Another “Disgusted” Article
But about a different thing entirely.
Yep, that’s Jerusalem. It isn’t exactly what I’m gonna talk about, it merely represents it — the Middle Eastern conflict, plus a bonus set of points at the end. (How’s that for a plug to keep ya hanging? No fair scrolling to the bottom, either, you!)
For a very long time, I’ve supported the Jewish people and particularly, Israel in the Middle East, as their refuge. The horrors of their treatment during WWII and frankly, over the last damn two thousand years is, really, quite over the top. It is a good part of why I dislike religion so much. I was taught that the West did the Jews a favor and tried to make up for the killings of six million of their relatives during the Holocaust.
But the recent conflict over the October 7 attacks has radically changed my attitude.
Why? One might ask that question because it was just another horrible terrorist attack, right? One that killed civilians with no justification, right? Just like a generation or two of such attacks against Israel over the past 80 odd years.
Right?
Well, it isn’t the attack itself that changed my mind, it’s the response of Israel’s government that did. Or, in reality, the resulting “conflict” of opinions and defenses and attacks between those online who support one side or the other, and attack one another and often lie about it all to do that.
I’ve been quietly reading it all both here and on other sites, and the refusal of either side to acknowledge the points of view of the others disgusts me.
Why you wonder? Why am I (in the views of some) “legitimizing” the complaints of the “terrorists”?
Two reasons.
First, the people who deserve to complain are the civilians. It’s them who are stuck in between two sides — the IDF on one side and Hamas on the other (I’m ignoring Lebanon for now) — and while Hamas has always been the assholes they are by using their own people as shields, at least to my understanding, the IDF has in the past, largely worked to minimize civilian casualties.
But you see, this time, it’s different. Why? Because this time, Israel is being guided and this conflict being pushed by a right wing government. Let’s not forget, “supporters of Israel”, that Netanyahu was under tremendous pressure for illegalities, and was facing possible legal issues after leaving office, which he was on the cusp of being tossed out of. and which he was fighting by trying to emasculate the power of the judiciary.
But, wait! That’s not all. There are credible reports that the IDF and their intel folks KNEW about the October attack well before it occurred, yet, stood by and did almost literally nothing as it happened. To me, that’s tantamount to being a party to the attack.
And now, he uses the attack as an excuse to continue attacking both Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon itself as well. Why?
Because according to Israeli law as I understand it, they cannot hold another election to change governments while a conflict is under way. In other words, as long as he keeps that little war he allowed to start going, the longer he remains in office. So it’s that much longer he has to drag out those little legal issues he’s going to face.
Hmm, does that sound a bit familiar to Americans right now? Remind ya of anyone in particular?
And, second, well, the fact that the IDF has not, according to many international sources, been nearly as careful to limit civilian casualties this time. I point in this regard to two instances of the IDF attacking UN and/or Red Cross humanitarian columns of vehicles, marked clearly as such after advising the IDF of their plans and their intended destination and routes, killing numerous employees of those organizations.
That cannot be a mistake, folks, not when the vehicles were MARKED, and the IDF knowing about them ahead of time. It had to be deliberate. If the IDF had had intel that the columns were somehow infiltrated by Hamas and would be used as cover somehow, they had ample opportunity to advise those local officials that there was a problem and that the columns were not allowed to proceed.
But they apparently did no such thing and simply attacked.
Unacceptable.
As of August 15, in a news article, the casualties in Gaza reached over 40,000. Now, granted, we are largely dependent on the Hamas folks to provide us with those numbers, so as is usual in conflicts, numbers like that are always suspect.
But, folks, even if you cut that in half, and assume that Hamas is minimizing their own internal fighter losses, you're still talking about literally thousands of civilian casualties, both women and children. Given that we know from the past that Hamas does use their own as human shields, that’s no surprise.
But it still indicates that the IDF, even with heavily altered assumptions like this, is not being particularly careful to minimize killing women and kids.
Israel is supposed to be a law abiding country, and has always attempted to try to do that to obtain general international support in their struggles against terrorism. At least, that was my assumption in the past.
To me, this lack of care this time, coupled with the Netanyahu government failing, more than likely on purpose, to actually take action to stop the October attack, is a clear indication that THIS Israeli government is no longer a law abiding government.
Now, does this indict the entire country and its population? No, it does not. Just as the plight of the Palestinian people stuck by their own Hamas “government” they supposedly elected an indictment of them for the terrorist actions of that government.
There are, remember, very very few actually democratically governed countries in the Middle East, and frankly, election or not, Gaza cannot be counted as one. Not when that “government” is a terrorist organization.
But why would the Israelis tolerate a government equally acting in an increasingly terroristic manner? It appears they were about to toss that one out, but got stymied by the October attack.
Which, to me, sounds like Netanyahu did that deliberately.
Now I’ve watched and read and listened to the arguments of both sides of supporters in this conflict here and elsewhere as I noted before. Both sides do something very similar. (I’m talking about those more willing to post actual historical facts and events than those merely talking shit.)
Both sides do one thing good and something else not so good. They both post fascinating past events and such about how their side got attacked by the other side before responding, and pushing back against the idea that their guys acted in bad faith. BOTH OF THEM.
And both of them refuse to acknowledge that the other side has any information to show that their side acted badly.
BOTH OF THEM.
Look, from what I’ve seen, I’ve noticed one thing that just sticks out like a bowling ball among a bunch of tennis balls.
There are no “good guys” in this conflict.
Not after Netenyahu. Not if you’re gonna be honest and acknowledge that neither the Jewish folks nor the Palestinians really started any of this, it was in reality, the British and outside International forces that pushed this whole idea of a new country to “protect” the Jews after the Holocaust that got this whole damn ball rolling, and that they never asked the actual residents of that area if they were willing to go along. (Which, it turns out they were not.)
Toss in the other Middle Eastern countries (all of whom were/are Muslim controlled), and the result is what should have been foreseen by any idiot looking over the shoulders of those contemplating that whole idea.
That nobody living there was gonna be happy, and that religion was going to be central to that resulting conflict. And that, my friends, is an iron clad guarantee that this conflict is never — NEVER — going to be settled until humanity realizes that religion is a source of conflict and hatred and not the cure.
This conflict isn’t going away, and the international community is one big reason why it won’t. That’s because the international community will not — ever — take the responsibility to actually control the actions of the various bad actors around the globe and band together as a real community to put an end to this crap.
To stop the international sales of weapons. Period. If these bad actors have no weapons to speak of beside hunting rifles, knives, and swords, wars will get damn hard to manage. Even if you outlaw and enforce the international sales of ammunition only, eventually, that will have an impact, certainly on the smaller actors who don’t have the resources to make their own.
Outlaw the use of social media and the Internet to destabilize one’s opponents through psychological operations as Russia has perfected. Outlaw the use of bribery and such undermining of opponents’ political systems without a declaration of war.
Make rules governing how countries can compete economically, outlawing underhanded bribery schemes and such and trying to make such competitions more fair.
I’m sure I could go on, but you get the point.
The conflicts in the Middle East are not just out of control in the perspective of that local area, but it is emblematic of how the entire world community is being mismanaged and manipulated to benefit the richest people on the planet, who are working damn hard to control the richest and most powerful countries at the same time.
That’s no accident, folks. It’s deliberate, and you can take it to the bank that eventually, if those Rich People (not all worldwide are White) get their way locally, that there’s gonna be one final fight eventually to see who gets to control the world and its economy in the end.
Trust me, we do not want the wealthiest human beings to control the entire world’s economy. Hell, we don’t want them controlling any economy for their own benefit — just take a look at Russia for how well that works.
No, thanks.
Going back to my article I just wrote about how the Democrats are failing to take the initiative in opposing the GOP’s antics in this country, in case you missed it, here it is:
That applies equally to the democratic countries internationally, too. It’s no accident that those democratic governments control the most powerful and most humanitarian economies around the globe, and as a result, have the most power, militarily. They also nominally control the UN and the Security Council. (And by the way, why haven’t we tossed both China and Russia off of that yet?)
So, why don’t we get together and make a few changes and try to get things under control?
Because of the Rich White Men who control our economies who still love those dollars rolling in for all those lovely modern weapons they sell to just about damn near anyone with a bit of cash. Or, for that matter, credit!
In the end, it comes to the same thing. We are at the mercy of the wealthiest and richest people on this planet. It matters not if we’re in a democratic country or not, big and wealthy or small and poor — the people who control the money control US.
And if we don’t manage to control THAT, whether the Middle East is being fought over by people pissed over religion, or ethnicities, or just a misjudged view of history, that will never matter.
Remember, there are no “good guys”.
Just the rich and powerful, manipulating us for their benefit.
Not ours.
So, hey, you do know that as a Medium reader and/or writer, when you read an article and like it, you CAN clap up to fifty times, right? You can come up with a system, like fifty claps for a really great article (mine!) and perhaps thirty or thirty-five for a good one, and perhaps twenty for one that’s ok, and perhaps a single clap for one you read but weren’t at all impressed with but didn’t want to just walk away from. (Same with the comments, also.) Don’t feel too bad, it was almost two weeks before I got told about it. Additionally, if you’re a newbie, and a human and not a damn troll, unless you want to be mistaken for one, do two things. First, write a story. Anything, just something you care about, even if it’s just an introduction. Second, you know that profile blurb? You know, that short thing like I have that talks about “money is truthful”? Yeah, that. Create one for yourself, because the trolls DON’T. I block profiles that come here and clap once and haven’t written a story or created a profile description. Those with fewer than twenty or so followers and often less than a hundred they’re following. So, a word to the wise. Write, and give us that profile description.
