Lessons From the Playground

Posted by straightlinelogic 10 months, 3 weeks ago to Government
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On the playground you’ll find one or more bullies, who terrorize the weaker, smaller kids. The bullies tend to form their own clique. Their victims try to stay out of their way, but bullies gotta bully. The victims quickly learn that appealing to adult authority is guaranteed trouble. While bullies may be reprimanded or otherwise punished, they have ways of dealing with upstarts and snitches, and their revenge is always disproportionate.

Once in a too great while the oppressed band together and take revenge on their oppressors, or a bully misjudges a kid as a potential victim and finds out the hard way that the kid knows how to take care of him or herself. Often in such circumstances, bullies will make their own ludicrous appeal to authority, complaining that they’re being picked on.

The foregoing pretty much describes the Israel-Palestinian war that has raged since 1948. Without engaging in the endless debate about who started it and who’s at fault for what, it is indisputable that Israel has the disproportionate power in the situation, up to and including its nuclear arsenal. It is also indisputable that it has not hesitated to use that power to enter and occupy what had formerly been Palestinian territory and to bully Palestinians into ever-shrinking enclaves. It now appears that Israel wants to bully the Palestinians out of what is now Israel altogether, so that there will be no more Palestinians in what used to be Palestine.

This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
SOURCE URL: https://straightlinelogic.com/2023/12/10/lessons-from-the-playground-by-robert-gore/


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  • Posted by mhubb 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    the REAL Palestinians are the Israelis

    so, one more time

    This is not about LAND and it has never been about LAND. Israel occupies LESS that one sixth of 1% of the land that ARABS and MUSLIMS occupy. There has also never been a country or state called Palestine it therefore LOGICALLY follows that it cannot be OCCUPIED or INVADED and you cannot be a REFUGEE from it. The 'Palestinains' were INVENTED by the EGYPTIAN HOMOSEXUAL PAEDOPHILE Yasser Arafat in the 1960's before that they were known as what they STILL are the MUSLIM ARAB INVADERS of the Holy Land. ITS ALL ABOUT MUSLIMS KILLING JEWS.
    There is a myth hanging over all discussion of the Palestinian problem: the myth that this land was “Arab” land taken from its native inhabitants by invading Jews. Whatever may be the correct solution to the problems of the Middle East, let’s get a few things straight:
    As a strictly legal matter, the Jews didn’t take Palestine from the Arabs; they took it from the British, who exercised sovereign authority in Palestine under a League of Nations mandate for thirty years prior to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. And the British don’t want it back.
    If you consider the British illegitimate usurpers, fine. In that case, this territory is not Arab land but Turkish land, a province of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years until the British wrested it from them during the Great War in 1917. And the Turks don’t want it back.
    If you look back earlier in history than the Ottoman Turks, who took over Palestine over in 1517, you find it under the sovereignty of the yet another empire not indigenous to Palestine: the Mamluks, who were Turkish and Circassian slave-soldiers headquartered in Egypt. And the Mamluks don’t even exist any more, so they can’t want it back.
    So, going back 800 years, there’s no particularly clear chain of title that makes Israel’s title to the land inferior to that of any of the previous owners. Who were, continuing backward:
    The Mamluks, already mentioned, who in 1250 took Palestine over from:
    The Ayyubi dynasty, the descendants of Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who in 1187 took Jerusalem and most of Palestine from:
    The European Christian Crusaders, who in 1099 conquered Palestine from:
    The Seljuk Turks, who ruled Palestine in the name of:
    The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, which in 750 took over the sovereignty of the entire Near East from:
    The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, which in 661 inherited control of the Islamic lands from:
    The Arabs of Arabia, who in the first flush of Islamic expansion conquered Palestine in 638 from:
    The Byzantines, who (nice people—perhaps it should go to them?) didn’t conquer the Levant, but, upon the division of the Roman Empire in 395, inherited Palestine from:
    The Romans, who in 63 B.C. took it over from:
    The last Jewish kingdom, which during the Maccabean rebellion from 168 to 140 B.C. won control of the land from:
    The Hellenistic Greeks, who under Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. conquered the Near East from:
    The Persian empire, which under Cyrus the Great in 639 B.C. freed Jerusalem and Judah from:
    The Babylonian empire, which under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. took Jerusalem and Judah from:
    The Jews, meaning the people of the Kingdom of Judah, who, in their earlier incarnation as the Israelites, seized the land in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. from:
    The Canaanites, who had inhabited the land for thousands of years before they were dispossessed by the Israelites.
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    • Posted by mhubb 10 months, 3 weeks ago
      As the foregoing suggests, any Arab claim to sovereignty based on inherited historical control will not stand up. Arabs are not native to Palestine, but are native to Arabia, which is called Arab-ia for the breathtakingly simple reason that it is the historic home of the Arabs. The territories comprising all other “Arab” states outside the Arabian peninsula—including Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity now formally under the Palestinian Authority—were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, mass-murdering, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Pharaonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000 year history. The recent assertion by the Palestinian Arabs that they are descended from the ancient Canaanites whom the ancient Hebrews displaced is absurd in light of the archeological evidence.
      There is no record of the Canaanites surviving their destruction in ancient times. History records literally hundreds of ancient peoples that no longer exist. The Arab claim to be descended from Canaanites is an invention that came after the 1964 founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the same crew who today deny that there was ever a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Prior to 1964 there was no “Palestinian” people and no “Palestinian” claim to Palestine; the Arab nations who sought to overrun and destroy Israel in 1948 planned to divide up the territory amongst themselves. Let us also remember that prior to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the name “Palestinian” referred to the Jews of Palestine.
      The only nations that have perfect continuity between their earliest known human inhabitants and their populations of the present day are Iceland, parts of China, and a few Pacific islands. The Chinese case is complicated by the fact that the great antiquity of Chinese civilization has largely erased the traces of whatever societies preceded it, making it difficult to reconstruct to what extent the expanding proto-Chinese displaced (or absorbed) the prehistoric peoples of that region. History is very sketchy in regard to the genealogies of ancient peoples. The upshot is that “aboriginalism”—the proposition that the closest descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory are the rightful owners—is not tenable in the real world. It is not clear that it would be a desirable idea even if it were tenable. Would human civilization really be better off if there had been no China, no Japan, no Greece, no Rome, no France, no England, no Ireland, no United States?
      Back to the Arabs: I have no problem recognizing the legitimacy of the Arabs’ tenure in Palestine when they had it, from 638 to 1099, a period of 461 years out of a history lasting 5,000 years. They took Palestine by military conquest, and they lost it by conquest, to the Christian Crusaders in 1099. Of course, military occupation by itself does not determine which party rightly has sovereignty in a given territory. Can it not be said that the Arabs have sovereign rights, if not to all of Israel, then at least to the West Bank, by virtue of their majority residency in that region from the early Middle Ages to the present?
      To answer that question, let’s look again at the historical record. Prior to 1947, as we’ve discussed, Palestine was administered by the British under the Palestine Mandate, the ultimate purpose of which, according to the Balfour Declaration, was the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1924 the British divided the Palestine Mandate into an Arabs-only territory east of the Jordan, which became the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, and a greatly reduced Palestine Mandate territory west of the Jordan, which was inhabited by both Arabs and Jews. Given the fact that the Jews and Arabs were unable to coexist in one state, there had to be two states. At the same time, there were no natural borders separating the two peoples, in the way that, for example, the Brenner Pass has historically marked the division between Latin and Germanic Europe. Since the Jewish population was concentrated near the coast, the Jewish state had to start at the coast and go some distance inland. Exactly where it should have stopped, and where the Arab state should have begun, was a practical question that could have been settled in any number of peaceful ways, almost all of which the Jews would have accepted.
      The Jews’ willingness to compromise on territory was demonstrated not only by their acquiescence in the UN’s 1947 partition plan, which gave them a state with squiggly, indefensible borders, but even by their earlier acceptance of the 1937 Peel Commission partition plan, which gave them nothing more than a part of the Galilee and a tiny strip along the coast. Yet the Arab nations, refusing to accept any Jewish sovereignty in Palestine even if it was the size of a postage stamp, unanimously rejected the 1937 Peel plan, and nine years later they violently rejected the UN’s partition plan as well. When the Arabs resorted to arms in order to wipe out the Jews and destroy the Jewish state, they accepted the verdict of arms. They lost that verdict in 1948, and they lost it again in 1967, when Jordan, which had annexed the West Bank in 1948 (without any objections from Palestinian Arabs that their sovereign nationhood was being violated), attacked Israel from the West Bank during the Six Day War despite Israel’s urgent pleas that it stay out of the conflict. Israel in self-defense then captured the West Bank. The Arabs thus have no grounds to complain either about Israel’s existence (achieved in ’48) or about its expanded sovereignty from the river to the sea (achieved in ’67).
      The Arabs have roiled the world for decades with their furious protest that their land has been “stolen” from them. One might take seriously such a statement if it came from a pacifist people such as the Tibetans, who had quietly inhabited their land for ages before it was seized by the Communist Chinese in 1950. The claim is laughable coming from the Arabs, who in the early Middle Ages conquered and reduced to slavery and penury ancient peoples and civilizations stretching from the borders of Persia to the Atlantic; who in 1947 rejected an Arab state in Palestine alongside a Jewish state and sought to obliterate the nascent Jewish state; who never called for a distinct Palestinian Arab state until the creation of the terrorist PLO in 1964—sixteen years after the founding of the state of Israel; and who to this moment continue to seek Israel’s destruction, an object that would be enormously advanced by the creation of the Arab state they demand. The Arab claim to sovereign rights west of the Jordan is only humored today because of a fatal combination of world need for Arab oil, leftist Political Correctness that has cast the Israelis as “oppressors,” and, of course, good old Jew-hatred.
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      • Posted by 10 months, 3 weeks ago
        Two very impressive chronological summations. I've searched in vain for anything that addresses what I said in my commentary.
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        • Posted by Aeronca 10 months, 3 weeks ago
          It's a fairly decent analogy. Bullies and the bullied. Though in this case the bullied are far from victims they are bloodthirsty. The bullies will not let the bullied rule the playground for they will exterminate the bullies. I maintain there will be no 2 state solution, that is a formula for more war, just as it is now. Give them a state, they will have an army and they will use it to kill Jews, guaranteed.
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      • Posted by Aeronca 10 months, 3 weeks ago
        The "Palestinians" will never ever stop at statehood, they will forever seek to murder all Jews. The Two State Solution is a perfect solution for the Military Machine's profits. Why else would USA stand behind the Two State solution? Good for war!
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    The bullies are all those attacking Israel. Usually when a bully or even a pack picks on a victim on the playground, the victim(s) is/are weaker. Israel, on the other hand, is not your usual victim. They have promoted a culture of life, with its concomitant benefits, while the Palestinians have promoted a culture of death. The revenge that is disproportionate (and yet appropriate) in this case is on behalf of the misjudged kid (Israel) righteously wanting to eliminate the bully's ability for future revenge. The concept of proportionality in war is a farce, and Palestine is getting its just desserts. They didn't have to elect Hamas.

    Both Israel and Palestine had the right to exist, until Palestine violated the principle of non-aggression. Ayn Rand maintained that “no man may initiate the use of physical force against others.… Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.” Israel is acting in retaliation.
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    • Posted by Aeronca 10 months, 3 weeks ago
      I think the proportionality is 15:1 about now.
      17,700 / 1147 and counting. Isn't it an insult to Palestinians when they have a hostage exchange of one Jew for 1000 Palestinian soldiers? I guess they're not complaining. Someone values their people more?
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  • Posted by freedomforall 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    iirc, didn't Israel and the "Palestinians" agree to an independent Palestine land in the 90's and Hamas refused the opportunity and started suicide bombings?
    There is plenty of blame to spread to all sides.
    imo, Americans (and the US military) should mind their business and avoid foreign wars. If individual Americans wish to donate their funds voluntarily to defend Israel, let them, but very careful thought should be considered regarding donations used for offensive (or terrorist) purposes because innocent people are often the victims.
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  • Posted by Lucky 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    Besides that Bob Dylan song, I have two big issues with the argument given, big issues but expressed briefly:

    I do have a mental picture of school bullies, but not from experience, -apart from some teachers maybe. Instead the theme is big in literature. A more instructive comment on playgrounds is:
    https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/03/...

    In fact there is an exact parallel- the straightlinelogic theme is pure Critical Race Theory!
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  • Posted by Lucky 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    Neighborhood Bully. By Bob Dylan. cont.

    Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
    Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
    He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
    In bed with nobody, under no one's command
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
    No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
    He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
    Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    What's anybody indebted to him for ?
    Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
    Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
    They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    What has he done to wear so many scars ?
    Does he change the course of rivers ?
    Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
    Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
    Running out the clock, time standing still
    Neighborhood bully.
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  • Posted by Lucky 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    This could turn out to be a long, it may be in several sections.
    Source: http://www.metrolyrics.com/neighborho...
    A song From Bob Dylan

    Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
    His enemies say he's on their land
    They got him outnumbered about a million to one
    He got no place to escape to, no place to run
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
    He's criticized and condemned for being alive
    He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
    He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
    He's wandered the earth an exiled man
    Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
    He's always on trial for just being born
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
    Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
    Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
    The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
    That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
    'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
    And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    Well, he got no allies to really speak of
    What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
    He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
    But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
    He's the neighborhood bully.

    Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
    They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
    Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
    To hurt one they would weep
    They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
    He's the neighborhood bully.
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  • Posted by $ Markus_Katabri 10 months, 3 weeks ago
    Good article. An objective look at the situation that is sorely missed in the desired narrative. I don’t blame the Israel apologists. It’s been decades of indoctrination. The same people that espouse a future civil war to combat the “woke” ideology spreading in our homeland would behave functionally similar to the Palestinians. Of course that’s just my opinion. As unpopular as it’s likely to be. My Christian understanding realizes that our Bible states that if we Bless Israel we will be blessed. If we curse Israel we will be cursed…..but….my hypocrisy goes only so far. We will have our own persecution narrative in the future. Our children’s reaction to it will be very interesting.
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