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Far more Same than Different: Lebanon and Palestine

Posted by: on: May 12, 2021

Lebanon and Palestine: Same and Different(Part 1)

Posted on April 29, 2009

Brief ancient history:

Lebanon is a recognized State by the UN in 1943. The Lebanese State got its fictitious “independence” from France who withdrew its troops in 1946 (2 years before the State of Israel was recognized by the UN).

Palestine was partitioned in 1947 between Palestinians and the minority Jews (barely 40% but allocated 55% of the land of Palestine).

Currently, all of Palestine is under occupation by this Zionist State called Israel.

Lebanon and Palestine were throughout antiquity under the domination of neighboring Empires such as in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq (Mesopotamia). 

The people in the two tiny stretches of coastal lands on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea were mainly mariners, traders, middlemen among Empires, and skilled artisans. (They were united under the Seleucid dynasty, an officer of Alexander army)

Under the nominal or explicit domination of Empires, Lebanon and Palestine had autonomous administration of their society as City-States that were highly democratic within the city limits as Athens emulated in the 7th century BC. 

The famous City-States from north to south are Ugarite, Tripoli, Jubail (Byblos), Saida, Sour (Tyr), Akka (Acre and Haifa), and Askelan. 

The City-State of Jubail (inventors of the alphabet) built Saida; Saida built Sour and dominated the sea routes; and Sour built Akka and relayed Saida in sea domination and expanding the trading posts to Spain. 

These City-States were the masters of the sea and traded with all Empires, and build trading towns: they have resisted many overwhelming sieges, sometimes for years, and occasionally managed Not to be entered and devastated.

Every empire that conquered Syria resumed its drive by dominating Lebanon and Palestine. 

In general, when more than one empire co-existed at the same period and when the empire in Egypt was powerful enough then it governed the southern half of Palestine while the other empire governed the upper half, including Lebanon. 

The strip of Gaza to Yafa was mostly under Egyptian cultural influence.

The coastal strip from north actual Syria to the Sinai was called Canaan. Then, the upper stretch to Akka was called Phoenicia or even Saida (in reference for the main City-State).

The Sea People, called Philistines and probably coming from the Adriatic Sea, destroyed Greece fleet, devastated many coastal cities, and conquered Egypt before they were driven out and settle in Gaza and the southern part of Canaan, called Palestine ever since.

Moses (this mythical story) arrived with an amalgam of nomadic tribes and his successors attempted to occupy part of south Palestine.  These tribes worshiped Yahweh/Yahwa, thus, yahoud and Jews for the Latin people. 

These tribes under Moses reverted to worshiping the all encompassing God of the Land called El., except a few tribes such as Judea and Benjamin.  During the Roman Empire, and most of the empires that dominated Syria, the district of Tyr administered the upper half of Palestine, including Galilee.

Modern History:

 In the beginning of the 20th century, the military in Turkey deposed the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and started policies focused on Turk Nationhood.  Many in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine immigrated to Egypt. 

During the First World War famine fell on Lebanon along with a devastating wave of locust; they immigrated to the USA, Brazil, Latin America, and many were dropped in Africa by unethical ship captains who claimed that they reached the Americas.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Britain had mandate over Palestine and Iraq; France had mandate over Lebanon and Syria.

Consequently, the bilingual Palestinians spoke English, and their counterpart in Lebanon spoke French.

In 1930, Haifa grabbed the center of trades and many Lebanese flocked to Haifa and Palestine.  The reverse wave occurred when the State of Israel was recognized by a majority of one vote at the UN in 1948.  Lebanon received Palestinian refugees who were installed in camps on the ground that their stay is temporary! and will return under the UN resolution 194

In one chapter of “World Adrift” Amine Maaluf said “The western powers are now paying the price for failing to apply their values in the colonies” 

The European colonial powers of Britain, France, Germany, and the  Netherlands had no intentions of spreading their moral values to those they considered Not worthy of their pearls and gems.

The indigents were to be enslaved, exploited, and humiliated;

The indigents who adopted the western values of equality, liberty, and democracy were persecuted and harassed and imprisoned;

The colonial administrators negotiated with the conservative conformists who were ready to strike deals and cohabit with lesser human rights. 

Dictators in Europe maybe abhorred after their defeat, but the colonial powers readily accept dictators in underdeveloped States to facilitate the embezzling businesses.

Human values had different quality and flavors according to the whims and interest of the exploiting colonial powers. 

Britain used astute diplomatic policies to subjugate their colonies more frequently than France did; but France of the French Revolution had No patience negotiating and communicating with their colonial people and never skipped an occasion to stat its true purpose for domination.and exhibiting arrogant military posturing.

 The colonial powers installed infrastructures that were appropriate for exploitation of the colonies; they established the required administrations for smooth and efficient exploitation.

The other administrative offices for legislation and justices were carbon copies of the ones in their homeland, but these codes could be disposed off and trampled at the first occasion that short sighted interest called for swift and immediate actions.

Contemporary history:

Current Lebanon was created by France during its mandate period and cut out from Syria; it is now a recognized State by the UN since 1943.  Palestine was divided but the Zionist movement conquered the allocated portion for the Palestinians by the UN in 1948. through a detailed pre-planned attack drawn in 1935. 

The Palestinians are now located in the West Bank of the Jordan River and in Gaza where Israel has built 150 Jewish-only colonies and increasing every year. 

The Palestinians who fled their towns and villages in the State of Israel are refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.  And they spread throughout the 5 continents. The UN resolution 193 demands the repatriation of these Palestinians to their hometowns but Israel has been rebuffing that resolution since 1948.

Lebanon suffered many civil wars and calamities for Not being capable or unwilling of absorbing the Palestinian refugees.

Israel has waged four devastating wars against the State of Lebanon on flimsy pretexts based on the Palestinian resistance trying to regain their rights for a homeland.

And three more pre-emptive wars against after the withdrawal of the PLO in 1982.

Note: More detailed facts of the daily business trades between Lebanon and Palestine in Part 2. The implantation of Israel was mainly meant to break down daily trades, and One market, and prevent daily communication among the One people in One Nation: Syria.

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And Natural borders? How difficult to secure?

Posted by: on: January 2, 2021

Natural borders: what for? (November 21, 2008)

This short essay is sort of a detailed argument of the previous essay titled “A Nation, a State, or a redundant community?“

Most thinkers and sociologists would like to consider natural borders as one of the essential main factors for the establishment of a Nation or a national identity.  I used to take this argument as a given until very recently.

My position is that the topology of the interior of a country is far more important to providing stability from military incursions for the duration, and consequently to forming a “homogeneous” society than mere “natural borders” can offer.

Obviously, natural borders are excellent arguments in litigations in the UN or international borders disputes, but not that essential on their own merit to constituting a Nation without topography that discourages invasions and long term settlement of invading troops.

Before I substantiate my hypothesis it might be necessary to emphasize two more ingredients for the formation of a nation.

First, a nation should manage to enforce a central official language to the majority of its citizens, regardless of the various slang and other different languages spoken or written in various regions in the nation. 

For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, France was still unable to enforce the official Parisian language in all its territory and had to resort to intensive investment and incentives in education, appropriate laws and concentrated efforts to achieve the universal application, if Not acceptance, of the official French language.

Second, a nation should manage to incite the majority of its citizens to acknowledge a civil religion, for example official recognition in the civil registers, regardless of their personal faith or other affiliations.  Saying that there is separation between the State and religion in functions and responsibilities is a State matter, but does not relate to the constitution of a nation in the long run.

I will consider a few Nations in the “Greater Middle East” and Northern Africa regions dating back from Antiquity and then from the European Medieval Age.

Of all the multitude of Empires that dominated the Old World at certain periods , only Iran (Persia) can be classified without ambiguity as a Nation.  Since the European Medieval Age we experienced the emergence of two other nations, Turkey and Morocco (it ruled Spain for over 5 centuries).

Before I resume my argumentation let me state that I consider Egypt as a recent nation that satisfies most of the criteria, but did Not in history. 

The fundamental question is: why the Empires of Babylon, Assyria, Akkad, Egypt, Greece, and Rome were unable to maintain the structure and cohesiveness of a nation, even after many centuries of dominion?

I will refrain of analyzing the cases of Greece and Rome because that would divert the focus of this short essay.

Why the Empires that originated in present Iraq, Syria and Egypt failed to survive as a nation to our modern time? 

These Empires dominated the Old World for many centuries and had centralized power structures and centralized official languages and managed to impose their brand of religion or close variations to their entire Empires. 

What was lacking then?

The topology in the interior of Iraq, Syria and Egypt could not offer any substantial hardship to huge invading troops.

Once the invading troops crossed a natural barrier the entire county was opened for easy progress. 

For example, “Greater Syria” (composed theoretically and according to natural borders of the current States of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan) had definite natural borders of high mountain chains north and north-east, desert in the south and south-east, and east, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 

If we extended “Greater Syria” to include Iraq, then the Arab/Persian Gulf would be the border in the east.  It seems that natural borders are not of major consequences if the interior is an open country.

The invading war-like Empires just needed to satisfy their curiosity of what is beyond the natural barriers to come in. The Persians, Egyptians, Turks, Greeks, Romans, and Arab/Muslim troops entered and conquered the land from all sides with no major resistance.

It seemed that “Greater Syria” was unable to unite and constitute a national army or a central government, even though the population was mostly cohesive in language, religion, culture and customs… and that thanks to its open interior for easy trade and exchange.

What this region managed to form were hundreds of City-States, structurally centralized and well organized, but unable to come to a unified “need” for a Nation. 

It seems that through history, these people recognized that they would never be able to stop the advance of war-like empires; it was much cheaper to open the City-States gates and then assimilate the commercial demands and wants of the invading Empires.

This policy permitted the civilization of “Greater Syria” to transform and change the cultures of the invading Empires in all domains. (Review my essay “Lions and Lionesses in the Fertile crescent“). 

What is striking is, although Syria could never institute a political nation for any substantive duration, the populations in these States are more homogeneous culturally and linguistically than any currently established nation.

What is true to Syria is compatible to Egypt. Egypt had natural borders of deserts and seas but we cannot claim that it constituted a nation until recently due to demographic explosion, vast land, a majority of a religious sect, and common slang “Arabic” language.

The difference historically between Egypt and Syria is that the invading Empires were not interested in all of Egypt; suffice to secure transit commerce between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and the crops of the Nile River, mainly wheat. 

Syria was all interesting because of its rich City-States, skilled artisans, education, schools, commerce, and fertile lands;.

Syria was for the keep because of its hard working value-adding population!

That is why it was impossible for Syria to form a political entity because the war-like Empires wanted Syria at any cost.

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Ur Salam (City of Peace): Jerusalem

Posted by: on: September 3, 2020

Ur Salam (City of Peace): Jerusalem

Recent archeological works by Kathleen Kenyon (2009) discovered a wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem dating from the 18th century BC; water was diverted through underground canals from the fresh source of Guihon to Siloe cisterns inside the walls.

The sea people called Philistines had devastated the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, destroyed the nascent Greek fleet and settled in Gaza and the southern coastline of Palestine around the 12th century.

The entire eastern coastline from north Syria to Sinai was dominated by the Canaanites.

In southern Palestine, the Canaanites had to flee northward and retreat inside toward Jerusalem, one of their 25 City-States. Jerusalem was then inhabited by over 10,000 urban dwellers, a huge number for the period.

Around 11th century BC, Moses (a myth) arrived with his nomadic tribes to the borders with Canaan.  His successors endeavored to settle in part of Palestine and battled with the Philistines.  The Canaanites aristocracy aided David to enter Jerusalem and this class was his administrative supporters. (Just faked stories from the Jewish book written in 200 BC in Alexandria)

David thus had two high priests (Evyatar and Sadoq), two military leaders (Joab and Benayahu), and two heirs apparent (Adoniyyahou and Salomon).

David had also two formal sanctuaries for the Jews and the Canaanites.  David adopted the God of the Land El and the demi-Gods of the Sun (Shahar) and the Moon (Shalem) were worshipped.

The Jewish Yahweh (God of thunders) was relegated to the background and played a support function in times of urgent need.

The Jews had no such concept of “throne” and the Canaanite aristocracy provided a throne to David and his solar God was Justice personified and a divinity of the order “Sadeq”:  Milki Sadeq was the King of Jerusalem when Abraham came to Canaan and paid the tenth (one tenth) to Melki Sadeq.

Salomon supporters of the Canaanites assassinated Adoniyyahou and Joab and Ebyatar was pursuit.

Salomon relied on the King of Tyr to build his Temple for the Sun God facing east.

The dedication read: “The divinity of the Sun has announced: Yahweh has decided to live in the shadow. A house has been renovated for his dwelling”.  The God Sun sent two messengers of Right and Justice to destroy Sodom.

In this event as in others, Yahweh shares the responsibility as a subordinate to the Sun God.  Slowly but surely, Yahweh acquired a convincing divinity by the period that preceded the exile to Babylon.

In 587 BC, the Babylonian King Nabuchodonosor destroys part of the Temple.

The Persian King Cyrus repatriates the Jews in 538 and restores the temple.

Alexander enters Jerusalem in 332 and Judea falls under the Ptolemy dynasty.

The Seleucid dynasty dominates Jerusalem from 200 to 142.

Judas Maccabeus revolted in 164 and enters Jerusalem which falls to the Hasmonide dynasty until the Roman Pompey takes Jerusalem in 63 BC.

The zealot Jews take over Jerusalem for two years in 66 AC. The Roman General Titus enters Jerusalem in the year 70 and burns the Temple.

Jerusalem is then named Aelia Capitolina.

Bar Kokheba recaptures Jerusalem in 131.  Emperor Hadrian enters Jerusalem and the Jews are definitely dispersed and forbidden to enter Jerusalem.

Emperor Constantine consecrates the Anastasis (The Saint Sepulcher).

The Persian King Chosroes destroys Jerusalem in 614.

Emperor Heracles retakes the city in 628.

The Caliph of Islam Omar enters Jerusalem in 638. The Dome of the Rock is built in 691.  The mosque Al Aqsa is built in 705.

The crusaders enter the city in 1099.  The Sultan Salah el Din enters the city in 1187 and chased out the crusaders.  The Turkish Sultan Selim 2 enters the city in 1244 and gives Jerusalem a religious function and dots it with many religious schools (madrassa).

The Ottoman Empire captured the city in 1516.

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilds the walls and enlarges the city with newer walls.

In 1967 the Zionist State of Israel enters Jerusalem.  Begin declares that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel in 1980.

The State of Israel is flaunting all UN resolutions to stop destroying Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem that is proposed to be the Capital of the Palestinian State.

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In social idiosyncrasies, the Devil is NOT in the Details

Posted by: on: April 12, 2020

In social idiosyncrasies, the Devil is NOT in the Details

Note: Re-edit of “The devil is NOT in the details; (October 16, 2009)”

Details are the basis for any program execution.  Do details bring people together to communicate, dialogue, and negotiate to reach compromises?

Strong with draft details, can each organization start to sort out the differences and comprehend the big picture? Why it is never the way around in social behavior?

The main wall that separate among communities is the concrete wall mixed with myths, general concepts, and abstract notions.

I will discuss two cases, one religious and the other of political nature.

First case:

After the crucifixion of Jesus, many Christian sects were born in the Near East in the first four centuries.  Fundamentally, these sects were almost identical in applying the Jewish daily rituals or the Jewish 650 laws of “correct” conduct.

What separated these sects were abstract concepts that did not harm their peaceful coexistence in separate communities of believers: they never attacked by force one another. Actually, they tended to isolate their community from “outside” influence

Military persecutions started when the Church acquired central power in Constantinople; and entire “heretic” sects and entire communities had to flee to safety.

The Mighty Wall was erected after 325 AC when Byzantium Empire decided to adopt Christianity as the main religion of the Empire.

Thus, the central power concept of the Empire dictated that church should be centralized.  Instead of focusing in negotiating on the details that split the various sects an upper abstract superstructure on concepts was imposed.

Concepts such as the dual nature of Christ, the deity of the threes (the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit), the virginity of the mother Mary and on.  This time around, the sects were to join the Orthodox Church by force if need be: a central Empire cannot permit disunity, even on totally nonsense abstract conjectures!

Consequently, the labeled “heretic” sects had to flee beyond the eastern shores of the Euphrates River (to the Persian Sassanid Dynasty).

The Nestorian sect reached China and translated “their” Bible into the Chinese language. Many other “heretic” sects settled in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Christian-Jewish “Ebionite” sect was firmly entrenched in Mecca. The uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, Ain Warkat, was the Patriarch of this sect and Muhammad learned to read in the Aramaic Ebionite Bible.

Muhammad aided his uncle in the translation of this specific Bible into the Arabic slang of Mecca.  Thus, Islam is originally a common denominator “heretic” Christian sect, one of many Christian sects in the Arabian Peninsula. The Prophet had to delete all the abstract notions to unite the sects; it was named Islam or the belief in the One and only God.

The strong animosity of the Catholic Church of Rome against Islam was not directed at a religion such as Buddhism or Mazdean but at a new “heretic” Christian sect usurping its central power in the Near East, the Orthodox Church .

The Orthodox Church in Constantinople was more lenient with Islam because it understood its genesis and the causes for the need of this new “heresy”: for Constantinople, Islam was the oriental counterpart of Protestantism to Rome when Islam became the dominant religion in the region.

It is said: “the enemy of my enemy is my ally”; this Machiavellian principle was lost to obscurantist Catholic Church. Rome was too far away and fought Islam with the ignorance of abstract concepts.

For the Catholic Church in 1,000 AC, Islam was doubly “heretic” instead of just the counterpart to the central Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire: it failed to realize that if Islam spread so fast and so widely it is mainly because most the labeled Christian heretic sects quickly converted to Islam as representing their system of belief against the monopole of Constantinople.

Second case:

The other case is the concept of a Syrian Nation with well delimited natural borders including Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and part of Iraq to the west of the Tiger (Dujlat) River.

This concept was highly widespread among the people of the region as the Ottoman Empire was dying during WWI.  It was still even more alive during the mandate of France and Britain to the region (Near East) after WWI.

The people in the Syrian Nation speak one language and have the same customs and tradition.  This nation was as natural as ABC; the immigrants were first called Turks during the Ottoman Empire and then they were all called Syrians regardless of location or religion.

The main problem is that the political parties spent two critical decades proving the evident (according to the newer definitions of the West for a Nation) instead of making the effort to developing draft detailed programs on the type of political administrative structure for this nation, the social representation, and election laws.

( For example, is it a Federal structure like the USA where each mandated State is fully autonomous with local government and local parliament, or provinces tailored made to religious, ethnic, and sectarian majorities, or loosely united States with open borders, common money, central army, or centralized foreign affairs; is Syria to be a monarchy and what kind).

Instead of discussing detailed programs, political parties mushroomed with abstract concepts not based on facts or pragmatic long-term goals.

The colonial “mandated powers” of France and England had field days of “dividing to rule”.

Every sect established its political party in every potential State claiming either total independence, or seeking a pan-Arabic Nation of Arabic speaking majorities in States, or Islamic Nation. 

We watched the emergence of communist parties disclaiming the notion of affiliating to a nation, to sectarian parties claiming democracy, socialism, and progressive. The worst propaganda that was encouraged by the colonial powers is to incite citizens against the Syrian people with the objective of discrediting the word Syria and giving it a bad connotation.

Natural borders of chain of mountains, desert, or large rivers do not necessarily protect from invasions; natural borders certainly encourage people to trade and interact inside the borders.  It is the internal rough geography and terrain that protects from outside military incursions.

Once a force crosses the border then Syria is an open land all the way to Egypt. Syria, or the Near East, was continuously occupied by foreign armies: these foreign invaders had to retreat quickly or get absorbed culturally.

Whatever monuments, constructions, temples, sport arena, or scholarly works that were attributed to invading nations (Persia, Egypt, Greek, Rome, or Arab) are basically the work of the Near Eastern civilization, their scholars, their craftsmen, and their adventurous business acumen.

The City-States in the Near East (Tyr, Sidon, Byblos, Ugarit, Mary …) competed in commerce and trade but never attacked one another militarily.  In Greece, City-States frequently waged military wars against one another.  The Near Eastern people adopted defensive strategy; even Carthage in its apogee refrained to antagonize Rome militarily.

Egypt and Persia frequent invasions in the Near East did not last long.

The Greek were absorbed: what Europe claim as Greek civilization is nothing less than the civilization of the Greek translating Syrians authors who spoke Aramaic.

Rome was finally absorbed: the Roman Laws are of the legal minds from the school of Beirut and the latest Emperors were born, raised, and educated in Syria.

The Byzantine Empire was fundamentally a Near Eastern Empire.  The Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula were absorbed when Damascus was selected as Capital during the Umayyad Dynasty.

The “Arabs” were absorbed by the Persian civilization when the capital shifted to Baghdad.

The Mogul retreated quickly but established long lasting Empires in India and Afghanistan.

The Ottoman conquered this land and could not be absorbed: the Syrian people were already exhausted from many years of successive invasions, religious obscurantism, and immigration by scholars to greener pastures.

France and England retreated “officially” within two decades but kept deep footprints in the laws and the administration structure. 

Implanted colonial Israel failed to retreat on time and is now being absorbed as Near Eastern State in social behavior, regardless of Israel propaganda attempts to seeking European image.

Consequently, failing to writing a draft on a possible administrative program for the Syrian Nation opened the door to abstract concept instead of working out negotiation and dialogue on pragmatic matters that concerned the people.

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You scratch one spot and it spreads: Can’t please this apartheid theocratic State of Israel

Posted by: on: November 6, 2019

You scratch one spot and it spreads: Can’t please this apartheid theocratic State of Israel

Note: an update from 2010 article. It is a virus: You scratch one spot and it spreads; (Jan. 29, 2010)

It is a virus; a sort of nasty mushroom that spreads al over your skin and inflicts crazy itching.

This itching affected me for over a month.

I finally saw a physician, not a skin specialist, in the town dispensary and she told me that she had witnessed many such cases lately.

The virus is in the air and that is how you are contaminated; many victims experienced lousy moments for many weeks.

The physician prescribed a single pill (costing $8) with effects that last for a week. Got to take another pill for a second week; that was supposed to take care of the mushroom. The physician said that without the pill the itching takes 6 weeks to subside.

In my case and with the pill I should be okay within days: I was healed the next day.

I decided for the second pill to make sure that the mushroom is dead once and for all.  I am not sure: three weeks later and I am itching; not necessarily of mushroom; but what do I know?

Itching is not the main topic of this article: it just gave me a perfect analogy.  The virus is Israel.

If you say Israel is an apartheid State because it subjugates the Palestinian people to a different set of laws of the land than the one applied to the Jews then Israel is upset.

If you say Israel is a theocratic State because it extends citizenship to any Jew who sets foot in Israel then Israel is angry.

Why,  over 600 religious laws that should govern daily life, as applied by the Pharisee during Jesus time, are still valid and harshly controlled.

The secular Jews agree that Israel is back to the Dark Age, but how to convince the US neo-conservative “Christians” that this is so?

If you say that Israel is comfortable with ghetto-like environment because it cordoned off all its frontiers by walls (frontiers that are not yet delimited in its Constitution) then Israel is appalled

If you say Israel is a Sparta State because it believes in military resolution for any contention with any neighboring State then Israel is incensed. Why?

Israel is worse than Sparta: after 3 years of forced military service the citizen has to submit to a month per year in “the reserves” service.

If you say Israel has been committing crimes against humanity since before its inception in 1948, and Gaza is the latest in evidence, then Israel rejects Goldstone’s report in all its sections.

If you say Israel has a peculiar kind of “democracy” that was called “apartheid democracy” in South Africa where laws are selectively and not equitably applied on all citizens; or if you say that the kind of democracy applied in Israel is barely a developed version of City-States democracies of Antiquity such as applied in Athens, Tyr,e or Sidon then Israel feels obfuscated.

I you say Israel refuses to grow up and abide by its responsibility as a member of the United Nations and respect UN decisions then Israel is furious: Israel constantly expects the US to cover up illegal activities with the veto power.

If you say the Arab States want peace for returning all the conquered lands in 1967 as proclaimed in 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut then Israel feels resentful and laughs it off.

If you say that Israel is a racist State because the UN declared “Zionism a form of racism” then Israel is up in arms to drop this statement.  Can you believe it?

Israel is investing money to demonstrate that Indians living in the region of Malihabad, (near Lucknow in the Uttar Pradesh), and known as Pathans Afridis are Jews from the tribe of Ephraim that lived in northern Galilee during Jesus time.

The Indian Shahnaz Ali was hired by Israel Institute of Technology to test the DNA of this “tribe” and hopefully extrapolate the results to include the Pashtoun tribes on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Is that a form of racism? Since when any religion was based on race?

I did a rough estimate: I figured out that the Phoenicians are over one billion, give or take one standard deviation, and are spread over the five continents!

If you say that Israel is “the vastest psychiatric ward in the world with no treating personnel” then Israel is ready to lambaste the Israeli author as a schizophrenic, leftist, and probably “anti-Semitic” mole.

If you say that Israel is indeed a very, very peace loving State then Israel is infuriated because you are mocking it.  It is a virus.

No matter what you say is non receivable.

Best attitude is to censure your opinions and refrain from mentioning Israel, Jews, Judaism, Hebrew, or the Diaspora.

One term is admissible: Jews were gazed by Nazism and the number better be exact: 6 millions no less and not one over that scientifically reached number.

Repeat: Jews were gazed and not shot, poisoned, killed, trampled, or exterminated in any other form of “final solutions”.

Repeat: Exactly 6 millions or the holocaust literature would have to be republished; any number over 6 millions and Germany would be infuriated and Merkel would have to cancel the seventh nuclear submarines, built for free for the State of Israel, at Germans’ tax payer expenses; and for what use are these nuclear submarines put in service?  Maybe to support NATO policies?

It is a virus: mushroom or no mushroom you feel itching like crazy and Barack Obama and George Mitchell first of all.

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Tidbits and notes posted on FB and Twitter. Part 218

Posted by: on: July 11, 2018

Tidbits and notes posted on FB and Twitter. Part 218

Note: I take notes of books I read and comment on events and edit sentences that fit my style. I pa attention to researched documentaries and serious links I receive. The page is long and growing like crazy, and the sections I post contains a month-old events that are worth refreshing your memory

Democracy was developed in the City-States of Byblos, Sidon, Tyr, Ugarit and Mary several centuries before Athens existed.  These City-States had democracy within their city limits as Athens and Rome emulated later on.

Why within city-State limits?  Because communication and transport were limited and the administration of such a complex democratic system was not feasible at a larger magnitude at the time; thus democracy was not translated to the colonies as Greek Athens also failed to do.

We can confirm that the Near East Mediterranean region was the bedrock of all civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea in religion, philosophy, sciences, literature and arts. Regardless of genetic sources, which are an amalgamation of many nations, anyone from current States in the Near East should take pride in their ancient civilizations and their original identity as the forefathers of contemporary modern democratic civilizations in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean Sea regions.

“Young people should prove to be good sons in the family, polite and respectful in society, prudent and loyal, liking the company of good men.  After learning and applying these moral values, you feel you have energy to acquiring knowledge, then study and read.”

60 is the Number of fragrance producers (which employ 13,000 workers) based in Grasse, France—known as the “Silicon Valley of perfume.”

5% of the global population with anosmia, the inability to smell.

How to train your smelling nose? Ugo Charron: “It’s a long journey.  Aspiring perfumers typically have an undergraduate degree in chemistry, and go through 5–10 years of training and professional apprenticeships. The curricula includes advanced chemistry classes, blending, raw materials, safety regulations, storytelling, and of course, a lot of smelling. At the end of the training, a perfumer must be able to ID around 500 scents within seconds.

Electronic noses are used to detect spoiled food, gas leaks, or even knock-off perfumes. NASA’s ENose is so sensitive it can sniff the difference between Pepsi and Coke.

C’est la vie qui est lourde: demandez a une femme enceinte quand le bebe appuie de ses pieds sur son diaphragm.

On Dec. 27, 155 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota Warriors to be hung. It was the largest mass execution in U.S. history, but this will never be talked about in any history class #Dakota38 #NeverForget
#murica

“Conveyor belt” Civilization: Tribes bordering urban and rural regions. transmitters of cultural differences, prime “intelligence gatherer or front-line intelligence agencies” for the powerful neighboring empires. They are the guides in time of wars; they guard the security of caravans crossing regions and extend facilities in water and supplies.

Le monde est plein de choses tres belles. On passe sa vie sans les connaitre. Sans un passport colonial, c’est difficile de voir toutes ces beautes: On doit se contenter des beautes locales

Les adolescent males n’aime pas la vie: la mort les comprend mieux que tout

L’histoire appartient a ceux qui la vie: tous les autres s’invitent et la raconte a chacun leu leu (fake news?)

I saw a news report from England that showed some doctors were aborting babies because they were baby girls! This shocked me so I looked into it and realised this is far from unusual, it is the norm in some countries.

Girls are targeted for abortion just because they are girls and seen of as lesser value. Abortion is wiping out thousands of girls and pro choice feminists won’t say a word. As a #prolifefeminist I speak up for girls at all stages of life. #LoveBoth #Savethe8th www.loveboth.ie ( 20 year-old Celine Murray)

UN was concerned only with the 74 White Helmets in Al Ghouta, trained by Britain and USA for fabricating fake videos

Zaman intikhabaat wa kol al ma3aassi masmou7a, ellah banaat raakissaat fi malha. Yalla, tzakaro shame3 a7mar, a7mar min woujouh al “mas2ouleen”

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Minorities coloring new maps? Another Epic story written from Kingdom of Sumer?

Posted by: on: October 25, 2017

Minorities coloring new maps?

The Epic “Enmerkar and the Ruler of Aratta”

Note: Although the term and notion of Nation is a new fabricated idea, many minorities have jumped to the occasion to wrap themselves with aggrandized entity, going as far back as 5,000 years. They colored new maps with vast swath of lands and attributed them to their “people”. In periods where the most that was done was establishing “city-states” commensurate to feasibility of governance.

Ovig Vartabedian shared this link that I consider a representative example: Ovig believes that the colored Aratta is the ancient Armenia of current Turkey.
 

In front of me lies a clay tablet. Approximately 4000 years ago, an unknown Sumerian scribe inscribed cuneiform signs on it. The tablet is square, 23 x 23 cm, that is, measures less than a usual sheet of paper for a typewriter.

However, the scribe divided this tablet into twelve columns and contrived to fit more than 600 lines of a heroic poem. This poem can be called “Enmerkar and the ruler of Aratta.”

Although the events described occurred almost five millennia ago, the poem sounds surprisingly modern, for it describes an international conflict that vividly recalls some of the techniques of “politics from a position of strength.”

***

Once Enmerkar, “chosen by the bright heart of Inanna,” appealed with a plea to “his mistress, the good lady”:

“My sister Inanna! Make the people of Aratta
Start artfully crafting gold and silver for Uruk and
Bring noble lapis lazuli extracted from the rocks,
So I can sit in one of these museums, in the museum of the Ancient East.”

With these treasures, the inhabitants of Aratta should have decorated the sacred temple that Inanna “chose as her home” and where Enmerkar would pray to his goddess:

“Let Aratta submit to Uruk.
Let the inhabitants of Aratta
Bring mountain stones from their heights,
So that they build a great temple, a great sanctuary.
A great sanctuary, the sanctuary of the gods,
Where they will be forced to recognize my divine laws in Kullab…”

The treasures of Aratta were needed not only to glorify Inanna. Enmerkar intended to decorate Abzu, the sacred temple of god Enki in Eredu, with precious stones for it to shine “like a bright mountain.”

Enmerkar’s intentions were noble and pleasing to the gods. After all, he wanted to subdue Aratta, which was rich in construction stone and all kinds of metals, only for the sake of the gods’ good and glory.

After listening to Enmerkar’s words, Inanna told him to follow her advice and send a wise and eloquent messenger to Aratta with “the great words of wise Inanna as an order!”

She promised Enmerkar that the people of Aratta would kneel before him, her royal brother.

Enmerkar chose a suitable messenger and passed him the prophetic words of the divine Inanna. He ordered him to pass mountains and roads leading to Aratta and repeat Inanna’s words full of threats and spells.

The emissary of Enmerkar set out on his journey and strictly followed all orders of his master, which he had received from the goddess Inanna.

“Intimidated by the might of the great mountains,
He walked along the road, trampling over the ashes.
He overcame five ridges, six ridges, seven ridges.
He looked up and approached Aratta
And joyfully entered the square of its royal palace.
He glorified the power of his king
And respectfully conveyed the words that were in his heart.”

 Here is what Enmerkar’s messenger said to the ruler of Aratta:

“Your father, my king, sent me to you,
Lord of Uruk, lord of Kullaba, sent me to you.”

After such a lofty answer to the question of the ruler of Aratta about the purpose of his arrival, the messenger of Enmerkar described the power of his master.

He called him “the great dragon of Sumer”, “a ram, whose royal power reaches the fortresses of a mountainous country.” Describing in detail the greatness and power of Enmerkar, the messenger expounded the essence of his message:

“I will put the inhabitants of this city to flight.
They will fly away like birds leaving their tree.
I will put them to flight, and they will fly away like birds fly to another nest.
I will empty Aratta.
I will destroy the city without mercy…”

Having pronounced these threats, the messenger conveyed the demand of Enmerkar, which was to obey Uruk and pay tribute.

However, the ruler of Aratta also declared himself the favorite of Inanna and said that Saint Inanna, the “queen of the heavens and the earth”, “the mistress of all divine laws,” patronized Aratta.

So he refused to yield to Enmerkar.

Then, the messenger unveiled that it had been Inanna who had promised Enmerkar domination over Aratta.

“The ruler was depressed and grieved deeply.
He did not know what to answer.
He searched for a reply for a long time.
He then looked at his feet with a darkened look and found the answer. “

***

Damaged in some places, the text on the plate makes it difficult to understand some spots that clearly contradict each other. In one section, the ruler of Aratta proposes to solve the issue by dueling two soldiers representing their countries. In another, he is ready to submit to Enmerkar, since Inanna deprived him of her mercy, “took back her word”, but on condition that Enmerkar sends him grain.

“Having listened to the answer of his messenger and having performed a series of magical rites, Enmerkar asked the goddess of wisdom, “omniscient Nidabe”, for help and advice. Then, he loaded animals with grain and sent them through seven mountains.

The caravan was led by the envoy of Enmerkar, who was commissioned to deliver a speech glorifying Enmerkar’s power and demand carnelian and lapis lazuli from the ruler of Aratta”.

From this and the next fragment of the poem, it appears that (if we correctly understand the text) in the second and third trip, the messenger was carrying a tablet with the demands of his king rather than a verbal order.

“The ruler of Aratta received the messenger in the square in front of his palace. The people of Aratta, delighted by the fact that they had received grain, agreed to give Emmerkar carnelian and instructed their elders to build a temple for him.

However, the ruler of Aratta objected. In turn, proclaiming his own power and glory, he put exactly the same conditions with the same words from the message of Enmerkar, that is, demanded carnelian and lapis lazuli.

Upon learning this, Enmekar again turned to the gods and various oracles for advice and performed all sorts of magical rites.

Then, the king of Uruk sent the third envoy to Aratta.

However, instead of an answer, he handed him his scepter. The sight of this symbol of power for some reason caused the ruler of Aratta to tremble.

Terrified, the ruler of Aratta consulted with his shatamm (adviser) and bitterly complained about the plight in which Inanna’s disgrace had set his city.

Nevertheless, although he was at first inclined to fulfill Enmerkar’s demands, later, for reasons unknown to us, he changed his mind and again suggested one of Enmerkar’s people to face his “man”. Thus, “it would become clear who was stronger”.

In response, Enmerkar sent his forth envoy to Aratta. He accepted the challenge of the ruler of Aratta but continued to demand gold, silver, and precious stones for the temple of the goddess Inanna. Otherwise, he threatened to raze Aratta.”

At this point, we find the second mention of some unknown record. As the researchers believe, Enmekar, fearing that his messenger would not be able to repeat the long a message, handed him a tablet with text.

“While the messenger waited for the answer of the ruler of Aratta, the Sumerian god of rain and thunderstorms Ishkur brought wild wheat and some other grains to Aratta.

At the sight of the wheat, the sorrowful ruler of Aratta cheered up and said that Inanna hadn’t turned away from Aratta and “hadn’t left her house of lapis lazuli.”

Because of lapses in this part of the epic and especially because of the damage to the next, it is impossible to understand the further course of events, which resulted in the people of Aratta granting gold, silver, and lapis lazuli to Inanna and bringing it all to the courtyard of the temple of the goddess in Uruk.

Excerpts from the book Belitsky Marian – “Sumerians. The Forgotten World … ” – in Russian
Excerpts Kramer Samuel – “The story begins in Sumer …” – in Russian

Note: Kingdom of Sumer is the oldest civilization in Middle-East (4,000 BC) known by archaeologists who decoded its writing. Its theology, traditions and customs spread and were adopted by the successive kingdom in the region.

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Earth climate shifts every 12,000 years. So what?

Posted by: on: July 3, 2014

Earth climate shifts every 12,000 years. So what?

Every 12,000 years, earth climate starts a new trend in weather changes, as earth approaches closer to the sun or moves away; and factoring in the position of the sun in the Milky Way galaxy.

Earth is beginning the phase of coming closer to the sun or the wet shift with abundant rain falls: The ice in the poles are melting, the land mass will shrink, the level of oceans will move upward and forcing 130 million currently living on the low coast lines to be displaced to higher grounds. The weather will become wetter , the land mass will shrink, and current deserts will revert to lush savanna in the coming climate shift.

Our current 12000-year shift is labelled the ice age: Earth was moving away from the sun and ice accumulated on the poles and lush savannas in the Sahara Desert evaporated, along with the fertile vast land masses around the river beds.

During this drying up period in the last 12000 years, it takes time for the poles to amass enough ice to reflect sun rays, but as the lakes start to dry up the process of desertification is quick.

In the first phase of the ice age, the early civilizations didn’t feel a major shift in the climate as the planet was wet and lakes and rivers were overflowing.

In the next 9,000 years, each civilization instituted stable social and political structures that withstood minor upheavals since the civilization relied on a period of abundance.

And suddenly, the drying climate felt its impact in less than 500 years on the existing social structure.

Lakes and sources of the rivers shrank and massive waves of people were displaced to greener pastures, northward and southward.

Consequently, around the year 2,300 BC, major social and political upheavals swept earth civilized regions. Centralized Pharaoh-God like institutions were questioned, monarchs were assassinated and toppled and people felt this urge for egalitarian status when facing scarcity to survive.

Grandiose tall and perfect Pyramid-like monuments around earth gave place to less awesome, smaller, and less skilled work monuments: The workforce and talented artisans had fled to other fertile regions.

Barley fields to produce the non-alcoholic beer shrank and the quantity of beer was not enough to barter with the workforce.

Powerful and war-like empires began expanding their territories to neighboring rich State-Cities along the major rivers.

For example, the empires of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Ashur and Persia along the Tiger River occupied city-states along the Euphrates River.

Massive exodus to the Turkish Anatolia Plateau generated the establishment of new empires such as the Hittites (Hyksos), Parthia, Medea, and the Ottoman empires.

Seafaring developed to reach further known civilizations and for trading goods and exchanging skills.

That was a period of advanced and extensive aqueduct network constructions to provide water to major cities and Capitals of empires, such as the Suspended Gardens in Nineveh during King Senharib of the Assyrian empire in current Mosul region.

The old Egyptian dynasties that built fantastic pyramids were replaced by dynasties north of the Nile River.

Dynasties on the lower Indus river moved upward the river.

And the exodus is continuing. On a larger scale with 7 billion battling for a piece of green land and scarse potable water.

Exacerbated by ugly capitalist systems willing to mass transfer entire population for raw materials under the new “soft policies” of empowering local ethnic people to massacre their neighbors. and displace them.

There are currently 50 million refugees living in abject conditions according to the UN and the number is increasing dramatically.

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And sharing of cultures degraded: “Unfruitful Nostalgia”…

Posted by: on: February 4, 2014

“Unfruitful Nostalgia”, controlled nationalism and degraded sharing of cultures…

There was a tradition, long time ago, in several City-States in the Levant. This custom was for the city council to encourage and coax unmarried males and new couples, who could not afford the life-style in the city, to buy them a one-way ticket to a far away land, to work in mines, fend for themselves and survive on their own, and eventually participate in building a new town

These “unwanted citizens”, as was the case in the modern  colonial nations, and as it’s practiced now in financially “depressed countries”, discovered  lands and transferred their knowledge, language, customs and traditions.

The world was dominated by the rule of the Elite Class of dispatching abroad the unwanted, undesirables, and untouchables.

This “civilized world” was built with the unwanted classes of people who quickly learned that “It is not where you were born, but where you live and were accepted, as one of the community member in the “New World”, that is Your Home”

New City-States around the Old World were created with the knowledge and customs of the period of the current generation of unwanted caste-off people.

Not long ago, apprenticeship was the system for acquiring the skills for an artisan job. There were a few disadvantages in that system:

1. The kids lived as a slave with his master, and if the sons of the master or one of his close relatives turned out to be as talented as the slave, there were no outlet for the kid to be paid decently as a talented artisan. The Gild system would cast out the talented poorer relative and he was to move outside the city limits or be transferred to one of the “colonies”

2. After many years of slaving, it is possible that the kid showed no talent in what he was supposed to master.  Given the short life expectancy, it was difficult to change job.

There came a time when transportation were relatively accessible to return to the Homeland, and to die there, setting the stage to this Unfruitful Nostalgia.

This kind of nostalgia gave rise to Controlled Nationalism, a gathering of closed-minded citizens who refused to associate with the world communities and share with their cultures.

“I want to die where I was born” generated the downhill of cultural sharing trend.

As the unwanted got it in their mind to return and confront the old system, the Old Guard decided that it would be best to control the poorer classes instead of sending them to taste freedom abroad.

Instead, The Old Guard  dispatched the poor citizens to wars of expansion under the premise that “What benefit the Elite class will trickle down to the poorer classes of the newer generations”.  

After colonizing a land, the less skilled “citizens” were sent to manage, direct, and train the promising natives in the mines and manufacturing outlet… where they spent most of their lives in foreign lands and left generations of new breeds.

The Roman Empire started the process of forcing their “civilization” on native people. The European colonial powers added insult to injury by allowing their criminals and violent prisoners to instill Law and Order on the occupied natives.

The less educated members of their elite classes were sent to “administer” the colonies, adopting the brute force and the latest techniques and vilest of ideologies in crushing the will of the natives, labeling them animals and barbarians, devoid of mankind soul that enable them to enjoy human rights.

And the ugly preemptive wars degenerated into the nastier of violence and brutality, and mankind learned to increase his brutality by a notch with every war.

Note: I wrote this post around 4 am while watching the movie Marugi or Ohuru Freedom. A 80-year old Kenyan who participated in the Mao Mao uprising against the British colonial power. The British killed his two kids and wife, and was detained in several concentration camps and was beaten and handicapped.

Marugi decided to learn to read and to joined a school with the kids after Kenya independence. He eventually was allowed to sit with the kids and was asked to deliver a speech at the UN to encourage learning and free schools for children…

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Quarantined State

Posted by: on: June 16, 2010

Many USA and Western diplomats have described Lebanon during its civil war (1975-1991) as a special quarantine area.  This civil war was sustained by the super powers to retaining the quarantine on Lebanon (State buffer zone) in order to prevent the spread of the Middle East social and political diseases such as feudalism, sectarianism, tribalism, caste systems, and extremist ideologies (prevalent in the Arabic and Islamic States) to the surrounding Western nations. 

These diplomats failed to add the disease of apartheid which is the trademark of the State of Israel.  This quarantine lasted for more than 17 years, and in the meanwhile the USA administrations in the 80′s and 90′s created, financed and trained a potent disease in Afghanistan.

Every stated rescue mission to Lebanon was not meant for the stability and security of the Lebanese people but for the purpose of larger strategic aims in the Middle East with the land of Lebanon as a staging base.  It is the Lebanese who encouraged the other nations to look at them not as a Nation, but as anonymous people living on a piece of land that the UN admitted as a member in 1946 among the “independent” States. 

This perception was created because all the successive Lebanese governments never behaved as administering and managing a Nation but as fief hoods for sectarian leaders who rule over modern serfs.  Even after an unimaginably lengthy and terrible civil war every single monster militia leader was pardoned by a decree from the Parliament and the ferocious sectarian leaders were inducted into the successive governments and Parliaments. 

Arnold Toynbee said that for certain people history necessarily repeat itself because they are lazy students. Most probably, it seems that history repeats itself because philosophical concepts or paradigms on life, death, the nature of Gods, free will, and predestination keep repeating themselves. The Lebanese certainly are not very hot on archiving their history, and even less on reading and revisiting their past; we have the tendency to say that what is past is past and we don’t care but for the present and how to live a good life.   This saying is true for the public consumption because, on the individual level, family feuds never vanish or are forgotten or forgiven; grandchildren still hate the grandchildren of another family simply because they overheard that their grand-grand parents were in feud.

Lebanon and Palestine have suffered the same calamities of past history again and again; these two States might never had any chance for lasting peace and stability. Syria could have fallen in the same trap because it was seriously targeted by the super powers if the dictatorship in Syria didn’t manage to re-read its history and learn from past adversities at the expense of democracy; Syria did not bed with theocratic systems and tamed clerical religious powers. 

In ancient history, the City-States of inland Syria barely put a fight to a powerful invader; it is as if Syria learned to normally change skins and share in the dominion of the new Empire that displaced the former; it is as if Syria believed it was actually the new invader.

The US and the European States are creating another current “quarantine area” in the Near East: It is called Gaza.  They want to shelter the Moubarak regime of Egypt from the contamination of HAMAS!  As if the Egyptian Moslems Brotherhood was not founded around 1940, a decade before the forceful creation of the State of Israel.  They want to shelter the apartheid State of Israel from religious extremist trend; as if Zionism was not created around 1880, over a century ago before Islam got virulent in 1990.

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