TOPOGRAPHY AT ITS BEST: INTRODUCING MARK LANGFAN

BY: FERN SIDMAN

There is no doubt that Mark Langfan is a man with a mission. Back in 1991 this gregarious New York attorney and real estate investor was stunned when he observed that most people he met lacked even a modicum of knowledge about basic geographical and military facts pertaining to Israel and the Middle East. With a prescient eye to the paramount importance that this region of the world would play for the future of Western civilization, Mark knew that he had to develop an illustrative teaching tool that would assist in clarifying the inherent dangers to Israel and the entire free world. It was then that he began feverishly researching the geography of the region and thus meticulously designed a seminal three dimensional (3-D) topographical map of Israel including the arguably "disputed" territories of Judea and Samaria, also known in common parlance as the West Bank. 

Culling his information from such prestigious international military publications as the United Kingdom's Jane's, the US State Department, online resources and research centers, Mark's "America-Israel Security" 3-D map provides the layman with a visually comprehensive view of the vast mountain ranges of Judea and Samaria and most importantly, the crucial aquifers of Western Samaria and the proximity of both Arab population centers and Israeli settlements. With the use of several clear plastic layovers, the map also details the existential danger that Israel finds herself in vis-a-vis the threat to her major population centers emanating from a militarized Palestinian controlled West Bank, by allowing viewers to gain an understanding of the physical relationship between these geographical entities and political facts such as tank routes and air and missile bases.

Images don't lie and what is most revealing is that Mark's map cogently depicts the fact that Israel's natural water supply that originates from the Western Samaria aquifer and naturally feeds the Israeli coastal aquifer where 70 percent of Israel's Jewish population resides would be teetering on the brink of extinction if the Palestinians were wielding control in this area  The map also shows the Golan Heights and how water flows off its slopes into Syria. It depicts how certain ridges now under Israeli control afford not only unparalleled views of the northern half of Israel, but clear physical control over the source of the Jordan's waters.

Also shown on the map are the BM-21 Katyusha "Multiple Rocket Launchers" facing Israel's coastal plain from inside the West Bank. Says Mark, "These launchers can easily be taken apart and smuggled into a "demilitarized" Palestinian state and individual katyushas can be launched from a pipe with just a car battery. Just think about the possible carnage that this can bring about. The rockets on this truck have a range of 12.7 miles and katyushas can easily carry chemical warheads. One full salvo of rockets from the truck would fire the explosive equivalent to four Scud missiles. No apartment in Tel Aviv would be safe."

Mark's briefing book contains a map of the Syrian tank attacks during the Yom Kippur war of 1973. pointing to that page and his 3-D map displaying the valleys and ridges of the Golan, Mark says that the tank attack routes exactly match the topography. He then points to a weak point in the Golan along a certain ridge. "You simply cannot understand what the Golan means without this map," declares Mark. 

Traveling the world to impart his findings and displaying his map, Mark delivers presentations to high profile opinion makers as well as members of the US State Department and members of the US Congress and Senate. "My goal is to educate those who formulate foreign policy and to allow them to come to their own conclusions about what needs to be done to protect American security interests in the Middle East. After seeing my map and hearing the voluminous amounts of concrete evidence that point to the perils that both America and Israel face if a Palestinian state were to come into existence, it is my fervent hope that we can change the course of history and preserve the lofty civilizations that we've labored to build", says Mark.

Lamenting the fact that for the last 20 years the Jewish establishment has silently boycotted his map and graphics because "the inescapable policy conclusions aren’t politically correct", Mark underscores the fact that the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations have either ignored his offers to show them the 3-D map or have refused to allow him to present it altogether. He says that the "American Jewish establishment is now as asleep and in total denial as they were in World War II during the Holocaust."

Proving Israel's strategic value to the US is Mark's post-9/11 terror war scenario in which he states that a demilitarized Palestinian West Bank/Gaza State will ultimately turn Israel from a US strategic asset and bulwark against Middle Eastern terrorism, into an albatross of sorts around the neck of the US; a defenseless liability that invites attack and can no longer project American military superiority.

With a visionary posture, Mark says that without the natural mountain defenses of the Golan and West Bank mountains, Israel would be easily eradicated and subsequently occupied by Syria and Egypt. He adds that even a heavily militarized Palestinian state will be unable to contain either the Syrians or the Egyptians. Without Israel as its strategic protector, Jordan would be easily encroached by the militarily powerful Hezbollah, the Syrians, the Egyptians and Iran. Syria, he says, currently views Jordan as southern Syria and will fulfill its vision of Manifest Destiny. 

Mark's hypothesis also states that the militarily powerful but oil-poor Egyptians, along with Syria and Iran on Saudi Arabia's northern border, will bring the dominant oil supplier in the Middle East to its knees. Without the Suez Canal under friendly occupational control, the Western powers will be unable to resupply or defend Saudi Arabia.

Despite this damning proof that US interests would be best served by protecting their ally Israel, Mark also provides disturbing evidence of the animus towards Israel that is being touted by the US Central Command. According to the March 2010 testimony of General David Petraeus (former commander of Centcomm) before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he states, "the enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale confrontations and this conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of US favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the region and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world and al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support."

"When I talk to people about this, I don't try to foist my agenda on them and I take a low key approach," says Mark but it is clear where he stands on the issue of Israeli security and the settlement movement. Far from being classified as "obstacles to peace" as the political zeitgeist would have us believe, Mark says that, "the Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria represent Israel's only line of defense and to expel them from their homes and the land they protect is at best a policy base on wishful thinking and at worst a combined act of extreme recklessness and national suicide. It is our moral obligation to elucidate, explain and communicate the nature and substance of these threats to Israeli security while there is still time to avert a monumental catastrophe."

Because of his decades long devotion and fervor for Israel's security needs, Mark and his esteemed father William Langfan will be awarded the auspicious Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award at the 114th anniversary dinner of the Zionist Organization of America on Sunday evening, November 20th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. Those wishing to lean more about the 3-D map or to schedule a speaking date for Mark can contact him at www.marklangfan.com or by e-mail at: mapmun@aol.com..