9 Biggies I Have Been Tracking

Being off for a week and a half offers the luxury of reading what is going without worrying necessarily about my next Blog topic. On the other hand, I am constantly going – “wow, I got to refer to this or that”!  I have accumulated enough “wows” that it makes more sense to list  “top of mind” issues relating to Israel and the Middle East rather than a specific topic. Find a comfortable seat. This will be somewhat longer than usual.

You will see that most issues with Israel are, by their nature, really international issues. While the UN, US and Western Europe gets worked up over “rebuilding” Gaza — which is still under a fascist, dictatorial, criminal enterprise, i.e, Hamas — there is real genocide going on only a few hundred kilometers from where I sit and the immense human suffering in Syria and Iraq.  And, lurking just behind the corner is Iran, a country bent on developing Nuclear weapons and being the largest state sponsor of terrorism against secular, Western society in the world.   World opinion, shaped by the aggressive tactics of radical Islam especially in Western Europe, is keeping Western world from focusing on the “big stuff”. It’s a magicians trick of slight of hand and we need to be care not to fall for it.

So here is my list, in priority order:

1. It’s always about Iran

Bibi have never let his eye off the ball.  The world’s delays and excuses keep piling up.  The negotiations failed to be finalized in July.  Now they kicked the ball to the Fall but it seems that the Iranians are already saying they will miss this deadline as well. These are classic negotiating tactics in this part of the world. Don’t kid yourself.   Here is the bottom line: no country is funding more ways to destroy Israel and destabilize the West than Iran.   There seems to be indications of a pivot by Washington towards Iran with Obama even calling them a fully rationale actor with whom the U.S. can negotiate.  We should all be concerned about the lack of vigor in the U.S.’s negotiations with Iran as well as hints that we have some type of common cause with Iran due to ISIS.  This is complete nonsense.  Iran may have similar concerns with ISIS but not because our interests are even slightly aligned.  As long as Iran desires to build a-bombs and funds terror groups all over the world, including cells in the U.S., Europe and South America, we are in trouble.  And wherever Iran lurks, North Korea is not far behind. And Iran has not hidden, in any way, their desire to have Israel destroyed.

We also need to be very careful on doing deals with people who hate and want to destroy Western culture.  Just because Shiites hate Sunni’s does not mean they avoid collaborating to destroy us.  We see this clearly in the way Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, supports Hamas even though they are across the Shiite-Sunni divide.

2. IS (or ISIS) as a global threat

IS has declared a Caliphate over large swaths of Syria and Iraq and they are definitely up there on the brutality index.  They are a major threat to the Middle East but should not distract us from Iran with the Bomb.  That is fatal.  You got to wonder how stupid people are that they focus on Israel and Gaza and meanwhile IS is directly gunning for them.  It shows a total lack of “Islamic Literacy” as described in this article.   https://docs.google.com/a/arizal.biz/document/d/1Nx7NzDb-1mmrbY0nADnKn17TXosXfWp_CRPoZSjLV-c/edit?usp=sharing

Europe is only now waking up to the threat of returning Jehadis and the news is quite serious as these groups affiliated with IS are hijacking the anti-Israel Palestinian movement. It’s amazing what a few beheadings can do to get everyone’s attention and shift the focus. There looks like there is common cause between the Palestinians and IS as they demonstrate in Europe though many of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators are too dumb to realize they are on IS’s hit list.  It also means that the Palestinian story will become harder and harder to be heard and they will again miss an important window. Their time has passed.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4557201,00.html

This also highlights that, in spite of attempts to portray the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as an important factor in reducing tensions in our part of the world, it is just not true (http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/10/world/meast/iraq-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t1) and the unintended consequence of “working a deal” could, in fact, bring more instability and more radical groups into play.  Let’s just face it, the Palestinians are just not ready for us. I will deal with the “moderates” behind “Door 2” more in point #4.

3. Kurdistan

This is the other piece of big news and very important for Israel and the Middle East because the Kurds, contrary to conventional belief, will be a stabilizing non-Arab (and non-traditional Muslim) country with nearly 40 million inhabitants.  They have a natural alliance with Israel and, yet,  most Western countries are trying to stall their national movement even though the Northern Iraqi Kurdish independent region is more mature and ready for statehood than any part of Palestine. (Bibi recently came out strongly in support of their independence.)   It is so interesting that the world powers push for Palestinian statehood but are against Kurdish aspirations.  If you look at the map of the attached document you will see why.  Kurdistan would upend the old boarders or Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran in a way that is just not done.  So the Kurds are having their legitimate independence aspirations frustrated while the rump government of terrorist supporters in the PA with their Hamas partners continue to be pushed towards statehood.  Does this make any sense to you?  It doesn’t make sense and we know it.  This is really about global politics and not about what is best for Israel and the region.  https://docs.google.com/a/arizal.biz/document/d/1B7KPZ4zQeKqUY_vyoyleHxOvQUp8fT4Vc__A_dbc538/edit?usp=sharing

4. Western society complacency and political correctness in the face of militant Islamism and the growing antisemitism throughout Europe

We are dealing with a protracted dispute with Islam — a new Thirty-Years War, so to speak. This article gives a very educated description of what this type of war will be like and how it is similar to prior world conflicts: http://www.meforum.org/4776/sherman-300000-and-the-caliphate-three-million. It opened my eyes big-time.

There is so much excusing of Islam and Islamism in the name of political correctness and as a response to threats of violence and protest by these very same Islamist who insist that Islam is not violent!  Kind of crazy.  Once in a while a sane person tells it like it is and you just got to ask, what is everyone else missing? Watch this amazing video of someone going after Islam for what it really is: http://ozziesaffa.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/i-bet-she-regrets-asking-her-question.html

And behind this cover of anti-Israel/pro-Gaza breast beating while the rest of the world is in flames, is the specter of antisemitism reemerging with a vengeance that harks back to the 20 years of agitation before WW II. As is written in this article,  http://www.meforum.org/4772/gaza-antisemitism,  it’s antisemitism stupid!

Now I have a really simple test on whether someone is antisemitic or, if you want to “de-personalize”, expressing “antisemitic views”. It is based on the idea that antisemitism expresses, at its core, that Jews have an exaggerated influence and impact on history and events and, typically, this is manifested by some unique characteristic to bring evil and mischief into the world at a greater level than  other events taking place on the world stage.  This usually means that one starts to see Jews behind every world event that is occurring.  Like what I quoted from Hamas’s chapter in my last blog.  So the test is simple:  just ask someone:  what is the greatest threat right now to world peace? and if the person says Israel, then they are engaging in antisemitism.  If you ask them — what about ISIS, for example, — why don’t you heavily protest the decapitation, murder and rape of thousands? and they say they are focusing on Israel, then they are antisemitic. Do not be embarrassed to call them that and when they say — “ah, that is how all you people call anyone who has a legitimate complaint against Israel” — just remind them again they hold antisemitic views.  And explain why.  We need to be clear about Islamism and antisemitism.  No compromises.

As a final piece, if you have a moment please read Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom the Netherlands, who spoke these amazing and highly predictive words almost 5 years ago. Of course the left will call him a racist.  What else can they say when faced with the truth? https://docs.google.com/a/arizal.biz/document/d/1lEZL0yuKI6JlvtWJysJMbsqaK60aWf6VgEn5Vn5T4Ok/edit?usp=sharing

5. Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood are all part of the same team – just decide how you want to be killed

And let’s not forget their enablers:  Turkey, Qatar, Iran and North Korea.

I must tell you this is a tough one for my many friends, even pretty level headed buddies here in Rosh Pina.  The human brain wants to rank people based on “level of threat” (it’s evolutionary biology) and therefore comparisons are done between, let’s say, ISIS and Hamas or Hamas and Fatah and you hear words like: yes, they are more moderate.  Crazy.  Imagine trying to decide between what is more moderate – a King Cobra or a hungry Lion.  Come on — one is just deciding which death you would prefer.  Here is the key: all these groups are organized around an Islamic supremest ideology calling for the establishment of some form of Islamic dictatorship over the population with all people not of their brand being suppressed, persecuted or killed.  

Try being gay, a Western woman, a publicly practicing Christian or Jew or a Shiite in a Sunni dominated format under any of these regimes.  They are ALL EVIL.  We must get this into our heads if we want to succeed.  And Fatah is Abbas is the PA. It is a mathematical equivalency! All this nonsense that Abbas is the moderate is just plain fantasy and anyone smart knows this.  He has no constituency and he soon turns 80 and what his people say in Arabic is just as bad as Hamas. Abbas is just not a factor and to understand Abbas just read Fatah’s websites and Facebook pages.

So let me give you just one small example of how sick this is becoming.  The Shin Bet just rolled up a major Hamas conspiracy to overthrow the PA, assassinate Abbas and initiate a third intifada.  The Hamas guy responsible for this “operation” lives — guess where — nope, not Gaza and not even Qatar.  He lives and operates with full knowledge of a NATO alliance member, Turkey.  Turkey is Muslim Brotherhood and they are bad — real bad. No matter what packaging and sprucing-up they do, in the end they are aligned with Hamas and they are agitating via proxies for the destruction of Israel.

Here is a quote of Haaretz on-line: “A Palestinian official told Haaretz that Ramallah is no longer convinced that Hamas – especially its leadership outside Gaza – can make independent decisions. “The estimates are that the organization is dependent on the decisions of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement, with its center in Turkey,” he said.The official also said that the Palestinian leadership has reliable information pointing to talks held in the past two days between Meshal and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

And here is a quote from YNet on the Hamas designs against Fatah and the PA:   “Ynet was told that in recent months there was an active movement of Hamas activists arriving to Hebron from abroad. These operatives were known to security forces to be loyal to al-Arouri. The infrastructure for the operation was exposed in May, along with the identity of its leader, Hamas operations officer Saleh al-Arouri, who remains in Turkey, according to the Shin Bet.”  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560000,00.html

The PA wants to survive and maintain power.  It’s about money, prestige and honor.  And for that, the PA will say the right things to keep the West and Israel engaged. But it is a scam since another organ of Abbas’s empire, Fatah, explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel.  So, I know my more liberal friends want to dream of better days, but it ain’t happening. Here is just one example of Fatah talking about the destruction of Israel:  https://docs.google.com/a/arizal.biz/document/d/14eXbY6EtPKxqlnhlQ50n3lgEExqbZ29MQVA_fsvHslM/edit?usp=sharing

And an important part of Arab culture is its focus on conspiracies.  They are everywhere.  Even the PA is claiming that ISIS was started by the US as a conspiracy to suppress the Arabs.  No wonder they are such losers: https://docs.google.com/a/arizal.biz/document/d/1G7IFMBK6ADUX8qV2aJcdqs5OiS42hc1_LByJ2jR3B9I/edit?usp=sharing

or that Israel is behind the murder of the three students  http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12388 

Forget the PA. With moderate friends like these, who needs enemies?

6.  UNWRA, UNHRC and their assorted supporters 

We will need to deal with UN.  Frankly, the solution is not that complicated.  It comes down to money and the reality is that the US has enormous power here that it refuses to use. The U.S. provides about $6 Billion a year to the U.N.  Congress needs to step in and finally deal with this. As as for the U.N. in this last war, here is quote from  http://online.wsj.com/articles/claudia-rosett-the-u-n-handmaiden-of-hamas-1407454401#printMode which should get you motivated to write your congressmen/women today.

“Yet the U.N. representatives in Gaza helped cater the conflict and are already setting the table for the next round. Officially, Unrwa is a strictly humanitarian agency, providing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank, as well as Gaza, with “assistance and protection” in the form of schools, hospitals, construction, loans, jobs and other help. By the agency’s own account, in its 2014-15 budget “the core services UNRWA provides are comparable in nature and scope to those provided by a local or national government.

But Gaza under Hamas is a place with only two basic industries: aid and terrorism. These are much entwined, and not solely because Hamas controls Unrwa’s staff unions in Gaza, where in 2012 a Hamas-affiliated slate swept 25 of 27 seats. In effect the U.N. group subsidizes Hamas. Among U.N. agencies in the Middle East, Unrwa is the largest employer, with a regular budget for 2014 of $731 million, and a total budget that, with emergency appeals, tops $1 billion.

The agency has roughly 30,000 staff on its payroll, almost all Palestinian. Some 12,500 work in Gaza, home to 1.2 million Unrwa-registered refugees, who account for about two-thirds of Gaza’s population. The U.N. agency’s welfare programs relieve Hamas of many of the costs of servicing the enclave it controls as its launchpad for terror”

I also suggest you read this position paper on the U.N. if you want more background on the subject: https://drive.google.com/a/arizal.biz/file/d/0B4_jLzgwVn7dZWJyVFVBUkZ3ak0/edit?usp=sharing

So here are five questions I created to help should you end up discussing the UN issue.  These will help crystallize the issues:

1. Do you know the UNWRA supports a definition of refugee that ensures that the Palestinian refugee situation never improves and is completely inconsistent with the standard UN definition of refugee as promulgated by the UNHCR?

2. How do you explain the U.S. supporting the UNHRC when it promotes 46% of all country resolutions against Israel and ignores Iran, China, Qatar and a host of other human rights violators and has a permanent agenda item only for Israel.

3. Would you support an organization that arranges an investigative committee for the Gaza war headed by a jurist who has repeatedly called for Israel and its leaders to be hauled before the ICC and considers Israel a violator of crimes against humanity?

4. How do you feel about an organization where its General Assembly, by automatic majority vote, can pass any resolution it desires, including in the past that Zionism is a form of racism.

5. Finally, would you support an organization where one of its members, for example Iran, can call for the destruction of Israel, another member state, with impunity and without consequences?
We need to push our congressman and Senators to DE-FUND any part of the UN where this crap is going on, which includes, at a minimum, the UNHRC and UNWRA  http://www.meforum.org/4778/defund-unrwa

7. U.S. – Israel dynamic is dysfunctional – even as we need to do everything to preserve it.

Okay we have a real problem with reality testing on the part of the U.S.  I have written a lot about this but we need to accept that Obama just does not get the ME  and definitely does not get Israel. His world view is deeply skewed on the Middle East and especially Israel (this could be traced directly to one of his dear friends and “mentors”: Rashid Khalidi) He is searching for “moderate” Islamic Arab Countries and he is desperate. They are no moderate Arab Islamic countries out there of any consequence (which excludes Morroco).

He is not concerned about our safety because we are “so strong”.  It borders on antisemitism, btw.  And that Bibi won’t do a deal because he is also “too strong”.  I realize that Obama knows what’s best for Israel, but at least give Israel some credit for maybe having a more sophisticated calculus of their interests rather than just being too strong. What the hell is he talking about?  Obama, Kerry and their #1 advocate, Tom Friedman, are completely wrong on every aspect of what we need to accomplish to be safe.  The U.S. is being led by the nose on Iran and has no way to contain North Korea (btw, we have the same person who worked out such a great non-proliferation deal with NK, now working her magic on Iran — what an embarrassment — Wendy Sherman (http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/twitter-diplomacy/lead-negotiator-wendy-sherman-has-history-dealing-u-s-adversaries-n93691).  And Syria.  And Iraq. Oy-vay, we are in real trouble

So just a tidbit of how out of touch the U.S. is in the ME, here is an excerpt from a recent interview with Dennis Ross — another “expert” on the ME. “I argued with Israeli leaders and security officials, telling them they needed to allow more construction materials, including cement, into Gaza so that housing, schools and basic infrastructure could be built,” Ross revealed in the Washington Post on August 10. “They countered that Hamas would misuse it, and they were right.”   http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/17/how-hillary-clinton-enabled-hamas-construction-of-terror-tunnels/  (That is why I would not vote for Hillary if my life depended on it — she has no real backbone on these issues)

So, we are out of synch with the U.S. because the U.S. just does not get what is going on in this neck of the woods.  They have successfully angered their allies (and not just Israel) and have cozy-ed up to Muslim Brotherhood, Inc., via Qatar and Turkey.  And meanwhile, they are clueless in Syria and have a major problem in Iraq with ISIS. And that has nothing to do with the tough situation in the South China Sea and Russia in the Ukraine.  So, Bibi, I know it is painful but you need to wait him out.  Congress and the Defense Establishment get the issues and have your back.  Yes, Obama can cause major damage but it will boomerang on him in the end.  Keep to your principles. Obama’s and his policy wonks in the White House do not share them.

8.  Complacency and enablement of Islamism by the Media and Press:  

What can I say that has not already been said? Overall, the media just does not get or want to get the facts straight.  Let alone the interpretation of the facts.  I am compiling a separate blog on the latest stuff on the press’s serious malpractice in reporting on Gaza as well as other conflicts.  I have started to read in the raw the source of where a lot new outlets get their information:  The Associated Press.  We really need to go after these guys.  They use all types of stringers with highly questionable backgrounds and they just make up the news as they go along.  And their political agenda reeks of pro-Hamas sympathies. Here is just one example that gets routed to many media outlets and papers throughout the world and is considered the “reliable source”.

“The war began on July 8 with Israel’s air campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whom Israel blamed for the kidnapping and murder in June of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Nine days later, Israel sent in ground troops to destroy Hamas’ underground cross-border tunnels constructed for attacks inside Israel.”  http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=SrImrlFd

Really, that is how the “war began”?  That Israel attacked Gaza?  Aren’t you leaving out the hundreds of rockets launched into civilian cities for the prior two weeks and Israel did not start its campaign until it exhausted its patience calling for matching “quiet with quiet”.  This junk reporting is then picked up worldwide as new “facts”. Of course, a ton has been written about the false reporting of casualty figures by Hamas propaganda-based Ministry of Health which is then quoted by the UN to substantiate Israel’s indiscriminate use of force and lack of proportionality.  Except none of this is true. Both the BBC and the NY Times are now starting to address this but it is too-little and too-late.  They should be ashamed of themselves.  http://honestreporting.com/bbc-and-nyt-admit-gazan-civilian-casualty-stats-not-credible/

9.  The Jewish left is so so lost.

This last item is actually really big news for me as I how the Jewish Left  is splintering into groups that sound like PR agents for Hamas (Jewish Voice for Peace,for example) and the “near extreme” left that is still speaking of hogwash like Tikkun Olam as if this has any bearing to the issues Israel is facing in the Middle East. For example: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/israel_has_broken_my_heart_i%E2%8%99m_a_rabbi_in_mourning_for_a_judaism_being_murdered_by_israel/

Aside from these groups, most of my Left friends have privately lamented to me of having this weird sensation of knowing it’s not about Israel but about Jew hatred world-wide and they are starting to worry who their real friends are. And are questioning a number of their core liberal beliefs when it comes to Israel and Islam.  That there are big differences in cultures and they have a real impact on people and what they say and do.  That saying “all people are the same” is intellectually weak and not supportable by the facts or the social research.   I have a lot more I hope to write about on this topic, but here is just one article that will give you a feel of what is going on here: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/182038/facebook-friends-gaza

And, just to show you have crazy the extreme Jewish left has gotten as they have literally gone off the rails, here is my favorite moron, Max Blumethal (hey Max, don’t change your name since it adds to your panache on Jihadi websites):  http://www.truthrevolt.org/israel-revolt/max-blumenthal-claims-israel-using-human-shields

Before I sign off, I just want to introduce you to a funny website if you are into tongue-in-cheek:  they get to the absurdity of what is going on with Israel from a humorous perspective — here is just one example:   http://www.preoccupiedterritory.com/with-gaza-fighting-over-world-refocuses-on-ignoring-syria-conflict/

I hope to get out one more blog before I take a 60th Birthday trip to China.  I am so glad to go to a place that gets Israel … I need the relief.  Notice they have no “Muslim problem” there.  You can Google why this is the case for extra credit.