American politicians, the mainstream media, a powerful segment of academia – all have marginalized the faculty of critical thinking. The paradox is that modern academic disciplines claim to follow Socratic Method of inquiry but in reality, they blatantly follow Sophistic relativistic philosophy and seem unable to confront the corrupting influence of money in American politics and culture…
The refusal of the Likud Party to negotiate with the Palestinians is not new. Consider the assassination of Swedish diplomat and Red Cross Chief Count Bernadotte. The United Nations appointed him to negotiate peace… but the Israeli paramilitary group Lehi, aka Stern Gang, murdered him in Jerusalem on September 17, 1948. Lehi feared that his proposals for peace with the Arabs would be accepted. Bernadotte had the reputation of saving of more than 30,000 lives from Hitler’s concentration camps. The US condemned the assassination, demanded full investigation… However, the whole issue died down slowly and one of Bernadotte’s assassins later became Israel’s prime minister. This disregard for international law and the need for compromise has frequently characterized Israeli policy in the aftermath
We are all witnessing horrors and carnage going on in the tiny landmass called Gaza – a land squeezed between Egypt and Israel where 2.3 million people were living before the beginning of the butchery. As horrific as Hamas’s attack of October 7 on Israel was, nothing justifies the demolition of civilian city quarters from the air. Since 2005 when the Israeli army and settlers withdrew from the interior of Gaza, this is the sixth time that Israel has conducted direct military aggression into the territory. It has led Operation Summer Rains in 2006, Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Operation Pillar Defense in 2012, Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Operation Black Belt in 2019: every time declaring the total annihilation of Hamas as the objective. Will Israel succeed this time?
The US administration has already declared unqualified support for Israel’s war strategy against the advice of prominent intellectuals. Richard Haass, President Emeritus of the Council of Foreign Relations, has warned in a friendly advice in the Foreign Affairs that, “Hamas is as much a network, a movement, and an ideology as it is an organization. Its leadership can be killed, but the entity or something like it will survive.” In a separate article a week after the October 7 Hamas attack, Marc Lynch has cautioned that, “An Invasion of Gaza Would Be a Disaster for Israel.” Yet the Administration does not seem to have reflected on the overall situation. Why is this happening? Is this unprecedented in history?…
We do not realize how much we have degenerated over the decades. Now we express our horror at the murder of a six year old Palestinian-American in the hands of an elderly bigot. American politicians, the mainstream media, a powerful segment of academia – all have marginalized the faculty of critical thinking. The paradox is that modern academic disciplines claim to follow Socratic Method of inquiry but in reality, they blatantly follow Sophistic relativistic philosophy and seem unable to confront the corrupting influence of money in American politics and culture…
https://www.juancole.com/2023/10/response-civilizational-decline.html
Palestine and Israel: Historical, Legal and Moral Issues
Michael Brenner: Europe-Jews-Muslims
Israel-Hamas War: US arms industry stocks rocket (October 10)
Revealing New Evidence in Abu Akleh’s Killing, Al Jazeera Sues Israeli Forces at ICC
Saudi prince slams Hamas, Israel with India praise: ‘Prefer civil disobedience’
After the truth-shower 