Jacobs Troubles

By Steve Meehan

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee– Psalm 122:6

These are perilous times for the nation of Israel. Her existence is being threatened on a multitude of fronts. If ever there was a time when the Jewish state needed more the prayers of those that love her, that time would be now. Those groups that seek her destruction are stepping up, while nations that once supported her are backing off.

In the south, Egypt has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1979, when Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David peace accords after 13 days of secret negotiations the previous year. All through the Mubarak years, there had been relative calm between the two nations. Israel had to give up control of the Sinai Peninsula as a condition of the peace treaty, thus beginning a “land for peace” mindset for any further negotiations with her Arab counterparts.

Then recently, as a result of the so-called Arab Spring, Hosni Mubarak was ousted and replaced with a “democratically elected” Muslim Brotherhood leader, namely Mohammed Morsi. One of Morsi’s first declarations since taking office, was that he intended to “amend” the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which is more than likely Islamic- speak for rendering it null and void. He has since re-militarized the Sinai in efforts to control Gaza rebels who are infiltrating from the Gaza-Egypt border, but could also be used as a pretense for a further military buildup along the Israel-Egypt front – a development that the Israeli leadership is concerned about.

In the north, along Lebanon’s border with Israel, Hezbollah – the Iranian-backed militia/terrorist group – has continued to build up its arsenal of rockets, some of which are capable of hitting Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. They continue to be a growing menace and may soon get their hands on weapons of mass destruction from nearby Syria.

In Gaza, to the West, as soon as Israel gave up that land, Islamic militants/terrorists took over. Since the inception of the Hamas regime, there has been a continual barrage of crudely made rockets fired into Israel. Repeated airstrikes by Israel in their efforts to get Hamas and other groups to stop firing rockets has not succeeded. Tunnels leading into Gaza from the Sinai have been blown up by the IDF and a naval blockade has been set up off the coast of Gaza, to try to stem the tide of arm shipments into the area. Activity in and around that strip of land requires constant surveillance by Israel.

In the northeast, Syria has always maintained that a starting point for them in any peace negotiations must be the return of the Golan Heights to their control. That pretense for peace with Israel by Syria is about as worthless as the signed document that Neville Chamberlain exuberantly waved to the crowd on his return from a meeting with Adolph Hitler, who had guaranteed that he had no intentions of any further aggressions towards Europe. Syria only wants the Golan back because of its strategic importance in launching any future wars against Israel.

Now Bashar al Assad’s regime of Syria is involved in their own Arab Spring uprising, having raged on now for about 20 months. That civil war has, by all estimates, surpassed the 20,000 lives lost mark and is now spilling across the border into Turkey. The Turkish government is striking back and the conflict could further escalate into a conflagration with other surrounding countries – namely Israel. Assad has threatened to unleash his stockpile of chemical and biological weapons on any outside groups or nations who interfere with his attempts to cling to the reins of power. Would he consider using them against the Turks?

A more likely scenario could be one where Assad would possibly use some against Israel, in an effort to get the Arab world from closely observing what he is presently doing to his own countrymen, and instead come to Syria’s help if he were to get Israel involved in a massive retaliatory strike after being hit by Assad’s WMDs. It would be an extremely foolhardy venture on his part, but if he feels that he is going to lose power anyway, he may just roll the dice.

Another scenario involves those weapons falling into the rebel’s hands, or Al Qaeda groups infiltrating into his country, or maybe even Hezbollah getting control of some of them. It has been recently reported that Assad has had some of those weapons moved; either to safeguard them or have them at his disposal should he decide to use them. In any case, this bears close monitoring by Israel. They may have to take quick and decisive action to prevent those sinister weapons of war from being used against them.

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