Thank you, Diane for an excellent blog and one that touches on all the right issues. I noticed that you, yourself, did not take a position, but you let Prof, Zimmerman (a truly wise and righteous man) do it for you.
Yes, there can be no other solution that can be called just and humanitarian than a two-state solution. It is a painful one for Israel because the territory is tiny and getting pretty crowded. And then there is the religious issue that so many Zionist Jews believe strongly that God gave the territory to the chosen people. Many of the Zionists have expanded their control and territorial possessions by unlawfully expelling Palestinians from the West Bank to accommodate their holdings. The judicial system in Israel heavily favors Jews so Palestinians do not have much of a chance for justice. And the demographics create another layer of complexity because the ultra-religious and nationalist Jews also have the largest families and they are a growing political force rather than a static or receding one.
It's time for the Jews who understand all this and disdain Netanyahu - including those in the Diaspora - to stop wringing their hands in desperation and take a strong position. There are times when a patient has to be forced to take some distasteful medicine as the only way to save his life. Doctors do it all the time when they cut off a gangrenous limb to prevent a fatal infection from spreading to the rest of the body. President Biden understands this and is to be credited for taking a principled and eminently just position despite the political cost to himself.
Don't sell yourself short, Diane......I've noticeded that many people in "higher pay grades" have some shallow, callow, and silly solutions.....like encouraging Russia to attack NATO countries that fail to reach the 2% mark. Or like bringing peace to Ukraine in 24 hours. What if Putin says "hell no....I won't let you push me around...no concessions from me?" So what will Trump do then? Impose sanctions, bomb the Kremlin? The only way he'll broker "peace" is to twist Zelensky's arm. But Zelensky can get that kind of "peace" any time without Trump's help.
A two-stade solution looks like an unrealistic one. “We cannot understand October 7 without knowing History.” If you want to do just that, read the Israeli historian Schlomo Sand latest book: Two Peoples for One State.
“For my part, I am not “for” a binational state, I say that we have no other solution. Eight hundred and fifty thousand Israelis, and among them six ministers, live in the West Bank, and these people will not be torn from the place where they live. Two million Arabs are integrated into Israel. I don't see how we can be separated. I am for a kind of federation as advocated by Menachem Begin ... There is no future here for my grandchildren without the Palestinians. So I am for a federation, a confederation, whatever. Remember that the peaceful Swiss, before the Confederal State of 1848, were tearing each other apart! We must fight against Hamas, but give hope to those who agree to live alongside us. We must recognize the tragedy of 1948, and partially correct the injustice suffered. It is a painful process but we have no choice.”
Tk you for your continued impt info. However, I cannot see an 'out' on this that is acceptable to 'all the parties' affected in this massive war zone. Hamas certainly has be eradicated but the solution, wrapped in a spider's web of options, is beyond my understanding. (**As a side note - I am reading a book called 'The Showman' - about Pres Zelensky's rise in Ukr. VERY well done by Simon Shuster. On pages 132 - 136 he writes about Trump's -he was president at the time - collusion with Giuliani to frame both Biden and his son getting a position on a very rich company board - & American bought the fabricated story. This book is really well done. Hope you can comment on it some time.)( page 150 reveals why Zelensky said that a 'butcher like Putin' having the right to veto UN mandates makes the UN worth dismantling.)
This is all so interesting-- I am looking at in now from a view that all this escalating trouble has come from “thinking”, believing in that thinking, and looking at life only in the ways of self justification and the centrality and importance of you and yours only. We are all on this planet with other people, some much more unpleasantly so than others, and the question is, How are we going to handle it? Moving away or killing off those others are the most time honored approaches for people, from the evidence of history. Next are probably domination and control to the point of enslavement. The territory of feeling in Israel seems to be batting around amongst these desires. Outside the flames of passion are weak voices bleating reminders of shared humanity, mutual tolerance and respectful structures which would allow each other to live and even cooperate. But the passions favor revenge and annihilation. Eventually the current fires will die out, quieted temporarily by an even harder structure of domination with words promising a lightening of controls in the future based on “good” behavior, ie, a perfect record of submission, a veneer of fine words, and of course, much money handed around by the U.S.
Your writing makes me wonder if events in Israel present us with an analog, compressed in space and time, of events in the US and a projection of one possible outcome running through the present and into the future. The US experience from 9/11 may have predicted the Israeli response to 10/7, and Israeli experience post 10/7 could predict the fallout from one outcome for the US should he MAGA wing gain control of the government. There seems to be a lot of harmony here ...
[Just read that the EU is considering using the frozen funds of Russia - the interest it has been generating - to use for rebuilding UKR. The last line made me laugh out loud. Putin said basically that it would be illegal to do that & HE would use the Courts to stop it, basically. A man who murders, poisons, destroys, etc. wants a Court of Law to support him? I'm still laughing.]
Yes, Putin likes the veneer of respectability and authoritativeness that the language of law provides. He got a law degree in his early career, I think at the advice of someone from the KGB. That was the organization he always wanted to be part of, the dominant gang in his country. The false appearance of legality, a cynical employment of “the rule of law”.
We see so much of this now in the US too. I am sickened by it and fear the future it prepares.
It may be "failing" to some people but it is not a failed state. The definition is: the presence of an insurgency, extreme political corruption, overwhelming crime rates suggestive of an incapacitated police force, an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics.
For so many years/centuries in the Middle East, so much death, so much anger, so much hatred against certain cultures, religions, etc..., so many different players who want to annihilate specific groups, and so much corruption, I just don't see any long-lasting solution. Israel / Netanyahu are simply adding to this complex matrix.
Netanyahu's role in the October 7 assault has been very suspect from the start, for me. How could Israel ignore the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War AND Putain's birthday? How could everyone have been asleep at the wheel when the cameras went off? I just don't buy it. Didn't then, don't now. I sure hope Israelis get rid of their criminal president soon.
People need to see this from another angle. Hamas is sucking BiBi to attack and keep attacking they are turning many to hate the Jews. BiBi is falling into the trap. It is about turning up the heat to broil and have youth attack the Jewish community that is what not just Hamas wants but Iran. They are the ones who use their allies to turn the world to hate not just Israel but you see the Anti Semitism that is what Hamas wants. It is Iran Mullah's that hate the Jews not just Israel. Hamas is using the Palestinians as shields. It is all about how many they allow to be killed and used as propaganda to as I said turn the world to hate. Hamas is using psychological warfare and BiBi is falling into as I said the trap. They know BiBi will keep pushing and that is what they want. Reason why Hamas was so ruthless they wanted a military attack.
Perhaps worth mentioning that Joe Biden reportedly recently called Netanyahu an a..eh..e. Biden is a moderate man supporting Israel and finds Netanyahu impossible. He is disliked by most of his people. Is he now toast Diane?
We would be naive to think that Israelis aren't paying off Palestinians for information, and they are willing to oblige I think they can enter Rafah sugically with improving intelligence as to locating terrorists while the footprint gets smaller. Nobody wants to see the hostages killed, but if it takes 1,500 soldiers to free 150 hostages - - -
Thank you, Diane for an excellent blog and one that touches on all the right issues. I noticed that you, yourself, did not take a position, but you let Prof, Zimmerman (a truly wise and righteous man) do it for you.
Yes, there can be no other solution that can be called just and humanitarian than a two-state solution. It is a painful one for Israel because the territory is tiny and getting pretty crowded. And then there is the religious issue that so many Zionist Jews believe strongly that God gave the territory to the chosen people. Many of the Zionists have expanded their control and territorial possessions by unlawfully expelling Palestinians from the West Bank to accommodate their holdings. The judicial system in Israel heavily favors Jews so Palestinians do not have much of a chance for justice. And the demographics create another layer of complexity because the ultra-religious and nationalist Jews also have the largest families and they are a growing political force rather than a static or receding one.
It's time for the Jews who understand all this and disdain Netanyahu - including those in the Diaspora - to stop wringing their hands in desperation and take a strong position. There are times when a patient has to be forced to take some distasteful medicine as the only way to save his life. Doctors do it all the time when they cut off a gangrenous limb to prevent a fatal infection from spreading to the rest of the body. President Biden understands this and is to be credited for taking a principled and eminently just position despite the political cost to himself.
Solutions are beyond my pay grade, only reportage and balance. Professor Zimmermann must be heeded. His message is profoundly important.
Don't sell yourself short, Diane......I've noticeded that many people in "higher pay grades" have some shallow, callow, and silly solutions.....like encouraging Russia to attack NATO countries that fail to reach the 2% mark. Or like bringing peace to Ukraine in 24 hours. What if Putin says "hell no....I won't let you push me around...no concessions from me?" So what will Trump do then? Impose sanctions, bomb the Kremlin? The only way he'll broker "peace" is to twist Zelensky's arm. But Zelensky can get that kind of "peace" any time without Trump's help.
A two-stade solution looks like an unrealistic one. “We cannot understand October 7 without knowing History.” If you want to do just that, read the Israeli historian Schlomo Sand latest book: Two Peoples for One State.
“For my part, I am not “for” a binational state, I say that we have no other solution. Eight hundred and fifty thousand Israelis, and among them six ministers, live in the West Bank, and these people will not be torn from the place where they live. Two million Arabs are integrated into Israel. I don't see how we can be separated. I am for a kind of federation as advocated by Menachem Begin ... There is no future here for my grandchildren without the Palestinians. So I am for a federation, a confederation, whatever. Remember that the peaceful Swiss, before the Confederal State of 1848, were tearing each other apart! We must fight against Hamas, but give hope to those who agree to live alongside us. We must recognize the tragedy of 1948, and partially correct the injustice suffered. It is a painful process but we have no choice.”
17,000 Palestinian children have become orphaned since
Oct. 7. Approximately 27,000
Palestinians have died since
then. 1.4 million Palestinians
are crammed into Rafah and
under attack to clear out Hamas.
Beyond Israel's northern border, Hezbolla and Hamas,
plus others financed by Iran
and surely Russia, wait. Iran
has stated publicly they want
Israel destroyed.
This is a very hot mess.
Diane, thank you for your
in depth reporting. For
peeling back the layers of
the different factions within
Israel itself, that give us a
more clear insight.
Tk you for your continued impt info. However, I cannot see an 'out' on this that is acceptable to 'all the parties' affected in this massive war zone. Hamas certainly has be eradicated but the solution, wrapped in a spider's web of options, is beyond my understanding. (**As a side note - I am reading a book called 'The Showman' - about Pres Zelensky's rise in Ukr. VERY well done by Simon Shuster. On pages 132 - 136 he writes about Trump's -he was president at the time - collusion with Giuliani to frame both Biden and his son getting a position on a very rich company board - & American bought the fabricated story. This book is really well done. Hope you can comment on it some time.)( page 150 reveals why Zelensky said that a 'butcher like Putin' having the right to veto UN mandates makes the UN worth dismantling.)
Thanks for the book recommendation!!
This is all so interesting-- I am looking at in now from a view that all this escalating trouble has come from “thinking”, believing in that thinking, and looking at life only in the ways of self justification and the centrality and importance of you and yours only. We are all on this planet with other people, some much more unpleasantly so than others, and the question is, How are we going to handle it? Moving away or killing off those others are the most time honored approaches for people, from the evidence of history. Next are probably domination and control to the point of enslavement. The territory of feeling in Israel seems to be batting around amongst these desires. Outside the flames of passion are weak voices bleating reminders of shared humanity, mutual tolerance and respectful structures which would allow each other to live and even cooperate. But the passions favor revenge and annihilation. Eventually the current fires will die out, quieted temporarily by an even harder structure of domination with words promising a lightening of controls in the future based on “good” behavior, ie, a perfect record of submission, a veneer of fine words, and of course, much money handed around by the U.S.
Your writing makes me wonder if events in Israel present us with an analog, compressed in space and time, of events in the US and a projection of one possible outcome running through the present and into the future. The US experience from 9/11 may have predicted the Israeli response to 10/7, and Israeli experience post 10/7 could predict the fallout from one outcome for the US should he MAGA wing gain control of the government. There seems to be a lot of harmony here ...
[Just read that the EU is considering using the frozen funds of Russia - the interest it has been generating - to use for rebuilding UKR. The last line made me laugh out loud. Putin said basically that it would be illegal to do that & HE would use the Courts to stop it, basically. A man who murders, poisons, destroys, etc. wants a Court of Law to support him? I'm still laughing.]
Yes, Putin likes the veneer of respectability and authoritativeness that the language of law provides. He got a law degree in his early career, I think at the advice of someone from the KGB. That was the organization he always wanted to be part of, the dominant gang in his country. The false appearance of legality, a cynical employment of “the rule of law”.
We see so much of this now in the US too. I am sickened by it and fear the future it prepares.
Excellent thank you
is Israel a failed nation?
It may be "failing" to some people but it is not a failed state. The definition is: the presence of an insurgency, extreme political corruption, overwhelming crime rates suggestive of an incapacitated police force, an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics.
Would Haiti be an example?
Yep
L
thanks
Thank you, Diane,
For so many years/centuries in the Middle East, so much death, so much anger, so much hatred against certain cultures, religions, etc..., so many different players who want to annihilate specific groups, and so much corruption, I just don't see any long-lasting solution. Israel / Netanyahu are simply adding to this complex matrix.
Netanyahu's role in the October 7 assault has been very suspect from the start, for me. How could Israel ignore the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War AND Putain's birthday? How could everyone have been asleep at the wheel when the cameras went off? I just don't buy it. Didn't then, don't now. I sure hope Israelis get rid of their criminal president soon.
People need to see this from another angle. Hamas is sucking BiBi to attack and keep attacking they are turning many to hate the Jews. BiBi is falling into the trap. It is about turning up the heat to broil and have youth attack the Jewish community that is what not just Hamas wants but Iran. They are the ones who use their allies to turn the world to hate not just Israel but you see the Anti Semitism that is what Hamas wants. It is Iran Mullah's that hate the Jews not just Israel. Hamas is using the Palestinians as shields. It is all about how many they allow to be killed and used as propaganda to as I said turn the world to hate. Hamas is using psychological warfare and BiBi is falling into as I said the trap. They know BiBi will keep pushing and that is what they want. Reason why Hamas was so ruthless they wanted a military attack.
Perhaps worth mentioning that Joe Biden reportedly recently called Netanyahu an a..eh..e. Biden is a moderate man supporting Israel and finds Netanyahu impossible. He is disliked by most of his people. Is he now toast Diane?
who Biden or Netanyahu? Biden's not toast necessarily but we'll find out this fall
I meant Netanyahu is disliked by most of his people and is he toast? Well Biden is not toast and I am an admirer.
We would be naive to think that Israelis aren't paying off Palestinians for information, and they are willing to oblige I think they can enter Rafah sugically with improving intelligence as to locating terrorists while the footprint gets smaller. Nobody wants to see the hostages killed, but if it takes 1,500 soldiers to free 150 hostages - - -