Wednesday 25 October 2023

From the news: on the war in West Asia [Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence including SA & CSA/abuse/war, genocide, language. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Content shown in green (which may be only part of a news story) is about what is generally considered “good news”, but personal history may still make such events triggering. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/.  

Recent and currently ongoing events have taken this part of West Asia (Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories) back to the 1960s and 70s (or further), and it is unlikely to see peace for at least another ¾ of a century, in my opinion. 

These events are also possibly the death knell of the United Nations and the current international order - which some Western powers have wanted for some time, and will soon come to regret ... 

Before I get into the news, on the nations in that region, from https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023, the freedom rating (out of 100) in 2022 was:   Iran 12,   Iraq   29,   Jordan 33,   Syria 1,   Egypt 18,   Lebanon 43,   Gaza Strip 11 and West Bank 22 (note that both of these are largely controlled by Israel),   Israel   77 - but Israel's democracy has declined this year: see https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/country/israel   Also, all of these nations have been severely harmed by past interference by Western nations (see, for instance, https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days,   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2013/7/15/legacy-of-us-1958-lebanon-invasion,   and   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36300224).  

From the news (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published):  

  • “Iran Update, October 24, 2023 | Institute for the Study of War”   https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-24-2023   which included “1. _____ and its allies are preparing the information environment to blame Israel for the possible deaths of hostages in the Gaza Strip, especially if _____ begins killing hostages. ...   2. ... _____ has repeatedly tried to incite violence against Israel in the West Bank ... 3. Iranian-backed militants ... [are] trying to “keep Israeli forces busy.”   4. ... the Iranian-led effort to deter the United States from providing meaningful support to Israel. ...   6. Iran is setting informational conditions to blame the United States and Israel for any further escalation of the war and deflect any responsibility from itself. This narrative that Iran is pushing ignores the fact that Iran has already facilitated the expansion of this war to Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen by directing its proxy and partner militias in these countries to attack US and Israeli targets.”   
 


 

And regarding my nation: 


I consider these recent posts of mine on this multiple tragedy still of relevance: 

 

Situations with complicated nuances are often described as having many shades of grey: this is many shades of grey with many splotches of red ...


Note: as with other mass murderers, violent extremists crave publicity, so I refuse to give that to them - I will avoid using their names (which is a policy adopted by good law enforcement and media for other mass murderers), and I will not give them the satisfaction of being described with the T word. 

My take on events, summarised at the start of this post (no apologies for the repetition), is:

A violent extremist organisation (I will neither give them the publicity of using their name nor describe them as anything but violent extremists) has destroyed themselves, Gaza, and the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories. (And where are they getting their rockets from? Gaza has no industry, so they are coming - or have come and been hoarded - from somewhere ... )

Israel has, by cooperatively falling in to their trap, destroyed any chance of peace in that area of the world for at least the next ¾ of a century. 

However, Jewish people, mostly outside Israel, who objected to falling in to the trap have saved Judaism from a similar opprobrium, and it is those Jewish and Palestinian people who have been working together - including in Israel - have kept the flame of hope alive. 

The move of voters towards authoritarianism - globally - in recent decades  (the last quarter of century is of particular concern) is also a major factor in this and other problems in the world, and the small-mindedness, fear, insularity, selfishness, amathia, and moral & intellectual cowardice & incompetence/ineptness of those voters, and the failures of progressive parties to take those voters with them, must be acknowledged and dealt with. Until we have a world that will not elect people like the 45th president of the USA and that sort of ilk, we do not have a safe world.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.


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