The State of Israel wants to insist that any criticism of Israel is, ipso facto, antisemitism, by definition. That means that any criticism of Israel is not only prima facie evidence of antisemitism ~ to criticize Israel is antisemitism, by definition. In the same way, Donald Trump wants the whole world to agree that Iran is the principal sponsor of terrorism, world-wide, by definition. If you take the world view that Israel can do no wrong, and that anyone who offers any criticism of the campaign of genocide and the annihilation of the Palestinian people by Israel is, ipso facto, a terrorist, then certainly it follows that Iran is a principal sponsor of terrorism.
However, if you take the alternate view, that Israel is the most horrible fire-breathing dragon rampaging on the world today, and that it is the Israelis who are eating Palestinian babies (metaphorically), not the other way around, then those who support and defend the courageous resistance of the Palestinian people (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, as well as Iran) are heroes, fighting on the side of Truth and Justice (and, of course, “the American Way”), and it is Israel (and its puppet, the United States) that is the principal source of terrorism, world-wide. I say that the Israelis are eating Palestinian babies metaphorically, and yet the bombing of the primary school in Minab, Iran by Israel and the United States, in which about 175 little schoolgirls were horribly murdered, comes very close to eating babies.
The modern State of Israel was founded in 1948, after the Second World War, assisted by a great fund of support and good will following the horrible experience of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. However, almost immediately the Israelis began their program to confiscate the entirety of the land of Palestine, and to sweep its people under the rug, or, less euphemistically, to throw the people of Palestine under the bus. Or, to put it bluntly into plain English ~ to kill off all of the people who had been living in Palestine for many generations, so they could have the whole land for themselves.
The Jews claim Biblical authority for the land that was promised to the descendants of Abraham, but it was the same story then as now ~ the God of Abraham may have promised the land of Canaan to the Hebrew people, but first they had to drive out the people who were already living there. I am reminded of the story told by Benvenuto Cellini in his Autobiography, who, around 1541, was given an estate by Francis I, king of France. Cellini was given a fine Title Deed, signed and sealed by the king, with ribbons and sealing wax, but it was up to Cellini to take possession from the current residents, who wouldn’t give it up without a fight.
It is not as if the Jews had remained on the Promised Land ever since ~ the Jews retained possession of the land for about 700 years, until 586 BCE, with the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. After the Babylonian Exile, the land passed through a long succession of empires ~ Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman, British ~ before the modern states of Israel and Palestine emerged in the 20th century, about 2600 years since the Jews had been in possession of the land. The ancestors of today’s Palestinian people have lived continuously on the land for all that time, with cultural, linguistic, and familial continuity traceable back to ancient Canaanite, Aramaic, Jewish, Greek, Roman, Arab, and later Islamic-era populations.
So, in the light of this history, the relentless assaults on the Palestinian people amounting to genocide, and the stated intention, openly announced and publicly and gleefully celebrated, of confiscating the entire land and disposing of its current inhabitants (one way or another) becomes thoroughly indefensible and utterly reprehensible. Most of the rest of the world has finally been coming around to this conclusion, as that “starting fund of good will” has been steadily eroding in the face of Israel’s ongoing crimes.
Historically, the most fail-safe method of rallying support for a government in decline is to engage in a foreign war. Once a country is at war, its citizens may usually be counted on to “rally ’round the flag” in support. This has happened in Iran. Even though there has been wide-spread dissatisfaction with the government of the ayatollahs in Iran, once Israel and the United States began their vicious bombing campaign, leading off with that horrific attack on the Iranian schoolgirls, the people of Iran rallied around their flag in support of the war being waged against them by nuclear-armed Israel, and by the former super power, The Great Satan. Most of the world supports the plight of the Palestinian people now, and is rooting for Iran in the present conflict. Even in the bowels of the Great Satan itself, the American people are not doing much rallying around the American flag, but are opposed to this war by a margin of about two to one, and the flailing Trump regime is decidedly on the ropes.
The United States is finding itself increasingly isolated. I call it “the former super power” because “it’s all over now, Baby Blue” ~ the United States has entered a period of irreversible decline, as it sinks into barbarity and bankruptcy. Historians are very familiar with the symptoms of the end stage of the decline of empire – it is usually accompanied by an increasing resort to military campaigns, as the country attempts to restore its former glory (make itself great again) by battlefield conquest, covering its decline with ever greater bombast and bluster (does any of this sound familiar ?).
If Donald Trump wants to take the United States out of NATO, he had better do it quickly, before the people of Europe decide to vote the United States out of NATO anyway, as inimical to their higher values. Trump’s tariffs and trade barriers are further alienating and isolating the United States from the rest of the world, which is getting increasingly fed up with Uncle Sam, at least under the erratic stewardship of the Donald.
The problem with unrestrained militarism is that it causes a downward spiral of economic collapse. Does anyone in the world have any illusions about any of that $40 trillion of the American National Debt being repaid any time soon ? The United States is little better than a Ponzi scheme that benefits a handful of billionaires but has no time or money for the other 99%. Trump even admitted publicly that the United States has no money to provide services to the people, since half of the government’s money is being given to the billionaires, and the other half is being spent on his wars.
Economists realize perfectly well what is happening ~ the only way the United States can go on borrowing money is by repaying the interest (certainly not any of the principal; not a chance) with inflated and increasingly worthless dollars. If you value a typical home from the 1950s in gold, you will find that almost the exact same amount of gold will buy you a similar house today. The value of gold has not changed at all ~ it is just the value of the dollar which has been declining all of this time.
As the economic collapse of the United States becomes ever harder to conceal (under the flurry of escalating military adventures), the value of Treasury Bonds will be demoted to junk bond status. In order to sell any more bonds, the United States will have to pay ever more ruinous rates of interest. If the rate of inflation reaches 8%, why would anyone loan money in dollars for less than 12% interest ? But at that rate, the rate of inflation will be pushed up to 12% and more, and eventually no one will want to loan money to the United States on any terms whatsoever. Even 30% interest will not be enough for the Mafia loan sharks. The United States will soon be reduced to selling off its assets. Perhaps they can sell Alaska back to Russia to pay off some of the interest on their debt. Or perhaps they can sell California back to Mexico, or Louisiana back to France. But these measures will only buy a short amount of time, and it will only be the interest they will be paying off, as the principal rises into the triple digit trillions. At the current pace of federal borrowing, “quadrillions” will very soon be entering the political vocabulary. And perhaps creditors will soon begin selling off the American people into slavery ~ there’s an idea. (Suggest that to the Donald, and he will have no idea that you’re being satirical. “Why didn’t I think of that ?”)
Doom-saying is low hanging fruit. But do I have any alternative suggestions for how the United States can get out of its doldrums ? Yes, I do. The first and most urgent thing to do is to begin an emergency program of tree planting, in an effort to hold at bay the ongoing climate collapse of our endangered planet. This urgent need overshadows all of the political problems I have been addressing above. If our planet goes down in fire and smoke, political problems are going to seem pretty moot. With the oceans dying (absorbing most of the heat, and becoming toxically acidic), the polar ice melting, and the world running out of fresh water, pumping out the aquifers faster and faster, the end is indeed near. If the well runs dry, just dig deeper wells, like they are doing in India. That should solve everything, right ?
Lately I have read of the anger and outrage caused by the news that Amazon and other companies are going to replace human workers with robots, so that many thousands of jobs will be lost. But I don’t share their concern. If Amazon can provide services more efficiently by using robots, that’s wonderful news ! That frees up more workers who can be employed planting trees. All available man- and woman-power is going to be needed to plant enough trees fast enough to make a difference. As for all those fat profits the big corporations are making ~ that’s not a problem, either ~ just tax them. Put your taxes where the money is ~ with the billionaires and the big corporations.
And, of course, the United States should agree to the terms of surrender demanded by Iran ~ the removal of all military bases in the Middle East (and everywhere else, while we are at it), the secure guarantees that no further attacks on Iran will be forthcoming, the ending of all sanctions, and the payment of war reparations for all the damage caused. All of these are perfectly reasonable demands. As for the terms of Israel’s capitulation, they will include the complete liberation of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the withdrawal from all settlements in the West Bank, the withdrawal from Lebanon, and the payment of war reparations (to Iran and Palestine) for all the damage they have caused.
If the United States were to apply that $1.5 trillion of Trump’s annual war budget to paying down its National Debt, it might eventually come out from under that oppressive load. Of course, like any amortized mortgage, the lion’s share of all payments would simply go to the payment of interest, but after a thousand years or so of paying the entire military budget against the debt, the light may begin to be seen at the end of the tunnel.
Can we get started on this program right away, please ?
Curriculum Vitae ~ links about the Author and his work.
