Interview on Youtube about my early travels

 https://youtu.be/4kW0VrApLuQ
Please click the link above, not the picture

Some thoughts on current world threats and on Israel

 

Postcard I sent home from Israel in December 1985. I did have a camera then but was short of money, so I didn't buy film – thus I took no photos during my 2-week stay there.

Diary Monday 19 February 2024: 

The world is in a horrible and parlous state. The “evil empire", the US and its lackeys, is threatening war with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and others.

If a direct confrontation begins and cannot be stopped before it escalates (the US always seeks “escalation dominance,” of course – and ultimately “full spectrum dominance”), there is a real danger of nuclear weapons being used. The US would likely launch a preemptive strike and try to “decapitate” its adversaries, as I understand its doctrine states or at least implies.

As far as I can see, both Russia's and China's nuclear postures are defensive, and they fear the USA.

The situation in Ukraine, where “western” powers are engaged in a proxy war with Russia, is going from bad to worse as Russia advances there. Moscow has been willing to compromise for the sake of peace from the beginning, but the “west” refuses to negotiate, as it wants to weaken and ultimately dismember Russia, if possible without spilling too much blood of its own military forces. 

(see my first post on the Ukraine conflict, from March 2022, here: My view of the US-Russia conflict )

Israel, the darling of the “west,” is meanwhile committing wholesale genocide against the Palestinians, the long-time indigenous inhabitants of the land the Zionists have stolen by force and extreme, racist violence. Zionism was always an evil scheme and an aberration, but it has been encouraged and almost slavishly supported by the “west,” no matter how much it made the indigenous populations of the region suffer (not just the Palestinians but also the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Jordanians and others).

There are signs that the blind support of Israel by most people in the “west” may be changing, and that critical voices are increasingly being heard. But there is also a strong pushback from governments and very powerful forces in the “west” and elsewhere against any criticism of Israel.

One of my brothers and some of my friends are pro-Israel to the hilt. He and other evangelical Christians believe Israel must be supported at all costs because Christ will return there at the end-times, which they think are upon us. They believe Christ will return in glory and with irresistible power to Jerusalem, and smite those who serve Satan, etc. – or something like that. To me, this belief is simply insane. 

I believe the Zionist state as it exists today is a blight on the world and must be dissolved. A truly open and democratic society should take its place, and those Israelis who have no real roots in that land should return to where they came from in North America, Europe, Australia, Russia and elsewhere – unless they really have nowhere else to go, which is the case for many from the Soviet sphere and, of course, from Arab countries. 

Zionism should really be condemned as a kind of racism. Palestinian refugees and their descendants should be allowed to return. Non-Zionist Jews could, of course, be welcomed, too.

I support several Jewish and Israeli organizations, and news outlets that oppose Zionism, including conscientious objectors who are jailed in Israel because they refuse to serve in the Israeli military as they are appalled at what their state is doing to the Palestinians.

I think especially non- or anti-Zionist Jewish organizations are the best hope for change in Israel, and also in the USA. As far as Jewish people in general are concerned, I couldn't help noticing that they play very important roles almost everywhere in the world. It seems to me that Jewish people are on average more talented than most others in many respects.

They do seem special, indeed. I don't know why this is the case. As a people, if they can be described as such despite their incredible diversity, they seem especially gifted for some reason. This has both good and bad effects in human history, and I think it is important that the good should be encouraged and supported.

There is a lot of good in Israel itself, too. I was quite positively impressed when I spent 2 weeks there – mostly in Jerusalem, but also in Tel Aviv, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea and Haifa – just before Christmas 1985, coming from Limassol / Cyprus by boat. 

I felt welcome everywhere, almost as if people regarded me as a local, not a foreigner. 

However, as Einstein warned, nationalism of any kind is dangerous. And Israel was created based on a very strong, radical and yet artificial idea of nationalism, like an Israel “über alles.”

This can only lead to disaster, and if Jewish people use their special gifts to dominate and oppress others when they are armed with such an ideology, this is a great evil upon the world. 

See also: The Evil Empire Is in the West