Democracy Now! — is now Hamas Now!

 

Democracy Now used to be a Progressive bastion of well written and accurate news source for all things Progressive and democratic. At least this was true ten years ago.  Over the past ten years however, it has become less and less “accurate” and much more so a voice for anti-semitism and anti-Zionist propaganda.

Tonight I visited their website (democracynow.org) and noticed that the ‘headlines” section was heavily weighted against Israel and for “palestine.” There were eleven articles, all weighted with anti-Zionist propaganda, as opposed to another eleven articles on almost any other topic. The anti-semitic articles were loaded with the usual buzzwords:  “apartheid,” “settler colonialism,” “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,’’ “occupation,” ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

They didn’t mention the growing fashion trend in Gaza and Judea/Samaria of Burkas.  They didn’t mention the number of LGBTQ Arabs that were thrown off the tops of high rises in Gaza, or the number of children being used as human sheilds by Hamas terrorists who were subsequently killed. They are in total denial of the October 7th massacre or the torture, rapes and beheadings that occurred that day against unarmed civilians (and documented via body cams worn by the terrorists). Democracy Now(!) didn’t mention the 1,000s gunned down at the Re’im Music Festival.

You see, Democracy Now!s Amy Goodman maintains that Israel can do nothing right. She believes that the Jews need to be eliminated from “the river to the sea’ and that every lie ever told about Jews for the last 2,000 years is correct.  She believes that Hitler should have finished the job (on the other hand, she will simultaneously deny that the Holocaust ever happened).

Progressives have lost what once was a fair and accurate news source.  That just leaves us MSNBC, and even they are starting to drink the “palestinian kool aid.”

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.


There already are TWO STATES – ISRAEL AND JORDAN

 

I’ve said this before and I will say it again and again and again until every one finally groks it: there is now, and has been since 1921, an Arab/Palestinian state.

Let’s look at the history: The Balfour Declaration promised that Palestine (the Mandate for Palestine) would be a national home for Jews. Mandatory Palestine consisted of what is today Jordan and Israel. In 1921 the Brits hived off 2/3s of that land and gave it to the Arabs, thus creating Jordan. Therefore, the Brits instituted two states. Jordan is the Arab state and Israel is the Jewish state. The flags of Palestine and Jordan tell the tale, as they are almost identical.

 

(Flag of Palestine)

 

 

 

 

 

(Flag of Jordan)

 

Are you “Palestinian” and you don’t like Jews? Then you should migrate to your own country, Palestinian Jordan. That’s my take anyway.

 

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.


On Mankind and Nature

 

A zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes.
This may be the purpose of the universe.

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.”” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are NOT part of “Nature” — but beavers and dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred of dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the “Naturalist” eveals his hatred for his own race — i.e., his own self hatred.

n the case of “Naturalists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are a very sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.

As for me, willy-nilly, I am a man, not a beaver, and Homo Sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being a part of a race made up of women and men — it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly “natural.”

Believe it or not, there were “Naturalists” who opposed the first flight to old Earth’s Moon as being “unnatural” and a “despoiling of Nature.”

If man is a part of “Nature,” and I beleive we are, how can we produce anything that is not natural? Everything that we can make anything out of occurs in Nature, and nowhere else. Just like the beaver, we produce things for our own use and (generally) for the good of our fellow human kind.

On the other hand, there is evidence that suggests that Homo Sapiens is not indigounous to this planet. Our spinal cords do not seem to be made for the gravity on this planet. This explains why millions of people endure back problems. of course it could mean that graviity on the planet increased after our evelution.

I really don’t know. Do you? Does anyone?


Jordan is “palestine,” “palestine” is Jordan

 

When speaking of the Arab/Israel conflict, politicians often speak of a “two-state solution;” that the present State of Israel should be divided into two parts: A Jewish state called Israel and an Arab state called “palestine.” Doing that would finally bring peace after 70+ years.

Sounds reasonable, right?

The thing is that it has already been done. The problem is that no one wants to recognize this fact. The proof lies in the history.

Historical Fact 1) On November 2, 1917, under the direction of the King and Parliament of the United Kingdom, Arthur Balfour (Britain’s Foreign Minister) stated the UK’S support for “the establishment in palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This is called “The Balfour Declaration.

Historical Fact 2) After World War I, out of the ruins of what once was the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations) created the Mandate for Palestine, and awarded it to the United Kingdom to administer. The Mandate, for Palestine, consisted of the lands currently recognized as Israel and Jordan. The Mandate for Palestine (also called “Mandatory Palestine”) was created in July 1922. Due to the Balfour Declaration, the entire territory of Mandatory Palestine was promised to the Jewish people for a national home.

Historical Fact 3) The British took 2/3s of Mandatory Palestine and awarded it to the Arabs in July 1921 and the Emirate of Transjordan (now called Jordan) was thus established.

These three historical facts were subsequently forgotten, and Mandatory Palestine was (conveniently) considered only the Israeli part.

One thing to remember is that Jewish National Funds were used to purchase practically every square millimeter of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Historical Fact 4) A plan to partition Mandatory Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state was suggested by the United Nations on November 29, 1947.  This plan was accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs.

Historical Fact 5)  On May 14, 1948 the Mandate for Palestine was terminated, the British left the region, and Israel declared itself an independent country. On May 15th five adjacent Arab countries invaded Israel,  thus beginning the first Arab/Israel War. This war ended on March 10, 1949. Ultimately, Israel won this war, but Jordan captured Samaria/Judea (AKA “the West Bank”) and occupied it until …..

Historical Fact 6)  … the end of the Six Day War (June 5, 1967 – June 10, 1967). Once again Israel was attacked by it’s Arab neighbors, and once again Israel prevailed only this time Israel liberated Samaria/Judea (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan and also took the Sinai peninsula, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
Question:  Does Israel “occupy” the West Bank?
Answer: No.  The West Bank belonged to Israel (and in fact was purchased from wealthy Arab land owners between 1901 and 1945 via the Jewish National Fund) prior to the Arab/Israel War of 1948.  The Six Day War liberated that land, and restored it to Israel.

Historical Fact 7) Israel withdrew from Gaza, displacing 9000 + Israeli citizens living in 25 settlements within Gaza. All IDF forces were also withdrawn, thus Gaza became an independent country adjacent to Israel.  On January 29, 2006 the people of Gaza elected Hamas (a terrorist group) to be their government.

Historical Fact 8)  The Hamas government of Gaza began a campaign of terror even before Gaza was granted it’s independence.  The first rocket attack occurred on March 5, 2002 against nearby Kibbutzim, Ashdod, Beersheba and Tel Aviv.  Over 20,000 rockets have hit parts of Israel between 2002 and 2014. Subsequently, Israel developed the Iron Dome defense technology, which has thwarted the worst of the rocket attacks.  When one of these attacks occurs, the IDF attacks Gaza, seeking to destroy military targets. A major problem for the IDF is that Hamas stages it’s rocket attacks from Hospitals, Schools, Mosques and civilian residential areas.

During the period March 2002 until October 7, 2023, Israelis built shelters both in their homes and in all public buildings.  Stringent measure’s have been put into place in order to protect Israelis from attacks and naturally, the IDF retaliates as mentioned above

All that changed on October 7th, 2023. Hamas launched an attack on the villages and kibbutzim closest to the border of Gaza.  They murdered 767 civilians, and 376 IDF  (some of whom were brutally ganged raped and/or tortured before being killed, and some were infants and toddlers who were beheaded). 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza.360 festival attendees (all civilians) were massacred at the Supernova Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im.

Predictively, the IDF responded, and attacked Gaza en-masse.  We don’t know how many civilians have been killed by the IDF, or by mis-fired Hamas weaponry.  We can’t trust the Gazan medical authority (it’s run by Hamas), we can’t trust UNRWO (it’s mostly staffed by Hamas and many of them participated in the invasion on Oct.7th).  But the IDF has a reputation for warning civilians in fire zones that they are coming, usually by dropping leaflets from the sky and/or robo-calling civilian cell phones. So any innocent killed is a victim only because either A) they failed to get out of the way, or B) they were forced by their Hamas masters to stay put.

WAIT!

I’ve gone way off track for this missive.  This was supposed to be about how the two state solution already exists.  One thing is for sure, none of the atrocities I have outlined above would have happened if the Arabs had been allowed to immigrate and become citizens of Jordan back in 1946. Another point, if the UN

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.


Genocide and Hipocrisy

 

It seems that the whole world is focussed on Israel and “Palestine.”  Groups on both the Left and the Right accuse Israel of the most heinous crimes, among them being GENOCIDE or more subtly, ETHNIC CLEANSING.  But the fact of the matter is that Israel is only trying to defend herself. Nothing more.  There is no plan to systematically strip Arabs of their rights, prohibit them from certain professions, or to expel them from the land completely.

There are places on this planet where Genocide is really taking place:

SYRIA: Since 2011, 500,000 have died, 10+ million have been displaced. In addition, the Islamic state has destroyed multiple historic Christian sites in order to rid the country of anything it deems un-Islamic and “idolatry.”

UKRAINE:  In it’s retreat the Russian army is leaving behind mass graves and other evidence of atrocities committed against Ukrainian citizens. In some villages, evidence show that the entire population of women, children and the elderly were massacred, that being after raping, torturing and mutilating their bodies.

ETHIOPIA:  Since 2020, mass killings, rape, starvation the destruction of schools and medical facilities, forced displacment and arbitrary detention have been perpetrated against citizens of Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray.  The death toll is between 162,000 and 600,000.

CHINA: More than 1 million Uyghurs have been raped, tortured and killed in efforts by the Chinese government to ethnically cleanse the population of China and rid the country of what has been called a “cancer” by government officials/

MYANMAR:  Since 2017, 730,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. Those remaining face killings, rape, torture, arson, enforced disappearances, extortion, and the withholding of medical care and food.

SUDAN:  10,000 killed, 4.5 million displaced, 1.2 million (mostly women and girls) fled to neighboring countries.

IRAQ:  50,000 Kurds dead, 4,000 villages destroyed.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC:  50,000 dead. 1.5 million displaced.

YEMEN: 100,000 killed, 40,000 direct casualties.

All this is going on in the world, Few people know anything about it.  The obvious fact is this: If Jews were involved in any of these other places, a lot more attention would be given. But Israel is the Jewish state, so no matter how false the accusations are, Israel is going to get the brunt of criticism.

This just boggles the mind.

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.


More on Israel/”Palestine”/Gaza

Let’s get a few facts straight: Israel has NEVER committed war crimes or genocide. On the other hand, Hamas is guilty of both.

Just because “Palestinians” say something is thus and so, doesn’t mean that it actually is. “Palestinian” is a case in point: During the Mandate period, anyone and everyone who lived within the Mandate was a “Palestinian.” That included Jews and Arabs allike. Then the 1948 war happened, and “Palestinian” dropped out of favor. It wasn’t until 1964, with the birth of the Palestine Liberation Organization, that “Palestine” was conceived as a an Arab thng. And it wasn’t until 1967, shortly after the “Six Day War” that Arab residents began calling themselves “Palestinian.”

History and archaeology  carry weight. It happens that every part of the biblical account, beginning with David, is absolute fact. Prior to David it’s all a bit unclear. For example, with an event as big as the Exodus, one would assume there would be an historical account in the carvings on temples, buildings and monuments in ancient Egypt, but there is none. So we have archeological evidence for David, but nothing for Moses. On the other hand, archaeology is not even close to uncovering all the secrets of ancient Egypt, so the jury is out.

Let’s look at some other assumptions that Jew haters on the left and the right have made:

APARTHEID: Apartheid has some specific meanings. It’s based on race. Another feature of Apart
heid is that the subject group is not allowed into certain professions, such as being Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, and government officials, to name a few. Arab citizens of Israel (Arab-Israelis) are employed in all of these professions. They even serve in Knesset, and one or two are members of Israel’s Supreme Court. Under Apartheid, that could never happen. The other, more obvious truth about Apartheid: It is discrimination based on race. But Jews and Arabs belong to the same race.

OCCUPATION: The area known as Samaria/Judea (aka, “The West Bank”) prior to the 1948 war was a Jewish part of the Mandate. Every square inch had been (decades) earlier purchased by the Jewish National Fund from Arab land owners. During the 1948 War Jordan took it over, including about half of Jerusalem) and Jewish residents and owners were displaced. For 19 years, this was the case. Jordan occupied Samaria/Judea. In June 1967, Arab nations launched yet another war against Israel, only Israel was a lot stronger this time. The IDF liberated Judea/Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem, and it was thus restored to it’s pre 1948 owners. Countries do not “occupy” land that was theirs in the first place.

Now, admittedly, Israel has made some really bad decisions in regards to Judea/Samaria., and continues to make bad decisions. You don’t poor gasoline on a fire and expect it to go out. The whole security wall was a huge error, and the check point system is a travesty. The whole division of that area into “A,” “B,” and “C” makes no sense to me at all. I have friends and relatives living there, and tell me that it is a pain in the a** just to navigate around – for Jews and Arabs both. A lot of this is Bibi’s doing. They really need to rid themselves of him, the “Trump of the Levant.”

 

SETTLER COLONIALISTS with no historical ties to the land of Israel and no right to reside there.  The truth: The Jewish presence in Israel precedes the arrival of Islam by 1,600 years. Dozens of kings of Israel, beginning with Saul, David and Solomon reigned in these areas from 1050 BCE on.  Even after the Roman defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, which led to the dispersion of Jews throughout the Mediterranean, Jews continued to live in Jerusalem and environs.  The Arab armies spreading Islam by force didn’t arrive until the seventh century CE.
GENOCIDE/ ETHNIC CLEANSING:  If this has any validity at all, then Israel is incredibly bad at it.  The fact is that if it were true, the Arab population would show a significant reduction between 1948 and 2023. The fact of the matter is that the Arab population of Eretz Israel has grown.  The 1947 census of Mandatory Palestine reveals a population of  1.37 million Arabs.  In 2021, that number had grown to 4.923 million.
All war involves murder (yes, any killing of innocents is murder). You start a war and it’s going to result in some murders. It doesn’t matter if the protagonists are Israeli or Hamas or Russian or Ukrainian or anyone else. The first shot fired is unacceptable and results in the loss of human life and/or emotional and physical suffering. Yes, it all sickens me. No, there is no excuse for it, on either side. OTOH, I don’t know what other course Israel could take. Hamas committed an atrocity. They needed to be held responsible. 
But — what is Israel to do? You’ve got a group of people whose leadership has been offered land to build their own country in, and time after time after time after time those leaders turned down every offer. They had a chance between 1948 and 1967 to actually create Palestine out of Samaria/Judea. Why didn’t that happen?  

On another note: In 1946 the British took 2/3s of the Palestine Mandate lands, and handed them over to the Arabs. This area became Jordan. Now, under the Balfour Declaration, the entirety of Mandatory Palestine was to be given to the Jews as their homeland. So if you think clearly about this, the two state solution: dividing Mandatory Palestine into a territory for the Arabs and another for the Jews, happened when the Brits spun off Jordan.  Jordan is the Arab state, Israel is the Jewish state.  This has been hiding in plain site for 78 years. 

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.


G-d R us!

 

 

1st, you have to acknowledge that G-d exists. Other wise this is all pointless.

G-d’s pronouns are “they” and “them.”  This is because in the Tenach, specifically in the book of Genesis G-d’s name is specified as “Elohim,” which is plural.

G-d is addressed by billions of names from many human cultures and spiritualities. By far, the religion that has the most names of G-d is the Hindu religion, which is also the oldest in continuous practice, and the one that many scientists say holds the most accurate description of the cosmos.

Judaism holds that G-d has 77 names.

Having said that, we come to a seeming contradiction: There is only one G-d. One way to express this is as the “Oneness of the All.”

G-d is said to have the following attributes:

1. G-d Is Infinite – They are Self-Existing, They have always existed.
2. G-d Is Self-Sufficient – They Have No Needs.
3. G-d is Omnipotent – They are  All Powerful.
4. G-d Is Omniscient – They know all that is knowable.
5. G-d Is Omnipresent – They are Everywhere
6. G-d Is Wise – They are Full of Perfect, Unchanging Wisdom.
7. G-d Is Faithful – They are  Infinitely, Unchangingly True.
8 G-d Is Good – They are  Infinitely, Unchangingly Kind and Full of Good Will.
9. G-d Is Just – They are Infinitely, Unchangeably Right and Perfect in All They Do.10. G-d Is Merciful – They are  Infinitely, Unchangeably Compassionate and Kind.
11. G-d Is Gracious – G-d Is Infinitely Inclined to Spare the Guilty.
12. G-d Is Loving – G-d Infinitely, Unchangingly Loves All Beings.
13. G-d Is Holy – They are  Infinitely, Unchangingly Perfect.
14. G-d Is Glorious – They are Infinitely Beautiful and Great.

What do these attributes suggest then, about the nature of G-d?
Starting with number 3: G-d is all powerful.  Collectively, mankind is all powerful, or at least that is the way mankind is evolving.
4. G-d knows everything that is knowable.  This is also true of mankind, collectively, and this is becoming more true as each day passes.
5. G-d is everywhere. So is mankind.

The fact is that all of the attributes here stated concerning G-d are also true of mankind.  What then can we conclude from this?

WE ARE G-D!

Nature, the Universe(s), all matter and all energy are G-d.
Consider this conversation:

Q:  “Rabbi, what happens when we die?”
A: “The drop becomes the ocean.”

Q: “Then, what happens when we are born?”
A: “The ocean becomes a drop.”

If you go to the ocean, and fill an eye dropper with water from the ocean, that dropper contains all of the essence of the ocean.
When a human being is born from a mothers womb, that being takes his first breath, and with that breath, he receives a soul.

There is only one soul. That one soul is shared by all living beings.

That one soul is called G-d; or the Atman, or Be’al, or Brahma, or any other of the billion (or more) names humans have for deity.  That soul is your innermost being. It is your true self. 

Along with the one soul, you also have an ego.  This is what usually asserts itself as your body grows into adulthood. If left unchecked, it can dominate you and supplant your real self. In fact, with many people it does.

There is a television series that illustrates this very succinctly. It’s a New Zealand series called The Almighty Johnsons.  The premise of the story is that each member of the Johnson family, on the occasion of their 21st birthday, becomes the living, breathing incarnation of one of the Norse G-ds.  It’s like they take on another entity which shares their lives.  Some of the interaction between the two is quite illustrative, I think, of our own lifelong co-habitation with Elohim.

There is a Native American story about two wolves.

A Cherokee chief spoke to his grandson: A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

 He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” 

Between the worlds, during that time when you are absorbed by what I call the “G-d Collective,”or the “Great Link,”  you are one with G-d, which is to say you are one with all beings from all time and all space.  You share all their thoughts. You are of one mind. 

But ever so often you have to take a corporeal body. In a sense you separate from G-d at this point, but in reality that is an illusion. You can never be separated from G-d, you can only think you are.

 (Note: There are many false prophets in this world. They will lie to you and tell you that you are separated from G-d, that you are not worthy of G-d.  But this is a lie, and it is blasphemy.  You can never be separated from G-d, because YOU ARE G-D.)

 When you sleep, or when you are unconscious, you are in fact one with the Great Link. You are participating in the creation and maintenance of new worlds, new universes. As I just stated, this happens when you are asleep or unconscious, but it is especially true between the worlds, when you are not residing in a corporeal body. 

What then is the purpose of life?  True happiness is the realization that you, and all other living beings, are G-d.  Once you grok that realization, you will begin to treat all other beings like G-d. You will give them the respect and love that G-d is due, and they in turn will do the same for you. 

Sri Baba Ram Stephen (aka, Guru Stephan Gabriel) believes that if just ten percent of the Earths human population were to embrace this concept, we would have peace on Earth. We would eradicate poverty, illiteracy, disease, war, and usher in the promised Age of Aquarius.

IMAGINE!


No humor allowed

 

 

 

 

I belong to probably twenty- five Jewish groups on Facebook.  Recently, in an attempt to lighten things up a bit, I shared this cartoon to, well, ALL of them.

 

Three of groups (all the Jewish groups are over moderated) rejected it because they only accept posts that advocate for Jewish causes.

So, humor is a forbidden thing? That’s strange by any means you can measure it. But in this day and age of anti-semitism, don’t we Jews desperately need humor?


The Individual vs the Collective

 

In all things political, the individual is an illusion. Only the collective actually exists, this is because individuals cannot get anything done without forming some kind of collective. It might be a Political Party. It might be a Labor Union, even a corporation is a collective of sorts, so it doesn’t ultimately matter. Only a collective can get anything done.

This is true on the level of the universe as well. Do you really think that G-d is this singular entity that decides everything that happens in all the universes? Think again.

The entity that we call G-d, or Hashem, or Yahweh or any other of the several billion names that reference a supreme being is not a singularity. G-d is a collective. Our “separateness” from G-d is an illusion. Our individuality is an illusion.

This is because, ultimately, there is only one G-d. They are manifest in all beings, in all things, for all time and for all spaces. When you look in a mirror, there is G-d. When you look at a relative, a neighbor, a friend, there is G-d. When you look at the images of deity from any culture, you are seeing G-d. Individuality is an illusion made manifest because we exist in separate bodies, like shells, that seem to separate ourselves one from another. But when the shell drops off, we will then realize the truth that always has been. We are G-d.