THE 2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL HORSE RACE:

Handicapping the runners for the 2016 GOP Presidential Race is no easy task as the only entry qualifications for this horse race are money, lack of insight and chutzpah. Already there are 17 entries or near entries and campaigning has started with a vengeance, two years before the off. This early start is ironic because Reince Priebus, the GOP National Chairman, following the 2012 Presidential disaster, set into motion two programs to ensure a Republican victory in 2016. One was an “autopsy” which  led to recommendations as to what the platform of the GOP should be. The other was a program to shorten dramatically the Primary session where, in 2012, the GOP candidates slaughtered one another using up endless money while they scratched each others eyes out in 20 debates. To remedy this prolonged infighting the GOP Convention would be moved forward from late August and the number of debates decreased. 

Both Reince’s efforts have come to naught as campaigning has started very early with Jeb Bush’s unexpected announcement. In addition every recommendation from the GOP autopsy which was to change the GOP image as, “…scary narrow-minded stuffy old men that do not care about people”, has been ignored. Also the gloves are off as various factions and individuals battle to define who the GOP are. The electorate is in for a reality show second to none while Hillary piles up the boodle, looks Presidential and watches “The return of Romney, and his opponents, part three.”

GOP “AUTOPSY”

Just so that Jay H. Ell’s detractors, (who are legion and that is why he won’t go on FaceBook because he couldn’t handle the dislikes), cannot say that he is making this up, one needs to chronicle why whoever gets the GOP nomination is chanceless as none of the fabulous seventeen are taking too much notice of the “autopsy” recommendations. The latter were said to be essential for a Republican victory in 2016. They included an outreach to the minorities - the Hispanics, the Pacific Islanders and the African -Americans. Already the number one GOP legislative priority has been to veto Obama’s Executive Orders on dispensation for those Hispanics who are parents of American citizens and residents and those who were brought here as children. The Democratic support from Hispanics has gone up twenty -  three percent since the midterms where Obama shut up because he was told to do so by the Dem woeses. 

Another group to be targeted were women but the GOP legislature have refused to enact an equal pay for equal work for women legislative move. That together with their rigid abortion approach, which nearly sixty percent of all Americans disagree with, does not put them off to a good start. In fact the autopsy virtually told them to lay off social issues which would take away the agendas of most of the prospective 2016 Presidential runners. Then, guess what, the postmortem told them? They need to take into account the lower income Americans. Obama has come up with a strong of suggestions to improve the latter’s lot that they have vehemently opposed. These include increasing the minimum wage to providing credits for working mothers and for childcare as well as subsidizing the astronomical costs of tertiary education. To complete the quartet of recommendations, the persistent almost universal attack on the LBGT’s was a no no as it just turns the youth off as poll after poll shows.   

So if dear old Reince and his commission into the Republican woes are correct whoever is the GOP Presidential nominee may as well stay at home as nothing has changed, in fact it has gotten worse. But nevertheless let’s give the prospective list the good old college try. But before that let us see how the oddsmakers rate the candidates’ chances.

LADBROKES THE BOOKMAKERS AND GOP CHANCES.

Ladbrokes in London rate Jed Bush the outright favorite to win the GOP nomination. The problem is that even if Jed wins, the Republican Party are not given a better than Jed’s six to one chance of beating Hillary. Now in a two horse race to get six dollars for your one is amazing odds so GOP faithful this is your chance to strike it rich. In fact if you believe Romney will be the candidate and up to time of going into print he is the GOP front runner you can get sixteen dollars to your one if he wins the Presidency. It gets even better with other serious candidates such as Rand Paul who will get you twenty, Scott Walker, (the last white hope) will deliver twenty  - five, Ted Cruz thirty -  three and the two Ricks, Santorum and  Perry would land you fifty. 

So for the convinced that the GOP are going to elect the next President and who just know who the candidate is going to be this is your chance to break out of poverty. If, for example, you think Sarah Palin is the business, and remember she is the standard bearer and kingmaker of the Tea Party that really controls the GOP at the moment, take two thousand dollars out of your pension fund or get a cash withdrawal from your credit card at usurious rates of about thirty percent and back Sarah. When she wins you will then have a hundred thousand in cash and could start a small business and soon become a “giver” instead of being a “taker”. Personally Jay H. Ell believes you will just become a “giver” to Ladbrokes but he has been wrong before.

Or maybe everyone should have a reality check and realize that Ladbrokes have not become the foremost oddsmakers for anything and everything since 1800 because they are in the social welfare business. Every now and then a heavily backed fifty to one shot arrives and they happily pay out because gambling is all about hope and fantasy. They cheerfully broadcast their big losses so that you may bet in one of their 2700 world wide outlets or online where they have nearly a million customers.

Needless to say this reality has not impacted the GOP race so lets get back to showbiz. The hopefuls will be aided and abetted by the media who rake in billions in advertising revenue by pretending this is a close race. They will have their experts day in and day out opining on this that and the other, the ups the downs, the ins the outs, not for one moment telling it as it is. 

THE GOP HORSE RACE - BACKGROUND

Its very difficult to break down the groups into camps because they are all for themselves. They are all very conservative. The GOP Primaries has a natural history of everyone trying to outflank each other from the right in order to win the Primary of the grand old State of Iowa. Why they would want to do that is not quite certain as since it has become a right wing haven. Since Huckabee won in 2008 and Santorum in 2012 it has become less and less relevant. After the South Carolina Primary the contenders change color a bit and the final nominee, to quote Romney’s handlers last time, regards what has gone on up till then as erasable as jottings on an etch a sketch. For the actual election you must reinvent yourself. (As we will see we are about to encounter the sixth new Romney and if he gets the nomination the seventh).  And as Jed Bush opined in a rare insightful moment, to win the Presidency you would have to lose the nomination race first. Makes one understand why mama Bush told Jed not to run.

Another problem, that is not so much a problem anymore, is getting backers. There are backers a plenty since the Supreme Court anointed the rich as the kingmakers saying they could all spend as much as they liked, whenever they liked on whomever they liked. That is what democracy and free speech is all about. So a guy like Santorum in the last election had a heavy loaded backer so he just  carried on running even though he couldn’t win. In fact this has become a past time of the mega rich. In the good old days to show of your wealth you bought a racehorse in the hope you could win the Triple Crown and show your brethren that you had more toys than they did. Now you can buy yourself a presidential nominee and the rush is on to join in. 

Behind closed doors and in the open the plutocrats are placing their bets. The Koch brothers met with Cruz, Rand Paul, Rubrio and Scott Walker. The Kochs are already committed to spending a billion dollars through their political organization “Freedom Partners”. This is as much as each individual political party spends and its thanks to the Supreme Court, Citizen United decision. Just to let that sink in, the Koch brothers can buy the same influence as one of the two official parties.

According to “Time” a number of backers are sifting through their options and there are heavy hitters who also have entree to donors and can raise megabucks in just one evening. Sheldon Adelson the casino mogul is still to hold his “Primary”. It will be attended by a lot of candidates who around about this time of the electoral cycle suddenly become very interested in the Jewish Republican caucus in Nevada.

What really is striking to Jay H. Ell is that the candidates have no loyalty to their brand. Let us take candidates Christie, Bush and Romney who are charitably called less conservative. Apparently they are Republican Establishment candidates. To give their cause the best shot two should step down. In response to such talk we are reassured that there is enough money for all of them! So the comparison to the candidates being prize racehorses is not that far fetched. The stakes for winning this race must be high, bearing in mind that just to enter you will need a minimum of 50 million dollars and over a billion for the Presidential race. 

THE RACE PROPER.

Several of the candidates met just this weekend. They congregated under the aegis of anti immigrant, (in fact anti everything except money for elections), Congressional Representative King, at an event he entitled, The Iowa Freedom Summit. It really was a Conservative bun fest and everyone was there that should have been there. It was interesting to note that other than Christie the “Establishment” stars were absent. There were no less than ten prospective runners. Again if Jay H. Ell was Representative King, he would get the guys together and see who has the best shot at winning the nomination but that is just not going to happen. 

After watching the Tea Party candidates at the Iowa Freedom Summit it was difficult to believe they were anything but one big joke but this conservative crowd is laughed off at the Establishment’s peril. With seventeen runners, depending on the way the cookie crumbles, anyone could emerge. Romney emerged last time out because he was the only Establishment candidate. For the major part of the Primaries he was second choice as the more powerful Tea Party Conservative wing of he party put up an “Anyone but Romney Candidate”. When one goofed, which happened with monotonous regularity, he or she was replaced by the next one. It is a fact that at least 7 tea party alternatives lead Romney at one stage or another till the latter outstayed the field. As a recent Fox News newsletter warned the Establishment should take more notice of the powerful conservative group that have dictated GOP policy for the past six years.

Jay H. Ell is not going to go into any detail on the field at this stage other than to discuss the “favorite son” of the Establishment and Ladbroke’s favourite for the GOP nomination, Jed Bush.

JED IS THE ESTABLISHMENT.

Jed is the latest prominent member of the Bush dynasty and dynasty it is. Besides two Presidents 41, and 43 their influence dates back to daddy Bush’s daddy, Prescott Bush, who was in the Senate before him. It bears repeating that since 1972 there has been no Republican President in the WhiteHouse without a Bush on the ticket. 

Bush 41 was Reagan’s Vice President and then became President himself. Then there was Bush 43 and that is a big part of Jed’s problem. But back to 41, he was National Chairman of the GOP in the Nixon days, he has been in the Senate and Congress, been ambassador to the UNO and China and headed the CIA. Jed’s mother, Barbara, a matriarch if ever there was one, was distantly related to President Pierce and has been prominent and popular in public affairs. So the Bushes are the Establishment.

So in racehorse parlance Jed is bred in the purple. The family has connections that go way back. Jed has also been a highly successful Governor of Florida a key state that almost certainly would go to Hillary with any other GOP candidate. He is married to a Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish and has distanced himself from the pack by saying he favors a pathway to citizenship. To date the Establishment has always got its way. So why isn’t he a shoo in?

His brother Dubbaya, 43, whom he regularly identifies with, is one of the key reasons why the Tea Party was founded. Whether Jed likes it or not he now is emblematic, to the base, of all things wrong with the GOP. He, as mentioned earlier, fancies his chances more in a Presidential race than in the GOP primaries. He faces problems Romney never had as he has direct competition for Republican votes from three other very strong candidates. Two are labelled “Establishment”  - combustible Christie and good old Romney himself. A third hopeful is as menacing as he is from Florida as well, Senator Mark Rubrio. The latter is Hispanic and was an author of the original Immigration Reform Bill that passed the Senate. He has lived down the latter and thus has lost the right to be the standard bearer of Hispanic voters but his credentials in that arena are at least as good as Jed’s. So not only is the whole Tea Party faction starting off irreconcilably antagonistic, Bush has opposition from within and he has stiff competition from those Hispanics who are going to vote in the GOP Primaries.

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY

It is early days yet and Jay H. Ell would not back, even with stolen money, Jed, as the Republican nominee as anything can happen in this freak show that is going to be a 20 month wonder.  Of course you can just give that whole monumental production a wide berth and back Hillary now as Ladbrokes are generously giving you one dollar for each dollar you wager if she becomes President. Those odds will shorten dramatically once this a two horse race for the "President's Cup".

Of far more significance than Ladbrokes’s insights and profit making is the impact outright ownership of the candidates might have on democracy. The candidates care far less about their own philosophy triumphing than they do about their own ambitions. They too will learn that their reliance, on what has become billions of dollars may not come without a total loss of their independence. No racehorse ever decides what races to run in and Jay H. Ell cannot remember a single horse race when someone or other had not maintained that the race was crooked.

OBAMA SETS IT UP FOR HILLARY

On the face of it the Republican Party should be in the pound seats - they won the midterms in grand style. They now control the House and the Senate and they can set the agenda. The Democrats by contrast should be cowering in a corner rushing to regroup, cringing at the upcoming clearcut GOP legislative onslaught. If this was indeed the narrative then it should have been easy to see who were the Democrats and who were the Republicans in the President’s State of the Union address - but it wasn’t. The Republicans looked glum and you would have sworn it was the Dems that were fresh off an electoral triumph as they hailed their all conquering leader. It appears that win, lose or draw the GOP is too mired down in its identity crisis to be happy about anything. Obama too knows that his populist manifesto has little hope with the paralyzed Republicans but he can spend two years thumping it up and down the country in effect giving Hillary a big big push. 

The theme of the Commander in Chief’s call to the nation was to the values that had resulted in the American Republic’s fame and international domination. In addition  he outlined specific remedies in order to be get the country back on a financial equity track again. The basis of his message was the need to return to the American dream where if you worked hard you would be appropriately rewarded, that the USA was a nation of immigrants and that justice and democracy here and abroad were overarching values. He also warned against attempts to undo what has already been done - he would veto that! The Commander in Chief pleaded, more in hope than in sincerity Jay H. Ell imagines, “for an end of the tired old ways”.

Initial Republican response to the State of the Union: Two cameos told it all - behind Obama Vice President Biden was beaming and Speaker Boehner was squirming and the other giveaway was the new refurbished Republicans needed 5 disparate responses to the POTUS State of the Union address reflecting the chaos within the Party. This did not stop every other Presidential candidate from chiming in adding to the confusion as to where the GOP wanted to go.

OBAMA RUBS HIS ECONOMIC SUCCESSES IN GOP FACES

Obama took credit for the fact that the unemployment rate had dramatically decreased, (it was 10% in February 2010 and was now below 6%), that eleven million jobs had been created, the stock market values had doubled, the defunct American iconic motor car industry was once again thriving, ten million more Americans had health care, manufacturing jobs in America were on the increase, consumer confidence was increasing, (together with increased property values and housing start ups), the country has decreased its dependence on foreign oil and had become the biggest producer of energy in the world, the average American was saving $750 annually on the lower cost of petroleum, the deficit has decreased by two thirds, taxpayer bailouts of “too big to fail” companies were less likely and watchdogs had been appointed to prevent predatory credit card practices, for example.

At the annual economic conference at Davos in Switzerland the cognoscenti were marveling at the USA recovery from the 2008 recession. Every other country is still in the doldrums, even China, but the USA through bold financial moves, thinking outside the box, by the administration and the Federal Reserve, righted the ship and its now full steam ahead.

Republican response during the recession: The POTUS hammered home the fact that throughout all his administration’s stratagems to effect this recovery, the GOP had sneered that, “Goals were to ambitious or misguided, that we would crush jobs or explode deficits”. In fact the President was subject to a steady stream of ridicule and abuse throughout and now was payback time.

Republican Response Immediately following State of the Union: Mitch McConnell, the new Senate Majority Leader unabashedly put the economic recovery down to the fact that the GOP were now in control of the legislative process!

THE MIDDLE CLASS “PROBLEM”

While employment is up the income gap between the one percenters and the rest, particularly the middle class, is increasing by leaps and bounds and is at its highest since the Great Depression in 1928. According to the Pew Research the top 1 percent are garnering nearly 23 percent of the income while the bottom ninety percent are sharing less than 50 percent. When overall wealth is measured these discrepancies were that much higher.

Obama was far reaching in his legislative suggestions to reduce this gaping disparity in income. These included:

* An increase in the minimum wage - Obama challenged those against it to live on $15,000 a year.

* To provide two years free tuition at community colleges.

* To fix interest rates on student loans that are outstanding.

* To provide a credit of $3000 where both members of the family work.

* To alleviate the high cost of child care where both parents are employed.

 * To provide a Credit of $500 per child.

* To exact an excise fee from the richest banks.

* To provide for a mandatory 7 days paid sick leave.

All this would be paid for by an increase in the Capitol Gains Tax rate from twenty - four to twenty - eight percent which it was under Ronald Reagan and would only applicable for those earning more than $500,000. The reason for this is most of the income of the one percenters is regarded as Capital gains. In addition there would closing of some of the shelters that the chosen group use to avoid death duties that only kick in over $5 million!  

Republican Response then, now and forever: To a man they stoutly defended the privilege of the one percenters with the lame argument, “That why should they be punished for making all that money?”. These are the “job creators”, “the givers” while all the rest were “the takers”. There was total denial of the fact that the poster child of all this, the last Republican Presidential candidate fat cat, Romney pays 17% income tax which is about the same rate a married couple earning $20,000. There was denial too that the minimum wage was no longer an entry level school vacation salary when so many Americans had the minimum wage as their full time and permanent salary.

One wonders how much longer the GOP base is going to buy this baloney and continue voting for the fat cats to pay less tax than them while they struggle to make their stagnant wages go further?

SOCIAL ISSUES AND CLIMATE

Obama covered all the hot button issues from immigration, to LGBT rights and abortion. The GOP has an ongoing response to this, and it is “no way hosay". Already they have proposed that Obama’s executive action be nullified on immigration. Their original motion on abortion was so off the wall that female GOP congressional members revolted and it had to be modified but nevertheless even what followed won’t play in Peoria. He wants and is going to shut Guantanamo Bay political prison. He banned torture from day one - the latter is “Not who we are”.

He all but scoffed at the Republicans disbelief at climate change. In response the perennial Romney ,the GOP frontrunner for the 2016 Presidential nomination, (can you believe it), says he is one of the Republicans that believe in climate change, once again accentuating another of the cleavages in the Grand Old Party.

FOREIGN POLICY

This was also bragging rights time - he delivered on Iraq and Afghanistan - there are only 15,000 “advisors” left. The Obama doctrine of no boots on the ground is being stuck to with the fight against terrorism which he and all the world pledged against. Drones are the order of the day and a promise was made to review the policy. Also America’s financial diplomatic might was another string to his bow in international relations as Russia was being brought to its knees partly by sanctions. 

Obama maintained that he was on the verge of a breakthrough with Iran on its nuclear program and any attempt to increase sanctions he would veto. The fact that Iran were around the table was another example in this digital age how America can utilize financial pressure to effect political victory. 

The long overdue recognition of Cuba was widely accepted throughout the country and left the GOP flatfooted. However their expected knee-jerk action to oppose anything Obama, regardless of the political consequences, followed. Senator Mark Rubrio, the son of a Cuban refugee, was anointed as the spokesperson on the subject and he hysterically attacked the decision.

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

Same old same old

The GOP are giving us the same old same old playing to their minute financial and static social base which gives them no hope of winning a national election. Their only actual legislation is to pass the Keystone pipeline that actually maybe veto proof. For the rest it is undo Obama and leave the policy making to the activist right wing Supreme Court.

GOP, Netanyahu, Israel and Iran

There is one area that they could really dent Obama and that is Iran. For this they have flouted diplomatic convention by calling in a recruit, Israeli Premier Bibi Netanyahu to plead their cause at a joint session. Bibi always does best when running for office in America where he received his formative training. The Israeli PM is running in an election at home as well and is no shoo in. So between this and military action in Lebanon he is hoping to revive the dying interest in his sterile premiership. 

 Netanyahu just persists in biting the hand that feeds him. His memory is pathetic - Who bailed him out just a few weeks ago at the Security Council on Abbas’s Palestinian Statehood move and who came out on the same day as Israel condemning the International Court at the Hague for investigating Israel for war crimes? Bibi persists in intervening in another country’s domestic affairs. Has one ever heard of a premier from one nation actively campaigning in another nation's legislative forum against the host country’s administration? No wonder Kerry and Obama will not be meeting him on this visit. Shame on him and shame on the politically bankrupt Republicans for interfering in delicate foreign policy negotiations for short term gain.

However as Jay H. Ell has blogged if Obama sells out on Iran, which he and his administration repeatedly reassure that they will not, he is toast. On the other hand if his diplomatic and financial moves force them to concede on their nuclear ambitions he will have changed the world and the latter’s territorial ambitions. The sixty - four million dollar question is how can Iran allow this financial tourniquet to remain around its neck for ever?

2016, Hillary and The GOP 

You now have a gung ho President back on the campaign trail, where he is at his best, detailing his agenda, which all the Dems, (now!), enthusiastically acknowledge was their policy all the while. All the GOP can respond is merely  to threaten to undo Obamacare, immigration edicts and other Presidential achievements. They have no immigration legislation, no proposals as to where the money would come to uplift the middle class that they proposed to champion other to take it away from the selfsame middle class's safety nets such as Social Security and Medicare. 

Three terms in the WhiteHouse is rare for one party. It requires sound economic conditions and an outgoing President with good approval ratings otherwise the electorate just go against the party in power. In effect you are voting for a third term of the outgoing President. Reagan - Bush 41 was the last to do it. Gore blew it as Clinton, (Bill that is), left him with high approval ratings and a flourishing economy. Gore was determined to run as his own man, and although Bush 43 needed the Supreme Court to push him over the line, Gore was his own worst enemy deliberately snubbing Clinton, (Bill that is). 

Clinton, (Hillary that is), is unlikely to make the same mistake. With regard to the President's State of the Union Hillary maintained that Obama had pointed the way to an economy that works for all. "Now we need to step and deliver for the middle class". Obama had already anointed her two years ago in an unprecedented interview on Sixty Minutes. The economy has steadied itself and the POTUS will spend the next two years making it quite clear that it is the GOP that are preventing the middle class from improving their lot. His approval ratings are improving by the day and the Rasmussen poll already has him at fifty percent.

As for the Republican party one can just sigh that this great party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower is so bereft of ideas and cannot come to terms with the new America with its advances in women’s rights and its mix of cultures that will result in the white population being outnumbered by the mid century. They have as many potential candidates as they have factions in the party, none of whom seriously looks like President 45. This motley crew will have a blog to itself in the near future.

PARIS - TERRORISM, ANTI- SEMITISM AND ISRAEL

This past week shook France and the world as three connected Al Qaeda/ ISIS inspired terrorists paralyzed the iconic Parisian city of elegance, food, fashion and art, killing in their wake, in three separate incidents,17 victims, before they were neutralized. The victims included eleven journalists from a satirical periodical “Charlie Hebdo”, two law officers and finally four Jews in a Kosher Supermarket. Not since 9/11 were nations so riveted as the needless, purposeless wanton carnage with its aftermath played out live on 24/7 television coverage. Ostensibly these cold blooded murders were perpetrated as a revenge for the desecration of the prophet Mohammed who had been blasphemed by the public reproduction of his image and then further humiliated by these images being crude cartoons. It is difficult to see this act of terror in those terms because the holy Koran, which they purported to defend, does not make any reference to blasphemy nor any to the creation of images of the revered prophet Mohammed. 

For the record the Jews in the supermarket had nothing to do with the parodies. The latter's execution resulted in the eruption of the festering topic of anti - semitism in France which has been near the boil for some time. The supermarket butchery was labelled by the French President Hollande as a terrifying act of anti semitism. In the climate of the resulting increasing Jewish emigration from France, the French Prime Minister had maintained, just prior to the Kosher Supermarket slaughter, that if a hundred thousand Jews would leave France it would no longer be France and the French Republic would have failed.

COMMON PURPOSE OF MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALISTIC TERROR GROUPS AND NATIONS

These massacres need to be seen for what they are - fascist murderous actions, when written large, that are similar to the actions of the Nazis who wished, in their pursuit of world domination, to eliminate all the deviants and Jews. Pretending anything else is deception and denial which leads one to think that the Western and Eastern world will not wake up to the fact that the holy Jihad being perpetuated by the Muslim fundamentalists is a war to the bitter end. While the focus, for the moment, is in France all countries face this threat and all rationalizations to isolate and fragment all the issues related to it, are naive. 

It is impossible to see each and every one of these activities, regardless of whether they are on a big stage or a smaller one, outside of the objectives of Al Qaeda and ISIS and a host of other unashamedly terrorist organizations and nations that have the same intent. The fact that they all these entities are in different arenas ostensibly involved in diverse conflicts, are not always ad idem and in some instances at odds with each other, does not make their diabolical aspirations any less obvious. We have Syria and Iran, for example, whose modus operandi and philosophy is from the savage dark ages and while at war with one another their credo, Muslim fascist genocidal fundamentalism, is the same.

The ultimate objective is to dominate and control the world. Now this may seem melodramatic but why else are they doing what they are doing? Why does Iran want a nuclear bomb? Why do we have the creation of ISIS who are in the process of carving out a caliphate in the Middle East while ruthlessly perpetuating genocide on Jews, Christians and the  infidel Muslims. What is Al Qaedo’s ultimate objective when it has finally shown its metal by terrorizing the West and toppled opposition Muslim governments? What does one believe the next step is when one of them finally dominates the Muslim world - to live happily ever after in peace with the rest of mankind? If that was their goal why are they are inciting violence in the Frances , Americas and the UKs of this world? Their endpoint is world domination.

The current situation in France bares some analysis as its circumstances are replicated in many non Muslim countries throughout the world.

MUSLIMS AND FRANCE 

Of all of Europe, France has the highest population of Muslims. Although by some estimates the number should be six million only two million declare themselves as such. They represent seven and half percent of the French population. They also provide the bulk, sixty to seventy percent, of the prison population and a large fraction of the French unemployed and poverty stricken.The majority of these face the same dilemma as Muslims in other countries - how do they avoid the contamination and opprobrium of the international Jihadists and the fact that nearly every other terrorist incident in the past five decades have been perpetuated by Muslims? 

The pool of potential trained fundamentalist terrorists can immediately increase by at least another one thousand which is the number of French nationals that are in Iraq and Syria fighting the good fight.  The number, could grow exponentially if all those that were released from prison in the nineties and the first decade of the second millennium were added to the list as logic would dictate they should be. There could well be “sleepers” among them as the surest way to avoid surveillance is to stay off the radar for a few years. The Kouachi brothers, the actors in the Charlie Hebdo bloodbath, were dropped from observation in spite of their red flag profiles as they were seen to be inactive for a few years.

Kareem Abdul - Abdul Jabbar that articulate, well reasoned commentator and educator and formal basketball legend had these comments: He questioned why with every occurrence of Muslim terrorism, he, like other prominent Muslims, were asked to respond. Christians, he maintained were not challenged on the actions of their co religionists. When the Klu Klux Klan burn a cross on a lawn leaders of the Christian community are not interviewed and put on the defensive. These terrorist acts were not about religion rather they debase and act against religion. 

Unhappily Jabbar’s rational assessment of the devastation does not cut it in the real world and the political reality is that the onus is on the Muslim leadership, in particular, to be in the forefront of condemnation. This particularly where the radicalization of these French perpetrators, as is often the case, was at the hands of radical Islamic Imams. Regardless of what sane Muslims believe their religion has been hijacked by fanatics who are dragging them down with them. 

In this vein the President of Egypt el Sisi, addressing the Al Ahzar Islamic Center three weeks ago implored the Imams to “revolutionize Islam”. “Honorable Imam you bear the responsibility before Allah… the Islamic nation is being torn apart destroyed and heading to perdition”. el Sisi suggested that the Imams were confusing ideology with religion. el Sisi recognizes the danger of fundamentalism handcuffing the Muslim world and has been brutal in his response to it.

JEWS, ANTISEMITSM AND FRANCE

France is the third most populous State for the minuscule worldwide population of Jews who only represent half a percent of the planet’s population. The latest estimate put the number in France at four hundred and seventy -  five thousand. If one looks at the pervasiveness of the age old prejudice of anti - semitism as it manifests in today’s France it explains why Le Figaro reported, that following the recent outrage, the fear among French Jews was “palpable”. 

The International Business Times, in a piece bylined by Zoe Mintz, reported that in 2013, forty percent of all crime committed in France was directed towards the Jewish Community. The article quoted the following figures provided by the Jewish Protection Service for that year: 423 anti - semitic acts, 318 threats, 49 acts of violence, 53 acts of vandalism and an attempt at homicide. While the article did not give a breakdown of who the perpetrators there was an irresistible inference that they came from predominantly the Muslim fundamentalists.

An analysis of the last three years shows that there were several serious anti semitic episodes, the worst of which was the murder of a rabbi and three children at a school in Tolouse in 2012. There were attacks in and around synagogues both in 2013 and 2014 including two being burned, and a rabbi and his son stabbed. Towards the end of last year a jewess was raped and robbed while in July a young 17 year old girl was pepper sprayed. 

Most disturbing was an online social wave of the youth who imitated a French comedian M’bala M’bala's reverse Nazi salute. Some of these post photos of themselves in front of synagogues doing the salute. When one of M’Bala’s shows was banned there was an anti semitic march in Paris where tens of thousands, which included all right wing militants, shouted abuse at the jews and Zionists.  

This litany of anti semitism events has continued even in the aftermath of the murders at the supermarket as there were extremist demonstrations in the Paris suburb known as “Little Jerusalem”. This, to say the least in the supposed mood of kumbiyah, is depressing. It remains to be seen how Francois Hollande’s appearance at the Great Synagogue as part of France’s unity celebration will impact the current climate of despair and ”palpable fear”.

Last year double the number of French citizens, well over 7,000, sought aliyah to Israel as compared to emigrants from the USA. While a similar number was projected for 2015 the potential figure has to be higher in the aftermath of this black week. The fact that the families of the victims in the Kosher Supermarket elected Jerusalem for their burial may well be symbolic of where France’s jewry is at.

ISRAEL AND FRANCE 

To say the least Israeli and French relations have been strained of late. Israel considered that France’s vote for statehood for Abbas was treachery. France backtracked and maintained that the purpose was to force the two antagonists around a table. This did not wash as Abbas had very publicly served notice that was where he did not want to be having walked out on the USA Kerry initiative. This he did by betraying a very important tenet of those nine month discussions by seeking international “solutions” before exhausting every possibility for an accord. He went straight to the Security Council and when that failed the International Court of Justice in the teeth of concessions that America and Israel were prepared to make. France could not maintain that they were ignorant of the circumstances as the USA canvassed, in their successful effort to deny Palestine Security Council sanction for statehood, the Fatah rejection of the peace proposals. 

In the midst of the terrorist crisis and the Supermarket hostage saga, French President Hollande was in constant telephonic communication with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Apparently the latter was informed of the outcome before anyone else. Jay H. Ell was immediately struck by the significance of this circumstance and was amazed that it was not commented on in the wall to wall media coverage. On its face Hollande was dealing with a domestic catastrophe which involved French Citizens so why was he conferring with Israel just because some of the victims were jews who had presumably been in France for several generations? He was not contacting the Algerian government about the Kouachi brothers whose parents had immigrated to France. Implicit in this interchange is Hollande’s acceptance of the connection of jews in the diaspora to Israel, particularly as a refuge, an interpretation which Netanyahu jumped on.

Hollande it is reported in the Israeli press was not to keen to have Netanyahu present. He supposedly did not want to turn this into a propaganda exercise for Israel. Netanyahu originally agreed but when he finally decided he was going after all, an invitation was extended to him and Abbas. Hollande making the best of the situation Netanyahu was treated as the guest of honor. The French President had also had to have been fearful of Netanyahu’s penchant to take over the show which indeed he did, being prominent and grabbing the headlines in visits to the Kosher Supermarket and the Great Synagogue. 

Netanyahu unabashedly told the French Jews, “To come home”. When he arrived at the historic Great Synagogue in Paris on Sunday he was greeted like the messiah. The Israeli PM  took the opportunity to make the point that he has been his cri de coeur all along and is his most powerful argument in Israel’s decades long struggle with the Palestinians: “They may have different names ISIS, Boko Haram, Hamas, Al Shabob, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah but all of them are driven by the same bloodthirsty hatred and fanaticism. We understand that we are in a common battle for our future”. 

Hamas on its official Facebook page published a picture of all three male Parisian terrorists with the caption, “The martyrs that were dispatched by God, the heroes of Paris”. Hamas, following Israel’s comparison between them and the French terrorists withdrew their Facebook dispatch and condemned only the Charlie Hebdo murders and not those in the Kosher Supermarket.  

Much as the French European right were using this for their electoral ambitions so were Netanyahu and his chief coalition partners Lieberman and Bennett who climbed on the band wagon and joined their chief in the unity march against terrorism.The latter attracted an estimated million and a half people and forty heads of State.

WHERE TO NOW?

* Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post hit the nail on the head when she attacked the arguments, to date, that have been put forward by the West as to why there is all this violence towards them by Muslim extremist countries and terror groups. To embellish on her oped essay the burden of the message is; if this terrorist attack didn’t convince the world that as wrong as waterboarding is, that is not what has spurred the Jihad; as decadent as the West allegedly is that is not why Iran wants a nuclear bomb; however untenable it is to keep over a hundred innocents in perpetuity in Gitmo, that is not the reason for ISIS and Al Qaedo barbarism; and as immoral as it is to put up settlements on the West Bank that is really not the issue with the Palestinians as peace talk after peace talk has shown. What is at stake is which Jihad faction is going to gain control of the Muslim world and then attempt the domination of the world itself.

* A topic that has been studiously avoided to date has to be faced head on if terrorism is to be stamped out and that is that terrorism by whoever has to be obsessionally opposed. What in fact is a terrorist organization and what is a freedom fighter entity? While there is not a universally accepted definition of terrorism let us take the UNO definition for starters, which definition is in line with the fact that terrorism equals terrorism: “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for a political purpose are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them”. Even by that narrow definition Hamas falls into the terrorism rubric. 

It is salutary to note that Mandela’s liberation movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe, justified its existence in that they would assiduously strive not to cause loss of life and many a sortie was called off as the risk was calculated as being too high. Mandela issued instructions that he would not countenance the loss of life as sabotage of government installations was the target. 

* As Yossi Klein Halevi, the American born Israeli who is an activist for reconciliation between the three monotheistic religions and peace in the region, claimed in the aftermath of Paris, “For years we have been watching the international community getting worked up about terrorism everywhere except Israel”.

* It remains to be seen how far the initiative started by the Egyptian President will result in the Muslims organizing and  determinedly separating themselves from those who are reeking havoc on the world stage.

* It will be intriguing to follow whether the French establishment is able to persuade the Jews to remain in their country of birth. Emigration is a monumental step and considered to be as great a stress situation as the death of a spouse. Many would be giving up their positions and livelihoods. However, the “never again” cry of Netanyahu has to be resonating in the current climate of France while the reassurances of the powers that be have to have a ring about them similar to those issued by the German establishment to a jittery Jewish population in the 1930’s. 

Maybe the French government’s deployment of the military to protect jewish institutions in the hangover of the recent cataclysm will not be enough to undo the perceptions and experience of the past years in France. If jews do emigrate in their droves it will be a dramatic change in the world order.

* Another question is what adjustments will the international community make as their current security infrastructure is not nearly designed to meet the threat? Unanswered is what abrogations to individual liberty will be accepted and tolerated by differing societies. The defendants of Snowden begin to look quaint in this context. The USA, for example, has estimated to have between five hundred to eight hundred thousand persons on the “no fly” list. If it is argued that you need anything up to twenty - four agents to monitor a suspect 24/7 nearly twenty million agents would be needed to keep tabs on this group and that is not going to happen. The French have arrested about nine suspects in connection with these latest atrocities. By law they are only allowed to detain them for four to five days without charges. That is no way to fight a war! The balance between the rule of law and the protection of individual rights is going to be tightrope to walk and as always one does not want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

* Bearing in mind that the statistical probability is that a terrorist is of Muslim persuasion how do you narrow down your search without a demeaning profiling approach? By far the majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims have no truck with these barbarians and just in case it has slipped under the radar a Muslim police person was a victim of the Parisian attacks, a Muslim employee risked his life by hiding several potential victims in the supermarket carnage and a Muslim cleric lead the march against terrorism in Paris at great subsequent risk to himself.

* The fat lady hasn’t even put on her make up or even appeared in the wings let alone begun to sing in what has to be the beginning of a new chapter in the ongoing battle against the forces of darkness that the universe faces again and again in its struggle for peace and equity.

ISRAEL AT A CROSSROAD WHILE ABBAS GOES OFF THE RAILS

There are two central issues that are currently facing Israel, Zionism and Palestine. Most of the discussion revolves around the two state solution to the seventy year old Israeli - Palestinian conflict. The latter situation has altered dramatically as a result of Mahmoud Abbas’s precipitous international actions in throwing down the gauntlet at Israel and once again showing the USA the finger in their attempt at engineering a two state solution. Jay H. Ell, however, believes that the central concern to the survival of Israel is less and less dependent on the threat that the PLO and Hamas engender and world opinion on the matter but rather the value system and policies that Israel adopts internally which is the other crisis faced by the Israelis . 

He believes that the shambolic destructive leadership of Palestine with their total disregard for their own citizens does not propose an ultimate threat because if Israel’s survival really depended upon it they could blow both territories to kingdom come. Israel’s continuity is ultimately dependent on its adherence to its democratic value system that served as the basis for its establishment and for its subsequent survival against incredible odds. 

THE  PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP ONCE AGAIN REJECTS A USA NEGOTIATED PEACE INITIATIVE 

Jay H. Ell is firmly persuaded that the PLO under the leadership, first of Arafat and now of Abbas, were and are still not really interested in a two state solution. The most recent little reported, nine and a half month US attempt at bridging the gap between the two antagonists once again bears that out. Livni, Israel’s negotiator said that Netanyahu thought the deal hammered out with Kerry was fair and the impression was that Abbas was on sides. Abbas flagrantly defied one of its key provisions that he would not seek any other international solutions while the terms were being negotiated. The deal called for the release of several Palestinian prisoners as well as the return of the Israeli spy Pollard who is languishing in an American prison. Netanyahu agreed that further settlements would be frozen. Abbas, acting as Arafat repeatedly did, “inexplicably” reneged on the deal and careered off to the United Nation’s Security Council to seek a unilateral declaration of nationhood. This resulted in Obama’s United States being furious at this betrayal. Jeff Rathke of the US State Department responded, “This escalatory step will not achieve any of the outcomes the Palestinians hoped to see for their people”. The action was charitably called “counterproductive”.

The “State” of Palestine, divided between independent Gaza controlled by Iran’s Hamas and the West Bank occupied by Israel but with Abbas at its head, has had no coherent integrated policy other than their non recognition of Israel as a state. Abbas although the nominal ruler of Gaza has had no contact or visits for years to that territory and only has a tenuous hold over the West Bank not having risked an election for almost a decade. Abbas’s ludicrous bid for acceptance of statehood in these circumstances, in spite of support of a whole host of, at kindest, naive countries, is meaningless in reality and ended in an ignominious defeat largely as a result of the United States diplomatic efforts. (A fact bleated all over the Israeli press by Avigdor Liebermann the ultra right wing Minister of Foreign Affairs. Finally, it is sinking in that Obama is not their enemy just because he cannot tolerate the manipulative Netanyahu).

The leadership of Hamas condemned Abbas for this move as a total sell out! Hamas’s other criticisms of Abbas were even more broadly based. The Head of Hamas in Gaza, Ismael Haniyeh accused Abbas’s Fatah of not effecting the reconstruction of Gaza for which he had received the money. The anger of Hamas resulted in bombing of Fatah’s property in Gaza. Yet several nations, who should know better, backed this freak show. 

Even in the most unlikely outcome that Palestine is granted statehood what does Abbas do next? Or does he expect Israel to roll over and agree with him that Israel should not be recognized and do his and Hamas’s bidding that the nearly eight million Jews should pack up and go to other countries. Maybe the other countries that are exhibiting such enthusiasm for a chaotic independent Palestine will welcome the eight million Israelis in to their midst - that is if their Muslim minorities will let them. They then will have to send in planes or troops as ISIS fills the power vacuum created by the Israelis departure.

DESPERATE ABBAS GOES TO INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT OF JUSTICE

With the unexpected outcome of the African representatives not voting for Palestinian statehood, the desperate Abbas moved to the International Criminal Court of Justice, (ICC), at the Hague. This is another exercise in futility as the wheels of justice move slowly at the best of times. His locus standii to lay charges will immediately be under challenge because as the rules stand you can only bring issues to the court that have occurred once a membership had been granted. Also the Court is only mandated to proceed if the defendant country’s judicial system had not addressed the possibility of war crimes. In fact Israel has a vast infrastructure to investigate possible crimes of war which began its work immediately after the ceasefire in the recent conflict. Needless to say Palestine has no legal review system as war crimes are their official policy.

And that is just the beginning as the court is only directed to hear cases of “Unimaginable  Atrocities”. Thus to date it has taken up only cases that involved tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths. So even if the Prosecutors accept that there is probable cause for the1,500 deaths in Gaza, in that they were as a result of war crimes, this “crime” should be of lower priority on the Court’s schedule than, for example, Assad’s 175,000 civilian deaths last year which apparently is not even on the Hague Court’s radar screen. 

Then should the litigation proceed Abbas will have to face very credible counter claims that he is guilty of crimes against humanity in relation to Hamas’s activities of firing indiscriminately on civilians and using women and children as human shields. The prosecutorial staff at the Hague legally should give this all a miss as this litigation requires legal fact not propaganda. Their recent protracted attempt to convict the President of Kenya on war crimes, with far more probable cause than exists with the rhetoric related to Israel, came embarrassingly unstuck. 

So Abbas’s move is counterproductive to say the least. Even if he triumphed it would take a long  long time. Meantime he will have brought great financial penalties on Palestine. Israel can inflict major financial pain and politically why shouldn’t they? Abbas has said in addition to this latest volte face that he will never accept an independent Israel. In addition the USA has finally called it quits and the $400 million that they sling Abbas’s way is in great jeopardy. Abbas’s standing on the West bank has plummeted. In a recent survey from the independent Palestinian run Palestinian Center for Policy in Ramallah, he only gained a thirty -five percent approval rating. What the 8 members of the Security Council could have been thinking when they attempted to pass nationhood onto a leader that hasn’t had an election for ten years and has no control over the territories he supposedly governs, only they know. 

ISRAEL’S CURRENT REALITY AND IT’S RESPONSIBILITY.  

Israel over the last few decades has gradually drifted more and more to the right. It could be argued that this has been in response to the never ending attacks on it by Hamas and a growing disillusionment that peace is an illusion. However central that reality there is more to it than that. There has been a hijacking of the Israeli policies of tolerance and democracy by two minorities supported by various waves of immigrants that were never part of the original Zionistic establishment of Israel. The settlers and the messianic religious, representing a tiny portion of the citizenry, are now dominating the political process and have driven Bibi Netanyahu even further and further to the right. Before going into the current political breakdown in Israel, prior to a turning point election in March 2015, it would be salutary to restate the 1948 Israeli Charter. (It is important to note that there was consensus on this between Labour’s Ben Gurion and Likud’s Begin):

“The State would be founded on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race and sex”.  

So how have less than 400,000 settlers and a radicalized small group of clergy taken central stage in Israeli politics? Messianic clerics were initially a non factor in Zionism as the latter was secular and the progenitors of this messianic group were against the establishment of Israel as they believed that it was illegitimate without the presence of the Messiah. The settlers are a modern day phenomenon linked to the newly found involvement of the messianic clergy. The settlers are attempting to increase the size of Israel beyond what could be accommodated by the original two state settlement agreement as they believe this was promised by G-D. The latter objective is contrary to another cardinal feature of the 1948 Israeli Charter:

“….. in the very midst of onslaught against us for months….. the State of Israel is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of  29th of November 1947…..” The plan called for a two State division of the territories and was rejected then by the Arab Governments who rejected any form of territorial separation.

So there is a commitment to full rights for all in Israel and a two State solution - a commitment which has only recently  been seriously challenged within Israel. 

THE CHANGES IN ISRAEL’S BODY POLITIC

Whatever else can be said about the half century acrimonious spilt between Likud and Labour they stuck to their word and there was a succession of Prime Ministers, from both sides of the aisle, dutifully adhering to their covenant. The last of these statesmen coming from that great tradition was Ariel Sharon, although he morphed into the Kadima Party from Likud, the sense of the doing what was right in a sea of wrong had to be upheld, finally, even by him. In case one has forgotten the most powerful claim the Israelis have is that they are the arbiters of public morality in a region that has no respect for human rights and the rule of law. 

Settlements.

No single issue has raised the ire of the international community more than the creation of settlements by the Israelis. While there have been settlements off and on since the Six Day War in 1967 many of these have since disbanded. Some of the settlements as explained by Rabin, following  the Oslo Accords could never be ceded as they were crucial for security. However the fact that Israel did not hang onto the Sinai and Gaza for example having abandoned the former as part of negotiations and the latter unilaterally allowed the issue to simmer till Netanyahu took the reins. Netanyahu’s plan for an increase in settlements was publicly leaked by Haaretz in 2011 where he would increase settlements particularly on the West Bank. How much Netanyahu is responding to political pressure in the implementation of this program will become evident in the next few years if he still hangs onto power which to date seems to be his central political objective.

Israel by proceeding in this manner besides attracting world wide and internal opprobrium have gone back on their word and have lost much of their propaganda argument that their promise and theirs alone can be trusted. The argument that they are behaving like an imperialist colonial power is difficult to refute under the current settler policy.

Internal Policy

Israel has prided itself on its vigorous democracy. Over the past decade or so their proud boast that they treat the Arab Palestinians like any other citizen has taken a hit. Lead by Avigdor Liebermann who screams “No citizenship without loyalty” which is unashamed code for deporting the Arabs who like a distinct section of Jewish Israelis do not support the Settler program nor how “Operation Protective Edge” was executed. The Israeli Center for Arab Minority Rights has documented that there are 50 discriminatory laws on the books in every domain of life in Israel from citizenry to land allocation. Also there has been legislation introduced that will not allow foreign money into the country for human rights groups all adding to the narrative that Israel is no longer prioritizing democracy. The most recent move to remove the word “democratic” in the definition of the State of Israel calling it only a Jewish State has raised the ire of those who again interpret this as a move away from the 1948 Charter.

Obviously the dominant policy in Israel is still equality, but should the Liebermanns of this world hijack the culture of Israel that has allowed it to thrive and survive, thereby turning it into a nationalist state that discriminates against those who disagree with them, this will no longer be so.

CURRENT SITUATION.

This brings us to the current political crossroads with the election on March 17, 2015. There is little doubt that the right have been strengthened by Abbas’s moves. A rejuvenated Netanyahu, who was reelected Leader of Likud with 80 percent of the votes, immediately grandstanded that he would not allow members of the Israeli Defense Force to be dragged before the Hague, knowing full well that they only drag “the decision makers” before the ICC. 

As things stand it is hard to see a government without Netanyahu.There are a 120 seats in the Knesset and at the moment no party has more than 19 making a cobbled together coalition the only possibility. Israeli politics are incredibly mobile. Parties in Israel coalesce at the drop of a hat and others go off the map in a jiffy. Sharon’s Kadimah had 29 seats in 2006 and only 2 in 2013. Likewise politicians change often and Livni who was Kadimah’s head  in 2009 is now head of Hatnuah.

The new Zionists represent to a large extent the influential minorities of the messianic right and the pro settlement constituencies. Their main parties are the religious party, The Jewish Home, with about 12 Knesset members and the Settler Party - Avigdor Libermann’s, Yisrael Beitenui with a similar number. The latter still nominally support a two state solution and are largely made of Russian immigrants that hardly know a tradition of democracy. Likud which is the former right wing party is headed by Netanyahu and has 19 seats. These three parties could form a powerful nidus for another right wing government. 

The Religious Ashkenazi Jews are represented by United Torah Judaism and the Religious Sephardis by Shas. Both occupy six seats in the outgoing Knesset. Ironically the traditional religious parties have not got the same dogged commitment to Messianism as Bennett’s Jewish Home. Shas last time round was affiliated with Labour. Yair Lapid is head of Yesh Atid that sees itself as the middle of the road secular party had 19 seats in the current Knesset but was a solid partner in Netanyahu’s coalition.

The Labor Party under Herzog has 15 and Livni’s Hatnuah has 6 while the Arab parties have 11.

Already the polls see different numbers and who knows how the cookie will crumble. The cognoscenti are seeing a fight between Herzog/Livni and Netanyahu. They are both predicted to get 24 seats. The unlikely coalition of Labour and Hatnuah has sparked much speculation and interest as they are said to be the inheritors of the old Likud and Labour parties that have come together. The question is how Herzog/Livni could get to 61.The left are telling the Arab group that the time has come to align themselves heavily in a battle of this nature. 

Another variable is how the corruption scandals will impact Liebermann and his party. Shas too are in flux as there is a major rift between factions after the death of their leader. The report that Netanyahu, who must be favorite to serve a fourth term as Prime Minister, accepted the US peace plan and was prepared to freeze settlements may or may not mean he is ready to join the long line of statesmen Israel has produced over the years.

Jay H. Ell is not going to begin to go into reading trends in the Israeli elections. What he does know that Israel stands for values that have allowed it to survive. On the one hand it faces discrimination from countries and institutions that should know better and on the other it is staring at an even greater internal threat to its very raison d’être. What good is it to survive by degenerating to the behavior of the lowest common denominator around you? Do the messianic who support the settlers in their supposed G-D given mission forget that the Torah tells them to love the stranger as “You too were strangers in Egypt”. Finally, spare a thought for those “strangers” whose leaders force Israel to blow up their residences, schools and mosques. Somehow one needs to find a way to get to them and help resolve their hell like existence and at the same time remove the day to day shadow of violence that the modern day Israel has lived under since its tumultuous inception.