Navigating The Coming Chaos and Understanding Israel’s Direction

The political stalemate in Israel continues to drag on, with most people assuming there will be a third round of elections. What is going on and how does the root of this current crisis stem from the creation of the State?

There is no question about it, the present political quagmire between the so called right-wing block and the left-wing block is directly rooted in the way Israel’s political system was designed from the outset. The challenges in Israel are systemic and understanding this will enable real change and rectification across the national fabric.

We understand that the vessels for the Redemption of the Jewish people and in return the entire world were meant to manifest in a particular manner as to enable the Divine light of the Infinite to flow into the universe, thus rectifying and repairing the world. When those of us who were meant to take hold of these vessels passed up on the opportunity, the vessels fell into the wrong hands.

These hands belonged to the socialist wing of the Zionist movement who succeeded in building the beginning of the bureaucratic apparatus of the state in a way which allowed them to remain in control. With the six million Jews of Europe burnt up and the Jews of Middle Eastern origins broken once they moved to the transit camps within the State, permanent control seemed to be inevitable. However, something miraculous happened along the way.

In 1967, Israel won the Six Day War receiving the Biblical heartland of the Jewish people. This reinvigorated the Religious-Secular debate and inspired the real beginnings of Israel’s Jewish renaissance. A few years later, another unforeseen event took place: The Likud’s Menachem Begin of the Irgun together won a sweeping election after the near disaster of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. This brought the Left’s most “hated” enemy into the premiership for the first time. Worst of all for the Left, the Sefardim (Jews of Middle Eastern origin) who had been economic slaves to the Socialist elite, broke ranks and supported the rightwing camp. This political partnership has for the most part stayed intact.

This ended the Left’s overt control of the State. However, the Israeli Deep State is run by the Left’s bureaucratic control of the military and courts.

Where Are We Now – A Third Revolution?

With Jews returning to a traditional lifestyle increasing year in and year out as well as the Arab-Israeli peace initiatives floundering due to a realization that “Land for Peace” does not work, the Begin revolution that upended Israel has now led the political super structure into proverbial brick wall.

Ultimately, the traditional blocks of the Left and Right are now implacably butting heads as the Israeli Arab parties have essentially required someone to shift one way or the other. Traditionally, this has been Avigdor Liberman’s role. However, since the Palestinian-Israeli peace plan appears to be frozen indefinitely, Liberman’s views on Secular-Religious issues have become the new divide in the political landscape.

Chaos Leads to New Order

Israel’s present situation is untenable. While there are many long term solutions to reconfiguring the political structure, none of those will be implemented in the current climate.

Iran is surrounding Israel, while the State budget cannot be past in a caretaker government. The IDF needs upgrades and no new foreign policy initiatives can be undertaken. There will be a war sooner rather later. With the vacuum in politics, coupled with an external threat, the chaos coming will lead to a new paradigm.

The current vessels of the State were built within the darkness of the Bundist and self-loathing Jewish socialist leadership at the beginning of the State. This leadership was vicious and determined to root out any vestiges of Jewish roots of Israel’s raison d’etre. The coming chaos provides a unique opportunity to rectify the vessels of sovereignty and redemption, uplifting from the darkness from which they came.

Expect many surprises along the way.

Liberman: “Iran won’t be allowed to get nuclear weapons”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman spoke out againt Iran’s growing presence in Syria and southern Lebanon. He stated e.mphatically that “Iran won’t have nuclear weapons. The State of Israel is determined not to allow nuclear weapons for Iran.”

In terms of the situation to Israel’s north, Liberman said “It is bad,” referring to the missile threat from Hezbollah and the growing Iranian control on the Syrian-Israeli border.

With the Russia back Shiite axis clearly coming out ahead in the Syrian civil war, the threat from Iran has grown significantly. Although Russia has promised not to let Iran become a danger to Israel, the opposite has occurred and the fanatical Shiite regime has assumed an ever more threatening position.

Last month Iran sent its first UAV into Israel, which sparked a reaction from Israel destroying many of the forward bases it had built in Syria.  Despite the strong stance taken by the IDF, Iran contiues to expand seemingly realizing that Israel is increasingly on its own.

Options for Israel

Israel has little options for dealing with the growing Iranian presence.  With hundreds of thousands of missiles pointed at it by Hezbollah and a joint Syrian-Iranian threat of invasion into the Golan, Israel has to make sure its moves are considered very carefully.  The Syrian-Iranian alliance is fully backed by Putin, which creates a serious strategic challenge to Israel.

 

PACKERS CORNER: Time to Legalize Havat Gilad

Tonight is the Yahrzeit of my Grandfather, of beloved memory, Huna Leib (Lionel) ben Aharon (Packer). Anything good that comes from this installment is dedicated to the spiritual elevation of his precious soul. He was a wonderful man and an even better Grandfather!

Speaking of death, the carnage in northwest Syria continues and seems to only be getting worse. While the Turkish army is making slow but steady progress against the Kurdish defenses, it seems more attention should be focused on the Syrian “rebels”. They are not only fully participating in the fighting, but many videos and pictures have emerged of terrible atrocities they are committing. If this surprises you, I suggest you move from Antarctica to somewhere with access to some form of worldly information. Its difficult to envision the Kurdish forces hanging on, but we can hope and pray. No country is currently more involved in attacking the Jewish Presence in Jerusalem than TURKEY! That my surprise some folks, but evidence is everywhere here in the Old City.

The saga of officially recognizing Havat Gilad as a legal community continues for another week. Now the Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, promises there will be a final cabinet vote on Sunday. To help understand the significance of this potential move, I have included a picture of a map of the area. If one looks closely, Havat Gilad sits in between the Jewish communities of Kedumim and Yitzhar.

On this specific map and in most “peace plans”, the yellow and black line is that of the proposed security fence/possible future Israeli border. Kedumim in inside the line, but Havat Gilad and Yitzhar are outside. By recognizing Havat Gilad, everything gets closer to Yitzhar. Yitzhar sits on the north side of the arab village of Huwara. This is quite a hostile area for Jewish motorists to traverse to get to the nearby Jewish Communities of Yitzhar, Bracha, Itamar and Elon Moreh. Similar to the Hevron area farther south, there is no real possibility for a contiguous “palestinian state” if the Jewish presence remains in this area. The current Israeli Government has promised to build a bypass road around Huwara. If that happens, based on previous similar examples (think/google Tekoa and the “Lieberman Road”), development should skyrocket. Starting to understand why Havat Gilad is so important? If not, pm me. I love the attention.

Investigations of the Prime Minister continue and the Government Coalition remains obscenely stable.

This week, Poland is claiming not to be historically anti-Semitic and not to have been involved in the killing Jews in the Holocaust. Not really sure what to say about this other than to simultaneously think of every dumb polack joke I have ever heard. Those folks got a real talent.

Finally, there’s a whole to do about the planned upcoming deportation of African infiltrators from Israel back to Africa. Personally, I don’t see why the black hebrews can’t be thrown in (out) as well. In short, people who live far away from and are not personally affected by them think we should let them all stay, because why the hell not?  And those who live with/interact with them, vehemently want them to go. Seems to be a recurring pattern. I would like to make a suggestion: those advocating for the infiltrators to stay should threaten to go to Africa with them, in real solidarity, if they get deported. Even better, they should sign legal paperwork guaranteeing it. Or would they prefer to wax self-righteous all the while preaching from their exclusively ashkenazic high income ivory towers. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what they decide.

Liberman’s new home demolition initiative: The point and the pointlessness

For its long term survival and security Israel needs strategic coherence, not haphazard tactical machoism.  

There is no difference between an attack that ends in murder and an attack that ends with serious injury. In both cases the homes of the terrorists must be destroyedDefense Minister Avidgor Liberman, Oct 29, 2007.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman instructed the Defense Ministry’s legal team to explore avenues that would extend the ability of the IDF to destroy not only the homes of terrorists who have murdered Israelis, but also of terrorists who have severely wounded them. Currently home demolitions are restricted to cases of terror attacks that result in the death of Israelis.

Is incompetence reason for clemency?

In justifying his proposal, Liberman claimed that Israel’s policy of home demolitions has proven itself an effective deterrent against terrorism, and there is no reason to distinguish between the different types of attacks whose purposeful intent was the slaughter of Israelis.

Prima facie, this contention has a sound ring of logic to it. After all, why should the murderous intent of one terrorist be treated less harshly simply because the harm inflicted was—despite that intent—less “successful” than those of another nefarious perpetrator?

After all, if home demolitions are, as Liberman claims, an effective measure in reducing the mortal danger to Israelis, why not apply it to any terror attempt—whether successful or not? Indeed, one might well ask, why should the efficiency of Israel’s counterterror operations be a mitigating factor in dealing with any thwarted would-be Judeocidal butcher?

But perhaps even more to the point is this: If home demolitions are in fact an effective terror deterrent, then perhaps even more than the actual perpetrators, who murder or maim their victims, this measure should be applied to those who plan, finance or incite such atrocities.   

Indeed, given that frequently, the perpetrators themselves are willing to sacrifice their lives in the commission of their brutal acts, it could well be that the threat of having one’s residence razed might have greater deterrent effect on those responsible for planning, funding and inciting such acts—and who do not seem to share such a manifest death-wish as their more dispensable kinsfolk.

Correctly conceptualizing the conflict

Critics of home demolitions, in general and certainly of any expansion of its application such as advanced by Liberman, in particular, allege that, as it entails inflicting punishment on the families of the perpetrator for acts they did not commit, it is inherently unfair. Accordingly, its use should be prohibited or at least severely curtailed.

While this characterization might be factually true, in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it is operationally (and ethically) irrelevant.

It should be almost self-evident that to arrive at some kind of durable resolution of the conflict and the lasting cessation of violence, the conflict must be correctly conceptualized. This is not a prescription for abstract theorizing detached from the harsh and harrowing realities of day-to-day experience. Quite the opposite. Unless the conflict is correctly conceptualized, no effective policy can be devised to contend with it –and certainly not to end it. Indeed, just as a disease cannot be properly treated if incorrectly diagnosed, so a conflict cannot be correctly addressed if it is incorrectly conceptualized.  

Little analytical acumen is required to draw the conclusion that the conflict between Arab and Jew over control of the Holy Land is a clash between two collectives: A Jewish collective and an Arab collective—for which the Palestinian collective is its operational spearhead.

In this regard, during a November 2015 address, then-defense minister, Moshe “Bogey” Yaalon, aptly characterized the conflict as a clash of collectives, describing it as: “…predominantly a war of wills, of two societies with conflicting wills.”

Accordingly, the conflict, as one between collectives, cannot be individualized. One collective must prevail, the other be prevailed upon. Only then, after such a decisive outcome, can the issue of personal misfortune or injustice within the collectives be addressed.


Collective punishments for collective conflicts

If the clash is essentially one between collectives with conflicting societal wills, then clearly, for one collective to prevail over the other requires breaking the will of the rival collective.

Consequently, any wrongdoings perpetrated in the name of the Palestinian collective must carry a price, for which the collective pays – for if not, it will have no incentive to curb them.

In this regard, it must be kept in mind that the Palestinian population is not, as some might suggest, a hapless victim of the terror groups, rendering it blameless for the atrocities committed in its name. To the contrary, it is the very crucible from which such groups have emerged. By its own hand, by its own deeds and declarations, it has made it clear that it will not—except on some temporary, tactical basis–brook any manifestation of Jewish political independence or national sovereignty “between the River and the Sea”.

Indeed, a July 2017 survey by Palestinian Center of Policy and Survey Research, found that within the Palestinian collective, there is virtually unanimous endorsement of the acts of terror perpetrated against the Jewish collective and similar sympathy and support for perpetrators. According to its findings, “an almost total consensus rejects pressure on the PA to terminate payments to Palestinian security prisoners [i.e. jailed terrorists- MS]” and “91% are opposed to the suspension of PA payments to Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails; only 7% support such measure.  

Putting home demolitions in perspective

Accordingly, in the context of a clash between conflicted collectives, the issue of the “collective nature” of punitive measures should not be considered grounds for their preclusion.

After all, this was never a consideration in, say, Serbia, where markets, hospitals, buses, bridges and old age facilities, to name but a few civilian targets hit in high altitude bombing sorties in the US-led NATO attacks in the Balkans War of the 1990s.

Moreover, as polls repeatedly show, terror attacks against Israelis are not something foisted on a reluctant peace-seeking Palestinian population, but are in fact, widely embraced by it—reflecting nothing more (or less) than vox populi.  

Seen in this light, home demolitions and the extension of their imposition on perpetrators of non-lethal terror attacks (or even planners and facilitators of such attacks) are entirely appropriate if they:

– militate towards diminishing dangers to which members of the Jewish collective are exposed; and

– diminish the will of the Palestinians-Arabs, as a collective, to carry out assaults against Jews (as a collective).

However, unless integrated into a wider conceptually coherent strategic policy, home demolitions, like any other operational tactics, such as targeted killing, are unlikely to be effective in any meaningful way. This is particularly true if the affected family members are allowed to receive aid to quickly rebuild an alternative abode and financial compensation for their kinsman’s commission of the act for which their home was demolished.

Lack of strategy stymies tactics

Indeed, while it might be possible to present data showing that harsh punitive and/or preventative measures—whether house demolitions, administrative detention or targeted killings—may have reduced the frequency of terror attacks, even their most fervent proponents will be forced to admit that they have not been able  to terminate such attacks. And certainly they have been unable to break the terrorists’ will to undertake them.  

Nor will they ever be able to do so, if they remain detached from a wider strategic blueprint, which draws on the awareness that in the ongoing clash between two collectives with irreconcilable core aspirations, only one can prevail.

This calls for Israel to cease relating to the Palestinian-Arab collective as a prospective peace partner, and to begin relating to it as it relates to itself—as an implacable enemy.  Only then can a coherent, comprehensive and logically consistent strategy be fashioned in which Israel ceases to sustain an inimical collective by gradually ceasing to supply it with goods and services it needs for its existence. In applying such a strategy, a clear distinction should be made between the belligerent Palestinian-Arab collective and non-belligerent Palestinian-Arab individuals.

The former must be unequivocally and unmercifully vanquished and dismantled. The latter must be provided with the means to seek a better, more secure life elsewhere in third party countries, outside the “circle of violence” and free from the clutches of the cruel corrupt cliques who, for decades, have wrought nothing but disaster and devastation upon them.    

Strategic coherence not haphazard tactical machoism

Only once such a strategic approach is adopted, can various operational tactics –such as an enhanced demolitions policy—be effectively incorporated into it as tools to achieve strategic goals. Until that happens, until Israel foreswears any aspirations of reaching some consensual arrangement with the Palestinians, harsh tactical measures will always, to some degree or other,  be at cross purposes with ostensibly more benign strategic objectives. Until that happens, Israeli policy will be plagued by internal contradictions that hamstring its implementation and the effectiveness of its operational tactics, making it appear disingenuous and devious—and an easy target for international acrimony and opprobrium.

Surely it is high time for the national leadership to grasp these almost self-evident truths and demonstrate an awareness that for its long term survival and security, Israel needs strategic coherence, not haphazard tactical machoism.  

HEBRON RISING: Israel Elevates Status of Biblical City’s Ancient Jewish Community

Hebron’s upgrade will have a direct and almost immediate effect on the “peace process.” The message is clear: Judea and Samaria will not be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

Seemingly in conjunction with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments last night that “Judea and Samaria will be Israel’s forever,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman elevated the official status of the ancient Hebron community to that of a separate municipality from their Palestinian Authority counterparts.

The move is significant for the simple fact that all Jewish neighborhoods will be united under one municpal board. This board will have the independent right to buy property in Hebron, essentially pushing forward private avenues to redeem more of the city and continue to return it to Jewish hands.

Yishai Fleisher, Official Spokesman for Hebron said the following:

“The City of the Patriarchs is also the city of the Sons: We want to thank the Justice Minister, Defense Minister and his Deputy, the Attorney General and the Legal Advisor for the Judea and Samaria Area for their hard work, which has led to the regulation of normal life and municipal services for the Jewish community in Hebron.”

This status change essentially opens up Hebron for development in a way that it never has had before.  Seen as a place of extreme conflict between Jews and Arabs, the Hebron Jewish community has worked hard to open the ancient city and grave site of the Jewish people’s Patriarchs and Matriarchs to a wider array of Jews and Israelis.

Liberman’s announcement can be seen as a quiet game changer for Hebron and Israel’s permanent control of its historic Biblical Heartland.

Rabbi Ben Packer’s lecture titled the Tipping Point, filmed two years ago which can be viewed below is an important road map to why decisions like the upgrade for Hebron are game changers.

Both Bibi Netanyahu’s statement yesterday and Liberman’s announcement today appear to be born from the realization on the part of the White House that the Palestinian Authority has all but torpedoed “Peace” negotiations with Israel.

Whether or not Trump gave his approval is perhaps secondary. What is important to note is that Israel appears to be moving forward in holding onto Judea and Samaria for good.