#politics #middleeast

I believe most humans are good decent people.  I also believe that psychopaths are drawn to positions of power.  And so good and decent people everywhere are led by psychopaths.

No more stark and obvious is this than in modern day Israel.  Israel is suffering as a target of terrorism from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from the Houthis, from Iran, but most of all from the ultranationalists.

Yes, you heard right. The ultranationalists, the most psychopathic of them all, threaten to assassinate any leader who doesn't fulfil the prophesy by taking all of greater Israel by force, just as they assassinated Yitzhak Rabin once it was clear he supported the Oslo accords and was willing to walk the path of peace to a two-state solution.  I believe Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated because he wanted a peace deal.  Peace is not on the menu when Israel is driven by ultranationalists. Haniyeh was not a militant, he was a political leader, the lead negotiator.

Does this mean I believe Benjamin Netanyahu is under duress?  No.  Not him.  But others.  And the people of Israel are mostly very unhappy with this path Israel is taking.

Yet some 70% of them (if I understand correctly) approve of genociding the Palestinians.  I believe this is because they have been consistently lied to and brainwashed since birth.  I don't know what happened to Germans after WW2 but I'm sure it took them some time to come out of their brainwashing.  Israel will also need time to reflect on what has been done.

I think what needs to be done is that a coalition of world powers needs to enforce a 2-state solution, irrespective of any U.N. security council decision with it's vetoes.  If the US insists of fighting it, they will have to fight it with their weaponry.  They will have to fight Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, Hungary, Turkey, Indonesia, India, France!, Britain!, Australia!  ... will the US turn on all it's former allies (all of which support enforcing a 2-state solution) just to defend Israel's genocide?  I don't think so.

As I have said before, I do not believe in a one-state solution "from the river to the sea".  Israel is a fact of life that has existed as a state longer all but a very few human beings.  For the same reason that American's shouldn't all move back to Europe and leave America to the natives, I think Israelis can't be expected to move back to Europe at this point.  Maybe before, but it is too late now.

Once Israel is controlled by force, and it's current war criminal leaders imprisoned, then the long process of deradicalization will begin.

As you can see from my writings, I am not anti-semitic, nor am I even anti-Zionist.  I am anti-psychopath, anti-genocide, pro-liberty and pro-enforcement of civility... it is those classical liberal beliefs that inform my views on this topic.