October 18, 2023 - The History Behind the Israeli-Hamas War (and the final Triva answers)

 

A History Lesson

Time for a history lesson!  It occurs to me that many younger people are not very familiar with recent history, and unbelievably, that includes many on college faculties.  Sadly, too many think they are helping the cause of the stateless Palestinians by not criticizing Hamas’ terrorism, which is on the ruthless level of ISIS (which beheaded people) and Al Qaeda (which murdered 3,000 American civilians when it crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York).  Not criticizing it  amounts to supporting it! They are wrong, and in fact, they are weakening the position of Palestinians by tying it to such terrorism, and at the same time to antisemitism.

It’s important to understand what happened in the past to better understand what is occurring right now between Israel and Hamas.  With that in mind, here’s a short course, off the top of my head.  It might provide the kind of knowledge some of today’s demonstrators and naïve supporters of Hamas seem to lack.

The Historical Facts

   Germany, whose economy was crippled by the Versailles Treaty ending the First World War, wanted to reverse that outcome, and assume the role of Europe’s most important power.  It quickly became clear during the 1930s that it would go to war again to gain hegemony over the European continent, and eventually, the world.  To unify Germans in this task, their dictator used brutal tactics against neighboring countries and all opposition, including vicious antisemitism resulting in the murder of 6,000,000 Jews in Europe, who supposedly were the blame for all of Germany’s problems. To stop German aggression, the Allied powers led by England and the United States, fought back and won World War Two in Europe by 1945. These are historical facts.

   Also at the end of the First World War, Germany’s Turkish ally, the Ottoman Empire, was dissected. Much of it was barren desert but some areas contained substantial cities. Great Britain and France took on the job of managing these "mandates' which is how these territories were then designated, an area the Turks had ruled for almost four centuries.  The area known as Palestine fell within the British Mandate and included Jerusalem, important to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. These are historical facts.

  After the First World War, for political reasons, the English declared that they would look favorably upon the establishment of a Jewish State in a portion of that Mandate, specifically in Palestine.  This was known as the Balfour Declaration.  Over the years, even under Ottoman rule, many Jews had purchased land there and there was a considerable Jewish population in Palestine, as well as an even larger population of Arabs. But there was no specific ethnic group of these Arabs known as Palestinians. Palestine was a geographic designation, not a racial or ethnic one. They were just the Arabs who were living in that area, little different from the Arabs in nearby parts of the former Ottoman Empire.  After World War Two, Jewish leadership in Palestine was loosely organized through an organization known as the Jewish Agency while Arabs there followed the leadership of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who during the Second World War, had allied himself with the German dictator. These are historical facts.

   To illustrate that being Palestinian was not the exclusive identity of Arabs there, the major musical organization based there was called the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, with its conductor and most of its members being Jewish.  After 1948, it just changed its name to the Israeli Symphony Orchestra.  This is a historical fact.

   Many of the Jewish survivors of the six million German murders during the war looked to Palestine as a new home, no other place appearing to want to welcome them in more than just token numbers.  The British, fearing the reaction of the Arabs there in their ‘Mandate’ that included Palestine, limited such immigration, but finally walked away from the problem in 1948, their ‘Mandate’ ending up in the lap of the United Nations for disposition. These are historical facts.

   In that year, 1948, the United Nations agreed to the partition of the territory referred to as Palestine, and voted to establish the State of Israel there on a portion partitioned off from the rest of the former British Mandate.  The rest was to be left under some sort of Arab control, in a ‘two-state’ arrangement with the new State of Israel, but this never happened. The surrounding Arab countries tried to prevent this partition plan from ever taking place and attacked the new-born State of Israel, which ended up with Israel winning its War of Independence and controlling all of Palestine, something that was never its intention.  These are historical facts.

   In addition to the area that became the State of Israel, this remainder of the British Mandate ended up in the control of Israel as occupied territory.  These lands had been intended to be a Palestinian state, peacefully co-existing next to Israel. (Until 1980, Jordan controlled the West Bank but was glad to eventually turn it over to Israel after Palestinian Arabs had tried to overthrow the Jordanian government through the Black September movement in the 1970s.) This Palestinian ‘state’ never came into being because the surrounding Arab states preferred to repeatedly attempt to entirely eliminate the State of Israel by cooperating with local terrorists and by military action. They never succeeded. These are historical facts.

    Nevertheless, some Arabs who had left Palestine after the Israeli victories in 1948 and 1967 eventually wanted to return there, as if nothing had happened. Some claimed they had been forced to leave but most others who left thought they would be back shortly after Arab victories that never happened.  But something else had happened, specifically the establishment of the State of Israel and its assuming of the administration of the other territories remaining in Palestine from the former British Mandate there.  These are historical facts.

   The Israelis did not go along with the idea of allowing the return of those that had left, fearing installing an enemy within, and have not allowed their return.  As a result, generations languish in ramshackle cities known as refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, and in Gaza. Neighboring Arab nations did not want them either, Jordan for example finding out that they were a threat to its existing government.  This mindset, however, of returning to what was before 1948, and eliminating the State of Israel still exists among some of them.  It is more than a plea for ‘humanitarian’ treatment by Israel.  It is something Israeli fears, a denial and rewriting of history. See the maps following this article. These are historical facts.

   Arab politics complicated this. The original Arab opponents of the State of Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yasser Arafat, and groups succeeding it, were dominant in biblical Samaria and Judea, areas politically making up what is known as the West Bank. (as opposed to the east bank of the Jordan River, which was Jordan).   After the 1967 War, parts of the old British Mandate, outside of what became the borders of the State of Israel, eventually became Israeli-occupied territory.  These included the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights (eventually annexed to Israel for defensive purposes), and much of the Sinai peninsula, which was returned to Egypt in a peace treaty.  Jordan, which had annexed the West Bank after the 1948 War, and lost it in the 1967 War, was glad to be rid of it and officially turned it over to Israel in 1980.  These areas, despite their mostly Arab population, did contain some Israeli settlements. These are historical facts.

   Today’s government in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, and its political arm, Fatah, are the descendants of the PLO and maintain a tenuous relationship with the State of Israel, upon which it depends economically, but has growing concern with Israeli settlements on the West Bank.  These are historical facts.

   Far more militant has been Hamas, a terrorist group which rules the Gaza Strip. a small enclave in the occupied territories bordering on Egypt and the sea, and which is like a cancer in Israel’s side.  Israel militarily occupied Gaza until 2006 when it pulled its troops out, generously leaving the area to govern itself within the territorial arrangement Israel developed for the parts of Palestine not part of Israel proper that it controlled.  Israel had assumed that Fatah, popular in the West Bank, would end up governing Gaza, but instead, the Gazans voted to put Hamas in charge, a terrorist group totally unwilling to cooperate with Israel and dedicated to its destruction by whatever means possible.  These are historical facts.

   Gaza was then cordoned off by Israel and for all purposes, it amounted to a city-state, ruled by terrorists. Some Arabs sometimes refer to it as an ‘open-air concentration camp’ because Israel still controlled its supply of water, food, medicines, and electricity, but without the presence of troops there.  While frequently attacking Israel, usually with smuggled-in rockets, Hamas’ recent incursion into nearby Israel was the most violent and bloody continuation of their attempts to destroy Israel.  If their invasion had any other lesser objective, it has not been announced.  Gaza’s population, over two million, is almost entirely made up of descendants of Palestinians who fled there to get away from direct or indirect Israeli rule. While their ‘government’ is composed of terrorists, they are not necessarily terrorists themselves, but being there exposes them to Israeli military acts of self-defense against Hamas targets intentionally mixed into civilian locations in Gaza. These are historical facts.

   Originally, Israel was quite willing to share Palestine with the Arabs as the UN’s partition plan had outlined.  When I was in Israel in the late twentieth Century, there were major highways connecting Gaza with the West Bank, the areas which theoretically would together form a Palestinian state, part of a ‘two state solution.’  Of course, Hamas, once in power did not accept that concept and those roads into and out of Gaza are now closed. I also recall that the wife of the Hamas leader in Gaza, stricken with cancer some years ago, was flown to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.  That wouldn’t happen in today’s climate, either. The point is that a ‘two-state solution’ is not impossible.  These are historical facts.

   Contrary to Hamas’ terrorism, the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, and Fatah, its political arm, while still highly critical of Israel, an essential position for politicians to take when governing Palestinian Arabs, might accept a ‘two-state solution’ on the West Bank.  Lately, unfortunately, they have become increasingly militant due to the increase in the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, mentioned above, and the increasing role in Israeli politics played by nationalistic politicians, now necessary to Benjamin Netanyahu, who want nothing to do with a two-state solution. These are historical facts.

Concerns and Conclusions

   In this factual historic setting, there is immediate concern with the bloody tactics of Hamas terrorism, violating the rules of war by attacking, murdering, and kidnapping civilians to be held as hostages, resulting in the necessity of Israel taking military action to defend itself, which meant bombing and shelling of Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip, such actions also having an impact upon civilians there, among whom Hamas targets are intentionally dispersed.  Why did it happen now?  Add to this the cutting off of Gaza's access to food, water, and electricity, for which they depended upon Israel.  What did they expect when they attacked Israel last week? 

   There also is the role of neighboring states. Briefly, whether or not they admit it, Iran (which is not an Arab country) supports Hamas and another terrorist group, Hezbollah, active on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Syria.  Hezbollah clearly is a dangerous Iranian surrogate but is balanced by the United States’ standing behind the State of Israel, creating a tenuous stability on Israel’s northern border, with only minor skirmishing taking place thus far.  

   Iran is also Saudi Arabia’s adversary for leadership of the Muslim world and the Saudis have lately been seeking better relations with Israel. Some say this was the motivation for the recent Hamas attack on Israel, an attempt to chill this budding relationship.  

   Egypt and Jordan are trying to be everybody’s friend.  Recall that Jordan willingly gave up any claim to the West Bank in 1980, making it Israeli-controlled territory, but not part of the State of Israel.  Israel has also offered to transfer Gaza, which borders Egypt, to that country, but the Egyptians want no part of that.  And I haven’t even mentioned Syria, where the Russians are involved too, or the ancient religious split among Muslims between Shiites (like Iran) and Sunnis (like Saudi Arabia). Be sure to check out the maps following this article.

   My opinion is that somehow, we must get back to a two-state solution, presently opposed by both the current Israeli government and by Hamas. 

   I believe that a majority of the Arab population in territory occupied by Israel does not necessarily disagree with the idea of a ‘two-state solution.’  That might include the population of Gaza as well once Hamas becomes history. I also suspect that to be the preference of a majority of Israelis, despite the present nationalism of Israel’s right-wing politicians. Israel understandably would insist that any Palestinian state not be militarized. 

   That’s where we are today.  Sadly, too many think they are helping the cause of the stateless Palestinians by not criticizing Hamas’ terrorism, which is on the ruthless level of ISIS (which beheaded people) and Al Qaeda (which murdered 3,000 American civilians when it crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York).  Not criticizing Hamas amounts to supporting it! Those who demonstrate as a sign of support for Hamas are not only wrong, but they are weakening the position of Palestinians by tying it to such terrorism, and at the same time to antisemitism. If someone chooses to be pro-Palestinian and participate in a demonstration, condemning Israel, they must decide how many of these historical facts they will accept, and how many of them they would ignore. 

   All of this has happened, is continuing to happen, and cannot be erased.  It is not just a matter of waving flags and signs demanding freedom for Palestinians and condemning Israel, or on the other side, insisting on revenge for Hamas’ bloody murders and kidnappings of innocent civilians.

    Arabs in the area known as Palestine, nowadays loosely referred to as Palestinians, were ruled by the Ottoman Turks for four centuries during which they lacked the ‘freedom’ they now demand, and then came rule by the British Mandate. Since 1949, however, they have ignored the opportunity of at last becoming an independent nation.  That is where a ‘two-state solution’ with Israel would at last bring them. 

    Take the time to read the article in the New Yorker Magazine Daily posting (10/15/23 ) dealing with attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to what is going on in Israel and Gaza today.  There is a link below.  Stay aware of the news coming out of President Biden's visit to the area. 

The starting point for restoring peace would require that extremists on both sides back off from nourishing the obstacles which have led to where we are today.  They must accept a ‘two-state solution.’  Both those in Israel who want it to be an entirely Jewish state within its ancient biblical borders and those Palestinians who want to entirely eradicate the State of Israel cannot ignore history.

   As I see it, such a solution would be on the upside for Palestinians and they should support it, turning away from violence against Israel, something that has hurt them as well from a political as well as a humanitarian aspect, especially in Gaza.  

   Israel would probably welcome it as well but in the interest of its self-defense, would insist (1) that the Palestinian state not be armed, and (2) that the nations supporting the Palestinians throughout the Middle East strongly buy into the arrangement, permanently abandoning any efforts to destroy the State of Israel.  Such an agreement, for example, would be worthless without Iranian assurances that they would no longer support groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and that is highly unlikely.  

Even if that happens, Israel has good reason to maintain military strength as its best defense. The recent Hamas attack will force Israel to correct the military and intelligence shortcomings that allowed that attack to occur, and adopt the slogan used to mark the Holocaust, 'Never Again.'

   Anyway, read the article in the New Yorker Magazine’s Daily posting (10/15/23), that concludes with ideas about the diplomatic role of the United States in all of this.  Find it at  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKKZGhMLdWlCxJFNtpPkVVNZwhhfzPKkVrFlbBwbrcNlnRgcSLtMqcLNsQLKvzxxMhVG or you can simply CLICK HERE.   Continue to read daily newspapers with reporters on the scene, such as the New York Times.

   Historical facts have gotten us to this point and cannot be ignored, neither by the Palestinians, the Israelis nor those demonstrating on their behalf.

 JL

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Answers to ‘Trivia Quiz #12’  The following cities are all very close to the equator.  Can you name the ones north of the equator and the ones south of it?

 

Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia … North

Singapore  … North

Quito, Equador  … South

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic. of the Congo … South

Bogota, Colombia  … North

Jakarta, Indonesia … South

 

Note:  This will be the last Trivia Quiz for a while, at least until the turmoil in Israel is resolved.

 

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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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.

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JL

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October 14, 2023 - Israel's Mission Today, Monarchies, and a Final Trivia Quiz

 

Israel Continues to Deal with the Hamas Attack

It is coming down to two issues: (1) How to rescue the hostages, and (2) Avoiding the deaths of thousands of Palestinians who live in Gaza.  Doing this within the ‘rules of law’ will be difficult, because one side, Hamas, has chosen to ignore them.

   (Permit me to add to my prior posting on Jackspotpourri that the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, quoted by me extensively, is usually very liberal is not as popular as other Israeli papers with some of the Israeli public for that reason.  It does not hesitate to criticize Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition which includes many Orthodox supporters, intent on restoring the biblical borders of Israel, and who don’t read Ha’aretz.) 

   To read about how Israel’s usually effective security services and military failed to stop the Hamas invasion last weekend, check out https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKKZGhLdnBZmHVnWLjrsKpQwJbKRkntFqvblWtmHkvrmFSVZjbfMgBBwBsTbHBhBtHfL or just Click Here.

   I have not seen this material referenced on TV in the extensive coverage of the Hamas invasion I see there, so be sure to visit this link.  Based on my military service in Europe many years ago, where I was involved in electronically intercepting precisely the kind of communications that the Israelis were ignoring or misinterpreting 67 years later, I can vouch for many of the details in the article. 

   When I was in the Army, my old outfit’s Latin motto was 'Vigiles Salutis', which actually translates as ‘Health Police,’ but we dumb soldiers took it to mean that we were ‘saluting vigilance.’ The Army was never big on Latin translations.  In any event, the Israelis incorrectly believed they were sufficiently vigilant as to Hamas activity in Gaza. They were not.  Here’s a copy of my old outfit’s crest, which was also used at the base where its skills were taught. (I still have a couple of such pins that we wore on our caps.)  

    The article draws me to conclude that technological advances will never replace human beings in these situations. The fanciest systems possible are worthless without trained people to understand, operate, supervise, and monitor them on a continuing ‘hands on’ basis, 24 hours a day.  Hamas proved that it is easier to cripple such systems than to take on teams of trained old-fashioned foot soldiers with artillery, tank, and overhead air support.  Coordinating this combination is a tougher task than merely dropping bombs on targets.  The Israelis may have overestimated their technological advantages, particularly in the area of intercepting communications.

   Israel is not alone in ignoring or misinterpreting information.  The United States has made similar mistakes.  Back in 2001, the FBI was aware that a number of Saudi nationals were taking courses in flying airliners in this country, but never bothered taking the classes dealing with landing the aircraft. This was suspicious to some in the FBI, but having intelligence does not always means it will be recognized and used.

   Again, responsibility rests with the Israeli government whose negligence has thus far caused well over a thousand deaths. (The Oct. 8 editorial in Ha’aretz, included in our last blog posting, explained the basis for this negligence.)  There is  no one to whom the head of state, Benjamin Netanyahu, can pass the buck for the miliary and intelligence failures described in the link provided several paragraphs above.  The government’s military and intelligence leadership reports to him and responsibility for their failure is his. When the smoke clears, he must resign.  

   I believe that appointment of some of the opposition party in the Knesset to a new coalition government in the interim is insufficient so long as it includes far-right participants, whose stubbornness regarding Palestinians in the West Bank apparently misdirected the use of Israel’s military and intelligence resources, opening the door to the Hamas attack.

   President Biden’s remarks on Wednesday urged Israel to observe the ‘rules of war’ in responding to the Hamas attack, and not totally ignore them as Hamas has done in personally attacking, capturing, and killing civilians in entirely non-military circumstances.  I suppose this means not to kill perhaps hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza as the city and its environs are bombed into rubble, or left to perish as electricity, water, and supplies of food and medicine are indefinitely blockaded.  Many Israelis, after the way Hamas behaved toward civilians, would not object to either course of action. 

   Right now, the Israeli Army, poised to enter Gaza, may be intent on pursuing a thorough and costly bloody purging of the place of Hamas operatives, which would involve many thousands of deaths and casualties among innocent civilians, … or hoping that the threat of their doing that might result in the freeing of hostages and lead to a solution.  Such a solution might eventually involve depopulating a levelled Gaza if some place in the Arab world would be willing to accept its civilian population, but certainly, Israel will never again allow a threat like Hamas to exist there. The Israeli government has told the Gazan civilians to evacuate the northern half of Gaza so it appears they are ready to move into Gaza to eradicate Hamas, possibly by the time you are reading this. 

   It is coming down to two issues: (1) How to rescue the hostages, and (2) Avoiding the deaths of thousands of Palestinians who live in Gaza.  Doing this within the ‘rules of law’ will be difficult, because one side, Hamas, has chosen to ignore them. 

    I feel it must be accomplished within the context of a broader two-state solution, including the West Bank, as originally intended, providing mutual respect on the part of Israelis and Palestinians, a solution both sides have presently abandoned with disastrous results.  But this would take a long time to bring about, and ‘time’ is something the present situation does not provide. 

   For an opinion that reluctantly suggests that the Israelis will go into Gaza, and destroy Hamas, regardless of the number of civilian casualties and the loss of hostages held there, check out Marty London's blog on evaluating this alternative by CLICKING HERE or visiting https://londonsbh.blogspot.com/

   Some Jews in Israel, and elsewhere, may count on prayer to the Creator of All Mankind to provide a solution.  That didn’t work in forestalling the Holocaust, so don’t expect it to work in the present situation either.  But if prayer makes you feel better, go for it.

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   (It is a black eye for democracy that (1) the choice of Hamas to be Gaza’s leadership, and (2) the choice of right-wingers intent on absorbing the West Bank into Israel proper enabling Benjamin Netanyahu to remain as Israel’s Prime Minister, were both arrived at through democratic processes, at their respective ballot boxes.)

JL                                                             

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Which brings us to something lighter, but not totally unrelated.

A Good Word for Monarchies

    Democracies run the risk of legitimately electing the wrong people to office. Some people, therefore, feel that democracy’s often broad and inclusive bodies of voters will include many who are ignorant of issues, gullible to specious arguments, and ready to vote on the basis of emotion, personal bigotry, or greed.  Therefore, democracies are dangerous.

   Remember that democratic elections put Adolf Hitler in power, chose Hamas to govern Gaza, and frequently elect candidates whose agendas are not in the best interest of those who voted for them. For representative democracies to work, therefore, there must be some kind of check on such unfortunate excesses in democratic governments.  A two-house legislature, as we have in the United States, is an attempt at this, where the Senate is a supposed check upon the supposedly more democratic House.

   An alternative is an autocracy, run by a dictator, even though there still might be some sort of representative legislature.  But there’s no control over a dictator!  That is not good.

    A better kind of autocracy might be one that strictly limits the one who is in charge, so that not just anyone can rise to the position of dictator, even through democratic means. They might require that the one in charge be drawn from a particular family, based on heredity. That’s called a monarchy and the one in charge is called a king or queen. 

    If a monarch is required to respect what a democratically elected legislature does, that can work out well, as it does in some European countries, like Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, or the Netherlands.  These are called ‘constitutional’ monarchies when all of this is documented in something like a written constitution.  The UK doesn’t even have one, but the monarchy and the ‘parliament’ there certainly know their respective limits. Their last dictator, Oliver Cromwell, seized and held power in the name of ‘parliament’ almost four centuries ago, when beheading was still the usual way of changing rulers. Monarchs are also good for tourism.  People like a little pomp and ceremony. 

Parliament replaced King Charles I in 1649 and installed a dictator, 
Oliver Cromwell, who called himself the Lord Protector.  This was how government 
was changed it in those days.  Today, beheading is only a tool used by Arab terrorists.

   Getting rid of a royal family, however powerless they might be, is difficult and sometimes messy. The Russians succeeded in doing this by killing their Tsar in 1918 and replacing him with more traditional dictators, first Lenin and then Stalin. Such dictatorships often call themselves ‘democratic republics’ but that’s just a scam to fool dumb voters.  The ‘third world’ is filled with them. 

   Are monarchies a better choice when combined with a representative democracy, with the rules for the monarch and the elected government carefully set out in some document?  That usually serves as a deterrent to the rise of a dictator, but not always.  But it’s something to think about. 

Who would you suggest as our ‘royal family’?  Taylor Swift if she ever gets married and has kids? 

JL                                                       

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Trivia Quiz # 12 – Some Like it Hot!

The following cities are all very close to the equator.  Can you name the ones north of the equator and the ones south of it?

 Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia

Singapore

Quito, Equador

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Bogota, Colombia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Note:  This will be the last Trivia Quiz for a while, at least until the turmoil in Israel is resolved.

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Answers to Trivia Quiz #11 -  Football Teams and States

(We know teams sometimes are based elsewhere than their name suggests, such as the Giants and Jets playing their home games across the river in New Jersey, but for the purposes of this quiz, we stuck with the teams’ names. And the District of Columbia, for the purposes of this quiz, is a State.)

1.    How many teams are in the National Football League? - 32

2.    In what States are there three NFL teams?  Name them. -  New York (Jets, Giants, Bills), Florida (Dolphins, Jaguars, Buccaneers), and California (Rams, Chargers, and 49ers.)

3.    In what States are there two NFL teams?  Name them. – Pennsylvania (Steelers, Eagles), Ohio (Bengals, Browns) and Texas (Cowboys and Texans).

4.    How many States in which there is an NFL team do NOT also have a major league baseball team? – Five. (Nevada, Louisiana, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee.

5.    What two teams (it’s a tie) have won the most Super Bowls? - The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers, six each.

 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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October 10, 2023 - The Hamas Attack into Israel, the Ha'aretz Editorial, and a Shortage of Jail Cells

 

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The Crisis in Israel

Damage in Israeli town near Gaza.  Smuggling in the kind of
weaponry to do this kind of damage could not have gone unnoticed.

     Here’s the comment I had originally prepared for this blog when the word of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel first hit the news over the weekend.  Because news of what is happening there is immediately outdated, I am trying to understand what the causes of this tragedy were, and that is the direction this posting takes.

     ‘It appears to me that the Hamas attack into Israel was in part facilitated by an emphasis on the West Bank and the Israeli settlements scattered there in the allocation of Israel's intelligence and military resources.   It appears to me that the necessity of cooperating with Israel's far-right parties to maintain Netanyahu's Knesset majority resulted in this allocation, those parties really wanting to include those territories in Israel permanently. This diverted attention from Gaza, but I strongly suspect that some in Israel's intelligence apparatus have had to been aware of what was being prepared there, but no one was listening. This won't reach the headlines, however, until the crisis is resolved. Netanyahu failed to protect the lives of Israelis and for political purposes, is now toast, his alliance with far-right parties being the cause of that.   Look for a coalition government within a year.’ 

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     A day later, the influential Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published the following as its lead editorial, going down the same path I had started down with what I had written a day earlier (finally included above) but in far greater detail.   (Ha’aretz is Israel’s third largest and most highly respected newspaper, publishing both Hebrew and English editions.) 

Here is their editorial.  I have added some commentary ... in blue ... where their hurried English translation might seem confusing, but I have deleted none of their words.

'Netanyahu Bears Responsibility for This Israel-Gaza War'

Ha’aretz Editorial

Oct 8, 2023

‘The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.

Netanyahu will certainly try to evade his responsibility and cast the blame on the heads of the army, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security service who, like their predecessors on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, Netanyahu will justifiably claim, saw a low probability of war with (resulting in) their preparations for a Hamas attack proving (to have been) flawed (inadequate).

They scorned the enemy and its offensive military capabilities. Over the next days and weeks, when the depth of Israel Defense Forces and intelligence failures (will) come to light, a justified demand to replace them and take stock will surely arise.

However, the military and intelligence failure does not absolve Netanyahu of his overall responsibility for the crisis, as he is the ultimate arbiter of Israeli foreign and security affairs. Netanyahu is no novice in this role, like Ehud Olmert was in the Second Lebanon War. Nor is he ignorant in military matters, as Golda Meir in 1973 and Menachem Begin in 1982 claimed to be.

Netanyahu also shaped the policy embraced by the short-lived “government of change” led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid: a multidimensional effort to crush the Palestinian national movement in both its wings, in Gaza and the West Bank, at a price that would seem acceptable to the Israeli public.

In the past, Netanyahu marketed himself as a cautious leader who eschewed wars and multiple casualties on Israel’s side. After his victory in the last election, he replaced this caution with the policy of a “fully-right government,” with overt steps taken to annex the West Bank, to carry out ethnic cleansing in parts of the Oslo-defined Area C, including the Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley.

This also included a massive expansion of settlements and bolstering of the Jewish presence on Temple Mount, near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as boasts of an impending peace deal with the Saudis in which the Palestinians would get nothing, with open talk of a “second Nakba” (displacement of Palestinian population) in his governing coalition. As expected, signs of an outbreak of hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier. Hamas exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack on Saturday.

Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three corruption cases cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible conviction and jail time.

This was the reason for establishing this horrific coalition (with the extreme right) and the judicial coup advanced by Netanyahu, and for the enfeeblement of top army and intelligence officers, who were perceived as political opponents. The price was paid by the victims of the invasion in the Western Negev (parts of Israel adjacent to the Gaza Strip).’ 

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     Monday evening (afternoon in the U.S.), I watched Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speak, correctly describing the unity of all Israelis, regardless of politics, in working to destroy the threat posed, and carried out, by Hamas. He also thanked the many nations standing with Israel at this time.  No one should have any argument with him on that.

Undoubtedly Gaza City will shortly be demolished to the point of it being uninhabitable, as Israel retaliates.  All Gaza, even beyond the city, is totally dependent on Israel for electricity, water, and food, all of which have been cut off.  Israeli troops are poised for a possible invasion of the Gaza Strip with its population of two and a half million, something that would be a costly action.

The question of the many thousands of Palestinian civilians who will die in carrying that out, and how to rescue the many hostages taken by Hamas, part of their savage plan to forestall Israeli retaliation, was not part of Netanyahu’s remarks, but these issues will probably be the subject of behind-the-scenes talks conceivably now going on in Western and Arab nation capitals. And afterwards, where Gaza’s population would end up would be another problem.  Israel certainly would not want them to rebuild a hostile Gaza on the remaining rubble of that place after this week’s action against Israel starting there.

     It appears clear that part of the problem facing negotiators, whoever they are and wherever they may be, is Hamas’ contention that taking and holding hostages is a tool which is something legitimate to use.  Western nations are appalled by this because it means that such acts of terrorism including the taking of hostages would become legitimatized at least on a short-term basis.  For years, the position of the United States and most Western nations has been simply that you just did not bargain with terrorists (at least openly).  Hamas is trying to change this and once they accomplish that, at least the short-term goals of any terrorist group can quickly be attained by a few kidnappings.  This is part of the problem. Adding to the tension are increasing acts of violence on the West Bank and the border with Lebanon.

Netanyahu self-servingly spoke of not believing ‘propaganda’ being spread to disturb Israeli unity at this point, obviously referring to the ideas such as what were in the Haaretz editorial above.  And while he spoke of a coalition government sharing power with the opposition, that was meaningless so long as the extreme right-wingers who enable him to remain Prime Minister would still be in positions of power.  (Two of their firebrands are named in the first paragraph of the Ha'aretz editorial.)  Their presence ruled out the possibility of realistic negotiations because of their position of wanting the West Bank to officially be part of Israel, open to full settlement, with no protection of Palestinian interests, and in fact their replacement by Jewish settlers.

Ulltimately, Netanyahu cannot escape blame for government policies that to some extent motivated Hamas to act at this time.  He might have been unaware of it but he put politics ahead of protecting the people, a far more important duty of a head of state. It is also odd that Netanyahu ignored his flank, seeming to be unaware that the growing amity between Israel and Saudi Arabia might serve to arouse Iran, an adversary of that country in the region, to do something to disrupt this burgeoning relationship through their Hamas surrogate. That’s exactly what may have happened.

I believe that both the radical Palestinian and Israel extremists agree on one thing.  Both want a ‘one state’ solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, each envisioning a total exclusion or elimination of the other side.  This will never happen, neither peacefully nor violently.  There will be peace only when the advocates of a two-state solution, with two nations existing side-by-side, regain control of the situation in Jerusalem and the Arab capitals. 

That was the way it was supposed to be until Hamas broke away from their more conciliatory Palestinian brethren on the West Bank and until the Likud Party started making deals with extremists in order to stay in power in Israel.  The deal Netanyahu made is explained in the last two paragraphs of the Ha'aretz editorial, where it is described as a 'horrific coalition.'  Go back and read them now, and understand why the 'enfeeblement' of Israel's military and intelligence officers, who might have known something of Hamas' agressive preparations, took place.

When a political party like Israel’s Likud seeks and accepts the support of a small party of dangerous radicals to establish a legislative majority, they risk losing control of their agenda as the price for that support.  That is what happened in Israel and is also occurring right here in the United State House of Representatives.

But right now, a solution for Israel is more important.  Our Congress is barely simmering, while the Middle East is boiling.  We would not want it to boil over.

JL

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If Your Jail Just Had One Cell Available…

MSNBC ran a documentary this past weekend about Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who last year flew 49 migrants awaiting adjudication of their immigration status, from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, with false promises of jobs there.  This was a political stunt, playing with people’s lives, paid for by Florida’s taxpayers.  The aim was to embarrass liberals who favor immigration in the eyes of DeSantis’ conservative supporters who oppose immigration. These immigrants were lied to, and just dropped off on Martha’s Vineyard unannounced.  Some might call their trip an act of kidnapping on DeSantis’ part.

Also in the headlines lately has been New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez who has been accused of accepting bribes to take certain actions, using his influence as a Senator.  As I see it, there was no ideological basis for Menendez’ supposed crime. Supposedly, he was just using his office to make money.  Some might call such actions corruption or crookedness.

In my opinion, Ron DeSantis is a far greater criminal than Bob Menendez, whose supposed crimes were based on plain, old-fashioned, greed.  Unfortunately, that happens every day with many politicians.  Ron’s, however, involved morality, honesty, and mistreating fellow human beings, all things that Republicans don’t understand, and are not daily occurrences.

(As an aside to these comments, those illegal acts of which Donald F. Trump is accused seem to be based on plain, old-fashioned, greed AND also involve morality, honesty and mistreating fellow human beings, making him a two-time loser.)

I really don’t understand how anyone who follows the news can consider voting for either Bob, Don, or Ron, should their names appear on a ballot. 

Here’s a hypothetical question:  If your local jail had only one cell available, who would you prefer got it, a corrupt crooked Senator or an immigrant-kidnapping Governor?

JL 

 

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Coach Lou Holtz Speaks Out Against the ‘Transfer Portal’ and ‘N.I.L.’ 

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, now 87 and a legend in his own time, recently spoke at a gathering at which he pointed out that the ‘transfer portal’ was destroying college football.  That’s just what this blog has been repeatedly pointing out for the past two years, Lou!  

He also blamed those ‘NIL’ contracts whereby college athletes could profit from use of their name, image, or likeness in advertising or marketing.  He was correct there too.  There’s plenty of time to make a buck after they turn pro, but college is not the place for it.  The free education athletes get (worth at least $50,000 a year in most private colleges, and at least $25,000 in most State schools) should be sufficient reward.

JL 

 

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Look for the results of Trivia Quiz #11 (Football Teams and States) and a brand new Trivia Quiz #12 within the next week or so.

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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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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