Welcome to the Old, Old Middle East

Welcome to the old, old Middle East...

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu presented his idea of a, “new,” Middle East that is just an extension of the old Middle East.

The Middle East is at the junction of Africa, Asia and Europe and has been a deadly mess since long before those names applied. Before the Suez Canal a person could almost walk from Africa, through Asia and into Europe offering the prospect of great potential wealth from trade and transit through the region. O'er the course of a very long time many a leader has tried to control the region to profit greatly from that very commerce. None has ever succeeded for very long; not for a lack of effort.

In the exchange of control many wars were fought, the blood of a great many people was spilled and more treasure was spent than ever was gained. Most of the blood has been from the folks simply trying to live their lives in an area where the potential for constructive lives seemed, naively, possible.

The region still has extraordinary extremes between the wealthy and the poverty stricken, with none of the wealthy ever expressing much, if any, concern for the poor people that they use for their own, megalomaniacal pursuit of even more riches.

Procuring product, from the incredible amounts of oil and gas trapped beneath the Middle East, has created far greater wealth, well above and beyond the consistent revenue from trade and travel, such that there has never been a need for there to be any desperately poor folks making said effort at a modest life for themselves. Yet greed, avarice and megalomaniacal regimes have done not but abuse the people who, to a large degree, actually provide the labor that creates the wealth; gives the megalomaniacal, iterations of leaders the bodies from which most of the blood is spilled.

Mayhaps the Worldwide, Climate Crisis could impose a period of sanity on the region, and the rest of the planet, to save the Earth's ability to support human life...

Hope perseveres!

 

Middle East Surprise?

Observations from the sidelines...

There were warnings, going back at least a year, from various military and intelligence sources, in and outside of Israel, that violent activity was in process and preparation in the region. All the warnings were, apparently, brushed off by the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. 

 

The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be hostile to a, "two state solution," and are part of the hostile over reaction to the atrocities of Hamas on October 7th, 2023.  Netanyahu is also using the hostilities to avoid the allegations of crimes, in Israel, as well as alleged war crimes, before the International Criminal Court.

 

The current Israeli government also has actively disregarded the words of Moshe Dayan (also, attributed to Bishop Desmond Tutu), "If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies."  

 

There are other ways to resolve this chapter of the long running tendency to violent conflict in the Middle East.

What little I do know is of active and passive geophysical data acquisition methods. It is extremely probable that there are experts within Israeli, American (and other nation's) applicable government agencies that know far more...

The response to the terrorist atrocities of Hamas must use this, and many other means and methods, to respond surgically, because there are, “bad actors,” that will portray, out of context (as needed), any and every thing that Israel does in reaction to the horror of the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens.  It helps not at all that the current government of Israel has chosen to be one of the, "bad actors."

There are people and organizations that thrive on chaos and destruction; have no desire to seek or promote peaceful means of progress in the Middle East. Therefore, the response to the terrorist provocation of Hamas must be carried out with pinpoint accuracy, lest the day be carried by those with naught but the worst intentions.