DISCORDING AND COMPETING AMONG RIVALS .....

 

After emerging from the cold war in the early nineties as the lone superpower, the U.S. steadily grew weaker, its supremacy stalled and stymied by failed wars and adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and several other smaller spots. As well as its deep internal chronic problems, deep divides and uncontrolled inequalities. It didn't take too long to fill this gap, Russia and China evolved into more formidable powers, military for one, economically for the other.

A partnership of these two will lead to a better position for supremacy that will challenge a world order shaped by American norms and rules, as well as weakening all or most of our allies. It is starting with invading and subduing Ukraine, and will hit many other spots, including the greater Middle-East and Israel, and eastern Asia, hence the changing and modified policies plus the pseudo neutrality of many assumed allies shifting positions, and the joy and the sheering of many individuals around the world, driven by pure jealousy, envy and hatred to America.  

The purpose of attaining and asserting dominance in any realm is to avoid accountability of the dominating and domineering. The U.S. and Israel in modern times, both mastered and excelled at this game, and could play all their dominating policies and imperialist ambitions with absolutely no impunity,  Europe or several European powers played this same game for centuries prior to the last few decades within Europe and on the world scene. Now the game is changing, it's being taken over by China and Russia, or the alliance of both, if it really materializes, as many rivalries and obstacles are in the way.

At the end, if things don't go well enough for Russia in Ukraine, or the Russian/Chinese alliance, Putin could be removed in a pseudo coup, or claiming that he's sick or loosing it physically, and stop the entire adventure, but the long lasting results and consequences of the Ukrainian affair will have its impact on the world and its geopolitical management and structures.  

 By drawing clear parallels between these powers and the past history of hegemony and colonial acts, and present ones, even future events in store, as in China/Taiwan, or some new annexation of Arab territories by Israeli forces or Persian or Turkish powers, even Russian further domination of more neighboring countries and not so close ones, should be the main focus of the entire global scene, as a deterrent to very likely catastrophic apocalyptic scenarios ending the world and life as we know it. 

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine opened up and fortified several fronts, in America itself and Europe, as well as most of the industrialized world, internally and externally, it surely strengthened Atlantic NATO, and the European union, as well as American /European cooperation and trust, and all southern and eastern Asian and Pacific industrialized and advanced countries, it's to be seen if this cooperation will endure if the situation further escalates to other spots of the world. 

The present conflict surely didn't improve much of the situation through the Middle-East and the Arab world in general. Which will remain a weak spot in any future new world order. The Russians and Chinese are surely advancing their agendas, and quickening their steps to exclude America and its allies from any real influence or even the ability to interfere or set foot in the M-E entirely, America is slowly handing it all to Israel, and Europe is not interested enough, what might not be calculated is if Israel doesn't prove to be the good ally Americans believe it is, and shifts positions according to its own interests and hegemonic aspirations, otherwise it might be the next big looser in the area if and when the U.S. pulls out of it.  

But finally who cares, I don't think in all honesty this possibility is seriously considered by anyone at this time, except Israel itself playing the neutral chord left and right, and trying to forge different alliances, protec-ting its own security and future colonial expansions and share of the pie. 

   My, as always, profound thanks to all my good readers, stay safe and well.  

               

Putin and Trump have convinced me I was wrong about the twenty-first century

 

May I suggest to Mr. Reich adding a third name to his brilliant and obvious logic, Netanyahu of actual Israel.....  O.D.

It's the 29 of December 2024, and with sorrow I would like to add, two names to the list, ex-president of Syria, Bashar Assad, and still the actual president of the U.S. Joe Biden, all of these political personalities make our actual 21st century look like some four or five centuries old and not where we would like it to be, somehow humanity thought it was beyond barbarity, but maybe we're not. 

Events in the Middle-East and elsewhere, genocidal wars, and grandiose political dreams happening all over, is surely a reminder that our times are not civilized and our human species is not what we were hoping for, maybe in another two or three centuries we might be if we manage to survive.  

Robert Reich - Published March 12 on Substack.

I used to believe several things about the twenty-first century that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump’s election in 2016 have shown me are false. I assumed:

Nationalism is disappearing. I expected globalization would blur borders, create economic interdependence among nations and regions, and extend a modern consumer and artistic culture worldwide.

I was wrong. Both Putin and Trump have exploited xenophobic nationalism to build their power. (Putin’s aggression has also ignited an inspiring patriotism in Ukraine.)

Nations can no longer control what their citizens know. I assumed that emerging digital technologies, including the Internet, would make it impossible to control worldwide flows of information and knowledge. Tyrants could no longer keep their people in the dark or hoodwink them with propaganda.

Wrong again. Trump filled the media with lies, as has Putin. Putin has also cut off Russian citizens from the truth about what’s occurring in Ukraine.

Advanced nations will no longer war over geographic territory. I thought that in the “new economy” land was becoming less valuable than technological knowhow and innovation. Competition among nations would therefore be over the development of cutting-edge inventions.

I was only partly right. While skills and innovation are critical, land still provides access to critical raw materials and buffers against potential foreign aggressors.

Major nuclear powers will never risk war against each other because of the certainty of “mutually assured destruction.” I bought the conventional wisdom that nuclear war was unthinkable.

I fear I was wrong. Putin is now resorting to dangerous nuclear brinksmanship.

Civilization will never again be held hostage by crazy isolated men with the power to wreak havoc. I assumed this was a phenomenon of the twentieth century, and that twenty-first century governments, even totalitarian ones, would constrain tyrants.

Trump and Putin have convinced me I was mistaken. Thankfully, America booted Trump out of office — but his threat to democracy remains.

Advances in warfare, such as cyber-warfare and precision weapons, will minimize civilian casualties. I was persuaded by specialists in defense strategy that it no longer made sense for sophisticated powers to target civilians.

Utterly wrong. Civilian casualties in Ukraine are mounting.

Democracy is inevitable. I formed this belief in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union had imploded and China was still poor. It seemed to me that totalitarian regimes didn’t stand a chance in the new technologically driven, globalized world. Sure, petty dictatorships would remain in some retrograde regions. But modernity came with democracy, and democracy with modernity.

Both Trump and Putin have shown how wrong I was on this, too.

Meanwhile, Ukrainians are showing that Trump’s and Putin’s efforts to turn back the clock on the twenty-first century can only be addressed with a democracy powerful enough to counteract autocrats like them.

They are also displaying with inspiring clarity that democracy cannot be taken for granted. Democracy is not a spectator sport. It’s not what governments do. Democracy is what people do.

Ukrainians are reminding us that democracy survives only if people are willing to sacrifice for it. Some sacrifices are smaller than others. You may have to stand in line for hours to vote, as did tens of thousands of Black people in America’s 2020 election. You may have to march and protest and even risk your life so others may vote, as did iconic civil rights leaders like the late John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr.

You may have to knock on hundreds of doors to get out the vote. Or organize thousands to make your voices heard. And stand up against the powerful who don’t want your voices heard.

You may have to fight a war to protect democracy from those who would destroy it.

The people of Ukraine are also reminding us that democracy is the single most important legacy we have inherited from previous generations who strengthened it and who risked their lives to preserve it. It will be the most significant legacy we leave to future generations — unless we allow it to be suppressed by those who fear it, or we become too complacent to care.

Putin and Trump have convinced me I was wrong about how far we had come in the twenty-first century. Technology, globalization, and modern systems of governance haven’t altered the ways of tyranny. But I, like millions of others around the world, have been inspired by the Ukrainian people — who are reteaching us lessons we once knew.

As always, my many thanks to all for following my blogs and chosen articles. Pls. stay safe and well.

DANGEROUS AND FATAL TRENDS............

 

In the 20th century, liberal democracy beat fascism, communism and nationalism, even religious fanaticism. In the 21st century, the autocrats and fascist type leaders are winning, wrote Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic. I would add; both fascism and nationalism are definitely on the rise world wide. Did lack of education, scientific advancement, or too much brain washing, fake news and indoctrination lead to a Brexit vote in Europe, a rise to new levels of white supremacy and extreme right wing parties, and a full Trump era and its aftermath in the U.S. plus our latest version of hegemonic imperialist war in Ukraine. 

How did wars and mass killing and annihilation of the other get to be our only alternative to any other solution, this is a mentality of past centuries, violent, brutal and absurd, many of us thought that our 21st century will carry us away from, that we were headed to a more logical, rational and advanced  civilized and unified common world. 

Instead of trying to make an unaccommodating world in its image, policed and ruled by international laws, America and a post hegemonic West, as well as few big powers elsewhere, should all seek to fortify a model, their model, that others would want to emulate. The rights of the individual, self determination, consent of the governed, checks and balances on political powers, cultural tolerance and free expression, eradicate all apartheid rules and practices, they are all quickly fading out in several spots of the world including the Western hemisphere. 

Americans, and to a lesser degree Europeans, are not promoting and defending these values. On the contrary all advanced nations are eroding these basic rules of the civilized world, and some super powers are transforming these same values into their own twisted hegemonic versions. How can America, or the advanced powers defend and lecture the world today, when in just few years, they all practically lived through insurrections against the democratic transfer of power, almost total coups to grab and maintain power by small groups against the majority, a galloping spread of wealth and inequality by powerful oligarch and super rich entities in all these countries without exceptions. offering themselves exuberant and fraudulent tax systems, as well as huge political power. 

Wars and foolish adventures, mostly to the benefits of the war industries and special contractors, even the official armies and their commanders, driven by special interests foreign and interior lobbies, are becoming the norms. All these combinations of modern politics and governance are creating a dysfunctional environment preventing America and the West in general from reading correctly the dynamics of the global scene and the power shifts and preventing us from being the primary movers and shakers on the global scene that we believed ourselves to be for a long time. 

Finally, we should all remember that no crime excuses any other crime, that blaming anyone doesn't absolve anyone else, and recognize that the solutions now being offered of more weapons and a bigger NATO are also what got us here, nobody's forced to commit mass murder, the president of Russia and its military elites may simply love war, or find the timing convenient to fulfill their ambitions, they have wanted an excuse for one, and they probably would not have had that excuse had we not operated our strategic policies defiantly and arrogantly, we could have answered some of their more reasonable demands and met them half way. 

    As always , my gratitude to all my good readers, stay safe and well.             

UKRAINIAN PERSPECTIVES AND BEYOND........

A good friend sent me this short  poignant comment about the situation in Ukraine, and how a Palestinian looks at it.

Oh my God !!! It is a truly scary situation. I can certainly empathize with the Ukrainian people. And, Ukraine is in grave danger of becoming yet another "Palestine": IF, yes IF Russia occupies Ukraine for 74 years, conducts genocide and ethnic cleansing of 80% of the Ukrainian population, destroys 535 Ukrainian towns and villages, prevents Ukrainian refugees from ever returning to their homeland (against UN Resolution 194), builds 250 colonial settlements, and establishes an apartheid regime.

But, please don't fret too much. Please calm down. No one expects more than "a fraction" of that to actually happen in Ukraine. Remember that Zelensky is a comedian and Putin is bound to finally give up and smile. Please, just relax and take it easy, like us Palestinians who have endured an Ultra-Form of Occupation for 74 years and counting.                 Signed Awad.

I will continue, by copying this quick short article, by Robert Reich, complimenting and describing the situation from a Western and American point of view, Mr. Reich is a leading political analyst in the U.S and international arena.

We must do what we can to contain Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. But we also need to be clear-eyed about it, and face the costs. As I’ve said before, economics can’t be separated from politics, and neither can be separated from history. Here are eight sobering realities:

1. Will the economic sanctions now being put into effect stop Putin from seeking to take over Ukraine? No. They will complicate Russia’s global financial transactions but they will not cripple the Russian economy. After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the U.S. and its allies imposed economic sanctions which slowed the Russian economy temporarily, but Russia soon rebounded. Since then, Russia has taken steps to lessen its reliance on foreign debt and investment, which means that similar sanctions will have less effect. In addition, the rise of crypto currencies and other digital assets allow Russia to bypass bank transfers, which are the control points for sanctions. Bottom line: The sanctions already imposed or threatened could reduce Russia’s gross domestic product, but only by a few percentage points.

2. What sort of sanctions would seriously damage Russia? Sanctions on Russia’s enormous oil and gas exports could cause substantial harm. Russia produces 10 million barrels of oil a day, which is about 10 percent of global demand. It ranks third in world oil production (behind the United States and Saudi Arabia). It ranks second in natural gas (behind the United States), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

3. Then why not impose sanctions on them? Because that would seriously harm consumers in Europe and the US — pushing up energy prices and worsening inflation (now running at 7.5 percent annually in the US, a 40-year high). Although the US imports very little Russian oil or natural gas, oil and natural gas markets are global — which means shortages that push up prices in one part of the world will have similar effects elsewhere. The price of oil in the US is already approaching $100 a barrel, up from about $65 a year ago. The price of gas at the pump is averaging $3.53 a gallon, according to AAA. For most Americans, that gas-pump price is the single most important indicator of inflation, not just because they fuel their cars with gas but because the cost is emblazoned in big numbers outside every gas station in America. (The biggest beneficiaries of these price increases, by the way: Energy companies like Halliburton, Occidental Petroleum and Schlumberger, which are now leading the S&P 500. Anyone in favor of putting a windfall profits tax on them?)

4. Will stronger sanctions weaken Putin’s control over Russia? Possibly. But they could also have the opposite effect — enabling Putin to fuel Russia’s suspicions toward the West and stir up even more Russian nationalism. The harshest U.S. measures would cause the average Russian to pay higher prices for food and clothing or devalue pensions and savings accounts because of a crash in the ruble or Russian markets, but these might be seen as necessary sacrifices that rally Russians around Putin.

5. Any other foreign policy consequences we should be watching? In a word: China. Russia’s concern about the West has already led to a rapprochement with China. A strong alliance between the two most powerful world autocracies could be worrisome.

6. What about domestic politics here in the US? Foreign policy crises tend to drive domestic policy off the headlines, and weaken reform movements. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has already quieted conversations in America about voting rights, filibuster reform, and Build Back Better — at least for now. Large-scale war, if it ever comes to this, deadens reform. World War I brought the progressive era to a halt. World War II ended FDR’s New Deal. The Vietnam War stopped Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

Wars and the threat of wars also legitimate huge military expenditures and giant military bureaucracies. America is already spending $776 billion a year on the military, a sum greater than the next ten giant military powers (including Russia and China) together. Wars also create fat profits for big corporations in war industries.

The possibility of war also distracts the public from failures of domestic politics, as the Spanish-American War did for President William McKinley and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did for George W. Bush. (Hopefully, Biden’s advisors aren’t thinking this way.)

7. Could the sanctions lead to real war between Russia and the West? Unlikely. Americans don’t want Americans to die in order to protect Ukraine (most Americans don’t even know where Ukraine is, let alone our national interest in protecting it). And neither Russia nor the US wants to be annihilated in a nuclear holocaust.

But international crises such as this one always run the risk of getting out of hand. Russia and the US have giant stockpiles of nuclear weapons. What if one is set off accidentally? More likely: What if Russia cyberattacks the US, causing massive damage to US utilities, communications, banks, hospitals, and transportation networks here? What if Russian troops threaten NATO members along Ukraine’s borders? Under these conditions, might the US be willing to commit ground troops?

Those who have fought ground and air wars know war is hell. Subsequent generations tend to forget. By the eve of World War I, many in America and Britain spoke of the glories of large-scale warfare because so few remembered actual warfare. Today, most Americans have no direct experience of war. Afghanistan and Iraq were abstractions for most of us. Vietnam has faded from our collective memory.

8. What is Putin really after? Not just keeping Ukraine out of NATO, because NATO itself isn’t Putin’s biggest worry. After all, Hungary and Poland are NATO members but are governed in ways that resemble Russia more than Western democracies. Putin’s real fear is liberal democracy, which poses a direct threat to authoritarian “strongmen” like him (just as it did to Donald Trump). Putin wants to keep liberal democracy far away from Russia. Yet for nearly two centuries, Ukraine has been the leading edge of Western ideology and culture in the face of a reactionary Russia.

Putin’s means of keeping Western liberal democracy at bay isn’t just to invade Ukraine, of course. It’s also to stoke division inside the West by fueling racist nationalism in Western Europe and the United States. In this, Trump and Trumpism continue to be Putin’s most important ally.

As  always, my many thanks to all! Stay safe and well

IT SOUNDS GOOD !!! WHY IS THE OTHER SIDE TOTALLY AGAINST IT ???

 

Dear Mr. Dabbagh , 

As we begin the New Year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable progress we made in 2021 as a community, a Commonwealth, and a country. 

Despite the unprecedented challenges facing our society and our economy, President Biden’s first year in office has left our nation stronger and more resilient than before. Thanks to the bold actions taken by Congress and the Biden Administration, our economy is roaring back to life, and we are positioned to continue that growth this year.

President Biden and the Democratic Congress have led the United States to a stronger economic recovery than virtually any advanced economy on earth, making us the only nation in the G7 with a larger economy now than we had prior to the beginning of the pandemic.

Thanks to the landmark American Rescue Plan, which my colleagues in Congress and I worked hard to pass quickly in early 2021, American businesses and employees have jumped into action and laid the groundwork for a booming economic recovery. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed in November, builds on that foundation by creating millions of good-paying jobs modernizing and improving infrastructure around the country.

Here are some of the economic successes we can all be proud of as we head into the New Year.

This last year has brought nearly unprecedented gross domestic product (GDP) and profit growth. While the GDP saw negative growth in Donald Trump’s last year in office, President Biden’s first year saw it jump 5.5%, largely due to the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Our nation’s businesses have outperformed the global market by over six points and hit the lowest debt ratios in recorded history. American companies saw 15% profit increases, and the U.S. dollar has strengthened 7.4% in international trade. The stock market is growing. We are creating manufacturing jobs and increasing payrolls. Businesses are more productive than they have been in decades.

More than 6 million new jobs were created last year, more than double the number created during President Trump’s first year in office, and unemployment has decreased from over 6% to just over 4%. In Virginia, the unemployment rate decreased from 5.6% to only 3.4%. Before we passed the American Rescue Plan, experts did not expect us to reach that benchmark until 2025.

Furthermore, unemployment claims have decreased to the lowest level since 1969. At the beginning of the year, over 18 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits. Thanks to the jobs we have worked to create, that has decreased to 2 million.

Perhaps one of the most significant reasons we have been able to make these crucial gains is the success of our effort to get Americans vaccinated. When Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, we provided funding for an historic vaccine rollout that has put nearly 500 million shots in arms. This massive effort has saved over a million lives and prevented over 10 million hospitalizations.

More than 71% of American adults are fully vaccinated, at least 85% of adults have had their first shot, and we have conducted groundbreaking research that has led to vaccine availability for children, keeping Americans of all ages safer. Nearly two thirds of all children aged 12-17 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and children between the ages of 5 and 11 are starting to get their shots. This past January, only 46% of schools were open. Due to Democratic efforts to mitigate and prevent infections, we have increased that number to 99%.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will create and save a total of 15 million jobs building and restoring our nation’s outdated infrastructure. Rebuilding bridges, roads, and mass transit, we will create the infrastructure we need to keep our economy competitive. In Northern Virginia, this also means $245 million for our airports and part of the $66 billion allocated to Amtrak and other railroad improvement projects. I am personally proud that provisions of my legislation to reauthorize federal funding for Metro were included in this bill, as thousands of my constituents depend on Metro every day.

Virginia will receive $7 billion for highway restoration and $537 million for bridge replacement and repairs. We will also see millions to build charging stations across the Commonwealth for electric vehicles, protecting our environment by lowering carbon emissions. In a time when telework and quarantines are necessities, there is no excuse not to expand broadband internet access. This legislation will extend broadband access to the 473,000 Virginians who need it.

It is true that inflation has risen recently and that the pandemic exposed weak links in our global supply. In response, President Biden worked to resolve these supply chain issues, slashing the number of shipping containers stuck in ports for over a week by half. Since his efforts in early November, store shelves have remained stocked for the holiday season. And while inflation may have risen, experts and executives alike agree that this is likely a temporary phenomenon. Trust in the Federal Reserve is high, and all indicators show a strong belief that prices will even out soon.

Employed Americans’ disposable income has increased as well, with the average American having about $100 more every month than they did last year, even accounting for inflation.

We have accomplished a tremendous amount, and we don’t plan to stop now. I plan to keep fighting for the Build Back Better Act to expand the Child Tax Credit, which has cut the child poverty rate nearly in half. This bill will help us fight climate change, lower prescription drug prices, and establish universal pre-K education for all Americans. I am proud to work towards these causes for you.

There is much to do this year. I’m ready to get to work.

Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other and remember that my office is here to help. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to call us at (703) 256-3071.

Sincerely,

Gerald E. Connolly Member of Congress As always, my many thanks to all, stay safe and well.

AN APARTHEID ENTITY !!!!

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FEBRUARY 9, 2022

Israel, an Apartheid Nation? Of Course!

BY MELVIN GOODMAN

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Photograph Source: eddiedangerous – CC BY 2.0

Israel dismisses charges of “apartheid against Palestinians” as anti-Semitic propaganda, and the United States has been an enabler of Israeli racism over the years with its hands-off attitudes toward the inhumanity of Israeli actions on the West Bank and Gaza.  But the tragic death of an elderly Palestinian-American on the West Bank last month highlights the worst aspects of Israeli policy.  The nature of the death, directly due to Israeli brutality and negligence, amounts to manslaughter.  The outrageously tepid response from the Israeli military’s central command tells us everything we need to know about Israel’s unconscionable occupation policy.

First of all, let’s deal with the issue of Israel as an apartheid nation, which Israeli information policy strongly denies.  When serious human rights violations are committed by one racial group to maintain a system of prolonged oppression of another racial group, as in South Africa from the 1940s to the 1990s, international law refers to this as a crime against humanity or a policy of apartheid.  South Africa’s apartheid sparked intense international and domestic opposition to that country.  This hasn’t been the case with regard to Israel. Nevertheless, the fifty-years of apartheid in South Africa is echoed by the fifty-year period in Israel, starting with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967.

The circumstances of the death of Omar Abdelmajed Assad are dispositive.  The man’s village was being patrolled by the Netzah Yehuda battalion, which is manned by Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the most racist element in Israeli society.  Placing any members of an Ultra-Orthodox community in a policing role virtually guarantees that crimes will be committed against Palestinians.  The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, has fully documented the crimes in the occupied areas and has condemned Israeli military investigations of the killing of Palestinians as whitewashing.

The Israeli investigation of this particular incident was far worse than a whitewash; it was unconscionable.  The pathetic nature of the punishment of the battalion, which involved letters of reprimand and a temporary removal of command for the leaders of the battalion, is particularly ugly.  The investigation, moreover, stated that the soldiers used no violence “apart from when Assad was apprehended after refusing to cooperate.”  Eyewitnesses, however, stated that Assad was “severely beaten” and “subjected  to harsh treatment and violence.”  An autopsy established there was a traumatic brain injury as well as internal bleeding in Assad’s eyelids as a result of being tightly blindfolded.  Imagine the consequences if the battalion had inflicted similar punishment on an elderly Jew who simply could not produce identification.

Israeli policy toward Gaza has become far worse, involving relentless and repetitive attacks on innocent civilians since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005.  In addition to using overwhelming and immoral military force against the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has limited their use of electricity; forces sewage to be dumped into the sea; makes sure that water remains undrinkable; and ensures fuel shortages that cause sanitation plants to be shut down.  Former President Benjamin Netanyahu and now President Naftali Bennett have maintained policies of enforced desperation among the innocent civilians who live in these conditions.

Gaza is essentially an outdoor prison, and a comparison with the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II would not be far-fetched. Both Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto point to the inhumanity of man.  Living in such conditions might lead any human being to consider violent resistance as the only recourse.

B’Tselem issued a report last year that documented the violence of Israeli settler’s on the West Bank against Palestinians as well as the misappropriation of land.  Over the years, Israel has built more than 280 settlements in the West Bank, now home to over 450,000 settlers.  More than half of these settlements are outposts—the Israelis refer to them as “farms”—that are not officially recognized by the government.  There are two tracks: the Israeli government takes the land openly, using “official” methods sanctioned by judges; the settlers, however, simply resort to violence against Palestinians.  In Track One, the Israelis expropriate these lands by issuing military orders, declaring an area a “state land,” a “firing zone,” or a “nature reserve.”  In Track Two, regular acts of violence include attacks on Palestinians and their property.  Actually, we are dealing with a single track because the Israeli government fully supports and assists the acts of violence, witness the killing of Assad.

Israelis are particularly sensitive to the apartheid analogy that links them to South Africa, but the “system of controls” in the West Bank and Gaza are comparable to the Bantustans established in South Africa.  The settler colonialism in the occupied territories with its ID system, military checkpoints, and inequities in infrastructure is familiar to students of South African apartheid.  The Israeli argument against the apartheid analogy is particularly feckless, emphasizing that occupied territories are not part of sovereign Israel and are governed by the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’Tselem believe the “bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met.”  I certainly agree.  But the Wall Street Journal and CNN treat these charges as excessively critical of Israel.

There is no sign that the Bennett government will do anything to stop the violence against the Palestinians or the seizure of Palestinian lands.  The United States, meanwhile, does nothing to put any pressure on Israel.  The Biden administration recently held back $130 million in military aid to Egypt because of violations of human rights. Democratic lawmakers favor ending support to Saudi Arabia’s air force because of the killing of innocent civilians. Is it too much to ask the Biden administration to take similar steps against Israel, which receives more military aid from the United States than any other nation in the world?

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University.  A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.

A good and very factual description of the sad situation reigning in the Palestinian territories, even in our twenty first century, barbarism, colonialism and apartheid are fully tolerated, only for some unfortunately.  My usual many thanks to all for their time.

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A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER ....

 

From the many closely watched cases that shape daily life in the U.S., one is particularly alarming; Americans are very strongly split along what they perceive as ideological lines, especially so in recent years, on abortion, on guns control, labor unions, wealth distribution and taxation, corporate regulation, gerrymandering and fixing electoral districts, campaign finance and voting rights, even on social benefits and affordable health care for all, as well as spending on renewing our infrastructure and public buildings. another front line victim is our democracy, it is no exaggeration to say that the past few years showed us we are in immediate danger of losing sane democracy. One point they are all agreeable on though, is military budgets and military armament spending and wars. 

Some other points now are emerging and becoming important dividing issues, like personal liberties and the limits set on them, exactly as it's happening with the Covid mandates and vaccination requirements, and more so the whole guns and arms issue, where a Kyle Rittenhouse who shot and killed 3 people with a lethal machine gun during some protest gathering, was acquitted on some funny grounds and a law only applied in some areas and few States. 

One side likes to behave in ways compatible with white male Evangelical supremacy, and extreme right wing, while officially denying it. The other side prefer to call themselves progressive and liberal and look at all Americans as one, regardless of race, gender, religion or ethnicity, they are of course automatically labelled socialists and communists. But both sides are very entrenched and dug in their ideas and pseudo ideologies. 

These differences are rendering life more difficult in general, and civility is quickly vanishing, paralyzing politics, legislating and governing, even inciting violence to enhance specific results. Interfering grossly in all aspects of civilized daily life, as the appointment of judges at all levels of the judiciary system, especially the supreme court. 

The armed forces, until now, are spared these ideological divides, but it's coming, as it found its way already with other forces like local police, FBI, and other agencies and departments. The same divide is infiltrating slowly and surely to all Federal and State agencies. It is reaching alarming stages. 

As we all look at, understand and interpret scientific data, regarding essential issues like climate change, rising sea levels, a clear transition to a clean energy economy, health threats and costs and major pandemics, education curriculum, they are all being interpreted with the same partisan divide and its proponents are accusing the others of treason and blasphemy. 

Is it the beginning of the end for a great nation and a leading super power?? By the looks of it, it's coming fast, and it is not a good prospect for our common future, nor our planet's future. Not good when  only dirty tricks and nasty tactics and violence are openly admitted and applied to win the game. Winning is becoming a goal in itself and on its own, regardless of the price the entire country, its people and the world end up paying. 

   As always, my profound thanks to all my good readers, stay safe and well.