December 5, 2023 - A Legion of Liars, Israel & Hamas, the Dangers of Extremism, and more on Assisted Living

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The Republican Illness and its Cure - Rx

The fact that a majority of Republicans in the House did not vote for the expulsion from Congress of pathological and chronic liar George Santos shows that they still consider 'lying' to be a legitimate political tool.  (Before retiring to Florida 22 years ago, I lived in an area that would have been part of his congressional district.)  Lies seem to be the hallmark of the G.O.P., and the basis of their likely 2024 presidential candidate's campaign.

Those of us who recognize the American voters' frequent willingness for a variety of reasons to believe Republican lies should be preparing, at least mentally, and possibly otherwise, for what we will do if the unthinkable happens in November, and meanwhile, working hard to make sure that it does not.

Rx: No thinking American should vote for any Republican at any level whatsoever, from school boards on up to the White House. The fact that they do not abandon the Republican label on their candidacy should remind voters that they still belong to a party where right-wing extremists who live in an alternate reality based on lies call the shots.

 

JL

 

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More About Lies

And speaking of lies, Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director in charge of counter-intelligence, sets out the facts about Trump’s lies concerning the few ‘documents’ that were found in the possession of President Biden and former vice-president Pence, all of which were quickly returned to where they belonged. 

As it stands now, the DOJ’s case regarding the many documents Trump illegally retained, hid at Mar-a-Lago, and for which he obstructed the FBI’s search for many months, is being heard by a Trump-appointed judge in Florida whose intention seems to be to permit delays well into the next decade.

Read the article (that appeared on MSNBC’s site) by copying and pasting this on your browser line: 

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-biden-classified-documents-rcna127307?cid=eml_mda_20231204&user_email=033d2070fe1faa4dfea53a4950e7d0ed837513fd06d41e88f2d7b6b7c74af785

or by CLICKING HERE.

(And speaking of Frank Figliuzzi, up until about a year or so ago, when he was seen on MSNBC, the location from which he was speaking was obvious. Then, that was changed to a painted mountain scene as the background.  I wonder if that was for security purposes.  Try to read ‘between the lines.’)

Among the litany of lies that pour from the mouth of Donald Trump, as reported by David Leonhardt in the online New York Times’ ‘Morning’ on December 5 are “promising to use the powers of the federal government to punish people he perceives to be his critics and opponents, including the Biden family, district attorneys, journalists and ‘the deep state.’ He has suggested that Mark Milley, a retired top general, deserves the death penalty. Trump has called President Biden ‘an enemy of the state’ and Nancy Pelosi ‘the Wicked Witch.’ He has accused former President Barack Obama — ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ in Trump’s telling — of directing Biden to admit ‘terrorists and terrorist sympathizers’ into the U.S.”

Could he be any clearer as to his intentions?  And even a magician cannot disassociate these warnings from the political party that refuses to deny them and is likely to run this person for president again!

Finally, Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney's new book, ‘Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning,’ just came out.  In it, she recounts what happened inside her own party in the weeks before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the capitol following the 2020 presidential election. Recently, speaking to an NPR reporter, Cheney warned that a second Trump presidency threatens democracy and says the Republican party of today does not represent her.

Her words: "If the party goes down the path of nominating Donald Trump, certainly, the party itself will have lost any claim to be a party that is, in fact, supportive of the constitution."

So expelling George Santos from the House of Representatives, a body in which he never should have been seated in the first place, does not rid the Republican Party of its major political tool …  Lies!

If something comes out of the mouth of a Republican, take it with the proverbial grain of salt (or even he whole salt shaker) because it is likely to be just another lie.  They are truly a legion of liars.

JL

 

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 Assisted Living Not What it Should Be

The shortcomings of expensive privately owned assisted living facilities were highlighted right here in recent postings on Jackspotpourri.  The issue will not go away.  People grow older with each passing day and today’s medical advances keep them alive and relatively well far longer. Private long-term care insurance has failed because the insurance industry’s actuaries never anticipated so many people living such long lives.

Here’s another scary report from the New York Times in the form of an opinion piece by David Leonhardt.  Copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/briefing/health-care.html

on your browser line, or  JUST CLICK HERE. And pass it on to anyone over age 65 (and their children) that you know!

Several possible answers to the questions raised by these articles include:      

• making private profit-making assisted living available through Medicare (It is already available via Medicaid, but only available to those once its costs have impoverished them, and only if a facility willing to take lower Medicaid payments can be found), 
• federal rather than State regulation and monitoring of these facilities,    
• entirely removing ownership of such facilities from the investment marketplace, and   
• providing financial incentives to replace such facilities with care in the homes of children or other relatives, where they historically have been.

 … or a combination of them.

 JL

 

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The Israeli-Hamas War and Extremism

Hamas missiles being launched from Gaza City

It is clear that the launching sites for the missiles pictured above are in the middle of an urban area within the Gaza Strip.  It is unavoidable that non-combatants will be killed so long as Hamas locates its launch sites, and other military installations, in this manner, an attempt to avoid Israeli attacks on them.

It amounts to their saying that Israel can choose between the risk of not attacking such missile sites or doing so and being blamed for killing non-combatant civilians.  If Hamas launched missiles from Gaza’s beaches, for example, the sites would be quickly destroyed by Israel bombing, without civilian casualties.  But having Israel kill Palestinian civilians is part of Hamas’ plan.

Regardless of the outcome of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas must be destroyed.  Its pledge to eliminate the State of Israel makes that a necessity.  Reported attempts by Hamas to target missiles toward Israel’s nuclear facilities might explain the very aggressive and thorough level of military activity by Israel’s forces within the Gaza Strip in carrying out the necessary destruction of Hamas.

For humanitarian reasons, it is unfortunate that the temporary pause in hostilities and the return of hostages is not continuing, but as desirable as it was, the resumption of Israeli efforts to destroy Hamas must continue in view of Hamas’ stated objective.  A more permanent cease-fire, which these 'pauses' are steps toward, would amount to a Hamas victory because they ignore cease-fires anyway.  One was in force on October 7.

While places to which non-combatant Gazans can flee within Gaza are shrinking, the neighboring Muslim nations still refuse to welcome them as refugees. This has always been their ‘non-solution,’ first refusing refugees fleeing from the parts of Palestine lost in their unsuccessful war to destroy Israel in 1967, and now from Gaza. These nations are not without blame.

Only with the destruction of Hamas (or at least its complete, total, and permanent military degrading) will Israel and the Palestinians then be able to work toward a peaceable two-state solution.  That is the great fear of Palestinian extremists who want to wipe out the State of Israel, and of Israeli extremists who insist that the State of Israel should encompass all of Palestine, including ‘occupied territories’ beyond the existing borders of the State of Israel.

I have made this point repeatedly in postings on Jackspotpourri.  It is up to both Israelis and Palestinians to stop the extremists in their midst from determining their future.

We accomplished that in the United States In 1964, when an American presidential candidate (Barry Goldwater) praised ‘extremism’ by saying that  ‘extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.’   He was wrong and the voters turned him down in an election rout, (he only received 38.5% of the popular vote), although many Republicans today still believe those words. 

Take my word for it, right now, today, ‘extremism’ on either side in the Israel-Palestinian dispute is indeed a vice, and one that can delay or even prevent a solution there.

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do.  And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.

If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

 

JL

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December 1, 2023 - Tackling, Trump, Cease-Fires, Solutions for Israel, Free Speech, and Dying Broke

 

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How to Tackle a Ball Carrier … or a Former President 

I’ve watched a lot of professional and college football on TV lately.  As its season reaches its climax with bowl games and championships, I have one recommendation to improve the game.

Tackling should be primarily aimed at stopping the progress of a ball carrier, and not at dislodging the ball from their grasp.  If they happen to drop the ball while being tackled, that is a legitimate ‘fumble,’ but if the primary aim of the tackler was to dislodge the ball, that should not be allowed.  There should be a distinction between stopping a runner and fighting with a runner over possession of the ball.  As I see it, grasping at the ball while making a tackle is worth a ten-yard penalty. 

(You know, this might even be allegorical to what goes on in politics these days, where taking a position opposite from that of an opponent often crosses over the line into incivility, law breaking, or might even inspire violence, as it sometimes does on the football field.  I am certain it will take much more than a ten-yard penalty to get the defeated and indicted former president, who never played football, to play by the rules.)

This tackler is giving priority to attacking the ball rather than
stopping the runner.  Otherwise his arm would be reaching
around 34’s waist.   I say it’s worth a ten-yard penalty!  
But no one agrees with me.

JL

 

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Cease-Fires and One or Two-State Solutions

One-State Solutions:  Take your choice:  (1) Israel controlling all of Palestine, with Palestinians who choose to stay as second-class citizens, or (2)  A Palestinian state ‘from the river (Jordan) to the sea with no Jews. 

Neither of these ‘one-state’ solutions can work. Either will eventually lead to continued violence.  The only solution is a ‘two-state’ solution that guarantees the identity of two separate states and their survival.

Without recognizing that overarching challenge, of which the present hostilities on the Gaza Strip are just a part, that conflict cannot be permanently resolved.  Period.  End of story.  

As for a ‘cease fire’ at this time, which some are recommending, remember that the violent attack on October 7 on neighboring Israeli communities by Hamas terrorists took place during such a ‘cease fire,’ violating it!  To Hamas, ‘cease fire’ means that Israel will ‘cease firing,’ but justified by their devotion to their cause, Hamas will not.  Crazy, but that’s the way they think.

Until October 7, while Hamas missiles were being shot into Israel and Israel’s attempts to destroy where they were coming from were continuing, a ‘cease fire’ actually existed limiting other hostile acts between Hamas and Israel!  There is no reason whatsoever to believe Hamas would respect such a ‘cease fire’ now any more than they did on October 7.  That is why Israel’s military ground and other actions against Hamas must and will resume after the temporary ‘humanitarian’ pauses now in effect end.  And we are approaching that point right now. 

For a more detailed analysis of what a ‘cease fire’ really means, please check out some of Bret Stephens’ recent New York Times columns on this subject  

In particular, I suggest accessing his November 28 column by copying and pasting https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2023/nov/23/opinion-the-cease-fire-now-imposture-tfp/  on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE.  (Included in Stephens’ journalistic history are two years, 2002-2004, as Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post. Do not confuse him with others whose first name is Brett with two ‘t’s.)

Required Difficult Compromises:  To start on the path to such a two-state solution, generally following the borders in the UN’s 1947 partition plan, those Palestinians insisting on the elimination of the State of Israel, and those Israelis insisting on the right to settle on territories occupied after the Arabs' unsuccessful wars to destroy Israel in 1948 and 1967 will have to abandon these aims.   

Right now, this would mean that current Israeli and Palestinian leadership would have to be voted out of office, and that will not happen easily.  Many politicians in Israel and in Arab countries have based their careers on such ‘dead-end’ policies, which can only lead to violence.  If they have to abandon those ideas, they might have to find a legitimate job.  But it must happen.

Only then can work commence on achieving the ‘two-state’ solution described by President Biden as one 'where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side…with equal measure of freedom and dignity.’

 Any other course of action guarantees continued violence.

JL

 

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The Limits of Free Speech

Much of what we’ve witnessed on campuses and in organized pro-Hamas demonstrations over the past few weeks is not, in fact, ‘free speech,’ but rather ‘conduct’ designed specifically to harass, intimidate, and terrorize Jews.  It has given antisemites the opportunity to have a cause that would allow them to crawl out from under the shadows. Such conduct is not protected by the First Amendment.  It leads to acts of violence.

An immediate step to combat antisemitism that you might take is a donation to the Anti-Defamation League. You can do this by copying and pasting this link on your browser line, https://support.adl.org/give/174715/#!/donation/checkout , or by CLICKING HERE.

Such violence committed in this country, against Jews, or against Muslims in the form of  ‘revenge’ attacks, are totally inexcusable and should be vigorously prosecuted. 

JL

 

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Dying Broke

The preceding posting on Jackspotpourri included a link to a New York Times article about the hidden costs of Assisted Living.  It was part of a series in that newspaper entitled ‘Dying Broke.’  Here’s a link that you can copy and post on your browser line (or CLICK HERE to get there) that will give you access to all four articles that have appeared thus far in the series.  https://www.nytimes.com/series/dying-broke

With advances in medicine, and people taking better care of themselves, with fewer smokers, we are living longer than earlier generations, well beyond our ‘productive’ years, putting individual families and society as a whole, in the position of groping to find the financial resources needed to support an unexpectedly large number of people in their eighties and nineties, needing some kind of care.  Savings, investments, and insurance, all eventually depleted, are turning out to to be inadequate solutions to this problem.  In view of that, I ask if solving this problem is something for government (and all taxpayers) to take on? I don’t know.

Again, this is required reading for those over age 65 or anyone with parents over that age.

If any of you are old enough to remember the 1973 dystopian film ‘Soylent Green,’ in it the late Edward G. Robinson played a character dealing with this problem, and who found a solution which none of us would dare consider in today’s world.

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do.  And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.  If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com  

Again, I ask you to forward this posting to those you feel might benefit from it.

JL

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November 24, 2023 - Some Progress in Gaza and Assisted Living

 

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Good News: I’ve found the ‘missing’ November 8 posting that I referred to in the November 21 posting! It’s now back there in the ‘archive’ off to the right, among the November postings. The fault was mine, and not being a ‘techie,’ it took me a while to realize that it never had been deleted, but had not been properly labeled, which resulted in it not being included in date order in the ‘archive.’ It’s there now. Sorry about that. 

JL 

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Israel-Hamas-Palestine

As the negotiated pause in the Israeli-Hamas war and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for some of the hostages held in Gaza becomes a reality, we cannot ignore the fact that Hamas is still committed to the destruction of the State of Israel and Israel is still committed to the destruction of Hamas.  Although further hostage and prisoner releases will occur, and the pause will be extended, these goals still exist. 

Things will go wrong with the ‘agreement’ along the way but it will mostly work.  It’s a minor miracle that negotiations have even been taking place between parties sworn to each other’s destruction, so don’t be surprised if some delays and snags occur over the next weeks.

Israel cannot allow Hamas to remain a physical threat to its security, although its goal might be altered slightly from the destruction of Hamas to the degrading of their military capabilities. That is why Israel will resume its military actions in the Gaza Strip, between ‘pauses.’  And given the opportunity to regroup its resources, Hamas rocket attacks on Israel will certainly resume.  Hamas leadership is elusive and even difficult to identify, so ‘destroying’ Hamas is not as simple as it sounds. Hamas militants are there in the Gaza Strip but Hamas leadership is not.

Israel is becoming aware that the killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip, from whom Hamas militants and installations cannot be readily separated, has a limit beyond which Israeli military actions aimed at destroying Hamas become negatively viewed because of the civilian deaths that accompany such actions, despite the October 7 murderous actions of Hamas.  

There really is no one with whom the Israelis can work in approaching its goals other than the negotiators in Qatar and to a lesser extent in Egypt, who while having ethnic loyalties to Hamas, also are allies of the United States, chiefly because of their concerns with Iran. Meanwhile, Israel will continue to ‘degrade’ the militants’ capabilities within the Gaza Strip, at least between ‘pauses.’ They must do that.

It is clear that the kidnapping of hostages on October 7 by Hamas’ invaders of Israel was part of an overall plan whereby those hostages became Hamas’ chief bargaining tool to eventually use against Israel’s military superiority.  That happens to be against the ‘rules of war’ but they don’t care.

But any progress, however slight or sullied, leading to an overall solution to the Palestinian-Israel problem, as discussed and outlined in three recent postings on Jackspotpourri (Nov. 3, 8, and 21) is encouraging.  Please go back and read them.  In a final analysis, the Israeli-Hamas war cannot be separated from that larger problem.  And I see that President Biden is starting to make that point. 

What is becoming increasingly clear is that everyone's goal should be a 'two-state' solution.  Any other solution can only result in continued conflict.

An Israeli settlement on West Bank. More part of
the problem than a solution to it.

Right now, a 'two-state solution' is NOT the stated goal of either the State of Israel, Hamas, or many Palestinian groups. and their supporters.  Those goals must be modified.  Without doing so, the humorous statement often attributed to the late New York Yankee manager Casey Stengel would make sense:  'If you don't know where you're going, you may end up someplace else!' And that might not be a nice place.

Keep reading reliable news sources.  Good daily newspapers, in print or online versions of them, are better than TV or online social media (even Jackspotpourri).   You might even learn from occasionally looking at the news websites of Haaretz and Al Jazeera, where more opinionated views are included.

JL

 

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Assisted Living Facilities

Senior Citizens are increasingly looking to what are called ‘assisted living’ facilities when maintaining a traditional home becomes a burden for them.  For a not insignificant monthly fee, or a ‘purchase,’ or both, those who go this route sometimes think their worries are over.  The costs of an ‘assisted living’ facility are not inexpensive, but that is not the bottom line! 

Check out the recent story in the New York Times (also carried by the Palm Beach Post) which describes how the extra fees such facilities tack on to the bills of those who live there pile up, including fees for administering medication, fees for delivering meals to rooms, fees for contacting insurers, fees for cable TV, and on and on. The article points out that the ‘assisted living’ industry leaves no service unbilled.

A daughter with her parents, when both lived at the Waters of Excelsior, an assisted-living
facility near Minneapolis.  (Photo by Jenn Ackerman and Tom Gruber for NY Times)

                              ns pile up: $93 for medications, $50 for cable TV. Prices

The article is part of the New York Times ‘Dying Broke’ series examining how the immense financial costs of long-term care, even for those who had purchased ‘long term care’ insurance, drain older Americans and their families.  One would think the ‘economies of scale’ would lower the cost of such care when centered in one facility, rather than provided individually, but that apparently is not the case.  Instead, they gather those to be fleeced in one place, making it more convenient for the facilities, most of which are extremely profitable operations for their owners and investors.

It is enough to make one yearn for the days when seniors, unable to continue living in their own places, just moved in with one of their children’s or other relative’s families who took on the role of caregivers.  But this went out of favor when houses with extra bedrooms and front porches disappeared, the latter being places where many grandparents spent their day, sipping lemonade, reading the papers, and watching the world go by.

Check out this very important article out by copying and pasting https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/health/long-term-care-assisted-living.html on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE.

The article itself is just too long to include in its entirety in this blog posting, but please, please, check it out if you are over age 65 or have parents who are!  If you are unable to access it via the above link, I will be glad to copy the full article and forward it to anyone who asks me to, by email.

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do.  And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.

If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

 

JL

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November 21, 2023 - A Missing Posting Revisted, a Thanksgiving Gift Idea, and Quarterbacks in the Transfer Portal

 

Thanksgiving Greetings

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A Missing Posting

Somewhere along the way I must have accidentally deleted the posting on Jackspotpourri of November 8, 2023, a posting in which I had proposed a solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict along with a resolution of the war on the Gaza Strip.  A follower of the blog had suggested that I send it to our Secretary of State, which I eventually did, once I dug up a good email address for him.  But after that, the actual posting was erroneously deleted, a few days after it went out to the blog’s followers, along with a few other mid-November postings.  I have now ‘reconstructed’ it.  It appears below, italicized.

(I suggest readers of Jackspotpourri first review the postings of October 18, 2023 and November 3, 2023, accessible from the archives off to the right, for some very important background information.)

To the best of my recollection, here is the substance of that missing November 8 posting, a posting that logically followed these two earlier postings.  To some, it might appear controversial.

‘The only real solution to the Israel-Hamas war is to bring about a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which underlies the motivation for Hamas’ October 7 attack, and other efforts over the years by Palestinians and neighboring Arab states aimed at destroying the State of Israel.

In 1947, the United Nations partitioned the former British Mandate in Palestine into what were supposed to be two nations, an Israeli state (which was established by the UN in 1948) and a Palestinian state.

Palestinian refusal to accept that partition, with the support of neighboring Arab nations, resulted in Israel taking over the entire former British Mandate after its victories in wars in 1948 and in 1967, both Arab-initiated wars that had been intended to destroy the State of Israel, but which failed.  This left Israel in possession of ‘occupied territories’ chiefly consisting of the Gaza Strip (which Egypt had seized), and the West Bank (which Jordan had seized), many of whose residents had fled, expecting to return shortly after Arab victories that never occurred. 

For security purposes, the State of Israel has not discouraged Israelis from settling in those ‘occupied territories, comprising the West Bank and including East Jerusalem. I see the ‘settlements’ built there at as one of the obstacles to a two-state solution,  Removing that obstacle, along with a full acceptance by Palestinians of the existence of the State of Israel, must be part of ending the Israeli-Hamas war.  Otherwise, these obstacles will flare up again with violence elsewhere.

Proposed 1947 United Nations
Map of Palestine Partition 
(Original two-state solution)

The solution I propose would be a two-state solution, whereby the land intended be a Palestinian state by the UN back in 1947, would be used for that purpose.  For that to happen, I pointed out that:

1.   Hamas must first be destroyed because of its stated purpose of destroying the State of Israel.  Nothing gets done until that is accomplished.

2.   Once that is permanently accomplished, and a government with UN backing put in charge of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian state can be formed with a government agreeable to a two-state solution in tandem with Israel.  If possible, the Palestinian Authority which cooperates with Israel on the West Bank might fill that role.  Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip would be financed by neighboring Arab states.

3.   Israel would cease allowing new ‘settlements’ on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem and those already there would be removed incrementally over a twenty-year period.  The Israeli government would finance the resettlement of Israelis living there to locations within the State of Israel.

4.   This would provide the land for the Palestinian state envisioned in 1947, and provide a place to which Palestinian refugees who fled after the unsuccessful attempts to eliminate Israel in 1948 and 1967, might return.

5.   The Palestinian state, while policing itself, would not have a military force.

6.   There would be no restrictions on access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Muslims or Jews.

7.   Any attempts to attack the State of Israel by Palestinians or outside Muslim nations would immediately cancel this entire arrangement.  That is why it must be accomplished incrementally, over twenty years, a period during which there would be ongoing negotiations between the two states.’

Right now, I suspect that the Palestinian Authority would be able to work with such a proposal, as would the people of Gaza, once Hamas were destroyed. 

Unfortunately, until there is a change in the right-wing government currently in power in Israel, I do not think Israel would go along with these steps, particularly as they pertain to the ‘settlements.’  That position may eventually be changed because, in my opinion, a majority of Israelis desire a ‘two-state’ solution and will vote for a government which agrees with that.’ 

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Any other ‘one-state’ solution means accepting the goals of Hamas or of those in Israel who envision a return to Israel’s exclusionary biblical borders, either course guaranteeing continued conflict.

JL 

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The Transfer Portal for Quarterbacks Only

I have often written in Jackspotpourri about how the ‘transfer portal’ is ruining college football and ought to be ended.  Let me modify that a bit:

The one position that requires the kind of college level experience that only the ‘transfer portal’ provides is that of quarterback.

Recruiting from high schools provides an adequate supply of offensive and defensive linemen, linebackers, receivers, and running backs … but that is not true for the quarterback position. 

That role demands experience in managing a team’s offense at the college level, a whole different level from that in which they may have excelled in high school.  It is owed to the rest of a team that their quarterback’s role should not be one of a ‘learning experience’ amounting to ‘on the job’ training.

To document this, here is a summary of the quarterbacks in major college football today who started at another school and ended up where they are via the ‘transfer portal’ within this past year.  (Ones like Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, a Heisman Trophy possibility, transferred in earlier years, starting out at the University of Central Florida.)

Be sure to note the number of ‘Power Five’ teams that acquired their quarterbacks that way.  The numbers are astonishing! 

To check them out, visit https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/top/football/2023/?position=qb or simply CLICK HERE.

JL

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Invited for Thanksgiving Dinner?

A recent New York Times article suggested three great ideas for 'what to bring' for your Thanksgiving dinner hosts.  Rather than the usual wine or flowers, they suggested either (1) an apron indicating you were ready to pitch in with serving, (2) plastic containers to take home leftovers, or (3) an instant spot remover pen for those drips on clothing or tablecloths.

(The illustration up on top of this posting is the famous Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover.)

 JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do.  And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.

If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

 JL

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