Hours after Hamas’ barbaric surprise-attack on an Israel not only asleep at the wheel, but actually asleep in their beds, Hamas issued this singular statement: “The action taken in Israel is meant as a warning to all Muslim nations not to make peace with Israel.”
That explanation for that militant terror has been buried in the noise of war.
What we are looking at is an illusion. As Israelis and Gazans die in bloody battle, the war is really between Iran and Saudi Arabia–ireligious antagonists for centuries. But Iranians and Saudis are not dying…Jews and Palestinians are.
So it is and so it has always been. The Arab world has always been splintered by religious forces in one form or another.
Today Gazans are dying because the terrorist force known as Hamas (they are not an Army) butchered innocents and took hostages – doing the bidding of their Iranian masters and financiers.
The idea behind the raid was simple: Iran knew that the Trump and Biden administrations had been working to bring the Saudis and Israelis together in a peace agreement. They could not abide this level of recognition of Israel or this power move by the Saudis.
And so the plan — enrage Israel focused on internal problems, in such a way that they will attack all of Gaza killing everywhere in an effort to destroy Hamas who hide in plain sight among the Gazan citizenry and in sophisticated tunnels through the 25 miles of Gaza.
And in so doing convince the Saudis not to meet with Israel.
It is working.
When President Bill Clinton tried to get the then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to meet Netanyahu to discuss a two-state solution, Arafat begged him to understand that if he did that, those around him would kill him.
When Itzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Israel, talked about a two state solution, a young Jewish” patriot” shot and killed him while he was making a speech.
In that World, it takes death to make a difference.
Israel was totally distracted by an inner conflict over Netanyahu’s efforts to limit the power of the Israeli Supreme Court so that they could not put him in jail.
Iran might as well have listened to 60 Minutes where the World heard that Israel’s reserve force would not take any action until Netanyahu stopped his attempt at changing Israel’s democratic form of government.
Everyone in Israel – men and women – must serve two years in the armed forces and remain on reserve forever. Israel’s army can number more than 350,000 which far overwhelms Hama forces..
But Hamas has been building hundreds of miles of cement tunnels and rooms beneath Gaza…even right down to the sea.
And so it was possible for several thousand Hamas militants coming into Israel by speedboat, with power gliders – bikes with parachutes – and with simple farm bulldozers to knock down the chain-link fences which separates Israel from Gaza.
And we have what we have.
ORIGINS
Antisemitism and racism exist deep within the populations of the World.
America clearly has its share of those beliefs.
Accepting that fact is difficult, but facts are meaningful and given the recent actions of our young activists – serious, driven by feelings not facts, conclusions they reach are seriously wrong and threaten our future.
Today American college campuses are battlegrounds with serious charges of antisemitism openly concerning federal and local Police.
The anger against Israelis is about the plight of the Palestinians, a people in Gaza caught between the fury of Israel for the actions of Hamas, the militant leaders of Gaza and the reality that they are being torn apart simply because Hamas was told what to do by Iranians who wanted to keep Saudi Arabia and Israel apart.
There is absolutely NO SOUND from the Palestinians who live on the other side of Israel in the West Bank and are governed by the Palestinian Authority who are not the handmaidens of Iran.
Who are the Palestinians? What Arab tribe did they evolve from? What nation did they govern?
The answer is that they came to the area in 1000 BCE as Greeks who were called Palestinians in that era.
The Jews had lived there for 3000 years before their arrival. That was the only time in recorded history that the Palestinians had been a people and they came as an occupying force.
In 700 BCE the Assyrians occupied the country. In the 5th Century BCE the Babylonians became the occupiers. They were followed by the Persians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Ottomans and finally the British.
Each and every nation was an occupying force but there was one constant through all of it. There were always Jews in Israel that were subjugated in one way or another by these forces.
The Palestinians who survived through the centuries…were just that – survivors.
They had no status in the Arab World and when the United Nations, the British and the established Arab nations looked for a place to give the Jews their own nation at last, they selected an area outside of Jordan where the Palestinians lived and placed Israel right down in the middle of them.
When those who were thrown out of their homes and moved from their territory sought haven in other Arab nations, they were ignored and not allowed to enter…
They were simply abandoned by the Arab world – and still are today.
The Egyptian border has been shut tight to the Palestinians leaving Gaza at the urging of an avenging Israel. The Egyptians simply say they do not want Palestinians to enter their country and then refuse to leave. The border was open just to allow evacuees with the proper papers out of harm’s way.
THE FUTURE
The days and weeks ahead are grim. It is impossible for Israel to destroy Hamas even if it blows up every single building in Gaza.
It seems Israel is so short of capable younger men or women that it keeps returning to Bibi out of some sense of who knows what.
If that sounds familiar it should. We are a nation soon to vote for two old men when once upon a time our 45 year olds were prepared to assume responsibility.
Maybe Israel and America are facing the same problem: the best of both won’t touch politics with a ten foot pole unless they may be buying favors.
We are living in difficult times. It seems that some unseen element has thrown us off just a bit…just enough for the actions and activities that disturb those of us who care enough to be concerned.
For now, Iran’s political move has worked. When Joe Biden visited Israel for a few days he did not go on to visit any Arab nation or leadership.
The plan having the Saudi’s sitting down with Israel now seems lost… but not for long. The Crown Prince will not let Iran dictate the terms of Saudi’s behavior or policies. International politics is politics nonetheless- there is always a “next” time.
That World has always known its fury its bloodshed and terror. What will we do with ours?
“What will we do with ours?”
I suggest financial and military disengagement with Israel until Netanyahu is replaced.