They say (ISIS) the Caliphate is on the rise in Iraq & Syria, not such bad news

The time might be approaching when the loss will be reversed

The middle east never ceases to amaze. The arab ISIS assassins gave a swift kick at Mosul and the whole rotten Iraqi edifice came crumbling down. General Petreaus' much vaunted military wonder at Falujah is shown to be the smoke and mirrors that it always was. ISIS now commands Falujah with it's own peculiar way of winning hearts and minds, through sheer terror and decapitation.

Years of American lives and US money are now as nothing. Obama ever the idiot is now readying the US to send in more money, support and eventually waste even more American lives in the service of Iran. Because Iraq is the fiefdom of Iran in the areas ruled by the shiah and far be it from Obama to let his new buddies in Iran take a pasting ( let's not worry about Obama. Whatever he touches turns to dust in the end, and he'll be gone soon in any case).

Iran can not afford to lose Iraq as it is the major supply route to Assad and to Hezbollah. And in any case Iran doesn't want ISIS on its border with Iraq so Iran will fight for Iraq with or without US help. But with trillions of dollars of debt, the US like every good gambler is happy to throw some more money away in the forlorn hope things will improve.

All this is as nothing to the Obama's national security team, unless he's simply ignoring their advice. In Obama's rush to destroy US credibility throughout the world, what better policy than to engender more Taliban style killings of US troops, sent to the battlefield and being virtually forbidden from opening fire in their defense. Which reminds me, Israeli troops are mighty sick of the same thing. And if you are a Jewish inhabitant of Judea and Samaria forget about ever using your gun. You will be arrested by Israeli police, your gun taken away, and no end of further proceedings taken against you.

This is Israel today where it's better to have a soldier hurt than for him to defend himself. David the Nahlai recently gained much support in Israel after his drawing his weapon was believed to have led to his punishment (It wasn't the reason in this case but IDF soldiers have had so much of this policy of 'havlagah' or 'restraint', as now a bad policy in the 1930's which led not to less attacks, but more and intensified ones against Jews. Orde Wingate changed the policy and the desperate situation of the kibbutzim with his offensive Night Squads. They lay in wait outside arab villages and when the terrorists emerged to shoot up and burn Jewish villages they were themselves destroyed. The British new it in the 1930's, the Jews won the 1948 war by defending themselves actively, but now Jewish soldiers need to be social workers protecting the interests of their enemies ).

So okay lets get to Chief of Staff Gantz. Now you would expect him to have a certain relief that his neighbours to the north and east are somewhat embroiled at the moment. Not a chance:

Gantz says conflict in Syria could continue for more than a decade; warns that both Hezbollah and World Jihad gaining strength in Syria.

Israeli generals as their politicians have little strategic horizon, so Gantz of course doesn't understand that the first part of his sentence necessarily contradicts the latter half. If the war goes on for a decade neither Hezbollah, Iran, the sunni al Qaida gangs or anyone else will be in much position to take on Israel. And in that time Israel will have relative peace, as long as it keeps its defense posture secure.

The present Israeli Defense Minister is thankfully on the ball unlike effete Barak and that labor union guy before him. Whereas Barak during the second intifada and afterwards, was nonchalant about Jews being slaughtered by suicide bombers, for Sderot and the south of Israel to get hammered year after year, Ya'alon made it clear the rules have changed. 

So the rockets still come but not every shabbat morning in time for synagogue service and shabbat lunch, not every day when the kids are walking to and from school. Yes the terrorists know Israel's timetable exactly and used to time the rockets accordingly. Sometimes that helped locate and destroy the rocket squads . Things are now very much better in the south. Ya'alon understands that in this region, the only way you get peace is not by smiling and giving away your silver, but by carrying a cosh and grimacing at your enemy.

And Ya'alon fits in with the Israeli street now. Apart from the usual feeble minds which along with Nobel prizes, Jews seem to be endowed with in larger numbers than is their fair share, Israelis understand that to show weakness to arabs, to free murderers for nothing, as 'gestures', is to invite further attack.

And that attack has come with the kidnapping of the yeshivah students. May God grant them a quick and safe return. Of course the lower level attacks nowadays are counted in the hundreds each month, and collated in the monthly Low IntensityConflict Report.

Until Israel was tested in the 1^st Intifada and found wanting, there were virtually no attacks on Jews in Judea and Samaria. The fear of 1948 and 1967 was still in their minds. I know because I travelled all over the area during part of that time. Then the human rights era started and palestinians were allowed to attack Israeli soldiers for the benefit of the cameras on a daily basis. This undermined Israel's reputation for robustness with the arabs as regards deterrence, and with the rest of the world with regards Israel's respect of human rights. 

With all the cameras, the odd lapse by a soldier instantly got, and gets beamed around the world. Rather than be seen for what it is, a human rights respecting bastion, Israel is besmirched as an apartheid state with impunity, and there's the pallywood filming in abundance to 'prove' it.

Some time soon people will begin to wake up because the never ending violence coming out of arab countries is getting intense, it will be all but impossible even for the most misled to ignore the fact that Israel is not the problem, but the arab, and those darlings known as 'Balestinians' ( pronounced the arab way, as they can not pronounce the 'P'. Fancy that, a 'people' who can't even utter the name of their own country properly. Something fishy there to start with).

Our poor:

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Monday that only a handful of states have more firepower than Hezbollah.

Okay the man has sleepless nights and does a magnificent job showing the al Nusrah types and shia on the borders that when they mortar Israel it's no longer forgive and forget like in the 1950's all the way up to 1967. If they mortar Israeli communities they get a Tammuz missile up the tochos about 5 minutes later, or less. And lo and behold, rather than this becoming a 'cycle of violence' as the european fools like to berate Israel, the Syrian border is mostly quiet. A little education goes a long way in this region.

But the General is clearly worried:

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference at the Interdisciplinary Center, Gantz said, "Show me four or five states with more firepower than Hezbollah: the US, China, Russia, Israel, France, the UK."

Okay, but they need all that firepower to protect Israel. Sorry? Come again? PROTECT Israel? Yes. 

Without Hezbollah and all its weaponry on the borders of Syria and Lebanon the sunni jihadis would be able to munch their sandwiches opposite the guard post at Rosh Haniqra whilst taking the odd pot shot, at point blank range.

The Chief worries too much about the firepower of Hezbollah and all the training it is getting in the field. Hezbollah are shi as in Iran, Assad's gang of Alawites and Maliki's domain of Baghdad. They are but a tenth the size of the sunni world, and if only they weren't such fanatical believers in the second coming of the Mahdi, they'd be buying their houses in Park Lane and Paris, just in case.

As it is they have to make do with renting houses in Thailand, Argentina and Bulgaria, but I digress, as that's for wholly different purposes.

Going from a stable shia ruled Syria two years ago that could put around a thousand tanks into Israel in a future war, Allah forbid, Iran now is fighting a war in Syria and now Iraq. Hezbollah has lost around 500 men so far in Syria. 

It's not so much fun to lose around 10% of your men on the battlefield (including top commanders of Hezbollah and the IRGC), and to know that there is not only no end in sight, but that there's so far not been so much as a peep from the Mahdi to say when he's gonna come and finish of those Jews and infidel apostate sunni muslims.

Of course Hezbollah is busy training up thousands of replacements, and so are the sunni jihadists, and so the party is getting bigger and better, and the carnage is set to increase exponentially.

And so:

Gantz said that Syria was falling apart "like a house of cards," and no outcome was good for Israel.

Sorry old boy. Just hold onto your hat, steady your nerve and get ready for the ride. You might even have just a little faith in the good Lord who has sent miracle upon miracle to the benefit of a state that otherwise could never have even got off the ground in 1948. If Christy Anastas can believe with her somewhat garbled understanding of our history that the survival of Israel is part of God's intention, for the world, “a Covenant“ , then you can surely afford to relax a little.

ISIS has been braying in the last few days about their caliphate coming to fruition, and however much Obama might move to help them, they are going to have a long hard slog, just as was predicted

here

The rock of Iran (and its ally Assad and proxy Hezbollah) has hit the hard sunni world, a world unforgiving of those they see as apostates threatening their very regimes.  A world full of extremist madrassas with students just longing to become involved in the fight against the shia 'heretics', as they see them.

The USA and Russia should sit this one out as it has little to do with them, and much to do with islam.
But the USA and Russia will not sit on the sidelines, more pity for the region, and also for Israel, although it might continue to be spared direct involvement.

Israel has been the wisest actor in the region, keeping its cool, growling menacingly and acting firmly when its interests are threatened or missiles, mortars or even bullets come over the border on the Golan Heights. Hamas learned last November that the rules have changed, that Israel will no longer tolerate its border communities being terrorized

The carnage we have seen this week is as nothing to what is about to happen, and whilst it does Amalek will be steadily weakened so that Israel will  hopefully have peace for a generation, quite a lot for us Jews.

All General Gantz needs to do is pick the time he bombs Iran's nuclear installations. God expects us to help ourselves to some extent, and Israel might need to clear Hezbollah from south Lebanon and allow its hostile population to escape the fighting, if Hezbollah does indeed attack Israel. If so, the most foolhardy thing to do would be to allow the shia civilian population back into the border after the inevitable ceasefire to start things up again.

If Israel is attacked, then in its defense it will be entitled to extend its borders up to the Litani river, an ancient border of Israel, and a natural defense line. The line could then be settled with Jews or any mix of loyal allies such as Christians and druze. Even Walid Jumblatt who humbled himself with such bad timing before Assad, the son of his father's murderer, even Jumblatt is very possibly asking himself if a lifetime's hostility to Israel has been a mistake. Sandwhched between sunni and shia violence, Jumblatt will himself begin to feel the heat before long.

We must learn from Russia, that if you attack us, we will not give you anything other than a bloody nose, and we'll also take back our ancient lands as compensation. A growing population means there will never be a problem settling and defending the new borders.

So things are not half bad for Israel with a strong economy, a strong army and an ever increasing and young population. All that is needed is a little faith.

Egypt's woes reflect a region in turmoil

He bows, scrapes and arms wahabite slavers and enemies of the West, and pressures Israel to sacrifice its security

What interesting times we live in. Had the american people not voted an anti-western and evil man into power for the second time, the middle east might not have seen such turbulence. As always with Israel's enemies, Obama's plans have yet again been frustrated. Whilst Mr Kerry has been stomping on Netanyahu's head, trying to get Israel to give away the family silver in exchange for a promise by palestinian arab terrorist Abbas to sit down and talk, the arab world has been eating its heart out, literally.

Kerry might yet be persuaded that the wider arab world has moved on from the troublesome and self-destructive palestinian arabs, but his boss certainly won't give up on his dream to cut tiny Israel even further down to size. A ten mile width border overlooked by hostile arabs with tanks and manpads to shoot up israeli planes on the tarmac is what Obama is about.

Whilst Obama has his hand on his heart promising Israel's security and helping fund a missile system that will be out of date in a few years, he has been plying all the arab countries around with armaments, stuffing Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, not to mention islamist Turkey with american arms and know how, arms developed and updated with Israeli help. Secrets Israel gives the USA find their way into arab hands all the better to destroy it.

But as with Hezbollah now fighting for it and Assad's lives in Syria, all those arms may yet be used to destroy arab dreams rather than Israel.

Still while Obama has his eye on Israel, but if Obama casts his eye around, he will see that everywhere he has meddled, his plans have come unstuck.

And now Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood West hating islamist fanatical government has been deposed, and we are all waiting to see whether Friday prayers in Cairo will finish with an outburst of violence to rival that in Syria. It may happen but the Muslim Brotherhood will be fighting in a different terrain. They have no Russia, Iran or Hezbollah to help them, and the few Hamas terrorists who were shooting at unarmed protesters have been arrested inside the MB HQ.

The Muslim Brotherhood does not look able to wage war against the egyptian army at present, although with the Libyan hinterland chock full of weapons controlled by Al Qaidah this could change. But as long as the egyptian army remains loyal (which is very possibly the case as Morsy acted in too much haste, unlike islamist Erdogan in Turkey), infiltration from Libya will run along a killing zone hundreds of miles long, a zone where the egyptian air force would make mincemeat of supply convoys to any rebels in Egypt.

Of course western media and governments are already coming out with their slanted news and condemnations of the overthrow of a democratic government. Where were the condemnations of the steady massacres of copts in Egypt? Democracy does not mean that minorities should be ethnically cleanzed from their countries, that the indigenous coptic people should give up their lives or their land because of western fallacies about democracy. Hitler was also democratically elected, and the islamist government of Morsy was no less evil, intending to attack Israel as soon as possible (the economic collapse put the brakes on his talk about 'changing' the peace treaty with Israel). Of course western media was not interested in Morsy's saying 'amen' to a sermon calling for the destruction of jews, or of Morsy's calling for jihad before his election. Western media was likewise not interested in Morsy's rant about teaching children and grandchildren to hate 'the descendants of apes and pigs' i.e. jews.

Is it good that Morsy has been overthrown? I'm actually not in favor of this, as the egyptian economy is in dire straits, and is possibly not able to be fixed. Whoever takes power now is going to be blamed for the slow starvation of Egypt's people. Morsy would have otherwise have taken the blame for the collapse. As it is the Muslim Brotherhood has actually been saved, either to fight another day, or to fight now.

Whatever happens, the news for those who love western civilization and Israel rather than hate them is not too bad.  Syria is burning and will continue to burn, possibly for years as neither shia or sunni can afford to back down. Turkey is heading for the rocks with tourism set to decline, with hot money propping up the turkish economy, and with a people that is heartily sick of the islamist police state.


How different things look now from only a couple of years ago. After Turkey provoked the Gaza crisis with its proxy IHH terror 'charity' thugs the fear was of an islamic coalition in the region which could prepare another 1973 like attack on Israel, or just squeeze it on all sides with asymetric warfare.

It shows that, where Israel is concerned we need faith, that all will be well, that a power greater than the West's enemies is protecting this outpost of western civilization.

My faith is however a little stretched by the case of Iran. Israel has been held back so long by Obama that it is now possibly too late to  prevent that country from getting nuclear weapons. Iran is however a country that has major pockets of instability, from the kurds and azeris in the north, to the arabs in the south. Iran is also now getting ever more committed into Syria, although it seems that Iraqi shia are losing their lives in Syria more than iranian nationals at the moment.

So maybe we can hold onto our faith. The islamic forces of darkness are first and foremost a threat to themselves.

The US flirts with Syrian Islamists, but Israel's interests lie with the Kurds

Israel has now got a rare opportunity to tilt the strategic balance in the region in its favour and to right a historic injustice.

Israel has found itself between a rock and a hard place with regard to Syria as both sides in the civil war are implaccable foes of Israel (ditto Egypt as nationalists and islamists are in wholehearted agreement when it comes to Israel) . The military opposition which will bring Assad down is mostly made up of islamists. They have the fanatical motivation, the finances and the weapons. The weapons and finance come courtesy of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with even more finance and non military supplies and very possibly special forces aid being provided courtsesy of Britain and the US.

The UK and the US can never resist interfering in far flung theaters of war, even when they only half understand the dynamics of a conflict. Libya should have been a salutary lesson, having brought anti-western fanatics and Al Qaidah into power in that now fractured country. Ghadaffi was a broken reed, no threat at all to the west, and for the last ten years even cooperating with the west. But Obama doesn't see west hating islamists as a threat. He's even now trying to strong arm Egypt's Tantawi to handing power over to the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi.

And islamists from the Libyan conflict have moved to destabilise surrounding countries. Mali is now split, with fanatical islamists controlling the north. Shariah along with its 'merciful' punishments are now the norm. Even mosques aren't safe when of the wrong pedigree.

But the US under Obama is determined to support the Syrian islamists to overthrow Assad, a nasty piece of work if ever there was one. But as Russia supports Assad Obama is bringing the west again into conflict with Russia for no good reason. Assad might be an enemy of the west, but the islamists that will replace Assad are no more friendly. And western aid is going to the islamists, as Obama's best friend in the middle-east PM Erdogan of Turkey is the channel through which US support is being funneled to the the opposition.

Israelis are giving Syrian refugees aid, and Israel should leave it at that. There is no reason for Israel to mix in the civil war. If Assad falls, Hezbollah is in serious trouble and Iran will be pushed out of the region as far as Iraq. But then Israel will face an almost continuous islamist front from Turkey down to Egypt.

I hope when Netanyahu received Putin the other week in Jerusalem, he reassured Putin that Israel has no intention of helping to overthrow Assad.

But that doesn't mean Israel should do nothing. It is in Israel's interests to see Syria weakened, to lose its Kurdish provinces, and for those provinces to unite in however loose a form with the Iraqi autonomous Kurdish regime (a state by any other name). The Kurds are not arabs and are have no love for Iran and Turkey. The Kurds are also increasingly restive in Syria, having no love for that regime either.

So whilst the UK and the USA follow their misguided policy of aiding islamists everywhere and in Turkey, and in promoting the islamists in Syria, Israel can follow a parallel policy of aiding the Kurds to realise their state in part of Syria.

The spin off from aiding the Kurds in Syria is that Iran's convoys will be less secure having to traverse a route close to an ally of Israel. Syria will also have to watch its back in future conflicts with Israel. All this is independent on whether Syria does or does not fall to the islamists.

The Kurds in Turkey are forever restive, already are 20% of the population there and increasing in population as opposed to ethnic Turks who have a reproductive rate less than replacement level. Turkey is going to find it increasingly difficult to control the Kurdish east in coming years, to prevent Turkish Kurds with a high birth rate from breaking away from Turkey to form an alliance with Syrian and Iraqi Kurds.

If Israel wishes to protect its interests in the middle-east, it should be aiding Kurds who are at least in sympathy with Israel than waste its limited resources on Syrian refugees who have no love for Israel.

Israel needs to train Kurds for the day they will become independent and now is the best time to initiate the process. If the Assad regime does fall or is seriously weakened, a nascent Kurdish army will be armed and made ready to take over the eastern provinces of Syria, just as the Haganah defeated the palestine arabs even before the British Mandatory regime left in 1948.

It will soon be time for the Kurds to rise and unite with Iraqi autonomous Kurds.

Israel should not let this opportunity slip to radically alter the map in the middle-east. At one and the same time it will begin the process of righting a historical injustice against the kurds committed by British imperialists who split the Kurdish nation between four countries; it will also drive an ethnic wedge into the arab middle-east, an ally against Israel's major arab and Iranian enemies to the east.

And lastly Turkey which has turned itself into an enemy state working against Israel on all levels internationally has no good options. It has threatened to invade Syria to stop the Kurds gaining independence, but if Israel trains kurds now, Turkey will find it bites off more than it can chew when fighting to suppress the Kurds.

A Turkish military invasion of Syria and campaign against the Syrian Kurds will very possibly be too much to resist for the Ottomanist islamist Erdogan, but this will bleed an already shaky Turkish economy and non too efficient Turkish military whose top commanders are mostly in prison. Israel must train Kurds not only to fight for their independence but again, as with the Haganah, prepare them to regroup into armies once their independence needs to be defended. This will be easier than in 1948 as the Iraqi kurds already have an army.

A Turkey with its hands full in the east will be less of a problem for Israel in the west.

For Israel to give the kurds the sort of support they need, Israel has to finally understand that Turkey is now lost to islamists. Turks understand this, but Israel still doesn't seem to fully realise that it has lost its erstwhile ally. And this despite Erdogan trying very hard to help Israel get the message.

Israel is finding doors closed to it wherever Turkey has influence, such as in Nato, and even a US sponsored conference on terror. Of course the Obama administration preferred to give in to Turkish blackmail and deinvite Israel rather than face down Erdogan and support its real ally.

And let's not forget the Mavi Marmara episode deliberately designed by Erdogan to bring about a rupture between Israel and Turkey. And then the war threats last year, the sending of Turksih warships off the coasts of Cyprus and Israel. And the warships are still there.

So we must be thankful to Erdogan to that extent. It's better the enemy you know, than to have Turkey stringing Israel along, giving Israel hope for a reestablishment of the old friendship.

That water is now under the bridge and Israel must reach out to the Kurds.

I haven't found the time to supply links in support of the above article. If you think links would be helpful then i'll try to find time to oblige.