Remember the days of yore, when people negotiated? When they compromised? When they remembered that Republican or Democrat, they were all Americans, with a common goal of mostly bettering the life of the residents of this great country. And yes, Big Business got its way many times, but there were major social legislative acts passed and there was progress.
Today we all put up our dukes. No one talks quietly. No one listens, keeping minds shut to possible points from the other side. No one compromises. And worst of all is the fact that we have come to treat opponents as 'the enemy' - our fellow Americans.
There is reason for that aplenty. When one side, for the most part, sees the other as oppressors, as robbers trying to steal the social safety net away, seeming to care less about the people and more about these vague entities called Big …… for whatever field they are in. And like it or not, people must recognize the fact that if a leader of a side is corrupt, demented and deranged, almost functionally illiterate and who depends on a right wing group to pass him information and guides to decisions through Fox and Friends, well, what can we expect? This pugnacious and crude individual has proved himself to be persona non grata among many of the world's leaders and humanists. It is believed that he is a danger to the safety and survival of the world's populations. And so it is.
I have two homelands - the United States of America and the State of Israel. I am both proud and sometimes ashamed of both countries. The level of poor behavior among politicians, the level of corruption and selfishness among administrative appointees or elected officials, the demonization of the opposition - what has happened to us?
And now? Now, we are at a danger point for both countries and for the globe. We were presented with a serious issue, with a rogue country having, or gaining, atomic powers and weapons. Rogue countries are difficult to control as they seem to be lacking some prime ingredient for understanding the needs of other countries or the social pacts that nations make with each other.
Iran is such a rogue country. It oppresses its own citizens, wages war on those who do not conform, has major humanitarian sins, and is an extremist country when it comes to religious tolerance. And, they want the bomb. They want it desperately, thinking it will vault them into the ranks of major powers and enhance their political power. This deep drive of theirs is inherently dangerous to us all, but especially to the people of Israel, the people of the Middle East and the people of America. It is an existential threat, threatening their continued existence in this world.
So what to do? Trump goes his usual path and blusters and brags, threatens and vacillates until the world is dizzy from him. Yes, the deal was imperfect. Yes, there were gaps. But yes, on the whole, Iran went along with it, happy to have the sanctions removed and allowed to get on with life as a state, and if they colored outside the lines, Israel could usually set them straight with a mission or the world could do it with their own restless statements.
No more. I believe that there is real danger of a war that will drag the whole globe into the mire. Israel must respond, proactively or reactively, to threats from Iran as they sit there and arm Syrian forces, send missiles over to Israel, try to keep a huge flow of weapons and arms into Lebanon and Hezbollah. It has no choice if it is to safeguard its citizens. None at all. It has learned the hard way that the world does not defend Israel when push comes to shove, when the dukes are up. Oh, they will cry crocodile tears and then mourn as the hypocrites they are at the wounding or worse of Israel, but help afore this? None. They backed away in 1967 when the Straits of Tiran were blockaded. They did nothing to stop the Arabs from invading in 1973 on the holiest day of the year for Jews, and did nothing to stop this until Israel managed to claw its way back at the cost of thousands, and then, only then, were gestures made to stop the war - when Israel was coming to the top.
Other nations defend their borders. Trump rages on about his borders. But when Israel defends its borders from thousands of people who threaten, are planning and have already acted, upon a plan to invade the country, to cross the border and to attack the Israeli small communities just over the border, with plans to kill, to maim, to kidnap children and soldiers, to shock the very heart of the country - why, how dare they defend themselves the world cries. And the boldness of the enemies of Israel is enhanced and encouraged by this ripping up of the deal. Why stick to the rules for the most part if what one gets in the end is nothing out of it. That is the thinking of Iran, basically.
And so Israel is now, like it or not, on the edge of a war such as they have not seen since their War of Independence when six Arab nations invaded this fledgling country trying to remain alive, defeat its enemies and at the same time take in the shards and remnants of the Jewish population of Europe, that which remained after the war, and the refugees from Arab lands, thrown out from countries where they had lived for centuries, all with nothing, as their belongings had long ago been taken away or denied to them.
So here we are again. A multi sided war with Hezbollah from the north, Gaza and Hamas from the south, Syria from the other side of the north, Iran joining in and in Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the West Bank - who knows. What will the Palestinian Authority do? Where will the nations of the world and the rest of the Arab nations stand? Only G-d knows and I am not sure even He can figure out the twisted paths.
So we all put up our dukes, each side thinking that all the right, and therefore all the might, is on their side. And I think of the futility of most of the wars of man's history. I think of the losses of so many, millions upon millions, of the savagery found on all sides, and I think of the time of the pipes of peace, when German and Allied soldiers climbed out of the bloody trenches of WWI and played ball, sang Christmas songs, exchanged mementoes, only to fall back into the trenches when the day was over, back to the killing of fellow men.
Must we always bluster? Must we always threaten? Must we always put up our dukes? Is there no other way than war? There needs to be found a way for negotiations and compromise, not being weak, but finding a better way. There has to be if we are to save ourselves and not all fall off the cliff into ….. your guess, your thought, your mind images. Other than the defeat of Hitler, what have we gained from war? The War to End All Wars led to another war, another world conflagration and here we are again and again and again. It must stop! It has to.
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