We need more voices, like yours, exploring the human and inhumane ingredients that give rise to this heartbreaking plight. I believe the majority of Jewish and Palestinian people value life and are collateral casualties within a systemic power structure governed by hate and greed.
I go to every Pro Gaza demo, in LA, and there have already been several.
warn every Democrat, that no money from me, forever, if they suck up racist settlor colonial Israel. Period. In CA, no repug can win, so i don’t deal with them
The response of western media and governments is so disappointing. There seems to be no value for Palestinian lives and suffering. Only Israeli suffering matters to them. I wish we could have been equal in seeing the suffering of all humans. But peoples personal interests take priority over morals. Thats why you will see west neglect the Palestinian suffering as Israel is a strong ally while they would speak about Uyghur suffering as China is an adversary. I doubt if they even genuinly care about Uyghur suffering or just want a point against China.
Western response is not disappointing. Their unconditional cheerleading of Israel's ethnic cleansing had to be expected. We need to hold our own governments accountable for this. #NotInMyName
Why I no longer stand with Israel, and never will again – Scott Ritter, Oct. 13
Hamas was created and financed for years by “our beloved” apartheid Bibi (of “Kill Rabin” fame), who believed that Arafat’s secular PLO was a more serious enemy than religious extremists.
Hamas was also rejecting a two-state solution -- just like Bibi and his extremists who, together with US, sabotaged a two-state solution for decades.
If we failed to understand it before, we must now recognize and acknowledge that the US is run by a criminal regime. One that fully supports, endorses, and helps finance Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. We must never allow our leaders to evade their personal responsibility for these crimes. The unmistakeable words of Lindsey Graham and Nikki Haley urging the complete destruction of Gaza would be subjected to prosecution in a normal country. Instead, in the US, those supporting Palestinian human rights are subjected to censorship and harassment by our authorities. We must never forget this.
I agree since I hear no condemnation of what is going on in Gaza, although people have been brainwashed in the US in not condemning Israel less they be called anti-semitic, or I find a whole lot of people just don't care. I was very active in the anti-war movement, and too many people were condemning of us. Americans are discouraged from having a global perspective. They are Americans. Probably true in many if not most countries.
Did you just miss the protests in New York, San Francisco, and other cities in the US? Americans are more than "discouraged" from having a global perspective, they are actively lied to and propagandized into not having one.
Go to the World Socialist Web Site and view all the articles about the protests against Israel genocide! Most countries have held demonstrations. The one in London was huge and the one in Baghdad was over a million people.
I didn't miss anything. I too remember expressing my outrage at our middle eastern wars, marching against them, and little to no coverage and too often what coverage there was, was negative. Same in regard to the marches you reference. I was really talking about the coverage this is getting on American TV and no doubt elsewhere which is very pro Israel, and that kind of coverage dominates all mainstream media. I see Blinken that neo-con hawk giving a thumbs up to genocide. I hear the old and the young in Israel calling for it, and if there is condemnation it's on websites where most people don't go. I'm not new to expressing my political views in the public arena and am aware how little they count.
Not one dime for anyone that doesn’t publicly oppose settlor colonial Israel. I have an obvious Jewish name, so no crap about anti semitism! My family were never Zionists. They fled to the US to get away from Christian states, Back in the day.
Because each and every one is in the take of Zionist money. Especially the Democrats. They are all dead to me, old Jew. We weren’t raised to be stinking racists
I am very confused. I have read books, have at least a basic understanding of the last 2000 years of history, the crimes of all the leaders on both sides. At least am cognisant of the rationale for both parties to the land depending on how you want to make that type of decision. And I can’t get over that I can’t see how Israel hasn’t at least tried to find peace and has consistently been rebuffed while also taking more and more advantage at every rebuff. And it seems the argument is that is real should not exist. I disagree with Israel punishing all of the innocent people, and would advocate for UN interference ( trust that group little) and a forced peace but also can’t understand what Israel is supposed to have done to stop this from happening other than it should never have existed. As a paying member I am hoping for a response unfairly but I can’t find a decent answer on this subject.
Israel/Palestine is basically a colonial-type conflict. After the Holocaust, the Zionist movement wanted to create a Jewish state, but a revealing slogan from that period was ""A land without a people for a people without a land." The problem was that the land actually already had people living on it (and had been living on it for many centuries), so it was flatly false to portray it as "a land without people." The slogan was catchy, but fundamentally untrue.
Nonetheless, the Zionists wanted the land. So they planned to gain control of it by driving out the original inhabitants, just as the European settlers in North America drove out the indigenous native tribes. But the Zionists were much too clever (in matters of PR) to openly state that they wanted to "drive out the indigenous" in order to take all of the land for themselves. Instead, they pretended (rhetorically) to be interested in "peace" and "compromise."
When aggressor states (like the US, like Israel) talk of "peace," what they really mean is a condition of relative calm, during which the population they are trying to bully and rob is kept subdued & powerless, so the aggressors make all the rules and get everything they want, while the population they are bullying and robbing gets nothing but repression, but is unable to do anything about it.
When you say that "the argument is that Israel should not exist," I don't think that's a fair way of phrasing it. It's more like, "It was wrong to react to the Holocaust by making a population that had nothing to do with the Holocaust pay the price for it." And it was wrong to try to build this new state of Israel so that it should be an apartheid state, systematically discriminating against the indigenous Palestinians, and imposing an illegal brutal military occupation on the West Bank, and constructing the world's biggest open-air prison in Gaza. All that was wrong.
What should Israel have done to stop all this from happening? Though I'm Jewish myself (and had an intensely pro-Israel upbringing), it seems to me now that the Zionist plan was wrong from the get-go, because what it aimed at was never really equality or justice, but rather at Jewish supremacy. (Much the same could be said about the US, and its treatment of the Indians.)
bravo. I totally agree on the genesis of this eternal crisis. You cannot go and forcefully and through deceit sieze other peoples' lands and expect peace or respect. If you then treat those dispossessed as if they really were the cockroaches in your concentration camps, you are just pouring oil on the fire. If they had even proceeded immediately to establish a Palestinian state, that would be helped. But no. It was always to
be all for Israel backed fully by the USG. And this is the path they have followed. The Al Aqsa Mosque "invasions" by small groups of Jews were like a match. And now the Israelis move in to seize more territory for itself. The people who sent civilians to settle in disputed territory were the murderers.
Exactly what I think. Thank you for expressing it so clearly. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Palestinians did not load Jews onto cattle cars and ship them to extermination camps. And yet, the Zionists chose to punish the Palestinian people because some religious superstition said that these European Jews were the direct inheritors of the land of Palestine. They were not. The legitimate population of Palestine are the descendents of the Jews who did not join the diaspora, but remained and converted to Islam. In other words: the Palestinians.
Exactly m and who doesn’t know this if they follow the history.The Brits gave Palestine to the Zionists, period! The rest is settlor colonial and violent racism.
This is unhelpful. My ask was what people expect should really happen. Your commentary is merely another version of the other versions. I am specifically asking if people believe Israel should not exist now. Because I hear a lot of blaming etc but not a real answer as to what people really expect to happen.
I am, as previously stated, well aware of the history. But you merely repeated what has always been repeated for those that think it is wrong that Israel became a state which is just an argument. My question is still unanswered, are people calling to no longer make Israel a state, if not, what do people expect Israel to do? I am not endorsing anything here, I am attempting to find out, in particular Aaron, what people who condemn Israel really want to happen.
I know what I want to happen. I want the Zionists to return all the land they stole and pay reparations to the Palestinians. I want Palestinians to have the right of return. I want all the walls, checkpoints and other divisions to be torn down. I want all the "settler" (i.e., trespassers) kicked off the West Bank and the land returned to the people it was stolen from. At a minimum.
IF sane minds worked it out......Israel has systematically been taking land away from the Palestinians for years. Not one country has come to their aid including the UN.
What difference does it make, what some random people on line favor.
Be clear, the American political establishment totally supports freaking racist Israel. The Zionist lobby gives them all money. Period! And the war industries, get tons of it!
It's only about 100 years of history. The Palestinian Arabs the Israelis displaced had never had anything to do with the Jews before then. If anything, their ancestors were noteworthy for having thriving Jewish communities in their midst, not for persecutions.
I'm afraid Britain - as a Scot I would say England - has much blood on her hands, having carved up the Middle East with the French during and after WW1 very cynically and opportunistically, having given Arab allies promises which were soon broken. England/the UK in the shape of Rishi Sunak's government therefore deserves a prize for rank, disgusting hypocrisy, but of course no one pays attention to history these days. Too complicated!
My DNA says I'm 57% Scottish, with a bunch of Irish and Welsh as well, so let's just say I'm not genetically predisposed to be an Anglophile.
You're talking about the Sykes-Picot agreement to carve up the Middle East, including parts of Turkey, into British and French possessions. It was a secret agreement, published by Lenin after the Bolshevik Revolution.
That's when the Arabs, and the Englishman Lawrence, first learned of Imperial British perfidy. It's also the same time as the Balfour Declaration. So why am I, an American whose most recent ancestor came over in the 1740s, being made to FUND this nonsense?
Yah, I know. Capitalism and Empire, but still. It rankles me, it does, and I'm not alone.
Exactly my question. What should have been Israel’s response? They has to do something. As I see it the real culprit is the U.S. They’ve funded both sides.
There are so many things Israel could have done to short-circuit the hate, but they only enjoyed whipping it up with their contemptuous treatment of the Arabs. The response is one of utter rage, and now Israel will "show" the Arab "animals." There could have been a Palestinian state that protected Palestinian rights. With an army to stand off against the IDF. That would have helped. But it did not serve "western interests."
Big picture the U.S. and Israel have already lost this conflict since their only solution to the crisis is the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas has succeeded in calling the question. The more Israel and the U.S. escalate (two carrier groups now in the Mediterranean; bunker busters for Gaza City), the greater the loss of their hegemony.
“Hassan and Levy condition their guidance on the principle that “one accepts the humanity and equality of all people without discrimination or distinction.”
Neither side in this war / terrorist act / peace keeping mission / illegal occupation / annexation / police action / prison revolt / freedom riot seem to agree with this core tenant of liberalism, so why the attempt to justify either side. Frankly, after reading that history, I don’t actually know if there is a rational framing for the conflict. The actions of both sides indicate a desire for genocide and I just wish the US would stop taking part in conflicts where both sides are intent on genocide and in which the end result will obviously be more suffering than if the US hadn’t gotten involved.
People of Israel know that genocide is not in the cards for them. The people of Gaza, or the West Bank, in an open door prison, are in no position to wipe out the people of Israel. I wish the US would stay out it and stop feeding weapons to Israel, and support a leadership that does want a two state solution, and not support someone like Netanyahu who does not, and props up Hamas who will make sure there is none.
Early question I suppose but I am wondering if you had any idea of what the 'fallout' will be?
Obvious to me is that Netanyahu will have to go. I am also interested in the percentage of people in Israel who don't support this genocide I imagine it's quite a few.
Aaron, although I'm a supporter, I don't always read your missives. This one caught my attention because I am in full agreement with you. The state of Israel was founded and has existed in my lifetime. I was even involved in Nixon's rush of ammunition and other supplies to Israel during the Yom Kipper War (to prevent American Jew Golda Meir from using nukes Israel has never acknowledged.) Although I supported Israel up until that time, my attitude changed when I found out that Israel had billed the United States for all the goodies they "gave" us "in gratitude" for coming to their aid.
Israel came about as a result of terrorism. It became a nation when the Jewish terrorists proclaimed themselves independent. The United States (Harry Truman) recognized them the next day. Wisely, Eisenhower stayed out of the situation but Kennedy started "selling" arms to Israel and LBJ escalated it. Since then, the United States has been bankrolling the Israeli government, particularly the military. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid.
The irony in the Middle East is that ALL of the people involved are cousins, most of them descendants of Abraham through his sons Issac and Ishmael and the other six sons he had with Keturah. In short, this is a family squabble over land.
Excellent analysis, as usual. Understanding the full context of what has happened, and is still occurring regarding how Israel was founded and the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people exposes the "unconditional" supporters of Israel as possessing a situational and tribal moral ethic that is deeply inhumane to its core.
If one cared about humanity universally then these types would be demanding a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the issues of a Palestinian homeland. Particularly to be rejected are the pseudo-religious Christianistas who claim that there is some sort of Scriptural basis for all of this. Whatever the Jewish people were called by God to do, it is not this. Peace Now!
Call me cynical, but I reckon Israel knew about the Hamas attack, and allowed it to proceed. It then gave them the reason to implement their Final Solution to the Gaza problem: Invade Gaza from the north, driving all Palestinians to the south, open the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, close it, and then deny any Palestinian their "right to return". Result: No Palestinians in Gaza; hence, Gaza is now fully part of Israel, to be populated by Israelis.
Seems perfectly logical to me. The Golan Heights aren't going to be given back to Syria, and the Jewish "settlers" in the West Bank will continue to displace the Palestinians until they have no land left to live on. So they'll be gone too. End result: Israel successfully ethnically cleanses the land they stole from the Palestinians; and this will be the "peace" they want: no Palestinians, no one to fight anymore.
Yes, that would work if they were't surrounded by many other angry Arabs.
Strange how US senators are repugnant for suggesting ceasefire and pro Palestinian and pro peace Americans are anti Jewish yet China and Russia can say according to Reuters; China's foreign minister on Monday called for a ceasefire to halt the bloodshed in Israel, suggesting at a meeting with his Russian counterpart that major world powers should work to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing ahead of a visit by President Vladimir Putin to China.
"The United Nations Security Council must take action, and the major powers should play an active role," Wang told Lavrov, according to a Chinese transcript of the meeting.
"It is imperative that a ceasefire be put in place, that the two sides be brought back to the negotiating table, and that an emergency humanitarian channel be established to prevent a further humanitarian disaster."
I fear that the tensions have been deliberately increased for a proxy war with Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. One of the biggest losers will be the Israelis, just like the Ukrainians have been. Once the US and UK tax payers get sick again; as they did giving away their $billions to Lockheed Martin with no (or rather a positive) effect on Russia (while their own citizens of Maui get next to nothing) the US will pull out and leave Israel high and dry. This can only strengthen the Middle East alliances just like BRICS has been strengthened. The US and UK are also soon going to be left high and dry too.
Great, great article. So truthful , honest and courageous. Thank you Aaron- b.
We need more voices, like yours, exploring the human and inhumane ingredients that give rise to this heartbreaking plight. I believe the majority of Jewish and Palestinian people value life and are collateral casualties within a systemic power structure governed by hate and greed.
My plan, as an 80 year old Jew,
I go to every Pro Gaza demo, in LA, and there have already been several.
warn every Democrat, that no money from me, forever, if they suck up racist settlor colonial Israel. Period. In CA, no repug can win, so i don’t deal with them
The response of western media and governments is so disappointing. There seems to be no value for Palestinian lives and suffering. Only Israeli suffering matters to them. I wish we could have been equal in seeing the suffering of all humans. But peoples personal interests take priority over morals. Thats why you will see west neglect the Palestinian suffering as Israel is a strong ally while they would speak about Uyghur suffering as China is an adversary. I doubt if they even genuinly care about Uyghur suffering or just want a point against China.
The Chinese are absolutely NOT treating the Uyghur's in the same way. There is no genocide.
Yes but there is persecution still. You should listen to Uyghur activists to get an unbiased perspective.
Western response is not disappointing. Their unconditional cheerleading of Israel's ethnic cleansing had to be expected. We need to hold our own governments accountable for this. #NotInMyName
This article is a perfect elucidation. That’s the highest praise I can think of.
Thank you, Aaron.
Why I no longer stand with Israel, and never will again – Scott Ritter, Oct. 13
Hamas was created and financed for years by “our beloved” apartheid Bibi (of “Kill Rabin” fame), who believed that Arafat’s secular PLO was a more serious enemy than religious extremists.
Hamas was also rejecting a two-state solution -- just like Bibi and his extremists who, together with US, sabotaged a two-state solution for decades.
https://open.substack.com/pub/scottritter/p/why-i-no-longer-stand-with-israel?r=byea&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
If we failed to understand it before, we must now recognize and acknowledge that the US is run by a criminal regime. One that fully supports, endorses, and helps finance Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. We must never allow our leaders to evade their personal responsibility for these crimes. The unmistakeable words of Lindsey Graham and Nikki Haley urging the complete destruction of Gaza would be subjected to prosecution in a normal country. Instead, in the US, those supporting Palestinian human rights are subjected to censorship and harassment by our authorities. We must never forget this.
... also important, ( what’s ) the % of people in the United States who do not support this genocide?
Who realizes ( so far ) that our leadership is not just attempting to conceal it, but is actively assisting to carry this out (?)
-JJ ( Detroit )
The numbers not supporting Israel's bombing of Palestine are heartbreakingly low.
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1712943410548715614
I agree since I hear no condemnation of what is going on in Gaza, although people have been brainwashed in the US in not condemning Israel less they be called anti-semitic, or I find a whole lot of people just don't care. I was very active in the anti-war movement, and too many people were condemning of us. Americans are discouraged from having a global perspective. They are Americans. Probably true in many if not most countries.
Racism against arabs is very American! Plus every politician in in the Us , especially every Democrat takes Zionist money.
You are certainly on the money there.
The Democrats will pay a price for this, all it takes is low turnout in their base. They take all this Zionist money, they are dead to me, an old Jew
Did you just miss the protests in New York, San Francisco, and other cities in the US? Americans are more than "discouraged" from having a global perspective, they are actively lied to and propagandized into not having one.
There was a large one here in Los Angeles, let by Palestine Youth movement. 15,000, people.
Go to the World Socialist Web Site and view all the articles about the protests against Israel genocide! Most countries have held demonstrations. The one in London was huge and the one in Baghdad was over a million people.
One in Los Angeles, 15,000
I didn't miss anything. I too remember expressing my outrage at our middle eastern wars, marching against them, and little to no coverage and too often what coverage there was, was negative. Same in regard to the marches you reference. I was really talking about the coverage this is getting on American TV and no doubt elsewhere which is very pro Israel, and that kind of coverage dominates all mainstream media. I see Blinken that neo-con hawk giving a thumbs up to genocide. I hear the old and the young in Israel calling for it, and if there is condemnation it's on websites where most people don't go. I'm not new to expressing my political views in the public arena and am aware how little they count.
Tell the Freaking Dems, how you feel, let them know you vote justice. That is what I do every day. I come off these Dem lists andv tell them why.
Not one dime for anyone that doesn’t publicly oppose settlor colonial Israel. I have an obvious Jewish name, so no crap about anti semitism! My family were never Zionists. They fled to the US to get away from Christian states, Back in the day.
Because each and every one is in the take of Zionist money. Especially the Democrats. They are all dead to me, old Jew. We weren’t raised to be stinking racists
I am very confused. I have read books, have at least a basic understanding of the last 2000 years of history, the crimes of all the leaders on both sides. At least am cognisant of the rationale for both parties to the land depending on how you want to make that type of decision. And I can’t get over that I can’t see how Israel hasn’t at least tried to find peace and has consistently been rebuffed while also taking more and more advantage at every rebuff. And it seems the argument is that is real should not exist. I disagree with Israel punishing all of the innocent people, and would advocate for UN interference ( trust that group little) and a forced peace but also can’t understand what Israel is supposed to have done to stop this from happening other than it should never have existed. As a paying member I am hoping for a response unfairly but I can’t find a decent answer on this subject.
Israel/Palestine is basically a colonial-type conflict. After the Holocaust, the Zionist movement wanted to create a Jewish state, but a revealing slogan from that period was ""A land without a people for a people without a land." The problem was that the land actually already had people living on it (and had been living on it for many centuries), so it was flatly false to portray it as "a land without people." The slogan was catchy, but fundamentally untrue.
Nonetheless, the Zionists wanted the land. So they planned to gain control of it by driving out the original inhabitants, just as the European settlers in North America drove out the indigenous native tribes. But the Zionists were much too clever (in matters of PR) to openly state that they wanted to "drive out the indigenous" in order to take all of the land for themselves. Instead, they pretended (rhetorically) to be interested in "peace" and "compromise."
When aggressor states (like the US, like Israel) talk of "peace," what they really mean is a condition of relative calm, during which the population they are trying to bully and rob is kept subdued & powerless, so the aggressors make all the rules and get everything they want, while the population they are bullying and robbing gets nothing but repression, but is unable to do anything about it.
When you say that "the argument is that Israel should not exist," I don't think that's a fair way of phrasing it. It's more like, "It was wrong to react to the Holocaust by making a population that had nothing to do with the Holocaust pay the price for it." And it was wrong to try to build this new state of Israel so that it should be an apartheid state, systematically discriminating against the indigenous Palestinians, and imposing an illegal brutal military occupation on the West Bank, and constructing the world's biggest open-air prison in Gaza. All that was wrong.
What should Israel have done to stop all this from happening? Though I'm Jewish myself (and had an intensely pro-Israel upbringing), it seems to me now that the Zionist plan was wrong from the get-go, because what it aimed at was never really equality or justice, but rather at Jewish supremacy. (Much the same could be said about the US, and its treatment of the Indians.)
This seems to be the most rational position. Could the British involvement in creating an Israeli state also be a clue as to geopolitical motives?
bravo. I totally agree on the genesis of this eternal crisis. You cannot go and forcefully and through deceit sieze other peoples' lands and expect peace or respect. If you then treat those dispossessed as if they really were the cockroaches in your concentration camps, you are just pouring oil on the fire. If they had even proceeded immediately to establish a Palestinian state, that would be helped. But no. It was always to
be all for Israel backed fully by the USG. And this is the path they have followed. The Al Aqsa Mosque "invasions" by small groups of Jews were like a match. And now the Israelis move in to seize more territory for itself. The people who sent civilians to settle in disputed territory were the murderers.
Exactly what I think. Thank you for expressing it so clearly. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Palestinians did not load Jews onto cattle cars and ship them to extermination camps. And yet, the Zionists chose to punish the Palestinian people because some religious superstition said that these European Jews were the direct inheritors of the land of Palestine. They were not. The legitimate population of Palestine are the descendents of the Jews who did not join the diaspora, but remained and converted to Islam. In other words: the Palestinians.
Exactly m and who doesn’t know this if they follow the history.The Brits gave Palestine to the Zionists, period! The rest is settlor colonial and violent racism.
This is unhelpful. My ask was what people expect should really happen. Your commentary is merely another version of the other versions. I am specifically asking if people believe Israel should not exist now. Because I hear a lot of blaming etc but not a real answer as to what people really expect to happen.
I am, as previously stated, well aware of the history. But you merely repeated what has always been repeated for those that think it is wrong that Israel became a state which is just an argument. My question is still unanswered, are people calling to no longer make Israel a state, if not, what do people expect Israel to do? I am not endorsing anything here, I am attempting to find out, in particular Aaron, what people who condemn Israel really want to happen.
I know what I want to happen. I want the Zionists to return all the land they stole and pay reparations to the Palestinians. I want Palestinians to have the right of return. I want all the walls, checkpoints and other divisions to be torn down. I want all the "settler" (i.e., trespassers) kicked off the West Bank and the land returned to the people it was stolen from. At a minimum.
IF sane minds worked it out......Israel has systematically been taking land away from the Palestinians for years. Not one country has come to their aid including the UN.
The creation of Israel was land theft in the extreme.
What difference does it make, what some random people on line favor.
Be clear, the American political establishment totally supports freaking racist Israel. The Zionist lobby gives them all money. Period! And the war industries, get tons of it!
It's only about 100 years of history. The Palestinian Arabs the Israelis displaced had never had anything to do with the Jews before then. If anything, their ancestors were noteworthy for having thriving Jewish communities in their midst, not for persecutions.
I'm afraid Britain - as a Scot I would say England - has much blood on her hands, having carved up the Middle East with the French during and after WW1 very cynically and opportunistically, having given Arab allies promises which were soon broken. England/the UK in the shape of Rishi Sunak's government therefore deserves a prize for rank, disgusting hypocrisy, but of course no one pays attention to history these days. Too complicated!
My DNA says I'm 57% Scottish, with a bunch of Irish and Welsh as well, so let's just say I'm not genetically predisposed to be an Anglophile.
You're talking about the Sykes-Picot agreement to carve up the Middle East, including parts of Turkey, into British and French possessions. It was a secret agreement, published by Lenin after the Bolshevik Revolution.
That's when the Arabs, and the Englishman Lawrence, first learned of Imperial British perfidy. It's also the same time as the Balfour Declaration. So why am I, an American whose most recent ancestor came over in the 1740s, being made to FUND this nonsense?
Yah, I know. Capitalism and Empire, but still. It rankles me, it does, and I'm not alone.
Because our government is totally owned by the Zionist lobby,
Exactly.
Your genes do have political affiliations. Political affiliations are social constructs, not biology.
Exactly my question. What should have been Israel’s response? They has to do something. As I see it the real culprit is the U.S. They’ve funded both sides.
There are so many things Israel could have done to short-circuit the hate, but they only enjoyed whipping it up with their contemptuous treatment of the Arabs. The response is one of utter rage, and now Israel will "show" the Arab "animals." There could have been a Palestinian state that protected Palestinian rights. With an army to stand off against the IDF. That would have helped. But it did not serve "western interests."
Big picture the U.S. and Israel have already lost this conflict since their only solution to the crisis is the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas has succeeded in calling the question. The more Israel and the U.S. escalate (two carrier groups now in the Mediterranean; bunker busters for Gaza City), the greater the loss of their hegemony.
“Hassan and Levy condition their guidance on the principle that “one accepts the humanity and equality of all people without discrimination or distinction.”
Neither side in this war / terrorist act / peace keeping mission / illegal occupation / annexation / police action / prison revolt / freedom riot seem to agree with this core tenant of liberalism, so why the attempt to justify either side. Frankly, after reading that history, I don’t actually know if there is a rational framing for the conflict. The actions of both sides indicate a desire for genocide and I just wish the US would stop taking part in conflicts where both sides are intent on genocide and in which the end result will obviously be more suffering than if the US hadn’t gotten involved.
People of Israel know that genocide is not in the cards for them. The people of Gaza, or the West Bank, in an open door prison, are in no position to wipe out the people of Israel. I wish the US would stay out it and stop feeding weapons to Israel, and support a leadership that does want a two state solution, and not support someone like Netanyahu who does not, and props up Hamas who will make sure there is none.
Early question I suppose but I am wondering if you had any idea of what the 'fallout' will be?
Obvious to me is that Netanyahu will have to go. I am also interested in the percentage of people in Israel who don't support this genocide I imagine it's quite a few.
Aaron, although I'm a supporter, I don't always read your missives. This one caught my attention because I am in full agreement with you. The state of Israel was founded and has existed in my lifetime. I was even involved in Nixon's rush of ammunition and other supplies to Israel during the Yom Kipper War (to prevent American Jew Golda Meir from using nukes Israel has never acknowledged.) Although I supported Israel up until that time, my attitude changed when I found out that Israel had billed the United States for all the goodies they "gave" us "in gratitude" for coming to their aid.
Israel came about as a result of terrorism. It became a nation when the Jewish terrorists proclaimed themselves independent. The United States (Harry Truman) recognized them the next day. Wisely, Eisenhower stayed out of the situation but Kennedy started "selling" arms to Israel and LBJ escalated it. Since then, the United States has been bankrolling the Israeli government, particularly the military. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid.
The irony in the Middle East is that ALL of the people involved are cousins, most of them descendants of Abraham through his sons Issac and Ishmael and the other six sons he had with Keturah. In short, this is a family squabble over land.
Excellent analysis, as usual. Understanding the full context of what has happened, and is still occurring regarding how Israel was founded and the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people exposes the "unconditional" supporters of Israel as possessing a situational and tribal moral ethic that is deeply inhumane to its core.
If one cared about humanity universally then these types would be demanding a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the issues of a Palestinian homeland. Particularly to be rejected are the pseudo-religious Christianistas who claim that there is some sort of Scriptural basis for all of this. Whatever the Jewish people were called by God to do, it is not this. Peace Now!
Call me cynical, but I reckon Israel knew about the Hamas attack, and allowed it to proceed. It then gave them the reason to implement their Final Solution to the Gaza problem: Invade Gaza from the north, driving all Palestinians to the south, open the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, close it, and then deny any Palestinian their "right to return". Result: No Palestinians in Gaza; hence, Gaza is now fully part of Israel, to be populated by Israelis.
Seems perfectly logical to me. The Golan Heights aren't going to be given back to Syria, and the Jewish "settlers" in the West Bank will continue to displace the Palestinians until they have no land left to live on. So they'll be gone too. End result: Israel successfully ethnically cleanses the land they stole from the Palestinians; and this will be the "peace" they want: no Palestinians, no one to fight anymore.
Yes, that would work if they were't surrounded by many other angry Arabs.
Strange how US senators are repugnant for suggesting ceasefire and pro Palestinian and pro peace Americans are anti Jewish yet China and Russia can say according to Reuters; China's foreign minister on Monday called for a ceasefire to halt the bloodshed in Israel, suggesting at a meeting with his Russian counterpart that major world powers should work to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing ahead of a visit by President Vladimir Putin to China.
"The United Nations Security Council must take action, and the major powers should play an active role," Wang told Lavrov, according to a Chinese transcript of the meeting.
"It is imperative that a ceasefire be put in place, that the two sides be brought back to the negotiating table, and that an emergency humanitarian channel be established to prevent a further humanitarian disaster."
Down with the old order, bring in BRICS!
I fear that the tensions have been deliberately increased for a proxy war with Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. One of the biggest losers will be the Israelis, just like the Ukrainians have been. Once the US and UK tax payers get sick again; as they did giving away their $billions to Lockheed Martin with no (or rather a positive) effect on Russia (while their own citizens of Maui get next to nothing) the US will pull out and leave Israel high and dry. This can only strengthen the Middle East alliances just like BRICS has been strengthened. The US and UK are also soon going to be left high and dry too.