Deliver Us From Evil

Back in the days before political correctness, the physicist JBS Haldane said, “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose.” Political scientists can probably say the same thing. The Washington Post reports that “tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are back in business since cease-fire”. Since an Israeli spokesman has said that future peace depends on preventing Hamas from re-supplying itself with rockets, the possibility of it re-arming may be cause for alarm. And you thought ceasefires were about “breaking the cycle of violence”.

“Our expectation of Egypt, and the rest of the international community, is to stop Hamas from rearming,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu. “We believe they came out of this latest round significantly depleted in terms of rockets and missiles. The way to prevent a future round is to prevent their ability to rearm.”

Manwhile, the online hacker group Anonymous has announced it will release emails indicating “Iran and Syria are supplying weapons made in Ukraine and Belarus to the Palestinian group Hamas”.

On Monday at 2030 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), ‘Par:AnoIA,’ one of many Twitter accounts connected to Anonymous, stated that the group would “release a stash of Syrian Government emails in the next 24h, featuring Kofi Annan correspondence, cash & weapon deliveries.” Three hours later the same user announced a leak of “1 Gigabyte [of] internal emails from [the] Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs” onto the internet.

The first email leaked was called a “teaser”, from the Syrian embassy in Tehran on November 20, to the British embassy in Belarus. In the communique, the embassy confirms the Iranians are supplying helicopters and Ukrainian made weapons to Hamas, which operates mostly from the Gaza Strip in Palestine. “1.2D projectiles of Ukraine origin found in Egypt and Syria” are some of the weapons being sent to Palestine along with “EC725 Helicopters”.

Where the EC725 helicopters might operate from and what they might do is a mystery. We are probably too stupid to figure it out. Anonymous had previously released a leaked boast by the Syrian government boasting that they could easily dupe American audiences in an Assad interview with Barbara Walters. “The American audience doesn’t really care about reforms. They won’t understand it and they are not interested to do so…. American Psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are ‘mistakes’ done and now we are ‘ﬁxing it.’ …”

It’s too bad that the public cares so little about the workings of the world. Beneath the superficial currents of the news narrative a remarkably complex set of memes is in constant interplay. They are the spirits of the modern world. Hatreds, greeds, dreams are perhaps the real drivers of world. In days past the public called them the whispers of angels and demons. Nowadays we refer to them as ‘talking points’. But maybe they are the same thing.

The normal incuriosity of the public has been shattered by news that America is building a super-secret facility for Israel called site 911. The Washington Post muses aloud about its purpose:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.

Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate it from the rest of the base.

And then comes a moment of cognitive dissonance.

Security concerns are so great that non-Israeli employees hired by the builder can come only from “the U.S., Canada, Western Europe countries, Poland, Moldavia, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Romania and China,” according to the Corps notice. “The employment of Palestinians is also forbidden,” it says.

What could be so secret that it can be remotely risked to Filipinos, Chinese and Thais, but not to Palestinians? There’s a head-scratcher for you. But if you inhabit a world where the physical is ruled by the ideational then there may be an answer.

The Corps offered a lengthy description of the mezuzas the contractor is to provide “for each door or opening exclusive of toilets or shower rooms” in the Site 911 building. A mezuza (also spelled mezuzah) is a parchment which has been inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah, placed in a case and attached to a door frame of a Jewish family’s house as a sign of faith. Some interpret Jewish law as requiring — as in this case — that a mezuza be attached to every door in a house. …

What’s the purpose of Site 911?

Mystery on mystery. Only the other day National Public Radio reported that North Korea had found the “unicorn’s lair”. How do they know? “A rectangular rock carved with words “Unicorn Lair” stands in front of the lair. ” Yes, “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose.”

Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the purer faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.

Jones: Now you’re getting nasty.

Belloq: You know it’s true. How nice. Look at this. [holds out a pocket watch.] It’s worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless…like the Ark. Men will kill for it. Men like you and me.

Jones: What about your boss, der Führer? I thought he was waiting to take possession.

Belloq: All in good time. When I am finished with it. Jones, do you realize what the Ark is? It’s a transmitter. It’s a radio for speaking to God. And it’s within my reach.

You wish.