21 May 2019

The Military Industrial Complex and Iran

"Trump says the military industrial complex is pressuring him into a war with Iran."  This was a headline on an article a friend shared, today.  My comment, with a few edits here for clarity, was:
I can buy that, actually. In fact that is the good and bad of President Trump's fickle opinions and what he supports and does not support. He seems to listen to input, which is good, then bases opinions on who gets the most access time and puts the most pressure on him.

That results in a whole lot more bad than good - too much turning around of past legislation and too much conflict of interest in people he appoints, then boots out of those positions, apparently  so he can reappoint others to government positions. It looks like the appointments are intended to reward his cronies rather than to benefit we, the people.

And if Trump wants to be honest he needs to state that the political zionist machine is also pressuring him to attack another of Israel's neighbors, indirectly, through our military industrial complex, and the illegal Israel lobbies representing the wishes of a foreign nation, and more directly when possible - his son-in-law comes to mind.
But there is more than that brief comment which also  needs to be said.

Our President also needs to know and acknowledge that Israel is exacerbating the problem of Iran, primarily for Israel's benefit, simply because Iran is a powerful nearby Muslim nation as a neighbor of Israel. It is also apparent that Israel is taking opportunistic advantage of the fact that Iran, as a Shiite nation, wants to take Saudi Arabia's place in controlling Mecca (at least controlling Haj and Mecca during Haj); and opportunistic advantage of Iran's desire to be recognized as head of the real Caliphate which is the position of the Saudi king.  Iran's past attacks on Mecca have clearly demonstrated its intent.  As clearly, that Saudi Arabia considers the stakes to be too high for Iran to be a nuclear nation, is understandable, particularly when considering Israel is a nuclear nation, and also nearby. 

A regional Saudi/Israel "friendship" benefits SA's regional interests far more than it benefits U.S.A.'s  Thus Saudi Arabia gets what it wants when Israel manipulates U.S.A. policies.   Israel could do worse than having Saudi Arabia for a "protector", in some ways, especially  when some of Israel's and SAs political interests are the same.  Too bad U.S.A. can not be objective enough to truly understand the lay of the land - which seems to primarily be "speak softly and carry a big stick".  U.S.A. is the "big stick" because it is foolish enough to dedicate funds to "policing the world", based on the prolific false flattery of being "the most powerful free nation" in the world since the end of WWII.  Saudi Arabia speaks softly to the U.S.A., and Israel rattles U.S.A.s cage. 

To some extent during economic recovery after WWII when it was recognized U.S.S.R was intending to be a threat, at the start of the Cold War, the flattery regarding  power of the U.S.A.  at the time may not have been as much of a total exaggeration.  But after the U.S. declared the Cold War to be over and done because of the Berlin wall coming down and Russia feeling confident enough about the U.S.S.R satellite nations being allies to disband the U.S.S.R., then  the false flattery continued greasing the wheels that  encouraged the resulting vacuous attitude and "policing" behavior of U.S.A.  It has become become a serious problem for we, the people, which results in U.S.A. dedicating over half of the annual budget to active conflict elsewhere in the world at the bidding of those who ask - in the guise of "policing the world".  No doubt there are perks of some type offered when being asked.  But the false flattery, alone, is likely still a powerful motivator, unfortunately.

Saudi Arabia is well aware the U.S. is far more apt to consider Israel's problems to be an issue it is willing to fight for, than it is apt to be concerned about Saudi Arabia's issues which U.S. relegates to Islamic religious issues - given news reports that Saudi Arabia is considered to be terrorist inclined.  However,  the Saudi King is concerned about and responsible for the Ummah, especially during Haj, and in the case of Iran concerned for the security of his nation, as well.  And Saudi Arabia is not foolish enough to ignore the opportunity of U.S.A.s  willingness to do Israel's bidding.

Understanding that should solve what is a mystery to some about the "friendship" between Israel and Saudi Arabia.  And it must be noted that it is at cost to continuing death of and violence targeting Palestinians in oPT, and destruction of their livelihoods and homes.  Though many would like to consider Palestine and Palestinians irrelevant to these issues, the fact is the negotiations about the partition of Palestine which the political zionists tried to put an end to when declaring Israel a nation, is very much at the center of almost all of the political issues in the Middle East since that time.  Palestinians will continue to be targeted for death and destruction by the political zionist government of Israel as long as no other nations are preventing the government of Israel's long, slow, drawn-out over 70 year genocide of Palestinians who live on the land Israel wants without them on it.  Nothing could be simpler to understand, yet nothing has consistently created more political turmoil during my life, up to the point of here and now.

That "mystery" is only part of Israel's motivation because its intent has been to harass all the nearby Muslim nations, which grew into attacking Islam and Muslims in general.  That effort increased by taking opportunistic advantage of 9/11 to put pressure on U.S.A. when it was ready and  eager to comply, because of understandably  being in retributive mode.  However  our government should be more self-disciplined about not taking action when in retributive mode, instead of being driven by emotions in the same way that any "crime of passion" is driven, especially when being encouraged to take ill-advised action in the heat of the moment.

It was not understandable that the U.S.A. did not have the foresight to refrain from depending on faulty "intelligence" (originating from Israel) which was used as justification to start engaging in active conflict against Iraq after the announced "War on Terror".  The only reason Israel has been able to push the anti-Muslim anti-Islam  agenda so far for so long is because U.S.A. enables Israel's agenda, including unconditionally enabling Israel's agendas long before 9/11.  And the anti-Muslim agenda feeds into the government of Israel's deadly determination to claim all of Palestine for Israel.  The political zionist machine never actually wanted to be a state in the nation of Palestine, even partitioned into a Jewish only state.  The intent always was to claim all of Palestine as Israel.

Am I blaming everything on Israel and its political ideology of zionism? Of course not.  But is is a much larger part of all the Middle East conflicts than most are willing to realize, or as the case may be, to admit because it serves their purposes not to. With Israel is where a lot of the ignored actual blame, safely (unfortunately), resides.  However I am blaming many  of our most damaging (domestic and foreign) U.S.A. policies, especially middle east policies and active conflict, on the foreign manipulation of our government which is not only Israel's doing.  Because that is the truth of the matters. However, understand Israel strategies and tactics and it becomes clear the origin of it's first and strongest supporter at the end of WWII, even as far back as the pogroms, actually.  That a huge number of people know this, and have advised our elected and appointed officials about it, is a euphemistic "mystery". 

I happen to have been paying attention for a long time, so I speak up because I know more about these Israel/Palestine issues and their history than many other issues because of it being a focus of my research from college and university days which started with a question that arose about controlled news (by government)  at the start of the 1967 Six Days War.  The media response was so incredulous, as if there was no knowledge any problem existed which could have precipitate the war, that it was impossible to not consider the hypothesis of news being controlled.  And that has something to do with the fact that I had been informed the war was pending and soon to start by a Palestinian woman I never did meet whose family had escaped as refugees to Jordan in 1948.  As a 19 year old college freshman and journalism student at the time, the incongruity of me knowing this - and the media being unaware - simply did not compute correctly.

The point is that it is a huge mistake for Congress, and we, the people, to not recognize any other foreign nation's agenda, particularly Israel's middle east agenda regarding neighboring Muslim nations, which overly influences Congress; especially the nature of that "influence" through heavily funded "Israel first" lobbies which have been actively interfering with U.S. elections and political policies, increasingly so since 1948, along with extortion and skillful hasbara/propaganda designed for public consumption very actively since 1967.  Lobbies representing foreign nations are illegal.  And, yes, court cases have been won that focus on lobbies and lobbyists who represent foreign nations but did not register, as required, as foreign agents or lobbyists who were acting on behalf of a foreign principal.  Even so,  the violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) continues to occur.  Anyone interested in consulting with and advising elected and appointed government officials about the problem might want to refresh their knowledge of FARA.  The Foreign Lobby Watch about FARA at the Center for Responsive Politics is a good place to start.

Americans who are informed and know the deal are tired of wondering and asking if appointed and elected American government officials are as totally ignorant and lacking in knowledge as it seems, or, if they truly are, collectively, so ill-intended and corrupt that they allow their opinions to be swayed by foreign agents lining their pockets with perks and/or threats to prevent their reelection.  I do not want to think it is wide spread corruption as much as it is conveniently wearing blinders when it comes to anything that Israel demands of the U.S.A., directly and through it's lobbies.  But there comes a point when ignoring issues that can not be ignored, because of the extensive damage they do, becomes a matter of being corrupt. And that was reached, decades ago. 

Sometimes something obviously connected to the political zionist influence issue arises which might lead to questions that get too close to the comfort zone of elected and appointed government officials.  Then, strangely enough, there are efforts to redirect the attention of we, the people, to what are sometimes unnecessary bizarre manufactured problems.  We can be assured that the intent is to draw our attention away from more pressing issues which often are associated with what our nation is pressured to do.  This question of incompetence or ill-intent becomes more pertinent when there is an ambitious effort to redirect and refocus our attention.

Case in point, currently, the abortion issue which never should have been an issue - ever.  And of course it is an attack on Roe v. Wade, and of course it never should have been an issue which even required Roe v. Wade way back when.  The actual issue, originally, was about federal funds being used for abortions.  And look at what it morphed into.  We should all realize by this time that abortion is always a hot button issue that is dragged out to be used to redirect the attention of we, the people, at opportunistic times, particularly women - oft the kinder, gentler demographic of we, the people, who like to put the skids on war-mongering.

We can be confident that each time abortion comes up, especially in bizarre extreme ways, it is primarily intended to redirect the attention of we, the people, away from more pressing issues; as if trying to make it illegal for women to make their own decisions - especially about their own bodies - is not pressing enough.  How can the well orchestrated domestic extremism, this time around,  not appear to be redirecting us from the real issue which is about U.S. being pressured to engage in armed conflict with Iran  by the military industrial complex.   More precisely the U.S.A's  military industrial complex is being used as a weapon by the unregistered foreign agents of numerous nations.  Are the Joint Chiefs really too naive to not know, or do they truly relish the needless death and destruction that is taking our nation to hell in a hand basket.

16 May 2019

Still and Again - Because It Is Ramadan

People are still and again attacking Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar for being Muslim.  Of course it was predictable the attacks would increase during Ramadan, one of the Holy months of Islam when truces are traditionally initiated and agreed upon for the duration of the month.  So of course only self-declared enemies would increase their verbal attacks during Ramadan.

Are you asking who benefits from continuing and increased harassment of Muslims - including verbal attacks and violence like the mosque arson fire in Connecticut - during Ramadan?  If not why not.

At her own Facebook page people want to attack Congresswoman Tlaib because of links they provide that are comments made on  CNN by Aaron David Miller and John King who were both trying to peddle nonsense associating Palestine with Nazi Germany which is a twisted half-truth and not related to what they are trying to dump on Tlaib as undeserved criticism.  (And the facts are a matter of the pot calling the kettle black when one researches the claims.) At least John King was correct in commenting about there being a plan under way to create Israel  prior to the holocaust.  But he neglected to specifically state more about the ambitious and illegal plan of the political zionists.  Sunlen Serfity also wanted to attack Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.  The only clear intent was that everyone was trying to reduce them both to being uninformed  little girls while at the same time being ill-intended anti-semitic Congresswomen.  The only thing the efforts actually resembled were an effort to create the confusion of cognitive dissonance in listeners which is exactly the intent of hasbara/propaganda.  And of course they also could not resist trying to blame and criticize our Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,  for all the vicious ill-intended hasbara they wanted to assign to these two Congresswomen because they are Muslim and speak factually about the Israel/Palestine issues.

The CNN nonsense  Rashida Tlaib "Revises History," Says Palestinians Helped Create Haven For Jews After Holocaust

The people at FOX wanted to accuse Tlaib of hate.  There wasn't any, except theirs as they hatefully slandered her.  The man being interviewed, name of Ben Shapiro, came across like an overly-excitable child trying to peddle a load of total hasbara.   The interviewer was not as bad.  Then it was almost humorous to see the segment about Tlaib's Yahoo Skullduggery podcast be juxtapositioned in the second half to Alyssa Milano's response to medieval abortion laws.  The intent was to relegate the opinions and comments of both to the same trash heap, expecting the folks who strongly support right-to-birth which they refer to as right-to-life, and think Milano's comments are screwy, would also consider Tlaib's comments as screwy - just in case the FOX slander had not succeeded.  However, it must be noted that in medieval times, and earlier, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth, and preventing pregnancy were women's issues.  Men were not consulted, their permission was not asked nor required, nor were they informed about abortions and birth control.  (Do not blame me for the meander!  FOX did the meandering and had a reason for it.)

The FOX News nonsense  Rep. Rashida Tlaib faces backlash over remarks on Holocaust, Israel

The only clarity from watching both of these analyses, was that the media was engaging in personal attacks on two Muslim Congresswomen during Ramadan by trying to create a controversy which does not exist about what Tlaib said on a Yahoo Skullduggery podcast.

What they claimed set them all off, was that they understood from what Tlaib said that Palestinians created a haven for refugees from the holocaust.  How that kindness could possible hit a bigot's nerve I don't know, unless they wanted to deny it, which was apparently the intent.  Palestinians actually did create an appreciated haven for refugee Jews starting long before the end of WWII by taking in huge numbers of Jewish refugees escaping from the Russian pogroms; and they also created a thankless haven after WWII.  Palestinian people are notoriously warm welcoming gracious  people and were kind to the later refugees as they had been to the several waves of earlier refugees.  Congresswoman Tlaib is correct, absolutely correct about Palestine creating a haven for refugees from the holocaust, even after the political betrayal of the WWI allies.  She is not revising history, nor is she trying to revise history.  Revising their joint history has primarily been the work the political zionists heavily engage in doing, very skillfully, with a lot of dependence on twisted half-truth.  No one wants to, nor could they successfully challenge that skill in peddling hasbara which is very believable to the uninformed and apathetic - and unfortunately to the unethical who benefit from supporting the hasbara.   

However, there is more to the history of Palestinians providing a safe haven for Jews.  A lot more.  And I am sure Congresswoman Tlaib well knows that anyone who thinks it is necessary to hate Palestine and Palestinians because they love Israel, has little or no interest in the actual history, let alone having the necessary  attention span which would allow exposure to even a brief run-down of some of that history.   However, just in case anyone wonders and does not know, briefly . . .

Palestine: A Haven During the Pogroms in Russia

There were little or no problems with peaceful coexistence in Palestine as a result of the influx of Russian refugees from the pogroms in Russia, before and after the turn of the century (end or 1800s start of 1900s).  Why would there have been?  No problems . . . until those who espoused the ideology of political zionism started agitating in Palestine between WWI and WWII to create problems which history demonstrates were all blamed on Palestinians - unless one reads factual primary sources and/or the works of credible researchers who cite them which makes the unjust blame evident.  I started slowly doing both, myself, in the late 60s, then more intensely throughout the 70s, because of incongruity and contradictions of those who I learned had "hidden" political agendas which they believed justified prevaricating and being misleading. 

After WWI the Mandate was established by the League of Nation, which included Palestine and Jordan.  Britain was tasked with administering the Mandate. However, the WWI allies reneged on delaying the creating of a nation of Palestine due to a secret agreement with the political zionist leadership.  It had been the promise of the WWI allies to the Palestinian leadership that if Palestine would ally with them against the Ottoman Empire, of which Palestine was a part at that time, the allies would insure that Palestine would be recognized as an independent nation after the war was won. along with the other nations that had also been part of the Ottoman Empire.  So Palestine supported the allied effort. 

Some may recall that the film "Lawrence of Arabia" was about the WWI activity in the Middle East.  This four page Smithsonian article might interest some:  "The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia - His daring raids in World War I made him a legend. But in the Middle East today, the desert warrior’s legacy is written in sand"

And an interesting book from 1930 (which I have not yet read yet) likely to provide a good amount of interesting and pertinent history:
A JEWISH POLITICAL STATE IN PALESTINE. Crabites, Pierre. Current History (New York); New York Vol. 31, Iss. 4,  (Jan 1, 1930): 749. 

"It is this struggle that raises the Lawrence saga to the level of Shakespearean tragedy, as it ultimately ended badly for all concerned: for Lawrence, for the Arabs, for Britain, in the slow uncoiling of history, for the Western world at large. Loosely cloaked about the figure of T.E. Lawrence there lingers the wistful specter of what might have been if only he had been listened to."

The reneging was a matter of the WWI allies wanting to give half of the land of Palestine to the political zioninsts who wanted to create a modern day nation of Israel there, where the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judea had been for only  a relatively short period of time, comparatively.  The secret agreement specified a portion of Palestine would be allocated to the political zionists for their Jewish only population.  It did not specify  what the political zionists intended which was to create a modern day nation of Israel, rather than an apartheid state of Israel within the nation of Palestine.  In fact the condition for partitioning Palestine stated there was to be no prejudice toward the inhabitants, that the indigenous inhabitants were not be negatively impacted by the proposed partition. 

That reneging was the betrayal of Palestine by the allies of WWI.   Palestine understandably, and rightfully did not agree to the the plan to partition Palestine created  by that  betrayal which deprived Palestinians of half their land simply because the political zionists insisted on their portion being a home to ONLY Jewish people.  Accommodating a lot more immigrants might have been doable had it not been a betrayal.  Being expected to vacate half of of Palestine was not doable.  Even so the political zionists intended to force the Palestinians to leave, who did not leave voluntarily from the ongoing constant harassment including fatal violence, by the Liberation Army i.e. the collective underground political zionist paramilitary groups.   

From the start the political zionists violated the secret agreement associated with the Mandate and always intended to violate it.  In doing so the political zionists made it clear from the start they wanted to appropriate all of Palestine and simply change the name to Israel and not allow anyone except Jewish folks to live there.  From that injustice was born the euphemistic "problem of Palestine"  i.e. how the political zionists intended to succeed at peopling Palestine with Jews only.  It has long since been labeled more realistically as the problem of Israel - the political zionist government of Israel yelling, shouting, and screaming anti-semitism through out the transition to the problem being recognized as the ideology of political zionism of the Israeli government.  Israel's illegal policies, of course, made the actual problem of Israel clear.  Of course it is absurd to label recognition of the problem of Israel's political ideology as anti-semitism.  No one is blaming an entire ethnicity of people worldwide for Israel's crimes, and they certainly are not blaming the the religion of Judaism.   What they are doing in not accommodating the proponents of the political ideology of zionism who are blaming Judaism and Jews for the ideology's irreligious claims and policies of abuse, and violence of Palestinians which violates international and humanitarian laws and bears no resemblance to the values of Judaism.


The Political Zionist Leadership's Liberation Army

The leadership of the ideology of political zionism  had convinced the allies to betray the Palestinians.  It had been done and dusted, without the knowledge of Palestine.  The irreversible problems increasingly occurred when the political zionist leadership arrived in Palestine between, WWI and WWII, after the Jewish population of Palestine had reached the targeted number of males the political zionists  deemed necessary to be able to create their  Liberation Army (LA), the plan of the leadership being their Liberation Army  would then start to agitate against and harass Palestinians.  To that end the  depended on the cooperation of Jews who had been refugees from Russia two and three generations earlier, whose home  had been Palestine for as long without ethnic problems surfacing since Jews, Christians, and Mulims had coexisted peacefully with one another in the region for centuries - respecting one another's beliefs and sharing the celebration of their  holidays with one another.  Long story short to gain the cooperation of those who had been refugees from the Russian pogroms, because they did not have a need to be "liberated",  the political zionists threatened them and their families if they did not cooperate and agree to be actively particpate in the LA the political zionists were creating.  At that time agitating by numerous "underground" paramilitary political zionist groups, collectively considered to be the Liberation Army, started becoming very active in Palestine.

From that point forward the LA relentlessly engaged in terrorism targeting Palestinians. And yes, sometimes the Palestinians responded in kind. But they sure as hell did not start the problem; nor did they create the political situation that empowered and nurtured it.

WWII, as horrific as it was, was an after thought as far as being the cause of problems in Palestine - and it became a horrific far-reaching afterthought which built on the problems already established, by adding huge numbers of refugees to the mix.  Because, those WWII refugees were willing to fight as part of the LA, from the start, because the Mandate already existed even though there was not an agreement about the areas of the division.  Thus the partitioning, intended to create two states in the nation of Palestine, was not yet partitioned into half for Palestine with the other half being allocated to the political zionist leadership for all the Jewish folks who had been living in Palestine for millennia, those who had immigrated during the pogroms; also those who arrived after WWI throughout WWII and after too, who had been brought to Palestine by the political zionist organization. The area to be allocated for a Jewish only state within Palestine, was  not yet resolved.  And the LA was there to conscript every new arrival in Palestine before, during, and after WWII, to participate in it's "liberation" effort i.e. the ongoing harassment of Palestinian Arabs.

The WWI allies through the League of Nations had made Britain the administrator of the Mandate on their behalf.  I suppose, but have not researched that specifically to know for sure, that the duty was assigned to Britain because the betraying agreement had been between the British and the political zionist leadership.  Fast forward to after WWII and there is increased terrorism, snipers, bombings, fires, consistent harassment of Palestinians, and the self-declaration of Israel as a nation by the political zionist leadership in May 1948. After the U.N. approved the partiton in late 1947, and the Palestinians were not ready to agree on the specified division, the political zionist terror groups committed the lawlessness of the assassination of the Mandates negotiator, Count Bernadette. At that point even though the British were responsible for administering the mandate they stepped back from doing any administrating. 

The Mandatory government had not succeed in maintaining the letter and spirit of the Mandate which was that the Palestinian inhabitants would not be prejudiced in any way up until and when the partition was agreed upon and went into effect.  The fact is that by assassinating the the mandate's negotiator, then declaring Israel a nation within several months after the U.N. approved the partitioning, it did not change the fact that the partitioning of the territory still needed to be agreed upon.  Who could blame Palestine for knowing it was getting cheated because the political zionists intended the Jewish partition of Palestine to be a place where only Jews could live which meant the political zionists intended to rid their area of Palestinians by any means possible.

The U.S. president at that time, Harry Truman, was pressured by the political zionist machine to recognize the self-declared  nation of Israel, against his own better judgment.  And he did.  Wrong choice.   And our nation has been paying a heavy price for that decision since that time - because of what Israel has done to the Palestinians.  As an occupier (because the mandate was never settled) Israel has violated all the international and humanitarian laws incumbent on an occupier to provide for the safety and welfare of the occupied - all laws that Israel is signatory to, without abiding by the terms.

The Need to Make Things Right

Israel needs to take responsibility for its crimes and make things right.  There are numbers of well researched and well documented publications by Palestinians and Israelis, including first hand experience also, where it can be learned what "making things right" entails.  There are also numerous publications by historians who are not Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, or Muslim which often are as illuminating and well document, and at least provide material which is designed to point out incongruencies and contradictions about what people think they know.  The hope is always that people will look for the answers themselves. And that is one reason I do not provide sources, here.  First because this is simply a quickly written conversational piece so there is no citing of resources.  And secondly because I want folks who do have a problem with whatever is said that contradicts what they think they know, to try to prove me wrong through whatever sources they imagine substantiate their belief.  When it is possible, I welcome adjusting my perspective so that it becomes more precisely factual.  

The hard part about acknowledging contradictions and incongruencies regarding anything  is that most want to be in denial about the possibility of what they know and believe, being wrong.  It is much easier to believe the "other" is wrong, particularly when the media works hard to point the finger of blame.  And the truth of all matters is that the only way any one changes or revises an opinion once it is established, however realistic or unrealistic it may be, is to wonder about the contradictions and incongruities that lead to differing conclusions from the opinions they hold, IF there is enough interest to want to know the facts. 

As for me, world peace, and insisting that my own nation's policies and legislation reflect our values, principles, and ideals, provide more than enough reason to have an interest in most issues, including this one.  That I know and care about the Palestinian people is irrelevant to most of the historic and political facts of what I know and how I know it, having done my own research.  And of course after the majority of my research I have been plugging in information primarily from the personal experiences Palestinian folks share, many of whom have seen and filled the need for texts by writing them.

Again, I can only conclude that Israel needs to take responsibility for its crimes and make things right.  If the U.S.A. would wake-up and put an end to military aid to Israel, given that our aid encourages and enables Israel's crimes against Palestinians, it would be a step forward towards that end.  It is the only honest, peaceful, and just solution.  A few of our Congresspeople are on the same sheet of music about the need to have the courage to sound a wake-up call - finally - and are doing so.  At times we actually have a duo, a trio, an ensemble.  And there has been an orchestra on rare occasion, as there should be.