Tuesday, May 28, 2024

War. What War?

My community, the "small" city of Ma'alot -Tarshicah a "joint Municipality" with the Arab village of Tarshicah, lies 7.45km or 4.63 miles southwest of the "dip" in the border from Rmaych, Lebanon or 9.44 km or 5.87 from Ramyeh, Lebanon.

In difference to many communities immediately north of us, Ma'alot was not ordered to evacuate, and we live our regular daily lives as though nothing out of the ordinary is happening. -For us "veteran" residents we are quite familiar with the situation and the name of our town is infamous and synonymous with Arab terrorism.

Seeing my fellow residents of Ma'alot most of whom are the descendents of the original "Maabara" refugee camp composed of "Jews of Arab Lands" who were brutally expelled from their homes  between 1949 -1956 as well as those Jews who in 1990 with the openning of the gates of Russia came "Home" go around doing banal daily chores ever since that 7th of October,2023. It does not "click in" that we are at war. 

Yet as banal as life is, things can become VERY deadly very rapidily merely because Nassarallah and his cronies decide to "let lose" a barrage of Iranian made explosive laden rockets. Which if NOT intercepted by the Tamir interceptors(*) of the Iron Dome Defense System can not only destroy homes but murder and maim Israeli civilians-Arab and Jew alike!

That many times while you are simply walking the dog or simply out for a stroll the "Red Alert App" or air raid siren may fail to operate quickly and it is only by instinct that you catch the familiar sounds and whoosh of air of approaching rockets and how you lunge to the ground for cover. 

In the cases of a "near miss" "If" you are LUCKY you are showered with the dirt and debris. If they land further away your feel the concussion of the explosion as you remain laying there aware that pieces of intercepted rockets can still kill you.

Oh yes I see ALL the "Social Media" and news broadcasts of "distinguished" news journalists nodding their heads in agreement with pro-Palestinian propagandists of how the poor citizens of Gaza are and how THEIR children are "traumatized" ...but where is the mentioning of our kids my grandchildren who since October of 2023 have heard; the "out going" artillery fire, the explosions of the Tamir Interceptors shooting down the incoming Hezbollah rockets, the explosions cause by the landing of Bulkan-heavey mortars-with 250Kg explosive warheads nearby, or the sounds of the explosive drones ...

My grandchildren Ori Meir 11.5 Tehillah 10 and Shirah Rachel 9, regretfully have become well acquainted with the need to "duck and cover" or run to shelter if they can. It is the fear that is in their eyes when the incoming explodes that makes my blood boil!

For me, a combat experienced member of the IDF I already suffer from "Profound PTSD" and TBI-Traumatic Brain Injury from 3 IEDs while serving in Lebanon from 1978 -1997. I just chalk it up to yet another day attempting to be a "Free Jew" -read "Zionist" - in my indigenous homeland.

Some factual information regarding the 2006 Second Lebanon War:

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah-fired some 4,228 rockets at a rate of more than 100 per day, unprecedented since the Iran–Iraq War. About 95% of these were 122 mm (4.8 in) Katyusha artillery rockets, which carried warheads up to 30 kg (66 lb) and had a range of up to 30 km (19 mi) which landed in northern Israel, including on Haifa, the country's third largest city. Over 1680 landed in a five kilometer radius of Ma'alot, six less than 100 meters from my home. 

The "indiscriminant Hezbollah" rocket barrage killed 15 out of a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) were Arab Israelis.

On August 3rd, 2006: Shanati Shanati, 18; Amir Naeem, 18; and Muhammad Fa'ur, 17, Bedouin residents of Ma'alot were killed bt a Hezbollah rocket.

During the "Second War In Lebanon" some 250,000 Israeli citizens had to evacuate and relocate to other parts of Israel - including my wife and five of my children,  while an estimated 1 million Israelis were confined in or near bomb shelters during the conflict.

Many like me in the "Development Town" of Ma'alot we do not have "secure rooms" nor bombshelters in our buildings. Many of the neighborhoods of Ma'alot  were built during the "Austerity " period in the middle 1950's when the nascent State of Israel had very little money to build housing for the 850,00 Mizrachi-Jews of Arab Lands who were expelled over night. 

These hapless Jews kicked out of their homes where some had lived for centuries. Their and families lives torn apart.Their possessions, savings, property and businesses seized or stolen thrown out into the streets to flee for Eretz Yisrael when the Arabs lost the Nachba -ther tragedy of their defeat by the "Dhimmi" Jews!

My neighbors and my daughter in law's family barely escaped the blood thirsty mobs to flee to the ships that transported them to Haifa in 1955. In the middle of the night they were shipped by truck to live temporarily in the abandoned Arab village of Tarschich. 

Later they were "moved" into tin huts of the tempoary housing of the "Maabara" or "Transit Camp" created in the valley near what would become the "Development Town" of Ma'alot.

We have been neglected and forgotten as we live in the "Peripheral area" (out of sight, out of mind).

Socially and economically deprived, we continue to survive on low income jobs, inferior health care, education and housing. Our grown children flee for the better conditions in the center of the country.

Now for what is saving lives:

(*) As for the Elbit designed and patented Tamir interceptors of the "Iron Dome Air Defensive System", developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.

The Iron Dome system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometres (2–43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area. The Iron Dome was declared operational and initially deployed on 27 March 2011 near Beersheba and   the system successfully intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza for the first time on April 7th 2011.

Each battery costs about $50 million and the interceptor missiles used are called in Hebrew the "Tamir" (a Hebrew acronym for Til Meyaret or 'interceptor missile') and they cost around $40,000 each. The the interceptor missile uses a proximity fuze mechanism to detonate and destroy incoming rockets,

Iron Dome has three central components:

1) Detection & Tracking Radar: the radar system is built by Elta, an Israeli defense company and subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, and by the IDF.

2) Battle Management & Weapon Control (BMC): the control center is built for Rafael by mPrest 

3) Missile Firing Unit: the unit launches the Tamir interceptor missile, equipped with electro-optic sensors and several steering fins for high maneuverability. The missile is built by Rafael. A typical Iron Dome battery has 3–4 launchers (20 missiles per launcher). 

The Iron Dome (Hebrew: kippat barzel) radar developed by Elta compliments a"specialized rapid data system" to correct the interceptors in mid flight to their target. The system's radar is referred to as EL/M-2084. It detects the rocket's launch and tracks its trajectory. The BMC calculates the impact point according to the reported data, and uses this information to determine whether the target constitutes a threat to a designated area. Only when that threat is determined, is an interceptor missile fired to destroy the incoming rocket before it reaches the predicted impact area

It should be noted that within the US-Israel "Joint Military" assistance program from 2011 to 2021, the United States contributed a total of US$1.6 billion to the Iron Dome defense system. Israel uses the "US AID package"-to purchase most of the components from Raytheon, a US Defense Contractor, who since July 2014 has been a major U.S. partner in co-production of major components for the Iron Dome's Tamir intercepting missile.  The US Congress voted to add another US$1 billion to provide more Tamir Interceptors.

It needs to be noted that Rayethon the U.S. Defense Contractor supplies components through various US owned and subcontractors -with US workers - in a brand new Tamir missile manufacturing facility in East Camden, Arkansas USA. NOT JUST FOR ISRAEL BUT for the US Marine Corps and partner forces.

This means that ALL the US Aid Funding is going back into the pockets of a US Defense Contractor who employs some 70,000 US citizens. 

Now compare this to the unaccounted millions given -with absolutely NO restrictions nor accounting to UNWRA and the Palestinians.

More importantly the Iron Dome Air Defense System is a means of warding off missiles sent in an act of a  blatant "International War Crime", against non military civilian targets within Israel.

Yet, one wonders where is this mentioned in the Mass Media of the world?


Monday, May 27, 2024

The Day that will live in infamy relevance to Israel

 

What IS on my mind this Memorial Day Weekend?

As I the historian I am, willst I tried to sleep, the two old men in my mind started to recall the recent subcommittee meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee where, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) referred to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when he urged Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and others to provide ammunition to Israel. 

As I tried to sleep I was reminded just how history repeats itself and how the "enlightened" Professors and educators of the illustrious and "Prestigious University's" failed to note this historical equalization and to enlighten their charges to the documented historical truth of one of the most famous speeches of the twentieth century, giving birth to one of the most famous phrases of the century.

Laying there in my bed two the old guys, probably WWII veterans, argued back and forth about how our situation here in Israel is so similiar to those dark days of WWII. 

As I lay there I could hear my Mother of blessed Memory who would teach me as a young Baby Boomer and son of a WWII veteran of the famous phrase:"A day that will live in infamy" from that momentous FDR speech which had been broadcast throughout the United States by radio.

How when atttacked by the Japanese in their "Surprise Attack" America found itself embroiled in a conflict with the "Axis nations"of Gernany and Italy in a "Two Front War". Just as we were attacked by the Iranian Axis of evil with the Iranians and their Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon as well as with the Houthis in Yemen 

As I lay there I recalled that U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also made remarks on a NBC News program criticizing U.S. President Joe Biden, who had stopped some ammunition shipments to Israel. 

Graham compared the similarities in the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to necessitate the fanatical Japanese to surrender to that of the Israeli use of force in Gaza against the barbaric terrorists of Hamas to release the hostages and surrender!

“Why is it OK for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? … I thought it was the right decision.” Senator Graham continued, “So, Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state,”

In reponse to the claim of "Genocide" a moderator told Graham that, "U.S. military officials" say technology has advanced since World War II to minimize civilian casualties, he said, “Yeah, these "military officials" that you’re talking about are full of crap.”

And as I "tossed and turned" dying to sleep I also recalled the similarities of how the war for Israel and the USA began with surprise attacks that unified the nation in it's resolve to end the reign of Hamas. I also noted FDR's words regarding the deceitful Japanese and just how similiar this manner of deceitful behaviour was with Arafat when he signed the ill fated "Hudna" of the Oslo Accords". 

One should, as I did, reread, the thoughts and words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt regarding the Japanese  "Surprise Attack" on Pearl Harbour  on December 7th, 1941 and realise just how like the "Palestinians", the Japanese had been in negotiations for a "just peace"!

How we too had been at "peace" and on more than a "day of rest" -the Simchat Torah religious holiday, when we were oh so violently attacked. How deadly the attack was and how though attacked by surprise our "first reponders" acted heroically in response to the overwhelming barbarious attack. 

"In the early afternoon of December 7, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was just finishing lunch in his oval study on the second floor of the White House, preparing to work on his stamp album, when his telephone rang.

The White House operator announced that Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was on the line and insisted on talking with him. Roosevelt took the call.

Secretary Knox told the President that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, just before 8 a.m. Hawaiian time. Harry Hopkins, a top aide who was with Roosevelt at the time, could not believe the report. But Roosevelt did: 

"It was just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do. At the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it," 


As you read the words of the speech in the transcript, note that FDR wrote it himself wrote it himself and that he made three drafts.

Here is the transcript transcript of President Roosevelt’s speech, which he delivered to the joint houses of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 8, 1941—one day after the surprise attack that led America to join World War II pay attention to the highlighted sentences:

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”

As the saying goes history DOES repeat itself and our present day political leaders (sic) should take heed!

Watch the speech here: here:

May we all know no more war and the sacrifice of our youth on the altar of death! 


Saturday, May 11, 2024

The Iranian weapons of Hezbollah and Hamas

Iran invests great efforts in smuggling weapons to their proxies especially the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, especially Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad). They have also sent large funds to support the reconstruction and upgrading of their military infrastructures. 

It should be noted that Israel has repeatedly spoken out about Iran’s strategic endeavor in providing weapons for terrorist organizations, opposition forces, subversive elements and foreign countries is an important factor in Iranian strategy, which seeks to establish and lead an extremist camp, promote terrorism and subversion, and achieve regional hegemony in the focal areas of the Middle East (among them Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain) and abroad (among them  East and West Africa, Latin America, Central Asia).

Over the years the Iranians continually learn lessons from the interceptions of their arms shipments which they attempt to smuggle to their destinations by sea, air or  over land.

The entire smuggling system is supervised and directed by the Iranian leadership and carried out by the Al Quds (Jerusalem) Force of Sepâh, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is Iran’s main tool for exporting its Islamic revolution. The IRGC works in close collaboration with Syria’s security system and terrorist groups acting as Iranian proxies and promoting Iranian goals from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iran has placed a special emphasis on supplying Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad with advanced rocket and missiles like the Fajr-5, which is based on the Chinese WS-1 MLRS.The Fajr-5, is a solid fueled missile with a 175kg  HE) high explosive fragmentation warhead which can reach the center of Israel from Gaza. 

The rocket has a length of 6.485m, a body diameter of 333 mm, and a launch weight of 915 kg. The Fajr-5 mobile launchers used in 2006 carried up to four rockets each.

The Fajr-3 has a range of 43 km while carrying a 45 kg high explosive (HE) warhead. The rocket has a length of 5.2 m, a body diameter of 240 mm, and a launch weight of 407 kg.  Fajr-3 launchers used in 2006 carried up to 14 rockets each.

The Karine A Affair, was a military action in January 2002 in which Israeli forces seized the MV Karine A, a Palestinian freighter found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons, including short-range Katyusha rockets, antitank missiles, and high explosives.

Omer Mahmad Hasa Ahawi, who directed the weapon-smuggling industry for the Palestinian Authority, had failed in two prior attempts to ship weapons from the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Already under the watchful eye of Israel´s Intelligence, his purchase of a large ship in Lebanon in the summer of 2000, for his next attempt, led to the surveillance and other Intelligence work that ultimately doomed his delivery.

At the end of 2001, Israeli Intelligence monitored as the ship was loaded with weapons from Iran and the Hezbollah and concealed with a layer of civilian goods, such as clothes, rice and toys destined for Gaza via Yemen. During the night between January 2-3, 2002, Israeli naval commandos, along with Intelligence personnel, boarded and captured the Karin A and its lethal cargo. The State of Israel confiscated the weapons and distributed the civilian goods to the Palestinians via UNWRA.

The M/V Victoria, built in 2004, which sailed under the Liberian flag. Belonged to the German company Peter Döhle Schiffahrts-KG and was operated by the French shipping company CMA-CGM. It had set sail from the Syrian port of Latakia and had a stopover at the southern Turkish port of Mersin where it continued to the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

On the morning of March 15, 2011, 200 miles (108 nautical miles) west of Israel’s coast, an IDF navy force intercepted and inspected the cargo ship M/V Victoria. The Victoria was found to be carrying three containers holding some 50 tons of weapons destined for the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. The weapons were in three containers, concealed behind bales of cotton and sacks of lentils. There were:

1) 230 120 mm mortar shells manufactured in Iran accompanied by a range table.

2) 2,270 M-61 60 mm mortar shells accompanied by a range table. According to the table the type of fuse involved was the AZ111-A2, developed and manufactured by Iran.

3) Six Nasr-1 copies of the Chinese C-704 anti-ship missiles manufactured in Iran that incorporate a radar homing system and have a range of 35 kilometers (20 nautical miles).

5) two naval radars and operating stations for the anti-ship missiles.

5) Instruction manuals in Farsi and range cards for operating the systems. 

6) 66,960 7.62 caliber bullets for Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The seizure of the M/V Victoria was also the first time, Nasr-1 long-range anti-ship cruise missiles manufactured by Iran a reverse engineered Chinese C-704 anti-ship missile was captured, that would have endangered Israeli military and civilian vessels as well as Israeli strategic targets in the Ashdod-Ashqelon region. The operational range of these Iranian made  missiles is 35 kilometers.

The containers with the missiles contained instruction manuals written in Farsi. On the covers were the emblems of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, proof of the source of the weapons and of the Revolutionary Guards’ Al-Quds Force’s involvement in the attempted smuggling with the collaboration of Syria and the Palestinian terrorist organizations.

The shipment of weapons aboard the M/V Victoria was a gross violation of the sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN Security council. It is also a violation of civilian naval security and transportation regulations governing the shipping of dangerous materials.


“Il Faro Sul Mondo“, an Italian International Politics Magazine website published an article several years ago regarding Hezbollah's home military industries production of a heavy weight mortar that was used and upgraded during the Civil War in Syria. 

These heavy rocket propelled "mortars" positioned along Israel's northern border have become a serious additional threat to the civilian populace of Israel's Northern Border. 

The Borkan (Volcano) heavyweight Mortar -as seen in the photo is a double barrel vehicle mounted weapon that fires a projectile of between 200 (450LBs) to 500(1200LBs) Kg of lethal explosives currently up to a range of 5KMs. 

The mere size of the explosive charge causes massive damage and loss of civilian life 

The heavyweight Borkan rocket propelled mortar shells Hezbollah has armed itself with, which have been vastly improved by Chinese made Iranian provided "extensions" which have improved the original range of about 5 Kms to 11 to 12 Kms. These rocket propelled "Heavy Mortar" rounds but can carry payloads of either 200 to 500 kilograms of lethal explosives. 

These Borkan rocket propelled mortar shells have caused enormous damage to bases and communities within their range.

IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, had stated that the rocket used by Hezbollah in the attack on Majdal Shams, which claimed the lives of 12 teenagers and children, was a "Falaq 1" rocket of Iranian origin, manufactured in Iran. "Its warhead - the explosive material - is more than 110 pounds. The forensic findings at the scene indicate this rocket, which is only found with Hezbollah," he emphasized.

According to Arabic publications, it is a rocket developed in the 1990s, produced in Iran. The rocket has a diameter of 9.4 inches, a length of 4.3 feet, and a range of about 6.2 miles. It operates on solid fuel and has a significant warhead. The rocket can be mounted on jeeps and can be launched from ground launchers, and it can also hit naval targets. It weighs 245 pounds and its warhead, as Hagari mentioned, weighs about 110 pounds. An article on Sky News in Arabic claimed that it resembles the Russian BM24 missile.

Since Hezbollah revealed that it uses this rocket, there have been numerous claims of responsibility for firing it in recent months, including towards the settlements of Birnit and Zar'it in the western Galilee. There is an advanced version of the "Falaq 1" – the "Falaq 2" – which has also been used by Hezbollah in its fighting against Israel in recent months. At the beginning of June, it was reported that Hezbollah launched a "Falaq 2" missile into Israeli territory for the first time. 

According to a publication on "Sky News" in Arabic, the rocket has a diameter of 13.1 inches, a warhead weighing 265 pounds, and a range of up to 6.8 miles. It was claimed that the rocket's speed exceeds the speed of sound and that the missile’s load during launch is equivalent to 12 rockets of 4.2 inches. 

Additional publications stated that the rocket could reach an altitude of 2 miles and is launched from ground launchers and warships. It was claimed that the "Falaq 2" has a larger and more powerful engine.

At the beginning of June, a Hezbollah artillery officer said in an interview with the Lebanese channel "Al-Manar," which is affiliated with the organization, that "Falaq 1 and Falaq 2 are missiles that entered the battle based on the restrictions set by the leadership. Other types are heavy and destructive and can destroy an entire post. The Falaq missile has great destructive capability and can also reach targets up to 6.8 miles, its importance lies in its range. Each Falaq missile is equivalent to an airstrike." According to him, Hezbollah fired 20 Falaq 2 missiles in one barrage towards the Miron base, which he said is "equivalent to a fire belt." He added: "We have surprises. We have advanced to Falaq 2 and we will go further."


Friday, May 10, 2024

Yasser Arafat -The REAL truth

When researching the real truth regarding Abu Ammar aka Yasser Arafat.  I found both a front page interview in the Wall Street Journal, from Saturday, January 12, 2002. Entitled; "The Arafat I Knew" by Ion Mihai Pacepa, who was the former acting chief of Communist Romania’s espionage, and another 2004 FrontPage Magazine interview.  His WSJ interviews as well as the information in "The Mitrokhin Archive" were to say the least, quite "informative".

"The PLO and the "Palestinian Narrative" was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for ‘liberation’ organizations.”... like that of the  National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB in 1964 with help from Ernesto "Che" Guevara." Arafat was an Egyptian bourgeois turned into a devoted Marxist by KGB foreign intelligence and was the main KGB asset." according to Ion Mihai Pacepa.

The truth about Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar was born in Cairo, Egypt on the 24 August 1929. His father was Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was from Gaza, his father's mother, Yasser's paternal grandmother, was Egyptian. His mother, Zahwa Abul Saud, was from a Jerusalem-based family. He was a member of the Al-Qudwa tribe of the al-Husseini clan to which the al-Qudwas belonged.

Arafat's biographer, the British historian Alan Hart, relayed the story that Arafat was heavily beaten by his father for going to the Jewish quarter in Cairo and attending religious services. When his faher asked Arafat why he would not stop going, he responded by saying; "I wanted to study Jewish mentality."

In 1944, Arafat enrolled in the University of King Fuad I and graduated in 1950. He later claimed to have sought a better understanding of Judaism and Zionism by engaging in discussions with Jews and reading publications by Theodor Herzl and other prominent Zionists.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Arafat left the University and sought to enter the British Mandated Area of Palestine to join Arab forces fighting against Israeli troops but instead of joining the ranks of the "Palestinian fedayeen", Arafat joined  the Muslim Brotherhood, and fought with them, he later denied joining the Muslim Brotherhood organization. 

In early 1949, as the war turned in favor of the Israeli forces. Arafat returned to Cairo to university where he studied civil engineering and served as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) from 1952 to 1956.

During the 1956 Suez War he was called to duty to fight with Egyptian forces but was not involved in the fighting. With the defeat of Egypt and the introduction of the UNEF -UN "Peace Keepers" into the Gaza Strip. Members of the "fedayeen" forces, which included Arafat was expelled.

Arafat originally attempted to obtain a visa to Canada and later Saudi Arabia, but was unsuccessful in both attempts. In 1957, when Kuwait was still a British protectorate, he applied for a visa based on his work in civil engineering and was approved. 

As Arafat began to develop friendships with Palestinian refugees, some of whom like Abu Iyad he had met while attending Cairo University and Abu Jihad in Gaza, both of whom were official members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Khalil al-Wazir ("Abu Jihad"), had arrived in 1959 Kuwait worked as a teacher and Salah Khalaf ("Abu Iyad") arrived in Kuwait in late 1960 became Arafat's top aides in  Al Fatah.

Arafat and the others gradually founded the group that became known as Fatah. The exact date for the establishment of Fatah is unknown. In 1959, the group's existence was attested to in the pages of a Palestinian nationalist magazine, Filastununa Nida al-Hayat (Our Palestine, The Call of Life), which was written and edited by Abu Jihad

The full name Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini which translates into "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement" or FaTaH the reverse acronym of the Arabic name and in early Islamic times to refer to "conquest." Fatah differed from other Palestinian political and guerrilla organizations in that it dedicated itself to the liberation of Palestine by an armed struggle carried out by Palestinians themselves.

The turning point for Arafat and the PLO was the battle of Karameh in Jordan. The events of the battle were covered in detail and Arafat's face appeared in the world press. The coverage brought Arafat fame and fortune as he came to be regarded as a national hero who dared to confront Israel. 

Yasser Arafat was elected chairman by the Palestinian National Council convened in Cairo on 3 February 1969.

The KGB and the PLO

"The KGB had trained him at its Balashikha special-operations school east of Moscow and in the mid-1960s decided to groom him as the future PLO leader"according to Ion Mihai Pacepa. 

The  major turning point, that forever changed the conflict in the Middle East and opened the door to the KGB and Soviet Union / Russian control was the Egyptian-Czechoslovak Arms Agreement from September 1955, between the USSR and Egypt, under Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Arms Agreement, not only led to the supply of more than $83 million worth of modern Soviet weaponry to Egypt, through Czechoslovakia. It opened the way for thousands of Soviet technicians and instructors to land in Egypt and enter the Middle East. This Arms Agreement greatly impacted the Arab–Israeli conflict forever. 

In the aftermath of the disasterous defeats, of 1956 and later in the 1967 Six-Day War. When a "Tiny David"-Israel, handed the "Goliath", two of the Soviet Union's Arab client states, Egypt and Syria, who had been armed with the latest word in modern Soviet weaponry, failed in their quest to defeat Israel and suffered a disasterous major military defeat. 

Because of the post 1956 war backlash to Israels close cooperation with Washington and England during the Suez Crisis, and Israels unwillingness to side with the Soviet Union, The KGB felt it was time to identify Israel and Zionism as the "Colonial" "Imperialists" foothold in the heart of the Arab heartland. So with the resounding a devasting defeat of Soviet armaments in the hands of their Arab proxies. 

As early as 1965, with the increased influence that the dependence on the purchase of weapons from the USSR by Egypt and Syria had brought them. The Soviet Union had formally proposed in the UN a resolution that would draw in more Arab countries by condemnating colonialism as racism. 

According to Pacepa, the Kremlin had charged the KGB to repair their own severly damaged prestige, from the failures of their weaponry and that of their clients, "our Arab friends." 

The head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Gen. Alexander Sakharovsky, was thereby sent to Bucharest According Yuri Andropov, former KGB chairman: “[T]he Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought. Islamic anti-Semitism ran deep… We had only to keep repeating our themes — that the United States and Israel were ‘fascist, imperial-Zionist countries’ bankrolled by rich Jews.”  

Gen. Sakharovsky asked us in Romanian intelligence to help the KGB bringing Arafat and some of his fedayeen fighters secretly to the Soviet Union via Romania, in order for them to be indoctrinated and trained. During that same year, the Soviets maneuvered to have Arafat named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organizaiton, with public help from Egypt's ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

When I first met Arafat, I was stunned by the ideological similarity between him and his KGB mentor. Arafat's broken record was that American "imperial Zionism" was the "rabid dog of the world," and there was only one way to deal with a rabid dog: "Kill it!" In the years when Gen. Sakharovsky was the chief Soviet intelligence adviser in Romania, he used to preach in his soft, melodious voice that "the bourgeoisie" was the "rabid dog of imperialism," adding that there was "just one way to deal with a rabid dog: Shoot it!" 

Yasser Arafat met Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap on a number of occasions, the first being in 1969 when Arafat first came to Vietnam to study guerrilla warfare tactics...

So when Yasser Arafat met Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap he asked him:

 “You expelled the French and the Americans. How do we expel the Jews?” I tell them that the French went back to France and the Americans to America. But the Jews have nowhere to go. You will not expel them.’

The Soviets decided to introduce the "Zionism is Racism" resolution to the UN after the third major defeat of the Soviet supplied Egyptian and Syrian armies in their attempt to "eradicate the Jewish / Zionist State during the 1973 October War - The Yom Kippur War had failed. 

All the new pro-Moslem countries, who had recently gained independence from colonial status, were more than eager to abide their "Masters" will and turned out overwhelmingly in favor of the November 1975, Resolution 3379 condemning Zionism as "a form of racism and racial discrimination".

Arafat made a political career by pretending that he has not been involved in his own terrorist acts.

All we NEED to remember is WE in Israel signed a "Peace Agreement" on the White House lawn with Arafat in front of President Clinton. Yet, it was the American Intelligence community (NSA) who cynically FAILED to enlighten President Clinton  and Israel ( the Ally) of the documentation of Yasser Arafat's deceit and under dealings.

Arafat and his deceit


In 1972,  a Romanian intelligence adviser assigned to the PLO headquarters in Beirut reported that Arafat and his KGB handlers were preparing a PLO commando team headed by Arafat's top deputy, Abu Jihad, to take American diplomats hostage in Khartoum, Sudan, and demand the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian assassin of Robert Kennedy.

"St-stop th-them!" Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu yelled in his nervous stutter, when I reported the news. He had turned as white as a sheet. Ceausescu had become deathly afraid that his name might be implicated in that awful crime. 

It was already too late to stop the Abu Jihad commandos. After a couple of hours we learned they had seized the participants at a diplomatic reception organized by the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum and were asking for Sirhan's release. 

On March 2, 1973, after President Nixon refused the terrorists' demand, the PLO commandos executed three of their hostages: American Ambassador Cleo A. Noel Jr., his deputy, George Curtis Moore, and Belgian charge d'affaires Guy Eid. 

In May 1973, during a private dinner with Ceausescu, Arafat excitedly bragged about his Khartoum operation. "Be careful," Ion Gheorghe Maurer, a Western-educated lawyer who had just retired as Romanian prime minister, told Arafat. "No matter how high up you are, you can still be convicted for killing and stealing."

"Who, me? I never had anything to do with that operation," Arafat said, winking mischievously.

In January 1978, Said Hammami the PLO representative in London, who had  established contacts with British politicians and journalists, as well as building relations with Israeli peace activists. Began to promote co-existence between the Palestinians and Israelis, calling for a two-state solution to the Question of Palestine.

Arafat was unhappy with  Hammami and ordered Ali Hassan Salameh, (The infamous "Red Prince" of  Black September whom the Mossad dubbed "Burner" and who had led the PLO commando team that took the Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympic Games) to assassinate him in his office. 

Soon after the assassination convincing pieces of evidence started to come to light allegedly showing that the crime was committed by the infamous terrorist Abu Nidal, who had recently broken with Arafat and built his own organization. 

Salameh who was Arafat's liaison officer for Romania, told Col. Constantin Olcescu Ceausescu's adviser to Arafat: "That wasn't a Nidal operation. It was ours (Black September / PLO)"! Olcescu who was well familiar with Arafat's craftiness, was taken by surprise asked: "Why kill your own people?" 

"Arafat wanted "Black September" to mount some spectacular operations against the PLO, making it look as if they had been organized by Palestinian extremist groups that accuse the chairman of becoming too conciliatory and moderate," Salameh explained. According to him, Arafat even asked the PLO Executive Committee to sentence Nidal to death for assassinating the PLO representative in London.

Ali Hassan Salameh,.Salameh was eventually killed by a car bomb planted by the Mossad in Beirut in January 1979.

James Welsh, a former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA) which is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence. Once told U.S. journalists that in March 1972 the NSA had secretly intercepted the radio communications between Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad during the PLO operation against the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, including Arafat's order to kill Ambassador Noel. The conversation was allegedly recorded by Mike Hargreaves, an NSA officer stationed in Cyprus, and the transcripts were kept in a file code-named "Fedayeen." 

Despite all this deceit the western powers "trusted" Arafat and his outward professed willingness to live in peace.

Sources:


Mr. Pacepa was the highest ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc. He is author of "Red Horizons" (1987), a memoir. 






Vasili Mitrokhin was a former senior officer of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence service, who was later demoted to KGB archivist. At immense risk to his own life, he spent 12 years diligently copying secret KGB files that would not otherwise have become available to the public (the KGB foreign intelligence archives remain sealed from the public, despite the demise of the Soviet Union). 
When Mitrokhin defected from the Russia in 1992, he brought the copied files with him to the UK. The declassified parts of the Mitrokhin archives were brought to the public eye in the writings of Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew, who co-wrote The Mitrokhin Archive (published in two volumes) together with the Soviet defector. Mitrokhin’s archives led, among other things, to the discovery of many KGB spies in the West and elsewhere.
The Mitrokhin archives ate located at the Churchill Archives Center at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Monday, May 6, 2024

Yom HaShoah -Holocaust rememberance day 2024

Yom HaShoah -Holocaust rememberance day in Israel is where we Israelis remember the very REAL "Genocide" of our relatives, our MORE than SIX MILLION -recorded-Jewish people who perished due to virulent anti-Semitic hatred!

With the elevation of Adolph Hitler to be the leadership of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler and the German implemented a policy that came to be known as the “Final Solution”, a horrific episode in the history of mankind.
A plan made worst by the utter silence and complicity of the world!!

After the infamous Wannasee conference in January 1942 Hitler’s Final Solution became official Nazi policy.

The Final Solution plan of the mass liquidation eradication of the Jewish People made horribly worst by the sheer hypocricsy of the British through their control over the Mandated Area of "Palestine". The British government's cynical White Paper enforced sealed "door"- "entrance denied", to our "Balfour Declaration" and League of Nations ordered promised "Jewish State"! A gateway to life slammed shut by the demands of the "Arabs of the Mandated Territories" to Jews who desparately wished to flee Nazi Germany and Europe.

Hitler was determined not just to isolate Jews in Germany and countries annexed by the Nazis, but by subjecting them to dehumanizing regulations and random acts of violence. Hitler was convinced that his “Jewish problem” would be solved only with the elimination of every Jew in his domain.

In my multiple blog entries, some from years passed, I have attempted to explain how Hitler and his subordinates used all the orchestrated means of a modern industrialized and highly educated civilisation to complete the task known as the "Final solution to the Jewish question" -in German Die Endlsung der Judenfrage a very REAL coldly calculated and laid out plan of "genocide" of our Jewish people.

The term "Genocide" has been horrifically been misused by Palestinian apologists and lately by "Senior News correspondents" in their quest to defame Israel in the eyes of the world by quoting the high (inflated) number of casualties -read "Human Shields"- libelously and falsely reported by the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health conflict in Gaza. Casaulties that are a direct outcome of the conlict STARTED by Hamas!

I have written my previous blog entries to explain how the "Genocide" of the Jewish People differed from that of the other nations and peoples.

Not to belittle them -but to show how a nation of "superior intellect" and highly educated leaders could be so utterly cruel in their inhuman- coldly calculated- (read my blog entry regarding the use of the IBM German subsidiary Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft, or Dehomag, produced punch card and card sorting system-a precursor to the computer) to literally eradicate a people!


A machine designed and calculated to expedite and, in many ways, automate, all six phases of Hitler's war against the Jews.
Those six phases were: identification, expulsion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation and ultimately even extermination.
The Dehomag machine was designed, calculated and used to NOT just exterminate and eradicate all evidence of their Jewish citizens but to gain financially for the effort!

The Final solution was a fullscale Extermination Plan, from the creation of the Ghettos, to the use of the Seven Einsatzgruppen Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary death squads. After the opening of the "War in the East", during Operation Barbarosa, these "Death Squads" murdered over ONE million Jewish men, women and children. Their numbers NOT included in the "Six Million" as they were NOT recorded.


The fullscale Extermination Plan also incorporated industrilized "death Camps" with the use of Zyklon "B" gas to murder hundreds cheaply at a time in gas chambers and crematoriums, that used the foremost deigned German made ovens / furnaces to wipe out any sign of the deed. NOT JUST by cremating the remains but to crush their bones into ash as well!


The sheer immensity of the hatred and brutality of the cold blooded murder of innocent men, women and children seers the mind.

Truly as Hannah Arendt so correctly asserted "the banality of evil".

Many ask. Why was the day January 27 designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in most countries?
The reason is that on this day it is noted that Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most well known slave labor and death camp was liberated by the Russian's. Auschwitz is where the Nazis implemented the industrialized mass production scale of the genocide of the Jewish people.

Why was Auschwitz-Birkenau so special?
The answer as the saying goes; "Location".


Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz was deemed an ideal death camp locale, for it was situated near the center of all German-occupied countries on the European continent and in close proximity to a hub of railway lines from Western Europe and from the East. It made for the rapid transportation of detainees by rail "expeditious" and economical since the cost of "transport" was deducted from the wealth collected from the Jews and their communities! Some poorer Jewish communities transportation costs -like that of the SS documented records of the Jews of the Balklands and the Aegean Islands, were deducted from the wealth collected from the wealthier Jews of Austria.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was initially converted from a Polish Army Cavalry Base in 1940 later evolved into a network of camps. Auschwitz became operational as a death camp, in February 1942. By the time it was liberated slightly less than 3 years later, 960,000 Jews were killed at Auschwitz and another 100,000 non-Jews were killed. On average, over 1,000 Jews per day were murdered at Auschwitz once the gas chambers became operational. Industrialized mass-murder.

In January 1945, with the Soviet army approaching, Nazi officials ordered the camp abandoned and sent an estimated 60,000 prisoners on a forced march to other locations. When the Soviets entered Auschwitz, they found thousands of emaciated detainees and piles of corpses left behind.

But the Holocaust didn’t start at Auschwitz. The Holocaust didn’t also start with the many other death camps, concentration camps, slave labor camps, ghettos and killing fields in Europe where over 5 million other Jews were murdered.

The Holocaust started because of systemic and endemic Jew-hatred, and the prevalence and wide-spread acceptance of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The Holocaust started with the indifference to that hatred and to the violence it inspired.
The Holocaust happened because Jews had no organized way to defend themselves and no country of our own. The Holocaust occured because humanity did not care enough to try and stop their genocide or even give the Jews shelter from the rising storm of antisemitic hate in Europe. Today, we can readily witness the very same rise in extremely vile, and even worst vulgar pro-Palestinian Jew-hatred! We can readily see the same increasing prevalence of despicable mendacious lies and antisemitic conspiracy theories in the press and more importantly on the world news media and social media. We can also see an increase in those brainwashed by Palestinian disinformation, into not only demonizing the one Jewish state, but to try to delegitimize it out of existence. Their concerted effort is to finally eradicate and destroy the LONE JEWISH State of Israel the one thing that may have prevented the very REAL GENOCIDE of the SIX MILLION PLUS in the Holocaust had it existed before 1939. The vile vulgar HATE filled anti-Semitic pro-"Falestinian" propagandists have branded the Jews of Israel as "White European Colonists" to those brainwashed and horribly duped UNEDUCATED "Prestigeous University students" demonstrators. I wish to also point out that NOT "just" Ashkenazic "European", read "White Jews"- were exterminated!



I have several entries on my Blog site filled with documented historical facts regarding the horrors of the truth behind the Nazi Final solution to the Jewish question in German Die Endlsung der Judenfrage. I ask, plead with you to read them and share the truth widely. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once stated;
"People ask me; Where was God at Auschwitz? My reply is: Where was humanity at Auchwitz?" Where were we when he called to us, to warn us?" When human life is no longer sacred Aushwitz became possible."