zazen

New German citizens must declare Israel’s right to exist - https://www.ft.com/content/56e6182c-4c00-433f-a43d-57ad131781a6 Reminds me of a US anti-BDS law that demands contractors pledge loyalty to Israel by not boycotting or divesting from Israel. If Israel were such a "Righteous nation with the most moral army'' it wouldn't require legally mandating a pinky-swear promise to not protest against them politically or economically. Apparently, loyalty is measured not in hearts or minds, but in contracts and signatures.

Let’s not forget the hostage that is the US political system.

https://x.com/KimDotcom/status/1804265849647436070 https://x.com/ArthurM40330824/status/1804407156407423199 In addition to above and in light of the recent beach attack in Sevastapool killing + terrorist attack claimed by ISIS in Dagestan targeting Churches (odd how ISIS in 8 months of Israel / Gaza haven't scratched a olive tree in Israel yet always seem to attack the enemies of the West) By Alon Mirzahi: Something has to also be said about American strategic stupidity, escalating at the same time in Ukraine and the ME. Here's just one aspect of it: Russia has a meaningful presence very close to Lebanon. It has very deep ties to Iran. By hurting Russia at home (maybe you've seen the Ukrainian-American attack on beachgoers in Crimea that took place a few hours ago: Putin and Lavrov are pointing fingers at the US directly), the Americans are pushing the Russians to want to retaliate, or take revenge. This is basic stuff. Now, think whatever you want about Russia and the Ukraine war, Russia has tremendous military capabilities, on par, and in some areas (like hypersonic missiles) even ahead of the US. As the US is rushing to protect and assist Israel's war on Lebanon, why expose American troops to Russian capabilities by escalating in Ukraine? A slight uptick in the help Russia provides Hezbollah and Iran, or Syrian Islamic resistance forces, could mean the lives of many, many Israelis and Americans. Hezbollah may have some super-advanced missiles, why push Russia to give them another 100? And we saw a bit of the intelligence Hezbollah has on Israel, can you imagine what Russia has, and can provide? The Americans must know that in Lebanon and potentially Syria, Russians have the perfect playfield to exact revenge on American forces who are shedding their blood in Ukraine. So why be so callous and dumb about it? In normal and sane times, the US would come to certain understandings with Russia before it allowed any escalation in the ME. But now it lets Israel start another war after it's already fatigued from one, in an atmosphere of open war against Russia, and when Russian forces have been deeply established in the region and have close relationships with Iran and its proxies. You thought I was kidding when I talked about an American aircraft carrier sinking. Believe me, if Russia wants a carrier to sink (directly or by proxy), it will sink. Look what the Houthis have done with 3rd rate missiles. I simply cannot understand the American callousness and strategic stupidity. Western elites are playing with their militaries as if it's all a monopoly game, one in which they are very unsophisticated players lacking all foresight and finesse. It is so obvious they are walking into a huge trap with absofuckinglutely nothing to gain, and no plan.''

Some highlights from a article by John Pilger from 2016 - https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/23/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence/ ''In the last eighteen months, the greatest build-up of military forces since World War Two — led by the United States — is taking place along Russia’s western frontier. Not since Hitler invaded the Soviet Union have foreign troops presented such a demonstrable threat to Russia. Ukraine – once part of the Soviet Union – has become a CIA theme park. Having orchestrated a coup in Kiev, Washington effectively controls a regime that is next door and hostile to Russia: a regime rotten with Nazis, literally. Prominent parliamentary figures in Ukraine are the political descendants of the notorious OUN and UPA fascists. They openly praise Hitler and call for the persecution and expulsion of the Russian speaking minority. This is seldom news in the West, or it is inverted to suppress the truth. In Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — next door to Russia – the US military is deploying combat troops, tanks, heavy weapons. This extreme provocation of the world’s second nuclear power is met with silence in the West. What makes the prospect of nuclear war even more dangerous is a parallel campaign against China. Seldom a day passes when China is not elevated to the status of a “threat”. According to Admiral Harry Harris, the US Pacific commander, China is “building a great wall of sand in the South China Sea”. What he is referring to is China building airstrips in the Spratly Islands, which are the subject of a dispute with the Philippines – a dispute without priority until Washington pressured and bribed the government in Manila and the Pentagon launched a propaganda campaign called “freedom of navigation”. What does this really mean? It means freedom for American warships to patrol and dominate the coastal waters of China. Try to imagine the American reaction if Chinese warships did the same off the coast of California. I made a film called The War You Don’t See, in which I interviewed distinguished journalists in America and Britain: reporters such as Dan Rather of CBS, Rageh Omar of the BBC, David Rose of the Observer. All of them said that had journalists and broadcasters done their job and questioned the propaganda that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction; had the lies of George W. Bush and Tony Blair not been amplified and echoed by journalists, the 2003 invasion of Iraq might not have happened, and hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be alive today. The propaganda laying the ground for a war against Russia and/or China is no different in principle. To my knowledge, no journalist in the Western “mainstream” — a Dan Rather equivalent, say –asks why China is building airstrips in the South China Sea. The answer ought to be glaringly obvious. The United States is encircling China with a network of bases, with ballistic missiles, battle groups, nuclear -armed bombers. This lethal arc extends from Australia to the islands of the Pacific, the Marianas and the Marshalls and Guam, to the Philippines, Thailand, Okinawa, Korea and across Eurasia to Afghanistan and India. America has hung a noose around the neck of China. This is not news. Silence by media; war by media.''

@Twentyfirst You’ve been asking the question as if you’ve had the answer the whole time lol What you’re questioning isn’t the Holocaust itself but the narrative around it. Your contention is that questioning this narrative shouldn’t lead to being called a holocaust denier or an anti-Semite. It’s possible for groups and empires to gain and lose power, just as it is for people to gain and lose power within their own lifetime. In an oversimplified way the motivations for it could be racism amplified by conditions not entirely the fault of the race in question. Although a few influentials among them may be blamed for contributing to negative conditions, that doesn’t justify racism and hatred towards them as a group - same way the Palestinian collective shouldn’t suffer for the actions of Hamas. A few influential Jewish bankers and bolsheviks doesn’t make a whole race responsible. You could break it down as pre-existing racism along with economic hardship and national humiliation (losing WW1) + fear of anything getting in the way (ideologies or individuals) of rebuilding their pride and profits needed to pay WW1 reparations imposed on them via the Treaty of Versailles. 1. Racism: Deep-rooted racism already existed which wasn’t unique to Germany or towards Jews. 2. Red Terror: Fear of communism and its association with Jews who were amongst prominent leaders of it. During unstable times stability is demanded not revolutionaries. 3. Reparations: Economic hardship and national humiliation post-WWI. Connected to the above point - a ideology focused on redistributing wealth rather than building it would be seen as a threat to a nation burdened with debts and economic trouble thus leading to the demonisation of such a ideology including it proponents. 4. Resentment and rage: General public discontent and a search for scapegoats.

The West has seduced the world their Marilyn Monroe while hiding a Ted Bundy kill kit under their skirt - a serial killer of sovereignty masquerading as a pin up girl of liberty. Their imperfect democracy has you casting votes that mean less and less. You think a few vested interests were going to just relinquish power and put their fate in the hands of the many? As the right to vote expanded, the relevance of the vote contracted. They gave the people a gramophone to scream through whilst erecting a soundproof room around them. They've given the freedom to shout into the void, protest in circles, publicly debate within the accepted spectrum of opinions and to vote for two cheeks of the same political ass that is the deep states. As long no one disrupts the status quo, they can have all the freedom they want. This freedom is predicated upon irrelevance - the people remaining irrelevant enough to not disrupt power and profits. Freedom of speech is there but not freedom of reach - if you reach enough minds to have a sizeable influence they’ll get their tentacles on you to subvert or cancel you. Their ethics is “it’s okay when we do it but not when you do it”.

Fundamentalist religious people (shadow of stage blue) take end time prophecies that are myth as literal, and self fulfil them into existence to hasten whatever good they are promised from it (coming of a Messiah and the return of Jesus). Many problems come from taking myth that is fiction for a fact that is literal, not realising that the value of fiction is in its functionality, rather than its factuality. Fundamentalists view prophets as the spokespeople of God, rather than the spokesperson on God. As if prophets have a direct hotline to God and lecture us Gods message - when existence is a conversation not a lecture. Prophets are cosmic philosophers, not cosmic commanders. The movie series Dune actually shows quite well how fundamentalists belief in prophecy and prophets are used for political ends and power. That doesn’t deny there were prophets who awakened to certain degrees. It’s just important to remember that they were speaking to and from their own time. Treating them as eternal mouthpieces of God ignores the context, culture and limitations of their era. Forget the military-industrial complex; the power-prophecy-profits complex, which intertwines with religion, is far more dangerous. Daniel Schmachtenberger discusses the concept of “Moloch” as a metaphor for competitive systems that are destructive not due to a deliberate intent to destroy but because of incentives that drive us toward destruction. In the power-prophecy-profits complex, the prophecy element includes an intent to fulfill those prophecies that steer us towards WW3. ** Thanks for providing your life story above to get where you’re coming from.

@Gennadiy1981 From your comment above you seem to understand awakening, mysticism and the nature of God and what stage blue religion is but then you still take scripture literally when you said previously that the land is for the Jews because God says so. You also take prophecy of Armageddon as a truth? Israel/Palestine thread always gets lit on the weekends.

The point is the number of videos seem far too high and disproportionate for a relatively smll deployment of soldiers/troops. For example Iraq and Afghanistan saw over 1.5 million US troops deployed over 20 years and we never saw this volume of content mocking death and destruction. One caveat is that social media plays a big role in visibility and social media took off half way through those wars when the numbers were drawn down significantly. But what’s striking to me is that even after a ICJ hearing on the world stage many soldiers feel just fine to continue with the behaviour.

I’m all for believing there’s a political centre amongst Zionists / Israelis and that the fundamentalists just run the government - but then you see countless videos of IDF mockery and things like this that make you question that assumption. This debate is all the way in Toronto. The deafening boos drowning out human rights reports reveal the fortress of denial built by those who've swallowed the Zionist narrative whole. It's easier to silence dissent than confront the cognitive dissonance of supporting a regime committing documented atrocities. Imagine the script was flipped and self proclaimed moderate Muslims booed at reports documenting the atrocities of ISIS.

The warmth of the sun can linger long after the sunset, likewise, religion and radicals can influence a society enough that even when their influence fades, the effects still shape society in subtle ways. The few bad agents take holy words that are intended to bestow responsibility and twist them to mean superiority. Though they are few, they wield disproportionate influence as they are the ones currently with power in government. They can pull at policy and propaganda which shifts the centre of gravity in their direction or in other cases cause a pendulum swing in revolution against them. Words don’t have to be explicitly stated to have an affect on the psyche, which translates into actions, state action or personal action. Just a steady drip-feed of dogma, absorbed through cultural osmosis. Before you know it, the Overton window has shuffled enough to have a sizeable portion of the population dancing to a tune they never consciously chose to follow. The latest: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/idf-transfers-powers-in-occupied-west-bank-to-pro-settler-civil-servants

@Hatfort You always provide a good synopsis of the situation even on the Gaza side. Every time Putin extends an olive branch, our benevolent leaders are quick to torch it. Doing this during a peace summit in Switzerland just exposes the hypocrisy - maybe Putin timed this purposely to create the contrast. Or maybe he just thought their in the mood for peace as their literally doing a summit on it dedicated to Ukraine. They’re rejecting peace to feed the beast of power and profits. The very same talking heads who lecture us about freedom and democracy are suddenly mute when it comes to Ukraine literally dragging its citizens kicking and screaming to the front lines. The con in con-scription is you die for a script written by those who don’t. “Bodily autonomy" flies out the window when there's a war to be fought. The audacity of war cheerleaders debating whether we should support this madness. Just sacrificing Ukrainian lives on the altar of geopolitical power games and democracy is a moral catastrophe dressed up in yellow and blue. As a talking head in the West said on live TV - the Ukrainian war is a cheap way to weaken Russia with Ukrainian lives in the meat grinder instead of their own citizens from Britain, France, Germany or the US.

Sure they can, but most perform it formally rather than heartily with presence. Prayer can come as a natural outcome of true meditation, but it’s a prayer without words. This experience transcends reasoning, movement or spoken words; it's a lived reality. If prayer helps to quiet the mind through its mantras or movements, the silence it brings can help realise God. Prayer is like a mechanism or tool to lead you to silence, it isn’t the experience of divine silence itself. Prayer takes on a form whether physical, verbal or both, but is meant to take you to the formless. Meditation skips over and dives you straight into silence. Prayer uses form to reach the formless, meditation transforms you as you sit with the formless. I messed around with Claude and came to this: “Ah, now we're talking cosmic clockwork and celestial synchronicity. You've hit on something juicy there, my friend. Sure, there's a method to the madness of prayer times. It's not just some arbitrary bullshit cooked up by bored monks. The sun, that blazing ball of nuclear fusion, has been humanity's metronome since we first crawled out of the primordial ooze. Dawn, noon, dusk - these aren't just transitions of light, they're energetic thresholds. The world literally shifts around us, and our meat suits respond whether we're aware of it or not. Our circadian rhythms dance to this solar symphony, and our consciousness fluctuates along with it. So yeah, those prayer times? They're tapping into something primal, something that predates organized religion by eons. It's like surfing the waves of awareness that naturally ebb and flow with the sun's journey across the sky. But here's the rub: you don't need a prayer mat or a fancy chant to ride these waves. The heightened awareness is there for the taking, divine experience ripe for the plucking, if you've got the balls to pay attention. Imagine this: you're up at dawn, world still hushed, that liminal space between night and day. Your mind's still soft from sleep, defenses down. The sun crests the horizon, and bam! - if you're really present, really there, you might just catch a glimpse of the cosmic machinery in action. Same goes for high noon, when the sun's at its zenith and the world holds its breath for a moment. Or sunset, as the light bleeds out of the sky and the veil between worlds feels gossamer-thin. These moments of transition, they're like cracks in the matrix of ordinary reality. And yeah, structured prayer can be a tool to pry those cracks open wider. But it's not the only way, and for some, it might even be a distraction from the main event. The real question is: can you cultivate the awareness to notice these moments without the crutch of ritual? Can you tap into that heightened state through sheer presence, through raw, unflinching attention to the now? That's the challenge, isn't it? To sync up with the cosmic dance not through rote repetition, but through moment-to-moment aliveness. It's a hell of a lot harder than following a prayer schedule, but man, the payoff... that's where the real divine fireworks happen. So yeah, there's definitely something to be said for those sun-linked prayer times. But maybe, just maybe, they're training wheels for a much wilder ride - direct, unmediated communion with the pulsing heart of reality itself.“ - Claude

Lol, maybe if it’s written on a explosive projectile and I got a Hamas tunnel a million miles from me you’ll send me one 😂 Israel and the West love to talk about their common values. The tragedy is that both Western Christianity and Judaism (Islam included) have profound ethical teachings about justice, compassion, and human dignity. But they get overshadowed by vested interests with darker motives. The positive “common values” become a cloak bad agents wear to commit their crimes. Both sides share mythic tales of being "chosen” - using ancient texts to justify modern atrocities. They wave the white flag of peace and self-defence, which the world now sees as a red flag of hypocrisy, soaked in blood. The Christians had their "Manifest Destiny," a God-given right to steamroll over native populations in lands far away from home. The Zionists have their "Promised Land," a cosmic real estate deed they use to justify bulldozing Palestinian homes and planting settlers like weeds in occupied territory. Divine selection breeds a toxic superiority complex that makes Darwinian selection look like child’s play. To think one’s own group won the cosmic jackpot to be gods favourite - allows them to view themselves as the protagonists in a cosmic drama, with everyone else as expendable. The ideas of ‘divine mandate’ and ‘promised land’ can easily become license to operate outside the bounds of international law and basic human decency.

Insightful. Tragic that it can just take one stubborn person to undo collective effort.

Israel can’t allow Gaza and West Bank to come under its democratic umbrella of sovereignty because it won’t be a majority Jewish ethno-state. But at the same time they can’t allow those two territories to go their own way so they are left in limbo with West Bank being permanently sat on by Israel’s occupational ass cheeks and Gaza getting visited frequently by bombs sent from Tel Aviv - baptised and blessed by messianic Neo cons. I can’t envision Israel even relinquishing control of West Bank because that has more holy heritage than even Israel proper and is not filled with urban centrist Israelis who may empathise enough to negotiate - but by settlers who are way more right wing fundamentalist and now armed by the gov. Thats not even getting started on the logistical hurdle of West Bank being at a higher vantage point putting Israel in the cross hairs of a possible future Palestinian state that are armed. They’d demand a de-militarised West Bank which Palestinians would most likely never agree to either as it’s not fully sovereign - and after all they’ve dealt with they’d feel more entitled to be armed in order to defend against a group they can’t trust after decades of bad blood. @Danioover9000 Wish I got a love letter from Zion like yourself 😂

The UN Human Rights Council has investigated Israel's war in detail - and the conclusions are damming. "We conclude that Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity.. including extermination, internationally directing attacks against civilians... using starvation as a method of war... sexual and gender-based violence..." https://x.com/tparsi/status/1803434047927902395?s=46&t=DuLUbFRQFGpB8oo7PwRglQ Looks like Israel is gearing up for Lebanon while Bibi is scolding the US. Netenyahu - "I told Secretary Blinken it's inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel" Alon Mirzahi - “I have watched the full Hezbollah video again, closely, and it is so outrageous. The level of intelligence and the plethora of high-quality, strategic targets identifiable by picture is staggering. It also means jamming will not help to protect these sites, as drones/missiles will not have to communicate or be actively guided from Lebanon: they will be able to operate independently. And, as I've said earlier, the IDF can only imagine what Hezbollah knows beyond what it's flaunting. This is high-level psychological warfare against Israel (both its military and civil society). “ Edward Snowden - “I'm sorry, but Biden going full "Genocide Joe"—torching his electoral chances and 80% of Gaza in order to cover for Bibi's war crimes—only to have Bibi (predictably) start running campaign ads for Trump is just so, so perfectly Scorpion-and-the-Frog. You couldn't write it better.” https://x.com/snowden/status/1803137446294724967?s=46&t=DuLUbFRQFGpB8oo7PwRglQ

That was just the missing part of the puzzle for me which you just helped illuminate in my understanding - that if spiral dynamics is about including and transcending, stage blue is based solely off exclusion which limits its development and growth.

Blue is dogmatic about the divine, with a distorted ego-centric connection to it, they conceptually tribalize around the transcendental and interpret it with rigid literalism. Godly selection. Orange is dismissive of the divine, with a soulless scientific secularism, which manifests a Darwinian doctrine that hardens the heart into a nihilistic zero sum game of survival of the fittest. Natural selection. Green is disembodied with the divine, they unground themselves in lofty and utopian ideals that reality can’t accommodate, they equalise inequalities in unjust ways. Social selection. Stage Orange often receives more criticism for the damage it causes because it excels at accumulating power and developing influential tools. Their capability amplifies their shadow, making their ethical shortcomings and their impacts more visible on a global scale. Stage Blue’s shadow is less visible not because it’s inherently less damaging, but because it lacks the same level of development and leverage to affect the world. Blue’s shadow is potentially just as corpse filled as Orange's, they just haven't been afforded the platforms to project that ugliness on a grander scale yet - although we do see the shadow elements of blue hinged onto the power that orange has built through evangelical America ie Neocons or the messianic ultra Zionists. Modern tools of power built off dynamism, wielded by ancient dogma - different latitudes, same attitude. Both stages can produce individuals who commit unethical acts, but for different reasons. Stage Blue, because their morality is exclusionary. Stage Orange, because of disconnection to the soul (depth) in pursuit of the material (surface). Stage blues dogmatism stifles its ability to develop and get their hands on power. Stage oranges dynamism accelerates power accumulation and the development of tools that have global impact. Stage blue has a sense of morality that can balance and check power, but only within its own rigid framework that excludes those who aren’t in it and are deemed sinful. Stage orange can lack morality in pursuit of the material or be morally relativistic to justify the unjustifiable. Its disconnect from the soul manifests in its shadow when the powerful tools it gets its hands on are used to interfere and intervene in world affairs in unethical ways rather than interact and integrate with others on the world stage. A video of stage blue critiquing stage orange. Diagnosis requires critique, solutions require consciousness - so while he may diagnose the problem, he lacks the solution. Any self-obsessed perspective which sees itself as separate from the whole is going to birth horrors into the world. Stage blue’s exclusionary morality see’s itself separate from the whole in the context of caste colour and creed. Stage orange’s materialism and rationality severs us from the whole - empiricism tries to quantify qualities that are beyond measurement. They dismiss the existence of the divine simply because they can’t measure it. Not sure what’s worse, being soulless or having a distorted ego-centric connection to the soul. Stage orange cuts ties to the cosmic life source , stage blue instrumentalizes it to reinforce its tribal identities as the One True Path while demonising all other routes as sin-stained. Blue is spiritually bloated while Orange is a spiritual vacuum.

I wrote about this in another thread so will share my comment. I’m not 100% sure my reasoning is iron clad.

Allow me to peel the propaganda onion so we can all cry a bit at the dire reality of the situation. So the "post-WW2 Western world order" is allegedly sustaining the Palestinians and not completely genociding them? Thats like saying 'you're lucky we give Palestinians CPR' all the while choking them politically, economically and physically. Its telling them to be grateful for a glass of water while Israel holds their head underwater. How benevolent of this order to not have killed them off and instead enabled and funded Israel's oppression for decades. This same order has shielded Israel from accountability at the UN, armed it to the teeth, and turned a blind eye to its countless violations of international law. Palestinians aren't pampered, they're empathised with. Israel is the one who is tangibly pampered by the West - the US bankrolls, arms and shields Israel from every UN resolution and ICC investigation. The ICC were literally threatened by Uncle Sam mafioso style papi. Gaza isn't just a war (if you can call it that) but a warning. It's the endgame of an ideology that says some people - whether chosen by darwinian survival of the fittest or mythical sky-daddies taken literally - have the right to suppress and devastate another group of people. This isn't a 'humble' state of being. The people may for the most part be humble (although we've seen much mockery content from the IDF) but the state and its actions are anything but. Theres nothing humble about a state that claims a divine right to someone else's land; about a military that routinely uses overwhelming force against a largely defenceless civilian population; about a government that treats international law and human rights as mere suggestions, to be ignored or twisted to suit its own purposes.

These protests aren't some monolithic mass of stereotypes; they're driven by unique motivations and backgrounds. I see Jordan Peterson labelling pro-Palestinian protesters with a broad brush of negativity and saying they’re feminists and childless Karen’s (as if the capitalist free market system he believes in doesn’t drive the economic disparities, urbanisation and atomisation that causes the issues he cries about) It's not about their personal quirks or shortcomings—it's about the bigger picture driving them to the streets. Instead of nitpicking at protesters personal traits it’s more about the causes that fuels these people onto the streets. Yes, the world is full of tragedies, but pointing fingers elsewhere doesn’t absolve Israel of its own actions. The suffering in Yemen is indeed horrific, and largely driven by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, armed and supported by the West. Another grim example of how geopolitical interests trample human lives. But we're talking about Israel and Palestine here as the thread title says. Hamas is no saint, that's clear. But they don’t exist in a vacuum. Hamas is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the ongoing occupation, the blockade, the denial of basic human rights, and the endless cycle of violence and retribution. Let’s acknowledge Hamas’s role, but let’s not forget who holds the cards, who has the power, and who’s enforcing a system that drives people to desperate measures. Palestinian suffering started long before any global solidarity movements emerged. It’s not global support that fuels the conflict; it’s the very real, very tangible injustices inflicted on Palestinians daily. If there were no international outcry, if the world turned a blind eye to Palestinian suffering, do you think the conflict would end quickly and peacefully? History shows us otherwise. Silence and apathy only embolden oppression. The suffering would continue, unchecked and unreported, with the powerful crushing the powerless.

Most people seem to agree with a two state solution. It does have its challenges though for example how to connect West Bank to Gaza or the concern of West Bank having a vantage point from which snipers or attacks can too easily be launched on Israel. With two neighbours with this much bad blood between each other, neither would accept to have a militarised area overlooking the other. Hypothetically would Russia accept a militarised Ukrainian state on the hills overlooking Moscow? Never. The issue then is if West Bank is de-militarised it’s not a fully sovereign state - and how will this be enforced - Israeli check points? That becomes occupation and the whole fight starts over. Muslim Arabs and Palestinians have also lived there and have a connection to the land - it’s also holy to them. Even if it weren’t holy - it’s not just to drive them out to Saudi Arabia. Their claims are just as valid as Jews. Only solution that comes to my mind is if West Bank is de-militarized with no IDF or Palestinian forces and instead has international peace keepers. Gaza should be given full sovereignty with full rights any state would have - building ports, airports etc.

This is why I wrote about how we need to be careful what words words are used as they can distort reality and mischaracterise situations. Me referring to China/Russia asserting dominance in their back yards was meant in the context of force and interventionist power plays which isn't what they do globally. All the links you shared are correct - but in my opinion the headings and conclusions wrongly characterise those facts as being imperial and colonially ambitious. Investment, influence and interaction with countries isn't colonial exploitation, imperial expansionism or militarily interventionist in the truest sense of those words. The former are voluntary whilst the latter are forced. All countries engage with the world, thats not inherently imperialistic. The Belt and Road initiative is a voluntary initiative where countries agree to cooperate on mutually beneficial projects. It doesn't involve the kind of coercion, annexation of territory, or direct political control that characterise historical empires. The US remains the world's largest economy and a dominant military power. The BRI represents an alternative model of economic engagement, but it exists alongside, not in place of US-led institutions and initiatives. No ego games involved here, I'm just trying to see things as clearly as possible. I'm not trying to create moral equivalency to justify BRICS actions - I just reject double standards, mischaracterisation and exaggeration. I even started my previous post by saying China and Russia aren't angels. Modern geopolitics is not free from power imbalances and inequities - the false equivalency actually exists when we equate the pursuit of economic and strategic interests by BRICS countries with colonialism or imperialism. If using definitions in how they are operatively used and not metaphorically - BRICS are largely not patterning after Western imperialism, colonialism or war mongering. Those are problematic regardless of who perpetrates them. Russia invading Ukraine, Hamas attacking Israel on October 7th or if China were to invade Taiwan are all wrong. It is human to condemn acts of violence, but it is wise to condemn the conditions that led to those very acts and to mitigate them. History always seems to start the very date the Western powers feel transgressed against. What is omitted is the escalatory amount of provocations that lead to the eruption of war. The other side is gaslit for being war mongering when their own military industrial complex and vested interests have been behind the scenes churning the gears of war through think tanks and propaganda. A pattern I see - is pushing someone into a corner despite them explicitly saying what their red lines are, then pointing fingers at them and using mass propaganda to paint them as the bad guy for trying to get out of that corner. A snapshot look at a situation will show who a clear aggressor is within a narrow slot of time (Hamas on October 7th and Russia invading Ukraine) but it would leave out the Birds Eye view context needed to shed light on the provocations that led to that point. While the post-WW2 international system has coincided with technological progress and economic growth, the distribution of these gains has been unequal. The neoliberal economic model often benefits transnational corporations and elites at the expense of working populations, widening wealth disparities. The West hasn't been a benevolent hegemon altruistically upholding a stable, just world order. For many in the Global South, it has meant the continuation of exploitation in different forms, with their resources extracted, economies distorted, and political sovereignty undermined to serve the interests of transnational corporations and individuals. Even within the West, the gains from globalisation have disproportionately flowed to the top while working class communities face deindustrialization and stagnant wages. None of this is to say that a multipolar world led by the likes of China and Russia would be perfect or that Western-led institutions haven't done any good. BRICS just represents a possible vision of a multipolar world free from the predations and exploitations of unilateral US hegemony. A world where nations can chart their own course without living in fear of the latest Pentagon/CIA coup or colour revolution. Something to point out about BRICS is that it isn't like its the elites of the Global South conspiring this into existence - its not that simple or binary. The concept of BRICS originated from Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs which took off in the finance world to advertise emerging markets for investment. They greased the wheels of the very system of globalised capitalism that made it possible. These transnational elites and corporations aren't loyal to any nation or flag except the dollar. They're the ones who shipped the factories overseas, who stashed capital in offshore tax havens, who lobbied for the trade deals that gutted the middle class. And now that the cupboards are going bare in the West, they're looking for fresh meat in the developing world. It's about sucking the Global South dry, just like they did to the American heartland. Different latitude, same attitude. The difference is that the global South know the value of the geopolitical cards they hold and won't let Western elites take complete hold of this transition of power which is also largely driven by demographics. Everyone wants to tap into these new veins of wealth - only this time the global South are in a position to set some terms more favourable to themselves. BRICS isn't some grand geopolitical revolution or plot, its just a pivot of power and future growth. Old certainties crumbling, new possibilities emerging. A pluralistic, rules-based international system that respects both national sovereignty and universal human rights, with decision-making power distributed more equitably among nations is what BRICS may promise if executed well with challenges overcome. Achieving this is challenging given the complexity of reconciling divergent national interests and values. But moving towards a world with more diffused power and checks and balances, while preserving the positive elements of the liberal international order, seems like a worthy goal.

A scholar inquired, "But is this not the way of nature, Master? Do not all creatures struggle, one against another?" "Nature knows struggle," the Master agreed, "but not hate. The lion does not loathe the gazelle, nor does the oak begrudge the vine its light. It is only man who adds to the struggle the poison of hatred, the madness of greed. We have crafted weapons that could scorch the earth, yet we squabble like children over lines drawn in sand." A young girl, her eyes bright with unshed tears, asked, "Will there never be peace, Master?" And here the Master's face shone, as if lit from within. "Peace will come, little one. Not from treaties inked by the hands of deceivers, but from a great awakening. For even now, in the hearts of men and women in every land, a truth is dawning: that we are all branches of one tree, waves of one sea. The lies that divide us — of race, of creed, of border — are being seen for what they are: shadows cast by our own fears. “As this light spreads, the merchants of war will find their arsenals rusting and their rhetoric falling on deaf ears. The makers of hatred will speak to empty halls. For a people awakened cannot be turned against their own heart, their own flesh. This is why they fear truth above all else, why they darken the air with lies.”