June 17, 2018
Source: Bigstock
Gaza: The Cold Sore of the World
An excellent piece by Cole. His writing has gotten noticeably better in the 2 years or so he’s been here.
Eric Gudorf
Edina, Minnesota
What an excellent post…..he laid this sad topic out in exactly the way how I feel about this never-ending conflict.
Gina Nugent
With all due respect to the wit and intelligence of Mr. Cole, the comparison of the Israeli Palestinian conflict to that of the American Mexican War or the Inter European wars does not stand on any valid historic analysis.
Notwithstanding who was the initiator of the war and who was the victim, the only valid comparison is that of the struggle between the European settlers in America and the Native ‘Indian’ American. When Mexico and Germany lost their lands they still had something called a viable country and even though some cases of ethnic cleansing occurred after the defeat of the Mexicans and the Germans, there was no wholesale ethnic cleansing done on the scale it happened in Palestine.
As for pinning the responsibility of the War of 1948 on the Arabs, let us remember two very important factors that are missing from Mr. Cole’s analysis:
1- the partition plan gave less than 150,000 Jewish settlers who had legal possession of 8% of the land 50% of the land of Palestine whereas the more than million Palestinians natives were left with the other 50%.
2-regardless of the United Nations partition plan for Israel-Palestine, the Jews were going to annex the whole of Palestine, a fact attested to by many researchers and writers about the subject matter including Professors Walt and Mearsheimer in their book about the power of the Israel Lobby in America.
That the Israeli army shoots anyone trying to jump the wall into what is Israel proper is something that can be justified as long as the world uses the same moral standard everywhere including European countries that are being invaded by illegal refugees. However, many of the killed and injured were shot without any such justification including those who were shot in the back while fleeing the assault of the Israeli army.
There is a solution to Israel- Palestine preached by the creative and decent Israel Shamir, and that is a land that is open to Jews and Palestinians under a democratic form of government.
Joseph Bounehme
“The Palestinians fought, and they lost.”
They fought, because England, having promised that territory to the Arabs in return for their help against the Turks in WWI, re-promised the same territory to the Zionists in return for their assistance recruiting the US into the same war.
When, after years of stocking the place up with European Jews under the British Mandate rule, England tried to slip out the back, giving 51% of the land to the Zionists and 49% to the Arabs, the Arabs had a hard time with that. Hmmm, wonder why?
Further, the Zionists ‘won’ only with the help of western powers that favored their claim against the Arabs, England’s promises notwithstanding.
Before the formation of Israel, Arabs, Jews and Christians lived peacefully in that part of the world. Only the formation of an Israeli state, which presumed to rule over the area, disrupted that peace.
William Power
Seattle, Washington
There is an underlying problematic in the whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict Cole ignores, but which is present in virtually all hotspots around the world.
It is about what constitutes a country? Is it defined by the physical “involatile” borders, or is it the area that a distinct ethnic group of people inhabits?
In the first case, as it was pretty much over the past millennium, a country was defined by the area where a distinct elite (usually a king and his entourage) tax-farmed the population and they couldn’t care less if their subject cattle was all of the same kind or different.
The second case is an area that is occupied by people who feel kinship with each other and share a common culture. This was the case in pre-medieval times and found a rebirth with the nation state in the last century. Folks want to be ruled by one of their own and live in an environment that reflects their own culture.
This constitutes also the classic distinction between globalists and nationalists. While the elites like to keep the farm borders intact, the people like to adapt the borders to match their cultural and ethnic presence.
The globalist elites (including the large number of Jews among them) are happy with multicultural countries they can farm while living wherever they want. The Israeli nationalists on the other hand, living in Israel, know that a multicultural entity is hell for those who have to live in it; they have the great examples of multicultural paradises right next door in Syria and Lebanon. So they do what all tribes, including Israelis in biblical times, have done: Kick those out who are not part of your culture and if need be, kill them. It may not be tolerant and nice, but evolution just works that way.
Now the question comes to Mr. Cole:
If Israel is right to only allow folks of their ethnicity and religion to live in their country, why is it wrong for other nations to do the same and tell the Jews to leave and go to their own country?
Werner A. Hoermann
Fallbrook, California
Palestinians are lucky it’s Israeli brutality they face. Had their adversaries been Arab Muslims, the only individuals familiar with the terms “Gazan” and “Palestinian” today would be anthropology professors specializing in extinct peoples.
Angelo DePalma
Newton, New Jersey
Great points, Dave! Clearly, if the U.N. gave 60% of America to, say, China, we should never resist again for all eternity. Can you imagine people so foolish as to want their land back from the Chinese who got it from the U.N.?
And of course Israel’s only alternative to allowing hordes of Palestinians to march into their land is to slaughter them. Arrests? Water cannons? Those are for Western sissies. Murder is the only and the best thing Israel can do to preserve itself.
Dave lays it out so clearly it’s hard to even dispute him.
Ross Nelson
Casselton, ND
Dear Mr. Cole,
You are dead-on correct in saying that there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Your analogy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict being ‘the world’s chronic illness’ is accurate as well. It was refreshing to read your articulate article especially in the light of the fact that you are a Jewish man, then also an American citizen. You see, my husband and I have made two travels to Israel in the recent past, the first under President George W. Bush and the second trip under President Barak H. Obama. It was with markedly critical views of America’s President in the latter that the Israeli Jews took offense. However, when back home, we discovered that the American Jew loved Obama. It gave me pause for concern, revealing my ignorance. Over time, I realized that the Israeli Jew lives in a continual state of terrorism against their homeland and their very lives. We observed our private tour guide being in contact with nearly everyone who passed us, including a female police officer and the security at the Havana port, where our cruise ship was docked. Israelis are always on guard and prepared for battle. Americans are not. Therein lies the difference between the American and Israeli Jew, in my humble opinion. Clearly I am generalizing in majority rule with the American Jew voting Democrat, with the minority, such as yourself as the exception.
Curiously, your article was void of the mention of the Jew’s God of the Tanakah. My husband and I carefully profess Yeshua as the God of the Tanakah and the Brit Chadashah. Within this context, we have developed a world-view through our faith in the Jew’s God of the Hebrew Bible. This will naturally lead to the belief that God ordained this Israeli-Palestinian conflict for His own purposes and plans and therefore, He will bring it to completion according to His perfect will. We can certainly back this claim up with several prophecies in the Hebrew Bible as well as in the Brit Chadashah factually stating that the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God Himself. He promised them this, which I’m sure you are well aware of. If you are interested in reading any material on this, I would highly recommend going to www.levitt.com. Zola Levitt is now deceased but he came to believe in Yeshua, as a Jewish man, through his love of a gentile ‘Christian’ lady. He has produced the Levitt Letter which promotes the facts about Israel and her many enemies. It is a good read.
Shalom Mr. Cole, and thank you for a well-written article on this world-stage event of Israel and the Palestinian conflict,
Ms. Heather S.
You may be right that the Palestinians need to accept the fact that they lost the war against Israel in 1948.
Nonetheless, the current situation in Gaza is totally unacceptable. If the Egyptians don’t want any Palestinians in their midst, and the Israelis don’t want them coming into Israel – so be it. But why does Israel maintain a sea and air blockade of Gaza? What right do they have to keep the close to two million residents of Gaza in a de facto prison?
If the blockade of Gaza were lifted, then the residents of Gaza would have half a chance of improving their material well-being, and would be free to travel to other countries in the world. Gaza could have a viable economy based on tourism (nice beaches), fishing (beyond the intolerable limits imposed by Israel), and agriculture. With modern technology, the residents of Gaza would also be able to come up to speed with the rest of the world, and tap into their tremendous human potential.
Whether or not the Palestinians acknowledge Israel’s right to exist – is irrelevant. Israel is capable of defending its own borders.
It is also irrelevant that Hamas is the party in power in Gaza. The residents of Gaza are entitled to choose their own government – without U.S. or Israeli approval.
What Israel needs to learn is how to live in peace with its neighbors. That means at least to start thinking of Palestinians as human beings – not dogs to be shot.
But if Israel is unwilling to learn, then maybe some other power may be found that would be willing to break the blockade.
Leszek Syski
Brookeville, Maryland
Being on the outside looking in it is easy to think there are two different possibilities when it comes to our elected representatives in Washington. Scenario one says they are in collusion with other countries and actively seek to weaken us. Scenario two says we are drowning in a sea of idiots. Perhaps it’s a combination of both. I’m inclined to believe they aren’t smart enough to knowingly collude with other nations. Drowning in a sea of idiots is much more likely. Let Europe pay for their own defense. It was a pleasure seeing Trump bitch slap Trudeau. Well done Sir!
John MacDonald
Keller, Texas
About the best Buchanan column I’ve ever read and of monstrous importance to all of us.
Should Trump fail, for any reason, you better not find yourself invested in stocks!
Charles Romer
Tomball, Texas
Didn’t any of those geniuses happen to notice that Elizabeth Holmes has crazy eyes? It’s the first think I noticed…
Jim Kieding
Of all the descriptive phrases attached to this woman, the one that really fits is – con artist….and it’s missing from this article. $3 million advance, be damned, Holmes deceitfully sucked away billions and has yet to answer for this robbery.
Terry Dudas
After 37 years of working with Indians in high-tech around Boston, I can still hear, no matter the size or scope of the issue: “No problem”.
Mitchell J McConnell
St Pete Beach, Florida
Dear Joe Bob,
Just finished your article about the new Miss America Fake Job Interview. Hilarious and thought provoking. You should try to make it out to Pittsburgh for the festivities surrounding the 50th anniversary of the drive in classic Night of the Living Dead in early October. Keep up the great work I look forward to your new show on shudder.
Ty Andreaco
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The only civilized solution to the Miss America dilemma is to broadcast it strictly on radio. No one would be distracted by appearance. However, since some voices might be considered distractingly sexy, all contestants should talk through one of those kidnapper-ransom-call-voice-masking thingees.
Andy Fornal
Litchfield Park, Arizona
Seems that the fairest way to avoid outwardism would be for them all to wear burkinis.
Tonyr Omabarian
Ontario, Canada
Meanwhile, Ten Miles from the White House
Bravo Ann Coulter for keeping President Trump’s feet to the fire about his primary campaign issue. Many of us who are far from fans of Trump the man had hoped that Trump the politician would bring some much needed constructive destruction to the sclerotic U.S. government. While on the subject of missed campaign promises, what happened to cutting the military and specifically closing overseas bases, of which we now have about 800 or so? He actually gave the generals another $35 billion in the last budget which looked like the old school Uniparty budgets where everyone was happy as long as their pet projects were funded with tax dollars.
Oh well, Plus ca change…
Lee Krantz
Frederick, Maryland
The Case for Gender-Segregated Universities
In Christopher Degroot’s excellent essay “The Case For Gender-Segregated Universities,” there is another third-rail of investigation that no one seems to want to touch: could the well-known dumbing down of American universities be due to an influx of female students? Although I only have anecdotal evidence, I think a strong argument can be made that it does. I am taking courses in a majority female profession and it has struck me that the coursework is directed down to emotion rather than fact. Videos, for example, are shown that besides being non-peer reviewed are designed to elicit feeling rather than an objective response. And reading female student’s responses in the electronic classroom only confirms my impressions that women are motivated by emotion rather than impartial understanding. For example, in a module on homelessness, all the female students all responded with some variation of “My heart breaks that people have to be homeless” and almost never to asking why homelessness occurs and what can be done to address it. I don’t think this is an anomaly but probably the new normal.
Curtis Price
Huntsville, Alabama
Mr. Norman’s musings on the current state of politically-driven thought and speech control and the seeming uniformity of opinion that it engenders is like wearing ill-fitting but oh-so fashionable shoes: the discomfort soon outweighs the compliments received and the wearer can’t wait to remove them and fling them in the trash. Being who you truly are and not what others expect or assume is quite difficult, but very liberating. The hard part is summoning up the courage to do so. I’d like to think many Americans are nearing the point where they are unafraid to use the most dangerous weapon of all: plain speech.
William Peters
Rochester, New York
Dear Dr. Dalrymple,
May I point your attention to a “happy medium between dragooning and complete laissez-faire”? Actually it is a method of education that allows children the freedom to be children and at the same time builds their character and faculties of thinking and readies them for citizenship in a democratic country. It is called Sudbury education. I am quite sure that you will reject the system immediately when you hear how it is organized. Still, I would like to invite you to take the effort to familiarize yourself a little bit with the model. I am quite hopeful you might change your mind. The basis of this bold assumption is my knowledge of the model and my knowledge of your writings.
Without further ado, the model is like this:
Students within the school are free to do what they want, as long as they abide by the rules. Decision-making within the school is completely democratic (one person-one vote, regardless of one’s age) and of course one important thing that is decided upon are the rules. And these rules are enforced vigourously.
This is the model in a nutshell.
I know you are a great sceptic of education-reform (and rightly so!) but this model actually works. What proof do I have it is working? For one the fact that the motherschool espousing this model (Sudbury Valley School) exists already 50 years and has spawned 40 or so similar schools in the world. Some of these schools are started by grown-ups who are alumni from Sudbury-schools. Clearly they think being educated in such an unusual school has benefitted them greatly, otherwise they wouldn’t go to the considerable trouble of starting such a school for their children.
What do I actually mean by the phrase “ it works” ? It means that the adults this school produces are thoughtful, well spoken, considerate people who know how to navigate a complex world and function peacefully and productively within a democratic society, while remembering a very happy childhood.
Henk Bruinsma
Utrecht, Netherlands
Dear Mr Taki,
Thank you very much for all of your columns, which are so needed at this time because of all the craziness going on in the world.
There are times when everything seems to get larger and larger, your writing is an escape from it.
Lisa Hovagim
Orangeburg, New York
