My father and me

When my father was the age I am now, when he read the newspaper, he knew he'd seen it all before. He was 20 years younger when the US put a couple of men on the moon, so that was old, and new attempts to do stuff in space were all old (and not that impressive). The new wars were like wars he'd seen before, and likewise the inflation, the recessions, & etc..

Now, when I read the newspapers, I don't recognise anything.

After WWII, the US produced more than 50% of World GDP. The animated short film, "Meet King Joe", made in 1949, was about the typical US factory worker. The film starts with the question: "Doesn't the factory owner get $millions while the worker gets wages that are barely enough to live on?" The answer (back then) was, 'NO!' The factory worker with all the machines was immensely productive, so he earned quite a large salary, 100 times as much as a Chinese coolie. That was then, when taxes on income more than 5 times the average US income were 91%; with state income taxes (and most business headquarters were in places like New York with 10% state income tax on incomes more than 5 times the average) amounted to 101%, so management could not pay themselves more than 5 times the average US income, so a lot of "King Joe's" production went to "King Joe". The Chinese coolie did everything manually, so he was only 1% as productive as "King Joe" and only earned 1% as much.

That was 1949. Now, rich Americans earn thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of times as much as average Americans. And most workers are not factory workers with their productivity multiplied hundreds of times by the machines they operate, so they don't produce that much, and the rich get most of what they produce.

Back in 1970, the top GDP countries were the US, then the USSR, then Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Canada. The USSR didn't associate nor trade much with the West, and the other 7 countries formed the G7 with most of the world's GDP.

The typical Chinese person dreamed of a bicycle, but knew that dream would probably never come true. The US produced some oil, but almost every adult American had a car, so the US bought much of the oil the Middle East could produce. China had few cars, didn't need much oil, couldn't afford much oil, and so had little impact on the oil market.

Saudi and the US were firmly locked in a strategic embrace: the US desperately needed Saudi oil, and Saudi desperately needed US cash and protection.

When the Ayatollah took over Iran, the US imposed a strict blockade, and the Iranian economy fell by more than 50%. No one dared buy Iranian oil in violation of the US blockade. The US could shoot down an Iranian airliner with more than 2000 passengers and Iran could do nothing.

That was then.

Today, most Chinese have cars. The PRC are the biggest oil importer in the world (and Bharat/India now have enough cars to be a major oil consumer, but nothing like the PRC).

So, in 2021, a huge fleet of oil tankers and some destroyers arrived at the Iranian oil port and loaded with Iranian oil, then, protected by the PLAN, all the oil tankers made it back to the PRC. The Iranian economy has grown rapidly since 2021.

The three biggest economies by GDP are now: 1) the PRC; 2) the US; and 3) Bharat.

So when the PRC went to Saudi and Iran and said, 'Make peace,' both meekly said,'Yes, sir.'

And after I saw the US do all it could to avoid WWIII, now I see the US doing everything it can to start WWIII to preserve US hegemony.

It's a world I've never seen before, and I'm not sure if it's better or worse (of course, if the US starts WWIII, that'll be a lot worse than anything I've ever seen).

Who and what is ZAKA???

 The New York Times recently had a long article about ZAKA. ZAKA, according to the New York Times, are responsible to cleaning up after terrorist attacks on Israel, so they had to go on 7 October to collect all the 1,200 dead bodies. They saw children beheaded and burned by Hamas, they saw many, many women brutally raped then murdered. The New York Times admit that ZAKA are not forensic experts, they did not have actual rape kits, but the sights and smells showed the horrors Hamas inflicted on 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians. One did not need a rape kit to see that the women had obviously been raped and murdered. The members of ZAKA are still suffering from their memories of the sights and smells of the murder scenes, from the horrors that the Philistines from Ghaza inflicted on the innocent Israeli civilian women and children. Hamas, according to ZAKA, the Israeli government, the New York Times, and the US government, are rabid Antisemites who want to start by killing every Jew in Israel, then continue to kill every Jew in the world. And if the US do not stop them, who will? The Ghaza holds more than 2 million Nazis who are all determined to commit genocide, to murder all the Jews. The tiny, unarmed population of Israel are trying to fight the monsters of Hamas, but they cannot do so without a lot of help from the US, help the US must provide in the name of decency and humanity.

A month ago, The Grayzone also had a long article about ZAKA. They said ZAKA are an Israeli hasbara organisation, that ZAKA write stories that make Israel the poor, innocent victim of Antisemitism, of attacks by people who want to exterminate every last Jew, who murder babies, who rape and murder Jewish woman, stories that are all provably false. The beheaded babies? Israel gave a list of all the victims of 7 October, and the identities of the 'beheaded babies' don't match any of the dead on the official list. There is no proof of a single rape, all the available evidence shows ZAKA are lying.

So one must either believe all the Western media, who, since 2013 must publish/broadcast what they are ordered to publish/broadcast by their governments, or The Grayzone who are an independent publication run by anti-Zionist Jews who believe in the truth.

Israel on Trial at the ICJ

Pretty much the entire UN Security Council voted for a ceasefire in Ghaza several times, but the US vetoed every time.

So South Africa filed a case of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). South Africa spent Thursday presenting the case, and Israel responded on Friday. The ICJ already found Israel guilty of violating Philistine rights years ago, but Israel refused to do any of the things the ICJ ordered. So if the ICJ find Israel guilty of genocide, the clearing of Ghaza will continue. As Israel and the US both reiterate, one must not abuse the word genocide, and Israel cannot commit genocide. Hamas did commit genocide on 7 October, but Israel's response has been very moderate. As the US said they had confirmed (or as The Gray Zone says, the US repeated what Israel told them) there were no hospitals, schools, mosques, nor churches in Ghaza, all were Hamas military facilities disguised as hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches, and were used to fire rockets at Israel, so all had to be destroyed, along with the human shields Hamas forced to remain with the terrorists firing the rockets.

In fact, Israel say every man, woman, and child in Ghaza is a Nazi, all are determined to exterminate every Jew in Israel, and that's just for starters, their goal is to exterminate every Jew in the world. How 5,000 or so with limited weaponry are going to exterminate every last Jew might not be clear to the goyim, but Israel are sure that it is true, so all those Nazis must be stopped before they can succeed in their evil plan.

Actually, Israel say they would be willing to let all the women and children go to any other country, but they cannot allow a single one of those Ghaza Nazis to remain in Ghaza, so if no other country will take them, all must be killed, but Israel are innocent, it is all those other countries who are killing those women and children by not giving them a place to live outside Israel.

So we know the US will pressure the ICJ to find Israel innocent, but, based on the previous case, a likely outcome will be that the court will find Israel guilty but the US will block the ICJ from imposing the slightest penalty on their unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East.

Zionists

 The word 'Zionist' was coined by a British Jew in the late19th century, but the concept is recorded (without the name) in the first half of the 19th century when the (Anglican) Rev. Keith said that Palestine was 'a land without a people for a people without a land'.

The overwhelming majority of Zionists are Christians who know that Jesus cannot return before every Jew is in Palestine.

Jewish Zionists are more of a mixed lot, with some figuring Palestine is for the Jews, so they moved there, and some figuring Palestine is for other Jews, so they tithe in support of the State of Israel; however, most of the world's Jews living outside Palestine have no desire to move to Palestine nor to pay for other Jews to colonise Palestine.

Israel made 2 million Philistines legal in Israel, but there are more than 7 million Philistines living in Israel, so more then 5 million are illegals as far as Israel is concerned, and they want them all gone, one way or the other. Officially, there are two million Nazis in Ghaza, and all must be removed. If some other country will take them, women and children can leave. Israel keeps saying they never wanted to kill any women or children, but Hamas use the women and children as human shields as they fire rockets to kill Israelis, so what can the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) do? They must protect Israelis from the rockets, and the only way to do that results in the deaths of some women and children, but this is all the fault of Hamas, not Israel.

And, of course, it is also the fault of those countries that refuse to take in the women and children Philistines who must leave Israel or die.

What is really happening in Ghaza?

Ramzy Baroud believes that Israel does not tell the truth about what is happening in Ghaza, he believes Hamas who put out videos on Rumble.com saying they have killed more Israelis and destroyed far more tanks than Israel admit.

On the other hand, Brian Berletic notes that the videos of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killing many of the 1,200 Israelis killed on 7 October might be fake, as well as the Hamas videos showing the destruction of Israeli tanks, so probably Israel, with the strongest military in the Middle East, are slowly destroying Hamas at a cost of about 160 dead IOF members for 5,000 or more neutralised Hamas terrorists, along with the destruction of most of the Hamas tunnel network.

Reading both Baroud and Berletic, I can't figure out which one is the more believable.

But the fact that Israel asked for a week-long ceasefire to analyse and modify their strategy and tactics, then resumed their attack on Hamas for three weeks, and are now asking for another week-long ceasefire would seem to indicate that things are not going all that well for the IOF in their efforts to destroy Hamas. They had one obvious victory in Beirut. Hezbollah have threatened retaliation, but, again, I read that in the 2006 war, Israel destroyed the Hezbollah forces and bought themselves a few years peace with no threat from Hezbollah, and I also heard from another source that Israel lost many troops and a lot of equipment and failed to neutralise Hezbollah or remove them from the part of Lebanon adjacent to Israel as the Israeli spokespersons claimed Israel had done.

In any case, Israel have promised to destroy Beirut for starters, and then most of the rest of Lebanon if Hezbollah try to intervene in support of Hamas. So it is not clear what, if anything, Hezbollah will do now.

***

Israel and the US both say the bombing at the 4 year anniversary of General Suleimani's death from a US drone strike, a bombing that killed more than 100, was by Iranians who dislike the current regime, neither Israel nor the US had anything to do with it. The Western establishment media all accept whatever version of reality is promulgated by the US and Israel, but not everyone agrees, many figure Israel, with or without US help, managed to set up the bombs that killed so many at the 4-year memorial. But how can anyone be certain who was responsible for the bombs that were remotely detonated at the memorial?

***

Meanwhile, today's rumour is that the US are in negotiations with some African countries to take all the Ghazan women and children: Israel do not want to be forced to kill all of them. Twenty three thousand Philistines from Ghaza are dead, and all those who might have been members of Hamas must die, but Israel and the US would like all the rest of the women and children to go to Africa so Israel will not be forced to kill them all in self defence.

Zionists and Zionism

 

The words ‘Zionist’ and ‘Zionism’ are attributed to a Jew writing in the late 19^th century. The concept, without the name, appeared in writing by British Christians, staring with the Rev. Dr. Keith, in the early 19^th century, when he said that Israel/Palestine/Syria was ‘A land without a people for a people without a land.’ What is now Israel was part of the Ottoman Vilayet of Syria. Today, most Zionists are Christians who ‘know’ that Jesus cannot return until all the Jews are in Palestine, so they want Israel to continue to exist and every Jew to be sent there. Only a minority of Zionists are Jews, and only a minority of Jews are Zionists, most are happy living outside Israel, and, while they might visit, have no desire to move there and become Israeli citizens. Or they might become dual citizens so they can easily visit Israel and just as easily return to the country they consider home.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI, most of the Asian and African Ottoman Empire became French and British colonies. The Ottoman Vilayets were all broken up and the pieces shared between the British and the French. Britain called one of their colonies ‘Palestine’, which had once been a small part of the Vilayet of Syria, and the British Balfour Declaration said that Palestine was for the Jews, but they didn’t really mean that: the Jews in the Pale were subject to pogroms and wanted to go to Palestine, but were denied, and Hitler was refused permission to ship German Jews to Palestine, the British meant Palestine as a place to which they wanted every Jew in the UK to go, since the Anglicans believed it was wrong for the UK to host Jews. For one thing, some of the Anglican clergy consider all Jews to be deicides, and for another, Palestine is in the Fertile Crescent, so British Jews shipped to Palestine/Israel could farm using advanced British agricultural equipment and produce lots of food with limited human labour that could be sold very cheaply to the UK while making the Jews from Britain moderately wealthy by British standards and quite rich by Palestinian standards. Plus, Palestine could produce lots of tropical fruits and vegetables to tempt the British palates.

The British had mixed opinions about what to do about the Arabs living in Palestine. Some said that they were Arabs, so nomads who wandered, spending part of their time wandering through Palestine, but no problem if they were told to keep their wanderings out of Palestine which was for the Jews; but other Brits said that the Jews and the Philistines, native inhabitants of Palestine since before the first Jew ever came there according to the book of Samuel, should live together in peace, with nothing taken from the Philistines: the Jews would live in the parts of Palestine that were undeveloped, without any Philistines, or they would buy their land from Philistine owners who wanted to sell (coming from the UK they’d have enough money that lots of Philistine and Ottoman owners would want to sell).

A small number of British Jews went to British Palestine as colonists after WWI, and started rebelling, trying to evict the British Imperialists, but without success.

Then came WWII and the Holocaust. The US refused to allow Jews to immigrate, except for the equivalent of Nobel Prize winners, until 1944, when they had heard about the Nazi persecution of the Jews and said any Jew who could make it to the US would be admitted as a refugee. Many European Jews had been turned away by the US before 1944, and were sent back to Europe to be murdered by the Nazis. And the UK refused to let Hitler send any European Jews to British Palestine, since the British Jews who had gone there were already a problem for the British governing Palestine, one that would only become worse if a lot of European Jews were allowed to join them.

(Note that a lot of the Jews killed in the Holocaust could have been saved had the US and the UK not refused to let them leave Europe.)

After WWII, those who had killed or helped to kill Jews were punished severely. If one reads the book, My Struggle, written by Hitler in the ‘20s, it says the Jews were all terrible and Europe must be cleansed of the Jews, a horrible statement, so many say the book must be banned, while others say it should be studied to ensure that it never happens again. The book also says that the Slavs are all terrible and Europe must be cleansed of all Slavs, but this is considered by the US and UK as a simple statement of fact, not worth mentioning. Those who had killed or helped kill Slavs and made it west of the Warsaw Pact were generally rewarded, and given good jobs working for the US or UK. We recently saw Canada bestow great honours on an elderly member of the Waffen-SS for his work killing Slavs in WWII.

After WWII, the Allies discovered that somewhere between 4.5 – 6 million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis, and 2 million or so were still alive in the concentration camps, or had somehow managed to evade the Nazis. The US announced that all would be sent to British Palestine, while the old, European empires would all be dissolved, so Palestine would no longer be a British colony but an independent state. Actually, Palestine had once included the Transjordan, and an early version of the Mandate said all was for the Jews, but then the Transjordan was set aside for Arabs. The Jews were told they must settle with the Philistines between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. The Jews had better weapons than the Arabs, and went to war to take all of Palestine for the revived state of Israel, but the US insisted on a truce when Ghaza and the West Bank were still held by Arabs, so the nation of Israel was originally everything controlled by the Jews when the US ordered the ceasefire in 1948. The Ghaza became part of Egypt and the West Bank became part of Jordan.

 This lasted until 1967 when Israel started by destroying all the Arab air forces, then, with total air superiority, they annexed Ghaza and the West Bank and parts of Syria, Lebanon, and other parts of Egypt beyond Ghaza.

 This lasted until 1973 when Egypt got back most of Israeli Egypt for a few days, thanks to Soviet Air Defences, but then the Egyptians did not defend their air defence system, so Israel captured and destroyed it, after which, with total air superiority, Israel recaptured all of Egypt north of the Nile, but then the US made Israel give Egypt back all of the Sinai in exchange for a peace treaty. Jordan also signed a peace treaty, and got peace and everything that had been in the British colony east of the Jordan River. Israel still have chunks of Syria and Lebanon and no intention of giving any of it back. Israel also have all of Ghaza and the West Bank.

Israel is called an Apartheid State, but this is wrong. The word ‘apartheid’ comes from South Africa, where no one with a drop of African or Asian blood could be a citizen (Jews from Europe were considered European, so they could and did become citizens if they moved to South Africa and applied for citizenship). Israel say that two million Philistines are Israeli citizens, and another half million to one million non-Jews and non-Philistines are also citizens, but seven million, the overwhelming majority of the ten million Israeli citizens, must have a Jewish connection.

Strict, Orthodox Judaism says one is only Jewish if one’s mother was Jewish, but Israel says anyone with a Jewish grandparent qualifies for citizenship based on Jewish heritage. This was based on the Holocaust, where the Nazis said proof that one grandparent was Jewish was grounds for being sent to a Concentration Camp. Strict Orthodox Jews say that many Israelis who are citizens by virtue of having a Jewish grandparent are not actually Jewish unless their mother was Jewish.

All information in Israel is strictly controlled by the government, so it is hard to know what is true. It is said that most Israeli citizens: the 7 million Jews, the 2 million Philistines, and the million other citizens want everything from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, and are happy with Israel running the way it is currently being run. They figure the Philistines who do not have Israeli passports are all Antisemites who want to kill all the Jews, and probably all the Israeli citizens, so they’d like all the Philistines who do not have passports evicted.

Israel figure all the Philistines who do not have Israeli passports are illegal aliens who have no right to be in Israel, and want them all to go elsewhere. After the 7 October attack, Israel plan to remove every last Philistine from Ghaza, one way or the other: if other nations will accept them, those who have never been part of Hamas will be sent there. If no other nation will accept them, then all must be killed, but their deaths are not Israel’s fault, their deaths are entirely the fault of the nations that refused to accept them.

As the British said 200 years ago, those Philistines are Arabs, and belong in some Arab country, while Israel must be for the Jews, partly for the cheap crops they can produce and sell to the UK, and partly so that, when every Jew is in Palestine, Jesus can return.

Of course, that was 200 years ago, and now most Christian Zionists are in the US, and they vote, so the US strongly support Zionists and Zionism. And with the full support of the US, if Israel want to kill every Palestinian in Ghaza, or, for that matter, every Palestinian in Israel who does not have an Israeli passport, the US will back them 100%.

Truth in Ghaza???

Three Israeli hostages somehow got freed. Did they escape? Were they released by Hamas? We don't know. What we do know is that they came out shirtless, so obviously unarmed, and shouted in Hebrew, 'We are Israeli hostages!' and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shot and killed them all.

Israel say they are interested in saving all hostages, that they so love life (and, by 'life' they mean Israeli life) that they will do anything to save Israeli hostages. But Israeli actions show they only want a Ghaza that is Philistine Free, they are saturation bombing, all possible dwellings destroyed, no food, water, fuel, or medical supplies allowed into Ghaza, so the Philistines in Ghaza are starving, drinking polluted water, being bombed and shelled by IOF tanks, more than 21,000 killed so far, death from communicable diseases is increasing rapidly.

Israel (and those who favour Israel) say the counts of Philistine deaths come from Hamas, and so one must not believe the Philistine lies that 21,000, mostly women and children have been killed: the strikes have been surgical, hitting Hamas positions with many Hamas fighters shooting rockets at Israeli cities, but these Hamas terrorists keep some women and children captive with them as human shields, and, to stop the terrorists' rocket fire from killing many innocent civilians, the Hamas military units must be taken out, along with their human shields, so every woman and child killed by the IOF was forced by Hamas.

This war has been difficult for the IOF, they have lost 155 members.

Is any of the above true?

Israel seems to be on the Hannibal Principle: Israelis should die, by their own hand if necessary, to prevent their becoming hostages, since hostages cost Israel far too much. So the three IOF members who were taken hostage were killed for allowing themselves to be taken hostage.

The pause was because the war was not going well for Israel, so Israel asked for and got a ceasefire, demanded hostages, and Hamas released 100 hostages.

During the week long ceasefire, the IOF revised strategy and tactics to reduce IOF losses, and, when ready, ended the ceasefire.

Alastair Crooke estimates that more than 1,000 members of the IOF have been killed, hence the first demand for a ceasefire from Hamas, and now a second demand that Hamas has refused since Israel will not meet their conditions. Again, IOF losses are excessive, far more than the 155 to which Israel admit, so Israel want another week's ceasefire to regroup, study, and revise strategy and tactics, and Hamas are not willing to give them that week.

Israel have done huge damage to the Philistine civilians, not so much to Hamas who continue to blow up IOF tanks and kill IOF servicepersons.

Fox and many other news outlets repeat that Hamas are terrorists who must be neutralised, and all civilian deaths are entirely the fault of Hamas, and we must not believe Hamas counts of civilian deaths in Ghaza.

CNN, after 7 weeks of repeating the official Israeli story, not being allowed into Ghaza, were finally allowed in and reported on the many injured children and the fact that every building they saw had been destroyed so the Ghazans have nowhere to live, they are crowded into shelters which make it easy for the IOF to find and bomb them, and they have nothing to eat or drink. CNN were only allowed to see one field hospital set up by the UAE, the only hospital in all Ghaza not being bombed. And the reporter looked shocked at what she saw.

Israel make it clear that they will not allow a single Philistine to remain in Ghaza: if other nations will take the women, children, and elderly men, Israel will let them go/deport them. If not, Israel have no choice but to kill every Philistine, but don't blame Israel, blame the other nations who refuse to take the women and children in Ghaza.

And after Ghaza is cleansed, the West Bank will become a priority.

Meanwhile, the Yemen managed to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea for a week, but now the US say the US Navy will protect ships, and shipping has resumed.

The question of how much the Yemen and Iran can disrupt supplies going to Israel remains open for now.