The Tangled Web of Deceit Known as Armed Conflict or War

Remember the saying "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive?" 

Our nation is funding two wars, currently.  And they could not be more intimately connected, with plenty of deceit and collusion to go around - all the way around.

Six interconnected points here have a bearing on the current situation.

1. Another Concept Implodes: Israel Can’t Be Managed by a Criminal Defendant - Israel News - Haaretz.com  by Gidi Weitz  9 October 2023

"A direct line runs between the judicial overhaul and the Gaza war." 

Recall that the Israeli people were very unhappy about the proposed judicial overhaul, and said so.  The Israeli people are one thing.  The Israeli government something entirely different which has duped its own people first and foremost.  The Haaretz article is worth reading, fully.  It provides better insight into the political climate than is not fully reported in our U.S. of A. mainstream news.  However, if not already registered a free registration is required at Haaretz to access articles.

"Effectively, Netanyahu's entire worldview collapsed over the course of a single day. He was convinced that he could make deals with corrupt Arab tyrants while ignoring the cornerstone of the Arab-Jewish conflict, the Palestinians. His life's work was to turn the ship of state from the course steered by his predecessors, from Yitzhak Rabin to Ehud Olmert, and make the two-state solution impossible. En route to this goal, he found a partner in Hamas.

'Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,' he told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. 'This is part of our strategy ­ to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.' ”

2. US House Republicans unveil bill to fund Israel by cutting IRS budget - Reuters by Patricia Zengerle 30 October 2023

"In one of the first major policy actions under new House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Democratic President Joe Biden's request for a $106 billion package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security."
 
Why does this matter?

3. Israel is not a standalone matter.

Actually it is not a separate matter from Ukraine or funding of Ukraine. Border security is a smoke screen and does not belong with the Ukraine and Israel funding. Our border security is what needs standalone funding - a lot more funding and attention than considering it to be part of a foreign aid package along with for two wars on the other side of the globe.

Why Israel is not a standalone matter requires us to take a quick look back into the 1800s. Russian pogroms aimed at Jewish folks who primarily lived in Ukraine filled up Palestine with Jewish refugees during the Ottoman Empire, because of Russia's "leave or die" antisemitism. Several waves of refugees were welcomed in Palestine prior to the first World War, requiring several extensions of the quota of refugees allowed to immigrate.

A repeat of that these days without enough space in Israel for all the refugees will cause expansion of settlements into Palestinian land.

And a quick check tells us that is exactly the plan, and what has been happening . . . since midyear, planned much earlier - all through covid years which were a smokescreen for everything going on in government with its relentless demand that we direct our attention to covid. Of course those who did not know, know now, that anything pushed that hard at instigation of our government is hiding something much worse it does not want the public to know. And in a "free" nation, that is usually government corruption.

4. Nearly half of Ukrainians who fled to Israel have left the country – report

by Times of Israel staff 25 August 2022

A case of history repeating itself, seemingly, in more ways than one.

"Since the start of Russia's invasion of their country in February, a total of 33,000 Ukrainians fled to Israel". Only "14,000 have since departed for other countries".

The report is from 14 months ago, so no doubt the numbers have changed.  The numbers matter, but what they tell us matters more.

In addition to the 4,200 who at that time became citizens of Israel, 12,788 also stayed, asking "for humanitarian assistance including mental health support, help buying food, medical assistance and placement in the education system."  Israel has welcomed them until the Russia/Ukraine war ends.  Presumably, these temporary refugees are not Jewish, because it is reported that only 4,200 qualified to be citizens.

Israel had set a quota for allowing the number of Ukrainians refugees who are not Jewish thus did not qualify to be citizens of Israel.  Then it increased the quota. 

Strangely enough, when the Ottoman Empire allowed Jewish refugees escaping from the Russian pogroms to immigrate to Palestine, it had quotes also, then raised them.  Recall that the Jewish refugees were primarily from Ukraine which was part of Russia at the time, although Russia and the Ottoman Empire were at war. 

The ideology of political zionism was being formulated during those years, throughout Europe to handle what was considered to be a "Jewish problem" because of European antisemitism.  And Palestine was being considered as a homeland for Jewish people. 

One has to wonder if the intention of the Russian pogroms over 100 years ago was to cause a mass migration of Jews to Palestine; and whether or not an agreement had been made with the Ottoman Empire as a way to populate Israel with European Jews.  Or was the Ottoman Empire accommodating refugees from a nation with which it was at war at that time, ONLY as a kindness to the refugees?

Fast forward back to this century - in modern day Israel, new Jewish immigrants to Israel and temporary residents have been housed in newly built illegal settlements built by the government of Israel on Palestinian land, which provided that housing without cost - except to a refugee population of Palestinians from 1948 and 1968 who are living in occupied territory.

5. Israel OK’s plans for thousands of new settlement homes, defying White House calls for restraint -AP by Josef Federman 26 June 2023

Strangely enough when the the building of new illegal settlements in oPT started, more violence targeting Palestinians in the West Ban, resulting in frequent deaths coincided. This matters because each renewable 10 year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - the U.S.agreement to provide aid to Israel - used to be conditional, based on no expansion of Israeli settlements into occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT}. However the government of Israel did not honor that condition, so U.S. agreed to provide only military aid instead. The condition is that the funds can not be used to harm the people in oPT. Otherwise, it can result in cancellation of aid. However, the U.S. president can choose to continue the aid. And no administration has chosen to put an end to aid due to the government of Israel also refusing to abide by that condition

Or course the building of settlements for Israelis to live in oPT is illegal according to international laws and the Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention. The settlers have long engaged in unprovoked attacks on their Palestinian neighbors in their fields; destroying their crops, and uprooting ancient olive trees, in addition to other violence.

6. Last, but no least, how about the IRS? Maybe all the dual citizen Israel/Americans need to pay taxes in both places to soften the blow to the IRS - at least the Americans living in illegal Israeli settlements in oPT should.

What is the story these six points tell us?

As Americans whose taxes are funding the weapons Israel uses on the Muslim and Christian Palestinian people, we need to know what's going on with the direct line between immigrants fleeing to Israel, again, from Russian slaughter due to war in Ukraine which we are also funding; the building of more illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land; the increased violence targeting people in the West Bank as new illegal settlements are being built on their land for Israel's purposes; and the war on Gaza, given a question has been raised about it seeming to be some type of collusion between between Netenyahu and his HAMAS buddies, according to the Haaretz article up above.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive" comes to mind, again.

There is plenty of deceit all the way around.  Bottomline - American taxpayers need transparency.  We need to know exactly what we are funding, and the extent of the collusion of corruption our funding and "moral" support is condoning that bears no resemblance to the morality of being ethical.  The only results we see that our nation is  funding with military aid, are the deaths of people the government of Israel considers its enemies because it wants to appropriate their land without them on it. 

Twice already there has been a "leave or die" ultimatum to Palestinians, in 1948 and 1967, which resulted in huge numbers of Palestinian refugees.  There is nothing legal about what remains an unresolved Mandate.  The government of Israel has no intention of agreeing to an Arab state and a Jewish state in the land of Palestine, and will not discuss resolving the Mandate.  The government of Israel has no intention of agreeing to a democratic one state solution which would extend equal rights to Palestinian. 

And even though the accepted legal situation worldwide is that Israel exists and occupies Palestinian Territory, in actuality it already is a one state solution - Israel style.  That being Israeli contiguous territory, Gaza, which has repeatedly been referred to as the worlds largest open air prison;  the West Bank where Palestinian land is confiscated illegally for illegal settlements by Israel and; East Jerusalem where Israel repeatedly threatens Al-Quds and worshippers, because Israel wants that land and wants it to be free of the indigenous Palestinians; and not to be forgotten Golan Heights, which is rarely mentioned, so a large population of Palestinians there is probably not likely, or we would be aware of the abuse to them.  There is nothing legal about the one-state solution that Israel has already created which includes genocide of Palestinians.

Maybe the world should not buy into Israel hiding behind the skirts of Judaism to do what Judasim does not condone.  Lets be brutally honest and admit that the government of Israel is committing genocide on Christians and Muslims because they are not Jewish.  As absurd as that sounds. that is also the reality of the ideology of political zionism which is at the foundation of modern day Israel as a nation, its purpose, mission and structure.

It is up to us to untangle the web of deceit in which our own nation is duplicitous and complicit.  If it is from ignorance we need to relieve.   If it is from corruption we need to prosecute.  And part of that untangling first requires our clear understanding that the political ideology of zionism and Judaism are poles apart.  They are not analogous, regardless of how enraged the political zionist zealots become when insisting they are. 

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive"

What "A Public Health Emergency" Is and Is Not

With New Mexico in the news, particularly Bernalillo County and Albuquerque in very negative ways, which the inimitable Roman Balmakov of "Facts Matter" clearly reports on,  let us use that as an opportunity to

reframe what has been defined as the issue, from a different perspective.  I want to zero in on the apparent misuse of  what has been labeled as a "public health emergency" for what is, instead, a series of law enforcement emergencies.  To do that we can consider a minimal amount of a few actual public health issues that can and do escalate into numerous individual emergencies, and compare those problems to an intention to recategorize a law-enforcement issue, instead, as a priority public health emergency

How about mosquito infestations as a public health issue, and the fact that some cities and counties do not spray unless they use pesticides, without ever informing people they will be spraying so they can at least plan around the initial damage, because the pesticides used are damaging in the short and long-term health of people and pets?  Their smell tells on the  pesticides with known damaging chemicals that should have been made illegal for use years ago, if not by the federal government then by the state government.  Another problem arises when people rightfully point out the toxic pesticide problem, then cities and counties simply chose to not spray, instead of using available effective products that are non-damaging  to people, pets, plants, and beneficial insects.

How about the myriad of very local problems that is  the stench of dog litter when dog owners refuse to clean up their own yards.?  Given increasing urban density, why are those same irresponsible people also encouraging their dogs to become pests because of frantic ongoing barking for hours at at time, or intermittently throughout a day or night, which of course interferes with the daily lives and sleep of those nearby whose lives are totally disrupted by the unnecessary, irresponsible noise and stink problems.  After high humidity, drizzling, or rain, the stench of the dog litter becomes unbearable, making it impossible to let in fresh air.  It is impossible for people nearby to do any needed work in their  yards without barking and stench.  The experience of enjoying yard work or the thought of simply sitting quietly for a time to enjoy being outside in fresh air and  nature as the cooler air of Autumn is showing up, is not possible for people in nearby homes - because of the barking and stench.  And of course, unaddressed, the problem spreads, throughout a block, community, and neighborhood,the same as the problem of naughty children spreads to other children, when ignored and unaddressed.

How about when local city and county councils vote to put fluoride into the water, some shortly before covid was known to be the public health emergency it became, although fluoride  had not been in of the water for a number of years, for good reasons.  Could anyone be blamed for considering it to be a transparent nefarious effort to use one of fluoride's notorious properties to calm the riff raff as was done during the Nazi regime?  It is common knowledge there are no dental benefits to fluoridating the water, and that it accumulates in bodies to eventually contribute to and cause health conditions.  Fluoridation is clearly an issue that requires a vote from a citizenry knowledgeable about it.

How about the larger scale dangerous and damaging toxicity that FDA still has not mandated be removed from what is supposed to be potable drinking water; and the fact that few water utilities will voluntarily go to the expense, themselves, of doing the filtering and sanitation required for  adequate removal; and that few of the industries creating problems, will responsibly do the needed amount of filtering of their waste water before dumping it into what eventually becomes part of the public water supply?

How about doing something about quality of life issues, backed by ordinances at the city and county levels which are creating long-lasting on-going very real public health complications  - some in very local areas, some regionally wide-spread?

All levels of government need to stop trying to ignore ongoing actual public health issues which have risen to the level of emergencies for increasingly more individual, the marginalizing made worse by trying to recategorize law-enforcement issues as priority public health emergencies instead, when law-enforcement emergencies of children being killed are not and never have been public health emergencies, but a problem with how crime is handled.  As an aside the article "DOH releases data on child deaths in New Mexico" reports the numerous incidents of childhood deaths according to the New Mexico Department of Health in the New Mexico Child Fatality Review 2022 Report:

• 14%, or 23 children, died from child abuse, neglect, or homicide
• Almost 23%, or 37 babies, died from Sudden Unexpected Infant Death
• Youth suicide represented 27% of those deaths, or 44 children
• Unintentional injury made up most of those deaths - representing 36%, or 59 child deaths

"The experts investigating each of those deaths found that 85% of deaths, or 139 lives lost, were preventable."

There is a difference between emergency law-enforcement issues and public health emergencies.  Emergency law-enforcement issues are a matter of life or death, often being immediate life or death incidents.  Public health emergencies are almost always due to natural disasters thus injuries, with shelter, water, and food not being readily available, or as we experienced in recent times, a pandemic - plandemic as some would maintain, a label not less rational by those who research and deal in facts.  To ignore the warning signs of slowly developing problems due to a lack of law enforcement, and  due to ignoring on-going problems that slowly lead to creating public health problems, is unacceptable.

Public health issues depopulate slower, and cumulatively when not addressed, with children always being the most vulnerable.  They are far less obvious.  People should never have to wonder or ask if  the problems are due to ignorance, negligence, or intentional life-threatening problems that slowly erode quality of life, and immune systems, through slow toxic pollution of water, air, and soil as a way to introduce directed toxicity into people's lives, small scale, large scale, and everything in between. - whether domestic or foreign directed.  Such issues slowly become individual emergencies, often in clusters with cluster effects  not looked for, thus they go unnoticed, officially, although they are evident and  indicate growing problems.  Eventually, after decades policies are revised or inacted in some cases,  eventually, instead of exposure shining a light on intentional public neglect.   Consider the eight year water crisis in Flint Michigan, until 2022 which was a full blown public health emergency yet it lingered on and on not seeming to be recognized as such.

We all know enough about  toxic pollutant issues, either through casual conversation, as common knowledge, as common sense, or as academically based available scientific research.  So it is impossible for any city, county, state government or federal departments to credibly feign and claim ignorance of the dangers.  If that does not suggest a corruption problem that creates a variety of innumerable individual public health problems that cumulatively lead to an unrecognized public health emergency, then what is it if not corruption?

How can normal people have any amount of trust in elected and appointed government and public officials, who resort to the drama of extremism as a way to call attention to problems?  Doing so looks like a clear case of hiding behind alarmism as a smoke screen to hide the fact nothing has been done about long term dangerous problems other than ignoring them.  Then, someone responsible in a top-down way, for not requiring what was possible to manage the danger, suddenly zeros in on an already long-term danger as being an emergency  - worse a  public health emergency when it is, instead,  a long-term life-threatening series of public dangers that have been ignored far too long? 

Funny thing, totally without actual humor - the extreme effort in New Mexico to reframe blame in a way that violates the way a state constitution is used to interpret our nation's Constitution.  As it should have, but did not, the proposed solution has addressed nothing to do with the dangers of damaging parenting and the children damaged for life by it, who are not required by parents and  "the village" (e.g. school, religion, neighborhood, family, friends, ad infinitum) to be responsible.  While they may be taught, there is not enough  adequate oversight and enforcing of safe parenting after children have been harmed.  Good parenting is work, challenging work at times.  It isn't for sissies or people who can not step up and do it right.  Instead some children are allowed to run wild without supervision and become an uncontrolled danger - managed instead by opportunistic criminals.  As such they damage a number of their peers directly and indirectly in some way or another, not only through bullying, violence, and introducing illicit drug-use, but also through engaging in gang recruiting.  That is no way for individuals and "the village" to raise children as the valuable assets they are and have the potential to become as responsible law-abiding adult citizens.