Land Theft in Area C and European Myopia

 

The primary reasoning behind the Oslo Accords was to set in place a framework from which a final settlement could be reached. The agreement spelled out which lands belonged to whom, who could and could not build in areas, civil responsibilities and security responsibilities. The arrangement could not have been spelled out any more obviously and the ignoring of the agreement is just as obvious and very egregious. Gaza was set aside as part of the Palestinian Authority governed lands, which remained as such until soon after Israel left Gaza under the disengagement arranged by President George W. Bush under pressures from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The areas of Judea and Samaria which are contested were divided into three sectors, Area A, Area B and Area C. Area A was placed under full Palestinian control, both civil and security responsibility. Area C was placed under full Israeli control, both civil and security responsibility. Area B was placed under Palestinian Authority civil control and shared security control by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel. That is as simple as things get, but apparently this has been too much for the world to understand. One would be led to believe that Israel was closed out of these lands, Areas A, B and C, completely with no opportunity to ever set foot within these regions. This has become even more egregious as the European Union has undertaken a program to build structures, towns, cities and whatever else they are able, label them with their European Union circle of stars emblem and place plaques claiming that these are the property of the Palestinian Authority. This is a get around of the Oslo Accords preventing the Palestinian Arabs from building in Area C, but it never said that outside agencies could not build entire communities for the Palestinian Arabs who could then claim the lands.

 

These structures are being built without any inspections to enforce building codes and with no regard for whether or not they are habitable. These “communities” have no roads, no electricity, no water, no sewage treatment, no connections of any variety which might make them marginally habitable. Already, there are those urging that Israel be forced to provide everything which these communities lack after which they would be opened to Palestinian Arab occupancy and then claimed for the Palestinian Arabs. These are sprouting up across Area C most often placed strategically so as to cut off the Jewish communities from Israel and isolating them such that they will also be claimed by the world to belong to the Arabs. After all, if there are no roads through which the Jews could ever travel to Israel without having to pass through one of these communities being built along major thoroughfares, then obviously these do not belong to the Jews or Israel. This is the latest European attempt to force Israel back to her pre-Six Day War borders where Israel was from nine to fifteen miles wide along her center. These are known as the Auschwitz Borders as Israel would be incapable of retaining Tel Aviv once pressed back into these borders as the Palestinians would hold the high grounds of the Judean Hills overlooking the Tel Aviv metropolitan region where three-quarters of the Israeli population, manufacturing, power transmission and other infrastructure is located. Should Israel be forced back to these borders, it would be a travesty and completely annul the hard work by Lord Caradon, the British United Nations Ambassador, who worked with great determination and dedication to perfect the wording of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 such that Israel was not to be forced back to the Green Line but instead to retain lands which would provide for defensible borders. At the time, these borders were interpreted to mean that the Jordan River would become the eastern border for Israel just as had been the intentions under the League of Nations and the Mandate System which is presumably being enforced by the United Nations as per Article 80 of the UN Charter. If you are claiming that you have seen no sign of such, welcome to the world of those elites who have decided that Israel must be sacrificed as by sacrificing Israel, they will mollify the Muslim World from any further aggressions and peace will rule the land (it must be the dawning of the Age of Aquarius). If this is their logic and how they believe the world will be once they have whetted the Islamic hunger for conquest by giving them a present called Israel, well, then we would like to know what they are smoking.

 

Tel Aviv Now Before Green Line Peace
and
Tel Aviv the Day After Green Line Peace

 

The number of articles, documents, conferences, treaties and various other legalities which have defined the eastern border of Israel as the Jordan River are legion. We have from time to time provided abridged lists in our articles from San Remo Conference through the Mandate of the League of Nations on through Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. The fact that the United Nations became basically a signatory to all of these when they agreed in Article 80 to enforce the Mandate System has consequences. Anything the United Nations attempts to do that compromises the Mandate System, which implies the Jordan River as the eastern boundary of the country of Israel, is void as it is an attempt to contravene the United Nations Charter. This includes President Obama’s parting shot at Israel where in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 under Chapter Six, which means it is more advisory and not backed by military force, which stated that any and all Israeli buildings beyond the Green Line were illegal and a breach of International Law is itself in breach of International Law and must be considered as void by any tribunal as it breaks with the United Nations Charter which takes precedence. When Lord Caradon fought to make the wording that Israel was expected to “return land,” not “the land,” “the lands,” “all lands” or any other reference which could be interpreted as forcing Israel back to her previous borders, he had inferred that this was a step by which Britain could correct some of the mischief which they had committed against the Zionists when they took 78% of the Mandate for the Jewish State and transferred it to the Arabs in the form of Transjordan (Jordan today) granting the Hashemites this region as their kingdom and to return Israel at the very least to their truncated lands with the Jordan River as their eastern border. His effort was stated to provide Israel with defensible borders, which a quick view at the cutaway below one can readily see an obvious defensible border and only one defensible border, and that is the Jordan River Valley and as the Jordan River is in the center, it makes for a perfect and easily recognized defensible border. Sometimes a single picture is worth a thousand words, and this one is just that as that is how long it would take to write out an article explaining the tactical advantage the Jordan River provides for preventing attack across its expanse, and that includes Arab aggressions westward and Israel aggressions eastward were either to ever become a reality.

 

Cutaway View of Tactical Advantage and Necessity
of the Jordan Valley and Judean Hills for Defending
Coastal Plains and Israel Alongside the Mediterranean Sea

 

There is another misconception which we have mentioned in the past but which bears mention at least this one additional time, and that is reference to Mahmoud Abbas and his incessant claim that he just desires the 22% of the Mandate which is rightfully his. The current misinterpretation which is often represented throughout the Western media is that this 22% is in regards to Gaza and the regions of Judea and Samaria which previously were illegally occupied by Jordan from 1948 until the Six Day War of 1967 when Israel liberated, that is liberated and not conquered, by Israel. The truth is he is referring to all of Israel as he is referring to the 22% of the British Mandate which was not gifted to the Arabs by the British. This should have been obvious to anybody with even a modicum of knowledge of history thus knowing that 78% of the Mandate was turned into modern day Jordan and Abbas is demanding the remaining 22% as rightfully his as all of these lands are belonging to the Arab Muslims according to their thinking. He realizes that as long as the Western media and leaders are willing to misinterpret Abbas claiming 22% as simply the contested lands, that he can continue to make this demand such that should the Palestinian Arabs be gifted the formerly occupied Israeli lands by Jordan, he can continue with that same claim demanding the remainder of that 22% he demands. The Western leaders need to start to be honest and fulfill their promises made after World War I in numerous agreements and treaties which denoted the Jordan River as the border between the Jewish state and the Arab state, the two-state solution engaged in these treaties, then the solution becomes obvious. Further, the claim that there were six-hundred-fifty-thousand Arab refugees who lost their homes in 1948 when they obeyed the Mufti of Jerusalem and fled to behind the Arab lines at the start of the 1948 war to annihilate the Jewish State, which the Arabs failed to complete but still occupied lands promised the Jewish state, namely Gaza and the renamed “West Bank,” Judea and Samaria were just too Jewish sounding for Jordan, and when the fighting was over, their Arab brothers rounded these Arabs into camps and have kept them there ever since, is a ruse being used to destroy Israel by flooding it with the now five-million descendants. The Arab claim continues that these Arabs are the only refugees left from the Arab-Israeli Conflict. They are correct in that these are the only left, but they are not telling the entire truth. The Arab world disenfranchised their Jews taking their wealth and then forcing them by means of laws or violence to become refugees. These Jews numbered over eight-hundred-thousand in the decade after Israel was formed and as unless they held passports for any Western nation, these Jews were refused entry by the rest of the world and came to the only nation willing, and anxious, to allow them entry, Israel. These refugees were not corralled into camps and left to wallow without decent job opportunities and minimal support as were the Arab refugees. These Jews were welcomed and became active and positive additions to Israel. Initially, this was difficult, but with time everything reached a more normal state. Today, approximately half of the Israeli Jewish population, there are also Arab, Bedouin, Druze and other Israelis who are not Jews, consists of these Jews formerly of Arab nationality and are a vital and vibrant community who contribute greatly to the Israeli economy. What is even more of an indication of their being integrated into the Israeli population is manifest for all to witness simply by visiting Israel. When one does so, they will notice many couples where one is apparently from European origins and the other from the Middle East or Northern Africa. This is the proper means of treating refugees who are your kin and not imprisoning them in camps for political gain.

 

We would like to now reference an excellent article by Giulio Meotti . In this article, he references an Islamic and Arab mantra which he expands upon which goes, “First the Saturday, then the Sunday people,” and he adds “third the secularized West.” His first two sentences read, “On Saturday we kill the Jews, on Sunday we kill the Christians”, or with greater tact, “first the people of Saturday, then the Sunday people”, is not just a slogan. It deals with a precise program of religious cleansing, pronounced by Islamist leaders and promulgated by Jihadists.” He explains how in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries virtually all, if not all, their Jews are long gone. He emphasizes this point by referencing the remains of the former Jewish communities stating, “In Africa and Middle in the East there are hundreds of abandoned Jewish sites in Morocco (460), Iraq (352), Algeria (320), Yemen (301), Tunisia (231) and Syria (63).” He then continues and points out that the Christians are facing violence and other forms of rejection all in an attempt to force them to convert to Islam. These Christians are amongst the most victimized people on the planet and also one of the most ignored. The sole group to actually get any attention are the Coptic Christians of Egypt mainly because of their numbers. The Coptic community makes up between ten and fifteen percent of the total Egyptian population and have been facing a virtual state of war being waged against them. This is an unofficial war which the Egyptian government claims to be their protectors when all too often, those targeting the Coptic Christians are police and even military units, unofficially, of course. The Coptic Christians who were wealthy enough to depart Egypt have mostly gone leaving those unable to flee from the persecution they face and with nobody willing to grant them asylum. That is the sad state they are in which they find themselves caught.

 

The reality is that the Christian and any other non-Muslim population living in the Islamic Arab world are facing eradication either by leaving, converting or death. These nations have all but extinguished their Jewish population to the point that they are all facing an end as their populations are aging. The next groups to be targeted and facing a similar fate are the Christians and in Iran particularly, it is the Zoroastrian religion facing this threat. Zoroastrianism is, along with Judaism, one of the oldest religions still in practice in the world today. This is a reality and it has definitive implications for the future. Islam, as stated clearly in the Quran, specifically in the parts written in Medina and considered to be primary with the Meccan verses overturned by the new verses, Islam is promised to be the conquerors of the world and fated to be the sole religion practiced on Earth. Make no mistake, they believe this in their bones and is passed on with the mothers’ milk. The next target in their sights is Europe followed by the United States. They have plans which instruct them on the exact methods to use to take over democratic nations without having to invade them. Their plan is to simply vote themselves into position where they can then substitute Sharia for each national constitution or other founding documents. This will lead to these nations no longer being democracies and turn them into theocratic Islamic states. They will use the open borders policies enacted by some overly foolish and Pollyannaish leftists who accept Islam believing that no one culture is superior to any other culture. Many of these leftists actually have an absolute disdain for their own national history believing their actions in the past to make them guilty of horrific criminal acts against the undeveloped world and thus believe that they need provide the undeveloped world with rights in their own nation even at the cost of their national credos. The eventuality of these policies is only now dawning on many of these leaders as they face the anger of the voters and realize that they took a wrong turn and many are simply not running for office and slinking off to a comfortable retirement for as long as it lasts.

 

The Western democracies are seemingly unaware of the threat they face. It is due to this blindness that we encourage Ilhan Omar and her ilk to continue to speak up loudly and proudly about how they plan to subjugate the world. Perhaps if the people hear such claims and demands from the sources’ own mouths, then they just might sit up and pay attention. Of course, it has been apathy which has always been the challenge and greatest threat to the Western democracies. Many of the people no longer or never have voted, some claiming they do not desire to be called for jury duty as if that is an excuse, and they blissfully ignore politics comfortable in what they perceive as fact that their country could never be overtaken through the ballot box. They are blissfully wrong. The Islamic invasion is being disguised as ordinary immigration which was completely redefined in the United States way back with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, which altered the preferences such that it penalized European immigration, specifically it was claimed to removed de facto discrimination against Southern and Eastern Europeans, the Irish, Asians, and other non-Northwestern European ethnic groups from American immigration policy. The Hart–Celler Act allowed increased numbers of people to migrate to the United States from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The State Department have utilized this, working with immigrations officials, to bring increasing numbers of Muslims into the United States. Of course, this was a drop in the ocean compared to the influx of Muslims into Germany after Angela Merkel made her promise to take in many thousands of Syria refugees and she got far more than she bargained. After four years of German Chancellor Angela Merkel choosing to leave the country’s borders open amid a vast influx of asylum seekers to Europe, it has resulted in a significant majority of the approximately one and a half million people who have arrived since remaining out of the labor force. This has become a heavy burden for Germany and the story is similar in numerous developed countries across Europe. This was the first wave and one can only wonder how long after these nations restrict this influx before they elect another bleeding heart with little ability to conceive of consequences to their actions opening the floodgates once more. Muslim population in Europe has increased from 2% in 1950 with expectations that it will rise to 6% by 2020. One need take into consideration that the total population in Europe has increased from five-hundred-fifty-million in 1950 to an expected seven-hundred-fifty-million by 2020. This means that the actual number of Muslims has increased from eleven-million to an expected forty-five-million in 2020, a four-fold increase. With the Christian and secular populations of the majority of European nations in decline, the percentage of Muslims will only climb faster as the Muslim population is reproducing at rates which will show increases in their numbers, unlike the non-Muslim populations. In the United States the picture is less bleak but still has its challenges and threats which need to be addressed. For both Europe and the United States, the problem will grow worse, far worse, before it will gain much attention and this is due to the slant of the mainstream media which refuses to even breach the subject. Further, If the European elites honestly believe that by forsaking Israel, they will gain themselves a reprieve, they are solely mistaken and by the time they figure that out, well, if they have destroyed Israel it will be way too late.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

As North Korean Missiles Fly Tillerson Lies

 

We made a poor calculation, or so it seems. We had predicted, “somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas Kim Jong-un will announce he has had it with the American double-dealing and perversity and lies and return to firing missiles.” Apparently, Kim Jong-un did not even wait for Labor Day as on Saturday North Korea launched a set of short-range ballistic missiles and on Tuesday fired another missile, this time over the Islands of Japan. The series of missile firing came just days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed North Korea’s recent “restraint” suggested talks with Pyongyang may be possible “in the near future,” (Watch video below). Tillerson stated in response to the North Korean provocations that the missiles were a “provocative act” adding that the United States would continue to search for a peaceful solution. This is where we question whether or not Secretary of State Tillerson may be going off the rails concerning Kim Jong-un and North Korea as compared to his stances on Israel, Kurdistan and the Arab World’s general offensive along with Iran and Turkey against the world, specifically the Western World.

 

 

Secretary Tillerson, it has been noted in conjecture, has been the driving force driving the Administration’s suspicions and commentary against the Kurdish intentions to vote for a referendum to declare their independence from Iraq and form their formerly promised state of Kurdistan before the British reneged on their promise. The Secretary of State has also been a consistent thorn in the side of relations with Israel. The problems with Israel do not rise to the level that the relations with the Kurds have reached, but Israel has her independence already. Still, having Secretary of State Tillerson constantly promoting policies which reflect the Arabist views of the world in general and the views of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or potentially Mecca and more appropriately, Medina, is wearing thin as it flies in the face of policies which would be to the advantage of the United States specifically and the free world generally.

 

We understand that the apparent assignment for the State Department is to play Devil’s advocate and oppose what would be right and best for the United States. This was evidenced when they sent a communist group to assist in writing the United Nations Charter and gave the Soviets advantages at every corner. It was further established with their strong advice to President Truman not to recognize Israeli independence, good thing he ignored their advice. Now they are advising the United States deny nationhood to the strongest and closest ally existing in the war on the Islamic State, the only group to have large success in driving the Islamic State from northern Syria, the peoples whom the United States has been arming and Israel has given tactical assistance yet the State Department claims they are unworthy of statehood as that would detract from Iraqi sovereignty and weaken Iran. We seem to remember some commentary about knocking Iran down a peg or two and rewriting parts of the deal with Iran over nuclear research into nuclear weaponry and the processing of uranium by President Trump. Apparently, Secretary Tillerson is concerned about what effect a Kurdish State might have on Iraq and Iran and very likely the Islamic State and Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.

 

These steps come in addition to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson making some antagonizing noise over Israeli “settlements” referring to legally built communities and cities according to the Oslo Accords stipulations while ignoring illegal building by the European Union along with the Arabs in Area C against every stipulation concerning this region by the Oslo Accords. It has become apparent that Secretary of State Tillerson and his State Department have decided once again to adopt the Arab revisionism of the Oslo Accords in which Israel has no right to Jerusalem, Akko, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tiberius, Eilat, Beersheba and Tel Aviv. This had been the interpretation of the final settlement according to Yasser Arafat and has been adopted by Mahmoud Abbas and the PA and apparently also adopted by Secretary Tillerson in spirit if not in its entirety. Such sophomoric, treacherous and toxic advice can only embolden Abbas and the Arabs to avoid direct negotiations and in its stead demand concessions from Israel which Secretary Tillerson and the State Department will very likely pressure Israel to concede, as they always have, regardless of the position of President Trump or his Middle East envoy Jared Kushner and President Trump’s International Negotiator Jason Greenblatt which appears to be more open ended. While President Trump’s team has stated clearly an Administration position of no preconditions, preconceptions, or premonitions of the design of a solution, the State Department with a few worthy exceptions appears to be backing the continued failings of the “two-state-solution” directly in opposition to all other, including their own, efforts.

 

Secretary Tillerson also came out expressly against Kurdish independence. One would be following logic and good sense if they were to conclude from previous indications such as the United States arming of the Kurds in Syria and in warning off Turkey’s Erdoğan, who had started a general campaign militarily against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, thus protecting Kurdish interests, that the Administration would back the concept of a new country named Kurdistan where the Kurds could fulfil their destiny free of tyrannical and counter productive interference from Baghdad. We would and have gone further in suggesting a greater Kurdistan which would span across northeastern Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran and for allowing Kurds from outside the area, from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in particular, to return to their newly reestablished homelands free from outside influences or policies. The Kurds were another indigenous group which had been promised a return to their homelands and a freely established state after World War I and the divisions of the great empires of Austro-Hungary, German (which had included Poland within its borders) and Ottoman. One might be led to believe that Turkey would desire such a nation as a place they could force their Kurdish minority to emigrate and end their fears of Kurdish revolt but Erdoğan envisions a greater Turkey which would envelop the Kurdish regions and then the Kurds would be facing a similar fate than that of the Armenians under Ottoman rule. One can only wonder where Secretary Tillerson stands on the ideas of a greater Turkey or a hegemonic Iran which would include much of Iraq plus all of Syria and Lebanon (see concept map below). Greater Turkey would include areas of Syria and Iraq which the Kurds desire for their homelands and extend slightly beyond before they would run into Iranian Shiite opposition but would include Sunni areas of Iraq. Hegemonic Iran would incorporate much of Iraq and Syria plus all, if not beyond, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, Djibouti and Qatar thus surrounding Saudi Arabia and Jordan who would be thrust together potentially being forced into having relations with Israel. The greater question would be how far along the coast of the Horn of Africa Iran might spread and whether or not Jordan would invite Saudi Arabian protection as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (included in map).

 

Greater Turkey and Hegemonic Iran
In Faceoff to Control Middle East

 

Our guess of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reacting to such a map as depicted would be outrage that Israel would take control of the lands actually promised her by the San Remo Conference, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Mandate System, the Conventions of the League of Nations and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter making these treaties and the entirety of their implications, promises, stipulations and implications all enforced by the United Nations. He would likely view at such a point as this that Israel rightfully belonged to Saudi Arabia as the British Mandate of Jordan had been included under Saudi protective rule, why not the remaining 22% of the British Mandate. He would question, with the support of the deep state of the State Department, the protestations expressed by the Israelis and would ignore the religious implications and what would verily happen should Israeli citizens ever come under Muslim or Arab rule. Secretary Tillerson would likely read some missive from the Saudi Royals which would be presented as their guarantee of protection for the Jews of Israel as they are People of the Book (أهل الكتاب) and as such a protected class of Dhimmis. He would infer that Dhimmis meant honored guests and a protected group as stated and would ignore the horrid rumors about the Jews being Kāfir (كافر) and thus could be subjected to the choice of convert to Islam or die without ever compromising their Dhimmitude.

 

Allow us to end with a beseechment to the leading advisors and their coordination impairment and the confusion, embarrassment and detriment they have caused. Please, President Trump and especially Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Four Star Marine General (ret), clean up the imbroglio which is the President’s Cabinet. First and foremost, determine who amongst them are capable of supporting a single set of ideas and ideals and are willing to cooperate, then be rid of the rest. Next, sit them all down and play for them the main points President Trump promised to accomplish while campaigning. Then ask who would not be capable of not only supporting but actively engaging all their energies to accomplish whatever tasks they may receive to get these things accomplished. Those who appear even the slightest to delay and especially those who cough, hem and haw, be done with them and receive not their counsel. Lastly, ask each Secretary to submit plans to, first, restructure their department, second, cut their department staffing by a minimum of fifty percent, and lastly, to dissolve their department entirely and advising where critical actions could be best served. Then meet with the President and go through these plans and decide which departments need to implement which plan. Just as a starter, may we suggest you get rid of Educations Department, Homeland Security Department; half or more of the law enforcement bureaus starting with BTFE, and have the State Department reduce its staff by fifty percent, at least twice. Advice for President Trump, ignore much of the noise which erupts regularly from the State Department, as often doing the opposite of what they advise is the best move.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

History of Jerusalem and Status Quo Incompatible

 

Of the cities within Israeli Control; Hevron, Jericho, Safed (Tzfat), Shiloh, Bethel and Akko are amongst the oldest. Shiloh and Bethel are most notable as locations for the Tabernacle before it was brought to rest in Jerusalem by King David. Hevron is notable as the first capital city of the Israelite Tribes before King David made Jerusalem the capital city around 1100 BCE to 1200 BCE depending on your source (yes we understand some claim different dates and others claim Kings David and Solomon were myths and the Hebrew Bible belongs next to Aesop’s Fables and the Tales of the Brothers Grimm in the fiction and moral tales aisle, but we tend to ignore such tripe). Safed was considered one of the four holy cities along with the aforementioned Jerusalem and Hebron as well as the later addition of the Roman city of Tiberius. Tiberius was built by the Romans in a location that made it visible from much of the entirety of the Israelites civilization and was built with one simple and overriding purpose, to dazzle, impress and force the will of Rome through visualizing Roman superiority and greatness through the magnificence of the city of Tiberius, and it worked except the Hebrews (Jews) simply included it as one of their own taking away the Roman attributes and simply thanking the Romans for constructing what Hashem demanded of the Romans to do for the Hebrews. This leaves Akko which presents an interesting set of tales. It need be mentioned that Akko is considered to be the oldest city in all of the area which became Israel by quite a number of years. Thus let us compare the two oldest cities and Jerusalem and their respective status-quo.

 

Jericho is the city which guards the gateway to the Holy Lands. It is centered in the Jordan River Valley and guards the largest of the passes through the Judean hills and as such must be taken if one expects to supply their armies. Oddly enough, battles for Jericho, other than the one time its walls came tumbling down, are rather absent from much of history despite it being taken by many conquerors including at least one Islamic Leader. Once any group is established in the areas of the Holy Land, they are able to use multiple trade routes; it is largely necessary to take Jericho if one is attacking from the east or south as from the south one is more likely to circle around the Negev Desert and attack crossing the Jordan River necessitating taking Jericho. Should any of these invasions succeed, then their conquest is noted crowned by their conquest of Jerusalem, not Jericho. Jerusalem and Akko are the two main gems in the crown of those wishing to conquer the holy lands simply because Jerusalem was the Capital City of Kings David and Solomon which made it the notable city in the entire area. Akko is the oldest city even older than all the aforementioned especially Jerusalem and older than Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza City and any other as Akko is claimed to be approximately five-thousand-years old. It is worth reviewing Akko, the great port city of its age, as it has a protected port in the small bay guarded by the city as well as a seaward port which can handle deep draft vessels meaning Akko could be a port for any ships or smaller boats for across the sea and local trade with more natural docking berths than even Alexandria, especially deeper draft berths. This made Akko as important as Jerusalem to controlling the Holy Lands.

 

Mosaic of the Early Holy Land

 

So let us compare Akko and Jerusalem. Before the Hebrews, the Israelites, the area of Canaan was ruled by city-states of which Akko was one of the oldest and displayed the greatest of walls. The walls of Akko would only be challenged by the walls of Jerusalem herself. The main powers of the early history, almost prehistory, were the Hittites and the Egyptians who basically would fight one another for control over the Holy Lands and even the Sinai Peninsula when Egypt was weakest. These two would mostly fight in the open and whichever side won the day, that would be the greater power which the area city-states would pledge allegiance. On occasion the ruling force might demand additional troops from the cities under their control and whether they were given forces who fought well, they were probably considered the preferred and stronger of the two superpowers fighting to control the region. Akko being located farther north than Jerusalem was often not as likely of being contested and thus remained largely under Hittite rule with only occasional Egyptian rule; this was a more secure and established city with a steady rule while Jerusalem was often under contention, siege, and often would change hands sometimes for days or weeks and at other times for some years. The introduction of the Hebrews, the Israelites, around the year 1525 BCE started their exodus which led to their conquest of the Holy Lands starting roughly sometime in the fourteenth century BCE. Akko already had some history but much of that was Hittite with brief periods under other rulers. There is one individual’s conquests which depict the special difference which Akko held and why for many years during the Crusades remained in Crusader control despite the rest of the area falling to the Muslims. Jerusalem during these times changed hands which led to many individual sweeps which tried to purge the non-believers from Jerusalem. The Crusaders murdered Muslims and the Islamic rulers purged Christians and both sides had one concept in common, both purged Jerusalem of its Jews yet somehow some number of Jews always survived. The conquest of the region by Napoleon was revealing in that he controlled Jerusalem but despite two separate assaults on the walls of Akko, Napoleon was unable to breach the walls and thus Akko never fell to Napoleon. What are we trying to convey? Namely that of all the cities of the Holy Lands, Jerusalem was the most conquered, most divided, and the city with the least amount of a status-quo as the changing of hands led to different rules with each change of rulers. Simply, the status-quo of Jerusalem is about as fluid as any city in all of recorded history and even before.

 

But the talk now is about the recent status-quo of Jerusalem that we are referencing when we talk about status-quo and mostly about the status-quo of the Old City and the Temple Mount even more particularly. The reason that the Muslims specify the Old City and Temple Mount is because Western Jerusalem has been under Israeli rule and was the Capital City for Israel from May 15, 1948, uninterrupted to this day and thus it actually has a status-quo, Israeli rule under Israeli law with Israel responsible for its security and the Jewish State never lost control of this area resulting from the invasion by much of the Arab world the very first day of Israeli existence with the intent of a genocidal conquest slaughtering every Jew in the lands. At dawn of May 15, 1948, Israel legally was the ruling force of all the lands west of the Jordan River to the eastern border of the Mediterranean Sea. The Arab forces had already infiltrated the easternmost lands by stationing troops and special forces inside most of the Arab cities, towns, and other communities with the intent of breaking any lines of communications, reinforcements and resupply thus weakening the Israeli defenses. These defenses were already in disarray with the many different forces spread between the Haganah, Irgun, Sternists, Palmach, Lehi, Mahal (foreign volunteers such as Colonel David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus played by Kirk Douglas in the movie Cast a Giant Shadow) and various individual forces made up mostly of community guards and volunteers from farmers to refugees straight fresh from the boats from the numerous detainment camps which the British used to keep the vast majority of Jews trying to reach the Holy Lands after World War II. The result of this war left Jerusalem split in half with the eastern half which included the entirety of the Old City and Temple Mount in Jordanian hands and the western parts of Jerusalem in Israeli hands. The Jewish residents of the Old City were forced from their homes by the Jordanians or shot during the fighting simply because they were Jews in Arab controlled areas. This situation led to two completely separate status quos for the divided city of Jerusalem.

 

Colonel David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus

 

The following history of the city of Jerusalem for the nineteen years from May 15, 1948, through June 7, 1967, when Israel liberated the whole remainder of Jerusalem during the Six Day War after Jordan attacked on the second day of the war despite Israeli pleas that they not join the losing efforts of Syria and Egypt. Jordan chose to believe the reports by Syrian and Egyptian broadcasts that they were closing on Tel Aviv and destroying the Israeli forces on every front. The reality was quite the opposite as Israel not only was not losing but had liberated Gaza and taken the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula plus had advanced towards Damascus with the Syrian forces being routed just as were the Egyptians. After Jordan joined the war, they were forced from their occupation, illegal occupation, of Judea and Samaria with Israel regaining the lands lost in 1948 during the war against the Arab world intent on destroying the Jewish State. During those nineteen years the eastern parts of Jerusalem, the parts occupied by Jordan, remained remarkably the same with minimal amounts of additional building beyond that necessitated by increases in population. That was a real status quo with almost nothing changed. On the western parts of Jerusalem under Israeli control the city was built up and modernized with an entire new city center and whole entire suburbs with new roads, schools, synagogues, homes, businesses and gained an entire new look. There is a whole new Jerusalem today than there was in 1967, let alone in 1948 or in the year 500 or back in 1100 BCE when King David conquered the city gaining access through the waterway from the spring outside the city to the central cistern from where his small raiding party opened the city gates and his troops poured in before dawn. The question kind of has to be what status quo as Jerusalem has been a city of constant change and change is the enemy of status quo.

 

Jerusalem 1950 Jerusalem 1970
Jerusalem 2010

 

We have spoken on the supposed status quo in Jerusalem before which can be found as the first seven links from these search results but let us speak of it once more. What the Palestinian Arabs as well as the Jordanians and much of the United Nations wish for Israel to do when they demand we keep the status quo in Jerusalem is to enforce the occupation rules when Jordan illegally occupied half of Jerusalem. Further, they are demanding that Israel also enforce the Jordanian rules in all of the lands which the Jordanians illegally for the nineteen years between May 15, 1948 and June 7, 1967 which would prevent Jews from even visiting areas of Judea and Samaria, let alone reside there. This would continue to forbid Jews from returning to their actual homes which they still retain the deeds to despite the fact that Israel has liberated those homes. They would forbid the Jews whose homes are in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem from returning to these homes and forbid Israel from restoring the Synagogues destroyed by the Jordanians simply because they could not tolerate a Jewish construction in the area while they controlled it, even illegally occupying the area. This is the status quo the world, or at least much of it, demand of Israel which comes down to one simple concept, they wish to deny Jews equal rights in areas within Israel. That is blatant anti-Semitism and that is not an enforceable or even allowable status quo no matter what anybody wishes to claim. Israel, in theory, has freedom of religion yet those demanding the retaining of the status quo are demanding that Israel suspend freedom of religion and allow only Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount and only Islam be observed. This is true even for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which would be an interesting question to pose as it is on the Temple Mount, surely they can hold services. Well, the priests inside may pray but they may not hold any public services as that would break the iron law of status quo. There has been a small concession in the status quo, on the days when the Islamic Waqf decides and only on the hours granted, people other than Muslims may visit the Temple Mount but they are not permitted to enter the Mosques nor may anybody offer even a suspected whim of praying. Even a Buddhist or Taoists or Native American would not be permitted to utter a solemn sound as that would destroy the status quo and the purity of Islam. But is this really the actual status quo or a new demand which is not new as the status quo has been a moving line where the rules have changed as the Islamic forces rise in their perception of their power while the Western World appears to be wilting. The truth is fascinating.

 

Back after the Six Say War and again after the Yom Kippur War when the Islamic forces were thwarted by Israel and handed them a crushing defeat the rules were very different. The Waqf said little if anything and the Temple Mount was open most of the time only closed on Muslim Holy Days and this was at a decision made by the Israelis out of respect. Prayer was not an issue and the Waqf rarely placed watchers on the Temple Mount as there would have been little for them to enforce. Entrance to the Mosques was limited but permission was given for those requesting a tour which was usually guided with the holiest areas off the tour though often visible from an adjoining area. These rules were the status quo for much of the time until the start of the First Intifada in the late 1980’s and the Oslo Accords in September of 1993. Then with each concession by Israel in order to persuade, read bribe, Yasser Arafat and then Mahmoud Abbas, read Yasser Arafat in a suit, the Waqf gained in strength and the status quo slowly but inexorably moved to be more and more strict. This progression would seem to have reached its end but there is still room to allow only Muslims onto the Temple Mount and all others banned from the site even to the point of demanding the priests from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre be removed from their posts and then the turning of the church into yet one more Mosque. Think that might be something they would not do, then you need to look into the history of the Hagia Sophia which was first made into a Mosque after the conquest of Constantinople, where even the name of the city itself was changed to Istanbul, and in recent times has been changed into a museum which depicts both of its histories. Do not hold your breath praying this becomes the status quo for that former greatest cathedral in all Christendom as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been slowly moving Turkey towards becoming an Islamic theocracy aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood; so the Hagia Sophia Museum may be headed for a new future back to being a mosque.

 

As the status quo of the Temple Mount has been altered with time and feelings of gaining the upper hand and becoming powerful while Israel appears to have weakened in protecting any Jewish rights to the Temple Mount even to not preventing the destruction of countless artifacts from the First and Second Temples which the Waqf had claimed to be installing drainage ditches in order to dig down and destroy every artifact they found and the Israeli Antiquities Authority protested but was overruled by the Waqf claiming their unopposable Islamic right to any action they chose. The reality is that the Waqf only retains any authority for as long as Israel is willing to tolerate their actions. Let me repeat that, for as long as Israel tolerates their actions. Why are they still here and not back in Jordan where they belong? Prime Minister Netanyahu that question is for you. Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked, why is Israel not applying our authority over the Temple Mount as an integral part of our Capital City of Jerusalem and location of the holiest ground in the Jewish faith? We do not expect any of the myriad of Israeli officers, who have the authority to remove the Waqf from all of Israel and send them back to Jordan which is the nation responsible for choosing these officers, to perform their duty as currently demanded by a majority of the Israeli population. What we would expect is for Israel to finally get sick and tired of the world demanding that we shrink from our rightful claims and legal ownership under International Law through an entire series of treaties and other legal rights granted through the League of Nations and enforceable under the Charter of the United Nations that all the land west of the Jordan River belongs to Israel. We gave away Gaza under what became obviously an on again off again promise which was given by United States President Bush and not enforced by President Obama and overruled by the United Nations with Security Council Resolution 2334 which being under Chapter Six is not enforceable by military action or economic embargo by the United Nations itself and contrary to the United Nations Charter (which actually negates the entirety of Resolution 2334) and apparently will be honored by President Trump. Gaza will remain in the hands of Hamas which will be left to Egypt to either tolerate or retake control over the area as they had before the Six Day War. Israel has obviously taken a mow-the-grass attitude where whenever Hamas decides to attack at a level no longer tolerable by the Israeli public, then they will destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad from being capable of continuing their destruction and aggressions against Israel. As far as Hamas and their aiding the terrorist forces in the Sinai Peninsula, as that harms Egypt far more than Israel, this problem will be left up to Egypt to address. Should this become the situation harming Israel, they would work with Egypt on resolving who would take the appropriate actions or what combined actions are required. But regarding the areas of Judea and Samaria, Israel has every right to resolve all aspects of the conflict in whatever means Israel might decide is to Israel’s best advantage. The rules which gives Israel dominion over the lands west of the Jordan River places an obligation to provide religious, social, ownership of property, and all rights with the exception of political rights. This allows that Israel treat any and all Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria as legal resident aliens which would allow them everything they currently have except they would not be permitted to vote in elections. Israel would likely allow them to continue self-rule in areas where they are the majority population at the time of the reestablishment of Israeli governance. This could be any date or time even ten minutes from now, the only requirement would be for Prime Minister Netanyahu making an announcement of such a decision, nothing more.

 

This is another one of those eventualities which will happen, it is simply a matter of when but we would advise not holding one’s breathe. The world will make a huge noise and protest as loudly as they are capable with the United Nations General Assembly passing more resolutions against Israel than usual. Many of the Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria would initially believe that they would be thrown from their homes and lose their businesses fearing the worst and expecting Israel to act as they had acted when they illegally occupied these lands and evicted or murdered every Jew residing within the region. Their reaction would be similar to any Japanese soldier captured by the allies in World War II as they had been told that they should expect to be tortured just as the Japanese did to the allied prisoners they captured. Much to the Japanese surprise they were treated well and with respect and much to the Arab’s surprise the Israelis would grant them more rights while allowing them to continue residing on their land and retaining most of their rights. They already do not vote in Israeli elections and that would remain the same. Israel would likely give them an offer to resettle outside of Israel with an incentive to aid their relocation and payment for the property they currently own as if they had sold it and once they took such a deal they would not be permitted to return with any intent to reside in Israel in the future. But all this is conjecture until Israel gets true, strong and confident Zionist leadership willing to take decisive measures to assure Israeli survival. We await such times and pray it will not require the Messiah in order to reach such finality.

 

Beyond the Cusp