Tag Archives: Israel

Kinky Friedman: “Israel is Texas in the Middle East”

Hi readers.  I’ve been enjoying Kinky Friedman’s songs since the early 1970s.  Back when his band was, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.  I don’t agree with him in a lot of ways, but his views are, at least, worth hearing and considering.

The only country-western song ever written about the Holocaust, Ride’em Jewboy, stands up as one of the best CW songs of the 20th Century in my opinion.  Give it a listen.

Heck, he’s the founder of the Utopia Animal Mission rescuing stray dogs.  He can be wrong about a lot without being wrong about a lot else.

In a lot of ways he didn’t intend I think he’s probably right when he says Israel is Texas in the Middle east.  It used to be Ireland in the Middle East until the Northern Irish got tired of blood feuding with the kinfolks over religion.  But Texas never met a war it didn’t like and killing and exploiting the weak and powerless is a song that resonates among them.  A lot more than Ride’em Jewboy ever did.

Old Jules

So who can Americans and Europeans trust in the Middle East?

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Most of you have declared among yourselves you’d never trust an Arab, which is prudent.  And Israel’s certainly made it plain over the past few decades that it, also can’t be trusted.  Which shouldn’t come as any surprise now that DNA proves they’re all the same folks, Israelis and Arabs.

But surely, you might be saying to yourself, there’s SOMEONE over there who can be trusted.

Well, in fact there might be people with a more trustworthy gene pool than that found among the Palestinians, Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc.  In Lebanon.  People more European genetically.  Probably descendants of Crusaders who occupied a bit of the region for a couple of centuries.

That is to say, if you’d trust a descendant of a Frenchman, Italian, or Englishman.  Or German, Spaniard, any of those bastards as far as you could throw them.  Trade a headache for an upset stomach, I suppose, and trust the Lebanese.  Send them a few thousand tanks and helicopters, artillery.  Flack jackets and M16s.

Pat them on the back and tell them to bring some European style honor, justice, compassion and ethics into the region.  Crusader style.

There’s not enough confusion going on over there at the moment.  Even with Syrians running amok with weaponry, Israelis grabbing every inch of territory they can see and killing anyone standing in the way of it, chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Russia forgetting what WWII felt like, there’s room for US diplomacy.  US leadership that’s proved itself time and again in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, you name it.

Time for the US  to either get behind Lebanon or get out of that entire part of the world the way we got out of Vietnam when the going got tough.  Hanging off helicopters while the getting was good.

Besides, those Lebanese are probably headed for hard times when the cousins quit fighting long enough to notice Lebanon’s not family.  Bunch of dirty Europeans occupying territory which rightfully ought to belong to Israel or Palestinians.

Old Jules

Jews Against Israeli Attacks on Gaza

Why Jews oppose Israel’s occupation of Palestine and attack on Gaza

Jews against Gaza siege

AS ISRAEL showers a condensed civilian population with bombs, the world shows its disgust. When thousands march in London this Saturday among them will be supporters of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and others.

We will be proud to march alongside people from all backgrounds as partners in the long struggle to free Palestine.

The actions of the Israeli state are symptomatic of a sense of unassailable fear; in the view of Netanyahu and his supporters the lesson of the Holocaust is that Jews are destined to a fate as eternal outsiders and must close ranks to look after their own.

Thus Israel’s far-reaching operation to recover the three recently kidnapped teenagers was codenamed ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper’ while the murder of at least five young Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army in the first days of that operation barely caused a flutter of concern in Israel. For Zionism, as for all nationalism, Jewish life exists above Arab life in a hierarchy of priorities.

There is, however, a long and proud alternative Jewish history, which opens up a space for a different reading of the Holocaust. From Jewish participation in trade union and socialist movements in Europe in the nineteenth century to the prominent Jewish role in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa a century later, this is a politics of solidarity rather than national particularism. It generalises from the Jewish experience of suffering to oppose injustice everywhere. It sees in pogroms and Nazism the horrors implicit in distinguishing between people on the basis of their ethnic origin, and refuses ever to play that game.

This is the politics that leads Jews like myself to oppose Israeli state violence. Some of us are firm anti-Zionists. Others long considered themselves supporters of Israel but cannot abide the barbarism of its latest killing spasm. All of us refuse the Israeli framing that sees a conflict between Jews and Arabs.

That framing can only give rise to anti-Semitism. Instead, we insist that this is a battle between an occupying army and an occupied people seeking to live in freedom, and the religion of each side is totally irrelevant to the conclusions we should draw. Tapping into a profound collective memory of discrimination and dispossession, we can feel no solidarity with Israel’s occupation. Our solidarity is firmly with the Palestinian people.

http://worldobserveronline.com/2014/07/18/jews-oppose-israels-occupation-palestine-attack-gaza/

Are Palestinians behaving like Jews? Jews behaving like Palestians? What would Jesus say?

Hi readers.  If you’ve been noticing the Hamas terrorists and the Israel government sponsored terrorists composing their military all seem similar, there’s a reason.  They’re all genetically identical.

Israel is behaving the way the fanatics in the countries around them behave because they’re all just kinfolks.  There’s no difference in them aside from a sprinkling of religion, mainly Judaic in nature.  All going back to the ancient Abraham who was ready to sacrifice his son with a knife on an altar.  Because he thought he heard God tell him to do it.  Is it any mystery Muslims and Jews have a lot of issues with THAT seething down underneath it all?

Hell, there are probably legions of modern-day self-proclaimed holy men over there on both sides declaring God’s telling them they have to sacrifice their genetic cousins.  And legions of others on both sides listening and believing.

It sure as hell wouldn’t surprise me.

And I should mention, legions of people in the church-houses all over Europe and the US are cheering for Israel.  Because there’s a trophy if Israel land-grabs the temple mount and builds a new temple where the Mosque sits.

Got that?  Tears down the Mosque on the temple mount which doesn’t belong to them.  And rebuilds the Hebrew temple that used to sit there.

The prize, Christians believe, is the Second Coming of Christ.  As predicted by John the Divine or someone.  When Solomon’s temple is rebuilt Christ will return.

Well jeeze.  No wonder everyone’s ignoring these temporary acts of savagery Israel’s doing on the cousins.  It’s only temporary because everything will be set straight when Christ comes back.  According to the Bible or something, I reckons.

Need to read through this again, or have you got it tucked together in your minds in ways you can understand it?

Old Jules

The shared genetic heritage of Jews and Palestinians

http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2009/01/shared-genetic-heritage-of-jews-and.html

By Tomas Rees

The Times recently carried this unusual report on an Israeli Jew (Tsvi Misinai, a retired computer expert) who’s hoping to prove that Palestinians are descended from Jews. Apparently, he thinks that proving this will help to stop the bloodshed. His idea is that modern Jews are descended from emigration in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The Jews who stayed put in Palestine converted to Islam, and became Palestinian Arabs. There’s hope that genetic tests might be able to prove this.Well, there is good news and bad news on that score.The good news is that the genetics of Arabs and Jews have been pretty extensively researched. The classic study dates to 2000, from a team lead by Michael Hammer of University of Arizona. They looked at Y-chromosome haplotypes – this is the genetic material passed from father to son down the generations.

What they revealed was that Arabs and Jews are essentially a single population, and that Palestinians are slap bang in the middle of the different Jewish populations (as shown in this figure).

Another team, lead by Almut Nebel at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, took a closer look in 2001. They found that Jewish lineages essentially bracket Muslim Kurds, but they were also very closely related to Palestinians. In fact, what their analysis suggested was that Palestinians were identical to Jews, but with a small mix of Arab genes – what you would expect if they were originally from the same stock, but that Palestinians had mixed a little with Arab immigrants. They conclude:

We propose that the Y chromosomes in Palestinian Arabs and Bedouin represent, to a large extent, early lineages derived from the Neolithic inhabitants of the area and additional lineages from more-recent population movements. The early lineages are part of the common chromosome pool shared with Jews (Nebel et al. 2000). According to our working model, the more-recent migrations were mostly from the Arabian Peninsula…

So, as far as male lineage goes, the genetic story is very clear. Palestinians and Jews are virtually indistinguishable.

Women are a bit more tricky…
Up until last year, the matrilineal heritage of Jews also seemed pretty clear. Analysis of elements in mitochondrial DNA (which is passed from mother to daughter) seemed to show that Jewish populations around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East were derived from at least 8 unrelated ‘founding mothers’.

Where they came from wasn’t clear, but the most likely explanation was that they were from local populations that bred with immigrant Jewish males. Their offspring became absorbed into the Jewish community.

In 2008, a more sophisticated analysis was published that made use of whole mitochondrial DNA sequences. They found no evidence for the genetic bottle necks that indicate founding mothers in the large Jewish populations. Instead, they found a complicated picture with a very diverse gene pool suggesting intermarriage both with local populations and other Jewish groups.

The overall conclusion is that the female Jewish line deviates a lot more from the Palestinian heritage than the male line, but the heritage is still there.

So that’s the good news. Jews and Palestinian Arabs are blood brothers – although this close genetic relationship probably stems from pre-Judaic times, rather than any more recent conversion of Palestinian Jews to Islam.

And the bad news? Well, this basic story has been known for the best part of a decade now. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, it hasn’t lead to the warring sides laying down their weapons and engaging in a group hug. This is a religious conflict, not a genetic one.

Mr Misinai is, sadly, on a hiding to nothing.

Getting Israel behind us – Let God give them financial aid and weaponry

Stand with Israel harper tx

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Back during the Yom Kipper War, Six Days War, one of those, I recall a friend named Victor Sturm, an atheist, commenting the Israeli military prowess was almost enough to make him believe in God.  I think that was true for most of us, whether we were atheists, or not.  Israel’s always been easy to support.

During all those years everyone I was acquainted with felt badly about what was done to the Jews in Germany, and supporting the secular state of Israel seemed one of the ways to compensate.  In those days television would play a German Holocaust movie at the drop of a hat to keep it fresh on the minds.  I recall during the Cambodian killing fields times the only thing competing on television was constant reminders of the German camps.  Same was true when millions of Biafra folks were dying like flies.  It was always “Yeah, but look what happened in Germany to Jews!”

Well, we’re a lot more informed these days.  Germany was one of the places where one hell of a lot of people were systematically persecuted and killed.  One of the places, and Jews were one of the targets.

Fact is nobody cares about all that.  Nobody cares about atrocities and genocides.  Including Israel.  Nobody lifted a finger to stop Cambodia, Biafra, and a dozen other places where the death counts got into six figures or higher.  And WWII sure as hell wasn’t fought about what Germans were doing in those camps to Jews and Gypsies.  Nor what the Japanese were doing to the Chinese and other countries they occupied.

Justifying US involvement in WWII because of Hitler’s camps is pure fabrication by hindsight.  Nobody before Pearl Harbor gave a popcorn fart what Hitler was doing to Jews.  And the Jews fleeing Germany were having one hell of a time finding any country willing to take them.  They were stacking up like cordwood in Spain and Portugal because Britain, the US and almost everyone else didn’t want any more than they had already.

So when the dust settled Israel was formed to assuage the guilt feelings of the US population, the British, everyone who sat by with their thumbs up their butts at a time when they might have saved a lot of lives.  Christian religious fanatics in all the civilized countries loved the idea.  It carried the undertone suggesting somehow God was involved in all this, letting his Chosen People return to the Promised Land.

It might have worked out fairly well.  If Israel hadn’t turned out to be as savage, greedy and lacking in human compassion as the rest of humanity, it could have worked out.  Likely as not they could have settled in, shaken hands with the new neighbors and worked together to make the world a better place.

But that couldn’t happen.  Israel was won by terrorism and terrorists, and it’s continued to indulge in State terrorism from the day it was founded.  The Israeli government continues to grab land outside the boundaries established by the United Nations, continues to slaughter the neighbors without conscience, and blames everything on the people they’re robbing and slaughtering.

And nobody’s quicker on the draw with playing the race card than Israeli supporters.  Anyone who tries to examine the behavior of Israel critically is immediately accused of hating Jews, being an anti-Semite.  It’s happened right here in the comments of blog posts whenever Israel received critical examination.  Or even in response to pleas that they resort to peace occasionally just for the novelty.

Savagery and blaming the victims, same as the US has done countless times in countless places.  Same as the Russians, the Japanese, the Chinese, the British, the French.

Hell, the contagion of being Chosen People must have been awfully damned infectious to have infected so much of humanity with Hebrew Biblical behavior.

Israel has passed the Modern Civilization 101 course in greed, aggression, brutality, callous disregard for human suffering and tedious self-aggrandizement.  It’s time to put them up there with the Great Nations and let them sink or swim among the sharks.

I think they might make it for a while.  Because when we have to get along with our neighbors to survive, we tend to become circumspect and reasonable in ways we’d never thought of when we were being mollycoddled and pampered as though we could do no wrong.

The US is bankrupt, though it doesn’t admit it.  Our industry’s all gone to Asia.  Our weaponry’s all designed and manufactured by Asians.  A time is coming when US foreign aid will be a footnote in history.  Along with US military prowess.

But we can be confident Israel will probably be the recipient of the last US foreign aid dollar to be sent anywhere, despite famines and disease where they really need it.

Old Jules

 

 

Deja vu all over again Middle East-wise

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

All this new slaughter in Gaza isn’t really new, is it?  Neither new, nor unexpected.  In fact it qualifies as habitual, maybe to the point of addiction.  And  possibly another land-grab for which the two sovereign nations involved are famous from so long ago the years ran backward.

I posted this a year ago because a lot of people tend to forget what’s behind the post-1947 troubles in the area.  Forget that people lived there since anyone could remember and viewed it as ‘their’ land.  When European Zionists began pouring into the country pre-WWII after being absent the place for 2000 years, it wasn’t empty.  The houses had people living in them.  The farms had families working them who had been working them hundreds of years.  Palestinians.

And it’s legitimate to ask whether the current slaughter is part of another Israeli land grab.  Once they conquer a place they tend to send in settlers, and think in long terms.  Heck, they invaded Lebonon and occupied it almost 20 years before they decided they just couldn’t stand the price of annexing it.  And when they retreated they left chaos behind them.

So buy yourself a bag of popcorn and cheer for the Israeli Army out there snagging some more real estate.  Luckily it’s just Palestinians they’re taking it away from.  They’re used to it.

A year is so short everything in it looks the same:

 

Israel and Ireland Boundaries – A cause for Non-Zionist Confusion

Reference the preceding post: I was probably negligent by not pointing out part of the reason for sustained peace in Ireland is the respect for established borders. Borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland haven’t changed significantly since they were agreed to by both sides. No understanding would be gained by posting a map of Ireland.

Israel is a comparatively young, new nation. Zionists evidently tend to harken back to Biblical times when they consider boundaries. They probably don’t understand that the older, more mature nations take borders seriously.

And the borders of Israel haven’t changed since 1966. The Palestinians own East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Syria owns the Golan Heights. However, 300,000 Israeli settlers occupy the West Bank. 200,000 Israeli setters live in East jerusalem.

map israel UN partition 1947

On the other hand, here’s a map of Israel when it was established by the UN in 1947, and recognized by the US in 1948.

map israel pre 1967 borders

Here’s a more detailed map of the pre-1967 borders of Israel with later claims by Israel shown in red.

Here’s Israel and the occupied areas today.

Map israel and occupied territories

In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza. But it maintains a strong security force in both places.

Every country probably wishes more land was contained within its borders. However, most modern countries recognize if they attempt to occupy territories belonging to other countries they’ll draw criticism from some quarters. Often the people living in the areas being occupied.

Israel could make a far stronger case for being a peace-loving country, a more believable case in the eyes on non-Zionists, by withdrawing to areas the world recognizes are contained within its established borders.

Otherwise it will forever having to fall back on the argument that everyone just hates Jews is the only reason for all the problems with neighbors. An outward sign of a desire for peace sometime during the past 50 years might have gone a long way toward achieving it.

Some strategy along the lines Ireland’s used, maybe.

Old Jules

Israeli strong man Netanyahu vows to avenge casualties suffered by occupation forces.

Hi readers.  Those two disabled female freedom fighters killed by Israeli occupation forces when they shelled a Gaza Handicapped Center are only the first step, Netanyahu said.

 “We are more determined than ever to find a final solution to this Palestinian issue.  Henceforth all non-Jewish occupants of the Israeli/Palestine region will be required to wear yellow stars sewn in plain view onto their outer clothing.”  The Israeli strong man went on to tell newsmen of remote ‘special camps’ his government is building to deal with unemployed troublesome Palestinians.

Masada will not fall again,” Netanyahu declared, “If we have to preemptively kill every man, woman and child in the occupied territories to prevent it!”  The strong man went on to assure US and British journalists that “Once we get this Palestinian issue resolved Israeli will not seek to conquer additional territories.  Unless we are provoked.

Onlookers cheered and enthusiastic Zionists swooned in anticipation for putting the vacated lands to use as kibbutzes.

Old Jules

Palestine and Israel – Their Movies

Hi readers.  Here are some fairly watchable movies streaming on Netflix portraying how the people in the troubled land of Israel and the areas it occupies outside its established borders, and the people on both sides, would have you view them:
 
Omar 2013NR 98 minutes With his girlfriend, Nadia, living on the other side of an Israeli-built boundary wall, young Palestinian Omar regularly scales it to visit her. More Info  Starring: Adam Bakri, Samer Bisharat  Director: Hany Abu-Assad

 Tehilim  2007 NR 95 minutes .  When Eli Frankel gets into a minor car accident with his sons, he sends the older one to get help. But when the boy returns, his father is gone. More Info Starring:Michael Moshonov, Limor Goldstein Director:Raphaël Nadjari

Curfew 1994 NR 71 minutes .  This pointed drama portrays a day in the life of a Palestinian family — a day that quickly changes when the Israeli military imposes a local curfew. More Info Starring:Salim Dau, Na’ila Zayaad
Director:Rashid Masharawi

 A Bottle in the Gaza Sea 2011NR 99 minutes Newly arrived in Israel, a French teen struggling to understand the violence around her develops an unlikely connection with a young Palestinian man. More Info Starring: Agathe Bonitzer, Mahmud Shalaby Director: Thierry Binisti

Haifa 1996NR 72 minutes This social drama set in a Palestinian refugee camp portrays a broad cast of characters struggling to get by in uncertain times. More Info Starring: Mohammed Bakri, Ahmad Abu Sal’oum Director: Rashid Masharawi
 
Room 5142012NR91 minutesHeder 514 An investigator in the Israeli military is ordered to interrogate a senior officer who has been accused of abusing an Arab family. Cast: Asia Naifeld, Guy Kapulnik, Rafi Kalmar Genre: Dramas, Foreign Movies, Crime Dramas, Foreign Dramas This movie is: Provocative 
 
 Inch’Allah2012R101 minutes Political tensions take on personal overtones when a Canadian doctor living in Israel befriends a patient at a refugee camp in Palestine.

Cast: Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy Genre: Dramas, Independent Movies, Social Issue  dramas independent Dramas This movie is: Gritty, Dark
 
Yossi 2012NR84 minutes While driving through a remote part of Israel, a closeted gay doctor crosses paths with a group of soldiers who inspire him to live life in the open. Cast: Ohad Knoller, Oz Zehavi, Lior Ashkenazi Genre: Dramas, Foreign Movies, Romantic Movies, Gay & Lesbian Movies This movie is: Understated, Romantic
 
 Off White Lies 2011NR89 minutesOrhim le-rega Thirteen-year-old Libi is sent to Israel to join her father, Shaul, a wiz at white lies. But it doesn’t take long for her to chafe at his lifestyle. Cast: Gur Bentvich, Elya Inbar, Tzahi Grad Genre: Dramas, Foreign Movies, Independent Movies, Foreign Dramas This movie is: Understated, Quirky
 
 Lost Embrace 2004NR96 minutesEl Abrazo Partido / Le Fils d’Elias A young Argentinean man yearns to understand why his father left shortly after his birth to fight a war in Israel — and why he never returned. Cast: Daniel Hendler, Adriana Aizemberg, Jorge D’Elia Genre: Dramas, Foreign Movies, Foreign Dramas, Latin American Movies This movie is: Understated
 
The Time That Remains 2011NR 109 minutes From Israel’s creation in 1948 through the early 21st century, a Palestinian family experiences triumphs and tragedies over the course of generations. More Info Starring: Ali Suliman, Elia Suleiman Director: Elia Suleiman
 
5 Broken Cameras 2011NR 94 minutes This Oscar-nominated documentary centers on Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer trying to make a living amid Israeli occupation. More Info Starring: Emad Burnat Directors: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
 
Probably a person shouldn’t form opinions based on movies.  At least not the ‘plots’ and characters of movies of a fictional nature.  But the background settings, the societies where the plots move, probably a person could allow opinions to sneak in as a consequence of those.
 
The background settings and society are more-or-less taken for granted by the movie makers usually.  They expect their audiences to already have intimate knowledge of them, to recognize immediately if they’re flawed or don’t depict something akin to reality.
 
In that sense I’d call these movies thoroughly worthy of the time spent viewing them, as a bonus you might say.  A bonus thrown in behind the plotting, the characters, the suspense, the button pushing.
 
Old Jules
 
 

Iraq? US? Weird weird weird! How many trillion did you say?

Hi readers.  Nowhere in the modern world.  Maybe nowhere in the history of the planet has a nation squandered such treasure and so many lives for absolutely nothing.

Nothing.

Iraq.   I-freaking-rock.  Invaded the damned place twice.  Presidents of both parties sent men and women to waste away there, then left Iraq in chaos and ruin for the first set of armed fanatics to arrive.  From all directions.

Hell, the French caused the Vietnam War and a lot of what’s happening in the Arab lands today in their incompetent dealings with their vanished empire, but they’d have to tip their hats to us on this.  They only lost Algeria and Vietnam etc, and their own country to the Germans.  And they did most of it with money from US taxpayers by pretending to have been an ally during WWII so’s we owed them money to rebuild. 

But even with US money the French couldn’t get up there in the neighborhood of a billion dollars a day.

It took two Bushes, a Clinton, and this guy now to pull that off.

So now nobody knows where any of the borders are to Iraq, and the only people who probably won’t end up with a piece of it are the Israelis.  Not for lack of wishing, threatening with nuclear weapons,  and thumb sucking.  Be assured.

US foreign policy use to make a certain amount of sense unless you viewed it from a distance.  But I think we’ve finally reached the point where it ceased making any sense and nobody in his right mind would attempt to make sense of it.

That way lies madness.

Olde Jules