Thank you for your thoughtful and measured comments... I hope you will find the time to write regularly about this unfolding tragedy as the days and weeks go by. Wishing you strength and comfort, rest and resilience in these most difficult times...And happy birthday! So glad you are in the world right now and so glad I found your wonderful books a few years back. Understanding helps my husband and I (now in our mid, late 60's) stay somewhat calm during all this madness, and your writings have really helped us...All the best to a fellow Hoosier!
Israel has been tormenting the Palestinians since 1948. The Sunni Muslims living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank consistently vote for Hamas because they have not given up the fight for Palestinian freedom. Iran, opportunists that they are, provide weapons because this is a proxy war for Iran to drive the Jews out of Palestine. Old religious wars never die. Hamas, a Sunni group, has accepted the help of Iran and Hezballah, both Shia, in its struggle. Basically, if the US would stay the hell out of this whole thing, it would have burned itself out decades ago and there would be less deadly conflict. Giving billions in unneeded "aid" to Israel does not signal to anyone that the US is an "honest broker." Neither does Biden's gushing "We'll always have your back" promises to Israel, an apartheid state determined to control the land, water and fossil fuels of the region.
I’m curious to know, and I’m not trying to bait you, I swear. But say the US really had stayed out of it and the whole thing had burnt itself out. What do you imagine the region would look like today?
That's a meaningless question. Just imagine if Israel didn't have international support beginning in 1948 and the Nakba. Who would still have their ancestral homes? Who would not have their homes taken away by force and given to Israelis? And cemeteries? Would they still exist, or would they be buried under Israeli golf courses? And could the Palestinians have been allowed to stay instead of having to flee while male Palestinians were rounded up and shot? If you want to know the present, look to the past. You can start by reading Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Thanks for responding. I’m trying to imagine what would have happened if the establishment of Israel had not had international support. The Jewish immigrant community was already fairly settled in at that point. I’m picturing a Palestine with a small but significant Jewish community. Could that have happened, or would the immigrant influx have halted, and the current residents have left or been expelled? I’m interested in alternate history, which means speculating on impossible scenarios. To anyone who doesn’t share the interest, it will of course have no meaning.
War makes people stupid, and I can already see new flowerings of stupidity on MSNBC. Any attempt to intelligently discuss the history of the conflict will be condemned as "making excuses for terrorists" and any distinction between the right of the Jewish people to exist and the right of Benjamin Netanyahu to rule with absolute power will be erased, Israel=Netanyahu=All Jewish People is the new Stupid Math.
Thank you for your thoughtful and measured comments... I hope you will find the time to write regularly about this unfolding tragedy as the days and weeks go by. Wishing you strength and comfort, rest and resilience in these most difficult times...And happy birthday! So glad you are in the world right now and so glad I found your wonderful books a few years back. Understanding helps my husband and I (now in our mid, late 60's) stay somewhat calm during all this madness, and your writings have really helped us...All the best to a fellow Hoosier!
Israel has been tormenting the Palestinians since 1948. The Sunni Muslims living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank consistently vote for Hamas because they have not given up the fight for Palestinian freedom. Iran, opportunists that they are, provide weapons because this is a proxy war for Iran to drive the Jews out of Palestine. Old religious wars never die. Hamas, a Sunni group, has accepted the help of Iran and Hezballah, both Shia, in its struggle. Basically, if the US would stay the hell out of this whole thing, it would have burned itself out decades ago and there would be less deadly conflict. Giving billions in unneeded "aid" to Israel does not signal to anyone that the US is an "honest broker." Neither does Biden's gushing "We'll always have your back" promises to Israel, an apartheid state determined to control the land, water and fossil fuels of the region.
I’m curious to know, and I’m not trying to bait you, I swear. But say the US really had stayed out of it and the whole thing had burnt itself out. What do you imagine the region would look like today?
That's a meaningless question. Just imagine if Israel didn't have international support beginning in 1948 and the Nakba. Who would still have their ancestral homes? Who would not have their homes taken away by force and given to Israelis? And cemeteries? Would they still exist, or would they be buried under Israeli golf courses? And could the Palestinians have been allowed to stay instead of having to flee while male Palestinians were rounded up and shot? If you want to know the present, look to the past. You can start by reading Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Thanks for responding. I’m trying to imagine what would have happened if the establishment of Israel had not had international support. The Jewish immigrant community was already fairly settled in at that point. I’m picturing a Palestine with a small but significant Jewish community. Could that have happened, or would the immigrant influx have halted, and the current residents have left or been expelled? I’m interested in alternate history, which means speculating on impossible scenarios. To anyone who doesn’t share the interest, it will of course have no meaning.
I get overwhelmed by the complexity. Thank you for your analysis. I am so worried about the future of humanity.
Also, Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! You share your birthday with vv putin, woah.
War makes people stupid, and I can already see new flowerings of stupidity on MSNBC. Any attempt to intelligently discuss the history of the conflict will be condemned as "making excuses for terrorists" and any distinction between the right of the Jewish people to exist and the right of Benjamin Netanyahu to rule with absolute power will be erased, Israel=Netanyahu=All Jewish People is the new Stupid Math.
Also, every Israeli killed will be given a full "The Lives They Led" profile, every Palestinian killed will be a rarely-reported statistic.