On the

Blog

The Bully Pulpit – Hamas mistreats the Palestinians

john

 

Let me tell you that ENCHANTÉ  is for Israel, but has good ties with Arabs too. Let me also tell you that ENCHANTÉ  has many Palestinian and Islamic friends and that we sometimes agree to disagree but remain good friends. At a personal level, it works. At the political level, the Israeli-Arab conflict seems insoluble.

Everyone who knows a little bit of the Palestine history knows that it was an area where Jews and Arabs lived together for thousands of years. Zionism had been seeking a Jewish state for itself for a long time and several efforts had been made to achieve that without  success (see the Exodus Ship effort of 1947 below.)

(Notes added upon requests from readers: “Zion” commonly refers to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David. After almost two millennia of existence of the Jewish diaspora without a national state, the Zionist movement was founded in the late 19th century by secular Jews, largely as a response by Ashkenazi Jews to rising antisemitism in Europe, exemplified by the Dreyfus affair in France and the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.[16] The political movement was formally established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897 following the publication of his book Der Judenstaat.[17] At that time, the movement sought to encourage Jewish migration to the Ottoman Palestine. –Source: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.)

World War II and the Holocaust (in which Palestine Arabs did not participate but surely did not object) became the catalyst and led to the idea to use the British “Palestina Mandate”, an off-shoot of the Ottoman Empire that was dismantled at the end of World War I, as an area where a Jewish State could be carved out together with an Arab Palestine.

 

UNSCOP (3 September 1947) and UN Ad Hoc Committee (25 November 1947) partition plans. The UN Ad Hoc committee proposal was voted on in the resolution.
Date November 29, 1947
Meeting no. 128
Code A/RES/181(II) (Document)
Voting summary
33 voted for
13 voted against
10 abstained
Result Recommendation to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out in the resolution[1]Proposed Partition of Palestina in 1947

The Arabs objected, amongst others about “arable” land (you notice the pun?), but why? After all, the Jews had lived there too. Why not have two States, Jewish and Transjordan?  While the UN agreed to the partition in 1948 (33 for, 13 against, 10 abstentions of a UN Assembly of 56 states), war between Jews and Arabs almost started immediately and has never really ended. Reconciliation has proved almost impossible despite the vision of Anwar Sadat who went to Israel and concluded peace with Menachem Begin in 1977 and recognized Israel.

 President Anwar Sadat

Sadat-Begin-Carter 1978

One could say, that was Sadat’s “Mandela” moment. From that moment on, the Arab World could have settled their differences but it did not happen. Other Arabs did not share Sadat’s vision. Egypt was even kicked out of the Arab League for some ten years! On June 6, 1981, fanatic Islamists killed Sadat – and a host of others – at a victory parade commemorating the time that Egypt won back the Sinai from Israel during the Yum Kippur war.  And where are we now? Another Palestinian-Israeli war, though this war is chiefly originated by a terrorist organization called Hamas that enforced its reign on the Palestinians in the Gaza strip when Israel relinquished it in 2005.

What ENCHANTÉ finds so unbelievably short-sighted is all this anti-Israel bashing in the Western media solely because of Palestinian casualties, however tragic they are. Unless you keep your eyes in your pocket, your ears plugged with clay, and your brain drugged with Kool-Aid (assuming you have brains), it is clear from all the photographs that it is Hamas that is killing its own people. The picture below was Tweeted by Hamas and intercepted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Shield areas

Maybe Hamas considers their own people as canon-fodder like Napoleon did in his war with Russia or at Waterloo, and maybe they believe that when they die, even after multiple Israeli warnings to move out of their missile infested homesteads, schools, hospitals and even mosques (yes, Allah’s houses!), their dead will all be martyrs and go straight to paradise and live happily ever after. But their own people may not want to die. They live in fear under Hamas’s terror regime. So why are these Western nincompoops still choosing Hamas’s side? How can they when it is clear for all to observe that Hamas is using its own people as human shields and victim propaganda? Because they are all like the Nevil Chamberlains of World War II.

And don’t forget it was the Brits that rammed the ship “Exodus”in the Mediterranean in 1947  to prevent Jews from re-entering Palestine and shipped them back to Germany of all places!

 

 

Exodus Ship 1947 Israel Virtual Library  Battered Exodus 1947

 

Exodus Ship 2

Exodus docks in Haifa HarbourWounded passengers from Exodus ship accompanied by British Soldier

Exodus passengers transported back to Germany!

In 1947 international discussions were under way to settle the British mandate “Palestina”. Maps floated on negotiation tables.

British Division of Palestina

Why not sit down and REASON to solve your problems without that hot-head demeanor and give each other the space to live? There is enough room if security can be assured!

Look at the daily barrage of missiles that Hamas started this time again. Which country in its right mind would allow that to happen to its people? USA? Germany? France? England? Saudi Arabia? Egypt? Wouldn’t they shoot back, too, with all their might?  No, Jews just have to accept annihilation, problem solved. Then all these tunnels the Israeli detected, smuggling Hamas weapons and fighters into Israel to kidnap and kill. Who can pretend that this is morally right? All that because the Jews have no right to be in the Palestine region that is their homeland as much as it is for the Arabs? Yes, Arabs were there also in the past, but “Palestina” was not an Arab State and surely not an Islamic state!

 

 

Exodus_Map

Sinai and Palestine Area at the time of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt thousands of years ago

arabmap1

 

Arabia map as it is now

 

Things have happened that should not have happened with respect to Arabs being forced to move out of the State of Israel, but the beginning was politically very murky, also because of British ambiguity. Lots of fights with the Brits erupted. But many Jews were forcefully removed from Arab countries, too! And they are not standing in line to return for “resettlement” like Palestinians say they want to in Israel. Remember the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947? That was a hundred times greater and also very murky. Still, there are Islamic people living peacefully in India (like Arabs in Israel) and while India and Pakistan are touchy neighbors, Islamic Pakistan is not trying to drive Hindu India into the Indian Ocean or firing rockets over the border!

Israel accepted the recent Egyptian brokered ceasefire. Hamas refused, even though other Arab countries and the Arab League agreed. Why? Because they did not get full Israeli submission? Why should Israel give in to terrorists? So Hamas continued firing rockets and continued to expose its poor Palestinian people. It’s only after that that Israel reluctantly began the ground incursion. Deference to the Bully never wins you any favor. Remember the bully in your schoolyard? Unless you beat him/her to pulp or get him/her checked by the management, he/she will only grab more power. It is unfortunate, but that’s how we human beings are made up. Many human beings are simply bullies.

 

bullies 3  bully 5

ME17

Take that up another notch to world politics, and you have the perverted UN. Despite the fact that many UN specialized agencies do great work, the Assembly (57 Islamic States out of 198 members = 28.7%) has become a totally different politicized debating club from what it was meant to be at its inception in 1944. Western states generally support Israel, but they are now in the minority on a one- member-one-vote basis. So Israel will always be in the boondoggle at the UN: Because of the UN stereotype anti-Israel posture, Israel will always lose. Only in the Security Council can the USA and some Western Nations block nefarious General Assembly votes. How come that missiles were hidden in two UN Schools in Gaza as UN officials admitted? Would you miss somebody coming into your house or backyard carrying a bunch of missiles under his arm to hide?  How come the UN people “did not see”?

rockets at school UN school

Then there are those Arabs fuming at Zionism. Why don’t we hear them fuming at their Islamism that tortures, rapes, kills and suppresses people, even their own, and renders women unworthy creatures and even stones them half-buried in dirt?

sharia5 sharia6

 

Jews don’t do that. Israel does not do that. Arabs living in Israel can vote and keep their belief. What makes Islamic people believe that Islam is the only right faith? It started 600 years later than Christianity!  What is so nice about a religion that suppresses other religions, steals their believers’ goods and  homes where they have lived for years, makes them pay a tax and labels them secondary citizens, or worse, orders them to convert or die? Is that really what the “religion of peace” is about?  Do we still have to deal with such eight century nonsense in the 21st century? After all, the reactionary Ottoman Empire was defeated in 1918 and good riddance.

Arafat never let an opportunity go by to fail to make peace. Moneywise it was much more lucrative to keep warring. His wife Suha (born and raised a Catholic in Jerusalem!) lived comfortably in an expensive apartment in the Bristol Hotel in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honoré in Paris after she left Gaza where she shared an apartment with Arafat.  The CBS “60 Minutes” program, not exactly a “right wing” unit, reported in 2003 that Arafat had US$800 million in the bank and sent his wife US$50,000-100,000 monthly (depending on the sources) from the Palestinian Authority (PA) budget to live in Paris. This was confirmed by other legitimate sources, among others the IMF. Nobody knows what happens with all the aid money to the PA or Hamas.

 

Le_Bristol_Paris Hotel Bristol Rue de Faubourg-Honoré

Bristol Hotel in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honoré in Paris

Where did all this money come from? Hamas is not any better. Do you believe they are really suffering from hunger, disease and poverty? Yes, their suppressed Gaza Palestinians do, but not the Hamas “government”.

Gaza Luxury Hotel The Deira  Deira Hotel Lobby

Deira Hotel and Lobby in Gaza

GazaHotel market 4

Gaza Hotel Lobby and local market

Another side of Gaza - Vlaamse vrienden van Israelvliegeren in Gaza

Apartments for “martyrs” and Gaza beach

Palestinians enjoy a day at the beach in Gaza City Gaza shopping center-Vlaamse Vrienden

Happy life at Gaza Beach and Gaza Shopping

GazaMarket3 gaza-market vlaamse vrienden van Israel

More Gaza shopping and local markets.

Hamas Home in Gaza  bully 5

Hamas home in Gaza and Hamas Leader

Iran, Qatar and others are faithful financiers. Even the US gives indirectly taxpayer money to Hamas now that they are joined with Fatah.  Do  you really think that any of this aid money goes directly to the poor Palestinians?  From the “happy” pictures of Gaza, where Palestinians seem to like their life, one would wonder, why for heavens sake would Hamas want to expose that happy life to war with its intransigent attitude toward Israel? But no, war has a higher motive: Israel must be destroyed even if it destroys the Palestinians. So, instead of using the aid for further economic development, it will be applied to new missile launchers and tunnels, as was done in the past.

tunnel2 tunnel3

tunnel1 hamas-tunnel-gaza 2

Why this moral equivalence from the USA? What’s left of its moral values? Where is the White House’s moral clarity? How was it possible that the FAA banned flights to Ben Gurion Airport, giving Hamas a win? Such a dramatic move could never have been made without State Department and White House involvement.  Did the US want to pressurize Israel into a cease fire while Kerry was “negotiating” in Egypt? (Remember Kerry’s off the record scolding of Israel’s ground offensive as “a hell of a pin-pointing operation” and “we have to go there tonight, we’re wasting our time here?” Implying he was going to give the Israelis a lesson? This mindset ties in nicely with that FAA ban!) Former mayor Bloomberg courageously took an El Al flight to Ben Gurion to show solidarity.

zach-jpo Bloomberg   9Kerry arrives at Ben Gurion Airport

Bloomberg flies El Al to Ben Gurion Airport after FAA ban. Kerry follows him quickly. Airport suddenly safe again?The ban was quickly lifted after Kerry had to visit Israel. Oh! that White House and State Department miserable hypocrisy!

What has become of the US motto “Peace through Strength” that got the Soviet Union down? Bully Putin is laughing his head off and keeps shooting at Ukraine, even after his cronies downed a commercial jet liner with 300 people dead and Europe and the USA did not take even one meaningful action.

A one Palestinian State is, for the time being, utopia. A well-known Israeli “dissident”, Mike Peled, describes in his intriguing book “A General’s son” how his father promoted that idea. He writes this as having grown up from an “insider” to a “dissident”. In this regard, he is not much different from US “dissidents”. The problem with “dissidents” in democratic societies is that their free speech does not necessarily mean they are right. They surely offer food for thought and sometimes galvanize into a protest march, but I am afraid that Mike Peled’s solution is not achievable at this time, and I even wonder if it is shared by the Arab world:

 

Mike Peled generals-son

 

Jews and Palestinians all living peacefully in one single democratic State. The book has many good critics and, of course, rejections. No one denies that Zionism had racist elements, but Arabs are racist too. The USA had its racist differences and is still not free from it. If there are “lies” based in Zionism, come to Arabia and read the 1000 Arabian nights. The whole argument of a non-racist society in the one Palestine is a noble thought, but history is not encouraging. It may take another century before we grow out of that and make it possible, if ever we get a chance.

So far, a two-state solution with renegotiated borders for security is the best what can be obtained. Democracy in the Middle-East is unchartered territory and we learned that the hard way once more in Iraq. As long as the Jews cannot be assured of absolute security, it would be suicidal for them and for any state to open its borders and resettle hostile terrorists in their midst. And why should Arabs say that Jews cannot have their own State? Saudi Arabia is an Islamic State, Iran is, and other Middle Eastern countries claim they are Islamic States. Beats me.

It’s a mystery why Palestinian leaders never could build their own state and develop it economically the way the Jews did, despite all the billions of aid-dollars and technical assistance that they have been given for at least four decades. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving economic development it had started. What have the “Palestinians” done with it? For nine years,  Gaza Hamas has done nothing but complaining, whining, fighting, subverting, and all for the greater good of throwing the Jews into the sea. What an impressive developmental mission. What a memorable contribution to humanity.

Sorry, ENCHANTÉ  can’t have respect for that and is pretty fed up with this Islamic terrorist and anti-Israel stuff and refuses to be political correct about it as so many in the dumb permissive US and European media are. Friends of ENCHANTÉ consider its author outdated but it wishes we still had an Eisenhower or Reagan USA, Thatcher steel in Europe and an another “Mandela” like Anwar Sadat in Egypt. Today’s leaderless “normal” is pathetic.

 

 

 

 

Comments

Precious Independence

 

john

Everyone loves freedom. Fireworks and all. At Independence Day.

fireworks6

fireworks4 Fireworks Wton

But Independence is a fragile good. Once obtained, many Peoples realize that Independence turns out different from what they asked for. Strongmen leaders grow into tyrants and apply harsh suppression. The national economy is mismanaged and drained into poverty because of greed, corruption and tribalism. Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité evolves into socialist Dépendence.

Statue of Liberty

The American Independence succeeded well and grew into an exceptional configuration of fifty states and the strongest world economy. In his “Democracy in America” (issued from 1835 to 1840 in two volumes), Alexis de Tocqueville marvels about the American Democracy sprouted from the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, and an example for the French Revolution (1789).

Thomas_Jefferson 2

 

But he also says that if its Congress discovers how to bribe the populace with public money, the American Republic will cease to exist. That danger is more than obvious today with “Obamacare” and other state-enforced laws that received only partisan approval.

Alexis de Tocqueville 2

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

Liberty from Independence is replaced by the tyranny of the majority, elected by an uninformed gullible electorate. Look at today’s American and European scenes: freedom has transmogrified into socialist servitude: dependence, not Independence. Or is replaced by the tyranny of the local bully (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Mobutu, Idi Amin, Allende, Castro, Chavez, Sadam, Assad, just to name a few). The French Revolution turned into another tyranny by Napoleon. Remember the “guillotine”.

arabspring2 arabspring7

epa02532161 (FILE) A photograph dated 14 January 2011 and taken by epa photographer Lucas Dolega shows demonstrators gathering in front of the Interior Ministry during a protest against Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in Tunis, Tunisia. The image was transmitted by a colleague the following day 15 January after Dolega in the course of the protests was hit by a teargas grenade and rushed to a hospital in Tunis with severe head injuries. Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, who has been working for the european pressphoto agency epa's office in Paris, France, since April 2006, died of his injuries early morning 16 January 2011 at the age of 32.  EPA/LUCAS DOLEGA
EPA/LUCAS DOLEGA

 

 

arabspring3

arabspring5 arabspring6

The Arab Spring of Hope got squashed by religious and secular tyrants (not that much different from what happened after the French Revolution.)

Still, thousands from other countries that once jumped in the streets celebrating their Independence from colonial powers risk their lives and indebt themselves to flee to Europe and the great USA. It is still better there than in their own “independent” crime-ridden, tortured and economically ruined homesteads.

 

immigrants2immigrants3immigrants5immigrants4immigrants6IMMIGRANTS1

Because freedom is a precious good, Peoples who lack it try to steal it. Or destroy it. Not only outside forces attack a free society, inside forces do so, too: liberal/socialist forces vie for more “government”, to impose their will and regulate freedom to smithereens, as is happening in the USA. Freedom-people seem unaware or complacent that they have a precious good, except at moments when they sing The Star-Spangled Banner, America The Beautiful, la Marseillaise, God Save The Queen, or other national anthems. At the Olympics or the World Cup Soccer, fans stand and shout it out. But the day after the fireworks fade, they return to their usual infighting, busy destroying their hard-won unity, or fall back into complacency, watching sports on TV.

What is left of the Arab Spring? The Independence hopes of the young people, seeing a possibility for democratic rule, a blossoming economy and full employment, living in a world deprived of arbitrary law, torture and daily fear?

arabspring2arabspring4arabspring8

 Do we in the “West” have any responsibility to defend our liberty and to help others who are suppressed to gain or regain their freedom? I believe we do, and if we don’t, it will be at our own peril.

Can we help in the Middle East that has struggled for centuries to form political unity but never succeeded? Surely our “colonial”forefathers who drew arbitrary boundaries, overstepping tribal and religious realities, bear much responsibility for today’s political mess. As a result, many out there want to steal our liberty and to replace it with their own interpretation of how we should live, just as a matter of revenge.

 

sharia7sharia2sharia1sharia6sharia5sharia4

We in the West should remain willing to offer a helping hand to liberty loving Peoples, but at the same time stand very strong to defend our own and make it known we will hit back very hard if they try to take it away from us. At present, the wishy-washy attitude from some Western countries invites attack. A weak posture, even the perception of one, can lead to very quick disaster (9/11 and subsequent events, both in Europe and in the USA, are obvious and dangerous examples).

A politician recently said that being strong does not mean having to go to war. Perhaps. But displaying a wimpy attitude and falling overboard in political correctness only invites a murderous mind to blow us up. You don’t believe that? Remember how  World War II started with weak Neville Chamberlain, the amazing lack of intelligence of 9/11 due to political correctness, etc.. Nobody believed these events would be possible. But they happened, and will happen again if we do not show our teeth and preparedness to hit back. Tiny Israel does, and they are feared. Not so anymore with Obama’s BIG USA. Don’t misjudge or undervalue your Independence. Defend it. It can be lost before you know it.

It’s unfortunate but that’s how our world is made up. People enjoying freedom don’t like to be nasty to others. They become complacent, lazy, too comfortable in their own skin. But others who don’t enjoy it are willing to be nasty with you. That’s the human world we share. Nature has the same contrasts: a beautiful day or scenery gets destroyed by a hurricane, a tsunami, or a deadly flood. We cannot change it but we can protect ourselves.

Guard your Independence beyond the fireworks.

 fireworks1fireworks3fireworks4fireworks6fireworks5

 

 

 

 

 

Comments
%d bloggers like this: