Wars and Rumors of Wars

Earlier this month an offensive started against Israel, requiring reprisal. In just days there had been hundreds of bombs launched at Israel. They have the Iron Dome, a defense system designed to take out missiles in the air, but there have been more than air attacks.

In the town of Lob, the mayor has asked for an emergency declaration and calls this a Kristallnacht-type event. Rioting has broken out. Synagogues have been burned, their Torahs taken from their arks and burned. Homes have had Molotov cocktails thrown through the windows. Hundreds of cars have been set on fire. Some Jews are removing mezuzahs from their doors to avoid being targeted.

Images of attacks in Jerusalem (top right) and Lob
screenshots from the Mark Levin Show

Mark Levin talked about the situation in Israel in a recent show. He gave it this perspective:

Now, think about that. These Israeli Arabs get to vote; they have due process rights; they have property rights. They have all the rights of Israelis. What do they do? They turn on the Israelis. They turn on the Jews. As if they’re Nazis, in this particular neighborhood and community. Burning down synagogues. Trying to hunt down the Jews in their homes. It’s almost instinctive. And these are mostly young Arab gangs that have coalesced and that are marauding through the streets of this town. And it’s become a problem, not only in this town, but in other towns, we’re told.

What would we do if we had attacks from over the border on our country? We would put a stop to it with force.

What if we had riots from among our citizens, looting and setting cars and businesses and homes on fire? Well, I would have thought we would send in troops to quell the emergency as Israel is doing. But the experience of the last year shows that, in some cities, they just call it the “summer of love” and tell the people not to complain and the media not to report on it. But in a sane world, we can see why New Jersey-sized Israel, surrounded by Arab countries, some of whom are aligned with Iran, would take action to defend themselves.

Levin started his show with this:

The Israeli government I have no doubt told them [the US], “Butt out; we’re going to handle this.” Because they know that Biden doesn’t have their back. And they know that the enemy, the Palestinian terrorists, Hamas, which is on our list as a terrorist organization—it works with Islamic Jihad. It works with Hezbollah. It works with Iran. All of our enemies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this in a speech this week (translated):

We are in the midst of a major campaign—Operation Guardian of the Walls. Yesterday and today the IDF [Israeli Defense Force] attacked hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. We have eliminated dozens of terrorists, including senior commanders. We have bombed Hamas command centers and toppled buildings that serve the terrorist organizations. We will continue to attack with full force. We have just finished a consultation and assessment of the situation with heads of the security establishment, and we made decisions. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have paid and—I tell you here—will pay a heavy price for their aggression. I say here this evening—their blood is on their heads.

Do we know what this suddenly upscaled civil war is about?

The immediate reason is probably because Israel's enemies can, because the weak US administration is not likely to fully support Israel—unlike the last administration, which brought multiple Middle-Eastern countries to sign peace deals with Israel.

Levin said this:

The Biden administration helped provoke this, as I said earlier, by giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority without strings attached. President Trump had cut it off, because he said they’re not willing to give up terrorism, among other things; they’re not willing to negotiate with the State of Israel over anything.

The Trump position was, Look, let’s make peace in the Middle East without the Palestinians, then. And that’s what happened. He said the Palestinians can’t be the trigger on whether or not there’s peace, because, if that’s the case, they’re always going to be able to blackmail; they’re always going to be able to resist; they’re always going to be able to slow down the process and make demands and so forth—when in fact there are Arab countries, Muslim countries, and Israel that can make peace. And want to make peace. And many of them did. And, but for Biden being president of the United States, it was felt that Israel was going to have a peace treaty with Saudi Arabia—because they have a common enemy in Iran.

Things are very different under a Biden administration than under a Trump administration. Popping up as if they have a right to are these faces of evil:

Known as "the squad" in Congress, Rashida Tlaib (left),
Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Getty image, as screenshot on the Mark Levin Show

Levin says,

Have you listened to Rashid Tlaib? Have you listened to Omar? Have you listened to AOC and the things that they’re saying? They are a disgusting disgrace: Israel is an apartheid country, that they’re trying to kill and evict the Palestinians, and so forth and so on.

The Democrat Party has this cancer, this poison, within it. And rather than confront it, and rather than extinguish it, like with a fire extinguisher. What does it do? It pampers it, or pretends it doesn’t exist. It also exists within the Biden administration, which is really quite appalling. Not just Jen Psaki, the spokesperson for Joe Biden, but the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, the spokespeople at the Department of State, others who are leaking to the media—and the media’s doing it’s usual reprehensible job in turning Israel into the perpetrator and the terrorists into the victims. The terrorists know how to play our media. And the media want to be played.

One of them, probably Tlaib, complained that we are helping to arm Israel with the Iron Dome, but Hamas doesn’t have an Iron Dome, so to be fair we should provide them one. Hmm. How unfair is that? We don’t arm the aggressors of our allies? That's so evil of us it's no wonder the squad hates this country they claim to represent while speaking treason against us.

There was a tall building Israel knocked down in Gaza, in response. It housed the Associated Press office. It also just happened to house Hamas—and had for, oh, 15 years or so. The Associated Press was “Shocked! Shocked!” to learn Hamas was in the building—even though they acknowledged in 2014 that they knew it, and seemed to have no problem with that either before or after. So, maybe you’re not going to get honest reporting from AP.

The AP noted that lives could have been lost; they had many employees in the building, but were able to evacuate them in time. They don’t say how they accomplished that rescue.

Ahead of the return attack on Hamas, Israel sent out a message, repeated for half an hour, telling people to evacuate, because they were going to bomb the building. Israel, unlike practically any other fighting force in world history, goes out of its way to prevent loss of civilian life—hard to do since Hamas places itself in hospitals, elementary schools, and densely populated areas for the purpose of causing loss of life among their own people so that they can blame Israel.

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad choose a target, they don’t aim at military or strategic targets; they aim at high population centers.

The IDF put out this map. Note that Tel Aviv is the highest population center.

IDF shows where missiles are aimed at Israel.
Image found as screenshot on the Mark Levin Show.

Levin spent some time describing the Iron Dome defense system, including a video clip about that, where the narrator said:

It took just 3 years and about $200 million to develop this defense system. It relies on a radar that instantly detects when a missile has been fired. Algorithms quickly try to determine what type of projectile is in the air, and whether it’s heading for a populated or strategic area. If so, Iron Dome launches a missile of its own. It’s said that Iron Dome has taken down more than 1,000 missiles since it turned on in 2011.

I heard a report last week that the count of missiles launched at Israel since this siege began just days before was over 600. That was several days ago. In a week the Iron Dome has been up against an attack amounting to the sum total of its use during the past ten years. Israel fought off a fairly large attack in 2014, but this dwarfs that one. Later in that video they mention that it successfully wards off 90% of incoming missiles. That means somewhere beyond 60 missiles probably landed in Israel this week.

Levin interrupted the video here and pointed out that the Iron Dome technology was a legacy of Ronald Reagan:

President Ronald Reagan, Mark Levin
screenshot from the Mark Levin Show

Some of you who are my age, or even younger—this was the brainchild of Ronald Reagan. It’s called the Strategic Defense Initiative. And it was brought to the President at the time. People in his own party were skeptical. People at the Pentagon were skeptical. The media hated the idea, and we had article after article about how it was technologically impossible for a missile to hit another missile. And the Democrat Party tried to block it.

But Reagan was—if anything, he was steadfast. And he pushed the project. It wasn’t fully funded, but he pushed it throughout his eight years as president. It was pushed somewhat after that. And we now have this defense system. They called it Star Wars to mock him. “Oh, sure, sure, we can do this.” And I remember reading in the New York Times and other publications how you simply didn’t have the technology; it was impossible.

And, of course, as you’re developing technology, you have to try it out. They tried it out, and there were several failures. Again, the were mocked for the amount of money that was being spent. I want you to think about this. This is a defensive system that could knock a nuclear missile out of the sky that’s aimed for one of our cities. Democrats never supported it. The media never supported it. That’s insanity.

Now it exists.

Iron Dome mobile missile launcher
screenshot from Bloomberg video shown on the Mark Levin Show

Levin added:

A good chunk of the funding Israel gets it uses to advance their technology. Not for bullets. Some. But, to advance their technology, which they then turn around and give to the United States. So it’s really a two-way street. The Israelis can develop this stuff faster, because their bureaucracy and their people understand this is life and death. There’s an immediacy to it. Whereas, in our own country we have obstacle after obstacle after obstacle to getting these things done—including in the bureaucracy, but also the Democrat Party and the media.

So, US weakness has contributed to the current upheaval. But the longer-term excuse goes back to Israel’s birth and beyond.

If you need a review of Israel’s basic history—because you probably weren’t taught this in school—I wrote a 6-part series (each part relatively short) back in 2011:

·       Israel, Part I: Ancient History 

·       Israel, Part II: Zionism and Migration 

·       Israel, Part III: Conflict and Violence 

·       Israel, Part IV: Holocaust and Statehood 

·       Israel, Part V: Refugees and 1967 War 

·       Israel, Part VI: Continued Unrest 

Since that series, I’ve written occasionally on Israel, based on what was happening at the time. Here are a few:

·       Obama Bent on Stopping Israel, but Not Iran, March 12, 2012 

·       Civilization vs. Savagery in Israel, July 24, 2014 

·       Historic Day in Israel, May 17, 2018 

Besides Mark Levin’s show,  which is “Chaos in the Holy Land,” Ep. 814, on The Blaze, you might also want to see these:

·       “Israeli Airstrikes in Syria as Rockets Target U.S. Troops in Iraq AGAIN” Erick Stakelbeck, Watchman Newscast, May 5, 2021 

·       “Hamas is PUSHING Israel Into A Ground Invasion; Iran Using Onslaught as Dry Run?” Erick Stakelbeck, Watchman Newscast, May 13, 2021 

·       “The War on Israel Ramps Up; Celebrities and the Left Melt Down” Stu Burguirre (on Facebook), The Blaze, May 17, 2021. 

I don’t know how exactly how this latest onslaught from Israel’s enemies will go. Either Israel will be able to quell the uprising, or it’s time to start watching for two prophets, who will hold off Israel’s enemies for three and a half years, just before things get really exciting (see Revelation 11).