Doc's Talk: Middle East Chess

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Middle East Chess

Leslie J. Sacks
Los Angeles, CA
LESLIE'S BLOG: STRENGTH AND TOLERANCE

Israel resides amongst 22 (generally hostile) Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, with 2% of the population on 0.15% of the land. Israel's army is fighting Islamist radicals on multiple fronts and sharing its expertise in counter-insurgency, robotic warfare, and military intelligence (among other fields) with their American counterparts. Nevertheless, according to reported comments by Vice-President Joe Biden, the White House believes Israel is "endangering the US lives in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." Wow! What an accolade for Israel's reach and unrivaled global power, not to mention it's ability - by simultaneously protecting and "endangering" US troops - to play for opposing sides all at once. The Jews - responsible for both communism and capitalism, ostentation as well as excessive thrift - have always excelled at that. Biden's alleged riposte was delivered because Israel announced plans to build 1600 apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in municipal North-East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War and specifically excluded from the Netanyahu government's 10-month settlement freeze, which the Obama administration itself advertized with appreciation (Hillary Clinton herself called the move "unprecedented").

The announcement's timing was clearly awful, whether it was a bureaucratic gaffe or some over-zealous intra-government politicking. But does anything really run smoothly in the Middle East, apart from the invention and dissemination of Israel-hatred?

The Palestinian Authority just dedicated a square in Ramallah in honor of the terrorist Dalal Moghrabi, canonized for burning alive 35 men, women and children. Hamas just fired yet another barrage of rockets into Israel from Gaza. The PLO charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Not a single Arab country or organization of note has accepted Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. The Palestinians have never accepted any Israeli offer of permanent peace. Apparently, these tiny details do not embarrass America nor hinder peace negotiations. In the last 12 months, the US has not publically reprimanded the Palestinian Authority1 for any of their intransigencies. Instead, it is Israel's building on empty conquered land that is the only noticeable problem.

Why is this the case?

Perhaps the White House wants to very publically distance itself from past American policies - and thus between Israel and the White House - so that the Arab world's tarnished self-image can be polished, so that confidence and respect can be proffered to the Arabs as gifts by President Obama. Perhaps Obama is seizing this opportunity to push his charisma-fueled effort to remake the world in his image, to forever heal the rift between east and west, between Islam and Christianity.

Israel is too small and too thorny to warrant all the trouble that so inconveniently surrounds it. It brazenly insists on survival in its ancient homeland. To resolve all the nasty conflict therein - too complicated, too risky for this administration - perhaps Israel need only be knocked down a peg or two. It's what friends are for, no?

ImageObama the messiah rides into Jerusalem on a white donkey to save the recalcitrant Palestinians from themselves - what could be better? To get there, the Uber-Negotiator is ingratiating himself with the Arab world and proving America is just like everyone else. The understanding and empathy ladled out to the many intransigent groups proliferating around the Middle East will accordingly absolve them, evolve them, and bring them into the fold. The poacher can indeed become the game-keeper!

Obama's Israel strategy also appears related to his continuing attempts to appease Iran, as though if Israel would just return to the 1949 armistice line (8 miles wide at its center), then the centrifuges in Iran would surely stop spinning (who knows: perhaps Obama can tend two Islamist birds with one nest, and suicide bombers in Kabul will rather open teahouses). Presumably Obama's pressure is designed to ensure veto power over any Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear installations. An independent Israel going rogue on Obama's chess game is a primary fear of the White House and if the pressure brings down the right-of-center Netanyahu government in the process, so much the better.

That explains America. But what of Russia - why do they insist on supporting Iran and their pending Bushehr nuclear power plant? Is that not counter-productive, especially considering that Muslim Chechnya and Daghestan are the most violent and restive of Russia's holdings. Certainly Jihadist groups there enjoy consistent Iranian support and inspiration and would love to add dirty nuclear bombs and more to their arsenal.

Seems Russia is too clever by half. They clearly see the danger and they believe, correctly, that the West is weak and their sanctions inevitably ineffectual. By allowing Iran to up the ante and push the envelope towards nuclearization, they calculate, devilishly, that this will irrevocably move Israel to action, to striking Iran's nuclear facilities, thus doing Russia's dirty work for them. They know Israel has no option - they cannot live with the existential threat of a nuclear Iran. And Israel will accrue all the blame, all the missiles; America, some of the fallout and embarrassment. But Russia will have this problem solved and garner huge new weapons sales, oil supplies, and alliances from the Middle East. What's more, a few Jew's will assuredly die in the process.

It's a very creative game of post-KGB Middle-Eastern chess, by the masters of the game. Obama is out of his league; Ahmadinejad will rally his Revolutionary Guard, incarcerate a few more thousand dissidents and with unrestricted Chinese imports live to fight another day.

Israel's always been the scapegoat (as were the Jews for 2000 years) - why change the perfect ploy? - it works every time. A few Jerusalem apartments are all it takes.

Checkmate!

1Note: The Palestinian Authority are the peace partners the White House are lauding whilst castigating Israel. Here follows instructive quotes by Ahmad Bahar, the Parliament speaker of the Palestinian Authority:

"Make us victorious over the infidel people Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one."

"Our enmity with the Jews is a matter of faith, more than an enmity owing to occupation and the land."

"Soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, like Constantinople was conquered, according to the prophecy of our prophet Muhammad. Their capital will be the first post of the Islamic conquests that will spread all over Europe then it will turn to the two Americas and even to Eastern Europe."

The head of Hezbollah in Lebanon has stated with transparent honesty: "If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

Iran's rulers have also openly and publicly proclaimed: "Israel is a one bomb country."

For further reading, please visit this link.

Captions: (top) Jerusalem, by Edward Lear (1812-1888); (bottom) US Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at Tel Aviv University

Published on News Blaze
Published on SlantRight

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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