Tuesday, April 15, 2014

On the Wests Inability or refusal to understand Arab communications



The west is convinced Israel is an apartheid state, that builds apartheid walls and refuses to realize that a fair deal for Palestinians would result in peace

Anerican Universities teach America's next generation that Israel deserve BDS, that Natanyahu is a crazy fanatic , that limiting about Iran's nuclear power is unfair since Israel has nuclear weapons., that demanding that Palestinians recognition Jewish state is racist., that Israel tortures Palestinians in ways that are match South African apatheid. Israel has no business being there at all. and if Palestinians  say awful things about  Israelis, or become suicide bombers, this shows how very cruel Israeli occupation is.

As a Israeli American, the naiveté of Americans about Arab communication astounds me. Israel is not Europeans and has more diversity than any other. Over half of the Jews in Israel are from Arab countries and have experienced Muslim culture; Arabic is the first language for these immigrants.  They understand rich layered nonverbal nuances, indirect seemingly evasive and contradictory responses that are so very different from direct western approach. Many Israelis read and listen to news from Muslim countries and read their newspapers. Word of mouth does the rest. We know what they say when they think the rest of the world isn't listening.

There is a lot to admire in the PR skills of Muslims. They assume westerners do not understand or read Arabic and for the most part are correct. Arab leaders tell the west one thing and say the opposite in their own countries.  Since most westerners are be oblivious to these contradictions, there  is almost no attempt to hide or disguise meanings in the internal Arab press. On the same say that Arafat stood on The White House lawn and shook hands with Menachem Begin, he went on Palestinian TV to make sure his people knew this was just the first step towards reclaiming "all of Palestine."

At times, real intentions break through as they did during the Arab spring or in Ahmedinejabs speeches in the United States. When you will hear.. Death to America along with Death to Israelis. Kill Americans, Kill Israelis. What is it about kill that you don't understand

How do you manage, with all of your intelligence to miss this, to  hear  Palestinians on the west bank say“ we want peace”  in English, but not hear them chant “ we love death”   at the same time in Arabic.   How is it that the NSA satellites managed  not hear Iran’s former Atomic Energy director Abbasi’   on Iranian public TV say that Iran had concealed information on its nuclear program for years to prevent Western intelligence from using  information to sabotage nuclear development as they did in 2006.

American strategists' views on Israel-Palestine and the interests of  U.S. betray a odd misunderstanding of  Muslims and the goal of Islam. The West and the US are either unable to or unwilling suspend their western assumptions long enough to hear communications from leaders of Arabic countries at face value  They deny what they hear, pass it off as internal propoganda or believe Israeli cruelty justifies what they say. They assume we are to blame and that if the Palestinian Israeli dispute were solved  problems would disappear. Experts who inform U.S. strategy actually  base the policies they recommend on the public statements of  Arab terrorists in English.

A clear enemy of the US  El Quaida is especially relevant.  Ossama bin Laden, the son of an Egyptian billionaire says that his identity was shaped by the Palestinian-Israel conflict. This is odd as Egyptians do not tend to champion the Palestinian cause but is not questioned by foreign policy advisers. The west hears that Islam is a peaceful religion, and that they want nothing other than to live with everybody in peace,. You these statements are taken at face value Why? and I quote “because they said so-- straight from the horses mouth -- both of them so it must be true." Right? Anybody resident of the middle East would find this shocking.

    If you accept what you are told at face value, it is not surprising that you conclude that Israeli concessions could result in peace, despite historical evidence to the contrary

    Are you really that naive? Don’t your political strategists know how to play poker?  When you buy oil do you just pay the first price quoted, not realizing that the stated price is a starting offer, that there are many layers of lies and somewhere between one of those lies and another you settle on some agreement. Never ever do you take that statement at face value.

    Despite evidence to the contrary, westerners refuse to believe the a bible, could sanction lying? Why? Because they are constantly told by people who proclaim themselves to be Moderate Muslims ( and therefore must be) that Islam is a peaceful religion. They are able to not only get away with this, but convince westerners that they are the true victims, that they are violent because they have no other option, that they and only they have a right of return generations after a war ended.

    Success  makes such a  lie all the more delicious, masterful, a gem to be proud of.  The Westerner who believes this nonsense earns no respect. He is an easily manipulable  idiot, laughed at and all the more despised for this weakness.  They know that a suit, a tie and good English will convince you they are moderates, and leaving the, freedom to say what they wish in Arabic. They find this more absurd then we do.

    When Abbas, during Israeli-Palestinian negotiations publicly told Kerry that the organizations he had joined were not UN related and then went on Palestinian TV and announced that they were the next day, he gained honor from his people because he had humiliated America by humiliating Kerry. This  insult was not aimed at Israel but at the US. With all of your intelligence experts and their ability to understand foreign languages. How did you miss this? When Abbas continued to rub it in by ignoring you, other than to make demands , you stepped into his shoes, played  his role and offered something of your own - a deal you knew Israel would not refuse. Pollard. Israel knew what Abbas was up to but predictably put Pollard's release first and agreed to release the Arab terrorists, even though Pollard told them not to.

    Despite the fact that the Oslo established recognition of Israel as a precondition to an agreement. Abba refused to acknowledge that part of Oslo, but demanded the part he wanted retreat to the pre-67 borders. Instead of standing by the Oslo terms Kerry told Israel that Abbas's refusal to recognize Israel was not important. Israelis living in  citizens in the South were again being hit by rockets from Gaza after the failure of the last US peace effort in 2012  to the failure of  the U.S. and Morsi to fulfill their obligations, and because Israel made ‘peace’ with Abbas who was promptly replaced by Hamas, Kerry pressured ranted on about Israel's unhelpful actions and said, besides Arafat  said he recognized Israel years ago. Would Yassir Arafat lie? Are you unaware that the gun-running tunnels have made the entire Arafat families billionaires?

     The U.S, must have missed the Television interview with Arafat’s bodyguard of many years, [also on public TV [translated on-line on Memri-TV.] The interviewer asked the bodyguard whether Ariel Sharon who called Arafat was a pathological liar was correct. Did he lie in your presence? asked the interviewer. Oh yes, said The bodyguard. who said that that  Mubarak --the middle Eastern leader that the west views as the icon of moderation in the Arab world, --  would call Arafat after a bombing in Tel Aviv and tell him to “denounce it or they will screw you.”  The bodyguard then went on to say what many have said before and somehow Westerners cannot manage to grasp. Lying to nonbelievers is not only permitted but required to advance the cause of Islam by  gaining the trust of non-believers, drawing out their vulnerability defeating them. 

   In the end the west will suffer because of their refusal or inability to grasp this. Israel has tried to communicate this to the US to deaf ears. The long range missiles of Muslim countries are collecting are not for Israel. Their hate for the US will not change if Israel and the Palestinians reached some agreement.  Very possibly, if Israel we were no longer a distraction hatred directed at the US would reveal itself in full force.

   The US and the west are committed to the belief that problems in the middle east are Israel's fault and that if only Israel retreated to suicidal borders, hostility to the US would fade.   “Appeasementitis” is a contagious and destructive disease - that causes powerful nations to  gives absurd levels of power to people that have none.

   The west refuses to believe that the motives and goals of Muslims as dangerous and the Muslims milk this fiction. International theater substitutes for action as Iran develops nuclear arms. If Iran succeeds, other countries with follow. Despite their vast oil reserves, they will all say they are building nuclear reactors as energy scources.

   Muslim countries bury their hatchets annually to review their plans to Islamize the west. Stage one, known as stealth jihad,  leverages democracy as a tool to spread Islam, develop respect for and fear of Islam, and irradiate criticism or acts against Islam in western countries, while verbally diminishing the power of competitive religions. In the west, they are succeeding, If you have any doubts, go to a college campus, search youtube for anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim.

   At this juncture Israeli politicians are still largely European. They hang onto a delusional belief that the west and the United States in particular are their best friends, as if international politics were a high school dance where special relationships develop. They have convinced themselves that Israel cannot survive without the United States-- and endlessly speak about  common interests and special relationships. But this is changing.

  President Obama and his band of  Muslim Brotherhood white house advisers have forced Israelis to to accept reality.  The next generation of Israeli leaders will not take alliances with the west as a given. They will not have any desperate need for a ‘sponsor’. If it were up to me, Israel would forgo US financial and other “help” today.  Politicians , in any country, do not act quickly. It will take longer but Israel will go its own way

  Abbas and the Arab world are suspicious about your motives. So is Israel. Not only because the US pressures Israel's to accept suicidal borders, not only because the US no longer sees recognition of Israel as important, not only because it was President Obama who publicly announced that our settlements are illegal without so much as a word to Israel. When a country funds all sides in a conflict, they are not qualified to be peace brokers.

  If the US continues to stifle their economy, hide the reality of economic success in China,  cripple innovation in the name of a clean planet, allow the Sierra Club lobby to destroy its coal industry, and cripple oil mining, force businesses into insolvency through regulations, reward those businesses that are the worst performers under the guise of economic stimulus, and  too big to fail absurdity, sell its gold mines to China, it will go down.

Israel is diversifying its investments, economically, and politically in the face of western decline so as not to go down with the ship.



Friday, April 4, 2014

Winning the war of International Diplomacy


Peace talks after Kerry: Getting Abbas back to the Negotiating Table. What's wrong with this Picture?

4/4/2014
                                                       From JerusalemPost Staff. Reuters 4/4/2014
After the negotiations fell apart and the United States threatened to cut off aid to Palestine,, it should have been evident that Abbas would try to get this money by asking to resume negotiations and apologizing [in some form] to the US.  He did. Before leaving, Kerry called Livni and Erakat together. Abbas had published a set of demands that included freeing a group of high profile prisoners, including Marwan  Barghouti, jailed a decade ago over his role in suicide bombings. and  lifting a blockade  on the Gaza Strip. Israel said nothing.

Once again we see Kerry taking complete charge of negotiations, and the negotiator (Indyk) trying to convince the Palestinians to return/ address their demands. Both parties are castigated and held equally responsible for the sorry state of things and chewed out like two kids fighting in a playground, The assumption is that Israel will of course as usual return and pick up things as if nothing had happened.  This would not have occurred if  Israel had taken the initiative after Abbas lied to Kerry and Israel and applied to UN organizations.



We, Israel should have been the country calling a press conference, stating  disappointment, that most unfortunately but realistically Abbas’s credibility as a negotiating partner is questionable and laid out Israel's requirements for continued negotiations that are not a negotiating theater. Continually acting passively in international politics, weakens us, makes it easier for countries to demand too much and easier for them to use us as a punching bag

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Were I in charge,  I would have said that should these negotiations resume, the  presence of Hamas at would be  essential Hamas's cooperation or lack of it would determine whether any agreement are reality or worlds on a piece of paper,  and direct negotiations with them are the only way to make progress. Without that there is too high a risk of creating a situation like Gaza in the West Bank. I would have stressed how difficult it was for Israel to accept the necessity of negotiating with terrorists but being serious about peace requires this.



Many Israel’s will read this and believe I have lost my mind. We tend to view negotiation as serious and assume they, require honesty and not game playing,  This could not be further than the truth, International politics is a war no less than one fought in the battlefield; you plays to win and use strategic maneuvers to make your goals reality.  In this case we had nothing to loose, If Hamas refused, we had gone all out, further than the US and declared our willingness to actually speak to terrorists. If Hamas did by some miracle come, the odds of coming to an agreement are infinitesimal. Even if we were pressured to continue negotiations, and gave in this would establish our right to make demands and allow all agreements made be pending Hamas's agreement.


In a case like this, in my opinion,  a broader demand is effective and less likely to generate petty disagreements that escalate and lead nowhere.  Nevertheless, there are other demands that could have been made of Abbas: That he withdraw membership from the UN groups he has joined, , that he negotiate directly without a go-between to demonstrate this is not an effort to gain US aide,  The precise demands are less important than the need for Israel to take the initiative.



Our country has continually put itself in a weak position, given into pressure and and when pushed too far blamed and vented publicly and without strategic considerations. Swinging between weakness, giving in to demands and aggression confuses people. When we do not clearly communicate our case to the world, our enemies gain.It pains me to watch the leaders of my country do this when there is no reason for them to.  A confident assertive take charge attitude that we bring to every other part of life is sorely needed here.