MORE WEAPONS TO UKRAINE !!!.......

 

Last month U.S. and French navies intercepted cargo ships smuggling thousands of weapons from Iran to Yemen. According to the Washington Post, these shipments are in defiance of a U.N. Security decision which prohibits supplying weapons to the Houthis, Iran's Yemeni partners. 

The navy seized thousands of Russian-style assault rifles and machine guns, dozens of anti-tank missiles, and more than half a million rounds of ammunitions. Similarly, last summer the British Navy impeded an Iranian ship carrying surface-to- air missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles. Instead of allowing these weapons to build up, should Washington and its allies send them to Ukraine ??? The Post goes on; the U.S. Central Command through work with its European allies and Gulf partners, are on their way to turning important waterways around the Arabian peninsula into a panopticon, i.e. monitoring all, making it increasingly difficult for the Islamic revolutionary guards Corp navy.  

While undetected, U.S. Naval forces set the course for innovation in maritime domain awareness and surveillance, enabling more and more seizures of Iranian weapons smuggled at sea, and left huge stores of weapons under the command of the U.S. Central Command. These which were examined and recorded by the United Nations as evidence of Iran's violations of UN Security council resolution 2624, are being placed at U.S. military facilities throughout the region. 

The time has come to put these weapons to use for a good cause, support Ukraine. The ministry of Defence and NATO allies are mobilized to deliver various weapons to Ukraine, everything from guns to missiles to ammunitions, and soon tanks. In January the Pentagon went so far as to raid its stockpiles of weapons in Israel to support Kyiv, and the need and appetite are still there. The Pentagon for example, seeks to increase its production of artillery shells by 500% within two years. While stockpiling thousands of usable Iranian munitions, while these captured Iranian weapons will not meet every requirement of the Ukrainian military, many of them will certainly help, now that we've passed the first anniversary of the brutal and illegal Russian invasion and annihilation of Ukraine and it people. 

According to the Post, "In addition to meeting immediate military needs, the transfer of these weapons will have other positive effects, sending Iran weapons to Ukraine to be used against Russia, will stir up discord between Moscow and Teheran, at a time when their interests converge. Iran trained and equipped the Russian army with drones, which the Russians launched on mostly civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, in a blatant attempt to leave the Ukrainian civilian population in the dark and cold this winter, and now there's fresh talk of Iranian tanks to Russia as well. 

It should help limiting and redirecting Russian and Iranian destabilizing efforts in Europe and the Middle-East. The redirection of Iran's weapons, may prompt Moscow to put pressure on Teheran to stop arms smuggling into Yemen, especially when more and more shipments are being intercepted. 

There may be legal obstacles preventing the U.S. administration from treating  these confiscated Iranian weapons as U.S. stocks, and simply authorizing their transfer under presidential withdrawal authority, as Mr. Biden has done 31 times so far in the past 18 months . The Biden administration and its European allies, continues the Post, have already  shown tremendous creativity in implementing new policy tools to support Kyiv. Congressional support to authorize sending confiscated assets of the Russian oligarch to support the reconstruction of Ukraine, it should be there with confiscated weaponry, even if technically they are owned by Teheran. 

Iran and Russia are nowadays practically the main culprits who sought to bully their way by abusing their neighbors, Israel is just behind them, and for longer times, but that's another story to be discussed  under different circumstance. The Post concluded, that the sending of Iran's weapons to Ukraine, moves the mission forward in tangible and symbolic ways. It must move without delay. 

As always, my many thanks to all....                     

ISRAEL LOOKING TO ITS OWN FUTURE......

Following my last blog , describing how ineffective the U.N. has become with the years, mostly because of the obstinacy of some of the world's powers, and their selfishness regarding their tight interests, as well the protection and ambitions of their leaders.... One other example was always Israel, defying any and all U.N resolutions, and today as unrest engulfs the country, a controversial figure from the religious far right (Itamar Ben-Gvir) Israel's minister of chaos helps Benjamin Netanyahu hold on to power, the extreme right zealots with Netanyahu are aiming to establish a theocratic fascist dictatorship.   

On this past Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Israel to suspend two draft judicial reform bills for fear of their impact on human rights and the independence of the judiciary.

"Given the level of popular and political concern, I call on the Israeli government to suspend the proposed legislative amendments and to open a broader space for discussion and reflection," The Austrian high commissioner Volker Turk said, after the Israeli parliament approved, on Tuesday, the first reading of two bills related to controversial judicial reform. 

"These issues at the heart of the rule of law deserve the utmost attention in order to ensure that any change enhances, rather than diminishes, the ability of the judiciary - and other branches of government - to protect the rights of all residents of Israel," he added in a statement.

Judicial reform is considered a basic program in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox and far-right Jewish parties, and assumed power in late December 2022. However, a large part of public opinion moved against this project, and about two months ago, Saturday evening became the date for the weekly demonstration against the project' proposed law.

On Monday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Jerusalem in the vicinity of Parliament against the vote, before which discussions were suspended, amid a boycott of a number of opposition deputies who wrapped themselves in the Israeli flag, shouting "shame", and were temporarily excluded from the session.

"Changes that touch the core of a country's long-established constituent structure and that affect well-established institutional guarantees should only be made after broad consultations and with a broad and public political consensus," Volker Turk continued.

He considered that judicial reform "will greatly undermine the ability of the judiciary to protect individual rights and uphold the rule of law as a means of effective institutional oversight of the executive and legislative branches."

He added, “I am afraid that these amendments, if approved, will weaken the protection of the rights of all persons, especially the most vulnerable communities and groups who are least able to defend their rights through representation in the executive and legislative branches of government,” especially Arab Israelis, asylum seekers, and LGBT people.

My, many thanks for your continued interest and following of the blog .....

THE UNITED NATIONS.... PEACE, DIGNITY, AND EQUALITY ON A HEALTHY PLANET.

As the world's only truly universal global organization, the U.N. was supposed to become the foremost forum  to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country alone. The veto power offered initially to five victorious nations, was abused throughout the years and decades by all forces, and mostly so, by the U.S. and its Western allies, especially when dealing with American, European adventures, and of course invariably in the case of Israel and its aggressions, occupations, annexations and blatant apartheid and brutality tactics vis-a vis its minorities and under occupation population. 

These policies led to a weakened institution, not respected nor valued or obeyed. Only partially appreciated by the poor, when financial aid was donated. The year 2022 was particularly detrimental to the U.N. as international relations were turned upside down, and are still going. Nations in all continents are changing, they are rebelling and opposing the classical colonial powers, even if they are the superpowers, the world is not yet the multipolar that China and Russia are trying to bring about, but sure signs of division, non obeying and non compliance, and more independent political views are de rigueur. 

The Russian invasion of its neighbor is surely a setback to this new worldwide approach, but so was Israel's behavior for the past seven decades. And the world is dividing itself into new camps everyday. Iran, Turkey, India, Brazil and many Arab nations as well as many African and Asian ones, are all considering themselves free of a certain Western dominance and ideology. This reorientation of the world is so visible in all aspects of governance and institutions and applications. 

The biggest looser in this situation is the U.N., it was an old institution, created after world war two, and run totally by the U.S., Western powers, and the Soviet Union. Today these forces clash and are all trying to exclude the other inconvenient side, by reinterpreting history and the nature of the U.N. instead of the message of peace and international cooperation, most leaders are what they are, humans, and for many of their own selfish reasons, are using force, hegemony and brutality to enforce their personal agendas. 

Above all, the functioning of the U.N. is annulled by putting aside the executive board of the security council. Initially the organization was founded, to recognize the equality between all states, and giving the veto power to few to prevent wider conflicts within the general assembly. But then slowly the consensus and the win-win atmosphere dissipated. we pretend to be surprised at the noncondemning of Russia over Ukraine, but we were not surprised at the same when the U.S. the U.K. and some of our European allies had our share of wars in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Again not to mention the total silence over Israel's invasions, annexations, transfer of population and colonialism. The U.N. became a total absolute ineffective assembly and organization.

Even if we succeed in isolating or kicking out certain parties, many others will not remain in a U.N. which Russia or China would have been excluded or diminished. The U.S. now aided by some allies, is trying to totally eclipse and topple the international tribunal of justice, because of attempts to declare the occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel "Occupation" And investigating its behavior over their population. But we won't decrease our pressure for a condemnation of the Russian invasion and hegemony. The general assembly is no longer resigned to the Western disorder of the world nor its dual standards. 

And finally, the present U.N. doesn't seem able even to override some intentional vetoes and blockages of the Syrian borders with Turkey to allow humanitarian very needed aid to affected populations of the devastating earthquake that hit the region lately, watching the people dying slowly while the world and its politics are ignoring them is surely a death sentence to the effectiveness of the organization. 

The world is changing rapidly, and the Western populations are tired, pressuring our politicians and leaders to become more realistic, to stop distorting realities in the hope to maintain decades and centuries of wars, adventures, dictatorships and colonialism and hegemony, this game is old and over. 

My, as always, many thanks to all.                           

YES.... BY OUR PRESENT TIMES MANY THINK LIKE THIS .

Dash MacIntyre

EPIPHANY

A Local Pastor Is Furious To Find Out Jesus Was A Libtard

Dash MacIntyre

Local Evangelical pastor Brett Thompson today renounced his Christian faith after reading the New Testament, and realizing Jesus Christ sounds quite a bit like a “libtard.”

“I couldn’t believe it!” said Thompson. “I realized it had been a while since I read from the New Testament because most of my sermons are about judging everyone who is gay, Muslim, feminist, vegan, Black, liberal, Californian, virtue-signaling, trans, racially mixed, Chinese, or college-educated, and for all those it makes much more sense to look into the Old Testament for judgmental inspiration, you know? So I opened the Bible to the New Testament and started reading about Jesus saying to turn the other cheek, and how he literally washed the feet of the poor, and how he talked about rich people being fundamentally sinful, and how we’ll only get into the Kingdom of Heaven if we help the needy, and all that stuff, and my blood just started boiling. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, and it wasn’t long before I was irate! I couldn’t believe all this time I’ve been worshipping a Woke, liberal commie! No one ever told me Jesus was practically Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow mixed together with AOC! I had the sudden urge to get out my AR-15s, and start protesting Jesus at the state capitol building!”

Thompson said the discovery shook him to his core.

“That’s just not the Jesus I know in my heart,” he continued. “The Jesus in my heart would never give money to the poor who will just use it for alcohol and drugs. The Jesus in my heart would rather invest that donatable money into the stock market to hopefully get rich quick! Or at the very least start a business to hire those poor people, but never pay them a penny more than the minimum wage so that the humiliation of not making a livable wage will encourage them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and start their own businesses to pay their own workers only the minimum wage to give back to the beautiful cycle of poverty and exploitation that makes unfettered capitalism the best economic system in the world! That’s what my Christian faith is about, not all this beta male cuck bullshit the New Testament goes on and on about! The Jesus in my heart would have no problem with the money changers in the temple at Jerusalem because they’re probably earning dividends for shareholders. Even if the money changers’ companies are reckless and imperiled at the first sign of an economic downturn, and are existentially dependent on government bailouts because their CEOs worship a corporate and regulatory culture in which obsession with short-term, quarterly shareholder profits, absurd salary bonuses, and stock buybacks have made the kind of decisions necessary for long-term fiscal health and corporate stability both impossible and downright fiducially illegal. The Jesus in my heart understands greed is good!”

Thompson now says he is going to start his own wholly new church.

“I’m going to start a Church of Trump!” Thompson explained. “No libtard sympathy for the poor, downtrodden, or exploited masses for any of my congregants! And my church will be much more relaxed about sexual stuff. I’ve always thought Christianity is a little too puritan and old-fashioned about sex. What’s the good of being involved in a religious cult if there aren’t even orgies? So our patron saint will be Donald Trump. Grabbing by the pussy will be encouraged because what’s good enough for Donald Trump is good enough for us! In my church it will be mandatory for men to get divorces when their wives turn 40. Only hot trophy wives in the Church of Trump! And we’ll take the confessional booth that Catholics do, and put in hookers! And no raising of kids or marital fidelity is required. Only alpha males are allowed in. And bring your guns 

My, as always, many thanks to all....

DARK TIMES, INDEED ....

 

    

An article by Thomas Friedman in the NY Times, in early Nov. after the latest Israeli elections and the return of an extreme right, fanatically religious coalition, tailored to carry Mr. Netanyahu to power again, and save him from his past judicial indictment ..... Some of Mr. Netanyahu's partners already have started their draconian applications based on their fanaticism, ideologies and fascism, they will destroy any hope for peace or coexistence, and only incite more violence, brutality, hatred and death. This article by Tomas Friedman says it all. 

Imagine you woke up after the 2024 U.S. presidential election and found that Donald Trump had been re-elected and chose Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Michael Flynn for defense secretary, Steve Bannon for commerce secretary, evangelical leader James Dobson for education secretary, Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio for homeland security head and Marjorie Taylor Greene for the White House spokeswoman.

“Impossible,” you would say. Well, think again.

As I’ve noted before, Israeli political trends are often a harbinger of wider trends in Western democracies — Off Broadway to our Broadway. I hoped that the national unity government that came to power in Israel in June 2021 might also be a harbinger of more bipartisanship here. Alas, that government has now collapsed and is being replaced by the most far-far-right coalition in Israel’s history. Lord save us if this is a harbinger of what’s coming our way.

The coalition that Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu is riding back into power is the Israeli equivalent of the nightmare U.S. cabinet I imagined above. Only it is real — a rowdy alliance of ultra-Orthodox leaders and ultranationalist politicians, including some outright racist, anti-Arab Jewish extremists once deemed completely outside the norms and boundaries of Israeli politics. As it is virtually impossible for Netanyahu to build a majority coalition without the support of these extremists, some of them are almost certain to be cabinet ministers in the next Israeli government.

As that previously unthinkable reality takes hold, a fundamental question will roil synagogues in America and across the globe: “Do I support this Israel or not support it?” It will haunt pro-Israel students on college campuses. It will challenge Arab allies of Israel in the Abraham Accords, who just wanted to trade with Israel and never signed up for defending a government there that is anti-Israeli Arab. It will stress those U.S. diplomats who have reflexively defended Israel as a Jewish democracy that shares America’s values, and it will send friends of Israel in Congress fleeing from any reporter asking if America should continue sending billions of dollars in aid to such a religious-extremist-inspired government.

You have not seen this play before, because no Israeli leader has “gone there” before.

Netanyahu has been propelled into power by bedfellows who: see Israeli Arab citizens as a fifth column who can’t be trusted; have vowed to take political control over judicial appointments; believe that Jewish settlements must be expanded so there is not an inch left anywhere in the West Bank for a Palestinian state; want to enact judicial changes that could freeze Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial; and express contempt for Israel’s long and strong embrace of L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

We are talking about people like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was convicted by an Israeli court in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a Jewish terrorist organization. Netanyahu personally forged an alliance between Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism party, which turned them (shockingly for many Israelis) into the third-largest party in the country — giving Netanyahu the allies Likud needed to win a parliamentary majority in this week’s election.
Smotrich is known for, among other things, suggesting that Israeli Jewish mothers should be separated from Arab mothers in the maternity wards of Israeli hospitals. He has long advocated outright Israeli annexation of the West Bank and argued that there is “no such thing as Jewish terrorism” when it comes to settlers retaliating on their own against Palestinian violence.

Netanyahu has increasingly sought over the years to leverage the energy of this illiberal Israeli constituency to win office, not unlike how Trump uses white nationalism, but Netanyahu never actually brought this radical element — like Ben-Gvir, who claims to have moderated because he has told his supporters to chant, “Death to terrorists,” instead of, “Death to Arabs” — into his ruling faction or cabinet. As more of Netanyahu’s allies in Likud split with him over his alleged criminal behavior and lying, however, Bibi had to reach further and further out of the mainstream of Israeli politics to get enough votes to rule and pass a law to abort his own trial and possible jail time.

Netanyahu had fertile political soil to work with, the Yediot Ahronot Israeli newspaper columnist Nahum Barnea explained to me. There has been a dramatic upsurge in violence — stabbings, shootings, gang warfare and organized crime — by Israeli Arabs against other Israeli Arabs, and Israeli Arab gangs and organized crime against Israeli Jews, particularly in mixed communities. The result is that, “like in America, ‘policing’ has become a huge issue in Israel in recent years,” said Barnea — and even though this upsurge started when Netanyahu was previously prime minister, he and his anti-Arab allies blamed it all on the Arabs and the national unity Israeli government.

One election billboard summed up Netanyahu’s campaign. It was, as Haaretz reporter Amos Harel reported, a “gloomy-looking one with the caption: ‘That’s it. We’ve had enough.’ It depicts outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his coalition partner, Mansour Abbas of the United Arab List.”

Abbas is the rather amazing Israeli Arab religious party leader who recognizes the State of Israel and the searing importance of the Holocaust, and who was part of the now-fallen unity government.

As Harel put it: “The ‘had enough’ message seems to have sunk in among supporters of Likud, Religious Zionism and the ultra-Orthodox parties. It’s likely that the message also helped Netanyahu win Tuesday’s election.” Among the critical factors, Harel wrote, was “hatred of Arabs and the desire to keep them out of positions of power.”

But Netanyahu was also aided by the fact that while the right and the far right were highly energized by both growing fears of and distrust of Arabs — whether Israeli Arab citizens or Palestinians in the West Bank — their centrist and center-left opponents had no coherent or inspiring countermessage.

As Barnea put it to me: “Israel is not divided down the middle,” with 50 percent being pro-Netanyahu and the other 50 percent with a unified message and strategy opposing him. “No, Israel is divided between the 50 percent who are pro-Netanyahu and the 50 percent who are pro-blocking Netanyahu. But that is all they can agree on,” Barnea said. And it showed in this election. And it wasn’t enough.

Why is all of this so dangerous? Moshe Halbertal, the Hebrew University Jewish philosopher, captured it well: For decades members of the Israeli right, a vast majority of whom were “security hawks,” have believed that the Palestinians have never and will never accept a Jewish state next to them and therefore Israel needed to take whatever military means were necessary to protect itself from them.

But Israeli hawkishness toward the Palestinians, explained Halbertal, “is now morphing into something new — a kind of general ultranationalism” that not only rejects any notion of a Palestinian state but also views every Israeli Arab — who make up about 21 percent of Israel’s population, nearly 20 percent of its doctors, about 25 percent of its nurses and almost half its pharmacists — as a potential terrorist.

“What we are seeing is a shift in the hawkish right from a political identity built on focusing on the ‘enemy outside’ — the Palestinians — to the ‘enemy inside’ — Israeli Arabs,” Halbertal said.

Netanyahu’s coalition has also attacked the vital independent institutions that underpin Israel’s democracy and are responsible for, among other things, protecting minority rights. That is, the lower court system, the media and, most of all, the Supreme Court, which Netanyahu and his allies want brought under the political control of the right, “precisely so they will not protect minority rights” with the vigor and scope that they have, Halbertal said.

At the same time, not only is this election a struggle about the future of Israel, he said, but also “about the future of Judaism in Israel. The Torah stands for the equality of all people and the notion that we are all created in God’s image. Israelis of all people need to respect minority rights because we, as Jews, know what it is to be a minority” — with and without rights. “This is a deep Jewish ethos,” Halbertal added, “and it is now being challenged from within Israel itself. But, when you have these visceral security threats in the street every day, it becomes much easier for these ugly ideologies to anchor themselves.”

This is going to have a profound effect on U.S.-Israel relations. But don’t take my word for it. On Oct. 1, Axios published a story quoting what sources said Senator Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who leads the Foreign Relations Committee, told Netanyahu during a trip to Israel in September. In the words of one source, the senator warned that if Netanyahu formed a government after the Nov. 1 elections that included right-wing extremists, it could “seriously erode bipartisan support in Washington.”  That is now about to happen.

I have reported from Israel for this newspaper for nearly 40 years, often traveling around with my dear friend Nahum Barnea, one of the most respected, sober, balanced, careful journalists in the country. To hear him say to me minutes ago on the phone that “we have a different kind of Israel now” tells me we are truly entering a dark tunnel.

My usual many thanks to all my good readers, stay safe and well. 

REVISITING CHINA.....

Which country won the 2022 football world cup ?? If you answer Argentina, then you're correct, but there was another country that really share this win, or even in some sense won the event, won the world cup without even playing a single match. And that country is China. 

I'm writing these statistics, numbers and achievements as a sequel to an earlier blog of mine, (Facts and realities, Oct. 13 2022.) That puts the whole U.S. China relations, and even the West versus China in question. We are set to eventually destroy them, rather than accept them in the world leadership club. While I maintain that China's approach is rather peaceful, fairly civilized and politically, corresponding to our modern ages. They are trying to help anyone who calls on them, here are 10 ways in which China quietly worked behind the scenes at the Qatar world cup.

-- One, world cup buildings got electricity from a next generation power station which harvest only solar energy, built by the power construction corporation of China. 

-- Two, people were taken to where they needed to go in a fleet of 888 fully electric busses, made by Yutong bus, a Chinese firm that has quietly become, as far as I can tell, the world's biggest bus makers. 

-- Three, the main stadium, was built by China Railway construction corporation, that's the firm that pops up in Africa, Europe and around the world, known for their extraordinary ability to create infrastructure in difficult environments. 

-- Four, what's a sporting event without souvenir merchandizes ??? It's estimated that almost 70 per cent of world cup related goods, from footballs to flags, to jerseys to whistles, came from a single location in China, a south eastern city called Yiwu.  

-- Five, a purpose-built extra-large reservoir, provided clean drinking water for sports people and fans. It was constructed by Gezhouba group, from Wuhan, yes the same Wuhan. 

-- Six, the stadium-building operations needed huge amounts of heavy equipment, from massive earth movers to cranes and tractors, nearly 100 of these were supplied by China's Sany Heavy Industry, one of the world's biggest construction firms. 

-- Seven, the most innovative venue was Qatar's stadium 974, which can be disassembled, and reassembled anywhere, designed by a Spanish architect, the 974 building blocks were made by China International Marine containers. 

-- Eight, no one noticed nor paid much attention to all the LED floodlights everywhere, they all came from the Unilumin group of China. 

-- Nine, most people say air conditioners are a must for survival in that specific environment, and China's Midea Co. supplied over 2500 air-condition units for the events. 

-- Ten, last but not least, this was the most expensive sporting event in world history, and needed a lot of support from businesses. Nineteen China firms signed up to sponsor the events, of course with advertisements for future business. 

I'm collecting and presenting these figures and facts, not to make a statement for or against the U.S. or the Western world in general. But to draw attention to what is China today, and what it could represent, and what might happen in the future if and when we alter our views and strategies. We all need to look at this new world force in different  ways than the old traditional ways of our. 

Russia and few others in the world, believed and are still choosing different ways, of the old books of hegemony and colonialism, wars, invasions, force and brutality, even nuclear threats of annihilation. Using languages supported by religious and race superiority fanaticism, to secure their country's narrow interests, supremacy and leaders survival and perpetuity. 

China's approach clearly seems to be different, it's more pragmatic, more with our ages and our modern times, let's consider these factors and facts, and adjust ourselves accordingly. Let's prove to ourselves and the world, that we're capable of growing, learning and evolving, that we're able to regulate our emotions, moderate our responses and reactions, and take in and synthesize information. Force, hegemony and brutality are not always the winners. 

My usual many thanks to all, stay safe and well.               

RESURECTING NEW FORCES ......

Benjamin Netanyahu's newly formed government of mostly zealots and right wing fascists, where many of them including Netanyahu himself are still under judiciary indictment or awaiting judgement, one of the most urgent plans of theirs is changing the law, to manage and exonerate themselves and prevent the judiciary from prosecuting anyone of them or their future excursioners ..... 

As events continue in Israel, especially extreme violence, killings of innocent children, journalists, women and men, old and young, plus maiming and marking for life the captured ones, arrests and torture... it is evident that this entity is no different from many other fascistic regimes ruled by extreme right, theocracies, or military dictatorships. 

Barely few days into the most extreme government in Israel's history, its controversial national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, is already demonstrating its extreme right-wing religious and nationalist credentials. He is now in charge of Israel's police, setting the rules in both Israel proper and the occupied territories.   

Obviously, to maintain your political seat, or to be reelected to any position , or even to be promoted in any official position, including the army and all security apparel, and the judiciary, brutal use of force, and a continued strategy of intimidation is always de rigueur. 

Robert Penn Warren said: "It takes a long time for the truth to become true". To be human after all, is to be always vulnerable to the experience of trauma . It seems it's an almost unavoidable part of the human condition. While all Palestinians happened to be vulnerable at the same time. Between the loneliness of isolation, prosecution, and utmost brutality and degradation, the actions of a government and its systems, that seem so willing to sacrifice all for its hegemony, colonialism and apartheid. Let's face it honestly, the creation of Israel was both a disaster and an atrocity.  

I wonder if at the end of this reign of terror and continual brutality, the Jews of the world are any better.  If some Israeli citizens would feel uplifted and relieved, or if they would feel that some bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger scope of things, with its chaos. If they do, Then they have been made the victims of a very old and terrible lie. They have been subjected to long and systematic brain- washing and indoctrination. 

And all they need now, is some added new religiosity to legitimize it all. To cover the daily atrocities, what's more convenient than a consenting and collaborating God, with prophets, messengers, books, schools, temples et all. To relegislate and relegitimize our past century's doings and acts. What a great start for a new year !!!!

As always, my deep gratitude to all my good readers, wishing you all a happy new year, stay safe and well.