Khamenei Frightening Regret of Nazi Defeat

 

Iranian Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei in a speech on September 18, 2016, while denouncing President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calling for more investment in the economy rather than increasing military spending also made commentary which was far more disturbing. Khamenei lamented the results of World War II and insisted that military spending continue to be the highest priority even if the people are made to suffer economic hardships as Iran must not suffer the same fate which was the fate of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. What makes this all the more threatening is for Iran to suffer such a fate would require their placing themselves in a similar situation threatening other nations to the point where warfare is thrust upon much of the world in a determined effort to resist the threat of world conquest be a single minded nation led by people determined to commit genocidal cleansing of the world of all who are not subservient to them and their philosophy, or in the case of Iran, surrendered to Islam, and that would be Shia Islam. Khamenei was disturbed by the forcing of Germany and Japan into submission and forced to be disarmed which was, according to the Supreme Leader, a humiliation which Iran must never be made to suffer. Khamenei lauded the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) as the key to the success and completion of the Islamic revolution which was started in Iran in 1979 and is expected to enforce the Quranic call to conquer the world for Allah. This was the cause which Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini set as the purpose of all efforts and dedications of the Iranian people onto perpetuity. Khamenei has reinvested Iran in the dreams and goals set forth by Khomeini thus making more than their names sounding so similar as so is their dedication to the supremacy of Iran and Shia Islam.

 

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini

 

For most nations to be led by a dictatorial leader with dreams of world conquest there would not be any serious concern as it is unlikely that they could build sufficient military to potentially pose such a risk. Muammar Gaddafi often made speeches telling his people that their suffering would be alleviated once they defeated the nations oppressing them and denying them their rightful place as leaders ruling over much or all the Earth depending on his feelings of bravado on any given day. After pushing his terrorist sponsoring too far he faced a severe kick in the ego from the United States when President Reagan struck Libya responding to a Libyan terrorist strike on the “La Belle” nightclub in West Berlin which killed three people including one American Serviceman. The American and allies response came on April 15, 1986, in the early morning hours striking numerous targets throughout Libya including the Bab al-Azizia barracks, Murat Sidi Bilal camp, Tripoli military airfield, Benina military airfield, the air defense networks in Benghazi and Tripoli and Muammar Gaddafi’s house in an attempt to kill the dictator himself. Muammar Gaddafi, with his family, rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound just before the bombs dropped. The warning phone call came from Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi. Among the estimated sixty killed was one infant girl who was used as an attempt to vilify the American raid. Her name was Hannah and she was displayed before Western reporters with the claim she was the recently adopted daughter of Muammar Gaddafi. All things considered, this raid ended any claims from Muammar Gaddafi of Libya being a world leader and destined to lead the entirety of the world. Libya was never actually a threat to attempt world conquest and that claim was made to excuse a retrograde economy and the suffering of the population from the failed economic state. Iran has sufficient oil which as long as the price per barrel remains above approximately $50 to $75 Iran makes a profit from a percentage to all of their wells as their oil is thick and of poor quality thus costing more to draw from the ground. This is part, if not most of the reason for Saudi Arabia pumping out close to full capacity oil production to force the price per barrel below that $50 price. This has the additional effect of starving Russia from large oil profits and makes American fracking no longer cost effective thus having a deleterious effect on every oil producing nation with whom the Saudi Arabian Royals are having difficulties.

 

Still, Iran is currently cash flush thanks to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), better known as the Iran P5+1 Nuclear Deal, plus other additional payments made by the Obama Administration with a reported four-hundred-million dollar payment for presumably a broken arms deal with the Shah and definitely not a ransom for the released four American hostages. But wait, there is rumored to be more as that four-hundred-million dollar payment for the arms deal has been rumored to have been followed by another payment more than three times that size; a staggering one-point-three-billion dollars claimed to be interest of the original payment. As this payment was delivered in a secret aircraft delivery in actual American cash, thousands of hundred or even thousand dollar bills, hard currency, something unimaginable but somehow true. One can only wonder whether President Obama is going to further finance the military build-up before leaving office, and if so, how much more will he send? Additionally, even by the assessment of President Obama himself, the Iran nuclear deal will allow Iran to be within a few months of attaining nuclear weapons status after the ten year deal expires and there will be nothing to prevent Iran from building a nuclear stockpile challenging that of the United States within a year or soon thereafter once the deal has expired. But don’t worry, Iran will have calmed in that time and will no longer be set on world conquest in a decade or so. Just because Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei just declared the need for Iran to be so militarily powerful that should they set out to conquer the world they will not end as did Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan and be humbled in failure a full thirty-seven years since the 1979 revolution when the military path was first set upon. Sure, of course Iran will be a happy and cooperative nation in a decade or two, sure they will, right? Well, time will tell.

 

Still, one has to understand that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is seventy-seven years of age and in unknown health as such is a very secretive piece of information. Besides that, in a decade he will be eighty-seven (higher math skills paying off) and even with good health that is an advanced age. There is a possibility that he will have stepped down and a new Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah have been selected by the Assembly of Experts (aka Council of Experts) and now setting the direction of Iran. There could be a turn around and the next Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader will decide that the economy and the lives of the people are far more important than the destruction of the Great Satan (United States), the Little Satan (Israel) and/or the Wahabbist menace of Saudi Arabia. You doubt this? But President Obama has set the hopes of the free world on Iran becoming another nation happy to be a member of the community of nations and live in harmony with the rest of the world including those mentioned above. Come to think about it, you are probably right and things will probably get dicey. How dicey will depend on what the rest of the world does and the outcome of the Islamic infusion into the Western World and whether they assimilate or set on conquest, and the reaction to whichever path is chosen. The leadership in the Western World and beyond over the next decade or two will be very important and revealing on the importance for the continued freedoms of the developed Western World. Why am I so seriously concerned over this outlook?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Perverse Fruits of the Oslo Accords

 

Rabbi Meir Kahane was right. Rabbi Kahane was quite accurate, succinct, and nailed what Jews would face should we permit the Arabs to reside within Israel and permit them their own societal structures independent of Israeli oversight. He predicted the incitement, the stabbings, the bombings, the shooting and the general terror war being fought out on the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and everywhere else in time. What Israel is facing currently is the fruit of her own labors known as the Oslo Accords. The problem of the Oslo Accords provided the seeds that promised to produce what we are currently reaping across all of Israel where the fruits of Oslo reach and are prevalent. The real problem goes far beyond Oslo and is prevalent today in the Ministers of the Knesset who are screaming for Israel to ‘give them the lands they demand, give them until they stop, if we surrender Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria it will stop.’ If you are unsure as to what these people today mean, there is an easy path to gain an understanding, go back and play every speech ever given by Shimon Peres over his entire career as he was talking Oslo before he engineered Oslo presumably in cahoots with a select group of other leftists and who thought we owed the Arabs a state because they should receive an award for losing the war, perhaps he felt they deserved their victory too. Whatever he thought, assuming of course that he did actually think, the one thing that we have to give Shimon Peres, at no time did he ever change his wide eyed dreaming in which Oslo was the key to the future and would spread his dream and our nightmare. Even today his speeches speak of his seminal achievement of reaching out and offering his hand in friendship and never realizing that they would have sliced from his arm and then his head from his neck if they had not perceived the great weapon of harm that was the Oslo Accords and the evil it could and would spread over Israel worsening each year as if a returning plague.

 

 

Shimon Peres Returning from the Presumed Oslo Accords with Words of
Warnings as he Declared to Have Mr. Arafat’s Signature on this
Piece of Paper and has brought us Peace in Our Time

 

 

We should join with Mahmoud Abbas and declare the Oslo Accords as no longer binding on Israel as we have no other choice than to forgo the lofty intents which the Arab Palestinians refused to dare and make peace as Israel had invested so much treasure in lives and time all brought to naught by Mahmoud Abbas who refused any and every offer as he would wait for a total Israeli surrender where the Jews would leave or be enslaved as Dhimmis. Since the Arab Palestinians and their current facilitators of blood and violence whom either are full citizens or newly recognized citizens from Eastern Jerusalem who are permitted voting rights in Jerusalem elections just as is every other Jerusalemite be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or any other religion or even no religion. The goal of the Arab Palestinians is largely based on a strategy which revolves around the murder of Jews and the destruction of their homelands. The Palestinian run media as well as Al Jazeera, their Madrassas, their news industry, their internet including especially Facebook posts and Twitter feeds, the children’s summer camps, the schools run by Hamas or UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), naming ceremonies for streets, parks, playgrounds, schools, summer camps, soccer fields etc. and a near constant barrage from every conceivable source there is constant propagandizing brainwashing the youth in particular to murder Jews even at the cost of their own life because if every Muslim died while murdering a Jew the Jews would be wiped from the face of the earth and it would be but a small sacrifice for Islam. Below is a video telling of how the billions of dollars about to be gifted to Iran will affect Israel and the regional threat faced by the Jewish State along with interviews with Hamas children’s camp children as well as school kids which reveal the face of Arab motivated terror Israelis are facing. The indoctrination from television, radio, the Internet and other sources is widespread through much of Jerusalem and throughout Israel simply by subscribing to receive cable television which includes many channels which feature incitement as their main fare or simply allusions to terrorism and the responsibility of every Arab to their people and to Allah to murder as many Jews as possible and that their death in such a venture will guarantee their and their families’ places in Islamic heaven with the martyr gifted seventy-two perpetual virgins who regains her virginity immediately after they have been deflowered in some magical manner which is never questioned for some reason. My deceit meter would peg and potentially spin so far past the one-hundred-percent guarantee lie that it would probably be unusable for quite some time as the words of deceit would slowly lose their influence. Unfortunately many of these youths have received such brainwashing and reprogramming by their society and its rulers that they know little else and that is a large part of this problem. Ever since the Oslo Accords went into effect twenty-two years ago this past September the incitement has grown from a heavy and distressing prevalence to a complete inundation to some form of irradiating presence similar to radioactive elements which poison all within a certain distance to the current flood sweeping the impressionable minds into an altered state where becoming a martyr who has killed a number of Jews is considered their highest quest and goal in their lives.

 

 

 

 

Yair Lapid has been busy adding his shekels worth into the mix so allow us to repeat a number of his statements or internet posts with you.

 

“ If Abu Mazen (Arab Palestine Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s nom de guerre) is lying, he is not doing it because of oppression or occupation, but because he is a liar who is trying to slander Israel in front of the entire world. If a Palestinian terrorist tried to stab a soldier, she is not doing it because of the checkpoints, but because she wants to kill Jews for being Jews. And if a soldier, in response, shoots and kills her, she is not doing it because she is part of the occupation, but because she wants to protect herself from the terrorist and because she doesn’t want to die.”
“Zehava and her colleagues’ (Meretz Party Chairperson) call to understand the other side is condescending. She assumes that everyone – except them, of course – does not understand what’s really going on.”
“But we understand very well, thank you,” Lapid added. ‘What’s happening here is rampant knife terrorism resulting from unbridled incitement.”
“In the face of terror, a political solution must be established,” Lapid noted. “But it needs to be based on a reading of the reality as it is, and not on the creation of imaginary Palestinians who do not exist.”
“I believe we must separate from the Palestinians, while the IDF continues to operate everywhere in order to provide security to Israeli citizens.”
“It’s time to separate from the Palestinians and set a high wall between us and them,” Lapid declared. “Not because they’re the good guys, but because they’re the bad guys.”

 

 

Apparently Minister Yair Lapid had once again checked for the prevailing winds and after taking their measure and the trending flow was towards such historic greats of Israeli history he almost sounded like Rabbi Kahane, Ze’ev Jabotinsky or Menachem Begin sounding much the nationalist Zionist. He lashed out at the leftist parties with whom just last week was their staunch supporter with particular attention given to Zehava (Zehava Gal-on) and her colleagues’ on the left. The entire summer as well as during these trying times the leftists have suggested that Israel simply turn over Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and Old City, Judea, and Samaria as doing so will satisfy the Arab demands and bring the violence to an end. Some actually have added to this line of reasoning the great success which withdrawals from Southern Lebanon and Gaza have worked out. Their reference is given before people sympathetic or completely supportive of their views and thus they receive applause at the appropriate time thus reinforcing the lies which are required for anyone to support such deceits. This viewpoint ignored the Second Lebanon War and the state of constant conflict between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest as they launch rockets and ambush people and IDF soldiers who stray too close to the fence. Of course these leftists likely would point to this propaganda map depicting Palestine the nation claiming the steady erosion by the Jews and how only through Oslo Accords were they saved from oblivion.

 

 

The first week of April 2011 a sixteen-years-old student was the sole remaining student on the school bus which had just released the majority of the children ranging in age from the very young to the students graduating this year. The young man will not be graduating with his friends as he was hospitalized but after a week plus a few days of fighting for his life Raphael Daniel Aryeh ben Tamar was taken from us and was the sole fatality as the less injured bus driver is expected to make a full recovery. The terrorist who fired on the school bus was located in Gaza where every Jew and things considered Jewish have been used and propagandized as they are destroyed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad after the IDF and Jewish civilians were vacated. Still, the excuse given that the person who fired this guided missile from launching tube to target impact could not tell through the 7.5X weapon’s scope used as the sighting profile for the Kornet laser-guided anti-tank missile did not realize that the bus they fired upon was a bright yellow school bus. The remains of the bus are all the needed proof that the terrorist who fired upon the bus knew exactly what it was he aimed at and struck and that particular target was chosen with the hopes that it would still have had students inside making for a most horrific and sickening murder by the terror entity who would have grabbed credit. Below shows the bus which was in remarkably good form after being struck by a Kornet anti-tank missile weapon such as struck this school bus.

 

 

School Bus which was struck by a Russian made Kornet
anti-tank missile murdering one teen remaining
in the bus to reach his grandmother visit

 

 

Volunteer Picking Up Pieces of the Remains of
School Bus Struck by Guided Anti-Tank Weapon

 

 

The saddest part of this situation is that there is only one direction this entire fiasco of a peace process will lead and that ending scene is not going to be pretty. The two sides are at an impasse and neither group will willingly end the situation because the two sides disagree on one extremely critical point, the right of the Jewish People to a homeland. This is the same problem which plagues Europe and many all across the western world that the Jewish People have their homelands back in their hands again after almost two millennia and have retrieved their ancient language which had all but disappeared and was only used when reading of the ancient manuscripts and in synagogues reading the Torah. It had become an ancient tongue which had been all but forgotten and was soon to die out, and that could not happen, not as long as Hashem was in the picture. The Hebrew language is back and being heard where it belongs, in the bustling streets and alleyways of the Old City and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It has returned to the sites and is once again a vibrant part of life in Israel and is only lacking in one small matter, the willingness of the rest of the world to please allow us our most precious ancient lands. Make those who hate and cannot accept 99.999% of the lands across MENA and allow the Jews this insignificant piece of land which was of no use to you nor did it bear its fruits for you and allow for an easier life for you but instead withheld the rains and scorned your every attempt to tame her. Yet return the Jews and soon the land blossomed.

 

What had the Jews done those others before them had not? The two things the Jews did differently were first they came with a do or die optimism and second several conversations were held in ‘Hebrew’ for the first time in nearly two millennia. The Jews knew that if they failed in Israel then they would fail everywhere. This was the do or die situation for the Jewish People as without Jerusalem what are we? Rabbi Hillel would have phrased this far better but that is why his teachings and commentary are studied by learned Rabbis to this day. The Arabs have numbers on their side in this struggle of the millennia while the Jews have nowhere else to go so theirs is a must win or perish situation.

 

The Arabs, particularly the Islamic Arabs, have what they fervently believe is the final given world from Allah and many proclaim that Allah and Hashem are the same entity. This is where the Jews have a claim which many fear to make, Allah and Hashem are not the same entity and Hashem is the venerable Deity in the Torah while Allah is the god in the Quran and the philosophy and sentiments of these two books and their religions could not be more opposing. Their virtues are opposites, their commandments differ at a seminal point which came over Mohammad somewhere between Mecca and Medina which is made all the more obvious once one realizes and researches the Quran in chronological order that this transformation becomes more obvious, and that is where the two religions parted ways once and for all.

 

This brings us again back to the only way this is going to end is once a final do or die battle ensues and only one side remains standing at the end. When will this battle take place? I cannot even begin to predict, but each uprising brings that fateful day one act of hatred closer. The driving force behind that war will be hatreds but the winning will depend on the love for one’s fellow man. That singular point will propel one side to do something remarkable though what it will be is beyond my ability to know at this point. I would love to be able to claim that the Jewish People will win this battle of two religions, but though in my heart I know that to be the case, I have no facts to back that claim up. I can back the claim that should the Jews lose Eretz Yisroel then the Jews will have lost all and might never recover from such a spiritually crushing loss. We have lost Jerusalem too many times though we have always had a large presence in that eternal city. When the final battle starts there will be an ominous feeling which will permeate the very air we breathe everywhere on Earth as the final battle between Islam and Judaism is really a final battle of proportions I cannot explain well enough to put into words, but some day we will cross that bridge hopefully together right here at BTC. Stay strong and stay well and bless Hashem every day for all the goodness that lives on in yourself and your life.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What Are the Israeli Choices in Coming Election?

There are a great many factors which indicate that the election in Israel coming in about two weeks might just be one of the most vitally important while offering great opportunities to choose a new path and depart from the old paths which have proven to be fruitless. The electorate are facing the challenge and will decide with their votes whether or not Israel has turned over a new leaf and is ready to bear the consequences and difficulties of plowing new fields which will have their share of rocks and other obstacles or if they will vote for the comfort of the known well-worn path which has only produced thorns and weeds leaving nothing of worth to harvest but at least the challenges are familiar. Our feelings are that the time has come for drastic change and parting with the old and futile ways as the threats are growing and if there is no change, the future will be favorable for Israel’s enemies who will continue to press forward and slowly strangle the Nation of Israel and the Jewish People. For these truths the time has come to till the land and plant new seeds that will be resistant to the choking weeds that are currently strangling the lands and people of Israel.

The race for Prime Minister is not yet decided despite the media reports of a certainty for the reelection of Prime Minister Netanyahu. There exist other paths to the office of the Prime Minister which can be taken provided certain people or groups choose to work tirelessly and with a laser-like focus on that goal. The problem, as we perceive it to be, is that of all the candidates at the head of the major party tickets which have been said to have a possibly viable route to the Prime Ministership hold to the old school and well-worn path which Israel has tread since the end of the Six Day War. They all believe in the failed and disastrous Oslo Accords roadway with the mantra of, “Land for peace with two countries for two peoples living side by side with peace and security for both.” Poll after poll indicates that the majority of Israelis have absolutely no faith that such a concept has any possibility of being a viable concept worth pursuing. Unfortunately, almost all of the current party and ticket leaders still hold to the empty promises of the Oslo Accords.

Prime Minister Netanyahu at one time at least spoke of truth and the need for Israel to hold all the lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea to include all of Jerusalem and its suburbs, the Golan Heights, Judea, and Samaria. Unfortunately, that is not the Netanyahu who is leading the merged parties of Likud and Yisrael Beitenu. We now have the new version Netanyahu who now stands unmovable on the failed ideas and fruitless policies he spoke in his Bar-Ilan Speech which was his surrender speech where he fell before the pressures and demands of the United Nations; the European Union; UNRWA; President Obama; the Russians; virtually every European government, leader, and notable person or politician; the Arab League and individual Arab governments and spokespeople; the Palestinian Authority; the semi-accepted terror groups such as Hamas, Hezballah, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda in Gaza, and the PRC; the Muslim Brotherhood; Iran; among a multitude of NGOs, political entities, associations, universities, and spokespersons from virtually every direction. Considering the pressures and the never ending pounding Prime Minister Netanyahu has faced during his many years of excellent and inspired service to the State and People of Israel, it is no wonder he finally succumbed to the impossible burdens under which he has worked for decades. But what about the other offerings for the office of Prime Minister, is what they offer any different?

The presumed second largest of the parties vying for supremacy in the Knesset has, for most of the run-up to the elections, been the Labor Party which is headed by Shelly Yachimovich. She has been adamant that she would not serve in a coalition that included Prime Minister Netanyahu and his supporting party members unless she was the one to hold the office of Prime Minister. Shelly has made offers to every politicians and personalities who have appeared to be interested in joining a party or forming a new party and entering the coming elections. Ms. Yachimovich has made the offer of the number two slot on the Labor Party ticket at one time or another to Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid, Ehud Olmert, and even President Shimon Peres. Each has either responded directly and politely declining the offer or has announced their decision or lack of interest in running for any position in the upcoming elections. As far as new ideas on the most pressing of problems facing Israeli existence, Shelly Yachimovich offers a far weaker stand than has Prime Minister Netanyahu and has based her campaign for leadership by promising that she would invest the vast majority of her efforts on reestablishing the social safety-net which she accuses Netanyahu of having destroyed showing contempt for the average Israeli and their needs. Ms. Yachimovich claims that the main problems facing Israel are internal and can be solved with more intervention in the day-to-day lives of Israelis and issuing financial assistance for almost every staple need in Israeli lives. She paints a picture of returning to the Labor Party vision of a socialist Nirvana with the Government nurturing and guiding Israeli businesses and the lives of the people. She has stated her intent to roll back the financial progress made over the past decade of freeing the economy from the suffocating interference from the government. Her position on the Palestinian problem is to simply follow the ideas and ideals of the Oslo Accords while offering land and the formation of a Palestinian State as quickly as possible even if doing such requires the destruction of most, if not all, of the Israeli communities beyond the Green Line. Allowing for such would result in an unimaginable disaster.

Tzipi Livni heads her own new party named the Hatnua Party. Ms. Livni has also offered the number two slot to Yair Lapid, Ehud Olmert, and President Shimon Peres meeting with similar results as had Shelly Yachimovich. Tzipi Livni has populated her party with members who have been referred to as stolen Kadima MKs. Truth be told, one cannot blame any of the current Kadima members from fleeing the sinking ship and joining any other party as Kadima is not even expected to meet minimum requirements necessary to gain entrance in the Knesset. The real problem with Tzipi Livni is that she has been pursuing the same exact tactics she had applied to her position as opposition leader while she was the head of Kadima after Ehud Olmert had resigned which consisted of an attitude of, “Just say no,” and taking the opposite of any and everything Prime Minister Netanyahu took as a position. This has shown her to be unimaginative and rather hollow with little originality or personality of her own. Her position is similar in its treatment of foreign policies and threats as that of Ms. Yachimovich. Tzipi Livni is a strong believer in the Oslo Accords and would likely proceed with the land for peace folly making ever more generous offers to Mahmoud Abbas and might even meet many of the preconditions placed between the two sides by Abbas. This would be simply a disaster as should Ms. Livni show such weakness by granting the overt and ridiculous preconditions set forth by Mahmoud Abbas would only result in more extravagant demands and a higher bar to clear in order to tempt a meeting. In the end such a path would fail and not lead to peace and would leave a disastrous set of precedents which would drastically hinder any following Prime Minister in much the same way as the overly generous offers made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bending by freezing construction in Judea and Samaria thus their setting dangerous precedents which have now become the starting point demanded by the Palestinian leadership. Tzipi Livni is another who is not offering any changes to the poor performance and directions of past Israeli governments.

Yair Lapid has formed his own party named Yesh Atid and has played much of his campaign close to the vest. Mr. Lapid was previously a well-known television new caster who has gained great name recognition with this background. He is following almost step for step in the footprints of his father while likely hoping for somewhat better results as his father’s venture into politics only lasted one election as he failed to pass the requirements in his second elections. Mr. Lapid is presumed to be a liberal but to what degree remains to be seen. Seeing as this is his first venture into the world of politics and having come from the media where his presentations were scripted, his actual views still have amorphousness about them which will be cleared away as he takes positions and votes and his core beliefs are placed within the public realm. Mr. Lapid will not be in contention for the position of Prime Minister but might be in the position of King Maker as his party’s votes may prove coalition making. For this reason he and his party could be very important in the next government.

Then there is the triumvirate leadership of the Haredi Party, Shas, with Aryeh Deri, Eli Yishai and Ariel Attias at its head. This party is in an interesting position but will only be able to make their presence felt if no coalition is possible without their votes. Whereas Shas would more likely feel more at home with the religious Zionist parties and Likud, they have difficulties with Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu Party and their rather secular Zionist and pro-Russian views. The discomfort is mutual which may be made mute as Mr. Lieberman may end up sitting out the elections due to some peculiarly auspicious timed accusations and threats of possible indictment resulting from a twelve year investigation which it has been inferred will also carry a charge of moral turpitude intended to remove him from politics for an additional seven years. There is an interesting transition which spreads over the leftist camp whenever election times come around. During the rest of the time other than elections season, the leadership and notable people who reside on the left of center on the political spectrum often take adversarial positions even to the point of antagonism against the Haredi community and their overly strict morals and like style. There is a special viciousness held for the gender difference evident in the Haredi strict Torah observance which requires a certain and definite separation between men and women and very strict dress for each gender. The custom dress is very bland and provincial with rigid stipulations defining modesty and avoidance of any perceived provocative or stimulating flourishes.

The customary separation of the men and women in many activities infuriates the gender police of the liberal women’s movement. What is amusing is there is a women’s movement within the Haredi community which is every bit as ardent in standing up for women’s rights, protection from abuse, right to equal pay, and a litany of other issues where they would find common cause with their detractors from the left. The Shas Party has been known to stand with either a leftist or nationalist government as long as they receive their due funding and other considerations. They may very well demand a reinstitution of the Tal Law in some manner to protect Torah studying men from forced military or community service. This particular demand has seen itself become more and more weakened as time passes and a new generation of ultra-religious Haredi begin to take their places within the community. Haredi enlistment, though not required until recently, has been steadily rising and the current make-up of many of the combat arms companies consist of substantial Haredi and religious volunteers. What should we expect from Shas in the upcoming election? Where they have made deals with the left the membership within the Haredi and thus Shas has been slowly becoming more interested in being active members within Israeli society and have been steadily growing in numbers of Zionists within their ranks. This may have reached a tipping-point where the leadership of Shas may not think it wise to ally with the left unless the offer tended is one they cannot refuse, though such an offer is highly unlikely. They will likely join Netanyahu should he be nominated to form a coalition.

Now to the Naftali Bennett who heads the HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) Party which is presenting a joint ticket with HaIhud HaLeumi (National Union) Party thus uniting the two main National Religious Parties. The winning by Naftali Bennett to lead the conjoined parties has injected sparks of renewal into this sector of the political spectrum, something which has drawn worry on the brow of Netanyahu and his supporters. There has been a meteoric rise in the polls by the HaBayit HaYehudi/ HaIhud HaLeumi Party which has been the great surprise of this elections cycle. Much of this shifting in the electorate has to do with the personality of Naftali Bennett almost as much as the fact that Israelis have become disillusioned with the entire peace process with the Palestinians as they have concluded from Mahmoud Abbas’s actions and unreasonable demands, all executed to avoid negotiations, that the Oslo Accords have died an unnatural death and the whole idea of land for peace forming two states for two people existing in peace and security side-by-side has been a deception woven on lies, prevarications, deceits, and betrayals all colored with false promises and misdirections. The other item is the obvious facts that Mr. Bennett served in Israel Defense Forces in the elite Sayeret Matkal and Maglan units, received a Law degree from the Hebrew University, and co-founded Cyota (an anti-fraud software company) serving as its CEO which was sold in 2005 for $145,000,000. Naftali Bennett has a proven life-record of success and excellence in all his endeavors and has a likeable persona and commands a presence in interviews and in the media. He is the fresh face seemingly even eclipsing Yair Lapid despite his lifetime of media experience. Mr. Bennett has been able to sell the positions of the national-religious parties with a gusto and level of excitement which is contagious and has managed what was previously considered impossible, he has sold the position so well that he has even convinced many secular Zionists to join forces with the religious Zionists, a rare but very powerful combination. If Israel is going to survive the next few years where the country will be facing some very serious and dangerous threats even more challenging than the usual situations, then they may be well served if Naftali Bennett finds high office and acceptance into the inner circle of the Prime Minister. If the unthinkable is the result of the elections and Prime Minister Netanyahu does not ride what was supposed to have been an unstoppable wave back into the Prime Minister’s House, then pray that the reason is that Naftali Bennett is tapped and cobbles together a Zionist coalition, religious or otherwise, as long as it is solidly Zionist and has as a central pillar the Torah commandment to settle the land.

Beyond the Cusp