No introduction needed this day for this quick opinion —
“Look how the authorities made sure to plunge the country into war and civil conflict. Is it a coincidence? Is it?” Palestinian agitation, manipulation, and propaganda account for the experiential and intellectual poisoning of the Palestinians en masse. The “Palestinian Narrative” — more or less, “The Jews stole your land and God wants you to win it back” — has never held water, but for a black-and-white thinking rabble born to capitalize on tales of its own abuse, the myth serves for truth and sustained war for peace.
No Israeli politician invited this latest boiling over, and even though all will stump about it differently, the truth is the Palestinians have been lied to and exploited for decades by their own leaders and other powers intent on enriching themselves at Palestinian expense or proving (while getting some loot for doing so) some Islamic, nationalist, or racist point that might be attributed to their theater-of-the-real “heroism”.
Perhaps nowhere else does the tension between medieval and modern worlds erupt with deadly force so periodically and predictably than in the Middle East Conflict in which the political methods of the feudal world — lies outright; misguidance; misdirection; political suppression; incitements to riot; corruption and exploitation in the “handling” of the main Palestinian population base — come head to head with modern democracy, empiricism, liberalism, and humanism.
From a part of my presence in the conversation on social media —
Palestinian “leadership” would rather see its people battered and impoverished than subject to the economic and political norms of the modern world.
That posture represents feudal-medieval outlooks and relationships, excessive greed and narcissism — the Palestinians are “marks” for Palestinian authorities and thugs — and a complete absence of conscience and empathy but for the purposes of political theater and related blackmail.
“People have been waiting for elections for 15 years, hoping this would be the light at the end of tunnel, especially given the absence of a peace track with Israel,” said Fadi Elsalameen, a Palestinian democracy activist and prominent critic of Abbas, speaking before the announcement. “Closing this window will have severe consequences…I believe it will lead to violence against the Palestinian leadership.”
Israel/Palestine: The EU is dismayed at the large numbers of civilian deaths and injuries, including children. The priority must be to protect civilians.
Israel has declared a state of emergency in the central city of Lod after rioting by Israeli Arabs, as conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants intensified.
Cars were set alight and a father and daughter – both Israeli Arabs – died when a rocket from Gaza hit their car.
Posted to Mike Huckabee’s FB wall in relation to the Republican Party’s “canceling” Liz Cheney —
Shame on the Republican Party, its repudiation of integrity, its embrace of a demagogue, its clinging to power — perhaps white power (?) — in place of clinging to the principles and values of our American Constitution. I have this to relay from America’s Deep State — https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol . Perhaps more Americans should get to know America’s real government as constructed through its representative and authentic democracy.
Elsewhere in regard to being a democratic and progressive soul and pro-Israel —
Posted to the BackChannels reading page on FB, this one via The Lincoln Project’s dissemination, but it lives online quite independent of that strident partisan project:
In the age of “Active Measures”, widespread trolling, government-funded disinformation campaigns, a sad bump in east-west rivalry with Beijing and Moscow pitted against democracy, and extraordinary agitation and propaganda, the business of shamelessly lying to the American People should be treated no differently than speech associated with conspiracy to commit crimes, libel and slander, and incitement.
The 28 Palestinian families arrived at the Karm al-Jaouni area of Sheikh Jarrah as refugees in 1956. Under an agreement with the Jordanian government and the UN refugee agency UNRWA, the homes were built in exchange for a revocation of their refugee status and the promise that these families would own the homes after three years.
The promise was never fulfilled, and in 1967 Jordan lost its mandate over the West Bank and East Jerusalem after the territories were occupied by Israel.
Title issues in Sheikh Jarrah appear to go back to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (“Six Day War”) and the redistricting that ensued. So next:
Posted to YouTube May 31, 2018.
The video makes it look like Israel just popped up on the map one day in 1948, and the Arab states were enraged by the sudden intrusion.
Well, neither Israel nor Pakistan arrived from out of nowhere in 1948. For one, a militant Islam had found itself unhappy in India, so one might suggest, and an horrific two-way mass migration formed the new state and its “frozen conflict” in Kashmir and shifting East-West alignments and related politics. As for Israel, cultural memory engraved in religion and ancient tradition, urged a return far predating 1948. A part of that history may be found here:
Should your devotion to peace (even from your desktop, laptop, or phone — no less than mine if that) have you at least look or recall the history of Jewish habitation and investment in Palestine far predating Hitler’s atrocious crime, then consider the passage that follows.
From the Awesome Conversation
I appreciate the avarice, egotism, greed, and vulgarity involved in most wars in relation to taking property by force.
Fortunately, the tides move in both directions, making everyone miserable (if not vulgar).
WHAT IF Israeli and Palestinian officials designed together final boundaries and funded resettlement — no homeless; no “kick-outs”; no further coercion, fraud, or force — and no allowance for contempt or hate — for equal or better qualities of living where placed?
Take the emotion out of arrangements, domestic and other, and just focus on the basic human right to live in peace and free of intimidation and persecution. It doesn’t matter who you are, how you got there, what you believe or don’t believe, or even where loyalties may reside, but only that families may be settled and left to live (and work) — by mutual assent — fairly and without harassment.
Kumbaya?
Not necessarily. It’s out of necessity now that emphasis shift from immediate personal alliances, ambitions, concerns, egotism, and hurt (even) to broadened responsible modern Israeli-Palestinian cooperation. It should take only one rightly handled instance to change . . . everything.
“Masking” is what takes place when events are reported with critical missing information. In this instance, the Arab and Muslim press, the modern-looking Al Jazeera perhaps especially, overlooked the 1967 Arab challenge to Jewish survival in Israel, a war that is now an historical matter, and in standard operating procedure demonized the Jews while maintaining the innocence of Arab residents who knew their homes by having taken the same for themselves when political conditions permitted. In effect, the family had done nothing wrong with the exception of taking up residence in a geopolitical space that would again be contested, and whose outcome would be their loss by way of the restoration of previous boundaries.
Who are the thieves?
The Arab family settled in 1956?
The Jewish family pressing its case for title from before that date and after another horrendous eleven years later?
Let the finger pointing end.
Drawing to a close the instability of boundaries and related animus matters as much as the carefully and legally researched answers to legal title. To get that accommodation wants for asking those with interest to open their eyes and to think further into the future than themselves, their appreciation of themselves, and their immediate perceptions.
Have I, you, and we not yet tired of having the same conversations over and over and over again on Facebook, especially those related to the Middle East Conflict?
The habitual finger pointing with invective — “Israel Apartheid!”; “Palestinian Terrorists!” — should be enough to motivate the big — and big-hearted — step backward for clarity. However, few wish to take that step, and for Palestinian voices, few may be allowed the latitude needed for other than the repetition of a long surreal political theater sustained by leadership greed and related structures plus sponsoring interests (in Moscow and Tehran and elsewhere) who have little authentic interest in Palestinian well-being.
From the Awesome Conversation
Israel is not apartheid and most Palestinians would fare well with a government — or governments — up to modern standards for decency and integrity in their handling of money and relationships and with a track toward modern democracy. The toe-the-line feudal practices before power — power that remains near absolute and politically repressive — benefits small circles.
Israeli medievalism, which has less impact on the working of the modern state, both preserves the Jewish character and identity of the state but may impede civil progress in other dimensions.
As a blogger, I have found “Medieval v Modern” thematic in relation to conflict worldwide, and the arrangements that drive that axis have most to do with money and its distribution, i.e., greed.
Business, or perhaps the result of having done some business, may look about the same worldwide — well, marvelously variegated but similarly posh — where sales, revenues, gentility, and cultural and industrial talent collide.
So how is that western conservatives complain so vociferously about Communism when, from the looks of things, the old Reds or their business and political associates, cronies, or neighbors have wrapped themselves in Gold?
The myth of the Communist has not held up but for the play of the wealthy in defending their gains from the confiscating and taxing powers of states that one way or the other needs must maintain their political and social equilibrium — and the way to that: wherever else in the worlds, the answer’s the same as in the United States of America: broad, complex, forward-thinking public-private compacts.
While Karl Marx may still be bandied and bashed about from Far Out Left and Far (White) Right circles, the world he may had in mind while writing has all but disappeared from contemporary view.
What remains: the feudal-medieval habits on the part of some insecure in their positions and helpless before greed.
What’s coming — or what should come?
Some New Humanism, I hope, with human continence, cooperation, development, generosity, and imagination, and for which Qualities of Living x Area-Squared start with better balance between economic allocations, resources, and populations. While the ruthless raise the roofs, literally and in ways becoming hopelessly outdated, one hopes the more humble and responsible among the powerful, or within the ranks of those with power, raise the floor for global health, well-being, and security.
Observed: similarity between Blinken and Pompeo’s articulation of Washington’s support for Ukraine despite the stark differences owned by their respective bosses, Trump and Biden.
From the Awesome Conversation
Stable governance associated with democracies needs must have purpose and vision greater than the length of any given Administrator’s tenure. With relation to East-West Conflict and Washington’s stance, I’ve come to believe that Putin’s Moscow has come to represent a retrograde feudal enterprise revolving around its “great leader” and his monopoly on political power that much includes the dark “mafia state” side and its association with “frozen conflicts” and numerous dictatorships. Given that perspective, and Washington’s now lowered but still present interest in “truth, justice, and the American way” — just boil the BS down to “Integrity” — the shield set before Putin’s darker and older world requires a canny reinforcement before any western demonstration of brute physical strength.
In effect, our conventional and nuclear weapons have created a world in which the potential costs of war far exceed the prospects of profit for winning. That may leave the majors “flicking” and “trading punches” (like brothers) while working other cultural and financial maneuvers to expand their footprints (e.g., Russia’s “passportization” of its “near abroad”) or cultural longevity and relevance (more China’s game at this time).
To the side and regarding Nordstream 2 — or, for that matter, Turkish Stream: Putin has succeeded in reverting a portion of EU/NATO to the feudal mode in spirit or fact. I would consider Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Turkey compromised democracies x leadership or x mafia and related internal politics, but I think Germany more robust and capable of discouraging Putin’s sense of mission to this point.
Finally, and regarding Crimea and the region north, Russia has entrenched itself militarily and produced a major bridge (2018, I think) for solidifying its invasion through trade between Crimea and Russia IF it can boost control of basic services (water first) and economic development.
The Vikings often arrived with “raid or trade” in mind.
Not much has changed.
Kerch Strait Bridge, 2018.
One may expect Russia to defend its investment, now that it has raised its own ante, in Crimea, but it will have to do that through its own development and trade and not with further theft.
Ukraine’s history with Russia has its deeply interwoven aspects in relation to political control in Kiev, but if history has been rough, it has perhaps been most abysmal for Ukraine in the 20th Century and left its mark with the Holodomer associated with Stalin.
Last week, Putin fixed his image as both the most daring and fragile of malignant narcissists. The eyes of the world were on him and the ambiguities attending his demonstration, positioning, and rehearsal for the conventional wholesale invasion of Ukraine in a manner befitting medieval war with the world most modern and devastating weapons, including the thermobaric “Mother of All Bombs”. We may thank God for the apparent but well watched “return to base” of so many forces minus a few tanks (were they that expensive to move back?). 🙂
Absolute Power x Close Associates & Family v Democracy, Open Competition, and Merit.
Would that real life were that simple, but for the Palestinians, most of them, real life remains too medieval and beset with corruption and greed. Credit the KGB for blocking the advance of western liberalism — and democracy and rule of law — over their captive or dead bodies, courtesy of a now Ageing Arab World and the habits and machinations of an equally ageing Old Kremlin.
I’ve been dulled by the sheer stupidity of repeated political cant and conversation, but this time with the Middle East Conflict (MEC) have at least both background (“Palestinian KGB”) and perhaps insight to offer in the cause not only of quelling medieval and tribal misery but also for cheerleading the arrival of a different and modern New World. Take as signal — and convenient juxtaposition — Russian KGB/FSB President Vladimir Putin’s apparent decision to draw back Russian forces brought to Ukraine’s border after having turned military “exercise” into an ambiguous and deadly enough threat not only to Ukraine but to an ordered world that has been working in the region of history after WWII. Putin’s will and ample leverage well demonstrated the power of the medieval outlook, but it may have run into a kind of thug’s “so what?” had invasion and war ensued (and quite cautious here, I’m following the retreat as observed in the Open Source).
Symbolically, Russia’s election to retrieve its forces following its “demonstration” may and should be it — the beginning of the end of the end 🙂 — for the more obvious play of the once barbaric, brutal, and feudal world, at least as regards the leadership and trajectory of states.
One hopes that with Israel’s most recent separation of deluded and violent parties — the “eternally” fist-shaking Israeli (“Nationalist”) and Palestinian (“Revolutionary”) forces will have reached their nadir in shared stupidity as the Palestinians prove captive to and exploited by their own leaders. As for those Israeli Nationalists, not only God but State Planners as well have set their boundaries, and all that is wanted should be just a little bit of insight by both into the causes of “East-West Conflict” where both have been made to stand in place while going nowhere in time.
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