Israel-Gaza live updates: Hundreds killed in strike at Gaza hospital
Fighting is ongoing after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie
Published by Scotties Playtime
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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This is where War goes. It has a logic and a momentum all of its own.
Beware those who make inflammatory comments. Beware those who encourage violence as a means to an end. Beware those with ‘Simple Solutions’. Beware those who claim their ‘race’ has precedence over another. Beware those who claim their rights before others.
War is always waiting to feed off of their toxins.
Beware.
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Hi Roger. I agree. One of the things you have to be taught in the military is to kill. Now the police are being trained the same way. See normal humans don’t want to hurt others, really. There are some wired that way but the majority have to be worked up to it. Which is where inflammatory rhetoric comes in. That plus for media companies that othering people and coverage of the worst atrocities drives views and click, which equal profit. But the truth is often hidden and hard to find in the rubble of war, and the barrage of anger / hate. Which is why free and open conversations are important to try to get the facts. Hugs. Scottie
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Which is where inflammatory rhetoric comes in.
And this is EXACTLY what Trump promotes and encourages. And “his” people respond accordingly. And mark my words … if he doesn’t win, January 6th will be like kids playing the sandbox.
(Sorry … a bit off-topic, but the words just jumped off the screen at me.)
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Hi Nan. No apologies needed. And I agree with you wholeheartedly. But I am noticing trump is losing his sway on the republican reps in the House. He tried to push Jim Jordan but the republicans were more afraid of the Biden voters than the trump maga scum. Hugs. Scottie
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Thank you Scottie for your own insight.
This is one of the issues with war isn’t it? You train and indoctrinate folk to kill, and they know in combat someone is out to kill them too.
Then and you point out there is the inflammatory rhetoric too. In my interest in history going back and back, this will be encountered in the first printed pamphlets and word of mouth.
How true your words:
‘But the truth is often hidden and hard to find in the rubble of war, and the barrage of anger / hate.’ Well said indeed.
Take care.
Roger
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Hi Roger. Thank you. But often civilians who have not been trained in the rules are incited to think they also should be the rage warriors, going to attack the enemy the media gives them. That to me is the scary part.
I was once in my young adult years a deputy sheriff’s deputy. I did not go to the police school, but I trained with them and was an auxiliary officer that could be called up to assist the verified officers. I took extensive courses in use of force, training in what I was allowed to do and what I had to do in a situation. What police do today is totally against what I was taught.
I have to admit we have gone from a thought process of people should have rights, to people should be controlled and ruled. We see that in the militaries and governments around the world. At one time, the world got together behind the idea that South Africa Apartheid was wrong and moved to stop it. These days in republican controlled red states they have passed laws that you can not speak out against Israel for what they do to Palestinians is illegal, no matter what the Israeli governments do. It is horrible.
Personal note. On my old blog, I posted the story of how I was driving a van of high ranked officers in East Berlin when the van I was driving came under fire, with the lights being shot out and the windows also. I described how I slid at high speed through check point Charlie, hitting the barricades. At the time, I was not thinking about world consequences. But my point was then I was concentrating on my job, driving the van. Being under fire then did not upset me as much as what is happening in the world today in the Middle East. How times have changes and I have aged. Hugs. Scottie
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Also, I wonder what happened to that young man that would work 36 hours only eating a cheeseburger while reaching my hand behind a Klystron tube to attach the cables that could have electrocuted me horribly if I had shaken even the slightest and touched it. Oh! I wish I was still that small young guy. Hugs. Scottie
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The mob mentality has always been a factor. Pity help you if you lived in a minority community in an urban environment anywhere, anytime, and the local population turned on you either through rumour or at the behest of some influence. You mention South Africa Scottie; this is something that hardly makes any main news schedule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia_in_South_Africa
The whole issue of Palestine / Israel is a massively complex situation which many groups in the West use for their own purposes, and it has to be said both sides ruling authorities as well. The extremists within Israel have much to feed their agendas.
I try to avoid blowing my own trumpet but I have another blog which deals with nothing but politics and the hard grim issues in detail. The recent project is on this current episode of the war between Palestine / Israel If you want to have a look, I can give you the links.
As regards police
I suspect these days there is a fear factor working within the police in many nations which adds to the nervy trigger fingers, that and the morale which is another issue. Put these two together and you get a breeding ground for malignant forces to work.
Focusing on your experiences in Berlin I admire your actions and calmness literally under fire. As far as you knew were there any political repercussions, and was that a not unusual event?
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Hi Roger. Yes I would like the links please. Often your writing is a bit over my head but what I understand I have enjoyed reading.
On the episode in Berlin, there were three vans, I was driving the last one. My first Sergeant boyfriend from my prior unit was there in the van in the passenger seat. When it started, I remember I turned to him and asked what to do. He replied stay with the other vans as close as you can because they were speeding to get out of there also. He then took charge, and the thing that stuck in my mind later was the officers I was driving in the van did not question his authority and did as he directed. I do know that when got to the check point the weapons were out, up, and ready, including the big stationary guns. They were manned. There were bright lights everywhere. It was almost blinding. As I said, I did slide against the concrete barriers set in a curved S pattern. I was told to report for a debriefing a few days later. My former boyfriend had returned to his own base in West Germany, and he never mentioned it to me again. I answered a bunch of questions and was dismissed. That was all I ever heard about it. I worked in satellite communications operating a secure communications system 39 foot dish antenna attached to an intelligence unit. It was stupid but when one of us went to East Berlin we had to go in small groups with no insignia on our uniforms. Seemed silly to me when we were the only unit required to do it, so the East Berlin police / Soviet officers clearly would know what unit we were with.
Roger on the interviews I have been posting the question of Nelsen Mandela came up. Do you think something like that could happen, with a one state equality of rights, with a truth commission to find the proper dispersal of property? Would it work? Would either party accept it? Also I have heard that if Israel gave the Palestinians / Arabs the right to vote the state wouldn’t be a Jewish religious nation and that is why the Israelis won’t do it? Is that correct? Thanks. Hugs Scottie
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Hi Scottie
Thank you so much for your support. I do get a bit carried away when writing my history-political- religion mix, there’s a lot of influence from historians and to add to the mix a bit of ‘gonzo’ journalism gets in there too 😀
This one focuses on the question of accuracy of reports in war and a lament that a lot of folk won’t care about the facts anyway, their minds are already made up:
It takes no sides.
The Palestinians in Israel do have the right to vote, but they are a very much minority group (about 20%) of the population. I think its major political grouping of several smaller groups is known as The United Arab List (in English anyway- )they hold 5 seats in the Knesset. It says much about the fractured state of Israeli politics they have recently been part of the Coalition Government (they might still be ).
That said, life is uncomfortable for the average Palestinian and no doubt many a minority grouping in the USA could relate. They certainly suffer at the hands of some Israeli extremist groups. How they are managing now I’m not sure.
The tragedy is that there are a wide number of groups of Jews and Jews & Arabs who work together within Israel and if Western Activist Groups were to have affiliated with these a long while back and supported them, the political landscape in Israel might have been different.
That was quite an incident in Berlin. Yes, I have heard it is a wise officer who lets an experienced sergeant take over. It sounds as if the whole thing was hushed up at a higher level to maintain the Cold War status. Though I can’t help but wonder who fired the shot and why?.
I agree though that was a pretty dumb order.
Take care you guys.
Roger
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Hi Roger. Thank you, I did not realize that non-Jewish people had the right to vote in that country. But that doesn’t include the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank does it? But what would happen in Israel and their politics if the people in those two areas were given citizenship and the right to vote?
I have read that post you linked to, I did not realize that was your other blog. I just started following it earlier today. I followed a link from Jill’s blog, I think. Hugs. Scottie
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Quite right Scottie. The West Bank is a Military Occupied Zone. Gaza is in a different status, the whole region was captured in the 1967 Six Day war, but Israel pulled out of what is now a mostly urbanised area run by The Palestinian National Authority. Sadly all this is now in a slipping into a state of Total War.
Israel for all its vaunted military capacity could end up fighting a war on three fronts – in the North Hezbollah operate out of Lebanon.
The cartoonist Jeff Danziger who served in Vietnam paints a sobering picture in his October 18th cartoon:
https://www.gocomics.com/jeffdanziger/2023/10/18.
Ooops, I do get confused with what’s where sometimes.🙃. Thanks for joining this group Scottie. The posts tend to be infrequent, it’s the place I usually go for my ‘hard core’ political subjects.
I think Essay III on the Palestinians might be the last one for a time, still working on that on.
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