Israel, the Jewish Homeland, Here to Remain, in Perpetuity

"The Palestinians' views were disclosed in a public opinion poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) on the 75^th anniversary of the "Nakba" ("Catastrophe," the term used by Palestinians to describe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, when Arab armies initiated -- then lost -- a war to prevent the Jews from having their own state)."

"The findings of the poll, which was conducted between June 7 and 11, show that the Biden Administration and all those who continue to talk about reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians are living under an illusion. The results of the poll indicate that most Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than making peace with them. The results, in addition, show that most Palestinians want as a successor to their current leader, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has ties to terror."

"According to the poll, the largest percentage of Palestinians (24%) believe that the rise of extremist Islamist terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was "the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since the Nakba." Another 21% said that the eruption of the two Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas, in 1987 and 2000, during which more than a thousand Jews were murdered and thousands more wounded in terror attacks, was the most positive thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948. And 9% said it was the establishment of Fatah and the launch of "the armed struggle." This means that a majority of the Palestinians see terrorist groups and the murder of Jews -- not the construction of schools and hospitals -- as their proudest accomplishment over the past seven decades."

Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute -- International Policy Council 

The results of a recent public opinion poll indicate that most Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than making peace with them. Pictured: Palestinian terrorists in Jenin on March 8, 2023, at the funeral of fellow terrorists who were killed the previous day when they attacked Israeli soldiers. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)

The international press, reporting on the violence in the Middle East, and more specifically, violence perpetrated by terrorists against Israeli targets, invariably classify those whose intention it is to terrorize and to murder, as 'militants'. They are certainly militant, viciously, violently so, but they are also terrorists, but that labelling somehow goes against the grain by journalists and news sites who prefer to somehow empathize with Palestinians and to consider Israel's defences as 'oppressive' and Israel itself in its maneouvres to protect its citizens as 'occupiers'.

'Occupiers' of their own ancestral land, land contested for claims of ownership by Arabs who migrated to the area of what was historically once Judea and Samaria, Judaean lands until Jews were twice exiled in antiquity, the last time by Rome after an insurrection against Roman occupied dominance of indigenous Jewish territory, which included Jerusalem. 

 

When the United Nations felt they had a reasonable solution to Israel's claims of ancestral territory by announcing a Partition plan, which gave what remained of Judaea's historical territory once TransJordan received its slice, between the nascent Jewish state of Israel and the Palestinians demanding their own state, Israel gratefully accepted, the Palestinians waited out the anticipated success of combined Arab armies that marched on the fledgling Israeli state.

The outside world believes, because Palestinians play to their sense of justice and assure them that it is now prepared to accept what it once rejected, that there is hope the Arabs -- which co-opted the ancient designation of 'Palestinian' from its historical rightful owners, Judeans, just as it seeks to do the same with its territory -- are prepared to agree to a peace settlement with Israel. When, in fact, the real agenda is one expressed by the slogan 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free', meaning the complete elimination of Israel.

Palestinian leaders make no secret of their goal, to destroy Israel by any means it finds practical. They have somewhat less support now than they did 70 years ago, but the support remains, principally from Iran, although Iraq, Qatar, Syria and Lebanon (captured by Iran's protege-proxy terrorist group Hezbollah) all of whom encourage, support and arm Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other newly-burgeoning groups in a no-holds-barred long-term strategy to ensure that Israel's existence is short-term, and demolished.

 

Israel is not peopled by shtetl Jews, Jews who throughout the history of their diaspora, were subject to oppression, violent hostility, suspicion, persecution, pogroms and ultimately genocide. Its collective of Jews from around the world, from Morocco to Mexico, Afghanistan to Cuba, as Israeli citizens and Jews of multilingual, multi-cultural, multi-colour variations on a theme of ethnic/cultural/religious Jewry will defend themselves on both the micro and macro level. No amount of placating or sincere efforts at negotiations has resulted in an 'understanding' of 'live and let-live' between Jews and Arab Palestinians.

 

Attacks by Arab Palestinians against Israeli Jews are never-ending, and not surprising, given the culture of antisemitism nurtured by the Palestinian leadership, including the 'moderate' Palestinian Authority who surround Palestinians from cradle to grave with media of every dimension that portrays Jews as their mortal enemy who must be slaughtered before the opportunity to kill them comes to hand. Hatred as deep and dense as that of the Palestinians', groomed to resent and detest Jews as robbers of their destinies to inherit Jewish land, identity, opportunities -- sears their souls.

 

Palestinian towns still called 'refugee camps' despite all the trappings of any modern cities, harbour and celebrate Palestinian youth who are encouraged by incitement to aspire to 'martyrdom', to sacrifice themselves for the honour of murdering Jews. When the Israel Defence Forces intervene and Palestinians are killed either because they are involved in violence with the intention to kill, have killed, or are simply the cheering section, they become propaganda fodder for Palestinian public relations with the West, enabling them to portray Jews as killers of Palestinians, particularly Palestinian children.

 

Two days ago, residents of the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya saw themselves 'invaded' by hundreds of Israeli 'settlers' who stormed their streets, setting fire to cars and homes in vengeance against the deaths days earlier of four Israelis, a minor among them, killed by a duo of Palestinian terrorists designated by Western media as 'gunmen'. To stem the violence emanating from Israeli 'settlers', the Israeli military deployed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the uptick in violence by announcing plans to build new settler homes.

 

Israeli military forces have been involved lately in raids to detain and arrest terrorists in the West Bank town of Jenin, whom the West names as 'militants' and 'gunmen', and whom Israelis, faced with the constant spectre of these ongoing deadly attacks, call terrorists. The Israeli army dispersed the incursion of the settlers determined to exact a price in burned homes and vehicles from the very people who champion the rise of new terrorist gangs, the better to terrorize their Jewish neighbours. 

 

Settler vigilantism does not have the support much less approval of the Israeli government or its military. National security calls for organized, military operations to defend the Israeli public; those who take matters into their own hands cause obstruction and consternation, but they are fulfilling a personal obligation to no longer allow themselves to be intimidated, denigrated, challenged, and attacked. One day after another of deadly shootings, stabbings, car rammings, has an effect on a people whose history is one endlessly long recounting of violence perpetrated against them.

 

The Jenin stronghold of terror must be eliminated. Any new such strongholds must be confronted and defanged. If the Palestinian Authority, which to the outside world proclaims itself prepared and capable of administering a country to the benefit of its people without posing as a constant threat to its neighbour cannot and will not deal with its own terrorists which it has groomed to behave in precisely the way they do, then there is only Israel left to do so. Israel's military and its civilian population grapples existentially with terrorists, not 'gunmen', and not 'militants'.

 

A Palestinian man runs near a burning object, after an attack by Israeli settlers, near Ramallah, in the West Bank, June 21, 2023 (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)

Life As Usual In Israel

Israeli soldiers stand near artillery units deployed near the Lebanese border northern Israel on August 26, 2020. Photo by David Cohen/Flash90.

"In response, overnight, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] attack helicopters and aircraft struck observation posts belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization in the border area [between Lebanon and Israel]."                                                Israeli military spokesperson 

"Our message to Hezbollah is sharp and clear: We will continue to thwart its attempts to gain achievements."                                                                                    Brig. Gen. Shlomi Binder, commander, IDF Galilee Division

"It is our assessment that the choice of location by Hezbollah [for the sniping attack] was not accidental ... probably in order to [draw] Israeli retaliation towards a United Nations position or near it."                                                                            "I would emphasize that this was a very dangerous and cynical practice to deliberately locate their combat troops close to U.N. positions and then engage against the IDF, violating U.N. Resolution 1701 [which bans the presence of armed Hezbollah cells in south Lebanon] … and probably hoping for there to be U.N. casualties as a result of Israeli retaliation. The IDF is very much aware of the location of U.N. troops, and does [its] utmost not to affect them."                               "Our objective is not to escalate the situation, but to protect our civilians, uphold sovereignty and allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis enjoying [he] last days of summer to vacation in northern Israel."                                                                 Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Israeli military spokesman 

An IDF labeled view showing the proximity of the Hezbollah terror squad to UN peacekeeping forces and the Israel-Lebanese border. Source: Screenshot.

Palestinians  release balloon-borne explosive to Israel  Fadi Fahd/Flash90

"One device was found next to a playground and a second was found in a tree. In both cases, a police sapper was called. No damage or injuries were caused." Eshkol Regional Council spokesperson

"Following the continued violation of security stability, and following the decision to close the Kerem Shalom Commercial Crossing with the exception of humanitarian equipment, it will be noted that the import of vehicles, which has so far been carried out through the Erez Crossing, was stopped as well starting today."                                                                   Spokesperson, Erez crossing with Gaza

Oh, did Lebanon just several weeks back suffer a horrendous Beirut-dock explosion that killed 200 people, injured thousands and made hundreds of thousands Beirutis homeless, causing thousands of Lebanese to march in the streets demanding their Hezbollah-driven government step down? If so, the magnitude of the catastrophe has not yet penetrated the minds and consciences of the Hezbollah elite who far prefer to provoke Israel by attacking its soldiers across the blue line in Israel in hopes of inciting a lash-back to harm UN representatives keeping the 'peace' to enable an 'incident'.

The Israeli military responded as it must, striking Hezbollah posts with no loss of life, in the knowledge that the incident was a ruse to place UN personnel within the nearby peacekeeping post at risk. According to a Lebanese army announcement Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a local environmental group center. The following day the Israeli military gave the all-clear to Israelis living near the border -- instructed to remain indoors -- that they might now resume normal activities. Israel's north and Lebanon's south are on uneasy terms.

An attempt by Hezbollah operatives the month before to infiltrate Israel failed. Within Israel itself, Palestinians find the opportunity to stab Jews, sometimes causing grave injury, and sometimes causing death as happened last week when an Israeli rabbi was stabbed to death in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva, leaving four children without a father. The attacker, father to five children, will now face Israeli justice, and his family will be left homeless when their house is destroyed.

Incendiary balloons launched from Gaza have caused dozens of fires in Israel in recent days  AFP

Attacks by Palestinians on Jews, though routine enough, and incited by the Palestinian Authority which claims the attackers to be Palestinian heroic 'martyrs', are not the only means of violence committed against Israel. Incendiary devices attached to helium-filled balloons are regularly released by Palestinians over the border from Gaza into Israel, where vast acreages of forest and farmland are burned. Other balloons carrying explosive devices wreak carnage of the type that exploded into a home in an Israeli town last week, its occupants miraculously escaping harm.

Israeli aircraft and tanks last Friday retaliated by striking Hamas facilities in Gaza while Hamas responded by firing a half-dozen rockets into southern Israel. No casualties were reported despite the exchanges, on either side, Israel or Gaza. According to Israel, the military struck underground infrastructure and a military post belonging to Hamas, as well as a Hamas armed training camp. This time, it is Israel's south and Gaza's north where the neighbourly exchanges are taking place.

Israel has responded to the attacks by bombing militant targets  Reuters

These are pressure tactics used by Hamas to 'persuade' Israel to open the blockade of Gaza, to allow Hamas free reign to bring in materials to continue building tunnels, and arms to continue posing its existential threat to Israel. Israel, despite the blockade, opens the Erez crossing daily to ensure that vital supplies enter Gaza. The cement and other building materials that Israel will not permit entry other than in limited amounts, is smuggled into Gaza by Hamas and  used not for civilian infrastructure but for more tunnel-building.

The endless cycle of threats and violence plays its course through the relationship Israel labours under, with its neighbours who place low value on quality of life for ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese and high value on destroying stability for Israelis, with the intention of  ultimately bringing violent destruction to the nation, cleansing the historical heritage Judean landscape of the presence of Jews in a Jewish state, renewed with the intention of defending Jews in their own homeland restored, from a world that has repeatedly proven it has no place for them elsewhere in the diaspora.

What other nation on Earth has its legitimacy and sovereignty challenged continually by its neighbours in never-ending attacks? What other nation must defend its population from ongoing threats of attack leading to death from violent terrorists, the world looking on with detached interest, while segments of that world rise to the defense of the attackers claiming them to have been ill done by, refusing to condemn the violence, and expecting Israel to escape condemnation by restraining its military from imposing the full strength of its defence against indomitable hatred and hostility threatening to annihilate the country?

An Israeli soldier battles a blaze close to the southern kibbutz of Nir Am that was apparently caused by a balloon-borne incendiary device launched from the Gaza Strip, August 23, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)