Palestinians are Arabs who lived in a geographically ill-defined area of Middle East land, the borders of which have changed innumerable times over the centuries. Jews also have lived in that area for thousands of years. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the late eighteen hundreds whose goal is the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, those Jews are often defined as Zionists, sometimes against their objections to such a non-religious name. Most Palestinians wish that Israel would disappear or be "disappeared." Hence, the Palestinian-Israel conflict.
"SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND" is the name of an organization seeking to resolve the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Notice the difference between Palestinian, meaning people who live in a geographical area called "Palestine," and Israel, meaning a nation established in 1948 in part of that area. The conflict began in biblical times and continues to the present, having assumed many shapes over the centuries.
Common ground is an expression that generally implies an area of agreement between parties with differing points of view. Searching for that area of agreement and finding it should or may lead to agreement on issues in dispute by holding up the pictures of areas of agreement as guideposts on the way to agreement on those opposing issues, those issues in dispute.
However, when there are no common grounds that relate to the issues in dispute, the search for common ground is a misleading tactic in the way to agreement on issues in dispute. Being friendly with your opponent, a desired condition growing out of common ground, is of no use in the resolution of issues of belief and historical/geographical imperatives. As an example, if one loses a piece of jewelry that is found by another in neutral territory and claimed by the finder as belonging to him, no common ground can resolve the conflict of ownership.
Or, if one believes that a certain rock is holy, no finding of common ground will enable a non-believer to destroy or remove that rock from its location.
Or, if one is brought up to believe that a national territory extends to a certain location and if, after warfare over that territory, a non-national attempts to occupy that territory and claim it under the rules of war, absent some agreement that is based on a fair exchange of territory - patriotism, love of country, and history will simply nullify any change that is not found to be fair.
These are examples where “common ground” leads nowhere. History, religion, geography, patriotism, prior ownership, all nullify the benefits of cordial relations generated by finding common grounds that enable antagonists to discuss their disagreements in an amicable fashion.
The solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict lies in the parties defining a future without reference to history, geography, religion, patriotism or any unchangeable immutable points of reference. What do the parties to the conflict want for their following generations? Peace, health, education, opportunity, prosperity, equality, and all the happiness that these may provide. Until the definition for the future is agreed upon, no discussion of territory will lead to a solution.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
HISTORY'S GOLDEN RULE
What is History's Golden Rule?"
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not quite.
Do unto others. Closer.
He who has the gold makes the rules. Much closer.
History's "Golden Rule" is this, "He who writes the history has the gold."
And the corollary to the rule is that the winner is the one with the gold.
The writers of history in the first instance, the survivors of events, the victors in the field, the kings and queens and dictators and presidents, and all the leaders of nations, empires, tribes, and religions, and the puppeteers behind the curtains - the true powers, "the powers behind the thrones," who indeed control the writers of the first instance, are the power elites, the ones who have the gold. They are NOT historians. They are story tellers.
At some point in time, the "historical" stories begin to change, dependent on two conditions; independence and availability of evidence. After the first and second and possibly the third generation of winners have passed away, at times, a different group appears, removed from the influence of power, who write a different kind of history. It is history that more closely identifies the facts of historical events after research of available evidence.
Winners and losers switch places, evidence is often intentionally destroyed, and protagonists and antagonists die with historically important secrets buried with them. In addition, an influence on the veracity of historical documentation continues in its power to affect the writing of history, namely religious institutions that thrive regardless of power elites' demise.
Religious institutions provide the clearest proof of the nature of history's Golden Rule. Under the continuous mendacious claim of poverty, wealth and its power continue being amassed by every religious establishment concocted by the mind of man. Since the first cuneiform and wall paintings appeared, these establishments, in partnership with ever-changing power elites, write the histories. It is a rare history that is a true history that enters the doors of academe for educational usage. The writers of true histories and their books are relegated to the archives from which future historians may pull out a bone from the grave of buried truth.
Thus the cycle of historical adumbration continues, giving unto Mamon what is Mamon's, with false disinterest.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not quite.
Do unto others. Closer.
He who has the gold makes the rules. Much closer.
History's "Golden Rule" is this, "He who writes the history has the gold."
And the corollary to the rule is that the winner is the one with the gold.
The writers of history in the first instance, the survivors of events, the victors in the field, the kings and queens and dictators and presidents, and all the leaders of nations, empires, tribes, and religions, and the puppeteers behind the curtains - the true powers, "the powers behind the thrones," who indeed control the writers of the first instance, are the power elites, the ones who have the gold. They are NOT historians. They are story tellers.
At some point in time, the "historical" stories begin to change, dependent on two conditions; independence and availability of evidence. After the first and second and possibly the third generation of winners have passed away, at times, a different group appears, removed from the influence of power, who write a different kind of history. It is history that more closely identifies the facts of historical events after research of available evidence.
Winners and losers switch places, evidence is often intentionally destroyed, and protagonists and antagonists die with historically important secrets buried with them. In addition, an influence on the veracity of historical documentation continues in its power to affect the writing of history, namely religious institutions that thrive regardless of power elites' demise.
Religious institutions provide the clearest proof of the nature of history's Golden Rule. Under the continuous mendacious claim of poverty, wealth and its power continue being amassed by every religious establishment concocted by the mind of man. Since the first cuneiform and wall paintings appeared, these establishments, in partnership with ever-changing power elites, write the histories. It is a rare history that is a true history that enters the doors of academe for educational usage. The writers of true histories and their books are relegated to the archives from which future historians may pull out a bone from the grave of buried truth.
Thus the cycle of historical adumbration continues, giving unto Mamon what is Mamon's, with false disinterest.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
THE ISRAEL PALESTINIAN CONFLICT - NOVEMBER 2008
Israel was established as a nation in 1948. The new nation was immediately attacked by five neighboring Arab armies. The Arab world with two exceptions, is still officially at war with Israel. Now, sixty years later, the Arabs still dream of pushing Israel into the sea. In addition, they have been joined by Iran in that crusade, though it states that it is not an Arab nation, whose leader has called for the annihilation of Israel.
The peoples of the Arab world fight and kill each other and anyone else that their political and religious leaders define as enemies. Tribal mores prevail to a substantial extent in the twenty countries of the Arab world. Not a single Arab country is a democracy though sham voting takes place under the guns of thedictatorships and various armed coalitions. Dictatorial religious leaders also determine the political directions these countries take.
In many ways, Arab populations live in the eighteenth century, (or even earlier in some cases,) culturally and economically and in their systems of government and what their governments have not provided such as education, health care, political and gender emancipation, and other standard protections and benefits that modern times have brought the western world. Their power, water, transportation, and waste disposal infrastructures, primitive to begin with, are decrepit with few exceptions. However, all of these countries expend enormous amounts of monetary and human capital on their military capability.
Five wars and sixty years have come and gone and modern democratic Israel is now in the process of electing a new government. The central issue in the election is who will be better able to deal with this ongoing conflict. Over these past years, the country has become a military, an economic, and an intellectual powerhouse that is comparable to the advanced western nations in its way of life, its economy, and in its democratic political structure.
Defining the difference between the parties vying for votes in this upcoming election can be simplified by one key philosophical difference tha has enormous ramifications for Israel's future; Talkers and Preparers.
The Talkers believe that war can be averted by talking and the Preparers of military power believe that their efforts will prevent war.
The Talkers will probably lose the election because the Preparers are backed by huge amounts of money in anticipation of the huge amounts of money to be made in the event of war. And sadly, because of the necessity to expend huge amounts of money to bribe the religious parties into joining the winning coalition and the reluctance and inability of the Talkers to expend such money, the Preparers will win.
The peoples of the Arab world fight and kill each other and anyone else that their political and religious leaders define as enemies. Tribal mores prevail to a substantial extent in the twenty countries of the Arab world. Not a single Arab country is a democracy though sham voting takes place under the guns of thedictatorships and various armed coalitions. Dictatorial religious leaders also determine the political directions these countries take.
In many ways, Arab populations live in the eighteenth century, (or even earlier in some cases,) culturally and economically and in their systems of government and what their governments have not provided such as education, health care, political and gender emancipation, and other standard protections and benefits that modern times have brought the western world. Their power, water, transportation, and waste disposal infrastructures, primitive to begin with, are decrepit with few exceptions. However, all of these countries expend enormous amounts of monetary and human capital on their military capability.
Five wars and sixty years have come and gone and modern democratic Israel is now in the process of electing a new government. The central issue in the election is who will be better able to deal with this ongoing conflict. Over these past years, the country has become a military, an economic, and an intellectual powerhouse that is comparable to the advanced western nations in its way of life, its economy, and in its democratic political structure.
Defining the difference between the parties vying for votes in this upcoming election can be simplified by one key philosophical difference tha has enormous ramifications for Israel's future; Talkers and Preparers.
The Talkers believe that war can be averted by talking and the Preparers of military power believe that their efforts will prevent war.
The Talkers will probably lose the election because the Preparers are backed by huge amounts of money in anticipation of the huge amounts of money to be made in the event of war. And sadly, because of the necessity to expend huge amounts of money to bribe the religious parties into joining the winning coalition and the reluctance and inability of the Talkers to expend such money, the Preparers will win.
AMERICA IN IRAQ - A "NO WIN" WAR
If there is a "No Win" situation in war, it occurs when one warring party lives in the war zone and has nothing to lose but lives and it's a "no choice war," and the other warring party is an outsider sticking its nose in where it doesn't belong and by its presence, forces the natives to fight.
The United States initiated and fought such a war in Viet Nam. In the 20th century, wars of independence by "colonies" were such wars. Think, "Algeria and France," and other national wars of independence as examples. So long as foreign troops occupy land held dear by citizens, there will be never ending conflict. The United States, undeterred by its Viet Nam experience and in the unsubstantiated belief that it "paid" to take over Iraq's oil fields, created a causus belli out of whole cloth, sold it to the American people and a small number of other nation confederates, and marched into Iraq as into quick sand.
Now, in November of 2008, that war is being fought on the electoral turf of America. John McCain pounds his campaign lectern and states that if Barack Obama is elected president, the United States will lose the war in Iraq, and that he alone knows how to win that war. Obama's retort hits the easy mark by asking where has McCain been with this profound knowledge for the past five years and why did he not share his knowledge with his president.
Obviously, there is no possible victory in such a war as this quagmire. It is a classic "No Win" war that will serve West Point instructors well in coming years as the paradigm of a war that should never be fought by the United States on foreign soil. The Iraq war will serve to teach strategy and tactics for a defensive war should America ever be attacked by an invading force - an unlikely scenario in the foreseeable future.
Extrication is the word and the goal for the next president. Extrication of all foreign forces now in Iraq who went there as allies of the United States.
American presence in Iraq is based on falsehoods perpetrated by the leaders of the country. The nefarious and illegal actions of president George W. Bush and vice-president Richard Cheney should lead to immediate imprisonment, trial, and guilty verdict, and a death penalty for their murders of American soldiers and the murders of all the dead of Iraq.
The United States initiated and fought such a war in Viet Nam. In the 20th century, wars of independence by "colonies" were such wars. Think, "Algeria and France," and other national wars of independence as examples. So long as foreign troops occupy land held dear by citizens, there will be never ending conflict. The United States, undeterred by its Viet Nam experience and in the unsubstantiated belief that it "paid" to take over Iraq's oil fields, created a causus belli out of whole cloth, sold it to the American people and a small number of other nation confederates, and marched into Iraq as into quick sand.
Now, in November of 2008, that war is being fought on the electoral turf of America. John McCain pounds his campaign lectern and states that if Barack Obama is elected president, the United States will lose the war in Iraq, and that he alone knows how to win that war. Obama's retort hits the easy mark by asking where has McCain been with this profound knowledge for the past five years and why did he not share his knowledge with his president.
Obviously, there is no possible victory in such a war as this quagmire. It is a classic "No Win" war that will serve West Point instructors well in coming years as the paradigm of a war that should never be fought by the United States on foreign soil. The Iraq war will serve to teach strategy and tactics for a defensive war should America ever be attacked by an invading force - an unlikely scenario in the foreseeable future.
Extrication is the word and the goal for the next president. Extrication of all foreign forces now in Iraq who went there as allies of the United States.
American presence in Iraq is based on falsehoods perpetrated by the leaders of the country. The nefarious and illegal actions of president George W. Bush and vice-president Richard Cheney should lead to immediate imprisonment, trial, and guilty verdict, and a death penalty for their murders of American soldiers and the murders of all the dead of Iraq.
TALKING WITH THE ENEMY vs. WHAT?
History may teach the leaders of nations that being a "winner" in a war means determining future relations with the "loser." But wars have neither winners nor losers; that the fact of going to war means that everyone loses except the people who make money from war. Even the winners of territory are hard put to declare themselves winners unless that territory historically belonged to the winners. Death and destruction of property, including war materiel, makes populations losers by deprivation of the needs of life and the destruction of the quality of life.
So, given that wars are always between losers regardless of who gives up the fight and who is declared "winner," how can wars be averted? First, by insulating conflicts from acquisition-of-wealth influence and second, by the disputing parties talking with each other even when wealth is at stake.
All wars have an economic base. No war is ever fought if nothing of value is at stake. History and religion provide the fastest and surest bases for war. Possession of land and natural resources, slaves, populations, and religious adherents and religious space, access to ports, trade routes, and the means of production of wealth, and, believe it or not, for the destruction of wealth, are all good reasons for going to war.
However, populations are persuaded to march off to war for patriotic and religious reasons, for reasons of perceived injustice or for the security of their nations. Whatever mechanism is used to persuade, the underlying motivation for the war propaganda remains economic.
So how can talking cure the lust for wealth in a particular conflict situation? First and foremost, by removing wealth production from the causus beli. Second, by talking with the "enemy." Only then, is there a real possibility for arriving at solutions to conflicts between nations and ethnic groups. And so long as talking goes on, war goes off.
So, given that wars are always between losers regardless of who gives up the fight and who is declared "winner," how can wars be averted? First, by insulating conflicts from acquisition-of-wealth influence and second, by the disputing parties talking with each other even when wealth is at stake.
All wars have an economic base. No war is ever fought if nothing of value is at stake. History and religion provide the fastest and surest bases for war. Possession of land and natural resources, slaves, populations, and religious adherents and religious space, access to ports, trade routes, and the means of production of wealth, and, believe it or not, for the destruction of wealth, are all good reasons for going to war.
However, populations are persuaded to march off to war for patriotic and religious reasons, for reasons of perceived injustice or for the security of their nations. Whatever mechanism is used to persuade, the underlying motivation for the war propaganda remains economic.
So how can talking cure the lust for wealth in a particular conflict situation? First and foremost, by removing wealth production from the causus beli. Second, by talking with the "enemy." Only then, is there a real possibility for arriving at solutions to conflicts between nations and ethnic groups. And so long as talking goes on, war goes off.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA - NOVEMBER 4, 2008
Americans have chosen for their president at this historical moment a second Abraham Lincoln.
Barack Obama has arrived at the helm of the ship of state at a time of turmoil and terror. How fortuitous that a man of his stature and strength came forth from Illinois to assume the burdens of leadership at a time when the ship was foundering in the tempestuous storms brought on by his predecessor in the White House.
Amid the challenges of fear and hunger and the known horror that an eruption in our atomic age could bring, Barack Obama has stepped out to lead our country and to uplift our nation to a potential new age of honesty and openness in government, common sense in the roles of legislators and their constituents, intelligence and awareness of the nature of our times in judges' applications of the laws of our land, fairness in taxation and the distribution of the burdens of caring for our citizens, and dedication to a better future for the children of the world. These are changes that he has promised.
And he will bring his visions to his listeners with veracity and linguistic virtuosity, a happy change among the many of which he spoke in the months before his election.
With the same grace he has shown to the losers in his victory, we, the people who chose him to be our leader, must now show the patience and cooperation that he will need in the coming months and years of his presidency, to chart a new course for the nation and, in its dealings with the nations of the world. with wisdom, so that those who follow him in his role as captain will find the way to a happier, more equitable, world.
Barack Obama has arrived at the helm of the ship of state at a time of turmoil and terror. How fortuitous that a man of his stature and strength came forth from Illinois to assume the burdens of leadership at a time when the ship was foundering in the tempestuous storms brought on by his predecessor in the White House.
Amid the challenges of fear and hunger and the known horror that an eruption in our atomic age could bring, Barack Obama has stepped out to lead our country and to uplift our nation to a potential new age of honesty and openness in government, common sense in the roles of legislators and their constituents, intelligence and awareness of the nature of our times in judges' applications of the laws of our land, fairness in taxation and the distribution of the burdens of caring for our citizens, and dedication to a better future for the children of the world. These are changes that he has promised.
And he will bring his visions to his listeners with veracity and linguistic virtuosity, a happy change among the many of which he spoke in the months before his election.
With the same grace he has shown to the losers in his victory, we, the people who chose him to be our leader, must now show the patience and cooperation that he will need in the coming months and years of his presidency, to chart a new course for the nation and, in its dealings with the nations of the world. with wisdom, so that those who follow him in his role as captain will find the way to a happier, more equitable, world.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
2008 PRE-ELECTION THOUGHTS - WHAT'S AT STAKE
It's Friday night, October 31st, 2008. November 4th is Election Day for president and an enormous variety and number of political offices and propositions on which "The People" will vote.
The United States of America is in critical condition. It is suffering from so many unaccustomed ills. The economy is in deep trouble. We are at war in too many places. Our health care and education systems are inadequate to meet the challenges they face daily. Our country's position is the world has been so abased and we are held in such low esteem that the beacon to the world we were once has been extinguished. Our courts' higher levels have been loaded with judges litmus-test-chosen by their history on the bench of decision making restricted to and based on documents from our county's founding condition over two hundred years ago, and on a religious ethic that defies one of the foundation blocks of our democracy, the separation of church and state. Our country stands alone in its insistence on using the death penalty to reduce crime while at the same time our jails are overfilled with criminals, petty and monstrous, for whom there is no future but crime because of the "No coddling with education" policies of our state/police union controlled systems. And there are many more problems that can be listed to show that the land of the free and the home of the brave has been converted to the land of the enslaved and the home of the weak led by the power elite of the country in union with the political system that has passed laws allowing grand theft and rewarding the most successful thieves with even greater power to elevate their thievery to a level unsurpassed in the history of the nation. And the American People have been duped into believing that to have it any other way means "Liberalism" and "Socialism" and heaven forfend that the one percent of the power elite that holds 99 percent of the country's wealth be disabused of their belief that the fascistic economy they control is God's gift to them and them alone.
What's at stake is the future of the United States, its people, and the powerful of the free world descending into savage brutality leading an economic charge against ALL of the world's people. America turned into a white Darfur and Somalia in action under the banners of Syria, Iran, and North Korea, the axis of evil, the mirror of America that has become the evil renegade state leading civilization down to savagery.
Can Barack Obama turn around this headlong rush by these powerful forces? Half the people of the United States are against him. The wealthy and the poor uneducated indoctrinated masses who think he's a "socialist." Ha, ha. He will be elected president and shot when he seems to be successful. America is the leader of the free world in assassinating its leaders, did you know that?
The United States of America is in critical condition. It is suffering from so many unaccustomed ills. The economy is in deep trouble. We are at war in too many places. Our health care and education systems are inadequate to meet the challenges they face daily. Our country's position is the world has been so abased and we are held in such low esteem that the beacon to the world we were once has been extinguished. Our courts' higher levels have been loaded with judges litmus-test-chosen by their history on the bench of decision making restricted to and based on documents from our county's founding condition over two hundred years ago, and on a religious ethic that defies one of the foundation blocks of our democracy, the separation of church and state. Our country stands alone in its insistence on using the death penalty to reduce crime while at the same time our jails are overfilled with criminals, petty and monstrous, for whom there is no future but crime because of the "No coddling with education" policies of our state/police union controlled systems. And there are many more problems that can be listed to show that the land of the free and the home of the brave has been converted to the land of the enslaved and the home of the weak led by the power elite of the country in union with the political system that has passed laws allowing grand theft and rewarding the most successful thieves with even greater power to elevate their thievery to a level unsurpassed in the history of the nation. And the American People have been duped into believing that to have it any other way means "Liberalism" and "Socialism" and heaven forfend that the one percent of the power elite that holds 99 percent of the country's wealth be disabused of their belief that the fascistic economy they control is God's gift to them and them alone.
What's at stake is the future of the United States, its people, and the powerful of the free world descending into savage brutality leading an economic charge against ALL of the world's people. America turned into a white Darfur and Somalia in action under the banners of Syria, Iran, and North Korea, the axis of evil, the mirror of America that has become the evil renegade state leading civilization down to savagery.
Can Barack Obama turn around this headlong rush by these powerful forces? Half the people of the United States are against him. The wealthy and the poor uneducated indoctrinated masses who think he's a "socialist." Ha, ha. He will be elected president and shot when he seems to be successful. America is the leader of the free world in assassinating its leaders, did you know that?
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