The horrific war images just keep pouring in, from Israel and Gaza and near the West Bank and virtually everywhere in that region — now likely Lebanon — and so how do we in The West react to what’s going on in The Middle East?
I wish to suggest that there are few White Knights, satin or otherwise, in this battle, going back I think to the days of the crusades. Like in sports, it is not always the person who throws the first punch … who gets called for the foul … Even though the missiles fired by the thousands by HAMAS — and its sheer depravity against civilians, although what’s being done in Gaza also is horrible — in The Middle East, that started things off again, are totally unjustifiable. (But there is so much more at stake then whose shown winning the World Series, at the area sports bars in their hundreds. When you look at the wrath against Israel, who is victorious in the western vs. eastern conference becomes inconsequential.)
How The West Was Won, for example? It never really was. Just keeps unfolding. Ask the Native Americans. And reference the band Stabbing Westward, as it is/was.
— Also, take a stab at some fall colors, now nearing peak in various localities, and especially at the golden-hued GasLite near Ellsworth, on its 17 acres for camping/viewing. See the Picks of the Week department. —
It also has been said that last week’s attack was prompted, to a degree that is arguably hard to quantify, by the Israelis allegedly mistreating Palestinians, and it would be very easy to go gonzo over Gaza and they call it simply a small strip for a reason. So here we go again, as for decades running. Indeed, these particular very nuanced themes go back as far as World War II, and maybe before that. (More on that later in this post.)
President Biden is right in saying that the latest, still was an unprovoked terrorist attack. But there has been so much of this atrocity back and forth over the years. Ozzy sung it best in his song Crazy Train, “Maybe it’s not too late, to learn how to love, and forget how to hate. Mental wounds not healing. Who and what’s to be …” (One of the main places where the atrocities caused by HAMAS started were, of course, a music fest where hundreds died. For many of the fans, there would be no encore.) And hatred is what is driving all this in the Mideast, built up, again, for over a half-century.
It was mentioned early on the news that this was almost to the day a 50-year anniversary — and also a major holy holiday — of one of the biggest acts of war between the countries. (In fitting with part of this post, I will not actually suggest a total aggressor.) I’d much rather do a remembrance of 50 years for an event that’s a Celebration Day, like that for an instant classic Led Zeppelin album containing that song performed live.
This latest attack after yet another imminent serge of “immigrancy,” as I will call the continuing human epidemic of being a refugee, in Eastern Europe, and Asia, to name one or two places.
Don’t ever think it ends with the Ukraine. And we not rush as fast to their aid?
Why can’t the parties in the Middle East all sit down and break bread, and share what they and their respective faiths love about the city they fight so bloodily to possess. And control. Instead, look with fondness into your Holy Books for synergy and commonality used in their phrases, and what they say, about Jerusalem and its merits, and beyond, I dare say. To the Heavens. You’d be surprised what you might find. Though obviously there are differences, some theologies that most people would not believe have like minds, actually say a lot of the same things. Unity not uniformity. To wit, and please do not crucify me for saying this: Christianity and Wicca. Often the white not so much the black.
(Note to Joe and his songwriting: Make an effort, even more now, to dive deep into the Torah and Koran. Thus I’ll find similarities to the Bible, also Joe, as I need to note it further — I know what of it, ten percent? — as well as so many other such Books of Wisdom. Hey, that one is in the Bible to. And the wisdom does not stop with religious writings.) How about, with these times, the age-old song Rockin’ The Casbah by the Clash? A metaphor: The Arab Oil Shiek (I reference Dio’s Neon Knights), though stereotypical and therein lies another problem, wants to go richly rock out and drink and party, pre- and post-concert, but the Israeli leader in turn, finds that being “kosher” is not there at the show. How do they resolve their differences? By use The King sending jet fighters. Rather, can’t they find common ground somewhere in the realm of the tens of thousands of songs that make up music.
This has been likened to the total Kill ‘Em All factor of WWII. Metallica weeps, as One.
Of those taken prisoner, there was even a man in a wheelchair. Anyone can be held hostage. And why strike things like a high-rise residential apartment building, leaving it crumbling and tumbling down like we saw in 9-11 — yes the comparison has been made in recent days — just to prove a point. “We fuel the jaws of the war machine and feed to it our babies.” And horrible to say, moreso now then ever, slice them up first.
Intelligence failed. On more than one side. But why? Are we always Johnnie Come Latelys? In so many cases, by the time the problem has actually reared its ugly head, with terrorism, all we can do in response is what amounts to damage control. We need, possibly, to put even more funding into shoring up our intelligence, and helping our allies do the same — as its a Brave New World in this regard and the war thing is being done much differently then ever before — not just go build more bombers. Or send them to Israel, or otherwise.
Hey, we as a country depend so much on that CIA-type-stuff coming from Israel. Tit for tat. And this gets even more to the heart of the matter, as far as the U.S. response. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, we cannot be the world’s policeman for every conflict (war) that comes about. We’ll pick and choose who we protect based on mostly our vested self interest — and its a key that HAMAS is an ally of Iran, it’s termed national security — but as a secondary factor, keeping world-wide stability, and detering other actors from taking political advantage. Good luck. Look to the north of now-far-right Israel. Even if this means bringing in the also-not-stellar Saudis. Even our news coverage here in the States seems to be quite one-sided.
And why give Israel a prefered position? There is that whole Biblical imperative thing, but it has been wisely said that such peragotives change over time — especially when its 2,000 years — and can thus be very culturally couched. Do you think we should, without context, blindly do all the very questionable things touted in Leviticus? We should try to help all people, regardless of the teachings in religious traditions.
Why do such matters, involving hate and why conflict carries on for decades if not centuries in places like the Middle East, just continue onward? And people tend to take sides, one versus another.
Part of the answer lies, fittingly, with an analysis of Hitler, and the existance of embodied evil, or good?
As I said once at home, there are very few Hitlers or Mother Theresas. There is good and bad, to varying degrees, in virtually all of us. Put us all somewhere on a continuum. Do their respective faiths believe in original sin?
It has been often said, that many Catholic saints, as named, started out being quite bad guys and girls. Later coming around to be more like their true selves, but does a remnant of their past actions remain?
Religious or not, these are important questions. Look how they could apply to the Middle East, going way back.
There is a lot of blame to go around, and there is not simply one bad guy.
Such themes play out in music. As an example, I give a Black Sabbath (seem a fitting title with what has just transpired) song that could be seen as evil, until you look closer. It is about the devil impersonating God to woo a woman. There is societal value here for analyzing, if in short form, the mind of an abuser.
But also, in getting back to my thesis on if anyone is either pure good or pure evil, an interesting question is posed, involving the devil’s perceived humanity. Could the devil actually fall in love? Does he have any friendships, in a real and non-manipulative way? Do any of his followers actually love or respect him, in a manner where they do not want something from him?
But why so much hate Jewish people?
This is called the oldest hatred, with some of the rage stemming from the idea that Jewish people are often very successful and have means, so they do not get any degree of empathy. It has been said that back before Nazi times in Germany, that Jewish people were the bosses and that they didn’t treat their German workers very well. This again, would be hard to quantify, but even if its true, to some extent, this does not justify genocide against a whole race. You do not penalize a whole group of people for the alleged sins of a few. And even if that argument would have some merit, the penalty must fit the alleged crime. Wholesale extermination is the ultimate peath penalty, not a slap on the wrist.
Unfortunately, there is very little more human than being suspicious of those who are not like ourselves. I must admit, and I feel very badly for this, that from a standpoint of sheer physical appearance, ethnic Jewish people to me can look a bit, what can I say, odd. (Of course Arabs in their turbans and sometimes scraggly and long beards are not exactly masters of modern style). I wish very much that I would not have that reaction. But it is there.
Why bring this up? Could this be why Jews, and Blacks, and Native Americans, and Asians, and Arabs too — at least in a partial explanation — are looked at by some WASPs in the way they are. Shouldn’t matter, but in our society looks are everything as far as a determinant. But we do not go as far as committing genocide against people who are, say, overweight. Maybe because many of them are of our same ethnicity? But how does that explain anti-gay bias. These are seemingly trivial, but actually important details. Maybe the next key thing for sociologists to delve into? And then change the game and indeed the conversation, and our world-view and the manner in which we view others? I hope so.
I am going to end on a different note, sort of, and please do not hate me — theme here? — for including this as part of the tale. I got a mailing asking me to donate to starving Jewish elders, some of them refugees. That circumstance again. To get serious, does this not show the degree of need in our world, as causes can get that specific with whom they have to aid? That reality is bad news for us all. The obvious horrible irony is that going back to the days of the Holocaust, Jewish people needed to become masters of doing without food and still in some cases somehow survive. Not to be glib, but that shows a very tremendous inner strength — and a beyond-comprehension resolve now seen again by hostages — that deserves all of us chipping in and helping, all those who we can. It’s very unfortunate that being Jews or otherwise, that need is the case, and demands so much from us all to make it a better world.