ALL-OUT WAR SEEMS INEVITABLE
JERUSALEM SUN EDITOR PUBLISHER OK CORBETT!
ALL-OUT WAR SEEMS INEVITABLE!
WHILE THE WORLD is concerned about North Korea's missile capabilities and whether Zidane should be banned from soccer for life for his flagrant head butt, the real focus should be on the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Politicians throughout the West are putting blinkers on their eyes when it comes to the Middle East situation, believing it will go away if it's ignored long enough. However, the crisis will only escalate.
As a former Middle East reporter, based in Jerusalem, I believe an extremely volatile confrontation could be only days away. At least that's my opinion.
So what are the reasons for my concern?
Although Israel has endured wars with its enemies ever since its birth as a modern-day nation in 1948 there was always a desire to fight if it needed to for the right to survive. Its pure guts were admirable and then through a series of misadventures it lost that will, at least its most recent government leaders have.
Take for instance, the strong leadership of the now-comatose Ariel Sharon wilted to the pats on the back of the U.S. and its president, George W. Bush, in giving away Gaza and the West Bank to its bitter enemies, the Hamas, which suddenly gained power mainly by threats and violence.
Then with Sharon now in a vegetative state in a Tel Aviv "hospital," his successor and the former mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, has carried out that dastardly plan of, literally, dragging the settlers from homes they had established in Gaza and the West Bank. The shame of it all.
Just when Olmert and his co-horts believed the exile of well-established settlers was the solution, the Hamas, now in full control in the Palestinian territories, began wielding their hate-filled violence for the Jews. And although there's been denials left and right, their objective was and still is to drive the Jewish people into the sea (the Mediterranean).
This peace (or appeasement) policy has utterly failed as Israel forces have had to re-enter Gaza after Hamas thugs captured an IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit, and still hold him at some unknown hell hole in Gaza.
Just when it appeared if limited action against the Hamas would be the solution, the even more barbarous group, known as Hezbollah (ironically translated as the party of god), snuck into northern Israel and grabbed two IDF soldiers, and in the subsequent aftermath, eight more Israeli troops were killed when their transportation ran over a road mine.
Of course, in the past few days, the Israelis have returned to Lebanon and bombed the Beirut international airport and continued to try to inflict casualties among their elusive enemy.
However, it could all be futile for these terrorists will not give up; they have stated, emphatically, their goal is global (terror) war despite the natterings of placid world leaders.
One thing, Israel and Olmert, seemingly, do not realize is that Lebanon is a "surrogate" of Syria and Iran, so by invading Beirut and environs, they are tempting Syria and Iran to try to "wipe out" Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in fact, Israel as a whole as Iran's Ahmadinejad has promised to do ... and soon.
A vicious confrontation seems inevitable, since concessions, haven't worked in appeasing these terrorists.
In conclusion, numerous scholars have the deadly fear that Thursday, August 3 -- Tisha B'Av, the Day of Mourning -- will be just that for Jerusalem and Israel. Only time will tell if that is true.
Historians will relate that numerous calamaties occurred on the ninth of Av (August 3 this year) such as:
* The 12 spies sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan brought an "evil report" about the land that caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair about entering the "Promised Land;"
* Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and the Judeans sent into Babylonian exile;
* The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE and the Jews were scattered and it began a 2,000-year exile;
* In 1290, King Edward I expelled the Jews from England;
* The First World War started in 1914;
* The first killings at Treblinka took place in 1942;
* Some 86 Israelis were killed by Arab terrorists in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994.
If history repeats itself, it could be a date to be very aware of -- in 2006.
ALL-OUT WAR SEEMS INEVITABLE!
WHILE THE WORLD is concerned about North Korea's missile capabilities and whether Zidane should be banned from soccer for life for his flagrant head butt, the real focus should be on the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Politicians throughout the West are putting blinkers on their eyes when it comes to the Middle East situation, believing it will go away if it's ignored long enough. However, the crisis will only escalate.
As a former Middle East reporter, based in Jerusalem, I believe an extremely volatile confrontation could be only days away. At least that's my opinion.
So what are the reasons for my concern?
Although Israel has endured wars with its enemies ever since its birth as a modern-day nation in 1948 there was always a desire to fight if it needed to for the right to survive. Its pure guts were admirable and then through a series of misadventures it lost that will, at least its most recent government leaders have.
Take for instance, the strong leadership of the now-comatose Ariel Sharon wilted to the pats on the back of the U.S. and its president, George W. Bush, in giving away Gaza and the West Bank to its bitter enemies, the Hamas, which suddenly gained power mainly by threats and violence.
Then with Sharon now in a vegetative state in a Tel Aviv "hospital," his successor and the former mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, has carried out that dastardly plan of, literally, dragging the settlers from homes they had established in Gaza and the West Bank. The shame of it all.
Just when Olmert and his co-horts believed the exile of well-established settlers was the solution, the Hamas, now in full control in the Palestinian territories, began wielding their hate-filled violence for the Jews. And although there's been denials left and right, their objective was and still is to drive the Jewish people into the sea (the Mediterranean).
This peace (or appeasement) policy has utterly failed as Israel forces have had to re-enter Gaza after Hamas thugs captured an IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit, and still hold him at some unknown hell hole in Gaza.
Just when it appeared if limited action against the Hamas would be the solution, the even more barbarous group, known as Hezbollah (ironically translated as the party of god), snuck into northern Israel and grabbed two IDF soldiers, and in the subsequent aftermath, eight more Israeli troops were killed when their transportation ran over a road mine.
Of course, in the past few days, the Israelis have returned to Lebanon and bombed the Beirut international airport and continued to try to inflict casualties among their elusive enemy.
However, it could all be futile for these terrorists will not give up; they have stated, emphatically, their goal is global (terror) war despite the natterings of placid world leaders.
One thing, Israel and Olmert, seemingly, do not realize is that Lebanon is a "surrogate" of Syria and Iran, so by invading Beirut and environs, they are tempting Syria and Iran to try to "wipe out" Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in fact, Israel as a whole as Iran's Ahmadinejad has promised to do ... and soon.
A vicious confrontation seems inevitable, since concessions, haven't worked in appeasing these terrorists.
In conclusion, numerous scholars have the deadly fear that Thursday, August 3 -- Tisha B'Av, the Day of Mourning -- will be just that for Jerusalem and Israel. Only time will tell if that is true.
Historians will relate that numerous calamaties occurred on the ninth of Av (August 3 this year) such as:
* The 12 spies sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan brought an "evil report" about the land that caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair about entering the "Promised Land;"
* Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and the Judeans sent into Babylonian exile;
* The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE and the Jews were scattered and it began a 2,000-year exile;
* In 1290, King Edward I expelled the Jews from England;
* The First World War started in 1914;
* The first killings at Treblinka took place in 1942;
* Some 86 Israelis were killed by Arab terrorists in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994.
If history repeats itself, it could be a date to be very aware of -- in 2006.
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