As Lebanon crumbles Israel must prepare to defend itself from a new border along the Litani River

Violent Arab 'culture' played out in this long forgotten massacre of 1929, one amongst many pogroms against Jews in Arab countries. Arab violence is now devouring its own. Israel must not allow its bloodthirsty Islam inspired enemies to advance again onto its borders

While Arabs have complained that Israel was aggressive and expansionist from the day of its Independence (a projection that applied to Israel's Arab neighbors rather than itself), the time is coming when Israel is going to have to begin to re-take borders that the Bible prescribed for the Jewish Nation.

In the Torah (Bible) it says:

Genesis 15:18

" the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates…"

In the thousand or so years of the existence of the ancient kingdom of Israel the borders expanded and contracted with the fortunes of the wars forced upon its people.

Israel has been under great pressure from the USA, Europe and Islamic nations to shrink its already tiny borders on the way to its total annihilation. The present Obama Administration with its goal of Iranian hegemony over the Middle East would be only too happy for Israel to disappear the sooner the better. With that in mind, Iran's constant calls for the destruction of Israel and Obama's nuclear surrender to Iran make sense. Within the next decade we may see an Iranian attempt to launch nuclear tipped missiles at Israel.

Not for nothing did Rabbi Riskin compare Obama to Haman, Israel's ancient Persion foe who tried to destroy the Jewish People.

Reducing Israel's borders are forever on the world's agenda supposedly for peace and security of all nations in the region including Israel, but in reality the opposite is true, Israel only finds peace when it is strong and has a strong deterrent posture. After 1967 the USA sent a professional military mission to determine Israel's minimum territorial defense needs. It was agreed that Israel needed to keep everything it had taken in the war forced upon it by the Arab states. Giving away the Sinai to a less than friendly Egypt which has no historical claim to the land was a blunder by Begin that will at a future date need to be rectified.

For Israel to be safe it needs to move with the times, to realize that the era of Arab nations is coming to an end and that in order to protect itself from the Islamic anarchy, or even worse, the Caliphate, Israel will have to expand when necessary to new secure borders.

Israel's present borders in the Golan Heights fronting what used to be Syria are relatively strong and defensible so apart from making sure that friendly or at least quiescent forces are encamped on the other side of the border, there is little need for change there for the present although the following should be noted:

It is interesting to note that Israel has already violated the basic strictures of the top US military brass by: — Returning to Syrian control in 1974 all of the strategic high ground on the Golan Heights, running in a north-south direction from Kuneitra. 

Israel's border with Lebanon is in places such as the hills around Metullah defensible but in the West the Iranian proxy Hezbollah could invade at a time of its choosing. Israel has admitted that at least in the beginning of any hostilities it will have to reckon with Hezbollah capturing Jewish border communities. That would of course be a disaster for Israel which unlike with its enemies, values every Jewish life.

Thankfully Hezbollah is otherwise engaged in defending its positions in the Beqa valley and the Qalamoun mountains with the estimated loss so far of around 2,000 of its fighters. For a force estimated to be no larger than 10,000 fighters this is indeed shocking. Whereas once Hezbollah refrained from using child soldiers, children of 15 and possibly even younger are known to have been killed fighting for the terrorist group.

Hezbollah has picked a fight in Syria that it can not win but the blame should not be placed on its nominal head Nasrallah but Ayatollah Khameini in Iran. Hezbollah does Iran's bidding and Lebanon is going to pay the price.
The civil war is on its way in Lebanon and ISIS and friends are knocking steadily on the door.

Hezbollah will eventually fall and Lebanon will empty of its people just as Syria and Iraq are in the process of doing. If Israel does not step in to occupy the vacated lands it will find new foes just as radical as Iran on its northern border.

With the shia enemy defeated, the sunni jihadists pouring out of Syria into Lebanon will be looking for the next stage in their Jihad, the conquering of Israel. Israel will need to advance up to the Litani river at a minimum to preempt this and establish settlements to enable the new borders to be held. Where there are no settlements there is no security and the military needs to be much larger in order to police the borders.

The IDF sorely missed its Gush Katif settlements in the last war with Hamas in 2014 making its entry into Gaza that much more dangerous and costly. Ditto with Lebanon in the years 1982-2000.
As Lebanon crumbles Israel must ready itself to protect its northern border by advancing into the vacuum before it is filled and becomes a new and even more deadly threat than Hezbollah.

Israel's Druze support Israel's wariness in being drawn by their Syrian bretheren into the quagmire

The question of the Syrian Druze recently climbed to the top of Israel's priorities, eclipsing
even the ongoing disastrous handling by Obama and European powers of Iran's race for nuclear weapons (As I write this US Secretary of State Kerry is doing his best to paint his 'Peace in Our Time' surrender as not being a done deal, that the USA will supposedly walk away from a bad deal with Iran. But most of the major concessions have been made already from not insisting that Iran owns up to allowing it to use new and ever faster uranium processing centrifuges, ignoring past work on nuclear weapons development and not demanding snap inspections of suspected Iranian nuclear installations and military bases).

Israelis are rightly worried that our blood brothers the Druze in Israel should not see their kith and kin wiped out in an islamist genocide next door in Syria.

Some normally level headed researchers such as Mordechai Kedar have however demanded that Israel drop its neutrality vis-a-vis Syria and actively intervene to establish a new order in that country along Israel's border a policy that although undoubtedly well intentioned is fraught with danger.

Two years ago before the recent crisis I saw the need for Israel to become more involved in helping the Druze take the future into their own hands.

This does not mean however that Israel should simply march into Syria and carve out the Druze homeland for them as Mr Kedar seems to be implying.

“Israel must, and I repeat, must, do everything and even beyond everything, to help the Druze minority in Syria survive as it faces the Islamist forces who intend to destroy it. ”

Israel must learn the lessons of its history, not least of its having been sucked into Lebanon in 1982 by Christians who promised an alliance and armed help to Israel in ending the reign of terror by the PLO in that country. Israel was however betrayed by the phalangists who after pulling Israel in let Israel do their dirty work, and the dying. The only time the phalangists emerged out of the woodwork was to commit a revenge massacre in Sabra and Shatila, and then let Israel take the world's opprobrium.

Just as the Christians of Lebanon were no friends to Israel, and had no strategic sense in betraying the one democracy that would ensure their own survival, the Druze of Syria are not friends of Israel, but rather bitter enemies. Druze in Syria have loyally staffed the Assad regime's army and committed or attempted to commit terror atrocities against Israel even as late as this present  year 2015.

We must remember that Samir Kuntar the heinous child murderer who first killed a 3 year old girl's parents in front of her and then bashed her head on a rock is a druze. Now a senior Hezbollah official he is a welcome guest amongst the Syrian Druze and has recently been active organizing Hezbollah's second front against Israel on the Golan Heights. Kuntar's fingerprints are believed to also bee all over the Druze ambulance attack in Israel.

Early this year Israel managed to eliminate a Druze terror squad attempting to lay an ambush for IDF soldiers along Israel's Golan border.

The writing might be on the wall for Syrian Druze but this tight knit community has as yet not been reading the script. The Syrian Druze are still very much in the pocket of Assad and whether or not they are ready to change is a moot point.

Assad is desperate for Israel to become involved in his conflict to act as a lighting rod for his regime. Once Israel were to invade the jihadist groups would unite and attack the IDF giving Assad a much needed reprieve.

And this is very probably the reason for the Druze attack on an Israeli ambulance in which an injured Syrian rebel being transferred for treatment in an Israeli hospital was murdered. This attack was made not so much by irate Druze on rebels who had just committed a massacre of their people, but as a Syrian-Iranian operation to  undermine the Israeli-Druze alliance and enmesh Israel in the Syrian quagmire.

Those rebel injured that Israel treats in its hospitals are indeed the coin Israel pays for keeping the al-Nusra knives off the Druze throats.

Druze murdering rebels being treated in Israel would be a sure way for organized rebel attacks on Druze villages to begin. Despite some sporadic forced conversions to islam and a massacre (that al Nusrah apologized for) the Druze are not yet in imminent danger.

Assad is not interested in the welfare of the Druze but in harming Israel and in his Alawite Shia survival which is becoming questionable in light of the continuing collapse of the Syrian army and the never ending cost in SAA, Hezbollah and IRGC lives. Iran has lost two generals this year in Syria, one of them held the highest army rank, and the Syrian army is believed to have all but disintegrated. Iran and Hezbollah have had to pick up the slack and are dying in the process.

By maintaining its neutrality in the Syrian conflict whilst enforcing its red lines, Israel has so far managed to keep the Golan border quiet and the Syrian Druze safe.

We don't know how long this will continue but when the Syrian Druze finally realize that they have no future allied to Assad, then will be the time for Israel to act in helping the Druze establish a redoubt along Israel's border and establish a militia along the lines of the former South Lebanon Army.

The quid pro quo would be for Druze of the former Syria to renounce their former ties and ally themselves with Israel by joining the blood covenant of their brother Druze in israel. This will be a major psychological hurdle to overcome, and Israel should not intervene further to help Syrian Druze until this happens.
The time for this not yet come. Druze are still loyal to Assad.

The biggest sign that the Netanyahu government is following a judicious policy is that Israel's Druze community refuses to be drawn into Assad's plan, does not ask for any Israeli intervention in Syria on behalf of their bretheren. The Israeli Druze leaders are fully supportive of the present government policy.

“The leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, strongly denounced the attack.
“Of course we condemned everything that happened. Our tradition and religion are against harming an injured person or an ambulance. This is not our way, not our education… and we hope you will continue to lead this whole affair wisely. We are at your service,” Tarif said.”

“Ayoub Kara, deputy minister of regional development and a Druze, said all Israelis identify with the concerns over the danger faced by Druze in Syria, but there was no excuse for attacking the ambulance.

“To my regret, we as Druze lost Israel’s sympathy because of this grave and unnecessary attack, which has no place in a country ruled by the law,” Kara said.”

Israel is proceeding wisely in for the present must maintaining its hands off policy in Syria and not allowing Assad and his Iranian backers to have Israel save them from the plight they are now facing.

The loyal Druze of Israel refuse to be used as tools by Assad and Syrian Druze for their nefarious ends.
Nonetheless Israel will continue to protect the Syrian Druze even as it is fully cognizant of their continuing attempts to harm the Jewish State.

Netanyahu is no fool and refuses to be drawn into the Syrian quagmire in order to save Assad's neck. That is what Iran is there for and it will be to Iran and its catspaw Hezbollah that the Alawites need to look for help.

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.

Another Israeli general who's lost the plot

This is a time for arabs to be at war with themselves and with Iran's proxy Hezbollah, and for Israel to enjoy some peace

Usually the problem is of Israeli generals is that of their feeling so powerful that they wish to test Israel's strength to resist attack. By making Israel such a tempting target through the giving away of land the surrounding arabs will be just unable to resist having another go. General Nizan Alon is just one of a number of such generals and intelligence Diskin types who really believe that miniscule Israel is way too large for its own good.

So it's refreshing to have an ex-general Amos Yadlin, who headed military intelligence between 2006 and 2010 who comes along without weeping for the poor palestinians, about how if he was a Palestinian he'd also take up the gun and slaughter Jews - Yes ex-defence Minister Barak actually said he could understand our enemies attacking Israel, that he would in their shoes. Well thankfully Barak the walking security disaster who during two years of the 2nd Intifada and thousands of dead and injured Israelis is well out of the picture. Barak didn't have a clue to stop the slaughter. Sharon did however, and the job was done within the year. Sharon didn't spend years using the friendly Nato manual on how to make friends with hostile muslim population and Palestinian Arab enemies, or by throwing money at them as Nato did in Afghanistan. No Sharon used good intelligence to find the murdering swine who sent idiots high on islam to place bombs in cafes, buses and even in a Passover seder for the elderly. He then arrested or assassinated the killers. There was much condemnation from the world, but Jews stopped dying, and the PalArabs have little stomach for a rerun of the intifada. Israel managed what western armies say is impossible, to suppress terror without cosying up to the enemy population. And that's why Israel won during the second intifada, and Nato is leaving Afghanistan with its tail between its legs.

Of course Israel has gone soft again since 2002 and the arabs are making Israeli's lives hell on the roads with tactics just short of an armed intifada. Isolated killings and daily firebombings and stonings are the rule, and woe betide a Jew who draws his weapon in self defence.

But I digress. Back to Amos Yadlin who believes Israel has so few problems that it should go look for a little action, as in bombing Syria, with the best of intentions of course.  Yadlin seems to believe the anti-Israel propaganda about Israel's being the region's policeman, and wishes to stop Assad from massacring his civilians.

“We have red lines [for intervention]. Our red lines include [Syria] firing at Israel, the transfer of advances weapons to Hezbollah, and activity by the chemical [weapons] units. I believe we should add to these red lines the murder of civilians at a level where we can no longer stand idly by,” Yadlin said.

But what Yadlin doesn't explain is why Israel should pull the arab irons out of the fire when arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are just brimming full of western weapons, with many hundreds of the most modern fighter aircraft including Awacs radar. If arabs themselves don't feel the necessity to go put Assad's airforce out of business, why should Israel risk doing the job?

And in any case let's be frank, is it in Israel's strategic interest to stop this war between the sunni and shia world? We know very well that what will happen once this conflict ends is that those thousands of seasoned jihadis in Syria will turn their guns and their rockets on Israel. They make no secret of their goal being Israel after they have sorted Assad out. Thankfully Assad has powerful friends who are propping him up, true friends such as Israel can only dream of. Russia doesn't spill crocodile tears for Assad's enemies as the US and Britain do for each arab terrorist Israel knocks on the head. China is quite happy to sell anything Assad needs, if Iran doesn't have it in its own armory.

Has Yadlin even given a thought to how many of the 170,000 rockets shared between Hezbollah, Syria and Iran might descend on Israel were Iran to take offense at Israel knocking out the air force of their best buddy in the middle east?

Yadlin goes on:

Unilateral action should by no means be Israel’s first option, said the retired major general, who currently heads the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Aha, it's preferable to have some friends join in, but Israel with all of 8 million people should be prepared to go it alone to start a totally unnecessary war on behalf of the civilians of an enemy state who spare no opportunities to tell how much they hate jews and the 'zionist entity,' unless they are receiving treatment for wounds at the zionist's field hospital in the Golan.

The preferable contingency would be a NATO operation led by the United States with Turkey as its key member to implement a no-fly zone over Syria “at the very minimum.” 

Where has Yadlin been for the last few years? He wants Turkey to drive its war planes up to the Golan Heights? Will Erdogan be able to resist the opportunity for another provocation? What will Israel do when Turkey's jets 'stray' over the border? Nato might not be so interested in going to war with Israel once Israel down a couple of Turkey's F16's, or F35's when they arrive, but does Israel really need to get entangled with such a mess.

Turkey would dearly like to 'protect' Syrian civilians, just as Jew baiting and killing Russia 'protected' Jerusalem's Jews in the 19th century. There was reason for its interventions to help Jews, and that was of a grand strategy for warm waters that Yadlin is blissfully unaware. In those days Britain and France protected themselves from Russian hegemony in the area, in their own interests of course. Yadlin might not be that savvy or knowledgeable, but with Turkish troops already 30kms inside of Syria at least, 'protecting' a tomb, it would not take much encouragement for Turkey's army to march up to the Golan.

And that might not be such a bad idea as that would surely bring the islamic proxy war between Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others into a hot one. Sadly the truth is the hotter the Syrian-Islamic war gets, the better for Israel and western interests. Only when a terrible price in blood has been paid, by many arab actors, Iran and Turkey will they, as with Europe after two world wars learn the meaning of peace. Iran should have learned the lesson when it lost a million men fighting Saddam Hussein. Like Germany after WWI, it needs another opportunity to learn the lessons.

Israel should learn from the Kurds. They lie low until attacked, but will not be pushed around, as ISIS and Al Nusrah have found to their cost.

As for the muslim Arab world, it is wedded to violence in its culture, violence in the family, in the tribe and in the state. And unbridled violence will be the cure.

Turkey's irascible PM Erdogan is itching to join in against Syria and he should not be dicouraged to do so, but with his fellow muslim radicals for support, not with any Israeli complicity or help. Turkey is nowadays no friend, it is an enemy state not only for Israel but for the West and its values.

The sooner Israel learns to ignore the sometimes lukewarm overtures from Turkey the better. Erdogan has been a lifelong antisemite, a man who even wrote a disgustingly antisemitic play called MasKomYa, supposedly about Jews controlling the world as masons, communists and simply being jews. Hatred of Jews is in Erdogan's blood and he will spare no effort to undermine Israel, even if it means for a time suppressiong his hatreds.

Israel has lost enough blood because of a hundred years of arab aggression against the jewish People. We must suppress our sadness at seeing so much conflagration in a region that could be so different were arabs to lust after peace rather than conquest and war in the name of islam. Any intervention Israel makes will rebound on it, as when Israel tried to force a peace agreement with Lebanon in 1982.

Let Israel instead continue to enjoy its breathing space, to sit this one out and thank the Lord who works in mysterious ways to keep his People safe.

If you can't do a job properly..................

Yet again the US President Obama shows the world how unable he is to act like a statesman or cope with world problems.

Obama was unwise to lay down a red line over chemical weapons use, but once done, he should have acted decisively. Instead we see the americans psyching themselves up, explaining why they are certain that despite Assad's denials, it was Syria which used the nerve gas Sarin to clear areas of Damascus of the rebels who were gearing up for an offensive (Damascus is the Assad regime's own red line. Assad can not afford to lose much more of that city or indeed of the areas beyond it needed to protect the alawite homelands). Yet now Obama says he won't attack until he gets the authorization from Congress. Obama is just like the blustering man threatening to fight, yet secretly happy when he's held back. Such behavior doesn't impress on the world stage.

After lightweight David Cameron's posturing, the British people put him in his place. Britain has little more stomach for exerting its imperial will anymore, especially as British bodybags are still regularly returning from Afghanistan. Britain is now detached from any attack on the Assad regime, which is just as well. Enough damage was done in Libya to the region's security.

Obama has dearly wished to avoid attacking Assad and will when he finally gets the okay from Congress to mount an attack, will do the minimum necessary to show that he means what he says. But the fact is that nobody believes a word Obama says, not in the middle east, not in China, Russia, or in the Philippines, Japan or Taiwan.

USA policy in the middle east is seen as supporting islamist Turkey, the Muslim Brotherhood, and extremist jihadists in Syria rather than the secular moderates. The egyptian military which decided to take back their country after the popular uprising has thumbed its nose at British and USA cries of 'democracy'. Egyptians had enough of being dragged into the middle ages by Morsy. Egyptians understood what the West, even after the Hamas coup don't understand, that islamists like the nazis, take power through the ballot box to impose tyranny, oppression of minorities and the police state. That is not what people in the west understand by the word 'democracy', but its good enough for western journalists and politicians.

Thanks to support of islamists, the secular opposition cause in Syria is all but lost now because of this with two sides of islam, shia and sunni slugging it out against each other. As someone who cares about Israel above all, I find it hard to cry for a secular opposition in Syria who repeatedly in the past have shouted their hatred of the Jewish People and Israel. If people want to be my enemies, to destroy Israel for no reason, then i'm not going to cry that they are suffering. If people are so full of hatred, pull up the drawbridge and let them get on with it. Yet Israel does not do that, it has set up a field hospital on the syrian border, and treats their wounded when they come by. I can't fathom the goodness of Israel's leaders.  Why spend tiny Israel's limited means on helping its enemies? Surely the funds spent should go on reinforcing still undefended schools and nurseries in Sderot and surrounding communities from Hamas missiles?

The utter depravity of this islamic conflict was brought home with a video on youtube of 3 truck driversstopped at a jihadist checkpoint. After ascertaining that these men were shia/alawite, they were executed. 

It is horrific to watch, almost impossible for a western mind to comprehend, but Obama has favored a side in Syria that kills people purely on account of their religion. 

What could be more harmless, more normal than truck drivers, working to keep their families fed? But they were marked out for extermination by the jihadists, so proud of their guns, their black flag and their demonic music.

On the other side is Assad, every bit as cruel, as his opponents, and he has used chemical weapons on a frequent basis, with the latest massacre of around 1500 people. He should be punished, but that punishment should have been swift and uncompromising. Instead Assad has been allowed to move his strategic assets out of harms way, and the american attack will in any case be most likely no more than a pin prick.

That pin prick will not deter Assad, but it could very well see Israel attacked and dragged into the war by the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran which time and again have reiterated their intention to attack Israel. Hopefully Israel's warnings will be enough to prevent them from doing this, but anything can happen with crazed fanatics.

The USA should not attack at all, if it does not intend to inflict major damage on Assad.

Just making a show of an attack will further destabilize the middle east, bringing Israel into the conflict and possibly tearing Lebanon apart in the process, not that I have much sympathy for the duplicitous Lebanese who are allies one day and your enemies the next.

The wises course is that Israel has taken until now, to sit and watch the lunatics killing each other, and be thankful they are too engaged to think about you. Thanks to Obama, the lunatics are going to be given the pretext to drag neutral Israel into the fighting.

Hopefully this won't happen, that Obama will have his little fireworks party over Syria, and the islam inspired blood crazed fanatics will be content to continue their warfare without expanding their war Israel. Unlike Obama's total lack of interest in what will happen to ally Israel if he puts on a show to salvage what little respect is left for the USA nowadays (and losing even that in the process), Netanyahu has made it clear how intense will be Israel's response if it is attacked.

Netanyahu will reestablish Israel's deterrent credentials if attacked, and then let the barbarians next door carry on as usual, tearing themselves apart.

Those who have been so intent on murdering jews for so many years, the Assad regime, the palestinian arabs and Hezbollah who have spilled so much blood in Israel, are now punishing themselves. Good luck to them.

The G-d of Israel works in strange ways to protect his people.

Lebanese come knocking on Assad's door whilst syrians get treated at the new 'good fence'

Western media has always been ready to massage the public image of arab dictators

In this report of the untimely demise of Assad's top thug in Lebanon, “Mohammad Jemo, a Syrian Baath Party official and staunch supporter of President Bashar Assad ”, we don't actually get to read about just what his job was, but it's not hard to guess.

His daughter seems quite upset, for herself of course.

"Where are you dad? Who else is going to pamper me now?" Fatmeh cried.

Just as the girl is obsessed with herself rather than daddy, her dad had his own narcissistic pastime, described by the news website as a “passion for photography:”

Jemo was known for his passion for photography. Pictures of him with Assad as well as with several Lebanese leaders, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement head Michel Aoun, were hanging on the wall of the sitting room.

The Assad regime has terrorized Lebanon for 40 years, not to mention the terrible crimes it has committed against the Israeli people during that time through the various terrorist proxies it controlled. I can't have any sympathy for this parasitic family that lived off the misery of Lebanese people, blew up lebanese politicians and their prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and was most likely deeply involved in organising the terror committed against Israel by the syrian/iranian proxy Hezbollah.

The dead Baathist thug's wife said that, “her husband had visited Syria very frequently and:

 "Oh I wish he’d stayed there."

Maybe she's unaware that Syria itself is having a few problems at the moment?

Bashar Assad's wife, Asma el Assad, the 'Desert Rose'of Vogue magazine is obviously thinking similar thoughts about why she left London to become a mass murderer's wife (even before the Arab Spring the Assads were known for the brutality of their regime, their secret mukhabarrat prisons where political detainees were never seen again).

Our dear  'Desert Rose' (original article scrubbed from internet but still available here ) it may be remembered cried buckets of crocodile tears over the 'poor palestinians', of' 800 dead (most of them Hamas terrorists who never wear  uniform when attacking Israelis), and 22,000 displaced', just before the reality of the regime she married into became known'. Since then Asma has strangely lost her voice for the genuinely weak and dispossessed.

Asma has no words to comfort those beaten to death by her regime's troops (not that the opposition are any kinder to syrian soldiers they catch. Youtube is full of video of prisoners of both sides being beaten to death)

I can't help smiling when watching the (full) Asma el Assad video, seeing her tripping up on those lines she's been so carefully been primed to say.

Whether the Assads finally get the Ghadaffi treatment, Syria's war has as I predicted before, now come to Lebanon. 

The war in Syria, as if any further proof was needed, has come to Lebanon – not just on its borders or in remote rural areas, but throughout the country, from the capital to any given place, on any given day.

Those who spend their lives hating and attacking Israel are constantly reminded that their works will be frustrated. Many of these people are even now queuing up at the border on the Golan Heights for medical treatment from the 'Little Satan'.

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.

General Ashkenzi was an excellent if unoriginal general, but strategic thinker he isn't

 Gabi Ashkenazi is the latest man from the military to wish Israel to jump into the syrian morass with both flat feet. This is surprising because although he's not the most intelligent warrrior Israel has ever had, he does understand the limits of Israel's power. Indeed, Ashkenazi was set against reoccupying Gaza and  in attacking Iran. Thanks to his opposition, Iran is becoming a harder nut to crack by the day, possibly having moved beyond Israel's capacity to deal with it with conventional weapons (yes, with Iran Israel must think the unthinkable, at least as far as an EMP weapon is concerned, and sooner rather than later when Iran has hardened the targets against such an attack).

Generals who are humanitarians are a suspect species, either because they are hypocrites, or because what they inculcated to those they commanded was dangerous to their survivability on the battlefield. Israeli troops have lawyers attached to each company nowadays thanks to the efforts of people like Ashkenazi, something that shackles Israel's soldiers hands and feet, just as British and American soldiers have found in Afghanistan. When you fight a war, you need to allow your troops flexibility without having to look over their shoulders every second. The USA and Britain have lost the war in Afghanistan and whilst teharat haneshek is indeed important, it must sometimes be recognised as being impossible to achieve. In 1967 israeli tank commanders were ordered not to fire at houses, from which fire was being directed at them. The tanks treated their orders with the contempt deserved, demolished the buildings from where fire came, and managed to survive, against all odds.
 
Ashkenazi should forget playing the humanitarian when considering that both sides in Syria have declared Israel to be next on the list once they have won. He should instead read this imagined conversation between the wily Cardinal Richelieu and David Goldman aka 'spengler':

“We are a bit confused about Syria,” I began. “Its leader, Bashar al-Assad, is slaughtering his own people to suppress an uprising. And he is allied to Iran, which wants to acquire nuclear weapons and dominate the region. If we overthrow Assad, Sunni radicals will replace him, and take revenge on the Syrian minorities. And a radical Sunni government in Syria would ally itself with the Sunni minority next door in Iraq and make civil war more likely.”
“I don’t understand the question,” Richelieu replied.
“Everyone is killing each other in Syria and some other places in the region, and the conflict might spread. What should we do about it?”
“How much does this cost you?”
“Nothing at all,” I answered.
“Then let them kill each other as long as possible, which is to say for 30 years or so. Do you know,” the ghastly Cardinal continued, “why really interesting wars last for 30 years? That has been true from the Peloponnesian War to my own century. First you kill the fathers, then you kill their sons. There aren’t usually enough men left for a third iteration.”

 It is sad to see human life wasted, but as with the germans after World War I, who needed great destruction, of 4 million dead, of a whole generation without fathers, to have imperialism and murder driven out of them. Germans are now the world's greatest pacifists. 

Arabs have never learned the lesson of war. They glorify it, especially when it comes to the destruction of Israel and its people. 

The best Israel can do is to keep its snout out of Syria, to let the cards fall where they will as neither side will thank it for intervention. Let's hope Netanyahu doesn't get side-tracked by well meaning old generals like Ashkenazi.

Former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said the world must not remain passive over the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons, and that President Bashar Assad himself must be held responsible.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” Ashkenazi said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that was broadcast on Tuesday.

Ashkenazi added that before any action is taken, the prime culprit must be identified as the Syrian leader.

“We have to be clear that it was his decision,” he said.

The former IDF general suggested a range of action, from upping support for rebel groups to imposing a no-fly zone on parts of Syria. Ashkenazi made it clear that the time has come to arm the rebels, a course of action the US is considering and several European countries already support.

“That means providing them with lethal and not just nonlethal assistance — that means weapons — to help them to topple Assad,” he said.

Ashkenazi lamented that more action was not taken in the past as it would, perhaps, have saved lives in the long run of a civil war that has so far cost over 70,000 lives and generated over a million refugees.

“We should have helped them a year ago when there were [only] 10,000 deaths and before the more extremists groups arrived,” he said.

Ashkenazi, who was the IDF’s top officer from 2007 to 2011, said the inevitable downfall of Assad would be a mixed blessing for Israel.

“I think generally speaking from a strategic point of view it is good news,” he said. “It will break the radical axis that runs through Iran and Damascus to Hezbollah and Hamas. It will be a major blow to Iran and Hezbollah.”

“Syria was and still is the logistics hub of Hezbollah,” he added and noted that while funding for the terror group may come from Iran, “the weapons come out of Syrian depots.”

As for growing concerns that the rebel cause in Syria has become a rallying point for a wide range of extremists groups, including those affiliated with al-Qaeda, that are drawing ever closer to the border with Israel, Ashkenazi expressed confidence in Israel’s security capabilities to deal with cross-border threats.

“From an Israeli perspective I think we can deal with it,” he said.

Ashkenazi also gave a guarded response to questions about media reports that in 2010 he refused a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to raise the IDF’s war readiness in preparation for an attack on Iran. The incident was seen as an indication that the security establishment does not back Netanyahu’s bold threats that Israel is prepared to go it alone in a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“That is factually wrong,” Asheknazi said but would not expand on exactly what transpired at the time, saying only that it was a matter of timing and that, in his opinion, the military option is the last option.

“Unless the sword is against your throat you don’t use it,” he said.

Ashkenazi commented on recent efforts to improve ties with Turkey that became frigid, if not hostile, after IDF commandos stormed the Gaza-bound Mava Marmara ferry and shot dead nine Turkish citizens when they came under violent attack from those on board. Turkey made normalization with Israel dependent on an apology and compensation for the deaths, but the families of those who died have also begun legal proceedings against the soldiers involved. As the then commander of the IDF, Ashkenazi is also on trial in absentia.

“It is important to fix the relationship with Turkey,” he said, adding in reference to the indictments that “it comes with the job of being a general in the IDF.”

Yet, despite the regional threats, Ashkenazi said that Israel’s most pressing problem is that of its own internal divisions.

“I would like the internal dialogue to be back the way it was 30 years ago,” he said.

The Islamic World War, right on Israel's doorstep

And Israel is doing absolutely nothing about it ( although there has been a little rumbling about chemical weapons). Thank the Lord. Israel's policy has been the best, unlike that of the USA which as usual has backed the wrong side, which in this case is any side.

 Israel has understood that the pox is in both the arab houses, the rebels and the syrian government. The secular rebels might have stood a chance in the beginning, had the USA armed them and trained them, but president Obama channeled aid to the anti-Assad forces via islamist Turkey which starved the secular rebels of aid. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also been arming the sunni islamists. It is believed that Obama has for the last few years had a deliberate policy of supporting Muslim Brotherhood states as a bulwark against Iran. This is a stupid policy, which means that there is no side in this conflict which is moderate, no grouping which the West could live with after the guns fall silent. On one side is Iran, and the other al Qaidah and Muslim Brotherhood influenced islamists.

Although the secular rebels hold some territory, it is the Al Nusrah and other islamist rebels who are doing the main fighting and taking the most territory. If Assad goes, the secular rebels will also go with him, just as happened to the mujahideen in Iran once they deposed the shah. There was an almighty slaughter of the secular mujahideen, students, journalistsand intellectual opponents of the ayatollahs.

So will anyone win in this war? That's still not seeming likely. Despite the best efforts of europe and the USA to bring the war to a close with a victory for the sunni islamists, Iran and its shiite brothers the alawites and Hezbollah have too much to lose and they know it.

 During the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter who was killed in Syria, a prominent Hezbollah party official addressed the mourners amid their confusion about the deaths that their sons are being driven to. The official defended Hezbollah's fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and described it as a duty more important than any other. He described it as a fighting for existence as they are defending places that are important to the Shiite sect and that it is a pre-emptive strike for battles that may target the sect if the Assad regime falls.

 It is a battle for life or death. This is how it is presented.

As the rebels ramp up the pressure, so Iran and Hezbollah increase their activities. We don't know much about the iranians, but Hezbollah fighters are dying in droves.

 NOW also reported that a large number of corpses of Hezbollah militants who died in combat in Syria are at the Sheikh Ragheb Harb Hospital Nabatiyeh’s Jeb Sheet and that the Shiite group is burying them in installments in order not to draw attention to the growing phenomenon of Hezbollah deaths in Syria.

 Sunni jihadists are being sucked in from all over the world and Iran and Hezbollah are propping up the beleagured alawite rump regime in Damascus.

Hezbollah that was founded with the aim of destroying Israel is now bleeding steadily but surely, all at no cost to Israel. In their blood lust, their petty islamic doctrinal differences (yet so important in an intolerant religion like islam which brooks no room for doubt, no room to question any accepted precepts) the shia and sunni branches of islam are locked in conflict from Pakistan to Lebanon.

Israel just watches, and does nothing except lob the occasional Tammuz missile back in answer to fire from Syria. Ehud Barack is gone and Israel and the West's enemies now know that if Israel is attacked, to expect a response, every time, even if the response is still not adequate to bring  Hamas to stop the attacks. The odd missile which does no harm to Israelis might not seem too serious to some, but these are terror weapons. They terrorise, such as with the missile fired at Sderot on Lag Baomer, a jewish holiday. The kids had to abandon their bonfires and enter protected rooms. This is the childhood Hamas has given jewish kids for over ten years now.

This destruction of Israeli children's lives is no longer tolerable now that there is there a government in power which refuses to sacrifice Sderot and Netivot. When Hamas fires a missile at Israel there is a price to be paid. Thankfully the stupid bombing of open areas is finished with. It didn't put the  terrorists off but was utilised by world media to condemn Israel as the aggressor. Now Israel closes a crossing with Gaza in return for fire, just letting humanitarian aid through.

And if the message does not finally get home, if Gazans do continue to attack Israel, Israel should cease the delivery of electricity and even cut all links with Gaza. Israel owes the arabs of Gaza nothing, and under international law does not need to keep rescuing that Muslim Brotherhood islamist entity from itself. Gaza has more in common with Egypt than with Judea and Samaria. Muslim Brotherhood Egypt and the international community should be allowed to care for Gaza, if they wish.

 And if the terror still continues, assassinations were very effective, are effective in bringing the jihadists to book. Hamas must know that its leaders will be killed if israeli children can not enjoy sabbath or holiday games in the outside air. When missiles hit Sderot just as children are going or returning from school, those responsible for the attacks must be eliminated, just as the US does to al Qaida leaders.

Even whilst muslim radicals fight amongst themselves, they still have Israel and the West not too far in the back of their minds, which is why it is best for the West to sit back and let our enemies get on with their business in Syria. The islamist fanatics are killing each other, and might very well continue to do so for years.

Israel is weakened by Netanyahu's apology, and Obama pulls the wool over a seasoned observer's eyes

Caroline Glick takes up my points about Netanyahu's foolhardy apology to Turkey for its act of aggression by sending the flotilla including the Mavi Marmara to provoke Israel. This was the worst  yet not the first provocation against Israel. We also need to keep in mind Erdogan's decades long hatred of Israel, his even having penned a Stuermer like play entitled 'Maskomya' when head of the islamic youth organisation. And as

    On Saturday, the Arab League convened in Doha, Qatar and discussed Israel’s apology to Turkey and its ramifications for pan-Arab policy. The Arab League member states considered the prospect of demanding similar apologies for its military operations in Lebanon, Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

    The Arab League’s discussions point to the true ramifications of the apology for Israel. By apologizing for responding lawfully to unlawful aggression against the State of Israel and its armed forces, Israel did two things.

    First, Israel humiliated itself and its soldiers, and so projected an image of profound weakness. Due to this projected image, Israel has opened itself up to further demands for it to apologize for its other responses to acts of unlawful war and aggression against the state, its territory and its citizens from other aggressors. The Arab League like most of its member nations is in an official state of war with Israel. The Arabs wish to see Israel destroyed. Kicking a nation when it is down is a perfectly rational way for states that wish other states ill to behave. And so the Arab League’s action was eminently predictable.

    As for the future of Israel-Turkish cooperation on Syria, two things must be borne in mind. First, on Saturday Erdogan claimed that Netanyahu’s apology was insufficient to restore Turkish-Israel relations. He claimed that before he could take any concrete actions to restore relations, Israel would first have to compensate the families of the passengers from the Mavi Marmara killed while assaulting IDF soldiers with deadly force.

As I noted previously, Erdogan has not even fully accepted the apology. The way is open, as usual with islamists, for further grievances, further demands, that not everything was solved........... In fact just as Egyptian president Morsi complained about the Egyptian-Israel Peace Treaty when he took power, that Israel had to compensate Egypt, that the palestinian arabs needed including in the equation etc etc. With an islamist there is never finality, because the end goal is not peace, but subjugation. This is what by their latest statements, president Peres and Chief of Staff Gantz do not understand. Do they really think that this obeisance to islamist Turkey will bring in a new era of cooperation and friendship with Turkey? How blinkered can you be? Well Israel's leaders were blinkered before 1973 in the face of Sadat's posturing about wanting peace.

I can forgive Peres who at his advanced age is seemingly desperate for peace, can even forgive Benny Gantz for being in favour of just about anything which could possibly break the ring of islamist that is now closing around Israel. Gantz has an impossible task to perform which existential threats looming all around, so a little apology might seem to a soldier but small beer.

But I can not understand just how people of the calibre of professors Dershowitz and Barry Rubin can be so fooled by the slick rhetoric of Obama. Dershowitz after Obama having proved himself week in, week out throughout his first term to be an inveterate enemy of Israel campaigned for Obama's re-election. Okay, Dershowitz is a democrat and could not bring himself to abandon ship even in the face of this mortal enemy of Israel. Dershowitz preferred to listen to the pro-Israel rhetoric that Obama spews out from time to time rather than watch the actions of his minions who condemned Israel incessantly for building a few houses, who set up a propaganda organization 'J Street' with the brief to attack Israel on every occasion. There was also the matter of the Cairo statement and Obama's bringing down of arab regimes which were at peace with Israel (Mubarak was no friend, he allowed the supplying of Hamas with rockets for years through Sinai, a cold peace with Israel, and incessant attacks on jews and Israel by the state controlled Egyptian press). And Obama has supported islamist Turkey with a Nato missile shield from which Israel is excluded, and Egypt has been given money, aid and top of the range F16's and Abrams tanks. All this shortly after Morsy inspired riots at the American embassy in Cairo!

Update 27th March 2013: 

Barry Rubin is back to form after his wobble, asking why Obama didn't make similar speeches in Israel and the palestinian arab territories, why did Obama ask Israelis to take risks for peace, but not arabs? Obviously Obama understands the deep hatred for jews by arabs after years of indoctrination. As ever it is Israel which must take all the risks for no gain.

Israel is supposed to be grateful to Obama for some money in the development of the Iron Dome all the while Saudi Arabia and other arab countries, including islamists in Syria are being stuffed with american arms. Whilst Obama speaks softly, the USA Obama administration is acting as Israel's enemy, not its friend. And then there are the palestinian arabs. Obama has forced Netanyahu to begin again its funding of the Abbas undemocratic government, whilst Abbas broke the Oslo Agreement in going to the UN to found a state (not for the betterment of his people, but so that it would be easier to condemn Israel, act against it in UN forums such as the the UNHCR and UNESCO). Jewish shrines such as Rachel's tomb are now to become 'palestinian'. Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza don't wish independence so as to forge a national future, but to further the goal of destroying Israel. A palestinian arab state is seen as helping to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court over its supposed crimes.

So reading Barry Rubin today I could hardly believe my eyes:

 After going through all the possible ways Obama's visit to Israel could be seen, and dismissing them, Rubin comes to the 'Serious Israeli Observer'

    After more than four years of hard work and with the help of the other side’s intransigence, we got Obama to see reality in policy if not always in rhetoric, which is far less important.  Perhaps a narrow escape from what would have been the most anti-Israel president in history by far. Look, the American people elect the president and then we have to deal with whomever they choose. Sure hope he wakes up about the Islamists and stays tough on Iran.

 No Mr Rubin, Obama has not woken up to anything. Obama has rather been well advised that if you want Israelis to accede to your outrageous demands as a president, rather than berating them, as Obama did all through his first term, you should show them some love.

Israel for very good reasons feels so unloved, that the first charlatan to come along gets the wedding ring! Obama through his Taqiya has seen his poll ratings increase in Israel by way of seeming to 'understand' Israel's ancient connection with the lands of Israel. It's funny that in his Cairo speech he did not understand this, stating in effect the arab position that Israel resulted not from any jewish connection but from western states' guilt over the Holocaust. The corollary was therefore, 'why should arabs pay for the Holocaust with their lands'.

So in Israel Obama has shown some understanding for Israel's rights. But then he wanted things from Netanyahu. Probably he asked for a whole lot more than we know about. But what we do  know is worrying.

Firstly Netanyahu  was forced to make that disastrous apology, something that will come back to haunt Israel faced by many enemies, of which Turkey is definitely now one, always seeking Israel's weak points.

Netanyahu was forced to being paying the Palestinian Authority monies collected as customs dues, even whilst Israel has extra security costs because of the palestinian terror on the roads. One israeli baby, Adelle is still fighting for her life after arab stone throwers in Samaria forced her car into a bus.

And Obama has released half a billion dollars to the arabs in Judea and Samaria, even without them agreeing to talk to Israel. For that they have a string of demands, including agreeing to the destruction of Israel via the 'right of arab return.'

All this whilst israeli forces are beginning to come under attack on the Golan Heights from islamists supplied by america and its islamist arab allies.

Rubin might himself be suffering from having fought so hard all these years to understand Israel's enemies so that  he finally can't come to terms with the cognitive dissonance of Israel's greatest friend, the american people being led by one of Israel's greatest enemies.

Rubin will wake up, as will hopefully Benny Gantz. Peres is too far gone,  as with Abba Eban too gullible, too much the diplomat to understand when the knife is at the neck and draws blood that the time has long passed for action (Eban urged Israel's government not to begin a pre-emptive attack to break the arab stranglehold and armies poised to strike in 1967. Eban delayed the attack by around a month to allow the USA to live up to its commitment to sail a fleet to break the egyptian blockade of Suez and the Straits of Tiran. The Israeli people forced a change of government after a disastrous speech by Israel's PM Eshkol, and Israel under Dayan managed to save the day).

The situation for Israel is bad, but allowing snake oil salesman Obama to force toxic remedies on it is not the answer.

Syria and Iran the good news and the bad

The bad news is that europe and the US still haven't a clue about Iran. If they think Iran can be bribed away from its race for the bomb they are living in cloud cuckoo land. Whilst europe talks and begs, Iran will continue to whisper sweet nothings, all the while increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium. 

Of course Iran will not be quizzed too hard about why its scientists were present at North Korea's nuclear test of a miniature device last week. It was capable of being mounted on a ballistic missile.
Of course Obama and his european allies have never heard of 'taqiya' (islamic concept of lying to your enemy to deceive him), so Khameini's assurances that there is a fatwa against muslims making a nuclear device along with other small concessions, will serve to assuage them somewhat. Iran has to be prepared to make some small gestures though, something Ahmadinejad has not been always interested in doing.

As regards a nuclear weapon being 'unislamic',Pakistan's developing an 'islamic' bomb doesn't seem to have been a problem in that godless nation of sunnis. Iranians would never develop such an evil weapon. Their interest in miniaturizing warheads is obviously purely academic.

If Israel can't achieve it any other way, it will have to attack Iran. The EMP route would seem the best, using a technically nuclear weapon, but with the ability to fry Iran's electrics for no human cost. It is surely getting very late in the day, and Israel must look to its security. Sending Iran back to the stone age is a small price to pay for avoiding war and the loss of israeli and iranian lives. Iranians are among the most cultured and educated of people in the region, and anything which will spare their lives must surely be a good thing.

Israel is however waiting too long. Iran will drag the europeans out so long that by the time they realize they've been had, the wiley iranians will have cooked up the next plan to keep the West on the hook, all the whilst increasing those stocks of uranium.

With Israel's defensive rocket systems, Iran can't do much harm to Israel, especially now Iran and Hezbollah are so heavily committed in Syria. The time is getting ripe. Israel must not leave it too late to act.

The good news is that Iran and its sidekick Hezbollah are getting ever deeper into the Syrian quagmire. They have bitten off a lot more than they want to chew, and i'm of the opinion that Hezbollah has signed its death warrant with its bombarding of sunni villages in Syria in the last year.

Increasingly iranians and hezbollah operatives are dying and being buried in secret ceremonies. It is too soon to know if the figure of a thousand dead hezbollah this last year is true but what is certain though is that the hatred of Hezbollah has now reached the point of no return. The Syrian rebels, sunnis and assorted sunni jihadists are not friends with the shia at the best of times, and when they are having missiles fired at them as if they are jews in Sderot? Unlike jews, sunni jihadist terrorists are none to patient, or discriminating in their response. If I was a lebanese shia, or an alawite I would be quaking at the hatred the Assad regime has stacked up in the last couple of years.

Israel might not have such a quiet Syrian border any more, but it will find that the Hezbollah threat will decrease and quite possibly fade away altogether in coming years. It's  time to put out feelers to Nabih Berri and Amal who might just be more accommodating once Israel has settled a few scores with Nasrallah (unless the Syrian sunni rebels get to him first).

Syria, not just the Assad regime is now in terminal decline, being no longer an effective state which can control its borders. Russia and Iran are fighting a lost battle for their ally.

It's time for Israel to plan for Hezbollah's collapse and even for advancing a buffer zone up to the natural border of the Litani river by agreement with future christian or even amal shia allies. This might happen in the wake of civil war breaking out in Lebanon.

Israel must be prepared to seek alliances with the kurds, of christians and indeed any other strategically placed group that reads the omens.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the alawites faced with global jihad came knocking at Israel's door?  Now that's an interesting thought. A post Nasrallah Hezbollah cut off from the Iranian hinterland by a sunni jihadist bloc, faced with destruction might even, allied with alawites, form the northern buffer protecting Israel.

All this whilst remembering that no alliances in the middle east last very long. Alliances get drawn and redrawn at the drop of a hat. Russia learned that fact in the 1970's in Egypt, and Israel learned it with the christians in the 80's in Lebanon. Present allies can become enemies in minutes, so it's wise not to invest too much in any one relationship. New friends must be happy just that you are not working actively against them, happy for whatever support is thrown their way, certainly not the loving bearhug americans give to every jihadist group willing to open up its grubby paws. But the US never learns the lesson, and ambassador Stephens will soon be forgotten as the US trains and supplies even  more jihadist terrorists via the cia and Turkey.



It's too hard to see how the dice will fall in the region, but Israel must be prepared to think laterally, to be prepared to entertain any proposals any alliances that offer even short term security along its borders.

Radical arabs learn late in the day on which side bread is buttered

"Help! My syrian jihadist friends burned my passport,,,,,,, no way back to Israel!"

Two israeli arabs decided to go and wage a little jihad in Syria and found that their new friends are not the gentlemen jihadis they were led to believe they were. Horror of horrors their new friends burned their passports so now they can't get back to the zionist entity, its rule of law, its social security and nice comfortable way of life.  Unsurprisingly the Israeli foreign office has not had much joy from the Turks who they called upon to assist in returning the bloodthirsty idiots back to their homes.

 An Israeli Arab, who joined the rebel forces in Syria, said that they burned our way and said that he could not return to his familyHassan Shaalan 

An Israeli Arab who crossed the border from Turkey to Syria and joined the opponents of the regime of Bashar al-Assad announced to his family that he was having difficulties to return to Israel because the rebels burned his passport. He said they told him that "every person who joins them will not return to his family."
Young's relative told Ynet: "A month ago my relative called and told me that he and his friend were happy. They told us the rebels gave them food and a place to sleep and taught them how to fight against members of Assad." But then in another conversation according to a close relative the tone changed. "He called back and said he was very afraid, and the two are in danger of life and they can not cope with the situation."

 One of the young Israelis admitted he was wrong when he entered Syria. He said that "the rebels burned our passports and clothes" he said.

Close family said they wanted to help , but "we can not do anything. We are worried about them and we are afraid they will be hurt. "

The Foreign Ministry said that "we made contact with the parties in Turkey to reach the two missing citizens who allegedly penetrated into Syria, and still no result."