MIDDLE EAST COMMENT

April 2024

What a beautiful world we live in. It's so wonderful the decisions that our valued and trusted leaders make.

Israel bombed Iran tonight. Ostensibly this was a reaction to Iran flying drones and missiles at Israel a week ago, all of which were shot down thanks to American-provided air defense systems. But Iran attacked Israel because Israel bombed Iran's Embassy in Syria, which under international law is considered part of Iran. Now everyone in the International Community knew this was a grave attack on recognized diplomatic rights, but outside of the Middle East no one said anything, such is the common allegiance to Israel.

Israel, though, is no longer just the country of oppressed Holocaust survivors (and their descendants). Thanks to America it is very powerful, and it is also now run by a corrupt dictator, Netanyahu. What really happened tonight is that he attacked Iran to say fuck you to Joe Biden. Biden publicly asked him not to retaliate against the drones and he has just and also very publicly told Biden and America to go to hell. But, it's no coincidence that this was today, the day the jury was selected for Donald Trump's first criminal trial. Netanyahu is Trump's buddy, and wants him to be President again, so what better way to help him than to try to put Biden in a trap.

The situation in a nutshell is this. Hamas attacked Israel and killed over one hundred people. This was completely unjustifiable. The Palestinian people have been forgotten by the world, but that does not justify terrorism. (Nothing does.)

You could also use the word "betrayed," as if they don't count. Netanyahu got the message loud and clear and decided to use the Israel "Defense" Forces to exterminate the Palestinians. There's no better defense than the complete annihilation of your enemy, is there? 25,000 children in Gaza have been injured and killed, so far. Can't have a people if there are no children left to perpetuate the group.

So Hamas was terrible. And Israel is terrible. And Iran by the way is terrible, too, a religious dictatorship (like Israel) that has just eviscerated a popular uprising in support of women's rights. And for the U.S., Israel is killing all those Palestinian children with American bombs. But if it is this bad under Biden (and Blinken, who has refused the advice of State Department officials not to unequivocally support Netanyahu), then consider the alternative. Trump wants to be a dictator, too, would fully back Israel's genocide of the Palestinians, and wants American women to be as controlled as the women in Iran. As I said, it's just beautiful.

The only solution is direct democracy. Leaders, even moral leaders (excepting a very few) cannot be trusted to keep their morals once they have power. The only chance is an informed electorate enforcing morals, meaning our inalienable rights, generation after generation. But look at America again - some 30% of the voters are now in Trump's personality cult and have lost the ability to reason, to make informed choices. Ultimately, it is all the fault of science (but not the scientists - they just wanted to understand, and there is nothing wrong with that). But science gave us powerful technology, which we are too immature as a species of life to handle. Will we make it, establish a functioning direct democracy before we destroy ourselves and the world? There's no way to know for sure - the future is inherently unpredictable, but as the events in the Middle East tonight illustrate, among many other locations around the world, the signs are not good.