Gaza...Shut It Off And keep It Off

Gaza And The Pharaohs--Shut It Off And Keep It Off

by Gerald A. Honigman



Ever since the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 B.C.E.), Gaza has been a major invasion route for Egyptians into the land of Canaan/Israel. Shoshenk I recorded the cities he crushed in Israel.

It appears that the Pharaohs accepted, for one reason or another, the settlement of the area along the coast between Egypt and Canaan by “the Sea Peoples,” the Philistines--the Plishtim of the Hebrew Bible, non-Semitic immigrants from the Aegean Sea area around Crete whom the Jews called “the uncircumcised ones.” Five cities in that coastal area, including Gaza, became their domain, for long a major headache for the Jews. David slew the warrior Goliath from another one of those cities, Gath; Samson had Philistine girlfriend problems; and so forth. The Hebrew Prophet Amos (9:7) proclaimed, “Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor (Crete)…? ”

That last sentence above is especially interesting. If you really want to know the essence of Hebraic monotheism, read the Hebraic Prophets…such as the one above. So much for the Jews’ “chosenness” as allegedly meaning that they have some sort of chip on their shoulder. The Prophets relayed to the world a vision of behavior and moral expectations revolutionary for its time and a model for much of the world today… “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy G_d ?,” Micah 6:8.

Okay…I’ll end the sermon now, but pay close attention to that last quote above for what comes a bit later below.

In modern times, Egypt’s latter day Pharaohs seized Gaza from the Mandate of Palestine in an updated attempted conquest of the Jews in the war over the rebirth of Israel in 1948. For most of the previous four centuries, Gaza was part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire… not “Arab” land. And when Arabs did rule it for several centuries, they got it the same way Turks did--via imperial conquest after the Arab invasions of the 7th century C.E.

From 1949-1967, Egypt ruled Gaza. Transjordan--itself created out of the lions’ share of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine--seized Judea and Samaria (renaming it, in partnership with British imperialism, the “West Bank”) at the same time.

Note that for almost two decades the two Arab states above had control over both Gaza and Judea and Samaria…and no one called for the creation of a second Arab state in Palestine.

After Pharaoh Jamal ‘Abd al-Nasir I threw out the UN Peace keeping force stationed in Sinai after the 1956 war, amassed over 100,00 troops on Israel’s border, blockaded Israel at the Straits of Tiran (a casus belli), publicly stated he was launching a war for Israel’s annihilation, etc. and so forth, Nasser’s plans backfired big time. From 1967 onwards, Israel, as in Biblical days, once again gained control of that narrow Gazan coastal strip which served as the millennial Egyptian invasion route into the land of the Jews.

The last bullets had barely stopped flying in the Six Day War when the Jews offered a virtual total withdrawal from territories occupied in that defensive war fought for Israel’s very life. Few --if any--nations have ever been so generous with an enemy which rejects its very right to exist.
Borders and possessions have changed constantly over wars…including America’s. The Arabs’ collective response to Israel’s offer was “the 3 Nos Of Khartoum”--no peace, no negotiations, no recognition.

So, Israel came back to Gaza, and a flourishing Jewish farm and industrial community emerged on this strategically important land. Israel’s renewed presence, however, was a mixed blessing for the Jewish State.

While it is true that, despite fluctuating numbers, Jews had lived in Gaza for millennia; that, since the days of the Pharaohs, Gaza had been used as an invasion route into Israel by those aiming to subjugate it; that Gaza had become a hotbed for terrorists aiming to destroy Israel; that Jewish communities set up in Gaza were not on Arab-owned land; etc. and so forth; it is also true that many Israelis were looking for a way out of Gaza if proper conditions presented themselves.

Many of us had trepidations over Prime Minister Sharon’s decision to cave into international pressure and withdraw from Gaza a few years’ back.

Under the right conditions--and they had to be right on the money--the withdrawal could make sense…Israel would have to spend less of its blood and capital to secure its virtual forward defensive outposts there; could concentrate defense on a shorter border farther distant from a huge, hostile population; and could give the Arabs a test at how they would govern themselves after a complete Israeli withdrawal. Furthermore, terror would henceforth have an official address for an official response.

Well, after Israel’s complete withdrawal making Gaza Judenrein, those who have eyes can see how the latter worked out. But many act like they’re indeed missing those wonders of vision. Take the Associated Press for example…

In a January 26th article penned by Karin Laub, the AP gave an alleged chronology of the recent chaos and breach along Gaza’s border with Egypt. We’ll consider that in a moment.

Keep in mind that the Arabs of Gaza elected their Hamas leaders who openly call for Israel’s destruction and who have constantly walked the walk not just talked the talk regarding the murder of both Jews and their nation…blown buses, restaurants, pizza parlors, teen night clubs, shopping malls, Passover Seders, and so forth--deliberately targeting the most innocent to spread terror. Pregnant women and Jewish children are often especially targeted by Arabs…not accidentally killed because they were used as human shields the way Arab kids sometimes are.

Since, after Auschwitz, the American State Department (which fought against Israel’s rebirth) can’t openly ask Jews to virtually walk into the cattle cars and “the showers” yet again, it has tried real hard to allege a distinction between Hamas bad cops and Arafat and his Fatah successors’ good cops. In reality, any objective investigation would soon reveal that such distinctions are a joke when it comes to the permanent acceptance of a Jewish neighbor. Fatah and its affiliates have at least as much blood on its hands as Hamas & Co. , and both Fatah and Hamas’s charters still call for Israel’s destruction.

Back to the January 26th article…The AP gave this sequence of events regarding the current border crisis:

…It started last week with what Israel says was the inadvertent killing of a son of (Hamas’s) Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar…Hamas retaliated with rocket barrages on Israel…Israel struck back by sealing Gaza hermetically and cutting off fuel shipments. Several days later, Gaza militants blew down the border wall with Egypt…

Now, reading the entire article, no where is it mentioned that, since Israel’s total withdrawal over two years ago, thousands of rockets and mortars have been launched daily against Israeli towns--especially Sderot--causing millions of dollars in damage, death, injury, shock, and terror. Indeed, reading the article, it looks like Israel brought the crisis on itself. I mean, how dare the Jews go after those who repeatedly target them! Turn the other cheek, Jew! Sure, just like all of those Christian nations do when faced with their own enemies.

As stated above, Israel’s Gaza withdrawal had to be done correctly in order for it to work.

No nation would put up with what Israel has put up with from Gaza.

Israel has the ability to disintegrate it as America and the Brits did to Dresden, Hiroshima, and so forth. And make no mistake here, the aims of the Arabs for the Jews are no different today than when Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, made his alliance with Hitler.

What would an America, which dwarfs Israel to the point of making the latter virtually invisible, do if Texas border towns were subjected to daily terror and bombardment?  Would it limit itself to having to just locate the exact folks firing the rockets, mortars, and such? Indeed, who has tried more than the Jews to indeed do just that…not that it makes any difference to the world’s assorted practitioners of the double standard.

Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy G_d…

Amen, Micah! But justice must work both ways. In caving in to the demand for the creation of the Arabs’ 22nd state, and second one in “Palestine” (who’s demanding a state for over thirty million stateless Kurds?), Jews should not be expected to sacrifice themselves on the petroleum-greased altar of international hypocrisy for that additional new state to arise.

Israel owes the Arabs of Gaza (or anywhere) nothing. It improved their education, health, and other living conditions immensely after 1967. Recall that Egypt held it from 1949 until then.

What nation is expected to supply those who seek its destruction with fuel, food, electricity, and so forth? You’ve got to be kidding, right?

But that’s exactly what’s expected of the Jew of the Nations. Like when, after it was attacked in 1973, Israel was pressured by America to release its stranglehold on the Egyptian Third Army. And just like America would have listened to someone demanding the same of us given similar circumstances…And does anyone want to be my comedy manager?

The Arab world holds much of the world’s wealth due to its black gold. Instead of paying out tens of thousands of dollars each to families whose relatives--shahids--blow themselves up along with their Jewish victims, the money needs to be spent helping their brethren on a more positive life path.

As Jews received anything but help from Arabs in resurrecting and sustaining their sole, tiny state, it’s beyond chutzpah that Arabs expect that Israel will continue to assist them in any way while they continue to launch death and destruction against Jews. Should be a no brainer…

Making its controversial decision to withdraw, Israel must now cut itself off completely from Gaza and treat it as any other nation would if attacked from it. And it must ignore the outcries from those who fire bombed or nuked innocent German, Japanese, and other civilians when circumstances of war prevailed (not that the latter were any better in their own conduct).

Make no mistake about this, Israel is constantly fighting a war for its very survival, and blunders it’s forced into making for the sake of powerful “friends” today will come back to haunt and bite it no less than the Czechs were bitten after Chamberlain and the Allies forced the transfer of the Sudetenland to Hitler at Munich in the days before World War II.

The Arabs must grow up and not expect the world to constantly pull their derrieres out of fires that they themselves start. Individuals and nations must be held accountable for their actions.

Up until now, much of the world’s continuing collective Jew or Jew of the Nations problem has helped Arabs to avoid this political maturity. So Israel gets the special Jew treatment and is forced to act against its own national interests and security as no other nation would be expected to do.

It’s up to Israel to have the backbone to resist this. Any hardship suffered by Arab civilians must henceforth be placed on the Arabs’ own doorsteps. The pain and suffering of Israel’s Sderot isn’t going to be relieved by Saudi and other Arab oil despots…but the latter can help fellow rejectionist Arabs in Gaza. Let the former pour in the money to build infrastructure, power plants, and so forth. Let Egypt deal with its Gazan Arab brethren for food, medicine, and such…after all, it’s already allowing the smuggling of huge quantities of armaments and explosives to kill Jews. Recall that Egypt has a “peace treaty” with Israel…

Israel must proclaim publicly that each time it is attacked, it will cut off all of its contacts with Gaza for a given period of time. With each subsequent attack, besides exponential military retaliation, that period for fuel, electricity, medicine, and food cutoffs will be increased as well. Note that the Jews forced to withdraw from Gaza grew their own food and got whatever else they needed from fellow Jews.

Israel must give Gaza’s Arabs a set reasonable period of time to build their own infrastructure and such. After that time, all non-military contact with Gaza must cease until the day that Israel has a true partner for peace there…not one still aiming at its destruction.

Gaza will thus openly know that the day is shortly coming that it must devote more of the billions of dollars coming in from Western sycophants of the oil spigot to development than to waging war against Jews. But, it is undoubtedly always easier to destroy than to build…an Arab specialty.

Notice I use the word “must” above in terms of how Jews deal with their enemies. I do so because I do believe in the G_d-inspired words of Micah and my people‘s other Prophets.

Others--like the Arabs themselves--would think nothing of leveling and eradicating such a murderous enemy as Gaza. Indeed, Arabs have done just that with Kurds, black Africans, Berbers, and others who merely sought a modicum of political and cultural rights. Indeed, Assad the Elder wiped out over 20,000 Arabs in a month for opposing his rule in Syria…his “Hama Solution.”

Finally, there is actually a hint that what I’m calling for may indeed be on the drawing board.

Another AP article from January 25th stated that Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai caused a stir when he said that Israel sought to gradually relinquish responsibility for Gaza.

As the American State Department and Defense Department are often at odds in terms of policy, let’s hope that new Israeli elections will finally produce leadership with the backbone to follow through with these and other such important decisions

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Bush's Pledge to The Saudis...

What Else, O Medieval Saudi Oil Potentate? Try These For Starters…

by Gerald A. Honigman

A stop along President Bush’s recent Middle East trip—after further pressuring Jews to accept his vision of Abbas’s latter day terrorist Arafatians as being the good cops—took Dubya to the sands of the Saudis and other Arabian Peninsula nations.

A photo soon was published worldwide of the President wielding a sword along with Bahraini hosts, and Dubya brought along a New Year’s present--tens of billions of dollars in military aid to the Saudis. Hey, if we don’t sell it to them, the Brits, Germans, French, and so forth certainly will. So goes the argument…

During the visit, Bush asked if perhaps the Arabs might reach out to Israel a bit more. Saudi King Abdullah responded that he didn’t know what else he could do. After all, he came up with his own “peace” (of the grave) plan some time ago. If the Jewish State merely agreed to return to its pre-’67, 9-mile wide ’49 armistice line—not border—existence and agreed to be swamped by millions of “returning” jihadist refugees (many, if not most, of whom were new-comers to the Palestinian Mandate themselves) created because the Arab attempt to nip a reborn Israel in the bud backfired, then the Saudis might normalize relations with Israel.

The Desert Kingdom has long gotten away with a virtual free pass from America and most of the rest of the world. The same folks—including academics and others who should know better—who routinely scrutinize Israel and the actions it’s forced to take merely to survive, act deaf, dumb, and blind when it comes to the Saudis and too many other Arabs controlling much of the world’s oil and influencing many other petrodollar-connected, multi-national corporations in the process. Together, this power and influence--via their many tentacles and manifestations-- make the much spoken about “Zionist lobby” look pitiful.

Years back, when I was a card-carrying member of the London-based Anti-Slavery Society, persistent reports spoke of slavery throughout Saudi Arabia and other Arab lands…in the oil fields, and other places as well. It was still “above ground” up until the middle of the last century. But it was all treated as though it didn’t exist. Have you ever noticed the many black Saudis and other Arabs? Guess who and what their mothers mostly were? Hush...

Okay. Let’s get back on track.

What else can the Saudis do to reach out to the Jews? Here’s some suggestions…

On this last trip, Dubya pledged some twenty billion dollars in state-of-the-art aircraft, missiles, bombs, and so forth to the Saudis, supposedly to bolster them against the Iranian bogeyman.

The problem is, despite all of those Arabs prancing around with their swords, each time they were threatened—by fellow Arabs like Saddam or Iranians--America had to pull their chestnuts out of the fire with our own blood and money anyway…despite billions of dollars in military aid given previously. Not to mention the Saudis’ gift of most of the suicide/homicide bombers of 9/11.

Previous sophisticated weaponry and aircraft that the Saudis pledged to place to face the Iranian threat were stationed a stone’s throw from Israel instead. Indeed, they’ve been expanding the King Faisal Air Base at Tabuk. Prior to Bush’s new holiday gift, the base contained about 50 advanced F-15S fighter-jets, which were sent to the northwestern facility on the eve of the U.S.-led war against Iraq in March 2003. Other promises related to those sales later proved to be worthless as well.

So much for past and future similar Arab guarantees…

What else could the Saudis do for Israel? How about honoring the pledges above, for starters.

The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion is perhaps one of the most flagrantly anti-Semitic doctrines ever written. Guess who was one of the latter day leaders in endorsing and spreading it around?

While the Saudis aren’t the only Arabs still doing this sort of hate-spreading stuff (“peaceful” Egypt still freely indulges), ending such practices is another suggestion for the “what else”…as is ending dehumanizing “kilab yahud”—Jew dogs—even further by routinely also calling them sons of apes and pigs. Extend this further by revising the textbooks of Arab children, hatred in the media, sermons, and so forth which routinely demonize Jews and Israel, and an Arab “peace” might become more believable.

Ready for more?

When Israel was squeezed by President Clinton at Camp David and Taba to cave in to Arafat and abandon its right to defensible “secure and recognized” borders instead of pre-’67 Auschwitz/armistice lines a la resolution 242, while Arafat rejected the plan, Clinton and the State Department’s Arabist “deal” Prime Minister Barak was forced to accept became the new starting point for President Bush’s recent Annapolis travesty.

During the era of Clinton’s “Oslo Peace,” the more Israel tangibly conceded to Arabs, the more it bled.

Guess who was paying Arab families tens of thousands of dollars each for having a “shahid” member blow up Jewish kids in teen night clubs, buses, pizzerias, and so forth during the Intifada (conducted under Arafat and Abbas’s Fatah good cops’ watch—not that of Hamas’s bad cops)? Maybe Saudi despots, who condemn women victims of rape to hundreds of lashes and humiliation, could revise their policy here also…

The Saudis, like other Arabs, are always quick to claim the whole region as “purely Arab patrimony.” Hence their additional concern about Iranians and others who call the body of water in the north the Persian Gulf instead of the Arabian Gulf. More than just words are involved here.

Since Arabs claim all that they acquired after Muhammad and successor caliphal armies burst out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century C.E., conquering and forcibly Arabizing millions of non-Arab peoples and their lands, and then rejected the rights of Jews (one half in Israel who were refugees from “Arab”/Muslim lands), Kurds, Berbers, black Africans, and so forth in a later age of nationalism to resurrected political rights of their own, perhaps the Saudis need to be reminded of another time period in what is now their country…

When Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, fled enemies in Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. (the Hijrah), the inhabitants welcomed him. Medina had been developed centuries earlier as a thriving date palm oasis by Jews fleeing the Roman assault on Judaea (the banu-Qurayzah and banu-al-Nadir tribes, etc.). Medina’s mixed population of Jews and pagan Arabs opened their doors to the future Prophet of Islam.

Muhammad learned much from the Jews. While the actual timing of his decision on the qibla, the direction of prayer, may never be known, during his long sojourn with the Jews of Medina, his followers were instructed to pray towards Jerusalem. Early prominent Arab historians such as Jalaluddin came right out and openly stated that this was done as an attempt to win support among influential Jewish tribes (the “People of the Book”) for Muhammad’s religio-politcal claims.

It is from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (which Arabs now claim Jews have no connection to—including Bush’s good buddy, Abbas) that Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to Heaven on his winged horse. A mosque, the Dome of the Rock, would later be erected on this Jewish holy site after the Arab imperialist caliphal conquest of the land in the 7th century C.E.

Arab imperialism? Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh…… Only nasty westerners do that stuff.

There is no doubt among objective scholars that Jews had an enormous impact on both Muhammad and the religion that he founded. The holy sites for Muslims in Jerusalem (i.e. the mosques erected on the Temple Mount of the Jews) are now deemed “holy” precisely because of the critical years Muhammad spent after the Hijrah with the Jews.

Not mincing words, the Temple Mount of the Jews had no prior meaning to pagan Arabs.

While there was some early Christian influence, intense scholarship has shown that the Holy Law (Halakha) and Holy Scriptures of the Jews had a tremendous influence on the Qur’an, Islamic Holy Law (Shari’a), and so forth. Muhammad’s “Jerusalem connection” was most likely not established until after his extended stay with his Jewish hosts. This was no mere coincidence…Muslim religious beliefs regarding Muhammad’s conversations with the Angel Gabriel notwithstanding.

When the Jews refused to recognize Muhammad as the chief political honcho, “Seal of the Prophets,” and so forth, he turned on them with a bloody vengeance. Before long, with the exception of Yemen, there were virtually no Jews left on the Arabian Peninsula. And the direction of prayer was changed away from Jerusalem and towards the Kaaba in Mecca instead. 

Now, imagine, since Arabs claim all of Israel because of their previous conquests, that descendants of Arabian Jews staked their own claims as well? How about Medina as a Jewish city?

Certainly, when demands by Arabs for compensation and the like regarding Arab refugees comes to the front burner, Jewish refugees from “Arab” lands—who number more and who left behind far more property and financial assets than their Arab counterparts did due to a war that Arabs themselves started—need to put forth their own demands and need to backed by an Israeli government which will state unambiguously that there will be no fulfillment of the one claim without the other.

What else can the Saudis and other Arabs do to convince Jews that the Saudi “peace” is indeed not simply a peace of the grave? After all, Muhammad made his “Peace of the Quraysh” too—a temporary hudna designed to buy time until he could conquer his enemies. Arafat loved to talk about this regarding Israel. Dubya’s darling, Abbas, was Arafat’s # 1 lieutenant and choice for Prime Minister.

Lots more to relate…but this essay is already too long.

Let’s end for now by simply stating that if the Saudi king and other Arab potentates and despots (they’re all either one and/or the other) want to really reach out to Israel, all they have to do is to grant Jews in their sole, tiny, resurrected state a microscopic portion of the same rights they claim for themselves in demanding the official creation of the 22nd member nation of the Arab League….and second, not first, Arab one in “Palestine”—Jordan carved out of some 80% of the Mandate’s original 1920 borders.

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Condi's Trip To Israel With Pres. Bush

Some Advice To President Bush…Tell Condi To Zip It

by Gerald A. Honigman

On the way to Kuwait, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted in an AP article, after her visit with President Bush to Israel, as saying that it was “unrealistic to expect Arab leaders to suddenly reach out to Israel.” Fair enough…to a degree.

But, do you want the truth or politically correct mumbling?

Truth is, Arabs have had a hundred years to deal with the acceptance of a resurrected, tiny Jewish State, and they reject it now for the same reasons they did back then. No “sudden” decisions necessary…

The reality is that for the same millennia-old Arab subjugating, genocidal, racist attitudes which led to gassed, murdered, and/or massacred en masse Kurds, black African Sudanese, Egyptian Copts, native pre-Arab Lebanese, Amizagh/Berbers, Assyrians, native Jews (one half of whom in Israel were refugees from “Arab”/Muslim lands), and any others who dared stake a claim in what Arabs see as solely Dar al-Islam and purely Arab patrimony, no time would be enough for Arabs to “reach out” to Israel.

President Sadat of Egypt flew to Jerusalem three decades ago because he finally came to the conclusion that any Arab victory in this regard would indeed be a Pyrrhic one. Since his assassination, the “peace” Israel has with Egypt is indeed a very cold one, with anti-Semitism flagrant throughout all the media, arms smuggling to Hamas rampant, and so forth. Imagine if Israel was acting this way towards Egypt. The latter behaves relatively moderately temporarily because America funnels state of the art weapons and billions of dollars in aid to it. With Egypt, however, Israel still needs to truly watch its back.

Back to Condi…

Recall that she’ll soon be looking for another job. Recall that, like other Arabist former State Department types, such as James f_ _ _ the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway Baker (whose law firm represents Saudi and other Arab oil potentate interests), she’ll be able to tap into all of her own nice petrodollar connections she’s made. Shafting the Jew of the Nations is good business…Don’t forget, Condi already has one oil tanker named after her in the Chevron fleet. Get the $$$$$$$ picture?

In light of all the above, what is really unrealistic is to expect Israel to once again cave in to Arab and Arabist State Department demands that it ignore what it’s entitled to under UNSCR 242 and deny itself the “secure and recognized” borders mentioned in it--retreating, instead, to the suicidal, pre-‘67 war armistice lines (not borders) which made it virtually invisible on a world map--a mere 9-16 miles wide at its waist.

What’s unrealistic is to expect an Israel which can fit thirty-four times into President Bush’s own home state of Texas to expose itself to such murderous enemies in a way in which an America--3,000 miles wide--certainly would never dream of doing itself.

2008 promises to witness a very tight presidential election race.

My advice to President Bush, if he cares about fellow Republicans who will be running, is that he should tell Condi to zip it when it comes to Arab-Israeli peace-making. Bush’s own petro-buck connections are bad enough, but Rice compounds this problem immensely.

Many, if not most, conservatives--whom Republicans will desperately need--are sickened by Rice and the State Department regarding these issues. And not a few Independents feel likewise.

All some of the above have to do is stay home--not vote Democrat--on election day…and guess what?

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