Tic ...Toc ... Israel

[sobrohusfat]

Unlike his predecessors, Trump is serious about winning. To do so, he is even willing to take this radical step
Caroline B. Glick - Director of the Israeli Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles and the senior contributing editor of the Jerusalem Post, where this article first appeared.

The PLO is disoriented, panicked and hysterical. Speaking to Newsweek this week, Saeb Erekat, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas’s chief conduit to Israel and the Americans, complained that since President Donald Trump was sworn into office, no administration official had spoken to them.

“I don’t know any of them [Trump’s advisers]. We have sent them letters, written messages. They don’t even bother to respond to us.”

The Trump administration’s shunning of the PLO is a marked departure from the policies of its predecessor. For former president Barack Obama, together with Iran, the Palestinians were viewed as the key players in the Middle East. Abbas was the first foreign leader Obama called after taking office.

Erekat’s statement reveals something that is generally obscured. Despite its deep support in Europe, the UN and the international Left, without US support, the PLO is irrelevant.

All the achievements the PLO racked up under Obama – topped off with the former president’s facilitation of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 against Israel – are suddenly irrelevant. Their impact dissipated the minute Trump took office.

Israel, in contrast, is more relevant than ever.



---------------------* SNIP'm Aleichem *------------------------

...Full Article here:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0217/glick020317.php3



...To date, Israel has demurred from targeting Hezbollah and Hamas missile arsenals, but not because it is incapable of destroying them. Israel’s efforts to avoid conflict with its enemies, even at the price of their rearmament, also haven’t stemmed from fear of European or UN condemnation or even from fear of the so-called “CNN-effect.”

Israel has chosen not to defeat its enemies – not to mention the EU-backed NGOs that whitewash them – because the Americans have supported them.

The Clinton administration barred Israel from taking decisive action against either Hezbollah or the Palestinians.

The Bush administration forced Israel to stand down during the war with Hezbollah in 2006.

The Obama administration effectively sided with Hamas against Israel in 2014.

In other words, across three administrations, the Americans made it impossible for Israel to take decisive military action against its enemies.

Under Obama, the US also derailed every Israeli attempt to curb the power of EU-funded subversive organizations operating from inside of Israel.

Trump’s emerging strategy on Iran and ISIS, together with his refusal to operate in accordance with the standard US playbook on the Palestinians, indicates that the US has abandoned this practice. Under Trump, Israel is free to defeat its enemies. Their most powerful deterrent against Israel – the US – is gone.

Israel has long argued that there is no difference between al-Qaida and Hamas or between ISIS and Hezbollah. It has also argued that Iran threatens not only Israel but the world as a whole. Hoping to co-opt the forces of jihad rather than defeat them, successive US administrations have chosen to deny this obvious truth.

Unlike his predecessors, Trump is serious about winning. To do so, he is even willing to take the radical step of accepting Israel as an ally.

The PLO is right to be hysterical.

[sobrohusfat]

Out or respect, Chuck Norris did not touch the wall to avoid knocking it over.
- Jewbellish

[Queen K]

I did touch the wall. I wonder if my note is still in it.

[The Green Barbarian]

The creation of a Palestinian state astride Israel — the two-state solution today’s Great Powers insist on — would have even less chance of survival than its failed neighbour states. The Arab clans of Palestine throughout the 20th century refused to accept a state of their own. Only in the 1960s did the idea of a Palestinian nation take shape when Yasser Arafat created the concept of an Arabic “Palestinian people.” Previously, “Palestinian” was a term that referred to all the residents of Palestine, Jews and Arabs. The original name of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was the Palestine Orchestra. The Jerusalem Post was first the Palestine Post.

But Arafat never forged a united people — most Palestinians only grudgingly accepted the rule of his Palestinian Authority and some never did. Few Palestinians identify chiefly with a national identity; their loyalty instead is clan-based — to the tight-knit group of extended families that share the same ancestry, based on the father’s male line and a preference for marrying within the clan. Palestinians pledge loyalty to their clan in a binding, formal code of honour backed by local militias. An attack on one clan member is an attack on all members.

Clan-based systems of governance do not lend themselves to nation states. Little surprise, then, that after Arafat died, civil war broke out and Gaza broke off from the West Bank to form its own statelet. To make dicier still the notion of a coherent Palestinian nation whose people share common values, Gaza is theocratic, run by Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, while the West Bank is largely secular.

The chance that Trump’s America and today’s other Great Powers can make the Gazan clans and West Bank clans unite in peace and harmony is close to nil. As a practical matter, those who propose a two-state solution are more realistically contemplating a three-state solution — Israel, Gaza and the West Bank — since the Muslim Brotherhood is unlikely to give up its power base. But even a three-state solution in which the many different West Bank clans would be expected to set aside their differences and come together would almost certainly end badly.

If there is hope that President Trump can find a solution to the Middle East morass, it stems from the instincts that are his hallmarks. One instinct is suspicion of multinational organizations — he prefers smaller governing and organizing units, as seen by his support for Brexit and other breakaway groups in the European Union. Applying the same instinct to Palestine would lead Trump to favour smaller self-governing units such as emirates, a traditional form of Arab governance — the United Arab Emirates is an example.

Another Trump instinct — to sanction rather than appease terrorist states — would also favour a multi-state solution for the Palestinian territories. Trump plans to squeeze the Palestinian Authority by cutting off its funds, including by cutting funds to UN organizations that support it. Without foreign funds, the Palestinian Authority would not only be unable to fund its continued support for terrorists, it would be unable to maintain itself in power by dispensing patronage to its supporters, and it would be unable to maintain its claim to being the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The weaker the Palestinian Authority becomes, the stronger the clans become in relation, allowing them to reassert their authority, and thus appoint legitimate representatives to negotiate a settlement with the Israelis.

Trump’s instincts, if applied to Palestine, could form the basis for lasting self-government determined organically by the Arabs of Palestine, unlike a single Arab state based on the pretence of a unified Palestinian people. No other governance model — at least none with a chance of surviving long — is remotely plausible.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... -bloodshed

[sobrohusfat]

^ spot-on mate!

[sobrohusfat]

"Illegal" Schmelegal ...

For us, the Jewish people, this is but a passing episode in a rich and event filled history.
We put our trust in our providence, in our faith and beliefs, in our time hallowed traditions, and in our people - wherever they may be.

For us, the Jewish people, this resolution based on hatred, falsehood and arrogance, is devoid of any moral or legal value.

For us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper. And we, in the presence of our 150,000 revered ancestors, shall treat it as such...

* RRRRIIIIP *

Chaim Herzog -former President of Israel and Ambassador to the U.N.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly (1975)

[Atomoa]

I did touch the wall. I wonder if my note is still in it.

By now there are 750 Jewish settlers that have built homes on your note.

God told them it was their home so too bad for you.

The US sold the 750 settlers an attack helicopter, 500 machine guns and a missile defence system to back up "God's word".

[Queen K]

I did touch the wall. I wonder if my note is still in it.

By now there are 750 Jewish settlers that have built homes on your note.

God told them it was their home so too bad for you.

The US sold the 750 settlers an attack helicopter, 500 machine guns and a missile defence system to back up "God's word".

My note had some stuff in int unrelated to any of the above.
And I sure hope the USA sold that weaponry at cost, so no one made any profit.
Cuz, you know, profit and socialism.

[sobrohusfat]

I did touch the wall. I wonder if my note is still in it.

By now there are 750 Jewish settlers that have built homes on your note...so too bad for you.

FAIL - again



"...Twice a year, the prayer slips are removed from the cracks between the old stones.
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said no one reads the papers because they're notes between [Queen K and her Creator.]

Workers collect the notes, bundle them in bags and later bury them in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

According to Jewish religious practice, it's forbidden to destroy anything on which the name of God is written.
That means these little prayer slips are treated with the same respect as worn or damaged Torah scrolls and prayer books. "



...now you know.

[Atomoa]

My note had some stuff in int unrelated to any of the above.

It was a (bad) joke.

You left a piece of paper in Israel and Jewish settlers built homes on it and the US sold the weapons to defend it.

[Queen K]

Ummm, you don't seem to know about the holy Temple Wall.

[The Green Barbarian]

By now there are 750 Jewish settlers that have built homes on your note.
".

Maybe you should educate yourself on what the Wall is in Jerusalem. Off topic comment removed

[Queen K]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/ ... srael.html

May as well put this here. For fun.

[Atomoa]

:135: Ummm, you don't seem to know about the holy Temple Wall.

Lighten up.

They also can't pour a concrete foundation on a piece of paper, omg!

[Queen K]

Atomoa, do you ever plan to travel to the Middle East? Egypt? (I missed my chance when I was so close), Turkey? Israel?