Hamas - an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” - would probably not exist today were it not for the security agencies of the Jewish state. Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the New York Times that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat, who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”
Interestingly, I just read a history of Hamas in the New York Times. It has about 80% the same information you will find here. The missing 20% is how the Israelis created Hamas to "divide and conquer" the Palestinian movement. And of course, the world's finest fishwrap has turned off comments on their news update column.
The number of examples in America’s post WWII history of clever plans to create countervailing forces where none previously existed are legion. I guess the most recent example is our assistance in funding the Taliban during the Russo-Afghan War.
Summation of so much of our history. BTW, these clever people are usually attached to some out-front clowns to get the attention of those who never picked up a history book or have mush for brains. Another BTW. This habit also extends out of the political arena into the natural world as we try to solve one problem by importing another one, I.e. the use of Kudzu to halt erosion. Examples abound. Clever and ignorance are not mutually exclusive…and foresight is blind while hindsight is 20-20. Unless propaganda is in charge. Kudos to TC for this 20-20 view.
The War comes 9 months into Netanyahoo's tumultuous & resisted effort to strip the Israeli Judiciary of any independence. The CARNEGIE Endowment for International Peace has posted on YouTube an interview of former Israeli Supreme Court officer Elyakim Rubinstein dated for publication on October 12, 2023 for those who seek full context titled: "Conversation with Former VP of the Israeli Supreme Court , ELYAKIM RUBINSTEIN."
Thank you Judith. YouTube has a similar post from the former President of the Israeli Supreme Court, DORIT BEINISCH citing the need for an "independent Judiciary" or stated in an another way, Dorit used the phrase "democratic Court". If I am not incorrect, Israel has had 5 dissolved governments over the last 3 years in the middle of Netanayu's judicial cases.
Thanks for that walk down memory lane, with so many details that escaped me on the original journey. Always hated Arafat, but Bibi was just as obviously guilty of stirring the pot, while proclaiming the most high-minded motives. Power-hungry idiots with no redeeming features whatsoever. Sounds like a political party in the USA. That little scrap of land shows the worst of what humans are capable of. We are not far behind.
Oh, stop it. If only Americans--or their representatives--did some reading . (Of course, tRump is incapable of that.) Samuel Katz wrote about the situation best: “Battleground: Fact and Fantasy of Palestine.” We are now in a proxy war with Russia--and it was spurred on when tRump and Netanyahu moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem while armed Israelis shot at unarmed,Palestinian protestors. Schumer was there, too, garnering his votes from Conservative Jews with this performative and idiotic gesture. Meanwhile, Putin personally drove in the convoy that invaded Crimea.
Did you think nothing would come of a provocative gesture? Smug, conservatives instigated this round. Little wonder their alliance is with Putin.
America is to blame, having sent an incompetent, manipulative crook to the White House. Netanyahu is up to his neck in this, announcing a prolonged war . . . That will keep him in power. Putin is playing this game, happy to distract from his Ukrainian takeover. And Neo Nazi fascists seeking to undermine this democracy are dancing on all the graves. You know: Crusaders were nothing but blood-thirsty thugs until a pope sent them to do HIS dirty work in the Middle East. And here we are, still jerked around because we fail to grasp the essence of foreign affairs, let alone the essence of treason.
We humans are all related in our DNA... until tribalism, religion, greed bring on hatred, fear, prejudices - resulting in violence and destruction. So desperately sad! Going back to bed with a hot chocolate.
Thanks TC for this history. This (continuing) conflict is not “Hammas-bad, Israel-good” by a long shot. We need to remember/learn ALL of the history and not give in to black and white sound bites, which of course most won’t.
Sow, reap, repeat. I knew the general outlines, but thanks for the details.
The last time the US won a war I was 11 months old. I'm 79. The US is (perhaps was) the world leader. And these are the lessons we've been teaching. I do support the war in Ukraine because Ukraine had done NOTHING to Russia except be next door. Few if any other wars in modern times have had a similar "pure" start.
I deplore the killing of civilians for ideological ends, and though I can understand why both Palestinians and Israelis now feel a need to "defend the nation" I just can't see why lobbing rockets at the civilians of either side does any good at all.
This is the time when we should all remember that Explaining something isn't the same thing as Excusing that thing.
I was 13 months old. We were both born on the high tide of the American Republic, the year America liberated the world. And within our lifetimes, the republic has almost gone to the point it took the Roman Republic 240 years to do.
I'm just behind at AGE 75, a 2nd wave Boomer of 1948. I grew up on a street in LA full of parents who were the "Greatest Generation". I learned tenacity very early & I am still in the fight.
I was thinking of winning vs the Germans. If you count the Pacific war, I was going on 15 months. Everything you say is true, though if you consider the Roman Empire it was rather longer.
Just talked to my Israeli friend. Apparently, after the first shock, a whole LOT of Israelis are wondering why the "fence" (actually a highly sophisticated system) that Hamas broke through was apparently pretty much deserted by the forces in charge of monitoring it. Shades of 9/11 once again, though in this case there is rather more motive for Netanyahu to want an outrage than there was for Bush or the CIA.
Yeah, that information about the defenses in charge of the fence is now getting reported (at least it was on MSNBC). Hopefully the Israelis will remember as they unify that their leader is a lying asshole.
TC scores another deep dive into the political arenas that create conflict instead of resolving it
It lends credence to the notion that problem solving is many times detrimental to the hidden agendas of greed and power ie, if we find a cure for cancer, that will destroy our business model
Thanks for this background on current events. Always good to understand the context of events. No good guys in this scenario, and so much human carnage. Heartbreaking...
What is most remarkable about this non-controversial (fact-wise) run-down, is how absolutely absent it is in traditional media. The history of the Israel-Palestine conflict is documented in minute detail dating to the initiation of the Zionist movement in the late 1800s. Public opinion about Israel and the Palestinians would be the opposite or worse of what it is now if the average citizen knew even half of it. Even reading a single book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé, would be a startling eye-opener for most Americans (the Nakba didn't happen just during the Israeli was of independence - it started before, continued during, and persisted after the 1948 war, was planned and carried out with surgical precision and purpose).
Regarding how America should respond to this latest violence in the Middle East, has anyone called Jared Kushner yet? And if not, why not?
We all know that if Donald Trump hadn't had the election stolen from him and had been given his rightful second term, Kushner would have had more than enough time to singlehandedly untie the Gordian knot of ancient enmities and deep-seated hatred in the region and usher in an era of peace, prosperity and cooperation that would have been envied the world over. He was so close to success, having worked so diligently on the myriad problems over there, only to have his efforts thwarted by those damned election thieves over here.
Of course, no one is aware of this, since in the interest of success, everything he did was kept completely secret. Nothing will sink a boat more quickly than too many leaks. Alas, what could have been, if only...
The slaughter of innocents is no joke. But their deaths often become a fact of life when countries engage in employing and using factionalism to their perceived advantage with the enemy of my enemy is my friend modus operandi. It can be useful in the short term at times, but the long-term consequences of ill-advised and poorly thought-out and understood strategies are now playing out in real time on TV screens around the world.
It wasn't political parties that the founders of our nation feared so much as political or religious factions. A single party or religion is one thing; the many factions that can and will arise within them are a whole lot of things and a whole lot harder to deal with, if simply by virtue of their numbers if nothing else. And when too many of those factions run short on any real and bona fide virtues, well...
The bloodletting in Israel and Gaza is an extreme but logical conclusion to the ascendence of factional power in a given area. Given the divisive factionalism growing in power daily in our own nation today, one might hope that those with the power to mitigate its deleterious and dangerous effects would take notice and try to do something about it. Of course, some have. But far, far too many have not. And I doubt I need to point out exactly who I think those people are.
We ignore the dangers of divisive factionalism in our own country at our own peril. It's something we all should stand against by standing up to the people promoting and fostering it at every opportunity in any way we can short of what we see on our TV screens at this moment in the Middle East and elsewhere.
I'm quite happy to say I'm no Jared Kushner, and I'm afraid I have no answer to what ails us as a nation beyond the above, much less any idea of how to prevent the slaughter of innocents on the altar of factionalism in other parts of the world. But maybe someone out there's got Jared's number and could give him a call. If he can spare a little time from adding up his bottom line, maybe he'd be willing to give it another go.
Actually, a thin veneer of snark covering a deep seated, nauseating disgust and hatred of all things Trump, not only as regards this country but its so-called foreign policy as regards the Middle East and elsewhere during the years that son of a bitch and his "family" was in the White House and his cadre of criminals and sycophants was calling the shots.
Cause and effect. We humans seem to be good at fixing this problem here, but not looking down the road at how it might affect the future. I often use the analogy of the pebble in the pond, with the resulting ripples touching everything else in and adjacent to said pond. Well, our pond just got a huge freakin' rock dumped in it and those ripples (tsunami waves) are going to spread mighty far and wide.
Thank you for your concise history of the struggles that never end between the Palestinians and Israel. I once dated a very smart and successful Palestinian whose family had been forced to flee. They moved to Beirut first then Cambridge MA. This time Netanyahu has every excuse to blow them away and he will. The whole sits is deeply horrendous. I always also remember that the Jews and Arabs are from the same Ancient Biblical family and this is an example of a family feud— bitter, violent and eternal.
Interestingly, I just read a history of Hamas in the New York Times. It has about 80% the same information you will find here. The missing 20% is how the Israelis created Hamas to "divide and conquer" the Palestinian movement. And of course, the world's finest fishwrap has turned off comments on their news update column.
Naaaw. not even worthy of wrapping fish. Best shredded and returned to paper pulp to be repurposed in manufacturing pressed paper kitty litter boxes.
I laughed out loud.
Clever people will be the death of us all. 🤦🏻♂️
The number of examples in America’s post WWII history of clever plans to create countervailing forces where none previously existed are legion. I guess the most recent example is our assistance in funding the Taliban during the Russo-Afghan War.
Summation of so much of our history. BTW, these clever people are usually attached to some out-front clowns to get the attention of those who never picked up a history book or have mush for brains. Another BTW. This habit also extends out of the political arena into the natural world as we try to solve one problem by importing another one, I.e. the use of Kudzu to halt erosion. Examples abound. Clever and ignorance are not mutually exclusive…and foresight is blind while hindsight is 20-20. Unless propaganda is in charge. Kudos to TC for this 20-20 view.
The War comes 9 months into Netanyahoo's tumultuous & resisted effort to strip the Israeli Judiciary of any independence. The CARNEGIE Endowment for International Peace has posted on YouTube an interview of former Israeli Supreme Court officer Elyakim Rubinstein dated for publication on October 12, 2023 for those who seek full context titled: "Conversation with Former VP of the Israeli Supreme Court , ELYAKIM RUBINSTEIN."
Here's the link to the youtube page. The 10/12/23 interview link is currently second down the page. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carnegie+endowment+for+international+peace
Thank you Judith. YouTube has a similar post from the former President of the Israeli Supreme Court, DORIT BEINISCH citing the need for an "independent Judiciary" or stated in an another way, Dorit used the phrase "democratic Court". If I am not incorrect, Israel has had 5 dissolved governments over the last 3 years in the middle of Netanayu's judicial cases.
Thank you
Thanks for that walk down memory lane, with so many details that escaped me on the original journey. Always hated Arafat, but Bibi was just as obviously guilty of stirring the pot, while proclaiming the most high-minded motives. Power-hungry idiots with no redeeming features whatsoever. Sounds like a political party in the USA. That little scrap of land shows the worst of what humans are capable of. We are not far behind.
Oh, stop it. If only Americans--or their representatives--did some reading . (Of course, tRump is incapable of that.) Samuel Katz wrote about the situation best: “Battleground: Fact and Fantasy of Palestine.” We are now in a proxy war with Russia--and it was spurred on when tRump and Netanyahu moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem while armed Israelis shot at unarmed,Palestinian protestors. Schumer was there, too, garnering his votes from Conservative Jews with this performative and idiotic gesture. Meanwhile, Putin personally drove in the convoy that invaded Crimea.
Did you think nothing would come of a provocative gesture? Smug, conservatives instigated this round. Little wonder their alliance is with Putin.
America is to blame, having sent an incompetent, manipulative crook to the White House. Netanyahu is up to his neck in this, announcing a prolonged war . . . That will keep him in power. Putin is playing this game, happy to distract from his Ukrainian takeover. And Neo Nazi fascists seeking to undermine this democracy are dancing on all the graves. You know: Crusaders were nothing but blood-thirsty thugs until a pope sent them to do HIS dirty work in the Middle East. And here we are, still jerked around because we fail to grasp the essence of foreign affairs, let alone the essence of treason.
Excellent post, Dawna.
It’s so upsetting. We just. Never. Learn.
Americans need to READ BOOKS, not ban them. . . And quit thumping a bible.
Thank you for this history...
We humans are all related in our DNA... until tribalism, religion, greed bring on hatred, fear, prejudices - resulting in violence and destruction. So desperately sad! Going back to bed with a hot chocolate.
That's a good idea!
Makes me happy to be part of a group of left leaning cats who can't be herded.
I always think of you all as a swarm of bees in a blizzard, who I am supposed to herd with a switch. :-)
I LIKE that.
Thanks TC for this history. This (continuing) conflict is not “Hammas-bad, Israel-good” by a long shot. We need to remember/learn ALL of the history and not give in to black and white sound bites, which of course most won’t.
Sow, reap, repeat. I knew the general outlines, but thanks for the details.
The last time the US won a war I was 11 months old. I'm 79. The US is (perhaps was) the world leader. And these are the lessons we've been teaching. I do support the war in Ukraine because Ukraine had done NOTHING to Russia except be next door. Few if any other wars in modern times have had a similar "pure" start.
I deplore the killing of civilians for ideological ends, and though I can understand why both Palestinians and Israelis now feel a need to "defend the nation" I just can't see why lobbing rockets at the civilians of either side does any good at all.
This is the time when we should all remember that Explaining something isn't the same thing as Excusing that thing.
I was 13 months old. We were both born on the high tide of the American Republic, the year America liberated the world. And within our lifetimes, the republic has almost gone to the point it took the Roman Republic 240 years to do.
I'm just behind at AGE 75, a 2nd wave Boomer of 1948. I grew up on a street in LA full of parents who were the "Greatest Generation". I learned tenacity very early & I am still in the fight.
You certainly are, Bryan.
I was thinking of winning vs the Germans. If you count the Pacific war, I was going on 15 months. Everything you say is true, though if you consider the Roman Empire it was rather longer.
Just talked to my Israeli friend. Apparently, after the first shock, a whole LOT of Israelis are wondering why the "fence" (actually a highly sophisticated system) that Hamas broke through was apparently pretty much deserted by the forces in charge of monitoring it. Shades of 9/11 once again, though in this case there is rather more motive for Netanyahu to want an outrage than there was for Bush or the CIA.
Yeah, that information about the defenses in charge of the fence is now getting reported (at least it was on MSNBC). Hopefully the Israelis will remember as they unify that their leader is a lying asshole.
TC scores another deep dive into the political arenas that create conflict instead of resolving it
It lends credence to the notion that problem solving is many times detrimental to the hidden agendas of greed and power ie, if we find a cure for cancer, that will destroy our business model
Thanks for this background on current events. Always good to understand the context of events. No good guys in this scenario, and so much human carnage. Heartbreaking...
Thanks for this educational analysis of a very complex situation, "another fine mess" that's hard to get a handle on without a competent guide.
What is most remarkable about this non-controversial (fact-wise) run-down, is how absolutely absent it is in traditional media. The history of the Israel-Palestine conflict is documented in minute detail dating to the initiation of the Zionist movement in the late 1800s. Public opinion about Israel and the Palestinians would be the opposite or worse of what it is now if the average citizen knew even half of it. Even reading a single book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé, would be a startling eye-opener for most Americans (the Nakba didn't happen just during the Israeli was of independence - it started before, continued during, and persisted after the 1948 war, was planned and carried out with surgical precision and purpose).
Indeed you are right.
Regarding how America should respond to this latest violence in the Middle East, has anyone called Jared Kushner yet? And if not, why not?
We all know that if Donald Trump hadn't had the election stolen from him and had been given his rightful second term, Kushner would have had more than enough time to singlehandedly untie the Gordian knot of ancient enmities and deep-seated hatred in the region and usher in an era of peace, prosperity and cooperation that would have been envied the world over. He was so close to success, having worked so diligently on the myriad problems over there, only to have his efforts thwarted by those damned election thieves over here.
Of course, no one is aware of this, since in the interest of success, everything he did was kept completely secret. Nothing will sink a boat more quickly than too many leaks. Alas, what could have been, if only...
The slaughter of innocents is no joke. But their deaths often become a fact of life when countries engage in employing and using factionalism to their perceived advantage with the enemy of my enemy is my friend modus operandi. It can be useful in the short term at times, but the long-term consequences of ill-advised and poorly thought-out and understood strategies are now playing out in real time on TV screens around the world.
It wasn't political parties that the founders of our nation feared so much as political or religious factions. A single party or religion is one thing; the many factions that can and will arise within them are a whole lot of things and a whole lot harder to deal with, if simply by virtue of their numbers if nothing else. And when too many of those factions run short on any real and bona fide virtues, well...
The bloodletting in Israel and Gaza is an extreme but logical conclusion to the ascendence of factional power in a given area. Given the divisive factionalism growing in power daily in our own nation today, one might hope that those with the power to mitigate its deleterious and dangerous effects would take notice and try to do something about it. Of course, some have. But far, far too many have not. And I doubt I need to point out exactly who I think those people are.
We ignore the dangers of divisive factionalism in our own country at our own peril. It's something we all should stand against by standing up to the people promoting and fostering it at every opportunity in any way we can short of what we see on our TV screens at this moment in the Middle East and elsewhere.
I'm quite happy to say I'm no Jared Kushner, and I'm afraid I have no answer to what ails us as a nation beyond the above, much less any idea of how to prevent the slaughter of innocents on the altar of factionalism in other parts of the world. But maybe someone out there's got Jared's number and could give him a call. If he can spare a little time from adding up his bottom line, maybe he'd be willing to give it another go.
This is grade A+ snark. :-)
Actually, a thin veneer of snark covering a deep seated, nauseating disgust and hatred of all things Trump, not only as regards this country but its so-called foreign policy as regards the Middle East and elsewhere during the years that son of a bitch and his "family" was in the White House and his cadre of criminals and sycophants was calling the shots.
The sweetness of the snark allows the nauseating disgust to go down easier. :-)
Bravo M. Trosino. Chef's kiss
on this.
First (and likely only) laugh of the day at the mention of Jared Kushner and the Middle East in the same sentence.
yes, but alas...the kind of laugh at the end of which you can't help but throw up into your own mouth a little.
I said "a little."
Cause and effect. We humans seem to be good at fixing this problem here, but not looking down the road at how it might affect the future. I often use the analogy of the pebble in the pond, with the resulting ripples touching everything else in and adjacent to said pond. Well, our pond just got a huge freakin' rock dumped in it and those ripples (tsunami waves) are going to spread mighty far and wide.
Thank you for your concise history of the struggles that never end between the Palestinians and Israel. I once dated a very smart and successful Palestinian whose family had been forced to flee. They moved to Beirut first then Cambridge MA. This time Netanyahu has every excuse to blow them away and he will. The whole sits is deeply horrendous. I always also remember that the Jews and Arabs are from the same Ancient Biblical family and this is an example of a family feud— bitter, violent and eternal.