“Armed Jewish settlers storm Palestinian town, conduct military training”
There’s no other way to describe the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis than primitive barbarism, run-of-the-mill throughout history, and subsidized by the United States. The poison of an ethno-nationalist ideology has unleashed the barbaric beast within the settlers, who now see Palestinians as ‘sub-human’. It’s always been ironic to me, the way Israel has turned out, given the circumstances of its founding. Jews were the victim of a Holocaust designed and executed by a totalitarian ideology based on the supposed inferiority of Jews. After World War 2, what was created for Jews but a bizarre mirror of the murderous doctrine they fled.
The great irony of the human race is our capacity for great good, but also great evil. What other species slaughters each other in such a systematic manner as our own? I’m reminded of a young Arthur’s education at the behest of Merlin in Once And Future King. While in the form of a goose, he attempts to convey the meaning of war to a female of the species. Her horrified reaction to the thought of a species engaged in the extermination of its own kind is telling.
It is in our nature to thrive in an environment of liberty, yet it is also in our nature to violate and suppress the liberty of others. Whatever cosmic force placed this inimical dichotomy within us seemingly set us up for failure, yet there have been pockets of progress scattered throughout history. Most have been purely accidental, short periods of time when either government or culture forgot to impose its authoritarian doctrine on all of society, and society and culture flourished. It is short-lived, as our controlling nature notices such undesigned progress, repulsing our primitive inclination for the safe domain of authority. A totalitarian dogma usually swoops in at this point, with the multitude taking part in the sacrament, and progress grinding to a halt.
