Hineni, Hineni

"It's all about identity
This tribal sense of dignity
Of tolerance and unity
Of prejudice and bigotry"

 

Oi Va Voi - Hora

 

 

"Come for the girlfriend, stay for the lack of hell" reads a billboard in Chicago advertising Judaism, a trimillennially proven product with a refined marketing strategy. I'll address the girlfriend half of that some other time, but for now keep in mind that romanticized, socially reinforced salvation. It will come up again.

 

In lighter news, jews and muslims are mass-murdering each other again, which may explain why every news outlet has turned into "the 24/7 Israel network" the past couple of weeks. Unsurprisingly to anyone who's had to live with snowflakes, politically correct idiocy in universities here broke out in immediate support of terrorism, proving yet again that wokeism is a powermongering, hierarchical dogma in which any appointed morally superior breed (in this case arabs/muslims) can do no wrong.

 

The first observation would have to do with provocation. That's the main excuse trotted out for every muslim sadist and mass-murderer: provocation. They're always being "provoked" (read: triggered (read: boom)) by others' real or perceived encroachment, values, customs, well-being, or let's be honest here, just "being" anything other than mindlessly obedient slaves. Except in this case the cause of Palestine's aggression was specifically a lack of provocation, by their own admission allowing tensions to decrease over the past years to lower Israel's guard. Well, when your greatest slogan is "never give us the benefit of the doubt" ...

A few of our saner teevee faces did take issue with the forced, feigned impartiality of sources claiming Israel was somehow just as much (or wholly!) at fault for Palestine's attack. For my own part, I was already bracing myself for the inevitable displays of Israeli psychopathy to come. Because at this point, Israel really can cite verifiable and ample provocation, casus belli, a moral umbrella, albeit insufficient for its ambitions. Palestine supplied it. And yes, the establishment of Israel after WW2 was criminal, and its expansionist policy after that has only compounded its guilt. However... you can acknowledge that without justifying the random mass-murder of civilians by the thousand! Disaffection does not legitimize terrorism!

So where exactly are all those Palestinian negative vibes coming from? The party line holds it to be a reaction against occupation, and at that point the party flatly stops thinking. But imagine Hamas winning. Imagine they got their way, terrorized or murdered all the jews they can get their hands on, yiippee, hurrah, praise be unto Mohammed's beard lice or whatever.

... Now what?

You think Hamas would then call it a day, settle down, spend their evenings jogging with their poodles, argue about cafeteria menus at PTA meetings and water beds of daisies in their back yards? Can you really picture that happening? They'd find new victims! Any victims, anywhere. "Provocation" will be fabricated on command.

 

While much of the past two weeks' news has been depressingly tragic, you do have to find the tragicomedy in Israeli generals declaring they'll "destroy" Hamas. Sure, ok, that miiiiight happen. But more than an organization, it's an ecological niche you're talking about. Its members were not members last month and wiping it out will only see a replacement pop up a month later. If my conflating Palestine with its militant wing raises your hackles, do remember that insane as this may sound, Hamas is an elected government. It is supplying a popular demand, or at least did originally. In 2001, America vowed to wipe out the Taliban, provoked by the 9/11 attacks. Who's in charge of Afghanistan now? The Taliban.

For reference on the religious mentality, think back to the Bamiyan Buddhas. When foreigners offered to restore the statues twenty years ago, the Afghans instead demanded the cash itself on a "my kids are starving" gambit. (Never mind tourist / pilgrim income can also feed your kids and for a lot longer; just ask the Vatican, a tourist trap which knows all about stuffing kids.) Refused, they threw a tantrum and destroyed their own monuments. For weeks they shot at the gigantic mountainside carvings with guns and mortars. They set off land mines under them. They rappelled down the cliff to plant bombs on them and shot a fucking rocket at a statue's head. All while bemoaning they can't afford to feed themselves. Eat the rocket!

 

I remember back in 2011 when the tsunami hit Japan, a Japanese professor found herself fending off concerned voices in class. She replied thanks, appreciate it, but you know, it's Japan, we have measures in place for that sort of thing. And true enough, while some small failures to evacuate were recorded on the local level, overall the alarms sounded immediately, an informed public took the available routes to safety and almost all deaths and destruction were due not to the earthquake or deprivation but directly to the off-the-charts mountain of water washing over the sea-walls. After the initial drownings, the relief effort saved the vast majority of victims.

 

The entire world is sending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan now, after recent earthquakes - serious ones but quite on the charts. And the Afghans did not have measures for that sort of thing. While the initial death toll is low compared to the Japanese example, homelessness and starvation are gradually outpacing it, as the Taliban's own plan for helping its citizens, as far as I can tell from photos, appears to consist of thugs with assault rifles.

AKs vs. earthquake: fight!

Back at the end of WW2, Japan was itself a theocracy ruled by a bona-fide God-Emperor of Doom. They wised up. On the other hand, Muslims' means of coping with their own mismanagement is to bomb French newspapers. The U.S. is sending $12mil in aid to Afghanistan. How much of that do you want to bet will get skimmed off by the thugs with AKs, sold on the black market and used to fund the next 9/11?

 

Which brings us back around to Israel, Palestine and that romanticized, socially reinforced salvation. I said that Hamas is a niche more than an organization. Where political decisions can be justified by winning divine favor, support will always be found for those willing to commit atrocities as acts of faith, or any other grand nonsensical gestures like blowing statues' heads off, no matter how wastefully. The entire world is clamoring for Israel to open up routes for humanitarian aid to Palestine, but the real question is why did Hamas not provide for such aid itself? Given both states' bellicosity, Israeli reprisals were far more reliably predictable than any tsunami. What was Palestine's contingency plan for its own citizenry? Let them eat rocket cakes?

That's a big difference between dealing with rational actors and brainwashed superstitious primitives. Israel has held the moral high ground not only because it was the victim of attack, but because it consistently supports physical well-being and personal freedom, or any other reasonable measure of a life worth living, more reliably than its neighbours. It has to. It's playing to a different audience, to the quasi-secular West instead of the theocratic East.

 

But when one Israeli spokesman was quoted saying "this is our 9/11" I couldn't help thinking back to the U.S. using that as pretext for immensely costly invasions (motivated by military-industrial parasitism) at the expense of its own citizens. There's quite a bit of the crusading spirit to Israeli press releases now, lotta dismantling, decimating, destroying. The Cold War was prevented from turning hot largely by the two superpowers acting on rational (if often reprehensible) self-interest. But Israel, for all it plays to the tune of democracy, for all the widespread atheism it tolerates, is at its core an inextricably religious entity, founded on and defined by the preservation and propagation of irrationalism. Or at least one specific brand of irrationalism. A Holy Land for holy whatever. And that cannot help but create niches for eschatological psychopathy. It is entirely unclear from news broadcasts whether Israelis regard their current situation as a hostage crisis, as curtailing terrorism, or as a pretext for continuing an exceptionalist expansionist mission.

Ah well. Due to my location, I am in far more danger from christians than I am from muslims and jews combined, so for now I retain the privilege of casual interest.

But I do have to note your marketing strategy is slipping.