Judging by this morning’s “talking heads” programs the biggest news stories of the day have been Liz Cheney’s loss of leadership status in the Republican Party and the missile exchanges between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I haven’t commented on either and I thought I’d explain why. Let’s start with the exchange between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
I don’t think that the IDF should have gone into the Al Aqsa mosque and taken down its PA system, I don’t think the Palestinians should be firing missiles at the Israelis, and I don’t think that the Israelis should be bombing the Palestinians. What I think doesn’t change anything and will convince no one. It astonishes me what claptrap the narrative of the Israelis as western colonizing oppressors is. The grandparents of the majority of present Jewish Israelis were Jews driven from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and other North African and Middle Eastern countries in the 1940s. Most of their grandparents were not European Jews. Ashkenazic Jews comprise about a third of present Israelis. Said another way today’s israelis are as Middle Eastern as the Palestinians.
I am also wary of the U. S.’s cultivating a cozy relationship with any nationalistic theocracy whether it’s Israel, Saudi Arabia, or, increasingly, India. I just don’t think that’s compatible with American notions of human rights. All of those views taken together are enough to make just about anybody dislike me. Why dwell on it?
Onwards to the Republicans. I live in Chicago in Cook County in the state of Illinois. All of those are run by Democrats. The president of the U. S. is a Democrat and both houses of Congress are presently run, tenuously, by Democrats. What Republicans do or do not do has next to no effect on my daily life but what Democrats do touches my life every single day. I wish the news media were a lot more concerned about honesty, decency, and coherence among Democrats than they seem to be.
And that’s why I haven’t commented on the two biggest news stories of the day.
“I wish the news media were a lot more concerned about honesty, decency, and coherence among Democrats than they seem to be.”
Fans don’t scream kill the ump when their team gets the calls.
There is no win with Israel vs Palestine. I did find this interesting.
“The grandparents of the majority of present Jewish Israelis were Jews driven from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and other North African and Middle Eastern countries in the 1940s. Most of their grandparents were not European Jews. Ashkenazic Jews comprise about a third of present Israelis. Said another way today’s israelis are as Middle Eastern as the Palestinians.”
This seems kind of like saying that someone from Poland is just as European as someone from Spain so a Pole has just as much right to land in Spain as a Spaniard since they are both European.
As to Cheney I think she was hoping this would help her long term higher aspirations.
Steve
That’s exactly how it is right now. I could go deeper than that but I’ve posted before on the history of Israel’s Jews and the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. Maybe I should dig up that post. The analogy would be closer if there had always been communities of Poles living in Spain but that hasn’t been the case.
Suffice it to say that many Palestinian claims are factually inaccurate.