Greetings Jim, from another octogenarian. it's good to see you're still writing, but I have to take issue with you on this topic. I was tempted to criticise the previous article you refer to, but didn't. Now, I must.
I could write at some length on the topic of Palestine and Israel, but will recommend two books, both by Israelis, and one link to a recent analysis of th events on October 7th. Would I be called a conspiracy-theorist if, given that Netanyahu is nothing if not ruthless, I suggested that he may have chosen to delay the IDF reaction to the Hamas' attack, which his security service must have known about in advance, in order to give himself an excuse to step-up, to an extreme level, his attacks on the Palestinian people? We know that Israel has demonstrated the ability to target individuals in Lebanon and Syria, yet some people believe that October 7th was a failure by Israel's intelligence service. How likely is that? Just another "mistake"? I think not.
The first book, "The Invention of the Jewish People" is by Shlomo Sand, an Israeli professor of history at Tel Aviv University, demonstrating that the alleged expulsion of Jews some 2,000 years ago is a self-serving Zionist myth, and that most members of the Jewish religion who live in Israel are descended from Ashkenazi, east-European, converts to Judaism. Yes, it is, and always has been, a religion. Like Hinduism, or Catholicism.
The second book is "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pape, an Israeli historian, political scientist and former politician.
Pape is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, England, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Pappé was also a board member of the Israeli political party Hadash, and was a candidate on the party list in the 1996 and 1999 Israeli elections. He knows what he is writing about.
It has surely been obvious for some time that Israeli PM Netanhahu (and all his supporters) wants to see Palestinian people either dead or gone. two days ago, I saw him threatening to do to Lebanon what he has done to Gaza. Death and destruction in aid of a European and US colonial project, with constant Zionist lies about almost everything beginning with a mythical Jewish expulsion from "the Holy Land", all enabled by the USA and the UK, on the historic basis of horror at what the German Nazis did.
History repeats itself, this time as extreme, deliberate tragedy, and with a US president who said last year that he is a Zionist and: "If Israel didn't exist, we (yes "we") would need to invent it. To quote Ilan Pape: ""The aim of Zionists has always been, and it still remains, to have as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in it as possible." We should wonder about the aim of the USA in all this, unless AIPAC is in control of the US government. We did see the standing ovations given recently to Netanyau by the majority in the US Congress.
Finally, that link to some, perhaps uncomfortable, truths about Israel:
Hi Bill.I am happy for people to take issue with anything I write as I am not the fount of all wisdom or knowledge, but I don't quite get why on this one as it deals only wth a segment of the present situation, and addresses the question Isreaeli politicians and pro-Israeli journalists in the Uk are saying on the Why? It is by no means pro-Israel and definetely not pro-Netanyahu who has ben a walking disaster for Israel (although final proof is yet to me) and the region. i don't buy the conspiracy. It was an intelligence failure on a par with what happened in 1973. Jim
Greetings Jim, from another octogenarian. it's good to see you're still writing, but I have to take issue with you on this topic. I was tempted to criticise the previous article you refer to, but didn't. Now, I must.
I could write at some length on the topic of Palestine and Israel, but will recommend two books, both by Israelis, and one link to a recent analysis of th events on October 7th. Would I be called a conspiracy-theorist if, given that Netanyahu is nothing if not ruthless, I suggested that he may have chosen to delay the IDF reaction to the Hamas' attack, which his security service must have known about in advance, in order to give himself an excuse to step-up, to an extreme level, his attacks on the Palestinian people? We know that Israel has demonstrated the ability to target individuals in Lebanon and Syria, yet some people believe that October 7th was a failure by Israel's intelligence service. How likely is that? Just another "mistake"? I think not.
The first book, "The Invention of the Jewish People" is by Shlomo Sand, an Israeli professor of history at Tel Aviv University, demonstrating that the alleged expulsion of Jews some 2,000 years ago is a self-serving Zionist myth, and that most members of the Jewish religion who live in Israel are descended from Ashkenazi, east-European, converts to Judaism. Yes, it is, and always has been, a religion. Like Hinduism, or Catholicism.
The second book is "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pape, an Israeli historian, political scientist and former politician.
Pape is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, England, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Pappé was also a board member of the Israeli political party Hadash, and was a candidate on the party list in the 1996 and 1999 Israeli elections. He knows what he is writing about.
It has surely been obvious for some time that Israeli PM Netanhahu (and all his supporters) wants to see Palestinian people either dead or gone. two days ago, I saw him threatening to do to Lebanon what he has done to Gaza. Death and destruction in aid of a European and US colonial project, with constant Zionist lies about almost everything beginning with a mythical Jewish expulsion from "the Holy Land", all enabled by the USA and the UK, on the historic basis of horror at what the German Nazis did.
History repeats itself, this time as extreme, deliberate tragedy, and with a US president who said last year that he is a Zionist and: "If Israel didn't exist, we (yes "we") would need to invent it. To quote Ilan Pape: ""The aim of Zionists has always been, and it still remains, to have as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in it as possible." We should wonder about the aim of the USA in all this, unless AIPAC is in control of the US government. We did see the standing ovations given recently to Netanyau by the majority in the US Congress.
Finally, that link to some, perhaps uncomfortable, truths about Israel:
https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2024/april/10/what-really-happened-on-october-7
Best wishes,
Bill Craig
Hi Bill.I am happy for people to take issue with anything I write as I am not the fount of all wisdom or knowledge, but I don't quite get why on this one as it deals only wth a segment of the present situation, and addresses the question Isreaeli politicians and pro-Israeli journalists in the Uk are saying on the Why? It is by no means pro-Israel and definetely not pro-Netanyahu who has ben a walking disaster for Israel (although final proof is yet to me) and the region. i don't buy the conspiracy. It was an intelligence failure on a par with what happened in 1973. Jim