EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 126

WHEN TRUST FAILS

Forget for a moment about your biases, whether you’re pro- or anti-Israel, and look at the options the prime minister of Israel has in this growing conflict. He has no good options. He can’t count on the United States to keep the rest of the Arab countries out of the conflict. He must take action. He doesn’t have the luxury of doing nothing but talk. Rockets are falling on Israeli population centers. He knows, as everyone does, that the rockets are being fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. It wasn’t very far in the past that Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip at urging from the West that has struggled, painfully and ineffectively, to establish peace in the Middle East. A peace that the respective combatants don’t believe is possible. Both sides present goals that the opponents are not willing to offer.

Israel wants its Arab neighbors to recognize its right to exist as a nation state, more or less with existing boundaries. The Muslims want Israel to retreat to borders prior to the 1967 war. President Obama has stated the 1967 boundaries should be the starting point for negotiations. Israel believes the resulting Israeli nation would be untenable militarily and economically. Hamas and its West Bank partner would accept those boundaries as a starting point but at the same time render the whole process meaningless by their refusal to formally recognize Israel’s right to exist, regardless of any border. The main player, barely behind the scenes, Iran, has stated repeatedly it intends to wipe Israel off the map. Iran, a Muslim Shia state, funds, arms, and supports Hamas and Hezbollah, even though Hamas is Sunni while Hezbollah is predominately a Shiite organization. Without the aid and support of Iran and formerly Syria, neither group could survive.

Okay, that is the back story. What has changed?

The relationship between the American president and Israel has changed dramatically. Israel heard President Obama’s pro-Arab bias loud and clear. His disrespect of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visits to America was off the charts. Israel has realized it can no longer count on American support or the word of its leader.

When the trust of America that Israel could count on previously disappeared, their options became more limited. When Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah, who also heard our president speak, no longer believe America is a player on the world scene their options increased.

The might of the United States is off the both the field of arms and the negotiating table. If there is to be peace in the Middle East, it will have to come from the Sunni powers that do not want war and the economic disruption that comes with it. Let us hope that the next administration will revert to supporting our only democratic ally in the region.

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Filed under Intelligence & Politics

Tagged as America, conflict, current-events, Iran, Islam, Israel, Middle East, Muslim, Netanyahu, Obama, shia, Shiite

by Barry Kelly | April 25, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 47

IT IS WHAT IT IS

We are a great nation and we have the best law enforcement, intelligence collection, military, and counter-terrorist capabilities in the world. Unfortunately, we have a tentative president, who, for reasons no one who knows or is willing to talk about, thinks American influence in the world is too strong and America with the rest of Western world has much to be ashamed about. Only by diminishing our power through a socialist transformation can the world find equality and peace, he thinks.

The “black flag of jihad” as used by various Islamic terrorist organizations (since the late 1990s) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The president and his administration don’t want to acknowledge that Islamic Jihad in all its forms is a danger to our way of life. Islam and Christianity have a history. And it is not a peaceful one. The Crusades, the Muslim military sweep through North Africa, followed by the Muslim invasion of Western Europe, the fall of Cordoba, the last Islamic center in Spain are all part of this history. The war continues today and it is an Islamic war against Christian nations. All the Arabs who were dancing in the streets of Islamic countries when the twin towers fell were not all members of an organized terrorist group or active Jihadists but all were Muslims. It is what it is. Muslims do not like us. Moderate Muslims may not be active Jihadists but they condone it and support it. Billions of Saudi dollars have supported radical Islamic Wahabism schools throughout the world. Our president attended one.

He also attended a strident anti-American church for 20 years. He comes by his disapproval of America’s past history naturally. He has a right to hold those beliefs. Unfortunately, the attitude of the president permeates through the entire administration. How else can you explain their

View of Mosque 2 (Photo credit: TushyD)

efforts to cover up Jihadist actions like Ben Ghazi, the constant reluctance to use the word terrorism, or the term war on terror? This president who rushes to judgement at the drop of a hat on other issues, preaches the need to gather all the facts, wait until the investigation is complete, “there is no evidence a terrorist group was involved.” He often ends his preaching with “don’t blame an entire group of people.” Mr. President, Muslims have been involved in nearly all bombing terrorist acts for more than the last two decades. (Yes, I know about Oklahoma City.) Many, if not most, of the mosques in America and elsewhere preach a form of Jihadism. Directly or indirectly, Islamic mosques support radical Islamic fervor. What’s not to profile? Profiling is a common-sense approach to law enforcement and protection of citizens.

Like it or not, we are in a war that has deep Islamic roots. It is what it is.