Monday: Hili dialogue

July 29, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the start of a new “work” week, though I’ll be in South Africa a week from today. It’s Monday, July 29, 2024, and National Chicken Wing Day. Beware of the so-called “boneless” chicken wings! (click to read):

It’s also National Lasagna Day, National Lipstick Day, National Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (look it up). and International Tiger Day

Another Google Doodle has appeared, marking one sport in the Olympics. Click to see the sport, but try to guess before you do:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 29 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

First, despite an apparent injury to her calf, Simone Biles did this vault yesterday to qualify for the all-around gymnastic finals. Nobody else in the world can do this (click “watch on YouTube”)

*As expected, the world is telling Israel once again that while it can defend itself against aggression on its own territory, using things like the Iron Dome, it is simply not allowed to defend itself by crossing borders, as it has in Gaza and may well do in Lebanon.  The World Israel News tells us that the world is demanding “restraint” from Israel after it’s been the victim of hundreds of missile attacks from Lebanon.

Representatives from the European Union and the United Nations condemned a rocket attack that killed 12 youths in a Druze town in northern Israel over the weekend, while also calling on Israel to demonstrate restraint to avoid escalating tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.

On Saturday, an explosive projectile launched from southern Lebanon slammed into a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the northern Golan Heights, killing 12 children and youths, ages 10 to 20.

Dozens more were wounded, including 26 evacuated to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat (Safed), four in Baruch Padeh Medical Center, and several more who were evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center.

While the Hezbollah terrorist group denied it was responsible for the attack, the IDF has rejected the Iranian-backed organization’s claim, noting that the rocket used was manufactured by Iran.

Hezbollah terrorists have launched hundreds of rockets, missiles, and suicide drones into northern Israel since last October

Hours after the attack, European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell issued a statement condemning the attack, but declined to mention either Hezbollah or Iran, and called for “restraint” after the deadly strike.

“Shocking images from the soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams,” Borrell tweeted. “I strongly condemn this bloodbath.”

Borrell also called for an international probe into the attack to determine who was responsible.

“We need an independent international investigation into this unacceptable incident.”

“We urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation.”

The United Nations also urged “maximum restraint” after the attack, with the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro issuing a joint statement early Sunday morning.

We have the obligatory condemnation of terrorism, of course, but it’s closely followed by calls for “restraint”, aimed surely at Israel, which is not allowed to defend itself by pursuing terrorists or attackers. (After all, has anybody called for Hezbollah to restrain itself until now?) And remember, Hezbollah has been violating a binding UN Security Council Order by firing rockets at Israel. There are also UN forces in Lebanon designed to keep Hezbollah in line. Why don’t they do anything? If you know the UN, you’ll know the answer.

*Meanwhile, Israel is for the moment restraining itself, and I don’t know if it’s preparing for a giant attack à la Yemen or waiting to see if, as a Jordanian official said, Hezbollah will pull its forces back to the UN-mandated line that it’s previously ignored.  I simply have no guess about what Israel will do. From the WaPo:

Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon Sunday after a rocket strike from Lebanon killed 12 people, most of them teenagers and children, on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, raising the specter of all-out war.

Sunday’s strikes, on what the Israeli military said was Hezbollah weapons caches and infrastructure, fell short of the furious response Israeli officials threatened after the strike Saturday on a soccer field in the Golan where children were playing. Diplomats worked feverishly Sunday to blunt any Israeli retaliation. Lebanon’s government, which would suffer from any escalation, entreated the United States to urge restraint from Israel, Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters.

Israel, citing military intelligence and an assessment of the scene, blamed the strike in Majdal Shams Saturday on Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied any connection to the attack.

Israel described it as the deadliest single attack on Israel since Hamas rampaged through several communities near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, drawing Israel’s military response there. The shocking scenes from the Golan — the bodies of children in weekend soccer clothes, blown apart — followed a flood of warnings from the United Nations and other diplomats that months of largely contained fighting between Hezbollah and Israel along the border could ignite if given a deadly spark.

Egypt’s foreign ministry warned Saturday of the “dangers of opening a new war front in Lebanon” that could push the Middle East into a regional conflict, echoing admonitions from other Arab states over the dangers of failing to secure a cease-fire in Gaza. Hezbollah has said it would end its attacks against Israel in the event of such a cease-fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to Israel Sunday from his visit to Washington, was set to meet with his security cabinet.

More calls for “restraint”, and that doesn’t mean restraint for Hezbollah. In fact, the UN statement condemning the attack and calling for restraint doesn’t even mention the word “Hezbollah.” Secretary-General António Guterres called for enforcement of UN resolution 1701, which forbids the rocket attacks that Hezbollah’s been mounting, but UN forces are already in Lebanon tasked with enforcing that resolution. Guterres is a spineless liar, and I don’t say that lightly.

*The NYT has an article by Robert Klitzman, a physician and a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, called “14 questions about our leaders’ health,” with questions for Trump, Biden, and Harris. I’ll just give a couple for each of the three, and the rationale given by Klitzman:

For Trump:

1) Has Mr. Trump taken any cognitive tests in the last six years. If so, which ones? And what were the results?

Mr. Trump has been making cognitive errors, mixing up the names of Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, as well as of Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping. He said he “aced” a cognitive test four years ago. Doctors have said that the test Mr. Trump is likely referring to was not definitive, nor diagnostic.

2) Did the assassination attempt affect Mr. Trump’s medical or mental health status? If so, how?

The public knows Mr. Trump sustained an injury to his ear, leaving a small wound, but it’s unknown if his hearing or other functioning were affected. His physician arranged for a precautionary CT scan of his head, but the results have not been released. Such secrecy can lead the public to wonder whether he is hiding something.

3) What is his current weight and cholesterol?

Mr. Trump has a history of heart disease and obesity, which along with very high cholesterol, if he has it, can significantly increase the likelihood of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.

For Biden:

1) When was Mr. Biden last tested for Parkinson’s?

The White House has said Mr. Biden has not been diagnosed with or treated for Parkinson’s disease. The question was raised because a Parkinson’s specialist visited the White House eight times over the past year. Having such a diagnosis, by itself, doesn’t indicate how well a person can function or whether he is fit to serve, but many people are wondering if this diagnosis is present and, if so, if he is still able to do his job.

2) Does he have other serious conditions that might account for his apparent diminished facial expression and restricted physical movement?

In Mr. Biden’s more recent public appearances, his movements and face have appeared more rigid. This is common for aging but could also be a sign of a neurological disorder that could be associated with greater cognitive decline. If he does have such a condition, reassurance that it is being treated and that he is still able to perform his job would bolster public confidence.

. . . 4) Has he recently taken any cognitive tests? If so, which ones? And what were the results?

Just recently, Mr. Biden referred to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and called Mr. Trump his vice president. These mistakes may represent mere slips that we all occasionally make and are normal with aging — but it would be reassuring to know that is the case.

And for Harris:

1) Has she had an annual checkup, and if so, how recently?

Ms. Harris has not yet released any medical information. Most people would probably agree she appears healthy, but it would be helpful to have verification that is indeed the case.

2) Does she see a physician regularly?

Doing so would be important to ensure that she receives treatment for any medical problems, to remain as healthy as possible.

3) Does she have any major medical problems?

The answer could help reassure the public that she would be able to perform the job.

The rationale, as Klitzman puts it, is “Candidates may decline to answer these questions, but in this age of disinformation, political polarization and distrust, transparency through voluntary disclosures of these facts is critical to rebuilding confidence in our fragile democracy.”  I’m pretty sure Harris would come out clean, but not the others. Crikey, Trump appears to live on a diet of cheeseburgers!

*From the WSJ: “Pro-Gaza activists size up Kamala Harris.”  As you might guess, they love her.

Hani Almadhoun had no plans to vote for President Biden this year after his brother was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Almadhoun said that Biden, who has supported Israel and sent U.S. weapons toward its war effort, has “blood on his hands.” Now, with Vice President Kamala Harris expected to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee, Almadhoun isn’t only ready to cast his ballot for her; he is prepared to help get out the vote for her campaign.

“She has centered Palestinian voices,” said Almadhoun, a Palestinian-American who spoke to Harris about the war by phone in November and received a personal condolence letter from her following his brother’s death. “She has talked about Palestinian suffering, casualties and spoken about this situation on a more human level.”

Few issues have proved as divisive for the Democratic Party this election season as the Israel-Hamas war. Pro-Palestinian advocates took note of Harris’s early emphasis on humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Now that Biden has stepped aside, the advocates say they are closely watching Harris to see if she will distance herself from the president’s Gaza policy and lay out a vision of her own.

Biden’s staunch backing of Israel, despite concerns over high civilian casualties and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, had imperiled his re-election campaign amid backlash from Democratic constituencies such as progressives, Muslim and Arab-Americans, young voters and Black voters. Some White House and campaign aides privately voiced concern in recent months that voters disillusioned with the war would sit out or vote for a third-party candidate, putting battleground states such as Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania at risk.

“I think it is necessary for her to set herself apart from Biden and to break with him on this issue,” said Lily Greenberg Call, a former Biden political appointee at the Interior Department who in May became the first Jewish American to resign from the administration over its Gaza policy. Greenberg Call also was a field organizer for Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. “Not only are there morally correct things that she can do…but I also think it’s the politically savvy thing for her to do.”

I suspect that Harris cares a lot more about being politically savvy than being morally correct, and I’m absolutely certain she’s going to pull the U.S. back in its alliance with Israel.  She knows that Jews are few (2.4% of the American population), that many Americans equate Israel with Netanyahu, and that the Democratic Party is tilting towards anti-Israel “progressives,” becoming about as anti-Semitic as Labour was under Corbyn in the UK. To me, Harris is a person not of principle, but of expediency, and that doesn’t bode well for the fate of the only democracy in the Middle East.  Just remember, those who call for a cease-fire are usually calling for a victory for Hamas in Gaza, even though they don’t see it that way.

*This AP headline intrigued me, but it was worse than I thought: “Paris Olympic organizers say they meant no disrespect with ‘Last Supper’ tableau.”  That headline is catnip to me, and so I read on. Oy gewalt, what did I find? This:

Paris Olympics organizers apologized to anyone who was offended by a tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” during the glamorous opening ceremony, but defended the concept behind it Sunday.

Da Vinci’s painting depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him. The scene during Friday’s ceremony featured DJ and producer Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — flanked by drag artists and dancers.

Religious conservatives from around the world decried the segment, with the French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops deploring “scenes of derision” that they said made a mockery of Christianity — a sentiment echoed by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. The Anglican Communion in Egypt expressed its “deep regret” Sunday, saying the ceremony could cause the IOC to “lose its distinctive sporting identity and its humanitarian message.”

The ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly had distanced his scene from any “Last Supper” parallels after the ceremony, saying it was meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy. Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps was asked about the outcry during an International Olympic Committee news conference on Sunday.

“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said. “Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

Jolly explained his intentions to The Associated Press after the ceremony.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Jolly said. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”W

When I read that, I thought it might offend people because they mixed religion with the Olympics. (France has a well known policy of secularism.) But no, it wasn’t that, and I don’t think it was the performative “diversity” theme, either though it could have been. No, it must have been the drag queens, who offended the Christians (I haven’t yet figured out why drag queens, who aren’t always gay, are considered as woke icons, but so be it). But what a thing to put in the Olympics! At least the French aren’t dumb enough to have a Muslim tableau with a diversity theme. Can you imagine the reaction if they showed Muhammad surrounded by drag queens?

I found one video that shows an image of the scene:

 

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron gets a lesson in journalism. Malgorzata’s explanation: “Szaron is supposed to follow the Journalism 101 rule:   NOT: ‘Person A says it rains. Person B says it doesn’t rain.’ BUT GO OUT AND CHECK WHETHER IT RAINS.”

Szaron: There is something that’s worrying me.
Hili: Go and check it but don’t behave like a journalist.
In Polish:
Szaron: Tam jest coś, co mnie niepokoi.
Hili: Idź i sprawdź, a nie zachowuj się jak dziennikarz.

*******************

From reader Pliny the in Between’s “Far Corner Cafe“, mockery of a comment by J. D. Vance:

From Cat Memes:

A double joke from Jesus of the Day:

From Masih, a Kurdish activist sentenced to death in Iran:

J. K. Rowling responds, forcefully as ever, to some unidentified and hapless tweeter:

Two posts from Malcolm, one showing a triceratops:

From Malgorzata:

From my feed (of course): a frustrating but ultimately successful cat rescue:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I retweeted:

Two tweets from Professor Cobb. Børsum survived two years in concentration camps and died in 1985.

These big-tusked males are rare as they are poached heavily. What a crime!

64 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Good things first:

    I saw that vault – and more, it was amazing.

    The rest:

    I’m glad we restrained ourselves — til now:

    Motte and Bailey manipulation is described by Nicholas Shackel in 2005.

    Motte : easily defensible : honoring ancient Greek culture

    Bailey : operational objective : Queer gnostic ritual agitprop.

    The Olympics officially defended the Bailey using the Motte. As such, the defense is for ancient Greek pederasty – look for the guy in black shorts whose scrotum is extending out from his right shorts leg. This was on some screenshots elsewhere, like on The Olympics eXtwitter feed. The individual was at one point behind an adolescent in yellow. Ancient Greek pederasty is an object of interest in Queer literature.

    Also note the hallmark of Hermetic transformation : 17 figures.

    This is also in DaVinci’s The Last Supper — it and the Biblical story possibly a Hermetic take (I’d have to review it).

    I’ve also seen a dialectical defense of it : TV shows and art has depicted The Last Supper before (that was the argument), it’s no big deal – which obliterates context – namely, an Olympic ceremony is not a TV show e.g. The Simpsons.

    1. Following up:

      Looks like The Last Supper (DaVinci) has 13 total figures – 12 apostles plus Jesus … I think they’re apostles… so, no 17 there.

      17 Queer gnostics on stage, though.

    1. Dancing with children.

      It’s just reverence for the culture and practice of Ancient Greece.

      Motte/Bailey (Shackel, 2005) and agitprop demoralization by sociological gnostics.

  3. We watched the entire Olympic opening ceremony live on the BBC. My favourite part, other than the Minions in a submarine and the singing decapitated Marie Antoinette, was the segment of the L’Amour sequence set in the library. How gloriously French to celebrate a ménage à trois. La France, je t’adore!

    2. I watched most of it, and enjoyed it. Very weird and very French. All the controversy happily went over my head (the transvestites were depicting the Last Supper? A loose testicle??), and I can’t be bothered to care after the fact. I especially liked the lighting of the olympic “flame”/balloon.

    3. Yes. I just heard that some people were offended by the library sequence 🙂

      I enjoy watching people get offended* and then come up with reasons as to why it was so bad. It’s very funny. The reasons go from ‘gross’ to ‘irrelevant’ to ‘precludes genuine artistry’ to all kinds of other things.

      Many Muslims are, of course, are very good at this sort of thing, and some I know have come up with similar reasons for cartoons, films, books, etc. that offended them. If the ceremony had included a cartoonist drawing a bearded man who mounted a horse that went straight up in the air, it would have been nice. But dangerous. And nothing to do with the Olympics, of course; irrelevant; would have precluded genuine artistry, which is rigorously defined by people who know a thing or two about art.

      I did not watch the ceremony. Later I looked up some of the dirty bits that people found offensive. Shocking stuff. End of civilization, what? Good job the French committee apologized. Maybe God will teach the French some manners and punish Thomas Jolly for being a bad boy. God likes that sort of thing.

      *And I’m not saying that people should not be offended. Not at all.

  4. I have often bitten into a pit while eating pitted olives. There are sometimes bones in de-boned fish. Why should I not expect an occasional bone in boneless chicken?

    2. If you take the bones out of chicken wings, surely there’s nothing left except skin.

  5. Drag Queens are literally the shock troops of the revolution. They dramatize transexuality and help normalize the idea of transing kids, which is all apart of the Marxian goal of destroying the family, which is a bastion of societal conservatism.

    They wouldn’t have dared to perform a similar piece on Muslim themes. For all the talk of Christians as potential domestic terrorists by the Biden Administration, no one worries about offending them. If, on the other hand, there had been a drag show about Mohammad, cities across Europe would still be burning.

    1. You know, DrB, now and then I think some of your opinions might be just a little far out there but I have to say you are right on the money with that one.

    3. It is easy, but perhaps a bit intellectually lazy, to see such displays as signs of civilizational decline.

      However, I do wonder if the current generation of Americans would be up to the rigors of WWII.

      Anecdotal data, but I know a lot of college age people who say they would never fight for the U.S.

      1. Just spoiling for a fight were those coal miners and farm boys in 1939, they were.

        The Carleton and York Regiment of New Brunswick mobilized on 1 September, the day Hitler marched into Poland. My father, 16 years old — he must have lied about his age —, signed up that day but the army doctor diverted him to the TB sanitarium where he spent much of the war and met my mother through church when he got out. (She had been engaged to a pilot but he jilted her as he was finishing his advanced combat training before shipping out to England.).

        Dad’s older brother enlisted at the same time and eventually went overseas with the Carlton and Yorks as part of the Canadian Army. (Another brother was too young and two older ones had already died under mysterious circumstances, so the family story went.) The regiment fought in Sicily, Italy, the Falaise Pocket, and helped to clear the Scheldt Estuary, giving the Allies the Port of Antwerp, and on into Holland. My uncle married an English girl and lived to be 84, growing potatoes with his sons back in New Brunswick. None of them talked about their own stories and we kids knew not to ask. All he used to say was how much things seemed to have changed back home. At least they were spared the fate of the doomed Winnipeggers sent to defend Hong Kong in 1941.

        Every word of the above will be incomprehensible to at least some college-age kids today, even if they have watched Masters of the Air on Netflix. But every Israeli understands.

      2. Perhaps not, but don’t forget the Oxford Union “King and Country” debate. In 1933 the motion was debated and passed that, “”That this House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country.”

      3. I wonder if those college age people would ever admit that they expect someone to go in harm’s way on their behalf.

    4. For that matter, imagine doing a similar thing making a mockery of indigenous earth religions, such as NZ Maori or Canadian First Peoples’ philosophies. Imagine a scene in which Maoris are sitting down in the midst of a slashed and burned forest and eating drumsticks pulled from the last giant moa.

      If you’re going to satirize religion, at least be an equal opportunity offender and not focus on one while shying away from others. This shows these “subversive” types as being nothing more than cowards who perform for the approval of their herd (h/t Cristina)

    5. I agree. Drag queens are not suitable for something the whole world is watching.

  6. Donald Trump does not by any stretch of the imagination have “heart disease.” High cholesterol and obesity are risk factors for developing coronary heart disease but they are not “diseases” in and of themselves, unless we want to medicalize most of the adult male population in rich countries. Nor is a “coronary calcium score”. It is a number in a healthy person that comes out of a machine that encourages more healthy people to demand their insurance pay to have their numbers measured, too.

    As for VP Harris, there is no value in routine unfocused medical checkups in apparently healthy adults of either sex. The people who avail themselves of these rituals are wealthy insured people who have low risk of getting sick with anything. Targeted manoeuvres like mammography and colon cancer screening have measurable albeit small and expensive impacts on future health, especially as mercantile interests always want to have their own screening tests applied to ever-widening populations of lower and lower risk.

    There is a saying that the only “normal” people are those who haven’t had enough lab tests…yet. Medical busybodies should keep their noses out of public life. Any cognitive impairment apparent to family and work associates should be enough to keep the impaired person’s finger off the nuclear trigger. But the risk that the President might have a heart attack or get breast cancer?, well, that’s why you have a Vice-President.

      1. Yes. If the VP and Cabinet thought the President might be medically impaired, then a medical doctor would give a professional opinion from diagnosing the patient with symptoms even if those symptoms were only reported by others. This would inform their decision as to what to do. This is why we have doctors. People with great responsibility and authority do get sick.

    3. I tend to agree Leslie. The “worried well”… and rich.
      Now do prostate cancer… There’s a big kerfuffle about that, rightly.
      (I say with skin in the game as a 53 year old guy with a genetic destiny of an exploding prostate to look forward to. Up all night looking forward to THAT.) 🙂

      D.A.
      NYC

    4. Voters are condemned to judge for themselves.

      Doctors are expected to keep confidentiality and refuse to judge patients they have not personally examined. If they comment anyway, their statements can be dishonest or partisan. Personally, I have most trust in anonymous bloggers with a good understanding of statistics who know how to access the scientific literature. Few journalists know how to do that, and too many of them have strong political leanings that limit their trustworthiness.

    5. It is perfectly reasonable for voters to expect a degree of medical information from a person serving as or campaigning to be president. I am not sure how you know whether Trump has heart disease since medical information released about him has been skimpy. I get regular medical checkups and am neither rich nor hypochondriacal.

      1. I was commenting on the information and interpretation in the article linked from the main post, not on Mr. Trump himself.

  7. That wasn’t an Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, that was a mockery dressed as french vanguardism.It was tasteless, boring,
    and the athletes were out of focus.
    Perhaps it’s cool for some people play the subversive type. But it’s like joining another herd.And I’m no sheep.

    1. Now that I look at it, I can agree that it isn’t particularly last-supper-ish. No one expressing outrage ever mentions the Bacchus character in the skit. That would totally undermine their Right To Complain, and so it is ignored. But the media swings toward the click-bait story, as ever.

    2. Someone on X actually posted the painting the tableau was presumably trying to imitate and it was much more similar to what we saw. I can’t find it anymore, but as I recall it was a Bacchanal painted by a famous French artist of a few hundred years ago. It featured a long table with the God of Wine and Revelry sprawled across it.

      Someone in comments said that even so, the resemblance to da Vinci should still have been obvious. I’m also surprised that from what I can tell none of the official rebuttals arguing it was only a Bacchanalia came with a photo of the painting I’m referring to. The resemblance was pretty close.

      1. That makes more sense. It seems odd to me that the French would celebrate an Italian in the opening ceremony of their olympics.

        Note: It’s not “da Vinci”. That just means “from Vinci” – it’s not part of his name. Leonardo da Vinci is properly shortened to “Leonardo”.

      1. David, alas, I’m not Eliza Mondegreen. Our nyms just happen to be similar.

        I’m a fan of hers–and of yours as well!

  9. I found a few pages about Lise Børsum, including this one.

    Her book seems to only be available in Swedish, which seems a shame. There’s one used copy available from Amazon at a very steep price.

  10. On Israel/Pal.. this is an excellent 42 min. interview with Gadi Taub on Quillette

    Israel Needs a War with Lebanon: Historian Gadi Taub
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XNis8Mm7rw

    Quilette passed on one of my recent …. strident articles. So you know they’re good. Any club that don’t want me as a member etc. hehehe
    Although Taub says just what I do/did.
    Oh. And they’re Australian. 🙂

    D.A.
    NYC
    https://democracychronicles.org/author/david-anderson/

  11. Regarding the calls on Israel for restraint, there is an alternative way of looking at why the world calls on Israel to exhibit restraint while they almost never do the same for Hezbollah or Hamas. Because Israel is a western democracy that submits to the rule of law, Israel is the only power that can be counted on to counter with a lawful response. Calling for terrorist organizations to use restraint would be hopeless. While it is true that much of the world hates Israel—and it infuriates me that the world expects Israel to defend itself without causing collateral damage—is it’s also true that Israel is the adult in the room. There would be little point is calling for restraint from Iran-backed terrorists who are bent on global jihad.

    I’m not denying that rampant anti-Israelism and antisemitism are also behind why Israel’s actions are under a microscope, but I do think that much of the world regards Israel as a rational actor.

    1. What is the case for a hawkish Israel?

      War is deeply immoral, given its many innocent victims and its destructiveness. I also expect modern states not to engage in conquest and to follow the humanitarian laws that govern war regardless of whether they consider their enemies morally or racially inferior. (Anyone who casually demands a war with Iran is assured of my utmost contempt.)

      Israel is already a very successful country, and almost exclusively inhabited by Jews. Its future is assured by a high fertility rate and a strong military. What is there to gain from constantly fighting its neighbours in the name of security or a biblically inspired vision of annexing long-lost territory? Israel does not need more land. Fighting is expensive, infuriates the Muslim world and hurts Israel’s international reputation. In addition, few wars reach their initial objectives, and they are difficult to end once undertaken (painfully obvious right now in Gaza). Safeguarding the borders and letting the other states wallow in their misery would be wiser. Restraint would also include diplomatic outreach, especially towards Iran. So far, Israel has demanded that the US invades Iran, cheered the end of Obama’s Iran Deal (which every Western country begged Trump to uphold) and murdered Iranians inside their own borders. As Iran tries to deter the US and Israel with the threat of nuclear weapons and supports anti-Israeli proxies, it seems obvious to me that a better relationship with Iran would go a long way to containing Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels.

      1. I think you might be mistaking “What we’d like the Islamosphere to be like” and the reality of that part of the world.

        Would you accept (ALL the poling data, and their actions) that pretty much 100 pc of “civilians” there are pro-Hamas?

        Maybe I should listen to the “Palestinian Peace Movement”. Trouble is… I’ve been looking for them, at least ONE, for 35 years and I’m still looking. Whom should we call on the phone for peace?

        I like to consider things from the other side, herein that’d look like: If they’re not evil – as we know it – I’m serious here… what does evil look like to you?

        Are there really “two sides” to the debate? If so, are there 2 sides to “ISIS v. the world” and “Taliban vs most of the world”? Again… I can’t distinguish beyond petty details… the diff between the 3.
        Can ANYBODY explain how Hamas AND ITS OWN PAlestinian people supporting it… differ from the above in intention, methods or goals?

        We find it hard to imagine what Islam is and what a motivating factor its pure tenets are.

        respectfully,
        D.A
        NYC
        My column, variously republished, with the answers to some of the above is here
        https://themoderatevoice.com/author/david-anderson/

      2. Yes, maybe true, except for the continual provocations against Israel in terms of rockets day in day out, military invasions in October, constant anti-Israel political rhetoric, the pay for slay programs by the PA and other strong motivators to encourage violence against Israelis.
        Israel has tried time and again to have peace and it is undermined time and again by the Palestinians.
        It is not possible for Israel to adopt the position you seem to think it could.
        And it is already processing this war with more concern for civilians than any other recent conflict.

      3. Despite Israel’s strong military, Hamas invaded it last Oct. 7 and killed more Jews (and others) than died on any single day since the Holocaust. Did you forget that? If agents of a fanatical Canadian state came across the border and did that to the United States, would you not extinguish Canada’s ability to do it again, and oppress her people until they squeaked?

        By the way, the land that Israel is trying to “take back” is within her 1948 founding borders and she occupies it all now anyway, has since 1967. Hardly “long-lost”. But Israel doesn’t want Gaza. She just wants the Gazans to leave her alone, as more and more Arab nations are becoming willing to do.

        So here is the case for a hawkish Israel:

        War is not immoral at all….for the simple reason that states don’t have morals. They have only interests, the most important being survival. The return bargain is we pay taxes and don’t attempt to carry out free-lance foreign policy. If it is in the interests of a state to go to war, it will. By this it should calculate what its likelihood of gaining a clear objective will be, the likely costs, including the effect on the willingness of any necessary allies to help it, or potential dangerous enemies jumping in on the other side, and the costs and benefits of alternatives of going to war. Such morality as obtains is utilitarian. The state ought not to squander its citizen-soldiers fecklessly in vanity projects. But its leaders ought not to fear being arrested and sent to partisan international Courts, either. If soldiers must die, Prime Minsters and Generals might go to prison.

        It is wise to try to conduct war in a humanitarian way to avoid brutalizing one’s own soldiers, who hope to go home intact to their families, and to not provide an easy excuse for reprisals. But an obsessive attempt to minimize civilian casualties must be balanced against the wastage of one’s own troops in fighting the enemy face to face. Bombing the crap out of him from above or afar allows one’s infantry catch a well-deserved respite from the steady drip of deaths and maimings. There comes a point when you don’t try to minimize civilian deaths if it costs you so much as one extra soldier. (Especially if the civilians are all combatants anyway. This is not to morally downgrade them. It’s to elevate them to combatant status, enemy brothers-in-arms.)

        It might well be that every Hamas combatant shot by the IDF is replaced by a former non-combatant who seeks to avenge for Allah the human shields in the attack that missed him. What of it? Keep killing them until they get the message and stop picking up fallen rifles. Israel might have to do this every five or ten years — I’ve heard it called “mowing the lawn” — but what alternative to war does Israel have for people who can’t leave her in peace?

        An impenetrable wall around Gaza with no apertures for border crossings might keep out the threat without further violence. Food, water, and electricity would be up to the international community or the inhabitants could start making saleable, tradeable goods instead of rockets. Whatever, not Israel’s problem.

  12. On the drag queen thing in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

    I responded as follows to a conservative interlocutor on FB regarding this:

    I agree, what was the point? You’d have to be pretty willful not to see the parallel between that scene (as I saw it in a clip) and Davinci’s painting, The Last Supper. That had to have been intentional. So, though it doesn’t bother me, I see why it bothers some. And it was completely unnecessary. But at least no one is shooting the writer and director or burning embassies.

    And, my own reaction was: WTF does this have to do with the Olympics or the athletes, FFS?

    2. If you read what the creator of this controversy has to say it will give you an idea what it was trying to do. In short, show case French culture. Ooh la la!
      So some don’t get the entertainment, it needed a Adult rating? have we not got bigger problems than the French being French.
      The next month needs to be non violent, hopefully, for all the athletes and spectators alike.
      I did though think for one moment, some parts were from a Fellini movie and some think they were robbed of the Olympic opening ceremony but that’s life.

  14. We should go easy on the French. Having lost their empire and the means to impose their culture around the world, they grab what little opportunities they have.

    I would love to hear the discussion among potential migrants. “Paris? Did you see those opening ceremonies?!”

    1. You mean that *I* should go easy on the French, right? That is, I shouldn’t criticize them when they pull a dumb move like having drag-queen Jesus in the Olympic opening ceremony. Should I then lay off France completely because they lost their empire? Sorry, but I call ’em as I see ’em.

    2. We should go easy on the French. …

      I see this as a humorous remark and not in any way telling Jerry not to criticize the French. Is that right?

      In any case, there is not much anyone can do about the French. I’d rather let them be.

      1. At least it was an attempt at a humorous remark! And, correct, it wasn’t directed at Jerry or any particular person here.

        I’ll try it this way: What the hell were they thinking?!?

    2. Larson.

      I once told an employer about that cartoon, then commented that they seemed to be running a headless chicken ranch. I never did win a “Model Employee” award….

  16. I have been wondering if Israel is in a ‘damned if you do/damned if you don’t’ predicament with respect to retaliating for the attack on the Druze town. Druze males (but not females) are required to serve in the Israeli military just like everyone else. If Israel responds to attacks which kill Jewish citizens, then it seems like they must also respond when Druze citizens are killed, regardless of international calls for ‘restraint’.

    I was very ‘underwhelmed’ by the opening Olympics ceremony, each ‘act’ way too long and not all that interesting to me. I especially disliked the innuendo of the menage a trois (glad not to have to explain it to a little kid) and the ‘fashion/drag queen/bacchanalia’ piece (I didn’t ‘see’ the Last Supper in it, I just didn’t like it). The only pieces I liked were the submarine trimaran mounted metallic horse galloping down the Seine ( ~90 sec. would have been plenty), the laser light show and the lit water cauldron/balloon, which I hope is saving lots of fuel.

    The athletics have been good though I have an ongoing complaint about NBC’s (American) coverage. Rather than show us more of competitors other than Americans, they blather on about everyone’s trials and tribulations, show extended interviews, anticipatory pacing, etc. More athletics, less commentary please. I especially hate them shoving cameras in the faces of those who’ve lost or are injured.

    1. Per your last para., I very soon quit watching NBC Olympics coverage when NBC took it over. Ah, for the ancient days of Jim McKay and associates when ABC broadcast the Olympics.

  17. “Nobody else in the world can do this..” might be better stated as no other woman has done this in competition, and only a small number of men.

    As far as calls for restraint go, all these groups can end the threat of Israeli retaliation by not attacking Israel any more. In the particular case of the attack on Saturday, those who saw the first uncensored images of the scene saw a fence around a playground draped with the intestines of Israeli children. Horrific images like that do not inspire compassion for Hezbollah and it’s supporters.

  18. I like cats. I have had many cats over the years and the fantasy thought of going for a stroll with my favorite leopard around the neighborhood to show those who don’t like cats, or cat people, to look again, has popped into my head more than once.

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