Last Weds night PM Netanyahu gave a press conference, flanked by his senior advisors, Defense Minister Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon and CiC IDF Gen. Benny Gantz. Given the degree of focus on the Gaza war that there has been in the international media one would think they would be interested in this important summing up by the Israeli leader. But, it was not shown and hardly mentioned in the media. If a Palestinian child is not bleeding, forget it!
Jack Cohen
Of course, Bibi summarized the reasons why Israel has so far won the conflict (see my blog on 28 Aug). Even though Israelis have ample reasons to be satisfied by the outcome of the fighting so far, nevertheless Bibi’s approval rating has been in serious decline during the conflict. As the rain of missiles into southern Israel continued, his popularity that was nearly 90% at the start of Operation Defensive Edge, dipped now to only 30%. The reasons for this are interesting, mainly the people in the south expected that the missiles would be stopped, so that they could return to normal life, and they haven’t been. Also the attack tunnels that were discovered and destroyed gave them pause, since it was apparently not known by Israeli intelligence that they were there, opening inside Israel just a few km from Israeli communities. Even kibbutizim that are generally left-wing, were shocked by this development. They realize that even if they are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause (they all support giving the Palestinians a State) they would be summarily murdered by Palestinian terrorists (thus illustrating the line that “a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged”). Therefore, they all became hardline, basically what they are saying to Bibi is, take the opportunity and destroy Hamas. But to do this would jeopardize several political advantages.
Most notably during this conflict, while many western liberals supported the Palestinians, that they wrongly equate with Hamas, the Arab League and most of the Arab countries have been strangely quiet. Only on one occasion did the Saudi FM criticize Israel, in a mild and almost off-hand way. In other words, the Arabs countries as a whole for the first time failed to support the Palestinian side, because they recognize Hamas for what it is, a radical Islamist organization, commited to their destruction as well as that of Israel. This is a case of the western liberals being holier than the Pope (or the Imam). But, if Israel carried out a ground invasion into Gaza City, with many more civilian casualties, then the Arab States might feel the need to show greater support for the Palestinian side. The only Arab country that actually supported Hamas during this conflict was Qatar, and also the non-Arab countries Turkey and Iran (note that Turkey’s threat to send another flotilla to Gaza during the hostilities was quickly dropped). This new alignment of moderate Sunni Arab States, that oppose radical Islamic terrorism, as in the IS, bodes well for a future potential rapprochement between them and Israel.
Although there was as usual much talk about a UN Security Council resolution to bring a ceasefire, they never managed to do this, and so it was Egypt that led the way to bring a ceasefire. And this was advantageous to Israel, since the Egyptians do not favor Hamas, on the contrary, the Egyptians insisted on a ceasefire without conditions.
Perhaps the most notable outcome of the conflict then is domestic, with the right wing, notably FM Lieberman and Bayit Yehudi Chairman Bennett as well as Danny Danon within the Likud Party, attacking Bibi for being too cautious, for not finishing the job, for not destroying Hamas. Operation Defensive Edge is not over yet, but when it is, if Hamas is not demilitarized and is still in control of Gaza, then Bibi can expect a concerted political attack from the right.
Jack Cohen
WHITHER IS ?
What most people fail to understand about the fighters of the Islamic State (IS), that has been proclaimed in eastern Syria and northern Iraq, is that they model themselves on the example of their prophet Muhammad, who in 622 ce moved with his followers from Mecca to Medina (now in Saudi Arabia) and there founded his religious community. This is termed the hejira from which the Muslims date their calendar. There were two main tribal groups residing in these two cities at that time, pagan Arabs and Jews (some of them converted Arabs). Muhammad set about trying to convert both of them to his new monotheistic religion. In order to do this he formed an army that in 624 ce returned to Mecca and eventually conquered it. Then he returned with his army to Medina and through a series of raids and battles he subdued all resistance in the region and forced all remaining inhibitants to either convert to Islam (which means submission) or die. In Mecca, he substituted his worship for the pagan Arab worship at the Kaba (the great black basalt stone), initiated the Hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca) and gradually extended his control over the whole of Arabia. After his death in 632 ce, his followers, the Ummah, continued to expand the Islamic Empire by conquest of Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad.
This history is contained in the Koran and is very well known to all Muslims (for a detailed account see “No god but God” by Reza Aslan). There are two things to note about this history, first, that Islam was spread by “the sword,” second that Mohammad dealt very harshly with those he conquered who refused to accept his belief system, they were summarily executed. When some peope say that Islam is a “peaceful religion” they mean that many Muslims are not motivated to follow this example of Muhammad, but of course, many others are. These constitute the current wave of political Islam or Islamism that seeks to expand the realm of Islam by force and reconstitute the (Sunni) Islamic Caliphate, that was founded among his followers after Muhammad’s death and which was centred in Baghdad until it was taken over by the Ottoman Turks and was transferred to Istanbul, until it was abolished in 1928 following the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic by Kemal Ataturk.
Knowing this history and knowing that that the IS are specifically following Muhammad’s pattern, is necessary in order to understand their true threat to modern western civilization and for all minorities. It is true to say that Islam does not tolerate minorities, they are considered to be un-Islamic, or to use a Christian term – they are heretical. Jews and Christians have been tolerated by Islam because they are monotheistic precursors to Islam, but they were forced to pay a special protection tax (the jizya) and treated as “second class” citizens or dhimmis. However, throughout Muslim history, Jews and Christians have been persecuted, and now in the whole Muslim world there is no viable Jewish population and those of Christians are diminishing rapidly as a result of massacres and attacks from Nigeria to Iraq. Of course, Israel is a main target of the IS. But, note that IS does not only consider Jews and Christians as their enemies, they also include in that category the Shia, the main heretical sect of Islam in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and the regimes that control all the Arab Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, that was established only in 1932. Further, they consider the USA as their chief enemy, being the most powerful secular/Christian country in the world.
Jack Cohen, Netanya, Israel
Jack Cohen: Born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. He has a web site: Comment From Israel
