Author: David Mark

David Mark is the founder and editor of Israel Rising. Besides Israel Rising, he heads up outreach for Ateret Cohanim in Jerusalem's Old City and acts as the Managing Director for Pulse of Israel. On the side he teaches classes that blend minimalism, mindfulness, and ecology with the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
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Obama, Hezbollah, and the End of Israel

As I currently sit in my house South of Jerusalem, there is a storm rising on Israel’s Northern border.  The storm is the Iranian axis made up of the Syrian regime, Hezbollah, and Iranian special forces.  This grouping is now a mere 4km from the Israeli Golan, an unthinkable situation just a few months ago.

It has become increasingly clear that the most potent menace out of the three antagonists is the Lebanese Hezbollah.  What was once just an Iranian proxy, has become a battle heartened army over the last few years of fighting to save Assad’s regime in Syria.  The Hezbollah now boasts over 100 thousand rockets aimed at Israel.  Their armed forces are not only situated North of Israel, but now buttress the Hermon, a strategic mountain that overlooks Israel’s Hula valley and Northern coastal areas.

How did this happen?  How did Hezbollah become such a threat to Israel?  Now, before I write further, I want to make it clear that the Israeli government going back to former Prime Minister Ehud Barak who hastily pulled out of Southern Lebanon, thus ceding control to Hezbollah deserves some of the initial blame for Israel’s current strategic situation.

Yet, it is becoming apparent thanks to Josh Meyer at Politico that the Obama administration had willfully shut down and blocked key parts of Project Cassandra, a secret program started in 2008 under the auspices of the DEA to target Hezbollah’s billion-dollar criminal enterprise and in many cases block it.  Hezbollah’s financing has been critical in allowing what was once just a terrorist organization to grow into a political movement and formidable army.

Meyer’s piece, which has become the focus of a cross-section of politicians and pundits since its publication on the 18th of December, essentially blew the lid off the fallout of Obama’s Iranian appeasement policy.

“In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation,” Meyer starts his article.

“The Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.”

Meyer’s article is thick with investigative research.  Despite push back by former Obama and Clinton officials, it is hard to dismiss his findings. There is no need to reproduce in this article what Meyer wove together over at Politico.

What is important to understand is that Israel’s most determined enemy was allowed to grow and build its army and weaponry with full knowledge and acceptance by former President Obama. This is not a small matter and the decision to allow this was clearly not taken without the understanding that doing so would essentially put Israel into mortal danger as it may very well be now.

The Iranian axis may still have captured Beit Jinn this past week, but its ability to inflict blow after blow against Israel would not be as potent if it were not for Obama’s reckless determination to reach a deal with the Iranian regime on the back of Israel’s safety.

The coming war between Israel and its mortal enemies is a direct consequence of the policy decisions in the Obama administration.  Without the chaos of the Arab spring, which Obama championed, nor the overtures to the Iranian regime, by the President himself, Iran would have never been able to reach to the Levant. Iran made the progress it did in large part due to the help of a well-financed Hezbollah.

The coming weeks are critical for Israel as war seems to be a foregone conclusion.  It is important that the truth be uncovered concerning the Obama administration’s role in railroading a program that was designed to weaken one of Israel’s and the USA’s most diehard enemies. It is also imortant that writer’s like Josh Meyer are championed instead of attacked as is happening now by public agents close to the Obama and Clinton teams.

 

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Trump, Jerusalem, and the Coming War

Say what you will about President Donald Trump, he knows how to make an impact.  The voices and cries against the president’s potential decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem or at the very least announce that the US recognizes a united Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital have reached fevered pitch. These antagonists, whether they are Democratic leaders like Keith Ellison or the President of Turkey understand that such a decision would burst the “peace” bubble and render the ultimate trojan horse, the Palestinians, weaponless from here on out.

Furthermore, these leaders who have sojourned with the Jihadists while accepting US funds will have to make a decision about their future.  Denying the truth and using Israel as a distraction for their own abysmal policies can seemingly no longer be tolerated by Trump, Israel, and the growing list of trading partners the Netanyahu government has succeeded in creating around the globe.

There is a war coming and Trump understands the value of trusted partners.  Afterall, as a businessman his success has been built on loyalty and trust.  For Trump, creating a situation where Israel is strengthened and not weakened as its enemies begin to surround it, is crucial.  The USA cannot economically or even militarily fight a two-front war against North Korea and Iran, but by ensuring a strong Israel and brokering a partnership between it and Saudi Arabia is a necessary step for pushing back America’s enemies.




What those people who are complaining about when thy complain about the unilateralism of Trump’s impending decision don’t get is the same thing they have never gotten about him from the beginning.  Donald Trump is no politician.  He is approaching his job as if he is running a business.  For him the Palestinians are an investment who has done more damage and created more loss than profit.

With Saudi Arabia and seemingly Egypt and other Gulf States on board, the thorniest issue is about to be taken off the table. It’s true Jordan will scream as the King’s claim to the holy city falls apart and the Palestinians will riot, but with war on a global scale drawing near, there is no time to play nice with falsehoods, especially when your real allies are at risk.

No one knows what the president is going to say, but the fact that he has now let the embassy waiver pass without signing it is an indication that he is no longer willing to play a game built around false narratives and terror entities. No matter what Trump’s final statement and decision on Jerusalem is, he has already changed the narrative and for that we should all be thankful.

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India cancels $500 million Missile Deal With Israel…Now What?

As the Indian-Israeli relationship continues to grow and mature to something akin to long-lost cousins rediscovering each other, something strange appears to have happened. The Indian MoD has decided to cancel a $500 million deal for anti-tank missiles signed with Rafael in 2014.

The Indian Express reported the following on Monday:

“Ministry sources told The Indian Express that the decision to cancel the deal was based on the consideration that importing a foreign ATGM at this stage would adversely impact the programme for indigenous development of the weapon system by DRDO. Earlier, India had also rejected an offer from US-based Raytheon-Lockheed Martin for Javelin ATGM in favour of the Israeli weapon system.”

While this may seem like a serious dent in future relations between Israel and India, it isn’t and nor should it be.  The misnomer outsiders have involving the relationship between Israel and India revolves around the misunderstanding that the special relationship between the two countries is one tactical and two based on defense sales from Israel to India.

These two notions should be disposed of immediately.  The relationship between India and Israel has been growing from the ground up for over two decades.  While India recognized Israel in 1950, the two did not begin formal relations until 1990.  It was initially Israelis post the army that began to travel to India in a way which created a real grassroots relationship.

These Israelis brought back stories and connections.  These inspired more Israelis to travel to India.  When the tech boom happened Israeli companies sought out inexpensive yet quality programming in India. The economic relationship continued to be built in a decentralized manner.

Both Indians and Israelis recognize that their cultures are ancient and with that recognition a special bond has been built over the years.  Afterall, while Jews lived in exile, they appeared to have found the best treatment in India.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Rafael deal may not seem business like by Western standards, but Israelis should be supportive of India’s strategic goal of self-reliance even if it hits us in the pocket in the short-term.  It is important that alliances and strategic partnerships are based on mutual benefits where neither side holds an upper hand.  An India, which is truly independent is an India that is far better for Israel in the long term.

With all of this being said, the Indian Express reported in the same article that “the Indian military, which currently uses an inferior anti-tank missile that does not work well at night, reportedly expressed concerns that the decision to scrap the Spike deal would negatively affect its preparedness, and that there was ‘operational urgency’ for the Israeli missile.”

India, like Israel appears in need of balancing its short-term military necessities while constantly building home-grown defense equipment.  With the geopolitical circumstances around India entering a far more manic and uncertain stage, both Israel and India would do well to help each other build short-term and long-term approaches to defense partnerships.

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FINAL WAR BEGINNING: The UN is Coming…Again

In what appears to be a major move by the UN, the international organization sent 150 Israelis companies a warning letter that they risked losing international business due to their dealings with companies that worked out of Judea and Samaria. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein personally sent the letters two weeks ago and has already received two responses that affirmed their break in doing business with companies from Israel’s Biblical Heartland.

The Arab countries and their supporters have had a solid hold on the UN  Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for some time, but the move by the organization is literally unprecedented and seemingly part of a wider diplomatic war against Israel .  With UNESCO already erasing the Jewish connection to its holiest sites and cities, the UNHRC move seems natural.

All of this appears to be crossing into dangerous ground as the UN is laying a deeper trap for the Jewish State.  Ultimately, by disregarding the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel as well as a firm campaign backing the BDS movement, the UN seeks to ultimately weaken Israel as its enemies gather against it.

An unnamed western diplomat told Haaretz that more than half of the companies that received the warning letter were Israeli, about 30 were from the US and the remainder from countries including Germany, Norway and South Korea. The diplomat added that Hussein also sent copies of the letter to foreign ministries of several countries who are home to companies which may be added to the blacklist.

According to the report Israeli companies on the list include pharmaceutical giant Teva, the national phone company Bezeq, bus company Egged, the national water company Mekorot and the country’s two largest banks, Hapoalim and Leumi.

The US has threatened to withdraw from the council if the entire list is published.

Before one assumes the worst, Israel was in far worse shape at the time of the Six Days War and we all know how that ended.  With that in mind, reality is how one perceives it.  The UNHRC has very little teeth, yet its bite still has power.  At the end of the day, Israel’s market is small and businesses can make the calculus that it is far better to stay away from the political intrigue than pull in some extra money from Israel.

Once again the aim here is to weaken and divide the State of Israel as it contends to deal with a plethora of unprecedented security challenges. The focus for Israelis should not be to despair, but rather know that with deep faith and a yearning to survive they will make it past this as well.

As Rebbe Nachman says: “There is no despair at all.”

After all, if we’ve made it this far then the rest should be within our grasp as well.  No outside force can move the will of the Creator.

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ANOUSIM RISING: Hidden Jews Now Returning to Israel May Be a Game Changer for the State

With all of the chaos of the Middle East and the unknowns of the region creating a perpetual burden for Israel, the State continues to play a role in the miraculous ingathering of Jews still living in exile.  One of the most phenomenal awakenings in regard to lost Jewish communities is the Bnei Anousim movement, which are those people descended from Iberian Jews forcibly converted to Christianity over 500 years ago.

By the most current statistics there are approximately 67.78 million people that have Iberian Jewish ancestry to a certain extent. These numbers are staggering and because of the sheer amount, the course of action has been muddled by the State of Israel.  Some these people are still genuinely Jewish according to Jewish Law.  Others are loosely connected through genetics, yet still are connected to Christianity. All of them form a block of people that are beginning to realize that their origins make them incredibly important to the future of Jewish people as well as a force in their own right.

Although the Bnei Anousim have legitimate claim to be able to return to their brothers and sisters within the broader Jewish world, there has been many roadblocks to the reclamation of their Jewishness. However, in recent years these roadblocks have begun to fall.

“In 1995 there was a letter written by the former Rishon Leshon, Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu (of blessed memory). In that letter HaRav quoted from the Shulchan Aruch on how to bring back the Bnei Anousim to the faith and traditions of their Sephardi Ancestors, with cords of love,” says Yaffah daCosta head of Ezra L’Anousim an organization focused on bringing awareness to the Anousim movement and to help blaze a smoother path to return to Israel. “However, not many Rabbis were willing to follow his advice. And in all of Latin America there is a takkanah (religious ruling, from 1927) that says the normative Jewish communities will not accept converts (or reverts, meaning from Bnei Anousim) into their communities. But today it’s no longer an issue.”

The Bnei Anousim are beginning to establish authentically Jewish communities in many parts of Latin and South America.  Unlike the past, these communities are ctually receiving help from Israel and other mainstream Jewish groups.

Ezra L’Anousim has become a leading force in breaking down the barriers that have prevented returnees from realizing their dream of returning to the Jewish people.  For two years in a row they have led Yom HaAtzmaut rallies to raise awareness in Israel and around the world about the Bnei Anousim.  Recently they have begin coordinating with the Rabbinical Court of Rav Amsalem in a major bid towards formal recognition and legitimate path back to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

Just recently it was announced that the Israeli government will soon consider recommendations to grant gentiles with Jewish roots, crypto-Jews and members of “emerging communities” who are not eligible for immigration, extended visas to explore their Jewish heritage. This is a very important first step.

“Ezra L’Anousim will continue to grow these “emerging communities” and give them their dignity and self-respect back (as the descendants of Sephardi Jews),” daCosta adds. “We will work in coordination with all the Rabbis and other groups who want to help our people in significant ways. And also will be encouraging all of our Bnei Anousim members to even moreso participate in all the public pro-Israel rallies and celebrations that are being planned for April 2018.”

With the need to find a solution to Israel’s “Palestinian” problem, the amount of returnees could make a strategic difference in deciding how to proceed via the diplomatic angle.  Imagine if Israel had another 3 million or so Jews. Then our options for ending the “Palestinian” charade would be clear.

This can happen if the Israeli government and activists focus on making it far easier for the Bnei Anousim to return to their people.