"derogatory term for female genitalia]’s [sic]".
The terminal "s" is redundant as "genitalia" (Latin) is already plural. And your sexism is disgusting. Why not call them "pricks"?
A better example than the London blitz would be that of Coventry. In fact "Coventry" became both a verb (to Coventry) and and an adjective (Coventried) for total annihilation of a city and most of its inhabitants. It was a term I heard a lot in the talk of my parents and neighbors in post-war England.
I spent most of my working life in the Mid-East and North Africa: Jordan/Palestine (love that country), Libya under Qadaffi (no comment) and Saudi Arabia (ditto). I agree with Zarif. Nobody in the Mid-East wants nuclear weapons as the indiscrimate slaughter of civilians is contrary to the teachings of the Holy Quran.
Israel needs to live in peace with its neighbors but the Palestinians are not neighbors; they have been occupied by the people calling themseves Israelis and their land stolen from them.
Jews were not a majority in Israel until the massive influx after WW2 when Harry Truman endorsed their invasion of Palestine after Balfour had accepted it in theory in WWI. Truman had absolutely no knowledge of foreign parts. Some Jews always lived there but they were few and lived in amity with their Muslim and Christian neighbors, most of them working as goldsmiths who supplied the young people with wedding rings and came to deliver them and dance at their weddings. Older Palestinians I met used to remember those days fondly. The Jews then were "our Jews." The Euro-American Jews of post WW2 were interlopers who came to steal their land.
Thank you Dr. Cole! I get so tired of trying to explain the Mid-East to people who haven't a clue, still less have lived there as I did for ten years--and learned and spoke the language of my neighbors.
Prof. Cole: I have been following your writings for as long as I've had internet access because I spent 10 years as a university professor teaching students most of whom were Palestinians . Your latest post is, of course, edifying but your reference to Spinoza really grabbed me. I stumbled upon him in my teens and read him with relish.
I lived in Jordan in the 1970s and had solar panels installed on my roof. They only heated the water but in a country carbon-poor as Jordan is solar is a great investment.
The Israeli governments do not consider Palestinians as an enemy but as illegal squatters on the land they claim as the Israelis, despite all but a few Jews in Palestine never having had any contact with that land for 2,000 years until the last half of the 20th Century.
The UN does have an "enforcer" remit and can take troops from any member country (which agrees to supply troops) in order to pacify and protect areas at war. I can remember this being done over and over in the 1950s and '60s, but usually in 3rd world countries. The problem is that (I believe) it has to be sanctioned by the UN Security Council and, while Israel is not a member, certainly not a permanent member, it does have a voice (and a vote--including a veto) via the USA which is a permanent member and always supports Israel.
This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and it's still going on and getting worse. And let's not forget that the USA, with American taxpayers' money, still stands solidly behind Israel and all it does.
When I lived in Jordan, back in the ’70s, I used to go across the river to buy books at Israels English language bookshops. I asked one elderly lady at a shop if they took Jordanian dinars. She smiled, sadly, and said no: “I hope one day we will, but not now.” Sadly that generation died and everything changed.
re. Americans: As a long-time citizen although by naturalization, I don't credit many of my fellow Americans with thinking much beyond their next paycheck. Certainly they mostly couldn't find Israel or anywhere else overseas on an unlabeled map.
re. your second which doesn't have a reply button: I hope you are right. Certainly even back in the '70s Israelis were bailing out, as I mentioned on another post.
I'm replying to your second post, not your first but your second doesn't have a reply button. I agree. Having been a frequent visitor when I lived in Jordan, it was clear even then that Israelis with any connections to the West were bailing out.
to Spyguy: You may be right. My father (RIP) flew Spitfires in WW2 and hated all kinds of racism. He was shocked at the rise of Israeli racism after having fought against fascism/racism in WW2.
When I lived in Jordan, back in the '70s, I used to go across the river to buy books at Israels English language bookshops. I asked one elderly lady at a shop if they took Jordanian dinars. She smiled, sadly, and said no: "I hope one day we will, but not now." Sadly that generation died and everything changed.
Back in the 19th century, with the beginning of Zionism, the Brits thought of giving the Jews a homeland in Uganda, a place that did have unoccupied parts. It never came about for many obvious reasons, not least the Jews' determination that they wanted it to be in Palestine , which was already well-populated.
I agree. Even in the '70s and early '80s, Israelis were packing up and moving to the USA and Europe; I overheard the manager of the hotel I used to stay in on the TelAviv waterfront on the phone talking about his soon-to-be move to the USA. And a Jewish room-mate from grad. school went "for good" and came back after a couple of years.
I just recently learned that Israeli forces control the border crossings from Jordan into the West Bank.
Just?! I lived in Jordan for years in the '70s and '80s and they controlled the border crossings then and very rude they were, too--especially the women border guards. As a foreigner I crossed by the Allenby Bridge, not the bridge for Palestinians whose treatment was beyond rude: strip searches of the modest mothers in front of their children was only one way of humiliating them.
Sadly, the Geneva Conventions either have no means of enforcement or no willingness on the part of the signatories to do so. Similar, in fact, to the League of Nations--and we know how that worked out.
Mussolini, I believe, defined fascism as the politics/government of the state organized to support the corporations. (I'm paraphrasing from ancient memory.) Hence the "corporate state."
I just loved seeing the kids with their slingshots. I learned to use one a long time ago, taught by my young neighbors in Jordan. David and Goliath all over again but this time the power is with Goliath, sadly.
Syria is not an Islamic republic. Its political basis is Ba'athist; the Ba'ath Party was/is (if it still exists in any real form) secular, socialist and pluralist.
Lawrence was one of those people who was lost for excitement after WWI ended so in the 1920s he joined the RAF under a pseudonym. However, every time he was introduced or introduced himself with his pseudonym, he would add, "But, really, I'm T.E. Lawrence." I heard this from my father who was an RAF pilot in WW2 and got the story second hand from other "old hands."
The Palestinians are the original inhabitants of Palestine. They consist of Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Euro-American Jews are invaders who have no business being there, still less driving out the native population.
Not just Britain but the whole British Commonwealth took part in the sporting boycott of S.A. and also the boycott of South African oranges. I'd hope Brits today are boycotting Jaffas.
I lived and taught for several years in Jordan and spent my "down time" in Palestine. I loved the place and the people and I wish you would comment more on that area.
"St. Paul had his conversion on the road to Damascus, and I was once shown a building he was said to have stayed in in what is now a Christian quarter of the city."
I saw the same building back in the late '70s and the street was, indeed, "strait" [i.e. narrow]!
Yes. Look at Weimar Germany. Although Hitler's seizure of power wasn't exactly a military coup, his militarized supporters intimidated the parliament into conceding power. However the Egyptians have a fondness for their army; a year or so ago the crowds in the streets were chanting, "OUR soldiers, with US!"
I read an article maybe 15-20 years ago and I cannot remember the title nor the author(s). The thesis was that the large number of slaves who died on the Atlantic crossing did so because of dehydration. The reason for their relatively high death rate was (the authors posited) because West Africa has virtually no salt deposits. In fact the major item traded by Arabs from the Mediterranean to West Africa was salt, so rare that it was traded for West African gold.
Incredible! So beautifully carved and detailed, and so lifelike one can "see" them actually walking and speaking. I'm struck by the difference between these works of art and the religiously stylized forms of pharaonic Egypt--and yet the two cultures did have contact.
Different places use different terms. In Jordan/Palestine and I think Syria the headscarf is called "isha'ara" ("hair thingie") but women so covered and wearing long-sleeved, ankle-length skirts call themselves "mutahajjabat"--hijabbed, if you like. Arabs refer to the long black cloak worn in the Arabian peninsula as 'abbaya; the Persians call it "chador." The burqa again changes meaning from the face veil with eye-holes called "hijab" in Riyadh to the same called "burq'a" along the Red Sea and "niqab" in other places. And I'm sure that's not all; it's just all I can remember.
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." I forget who said that first but it is an historical truth. Check out the Irish on that score, as well as all the liberation movements of the late colonial period.
"And the Brits went into battle with their Anglican priests in support." All armies do; they always have. And both European and American armies now have Muslim clergymen ministering to their ranks as well as Rabbis and Hindu clergy, even Wiccans and Native American religious leaders.
The American political class can do anything it wants because Americans are kept largely ignorant of the truth by their "press" and also because the ruling class keeps stoking that idiotic, "support our troops" line. I've lived on 4 continents and I've never come across another nation that takes that attitude to it's armed forces, but it's just a show to terrorize the civilian voters into allowing the political elite to trample on their interests and on the rest of the world to feather their own nests. The invasion of Iraq was a good example of how successful the charade is, but it's not the first and won't be the last.
"derogatory term for female genitalia]’s [sic]".
The terminal "s" is redundant as "genitalia" (Latin) is already plural. And your sexism is disgusting. Why not call them "pricks"?
A better example than the London blitz would be that of Coventry. In fact "Coventry" became both a verb (to Coventry) and and an adjective (Coventried) for total annihilation of a city and most of its inhabitants. It was a term I heard a lot in the talk of my parents and neighbors in post-war England.
I spent most of my working life in the Mid-East and North Africa: Jordan/Palestine (love that country), Libya under Qadaffi (no comment) and Saudi Arabia (ditto). I agree with Zarif. Nobody in the Mid-East wants nuclear weapons as the indiscrimate slaughter of civilians is contrary to the teachings of the Holy Quran.
Bill: Hole in one!
Israel needs to live in peace with its neighbors but the Palestinians are not neighbors; they have been occupied by the people calling themseves Israelis and their land stolen from them.
Jews were not a majority in Israel until the massive influx after WW2 when Harry Truman endorsed their invasion of Palestine after Balfour had accepted it in theory in WWI. Truman had absolutely no knowledge of foreign parts. Some Jews always lived there but they were few and lived in amity with their Muslim and Christian neighbors, most of them working as goldsmiths who supplied the young people with wedding rings and came to deliver them and dance at their weddings. Older Palestinians I met used to remember those days fondly. The Jews then were "our Jews." The Euro-American Jews of post WW2 were interlopers who came to steal their land.
Thank you Dr. Cole! I get so tired of trying to explain the Mid-East to people who haven't a clue, still less have lived there as I did for ten years--and learned and spoke the language of my neighbors.
Israel may have no written constitution but neither does England and it has gone along happily without one for well over a thousand years.
Prof. Cole: I have been following your writings for as long as I've had internet access because I spent 10 years as a university professor teaching students most of whom were Palestinians . Your latest post is, of course, edifying but your reference to Spinoza really grabbed me. I stumbled upon him in my teens and read him with relish.
I lived in Jordan in the 1970s and had solar panels installed on my roof. They only heated the water but in a country carbon-poor as Jordan is solar is a great investment.
Thank you hquain! The Brits liberated Bergen-Belsen and the Americans liberated Dachau.
What on earth is a "Muslim scarf???"
I agree. But the savage depredations of the Mau-Mau on the British farmers were reported daily on the BBC radio news when I was a pre-teen.
Perhaps such a condemnation is on a site dedicated to such American matters. Juan writes about the Mid-East.
The Israeli governments do not consider Palestinians as an enemy but as illegal squatters on the land they claim as the Israelis, despite all but a few Jews in Palestine never having had any contact with that land for 2,000 years until the last half of the 20th Century.
We do not get to choose who runs and as only those with vast money-bags have a chance to win elections, we do not have a democracy but a plutocracy.
The UN does have an "enforcer" remit and can take troops from any member country (which agrees to supply troops) in order to pacify and protect areas at war. I can remember this being done over and over in the 1950s and '60s, but usually in 3rd world countries. The problem is that (I believe) it has to be sanctioned by the UN Security Council and, while Israel is not a member, certainly not a permanent member, it does have a voice (and a vote--including a veto) via the USA which is a permanent member and always supports Israel.
This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and it's still going on and getting worse. And let's not forget that the USA, with American taxpayers' money, still stands solidly behind Israel and all it does.
When I lived in Jordan, back in the ’70s, I used to go across the river to buy books at Israels English language bookshops. I asked one elderly lady at a shop if they took Jordanian dinars. She smiled, sadly, and said no: “I hope one day we will, but not now.” Sadly that generation died and everything changed.
re. Americans: As a long-time citizen although by naturalization, I don't credit many of my fellow Americans with thinking much beyond their next paycheck. Certainly they mostly couldn't find Israel or anywhere else overseas on an unlabeled map.
re. your second which doesn't have a reply button: I hope you are right. Certainly even back in the '70s Israelis were bailing out, as I mentioned on another post.
I suspect you are right. It's a while since I used to live in the West Bank but it seems nothing has changed except the land-grabs.
And thereby lies all the problem . . ..
I'm replying to your second post, not your first but your second doesn't have a reply button. I agree. Having been a frequent visitor when I lived in Jordan, it was clear even then that Israelis with any connections to the West were bailing out.
to Spyguy: You may be right. My father (RIP) flew Spitfires in WW2 and hated all kinds of racism. He was shocked at the rise of Israeli racism after having fought against fascism/racism in WW2.
I believe it was during one of Disraelis's terms as prime minister. 1880s or thereabouts.
When I lived in Jordan, back in the '70s, I used to go across the river to buy books at Israels English language bookshops. I asked one elderly lady at a shop if they took Jordanian dinars. She smiled, sadly, and said no: "I hope one day we will, but not now." Sadly that generation died and everything changed.
Back in the 19th century, with the beginning of Zionism, the Brits thought of giving the Jews a homeland in Uganda, a place that did have unoccupied parts. It never came about for many obvious reasons, not least the Jews' determination that they wanted it to be in Palestine , which was already well-populated.
But Israel has always lived by milking US taxpayers and as long as we have a Congress determined to keep this up, Israel will survive.
You are forgetting the huge clout of the American-Jewish lobby. No other foreign country has the same influence on American policy.
There is massive rage around the world but Israel has the US Congress and Presidency on its side and vast amounts of US taxpayers' money.
I agree. Even in the '70s and early '80s, Israelis were packing up and moving to the USA and Europe; I overheard the manager of the hotel I used to stay in on the TelAviv waterfront on the phone talking about his soon-to-be move to the USA. And a Jewish room-mate from grad. school went "for good" and came back after a couple of years.
I just recently learned that Israeli forces control the border crossings from Jordan into the West Bank.
Just?! I lived in Jordan for years in the '70s and '80s and they controlled the border crossings then and very rude they were, too--especially the women border guards. As a foreigner I crossed by the Allenby Bridge, not the bridge for Palestinians whose treatment was beyond rude: strip searches of the modest mothers in front of their children was only one way of humiliating them.
Sadly, the Geneva Conventions either have no means of enforcement or no willingness on the part of the signatories to do so. Similar, in fact, to the League of Nations--and we know how that worked out.
Mussolini, I believe, defined fascism as the politics/government of the state organized to support the corporations. (I'm paraphrasing from ancient memory.) Hence the "corporate state."
I just loved seeing the kids with their slingshots. I learned to use one a long time ago, taught by my young neighbors in Jordan. David and Goliath all over again but this time the power is with Goliath, sadly.
Jefferson based his notions on Tom Paine's Rights of Man. Paine was a stay-maker (corset maker) from East Anglia.
Syria is not an Islamic republic. Its political basis is Ba'athist; the Ba'ath Party was/is (if it still exists in any real form) secular, socialist and pluralist.
I love the likening of Petaeus to T.E. Lawrence. It's really very apt.
Lawrence was one of those people who was lost for excitement after WWI ended so in the 1920s he joined the RAF under a pseudonym. However, every time he was introduced or introduced himself with his pseudonym, he would add, "But, really, I'm T.E. Lawrence." I heard this from my father who was an RAF pilot in WW2 and got the story second hand from other "old hands."
The ignorance about Palestine on this site floors me.
Um . . . perhaps because there is no King of Qatar? If this is the level of knowledge on CD now it has fallen well beyond what it once was.
The Palestinians are the original inhabitants of Palestine. They consist of Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Euro-American Jews are invaders who have no business being there, still less driving out the native population.
Terrorist government? What have you been smoking?
Not just Britain but the whole British Commonwealth took part in the sporting boycott of S.A. and also the boycott of South African oranges. I'd hope Brits today are boycotting Jaffas.
I lived and taught for several years in Jordan and spent my "down time" in Palestine. I loved the place and the people and I wish you would comment more on that area.
As Arafat always wore his trademark "hatta" in public, nobody ever saw his hair.
"St. Paul had his conversion on the road to Damascus, and I was once shown a building he was said to have stayed in in what is now a Christian quarter of the city."
I saw the same building back in the late '70s and the street was, indeed, "strait" [i.e. narrow]!
Yes. Look at Weimar Germany. Although Hitler's seizure of power wasn't exactly a military coup, his militarized supporters intimidated the parliament into conceding power. However the Egyptians have a fondness for their army; a year or so ago the crowds in the streets were chanting, "OUR soldiers, with US!"
I agree.
Barack Obama is worse than GW Bush. What I keep wondering is why Biden hasn't resigned.
I read an article maybe 15-20 years ago and I cannot remember the title nor the author(s). The thesis was that the large number of slaves who died on the Atlantic crossing did so because of dehydration. The reason for their relatively high death rate was (the authors posited) because West Africa has virtually no salt deposits. In fact the major item traded by Arabs from the Mediterranean to West Africa was salt, so rare that it was traded for West African gold.
Incredible! So beautifully carved and detailed, and so lifelike one can "see" them actually walking and speaking. I'm struck by the difference between these works of art and the religiously stylized forms of pharaonic Egypt--and yet the two cultures did have contact.
Different places use different terms. In Jordan/Palestine and I think Syria the headscarf is called "isha'ara" ("hair thingie") but women so covered and wearing long-sleeved, ankle-length skirts call themselves "mutahajjabat"--hijabbed, if you like. Arabs refer to the long black cloak worn in the Arabian peninsula as 'abbaya; the Persians call it "chador." The burqa again changes meaning from the face veil with eye-holes called "hijab" in Riyadh to the same called "burq'a" along the Red Sea and "niqab" in other places. And I'm sure that's not all; it's just all I can remember.
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." I forget who said that first but it is an historical truth. Check out the Irish on that score, as well as all the liberation movements of the late colonial period.
"And the Brits went into battle with their Anglican priests in support." All armies do; they always have. And both European and American armies now have Muslim clergymen ministering to their ranks as well as Rabbis and Hindu clergy, even Wiccans and Native American religious leaders.
The American political class can do anything it wants because Americans are kept largely ignorant of the truth by their "press" and also because the ruling class keeps stoking that idiotic, "support our troops" line. I've lived on 4 continents and I've never come across another nation that takes that attitude to it's armed forces, but it's just a show to terrorize the civilian voters into allowing the political elite to trample on their interests and on the rest of the world to feather their own nests. The invasion of Iraq was a good example of how successful the charade is, but it's not the first and won't be the last.