Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

A Sad Thought on a Good Story

Posted: July 15, 2023 by datechguy in middle east
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When I saw this headline at Don Surber’s site my first thought was: “Wow!”

Doctors RE-ATTACH ‘decapitated’ boy’s head after 12-year-old struck in horror accident.”

When I read the story and saw this part

Suleiman’s surgery was a success and he was sent home with a neck brace and is being monitored by doctors.

Dr Einav said it is impressive that he is “functionally normally” already and does not appear to have any lasting nerve damage.

The boy’s dad stayed with his son in the hospital and told medics: “I will thank you all my life for saving my dear only son. Bless you all. 

“Thanks to you he regained his life even when the odds were low and the danger was obvious.”

my second thought was: “Double Wow!”.

But then I remembered that the boy was a Palestinian and he was treated by Jewish Doctors in Israel and then remembered this story from twenty years ago:

Downstairs, before we left, the head of the hospital, an Israeli named Audrey, was showing me the children’s waiting room. I couldn’t help but notice, all around, an Arab woman with her son, an Arab family over there checking in, Arab children playing with the toys while waiting. The doctor saw the look on my face and laughed. “Oh, yes, we treat everyone.” I guess I was astonished. She just shrugged. “We’re Jews. This is how we live. It’s also for the future. They’re not going anywhere, and we’re not going anywhere. There will eventually be peace. There has to be.” When? A month? A year? A hundred years? More? She didn’t know. I had to say it. You’re incredible. You take everyone, you treat everyone, no one goes first, no one goes last, you just go in order of who needs help. That’s, like, Mother Teresa stuff. “We’re not saints, we’re just doing our jobs. It’s not easy, I admit. And it gets hard when they cheer when the bodies are brought in.” I looked at her. What did you say? She sighed. “Yes, it gets hard when they cheer.” This was one of the times during my trip when I held up my hands and said, “Stop. Wait.” I turned and walked away to breathe deeply for a minute. I wonder if they’ve restocked that mini-bar. Yeah, probably. It’s a good hotel.

And I recall that there have been no evidence presented to me that this has changed one bit and that’s when my thoughts turned sad.

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora: Pre-Sedgwick Syndrome, Watching a Republic Die, I’ll Never Tell, Still getting it, The Old Man’s Burden

Posted: June 23, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, Israel, middle east, News/opinion, under the fedora
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 The death of the maker of the Titanic Sub and those who traveled with them is not unremarkable as those with wealth have been taking large risks for centuries but when I heard that in interviews he had stated he rejected hiring experienced submariners because he didn’t want a bunch of 50 year old white guys all I could think of was General John Sedgwick saying about rebel snipers with new rifles with telescopic sights: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” just before being shot by one.

The primary difference being that Sedgwick lived long enough after he was hit to appreciate the irony of his word, reports now coming out state there was an implosion and all those aboard died instantly.

RIP

The more I see of what is happening on the national level the more I’m amazed at the country doing its level best to go along with national suicide.

Of course historically this is consistent with republics, but what a difference between reading about such things and living it.

Mind you in a generation with the left spaying their own kids that managed to survive the womb it might be moot as the future still belongs to those who show up.

There’s that Tom Hagen math again.

Yet another futile terrorist attack has taken place in Israel.

As always Israel will survive it and do their level best to go after those who helped out but in the end none of these things are going to bring down the state, nor frankly will Iran’s nuclear dreams as Israel, particularly with Biden in the White House is not going to allow itself to be destroyed to sate those who own him.

For Nearly 80 years the Arabs have dreamt of the destruction of Israel. As a supporter of Israel, I ironically see the obvious way for them to achieve those ends and have done so for a long while but it has never has and likely never will occur to them.

How you ask? That’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.

Attended my Godfather/Uncle’s wake yesterday taking a day off work for the final relative of the generation ahead of me to die. I was sitting praying my rosary as people reached the receiving line and I heard an interesting exchange as a couple greeted My uncle’s son who lead it. They had not seen them for years and marveled at their son and daughter now near 30 and asked:

“Any Grandchildren?”

“No they’re not married.” answered my cousin’s wife.

The friends noted that these days that’s not necessary and while my devout Catholic Uncle’s dead body naturally did not flinch at the exchange in my mind’s eye his soul was fist pumping that his son and daughter in law had brought up their children right.

Finally today I’ll be having lunch with some friends from work who no longer see since I’ve been transferred to another building down the road. It’s important to keep up in person contacts like this in a digital world when possible but I must confess it’s very weird in the sense that of the friends I make the vast majority are young enough to be my children and some young enough to be my grandchildren.

Sometimes this is very hard because I’m very aware of my faults and failings and grateful for the sacrament of confession to be absolved of them but when I’m with these young folks it’s incumbent on me to carry myself in such a was as to set an example rather than in the relaxed way friends can be.

That’s a sentence that is rejected by those who spent a lifetime treating their kids as friends and doing all they can to pretend they will now grow old and die, but I suspect if they worried more about setting a good example our society and republic might not be dying before our eyes.

Five Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora: Ramaphosa Does a Newsome, If ONLY the Uyghers were oppressed by Israel, Can the GOP do the Hagen Math?, Liars in Liars Out and Next Year at Dodger Stadium

Posted: June 18, 2023 by datechguy in elections, News/opinion, tech
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I didn’t give much attention to the African Peace Mission to Russia/Ukraine because it had no hope of success but there is one aspect I’d like to note. One of the delegates is President Ramaphosa of South Africa whose country you would call a basket case, if you wanted to insult basket cases that is.

Given the issues of violence, crime, electricity, infrastructure, and an inability of basic services in his country that he either can’t or won’t address it makes perfect sense for him to fly half way around the world to earn brownie points. It’s sort of like Gavin Newsome going after Florida. Much easier than solving problems at home.

For as long as I can remember Muslim were called upon to condemn Jews in general and Israel in particular over their treatment of the “Palestinians”. It was called “genocide” which is odd because if Israel wanted the Palestinians dead they could wiped them out half a dozen times over every week since 1968 and still rest for the Sabbath.

So when the head of the Palestinian Authority went to China you might expect him to have said something about their treatment of the Muslim Uyghers: He did, this

In the statement, the Palestinian Authority said issues regarding China’s policy toward Muslims in Xinjiang have “nothing to do with human rights and are aimed at excising extremism and opposing terrorism and separatism.”

“Palestine resolutely opposes using the Xinjiang problem as a way of interfering in China’s internal affairs,” the joint statement said.

Apparently some Muslims are more equal than others.

This actually makes me think that the GOP might have a chance for real inroads in the US Muslim community. Their hatred of Israel separates them from the GOP and their unwillingness to give into the gay agenda for their kids separates them from Democrats.

But the reality is for all their bluster on the subject in speeches and at colleges Israel is 8000 miles away and doesn’t affect the Muslim community in the US in general or in Michigan in particular. The gay agenda being pushed affects their own kids and community.

Which do you think these families will give priority to?

If conservatives play this right this can change the gameboard in several states really fast.

The most interesting thing you will read today is an exchange between Harvey Risch, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at Yale School and a Chatbot called Rebelio on the subject of hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19.

The chatbot gives false and misleading answers to questions until corrected by Mr. Risch and then confirms his accurate information while downplaying it citing consensus. The key exchange comes at the end:

User:

This answer did not answer the question that I asked. All of the errors you made were statements contrary to facts that you verified in subsequent answers. Since you had the correct factual information, why did you cite incorrect facts?

RebbeIO:

I apologize for any confusion or frustration that my previous responses may have caused. As an AI language model, I do not intentionally provide incorrect information. However, I understand that I made errors in my previous responses, and I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience that this may have caused.

I strive to provide accurate and helpful responses based on the information available to me, and I understand the importance of providing correct information, especially when it comes to matters of public health and scientific research. I will continue to do my best to provide accurate and helpful responses based on the information available to me, and I appreciate your patience and understanding.

One must already remember that regardless of bells and whistles all these AI chats are just computer programs, programed by people, some of who have agendas which means the 1st rule of computers applies:

Garbage in, Garbage out.

Finally the most interesting part of the story concerning the Pride Celebration at Dodger Stadium including the anti-Catholic so called “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” is not the 5000 strong protest outside or the prayers and speakers, the large amount of Latino’s among the protesters, the statement from Bishop Barron or even the final attendance of 49K for the game itself agasint their hated rival the San Francisco Giants.

What is interesting the teams decision to hold the ceremony to honor them when there were only maybe 40 or 50 people in the stands. Even that tiny amount of people produced boos. The Dodgers could well imagine how loud those boos would have been if they held their ceremony when the park was full.

Next year will be VERY interesting.

The unintended consequences of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon

Posted: June 7, 2022 by chrisharper in middle east
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By Christopher Harper

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which began 40 years ago this week, created a variety of unintended consequences from the rise of militant Islam to a Shia swath from Lebanon to the Arab Gulf. 

I traveled as a reporter throughout the Arab World for many years, covering some of the worst episodes of human despair and devastation of the 20th century. But the Israeli invasion, which began with Tel Aviv’s goal of removing the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon, had a devastating effect on the world.

On June 6, 1982, Israeli forces launched an invasion of Lebanon called “Operation Peace for Galilee.” About 60,000 troops and more than 800 tanks, heavily supported by aircraft, attack helicopters, artillery, and missile boats, crossed the Israel–Lebanon border. A few days later, the Israelis and their Christian allies had encircled Beirut, where my colleagues and I reported on a siege that would end nearly three months later when the PLO evacuated Lebanon for other Arab countries.

Accurate casualty figures are difficult to find, but the independent Beirut newspaper An Nahar published an estimate of deaths from hospital and police records that claimed that more than 17,000 people died, roughly half civilians.

After the PLO’s departure, Christian forces murdered between 700 and 2,000 people in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in South Beirut. Israeli forces stood by as the massacre happened in September. I worked on an excellent documentary about the tragedy, “Oh, Tell the World What Happened,” for ABC News.

Although the PLO had many flaws, it was distinctly nonreligious. After the Israelis drove the PLO from Lebanon, Shia Muslims took control of the Lebanese government, creating an even more hostile force with Syria and Iran’s military and religious backing. That resulted in an attack on October 23, 1983, when 241 Marines and seamen died in a truck bombing in Beirut. The attack used Iranian funds, Syrian know-how, and Shia bombers. 

Here is the ABC 20/20 investigation I produced:

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfhAAhQ4FBg&t=2s

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgAFQYIYGpY&t=11s

The cross-border confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah, the Shia group in Lebanon, led to a war in 2006, which emboldened the Islamists. Furthermore, Hezbollah joined forces with Hamas, a Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip that continues to harass Israel today.

The Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon became a critical training ground for guerrillas and terrorists worldwide under the control of both Sunni and Shia extremists. Many foreign soldiers who fought U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s got some of their training in the Bekaa Valley. 

It’s rare that a decision from 40 years ago continues to create havoc, but that’s precisely what occurred when Israel decided to invade Lebanon in 1982. 

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