This was your best one yet Mark. Keep hitting it hard. Readers should take a look at Douglas Reed's "The Controversy of Zion" to confirm the zealotry. Reed says the Jews started WWI, WWII, and would start WWIII. It's happening.
As Bibi sets his eyes on Damascus, it would be most fitting if he were to undergo, like Paul, a conversion moment, and as Saint Paul exhorted, “put…on the armour of light.” Love, as Paul says, is the fulfillment of the law. Zealotry is the fulfillment of hate, a state of denying the present, being forever a prisoner of the past, as referred to by Prof Sachs. I’ve always been struck by the absence of forgiveness in the Jewish religion: keep resentment alive, grievance, memory of past wrongs: no atonement, no peace. Engaging in diplomacy therefore makes no sense: it’s an act of presence, of imagining the future. Not talking to your adversaries is an act born of zealotry. I like Trump because he’s been through hell, and yet he perseveres without vindictiveness, and in spite of the last 8 years, he moves on. I hope he has the leverage, or latitude, to pull a whole warren of rabbits out of the hat!
Has a lot of meanings and applications. To me, at this point, I would like to simply walk away from the troubles and hatred and discord that these confrontations have caused and are causing.
It seems like the plan for Iran is the same one as Syria, resource denial. Resource denial eventually collapsed the Syrian state, US occupation of oil fields and fertile regions denied the state of revenues to function.
If one looks at the location of Iran’s oil fields and US bases in the region it becomes pretty obvious what is going to happen. Those ‘lights’ in the skies over the US may be a rehersal.
Obviously Israel is going to have to sit out Iran’s response and the Ukraine showed the limitations of long range strikes.
How long has the US had sanctions against Cuba? It has made the people poorer, but has made no difference in the leadership. Sanctions don't work. Russia is stronger now that they are less reliant on the West. And it turned them to China.
A very good argument can be made that the greater growth in coming decades will be achieved in developing economies. It might be smarter in the long run for Russia to partner up with the developing world.
I see US ability to impose significant sanctions on Iran as pompous drivel
I do not see a hole that Russia and China are not able to fill
Its not 2013 any more
Previously:
The United States has imposed an arms ban and an almost total economic embargo on Iran, which includes sanctions on companies doing business with Iran, a ban on all Iranian-origin imports, sanctions on Iranian financial institutions, and an almost total ban on selling aircraft or repair parts to Iranian aviation companies.
And Iran still built miles of underground facilities, advanced missile technology,
and may or may not have a nuclear weapon at will
What secret new sanction does the US government have
I found this at Glenn Greenwald's twitter feed. I mostly disagree with him but find we have a lot of common ground in foreign policy and even where I disagree I think he's an honest presenter of a different opinion rather than just an establishment hack. Anyway, this clip translates a statement by a friend of Bibi bitterly complaining that Trump is undercutting them:
Speaking of zealotry, there is an analysis of our situation by Samuels in The Tablet, in which he finds that we have been manipulated by permission structures, and would still be living inside of that machine had it not been for three great men of history: Trump, Musk, and Bibi.
I'm almost speechless, but not quite.
/quote
The permission structure machine that Barack Obama and David Axelrod built … is totalitarian in its essence, a device for getting people to act against their beliefs by substituting new and better beliefs through the top-down controlled and leveraged application of social pressure, which among other things eliminates the position of the spectator. The integrity of the individual is violated in order to further the superior interests of the superego of humanity, the party, which knows which beliefs are right and which are wrong. The party is the ghost in the machine, which appears to run on automatic pilot, using the human desire for companionship and social connection as fuel for an effort to detach individuals from their own desires and substitute the dictates of the party, which is granted the unlimited right to enforce its superior opinions on all of mankind.
/endquote
And I read this and wonder, do neocons not see the machine they have built? Or perhaps they sleep well at night having determined for all time what is right and what is wrong to believe about the state of Israel, and about non-Israelis? They have eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... so we don't have to?
Later, Samuels calls Iran "a totalitarian shit hole regime that is deeply hated by its own people and throughout the region, entirely dependent on American backing in its efforts to gain a nuclear bomb...." unlike Israel?
Since I don't want to live inside of a machine, I would like to learn more about this totalitarian s-hole regime that all good people hate, the same way I learned more about the provenance of the Balfour Declaration and its sequelae.
Some 57.3% of Greenland’s population supports US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to make the island an American territory, a new survey has suggested.
They were the words of Samuel. Samuel was a prophet. That doesn't mean that in this case, he was speaking for God. Also, these commands are at least 3000 years old. What applicability do they have today? Can you imagine Jesus uttering such words?
Within this context it is worth comparing some of what we have already seen with material that links the Mushite tradition of Israel with non-Israelite elements. We have noted Redford's discussion of the Shasu nomads of the Transjordan, Negev and Sinai, with their god Yhw . Frank M. Cross, in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (CMHE), has documented the extensive Mushite ties to other nomads of these regions, especially the loose coalition of tribes known as Midian (which included the Kenites). When Moses was forced to flee from Egypt as a young man he took refuge in Midian with a Midianite priest who provided Moses with a wife (who may have been a priestess herself, Exodus 4:24-26). Exodus 18, significantly, portrays this Midianite priest--from a people later portrayed as a bitter enemy of Israel--as offering sacrifice to Yahweh! Moreover, it was while Moses was resident in Midian that God revealed His name, Yahweh, to Moses, and the account specifically notes that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had worshiped God as El Shadday and did not know God's name to be Yahweh (Exodus 6:3). But this relationship of Moses with Yahwist tribes in Sinai does not end when he returns to Egypt. Numbers 10 states that another Kenite relative, Hobab, was Moses' guide in the Sinai. As Dever remarks, "The survival of such traditions in the face of rival traditions of utter hostility to the Midianites is remarkable and suggests that Moses' interconnections with the priestly house of Midian were too old and well established to be suppressed quietly or forgotten (229-32)."
It seems likely that in all this the Bible preserves the recollection that Yahwism, far from being indigenous to Israel, was brought to Canaanite Israel by non-Canaanite elements. Not only may Moses (whoever he may have been) have adopted Yahwism during his stay in Midian, but we learn from Judges 1:16 that Hobab, from the Midianite priestly family, later moved to Arad in the Judean Negev and established the sanctuary at Arad (some versions refer to them living with the Amalekites, supposed relatives of Israel through Esau). Judges 4:11 has another branch of Hobab's Kenite priestly family establishing itself at another sacred site in northern Israel. Just how close Israel's ties with the Amalekites, another desert tribe from the same region in the south, were can be seen from the archaic "Song of Deborah" (Judges 5). As Deborah recounts those among "Yahweh's people" who marched against Sisera, the first mentioned is "Ephraim with its roots in Amalek (MG 24)." In addition, Deborah describes Yahweh as advancing to battle from Seir in Edom, another indication that Yahweh came to Israel as a deity identified with Semitic tribes in the desert south (cf. also Deuteronomy 33:2, Habbakuk 3:3). Deborah also mentions Israelite tribes that failed to turn out but, significantly, makes no mention at all of Judah, an indication that at some point in early Israel Amalek may have been closer to Israel than was Judah!
The significance of these traditions is twofold. First, they recognize that Israelite identity was fluid and included at an early, formative stage elements of desert tribes that later were regarded as hostile (Midian, Amalek, Edom). Second, those tribal elements, while smaller numerically than the indigenous Canaanite element, played a significant role in introducing Yahweh as a deity to Israel and in establishing priestly families of Yahweh in Israel--up to that time the God of Israel had been the Canaanite El. It may even be possible to trace the Moses legends and Israel's Egyptian ties (the Egyptian etymology of the names of leading figures, including Moses and Aaron, is well known) to links between Egypt and these southern desert tribes, since the route between Midian (in southern Jordan and northern Hijaz-Arabia) and Egypt was an important and well traveled caravan route. Unfortunately, it does not appear possible to determine exactly what the nature of these relationships was and precisely why these desert priestly families exercised as much influence in Israel as they apparently did.
“ original inhabitants for their terrible sins, which included profound sexual deviance and child sacrifice. Those people groups no longer exist. “
I will take issue with your last assertion, as unfortunately it is absolutely incorrect, and perhaps goes to the heart of a “kompromat” network that coerces by hook or by crook, senior politicians, Civil Service, judges and policemen to maintain a certain line when instructed. There are some highly-charged scandals going on which are being quickly de-oxygenated of coverage. I will leave it at that.
1. I have no contempt for "the scriptures", but I do have a very specific understanding of that term, which includes differentiations of various sorts. Certainly between Israelite writings and Christian writings. My understanding also goes to the nature of those writings--their origin and meaning. You're free to read all about that by consulting my archives.
2. "The genocide commanded by God"
My understanding of "the scriptures" and of God leaves me comfortable with the understanding that God never, ever, commanded genocide.
Yes, the Zionist neocons are trembling with fear that they may now be Oreshniked next, and rightly so.
This was your best one yet Mark. Keep hitting it hard. Readers should take a look at Douglas Reed's "The Controversy of Zion" to confirm the zealotry. Reed says the Jews started WWI, WWII, and would start WWIII. It's happening.
As Bibi sets his eyes on Damascus, it would be most fitting if he were to undergo, like Paul, a conversion moment, and as Saint Paul exhorted, “put…on the armour of light.” Love, as Paul says, is the fulfillment of the law. Zealotry is the fulfillment of hate, a state of denying the present, being forever a prisoner of the past, as referred to by Prof Sachs. I’ve always been struck by the absence of forgiveness in the Jewish religion: keep resentment alive, grievance, memory of past wrongs: no atonement, no peace. Engaging in diplomacy therefore makes no sense: it’s an act of presence, of imagining the future. Not talking to your adversaries is an act born of zealotry. I like Trump because he’s been through hell, and yet he perseveres without vindictiveness, and in spite of the last 8 years, he moves on. I hope he has the leverage, or latitude, to pull a whole warren of rabbits out of the hat!
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Romans-13-12/
Lex talionis. Eye for an eye...
What did Jesus have to say about that?
Turn the other cheek.
Has a lot of meanings and applications. To me, at this point, I would like to simply walk away from the troubles and hatred and discord that these confrontations have caused and are causing.
Don't jump!
Love your neighbor as yourself!
It seems like the plan for Iran is the same one as Syria, resource denial. Resource denial eventually collapsed the Syrian state, US occupation of oil fields and fertile regions denied the state of revenues to function.
If one looks at the location of Iran’s oil fields and US bases in the region it becomes pretty obvious what is going to happen. Those ‘lights’ in the skies over the US may be a rehersal.
Obviously Israel is going to have to sit out Iran’s response and the Ukraine showed the limitations of long range strikes.
.
My Question for Crooke would have been
"One would be to threaten Iran and impose really harsh sanctions--rather like we saw happening to Syria--to facilitate a new round of negotiations"
---->>>> What meaningful sanctions are there. If Iran is in Brics with Russia and China
And, if, Russia has done quite well with Sanctions (apparently so) during the Ukraine war
And remembering a significant amount of Iran oil may be flowing the China currently
What significant Sanctions exist that Iran Russia and China have not made a plan for
Yes, Sanctions hurt, yes they may have an immediate effect
But do you see Iran surviving sanctions much as Russia has done
.
How long has the US had sanctions against Cuba? It has made the people poorer, but has made no difference in the leadership. Sanctions don't work. Russia is stronger now that they are less reliant on the West. And it turned them to China.
A very good argument can be made that the greater growth in coming decades will be achieved in developing economies. It might be smarter in the long run for Russia to partner up with the developing world.
I see US ability to impose significant sanctions on Iran as pompous drivel
I do not see a hole that Russia and China are not able to fill
Its not 2013 any more
Previously:
The United States has imposed an arms ban and an almost total economic embargo on Iran, which includes sanctions on companies doing business with Iran, a ban on all Iranian-origin imports, sanctions on Iranian financial institutions, and an almost total ban on selling aircraft or repair parts to Iranian aviation companies.
And Iran still built miles of underground facilities, advanced missile technology,
and may or may not have a nuclear weapon at will
What secret new sanction does the US government have
Its not 2013 any more
I found this at Glenn Greenwald's twitter feed. I mostly disagree with him but find we have a lot of common ground in foreign policy and even where I disagree I think he's an honest presenter of a different opinion rather than just an establishment hack. Anyway, this clip translates a statement by a friend of Bibi bitterly complaining that Trump is undercutting them:
https://x.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1878924117723828460
Playing the victim card.
The eternal victim card. Liars, cheats and thieves these Israeli's.
Speaking of zealotry, there is an analysis of our situation by Samuels in The Tablet, in which he finds that we have been manipulated by permission structures, and would still be living inside of that machine had it not been for three great men of history: Trump, Musk, and Bibi.
I'm almost speechless, but not quite.
/quote
The permission structure machine that Barack Obama and David Axelrod built … is totalitarian in its essence, a device for getting people to act against their beliefs by substituting new and better beliefs through the top-down controlled and leveraged application of social pressure, which among other things eliminates the position of the spectator. The integrity of the individual is violated in order to further the superior interests of the superego of humanity, the party, which knows which beliefs are right and which are wrong. The party is the ghost in the machine, which appears to run on automatic pilot, using the human desire for companionship and social connection as fuel for an effort to detach individuals from their own desires and substitute the dictates of the party, which is granted the unlimited right to enforce its superior opinions on all of mankind.
/endquote
And I read this and wonder, do neocons not see the machine they have built? Or perhaps they sleep well at night having determined for all time what is right and what is wrong to believe about the state of Israel, and about non-Israelis? They have eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... so we don't have to?
Later, Samuels calls Iran "a totalitarian shit hole regime that is deeply hated by its own people and throughout the region, entirely dependent on American backing in its efforts to gain a nuclear bomb...." unlike Israel?
Since I don't want to live inside of a machine, I would like to learn more about this totalitarian s-hole regime that all good people hate, the same way I learned more about the provenance of the Balfour Declaration and its sequelae.
You are asking all the right questions, I think.
I imagine he would say the same thing about many, many other nations if the occasion arose.
Ah yes, the great Persian civilization. There are plenty of smart Iranians in the USA.
Russia gave Iran, Anti Missile Systems that shot down 200 missiles,
coming from multiple directions.
What if Russia gave Iran some Russian made missiles,
proven unstoppable, to defend itself? Might prove very embarrassing.
Some 57.3% of Greenland’s population supports US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to make the island an American territory, a new survey has suggested.
https://www.unz.com/acrooke/trump-iran-and-the-obama-strategic-blueprin/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-iran-sign-comprehensive-strategic-partnership-treaty-week
They were the words of Samuel. Samuel was a prophet. That doesn't mean that in this case, he was speaking for God. Also, these commands are at least 3000 years old. What applicability do they have today? Can you imagine Jesus uttering such words?
Actually, the relationship may be far more complex that most people imagine:
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/religion-of-israel-iiihtml
Within this context it is worth comparing some of what we have already seen with material that links the Mushite tradition of Israel with non-Israelite elements. We have noted Redford's discussion of the Shasu nomads of the Transjordan, Negev and Sinai, with their god Yhw . Frank M. Cross, in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (CMHE), has documented the extensive Mushite ties to other nomads of these regions, especially the loose coalition of tribes known as Midian (which included the Kenites). When Moses was forced to flee from Egypt as a young man he took refuge in Midian with a Midianite priest who provided Moses with a wife (who may have been a priestess herself, Exodus 4:24-26). Exodus 18, significantly, portrays this Midianite priest--from a people later portrayed as a bitter enemy of Israel--as offering sacrifice to Yahweh! Moreover, it was while Moses was resident in Midian that God revealed His name, Yahweh, to Moses, and the account specifically notes that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had worshiped God as El Shadday and did not know God's name to be Yahweh (Exodus 6:3). But this relationship of Moses with Yahwist tribes in Sinai does not end when he returns to Egypt. Numbers 10 states that another Kenite relative, Hobab, was Moses' guide in the Sinai. As Dever remarks, "The survival of such traditions in the face of rival traditions of utter hostility to the Midianites is remarkable and suggests that Moses' interconnections with the priestly house of Midian were too old and well established to be suppressed quietly or forgotten (229-32)."
It seems likely that in all this the Bible preserves the recollection that Yahwism, far from being indigenous to Israel, was brought to Canaanite Israel by non-Canaanite elements. Not only may Moses (whoever he may have been) have adopted Yahwism during his stay in Midian, but we learn from Judges 1:16 that Hobab, from the Midianite priestly family, later moved to Arad in the Judean Negev and established the sanctuary at Arad (some versions refer to them living with the Amalekites, supposed relatives of Israel through Esau). Judges 4:11 has another branch of Hobab's Kenite priestly family establishing itself at another sacred site in northern Israel. Just how close Israel's ties with the Amalekites, another desert tribe from the same region in the south, were can be seen from the archaic "Song of Deborah" (Judges 5). As Deborah recounts those among "Yahweh's people" who marched against Sisera, the first mentioned is "Ephraim with its roots in Amalek (MG 24)." In addition, Deborah describes Yahweh as advancing to battle from Seir in Edom, another indication that Yahweh came to Israel as a deity identified with Semitic tribes in the desert south (cf. also Deuteronomy 33:2, Habbakuk 3:3). Deborah also mentions Israelite tribes that failed to turn out but, significantly, makes no mention at all of Judah, an indication that at some point in early Israel Amalek may have been closer to Israel than was Judah!
The significance of these traditions is twofold. First, they recognize that Israelite identity was fluid and included at an early, formative stage elements of desert tribes that later were regarded as hostile (Midian, Amalek, Edom). Second, those tribal elements, while smaller numerically than the indigenous Canaanite element, played a significant role in introducing Yahweh as a deity to Israel and in establishing priestly families of Yahweh in Israel--up to that time the God of Israel had been the Canaanite El. It may even be possible to trace the Moses legends and Israel's Egyptian ties (the Egyptian etymology of the names of leading figures, including Moses and Aaron, is well known) to links between Egypt and these southern desert tribes, since the route between Midian (in southern Jordan and northern Hijaz-Arabia) and Egypt was an important and well traveled caravan route. Unfortunately, it does not appear possible to determine exactly what the nature of these relationships was and precisely why these desert priestly families exercised as much influence in Israel as they apparently did.
“ original inhabitants for their terrible sins, which included profound sexual deviance and child sacrifice. Those people groups no longer exist. “
I will take issue with your last assertion, as unfortunately it is absolutely incorrect, and perhaps goes to the heart of a “kompromat” network that coerces by hook or by crook, senior politicians, Civil Service, judges and policemen to maintain a certain line when instructed. There are some highly-charged scandals going on which are being quickly de-oxygenated of coverage. I will leave it at that.
1. I have no contempt for "the scriptures", but I do have a very specific understanding of that term, which includes differentiations of various sorts. Certainly between Israelite writings and Christian writings. My understanding also goes to the nature of those writings--their origin and meaning. You're free to read all about that by consulting my archives.
2. "The genocide commanded by God"
My understanding of "the scriptures" and of God leaves me comfortable with the understanding that God never, ever, commanded genocide.
Wacko free zone.