With this morning’s attack at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, the current Intifada continues to creep from knives to guns. In the last few attacks in Jerusalem and now back in Kiryat Arba, Palestinian Arabs have used serious weapons to attack.
These attacks have flipped what appeared to be “random acts of violence” to an armed uprising. The question isn’t where we are, which has become clear to most people in Israel, but how are we going to deal with it?
Incitement and Geopolitical Considerations have Slowed Israel’s Reaction
In order to answer that question, it is important to understand that most of what we are witnessing could have been avoided. The government has gone out of its way to try to politicize the attacks instead of crushing them from the beginning. We can see this most clearly in the ongoing finger pointing at the Palestinian Authority’s use of religious and racial incitement against the Jewish people. Yet one has to wonder where the government has been up until this year. We all know both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, headed up by lifetime President Abbas, utilize children’s TV and radio to brainwash their populace. In fact this has been going on for sometime. Another thing the government has been aware of is the Palestinian illegal arms build up in much of Judea and Samaria.
By allowing this Intifada to simmer behind the point of a knife, the government has fed the notion to the Leaders of Fatah and Hamas that guns and bombs could in fact be used. If the government had crushed the knife attacks in the beginning by going after the leaders’ livelihood and in fact their lives, the Arab street in Judea and Samaria would have gotten it. However, that would have required Bibi Netanyahu and Bogie Yaalon to treat this as a war. They have not been ready to do that yet. Understandably, their hands are tied into a larger geopolitical maneuver and declaring war on the Palestinian Authority would derail in their minds from dealing with Iran, while fending off a hostile White House and State Department.
Given the balance that needs to be struck between geopolitics and a homegrown war within Israel by Arabs who migrated to the Land within the last 150 years, a new approach must be undertaken to withstand the growing violence in Israel.
Implosion of the Palestinian Authority will Bring About a Paradigm Shift
Hints to a new course of action and trajectory by the government has been bubbling up into the media over the last few months. It is no secret that the PA is in the midst of an internal crisis. Most Arabs and others dwelling within the Palestinian Authority areas have grown to hate the leadership as both ineffectual as well as corrupt. Violent Palestinian Authority cops and officials use their power to steal public funds and shake down opponents. With the above facts, the Israeli government seems to be inching towards allowing the Palestinian Authority to collapse on its own in a staged manner. After the collapse local forces from within the various clans that make up the multi faceted Palestinian society can rebuild their relationship with Israel in the proper way.
In that approach, Israel will increasingly move towards a one state solution in a phased manner, all the while ensuring violent elements are removed and reinforcing local leaders.
Crushing the Terror Groups Should Begin Now
Considering the fact that the PA is ineffectual as well as in a free fall, the Israeli government should make it clear that there is no longer any tolerance for any sort of attack. By beginning now it can set the stage for lessening a chance for a complete explosion when the Palestinian Authority’s collapse enters its final phase.
Geopolitics aside, the government in Israel must not only prepare for the day after a Palestinian Authority collapse by speaking about it, but it must be proactive ensuring the violence we have witnessed not only does not increase towards anarchy, but firmly puts it back in its place.
The primary responsibility of every government is to provide security for its citizens so they can go about their daily business without fear of death or injury. When this security is fundamentally lacking, we are no longer talking about a society going about its normal business, but about a state of anomaly, whether the society and its government explicitly recognizes this or not. This means that the basic, most fundamental pact between the government and its citizens lies in tatters.
Israel is living in a state of anomaly. Those who will say that it has always been so — that the current state of unceasing terror in which more than 30 people have been killed and almost 400 injured in terror attacks since September is no different — are dangerously missing the point. Those who come up with a world of excuses as to why the situation cannot be remedied and daily security on the streets reinstated are even more off target. The only question that matters from the point of view of Israelis who are performing their civic duties — serving in the army or sending their children to do so, paying their taxes, being law-abiding citizens — is why the other half of this societal contract, their right to physical security, is not being upheld. One has a fundamental right to go about one’s daily life without fear of being shot, stabbed, rammed by a car, or hit with a rock.
The answer to this question can never be that the international community may not like the measures needed for the government to provide such security. Physical security is every human’s primary right. Nothing can stand above it. Besides, the international community, or what passes for an “international community” these days, has already proved beyond all doubt that it cares nothing for Israeli lives. The European Union keeps pumping millions of euros into the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that the PA is an authoritarian and undemocratic regime that ceaselessly indoctrinates its own citizens to murder Israelis and ruthlessly abuses and brainwashes its own children in the process.
The international community does not care about Israeli lives, but it cares tremendously about Israeli houses. It spends endless hours debating “settlements” and the soil on which these “settlements” rest. It is Jewish houses, sheds and vegetables, not knives and guns and the Arab terrorists who wield them, that the civilized Western nations have a problem with. How many more decades do we need to learn that crucial lesson?
At least one person was killed and more than a dozen were wounded in a series of terrorist attacks across Israel on Tuesday. The next morning, two terrorist attacks occurred in Jerusalem, with one Israeli critically injured. What is there left to debate? There have been dozens of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks to date. This is not normal. This is not something we should accept. This is sheer insanity.
And yet Israeli society goes on every day, almost as if nothing abnormal is happening. Because we have to, because we are tough, and “life must go on.”
But there is a tremendous fallacy in this. It endows the status quo with a dangerous legitimacy, as if we have all collectively told ourselves that such is our fate and that there is no other way. Why? Because the world might not like it if our government used harsher measures that would effectively root out the terror from our streets? The economy might — or might not — suffer if we were to care less what our trade partners think of our security policies. Personally, I would much rather suffer with a bad economy than with an anomalous and horrific security situation.
Perhaps millennia of exile and political anomaly — living without our own state or the possibility for self-determination and consequently being subjected to the whims and mercy of foreign rulers — has settled in the Israeli genome, leading even the most patriotic Israelis to unwittingly and subconsciously believe that this kind of security situation, unlike that of any other civilized nation on earth, is just the “Jewish normal.” It is not, and if we wish to be a full-fledged state, respected by other states in the world, it can never be the “Jewish normal.” Strength is the only thing that garners respect. And strength means upholding one’s most basic and fundamental rights.
Every Israeli has a fundamental and inherent right to physical security, but we seem to have forgotten this and dangerously accepted that this is how it is, that we always have to watch our backs, our children, our supermarkets and our doorways for Arabs with knives and guns. We must understand that it does not have to be this way. Such a disastrous and anomalous situation is not inevitable. It is one that we have chosen and continue to choose, every single day, for as long as we allow ourselves to be stabbed, shot, rammed by cars, and showered with rocks while we go about our business as if it were normal.
This article was originally published on Israel HaYom.
Across the African continent, foreign powers came from both the East and West, drawing artificial boundaries and using their control to plunder and ravage traditional communities. Nowhere else in the Eastern Hemisphere did humanity witness such a concerted effort to destroy once thriving communities. From slavery (backed by both the Europeans and Arabs) to economic and political control, Africans were colonized in mind and body.
The current conflict in Biafra is a microcosm of a new sort of colonial struggle. The slow creeping takeover of Southern Nigeria by Islam is no longer slow. Nigeria and other countries like it, where an admixture of various peoples were smashed together by the colonial powers have become even more susceptible to an Islam supercharged in a mission to gain control of Nigeria’s Southern region, which is where much of its industry and oil are.
Victims of Fulani Raids
An example of this are the raids by Northern Fulani herdsman have grown more punitive and destructive. This past week on February 28th Fulani herdsman killed at least 300 people in Agatu. One survivor said, “As we speak, Odigbeho-Agatu has been razed. The massacre there today (Monday) had no equal because Odigbeho is one of the most important and well-populated villages in Agatu. Our people were caught napping because we relaxed when we heard what we considered the cheering news that the federal government has intervened. Unfortunately, the Fulanis knew we had relaxed and took advantage of us to unleash a terrible massacre on us. As we speak, corpses litter everywhere in the village. I have been trying to reach many of my family members without success. We feel terribly let down by the government that announced a joint security team. We have not seen the security men- be they policemen or military, as I speak.”
Essentially the central government offers the Biafra region protection, but never enough against the raiders. Both the central government and the Fulani are Muslim. Along with the growing violence the Free Biafra movement has been hit hard recently. Their leader Nnamdi Kanu is on trial for treason. Biafrans have been outraged as they fear and feel a return to the turmoil that marked the Biafran Civil War, where 3 million were killed or starved to death between the years of 1967-1970.
The military and police have taken to killing unarmed protesters as the situation becomes increasingly bloody.
What makes Biafra all the more crucial for the future of Sub-Sahara Africa is that it is made up of an overwhelming number of Igbo. The Igbo believe they are descended from Israel and self identify as Israelites. With this in mind It is not surprising that in the Biafran Civil War, Israel actually gave supplies and support to the region. The Nigerian dilemma essentially pits Islam, Christians, and the Igbo who have long struggled to reclaim their heritage from colonization against one another.
Biafra has become a battleground to learn whether Africa can prevent a continuance of colonial influence under the guise of a religious conflict or if it can rise and understand that much of the ideologies confronting one another were imported from those nations who forced both slavery and colonization on Africa. That goes for both Christian Europe and Islamic Middle East. The irony is that the Igbo, as they begin to decolonize their religion and culture, have exemplified far more indigenous behavior than their fellow Nigerians. This is what makes Biafra important. It is a region experiencing a return to its ancient Hebrew roots and should be supported in its desire and drive to do so.
There have always been those leaders who have argued for a Pan Africanism, as if Africa was ever pan or of one mold. It never has been. Such assumptions are reactions to the trauma of being subjugated by foreign powers. What is important to understand though, is that Africanism is more about a return to accepting the fact that the artificial constructs of a post colonial Africa has essentially committed Africans to constant struggle within their current boundaries.
A free Biafra would be a recognition that the boundaries are meaningless and should be exchanged for a return to what was before. This would go a long way to reconstructing Igboland to what it was before Europeans and Arabs uprooted it along with wreaking havoc across the rest of Africa. Biafra should serve as a test case for other areas of Africa.
Rabbi Harry Rozenberg joins me for a deep discussion on the growing global awakening among crypto Israelite communities around the world. His groundbreaking work on iTribe brings together these Israelite communities onto one social platform.
The following subjects are covered:
iTribe.us
Law of Return?
Global Israel
Igbo, Bassa, Pashtun, Bnei Menashe
Biafra
Israel needs to wake up and accept these Crypto Israelites
The US and others, while suggesting they are strong supporters of Israel and its need for security, in reality are not promoting peace. Their policies are actually sustaining and rewarding terror.
Let me explain…
President Obama, for example, has repeatedly stated throughout his administration that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is “unshakable.” No doubt these are reassuring words to Israel and its friends around the world. However, his actions contradict his words.
How so? It has been the policy of the US and others to condemn the ‘settlements’ and the ‘occupation’ as the main obstacles to achieving peace with the Arabs. For those who subscribe to said view, where were the ‘settlements’ or ‘occupation’ in 1948 or 1967? They did not exist.
However, in order to see the folly of blaming the lack of peace on these issues, we should look at what the statements imply:
They suggest the US is attempting to be balanced. This is meant to appeal to the Arab world which thinks the US has been too supportive of Israel for many years.
They allow the US to avoid tackling the real issues which are preventing peace.
Placing accurate blame
The Arabs flatly refuse to accept the right of Israel to exist. The charters of the PLO, Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas’s own party Fatah, all require its destruction. Is the US devoting anywhere near as much attention to combating this as they are about condemning ‘settlements?’ Absolutely not. Abbas has repeatedly stated he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israeli leadership has consistently committed to recognizing a state for the so-called ‘Palestinians,’ yet is the US applying equal pressure on him to recognize Israel? Again, no.
Another issue is money.
The US and others believe if there is measurable improvement in the overall economic environment of the Arabs it would reduce their “frustration,” which many believe motivates their terror attacks against Israelis. For the uninformed Arab, terror against Jews has been ongoing since the rebirth of Israel in 1948. Moreover, such statements carry with them an implied justification for the terror and provide additional incentive for more of them. In my view, there exists no moral equivalence between justice and terror.
Moreover, after Israel is forced for the umpteenth time to neutralize murderers of innocent civilians, we hear the ever-present catcalls that they are using disproportionate force. My response to this is something I heard years ago- “if the response to terrorism is seen as less acceptable than terrorism itself, we invite more of it.”
If the Arabs wish to express frustration regarding their poor economic condition, I say they have that right. However, they should be expressing it at the appropriate party, and that is not Israel.
The responsibility of the economic plight of the Arabs belongs to their own leadership.
When Yasser Arafat formed the Palestinian Authority in 1994, he promised new hospitals, clinics, educational institutions and improvements to the general infrastructure. He also promised greater employment opportunities. However, instead of delivering on his promises, he took complete control of all media, as well as the flow of money. None of the promised improvements took place. With virtually no independent oversight this became a recipe for corruption.
He and his cronies systematically stole huge sums of money, while the average Arab remained in abject poverty, which is the case today.
Such information rarely gets much attention, and certainly not in Arab media, heaven forbid!
Tracking the money
Here are some rather incredible facts:
Since its formation, the Palestinian Authority has received over $31 billion in foreign aid. In 2014 alone they received well over $2 billion. Of that amount the US provides the most by far- roughly $400 million, followed by the European Commission ($140 million), Saudi Arabia ($103 million), the UK ($95 million), etc. [see chart] In fact the Arabs have received more money than any other group of people in human history. If you take into account historic inflation, the PA has received more money than the US gave to rebuild all of Europe under the Marshall Plan after WW ll,” according to Calev Myers of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice who has studied this extensively. The funds were given to 17 countries with a combined population of 300,000,000. By comparison the number of Arabs living in Judea/Samaria, commonly referred to as the West Bank, is just under 3 million, or equal to 1% of post WWll European population. Yet they have been given more money than all of Europe!
With respect to Arafat, while the average Arab suffered, his wife Suha who lived in Paris received $200,000 per month from him. She also is alleged to have received numerous bulk payments, one of which was $11 million according to reports. Where did this money come from? More important, what happened with the vast amount of international aid given to the PA?
When Arafat died in 2004 an investigation showed he had $1 billion stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. Plus, he supposedly was in control of up to $6 billion in assets. His widow refused to reveal the location of the stolen money unless she was awarded a ‘finder’s fee.’ Rumor is the investigative team paid her as much as $40 million. The team was led by Mahmoud Abbas.
The Presidential Guest Palace in Surda, Ramallah being built by Mahmoud Abbas at a cost of $13 Million
Since then, Abbas has traveled down the same road of corruption of his predecessor. His personal wealth is said to be as much as $1 billion. However, since he is not subject to financial accountability, who really knows? He is currently constructing a $13 million mansion for himself.
Another area of fiscal irresponsibility is the PA owes roughly $300 – 400 million to Israel in unpaid electricity bills. Given Mr. Abbas’s accumulated stolen wealth, no doubt he could write a personal check for the entire amount.
In reality the economic well-being of the Arabs has long been in their own hands. However, they have never been able to realize it because their leadership has literally stolen it. Meanwhile, western leaders bemoan the presumed poverty driven frustration as the reason for terror, while international money keeps lining the pockets of corrupt leadership, and the average Arab continues to live in poverty.
Someone needs to have a blunt conversation with Mahmoud Abbas.
As for the Arab health care system, it remains so under developed many of them in desperation come to Israel for needed care. Indeed, in 2014 when tensions were extremely high due to the disappearance of three Jewish teens, who were later found murdered, Abbas’s wife was having surgery in an Israeli hospital. Plus, in the midst of the current spate of terror, which Abbas has fueled with hateful rhetoric, his brother-in-law had life-saving surgery in Israel. Israel even treated the granddaughter of Ismael Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip.
International aid funding murderers
Aside from pilfering money meant to improve the lot of the average Arab, there is another disturbing aspect of how international aid is being used by the PA.
Approximately 16% of their total budget is designated to reward terrorists and their families. This is done under what is called The Law of the Prisoner.
Here’s how it works:
If an Arab commits a crime against an Israeli and is imprisoned he becomes eligible to earn a large monthly income. It can be as much as $3,500, ($42,000 annually) which is five times greater than the average Arab earns. The monthly income is on a sliding scale. The most heinous crimes get the highest monthly stipend.
You’ve heard the old saying “crime doesn’t pay?” These terrorists are proof it does pay. US and European taxpayers are the ones who are providing the “pay.”
Abbas’s actions are nothing short of criminal, plus he is guilty of using international humanitarian aid to reward murderers.
While the likelihood of him being imprisoned is remote, here are few suggestions for the US and others:
Stop blaming Israeli ‘settlements’ and ‘occupation’ for the lack of progress toward peace.
Demand Abbas condemn terror against Israelis and take steps to eliminate it.
Require mutual national recognition and hold him accountable if he refuses.
Demand the PLO, Fatah and Hamas amend their charters which call for Israel’s destruction. (no legitimate peace partner is party to a charter calling for the others destruction)
Insist the PA set up independent oversight and engage in complete financial transparency and accountability.
Demand the Law of the Prisoner be scrapped. Inform the PA financial aid will be terminated if murderers continue to be financially rewarded.
At the end of the day the effort of the US to appear balanced by maintaining the status quo is not only failing to move the peace process forward, it is actually perpetuating an environment which will never produce peace.
What is needed is for world leaders, especially the US, is to get blunt with Abbas as well as the Arabs, and stop trying to persuade Israel to further compromise its security by rewarding those who uncompromisingly seek its destruction with land and money.
