Tag: Israel

Split Peas & Split People

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This might end up being one of those pieces which becomes a few random thoughts that aren’t related but I feel are worth mentioning. To begin with I’m having a nightmare trying to cook split peas. I was hoping to make a nice soup with sweet potato and carrot but these bloody peas just won’t cook. I soaked them for over twenty-four hours and have now had them boiling away for at least an hour to no avail. I enjoy cooking. I also enjoy eating and this enjoyment of eating and of having no money over the years means I’m not a bad cook. I don’t make enough soups though. A split pea soup sounds just lovely.

I’m a total romantic. I’m listening to Spanish Civil War music and dreaming of what could have been. It was such a glorious and horrific time. We like to imagine antifa and the antifascist as some new phenomenon but it’s been going as long as the fascist gave themselves such a name. I have mentioned this particular war a few times but it really is another example of the people being screwed over by power. Not just power in Spain but through the neutrality of countries like the UK. Franco had Hitler’s Germans and Mussolini’s Italians, the Republic ended up having no choice but relying on the Soviets who took over as best they could and did more damage than help. France may have been a Republic but it was never built on the ideals of decentralisation and the anarcho-collectives. The European powers as ever showed their true colours, for old powers like the British, Fascism was infinitely more palatable than people having true power. These things are contagious, they must be quashed.

The Twentieth Century was just a long list of outside interference with vested interests. Allende, Chile and Pinochet is always an easy one to bring up but let’s not forget Cambodia and Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to recognise the new communist government that replaced the genocidal maniac Pol Pot. She was also a bit of a fan of apartheid South Africa. Let’s not forget the British influence upon the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran that wanted to nationalise oil production, the dictatorship of the new Shah, a western puppet, more agreeable. General Suharto in Indonesia who killed a quarter of the population but who provided the Australians, as well as the US and Brits, with cheap access to natural minerals. Yugoslavia, the last Socialist country in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union was never allowed to exist. It is always easier to control smaller broken up and angry states than one larger one.

Talking of apartheid, Palestine is another obvious one. Obvious because it is still going on not because it is ever really talked about. You wouldn’t know it if you just watched western media but Israel have been bombing the shit out of the Gaza Strip for eight straight days now. Apparently Hamas fired two homemade rockets out and the Israeli’s felt the need to obliterate them in return. Eight days and not a peep.

Anyway my split peas have burnt. I got carried away and forgot to check on them. I give up.

Lebanese Politics & Scottish Education

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Two issues today separated by geography and a multitude of other things. Lebanon seems completely fucked, the government has toppled and the western powers have offered $250 million dollars toward relief as an aid package. This of course on the proviso there are fundamental changes made within the country. This was demanded prior to the government collapsing and during protests so perhaps these changes have begun to be made. That is a lot of money but when the estimated bill for damages is currently at an estimated $12 billion, the sum offered seems like a spare change and it’ll be interesting to see whether the country is that desperate that they’ll accept them. Most likely help will come from Iran but they’re not exactly swimming with cash themselves so how this unfolds is anyone’s guess. Instinctively whenever I see an ‘event’ in the Middle East followed by protests and potential government/structural/regime change my life’s conditioning is that it is the the west meddling in and ruining another country.

Lebanon has serious issues in the immediate and medium term to deal with, having to endure someone else’s take on freedom is probably not required right now. Saying all of that these protests could be completely organic and those involved may be fighting for something completely independent of anything offered by outside forces be they western and Israeli, or Iranian. The country has a finely balanced sectarian structure, although it also has led to high levels of corruption, which has so far prevented another civil war for thirty years. If the country does become the latest battle ground in the Middle East Hezbollah will certainly not go down without a fight and it could become as bloody and destructive as what has happened and is continuing to happen in Syria. Or it won’t and they will get the desired support from the IMF without too many self-destructive conditions and they’ll rebuild. Really though I’m someone who has never been to Lebanon, despite really wanting to for a few years now, and who knows little beyond reasonably unsubstantiated conjecture. So let’s see.

What I do know though is that Scotland’s education system has struggled in the years the SNP have been in power. This is the second point, and it’ll be quick. They have undeniably done a lot for Scotland as a party but education seems to be one sorry mess after another. Inexplicably they have moved closer to the English education system and it’s higher levels of exam assessments despite evidence suggesting that not be the best approach. Standards have dropped as a result. Then there is this debacle over lowering students grades because of concerns they were too high across the board, but not lowering them evenly, seemingly doing so more in disadvantaged areas. To lower them is political. To lower them disproportionately is probably down to the knowledge of the pressure from those with influence in wealthy schools and potentially political too but that is less clear. Either way it is a stupid own goal in an already beleaguered part of government. Nicola Sturgeon has stood up, accepted the mistake and reversed it which is a refreshing move from a politician but it should never have got to that. The Tory propaganda machine will be going into overdrive as English results are released on Thursday and assuming they don’t go and make the same mistake. Surely that would be beyond incomprehension if they did. Which means it is safe to say they most likely will.

The Lebanon

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This incident seems strange. It seems pretty horrific too. Ammonium nitrate left in a warehouse at the port for six years and it accidentally goes off. That is not an implausible story, let’s be honest. It is possible that fertiliser is imported into a country and it is also possible that it has been left for one reason or another and abandoned. It does happen. But ammonium nitrate is also used as an explosive. It is not implausible that it has intentionally gone off.

Usually in stories like this it’s very quickly pointed out as potentially an act of terror if not jumped on and accused of being so. Unlike other previous events it feels like it is not following the same pattern. The main focus is on the fertiliser and while it is suggested investigations are open into other possibilities, this is not seized on. I have only read the article on the BBC, this could end up being an analysis of the BBC’s reporting or a sign that I’m missing many other angles elsewhere. It just feels notably out of the ordinary in comparison to how these kind of things are usually reported on when covering the Middle East.

It is important to know context with the Lebanon in regards current social and economic issues. While I admit I don’t know in depth, the country is struggling with an arguably failed economy. I’m sure I remember reading that they were on the verge of defaulting as a country for the first time which would be a massive thing. The pandemic and subsequent global economic lockdown has only exacerbated the situation. There are currently protest although I am unsure on what scale. I don’t quite know the political structure of the country but I know Hezbollah, who were elected democratically it is often forgotten and ignored, are in power but I’m sure also the Prime Minister and his ministers are not Hezbollah, so perhaps there are two system within one. The regional political situation is that they are strong allies with Iran and that the Israelis seem to be fighting Hezbollah on and off, who are also deemed a terrorist organisation in the west, yet not fighting with Lebanon, or at least that is the narrative. With all that in mind the Israelis have had to distance themselves already, but have also offered food and humanitarian aid along with offers from Boris Johnson and Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State. It’s fair to say these are ominous gestures you would be cautious of accepting.

All of which make this feel eerily calm, almost like we’re waiting for something to happen. Maybe it also means that it genuinely was an accidental explosion of fertiliser and it has caught everyone, the Lebanese, the Western powers and the media off guard. All scrambling for an as yet unknown and too sudden line to follow. The next twenty-four hours will reveal the immediate direction it’ll take as events unfold, parts of the truth come out and the death toll becomes clear. No matter what does arise, one thing is clear, it is an horrific event either way.

The Right Attack

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In an entirely predictable move the civil war in the Labour Party reared it’s ugly head once more. Rebecca Long-Bailey the Shadow Education Secretary was sacked from her position today by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after she retweeted an article which suggested the Minneapolis police had learnt the method of kneeling on someones neck to subdue them, from seminars in Israel by the the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). This was not the entirety of the article but was a point made within it. This reignited the anti-semitism debate within the Labour Party and Sir Keir was quick to show he wasn’t like the previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who the British Press spent years smearing as anti-semitic. This being Jeremy Corbyn the anti-racism and anti-anythingthatdiscriminatedagainstanyone campaigner. Rebecca Long-Bailey was the main challenger to Starmer in the leadership race and represented the left wing of the party. Her position on the Shadow Cabinet no doubt being an attempt to placate those who didn’t support him and an attempt to present himself as a unifying force. Her sacking was always only ever going to be a matter of time.

It is impossible to cover everything in the space of five hundred words. This is an enormous issue. Sir Keir represents the right of the Labour party, or as is more apt the Tory-lite element. He has barely challenged the government on their negligent attempt at doing anything worthwhile in the fight against the coronavirus. The press now all of a sudden seem to have no problem at all with the Labour party after being positively terrified of them for the last few years. The Board of Deputies of British Jews who are a right wing group with connections to the Conservative party and who the British press decided represent the whole of British Judaism have decided they like him. Perhaps his politics is not that far from theirs? And not to mention the fact that they managed to get the definition of anti-semitism rewritten to include criticism of Israel. Which is ultimately all she did. I don’t know whether the Israelis trained the Minneapolis police but it doesn’t matter. The story can be factually inaccurate but she’s not been sacked for that. Various far right groups may use criticism of Israel as a thinly veiled excuse to attack the Jewish people but it’s pretty obvious when that is happening. This was not that. This was the silencing of any criticism of the Israeli State, and the culling of a political opponent in the process.

The problem with British politics is that it currently offers few differing options, the same as in America with the Democrats and Republicans. Ultimately they represent the same thing, as do the Tory Party, the Liberal Democrats and now Labour under Sir Keir. Whether you agreed with Corbyns politics, at least he offered a different approach and attempted to hold a corrupt government to account. That cannot and I doubt ever will be said of Starmer who is proving to be nothing more than another establishment stooge. I was devastated when Corbyn lost, like many were, but I won’t be voting for Labour at the next election. I most likely won’t be voting for anyone. You’re not voting for change when they’re all offering a continuation of the same thing, the very thing which is the actual problem in the first place. Today’s events merely underline this. It appears we’re back to the great fraud of Democracy.

With Crisis Comes Change

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And just like that the attacks have begun. The government has been accused of all things recently, ‘inept‘ being an unfortunately common one when it refers to their response to a pandemic. Generous certainly isn’t one despite their attempts at passing off a £330 billion pledge to businesses and small businesses as some kind of benevolent offering to their subjects. The fact people are going to have to pay it back, and at a higher rate in line with inflation, suggests they vary considerably to the charitable offering made when the banks were bailed out during the last recession. We’re all in this together apparently but don’t forget nothing is for free, unless you’re part of the international banking cartel or have friends in high places.

But back to the attacks which I managed to digress from almost immediately after raising their existence. There has been a lot of talk about governments using current events to push through legislation they would have previously been unable to. Milton Friedman, the father of Neoliberal free-market economics, and the man therefore responsible for this shit show of a world economy, suggested it was. “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around”. It appears some of these ideas that have been waiting around are being given their moment to be pushed through. In the US Trump has been suggesting payroll tax cuts which will destroy social security. In Israel proposals have been pushed through to monitor peoples phone much more easily using legislation usually reserved for post terrorist attack hysteria.

And now in the UK the government are attempting to push through the Civil Contingencies bill which will give police and immigration officers more powers to detain suspected carriers of the virus “to take them to a suitable place to enable screening and assessment” for an as yet unspecified amount of time. If someone is clearly ill and a danger to those around then it is fair for them to be taken somewhere they can get help and prevent them from harming others but this bill is dangerously ambiguous. Throw in the rather alarming length of two years that it will be in law, considering very worst case scenarios for this virus stand at eighteen months, and considering it could simply be put up for renewal each month as it’s required and the cocking of your head starts to feel justified.

This bill like everything currently in Parliament is being pushed through without debate and without being voted on. In times of crisis we need to strengthen democracy not weaken it, and certainly not use it as an opportunity to empower and enrich those already holding a disproportionate amount of power and wealth. It may be worth keeping an eye on what isn’t reported or perhaps what is whispered between the hysterical shouting. You may just start to spot a few new ideas that look as if they’ve suspiciously had a layer of dust blown off them. There’s nothing like a little crisis for some change after all.

Zion Train

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I listened to a podcast today on Israel, Labour and anti-semitism. It was a few months old from the glory days of Jeremy Corbyn prior to the election and before it was clear he would finally stand down and nobody gave a shit about anti-semitism anymore. In reality the podcast discussed Israel far more that Labour and this is more what I would like to focus on.

The main idea that entered my mind was how both side have such strength in belief that they are the ones on the right side of both morality and history. At one point they were discussing the concept of Zionism and what it means for both. For one the understanding is that zionism is merely a militaristic and nationalistic excuse for expansion, genocide and power under the guise of protecting a religion. Criticism of Zionism from this perspective has nothing to do with Judaism and accusations of anti-semitism are laughed off as attempts by right-wingers to deflect from the actions of the state of Israel. Proponents of the other side belief that Zionism and Judaism are intrinsically linked, that Zionism is connected to the very survival of the Jewish people. An attack therefore on Zionism is an anti-semitic attack upon the Jewish people, to attack the validity of Zionism is an attack upon the very existence of a people.

The podcast was a progressive one and it was interviewing a British Israeli man who seemed reasonably neutral. He believed that the majority in Israel linked Zionism with Judaism and were for that reason supportive of Israel strengthening it’s position in the region. It would create a safe haven for the Jewish people, something strongly felt in the national conscious after the horrors of the holocaust. Of course while that may be the majority it doesn’t mean that everyone believes this, and there is a large anti-zionist anti-nationalist movement in Israel, it does explain why people see attacks on Israel as anti-semitic though. I am not suggesting for a second that all the vitriol against Corbyn and Labour at the last election was justified, but it has made me understand another perspective in a way that I and I suspect many others haven’t fully comprehended before.

For me the idea I am being anti-semitic when I accuse Israel of doing wrong, and even when I question whether the state of Israel should exist considering events surrounding and since it’s establishment, I am in no way equating it with Judaism but merely the political ideology of Zionism. From that perspective it sounds so ludicrous to be accused of anti-semitism that it is dismissed as an illegitimate political attack and manipulation of fear around genuine anti-semitism. While I don’t doubt there is an element of that it doesn’t take into consideration that if people genuinely equate Israel, Zionism and Judaism all as one thing, holistically existing together and depending on each other, then an attack on one is an attack on all. While I may not necessarily agree with it it is understandable to link the three of them, especially Israel and Judaism, together, who am I to say that they’re not and cannot be.

My intention here is not to argue one way or another but merely to acknowledge that there is another way to view this and while that is obvious, it leads to a bit more of an understanding that being accused to anti-semitism for attacking Israel perhaps has more to it than dismissing it as just another political stunt. I can see why someone may believe something, not just what they believe; it doesn’t have to change your mind but it certainly allows for an understanding that yours is not the only one. And with that it’s time to acknowledge another groundbreaking event…stop the press…this man just discovered there is another side to an argument…

Jewish Iranians

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There is a real dearth of interesting and balanced reporting in these days of polarised corporate media. There is one magazine that I doubt can be classed as independent but which I have been enjoying recently and that is The Economist. It doesn’t appear to sit on either side of the spectrum and doesn’t seem to espouse a centrist position either which is even more reassuring. It reports world events and these can range from small pieces on which countries have the most dangerous roads to immediate and large stories about today’s corrupt attempt at bringing ‘peace’ to Palestine. They also have a pretty active podcast channel and it is this that is the driver behind my mentioning of them.

Today there was an interview with Nicolas Pelham, their Middle East correspondent, who when visiting Iran in July last year was detained at the airport and forced to stay for another seven weeks. It was an incredibly interesting interview and he gave a version of Iran that is rarely seen in the media. It seemed neither pro nor anti Iran, and while he explained the genuine dangers he was in and the realities of life in a dictatorship, he also painted a picture of a welcoming, hospitable and open people. This is the version I have felt having met Iranians in the past and from stories of those who have travelled the country. He was under a sort of house arrest; he had questioning in the morning and then would spend the afternoon and evening exploring Tehran. He was given a mobile phone, which he knew was bugged but which he could use to call home and he says that perversely he felt freer in those weeks than he did at any time in the week he had initially only planned on being there. He also admits that in no way was his ordeal comparable to other foreigners detained there such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff, the British Iranian woman who has been detained in solitary confinement in Iranian jail for nearly four years.

What is interesting though is that he is Jewish and has spent time reporting from Jerusalem. He believed at first that this may have been a factor in his arrest but questioning never followed that route in any serious way. While there he visited the Jewish community in Tehran. It numbers about eight to ten thousand, which is about ten percent of it’s peak prior to the Arab-Israeli War, and is the largest Jewish community outside of Israel in the Middle East. When speaking with members of the community he discovered they feel safer there than in major western cities such as Paris or London and are largely left alone. He himself said it was more dangerous for him being British than Jewish in Iran.

The importance of this cannot be overlooked in regards geopolitics. The Press reports that Iran has vowed to obliterate Israel, doesn’t recognise their right to exist and that Israelis and Jewish people are in constant danger of Iranian attack at any moment. This is portrayed as anti-semitism and that the Iranian government simply hates Israel existing because they are Jewish. This seems to be at odds to the reality of this comparatively large Jewish community within Iran. Really it’s another indictment of a corrupt media, that to attack Israel is to attack Judaism, but evidently it can’t be further from the truth. We saw this recently in the UK with the constant anti-semitic slurs against pro-Palestinian Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He refused to agree to include as part of a definition of anti-semitism in the party’s charter; that criticism of Israel and anti-semitic attacks on the Jewish community were one and the same thing.

This was a rare and honest conversation on Iran, and one with someone who was in danger of experiencing their worst tendencies. It left you in no doubt of the potential perils which can await within the country but also gave a wonderful endorsement of the people and culture, which also included his minders and guards incidentally. This is a link to the podcast for anyone interested in listening to it. Sometimes it is refreshing to experience reporting that doesn’t appear to be pushing any one thing more than the truth.

An Ignorant Act of War

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What is it that goes through peoples minds when they act in a way which will inevitably have a detrimental affect upon other people. I ask this because all over the news today is the assassination of the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by the United States. In the UK the coverage is generally subtly supportive or cautious but without ever condemning, which is predictable given the geopolitical framework in which this incident exists. The caution comes from the clear retributive dangers of inevitable actions by the Iranian government. There have been calls from across the world wide spectrum of governance about the dangers of this and calls for the deescalation of further violence. Were this to have happened in reverse the US would have already dropped the bombs in retaliation. This is an act of war and by those same rules the Iranians can justifiably fight back. The question then is that given the consequences whether this is exactly what this current US administration want, and judging by their behaviour since coming to power the answer seems pretty obvious. The Iranians have vowed revenge of equal measure, which would mean killing America’s most powerful General, or Israel’s.

Which leads to Israel. It seems the current US administration have been doing all they can since coming to power to support Israel – recognising the capital as Jerusalem, recognising the illegal settlements in Palestine as legitimate, Trump kissing some holy wall and then licking the soles of Netanyahu’s feet. The Israelis have been desperate to take on Iran for years and successive US governments have always held back from doing so. They’ve finally got what they want. If I was a betting man, the attack from Iran will not be directed at any Americans but straight at the heart of Israel. I just hope that whatever happens civilians are not caught up in it because the only constant of war is that innocent people suffer. If they take out a few Israeli generals well then so be it, they signed up for it and already have the blood of innocents on their own hands.

It is scary though. But is it scary for those making the decisions. And when they make the decisions what do they feel. It is very easy to look through the polarised lenses of good and bad, unfortunately this seems to be all that current rhetoric is made up of. The Iranians are the bad guys, they should die. The Americans and Brits the good guys, they should be applauded for their heroism in defending freedom. I’m making assumptions but I suspect those making these decisions to pull triggers do not think that what they are doing is wrong in any sense of the word. We view these people as evil in some ways but they’re not, they are just trying to make the world, or maybe more precisely their own world, a better place. I think it is important to remember that ultimately in everything people do they just want to be happy. Nobody acts in ways counter to that, not consciously at least, and he might be a cunt, but Trump just wants to be happy. The problem is though that he is going about it in such an immoral and mistaken way that there is no happiness coming for anyone out of this, least of all the innocent civilians who will inevitably bear the brunt of such monumental ignorance.