On Friday night during the Seder, millions of Jews in Israel and throughout the diaspora will fill Elijah’s Cup and then fling open their doors to ‘welcome’ the spirit of Elijah with the hope that the prophet will soon return to harken the promised messianic era of peace.
But Israelis worry that a series of moves by foes and friends are effectively slamming shut the doorway towards peace and hastening the next catastrophic war in The Holy Land.
Iran: While the world focuses on supposed P5+1 deadlines with Tehran, every indication is that the Mullahocracy is well on its way to becoming a nuclear power with the missile capacity to deliver a bomb. That inevitability is already sending Arab nations scurrying to obtain their own nuclear devices. And with their traditional US protector AWOL, these same states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are already responding militarily to Iran’s power grab in Iraq and Yemen.
Meanwhile, as nuclear negotiations drag on, Israelis hear the latest direct threat from Iran’s chief of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, who declared– that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable.” The Iranian regime is already launching new actions to bolster the bluster. Last year, Naqdi said Iran was increasing efforts to arm Palestinians on the West Bank for battle against Israel, a move he claimed would lead to Israel’s annihilation, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.
Israel’s northern security is under increasing threat by Iranian moves in Lebanon.
A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official confirms that Iran is converting Zilzal unguided rockets into accurate, guided M-600 projectiles by upgrading their warheads. The Algemeiner quotes Israeli Colonel Aviram Hasson describing Iran as a “train engine that is not stopping for a moment. It is manufacturing new and advanced ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. It is turning unguided rockets that had an accuracy range of kilometers into weapons that are accurate to within meters.” Hezbollah “is getting a lot of accurate weapons from Iran. It is in a very different place compared to the Second Lebanon War in 2006,” he warned.
Now comes word of an even more ominous development: The Times of London reports that Tehran is developing a new front against Israel as its allies in Syria are crushing anti-Assad rebel groups in the Golan Heights.
Israel could soon be confronted directly by Iranian troops on their border and in the words of Hezbollah’s Abu Ali,
“Iran will be so close to the Israelis that it will no longer need long-range missiles to hit them.
And Tehran is once again aiding Gaza-based Hamas. That terrorist group has sought to mend its relations with Iran, after it bet on the wrong horse in the Syrian Civil War. Hamas has been the recipient of tens of millions of dollars, logistical, and military support from the Iranians.
Many, perhaps President Obama among them, would argue, that such an array of existential and strategic challenges against Israel should push Prime Minister Netanyahu to make a quick deal with Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA).
However, the PA has proven to be part of the problem, not the solution. It has lost support of the West Bank Palestinian street through its serial corruption and failure to call elections. Abbas has shown little interest in negotiating with Jerusalem when he senses he can get closer to his goal of a Palestinian state by going directly to the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and UNESCO and other international agencies.
It has been said that diplomats sign treaties but only people make peace. If so, the Palestinian Authority itself has been signaling their Israeli neighbors that they are preparing their kids for war, not peace. The important NGO, Palestinian Media Watch continuously documents how PA uses education and culture to promote haters and terrorist murderers of Jews.
A recent PA TV show broadcast (provided by PMW) a school activity teaching children to boycott Israeli products. However, the boy whose interview was broadcast, said he was also learning through the school theater that Jews should be killed:
“I came to rehearse the play in order to boycott Israeli products and fight the Jews, kill them, and defeat them.” – [Official PA TV, March 22 and 25, 2015]
Israelis have been stung by the thundering silence of the United States and the European Union in face of the increasingly brazen pre-nuclearized Iran-led threats to the Jewish State and the blatant Jew-hatred of its neighbors.
This isn’t about a spat with Bibi Netanyahu; it is about the safety of 8 million Israeli citizens. The threat of the US abandoning Israel to the wolves at the UN Security Council won’t bring peace, only further chaos and violence to the already imploding region. If world leaders want to convince the Israeli street that they are committed to a safe and secure Jewish state, they need to address these real-world concerns with deeds—not empty Yom HaShoah Never Again promises.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/04/01/enemies%E2%80%99-moves-friends%E2%80%99-silence-slam-door-on-elijah%E2%80%99s-hope/