NKIT QOTD

TJF, Tel Aviv is the capital city.

Southern Sage, you say, “We have enough trouble in the Middle East.”

There has always been “trouble” in the Middle East ever since the pedophile “prophet” who shall not be named invented his new and violently expansionist religion/ideology. There always will be trouble there until either his followers win the whole prize (meaning no non-followers are allowed to exist in the entire region) or somebody else with a different religion and/or ideology utterly and decisively defeats them. What part of that is so hard to understand? Personally, I don’t care one whit whether that somebody else is Jewish, Hindu, Mormon or Southern Baptist, just as long as those other guys lose and lose big.

You say, “Israel invaded and illegally seized Jerusalem. That is a fact, like it or not.”

I don’t care what you may have been taught, or by whom, or why, but this is utterly, completely and ridiculously false. A consortium of Muslim, mostly Arab countries invaded Israel in 1967 with the intent of conquering the country to eliminate it from the face of the earth. Just as they had originally promised in 1948 and attempted again in 1956, they once again promised the Arabs in the region that they would finally “drive the Israelis into the sea.” Those Arabs, whom their “brother” Arab countries had all refused to assimilate after the 1948 UN partition, since it was judged that a suffering sea of abandoned “refugees” (now in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations) would be more politically expedient toward their often and explicitly stated goal of ethnically cleansing all of the Jews from their ancestral homeland, are now erroneously termed “Palestinians.” Get it straight: Israel committed no invasion; they were invaded, and not for the first time or for the last time.

And, just as happened in 1948, those Muslim countries once again failed in their quest to kill all the Jews (thanks be to God), once again losing another war that they had themselves started, and in doing so they lost the territory that is now erroneously described as being “occupied” by Israel. Although at the time, Israel could have rather easily gone on to conquer the remainder of the old British Mandate of Trans-Jordan (the modern day Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), they did not. Instead, they stopped at recapturing Jerusalem and they settled for a much smaller expansion of territory to obtain more defensible borders, all in the interest of eventual peace. For all it got them.

By the way, this territory was taken from Jordan (one of the invading countries), not from some imaginary “Palestinian” nation that has never existed, either administratively, culturally or historically. The Kingdom of Jordan has not even tried to get the lost territory back, whether by more war or by politics. In fact, relations between Israel and Jordan are often cooperative and are usually surprisingly cordial.

Israel also accepted those Arabs within their borders who were willing to take it, into full and participatory citizenship, which is more than their Arab “brothers” have ever been willing to do for them. The Arabs of the region and their descendants (long-ago invaders themselves, btw) who refused Israel’s offer because they will not be satisfied with anything short of Israel’s total demise, are the ones we euphamistically call “Palestinians” today. In my view, they do not deserve, nor do I believe for one minute that they even truly want, status as a nation state next to Israel. They want Israel dead and gone. Fortunately, I don’t believe that is what the Lord God of the Universe has in mind. Regardless, a genuinely peaceful, two-state solution has never been a realistic option and it never shall be. It’s never been more than a pipe dream for clueless – and shamefully exploitative – Westerners.

You might say, “But, but, but Israel was formed illegitimately in the first place by outsiders imposing their will on the land!” Really? If that’s true, then Jordan is equally illegitimate, and for that matter, even more so is Saudi Arabia, and for the same reason. It all goes back to WW I, the last ugly gasps of British colonialism and a strategically brilliant gay guy named T. E. Lawrence, better known in largely fictional, excitingly swashbuckling tales as “Lawrence of Arabia.” Sadly, the truth of what really happened is a bit more sordid.

The Hashemite Dynasty, who proudly trace their lineage back to the aforementioned “prophet,” once ruled Mecca, Medina and a large portion of the Arabian peninsula for 1000 years, both before and later as a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately for them, the Ottomans threw in their lot with the wrong side during the Great War and they lost. Lawrence helped the Brits defeat the Ottomans, with a lot of assistance (and some personal “relationships” if you know what I mean) from some Bedouin Arabs, some of whom bore the clan/family name of Saud.

In the endgame after the Great War, the Brits had Colonial rule over most of the Middle East. They rewarded Lawrence’s Bedouin buddies with title to most of the Arabian peninsula, including Mecca and Medina, after which the West started demanding self-serving, oil-related demands which later culminated in the petrodollar regime. Tit for tat. You get and you give. Life goes on.

Unfortunately, this left the Hashemites SOL. To pacify the ousted Hashemites, the Brits granted them a new kingdom in the British Mandate of Trans-Jordan that included Jerusalem as a third-tier consolation prize. Because throughout the very long history of the Hashemites, they have shown themselves over many, many generations and even to this day, to be reasonably decent, usually fair and occasionally even extraordinarily wise rulers, they accepted the raw deal they were offered and they have done the best they could with it ever since. Their hearts aren’t in Jerusalem though. In fact they have seemed to give the Jews of Israel their blessing for their honest and ancestral attachment to the ancient city of Jerusalem. The Hashemites’ hearts are in Mecca where the usurpers dwell, and that all thanks to the West. I wouldn’t blame them for being bitter, but to my everlasting surprise, they don’t seem to be, except very occasionally in private.

Then in 1948, and after the horrors of Nazi Germany, and following the dictates of the Balfour Declaration, and under UN auspices, the British Mandate of Trans-Jordan was partitioned into the nations of Israel and (The Hashemite Kingdom of) Jordan. At the last minute, Israel’s borders were redefined to those that were as indefensible as possible, because there were all too many hidden Nazi sympathizers in all too many places who hoped that the Arabs would finish the job of Jewish extermination. But God … Only the foolish count Him out, jus’ sayin’.

So that’s in very short form how our world got saddled with the burden of Israel and of Jordan and of Saudi Arabia. Good, good and very, very bad, imho. 9/11 is on the Saudis, after all. So was Osama Bin Laden, much to the embarrassment of the decent half of his family. Now I don’t care if you don’t like Jews and you do like Muslims or vice versa or whatever. I don’t care if you think Mossad or the CIA or MI-6 are good guys or bad guys or a bit of both. I don’t care if you fear or support those you think may call themselves “Illuminati” or whether you think they exist at all. I am personally neither Jewish nor Muslim, although I have and have had close and dearly beloved friends from both quarters and I treasure them and/or their memories. My given names are a variant of Christine added to that of the blessed mother of Jesus Christ (Anglicized), so that much should be obvious. I personally think that Jew-hatred is stupid and is ultimately self-destructive besides. I personally think that Muslim-hatred is stupid, although I am forced to admit with great reluctance that there are Muslims and then there are those other Muslims, very sad to say.

If our President, Mr. Trump, really wants to “Make America Great Again,” may he start with making us a country who once again obeys and enforces our own, properly enacted laws. Our law is that our Embassies are to be located in the designated capitols of foreign lands. Our law is that our embassy in Israel is to be located specifically in Jerusalem, Israel’s self-proclaimed capitol. That’s enough.