The Last Man Standing
Despite the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg believes that Israel “has no strategic sense” it seems to be winning the war not only in Gaza but across the whole region. David Goldman notes that at no point in the last 50 years has Israel been so secure from conventional invasion.
Indeed, gone are the days when the Syrian Army could launch a 5 division attack supported by 188 artillery batteries in the Golan. The era when Egypt could mount an attack with 100,000 men, 1,350 tanks and 2,000 artillery pieces is nothing but memory. All around Israel’s edges, countries are falling apart.
Jordan is wracked by internal dissent, Syria paralyzed by a civil war that kills upwards of 200 people per day; Egypt bankrupt and will be lucky to avoid starvation. Libya is no more. Iraq is still prostrate. Oil in the Gulf is running out.
It’s not that Israel has grown; it is the Arab world that shrank. Despite all predictions of its imminent demise Israel threatens to be the only real Westphalian State left in the Middle East; the last man standing.
How did this happen? Richard Landes is one of the principal scholars of “cognitive warfare”, the methods by which the Jihad spreads itself by advancing a narrative. But perhaps he should expand his study to include possibility of “cognitive suicide”; the self-poisoning that occurs when you believe your own crazy propaganda.
Gaza fulfills the self-imposed delusion of the Arab Middle East as the underdog. To hear it told it is “little Gaza”, “underdog Palestine” against Giant Israel. But a look at the map shows that underdog Gaza has a border with big Egypt which has a border with an even bigger Muslim North Africa. The Islamic world stretches in every direction from around the objectively worthless piece real estate that is Israel, to the North as far as the Stans and to the East to the banks of the Indus.
Look at the map. It will tell you the truth. The truth isn’t “little Gaza”. The truth is Little Israel. It is that very littleness which is eating away at the region’s psyche: the humiliation of 1948 had to be avenged in 1956; that catastrophe had to be avenged in 1967 and 1967 by 1973; and 1973 is still unavenged. It is vengeance eating away at the very minds that crave it.
And now we have the humiliation of 2012, where an entire region must resort to the Western Left, Twitter and Facebook to defend Gaza from Israel because the truth is that all of the Arab Armies put together can’t do squat. Can’t do squat because they are all too busy killing each other. Twitter is alive with the Left’s despair over Gaza. Glenn Greenwald has called on the US to stop supporting Israel. The British Left is in a lather of anger at Israeli “aggression”.
How the mighty have fallen.
Perhaps its not fair to say that Israel is winning so much as the Muslim world is losing. Losing by tearing itself apart, frittering away the oil resource and paralyzing itself with Jew-hatred. Israel is winning simply by sending its children to school, going to work every day, making scientific discoveries in the lab on a quotidian basis, by paying its bills and sweeping the streets. It is simple, but deadly. A whole lot better at least than jumping up and down in the street firing AK-47s into the air.
The fact is that Gaza is in military terms a very small military operation. The tonnage of bombs dropped is miniscule by modern standards. And it is normally dropped by drones with the aerodynamic characteristics of a World War I Sopwith Camel. Israel’s artillery is barely in action. Although it has called some of them up, Israel has not even had to use its reserves. And that is a sign that the IDF, small as it is, is hardly breaking a sweat. This is a far cry from the days when Israel fought outnumbered with a every man it had on every front.
Rather than lacking “strategic sense” Israel seems to have hit upon the winning formula. Keep Israel intact, even expanding it — though not by too much in the West Bank — and counterpunching along the borders to prevent incursions or threats. And then let the Muslim world’s dysfunction and Jew-hatred do the rest.
Hamas and Fatah are “Palestine’s” worst enemies and the Western Left’s continued support for these gangs of murderers only guarantees the poverty and destitution of their population. They are reinforcing failure. And the more it fails the more they reinforce. Similarly the Obama administration’s partnership with the Muslim Brotherhood, while in the short term a nuisance to everyone, including Israel represents in the long run a death sentence for Egypt. Soon America will have to feed Egypt; prop it up and provide snacks to the very same people who will storm its embassy walls.
That country along the Nile used to be the granary of civilization. Now it is the world’s biggest importer of wheat and is rapidly running out of everything except delusions of regional destiny. Hatred blinds and perhaps nothing encapsulates this ethos so perfectly as the now classic statement by labor of how it forced the bankruptcy of the Hostess company to send a strong message of union resolve, resulting in the layoff of everybody — 18,000 and more workers. If that is winning, what is losing?
Perhaps the most important lesson American conservatives can learn from Israel versus the Muslim world is that there is no revenge greater than success. Right after the elections I wrote that “in the coming years revolutionary acts will be indistinguishable from self-improvement.” Although there is always be a need to resist actively, the best resistance is simply to make things work and watch Chicago, Detroit and California fall apart. In the immortal words of that great Communist, Deng Xiaoping, “to get rich is glorious”.
Israel, however, is in possession of the original epigram, from which Deng’s maxim is only derivative.
THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
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Zechariah 14
“20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[c] in the house of the Lord Almighty.”
I believe the nations having greater distance from ” Holy Jerusalem” give them breathing room unless there is someone better to interpret?
The 23rd psalm was always a favorite of mine too.
Israel seems to have hit upon the winning formula. Keep Israel intact…
It will be much more difficult for conservatives in the US to achieve that same objective, considering how many of TWANLOC who surround us
In the US, any bastion is attacked from within and by command from above.
No, guys. Wretchard is right. The U.S. template is the same. Give it time, be strong in the faith, and be ready to witness to it whenever the opportunity arises.
The chastisement has already begun, and our job is not so much to defend ourselves against the hordes as to stand our ground, be as holy as possible, repent, and trust in God. It’s the oldest of formulas, but too many of us have forgotten it because the world is too much with us, late and soon.
Wretchard, quit surprised at the celebratory mood for Israel, my viewing of the Tea leafs are not so good, Hamas has been shooting missiles into Israel for a long time, they will again once Israel ether invades and then withdraws or un-flexes its muscle, meanwhile the Muslim Brotherhood is slowly taking over the region (with direct help from 0bama), Lebanon is already a Proxy, once Syria is theirs, Lebanon will come under a more solid grip and then Jordan is surely next, Israel will be surrounded by a unified front. I agree Muslims eat their own (It’s a Death Cult, what’d ya expect) regularly but they have also produced periods of great unification and in the near term (1 to 5 years) this is a very, very dark cloud on Israel’s future, I think the Muslim Brotherhood has a good chance of becoming the New Ottoman Empire over the next decade which would certainly be the worst future for Israel and also Europe! I think the Muslim Brotherhood has a very good chance of quelling much of the strife between the different Muslim sec’s which would usher in a Caliph, this would be a strong rallying point for the rest of the Muslim ummah (Maybe this is 0bama’s secret plan, create a Muslim super power, something to stop the colonial forces and correct the wrongs of the West!) There is a great danger in what is happening in the Middle East and we will see which way this is going in the next 4 years and it will certainly play out over the next decade.
Appropriate videos.
Daffy Duck’s Last Act
Life of Brian: Suicide Squad
The modern Leftists and the Arabs are not even good Communists. Lenin was ruthless about everything but above all he was ruthlessly pragmatic. First thing he did was sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russian involvement in WW-I. Second thing he did was get Trotsky to organize an effective army to win he civil war. War Communism was a brief episode of internal repression during that phase. Third thing he did was reduce controls under the NEP to allow the economy to grow in response to reality. Ideologically driven repression and waste came later, after external threats had retreated and the internal economy had revived.
My question is whether Israel has an advantage by always having a gun pointed at her. You never lose sight of what’s important when your mortality is staring you in the face. No time for luxuries, distractions or taking your eyes off the ball (at least for very long). The downside is that they pay their dues every day in kidnapped soldiers, inbound rockets, etc. Yet they endure, and I have no doubt that the Jews know all about bearing whatever pain is necessary to endure. We, on the other hand, want to be left alone. If somebody picks a fight we traditionally beat the living crap out of them and then “reform” them. It seems like our problems started when we failed to follow our normal procedure. If we were sitting on Afghanistan and Iraq right now with US-installed governments for the foreseeable future I have to wonder whether these pissant MB types would be nearly as uppity…
Unions and Islam have much in common, they can only destroy, never create. Just as the Palestinians destroyed those green houses Israel had built and left behind, the unions would rather unemploy their peons than lose their hold on power. Of course they will eventually lose the power anyway when no one will hire union labor anymore but there is still much looting to be done in the mean time. If the unions were capable of creating they would buy out Hostess,Inc and keep the machines going, but then they would become the devil. And besides,looting is easy, business is hard.
What does “Westphalian State” mean?
Sovereign, perhaps?
bvw @9:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westphalian_sovereignty
#9,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia
Selden or Grotius? Again, what does “Westphalian State” mean?
It may be true that Israel has never been safer from conventional threats. If only that were also true concerning nuclear threats.
Brilliant analysis and well worth forwarding.
My only question is, does it really add anything to cite Greenwald? Like Gollum he’s been so deep in the cave for so long that he can’t stand to even be under the sun.
More Goldman and less Greenwald.
Muslims deserve Islam. They are the worst of people. For the way they treat women, just that much, they should be shunned by all nations, and by all people. But Christians, import tens of thousands of Muslims into the US and elsewhere. This should be shut down and reversed. I was astonished when the US took down Afghanistan and then didn’t demand a rights respecting government be set up. But after seeing it agin in Iraq, it must be by design. Muslims deserve Islam. It’s astonishing how the Sauds are not held to account. Islam is the only truly Arab product. Their fear must be intense. Because they are genuinely awful.
The best long term policy for both the Israelis and the Palestinians would be to implement Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s http://tinyurl.com/benign-neglect .
Do not invade.
Do not subsidize.
Do not arm.
Be guided by the Second Law of Thermodynamics and let increasing entropy do all the (non)-work! It’s a basic law of Mother Nature!
Meanwhile, within Israel, let the people continue to provide the source of external work to decrease entropy.
Gaza will continue to decline and Israel to increase.
QED
Darwinian Natural Selection at its finest.
Israelis remain among the most optimistic people in the world. A recent Gallup survey ranked them 7th in the global “happiness index”
Here is a nice video from Jerusalem which I think captures the spirit of Israelis very well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0keEMnaKGvk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
It means:
One morning a man gets up and he feels he is a nation and he starts to travel out
Whoever he meets on he way he greets with Shalom
I concur that living well is the best revenge, if you want to call it that. The MB is more a of a threat if they can bring sustenance and pride to the Umma and if they fail, fantasy makes for poor fair unless it is in the form of pornography, iPhones, and Halo3. A threadbare MB army would break apart against the Ramparts of Israel.
The Palestinians and the MB’s only parlor trick is to die gruesomely and to leave a reeking stench where their corpses have fallen. The Arab’s can help out with this army of the dead but if they were to be truly effective they would need to take Syria, topple Jordon, and tip the balance of forces in Lebanon. Iran is still the wild card in the future of the ME and as far as they can unleash the Umma against Israel, the later can sooner adopt the strategy of total war which it has been loath to do to date. I do not know what Israel might possess in this regard but I am sure that it is terrible.
Many of us here groaned when Israel ceded Gaza to Hamas but as I and others noted at the time, if Hamas did not stay contained in their golden straight jacket then the civil populace who supported Hamas overwhelmingly could be held accountable for their action and Gaza would be ripe for a free fire zone. I think as long as Hamas fires rockets into Israel and Tel Aviv proper then the die is cast and Hamas will see much ruin… and, I suppose, followed by more external funding and rebuilding just like last time.
And so I have stumbled upon the feeble strategy of Hamas, to lay their civil infrastructure in ruin and draw a meager salary from the top of the ensuing international charity that will surely come.
The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) is heralded as the beginning of the individual, sovereign nation-state as opposed to empires comprising large geographic areas and several ethnic groups governed by a central authority. Think Russia, Ukraine, Georgia as opposed to the Soviet Union.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists and the Shia Khamenists dream of a caliphate, which by definition is non-Westphalian.
I forget who said it but it seems as true and reasonable as any argument I’ve heard, that is, that the Jewish People are indeed a proof of the existence of the Creator God, and his name ain’t Allah.
The Arab world may indeed be much weaker militarily than Israel — but will that really matter in the long run? The Rest of the World is militarily much weaker than the US — yet the US has not won an outright victory in any significant military conflict since the end of World War II, and has experienced self-induced disappointments which swerve rather close to strategic (self-)defeats.
The problem for the US has been the internal enemy — Subotai’s TWANLOCs, the Leftist Political Class which for some peculiar reason prefers to abandon allies and see the US fail, not dissimilar to the attitude of the Bakers’ Union to the Hostess Corporation. Israel has problems with its own Leftists. And European anti-semites stand ready to punish Israel with boycotts in aid of the poor “Palestinians”.
Israel may be secure from military attack, but that does not mean Israel is secure.
Conventional war has become too expensive to wage, and too expensive to prepare for and lose. A generation ago, the Arab Middle East, from Iraq to Libya, was filled with Soviet arms; tanks, AK’s , BMP’s, artillery, Migs, etc. The lesson from the Gulf War of ’91 is the sharpest lesson.
The US hasn’t won any “victories” since WWII? This reminds me of all the stories from the US ‘War of Seccession’, where the heroic South won many battles brilliantly, but somehow in 1865 they lost the war.
Well, all that clever military subsidy to advance the armies of Socialism (they never march backwards!) helped, in part, to bankrupt the USSR.
There was never a real and substantive arms industry in the Arab ME because, well, because. Despite all the oil money, despite many things, how much steel and aluminum is actually made in the Arab- Muslim world?
They are ruined because they have chosen to ruin themselves. They have squandered (to a large degree) all the accumulated wealth that should have been theirs.
Israel’s long term prospects? Survival. It was the thing denied the Jews in the Shoah, the Holocaust. They continue to think about that.
And their civilzation advances, not just survives, because they are not consumed with the slothful indolence which is part of the Arab way of life. Even the modern Russians aren’t dumb enough to give the Arabs endless amounts of arms as the Soviets were – just enough to stir up trouble and poke us in the eye.
Perhaps the most important lesson American conservatives can learn from Israel versus the Muslim world is that there is no revenge greater than success.
Yes, Gaza is small potatoes, and if they launched everything they have it would hardly rate as a military threat, but as an annoying, destructive, and crazy neighbor, they are right at the top of the list. That’s why Israel has shown remarkable, ridiculous forebearance for decades – because they could.
The real danger to Israel is politics, lawfare, and the like.
And then you get to the unconventional threats, which are there too, when your neighbors are crazy, and have relatives who are major gangsters.
–
The thing about the Westphalian state is that you can hold the nation-state responsible, if the Islamic countries are something other, generally something decentralized down to the tribe, family, or individual level, you have nothing to grab. It’s not the fear of the Caliphate, Islam hates “the pharoah” and any centralized authority, even their own. That’s why Islamic law *does* recognize collective guilt and punishment to those same tribal levels, I understand the “civil” law in Pakistan does so. When we eschew that under some Western concept or other, then Islam laughs at us.
Wretchard:
While the Arab states surrounding Israel are indeed in poor shape (for the time being)and the threat of conventional attack has lessened for now, that does not mean there will be peace. Far from it. Even leaving out the threat of Iranian nuclear terrorism, the fact is the Palestinians and their Muslum brothers can wage low-intensity total war indefinetely. The Palestinians get plenty of aid from the UN, and even have UN agencies specifically designated to help them. When a Palestinian home is destroyed by an Irsaeli strike the UN can and often does simply replace it for them for free.
The international community gives the Palestinianas food and shelter, and subsidizes educational programs that allow the Palestinians to train their children to believe in a doctrine of genocide for Jews. That same international community can always be counted on to step in and save them whenever they get too much of a military pounding from Israel. Add to that a religion and culture that considers death in battle a promotion to heaven.
The fact is, the Palestinains have been trying to destroy the Jews since before the State of Israel was founded. This is not Westphalian nation-state conflict, it is a clash of civilizations and Islam is determined that there should be no non-Islamic civiliazation within its borders (and eventually within the world). It is a war of attrition, and when one side has a Billion members and the other has less than 7 million, the long term outlook for Israel is dangerous, to say the least.
In order to win, Israel must destroy the ability of the Palestinians to engage in terrorism and break their will to do so. That requires a level of destruction that so far neither Israel nor any other Western Westphalian state has been willing to do. The idea that Western states must not engage in “disproportionate retaliation” simply gives the strategic initiative to Muslums – which is probably the idea behind it in the first place.
The Arabs as individuals are a charming, intelligent and resilient people. The answer to the question of their low state has been answered in a variety of ways: Western imperialism has brought them down; they have strayed from the ways of Allah; or the devil Israel exists.
Each answer attempts to explain the paradox of why such a talented people, often living atop of unimaginable wealth are in such a fix. The Turks historically faced the same question when thy sought to understand the decline of the formerly great Ottoman Empire. The answer of Kemal Ataturk, now rejected, was that Turkey needed to modernize. However, today, many have rejected Kemal’s hypothesis and now believe the fall arises from a rejection of the true Islam.
But what happens when they embrace the “true Islam” and are still poor? Still unable to do science and technology? Still puzzle without success at what infernal conjury the Jews employed to create the Iron Dome? At that point some may return to the hypothesis if Ataturk: that the problem lies not in the existence of the Jewish state but in some defect in their internal arrangements.
It has become common to notice that Israel is under threat; it is. But it would be an incomplete analysis unless set against the case that the Middle East is now gripped in crisis. The Left says ‘Gaza is little’, ‘Egypt is a Pygmy’, ‘Syria is helpless’. But why are they ‘little’ or ‘Pygymy’ or powerless? Why is Egypt starving? Why has Libya disintegrated? Why is Syria consumed by civil war?
Is that also the fault of the Jew? Or is perhaps the dominance of Israel really the result of the contrast of the failure of those other countries, inhabited though they may be by intelligent peoples, living in beautiful countries and often with money oozing out of the ground?
—-
The international community gives the Palestinianas food and shelter, and subsidizes educational programs that allow the Palestinians to train their children to believe in a doctrine of genocide for Jews.
If I were to start a new armed group in Gaza, I’d say: that’s your problem right there. The Western Left is conspiring to keep us perpetually stupid; in an ethnographic zoo so that when they want to feel good about themselves all they have to do is send a few miserable bucks to Gaza and some international functionary sends back photos of the inmates at feeding time. But unless we break out of the handout system and begin to emulate the ways the Jews prove most successful in — keeping of course our culture and religion — then we haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell.
The real ‘culture of violence’ is the culture of dependence. If you wish to damage a society you kill some of its individuals. But if you wish to destroy a society utterly, you subvert its culture. ‘So my fellow Gazans,’ I would say, ‘why are we little? We are little because we have let tiny minds instruct us. We deserve better than that.’
Good points Wretchard. I’m concerned about Fox’s latest headline that Iraq is advocating use of the oil weapon against the US for the US’s support of Israel. Besides being outrageous/typical, it raises the specter of Iran-Iraq relations. If Jordan falls via subversion, coup, guerrilla war, or some combination, Israel may find itself without a Syria to worry about, but Iran-Iraq-Jordan is a pretty wide corridor into the West Bank and Israel proper. I also wonder whether, if the IEA’s report regarding potential US energy independence as early as 2017, that won’t cause the Sauds to embrace China more or less totally, which would seriously undermine the Saud-Iran alliance, and possibly even invite OPEC to become an observer nation or even eventual member of the Shanghai Cooperation Org. I’m just thinking out loud, obviously, but.
It is also interesting that France is playing such an aggressive and visible role viz. the Syrian opposition. What does it mean? Clearly France has no political will to increase its military power, and in any case it doesn’t have the money. Is it merely a show, to evoke a NATO operation, as opposed to an, in truth, US-led operation, as in Libya? Or something else? I’m not aware of the French being very good at subversion, despite having excellent foreign intel and special forces.
In truth then it is said, “hate, corrodes the vessel that carries it.”
alka goyal
This is a good article but the author did not reference the most important difference in the region now as opposed to the 1948 through 1973 era. 1948 through 1973 was the era known as the ‘cold war.’ Where did Syria and Egypt get all those tanks and other military equipment?
They got them because they were client states of the now defunct Soviet Union. The economic systems of these countries are also the malignant vestiges of the soviet style economies forced on those countries as the price for soviet patronage.
The reason that there hasn’t been any significant threats of massive invading armies can be credited to the brilliant but much maligned Richard Nixon. It was Nixon who terrified the soviet leadership during the crisis days of the 1973 war by removing the covers on the US ICBM silos in the mid-west corn fields as the soviet spy satellites overflew them that caused the soviets to flinch in their support of their Arab allies.
This was not lost on Anwar Sadat who promptly tossed out all the soviet advisors and sought to make peace with Israel, an effort for which he paid with his life. Nonetheless, an uneasy but continuous peace has been maintained with Egypt from that day.
It is now threatened by an American president who cannot be trusted and Hillary Clinton who stabbed Hosni Mubarak in the back for the crime of being our ally. The consequences of that betrayal are being paid for in blood at this moment.
It’s not much of an improvement to go from being a client state of the Soviet Union to being a client state of the Western Left. It’s a losing game either way.
Maybe some historian will investigate why the old time Soviet agents were so little susceptible to Islamic conversion compared to the wide-eyed wonders of the Western Left after a long posting in the Middle East.
Or it may be that the hard-headed men with the steel tooth fillings possessed up to the moment of their collapse a residual cynicism carried over from the days of its civil war and the Eastern Front. Their new funders are from the European left-wing, corrupt labor politics and the fantasy world of liberal academia. Where the old supports used to send T-55s the new ones send “peace flotillas” to Gaza: a distinctly inferior lot compared to the old.
It will be interesting to see which wins the battle of the cultural exchanges. Will Islamists become more like the Western Left or will the Western Left become more Islamic?
Wretchard @25
David Goldman (How Civilizations Die) maintains that the Muslim world’s rapidly falling birthrate (albeit a higher one than that in some western countries) is the underlying reason for the suicide bombings, street rants by unemployed men and all the rest of the irresponsible, dysfunctional theatre that characterizes the Muslim ME. They lack, he says, any faith in their future, any overarching narrative for their lives and this belief results in fewer children. The rage stems from the feeling that if they can’t win, the west and Israel must be made to lose too – spite, in other words.
“Keep Israel intact, even expanding it — though not by too much in the West Bank”
An absolute classic! Expanding by theft of land and dispossession of innocents would be more accurate.
“… not by too much in the West Bank.” Yeah, right.
http://israeli-occupation.org/docs/settlements_map_eng_201101.pdf
“… not by too much in the West Bank.” Yeah, right.
Yes it is a classic. Israel’s biggest advantage is understanding that it cannot go out and grab parts of Lebanon in the way Syria has done. The Shaaba farms, for example, are actually claimed by Syria. “Syria and Lebanon are a single country,” said the elder Assad. A classic, isn’t it?
So it pursues a kind of low key expansion, in places it already controls, a corner here and a corner there. The IDF is a short range force. It doesn’t have the ability to overrun swathes of territory. Israeli territorial acquisitions are largely small and internal and often tied to tactical parts of the landscape.
You can make the argument that the settlements are expansionary. I won’t pretend that countries don’t grab stuff in that area. It’s been going on, back and forth for hundreds of years. What is the “right of return” except UN speak for an historical land claim? The Israelis are exercising their right of return.
The question is: who can make actual possession stick?
But what makes this possible is the Israeli refusal to grab big pieces of external territory and Arab weakness. So they creep along, like Mexifornia changing the landscape, changing the demography. And you can appreciate its effectiveness without agreeing with it. The Israelis are succeeding by succeeding.
The Arabs want to end the existence of Israel entirely. And they are not doing too well at that and even if they did, they could achieve it only at the probable cost of provoking a nuclear conflict in the region.
If the Left wanted the Palestinians to get out of their rut they first need to get rid of those Hamas and Fatah guys and install a civic society that can actually do something. Otherwise in 50 years Gaza will still be a refugee camp and the Israelis will be settling Mars.
A nation that’s Westphalian
Is much like unto Pygmalion
In that strength resides beneath the edges rough
It’s cohesive and resilient
In Israeli case it’s brilliant
They’re inventive and resolved and they are tough
While surrounded by the haters
Who are only imitators
And whose countries are behind a thousand years
Peopled with uneducated
Masses vastly overrated
As a military force that no one fears
So the tiny land of Zion
Seems to prosper and get by on
Wits and brains and work and pure Westphalian guts
While the Arabs cannot share it
They refuse to grin and bear it
And the Jewish state just laughs and drives them nuts
“How did this happen?”
How? Israel is the only country in the region that lacks an innate ability to cross thread a bowling ball.
And one reason is that the Jewish people would consider cross threading a bowling ball a failure rather than a natural and wonderful example of cultural diversity.
Israel has not done everything perfectly. But I don’t think they have produced any Solyndras, Cash for Clunker Programs, or shut down a Twinkie plant in order to enable a union to stand on principle.
If I drive the 1.5 miles to the local Wal Mart I can – and often do – buy “tea biscuits” made in Israel. But I won’t be able to buy Twinkies made in the USA
Out in the garage I have a sturdy plastic tool box of excellent quality – made in Israel, bought at the local Home Depot. The alternatives they had for sale were all made in China.
By the way, speaking of Twinkies, yesterday I heard that the unions demanded that Hostess carry bread and Twinkies in separate trucks, that the truck drivers not actually unload the product at the store, and that different people unload and stock the store shelves depending on whether it was bread or Twinkie-type stuff.
” … the feeling that if they can’t win, the west and Israel must be made to lose too …”
Russkaya shutka:
Pavel was a poor village peasant whose only valuable possession was a dairy cow whose milk not only provided food for the family but the excess could be sold for cash income.
One day he found the cow dead in its stall.
”Oh, woe is me!!” said Pavel, ”what shall I do now? Now not only will we have no milk and cheese but also not a single kopek from selling the extra milk. We will never make it now; what oh what am I going to do?”
Suddenly he heard a voice from on high: ” Pavel Sergeiivich! You have been a good man and a hard worker and I will grant you one wish. What will it be?”
Pavel thought long and hard and finally said: ”Let my neighbor’s cow die also!”
Gordon…
Though often taken as a joke, that’s a tragedy universal to the third world.
===========
It has been the repeated experience of the Peace Corps volunteers.
One particular case, from Latin America: an ‘imported’/ gifted cow was found freshly dead in its stall. Its new owner was in tears.
Investigation finally proved out that his animal had been destroyed by his own cousin.
Going way beyond prayer, the cousin decide that there was at least one crab he could pull back down in to the bucket.
========
Peace Corps volunteers discover why the third world is mired in poverty: habit and custom.
My Nephew spent one tour in the heart of ‘AIDs Africa’ — within South Africa. It’s utter dysfunction there. The locals are entirely fine with livestock defecating inside their own, human, living quarters — and do not deign to shovel it up and expel it! That task is left to the flies!
The Peace Corps permitted him to live in his own hut — such a luxury. Now you know why.
He got in some hot water: he finked on a gal that was ‘tithing’ foreign aid monies, that is, skimming off a royal percentage for herself and kin. (Sound familiar?)
Associated with that scam were ghost students. In this manner a school with but 55 here and there students ballooned up to 120 by the time the paperwork was submitted. As you might imagine, money was doled out per capita — of students on the books.
Keep such stats in mind the next time some third world poverty figures are bandied about. They’re sure to be just as fraudulent — and the cash flows tapped by their handlers just as routinely.
Ultimately, the vast bulk of charity, so directed, has the perverse effect of enabling systemic corruption on a pandemic scale.
It’s their culture that’s the number one impediment to economic advance. And it’s their culture that they’re determined to hang on to.
Man fights mostly over culture. All other matters are secondary. And culture and war are male dominated. It’s not a coincidence.
The very fact that Israel’s enemies can do so little effective damage using conventional means makes it all the more likely they and their state sponsors will resort to un-conventional means. Can’t get past the Iron Dome? Time or another intifada. Can’t get past the borders? Time for a few low-yield airbursts at high altitude, beyond the Iron Dome’s reach.
If your enemy has no other alternative, the more ruthless weapons look more attractive.
I agree with W’s line of thinking here, but I fear things may get a little too interesting all the same.
Wretchard:
While I agree entirely on the importance of culture, and I agree that until the victimhood mentality changes nothing else will, that does raise an important question: Do the Palestinians, and other Muslums by extension, WANT to change? The available evidence is that they do not. Throughout the Arab world, there has been a cultural tendency to reject Western mondernism in favor of Islamic Purity. Look at the University of Cairo 50 years ago and compare to today. There were FAR more women in western clothing studying western subjects than you will find today. The same tendency exists from Sudan to Turkey to AfghanistanP: Islamic culture is on the march within Islamic societies, and Western culture there is in full retreat.
No one in the West imposed this on anyone in the Middle East. Its true that Westerners in general and liberal-leftists in particular encouraged this trend, and enabled it as best they could, not least by giving free handouts unconditionally, no matter what Muslums did or said. However, should we not hold Muslums responsible for their own actions? The Muslum brotherhood won a free election in Egypt, by all accounts. Hamas was the free choice of the majority of the Gaza Palestinians. The Islamic fundamentalist policy of Edrogan in Turkey certainly seems to have the support of the Turkish people, and for that matter the Whabbists fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia seem to have popular support as well. Islamic culture may be defective by Western standards, but that culture certainly seems to be what Muslums want.
Arabs as INDIVIDUALS may perhaps be charming and friendly, just as a matter of good manners. But that in itself is deceiving.
A friend from many years ago was Iraqi by ancestry, although born in the US. He was in his 20′s when he visited his father’s family in Iraq (in the 1980′s) and was lucky to escape without being shanghaid into the Iraqi Army (they almost didn’t let him out, though he had a US Passport).
He remarked how nice his uncles, etc were as individuals, but when the family men (including his father) got together, it was a lot of madness.
So yes, it’s the group culture they cannot climb out of. As another friend who served in the Green Zone in Bagdad from 2004-2005 said,”All the Arabs that are interested in Democracy usually end up in Europe or Canada or the US. They cannot survive in Iraq (or the rest of the Middle East).”
The Christians (Arabs or whatever) from Lebanon have been driven out, and are still exiting. I used to work with a Christian Lebanese that grew up in the Bekaa valley (in the 1960′s and 70′s) served in the Lebanese Army, but got out in the late ’70′s because he could see the writing on the wall. He was actually friends with a Muslim Lebanese that also worked at our company, which was owned by two Jewish guys in Cleveland. Two Lebanese, one Christian, one Muslim, could be only be friends in Cleveland, working for Jews. Imagine that.
The Arabs/Muslims in the ME are a closed circle. They cannot be changed. They consciously kill change within their societies. It is all pretty ridiculous and hopeless. The yawning chasm of tragedy engulfs them all.
Although there is always be a need to resist actively, the best resistance is simply to make things work and watch Chicago, Detroit and California fall apart.
Would it be very disturbing to your world view to come to the realization that California isn’t falling apart? All sorts of dire things are said about California because it’s on one end of a political spectrum and the Republican party has pretty much fallen off the map here.
But those claims all turn out to be incorrect. We’re doing just fine, and we pay more into the federal government than we get back unlike a lot of those red states you like to hold up as examples of fiscal responsibility.
The horrible plight of Muslims comes from their Theos. He is a terrible and vengeful unity. His will is all and his ways are inscrutable. He must rule and if he does not then his devotees are at fault. They dare not fail. They cannot fail and believe still in their harsh and lonely God.
A living universe is he from the Hebrew God of freedom and the prophets. He demands justice and mercy. He has rules. Everyone should follow them and they are not harsh at all. Hard but not harsh.
A living universe again is he from the balance of the Trinity. There at least we might expect a negotiation and a fair settlement.
The dictator without rules but themselves is always harsh, and ruthless, and severe, and destructive. Look at Allah, or North Korea, or the Dmocrats and Barak Obama for that matter. They all demand that hell be paid (by others), and it always certainly is paid…by others.
“The Western Left is conspiring to keep us perpetually stupid; in an ethnographic zoo so that when they want to feel good about themselves all they have to do is send a few miserable bucks to Gaza and some international functionary sends back photos of the inmates at feeding time.”
Sounds like any major US city run by Democrats.
The 23rd Psalm is arguably, in my opinion, the most beautiful thing ever to be written. It has given me comfort in all the toughest points in my life…from being fired from a job where I didn’t feel I deserved it to my divorce to the day my daughter was born…her birth to be followed 1/2 hour later by a fax (!) from the indian tribe her mother was registered with objecting to the adoption (after earlier approving it) and saying that they were going to take her and plant her on the reservation.
Perhaps everybody has some touchstone in their lives that seems to make everything better, or at least less horrible. Psalm 23 is one for me. The only other things I’ve found that give me that kind of peace are a really good run along the river and a weekend spent with my old college friends.
And yes, we have the jews to thank for that particular bit of life’s wonderfulness and for so many more. I don’t agree with their religion, but it’s hard to deny that they are wonderful people just the same. And if it’s a choice between the whole world being converted to Judaism or Islam, it’s a pretty goddamn (irony alert) clear choice.
Joshua (40),
Go ahead and pull the other one. My friends in CA, especially the ones that do economic analysis for a living, would vehemently dispute your “doing fine” assertion.
If you want to actually do a little scholarship, you might start by looking into disinvestment events.
Very good essay and very good comments. As much as I hope for the best for Israel, I fear for her in the 4GW sense.
Spent some time on the Fabius Maxumus blog and he is pessimistic on Israel in the long run. Some of you may have looked at it. I would like to read some of your impressions.
The thing that stands out to me is demographics and population growth of Arab Muslim “Palestinians” vs the Israelis. Through the prism of demographic warfare the Ummah is on a roll!
I appreciate the comments about culture. The first few comments addressed that issue very well (success is the best revenge).
The Media war is interesting to watch (little Gaza vs Goliath Israel) or (little Israel vs the Ummah). The first is the narrative of the Left and the second is the narrative of the allies of Israel.
Long live Israel!
40 @Joshua Scholar
To borrow a familiar phrase from Wretchard, I’m sure California will just keep improving every year until it fails.
But I’m happy to oblige your worldview, as long as you promise not to come begging to Uncle Sugar for a bailout should your progressive utopia ever get into a spot of financial trouble it can’t find a way out of. Deal?
re 43. Agoraphobic Plumber
“And yes, we have the jews to thank for that particular bit of life’s wonderfulness and for so many more. I don’t agree with their religion, but it’s hard to deny that they are wonderful people just the same. And if it’s a choice between the whole world being converted to Judaism or Islam, it’s a pretty (irony alert) clear choice.”
Just an FYI if you were not aware, the whole world will never convert to Judaism because there is simply no need for that according to Jewish theology. Jews do not proselytize. We are not out to make the world Jewish. We don’t believe non-Jews go to hell because they are not Jews. Righteous gentiles go to heaven. We don’t see the world as divided into dar al-Yid and dar al Harb.
Our responsibility is to be a good example, and to remind everyone that the Creator exists and acts in the world. Many people don’t want to be reminded of this, and take it out on us.
We are the religious/ethnic equivalent of America as Reagan put it: “a shining city on a hill”. America is not out to conquer the world, but to do a good job and give a fair shake, and inspire others to lift themselves up to freedom. America at her best is the nation most like the Jewish people.
No wonder the rest of the world hates America and Jews!
45. Marzouq
according to wiki -
Jewish TFR increased by 10.2% during 1998–2009, and was recorded at 2.90 during 2009. During the same time period, Arab TFR decreased by 20.5%. Muslim TFR was measured at 3.73 for 2009. During 2000, the Arab TFR in Jerusalem (4.43) was higher than that of the Jews residing there (3.79). But as of 2009, Jewish TFR in Jerusalem was measured higher than the Arab TFR (2010: 4.26 vs 3.85, 2009: 4.16 vs 3.87). TFR for Arab residents in the West Bank was measured at 3.05 in 2010,[41] while that for the Jewish residents was reported at 5.10 children per woman.[42]
47 Akiva:
Yes, I’m well aware of the non-evangelical bent of Judaism. In some quarters it borders on, or possibly crosses right over into, distrustfulness of all gentiles. Not that I blame them…they’ve been mistreated horribly for no particular reason that I can discern, apart from the canard of “THEY KILLED JESUS!!!!1!”
I went through a phase where I tried to find out as much as I could about Judaism, and while a lot of jews online were friendly when treated in a friendly manner, not many seemed willing to speak openly about details of their beliefs. I got the distinct feeling that they might have liked to, but I was a potentially dangerous outsider. Sigh.
The human condition is critical.
Blert @ 36: Associated with that scam were ghost students. In this manner a school with but 55 here and there students ballooned up to 120 by the time the paperwork was submitted. As you might imagine, money was doled out per capita — of students on the books.
By the same kind of value in over counts of national populations in Africa, China, India etc. I have long hypothesized that the global population is way over-stated. That the world population has been in steep decline since the late seventies or so.
—
I’m still not sure what Wretchard meant by a “Westphalian State”. What does China say about Grotius v Selden, or do they say anything? In the end, who exactly sets the borders, and who determines what “a nation” means?
47 Akiva,
Kinda reminds me of Mormons! I was taught and believe in how special Jews are. I prefer the conservative Jews but I still listen to the liberal Jews and I can’t explain why.
You explained it in your last two paragraphs though.
Shalom!
48 Impeach Obama,
Thanks for the source.
@bvw: Westphalian State refers to the Treaty of Westphalia (1640-something), which is generally considered to have begun the creation of the modern nation state.
Prior to this, such things as nations as we think of them did not really exist.
The “nations” surrounding Israel, then, seem to be reverting to pre-Westphalia days: the days of tribes, regions, empires, kingdoms within Empires, etc.
To extend the analogy, or analysis, it may be that the nations surrounding Israel are not the only ones devolving into tribalism and pre-Westpahlian orders. How long do you think Obama and the Dems – that 50+1 majority of takers and tyrants – can force us to pay their freight? For some time more, surely. But only some time more. “America”, already over but for the name when they can force you to do whatever they want and to pay for it (Obamacare), will revert as well.
After Obama, the deluge.
After the deluge?
Reality if we are lucky; barbarity if we are not.
Has Israel found the Ark of the Covenant? That could explain their victories and continued superiority over all the enemies which surround them. Of course, they are smart, tough and organized far better than their enemies, but tough only counts for so much in a fight against overwhelming numbers. Even a rogue bull elephant can be killed and eaten by army ants if he stands and fights instead of fleeing. From Wiki:
“The biblical account relates that during the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Ark was carried by the priests some 2,000 cubits in advance of the people and their army, or host.[8] When the Ark was borne by priests into the bed of the Jordan, water in the river separated, opening a pathway for the entire host to pass through (Josh. 3:15-16; 4:7-18). The city of Jericho was taken with no more than a shout after the Ark of the Covenant was paraded for seven days around its wall by seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams’ horns (Josh. 6:4-20).”
Just sayin’ ya know.
49. “not many seemed willing to speak openly about details of their beliefs. I got the distinct feeling that they might have liked to, but I was a potentially dangerous outsider.”
All the religions say humanity is a patchwork of abandoned space colonists, evacuees, and gold-mining slaves. Which race came from where is unimportant, since we are all basically stuck here.
36. “Man fights mostly over culture. All other matters are secondary. And culture and war are male dominated. It’s not a coincidence.”
US intelligence has determined that bimbos are the real problem, in addition to presidents like Bill. So they produce characters such as Monica, Broadwell, and perhaps even Sandra Fluke in order to shame women out of choices.
Who are the contrapositive role models? Why “Hillary” of course, Marie Colvin, and I dare say Judge Judy (although that’s a bit tin-foil hat). These are all strong women, if only they weren’t actresses…
“[...]we pay more into the federal government than we get back[...]”
So, would it be just fine if “you” paid into the federal government the exact same amount as “you” got back from the federal government?
If that were the case, then why you were sending the money to the feds in the first place? What value was there in sending “your” money to the feds so that they could give it all back? (Assuming that none of “your” money didn’t stick on the transfer.)
@40 Joshua
Thank you for providing balance and offering facts. With that in mind, would you mind refuting some of the claims made here? Can you?
http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?tag=california
There are quite a few, but please, do.
Situatiion analysis:
-jews need a “westphalian nation” for a variety of reasons.
-the US needs secure borders as a “westphalian nation”
-arabs and jews both regard a patch of desert at the end of the Mediterranen as sacred, but the jews are rational.
Proposal:
-The arabs/muslims buy israel at a “reasonable price” including generous and sufficient “moving costs”.
-Israel retains oil-gas field ownership in fields off their coastline.
-With US, and mexican and UN “assistance”, the israelis buy baja california and a border strip between the US and mexico.
-jewish israeli citizens move, muslim residents of israel stay in MENA
jerusalem and bethlehem remain “international cities” under UN control/protection
bingo, many problems solved.
-Illegal immigration reduction and synergy with silicon valley rejuvinates california.
-the arabs/muslims sink into chaos without a common enemy.
-The US develops natural gas and oil reserves to self-sufficiency.
-Israeli collaboration with our universities rejuvenates them, just as the hitler-driven exodus did 80 years ago.
SpeakEasy @8 wrote:
‘Unions and Islam have much in common, they can only destroy, never create. Just as the Palestinians destroyed those green houses Israel had built and left behind, the unions would rather unemploy their peons than lose their hold on power. Of course they will eventually lose the power anyway when no one will hire union labor anymore but there is still much looting to be done in the mean time. If the unions were capable of creating they would buy out Hostess,Inc and keep the machines going, but then they would become the devil. And besides,looting is easy, business is hard.’
That is a profound insight, and it resonates with me because the exact same insight occurred to me regarding how satan works:
Only God can create, satan can only pervert (in an effort to destroy). That is the nature of evil.
Your post helps me confirm the similarities between the Left, Islam, and evil. I believe their underlying fury is of the same source.
Best regards, Peter Warner.
PS: Thank you, Richard. Psalm 23 has long been my favorite. Psalm 1 has been with me strongly recently:
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Psalm 1 (KJV)
In respect to Israel, the thought that she is safer now is sadly, rather silly.
The reality is that as someone has already noted, conventional warfare is no longer practical or necessary. Why feed, clothe and arm a morass of men when there are plenty of young men willing to do the battle on their own for you? Gaza provides a perfect milieu to fight the war against Israel by proxy. And, rather than seeking expensive arms for a state, better to put that money towards funding the extremist fighters in the neighborhoods of Gaza.
This is of course not the first time Gazan extremists have launched missiles into Israel.
But those missiles, I read, are more technologically advanced than the last time a few years ago.
And so it goes. With every passing year, the technology that gets into the hands of extremists gets more and more sophisticated.
How long indeed before they are in possession of suitcase bombs. How many suitcase bombs–two? three?–would it take to destroy the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv corridor, and render it inhabitable for generations?
Conventional war at least possesses the dubious virtue of allowing us to see the consequences of war: we won’t know the consequences of a suitcase bomb, or a true biological agent, until after the fact.
Within a generation or two, and probably right about the same time, coincidentally or not, that the oil runs out, we’ll see the ME turn into a charnel house of black glass.
There are two answers to the Israeli predicament. First is the voluntary dissolution of the state, and its emigration of citizens to other, westernized states. A third of Israeli young consider this a viable option already, and as the generations turn and the past recedes into legend, I think that the possibility increases.
But for now, that probably isn’t going to happen. Ultimately, the best guarantor of a free and independent Israel is a larger, Arab, state that doesn’t need to fear Israel. I think the idea of fostering a new Caliphate is something that ought be considered: it could, properly done, be as much in the long term interest of this nation. Communism was tamed by being made responsible for keeping the lights on…the same is true of Shia millenarianism in the Khomeini Revolution in Iran, and could be true of Sunna Wahabism and Salafi thought channeled through new Caliphate, based on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Abdullah has a legitimate claim). Under such a caliphate, the centripedal forces of such philosophies would be constrained by the state’s need for a governing philosophy, hence a focus on the traditional umma and social responsibility that characterizes the best of Islam.
It’s really time that we started thinking outside the box, stopped assessing blame on either side for the past, stopped nitpicking at every occasional act of strife between the two. We need to look down the road, at the overall future of the area, and how these two peoples are ever going to live in peace. Otherwise the whole region is doomed.
Wretchard @25 wrote:
‘ The real ‘culture of violence’ is the culture of dependence. If you wish to damage a society you kill some of its individuals. But if you wish to destroy a society utterly, you subvert its culture.’
Yes. When God’s word is taken out of education, the culture moves away from goodness.
Also @25:
‘ “The international community gives the Palestinianas food and shelter, and subsidizes educational programs that allow the Palestinians to train their children to believe in a doctrine of genocide for Jews.”
If I were to start a new armed group in Gaza, I’d say: that’s your problem right there. The Western Left is conspiring to keep us perpetually stupid;’
If a child cannot read on his own, he can only know what he is told. This is why ‘progressive education’ is so destructive, and why the works of John Dewey and his followers should be despised among men. Illiteracy enslaves, the ability to read gives power to the individual.
Best regards, Peter Warner.
44. Kirk Parker
46. Dworkin Barimen
One of the memes repeatedly bandied about is that the “blue states” pay much more in taxes than they receive back from the federal government, and that “blue states” receive much less government funding than the “red states” receive much more from the federal government than they pay in taxes. Publicizing this meme may be way to dissuade ordinary citizens from even thinking about seceding or even complaining, and may explain “joshua’s” quasi-religiously-asserted screed at #40’
Even without the complexity of foreign and DC expenditures, this meme doesn’t fit the reality that the feds are now spending, what, about 40% more than is taken in by tax payments? So perhaps every state is “getting more” than it “pays” (what a deal !!!)
And just looking at limited types of federal outlays per state is not an accurate picture. It would be interesting to have a thorough analysis of government payments from the “makers”, and benefits from the government to the “takers” applied to each congressional district. Tax payments are easy to total. But “benefits” are much greater than the sum of federal payments. “Benefits” would include the trillion dollar bailouts to bankers, the value of government loans (and unpaid loans lost in bankruptcy, such as the billions of “green” loans), the value of being able to borrow from the federal reserve at low-to-near-zero rates. Such benefits would be assigned to the respective banking center congressional districts (new york, etc) and the company headquarters of the loan beneficiaries. Government employee salaries would be assigned to the agency headquarters/office where they are based. Payments to states would be assigned to where they were applied/spent in the state.
Grants and government contracts would be assigned to the headquarters/offices where the “work” is done and overhead is generated (the govt keeps track of this). For example, grants/funding other largesse to universities would be assigned to the congressional district where the university is located.
The economic value of tax exemptions, credits and regulations which are the result of bribes and lobbying (the same thing) would be assigned to the headquarters of the beneficiaries. The value of tax exemptions for General Electric which result in zero taxes would be assigned to the congressional district in fairfield Connecticut. The value of tax advantages for hollywood/copyright tax preferences would be assigned, for example to california stidio congressional districts and new york publisher districts. The value of regulations which prevent competition (obtained by lobbyist co-optive misuse/bribes of congressional and regulatory power) would be assigned to the congressional districts of the headquarters of the regulatory beneficiaries.
Farm subsidies (if any are left), would go to the address of the recipient (may are in cities).
Lobbyist salaries/profits would be assigned to the headquarters of the companies which employ them.
Et cetera, et cetera.
I suspect that a thorough analysis would show that the economic value of government benefits are more concentrated in “blue” congressional districts than in “red” congressional districts. That they are more concentrated in highly “blue” college towns and “blue” major cities. That they are more concentrated in “service”/banking/regulated economy districts than in manufacturing/farming/growing/producing districts.
Well, I dunno. Maybe I’m just kind of dense. But the idea that Israel will prevail if its people just get up and go to work every day even though the UN and every single nation and cultural group, including but not limited to Hamas and Fatah, is actively plotting its destruction strikes me as, itself, a bit like imagining settlements-to-come on Mars.
49. Agoraphobic Plumber – re finding out more about Judaism – back in 1996, I took a five month course – Intro to Judaism” at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. Excellent! It is for people wanting to know more about Judaism, for people considering conversion, for priests and ministers of other religions, etc. As part of the class, we studied Hebrew; we had to become part of a local temple; and we practiced weekly Shabbat services, as well as one week of eating Kosher. What an amazing course – a true eye-opening experience. My respect and knowledge went up 10 fold – and, in contrast to my Jewish friends, I knew far more than they about their own customs and traditions. Now, I’ve got to do it for my own birth religion!
@ 59. mickey
==
Interesting sense of humor you have.
…not many seemed willing to speak openly about details of their beliefs. I got the distinct feeling that they might have liked to, but I was a potentially dangerous outsider. Sigh.
Have you ever considered they were wondering why on earth anyone who didn’t have to would want to be interested in this stuff?
Of course, it always depends on which Jews you ask for information.
Some know a bit. Some don’t know much at all. Some are proud of their religion. Some are embarrased by it. Some respect it. Some despise it. Some are fond of the traditions. Some relate to it as bagels and lox, chicken soup and chopped liver and call it a day.
And not a few have, um, “issues”.
Remember, two Jews, five opinions (or whatever).
Anyway, there’s always “Judaism for Dummies”:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=judaism+for+dummies&sprefix=judaism+for+dumm%2Cstripbooks%2C287
Heuristically let us consider Christianity as an offspring or blending of two religious/philosophical traditions, the Jewish and the Greek.
Greeks were given to eschatological speculations. The nature of the afterlife, the abode(s) of divinity, and what happens next to man and the universe are important. For them here we just do the best we can while trying to figure out what external power is interfering for what purpose.
Judaism by contrast is with exceptions more focused on the here and now. What comes next? God knows, and He will summon us to find out soon enough. Essentially for most Jews the evidence as to the nature of God and the wishes of the Divinity are revealed in this world. That is why most Jews do not discuss topics like Heaven and Hell or the End Times as much as many Christians do. This is for sure a gross simplification. The Commandment to show your good nature is fulfilled by “Healing the World” or tikkun olam. This can lead some Jews to support secular Liberalism and eventually Socialism.
Judaism especially after the loss of the Temple was exposed to influence by the Greeks. After the growth of Christianity the dialogue continued. Islam, being more abstract regarding the nature of God than Judaism and more dependent on speculation as to the afterlife than the Greeks, also introduced pressures on other faiths in a manner that is complicated. The constant reverberations among all the beliefs that have contacted each other, including many that formally no longer are practiced such as the Egyptian or Sumerian, echoes through time.
#57 – I forgot to include important aspects:
-The new Baja california+Mexico/US border strip is a new nation of Israel recognized by the UN, US, Mexico, Arab countries, etc
The former Israel territory is recognized as a new Palistinian state by the US, UN, Israel, etc.
re 57. jaybird, 59. mickey, 67. jaybird
The Zionists debated asking for Madagascar about 120 years ago. They realized that it was counterproductive to try to set up a Jewish home in any place other than the Jewish homeland. Despite the theoretical advantages, it just does not make sense.
Anything other than Jews in charge of the Jewish homeland is not going to work.
Israel is our home. King David was writing those Psalms you like in Jerusalem before there were such things as Christians or Muslims. It was our home when Rome was still a swamp and Mecca was a black rock.
You know that the Arabs and UN would never pay – they have not paid one cent to the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab countries in the 1950s, their land and possessions stolen by the Arabs with no compensation. You never hear about those refugees because Israel worked to absorb them instead of leaving them in camps to leverage human suffering as a political tool.
Second, even if you gave the entire thing to the Arabs they would destroy it and kill each other. It’s like giving a priceless ming vase to an ADHD kid off his meds. In 2005 we gave them the state of the art greenhouses and irrigation systems that we built in Gaza – the Arabs destroyed them and used them to dig smuggling tunnels and launch rockets at civilians. As soon as IDF left gaza they started killing each other for dominance, with the most wicked coming out on top.
In the 90s we gave the Arabs control over holy sites after getting agreements that we would have access, and they attacked and destroyed them. Look up Joseph’s tomb – they took a Jewish holy site, murdered people, burned it, and made a mosque. Rachel’s tomb used to be a tiny simple structure, we had to build a fortress around it so the Arabs would stop attacking.
“international cities” under UN control/protection is just laughable. The UN did a great job protecting defenseless civilians in Rwanda and fmr Yugoslavia. Having Jews live under some “enlightened” moderate caliphate is even worse.
Practically speaking, there is no price that we would accept to leave. Sure, some might agree, you could call them rational, but we would call them sell outs. We already paid for this land in tears and blood and are willing to pay more than anyone else, because G-d, the Creator of the world gave it to us. You can scoff, but how many times in history has a nation been exiled from their home and survived as a distinct nation and returned and rebuilt. That’s crazy, it’s logically and historically impossible. We did that twice. Has any other nation survived in exile for 2000 years and returned home? The Almighty speaks through history, through the Jewish people. Are you listening?
jaybird…my Mexican friends in Cabo would be highly amused by your idea of a trade for Baja. Ain’t never going to happen. I suggest New York City or Chicago instead of Baja.
To the doomsayers who seem now to be coming out of the woodwork, predicting Israel’s imminent demise:
Let me simply point out that you are the latest in a VERY long chain. People have been predicting Israel’s doom since before there was an Israel. (Several American generals advised an infant Israel, in 1948, to abandon the far-flung settlements and concentrate on the Mediterranean coast for a last stand. The advice was ignored, and each settlement was fought over, tooth and nail. The same thing happened in 1967 and in 1973; both times Israel’s obituary was written beforehand, and many heads were shaken sorrowfully. They were mistaken. So are you.)
Blaise Pascal pointed out, four hundred years ago, that the very existence of the Jewish people, after all they’d been through, was proof that God exists (and that God cares). Today we could make a similar case, if we choose, for the existence of Israel. Has any other country in history survived the odds Israel has — and not just survived, but thrived? (Someone once pointed out that Israel’s survival, surrounded as she was by the entire Arab world, was wildly improbable — as though the state of Kentucky were to take on the rest of the United States, and beat it in four wars.)
Take it or leave it, as suits you. But if you’re looking for evidence that God is paying attention, and cares about what happens to us, look no farther. By the standards of history, Israel ought not to be there at all. But there she is.
#68 Akiva
In a way I envy you. Our country used to have the kind of faith and patriotism and love of the idea of America that you have for Israel. Our government that has betrayed us will surely betray you. Despite that, you will triumph in the end.
Subotai Bahadur
Daniel,
Cite please. I’ve heard that said of Blaise Pascal, but I have not seen it in writing. As the progenitor of probability mathematics, I find it dubious that he would call it proof. More in keeping with his way of viewing things would be that the unlikelihood of Jewish survival elevated the likelihood of His existence.
And let me be clear on this too in case you think of me as a scoffer. When a genius like Pascal suggests that it is highly advantageous to act as if God existed, I find it laughable how many other allegedly brilliant men have chosen not only a scoffing course, but a diametrically opposite one.
#69 Sigintel, your friends in Cabo would surely be better off. But I like your suggestion of New York and chicago. Toss in DC, and you’re on. Or better yet, the enire state of california except for carmel.
#68 Akiva its a gedanken experiment, and there are many other actual solutions. Many have everyone involved much better off. But based on your response, I withdraw my assertion that jews (on my mother’s side of the family anyway) are rational. Of course payment would have to be made, and statehood recognized, and transition/rebuilding faciltated. But in a short while (in historical terms) the new palistine state would decay and MENA would fragment without a common external hatred. The new israel would thrive. The old land would even be available again, albeit in decrepit condition. My reference to an international city under UN auspices was intended to be a sarcastic joke – we agree on the reality.
Pascal #72
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, p. 116 – “the Jews have outlived all the civilizations of antiquity”.
“This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which
has always continued from their origin till now. For, whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of
Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after, have long since perished, these
ever remain, and in spite of the endeavors of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to
destroy them, as their historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture from the natural order of things
during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation has been
foretold); and extending from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration
all our histories which it preceded by a long time.”
Thanks Lone Summit. What you found my supports original contention. It is a presentation of evidence.
However, in support of Daniel, I did find the following 3 entries from the Pensees.
However, note that 289 and 290 amount to a listing in Pascal’s catalog of his thoughts that were discovered and published posthumously. Had he lived longer than 39 years there is no telling what else he would have added. They do suggest that he views them as suggesting proof, but he does not elaborate on his arguments as he so often did elsewhere and well. So well in fact that it’s hard to say what King Louis XIV would have done to him if he been presented with proof that Pascal was the author of the Provincial Letters which the king himself had proscribed and ordered burned.