RUTHFULLY YOURS

resident Trump’s national security strategy – as enunciated on December 18, 2017 – reflects a realistic assessment of clear and present threats to the US, rejecting the politically-correct worldview of the foreign policy establishment, which has been crashed, repeatedly, against the rocks of reality. It provides a prescription for the enhancement of the flourishing, mutually-beneficial US-Israel relationship.

Contrary to the US and West European government, academic and media foreign policy establishment – which are highly critical of Israel and top heavy on wishful-thinking concerning the supposed Arab Spring, ostensible democratization and peaceful coexistence of the Arab World – Trump recognizes the complex and inherently brutal reality of the Middle East. Trump is aware of the lethal threats posed by Shiite (Ayatollahs) and Sunni terrorism and the threats posed by the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement.

Apparently, Trump does not embrace the myth of the Palestinian issue as – supposedly – a core cause of regional instability, a crown-jewel of Arab policy-makers, nor the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

According to Trump, apologies, appeasement and multilateralism have been replaced by America-first patriotism, the independence of unilateral US military action, the resurgence of the US posture of deterrence, an expanded defense budget and peace-through-strength.

Will Israel leverage these principles in its own battle against Islamic/Arab terrorism and its public relation posture in the US?

The Palestinians do not want peace. They want victory, a victory that will lead to the elimination of Israel and the expulsion of the Jews.

The 1968 charter of the PLO has never been changed, despite decades of promises that it would be modified. Although secular in character, it advances much the same attitudes as those found in the Hamas charters. In Article 2, for example, it defines “Palestine” in boundaries encompassing the entirety of Israel: “Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit”. This means that calls for a Palestinian state based on that definition are also calls for the destruction of Israel.

All attempts at normalization between Palestinians and Israelis or between other Arab states and Israel are routinely dismissed as treachery, a position that endangers the lives of any Palestinian who seeks peace.

Meanwhile, Western leaders, including religious figures such as the Pope, are enchanted with the fantasy that a peace process exists, and forever chant the mantra that nothing must be done to interrupt it. President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is the first time any world leader has stood up to the threats of anger and violence.

On December 6, US President Donald Trump fulfilled a promise that was made by Congress on November 28, 1995 in its Jerusalem Embassy Act — to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and to mark this by moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city. That move, according to the Act itself, was to “be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999”. Trump’s declaration that the US will now implement the Act has been a historical démarche. So why has it taken so long to act on this agreement?

For more than two decades, this clear expression of the will of Congress had, in effect, been held in abeyance following an amendment (section 7) that introduced a waiver that allowed presidents to “suspend the limitation set forth in section 3(b) for a period of six months if he determines and reports to Congress in advance that such suspension if necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States”. Since then, every president who followed (including Trump, six months earlier) exercised this waiver.

Over the years, implementation of the Act was caught up in increasingly complicated legal and diplomatic issues that made deferment appear judicious and necessary in the belief that stalling it might help the so-called “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians: according to Time Magazine:

“though both the Clinton Administration and Israeli government ‘support the move to Jerusalem in principle, they would prefer to see the peace process more stabilized before confronting the explosive issue of Jerusalem’.”

Sirens went off in southern Israel last Thursday as jittery Israeli civilians dashed for cover or scanned the skies for rockets and counter-rocket fire. It turned out to be a false alarm but no less disconcerting. Approximately 17 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since December 7, the day following America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Four rockets were fired on December 13. One landed in open area, two were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system and a fourth landed in Gaza, hitting a United Nations-run school. It’s a sure bet that had the school been damaged as a result of Israeli fire, Israel would have been excoriated by so-called human rights groups and their nefarious allies in certain quarters of the establishment media. Another rocket was fired on Friday but it too fell short and landed in northern Gaza, ironically hitting the home of the brother of a senior Hamas official. A further two rockets were fired on Sunday, landing in the vicinity of the Hof Ashkelon region and causing damage to a house and car.

The sudden escalation in rocket fire from Gaza has the potential of spiraling into a wider conflict. It is believed that those responsible for the uptick do not belong to Hamas but are taking their orders from other terrorist groups that roam Gaza, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Still, Hamas controls the borders and they could put a stop to the mischief if they wanted. That is why Israel holds Hamas, Gaza’s governing authority, responsible for all rocket fire and that is why Israel often directs its retaliatory fire at Hamas installations.

Thus far, the rockets have caused little damage though one hit the courtyard of a kindergarten in the border town of Sderot, shattering a window and causing light damage to the building. The building was fortuitously empty at the time but the indiscriminate nature of the attack demonstrates just how truly savage Israel’s genocidal enemies are. It also demonstrates how precarious the situation is. A direct hit on a school packed with children would instantly trigger a massive and crushing Israeli military response.

Rather than engage in institution-building, which the United States, Europe and even Israel funded with billions of dollars, PA President Mahmoud Abbas – Arafat’s successor – made no effort to reform Palestinian civil society, including the education system.

In fact, textbooks for the 2017-2018 academic year are even more filled with incitement to violence in the name of Allah than in years before…. “Children are expendable.”

The crux of this report is that Palestinian education is for war and against peace with Israel. When educators employ blood libels to provide a rationale for terrorism against innocent Israelis — and the PA leadership backs these up by paying salaries to terrorists and their families — the only process you are going to get is one of war.

At a rally in Orlando, Florida shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s historic declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an activist at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-sponsored event ranted, “[Jews] are the crappiest piece of shit on this planet.”

The activist was Said Lufti, uncle of Rasha Mubarak, Orlando Regional Coordinator for CAIR-Florida, and one the protesters in attendance, many of whom were wearing keffiyehs [checkered men’s headscarves] and waving Palestinian flags.

Lufti continued:

“You [Jews] are baby-killers. You Jesus-killer…You Christians, walking behind Jesus-killers… Jesus’s blood [is] on your hands… You crucified Jesus!… Record me! You are Jesus-killers!… Jesus’ blood on this piece of crap Jew [the man filming the clip] hands. And [addressing a non-Jew behind the camera] you’re walking with him? You are a Christian?… Your people [the Jews] killing everything that walks on this planet…”

Despite US President Donald J. Trump’s assurance that his giving presidential approval to the Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1995, was not tantamount to a delineation of borders, Lufti’s comments illustrate that the true enmity towards Israel based on long-standing, deep-seated Jew-hatred. This will not surprise anyone who follows the material being taught in schools, preached in mosques and spread by the media in Muslim-majority states whose regimes exercise total control over their populaces.

In the Arab-Israel conflict, one issue which rises above every other is the accuracy of what is presented. The Palestinians are relying on people not knowing history in order to advance their narrative. Israel on the other hand is relying on people knowing history. From where I sit, over the past two or three decades, it appears most people do not know history very well. Thus, the Palestinian narrative has gained popularity and has shaped much of public opinion.

What’s especially troubling is that the mainstream media has adopted most of the Palestinian propaganda, or seems to sympathize with it. Sadly, the days of objective news reporting appear to be gone. Today’s reporting has pretty much turned into op-eds, rather than simple straightforward news.

Regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, we hear noble words such as “just solution,” “dignity,” “peace,” etc. on a regular basis. Who has fault with these?

Yet, if this conflict ever stands a chance of being resolved, isn’t it incumbent upon the world to know the actual facts and to stand for the truth, so these noble goals actually apply to its resolution?

If so, we need to understand whose narrative reflects the truth and whose are false. For this we need to unpack what we frequently hear and apply a litmus test.

For example:

CLAIM: Palestinians are an ethnically unique people or nationality

The Facts:
The Palestinians are Arabs. They are a mix of Jordanians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Syrian, etc. Several hundred thousand of them were displaced, many by choice, as result of the 1948 and 1967 wars. In both wars, the goal of the Arab nations was to destroy the Jewish state. They failed. Eventually their tactics changed. Not that destroying Israel militarily was dropped, it remains their goal. However, in 1964 the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was formed for the specific purpose of destroying the Jewish state of Israel.

After the devastating defeat in the Six Day War, and the refusal of the surrounding Arab nations to absorb the displaced Arabs, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat embarked on a campaign to bring their plight to the world stage. Part of his effort included calling them “Palestinians.” This took root and the world bought into calling them Palestinians to this day.

Answer to the claim: FALSE

There is nothing to stop Jordan from changing its name to Palestine and making Amman its capital city.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, just tweeted “Jordan=Palestine. So, the capital of Palestine is not Jerusalem but Amman.”

It can’t get any simpler than that.

The primary stumbling block to Israel annexing the land she was promised in the Palestinian Mandate and which she conquered in 1967, Gaza aside, is the fact that 1.6 million Arabs live there. All solutions put forward by the Israeli right take a stab at the problem. They range from offering the Arabs a path to citizenship to incentivizing them to emigrate voluntarily.

Amman, Palestine?

There is great opposition in Israel to the citizenship idea as it would present Israel with an Arab population amounting to 35% of the total population. To have an understanding of how big a problem that would be for Israel, just look at the problems European countries are having with a Muslim minority of only 5 to 10%. Israelis want no part of that nightmare. Paying Arabs to leave is a far more attractive solution.

The leading Israeli voice for offering compensation as an inducement to emigration, is Martin Sherman, the founder of Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. He suggests offering $300,000 per family. Such a plan would cost at least $100 billion to get West Bank Arabs to emigrate. This is a mindboggling sum to most Israelis, but Sherman argues that it is affordable.

The Jordan Option represents a different solution, one which would be far less costly to Israel. It requires changing Jordan from a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy.

After the voluntary or forced abdication by King Abdullah, the Jordan Opposition Coalition, (JOC) led by Mudar Zahran, would form the interim government. Given the fact that 75% of Jordanian citizens are Palestinian, i.e., their grandparents were/are Palestinian, this is only fitting. Besides in the last few years, King Abdullah has alienated both U.S. and Israel for different reasons. They now want him out.

New alliances are forming in the Middle East as the feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia heats up. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt are committed to fighting terrorism and the ideology which fuels it. To this end they have banned the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organization and have placed sanctions on Qatar who continues to support them and other terrorist organizations.

Jordan hosts the world headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood and its parliament is controlled by both MB and ISIS members.

The King also supports Palestinian resistance to Israel and from time to time encourages them to start an intifada.

As further evidence of the alliances being formed, it is instructive to look at the Islamic Summit held last week in Istanbul. It was organized as a response to President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Eqypt did not attend. Jordan, on the other hand, did and aligned with Iran, Turkey, and Qatar who dominated the discourse.

On the Jewish festival of Hanukah, we give thanks for the victory in Jerusalem in 164 BCE of the tiny Jewish army over the mighty Greek-Syrian empire – for deliverance of the many into the hands of the few. Today, we continue to see tiny Israel rise to the massive challenges in the world and we can be inspired by the few.Israel is one of the smallest nations in the world – yet it has a massive positive impact on global health, food and water security, disaster relief and the economies of developing and developed countries. Here are just a few examples from the last three months.

Israel continues to have a significant effect in the fight against cancer. Europe has now approved Weizmann Institute’s breakthrough Tookad prostate cancer treatment that was featured on the BBC back in January. And Israeli biotech Ayala has joined the many Israeli companies developing personalized cancer treatments targeting individuals rather than specific parts of the body.

Having already helped West Africa defeat the Ebola virus, Israel is now running training courses on how to fight epidemics. Meanwhile, as a recent addition to the dozens of Israeli research projects to solve global threat from antibiotic resistance, Hebrew University researchers are calculating optimum treatment procedures to avoid the under / over-treatment of infections.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KaxB3bHuKUY?rel=0

An Israeli-developed space laboratory is currently orbiting our planet on the International Space Station. It allows scientists here on Earth to perform unique medical research by remote control. Back on the ground, Israel’s Regional Cooperation Ministry has been funding surgeons from Israeli charity Save a Child’s Heart to perform life-saving surgery on 500 Kurdish children from Iraq, the PA, Syria and Jordan. So perhaps it is not surprising that Israel Medical Association chairman Professor Leonid Eidelman has been elected President of the World Medical Association (WMA) – an umbrella body representing national medical associations with more than nine million members.

With all the latest tantrums at the United Nations, readers may have missed the recent Israeli resolution promoting the utilizing of agricultural technology for sustainable development. It was passed by the UN Second Committee by 141 to 1. One specific project is that of Israeli companies Evogene and Rahan Meristem which have developed non-GMO bananas resistant to the Black Sigatoka fungus which has been threatening world-wide crops. Finally, I highly recommend this article on Israeli water conservation and this video about Israeli food technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/PRKw8Mt101U?rel=0

You probably already know about the IDF rescue unit of 71 specialists that saved lives following the earthquake in Mexico. President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico certainly was grateful. Regarding other disasters, Israeli NGO IsraAID sent an emergency response team to help victims of Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico. And the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the South African branch of Magen David Adom sent medical aid to Madagascar to help combat what the World Health Organization described as the worst outbreak of bubonic / pneumonic plague in 50 years.