NEWS: Pedestrian falls into open manhole.
OPINION: A manhole cover, removed for servicing below street-level cables, was carelessly not guarded by city workmen, leading to serious injury to a pedestrian who fell into the open hole.
PROPAGANDA: A careless pedestrian fell into an open manhole being used by city workmen to make crucial repairs to city cables.
David Bauder, The Associated Press: "MSNBC said Sunday it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators. The change reflects tensions between the freewheeling, opinionated MSNBC and the impartial newsgatherers at NBC News. Throughout the primaries and summer, MSNBC argued that Olbermann and Matthews could serve as dispassionate anchors on political news nights and that viewers would accept them in that role, but things fell apart during the conventions. Gregory, the veteran Washington hand, will anchor MSNBC's coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates and election night, said Jeremy Gaines, network spokesman."
An event is seen, heard, experienced, described, recorded. It is recorded for history. Between the occurence of the event and its recordation, lies a need for explication, an explication that often needs lies.
The powers that control the media for the disemination of "news," are the powers that determine the explication, the choice of analysis and meaning and often, the very facts themselves of the events. The conflict between the observers and participants in historical events and the recorders for history lies in controlled darkness. The purpose and goal of that control is identical to and a part of the drive for acquisition and control of power, of wealth.
Therein lies the reason for power elites to control the mass media. Adolph Hitler's propaganda machine provides the quintessential picture of the how and why of mass media control by German unified government and economic forces.
Today, in the United States of America, the "free press" is no longer free. It is chained by interlocking economic interests whose goal is the acquisition of power and wealth. The news media of the country are being consolidated in rapacious fashion by power elites with the cooperation of government agencies established to protect the freedom of the press. As the country moves its economic model closer and closer to a fascistic state, the battle for media control becomes more apparent and more urgent for dueling business giants.
The recognition that control of future history means control of wealth, has accelerated the battle for control of the mass media. The elimination of "free-wheeling, opinionated" commentators and their replacement by politically friendly hacksters, is proceeding under the noses of a complacent and ever more ignorant population and their compliant elected representatives.
Watch this phenomenon take place and ask if there is anything that can be done about it? Let me know your answer, please.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
PAST HEROES - FUTURE HISTORY
The New York Times, September 3, 2008 (The front page.)
NABATIYE JOURNAL
Hezbollah Shrine to Terror Suspect Enthralls Lebanese Children
by Robert E. Worth.
The editors of The New York Times, a most influential newspaper by any standard, has allowed their reporter, Mr. Worth, to venerate a mass murderer, Imad Mugniyah ("the shadowy Hezbollah commander suspected in the West of masterminding devastating bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1980s and '90s.") on its front page. The article describes the shrine and its educational impact, "capturing the hearts and imaginations" of the busloads of people, including children, who are being indoctrinated in hatred via the adulation shown by teachers and religious, militant leaders for this murderous assassinated terrorist.
The Times calls this murderer a "terrorism suspect." This yellow-livered description of Mugniyah makes the newspaper a partner in this horrific educational process.
Most important is the growth in awareness of the civilized world that religious fundamentalism is akin to cancer in the human body. The elevation of the creed of "death to non-believers" to millions of "believers" will lead to continuous conflict and irreconcilable differences between peoples the world over. And with the growth of poverty, the soil in which these seeds of death are planted, the horror of immoral religious teachings will bring ever greater speed to the descent of mankind into the abyss of a modern dark age.
For their own future safety, the power elites of the world must share their wealth and reduce the enormous economic gap between classes. Absent a concentrated organized program to achieve this goal is suicidal for the upper classes in all societies. No amount of fire-power will hold back the forces of destruction unleashed by religious terrorism.
NABATIYE JOURNAL
Hezbollah Shrine to Terror Suspect Enthralls Lebanese Children
by Robert E. Worth.
The editors of The New York Times, a most influential newspaper by any standard, has allowed their reporter, Mr. Worth, to venerate a mass murderer, Imad Mugniyah ("the shadowy Hezbollah commander suspected in the West of masterminding devastating bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1980s and '90s.") on its front page. The article describes the shrine and its educational impact, "capturing the hearts and imaginations" of the busloads of people, including children, who are being indoctrinated in hatred via the adulation shown by teachers and religious, militant leaders for this murderous assassinated terrorist.
The Times calls this murderer a "terrorism suspect." This yellow-livered description of Mugniyah makes the newspaper a partner in this horrific educational process.
Most important is the growth in awareness of the civilized world that religious fundamentalism is akin to cancer in the human body. The elevation of the creed of "death to non-believers" to millions of "believers" will lead to continuous conflict and irreconcilable differences between peoples the world over. And with the growth of poverty, the soil in which these seeds of death are planted, the horror of immoral religious teachings will bring ever greater speed to the descent of mankind into the abyss of a modern dark age.
For their own future safety, the power elites of the world must share their wealth and reduce the enormous economic gap between classes. Absent a concentrated organized program to achieve this goal is suicidal for the upper classes in all societies. No amount of fire-power will hold back the forces of destruction unleashed by religious terrorism.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
FUTURE HISTORY - AN OXYMORON?
Futurists attempt to predict the world as it might appear in the unwritten history books that generations to come will read. Perhaps the details of mankind's impact may not be known, just as the details of nature's fury cannot be foretold. However, the forces of mankind and the forces of nature are presently known to a great extent. When and where the third atom bomb will burst and who will initiate its explosion may not be known. But those are minor details of future history just as the timing and targets of a tsunami or an asteroid impact on earth are not known.
Is there any difference between the forces of nature and the forces of man? I postulate not. Darwin's theory - more factual than theoretical - of "Survival of the Fittest," provides the futurist foundation for prediction. From the time that humankind gave up its independence as hunter gatherers in exchange for structured societies, the script was ordained that power wielded by the powerful in the variegated forms of those societies would determine the course of events leading to survival of the fittest, in effect, survival of the most powerful.
The vast majority of the billions who populate this planet are mere pawns in struggles waged by power elites in all societies. From the most primitive to the most sophisticated of those human groupings united by language, geography, religion, race, skin color, education, tribe, family, history, or any other tie, the people are divided numerically into a pyramid by the power exercised by each of them with power divided inversely to their numbers.
Future history will be determined by the power elites at the top of the pyramid at any point in time. The shifting of power between and among those elites will make little difference and have only marginal impact on the masses that sustain them in their struggles to aggrandize, protect, and acquire power. The masses will be indoctrinated and propagandized to believe in their religion and God, be patriotic, love their leaders, fear and hate the "others," and lay down their lives, all in the belief and hope that their lot in life will be benefitted by such loyalty.
The past and the present are the future. Future history can be written today.
Is there any difference between the forces of nature and the forces of man? I postulate not. Darwin's theory - more factual than theoretical - of "Survival of the Fittest," provides the futurist foundation for prediction. From the time that humankind gave up its independence as hunter gatherers in exchange for structured societies, the script was ordained that power wielded by the powerful in the variegated forms of those societies would determine the course of events leading to survival of the fittest, in effect, survival of the most powerful.
The vast majority of the billions who populate this planet are mere pawns in struggles waged by power elites in all societies. From the most primitive to the most sophisticated of those human groupings united by language, geography, religion, race, skin color, education, tribe, family, history, or any other tie, the people are divided numerically into a pyramid by the power exercised by each of them with power divided inversely to their numbers.
Future history will be determined by the power elites at the top of the pyramid at any point in time. The shifting of power between and among those elites will make little difference and have only marginal impact on the masses that sustain them in their struggles to aggrandize, protect, and acquire power. The masses will be indoctrinated and propagandized to believe in their religion and God, be patriotic, love their leaders, fear and hate the "others," and lay down their lives, all in the belief and hope that their lot in life will be benefitted by such loyalty.
The past and the present are the future. Future history can be written today.
Friday, July 18, 2008
THE PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Hi Readers:
The history of presidential actions can often be encapsulated in their libraries. Because much of the material included is chosen with an eye on the president's importance in the eyes of future historians, presidents (if living) and their staffs place in the archives the most positive material, the most laudatory symbols that can be obtained from their years in office.
Here then is a compilation of those important historical moments and achievements of the George W. Bush presidency.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages.
The Library will include:
The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.
The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.
The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.
The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.
The National Debt room which is huge and has no ceiling.
The 'Tax Cut' Room with entry only to the wealthy.
The 'Economy Room' which is in the toilet.
The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.
The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location,complete with shotgun gallery.
The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.
The Supreme Court's Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.
The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.
The 'Decider Room' complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.
The museum will also have an electron microscope to help you locate the President's accomplishments.
The history of presidential actions can often be encapsulated in their libraries. Because much of the material included is chosen with an eye on the president's importance in the eyes of future historians, presidents (if living) and their staffs place in the archives the most positive material, the most laudatory symbols that can be obtained from their years in office.
Here then is a compilation of those important historical moments and achievements of the George W. Bush presidency.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages.
The Library will include:
The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.
The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.
The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.
The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.
The National Debt room which is huge and has no ceiling.
The 'Tax Cut' Room with entry only to the wealthy.
The 'Economy Room' which is in the toilet.
The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.
The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location,complete with shotgun gallery.
The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.
The Supreme Court's Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.
The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.
The 'Decider Room' complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.
The museum will also have an electron microscope to help you locate the President's accomplishments.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
WHY, HOW AND WHEN TO BOMB IRAN?
July 14, 2008
Iran is working assiduously to develop atomic weaponry. However long it may take that country to accomplish its goal, the consensus among political and military entities in the Western world, including Israel, seems to be to prevent that from ever becoming a reality. Why?
The value systems of Iran and the rest of the Muslim world seem to be that human life has little to no value in comparison with the concept of martyrdom by death through terror and warfare against the West. The drive, supported by enormous oil wealth, to gain parity in military capability with the non-Muslim world by developing the awesome destructive power of atom bombs with potential martyrdom for millions of their own people and simple death for those who believe that the four-score plus years that infidels find attractive , seems to have been moving without let-up for several years. The melding of religion, patriotism, hubris, and enormous amounts of money, has placed Iran on its own mental pedestal at a height it deems equivalent to the height of more civilized nations that do not possess oil for sale. This is a parody turned serious. A play that has moved from the make-believe world of political theater to the real world of warfare. The machismo nature of the threats and blustering have alerted the pillars of Western Civilization to imminent danger from this uncontrollable rapidly growing monster. Iran wants to convince other nations of its power. It has succeeded.
Bunker-busters and other heavy bombing tactics may not destroy Iran's atomic facilities. For sure they will accomplish a slowing down of the processes and will expose the serious intent of the Western nations to inhibit what they consider irresponsible renegade behavior by Iran. In all likelihood, Israel will conduct the actual attacks after providing peremptory life-saving warnings to the Iranian workers in the areas of manufacture. Fueling and re-fueling of the aircraft will be performed as close to the targets as international cooperation can achieve. Anti-missile battalions will stand at the ready to intercept any retaliatory attempts by Iran to inflict harm on Israel. Also, Arab governments will receive warnings and admonitions from Israel's friends that an attack on Israel will be considered an attack on those powers, with dire consequences for the attacker.
The timing of the attacks, if they take place, appears obvious. They will occur after the United States elections and before the change in government that will take place in January. Such timing will protect the lame-duck government of George W. Bush and the incoming government under the newly-elected president from "pre-connivance" with the Israeli plans.
Tracking the growth of this very real menace has led cooperating nations to prepare plans for delaying, if not destroying, the nuclear capability of Iran. The warnings have been clear, even to laymen. Israel's earlier bombing of the Iraq's Ossiric atom plant, recent bombing of atomic material in Syria, the military exercises conducted in the Mediterranean by Israel's sea and air forces, the movements of American warships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, the recent agreement to set up a cruise-missile shield in Czechoslovakia, and the political machinations of the Group of Five and the powers in the United Nations in demanding Iran's acquiescence to forgo the use of their centrifuges to create weapons-grade uranium or plutonium, are all indications of the seriousness of the intent so necessary to the use of military force.
Iran will be prepared for such attacks miltarily and politically. To what extent that preparation will be valuable depends on realistic and meaningful assessments of the intentions of the attacking nations, their military investments, and whether Israel can be isolated from its supporting group of nations.
The Iranian military responses, from all the available information, will not be meaningful in this action's context. For anyone not familiar with Israel's military prowess or for those who believe the recent Lebanese fiasco was indicative of Israel's capabilities, limiting the appreciation of Israel's armed might would be an error. After the air attacks, Israel will be in an alert defensive posture. Despite the potential heavy loss of civilian lives from rocket and missile attacks from neighboring Arab states, that posture will give the Israeli army a large measure of superiority over attacking armies.
The most intelligent avenue that Iran can pursue both before and after an attack by Israel, is to allow United Nations inspectors in to their atomic facilities to assure the world that Iran will not become a military atomic power. However, Iran has not exhibited rational evaluation of their national interests in the past - note the history of the Iran Iraq war - and, until some weighty counter balance of secular, humanistic, and economic powers to oppose the ascendent religious patriotic forces presently in control of Iranian thinking enters their calculations, it does not appear likely that a rational outcome from even highly successful military action can be expected.
Iran is working assiduously to develop atomic weaponry. However long it may take that country to accomplish its goal, the consensus among political and military entities in the Western world, including Israel, seems to be to prevent that from ever becoming a reality. Why?
The value systems of Iran and the rest of the Muslim world seem to be that human life has little to no value in comparison with the concept of martyrdom by death through terror and warfare against the West. The drive, supported by enormous oil wealth, to gain parity in military capability with the non-Muslim world by developing the awesome destructive power of atom bombs with potential martyrdom for millions of their own people and simple death for those who believe that the four-score plus years that infidels find attractive , seems to have been moving without let-up for several years. The melding of religion, patriotism, hubris, and enormous amounts of money, has placed Iran on its own mental pedestal at a height it deems equivalent to the height of more civilized nations that do not possess oil for sale. This is a parody turned serious. A play that has moved from the make-believe world of political theater to the real world of warfare. The machismo nature of the threats and blustering have alerted the pillars of Western Civilization to imminent danger from this uncontrollable rapidly growing monster. Iran wants to convince other nations of its power. It has succeeded.
Bunker-busters and other heavy bombing tactics may not destroy Iran's atomic facilities. For sure they will accomplish a slowing down of the processes and will expose the serious intent of the Western nations to inhibit what they consider irresponsible renegade behavior by Iran. In all likelihood, Israel will conduct the actual attacks after providing peremptory life-saving warnings to the Iranian workers in the areas of manufacture. Fueling and re-fueling of the aircraft will be performed as close to the targets as international cooperation can achieve. Anti-missile battalions will stand at the ready to intercept any retaliatory attempts by Iran to inflict harm on Israel. Also, Arab governments will receive warnings and admonitions from Israel's friends that an attack on Israel will be considered an attack on those powers, with dire consequences for the attacker.
The timing of the attacks, if they take place, appears obvious. They will occur after the United States elections and before the change in government that will take place in January. Such timing will protect the lame-duck government of George W. Bush and the incoming government under the newly-elected president from "pre-connivance" with the Israeli plans.
Tracking the growth of this very real menace has led cooperating nations to prepare plans for delaying, if not destroying, the nuclear capability of Iran. The warnings have been clear, even to laymen. Israel's earlier bombing of the Iraq's Ossiric atom plant, recent bombing of atomic material in Syria, the military exercises conducted in the Mediterranean by Israel's sea and air forces, the movements of American warships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, the recent agreement to set up a cruise-missile shield in Czechoslovakia, and the political machinations of the Group of Five and the powers in the United Nations in demanding Iran's acquiescence to forgo the use of their centrifuges to create weapons-grade uranium or plutonium, are all indications of the seriousness of the intent so necessary to the use of military force.
Iran will be prepared for such attacks miltarily and politically. To what extent that preparation will be valuable depends on realistic and meaningful assessments of the intentions of the attacking nations, their military investments, and whether Israel can be isolated from its supporting group of nations.
The Iranian military responses, from all the available information, will not be meaningful in this action's context. For anyone not familiar with Israel's military prowess or for those who believe the recent Lebanese fiasco was indicative of Israel's capabilities, limiting the appreciation of Israel's armed might would be an error. After the air attacks, Israel will be in an alert defensive posture. Despite the potential heavy loss of civilian lives from rocket and missile attacks from neighboring Arab states, that posture will give the Israeli army a large measure of superiority over attacking armies.
The most intelligent avenue that Iran can pursue both before and after an attack by Israel, is to allow United Nations inspectors in to their atomic facilities to assure the world that Iran will not become a military atomic power. However, Iran has not exhibited rational evaluation of their national interests in the past - note the history of the Iran Iraq war - and, until some weighty counter balance of secular, humanistic, and economic powers to oppose the ascendent religious patriotic forces presently in control of Iranian thinking enters their calculations, it does not appear likely that a rational outcome from even highly successful military action can be expected.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Happy birthday, Israel, and Shalom
Something good from the English Press at last. Well done, Daily Express!
THIS, DESPITE SO MANY OF THEIR GREATEST INTELLECTS DYING IN THE GASCHAMBERS
Happy birthday, Israel, and Shalom
By Andrew Roberts, The Daily Express, London
The State of Israel has packed more history into her sixty years on the Planet - which she celebrates this week - than many other nations have in six hundred. There are many surprising things about this tiny, feisty, brave nation the size of Wales, but the most astonishing is that she has lived to see this birthday at all. The very day after the new state was established, she was invaded by the armies of no fewer than five Arab countries, and she has been struggling for her right to life ever since.
From Morocco to Afghanistan, from the Caspian Sea to Aden, the 5.25 Million square miles of territory belonging to members of the Arab League is home to over 330 million people, whereas Israel covers only eight thousand square miles, and is home to seven million citizens, one-fifth of whom are Arabs. The Jews of the Holy Land are thus surrounded by hostile states 650 times their size in territory and sixty times their population, yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived.
When during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightlyAwarded the George Medal for bravery: today Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long.
Jerusalem is the site of the Temple of Solomon and Herod. The stones of a palace erected b y King David himself are even now being unearthed just outside the walls of Jerusalem. Everything that makes a nation-state legitimate - bloodshed, soil tilled, two millennia of continuous residence, international agreements - argues for Israel's right to exist, yet that is still denied by the Arab League. For many of their governments, which are rich enough to have solved the Palestinian refugee problem decades ago, it is useful to have Israel as a scapegoat to divert attention from the tyranny, failure and corruption of their own regimes.The tragic truth is that it suits Arab states very well to have the Palestinians endure permanent refugee status, and whenever Israel puts forward workable solutions they have been stymied by those whose interests put the destruction of Israel before the genuine well-being of the Palestinians. Both King Abdullah I of Jordan and Anwar Sadat of Egypt were assassinated when they attempted to come to some kind of sane accommodation with a country that most sane people now accept is not going away.
The process of creating a Jewish homeland in an area where other peoples were already living - though far fewer of them than anti-Israel propagandists claim - was always going to be a complicated and delicate business, and one for which Britain as the Mandated power had a profound responsibility, and about which since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 she had made solemn promises. Yet instead of keeping a large number of troops on the ground throughout the birth pangs of the State of Israel, Britain hurriedly withdrew all her forces virtually overnight on 14 May 1948, thus facilitating the Arab invasions that very day, one of which was actually commanded by a former British Army officer, John Glubb (knownAs Glubb Pasha). Less than four years earlier, Britain had landed division after victorious division in Normandy, now 'Partition and Flee' was the Attlee government's ignominious policy, whose consequences are still plaguing the world half a century later in Kashmir and the Middle East.
'We owe to the Jews,' wrote Winston Churchill in 1920, 'a system of Ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together.'
The Jewish contribution to finance, science, the arts, academia, commerce and industry, literature, philanthropy and politics has been astonishing relative to their tiny numbers. Although they make up less than half of one per-cent of the world's population, between 1901 and1950 Jews won 14% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded for Literature and Science, and between 1951 and 2000 Jews won 32% of the Nobel Prizes for Medicine, 32% for Physics, 39% for Economics and 29% for Science. This, despite so many of their greatest intellects dying in the gas chambers. Civilization owes Judaism a debt it can never repay, and support for the right of a Jewish homeland to exist is the bare minimum we can provide. Yet we tend to treat Israel like a leper on the international scene, merely for defending herself, and threatening her with academic boycotts if she builds a separation wall that has so far reduced suicide bombings by 95% over three years.
It is a disgrace that no senior member of the Royal Family has ever visited Israel, as though the country is still in quarantine after sixty years. After the Holocaust, the Jewish people recognised that they had to have their own state, a homeland where they could forever be safe from a repetition of such horrors. Putting their trust in Western Civilisation was never again going to be enough. Since then, Israel has had to fight no fewer than five major wars for her very existence. She has been on the front line in the War against Terror and has been fighting the West's battles for it, decades before 9/11 or 7/7 ever happened.
Radical Islam is never going to accept the concept of an Israeli State, so the struggle is likely to continue for another sixty years, but the Jews know that that is less dangerous than entrusting their security to anyone else.
Very often in Britain, especially when faced with the overwhelmingly anti-Israeli bias that is endemic in our liberal media and the BBC, we fail to ask ourselves what we would have done, placed in their position? The population of the United Kingdom of 63 million is nine times that of Israel. In July 2006, to take one example at random, Hizbullah crossed the border of Lebanon into Israel and killed eight patrolmen and kidnapped two others, and that summer fired four thousand Katyusha rockets into Israel which killed a further forty-three civilians. Now, if we multiply those numbers by nine to get the British equivalent, just imagine what WE would do if a terrorist organization based as close as Calais were to fire thirty-six thousand rockets into Sussex and Kent, killing 387 British civilians, after killing seventy-two British servicemen in an ambush and capturing eighteen. There is absolutely no lengths to which our Government would not go to protect British subjects under those circumstances, and quite right too. Why should Israel be expected to behave any differently?
Last month I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, researching a book about the Second World War. Walking along a line of huts and the railway siding where their forebears had been worked and starved and beaten and gassed to death, were a group of Jewish schoolchildren, one of whom was carrying over his shoulder the Israeli flag, a blue star of David on white background. It was a profoundly moving sight, for it was the sovereign independence represented by that flag which guarantees that the obscenity of genocide - which killed six million people in Auschwitz and camps like it - will never again befall the Jewish people.
Happy birthday, Israel and Shalom.
THIS, DESPITE SO MANY OF THEIR GREATEST INTELLECTS DYING IN THE GASCHAMBERS
Happy birthday, Israel, and Shalom
By Andrew Roberts, The Daily Express, London
The State of Israel has packed more history into her sixty years on the Planet - which she celebrates this week - than many other nations have in six hundred. There are many surprising things about this tiny, feisty, brave nation the size of Wales, but the most astonishing is that she has lived to see this birthday at all. The very day after the new state was established, she was invaded by the armies of no fewer than five Arab countries, and she has been struggling for her right to life ever since.
From Morocco to Afghanistan, from the Caspian Sea to Aden, the 5.25 Million square miles of territory belonging to members of the Arab League is home to over 330 million people, whereas Israel covers only eight thousand square miles, and is home to seven million citizens, one-fifth of whom are Arabs. The Jews of the Holy Land are thus surrounded by hostile states 650 times their size in territory and sixty times their population, yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived.
When during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightlyAwarded the George Medal for bravery: today Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long.
Jerusalem is the site of the Temple of Solomon and Herod. The stones of a palace erected b y King David himself are even now being unearthed just outside the walls of Jerusalem. Everything that makes a nation-state legitimate - bloodshed, soil tilled, two millennia of continuous residence, international agreements - argues for Israel's right to exist, yet that is still denied by the Arab League. For many of their governments, which are rich enough to have solved the Palestinian refugee problem decades ago, it is useful to have Israel as a scapegoat to divert attention from the tyranny, failure and corruption of their own regimes.The tragic truth is that it suits Arab states very well to have the Palestinians endure permanent refugee status, and whenever Israel puts forward workable solutions they have been stymied by those whose interests put the destruction of Israel before the genuine well-being of the Palestinians. Both King Abdullah I of Jordan and Anwar Sadat of Egypt were assassinated when they attempted to come to some kind of sane accommodation with a country that most sane people now accept is not going away.
The process of creating a Jewish homeland in an area where other peoples were already living - though far fewer of them than anti-Israel propagandists claim - was always going to be a complicated and delicate business, and one for which Britain as the Mandated power had a profound responsibility, and about which since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 she had made solemn promises. Yet instead of keeping a large number of troops on the ground throughout the birth pangs of the State of Israel, Britain hurriedly withdrew all her forces virtually overnight on 14 May 1948, thus facilitating the Arab invasions that very day, one of which was actually commanded by a former British Army officer, John Glubb (knownAs Glubb Pasha). Less than four years earlier, Britain had landed division after victorious division in Normandy, now 'Partition and Flee' was the Attlee government's ignominious policy, whose consequences are still plaguing the world half a century later in Kashmir and the Middle East.
'We owe to the Jews,' wrote Winston Churchill in 1920, 'a system of Ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together.'
The Jewish contribution to finance, science, the arts, academia, commerce and industry, literature, philanthropy and politics has been astonishing relative to their tiny numbers. Although they make up less than half of one per-cent of the world's population, between 1901 and1950 Jews won 14% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded for Literature and Science, and between 1951 and 2000 Jews won 32% of the Nobel Prizes for Medicine, 32% for Physics, 39% for Economics and 29% for Science. This, despite so many of their greatest intellects dying in the gas chambers. Civilization owes Judaism a debt it can never repay, and support for the right of a Jewish homeland to exist is the bare minimum we can provide. Yet we tend to treat Israel like a leper on the international scene, merely for defending herself, and threatening her with academic boycotts if she builds a separation wall that has so far reduced suicide bombings by 95% over three years.
It is a disgrace that no senior member of the Royal Family has ever visited Israel, as though the country is still in quarantine after sixty years. After the Holocaust, the Jewish people recognised that they had to have their own state, a homeland where they could forever be safe from a repetition of such horrors. Putting their trust in Western Civilisation was never again going to be enough. Since then, Israel has had to fight no fewer than five major wars for her very existence. She has been on the front line in the War against Terror and has been fighting the West's battles for it, decades before 9/11 or 7/7 ever happened.
Radical Islam is never going to accept the concept of an Israeli State, so the struggle is likely to continue for another sixty years, but the Jews know that that is less dangerous than entrusting their security to anyone else.
Very often in Britain, especially when faced with the overwhelmingly anti-Israeli bias that is endemic in our liberal media and the BBC, we fail to ask ourselves what we would have done, placed in their position? The population of the United Kingdom of 63 million is nine times that of Israel. In July 2006, to take one example at random, Hizbullah crossed the border of Lebanon into Israel and killed eight patrolmen and kidnapped two others, and that summer fired four thousand Katyusha rockets into Israel which killed a further forty-three civilians. Now, if we multiply those numbers by nine to get the British equivalent, just imagine what WE would do if a terrorist organization based as close as Calais were to fire thirty-six thousand rockets into Sussex and Kent, killing 387 British civilians, after killing seventy-two British servicemen in an ambush and capturing eighteen. There is absolutely no lengths to which our Government would not go to protect British subjects under those circumstances, and quite right too. Why should Israel be expected to behave any differently?
Last month I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, researching a book about the Second World War. Walking along a line of huts and the railway siding where their forebears had been worked and starved and beaten and gassed to death, were a group of Jewish schoolchildren, one of whom was carrying over his shoulder the Israeli flag, a blue star of David on white background. It was a profoundly moving sight, for it was the sovereign independence represented by that flag which guarantees that the obscenity of genocide - which killed six million people in Auschwitz and camps like it - will never again befall the Jewish people.
Happy birthday, Israel and Shalom.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The Mystery of Hate by Yair Lapid
An Israeli columnist and news anchor, Yair Lapid, wrote his perceptions some time ago of the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. I believe his article may help Americans see the conflict through Israeli eyes.
Hundreds of years of fighting, six and a half wars, billions of dollars gone with the wind, tens of thousands of victims, not including the boy who laid down next to me on the rocky beach of lake Karon in 1982 and we both watched his guts spilling out. The helicopter took him and until this day I do not know whether he is dead or survived.
All this, and one cannot figure it out.
And its not only what happened but all that did not happen - hospitals that were never built, universities that were never opened, roads that were never paved, the three years that were taken from millions of teenagers for the sake of the army. And despite all the above, we still do not have the beginning of a clue to the mystery of where it all started: Why do they hate us so much?
I am not talking about the Palestinians this time. Their dispute with us is intimate, focused, and it has a direct effect on their lives. Without getting into the "which side is right" question, it is obvious that they have very personal reasons not to stand our presence here. We all know that eventually this is how it will be solved: in a personal way, between them and us, with blood sweat and tears that will stain the pages of the agreement. Until then, it is a war that could at least be understood, even if no sane person is willing to accept the means that are used to run it.
It is the others. Those I cannot understand. Why does Hassan Nasralla, along with tens of thousands of his supporters, dedicate his life, his visible talents, his country's destiny, to fight a country he has never even seen, people he has never really met and an army that he has no reason to fight?
Why do children in Iran, who can not even locate Israel on the map (especially because it is so small), burn its flag in the city center and offer to commit suicide for its elimination? Why do Egyptian and Jordanian intellectuals agitate the innocent and helpless against the peace agreements, even though they know that their failure will push their countries 20 years back? Why are the Syrians willing to remain a pathetic and depressed third world country, for the dubious right to finance terror organizations that will eventually threaten their own country's existence? Why do they hate us so much in Saudi-Arabia? In Iraq? In Sudan? What have we done to them? How are we even relevant to their lives? What do they know about us? Why do they hate us so much in Afghanistan? They don't have anything to eat there, where do they get the energy to hate?
This question has so many answers and yet it is a mystery. It is true that it is partially a religious matter but even religious people make their choices. The Koran (along with the Shariah - the Muslim parallel to Jewish Halachah) consists of thousands of laws. Why is it that we occupy their preachers so much?
There are so many countries that gave them much better reasons to be angry. We did not start the crusades, we did not rule them during the colonial period, we never tried to convert them. The Mongolians, the Seljuk, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British; they all conquered, ruined and plundered the whole region. We did not even try to cross surrounding countries’ borders. So how come we are the enemy?
And if it is identification with their Palestinians brothers, then where are the Saudi Arabian tractors building up the territories that were evacuated by Israel? What happened to the Indonesian delegation building a school in Gaza strip? Where are the Kuwaiti doctors with their modern surgical equipment? There are so many ways to love your brothers. Why do they all prefer to help their brothers with hating?
Is it something that we do? Fifteen hundreds years of anti-Semitism taught us - in the most painful way possible - that there is something about us that irritates the world. So, we did the thing everyone wanted; we got up and left. We have established our own tiny little country where we can irritate ourselves without interrupting others. We didn't ask for much space to build our country. Israel is spread on a smaller territory than 1% of the territory of Saudi-Arabia, with no oil, no minerals, without settling on another state's territory. Most of the cities that were bombed this week were not plundered from anyone. Nahariya, Afula, and Karmiel did not even exist until we established them. The other katyushas landed on territories over which no one ever questioned our right to them. Jews lived in Haifa in the 3rd century B.C. Tiberias was the place where the last Sanhedrin (Religious Council) sat, so no one can claim we stole it.
However, the hatred continues. As if no other destiny is possible. Active hatred, poisoned and unstoppable. Last Saturday the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called again "to act to make Israel disappear," as if we were bacteria. We are so used to it, we don't even ask why.
Israel does not hope and never did, for Iran to vanish. As long as they wanted, we had diplomatic relations with them. We do not have a common border or a history of conflicts. And still, they are willing to confront the whole Western world, to risk a commercial boycott, to hurt their own quality of life, to crush their economy solely to passionately hate us. I am trying to remember if we ever harmed Iran. When? How? Why did he say in his speech that "Israel is the main problem of the Muslim world?" More than a billion people live in the Muslim world, most of them in horrible conditions. They suffer from hunger, poverty, ignorance, and bloodshed that spreads from Kashmir to Kurdistan and from dying Darfur to injured Bangladesh. How come we are their main problem? How exactly are we in the way of their happiness?
I refuse to accept the Israeli argument that claims "that is just the way they are". They said it about Jews so many times that we have learned to accept this expression. There must be another reason, some dark secret that because of it, the citizens of South Lebanon allow terror to rouse our quiet border, to kidnap the soldiers of an army that has gone from their territory, to turn their country into a wasteland exactly at the time they finally rested from twenty years of disasters. We have become accustomed to using worn expressions - "it's the Iranian influence" or "Syria is stirring the pot behind the scenes."
But that is just too easy an explanation. Because what about them?
What about their thoughts?
What about their hopes, loves, ambitions and their dreams?
What about their children?
When they send their children to die, does it seem enough for them to say that it was all worth while because they hate us so much?
Hundreds of years of fighting, six and a half wars, billions of dollars gone with the wind, tens of thousands of victims, not including the boy who laid down next to me on the rocky beach of lake Karon in 1982 and we both watched his guts spilling out. The helicopter took him and until this day I do not know whether he is dead or survived.
All this, and one cannot figure it out.
And its not only what happened but all that did not happen - hospitals that were never built, universities that were never opened, roads that were never paved, the three years that were taken from millions of teenagers for the sake of the army. And despite all the above, we still do not have the beginning of a clue to the mystery of where it all started: Why do they hate us so much?
I am not talking about the Palestinians this time. Their dispute with us is intimate, focused, and it has a direct effect on their lives. Without getting into the "which side is right" question, it is obvious that they have very personal reasons not to stand our presence here. We all know that eventually this is how it will be solved: in a personal way, between them and us, with blood sweat and tears that will stain the pages of the agreement. Until then, it is a war that could at least be understood, even if no sane person is willing to accept the means that are used to run it.
It is the others. Those I cannot understand. Why does Hassan Nasralla, along with tens of thousands of his supporters, dedicate his life, his visible talents, his country's destiny, to fight a country he has never even seen, people he has never really met and an army that he has no reason to fight?
Why do children in Iran, who can not even locate Israel on the map (especially because it is so small), burn its flag in the city center and offer to commit suicide for its elimination? Why do Egyptian and Jordanian intellectuals agitate the innocent and helpless against the peace agreements, even though they know that their failure will push their countries 20 years back? Why are the Syrians willing to remain a pathetic and depressed third world country, for the dubious right to finance terror organizations that will eventually threaten their own country's existence? Why do they hate us so much in Saudi-Arabia? In Iraq? In Sudan? What have we done to them? How are we even relevant to their lives? What do they know about us? Why do they hate us so much in Afghanistan? They don't have anything to eat there, where do they get the energy to hate?
This question has so many answers and yet it is a mystery. It is true that it is partially a religious matter but even religious people make their choices. The Koran (along with the Shariah - the Muslim parallel to Jewish Halachah) consists of thousands of laws. Why is it that we occupy their preachers so much?
There are so many countries that gave them much better reasons to be angry. We did not start the crusades, we did not rule them during the colonial period, we never tried to convert them. The Mongolians, the Seljuk, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British; they all conquered, ruined and plundered the whole region. We did not even try to cross surrounding countries’ borders. So how come we are the enemy?
And if it is identification with their Palestinians brothers, then where are the Saudi Arabian tractors building up the territories that were evacuated by Israel? What happened to the Indonesian delegation building a school in Gaza strip? Where are the Kuwaiti doctors with their modern surgical equipment? There are so many ways to love your brothers. Why do they all prefer to help their brothers with hating?
Is it something that we do? Fifteen hundreds years of anti-Semitism taught us - in the most painful way possible - that there is something about us that irritates the world. So, we did the thing everyone wanted; we got up and left. We have established our own tiny little country where we can irritate ourselves without interrupting others. We didn't ask for much space to build our country. Israel is spread on a smaller territory than 1% of the territory of Saudi-Arabia, with no oil, no minerals, without settling on another state's territory. Most of the cities that were bombed this week were not plundered from anyone. Nahariya, Afula, and Karmiel did not even exist until we established them. The other katyushas landed on territories over which no one ever questioned our right to them. Jews lived in Haifa in the 3rd century B.C. Tiberias was the place where the last Sanhedrin (Religious Council) sat, so no one can claim we stole it.
However, the hatred continues. As if no other destiny is possible. Active hatred, poisoned and unstoppable. Last Saturday the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called again "to act to make Israel disappear," as if we were bacteria. We are so used to it, we don't even ask why.
Israel does not hope and never did, for Iran to vanish. As long as they wanted, we had diplomatic relations with them. We do not have a common border or a history of conflicts. And still, they are willing to confront the whole Western world, to risk a commercial boycott, to hurt their own quality of life, to crush their economy solely to passionately hate us. I am trying to remember if we ever harmed Iran. When? How? Why did he say in his speech that "Israel is the main problem of the Muslim world?" More than a billion people live in the Muslim world, most of them in horrible conditions. They suffer from hunger, poverty, ignorance, and bloodshed that spreads from Kashmir to Kurdistan and from dying Darfur to injured Bangladesh. How come we are their main problem? How exactly are we in the way of their happiness?
I refuse to accept the Israeli argument that claims "that is just the way they are". They said it about Jews so many times that we have learned to accept this expression. There must be another reason, some dark secret that because of it, the citizens of South Lebanon allow terror to rouse our quiet border, to kidnap the soldiers of an army that has gone from their territory, to turn their country into a wasteland exactly at the time they finally rested from twenty years of disasters. We have become accustomed to using worn expressions - "it's the Iranian influence" or "Syria is stirring the pot behind the scenes."
But that is just too easy an explanation. Because what about them?
What about their thoughts?
What about their hopes, loves, ambitions and their dreams?
What about their children?
When they send their children to die, does it seem enough for them to say that it was all worth while because they hate us so much?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)