Even more horrifying, I streamed the old Exodus movie on Netflix to refresh myself on the turmoil in the region after WWII. A scene that shocked me was near the end, a German orders the friendly Arab to attack the Jewish Kibbutz by orders of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. It was like something from the Raiders of the Lost Arc with evil Nazis.
I Googled the Grand Mufti and sure enough, he was very much embedded with both the Italian and German fascists and even toured their concentration camps to get ideas of how to handle the "Jewish problem." After the war he attacked both the English and Jews in the region and encouraged the local Muslims to adopt a much more conservative stance than that which the Turks had left behind. He was banished to Egypt where he influenced the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood which spawned Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, and now Hamas. The basis of racial and religious hatred and maniacal quest for "purity" is right out of the Nazi playbook.
This also dovetails into Putin's Slavic neofascist "Russiki Mir" program of wanting to save Eastern Europe from the decadent liberal Western Europeans. It is a dangerous resurgence of fascism in a region where the effects of fascism are still raw, open wounds. Fascism is difficult to fight because it is essentially a death cult dedicated to saving the world from the infidel. This, like WWII, will be a nasty business on zealot's terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini
The kids were over for dinner the day after the horrific attacks in Israel. My son's education as to the eons long wars was lacking so I popped in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Now I realize that it is a Hollywood version and heavily fictionalized, but I thought it would help him understand the complexities and limited possibility that a solution could be found. The end of the movie the English King on his way to the Holy Lands tries to find Balian, the famed defender of Jerusalem, to start it all over again ... and again ... how many times has it changed hands? At least 20 times, conquered, destroyed, rebuilt, and conquered again. That was the salient point of the movie, the futility of the forever war. I am not an expert, but I wouldn't be surprised that Hamas did what it did to start another Holy War .. what an oxymoron. to kick start what they hope leads to the return of their heroes. It doesn't look good. As you said, little hope.
Even more horrifying, I streamed the old Exodus movie on Netflix to refresh myself on the turmoil in the region after WWII. A scene that shocked me was near the end, a German orders the friendly Arab to attack the Jewish Kibbutz by orders of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. It was like something from the Raiders of the Lost Arc with evil Nazis.
I Googled the Grand Mufti and sure enough, he was very much embedded with both the Italian and German fascists and even toured their concentration camps to get ideas of how to handle the "Jewish problem." After the war he attacked both the English and Jews in the region and encouraged the local Muslims to adopt a much more conservative stance than that which the Turks had left behind. He was banished to Egypt where he influenced the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood which spawned Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, and now Hamas. The basis of racial and religious hatred and maniacal quest for "purity" is right out of the Nazi playbook.
This also dovetails into Putin's Slavic neofascist "Russiki Mir" program of wanting to save Eastern Europe from the decadent liberal Western Europeans. It is a dangerous resurgence of fascism in a region where the effects of fascism are still raw, open wounds. Fascism is difficult to fight because it is essentially a death cult dedicated to saving the world from the infidel. This, like WWII, will be a nasty business on zealot's terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini
Boys and their very destructive toys all claiming to be holier than each other. Tragic.
The kids were over for dinner the day after the horrific attacks in Israel. My son's education as to the eons long wars was lacking so I popped in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Now I realize that it is a Hollywood version and heavily fictionalized, but I thought it would help him understand the complexities and limited possibility that a solution could be found. The end of the movie the English King on his way to the Holy Lands tries to find Balian, the famed defender of Jerusalem, to start it all over again ... and again ... how many times has it changed hands? At least 20 times, conquered, destroyed, rebuilt, and conquered again. That was the salient point of the movie, the futility of the forever war. I am not an expert, but I wouldn't be surprised that Hamas did what it did to start another Holy War .. what an oxymoron. to kick start what they hope leads to the return of their heroes. It doesn't look good. As you said, little hope.