Edition #1144

Thursday. I look around in my little bubble of a life, as I recognize the luck that I, my family, and most of the people we know have had in this world. There is much chaos and division out there, outside of our bubbles. Maybe it is just our choice as to how much of that we let in, or at least how we allow it to impact us.

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” John Muir, quoted in The Marginalian. And it is this truth that binds us together on the one hand, and creates division by undermining the fantasy that we are not all connected.

Yesterday, or the day before (too lazy to actually look), I wrote about the Russian strategy of creating or exacerbating division amongst Western and NATO countries. And then today, I read that the Polish government was warning of a Russian plan to use captured Ukrainian drones to attack other countries in the hope that it would be seen as Ukrainian aggression. This in an attempt to split support for Ukraine. As was the case under Biden at the beginning of this war, a public announcement of these tactics in advance can act to prevent such operations since conducting them merely confirms the accusation. I am surprised at how many casualties the Russian side can absorb without some hints of a fracture in the governing elite in Moscow. Not only the reported one thousand soldiers a day, but the growing capacity of Ukraine to attack Russian infrastructure deep into their territory. All of this should weaken Putin’s grip, I would think. But maybe those who would dissent are no better.

It was just last Thursday that Trump held a prime-time briefing (seen live by few) where he blatantly accused China of absconding with hundreds of millions of voter records (although those records were publicly available), and hinted that China was behind the “fraud” that cost him the 2020 election. I won’t go into the fact that he should stop his obsession with this stuff and move on. It is not healthy for him to keep this ruminating in his head, nor is it healthy for the rest of us to have to constantly remind everyone that there is not a shred of proof to back up his ego-driven accusations. But, almost immediately after casting China as the ultimate bad actor in this drama, he downplayed any nefarious actions by China. I suspect that with Xi scheduled to visit next month, Trump is eager to say “never mind” to avoid upsetting him. Echoing his justification of Putin’s actions back in 2016, he stated something to the effect that we do bad stuff to them as well. You know, the old two wrongs mentality…turned backwards.

There has been a lot of controversy over the definition of the word genocide. It is a powerful word that once invoked casts a net of condemnation on those accused. And to the extent it is warranted, that stain is as it should be. But, as we know, such accusations are not consistently determined, often fed by political, tribal, and ideological leanings. And it is in this light that this podcast featuring Bret Stephens discussing the issue is enlightening. Full disclosure here…I do not believe that the accusation of genocide applies to Israel’s actions in Gaza. I do, however, believe that as the war dragged on, Israel’s actions were excessive, were insensitive to the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and that Netanyahu’s own personal issues prevented him from looking for offramps. But genocide? When Israel allowed medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into Gaza as the war was being prosecuted? When Israel consistently dropped leaflets in neighborhoods warning that they would soon be bombed and to evacuate (which I do not think any other military has ever done)? Could they have done a better job in weighing risks to civilians against the military value of some targets even though it was Hamas that put those civilians in harm’s way? Sure. But genocide? Over the course of the two-plus years of the war, Israel killed a reported seventy thousand Palestinians, of which estimates by Israel (no such breakdown is allowed by Hamas) are that twenty-five to thirty thousand were Hamas fighters. If an army as capable as Israel’s wanted to commit genocide, wouldn’t you think that they could kill more than three percent of a population that, if you believe Hamas’ supporters, live in the most densely populated land in the world? And, of course, these accusations against Israel would want you to ignore the actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023. They would like for you to view only what happened from, say, October 9 or so onward, as if there were no provocation.

………………..Perspective –

And while there is a crowd laser-focused on Israel as the demon of the world, an Iranian regime that killed a reported thirty-five thousand of their own citizens over the course of two days in January gets a pass. The rebel armies in Sudan are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, get a pass. Russia’s intentional attacks on civilians over the past four years get a pass. And the list goes on. None of this excuses Israel’s excesses to the extent that they exist. But it has to raise the question as to what is really underneath the obvious double standard here. The answer to that question is clear and obvious to me, as it should be to anyone else looking at the world. And that answer is not a concern for human rights. That much is clear.

Given the fact that NGOs (non-governmental organizations) number in the tens of thousands, if not more, it is impossible to say that they are all bad. Watch this video with Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Watch, an NGO (one of the good ones) that monitors and investigates NGOs around the world. But the most prominent ones that we all know about, and which are quoted often in media reports on various subjects, are tainted at best, completely corrupt at worst. But note also that even though the name implies that NGOs are not affiliated with governments, many actually are. Many are funded by and are just arms of a country. A famous example was a Libyan NGO that was beholden to the late Muammar Gaddafi, and fully recognized by the UN. And in today’s world, there are many UN-recognized NGOs that are merely mouthpieces for China. And as many of the more prominent NGOs were begun as volunteer organizations with good intentions, most operate on annual budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. And rather than the apolitical human rights watchdogs that many still believe they are, they have been captured by an anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-Western, anti-colonial bent. And one really disturbing aspect of that is the fact that in order to be recognized by the UN, you are asked about your views on Palestinians and Israel. If you do not answer correctly, you are gone.

………………….The Impact –

You see it all of the time. Quotes in articles from Amnesty International, or Human Rights Watch, or Doctors Without Borders appear in the media without any critique. Their word is assumed to be unassailable. Their motives are assumed to be pure. Their conclusions are gospel. Except that in many cases, especially when it comes to Israel, they have been captured, either unintentionally or by design, by the far-left narrative. They intentionally bias their reporting to not question what their donors (be they individuals, organizations, governments) want to hear. In short, they are much less purveyors of objective truth than a curated set of facts determined by the story they wish to tell. The recent Nicholas Kristof piece where he accused Israel of systematically abusing Palestinian prisoners using dogs to rape them was spoon-fed to him by an NGO that is really just an arm of Islamist terrorist groups. Kristof did no independent investigation of the charges or of the source of the information he included in his article. He just allowed himself to be used. And this pattern by journalists and the NGO world is common. NGOs are assumed to be something that they are not. At least not anymore. The days of assuming an NGO is merely a well-meaning, altruistic organization, untainted by a political agenda, are gone. But their ability to continue that assumption gives them great power. And that power is used habitually.

…………………..Whistleblowers –

On the positive side, there seems to be a small but growing set of whistleblowers who are calling out the blatant antisemitism that is not only a part of many of these organizations, but an enforced ideology. How effective these people have been or will be moving forward is unknown, but it is encouraging that there is a platform for those who do not subscribe to the approved narrative to come out. And perhaps that was behind a retraction of accusations by an NGO that Israel was intentionally targeting journalists that has already become just an often-repeated “fact.” The retraction, which comes three years after the initial accusation, admits that many of those “journalists” were actually deeply embedded in the Hamas and Hezbollah infrastructure. The beginning of a turnaround? I’m too cynical to believe that, but I will admit that it is something. And that is better than nothing. And again, although the video interview is long (at about one hour), you can watch or listen to it in one and a half speed, or more if your brain can handle it. It is worth the effort, truly.

It never concludes. Don’t you know that by now? It just moves from one day to the next. So stay healthy and be good to each other.

Me.