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Monday, May 24. 2021MulticulturalI've been thinking a little about China. Of course, all governments lie but to imagine that China cares about you, much less its own masses, would be crazy. At least when the US federal government lies (very often) there are people outside the MSM to notice, and humble websites like ours to report it. Fmr. NY Times Science Editor: Mainstream Media Chose Propaganda Over Research on COVID Origins. Of course they lie. Our reader Ben David has a good reality check on the Middle East:
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Suni Muslims hate Shia Muslims. Shia Muslims hate Suni Muslims. They both hate everyone else, especially Jews & Christians.
It is a singularly brutalistic culture, top to bottom. If you've ever lived in it, you'll know exactly what I mean. If you've visited any of those places, then you'll have a sense of its public face, but not its ultimate, implacable indifference to either suffering or virtue.
There was a published taped telephone conversation last week between the IDF and Hamas, with the IDF rep advising Hamas to evacuate a location of strategic value to Hamas - a missile-launching facility in a residential neighborhood. The IDF rep advised Hamas to evacuate, and the Hamas rep just said, 'we need more than 2 hours to evacuate the building, and if the children die, then they must die.'. Like that. Of course, it doesn't take 2 hours to get people out of a building, but it does probably take a while to move the armaments..... The U.S. is not that much different than China. It's been out there since March 2020 the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Technology. We even know who Patient Zero is, a researcher at the institute named Huang Yangling, who has been missing since November 2019 and is presumed dead. But all of that has been censored by the U.S. media. Remember how you were a racist if you called it the China Virus, the Wuhan Flu, etc.? Or you were a conspiracy theory whack job if you said the virus came from a lab?
Here's the first video out of China by an American expat vlogger, Laowhy86 (老外86), on the virus coming from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Not easy to find, because YouTube has censored this and other similar videos from those trying to do searches to find them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQFCcSI0pU The supposed "new" revelation by the Wall Street Journal that researchers at the lab had become sick is in the linked-to video from April 1, 2020. This is the biggest man-made environmental disaster in human history and the media has covered it up for more than a year. You state that "the US is not that much different than China" but what you have really shown is that the US Marxist party (formerly known as Democrats) is not much different than the CCP.
The facts about the Wuhan lab as the source for COVID were censored by CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Washington Post, etc. while conservative politicians, pundits and media were labeled as right wing conspiracy nuts either for making these things public or posing the question. Note: While the WSJ editorial page still leans right, its news desk is left leaning. As Time magazine publicly reported, there was an agreement and broad conspiracy among the Democrats, media and tech to "fortify" the election in favor of Biden. That meant censoring everything that did not fit the Democrat narrative and fabricating every accusation they could against Trump and others supporting him.
Basically, the American media is one big Lie Machine. Time Magazine: The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election I was listening to a radio show yesterday that pointed out the differences between Greek/Roman philanthropy and Christian charity, and how radical an idea was Christian charity. It truly changed the world. It seems to me that Judeo-Christian fundamentals are still the biggest difference between Western Civilation and all others.
I wish I was more well read on classical Europe so I could compare it to Confucian, African, and Near East societies of today. Unfortunately, there is as much virulent hate and racism among Israelis, especially young Israelis, as there is among the Palestinians. Wathc Jimmy Dore's YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC36i3NRJgI There are two realities here. One, there are no good guys in the Palestininian/Israeli dispute. Netanyahu and his party are as bad as any Hamas member. Two, there are 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Two million of the Palestinians live in Israel proper and have Israeli citizenship, albeit a very second class one. Almost 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under military occupation. They have no rights. The rest of the Palestinians live in Gaza, which is a concentration camp under blockade by the IDF. No one is going away. The populations are too intermingled to permit a clean separation, and Israeli settler policy has increased the intermingling. The only possible solution is a One State solution, and it must be a secular, nonethnic, nonreligious state. A Jewish ethno- religious state is impossible. The current situation is an Israeli apartheid state, which uses violence to control the rebellious Palestinians. As the Dore clip shows, the mutual hatred, fear and rage between Israelis and Palestinians prohibits any negotiated settlement. Peace must be imposed by outside intervention. This will require the complete dismantling of the Israeli state and all its institutions, laws and customs. The IDF must be disbanded, and Israeli and the Palestinians must be disarmed, especially the nukes. This would also require a large, heavily armed, peace MAKING, force. Russia and the US are disqualified, so something like a joint India and Japanese force would be needed. It has to be a modern, well-trained, well-equipped, well-disciplined force. If you not will to do that, than walk away. Let them slug it out forever. In the latest conflict, the Israelis call Hamas and notify them that a targeted building is going to be demolished in reprisal for serving as a missile-launching complex. They give Hamas time to evacuate the area of Palestinian non-combatants and combatants, alike. This is their battle procedure.
I haven't heard of any reciprocal notifications to preserve innocent lives. Have you? I have heard of indiscriminate missile hitting, killing/injuring both Israeli and Palestinian civilians on both sides of the border though. Nor have I heard examples of Israelis tunneling underneath the border in order to terrorize Palestinian targets. Have you? It seems to me that these simple contrasting examples make the tone of the conflict clear, though. Two million of the Palestinians live in Israel proper and have Israeli citizenship, albeit a very second class one.
No, things aren't perfect for Arabs in Israel, but they are better treated in Israel than rulers in Gaza or the West Bank treat their people. I saw an article that pointed out that Arabs constitute 20% of the population of Israel and 15% of the Knesset. So, Arabs in Israel vote regularly, and their vote counts. When is the last time that Arabs in the West Bank voted? Abbas was elected circa 2007, but has not held any elections since then. In Gaza, it's one vote, one time. Voting in elections- apparently that's some Islamophobic thing that the Yids do. I think we're being overly broad in the condemnation of Arab/Muslim culture and political behavior.
I've lived and worked in the UAE for the last 5 years and have closely observed the behavior of the UAE leadership. While not perhaps an exemplar of Christian Fellowship (is the Vatican?), the leading family of Abu Dhabi helped pull the various emirates together in 1970 to form the UAE when the British government under the Labour Party pulled out of what was then called the "Trucial States." British cultural and economic influence is still strong and a positive - lots of Brit expats here. Granted, the UAE is maybe the best run Arab/Muslim country, and not perfect, but to lump them with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, is not fair. That also suggests policy responses by the US and the West that that are dysfunctional and will backfire. |