Nasrallah and Allies Throwing Threats at Israel

 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel to “Count to one million!” this past Monday before starting any attacks or violence against Lebanon. To those who know Israel they realize this threat has nothing to do with any threats which might emanate from Israel, they have everything to do with Nasrallah reinforcing his own standing as Hezballah has some difficulties as their losses in the Syria conflict continue to mount. Hezballah requires their front with Israel to give their movement legitimacy and without support in Lebanon they would not have this front. Nasrallah’s problem is the fighting by Hezballah in support of Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad in his war to try and reestablish his country with him still in control. Hezballah only has an obligation to fight for al-Assad because Iran insists they assist the Iranian efforts to support al-Assad, an ally, or should we say the more honest assessment of puppet, and thus retain Syria as the anchor on the Mediterranean of the Shiite Crescent across the Middle East. This Shiite Crescent begins with Iran bordering the Indian Ocean and Persian (Arabian) Gulf across Iraq and on through Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea. Should Iran lose their claim to Syria personified by Bashir al-Assad who is more Shiite than Sunni as an Alawite Muslim, they lose their western Shiite Crescent anchor. The civil war in Syria has drawn more assets from Iran who has sent mostly Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units and as the fighting had continued they demanded that Hezballah assist the efforts and this demand has only increased as the fighting became more and more desperate. Initially Hezballah had great successes but soon they began to have sufficient losses that they were no longer able of hiding the deaths and severe injuries to their fighters. As Hezballah is mostly an all-volunteer force, leaving Hezballah has proven bad for some individuals’ health.

 

Hassan Nasrallah Gesturing during remote feed video onto large screen during Hezballah semi-annual pretense of readiness to defeat any Israeli assault as he remain in hiding presumably beyond the reach of Israeli drones and commandos. This enhances his appearance of constantly under threat by Israeli forces seeking to assassinate him. The likely truth is that Israel had no reason, desire or even bothered to draw up plans to do so. As far as whether Israel could find Hassan Nasrallah’s various secreted locations, probably already have them pinpointed on some map just in case it becomes advantageous to remove Nasrallah from his position as the figurehead of Hezballah.

 

Still, and especially with the losses in Syria, Hezballah needs volunteers to fill their ranks of fighters. They control much of the government forces throughout Lebanon and is allied closely with President Michel Aoun and through these connections they control the education system in much of the areas and through this they indoctrinate the youth thus providing for future volunteers. One of the main attractive themes which is used in the schools and in their seeking for new recruits is the idea of fighting the Jews, Israel in particular. This has been a central theme even in Iran where their two major indoctrination inducing themes are “Death to America” teamed with “Death to Israel” both of which are often chanted in demonstrations after Friday prayers. This is the Iranian version of George Orwell’s 1984 “Two Minutes of Hate.” The similarity between the Iranian use of hate and Nasrallah using hate for Israel and the Jews are asimple means of holding power through defining and demonization of the other. This has been one of the means of unifying populations throughout Islamic history beginning with Muhammad during his later period in Medina after his being cast out of Mecca as his preaching that his revelations were the only truth, something the pluralistic society of Mecca refused to accede to, eventually rubbed the leaders of the city and the populace to such an extent they rejected both his preaching and soon the man himself, Muhammad, was cast out of the city. Once he established his power base in Medina he turned on those who had rejected him, first the Jewish tribes in the vicinity of Medina and then on Mecca bringing it down and subjugating those who had formerly rejected him. This was why he called his religion Islam which best translates as submission. This is still the method used by Islam that all must bow to their wishes and as Muhammad chose the Jews for a special place as the most accursed by Islam, this theme is repeated today. This is part of why Israel is so hated and why they so often depict the United States as controlled by Jews or as the puppet of Israel and thus singling the United States for equal hate as is given Israel. Some may ask why then is Britain also given such hate even more so than France, which was just as much a colonial power after the end of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and the reason is simple, the Balfour Declaration brining Israel into existence, as they were under Jewish control. Everything traces back to the Jews no matter how absurd such a premise may be. Below we have Orwell’s “Two Minutes of Hate” and a rally against Israel, Britain and America from Tehran and the similarities are easily recognized.

 

Two Minutes of Hate

 

Endless Mindless Hate

 

There has also been a renewed belligerence from Gaza using a new tactic of firing their rockets from both within Gaza and from the Sinai Peninsula. Other than opening up a new front by using Egyptian territory there may be more involved. These rockets have been largely a single volley and then a return to what can be described as a normal level of fear and anxiety. The truth is, as we noted in our article Hamas Appointments Signal Coming Conflict, the recent retirement by Ismail Haniyeh and his replacement by Yahya Sinwar signals an expected increase in belligerence and the definite possibility of another Gaza war as Hamas will likely start a new rocket offensive this spring and into the summer. More rockets were fired into Israel today and all that remains is to see who and how many take credit for the attacks. Currently there is a war ongoing in Gaza in a rather subdued struggle for control of the area, the attacks on Israel as well as potentially Egypt between Hamas and Islamic State. Both groups would desire to eradicate Israel and both find Egyptian President Sisi to be a threat to their particular version of Islam, as he is calling for a reformation within Islam placing the emphasis on the Meccan coexistence verses instead of the Medina conquer the world and subjugation verses. Both Islamic State and Hamas see conquest as the true path of Islam holding no question in the supremacy which must be brought about by any and all means necessary including by the sword. Their argument with Sisi still would take a back seat to their hatreds for Israel and the Jews. In the case of Hamas one should not believe their aim is simply to destroy Israel and scatter the Jews to the far corners of the Earth as their Charter calls for the annihilation of all Jews wherever they may be found. Quoting the Hamas Charter, it states in Article 7, “The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” Further, it states in Article 32, “Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’” These are actual beliefs which they intend to act upon yet nobody appears capable of understanding their deep-seated anti-Semitism and the extents to which they intend to carry the extermination of the Jewish People. What the world need understand is that the Islamic hatred for the Jews goes all the way back to the beginning starting with Muhammad and was not a product of their influence from the Nazis but rather it was an Islamic influence of Jew hatred which spurred the Nazis even further and was responsible in part for the “Final Solution” which was in part formulated through the input of the Mufti of Jerusalem in discussions he partook in at the Wannsee Conference. Hamas is simply the continuation of Muhammad’s preoccupation with the extermination of the Jewish People.

 

Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar

 

What poses the real threat is the possibility of facing a two front assault from the south using both Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula by Hamas as well as facing Hezballah in the north potentially attacking from both Lebanon and onto the Golan Heights from within al-Assad held areas around Damascus in Syria. Where such would not prove an impossible task for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), it would limit that care which could be granted should the IDF only need fight on just one front. There would be a necessary broadening of any theater of operation with less ability to use discretion when targeting essential structures being used as rocket launching facilities or command and control. This would be particularly true on the front against Hezballah as they have been provided with sufficient ability to destroy much of Israel with their estimated one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles. With such an arsenal they could probably overwhelm the Iron Dome systems and in order to preserve the nation the IDF would be required to rely on intensive air strikes and use of Israeli missiles in a series of precision munitions. The usual surgical precision and calling off air strikes simply because there would be a potential for civilian casualties would need to be given less urgency as many of these rockets and missiles and their launchers have been placed in what Hezballah refer to as their hardened positions which they claim Israel is unable to strike. What they are relying upon is that no Israeli government would ever permit the unrestricted use of missiles and air strikes regardless of civilian casualties. The difference in any coming conflict with Hezballah is that it would come down to Lebanese casualties or Israeli casualties and that would not be a difficult, though it would be an unpleasant, thought for any Israeli Prime Minister no matter where on the political scale they may sit. Any Israeli Prime Minister who would hold Lebanese or Gazan lives as more important and more precious than Israeli lives and call off strikes which would save Israeli civilians simply because Lebanese or Gazans might be hurt should step down immediately. There is a point where being humane when fighting a war has to give way to the practicality of fighting a war. Any war with Hezballah who have been provided with more missiles and rockets than many European military powers could put into use at any given time by Iran with the intent of overwhelming Israel and destroying as much of the country and murdering as many of the people as possible, that requires taking off the gloves and fighting any confrontation as what it is, an all-out no-holds-barred war. Such is not exactly something to be proud over, but reality has consequences and the only thing which Israel can promise is that she will not fire the first shot.

 

That leads us to the final reason Nasrallah made the comments he did. His other purpose is to establish through quotations the idea that any confrontation must have been started by Israel. In this with repeated statements of how Hezballah will go to any length in protecting Lebanon from Israeli aggressions, Hezballah will not shy when Israel attacks, Hezballah stands ready for the coming Israeli attacks and statement after such statement that when Hezballah strikes Israel in a cross border raid killing IDF soldiers on patrol and kidnapping soldiers if able they will claim the Israelis attacked and the world, even for a moment believes and reports such, then the entire following conflict will be blamed on Israel. Many of the world media will point to all the times Nasrallah warned of impending Israeli attack. The problem is Hezballah claims that the Galilee is occupied land and that Israel illegally holds these lands so when they attack it is in defense of lands they claim are occupied despite there being a recognized international border which places these lands within Israel. The entire length of the Lebanon Israel border is fenced and any attack required crossing through the fence at recognized crossing points. The entire border between Israel and Lebanon is supposed to be monitored by the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon. These are the same peacekeepers who were supposed to prevent Hezballah from rearming and prevent their digging an entire new set of underground facilities. This is the same United Nations peacekeeping force which the Europeans walked out of supporting, India left after they were threatened and these peacekeepers now basically work for Hezballah. These United Nations forces were referred to as UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and were put in place after the Second Lebanon War and almost lasted two years before basically turning the other way and allowing any breaching of the agreements they were supposed to enforce. They became so threatened that one seldom sees any United Nations vehicles south of the Litani River and those one can find are often being driven by and used to transport Hezballah units, rockets and provisions. UNIFIL became a joke and if there is any logic left in Israel, they will never again trust the United Nations, European union, European nations or most of the world to keep even a single promise if doing so places them in opposition to the forces of Islam as the world is more afraid of terrorists than they are of Israel because Israel will not be blowing things up in their capitals or anywhere they care about. Israel needs to realize they are on their own for the most part and any friends they may have after an election may disappear after the next election and their promises will leave with them. Such is the lesson of the written agreement given Ariel Sharon by George W. Bush which has since become a dead letter with at best may become resurrected briefly but will then be eclipsed somewhere down the road, guaranteed. The only promises Israel can count upon are in Torah.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel Unfortunate Choice Ahead Due to State Department

 

It has long been obvious that though the Pentagon, many on both sides of the aisle in Congress and throughout numerous other Cabinet departments and through numerous sectors and individuals in the United States support Israel and treat Israel as a friend. The animosity which originates from the Department of State sours much of the relations. Israel and the military and intelligence agencies share much information and their different avenues complement each other. There is a long history of Israeli innovation being returned to the Pentagon for incorporation on the United States equipment. One of the earliest of such improvements was what became known as the Super Sherman Tank which Israel redesigned the transmission, engine and upgraded main gun which prolonged the use of this weapons system for many additional years before finally being replaced in the early 1960s by the M60 Tank. One of the more recent and inexpensive upgrades came to the vaunted F-16 Jet Fighter which provided a means for the pilot at a glance to check his six, as looking for somebody coming up behind him as a threat is called. This upgrade consisted of attaching an extended automobile sport side-view mirror; the sport mirror was chosen to reduce drag. Sometimes the simplest of improvements prove just as valuable as retooling entire systems. Then there were the upgraded specifications to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, many of which were eventually adopted by the United States. Israel also has often been the initial test case for United States weapons systems tests in actual combat, something the Israelis would rather avoid more of in the future but such is not always her choice. But even back in May of 1948 the State Department advised against the United States recognizing Israel when it declared its coming into existence as was also the advice of the Defense Department and virtually any Cabinet Member in President Truman’s staff as well as his closest advisors. One of the stories as to why President Truman went against such advice and recognized Israel immediately after their announced statehood was he was simply remembering the teachings his mother had instilled in him as a young child telling him the Biblical stories about the Hebrews, the Jews and the Exodus and that Israel was the Jewish ancient, and now modern, homelands. If such is a true story, then we thank Mrs. Truman, Harry Truman’s mother for such wisdom in raising her son while thanking Harry S. Truman for his fortitude in the face of raging advice to recognize the Jewish State.

 

An aside, does anybody know what the ‘S’ stood for as his middle name and the entire story behind it? Oddly enough, Harry Truman believed that all great men and especially Presidents had and always should have a middle initial even if they had no middle name from birth. Harry, for reasons unknown, chose ‘S’ for his middle initial though he never attached an actual middle name. This led some to call him, and not all that affectionately, Harry ‘S’ for nothing Truman. President Truman was also the President who first had a wooden nameplate which instead of his name stated, “The Buck Stops Here.” Sure is a far cry from recent Presidents who if they had a sign it would read, “The Buck Never Got Here and I Found Out About it Just Like Everybody Else in the News This Morning.”

 

The State Department animosities towards Israel is one item which cannot be laid at the feet of President Obama as the history of such difficulties may have started even before May of 1948 as they likely were opposed to the United Nations vote which suggested a plan by which Israel would have shared the sliver of land allowing for a Arab State next to the Palestinian Jewish State, as the Jews were called Palestinians in 1947-8 and on until the name was appropriated by Yasser Arafat in 1964 when founding the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) which the KGB assisted in forming three years before there were any occupied lands unless all of Israel is considered occupied lands, the claim of the PLO, Arafat and his trusted number two, Mahmoud Abbas. The KGB wrote the charter and fashioned the PLO to mirror the same exact claims made by the Zionists except substituted Arab for the word Jew and even went so far as to adopt much of the Old Testament as being Arab and not Jewish history just leaving out the names but keeping the events in a manner. The KGB plan was to use the same tactics and arguments the Jews had made as the Zionist Congress which gained the promise of the world, including the leader of the Arab world, King Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi, when the treaty of the San Remo Conference was adopted as part of the peace agreements ending World War I and also affirmed, adopted and enforced by the League of Nations through the Mandate System all of which was adopted subsequently by the United Nations under Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. The KGB saw the advantage of making the PLO the underdog making the identical claims the Zionists had put forward starting before the dawn of the Twentieth Century dating back to the 1897 founding of the Zionist Congress, the culmination of Theodore Herzl’s dream and life’s work which predated the founding by some years and cemented by the Alfred Dreyfuss conviction for treason for which he was later exonerated and the actual traitors found out after a prolonged agonizing series of events which was heightened and succeeded in very large part to Alfred’s wife, Lucie Eugénie, and the support by Émile Zola who wrote the scathing article, “J’Accuse” on January 13, 1898 (see article below).

 

 

J Accuse Emile Zola critique the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfuss of treason solely as a Jew he made the perfect scapegoat behind which the General staff of the French Army could conceal perfidy of one of their own royalties as anti-Semitism played a high motivating factor in belief that Alfred Dreyfuss was guilty as Jews were rumored to be of untrustworthy nature and not loyal to the state. This was played up in his trial but in the end Alfred Dreyfuss became the only man ever released and exonerated after being imprisoned on Devil’s Island Prison.

 

A full English translated transcript of the J’accuse article by Émile Zola is posted here.

 

Meanwhile, the little trip to review L’affair Dreyfuss simply shows that the United States Department of State is anything but alone in possessing such a history and with the current tone and direction in Europe, and even signs in the United States, has company in the present as well. There are those when the largest challenge facing the United States was Soviet Communism claimed that the State Department was staffed primarily with Soviet Communist sympathizers or possible agents, which was given great validation with the trial and conviction of Aldrich Ames and Alger Hiss. Much of the rest of the attitudes of the public that there was a definitive Soviet strain running through the State Department also made sense as the people most desired and required by the State Department were people fluent in Russian and most of the applicants historically had been leftists which immediately sends up red flags (all puns intended) that large numbers of Communist populated the State Department. Now the emphasis for the State Department is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Muslim nations including non-Arab states such as Iran, the Philippines, Malaysia and other Asian Islamic majority nations plus some of the Northern African and Horn of Africa Islamic nations. This has brought a number of Arabic and Farsi speaking individuals into the State Department and, as can be expected, the conspiracy theories are all about the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, Iranian, Saudi and a myriad of other Islamic infiltrators taking over where the Communist infiltrators left off in the who has infiltrated the State Department paranoia. Of course one must keep in mind that just because one has paranoid delusions that one is not actually correct in their suspicions. With either theory, whether it be Soviet agents or Islamic agents infiltrating the State Department, either or both were not exactly close friends of Israel; one might even venture to place them as enemies of the Jewish State.

 

The suspicion that the State Department has a distinct dislike of Israel does not need much investigation to realize the reality of such accusations. Add the current White House and the fact that an Iranian born person is currently a close advisor to the President and the tracing of a small but not insignificant number of Muslim Brotherhood related, linked or having strings which lead to the Brotherhood individuals employed by the White House in different advisory and support positions explains the reasoning that President Obama had as his plan from day one to, in his world, “put some daylight between the United States and Israel,” and he has succeeded in this endeavor with great achievements. The President’s other claim upon entering the White House of making Iran a member of the clubs of world nations and placing them as the leading influence in the Middle East as well as the rest of MENA and, if the Iranians get their greatest of desires, far more including Europe and beyond. When President Obama initially stated his desire to bring Iran into the clubs of nations few expected at first that one of those clubs was the nuclear weapons club, one of the more exclusive clubs soon to become the fastest growing club with new members galore within the next eighteen months or less. The world may as well face the facts that unless another nation steps forward to enforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) then not only will Iran be nuclear armed within the rest of the term of President Obama as they are highly unlikely to bet the house and the opportunity to become a nuclear power on the next President honoring the promises made by President Obama and otherwise treating them in the same vein as he treated those of his predecessors, President George W. Bush in particular. If this is the Iranian deadline one can bet that it is everyone’s deadline.

 

Meanwhile, the State Department is patting each other on the back for another fantastic success just like the success they made in North Korea. One need understand that the State Department is always shocked when the other side of these actually very weak agreements fails to even bother to take ten minutes aside and rejoice their victory before setting about to break every promise and stipulation in the deal they just signed. Perhaps if we made it a rule to sign all agreements the morning of the day observed as their weekend then their employees tasked with enforcing agreements would take at least the remainder of the signing day off before working to invalidate every last word including ‘of’, ‘the’ and ‘and’ of that agreement. There is an exception, and that is Israel. Israel is held by the State Department to a standard unparalleled throughout all of human history. The State Department does not only hold Israel to the terms of every agreement but even believes Israel should also be forced to commit to upholding State Department inter-office memorandums and bullet points. These are not parts of treaties or agreements; these are simply the dreams and other machinations from the dark recesses of the twisted minds of people who really do not like Israel. The animosity towards Israel from the State Department is palpable. This was made evident during the administration of President George W. Bush amongst others before him back to November 29, 1947, or at the least May 15, 1948.

 

To give a prime example of the brilliance in making the world that little bit extra tough for Israel, the State Department will always be there with its version of tough love, let us look at the foremost action taken at largely the behest of the State Department as communicated to President George W. Bush by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. We need to remember that George W. Bush, despite his insistence that Israel be divided further ignoring international law and treaties which give Israel the undivided lands west of the Jordan River. Also in plans to assist Israel by applying the deeply rooted, if not thought out, plan that democracy instituted allowing the citizenry to vote will produce leaders who will be willing to work towards the same goals as the Western Democracies, all will result in more fanfare than progress or change. Never mind that the people in many of these nations and populations have little if any concept on freedom, independence of the ballot box and anonymous voting rights meaning their recorded vote theoretically is untraceable back to them or any other individual. They do not believe that their cast vote matters unless it is cast to retain those in power otherwise when they return to power life will not be comfortable, and one can rely on the promise that they will return to power and their vengeance will be swift and brutal. Only if they are replaced by somebody even more brutal and strong enough to resist any and all attempts to steal their position by coup does this new ruler remain in power. This was recently made very evident when Egyptian President Morsi despite attempting to replace some of the ranking Generals in the military was unable to rid himself of Commander of the Armies Sisi who removed him, set up an interim government run by military council sans himself and while he appeared bold and favored to be the next President. This came to pass and in his first year as President of Egypt he has removed much of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as tried former President Morsi for criminal intents thus guaranteeing he will never return to office.

 

When President George W. Bush insisted that the new election in the Palestinian autonomous regions of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria allow anybody and everybody to be permitted to field candidates, even Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda of Gaza, the various criminal gangs and on and on; Arab Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas protested vehemently but to no avail; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warned exactly as had Abbas and with the same results; everybody who knew anything about the Middle East would have realized that Hamas would likely defeat Fatah and the other so-called moderates would lose. Abbas even made sure his office was not included in the coming fiasco. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed the concept that elections would solve all the ills and with proper representation and the terrorists embarrassed sufficiently and out of power as no rational people would choose terrorists, especially known terrorists to lead their society as to do such would be madness. This line of reason was solidly purported by the State Department, the source of this misbegotten concept that democracy, especially democracy where there is absolutely no history of independent thought and even the predominant religion was based on surrender of the self to the whole we were told, the entire world was told, that democracy cures all ills. Well, guess what, Hamas won and won easily. Their electoral victory was muted as much as Abbas was able which may have partially led to the Hamas coup to take complete control in Gaza. Now it is that same State Department which calls for Israel to allow these “Freedom Flotillas” to pass unmolested through the arms sea embargo enforced by both Egypt and Israel claiming that it could do no harm. Israel, quite rightfully, maintains that once a single such flotilla was granted free pass the next ones would be chocked full of arms. Still the State Department is right there looking over Israeli shoulders for the slightest innuendo that Israel may be about to act is done in a manner which the State Department current directives and policy statements. As far as the State Department is concerned, Israel is a wholly owned subsidiary of the United States and is ruled over as a protectorate under State Department management. The State Department has been working endlessly and with unceasing efforts to undermine every Israeli attempt to mitigate the Iranian nuclear threat. It has perhaps the State Department and White House concerted efforts to prevent Israel from taking any action. They leaked the information that Israel had arranged to lease for training purposes a pair of Azerbaijan airfields which had the immediate effect the Israeli hope to use that military option President Obama and the State Department not only were dead set on keeping said military plan firmly cemented on the table but to also cement any Israeli hope to terminate the Iranian immediate nuclear threat their own method. There was another leak; this time from the White House ending the hopes being granted overfly permission by Saudi Arabia. Every time there has been a plan it has been blocked either by the White House or the State Department. It was a report from the State Department which advised every President to demand that Israel return all of the property she may have gained even in defensive wars where she was the attacked and thus aggrieved nation and had every right under international laws to retain any and all lands gained in such a defensive war such as were deemed necessary to provide for defense or that had other valuable resources which would aid in future efforts and discourage their enemies from again bringing war against the aggrieved nation. But instead of the winner getting to dictate the peace, the State Department with valuable assists from the European Union and its member nations, along with the Arab League and the aggressor nations have an almost universal privilege at determining where the boundaries will be drawn almost exclusively placing the lines in some manner forcing Israel all the way back to her previous position reinstating the Green Line placing Israel into jeopardy once more.

 

Further proof was provided during last summer’s Operation Defensive Edge where the State Department was assigned final clearance for any and all shipments of arms to Israel including guaranteed by documented arms agreements, the kind President Obama claims he was arranging with Iran with one very significant difference, the Israeli arms agreements had been ratified by Congress receiving near unanimous support from Congress. This one extra signoff should have been merely a formality but instead became a complete arms embargo for the duration of the conflict. The coordinated assault meant to force Israel into a defenseless position as she might have run out of munitions, in particular JDAMs and other smart weapons which minimize collateral damage as best as possible which weapons are vital to reduce civilian casualties which Hamas and Islamic Jihad and other groups fighting against Israel who locate their emplacements instead of out in open areas use the heavily populated cities, and Gaza had large areas of farmlands (as depicted in map below showing population distribution in the Gaza Strip) and is not packed border to border with people. Central Israel where Hamas aimed most of their M 75 and the M 302 missiles has a greater population density than does Gaza. Jerusalem neighborhoods would rival Gaza City for population density as would Akko but these facts never quite make it onto the facts sheet the State Department puts out for the media and news shows to utilize as presumably unbiased reporting.

 

 

Population density map of the Gaza Strip where the display shows large open areas with little population where Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other combatants could operate without threat to the population but instead choose to place the entirety of their rocket and missile systems within Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Deir al-Bala, and Jabalia Camp. The Israelis, on the other hand, set up well outside the inhabited areas such as Sderot to assure the civilians are in minimal danger though these efforts are wasted as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire their missiles and rockets and mortars into the Israeli civilian centers hoping to murder noncombatants through their actions, both Israeli and Gazan which doubles the war crimes committed by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest.

 

 

Israel has no choice but to believe that Israel may not ever return to the trust level shared for almost half a century. This may mean that the F-35 Jet Fighters will be the first and last stealthy airframes purchased from the United States. As another source would just as likely to become problematic with time, perhaps some serious consideration should be given to produce all vital military components and complete systems within Israel dependent only on the outside world for raw materials such as iron, carbon and fuel. The designs and manufacture should be completed at home. We have the ability and the facilities as is proven by the drone manufacturing where the Hermes 900 drone which is virtually the size of a modern fighter just differently powered and unmanned. On that note we should point out that going pilotless with each fighter pilot placed on the ground nearby or in a squad aircraft which would carry a set of up to twenty-five pilots with each controlling his aircraft inside an escort plane sitting twenty to thirty miles from the deployed aircraft keeping them safe while allowing greater maneuverability for their aircraft no longer subjected to human limitations. Each aircraft is also set automatically to using defensive maneuvers and returning to its home base or returning to the arena should its pilot regain control. Such a system would maximize safety for pilots and Israel could use their advanced drone knowledge to accomplish this system before the rest of the world if only we would take the leap and have the faith in our engineers and technicians to work out such a system where each pilot sits in a mock-up canopy with all the controls just as they are in the aircraft just like the trainers are today except this system does not need to try and mimic the movements and G-forces. The sooner we stress this as Israel’s future air force the sooner it will be the Israeli Air Force (IAF). What’s the saying, “The future is now!” Why not make that the motto of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Army, Navy, Air Force, Border Patrol and even Law Enforcement, time to get smart, efficient and a step ahead.

 

Beyond the Cusp

ISIS, Egypt, Sinai Peninsula and Hamas in Gaza

 

Is it a simple case of one of those strange quirks which history will muse over or is it a divine sign that the man who removed the Muslim Brotherhood horrors from governing Egypt and answered the cries of his people winning him the prized office of Egyptian President has a name which as spelled in English transliteration is the exact reverse of the English initials of the newest and most deadly allies of the Muslim Brotherhood, thus we have Egyptian President Sisi now facing forces from ISIS, Sisi vs. ISIS (and as we have said before, we pronounce ISIS as is, is thus it all depends on what the meaning of Is-is, is.) Now for the existing and coming horrors and the potential coming allies who have worked silently and in only the most untraceable means to support each other’s efforts in the Sinai Peninsula as well as Gaza may become all too public and by doing so be one of the most important ends of the coming series of conflagrations. There may be no choice for the Egyptian forces for success in forcing both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State allied fighters from the Sinai Peninsula as President Sisi knows that he must not commit the entire strength of the Egyptian military into any sweep of the Sinai. Further, there are many within the Egyptian military whose villages and relatives live and are amongst if not having actually joined the Muslim Brotherhood or potentially joined the new Caliphate of ISIS and thus President Sisi and his generals are aware that they can only use troops specially chosen and known for their complete loyalty and discipline. Even those chosen for regular checkpoint or other daily military or security assignments are likely chosen carefully. One can bet that President Sisi probably witnessed, and not just knows of, the historic assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by disgruntled members of the Egyptian military who were far more loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

There are many who will claim that there is nothing which would permit the presumably secular Muslim Brotherhood and the fanatical religious ISIS to form any alliance despite the truth that the Muslim Brotherhood spawned al-Qaeda which established the Iraqi organization for al-Qaeda from which ISIS was spawned. The reality is that the Muslim Brotherhood is a religiously based organization whose credo states that “The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal.” Where the Muslim Brotherhood has somewhat of a secular view is when it comes to governance that they claim to support a socialist governance which holds elections until the Muslim Brotherhood gains control over the national governance and then such inconveniences become less important. What has been overlooked in this false dichotomy is that the Muslim Brotherhood has not made any statement concerning their position on should the Caliphate be reestablished. By their apparent coordination in horrific and deadly assault on the Egyptian checkpoints and other positions throughout the Sinai Peninsula both the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS displayed a level of cooperation that should put to bed any doubts about their levels of agreement.

 

Further, there was obvious coordination and cooperation given these operations which included arms and other logistics from within Gaza provided by Hamas which should put to bed not only any doubts about Hamas working with their parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, but also their cooperation and general support for ISIS and the willingness of ISIS to work willingly and knowingly with Hamas. This coordinated and seamless planning and execution of an assault on this level provides all the evidence necessary to prove that there is recognition and compliance with the authority granted to ISIS to lead the efforts of the Islamist groups and puts to lie the claims that ISIS was planning to go to war with Hamas but instead should provide all the evidence that the recent breakup of the Fatah unity government with Hamas was initiated by Hamas as they were already planning coordinated and supportive efforts with ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood against the government of President Sisi in Egypt. The thing which needs to be given the greatest amount of concern should be the replacement of Fatah and the Arab Palestinian Authority by the ISIS led, Muslim Brotherhood supported Hamas takeover of the Arab Palestinian operations in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) presenting Israel with the challenge of operations in Judea and Samaria taking on a whole new level of violence and coordinated threats should Fatah be defeated or simply collapse as any support it once enjoyed changing horses and moving to give their loyalties to the ISIS led Sunni Islamist merging of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood into the ranks of ISIS.

 

This brings us to the facing off against a mutual foe between Egypt and Israel and the potential for coordination and potentially joint missions within the Sinai Peninsula as well as throughout Gaza between Israel and Egypt. This would mean a deeper level of coordination beyond simply intelligence sharing and the mere coordination of movements to assure that the two sides do not reach a point where they might interfere with each other’s execution of operations to a level where the coordinated and complimentary operations are planned with the aim of mutual strengthening the other’s effectiveness. There would also be situations, especially within Gaza, where operational support for Egyptian operations within Gaza would be granted close in air support and ground use of sorties from artillery fire to compliment one another’s operational effectiveness. Such coordination between Egyptian military operations, especially when such operations would require informing Israel of the size and scope of Egyptian operation in the Northern Sinai and especially such operations that may extend necessarily into Gaza, as all such in-force operations by Egypt are required to be cleared through Israel according to their peace treaty and supportive accords and also to avoid clashes between the two nations which could easily spiral out of control dissolving any gains made between the two nations in building trusts and peace. Such sharing of intelligence and potential coordination of operations even, if simply done to avoid direct confrontations which could arise as a result of a friendly-fire incident where both sides were attempting to establish their control over a particular objective, be that objective a central strongpoint or the eradication of a permanent large rocket and missile launch site in order to silence its use against both sides, as such a dedicated site would pose a definitive set of difficulties to any operations.

 

Cooperation between Israel and Egypt would not be an entirely new event as the levels of cooperation have been exercised previously as to who would take the lead position in apprehending any vessels attempting to break the blockade of Gaza which has been in effect since the Hamas takeover of the region from Fatah. This has been evidenced when on multiple occasions Egypt, both when under Mubarak and now under Sisi, when ships tried to smuggle by circumventing the Israeli blockade by hugging the Egyptian coast of the north of the Sinai Peninsula the Egyptians had a surprise for them, they guarded against such efforts as President Sisi and his government have had just as much to fear from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza as has Israel. Egypt has had just as tight a closed border with Gaza as has Israel and in some ways an even tighter closure as no aid reaches Gaza in any manner, let alone comparable to the multiple tonnage crossing daily into Gaza, daily even during the entirety of the Gaza War Operation Protective Edge last summer. Egypt has had better effectiveness in finding and closing tunnels under their border with Gaza which are used to smuggle things in and out of Gaza as has Israel in locating the infiltration tunnels which caused such a stir as the IDF had appeared completely surprised by the extensive tunnel system Hamas had been planning to utilize in a massive operation against the Israelis during the High Holy Days last year. Keeping the borders controlled has been a primary effort of both Egypt and Israel as both have suffered threats from within Gaza with the Egyptian threats having often been estimated and paid in lives for any missed tunnels by the Egyptians often lead to infiltrations into the Sinai Peninsula in the form of manpower and also weaponry and explosives for the design of car and truck bombs, IEDs (improvised explosive device used in place of land mines) and other explosive delivery methods and systems which are as varied in kind as they do in their delivery. The reality has been that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and numerous other terrorist groups have just as much hate for the Sisi government as they do towards Israel.

 

With ISIS moving into the Sinai Peninsula one has to wonder what there objective may be. Thus far there has been little to no change across the Negev-Sinai border and there have been the usual ramping up of terrorist strikes which accompany summer but surprisingly much of that can be attributed to problems in Judea and Samaria. What has been somewhat disconcerting has been the increase in attacks in Judea and Samaria claimed to have been attributable to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The one item which had been surprising which this assault upon the Egyptian forces and the particulars have put to rest were the dire warnings that there was a definitive expectation for a war in Gaza waged by ISIS against Hamas and potentially Islamic Jihad. Something about the threat has seemed strange, especially the ISIS against Hamas warnings as in so many ways Hamas and ISIS appear to be natural allies. The only thing which made sense about these threats was they were disinformation though the target escaped reason, well, until now. The intended target of ISIS being out to overthrow Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood was more about throwing off any investigation by the Egyptians into the validity of these claims and the simple overlooking of things being exactly the opposite. The three have been cooperating and this past week the blood soaked reality came crashing home with all the signals coming together all at one time putting to lie the ISIS against Hamas false flag arguments. The similarities between Hamas and ISIS has been a major part in the explanation by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as early as last summer when explaining why it had been paramount that Operation Protective Edge be fought with much the same ferocity which had been reserved thus far for only ISIS by Western interests. But even back then there had appeared to Israeli sources of intelligence that Hamas and ISIS were natural allies which is why more efforts had been expelled into drawing out and eliminating ISIS cells in Judea and Samaria than in Gaza.

 

Apparently Israel had best ramp up their surveillance in seeking out and destroying ISIS cells in Judea and Samaria as they could easily be precursors to Hamas making their new move to replace the current Fatah centered Arab Palestinian Authority with one which places Hamas and ISIS to enter into Judea and Samaria replacing Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas. This was the expected move which may have found Hamas and ISIS working together to gain additional leverage against Israel by taking over the entirety of the Arab Palestinian Authority, something that with Hamas would have already occurred had Abbas ever permitted the Arabs in Judea and Samaria to be able to vote for their own government, something Abbas has been refusing to allow knowing full well that as soon as elections were held that he would fall from power. Apparently the threats of an ISIS-Hamas war in Gaza worked if its intention was allowing the two to have close cooperation setting up this assault on Egypt. Perhaps this is the main event of this coming summer, an alliance which will have Gaza spread its tentacles and wrest power from Abbas giving it to Haniyeh, the former Prime Minister in Gaza before resigning last year to permit the formation of a unity government. Hamas leader Haniyeh knew he was risking nothing despite appearances to the contrary. The ruse was an effort to try to force Abbas to finally allow Arab elections across Gaza, Judea and Samaria. The effort failed to materialize and perhaps the one unknown may have been the undoing of the carefully laid out, years in the making, plan. This unknown was the extent in which ISIS had infiltrated into the Arab Palestinian society. What made knowing this impossible was the fact that there could have been untold numbers of disenchanted Arab Palestinians tired of never being allowed the vote over who controlled their governance. This could have produced fertile growing lands for the ISIS message of rules as written in the Quran. Life by the structures dictated in the Quran might have appealed except many in Judea and Samaria did not desire something more along the lines of a Constitution that would have permitted the enshrining of modern rights and society. Sharia was not what many Arab Palestinians desire as they have witnessed how the Israeli society has produced people very happy with their lives and their society despite the threats of terrorism. They see a people who are slowly but inexorably moving to realize the advantages of a religious life but also realizing that religious life must not be imposed by government and that the only control the religion should have on the governance are the Biblical limitations through which government is prevented from enriching those in its service and that government must serve the people it is in the end responsible to care for. Government cares for the people, and the people do not need to be made subservient in any manner to their government and this is best realized by assuring that there never comes a ruling elite who have usurped unto themselves through government or economic means the ability to enslave the people. The people are what are to be kept as noble and government should act noble but never be permitted to become nobles. This is why Sharia will always be an impossible sell to those who have known true freedom and liberty. The fact that many of the older Palestinians who remember freedom and elections having meaning who will be the saviors of the Arab Palestinian society providing they step forward in the short term and teach their society the beauty of living and celebrating life and not the opposite of existing in order to die with how one dies defines how they lived. One’s life must define ones death and by that we mean the tributes and loving memories they leave the world with after living and inspiring others by their lives. When a society starts to define one’s life by how they die prematurely and before their time then there is a society which serves Ba’al and has reinstituted child sacrifice, for what else can one call a society which reveres a child because they went out to serve their society and their god by an act of suicide, and even worse, a suicide which attempted to take as many who were full of life and living the best they were able as their victims in their sacrifice. Life is already too short; making one’s life tragically shorter is just that, a tragedy. A society that reveres those who chase death is a society doomed to destroy the very future it claims to promise. The slogan which must be at the bedrock of a society is to choose life, in all things and all ways choose life and use that life to help everyone else choose life and live a life which celebrates life.

 

Beyond the Cusp