Hamas Appointments Signal Coming Conflict

 

The appointment by Hamas of 55 year old Yehya al-Sinwar, released from Israeli prisons after serving a mere twenty-two years of his four lifetime sentence as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange, as the new political leader of Hamas with his deputy Khalil Alhia, both coming out of the Izz a-Din al-Kassam terror group with links to the extreme Islamic Salafist movement promises future conflict. Yehya al-Sinwar gained fame for killing of Palestinians who he called “collaborators” including one senior Hamas commander without the bother of a trial because he perceived him to be a potential rival and thus he just had to be a traitor. Sinwar is well known by Israeli intelligence agencies who reveal that his dreams are for the founding of the two state solution as he knows full well that Hamas will take control of the Palestinian entity from Fatah and the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas “either through the ballot box” if elections are held “or by the bullet,” Sinwar’s actual phrasing, and “have Israel subject to rockets from all directions.” He dreams of a final glorious battle where he will scatter the Jews back to the far corners of the world as predicted by the Quran from the Seventh Century. He fully believes in Jihad exactly as laid out in the Quran. He intends to force the world through the BDS Movement to estrange Israel from the body of nations. If need be he will implement plans to buy the necessary political, media and academic leaders in crucial position to attain this end. He intends to first separate Jerusalem completely from Israel having the world proclaim Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and have Hamas force Israel completely from the entirety of the city believing that Israel cannot survive once Jerusalem has been taken. History actually backs this prediction which makes him all the more dangerous. Yehya al-Sinwar and Khalil Alhia being placed at the top of Hamas portends a coming war likely starting this spring and continuing into the summer. The question is of when, not if, the violence will begin. The recent launching of four rockets at Eilat may be the signal of the start of rocket launches ever couple of weeks eventually becoming more common building into a full assault with hundreds of rockets each day or more just as the last two wars. We can also expect that the world media will wait until Israel responds to report anything and then to lead their reporting with Israel attacked Gaza, or Gaza City, and only later in the article mention that the Israeli actions was in response to weeks of rocket attacks by Hamas, if they even admit that Hamas initiated the attacks.

 

This situation signals that Hamas has decided that total war and perpetual Jihad is the path they need to implement going forward. There are certain things which Israel has available to perform in reaction to these obvious moves by Hamas towards a more violent path. Israel currently provides Gaza much of their electricity, water, natural gas and other petroleum products. These take a deal of effort to keep operating, especially when the difficulty is within sniper range from Gaza as Hamas and Islamic Jihad will often shoot the repair personnel who are working to repair and return electric power to Gaza. Hamas and the residents of Gaza do not pay for the provided power and the United Nations, European Union and many nations demand that Israel not deduct the costs from funding for Gaza as that is collective punishment. These entities and nation do not care that the nonpayment for services is a collective lack of payment and there is no concern for the collective punishment of Israelis who pay additional rates to cover the costs of power and water and other provisions which Israel provides both Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, both entities which refuse to pay their power and water bills. This is collective punishment on Israel and the world shrugs and claims that Israelis can afford to pay for the very people’s power and water who are attempting to kill them on a regular basis. Where else is such a situation forced on a people, nowhere. Only Israel is subjected to being forced to provide power, fuel, water and even medical provisions and even often provide medical treatment all for people who support the murder of Israelis, many often giving active support. There are numerous stories of Palestinian Arabs attempting to bomb the very hospital or clinical care facility which has treated them and often saved their lives. So, let’s talk common sense and what Israel ought to do in order to persuade Hamas that attacking Israel will not be in their better interest and that if they expect to live in a modern society with nice homes and facilities and shopping centers, then they need to act civilly with Israel, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and recognize Israel in every way if they expect Israel to continue to provide them with essentials.

 

The first promise Israel should make the leadership of Hamas, both political and military, that Israel knows the location of their homes and if a new war is waged, their homes will be amongst the initial targets which will be destroyed. Israel should promise the most prominent people in Gaza that their homes will be targeted one house at random for every rocket position which has to be destroyed which is placed on apartment buildings in the less well-off neighborhoods. No longer will only the poor lose their homes and have their lives destroyed by Hamas violence, the wealthy will now also be targeted and pay a similar price. The wealthy who hold the money and thus influence and power are going to be targeted and more. The malls and fine restaurants and theaters and other pleasure palaces the wealthy enjoy will be destroyed at night when they are empty to decrease the loss of life but not the loss of property and convenience. When violence breaks out there will be a similar cutting off of water, electricity, gas and less gasoline and diesel fuel provided. The higher the violence the lower the provided fuels, electricity, water, gas and other provisions which Israel provides. Perhaps Hamas had better make deals with Egypt to provide these essentials before they start a war with Israel and have to go without. But Egyptian President Sisi is not exactly enamored with Hamas so that too may prove difficult. Another war from Hamas and Islamic Jihad will have ramification on the nice lives lived by the leadership of these terror groups and continued violence will result in ramifications for the leadership and wealthy of the whole of Gaza and not just the poor people, the unfortunates which the wealthy are more than willing to sacrifice and whose homes do not matter to the wealthy, well, that should change and the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their wealthy friends should be made to know this.

 

Israel has to get serious about demanding the right of a nation to peace and secure borders and this should start with making a deal with Jordan and Jordan Opposition Coalition (JOC الائتلاف الاردني للمعارضة) who have offered a solution to the Arab Palestinian situation and desire peaceful coexistence and cooperation with Israel to their mutual benefit. They desire to build a democratic style governance in Jordan for all the Palestinian Arab population and recognize the Israeli right to the lands west of the Jordan River as defined by the British Mandate, San Remo Conference, Treaty of Sèvres and backed by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and all of International Law. Such a deal would finally bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a sustainable resolution which also would recognize the agreements made after World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which happened in parallel with the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in Eastern Europe. Israel has every bit as much legitimacy as Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Jordan and the rest of the nations defined by the series of treaties reached settling the disagreements and other considerations at the end of World War I and affecting all the nations and empires which fought in that war even including Japan and the United States which both were members or observers to every agreement, conference and treaty. It is finally time for the world to make good on their promises to the Zionist Congress and other interests which finally resulted in the formation of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948 with the borders as pictured below which were immediately invaded on all sides at the first light of dawn. Israel survived but did not come out as the victor in any means other than survival. Instead Israel lost the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Judea and Samaria lands and Eastern Jerusalem (West Bank) to Jordan. In the Six Day War of June 1967 Israel liberated these lost lands and took the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, which has since been returned, the Golan Heights from Syria, which has been annexed to prevent the return of Syrian snipers shooting Israeli farmers and others and provide a more stable and defendable border which has been a blessing with the current situation in Syria. Gaza will remain with Hamas as Israel released those lands in a treaty though a revolution all but immediately replaced the Palestinian Authority government.

 

Definitive Map of Israel May 15, 1948
As the Sun Rose Immediately Before
Half a Dozen Arab Armies Invade
Assisted by Militias from Several Entities

 

The time and situation have reached a critical mass where Israel must exercise her rights to her full border promised, the border which the world is fully aware includes everything west of the Jordan River including all of Judea and Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinian Arab, those are the non-Israeli Arabs, may have Jordanian citizenship where the group mentioned above desire forming a self-rule governance, either without their current King or with the King having a ceremonial position at his preference as he spends much of his time away from Jordan and not particularly ruling, has promised to accept them as citizens even arranging with Israel to allow those desiring to remain in their current location to have voting rights in Jordan and resident alien status with Israel as long as they remain law abiding, and make a deal, where Israel would provide those who would desire moving to Jordan a generous buyout of their homes and business as well as a relocation bonus all for a limited time. The Palestinian Arab leadership would likely relocate somewhere in Europe or the Arab world as the Jordanians remember the revolution attempted by Yasser Arafat and would probably not be willing to risk their presence again. There would need be a limit to the time in which the new Jordanian Arabs could receive the buyout and relocation bonus of maybe as much as three years and perhaps even an offer to Israeli Arabs who have relatives living in Jordan and other cases on a case by case basis all considering the benefit to Jordan as well as Israel. It would be unlikely that the Palestinian Arabs would be offered Israeli citizenship, especially when they were being offered citizenship by the Arab nations of Jordan which was originally intended to be the Arab state formed from the British Mandate. The idea of the Hashemite Kingship was a British idea to satisfy their World War I promise to the Hashemites who lost their lands which included Mecca and Medina when the Saudis took the lands by force around World War I and the Hashemites also aided the British against the Turkish Ottomans during World War I. None of these complications in Jordan should ever have had any influence on Israel other than the Jordanian illegal occupation of Judea and Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem for nineteen years. Just because Jordan occupied the lands of Judea and Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem does not translate into any rights for them to give it as a present to the Arabs which resided there or were transferred there by Jordan against International Law, especially when their claims to have given the areas to Yasser Arafat’s PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) terrorist group came in July 1988, twenty-one-years and one month after the loss of the lands in June of 1967. First, one cannot give away land which was occupied and not legally theirs to begin with and most definitely cannot give those lands away over twenty-one-years after the rightful owner liberates them.

 

The reason there need be a solution to the problem in Judea and Samaria, which includes Eastern Jerusalem, such that Israel retains full rights over the lands with the Arabs only permitted, at most, self-rule in either a semiautonomous region or as resident aliens with Jordanian citizenship granted self-rule potentially in selected cities is so the IDF retaining full operational rights throughout the areas prevents any opportunity for Hamas to establish an operational base from which to attack Israel. Simply stated, the two state solution already exists with Gaza and Israel and a three state solution must be put to rest and buried never to resurface even in a horror film. It is hoped that this was stressed with President Trump and needs be discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (习近平) and whichever other international leaders who might be sympathetic or require being informed for other considerations. Israel must start making the process that she will retain all the lands other than Gaza and that there is no such thing as another Arab nation being carved from the body, the legal body, of Israel and that Israel will be retaining control over all the lands which were and still are promised her under all of international law, United Nations Security Council Chapter Six Resolution 2334 included as that particular resolution must be voided by the United Nations due to it breaking Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and thus cannot stand if the United Nations desires to continue to have relevancy and any degree of credibility. If this resolution stands then the United Nations Charter is invalidated and thus the entire credibility of the United Nations is sunk and nothing the United Nations ever does can be considered as permanent if it is unable to observe its own charter. Stating it in easy to understand English, “No Charter, No Credibility.” As for the European Union and the other NGO’s and countries which decide they really desire to back carving up Israel further, we all know what is driving that desire and such hatred will be at best ignored and if too persistent should be acted against with Israeli sanctions enforced and even joined by other nations who side with Israel. The time has come for Israel to stand definitively and take an active stand stating with strong enforcement that Israel will retain all the lands promised by the world, the League of Nations, the United Nations and every nation which recognized Israel in the United Nations vote in November 1947. Any nation wishing to renege on their promise can decide to risk Israeli sanction if they so choose and with so many applications for computers, cell phones and so many other developments, discoveries and inventions, how many nations really wish to do without Israeli discoveries or goods, that is the risk they are entitled to take. Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions can work both ways, something to remember and consider going forward, think hard.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Why the Palestinians Will Never Accept Any Agreement

Whether or not the on-again-off-again peace talks between the Palestinians, representing the entirety of the Arab and Muslim world, and the Israelis, representing the Jews, Arabs, Bedouins, Druze, Christians, Muslims and anybody who holds Israeli citizenship, continue meeting; there can never be an agreement as the Palestinians minimal requirement demands more than the maximum the Israelis are capable of offering. The Palestinians have made their minimal demands clear as long as you are willing to listen to what they say to their own people in Arabic and not insist that they only speak truthfully when they talk in English. The Western mainstream media is complicit in this scheme where only the English statements made by Palestinians, Arabs, Persians (Iranians) or other Muslims are to be reported upon and are to be taken at face value without any serious challenges or research into what the same spokespeople say in Arabic, Farsi, or other non-English native tongue. This willful deafness, or at least selective hearing, is done intentionally as the mainstream press, the politicians, the NGOs, the spokespersons, and whoever else in speaking about Israel and the Muslim and Arab worlds so as to permit them to paint a rosy picture of a future where all live together in peace, tranquility and security. Unfortunately as soon as somebody gets wise to this dishonest charade and seeks out those sources who are willing to do what nobody else would allow, translating the speeches, news reports, editorials, sermons, lesson plans, songs, and media of all varieties into English revealing the other side of what the presumed men of peace from the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim societies are truly telling their own people; then they have uncovered the whole picture and can judge which revelation fits best with their actions instead of just dismissing those actions which did not fit the claims made in English.

 

When we take the time and exert ourselves and read some of the more troubling items on the Internet translated at Camera, Palestinian Media Watch, MEMRI or any of the others easily found with any search engine, then our eyes are opened to a whole new world that is full of vitriol, hatreds, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Christianity, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu and anti-everything not Islamic; sometimes even anti-Islamic against any sect of Islam not matching the speaker’s version of Islam. Included in the hateful remarks which can be found are those Sunni denouncing the heretic Shiites or the Shiite denouncing the impure Sunnis. The pertinent fact one will find when doing this level of research is that the Palestinians have absolutely no expectation or desire to reach any peaceful treaty with the Israelis and claim that if they have a solution imposed on them, even if it should grant them their every demand setting their boundaries as the 1967 Lines including half of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, the Old City, the Western Wall and Plaza, Mount of Olives including the ancient cemetery, and virtually every ancient Jewish Holy Sites such as Kever Yoseph and Rachel and the Cave of the Patriarchs (the 1949 Armistice Lines which demark the final front lines at the end of the 1948-9 Arab wars to eliminate the nascent State of Israel immediately after her declaration of independence) as their stated in Arabic minimally acceptable solution would be the eradication of Israel and the few Jews who somehow survive the onslaught, they would be made to pay a very high Jizya tax and accept Dhimmitude, second rate citizen status where the Dhimmi is not permitted to use the sidewalks, may not ride on an animal as they must never be higher than the Muslims around them and has little if any legal recourse and may not even be allowed to give testimony in courts. The Palestinian official position states that should an interim settlement come about, they reserve the right to continue to resist the occupation until all of Palestine has been liberated, simply put Israel has been replaced with Palestine and the Jews routed and likely all been killed.

 

Furthermore, the Palestinians have been repeatedly stating in Arabic, and even have stated this in English as well, that the Obama Administration and United States Secretary of State John Kerry have provided the Palestinians with a letter assuring them that the United States will be the guarantor of having the Israelis meet every single precondition ever made by the Palestinians. If this is a valid claim then the United States has given their word to go far beyond forcing Israel back inside the Green Line, often referred to as the Auschwitz Borders as first coined by Abba Eban, as well as surrendering all of west Jerusalem, removing hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes and communities, permitting a Palestinian military comparable to that of any other nation, unfettered passage between Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), but also the  right of return for as many as five and a half million Palestinians inside of Israel transforming Israel from a Jewish majority state to an Arab Muslim majority state thus bringing Israel as it is currently recognized to an end with unthinkable ramifications immediately after the next elections. Additionally, there have been rumors floating around from all sides in the current round of negotiations, the Israeli, the Palestinian, and even some in the United States State Department, which should the nine months of promised negotiations pass and no agreement reached then the Obama administration is prepared to force a solution upon the two sides. The presumed forced solution unfortunately looks remarkably like the maximum demands made by the Palestinians where they receive the 1967 Lines as their border, they receive all of western Jerusalem including all noted above, and a partial solution to the right of return which does not include the entire five plus million but some percentage which will be deemed fair by President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, Secretary of Defense Hagel, and possibly Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power along with National Security Advisor Susan Rice; a central group of trusted advisors to President Obama all of whom have some degree of troubling past records when it comes to Israel.

 

Many will scoff at the idea that there would ever be a forced solution imposed on the parties of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. There have been some slighted comments made which may indicate that a forced solution is exactly what is waiting at the end of these negotiation should the two sides not reach an agreement. President Obama threatened that Israel may find themselves completely isolated on the world’s stage should they not find some way to appease the Palestinians sufficiently that they break from their refusal of all things Israel reaching an accord which would satisfy President Obama and also the United Nations, Europe and the rest of the Arab and Muslim worlds. Secretary Kerry has also made inferences that no matter what, come the end of the nine months of negotiations there will be a solution one way or another. So, exactly how would a forced solution come into existence? Since the one thing which prevents the United Nations Security Council from forcing a solution on the parties currently is the veto power of the United States who often stand-alone from among the five permanent members. Therefore, all that would be required is for the United States to support a forced agreement for one to come into fruition unless France, Great Britain, Russia or China would suddenly decide to come to the salvation of Israel and utilize their veto to prevent such a strategy. The United States could, most likely with the full backing as cosponsors of Russia, Great Britain and France signing on, present and support a Chapter VII Resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations setting the borders for the newly recognized and admitted full member of the United Nations of the pre-June 1967 Armistice Lines including western Jerusalem as the State of Palestine’s Capital City. What is almost beyond belief is that the one permanent veto wielding nation which might rescue Israel from such a move by the Obama administration would be China. China would likely have some demands made of Israel especially pertaining to Iran but it is entirely possible that China could take the place of the United States as the protector of Israel in the United Nations Security Council. But should the Security Council pass a Chapter VII Resolution recognizing and establishing the borders and offer Mahmoud Abbas full United Nations membership and recognition, the Israelis would be facing the combined military forces of the United States, most of the European nations, Russia, the entire Arab world, most Muslim nations, many African nations, South American nations and Asian nations possibly completely alone with no nation taking her side in what would initially appear to be a desperate and hopeless situation. If I were pressed to name any nations which would side with Israel the list would be very short but would be led off with Canada, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. This would not exactly make the most powerful alliance in all of history but it is a start. Sometimes supporters of Israel do wonder if it is possible that the few can be right while the whole world appears to be on the other side. Where I am not entirely sure that stranger things have happened, I feel safe in claiming that if those supporting Israel are on the righteous side of the scale, then it really is amongst the strangest of things in all of history.

 

Beyond the Cusp