CONGRATULATIONS! to the Palestinian Territories from an old counter-terrorist enemy: U.N. APPROVES your bid for OBSERVER STATE STATUS!
CONDOLENCES to Israel for their Pyrrhic Victory with Gaza from an ex-ally. WELCOME to the NEW WORLD of becoming an “ORPHAN/ WARD” of the US GOVERNMENT.
CONDOLENCES to Israel for their Pyrrhic Victory with Gaza from an ex-ally. WELCOME to the NEW WORLD of becoming an “ORPHAN/ WARD” of the US GOVERNMENT.
Events in the Middle East move faster than tweets in hyper-space.
One day the IDF is testing out their Iron Dome Missile Defense System against their own. Remember, Hamas is Israel’s home-grown ‘terrorist organization’, created in Berzeit, Gaza, by Shin Bet [Israeli FBI]. And in a ‘blow-back’ strike, much like the CIA-created Al-Qaeda , Hamas provoked the IDF to test it’s newly developed Iron Dome Defense system, shooting Iranian shipped Fajr-5, shipped from Somalia, Yemen through Egypt, through the Sinai, into Gaza.
And the next week, Peace is initiated by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi of the Islamic Brotherhood and the UAE, Turkey and the US.
And the next week, Peace is initiated by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi of the Islamic Brotherhood and the UAE, Turkey and the US.
Then the day after President Morsi announces the temporary ‘cease-fire’ between the IDF and Hamas, he unitarily usurps all democratic power from the Egyptian Constitution.
Not to be out done, the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, announces that he is in a ‘moribund condition’ but not yet dead but will soon assign a new line of succession once he definitely decides to die.
But then, in a moment of resurrection and defiance, the once ignoble, inert, if not ossified, United Nations General Assembly, elevated the status of the Palestinian National Authority [my old nemesis Arafat’s PLO] from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state”.
In simple English, this means that finally after decades of fighting and terror the PLO, nee the Palestinian Authority, will finally see daylight where they will be correctly recognized as legitimate state and not a ‘terrorist’ organization.
As someone, who has fought against the PLO, Arafat, the PFLP, Dr George Habash and Abu Nidal and countless other Palestinian ‘offshoot terrorist groups’- this makes me one very happy ex-counterterrorist professional.
Many of you might remember that in one of my former blogs I once commended both Arafat and the PLO- thanking them for having saved the lives of our FSOs, during the Civil War in Lebanon in the 1980’s.
But also many of you might also remember one important axiom that I had always followed: Always treat your adversary “terrorist” with RESPECT because the next day or year, he/she will become the President of that country.
Well, that axiom has been time-tested throughout decades and countless countries including our own ‘Founding Fathers’.
So who really loses out in this entire medley of changes?
So who really loses out in this entire medley of changes?
In my humble opinion, it is unfortunately, Israel.
Why, you ask me?
And how could I even say that—especially when the IDF ‘won’ the war against those ‘terrible terrorists’ Hamas in Gaza?
The answer is quite simple.
The IDF won a “pyrrhic victory” which means if they have to fight another war against Hamas and/or Hezbollah using the Iron Dome or their newly developed David’s Sling Weapon System which had quietly intercepted missiles in the Negev Desert on November 20, 2012—Israel will EVENTUALLY LOSE COMPLETELY.
One more victory like the one they had with Hamas or Hezbollah where the IDF soldiers did not even go into Gaza will, I assure you, spell the end of the IDF and more importantly the State of Israel.
Paradoxically with all of it’s missile systems developed jointly by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in concert with Raytheon, utilizing a two-stage Stunner interceptor missiles that unlike the Tamirs [used in the Iron Dome], will hit inbound rockets directly and destroy them with sheer kinetic impact. Technically, the Stunner is also larger than the Tamir and with more sophisticated guidance and propulsion systems so it can travel further than the stratified missile systems of the much –touted Iron Dome. David’s Sling can intercept unmanned UAV’s, short-ranged ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
So in simple strategic terms, the Operational Pillar of the Iron Dome Defense can intercept short and long range missiles shot from Gaza. But a far greater concern for Israel is Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia in Lebanon which has more sophisticated weaponry than Hamas.
For example, Hezbollah’s inventory holds over 10,000 rockets ranging from 122 mm BM-21 type rockets to the much larger and longer ranged 610 Mm Zelzal-2 rockets.
So between Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel has become nothing more than an encapsulated “kill zone”. If and when, both ‘terrorist groups’ decide to fire simultaneously, the IDF and all it’s offensive and defensive weapons will exhaust itself in a spasm of effort that in the long run will transmute Israel into a ‘failed state’ within less time than Israel’s past efforts in having to negotiate Peace Treaties with it’s collective enemies.
This Gaza ‘victory’ is temporary and illusionary.
At best, Israel has done two very important things. It’s made itself the fifty-first State of the United States with Tel Aviv, as the capital city. It is no longer a viable country suis generis.
Secondly, it guaranteed that without any new strategic or diplomatic initiatives, it has become increasingly more and more ALONE. Rather than a ‘ward’ of the US, in reality it is the “ORPHAN” of the MIDDLE EAST—bereft of friends and succor.
So, as a former military, intel, diplomatic ally of Israel, I really pity it for the lack of time that the leaders over sixty years took to create a new strategy and tactic of ‘engagement’ with their neighbors - Iran, Turkey and others rather than resorting to the very primitive and tiresome position of being ‘surrounded by enemies’ and ‘helpless to do anything but attack’.
As for the myth that Israel is the homeland of the Jews, I have discussed this issue before in other blogs. Please refer to the books such as the Transfer Agreement by Edwin Black and The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein.
The simple matter is that it never was or will be a haven for jews as long as the United States remains a land of freedom, opportunity and diversity. Judaism is only the cover that Israel has left to legitimize a ‘moribund’ or dying state.
With 300,000 protestors in the street yelling for equal pay, the end of corruption and the end of war, Israel has more to concern itself with than engaging in a demonstration to the military bazaar of the world, that it can manufactures instruments of war that can kill at will any and all civilians. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and many other authoritarian leaders with much stronger armies and tougher leaders became extinct by the sheer weight of their moral ignominious behaviors mass killings of innocents—Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Confucius.
However, I would like to end this particular blog on a really happy note.
And that is to congratulate once more, the Palestinian Authority for their long hard, well-earned fight –in all it’s meanings –for the long-awaited and long-due recognition of the Palestine People and their right to a legitimate state.
On a minor note of warning—it would serve our American Administration to facilitate this inevitability and do nothing—but nothing—to impede the State of Palestine.
Mazel Tov!!!