Israel is the topic for discussion today, dear readers. Israel.
Big Red Car here on an 84F Texas winter day. Brrrrr! On Earth as it is in Texas, y’all!
So, Israel has been in the news of late and it has me a little irritated. Let me share a few thoughts with you.
Israel v Palestinians? Who are they, Big Red Car?
First, the Palestinians and the Israelis are not equals.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East while the Palestinians (Arabs) are a stateless people who have had as a common bond the propagation of hate against the Jewish state and a desire to annihilate them or to drive them into the sea.
This is not Duke v the Tarheels in the NCAA Final Four. This is a blood lust which has spawned several wars.
The current Palestinian Authority is the successor to the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) of Yasser Arafat. The PLO was the sponsor of Black September which was the terrorist group which murdered eleven Israeli Olympic athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Yasser Arafat (an Egyptian named Mohammed Yassser Abdel Rahman Raour Arafat al-Qudwa, Chairman of the PLO 1969-2003) approved the murders.
Israel and Wars
Israel has been involved in a number of wars to ensure its survival and existence. Take a second to consider how you might feel if, say, Staten Island had attacked Manhattan? Israel was almost killed in the cradle. They had to fight for their existence for the entirety of their existence. It is hard to be Israel.
1. Israeli War of Independence — 1947 – 1949 — Israel fought against Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to literally be created. The war ended with the 1949 Armistice Agreements and boundaries known as the Green Line. This war was an Arab attempt to destroy Israel after its declaration of independence at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine.
2. Reprisals — 1950s to 1960s — Israel fought against determined fedayeen infiltrations from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan in reprisal for unprovoked attacks against Israeli civilians.
3. Suez Crisis — 1956 — When the French and Britain withdrew an offer to Egypt to fund the construction of the Answan Dam, Egypt threatened to nationalize the Suez Canal thereby controlling commercial movement in that part of the world. France, Britain, and Israel attacked Egypt with Israel capturing the Sinai Desert which France and Britain subsequently forced it to return to Egyptian control.
4. The Six Day War or the 1967 War — 1967 — Israel fought against Egypt, Jordan, Syria and troops from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Algeria. The Israelis won and captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem (both from Jordan), the Golan Heights (Syria), and Gaza (Egypt). This war lead to the Purple Line which included these captured lands as part of Israeli territory.
It is important to note that the ease of mounting future attacks from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan was significantly diminished because Israel now had what it called “defensible” borders. The reference to the “West Bank” is the west bank of the Jordan River which allowed the Israelis to defend their homeland behind a natural barrier — every soldier’s dream to force the enemy to cross such a significant natural barrier under fire.
5. The War of Attrition — 1967 – 1970 — Israel fought Egypt, the USSR, Jordan, Syria, and the PLO in limited engagements over control of the Sinai which was captured by the Israelis during the 1967 War. Egypt initiated this conflict to retake its formerly owned Sinai. In the end, no boundaries were changed.
6. The Yom Kippur War — 1973 — Egypt and Syria attacked Israel with Russian advice, equipment, and support. The Syrians almost turned the trick and overran Israel attacking through the Golan Heights. The fight became so desperate that Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized Defense Minister Moshe Dyan to position and arm Israel’s nuclear rockets with an eye toward a devastating attack on Damascus. In a very close fight, the Israelis, with American assistance in the form of tank replacements for combat losses and ammunition, prevailed.
This was America’s finest hour proving to the world that an alliance with America was an alliance which would ensure the survival of your country. This is the country we should be — wherein an alliance with America is a promise of survival in the face of any form of aggression.
It was after the Yom Kippur War that Henry Kissinger was successful in prying the Egyptians out of the hands of the Russians, who had been advising and instigating Egypt and Syria in the unprovoked attack. Until the Russians recently cozied up to the modern Basher al-Assad Syrians, Russian influence in the Middle East was negligible. The Obama administration reversed this defeat. It is meaningful to note that Jordan — which would have had to cross the Jordan River under fire — sat this one out.
Jordan did not want to try to cross the Jordan River under Israel defense thereby proving the wisdom of defensible borders and the military necessity of defending something that could be defended.
It was the presence of the post-1967 War boundaries (which the recent UN resolution calls upon Israel to abandon) which allowed Israel to fight a winning defensive war. This was a very, very close call and Israel almost ceased to exist.
7. South Lebanon, Palestinian Insurgency — 1971-1982 — The PLO (predecessor to the modern day Palestinian Authority) was forced to relocate from Jordan to South Lebanon and from there staged vicious attacks resulting in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon (Operation Litani) to destroy the PLO and to stop the ceaseless rocket attacks and raids. This continuing series of actions ultimately escalated into the 1982 Lebanon War. How would you feel if a rocket made its way into your 4th of July barbecue?
8. 1982 Lebanon War — 1982 — After the escalations of the Palestinian Insurgency, the Israelis invaded South Lebanon to drive out the PLO and in retaliation for the assassination attempt by the Abu Nidal Organization (headquartered in Lebanon) to kill Israeli’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. This war resulted in driving the PLO out and the creation of a South Lebanon Security Zone.
9. South Lebanon Security Zone War — 1982 – 2000 — For the next twenty years, the Israelis (and some of the Lebanese Christian militias) fought against Muslim guerrillas including the Iranian backed Hezbollah. This was the first unmasking of the evil intentions of the Iranians against Israel.
10. First Intifada — 1987 – 1993 — A large scale uprising by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) against the Israelis. This was a terrorist activity in which many Israeli citizens were killed.
11. Second Intifada — 2000 – 2005 — A second uprising against the Israelis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).
12. 2006 Lebanon War — 2006 — Israel fought Hezbollah which greatly damaged the Iranian backed terrorists and which involved a naval blockade of Lebanon. The United Nations brokered a ceasefire.
13. Gaza War — 2008 – 2009 — This fighting was between Israel and Hamas and lasted for three weeks which was provoked by Hamas rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip which killed Israeli civilians. The rockets were provided by Iran. Israel responded with a military invasion and a devastating air campaign. After the three week conflict, Israel withdrew from Gaza. Iranian funding and military support was an important element in the fight with Hamas.
14. Operation Pillar of Defense — 2012 — Another Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip provoked by a re-invigorated Hamas and more rocket attacks.
15. Operation Protective Edge — 2014 — A third Israeli military offensive into the Gaza Strip provoked by more Hamas rocket attacks on the heels of the collapse of American sponsored peace talks and the failed attempt by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government. Three Israeli teenagers and one Palestinian teenager were kidnapped and murdered.
I have laid out this framework of war to assist you in understanding with whom Israel is being asked to negotiate a “two state” solution. This not a negotiation between Canada and the US over fishing rights. This is sixty years of bloodshed in which Israel has been the victim and the Palestinians or their Arab allies have been the aggressors.
Israel Occupied Lands
The United Nations considers the territory captured and currently being controlled by Israel as nothing more than “occupied lands” subject to return to their original owners. Huh? The original owners used these territories to attack Israel, to stage raids into Israel, to send rockets into Israel, to dig tunnels into Israel to be able to slaughter soldiers and civilians. Israel requires these territories — such as the natural barrier of the Jordan River — to be able to adequately defend itself against Palestinian and Arab aggression.
In evaluating what should happen between Israel and the Palestinians consider the necessity for Israel to possess defensible borders. To do otherwise is to encourage the next attack on Israel and the next war in the Middle East.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car but I don’t have to worry about those folks in San Antone lobbing any rockets in my direction.
Part of what the Palestinians are doing is whining enough that in the end people who don’t know actually think they have rights that they don’t have. If you say something enough it becomes the reality through brainwashing.
“Brainwashing”?
IIRC, just have the media repeat it widely (pile on, gang up) and often enough, “racist-sexist-homophobic-xenophobic-Islamaphobic” — Joseph Goebbels.
Looks like John Kerry and Pres Obama will be https://spectator.org/obamas-next-last-betrayal/ endorsing the 1967 borders at the UN Paris Peace conference.
blurg… you are correct:
Black humor intended:
To draw from a not totally wrong comment from the bad guy in a movie, Israel shouldn’t wear itself out trying to fight the Arabs and, instead, should try to get the Arabs to fight each other and kill each other.
Well, of course, an approach, an open door, an obvious, and powerful way is available and has been for ~1000 years: (1) Whisper to the Sunnis “You know, some of those Shiite pigs were telling us that they really hate you good Sunnis and are planning to rape all your women and feed all your men to Crusader pigs.”. (2) Then whisper to the Shiites “Those Sunni swine are determined to feed all your men to filthy pigs and rape all your women.”
Borrowing from another movie, and/or a comment attributed of H. Kissinger on selling weapons (a.k.a. gun running), “Sell guns to both sides.” or “Too bad both sides can’t lose.”.
Ah, it’s just movies.
Big Red Car: You need a favicon for your website. I think a rather large, red-colored, American convertible automobile might be a good choice. I can help you with this. I don’t know if you have a webmistress already though. If you do, demand her assistance in getting this shortcoming addressed. All those web and technology types over at AVC should be able to advise too. Hmmm, maybe not…. I am certain that Sigma Algebra could!
Different topic: New Year’s predictions!
We want to make predictions for 2017. We will make the predictions today and check ourselves in one year.
By a prediction we mean something like “the Dow-Jones Industrial average will be higher. That is, a prediction is something that in one year we can see to be true or false.
It is good to be correct on average in half of our predictions? Some people think so: At
http://avc.com/2016/12/what-did-and-did-not-happen-in-2016/#comment-3077509928
is
Well, let’s check that claim.
Let’s see how we can be correct on average in half of our predictions, that is, get an “average” of “.500”.
Our approach is easy:
We pick anything to predict, e.g., stock market higher, and then flip a fair coin now to make our prediction. E.g., if the coin gives us Heads, then we claim that the prediction is true, that is, that the stock market will he higher. If the coin now gives us Tails, then we claim that the prediction will be false, that is, that the stock mark will not be higher.
To to make some probability math out of this:
So, let M be a random variable that is 1 when the market is higher in a year and 0 otherwise.
Let N be a random variable from flipping a fair coin now, that is, N = 1 when Heads and N = 0 when Tails.
As usual, we assume that a fair coin is independent of anything and everything else. In particular N and M are independent.
Then as above,
when N = 1, predict M = 1;
when N = 0, predict M = 0.
So, we are correct when N = M.
So, we want to find the probability of N =
M.
Since we are doing fair coin flipping, P(N
= 1) = P(N = 0) = 1/2
Then
P(N = M) =
P( (N = 0 & M = 0) OR (N = 1 & M = 1) ) =
P(N = 0 & M = 0) + P(N = 1 & M = 1) = (1)
P(N = 0) P(M = 0) + P(N = 1) P(M = 1) = (2)
(1/2) P(M = 0) + (1/2) P(M = 1) =
(1/2) P(M = 0) + (1/2) (1 – P(M = 0)) =
(1/2) ( P(M = 0) + (1 – P(M = 0)) ) =
1/2
where (1) is from disjoint events and (2) is from independence.
Done.
Also at
http://avc.com/2016/12/what-did-and-did-not-happen-in-2016/#disqus_thread
is an interesting point about on-line advertising: Google and Facebook together have 75% of the revenue.
This fact was seen as bad news for anyone else in on-line advertising.
Hmm.
Here is another way to look at this 75%: Just by beating Google and Facebook say, each with a lot of C++ programmers, in the accuracy of ad targeting, can grab a lot of 75% of on-line advertising!
How ’bout that!
Q. But maybe Google and/or Facebook are using the latest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)?
A. Excellent news since that means that all we have to do is do more accurate ad targeting than in AI and ML. Piece of cake!
Bwahaha #bigdata
Sigma Algebra, you need to join the Big Data Contrarians group on LinkedIn. We mostly ridicule exaggerated Big Data claims. This doesn’t have anything to do with Big Red Car’s post, and is only marginally associated with your comment other that that one hash tagged phrase. It is full of big data and online surveillance pokes and prods though, so I thought you and other readers might enjoy it. I did, of course ;o)
https://youtu.be/VPYA9racfO4
There are no complete panacea’s for every business problem. AI is really important-and powerful when used where it provides a lot of power. But, as BRC would tell you, putting an aircraft carrier on land isn’t a good idea.
Looks like, too bad, this close to Christmas, we have some old lessons to relearn:
As at
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/12/30/newt-gingrich-trumpism-explained.htm
Newt Gingrich is reminding us:
Why bring this up now? Well, psychiatrist Dr. Krauthammer has certified
Yup. The good news is that in just eight years our child-POTUS has actually made it all the way up to adolescence. The bad news is that he seems to have stopped there. E.g., note the several pictures of him in the Oval Office with his feet and shoes on the fine furniture, including the famous desk. But, wait, there’s more:
“Seems”? So, Obama takes seriously the faked up, stirred up, exaggerated, fabricated, poorly substantiaated rumors that Russia has cyber whatever against the US, e.g., the DNC, but, wait, could anything have been dumber than the DNC? Or, someone got a phishing e-mail from Romania, like a total fool followed it, got attacked, and blamed the Ruskies? Maybe we will know more next week when Trump gets a briefing. Notice Trump didn’t drop everything and rush into that.
But Obama, as Obi-Wan Obama, in his sack cloth robe hoodie, up on his hind legs, rushed and grabbed his trusty genuine Star Wars Light Saber, the one Michelle got for him on sale at Wal-Mart and gave him for his birthday, and started swinging at the Ruski Darth Vladimir! You had the Secret Service install some fresh batteries in that trusty light saber, right, BHO?
Been a little weak on your cognitive exercises lately BHO, say, about following the likely resulting decision tree, as in thinking ahead a move or two? Not thinking a move or two ahead with the Ruskies? Maybe if Michelle had given you a chess set instead? Would you believe even checkers?
Then Putin saw the opportunity and, by doing exactly nothing except a little Tweet, tossed BHO’s credibility into the closest trash burning power plant.
But, BHO has been in rare form: He had his faithful companion Secretary Kerry make some of the dumbest statements ever in all of the UN and diplomacy, e.g., that the Western Wall is part of occupied Palestine, and more. You still have your thinking cap hanging on the bedroom clothes rack, right, BHO? You could have moved up several steps toward adolescence just by, say, throwing, what, spit balls instead, right, BHO?
Keeping up that pattern, BHO smugly asserted that from his great vision, if he had been permitted to run a third time, then he could have won the election suggesting that the rules are so unfair for such a visionary leader as he. Uh, BHO, in the interest of adult supervision, did you even let Michelle vet that one for you before you let it out? Flash message to the White House: It was an election; the people voted; your candidate lost. How does the playground response usually go, something like “Yes, he is a visionary in his own mind.”.
Now Trump has, in a few words in a Tweet confirmed that Putin did the right thing, e.g., nothing except invite all the Americans in Russia to the Christmas and News Years at the Kremlin! So, in a few words, President-elect Trump made President Obama look like not really the president. That is, Trump, never in politics before, and before taking office, is being a more important president than BHO after his eight years of practice. Or, as psychiatrist Dr. Krauthammer certified, BHO is an adolescent, and not just from putting his feet on the Oval Office fine furniture.
So, in response to the recent BHO efforts, we have some lessons:
(1) Dad’s old remark: “Measure twice, saw once.”, which applies to more than just carpentry.
(2) The Thumper rule: “If you can’t say something
nice, then don’t say anything at all.”
(3) Early playground rule: “Better to keep your mouth shut and let them think you a fool than to say something and remove all doubt.”, something of a generalization of the Thumper rule.
(4) Grade school teacher’s rule: “Watch your step.”, not just for getting off the school bus on a class trip.
(5) Nearly every mother’s admonition to her kindergarten children, “Think before speaking.”.
(6) Dad’s usual remark to me as I tried doing some work for the first time: “I love to see a man work, but you are making me cry.” before he stepped in and showed me how to do the work.
(7) From business, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”.
(8) From middle school: “Don’t go away mad. Just go away.”
Scary to think that recently adolescent BHO actually has his finger on the big red button, one that could give him and much of humanity a special version of a magic carpet ride to Allah.
Actually, this at best adolescent has been well enough understood for something over eight years. So, maybe we will learn in a tell-all book from an insider that for some years now BHO has actually not been the Commander in Chief with his finger anywhere near the big red button. I’m guessing so. If BHO wants to fly a 747, not many miles per gallon, ballpark half way around the world to work on his golf swing, then that’s just wasted money. But, letting him near the big red button, that’s different.
The mainstream media (MSM) deep blue newsies are speculating about the BHO legacy of executive orders, regulations, rules not to enforce certain laws, statements, etc. Well, how about on the evening of January 20th, 2017, a big bonfire on the south lawn of the White House? I know; I know; the Clean Air Act. Time for an exception.
US citizens, to borrow from a movie, just now we need to think, think of five words — “We’ll never do that again.”.
Excellent Reporting. Please consider sending this to the staff of the NYT and WaPo who seem unable to use the internet for research that would fill in the gaps in their leftist Ivy league university molding.
As to Obambi, he is soon to learn his reality is not shared by other inhabitants of this blue marble
Since last night I watched again Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,my guess has to be that the response of The NYT and The WaPo would be: “Research? What research? We don’t need no stink’n research.”
BRC – thanks for an insightful history of Israel’s plight over the years. Although I cannot verify the statistics stated recently in Fox, Israel has been targeted by the UN 20 times this year with various sanctions while all “other” nations in the world have had only 1 such sanction imposed upon them! I’m sure most would agree that there are far more savage attacks, inhumanities and various other atrocities throughout the world that require fair minded men (yes, this is a general term that can mean women, too!) to address……United Nations, doesn’t that name sound a bit ironic.
.
The United Nations has overrun its shadow and the original purpose — to bring the world together in an age of difficult transportation — is no longer valid in the digital age.
It has provided a platform for America’s enemies at America’s doorstep. It conveys legitimacy to scoundrels.
It is time to reconsider the fundamental purpose of the United Nations and decide whether it could all be replaced with a robust teleconferencing arrangement. Or it should be moved to a different location with a different funding formula.
We are paying a disproportionate share of the costs — as we always do — while providing a place for enmity to be concentrated.
The notion that the sixty year old issue of the borders of Israel should warrant Security Council action when Syria has killed almost 500,000 of its own people and Aleppo — once a magnificent city — is being bombed into oblivion is nonsense.
Our allies are like our children — you continue to love them even when they are coloring outside the lines. You deal with them within the sanctity of the home not in the public square where our enemies can use our own utterances to drive a wedge between us.
This President and this Sec of State are particularly flawed when it comes to our alliance with Israel. We are at a junction in time in which our alliance with Israel may become the critical element in our entire Middle East strategy (which implies we actually have one).
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Ah, as I recall the advice, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
If the UN leaves the US, then the US will have less control and the UN might build a strong anti-US consensus and do more harm.
But, if we keep the UN in the US, then we will be in a better position to throttle its bad inclinations, e.g., make it next to just irrelevant, and reduce the chances of growth of power of some other anti-US international organization.
It already has a strong US consensus. It’s like a drug addicted child you keep giving money to until they overdose.
Yes, there is a lot of consensus in the US and elsewhere that the US is dirt.
But, if we let the UN leave and go to some place like Brussels, Mumbai, Kuwala Lumpur, Nairobi, or some other world-class toilet, then the consensus will, net, grow and our ability to do something about it will shrink.
But, if we keep the UN in the US, then we will be able to control, limit, constrain, truncate, etc. the dirt consensus. The UN 24×7 party culture can keep smoking funny stuff and strutting around like Poo Bahs but will we keep them useless, ineffectual, and relatively harmless.
And we can trim the budget, cool off the parties, and have fewer Poo Bahs.
Or, again, “keep your enemies closer”.
This just in:
Good news! Amazing! Now from psychiatrist Dr. Krauthammer, in just eight years our child-POTUS has worked his way all the way up to adolescence!
And for the Russian view of our now professionally certified adolescent POTUS:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C03pwLBWIAA4T3a.jpg
Good to see that our certified adolescent leader is hot on the case of some guy in a bar who knows some guy who once was in a bar with a guy with some badge, card, or some such that had something like “CIA” on it and who claimed that he was having trouble with his Android and wondered if the Russians were to blame, or some such. Last seen he was on his knees in the Oval Office looking under the furniture for the missing Russian hackers.
Thank you BRC.
End of year rant:
After years of enduring white race baiting, I’m burnt out on you Obama and so thankful to see you go. You vilified police officers that had to shoot black criminals. You portrayed cops as racist and in need of some real fixing up as so many “innocent” blacks were being shot. Not only did you outright lie about the statistics regarding black crime, cops shooting blacks, and the reasons for doing so… you created so much hatred and racism that ultimately lead to many cops being murdered by black men. Remember what happened in Texas? Oh yeah, you probably forgot as black on cop hate murders are not reported as black on cop hate murders.
Any white who commits a crime, it’s front page news — over and over and over. And, oh, it’s a hate crime with ties to white supremacy groups. He’s probably Christian too.
But when your brother massacres a gay bar full of people in the name of radical islam, it’s crickets. The feds release transcripts that are manipulated so that allah is not mentioned. No mention of race, terrorism, or religion. It’s “just a guy” who did such a horrible crime. Like that would happen if a white man, who went to church, shot up a gay bar in the name of Jesus.
1st it was being a pussy and bowing to saudi kings. Then it was the bullshit, drop your pants, nuc deal with Iran. Then came the plane loads of cash to them like the real pussy that you are. Now you fuck Israel good. You want them wiped off the face of the map.
How any thinking person could have any real respect for you is unbelievable to me. I pray that the “great awakening” of America continues to grow as people wake up to the bullshit being rammed down their throats by you and the democrats.
Hi, BRC!
Nice one! You might like this also! https://geopoliticalfutures.com/israels-disappearing-act/
A late addition of favorite Christmas music: G. Handel, “He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd,” Messiah, e.g., by Contralto Clare Henry and the London Symphony Orchestra. Excellent voice and performance.
At first the music seems staid, but with Henry’s performance there is real passion.
Long ago I liked this aria from Messiah right away and picked out much of it on violin. I haven’t heard in years but right away like it more than before. I need to get back to playing such music on violin.
This just in: The report is that
President Obama: “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Christians and Jews entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
President Obama justified his action by saying “I will get radical Christian and Jewish terrorists the hell out of our country.”
In particular, the President called for “extreme vetting of Christians and Jews from areas with a history of radical Christian and Jewish terrorism such as Canada, England, and Sweden.”
Terrific!
IIRC in one of those wars, Israel crossed the Suez Canal, encircled the Egyptian army, and was about to annihilate before the US asked them not to.