21-Jun-10 News -- Israel eases the Gaza naval blockade

[John]

21-Jun-10 News -- Israel eases the Gaza naval blockade

** 21-Jun-10 News -- Israel eases the Gaza naval blockade
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 21#e100621




Contents:
"Israel changes the terms of the Gaza naval blockade"
"The strange case of Helen Thomas"
"Additional Links"
Kyrbyz army tears down Uzbek barricades
Turkish papers blame U.S. for PKK terrorist attack

[JanetC]

Hey John -
I'm glad someone has the cajones to call Thomas "bizarre and deviant". That said, I just want you to
know I read you every day and have passed along your website to some very influential people.
Regards from Minneapolis, Janet C.

[John]

Dear Janet,

> Hey John - I'm glad someone has the cajones to call Thomas
> "bizarre and deviant". That said, I just want you to know I read
> you every day and have passed along your website to some very
> influential people. Regards from Minneapolis, Janet C.

Thanks for the posting and for spreading the word!

However, not everyone agrees with you. Here's a comment I received
this morning from a web site reader:

> Why should the comment of Helen Thomas imply a hatred of Jews? It
> is perfectly reasonable to conclude that Adolf Hitler is the prime
> instigator of Jewish settlement in the Middle East. A lot of Jews
> from Central Europe would not be in Israel today but for him.

> From the beginning the settlement of Israel has been contested by
> local populations already resident. There is nothing new in
> history about this. If there is a problem for Americans it is that
> their government has chosen to mix itself up in this fight.
> Except as a thermometer for possible world war I do not think it
> is of any real importance. There are plenty of fights around the
> world in which people are getting killed. Why worry more about
> this one? Of course if you have a dog in this fight it is
> personal for you. But if so, say so!

No, I have no dog in this fight, but take a look at the 2006 analysis
that I referenced:

** President George Bush talks about a 'Third Awakening,' but he has his history wrong
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... ning060919

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, there are several
issues with what you've written. The main issue has to do with
identifying Hitler as the cause or instigator of Jewish settlement in
the Mideast. In fact, WW II and some kind of conflict between Jews
and Christians in Europe would have occurred anyway, with or without
Hitler.

Actually, Jews began flocking in large numbers to the Palestine region
in the late 1800s, as depicted in the Broadway play, "Fiddler on the
Roof." That was the start of Zionism which, at that time, had the
goal of establishing the Jewish state. After WW I, many European Jews
began to migrate to Palestine to escape discrimination. Check out the
history of the "Dreyfus affair" for discussions of European
anti-Semitism in the late 1800s.

So yes, what Helen Thomas said was really bizarre and deviant. If
someone 20 years old had said what she did, it might be written off as
a naive comment by someone young. But Helen Thomas is 89 years old,
and has been carrying that sentiment through the Great Depression, the
Holocaust, WW II, the Awakening era, and now into the new Crisis era.
Furthermore, she failed to mention that the Jews should have to go
"home" to Russia, as well as to Germany and Poland, an omission that's
strange from a decades-long member of the White House press corps.

So, no, Thomas's remarks were not based on some logical analysis of
the Mideast situation. They were visceral to the core, and reflect a
hatred that she must have had for at least 80 years.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, there are other
things that are interesting about this situation.

The first is that Jerusalem has been the epicenter of many wars for at
least a millennium. Jerusalem is a holy site for the Jews, the
Western Christians, the Eastern Christians and the Muslims. The Roman
Empire fought wars there, the early Muslims fought wars there, the
Crusades were fought there, after the fall of Constantinople the
Russians became the "protectors of Jerusalem" and that was one of the
motivations for the Crimean War, WW I was fought there, and WW II was
fought there.

So when you say, "There are plenty of fights around the world in which
people are getting killed," that may be true, but few are as important
to the world as the one in the Mideast.

John

[The Grey Badger]

At her age it is possible that she's had some mini-strokes which have affected her higher functions, such as knocking out the internal censor It's amazing what some people who have had them will say. And what's revealed may not always be a long-held conscious attitude held in check by conscious discipline. I know there are some things floating around in the depths of my own mind that appall my conscious beliefs and values - that's one thing Freud got absolutely right.