Iran will be using some amount of their coming new found wealth which with its sales of oil and weapons will be a renewable funding starting with the billions it will receive right up front after the deal passes the Congress either outright or through inability to override Presidential veto. There have been credible reports that Hezballah has been once again actively seeking to convert members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades into cells which Iran can control to perform shooting attacks and eventually planting IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) which Iran will provide either through teaching these cells the methods for building their own or by providing the knowledge along with the necessary parts and leave the rest to the best trained to do the logistical planning. This recruitment drive, for lack of a better term, is being led by an operative of Hezballah known to Israeli intelligence named Qais Obeid, an Israeli-Arab and grandson of former Knesset member Diyab Obeid. These recruitment efforts by Hezballah has been an ongoing threat which of late has been more vigorous thus making it a potential new and more active terrorist front which will require additional intelligence gathering and interventions. In the past these efforts may have had some begrudging assistance from Fatah and Palestinian Authority as allowing Hezballah to become overly influential in Judea and Samaria would erode Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas’s authority. Meanwhile, this is an inroad which Iran has already set in motion to increase their threat potential against Israel and in their mind another way to place additional pressures against Israel and thus make any attack on their nuclear facilities less likely. Increasing the near threat thus making the more distant threat appear less of a pressing issue may be behind these Iranian efforts.
Mahmoud Abbas may be another problem that requires steps to be addressed. Abbas is preparing to make a visit to Tehran, Iran. This visit will definitely have a discussion of recruiting Fatah and potentially buying the entirety of the Palestinian Authority outright. This may be part of the reason that Abbas has distanced and may further distance himself from the being the head of certain elements within the Palestinian Authority structures, as convoluted as that structure may appear. This may be in preparation to allow Iran to have its influence over certain political and terrorist entities while allowing for the majority of the Palestinian Authority, including the authority itself, to come outside obvious Iranian control and thus remain easily supportable by their European and other Western backing and funding while turning over critical terror networks to Iranian influence or even outright control. Iran is almost desperate to open a reliable front against Israel other than Hezballah which already had too much on its plate with Syria, Iraq and even reports of some Hezballah assisting the Houthis in Yemen and now a new front with Islamic State appearing to organize and gain influence of Sunnis in Lebanon who have reached the point of desperation and a represent low hanging fruit just waiting for some supporting influence to provide them with the leadership assistance and weaponization to present a new threat to Hezballah and gain their own front against Israel.
This partially represents the new threats approaching from the distant horizons to place themselves right on Israel’s front porch, so to speak. On one side there are the traditional Sunni influences such as Saudi Arabia and the ‘nice’ Palestinians which wear ties and speak peace in English while unsheathing daggers and potentially IEDs when dressed in more traditional garb with their keffiyeh shaped in the form of Israel, a tradition popularized by the late Yasser Arafat which he claimed showed his intention to replace Israel, not share any of the lands as he refused to recognize any Jewish presence as long as he was able to defy the Israeli presence as the State of the Jews. There is likely to be additional pressures felt from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria as the bidding wars increase. We have outlined the potential threats coming from Iran in Judea and Samaria and the on again and currently off again relationship between Iran and Hamas can become active at any time and present an active terror front against Israel. There are likely other influences in Gaza with potential for Iranian meddling such as Islamic Jihad or simply any terror cells who desire greater prominence which a fresh influx of money and arms, especially rocket parts, with which to attack Israel would present an additional threat. Where some would point to such a threat being of minimal importance to which the reply that comes to mind is to inquire at what number of rockets striking Israeli cities and potentially only prevented through interception at the minimal price of near twenty-thousand-dollars per interceptor fired. With rockets being priced to manufacture between fifty dollars to as much as at the most a thousand dollars, how many of the midrange priced rockets at say two-hundred-dollars or less does an Iranian backed group need to fire before they become more than a menace, and this does not count those that strike and murder Israeli families, at what point are rockets over the border sufficient to trigger a greater response? How many rockets fired at your neighborhood would be considered a minor menace, an inconvenience, something that you would be capable of simply living with the minor inconvenience of hearing a siren in the middle of the night or while your children are walking to or from school, a favorite time for rocket launches into Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, how many would you accept. Well, that should be the same answer for Israeli communities as Jewish and Israeli lives matter! All lives matter providing they are also living by that credo.
Live and let live is a nice theory to live by despite the murderous intentions of your neighbors, but after three-thousand-years of neighbors intent on murdering every single Israeli and Jew which included conquest at any price, we have seen it throughout time and will not go quietly, that can be a promise we will keep. We have had our survival instincts molded and hardened by the Egyptian Pharaohs, the Hittites, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Islamic invasions, the Crusaders, the near constant wars where the Jews were a primary target by both sides between of Islam against the Crusaders. These were followed by the various European and Islamic states throughout the Dark and Middle Ages, expulsions from Russian pogrom, Spanish Inquisition, Purification of France, the Religious Purges by both Catholic and Protestant Monarchs, the Protestant Reformation in the German City-States, Pogroms throughout all of Europe; the Jizyah of the Arab, Muslim and Ottoman City-States and Empires. Then was a defining slaughter known as the Shoah by the Nazis, and then pogroms and disenfranchising by the various Muslims States after the formation of Israel. Coming into the present we are targeted by Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO, Fatah, and the too numerous to name other assaults with the intent on conquest, wholesale conversions, eradication of Judaism and other threats be they from ancient history or about to spring at our throats tomorrow. Enough is enough and Never Again will Jews take such threats without a fight as we have no weapon against the most insidious of all threats, assimilation and the loss of Jewish identity which accompanies such. I realize that was a long sentence but we Jews have a very long history and very little of the time were we left in peace. The present is not proving to be much of an improvement. Name me one nation which has been historically and is presently under direct threat of being eradicated once again. Another exile may very well turn Judaism into a small cultish religion practiced by small pockets of religious Jews who will all still remain under threats for their annihilation through many different means and only surviving by the will of Hashem. We will not go into that dark night without a fight, a great effort to do whatever it takes to remain in the light of assurance through strength of our own lands, of Israel.
The power struggle in our, what almost needs to be defined as internal threats, is that of those Arabs which desire the destruction of Israel. They exist in the obvious camps in Gaza including Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as smaller groups sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda, Islamic State, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and assuredly more; in Judea and Samaria including PLO, Fatah, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Hezballah and other smaller groups some only comprised of a single or couple of cells; the threats from across the border from the numerous forces in Syria from Bashir al-Assad to al-Qaeda groups, Islamic State (they have become a larger than normal terrorist run state centrally located to keep their fingers in a large number of pies), Muslim Brotherhood, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC and an actual number of troops which are an elite corps from within the Iranian religious and fanatical organized army which is as large and well-funded as their regular army), Hezballah in Lebanon and Syria, Islamic State and Muslim Brotherhood within the Sinai Peninsula, and cells which hold Israeli identification cards and many of which who vote and run candidates for seats in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. Needless to say, Israel is kept busy and that is before the overt external threats being fomented on our borders with their monies or fanaticisms such as Islamic State (in addition to the terror threat they pose), and Iran with their now fully blessed and open for business arms programs and their under the radar parallel nuclear research and arms production sites which very likely include nuclear warhead development and production along with the rockets to place them upon. We can assume that after Mahmoud Abbas completes his precedent setting Tehran visit which will very likely include the agreement, signed or simply a non-gentleman’s agreement made with a deferential bow and handshake to give over to Iran control over part or an entire substructure of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades or other groups controlled by Abbas himself or by other terror masters within the political tangled web conceived in deceit with its main purpose being deception and allowing for setting up a high degree of believable deniable plausibility for any and every person in a leadership position. The entire apparatus which makes up the Palestinian Authority even currently includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad while working against them in the favor of PLO, al-Aqsa Martyrs and other cells utilized for attacks which must never be traced back to any political entity thus these groups’ names are kept secret until it is required to permit the leadership of the various disparate terror entities and political entities, forever are they attached through finances, all a jumbled mass of confusion. With Abbas having resigned as the head of the PLO planning board or some such title from amongst his numerous leadership positions granting it for the interim to Saab Erekat, actually Saab Erekat has replaced Mahmoud Abbas as Chair of the Secretary-General of PLO placing him in direct line to assume leadership of the entirety of the Palestinian Authority once Mahmoud Abbas steps down and retires from the scene.
Months after stepping down from all, or nearly all, of the leadership positions currently held by Abbas, he will then return becoming something even Yasser Arafat never achieved, becoming the Elder Statesman for the Palestinian Authority and in such position he will make himself available to speak to any ruling body the world over including even more frequent trips to the White House and potentially demanding and receiving the coveted position of addressing a joint session of the United States Congress within a week of two of any address so given by any Israeli official, especially any Prime Minister and particularly the current Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu. We would be expecting to see Mahmoud Abbas giving bi-monthly addresses to the General Assembly of the United Nations, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), and any other international organization especially those tasked with determining War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity all as part of a carefully planned and scripted series of addresses culminating each year with his address at the opening ceremonies of the United Nations General Assembly where he will open the idea for a new provision to be enacted by that body denouncing Israeli existence and fortifying the Palestinian position of claiming all the lands and having domain over all of the land as the Arab struggle has been and always will be the eradication of Israel and a wiping of the Jews from the Middle East and then the rest of the world. This has been the root of the vicious and vengeful hatreds which only allow for the complete destruction of Israel and the figuratively making Jerusalem the Capital City of the coming Caliphate instead of the Capital and Holiest of Cities to the Jewish People.
Within Israel there has been a political development which warrants some discussions. The recent dust-up caused by the release of a taped interview with Ehud Barak which cast aspersions on a number of political rivals which might likely stand between him and another run at being Prime Minister and the only person to defeat Bibi Netanyahu twice for Prime Minister. While Ehud Barak mostly stated that the reasons behind Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were not carried out in the entirety of his time as Minister of Defense were attributable largely to Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the then-chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who claimed the Israeli military he commanded had not trained sufficiently nor was it in any condition to face all of the potential consequences which might befall Israel after such an attack, and also placed a degree of blame on current Defense Minister and then Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon as well as current Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources and then member of the Inner Cabinet of Eight Yuval Steinitz as well as members of the Inner Cabinet Dan Meridor and Bennie Begin making it impossible to gain a five vote majority necessary to take it to the next level. Ehud Barak talked about Netanyahu’s weakness mostly due to not being capable of pressing through his plans for an attack on the known Iranian facilities and potentially other targets related to governance or military command and control.
Ehud Barak Speaks Out about Israeli failure to execute Iran strike against nuclear sites due to everybody except yours truly, Ehud Barak
Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi claimed the IDF not trained sufficiently, Defense Minister and then Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and Inner Cabinet of Eight Yuval Steinitz were all named by Ehud Barak as running negative interference preventing attacks on Iranian Nuclear Sites across a three year span from 2010 to 2013.
These events, including secondary releases from the taped interview being released, have raised suspicions that Ehud Barak believes and has started acting on another run for the golden ring, the Office of Prime Minister. First item on that path is to retake the leadership of the Labor Party, something he is expected to be opposed by Isaac Herzog, Shelly Yachimovich and potentially former Commander of the IDF and retired Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi who is the most feared challenge facing a Ehud Barak triumphant return to politics. Should Ehud Barak actually try to make a comeback we can bet that he will use the inaction against Iran and his hawkish views and decisiveness which he will claim was a certainty in his mind despite what those around him felt. There will be little mention on Judea and Samaria plans which, if memory serves me correctly, Barak is in agreement with Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni that Israel would be best served by the formation of an Arab state in virtually all of the lands of Judea and Samaria as well as Eastern Jerusalem claiming that such would end the terrorist threats from that area allowing Israel to concentrate all of her resources both military and political to prevent Iran from ever developing and producing nuclear weapons. Ehud Barak’s hopes that surrendering the ancient lands which hold most of the Israeli holiest locations starting with the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem, Hevron, the Cave of Machpelah, the Tomb of Joseph, the Tomb of Rachel, near countless Synagogues, Shechem, the City of David and many others as this is just to name a few. Further, relenting control and giving such to the Arab dominion will lead to the desecration of everything Jewish which means that Israelis will be required to sneak into these places under the cover of darkness and repair and restore the tombs and other places. With some being almost totally destroyed or restructured such as placing minarets at the four corners of a Synagogue and repurposing it as a Mosque, permanently destroying any Jewish character that building may have held making it Jewish, these building could only be reclaimed by taking a meaningful act of terror traceable to within Judea and Samaria and just annex them once they have been liberated from Islamic occupation.
Isaac Herzog, Shelly Yachimovich and former Commander of the IDF retired Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi are the expected Labor Candidates Barak would need to defeat if he is to run against Netanyahu in any upcoming elections.
Such is not a new action taken by Muslims as they performed such an abomination on the Hagia Sophia Cathedral and it was transformed into the Hagia Sophia Mosque. That would be the fate of many of the Christian and Jewish holy sites and giving them the land will not bring a moment of peace but would embolden them to press even harder as terrorism got them the lands thus far, maybe the rest is almost in sight. That would be their interpretation of Israel gifting them all of Judea and Samaria that they claim as their lands as they do to the rest of Israel. Such a move would also embolden Iran as they would also view such a surrender of lands rightfully Israeli would simply reinforce that the Jewish People had no stomach for a prolonged fight thus simply by opposing them long enough and they would become weak-willed and gift to its adversaries the surrender they demand, to an Islamist such is but an invitation.
Third Temple placed on Temple Mount adjacent to the Dome of the Rock in space that is currently open areas leaving more than sufficient room for tourism and worshippers of all faiths to visit and enjoy every religious building. It will; however, leave far less room for youth to play soccer which many might claim is a good thing.
Even when confronted with the testimony of historic facts many refuse to see the obvious. Such would be far less of a tragedy if only they would not bring our downfall alongside those who surrender that which is rightfully Israeli by every legal code and international law known to mankind. They are flaunting these international laws and agreements simply because the Israeli governance is permitting their perfidy through its cowardice and concerns for what the world thinks. We can tell you what the world thinks, they believe the Jews will cut their own throats if given a sharp enough knife rather than to turn that knife upon their adversaries. That is what they believe and all too many Israelis, especially in high office in the government, military and security services, prove their assessment right day in and day out. This foolish idea that the dragon can be dealt with if we just make this one additional sacrifice, there will always be one more sacrifice demanded of us until we are all dead and buried. When do the Jewish People make their stand, tell me when, please make it soon.
Istanbul, Turkey pictures of Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque Montage. The Hagia Sofia Mosque was originally a cathedral built when the city was known as Constantinople.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 