The common ground between ISIS and the Palestinians

The most recent spasm of violence in Jerusalem is frustrating. Keeping in mind that prior to Israel liberating Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, Christians and Jews were not allowed to even be in Jerusalem, much less pray there. In fact, ancient Jewish synagogues were used to barn donkeys, and cemetery headstones were used to pave the streets.  The point I am making is that there was NEVER tolerance of other religions in Jerusalem under Muslim control. With that said, ever since Israel won the 1967 war, Israel has made a point of making sure that all the religions represented in Jerusalem – Jewish, Christian and Muslim all had access to, and are protected at their places of worship.

As a sign of reconciliation to the Muslims after their 1967 defeat, the Israeli government allowed the Jordanian Islamic Waif - an Islamic trust that had historically been in control of the the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Jerusalem - to continue their duties as long as they respected the integrity of Israeli law and allowed all faiths to worship at the site.The ground beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the exact spot of the first Jewish Temple and the holiest site among Jews. Previous Israeli governments have sporadically exercised the right for Jews to ascend the site and to worship.

What caused the most recent spasm of violence cannot be debated; Hundreds of Muslim youths were allowed to throw rock and firebombs down of Jewish worshippers while the Israeli police stood by and pleaded with the Jordanians to control the situation. Muslim anger boiled over when some religious Jews exercised their right to worship atop the Temple Mount. The Muslim youth doubled down on their violence and it appeared that the Islamic Waif, who was responsible for security atop the Temple Mount, was complicate in assisting the rioters to use the Al Aqsa Mosque as a safe haven - thinking the Israeli police would not enter the Mosque. The police chased the rioters into the Mosque and found piles of rocks, Molotov firebombs, and other evidence of complicity by the Jordanian Trust.

This, in turn, was used as an excuse by those who wish to incite the Palestinians - to claim the Israelis were attacking the Al Aqsa Mosque. Apologists for the Palestinians say they are “hopeless and have no other means to resist the occupation” other than to literally “slash out” at innocent civilian worshippers with butcher knives, or run over 3 year old babies with their cars. There is no answer to those who think that way other than leave them with this thought: There is obvious common ground in the logic between ISIS slitting the throats of innocent civilians and Palestinians hacking innocent Jews at prayer to death. They both feel a grievance and victimhood that justifies their acts of barbarity, as well as an intolerance of other religions and a perception of Muslim superiority.  This type of extreme logic is deep rooted among a growing minority of the Islamic faith, and should not be appeased, or excused.  The only hope to defeat this thinking is for the good-minded Muslims to raise their voice AND their swords and defeat this extremist thinking within their own religion. Unfortunately, those voices are barely audible over the multitude of apologists - so until then, the Israelis must – and will - resist and fight against this enemy in every corner where it lurks.

"The Fort" (A children's story)

“Dad, I want a tree house” said 5 year old David. David had spent the night at a friends house the other night, and the friend had a tree in the backyard that had some wooden stairs and a platform with rails. David was very impressed.

“But David, we don’t have any trees in our yard big enough to build a tree house” his father said in a sad tone. “Okay”, said David in an uncharacteristically upbeat tone. I’ll figure something out.

When Saturday morning rolled around, David told his dad he was going out into the cove to explore the vacant lot that was known as “the woods”. It was a simple pie-shaped undeveloped residential lot with trees and overgrown bushes and weeds. In the middle was a bunch of wooden boxes and a long log that had been strategically placed to serve as the neighborhood meeting place for the “8 or 9 kids in the cove”.

An hour later, David’s father went outside to get the newspaper at the end of the driveway, and he could hear a whimpering cry “Dad, help! I can’t get down!”. David’s Dad looked up above the vacant lot and saw David at the very top of a 40 foot tree, holding on for dear life. David’s dad called the fire department who rushed a bucket truck to rescue David.

David explained that he wanted to see if he could turn the tree into a tree house. His dad knew he had to get a tree house before David got an even crazier idea into his head.

David and his Dad went to the hardware store and bought a bunch of lumber and proceeded to build a free-standing 2 story tree house with a roof, a ladder to go up, and a slide to go down. Since it wasn’t in a tree, they decided to call it a fort. It toke a full weekend to build the “fort” and David was as happy as he could be.

David’s one year old brother, Sam, was too young to climb up into the fort, but every once and a while, the4 Dad would hand Sam up to David and they would play in the fort – sometimes for hours at a time. Sam could slide down the slide without any problem. A few years later, Molly was born and they got a dog named Maggie.

As David and Sam grew older they would still play in the fort, and many of the neighborhood kids would hang out in the backyard fort, doing whatever kids do at that age. The dog – Maggie, learned to take a running start to climb up the slick stainless steel slide to get to the kids on the second story of the fort.

Eventually, Molly was handed up to Sam and David and the three of them would play all day long in and around the fort. The trees in the backyard had grown considerably by this time and the fort was camouflaged in the trees. When the kids were in the fort, it seemed to be closed off from the rest of the world.

Their father got remarried and they sold the house, but the new house they moved into had a big backyard and the woman the dad married had a 6 year old son named Josh. The father decided to take the fort apart, make any needed repairs and reassemble it at the new house. The slide - after 10 years - had rotted, so the father improvised by installing a cooper pole for the kids to slide down. Josh loved his new “fort” and played in it with his friends all the time. Josh had pictures of his favorite Basketball team in the fort and a box full of “personal treasures’ that only a 6 year old boy could find of value.

By this time, David and Sam had already gone off to college and Molly was into “girl stuff”. The father was happy that the “fort that love built” had found a new life with Josh. As time went on, Molly went off to college and Josh grew up and started to drive. The fort sat in the back yard with no one to play with it. Summer surrendered to winter over an over again, and one day the father noticed that the fort had become dangerously rotted and it was no longer safe. The father decided he had to take it down.

The father built the fort when he was 32. Now he was 57. He waited until a beautiful fall weekend to dismantle the fort, and started taking it apart gently, one board at a time. It was very emotional, almost like putting an old family pet to sleep. The compassion and respect the father had for the fort was, of course, because of all the memories he had of his kids playing there.

As he dismantled the fort, he noticed that a lot of the wood was still salvageable, and he decided that he didn’t want to let go of the memories of the fort, so he decided to let the fort live by re-using the wood. He built his wife a beautiful garden surrounded by the heavy wood posts that supported the fort, and he no longer felt so sad about taking the fort down.

Just as the kids had grown and changed, just as the father had grown and changed – the fort had grown and changed. 

Ever seen a Nobel peace prize dripping with blood?

Between the time I write this letter and the time it is published, over 20,000 Kurds will be slaughtered in Syria by ISIL. President Obama claims he wants to “degrade and destroy” this pernicious, evil entity, but he has refused to allow our air force to overfly Syria where ISIL finds safe haven and a population to exploit. Turkey, which shares a border with the Kurdish area of Syria, has fought a long border war with the Syrian Kurdish militia called PKK. The Turks have a massive military presence overlooking this massacre and they seem to be enjoying every minute of it.

The Kurds want an independent country, and there is no question that their claims are more deserving and legitimate than the Palestinians. They Kurds are a separate ethnic group distinct from the all the other people of the Mideast and total over 30 million throughout Iraq, Syria Turkey and Iran in a four border region known as Kurdistan. Unlike the Palestinians, they have a distinct language, culture, DNA, foods, customs – and for the most part they are intelligent, trustworthy people who are not religiously radicalized. They have shown a propensity to embrace Western culture, economics and education. They were our most trusted allies when the USA was in Iraq - and we have totally abandoned them.

Turkey, on the other hand, did not allow US military access to Iraq through Turkey, even though Turkey is a NATO member bordering Iraq. Turkey has refused to join the Obama led coalition against ISIL and in fact has allowed the unfettered flow of ISIL recruits from Turkey to Syria. Turkish smugglers are also the main financiers of ISIL with their unlimited purchases of ISIL oil at $20-$30 a barrel. Even VP Biden admitted this in a speech at Harvard last week. Why does President Obama stand behind Turkey and even provide diplomatic cover? There is only one viable explanation: Turkey is the main benefactor of the Muslim Brotherhood (along with Qatar) and it is well known that POTUS Obama has strongly supported the exiled MB ever since they were thrown out of office in Egypt. 

When the history books are written, I have no doubt that the Obama presidency will go down as the biggest failure in US history. It will take decades before the USA will be trusted again. It is ironic that Obama, who stood in Cairo in 2009 and championed human rights to the entire world in the grandest of gestures, is the proud owner of Nobel peace prize dripping with blood. 

Israel isn't waiting for the USA to "save them" like the Yazidis and Christians in Iraq!

As the tragedy befalling the tens of thousands of Iraqi Yazidis and Christians continues to unfold, my only hope is that the civilized world will unite in the realization that the "radical Islamist" threat requires a long-term military engagement that may never end in a Japan style surrender.  With that said, the irony of President Obama's foreign policy - to intervene with "too little, too late" has become a hallmark of his presidency. 

No one would disagree that America is war weary, or that our military should not be used as the policemen for the world. But the use of "soft power" - standing up for our allies and providing them the means to defend themselves and even go on the offensive against these threats BEFORE thousands are killed or made homeless can be extremely effective. Russia and Iran are both masters of "soft power". They stand solidly behind their allies (Syria, Hezbullah, etc), and there is no question where they stand. Leaders are supposed to lead their people where they NEED to be, not where they want to be. Running a foreign policy dictated by polls is a recipe for disaster.  

President Obama has been at odds with Israel's PM Netanyahu ever since he took office, but the recent Israel/Gaza conflict has raised a number of red flags that Obama and his advisors just don't understand foreign policy or the implications of not having a plan other than "don 't get involved". Israel is fighting for it's survival EVERY time they are in war on any of their borders. The recent news that POTUS Obama recently interfered with the normal delivery of missiles and other hardware to Israel while they are in the midst of a war in Gaza sends the wrong message to Islamists around the world, as well as our allies on the front lines of the war on terrorism. Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two former US allies in the region, are now buying billions of dollars of weapons from Russia, and Russia has pledged to help them with the war on terrorism. This would not be the case if Obama had not cozied up to Iran or supported the Muslim Brotherhood instead of Egyptian President Hasni Mubarack - or sided against Israel and Egypt's ceasefire efforts in favor of supporting an effort by Turkey and Qatar - enemies of Israel and supporters of Hamas.

Jews have already been in the same boat as the Yazidis - slaughtered, alone, and homeless refugees. The fact that such a horrible situation could get this advanced before it motivates action is seen by many as the result of a weak USA abandoning our allies. This, more than anything, encourages Islamists to expand their horizons. The Kurdish area was our "go to" area of stability in Iraq, and they were extremely pro-US.  The USA left them high and dry, despite clear warnings an atrocity was in the making. If Israel was to be overrun by the Islamists, it would be another holocaust that would make the current ISIS atrocities look tame by comparison. What this world needs - what Israel and other USA allies need, is not US soldiers on the ground - but a dependable American administration with a clear vision. The world doesn't need America to fight this war on Islamists alone, but it does need America to anchor the effort to wage this potential 100 year war against radical Islam.

Israel and Gaza: Not solvable, but it can become manageable

I don’t understand why the media continues to look at the current military flare-up between Israel and the Gaza Palestinians as if it were 2 countries fighting each other for a grievance over land in some kind of moral equivalence. Israel did, at one time, occupy Gaza and had over 20,000 settlers living there. Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon uprooted every single one of them, which was expensive monetarily, politically and from a moral perspective. PM Sharon didn’t want to occupy them, and wanted to demonstrate, at great political cost and anguish to those involved, that Israel wanted peace – and more importantly that the Palestinians in Gaza weren’t fighting over occupation, but over the destruction of Israel.

PM Sharon was right, of course. The Gaza Palestinians have armed themselves to the teeth and have 3 wars with Israel under their belt. Each time when Israel fought Gaza and was on the brink of winning, international political (US pressure) pressure stopped them in their tracks, leaving Hamas still armed and preparing for the next fight.

The calculus of political alliances in the Mideast has realigned, and Hamas no longer has the support of Egypt or Hezbollah. Iran is spread thin in Syria and Iraq and unable to re-arm them. The USA’s ability to pressure Israel to cease fire is nil because of President Obama’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood and his support for a PA/Hamas government, despite the fact that Hamas is considered internationally as a terrorist organization AND is waging war crimes by shooting over 500 advanced missiles against Israel’s civilian population.

The fact that more Israelis aren’t killed or injured compared to the Palestinian casualties is simply due to the nature of the combatants: Israel developed an anti-missile system, early warning systems, and bomb shelters to protect her citizens. Hamas in Gaza puts their missiles on top of or next to houses, they store missiles in basements, they encourage families to get on top of roofs AFTER Israel has gone to the trouble of warning them to evacuate before they blow it up. Hamas has been able to interrupt life in a vast area of Israel, which is untenable.

Three days after the start of the war, Israel has received unconditional support directly from the leaders of Australia, England, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, France, and every Western country with the exception of President Obama. Instead, he sent his Mid-East emissary to attend a peace conference in Tel Aviv, and he quickly lambasted Israel for not making peace with the Palestinians. The meeting was cut short and they all had to run to the bomb shelter because a Hamas rocket had targeted Tel Aviv. That says it all for our President, doesn’t it?

Israelis will never give up the Jordan Valley

A recent editorial in one of Israel’s largest online newspaper s, YNET, was pretty explicit in explaining the Israeli “consensus view” of recent U.S. security guarantees for Israel that Secretary of State Kerry failed to secure in his failed bid to keep the “peace process” on life support: U. S. guarantees are worthless.
The Israelis weren’t always of this opinion under other U.S. administrations, but events of the past 4-5 years led to the inescapable conclusion that America’s word under President Obama’s means nothing. 

1) He abandoned Israel’s long-time ally, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak (without consultation) in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. 
2) In 2009, when Iranians conducted massive street protests, instead of giving them minimal verbal support, he called it an internal Iranian issue. The demonstrators were quickly squashed with the brutality you would expect from the Republican Guard. 
3) When Syria used chemical weapons, Obama’s “red-line” disappeared and it was nothing less than embarrassing to see our diplomats jump at the bogus lifeline thrown to them by Russia’s Putin that didn’t stop the killing and didn’t stop chemical assaults.
4) When Ukraine was invaded by Russia – the U.S. security guarantees that convinced Ukraine to abandon their nuclear capability evaporated when the first shot was fired. 

How on earth could the Israelis, seriously entertain the idea giving up the fortified Jordan Valley seam line with Jordan – a natural barrier - in favor of American trainers supported by a U.S. trained contingent of regional Arabs? The U.S spent 10 years and $26 BILLION dollars training and equipping the Iraqi army, just to see them cut and run when the first shot was fired by ISIS. Over 100,000 well equipped trained Iraqi soldiers fled from 3,000 ruthless, motivated, religious ISIS fanatics. Can you imagine an Arab contingent going to the mat fighting to protect Israel’s borders? Israel can’t fathom that, and the Palestinians in the West Bank won’t ever admit to it because of nationalistic pride – but they are secure in the fact that Israel is between them and the ISIS fighters aiming their next assault on Jordan.

Israel has never asked for - and doesn’t want - American soldiers risking their lives to on Israeli soil. Israelis are quite capable and motivated to accomplish the task, and the reason they are able to exist and thrive while surrounded and outnumbered by Muslim hostility is because they understand their enemy - and they also understand President Obama.

While Syria and Iraq burn, will Obama keep looking at his dwindling options?

One would have to be brain dead to NOT feel empathy for the millions of innocent Syrians and Iraqis who are suffering under the boot of tyrannical regimes like Syria’s Assad and Iraq’s Maliki. Even worse, civilians overrun by the fanatical Islamists ransacking and pillaging both countries are committing the most horrible crimes against humanity imaginable: Decapitation, mutilation, random murder, rape, torture. You name it, if it’s barbaric and medieval – these so-called Islamists are doing it under the name of Allah.

It is in my humble opinion that President Obama’s declaration that “America will no longer be the world’s policeman and is tired of war” – as well as his stumbling in the 2009 Iranian revolution, backing the wrong horse in the ouster of long-time Egyptian ally Mubarak, and the infamous “erased Syrian Red-line” are the main contributors to the chaos in the world today. I agree that U.S. boots should not be on the ground around the world, but at least we can be as consistently supportive with our allies as Russia and Iran are to their respective allies Syria and Lebanon.

Yes, our so-called allies in Europe need to step up their game in sharing the burden of fighting the spread of violent Islamism, as their proximity and large Muslim populations put them in the line of fire should the fight jump across the Mediterranean and find a foothold. The Russians understand the threat and dealt with it harshly in Chechnya, and are still dealing with it today. The Chinese are now fighting a small, but growing Islamist threat within their borders. Africa has been suffering for decades from numerous rampaging Islamist tribes slaughtering thousands, kidnaping hundreds of woman and children, and raping at will.

America expects our President to lead from the front, not hide under his desk, play golf, or take naps while our diplomats burn, our allies are getting overrun, and our enemies go from strength to strength as they consolidate their power. America expects our president to be the moral compass for the world. It surely won’t come from the U.N.

I would like to see President Obama leave his political correctness behind and come down clearly against ALL forms of violent Islamism. I would like to see President Obama lead an effort to create enough multilateral support - without limits - for the locals populations be armed and stop the current advance of Islamism in Syria and Iraq, as well as other areas where they have gone unchallenged.

I know that there are those who will want to divert the argument by blaming President Bush for this chaos. The first Bush US invasion of Iraq was, in my opinion, done correctly – he left Saddam’s army intact. George W. Bush’s mistake was following the intelligence community’s advice in disbanding the Iraqi army. None of that matters anymore. Obama now has to “own up” to his handling of the aftermath.

We are being penny wise and dollar foolish to think that we are saving money and lives by not engaging the enemy on their turf. They will get stronger and more lethal, and they will continue to inch closer to our national interests, be it our bases, our access to oil, or our allies. We will eventually have to engage them, and hopefully not before it is too late.

Will the USA have any allies left after Obama?

It is impossible for the most Pro-Obama supporter to deny that his foreign policy is in shambles, and that under Obama’s “leadership” the U.S. government’s word is meaningless in both the eyes of our sworn enemies AND our allies – and more importantly the world is a much more dangerous place.

The grand Obama foreign policy vision of “re-setting” our relations with Russia is a disaster. He threw Egypt’s Mubarak under the bus for the Muslim Brotherhood, which ended up with Egypt in the Russian camp.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the USA’s word in the EU/Russian/USA/Ukrainian treaty that guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty worthless (in exchange for Ukraine destroying their nuclear capability). NATO is crumbling under the weight of the pressure Russia is putting on the Baltic states, and Obama thinks Israel should negotiate a peace treaty with a USA backed puppet “Palestinian leader” who is not even elected by his own people in the West bank, much less Gaza or the diaspora – and that Israel should accept Obama’s security guarantees. 

The USA is fatigued from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but whether we like it or not, the USA has a responsibility to maintain the global leadership role that Obama has publicly surrendered to the forces that are now causing havoc. We don’t have to be the policemen for the world, but we can provide unwavering financial, logistical and military support to our allies who are on the front lines. While there is much to critique about his domestic policies, the gaping void of global leadership under his tutelage will have negative consequences for the USA and our allies – IF WE HAVE ANY LEFT - for the next 100 years.