Stumbling Stone of Jerusalem

'Yet things might have gone far otherwise and far worse. When you think of the great Battle of the Pelennor, do not forget the battles in Dale and the valour of Durin's Folk. Think of what might have been. Dragon-fire and savage swords in Eriador, night in Rivendell. There might be no Queen of Gondor. We might now hope to return from the victory here only to ruin and ash. But that has been averted - because I met Thorin Oakenshield one evening on the edge of spring in Bree. A chance-meeting, as we say in Middle Earth.'

Gandolf the Grey

When looking back at Israel's attack on the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor in Osirak just outside Baghdad in 1981 could anyone have imagined that America would end up fighting this very same nation not once but twice in the next 22 years? And if Israel had not attacked and destroyed Saddam's nuclear facility how would have events transpired in his favor? Does anyone doubt that Hussein would have attempted to get a nuclear bomb into America after his bruising defeat in 1990-91 to US Forces in Kuwait? Let us give thanks for Israel's foresight in dealing with Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambition. Let us not countenance the thought of what might have been.

America and the free-world owes Israel, especially the Likud Party of which Menachem Began the Prime Minister was leader, a debt of gratitude considering it was France and Italy that gave Iraq its nuclear know-how. This and many more occasions where Israel has been the watchtower in the darkness of the Middle East gives the West a great advantage in seeing what lies ahead. However, the direct advent of the United States in the Middle East after 9/11 has radically altered the political landscape for both Jew and Arab. As the United States makes its weight fully felt throughout the region we are witnessing a new dynamic in the Sunni-Arab world as its foundations are being transfigured before our eyes towards a more open and democratic political system that the power of the information age will fully exploit. But ironically, it is Israel that has been affected most by the changes sweeping this ancient land.

Ariel Sharon, the founding member of Likud, has left his party and will begin anew in politics that has strategic repercussions we have yet to fully realize. We may have passed the days in which Israel relies solely on itself for her defense. The days have come in which Jerusalem is leaning on others for her survival all for the sake of security.

From the World Tribune:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has drafted a plan for Israel's withdrawal from virtually all of the West Bank by 2008.

Political sources said Sharon has begun briefing senior U.S. officials of his intention to withdraw unilaterally from more than 95 percent of the West Bank. They said Sharon, who quit the ruling Likud Party on Nov. 21, would seek a U.S. and international security presence in the area as well as a commitment for the dismantling of Palestinian insurgency groups.

"His decision [to quit the Likud] stems from his desire to bring the state of Israel to permanent borders during his term of office," Eli Landau, a longtime confidante of Sharon, said. "He knows that this step will be a dramatic one."

One can't help but note a nervous gamble in this move. A certain turning point in which there is no return. With the advent of "International Security" forces on Israeli borders this will only complicate matters for the tiny outpost of Israel which is the only extant presence of Western Civilization anywhere in the Middle East which was once the home of Koine Greek and the fountainhead of the Rule of Law.

The pullout would be accompanied by a pledge from Sharon of an additional pullout and full Palestinian independence should the PA dismantle insurgency groups and maintain security cooperation with Israel. The sources said a version of the plan has already been drafted by Israel's National Security Council.

On Nov. 21, Sharon pledged to lay the "foundation for a peace in which we set the permanent borders of the state, while insisting on the dismantling of the terror organizations." He did not elaborate, but stressed that this plan would be within the parameters of the so-called roadmap announced by U.S. President George Bush in 2002.

Moslem terrorism and European utopianism is the anvil and hammer that Israel has been subjected to for more than 30 years now. Israel could wage war and easily take more land but politically and culturally she is unable to accomplish this task. She has nuclear weapons but may not have the will to use them even defensively thus her only recourse is a Western Alliance. Just as America and to a lesser degree Europe as their Overlords both Moslem and Jew must acquiesce to our political, economic and military demands.

May God have mercy upon their souls.