COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, August 22, 2014

ISIS: “move quickly to pressure its entire ‘nervous system’, break it up, and destroy its pieces.”



Former top general calls on Obama to wipe out Isis in wake of Foley killing

John Allen, who commanded Afghanistan war, writes op-ed amid varying US views on how to respond to journalist’s beheading

Spencer Ackerman in New York and Dan Roberts in Washington 
The Guardian, Wednesday 20 August 2014
An influential retired US general has called on Barack Obama to order the destruction the militant group responsible for murdering American journalist James Foley amid conflicting views in the administration on how to respond to the atrocity.
As Obama’s foreign policy team debates expanding its renewed air war in Iraq after the killing of Foley by the Islamic State (Isis), John Allen, a retired marine general who commanded the Afghanistan war from 2011 to 2013, urged Obama to “move quickly to pressure its entire ‘nervous system’, break it up, and destroy its pieces.”
Allen’s argument, presented in an op-ed for the DefenseOne website, echoes remarks by secretary of state John Kerry and comes amid internal dispute in the Obama administration over the future course of its two-week air war in Iraq. Much diplomatic effort is said to be spent broadening and hardening a region-wide effort against Isis, something Allen endorsed, with Turkey and Qatar being a particular near-term focus for Kerry.
The debate is said to be fluid. At present, a US official anticipated more continuity than change in future military operations against Isis, but said: “It may ultimately evolve.”
On Wednesday, six new airstrikes continued to hit Isis positions near the Mosul Dam, three days after Obama declared that it was no longer under Isis control. Nearly two-thirds of the 90 US strikes since 8 August have taken place near the critical dam.
In a grisly video produced by Foley’s captors, his killer says Foley’s death came as revenge for US airstrikes in Iraq. Soon after the video was released, the US confirmed that it had recently mounted a failed rescue bid for Foley. Elite US military forces secretly invaded Syria earlier this summer in a mission that involved dozens of special operations forces from all US military services, including the 160th special operations aviation regiment.
US forces flew into Syria in defiance of air defence batteries that senior military officials have described as highly threatening to pilots. Modified Black Hawk helicopters were involved, and “armed fixed-wing aircraft and drones” provided cover to forces on the ground, said an administration official. No hostages were found at the targeted location.
It emerged on Thursday that Foley’s family received a message from Foley’s captors on 13 August, warning them that he would be killed. They passed the message on to the US government, which helped with a response. Phil Balboni, chief executive of GlobalPost, the Boston-based online news publication that had published work by Foley, told Reuters: “It was an appeal for mercy. It was a statement that Jim was an innocent journalist,” and that he respected the people of Syria, where he was held.
Foley’s family and friends hoped the militants were bluffing and wanted a ransom, he said. The group had last year demanded a ransom of $132m for his rescue, Balboni said.
Wary of overcommitment to a new Iraq war, the Obama administration has sent mixed signals about how far it is willing to go against Isis. Kerry, who has been hawkish against Isis, said the jihadist organization “must be destroyed/will be crushed”, a goal beyond the one Obama has thus far set.
Allen proposed attacking Isis in Syria as well as Iraq “across its entire depth”, an option the Pentagon has studied after the group overran Iraq’s second largest city in June but is yet to implement.
In an interview on Thursday with National Public Radio, one of Obama’s closest advisers opened the door for attacking Isis in Syria, which would represent a significant expansion of a bombing effort whose missions have slowly evolved.
“We would not restrict ourselves by geographic boundaries,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. “We haven’t made decisions to take additional actions at this time.”
Rhodes indicated that the administration believes that the incoming government of Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad will aid US efforts in assembling and deepening an anti-Isis coalition. Rejecting a recent suggestion, Rhodes ruled out a rapprochement with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to confront a mutual foe.
Writing for the DefenseOne website, Allen conspicuously praised Obama, who is wary of expansive promises made by the military. He did not propose a return to ground combat, but urged a “focused advise and assist” mission to bolster Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers and non-jihadist Syrian rebels, a commitment that would require a reintroduction of significantly more US military advisers.
Obama has ruled out US ground combat, preferring to rely on proxies, something his critics have not challenged, with memories of a bloody US occupation still fresh. The US official said working through vetted Syrian opposition groups and Iraqi and Kurdish forces “will continue to be the foundation of the US approach going forward”.
Though entire divisions of the Iraqi army fled from Isis in June, “they’ve shown a lot more capability in the last two weeks than in the previous two months,” the official said.
At the State Department, officials said the US is pressuring Qatar and Turkey to help cut off flows of financing and foreign fighters to Isis, even as they cautioned that they did not see evidence of either government supporting the extremist group officially.
“We are working with governments in the region where we believe there are private citizens funding [Isis] to get them to clamp down even further to cut off those sources of funding,” said spokeswoman Marie Harf.
“We need to attack [Isis] on a variety of fronts, one of which is the bombs that the Pentagon folks are dropping on them right now. One of them is not letting them have access to resources.”
Kerry also spoke directly to the Qatari foreign minister on Wednesday, during which Foley’s death was “likely” to have come up, according to US officials, although the call was primarily about Gaza.
Asked whether Qatar, Turkey or Saudi Arabia – another alleged source of funding – were “fully on board”, Harf responded: ”Well, look, we’re talking to them every day about what more we can all do. We know there’s more that needs to be done. We know this is a long-term fight, and we know it’s a tough one. So we’re having those conversations.”

Allen said Foley’s killing “embodies” the threat from Isis, which he called “an entity beyond the pale of humanity”. The US official said Allen’s article “serves a purpose in helping explain to the American people how dire it is”.

111 comments:

  1. We can't negotiate with fanatics, it would be a waste of time and it would only burnish their legitimacy as a self-styled 'state.' We do, however, have to push the new Iraqi Prime Minister to make political concessions to the Sunni tribes in al-Anbar who rejected Maliki's Shia chauvinism and sided with ISIS. Some of those tribes have already risen up against the headcutters, but unless Baghdad makes a serious push now for political inclusiveness, ISIS will have a firm grip on the Sunni Arab heartland of western Iraq.
    Meanwhile, arm the Kurds and provide them with air support. If anyone deserves our help, it's them.
    And this will be the hardest pill to swallow... but for God's sakes talk with the Iranians. Yes, our governments don't get along, so what. ISIS is 25km from the Iranian border and Iran knows full well what the headcutters think about the Shia.
    You can't talk with ISIS but it's high past time we sat down with Tehran and hashed it out.

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  2. Palestinian children in Gaza are on what the Israeli military leadership has called a starvation diet.

    You have almost 80 percent of Palestinian children living on less than $1 a day. They’re at levels of what we would call poverty and extreme poverty, with extensive food insecurity. That’s just another way of saying that most Palestinian children in Gaza go to bed hungry every day, so their caloric intake has been significantly reduced since the siege began within the last seven years. In addition to the reduced number of calories they take in, the kind of nutrients they’re getting is also decreased, so what we see is this medical phenomenon called stunting, which results in lower birth weights for Palestinian children. Their average birth weight is going down. Their height and weight are below what you would consider basic international norm values for children that age.

    People pay attention to Gaza only when bombs are dropping on their heads, but when I was there in December, I was devastated to see the kind of food insecurity, the lack of nutrition, the kind of starvation that Palestinian children have to suffer on a daily basis. And this is an Israeli policy. The policy is to let in only so much food. Not enough to kill people, but it’s a slow death. You see it in Palestinian children.

    {...}

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    1. Totally true, the Zionist NASI of Israel refuse to lift the naval blockade of Gaza.

      The Israeli refuse to end the conflict.

      Refuse to negotiate an end to their 'War on Children'

      Delete
    2. ___ http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/18801/hamas-gets-rich-people-gaza-starve/#aGsDoC0Q2DPdFi4A.97
      Hamas Gets Rich as People of Gaza Starve

      ___ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/62_Blockade.html
      Fact Sheets:
      Israel's "Blockade" of Gaza
      (Updated August 2014)

      “Since the establishment of Hamas in the early 1990's, they have been known to Israel as violent antisemitic terrorists and have been classified by 7 countries as a terrorist organization. After Hamas won the election Israel and "The Quartet on the Middle East" (US, Russia, UN, EU) imposed economic sanctions on Gaza, including the cessation of foreign aid to the Palestinian government, and restrictions on movement, imposed by Israel. In order to lift these economic sanctions and movement restrictions, Hamas must: renounce violence against Israel, recognize Israel, and honor all previous agreeemnts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Following the Battle of Gaza in June 2007 in which Hamas militarilly defeated Fatah, both Israel and Egypt heavily tightened their respective border crossings, creating a "blockade". This blockade includes a naval blockade. So far Hamas has not conceeded to these stipulations, and the blockade is still in place.”


      ___ http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-to-send-aid-to-gaza-via-egypt/
      Iran to send aid to Gaza via Egypt

      “The source said a first Iranian Red Crescent shipment of 100 tons of medicine and food would be flown “soon” to Cairo. ‘The package weighs 100 tonnes and consists of food and medication,’ IRNA quoted the source as saying.”

      If 80 tons of contraband is not discovered hidden in baby formula (rocket propellant and explosives) and if the canned goods do not have a diameter identical to rockets, all should go well. Of course, the amount stolen by Hamas operatives or taxed by the Hamas government is outside the control of both Egypt and Israel.

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  3. {...}

    Dr. Jesse Ghannam, clinical professor of psychiatry and global health sciences at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine


    Palestinian children in Gaza are exposed to more violence in their lifetime than any other people, any other children, anywhere in the world. If you look at children right now who are 10 years old, they’ve been through Cast Lead in 2008 and 2009, the invasion in 2012 and now the invasion and destruction in 2014, in addition to the siege. If you look at the statistics, for example, even before Cast Lead, 80 percent of Palestinian children in Gaza have witnessed some sort of violence against them, a friend or a family member. And now you’re getting to the point where probably close to 99 percent of children in Gaza are being exposed to a level of violence where they have seen family members be killed, murdered, burned alive. There’s nothing like the levels of traumatic exposure that any child in the world has ever been exposed to on a chronic and daily basis.

    We can rebuild a broken bone, but when it comes to rebuilding someone’s psychological integrity, this is something that the people in the West and the Israelis don’t understand. They’re creating psychological damage for these kids that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

    The psychological damage makes it difficult to function, to be successful in school, to have relationships with friends and family, to take care of yourself and at a more profound and deeper level — when we’re talking about creating a solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the West wanting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians — they aren’t growing up interested in peace and wanting to make things better. They just grow up deeply traumatized and very distraught and angry.

    {...}

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    1. Palestinian children in Gaza are exposed to more violence in their lifetime than any other people, any other children, anywhere in the world.


      Total bullshit.....

      Really.

      Delete
    2. As long as the children of Palestine are exposed to the NASI Zionists, it will remain the truth.
      The protestations of the Zionist NASI not pertinent to the reality of the situation.

      The NASI have been killing, on average, 15 Palestinian children, each month of the 21st century.

      Delete
  4. {...}
    Dr. Jennifer Leaning, director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University


    You’ve got a situation where grandparents, parents and uncles are already very stressed, and that would show in a number of ways: depression; certain clampdowns of emotions; and a tendency to get very upset at small incidents.

    All of this really has an impact on kids growing up. They’re realizing that their entire structure for safety and protection is not doing very well.

    I would say that in all studies of disaster and in war crisis, the fundamental feature that protects the children from serious psychological stress is their certainty and their confidence that their parents or grandparents will be able to protect them and hold them. If they can get the sense that the parent is OK, then they will be able in the long-term. In the short term they may be upset, but in the long term they will be OK.

    You have now complete disruption of the very structures for psychological stability of the parents, and grandparents are also suffering greatly.

    It will be important for — as soon as possible — stability to be restored and the parents to get it together for themselves to create a sense of confidence in themselves for their children. But I think the odds of that are not high for two reasons: One is there’s going to be ongoing violence and lingering uncertainty for some time in Gaza, even if there is hopefully a cease-fire that can be arranged. The worry will continue on the part of the adults and the children will remain terrified and unable to relax, literally and figuratively, in the arms of their family.

    And then secondly, the parents and grandparents and others themselves, are in no psychological position to be able to convey that umbrella of hope and safety for the children. The resilience of the Palestinian population in general is not going to be as deep or robust as any of us want it to be and certainly as they would want it to be, just because this have been extraordinary series of acute stress on top of chronic stress.

    {...}

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  5. For more than 7,300 people, including many children, recovering from injuries will be challenging, as the siege on Gaza also affects medical facilities. Leaning warns that many of the injured won’t survive, adding to the 300-plus children killed, or will be left with chronic complications.

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  6. Additionally, the children are often used as human shields by Hamas. Many of their parents voted for Hamas.

    They should all be placed in Child Protective Services in some western country or Israel.

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. Israel is the cause of the the 'War on Children', in Gaza.

      It is the NASI Zionists naval blockade that is the primary factor in the abuse of the children.

      Robert Peterson must believe that burning children alive is protecting them.
      That is the Zionist 'Standard' so aptly illustrated, just last month..

      Delete
  7. The airstrikes have already escalated tension, said Karim Salman, an engineering professor at MTSU with family in Baghdad. The strikes have been criticized for the number of casualties they have caused in Pakistan, and that could incite Iraqis who lose friends and family to take up arms, Salman added.

    ...

    Shia militia that fought against U.S. forces in Iraq have been accused of brutalizing Sunnis, said Salman, a Sunni. This has made the population ripe for radicalization.

    “When you have someone who loses their humanity because they have been oppressed, you can’t control them,” Salman said.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Understanding the Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi Alliance
    August 22, 2014 by Caroline Glick 2 Comments

    Caroline Glick is the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project and the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com.

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    Military Ceremony in GazaOriginally published by the Jerusalem Post.

    Hamas’s war with Israel is not a stand-alone event. It is happening in the context of the vast changes that are casting asunder old patterns of behavior and strategic understandings as actors in the region begin to reassess the threats they face.

    Hamas was once funded by Saudi Arabia and enabled by Egypt. Now the regimes of these countries view it as part of a larger axis of Sunni jihad that threatens not only Israel, but them.

    The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and its state sponsors Qatar and Turkey, are the key members of this alliance structure. Without their support Hamas would have gone down with the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt last summer. As it stands, all view Hamas’s war with Israel as a means of reinstating the Brotherhood to power in that country.

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    1. To achieve a Hamas victory, Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood are using Western support for Hamas against Israel. If the US and the EU are able to coerce Egypt and Israel to open their borders with Gaza, then the Western powers will hand the jihadist axis a strategic victory.

      The implications of such a victory would be dire.

      Hamas is ideologically indistinguishable from Islamic State. Like Islamic State, Hamas has developed mass slaughter and psychological terrorization as the primary tools in its military doctrine. If the US and the EU force Israel and Egypt to open Gaza’s borders, they will enable Hamas to achieve strategic and political stability in Gaza. As a consequence, a post-war Gaza will quickly become a local version of Islamic State-controlled Mosul.

      In the first instance, such a development will render life in southern Israel too imperiled to sustain. The Western Negev, and perhaps Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod, will become uninhabitable.

      Then there is Judea and Samaria. If, as the US demands, Israel allows Gaza to reconnect with Judea and Samaria, in short order Hamas will dominate the areas. Militarily, the transfer of even a few of the thousands of rocket-propelled grenades Hamas has in Gaza will imperil military forces and civilians alike.

      IDF armored vehicles and armored civilian buses will be blown to smithereens.

      Whereas operating from Gaza, Hamas needed the assistance of the Obama administration and the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down Ben-Gurion Airport, from Judea and Samaria, all Hamas would require are a couple of hand-held mortars.

      Jordan will also be directly threatened.

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    2. From Egypt’s perspective, a Hamas victory in the war with Israel that connects Gaza to Sinai will strengthen the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamic State and other allies. Such a development represents a critical threat to the regime.

      And this brings us to Islamic State itself. It couldn’t have grown to its current monstrous proportions without the support of Qatar and Turkey.

      Islamic State is obviously interested in expanding its conquests. Since it views itself as a state, its next move must be one that enables it to take over a national economy. The raid on Mosul’s central bank will not suffice to finance its operations for very long.

      At this point, Islamic State wishes to avoid an all-out confrontation with Iran, so moving into southern Iraq is probably not in the cards. US forces in Kuwait, and the strength and unity of purpose of the Jordanian military, probably take both kingdoms off Islamic State’s chopping block for now.

      This leaves Saudi Arabia, or parts of it, as a likely next target for Islamic State expansion.

      Islamic State’s current operations in Lebanon, which threaten the Saudi-supported regime there, indicate that Lebanon, at a minimum, is also at grave risk.

      Then there is Iran. Iran is not a member of the Sunni jihadist axis. But when it comes to Israel and the non-jihadist regimes, it has cooperated with it.

      Iran has funded, trained and armed Hamas for the past decade. It views Hamas’s war with Israel in the same light as it viewed its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah’s war with Israel eight years ago.

      Both in Iraq and Syria, Iran and Islamic State have shown little interest in making one another their primary target. Turkey and Qatar have often served as Iran’s supporters in the Sunni world.

      This is the context in which Israel is fighting its war with Hamas. And due to this context, two interrelated strategically significant events have occurred since the war began.

      The first relates to the US.

      The Obama administration’s decision to side with the members of the jihadist axis against Israel by adopting their demand to open Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt has served as the final nail in the coffin of America’s strategic credibility among its traditional regional allies.

      As the US has stood with Hamas, it has also maintained its pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran. The US’s position in these talks is to enable the mullocracy to follow North Korea’s path to a nuclear arsenal. The non-jihadist Sunni states share Israel’s conviction that they cannot survive a nuclear armed Iran.

      Finally, President Barack Obama’s refusal to date to take offensive action to destroy Islamic State in Iraq and Syria demonstrates to Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states that under Obama, the US would rather allow Islamic State to expand into their territory and destroy them than return US military forces to Iraq.

      Delete
    3. In other words, Obama’s pro-Hamas-, pro-Iran- and pro-Muslim Brotherhood-axis policies, along with his refusal to date to take effective action in Iraq and Syria to obliterate Islamic State, have convinced the US’s traditional allies that for the next two-and-a-half years, not only can they not rely on the US, they cannot discount the possibility of the US taking actions that harm them.

      It is in the face of the US’s shift of allegiances under Obama that the non-jihadist Sunni regimes have begun to reevaluate their ties to Israel. Until the Obama presidency, the Saudis and Egyptians felt secure in their alliance with the US. Consequently, they never felt it necessary or even desirable to consider Israel as a strategic partner.

      Under the US’s strategic protection, the traditional Sunni regimes had the luxury of maintaining their support for Palestinian terrorists and rejecting the notion of strategic cooperation with Israel, whether against Iran, al-Qaida or any other common foe.

      So sequestered by the US, Israel became convinced that the only way it could enjoy any benefit from its shared strategic interests with its neighbors was by first bowing to the US’s long-held obsession with strengthening the PLO. This has involved surrendering land, political legitimacy and money to the terror group still committed to Israel’s destruction.

      The war with Hamas has changed all of this.

      The partnership that has emerged in this war between Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia is a direct consequence of Obama’s abandonment of the US’s traditional allies. Recognizing the threat that Hamas, as a component part of the Sunni jihadist alliance, constitutes for their own regimes, and in the absence of American support for Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have worked with Israel to defeat Hamas and keep Gaza’s borders sealed.

      Most Israelis have yet to grasp the strategic significance of this emerging alliance. This owes in large part to the Left’s domination of the public discourse.

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    4. The Israeli Left sees this new partnership. But it fails to understand its basis or significance. For the Left, all developments lead to the same conclusion: Whatever happens, Israel must strengthen the PLO by strengthening Palestinian Authority Chairman and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas.

      Failing to recognize the basis for Israel’s emerging strategic partnership, led by Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the Left is advocating using our new ties with Saudi Arabia and Egypt as a means of strengthening Abbas by organizing a regional peace conference.

      What they fail to understand is that such a move would destroy the partnership.

      Israel’s strategic cooperation with Egypt and Saudi Arabia owes to their shared interests. It cannot extend beyond them. And they have no shared interests in regard to the PLO.

      Threatened by the axis of jihad, no Muslim government can be seen publicly with Israelis. Asking Egyptian and Saudi leaders to have their pictures taken with Israelis is like asking them to sign their own death warrants.

      Moreover, Israel’s required end-state in negotiations with the PLO – defensible borders and recognition of its sovereign rights to Jerusalem – is something that no Muslim regime can publicly accept – especially now.

      So far from building on our new cooperative relationship, if the government heeds the Left’s advice and uses our incipient ties with the Saudis and Egyptians to strengthen the PLO, it will highlight and exacerbate conflicting interests and so destroy the partnership.

      Moreover, the fact is that the PLO can play no constructive role for any of the sides in weakening our common foes. As he has for the past decade, during the current war Abbas has demonstrated that he is utterly worthless in the fight against the forces of jihad – both of the Sunni and Shi’ite variety.

      At least for the duration of Obama’s presidency the interests that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel share in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and defeating the Muslim Brotherhood/Islamic State as military and political threats can only be advanced through joint action.

      The Obama administration would have forced Israel to bow to Hamas’s demands weeks ago if the Egyptians and Saudis hadn’t opposed a Hamas victory.

      Without Israeli military action, Iran will become a nuclear power. In light of the US’s backing of Iran’s nuclear program, such an Israeli operation is effectively impossible without regional support.

      As to Islamic State, right now the US is interested in cooperating with Iran in fighting the barbaric force.

      In exchange for Iranian cooperation, the US is liable to cede Basra and the Shatt al-Arab to Iran.

      Effective cooperation between Israel, the Kurds and the Sunnis could contain, and perhaps defeat, Islamic State while reducing Iran’s chances of securing the strategically vital waterway.

      Since the emerging partnership between Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia is a direct result of the Obama administration’s destruction of US strategic credibility, it is fairly clear that if properly managed, it can last until January 2017. Until then, in all likelihood, the US will be unwilling and unable to rebuild its reputation.

      And until then, the parties are unlikely to find alternative means of securing their interests that are more effective than joint action.

      Given the stakes, and the complementary capabilities of the various parties, Israel’s primary task today must be to work quietly and diligently with the Saudis and Egyptians to expand on their joint achievements in Gaza.

      The Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi alliance can ensure that all members survive the Obama era. And if lasts into the next administration, it will place all of its members on more secure footing with the US, whether or not a new administration decides to rebuild the US alliance structure in the Middle East.

      http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/understanding-the-israeli-egyptian-saudi-alliance/


      Simplicity itself, no?

      Delete
  9. I will give you a quick list of how Israel’s contribution to the hate an violence

    from seeing you mum or dad killed by the Israeli Army
    your brother or sister had or leg amputated by an Israeli bomb or from sitting in Israeli prisons
    by being humiliated on each crossing and road block placed by the Israeli army
    your relative delivers her baby on a crossing point because the Israeli Soldier felt like holding her and because he can
    because you are a refugee because someone stole your home and land and kicked you out
    you can't bend your elbow that was broken by the Israeli army in the first or second Intifada
    you see all the injustice and agony imposed on you by the occupation and yet the international media shows you as a terrorist and them as a victim
    when your uncle the fisherman had his boat destroyed by the Israeli Army and you cannot put food on the table
    when your father’s in law farm was destroyed by the Israelis and all the trees burned by the settlers because they felt like it and they can
    when your brother in Law the journalist was killed while documenting the Israeli crimes holding his camera
    when your friend is killed by a Israeli sniper while holding a bag of bread
    when you cannot get education
    when you cant breath
    when your 12 year old child gets detained by the Israeli army for years with no charge
    when your house is demolished by the Israelis
    when you grow up knowing that your family wast killed by the Israelis

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Buce, you've come to the right place to spout propaganda.

      Delete
    2. Thank you Buce. Some people can’t handle the truth.

      Delete
    3. What is next? A story about how the Israelis cause stray cats not to be fixed?

      The Nazis of Germany had kids. As did the Imperial Japanese. ISIS, now called IS have babies and women folk…

      What do you say about their kiddies when America bombs the snot out of them?

      Dresden? Hiroshima? The war in Iraq? and those are the "good" guys that did those….

      The case is simple.

      Hamas is in charge and has used billions and billions of dollars, time and labor to build a war machine.

      But once again? It failed to do anything but get it's own people to feel pain….

      Delete
    4. If want to post a thrad about the 'stray pussy' in Israel you claim to have two blogs you can do it on, "O"rdure.

      That fact that you never do post a thred, on either, proves you are a fraud.
      A liar
      The personification of the Zionist, NASI scum of the earth child abusers of Isael.

      Delete
  10. quick add these to the IDF kill list...

    Hamas executes 18 Palestinians suspected of 'collaboration' with Israel

    Palestinian witnesses say several Gazans executed by Hamas in public square, blamed for successful Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas commanders.

    Hamas gunmen executed 11 Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel at an abandoned police station in Gaza earlier on Friday, Hamas security officials said.

    Shortly afterward Hamas killed seven more Palestinians in a public execution in a central Gaza square on Friday, witnesses and a Hamas website said.

    The victims, their heads covered and hands tied, were shot dead by masked gunmen dressed in black in front of a crowd of worshipers outside a mosque after prayers, witnesses and al-Majd, a pro-Hamas website, said.

    In a sign of Hamas's increasing tight grip in the enclave following Israel's targeting killings of three of the group's senior commanders, nearly a dozen Palestinians were reportedly killed at the Jawazat installation in the Strip.

    On Thursday, three other Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel were executed, according to Hamas-affiliated websites.

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    1. Now you equate Hamas with the Nazis? The Nazis, the same group that killed 3 million of your people? The German Jews and German Nazis were both German. Prior to the Nazis, they had equal rights and the German Jews were a vital participant in German society. German Jews were not occupiers. German Jews did not occupy Nazi territory. German Jews were not bombing and humiliating other Germans. Your rhetoric is self-defeating. The hysteria in your analogies wrings out what little distorted sense was ever in them.

      Delete
  11. Just days after Paris was famously liberated from German control in 1944, LIFE photographer Carl Mydans and correspondent John Osborne were eyewitnesses to a grisly affair in the foothills of the French Alps.

    On September 2, a group of Resistance fighters gathered near the town of Grenoble to execute a half-dozen Nazi collaborators who had worked for the Milice -- the despised Vichy police.

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    1. And one can hope that one fine day some good souls will execute those that have collaborated with Hamas.

      For child abuse, if for nothing else.

      Delete
    2. Now you want to prosecute the Israeli, for their role in establishing Hamas, in Gaza?

      That would b a "First", holding the Israeli responsible for their actions

      Delete
  12. Just a very short time ago our President Boy Wonder was describing ISIS as 'Junior Varsity'. Now, Secretary of Defense Hagel is describing them as if they are Prussians.

    Obama campaigned saying Iraq wasn't important, Afghanistan was the 'war we had to win', was 'the important war'.

    If all this wasn't so sad it should be turned over to Monty Python for the ludicrous humor.

    The American People finally have gotten what they have always wanted: a total fool in the White House, with a nod to Mencken.

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    1. Geraldo Rivera was saying this morning that as IS is a State, and as they have attacked our citizens, they have declared war on us, and Congress should return the favor, and we should proceed to wipe this crud from the face of the earth.

      He was quite intense and passionate about it.

      Delete
  13. The U.S. "wiping out" ISIS would be analogous to Israel wiping out Hamas. It ain't gonna happen.

    Obama needs to move carefully; the Militarists are in full cry. He has a pretty sensible plan for dealing with the headcutters in Iraq, and if he has to expand it just a tisch to make sure they don't end up with all of Syria's weapons, and assets, he needs to do it in a systematic, and judicious manner.

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    1. " He has a pretty sensible plan for dealing with the headcutters in Iraq "

      Please tell us what it is if you are an insider.

      Or, as the Pentagon is having a presser around noon, you can find out then, and tell us.

      Delete
    2. I've written about it, and defended it, at length, over the last week. I'm not about to go all over it again because the village idiot was off fishing (or, had his computer privileges revoked by his wife, and daughter, for sending unauthorized funds to German/Hindu hussies.)

      Delete
    3. You have not.

      You said yesterday we couldn't bomb them.

      You are full of shit.

      Delete
    4. Robert, you are lying, again.

      You really should stop that, you will be sent to "Time Out", if you do not.

      Delete
    5. I said "Carpet" bombing is not an option, you dumb motherfucker.

      I've been defending his use of drones, coupled with Precision Bombing, against "Specific" Targets, and in support of Integrated operations, and for Humanitarian missions ever since it became clear that IS in Iraq had no anti-air capability that would lead to American Pilots being in the same situation as the journalist, Foley.

      Try reading, before you spout off, moron.

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  14. Israel is desperate to equate Hamas with ISIS. There is no equation. It is an attempt to give cover and justification to Israeli actions in Gaza. The Israeli firsters and their US shills are giving this top-priority.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It is a representation of the liability the US carries on the books with Israel First. Every intelligent and honest person knows that there is no possible equality between Hamas and ISIS. It is a morally repugnant distortion of facts to serve right wing Israeli atrocious behavior in Gaza.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hamas and ISIS have about the same degree of respect for children. ISIS often cuts their heads off in front of the parents. Hamas often puts the kids, and the parents too, in front of incoming.

    I am trying to figure out which is worse, and struggling with it. Perhaps Buce can help me here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buce helps those that help themselves.

      Delete
    2. in their own words

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTu-AUE9ycs#t=25

      Delete
    3. Make that a 'clickable link' will you please, "O"rdure?

      Delete
  17. The best plan President Wonder Boy could have had to deal with ISIS would have been to leave sufficient troops and air power behind and we wouldn't be in this pickle now.

    President Boy Wonder, who has a wonderful plan for everything, is the very cause of this mess.

    Perhaps it was intentional, and he just wanted another opportunity to strut his military genius again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or, maybe, he did the best that could be done with The Status of Forces Agreement that Bush left him.

      Delete
    2. Behind?
      Where is the behind?

      In a country that did not want US there?

      Should the US have forced the occupation upon the Iraqi, as the Zionist do in Palestine?
      Should the US have killed Iraqi, to protect them, Robert?

      Delete
    3. How many of the Iraqi people should the US have killed, to protect the Iraqi from themselves?

      Delete
    4. How many US troops should the US have sacrificed, to protect Iraq from the Iraqi?

      How much money should have been allocated?

      How high should US taxes have been raised, to pay for it?

      Delete
    5. Robert seems to think the US can act militarily all across the globe, and not pay a price for those activities.

      Delete
    6. No price to be paid, by US, in either blood nor treasure.

      Wishing makes it so, in Idaho.

      Delete
    7. But, Lord help the USA if the country actually helped some poor gal feed her hungry kids, or if Walmart had to pay its employees $8.47 / hr. instead of $7.47 / hr.

      Delete
    8. Or, if the U.S. government helped some poor families afford Medical Care.

      Delete
    9. Doomed the US is doomed, boobie told US so!

      Delete
    10. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    11. Bullshit Rufus. They were to negotiate a new status of forces agreement and he walked away over some detail that could easily have been resolved......he walked away because he didn't want to stay.

      The only thing you blogged about last week was how you didn't give a shit what happened in the mid-east cause what does it have to do with Holy Clan Rufus? With ME? And of course the usual energy stuff.

      We all know you also saved 'uncounted lives' by selling life insurance.

      You are an old gas bag.

      Kinda humorous, though.

      Delete
    12. Typical of a neo-nazi from Idaho, Robert passes on content, and moves directly to the ad hominem.

      Delete
    13. The "Detail" was whether Iraqi Courts could bring charges against American Troops. Some "Detail."

      As for what I blogged, You Weren't Here, but everyone else was, so I'm sure they remember my exchanges with Ash, and Quirk.

      Delete
    14. The Iraqi demanded that Iraq retain its sovereignty.
      That US troops were not going to get 'diplomatic immunity' for their criminal acts, in Iraq.
      That the Iraqi would determine the legality of US actions. After the fact.

      Not an acceptable condition for the US.

      Delete
  18. ISIS gained its power and reputation in Syria. We had no troops in Syria. The US, Saudis, Israelis and Turks along with other Gulf states supported ISIS with arms and money. ISIS tapped into radicalized European Muslims and the US media glorified them as if they were the French resistance.Obama was ready to bomb Assad in support of ISIS. Congress said no. Netanyahu did bomb in support of ISIS. McCain had photo ops with them. The US supplied anti-aircraft systems to the Turks so that the Turks could shoot down Syrian aircraft attacking ISIS.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Obama is as always acting politically. The mid-terms are near. A little patriotism and bravado never hurts.

    Got things to do......

    Cheers !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert is shocked to discover that the President of the US is a politician !

      Will wonders never cease?

      Delete
  20. Hamas put 18 Palestinians before firing squads as Israel informers Friday, Aug. 22. Eleven were executed at a police station in Gaza City; then seven were shot dead publicly in a square outside the central mosque.
    The Palestinian fundamentalists exposed the excruciating brutality of their methods to warn off Israel’s Shin Bet and army intelligence from future targeted killings of its commanders. Hamas has avoided confronting the IDF which is massed outside the Gaza border and moved the war to its home front.
    The Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip know they have to contend with local Palestinians willing to serve Israel, because of their total exposure to the loss of family, friends, livelihood, homes - or even their lives - under IDF bombardment in retaliation for Hamas rocket fire against the Israeli population.
    Those who have already suffered such losses are more than ready to act as the Israeli air force’s target markers – whether for remuneration, or to get back at Hamas rulers who have brought death and disaster down on them and their families.
    Hamas security agencies hunted down the Palestinians who were suspected of leading the Israeli Air Force and its smart precision bombs to their targets this week: Military chief Mohammed Deif, whose fate is still unknown, and the commanders of southern Gaza.
    The Palestinian Islamists, who lean heavily on Iranian and Hizballah advisers, seem to have taken a leaf out of their methods in order to halt Israeli liquidation of their military chiefs.
    Some of the 18 victims summarily executed Friday were most likely innocent, but were not afforded due process to clear themselves of the charge of collaboration. That is the way of these extremists. By its action, Hamas set its feet on a course from which there is no return, only war to the end.
    The gruesome images coming from the Gaza Strip brought to mind chillingly the video of the Islamic State’s unspeakable murder of the American journalist James Wright Foley aged 40, perpetrated in punishment for US air strikes in Iraq.
    It took the Palestinian Hamas just three days to demonstrate it had not changed its spots and belonged to the same barbarian fraternity as IS.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Deuce ☂Fri Aug 22, 10:10:00 AM EDT
    Now you equate Hamas with the Nazis? The Nazis, the same group that killed 3 million of your people?

    Where did you come up with 3 million?

    It was closer to 7 million…

    But what is 4 million Jews to you…

    Nothing but a rounding error

    ReplyDelete
  22. Deuce ☂Fri Aug 22, 10:10:00 AM EDT
    Now you equate Hamas with the Nazis?

    Same Ideology just smaller scale

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous tells US ...

    The Palestinian Islamists, who lean heavily on Iranian and Hizballah advisers

    Which, if true, gives lie to the current Zionist / Israeli propaganda that tries to equate Hamas with ISIS.
    The two forces being diametrically opposed, if Anonymous is telling the truth ....

    The Zionist / Israeli used to try to equate Hamas and Hezbollah, but they have a new headline to chase.

    Their lies get old.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Deuce ☂Fri Aug 22, 10:10:00 AM EDT
    Now you equate Hamas with the Nazis?

    yep, same ideology just that the Nazis of Germany were larger than the Islamic Nazis of the Gaza Strip

    Hamas brags about kidnapping and murder of innocent Jews. Hamas's existence is committed to the Final Solution, the genocide of all Jews. Just like Nazi Germany

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Zionist NASI have practiced ethnic cleansing in Palestine, since 1948.
      Just like the Nazi did in Poland, during their occupation of that country.

      Delete
    2. And yet? today Israel is 20% arab and the west bank and gaza are teeming with arab life!!!!

      So much for the "failed" ethnic cleansing you lie about…

      Now the good news????

      Your butt buddies? The jew hating folks of the world? You know the types… Are very honest about their jew hatred and are motivating Jews from across the globe to move back to Israel…

      Thanks….

      I owe you one… Keep up the good work, you are convincing Jews from across the political spectrum that ONLY Israel is the place for them to be...

      Delete
    3. The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership. 

      Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF.  This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated. 

      Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases. 

      Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.

      http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership

      Delete
    4. The Socialists are flocking to "Occupied Palestine", from all around the world ... right ....

      It is true that the Ashkenazi Crusade is well underway.
      The ultimate finish, though, will be the same as with the other Crusades.

      The Crusaders will flee, be killed or be absorbed into the local population.

      Delete
    5. Ethiopian Jews, Indian Jews and the remaining Jews of the Arab occupied middle east are not Ashkenazi.

      You just don't know real history…

      But you are squatting on native bottom acres in AZ…

      You fucking looter...

      Delete
  25. Deuce ☂Fri Aug 22, 10:10:00 AM EDT
    The German Jews and German Nazis were both German. Prior to the Nazis, they had equal rights and the German Jews were a vital participant in German society. German Jews were not occupiers. German Jews did not occupy Nazi territory.

    Israel is not "occupying" Hamas territory.

    Hamas has a problem with ALL JEWS.

    Once again you gloss over facts. Jews have lived in Jerusalem and other towns for 3000 years, continuously.

    The arab world has conquered 899/900th of the middle east. It is NOT native to most of the lands it occupies.

    When Israel was liberated in 1948, 850,000 jews were ethnically cleansed from their homes in the arab occupied world and were driven into Israel.

    To claim that Israel's creation is the root cause of the issue is specious.

    There were pogroms against the Jews for centuries by arab muslems from Spain to iraq.

    Living as a dhimmi under the islamic sword was not freedom.

    No matter how you spin it?

    Hamas is the spiritual heirs of Hitler.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wrong, again.

      "O"rdure, you just have to accept the historic record. The Zionists and the Nazi of Germany were allied, or would have been if Hitler had found the time to answer the Zionist entries.

      ... the “Stern Gang,” among them Yitzhak Shamir, later Prime Minister of Israel, presented the Nazis with the “Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the Side of Germany.”
      Avraham Stern and his followers announced that

      “The NMO, which is well-acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities towards Zionist activity inside Germany and towards Zionist emigration plans, is of the opinion that:
      1. Common interests could exist between the establishment of a new order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO.

      2. Cooperation between the new Germany and a renewed folkish-national Hebraium would be possible and,

      3. The establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East.

      Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany’s side.”

      http://www.counterpunch.org/2002/12/23/51-documents/

      Delete
    2. Facts are facts and the truth is the truth, "O"rdure.

      The inheritors of the Nazi ideology, in the Middle East, are the NASI Zionists that emigrated from Europe.

      “To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of A.D. 70 (destruction of Jerusalem by Titus) are just as offensive as the Nazis.

      With their nosing after blood, their ancient "cultural roots," ...
      their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists.

      That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists,...
      that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and with Zion.”


      ― Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941

      Delete
  26. But Hamas is executing their own as we speak….

    Some Jeffersonian democracy you got there...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And if they were sent back to Nazi controlled Europe?

      They would have been raped, forced labor and then exterminated..

      Some alternative.

      Delete
    2. Really, Anonymus ?

      You should learn to read, then try increasing your comprehension of the words. They do have meaning.

      Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent

      No where near Nazi occuppied Europe.
      Safe from harm, those refugees would have been.

      The Zionists in Palestine did not want that.
      The Zionists in Palestine were allied with the Germans.

      Delete
    3. The Zionists MURDERED those 252 Jewish refugees from Europe, for propaganda purposes.

      No amount of attempted revisionism will change that.

      Delete
    4. If they would do that to their own? Why are you still alive?

      Delete
    5. Who are they?
      Who am I?

      The Zionists MURDERED 252 Jewish refugees for purely propaganda purposes.

      That is a historic fact.

      Delete
    6. No, it's not, it's a fact in your "Guide to Jew hating in the 21st Century" but not a fact to anyone else.

      Delete
  27. GENEVA (AP) — The death toll from three years of Syria's civil war has risen to more than 191,000 people, the United Nations reported Friday.

    But the Palestinians in Gaza have it worse…

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  28. Israel - Founded by Terrorists and Sustained by Terrorism and now ... Allied with Islamic Terrorists

    In broad daylight, a Saudi-Israeli alliance



    LOL


    So is the same of America..

    Good company...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no country of "America" just is there is no "Israel".

      Both are fabrications of propagandists.

      Delete
    2. .

      And the first thing I am presented with upon entering the bar is more nitwittery comments floating up from the Southwest.

      .

      Delete
  29. Israel is not "occupying" Hamas territory.

    Hamas has a problem with ALL JEWS.


    Not too surprising a consequence in that the JEWS as did the BOARS in previous apartheid states, are occupying territory taken from The Palestinians, It would be surprising if there were no Hamas or other armed rebellions by the natural natives, formed to resist repression and expulsion. Not to mention the fact that your team just slaughtered 2000, injured 10,000 and destroyed homes and buildings putting 250,000 in misery. Gee, where is the love?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not to worry Deuce at the rate of ever expanding death and destruction of and by the arabs and islamists to each other?

      The Palestinians injured, harmed or made to suffer will mean nothing.

      2000 dead, 1/2 being terrorists, another 400 at the hands of Hamas.. 600 civilian dead, mostly human shields forced to die by hamas will not mean anything at a time when tens of MILLIONS of arabs and moslems will be true and real refugees.

      The numbers of refugees and dead from the numerous moslem and arab wars are staggering..

      So pardon me while i don't give a shit about gaza and the rocket shooting islamic nazis that live there and off their own faster than an abortion clinic for the blacks in philadephia..

      A new day is dawning and it's call the arab winter…

      right now there are almost 13 MILLION arabs homeless and we aint talking about the fake refugees of "palestine", put into that mix the islamic card, from nigeria to pakistan and what you are about to see is akin to a real holocaust.

      Israel just has to punt.. The self destruction of the Palestinian people is happening as we speak…

      How long will the people of palestine put up with mass execution, stolen aid, vice police and more?

      Newsflash, the "palestinians" are as native to Palestine as you are to Phila.

      Delete
    2. ...and you believe with all your Judaic fervor that your team will make the Palestinians disappear?

      Delete
  30. What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 22, 11:56:00 AM EDT
    GENEVA (AP) — The death toll from three years of Syria's civil war has risen to more than 191,000 people, the United Nations reported Friday.

    But the Palestinians in Gaza have it worse…

    LOL

    ReplyDelete


    What is the cutoff? Would it be quibbling if the number was “3” ?

    ReplyDelete
  31. "No matter what leaders do, there won’t be peace in the Middle East
    Gerald Caplan
    Special to The Globe and Mail

    People around the world twist themselves into knots figuring out where they stand and what they might say openly on the latest Israeli-Hamas clash. Yet none of it makes the slightest difference to the future of Israel and Palestine. Regardless of what I think, or what Canadian political leaders think, or even what Barack Obama thinks, the profound divisions between Israelis and Palestinians will not be resolved in our lifetime, and quite possibly not ever. The present confrontation, seen in proper perspective, is just another in the endless violent conflicts between Israelis and Arabs that began when Israel was first created as a nation 66 years ago and has never stopped: 1947-49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1991, 2006, 2008-9, 2012, 2014. Why should they stop now – or ever?

    There’s not much point in arguing about who will be most responsible for this perpetuation of a miserable status quo. We are trapped in a classical tragedy where characters cannot escape their nature, regardless of the harm they cause. Whatever outsiders think, in practical terms none of the Middle East disputants are in a position to offer the others anything like an acceptable peace deal. Or, to put it the other way, no one is likely to buy a deal the other offers. If Israel offers a certain set of proposals, both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, not to mention even more radical Palestinian groups, are certain to find it too pro-Israel. And from their perspective they’d be right. For given the politics of Israel, no Israeli government, now or ever, would consider offering anything that wasn’t in the best interests of Israel.

    In the present circumstances, for example, Hamas’s demands for stopping its shelling of Israel seem quite reasonable to many observers. How could they demand less than an end to Israel’s blockade on everything that comes in and out of Gaza, including its own people? But Hamas’s antagonism to all things Israeli, while no doubt sensible from a Palestinian point of view, make it a treacherous and untrustworthy enemy to Israel.

    Realistically, it’s been many years since the possibility of a two-nation solution has had any real chance of success, though it’s still promoted by those who feel there must be some kind of resolution to the present impasse. But it’s wishful thinking. The truth is, Israel is never going to give up its control of both the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinians are never going to be reconciled to being controlled by Israel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We know, by international law, that Israel is illegally occupying both Gaza and the West Bank. We know that no Israeli government has ever stopped allowing Palestinian land to be appropriated for Israeli settlements. We know many settlers would fight rather than have their turf returned to the Palestinians to whom it rightly belongs. We know that Israel dominates much of the daily life, including the economy, of the two territories.

      We know Palestinians resent Israeli control. What Israeli doesn’t understand this? Who can doubt that Palestinians feel humiliated by Israel’s harsh and relentless domination. Palestinians can hardly be expected to accept an offer of enduring peace that doesn’t include the surrender of Israel’s occupation, its authority, its domination. But Israelis will never accede to such demands which, they are convinced, constitute an existential threat to Israel’s very existence. And indeed it’s no stretch for Israelis to find evidence of Palestinians and other Arabs who wish to see Israel disappear entirely. But Israel will never disappear.

      To repeat, unending conflict has been the consequence of the decision by the United Nations to create Israel. The war against Israel launched at the time by a coalition of Arab states was a taste of the battles that now seem inevitable, just as Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Arabs – the catastrophe known to all Palestinians as the Nakba – was a forerunner of Israeli determination to make the entire area their own.

      It was equally predictable that over time Israeli-Palestinian attitudes towards each other would steadily harden. Instead of making good neighbours, virtually all circumstances conspired to turn the two peoples into irreconcilable enemies. Some time back, renowned Israeli Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer told me that he believed about 25 per cent of each people held genocidal attitudes towards the other. It seems a safe guess that these shocking figures are now considerably higher on both sides. When you dehumanize the other, the potential for evil knows few boundaries.

      Since these two viscerally antagonistic peoples cannot trust each other on even the most trivial matters – a brief ceasefire, for example – what chance is there they can resolve the truly intractable ones they must actually deal with?

      The consequences are clear. For thriving Israelis, filled with hate, it means waiting for the inevitable day when their enemies finally get weapons that can’t be thwarted so easily. For wretched Palestinians, filled with hate, it means continuing oppression and humiliation, and in Gaza, more death and suffering for the innocent. This is the future and it cannot be otherwise.

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/no-matter-what-leaders-do-there-wont-be-peace-in-the-middle-east/article20083459/#dashboard/follows/

      Delete
    2. .

      As noted, it has been 66 years and there has been nothing to suggest anything will change and with the advances in technology there is every indication that things will only get worse rather than better.

      .

      Delete
    3. Sorry us jews just didn't allow hitler to kill all of us for your pleasure.

      Delete
    4. No country has ever succeeded in maintaining an exclusive military technological advantage. Israel will not be the first.

      Israel has distinguished herself as being utterly diplomatically inept. Tone deaf, arrogant and an incomprehensible ability to deny what is obvious to most of the World; Its brand of God given entitlement at the price of denying basic human rights and dignity to the majority that surrounds it guarantees a shelf life ending before expected expiration date.

      Good luck with that.

      Delete
    5. Quirk,

      I was going to preface the post with something like "A homage to Quirk" or "Quirk's doppelganger" but I didn't want you to get a swelled head.

      Delete
    6. .

      Sorry us jews just didn't allow hitler to kill all of us for your pleasure.

      Once again, you raise your stupid straw man.

      The article painted a realistic portrait of the situation on the ground in Israel/Palestine, IMO. History backs it up. I agree totally with the premise of the article. I have been saying the same things here for a long time. The article was objective and didn't take sides. Merely stated the facts.

      Your straw man is the typical reactions of a partisan. The exact opposite is what I would expect from a Palestinian or from one of the proponents of their cause.

      I read the following this morning,

      http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/08/21/like-isis-and-al-qaeda-hamas-is-fair-game/

      It's an article out of Commentary that justifies the assassinations of the 3 Hamas leaders. It spells out the arguments you post here every day. I would imagine that the author speaks for the majority of the Israeli people and especially so for the leadership.

      Now, the killings may provide a boost for Israeli morale. They may be perfectly justified. Similar ones will no doubt continue. In the short, run they may be a significant step forward for the Israelis. However, as noted in the article and a point I agree with, in the long run it will make very little difference. Tomorrow, these guys will be replaced. If Israel takes out the entire Hamas organization, it will be replaced by IJ or some other group and the bloody ritual will continue.

      It's like that Star Trek episode were the two guys, one white on the left side and black on the right, fights continuously throughout eternity with his chromatic opposite.

      No picking of sides in the observation just merely stating my opinion.

      Any arguments you try to make are diminished by your use of straw men. That too is my opinion.

      .

      Delete
    7. .

      Well, gee whiz, Ash.

      I didn't think you noticed.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
  32. Replies
    1. .

      Eric Clapton put out a pretty good album with various artists singing J.J. Cole songs but when I started listening to them it quickly became obvious that there is nothing like the original.

      Lean on Me

      .

      Delete