coming from Qatar or even other Arab governments and Iran. Mahmoud Abbas and his sons have all made hundreds of millions over the years with much of their wealth well hidden in Swiss numbered accounts or in other secure, hidden and untraceable places to stash excess personal money. Some of the former leaders of Hamas have retired with billions of dollars at their disposal and are living the good life in some of the Gulf States. The old adage that terror does not pay apparently never took into account the terrorism conducted against Israel, as this appears to be very profitable for those in the highest positions. Add in the Iranians providing the necessities for producing rockets and the other tools for terror, there is almost immeasurable amounts provisions and funds providing the target of your terrorism is Israel. Apparently killing Jews is one thing which apparently will never go out of fashion and might be one of the eternals which will only be terminated by the arrival of the Messiach. The world will be so far better off once the Messiach arrives and sets straight exactly what the words from Hashem are and then we can all possibly agree on the truth, whatever truth the Messiach brings us. We realize that the Messiach can arrive either as a reward for mankind living in peace and harmony or as the avenging angel sent to settle all the differences and reasons we have used to remain apart and fighting each other and finally bringing a permanent peace for those who survive. We really hope the Messiach comes peaceably, but that will require ending the continuing war again Israel and the Jewish People. That does not leave us with much faith for peaceable and really emphasizes our fears that the Messiach will come as an avenging angel and will bring the legions at their sides overpowering any and all forces of mere humans and settling every conflict. There is still time for the world to find a means for reaching understandings of acceptance of each other before a force arrives to do this for us and not be polite about their corrective efforts. That should be sufficient to cause all to pause, but then we remember the Iranian leadership who would welcome an Armageddon sized conflagration as they desire inviting the Messiach as the avenging angel as that is the form of their savior. Well, that might make peaceable an impossibility as it only takes one to spoil this cake.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

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

 

Weeds in the MENA Garden

 

 

If one were to ask the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and the world media who is responsible for the unrest throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) the resounding echoes would continue to scream Israel for likely the rest of eternity, but is that an honest assessment or simply a knee jerk automatic programed response spurred by anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic hatreds? The easiest way to tell would be to take a quick whirl around the MENA nations and see what the truth is. Let us start our excursion at the western edge and head to the east and see what we will see.

 

A map of MENA nations is almost up to date and is only missing the Sudan, and as the Sudan was split after years of tribal and religious violence, South Sudan; and some go so far as to include Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Eretria, and Somalia.

 

Coming into the North of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean the first country we would visit would be Western Sahara where we would find Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in violation of resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and International Court of Justice ruling. Any efforts to dislodge Morocco from Western Sahara have been blocked directly by the United States whose full support of the Moroccan occupation shows no sign of relenting. The conflict reemerged as the “Independence Intifada” in 2005 which has remained as depicted in map below. Despite numerous efforts to defuse the situation the standoff remains.

 

Occupied Western Sahara
by Morocco Shaded Area
and Western Sahara Unshaded

 

Continuing on from the Morocco-Western Sahara conflict we next visit Mauritania which has had a rocky recent history including two military coups, the first was in 2005 followed eventually by elections for a new president in 2007 followed by the second coup in 2008. General Abdul Aziz took power after the coup but found the nation had few supporters amongst them predominantly were Morocco, Libya and Iran while the United States and European nations rejected the legitimacy of the coup continuing to refer to Abdallahi as the legitimate president of Mauritania. After the resignation of Abdallahi there were elections which allowed Abdel Aziz to become the civilian president. In February 2011 there were waves of unrest as the Arab Spring spread to Mauritania demanding President Mohamed Abdel Aziz institute political, economic, and legal reforms. The unrest culminated in April of 2012 as thousands of people in Mauritania attended demonstrations in the capital calling for President Mohamed Abdel Aziz to resign. Currently the nation is under military rule with the legal system based on Islam and Sharia.

 

Heading across the southern end the picture in Mali, Niger and Chad is the constant internal strife between Christian governments and Islamic uprisings with much of the major horrific attacks conducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram which literally means Western education is forbidden. Boko Haram follows Saudi Wahhabism and has pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State. Along the north there has been steady unrest in Algeria and especially Libya since the NATO backed coup where President Obama declared that the United States was leading from behind in the ouster of and eventual execution (murder) of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In Libya the nation is in fractious rule of numerous terror groups and tribal armies with some having declared alliance with the Islamic State. In the south east there is the Sudan which bled in the south especially in the Darfur area. Eventually the Sudan was force to divide allowing South Sudan to become independent. In October of 2015, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a decree establishing twenty-eight states in place of the ten constitutionally established states. The decree established the new states largely along ethnic lines. He took it to the parliament for approval as a constitutional amendment in November and the South Sudanese parliament empowered President Kiir to create new states.

 

This brings us to Egypt where the recent history has played out live and large in the Western media. The Arab Spring riots led to the removal of President and military strongman Mubarak. The elections were held fairly soon after Mubarak was forced to step down largely by the United States backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. These elections overwhelmingly approved Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi to the presidency and a large Muslim Brotherhood majority in the parliament. Within the year new rioting broke out protesting the implementation of Sharia despite warnings from Turkish President Erdogan to the Morsi government to slow their radical changes or face resistance. This led to the military removing Morsi and arresting him for election fraud. New election instated former General of the Army Sisi as President though he still had an Islamist and presumed Muslim Brotherhood controlled parliament. The Obama administration refused to recognize Sisi and demanded that Morsi be reinstated; a request which was roundly ignored. Unrest still exists between Egypt and the United States which will be resolved by the Presidential election this November in the United States. As to what either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump might choose to do is a complete mystery at the present time as neither has addressed foreign policy beyond Hillary’s claim to deep knowledge claiming her time as a Senator of New York and a stint as Secretary of State under President Obama which included the Benghazi, Libya fiasco amongst other miscues and Trump claiming to have conducted business deals with numerous foreign governments and met many world leaders though particulars remain largely unconfirmed. Egypt has also faced unrest largely from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State where both are vying for control of the Sinai from where they would presumably unseat Sisi and retake the presidency. Hamas in Gaza was seen as providing assistance to these and some Iranian backed groups in the Sinai thus earning themselves a complete sea and land embargo enforced by Egypt from their waters and land borders with Gaza. The Egyptian blockade is often ignored with the large amount of attention paid to the Israeli “blockade” which is actually an inspection of goods before allowing their delivery to Gaza usually within one or two days done to assure that weapons are not being imported by Hamas and the other terror groups which rule Gaza. Egypt too is a work in progress.

 

We will return to Israel subsequently but meanwhile on to Lebanon where the terror groups Hezballah runs the government with an opposition often afraid to act to remove the terror group as previous attempts have resulted in untimely deaths. Lebanon cannot be addressed without discussing Syria and the state of war which has more facets than hewn crystals. The main three forces are Syrian dictator Bashir al Assad who has retreated to the Alawite tribal areas along the Mediterranean coast and Lebanese border. Assad is backed by Iran and their proxy, Hezballah, out of Lebanon. These are the Shiite forces which also receive tactical support largely in the form of air strikes by the Russians who are protecting their port area along the Mediterranean coast. Inland there are Sunni groups, oft referred to as terror groups, supported largely by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Finally there are the forces of the Islamic State which stretch into Iraq where they face the Iraqi Army backed by Iran who uses mostly IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) placing Iran at either end of the Islamic State. The Islamic State has been largely self-financed though there have been rumored support from Qatar. There is another group in northern Iraq and extending into northeastern Syria which is controlled by Kurdish Militias which are opposed strongly by Turkey. The Kurdish forces were at one time rumored to be receiving training by Israeli trainers on a clandestine mission though many have refuted that this was just a means of explaining the Kurdish forces resilience and holding their own against Islamist forces considered to be better equipped.

 

This takes us to the Saudi Peninsula and Jordan which we can count as a single unit of the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) which is a group backed mostly by Saudi Arabia which includes Kuwait and the Gulf States and to a lesser extent, Jordan. Saudi Arabia has a close working relationship with the Egyptian government of President Sisi who are jointly facing terror groups including those supported or aligned with Islamic State as well as Iranian backed terrorists and the Houthi Tribes in the Yemen civil war, a front where Iran backed and Saudi Arabian backed forces are in direct confrontation. The United States has opposed and presumably attempted to prevent, though with little success, arms shipments to the Houthis by Iran and also opposed the bombing sorties from Saudi Arabia with equal lack of success and the belligerents continue to fight on. In the southernmost areas of Yemen, the prized areas which overlook the narrow passage from the Red Sea into the Arabian Sea, called Bab el-Mandeb Strait are a group of fighters originally claiming alliance with al-Qaeda but recently changing their alliance to presumably the Islamic State. These groups have benefited directly from Saudi raids as has the currently recognized Hadi-led government.

 

Yemen Battle Map

 

Lastly let us finally look at Israel. On the Golan Heights IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have returned fire when fired upon by intention and otherwise has unofficial drop points for wounded individuals, civilian and combatant though no difference is noted, wounded and in need of treatment. IDF soldiers take these wounded and treat them in their field facility with the more serious cases transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment. After treatment the individuals once sufficiently recovered are returned from whence they came at same drop points. All sides can view the individual drop points and all points are respected by other fighting factions in an unarranged agreement as all sides use this treatment method and no one side wishes to risk being cut-off from Israeli treatment and have to rely on whatever resources they have available. We have no information as to whether any Iranian forces have received treatment from the Israelis though if placed in civilian clothing they would receive the same treatment as any other individual. The Israeli border with Lebanon is currently quiet as Hezballah has sufficient on their plate with forces in the Syrian conflict and rumored even to have some fighting with IRGC or Houthis in Yemen. Intelligence believed to be accurate estimated that Hezballah has stores of rockets of varying size and capable of striking Tel Aviv, Bathsheva and even Ashkelon as well as guided missiles from Iran capable of striking anywhere in Israel including the southernmost port city of Eilat carrying warhead as large as two kilos and potentially five or ten up to one-hundred kilos warheads on their short and medium ranged rockets of which they possess as many as one-hundred-seventy-five-thousand. On their larger missiles they have warheads of as much as seven-hundred-fifty kilos on modified Zilzal-2 with a four-hundred km range and which they possess an estimated one thousand. Their Fateh-110 missile has a range three-hundred km range striking at Mach 3.5 carrying a four to seven-hundred kg warhead of which Hezballah possess more than twenty-thousand and lastly there is the Shaheen-II two stage missile which has a range of two-thousand km making able to strike anywhere in Israel and into Egypt. Each missile is capable of flight altitude of up to three-hundred km, is GPS guided, and varies a one-thousand plus kg warhead making it potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and retaining it guidance hardware. It is doubtful that Iran has, let alone provided Hezballah with a deliverable nuclear warhead. Such is not far from the horizon for Iran but their providing Hezballah with such a weapon is doubtful.

 

The remaining fronts for Israel are with Jordan and Egypt which are both peaceful and with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria as well as with Hamas and ally Islamic Jihad and other terror and criminal groups in Gaza. The front with the PA is largely one where there are terror strikes which can be planned by Abbas and the his PLO terror groups or the less planned but instigated through calls for violence from PA figures, PLO figures or any of a litany of groups most of which are either headed by Mahmoud Abbas or are willful practitioners at his beck and call. The most recent round were stabbings carried out largely by Palestinian Arab and some Israeli Arab youths as well as car rammings along with rock and Molotov cocktail throwing with rioting which are carried out routinely by PA controlled terror groups, the Tamini family instigators who work closely with European Union and other European NGOs whose main aims are to cause any violent response by Israel which is filmed and the instigation causing the defensive act is edited and with careful editing and juxtaposition of stock footage, prerecorded footage or actual footage with any questionable instigations by the Arabs edited over or out completely compiled into the final product which is then transmitted throughout European news agencies within a matter of a couple of hours and they run with it unedited as if it were an actual news story followed by their governments and the European union then condemning Israel for use of disproportional force or the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Gaza front is another area where Iran attempts with some success to smuggle arms mostly containing rocket motors and rocket parts and technology. Funding for Hamas comes from UNRWA as well as from the PA making the European Union, United States, United Nations and individual European nations as well as numerous Arab countries direct or indirect financiers of Hamas terrorism and rocket attacks as well as Arab instigations and propaganda which permeates their entire society from their media to the schools, summer camps soccer leagues and every aspect of childhood and raising the children to hate Jews as well as Israel. The Hamas Charter calls not only for the annihilation of Israel but of Jews worldwide. Similar language is found in Islamic Jihad and Hezballah pamphlets and charters or constitutions. The hatred goes well beyond Israel and includes Jews everywhere as well as Western culture and societies. Hamas and their allies as well as Hezballah desire a world caliphate under Sharia and openly claim so. The main difference is whether the caliphate would be Shiite or Sunni, for the rest of us that is a minor comfort.

 

Beyond the Cusp