Syria

A New Proposal


POST 1251

Let’s take a short break from the ongoing ICE brutality, from the corruption and incompetence of the Trump administration, from its bedrock of self-serving dishonesty, from Trump as pit bull, using every American thing as a fire hydrant to piss on and claim as his own and from the America-defeating Republican cowardice.

You remember Gaza, right? Those people were all over international news for, what, a year? Maybe two? First they were evil for the thousands of rockets they fired into Israeli cities and then for the October 7 massacre.* Then they were victims when Israel hit back. Then they were pitiable for their lack of human basics, like water, food and shelter.

Then something happened somewhere else and the world forgot about them. But their dire circumstances remain and call for something to alleviate the suffering. Oddly, they offer a formerly unimaginable solution to this very old problem in this very old region, so let’s remember these people for a couple of minutes.

The Palestinians can’t have all the territory “from the river to the sea,” regardless of college student chants. The chanters are people who think they are well meaning, but they very much are not.

The Palestinians and the Israelis refuse to live together peacefully. There are sovereignty and religious problems that are intractable and all solutions offered for co-existence have proven to be unacceptable to some or all. People are locked into their stories and will do anything to prove themselves right. But we shouldn’t let self-defeating intransigence get in the way of a solution and the present circumstances offer one that was formerly unthinkable.

As you consider what follows, ignore the current reality of the immobile far right coalition ruling Israel now. It will take more time, but Netanyahu will at last go to prison and the Knesset will balance quite differently.

Israel has all the power in that region right now, so it can dictate. Consider this dictatorial solution.

Click for a larger view.

It is for Israel to declare a two state solution. A new state of Palestine will be carved out of Jordan – the east bank of the Jordan River – and part of Syria and Lebanon. Gazans will be relocated to that territory. Some may not mind being forcibly moved, because Gaza is not much more than rubble now. If they do mind, that won’t matter much, because, again, Israel has all the power and can dictate.

That Jordan, Syria and Lebanon will have to cede territory to the new state of Palestine is a tough one. No country would look favorably on such a loss of its territory. Plus, since 1948 no Arab or Muslim country has ever offered anything to sustain the Palestinian people. They have periodically made wars designed to eradicate Israel and they’ve supplied materials for Hamas to use to build rockets to fire into Israeli cities and kill Israelis. Otherwise, no Arab or Muslim state has ever helped, nor now wants to help Palestinians. This is going to require some truly exceptional diplomacy and perhaps some exquisite arm twisting.

Bear in mind that the current configuration of states in that region is largely due to European countries arbitrarily dictating it be so following WW I. Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon didn’t exist before then.

That carving up of land was done following the Ottoman Empire having grabbed vast territories and reshaped borders for hundreds of years before that. Redefining territory in that region is almost an international sport. While unpalatable to the current countries, carving out land for a new state of Palestine has historical precedent, including the establishment of Israel.

All those Gazans will have to go somewhere. They can’t live within Israel. A separate state is the obvious answer.

Israel will absorb Gaza. They will own what they broke – the Pottery Barn rule. Fixing it will fall entirely to Israel. And Israel will absorb the West Bank for its obvious security value.

To sweeten the deal, Muslims will be allowed access to all their holy sites in Jerusalem. The physical and spiritual security there will be protected by an international guard.

The Palestinians will have to do the very hard work to build a country of their own, perhaps with international help, like the Israelis did. We Americans will have to help. Our no-sighted hard heads will have to deal with the fact that the citizens of the new Palestinian state won’t be their notion of White or Christian. To these hard heads I offer new age psychotherapy: get over it!

This solution is outrageous, yes, but nobody will be able to prevent the implementation of this unilateral solution because, one more time, Israel holds all the cards. Everyone will abhor this idea – everyone – even as nobody – literally nobody – has a better idea.

Sure, there is mountain of details to surmount to make this work. But refusing that climb guarantees unending war, miserable people suffering and dying in spiritual and physical degradation and entirely without hope for a better life. We know that because we’ve seen this movie over and over.

Got a better idea? Put it out there. The world awaits.

Did this piece make you think? Did it distract you from your distractions? Good.

Hurry. People are suffering.

The Last Laugh

From Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report of January 9:

LONDON (The Borowitz Report)—In a move that was widely hailed across the free world, on Friday King Charles III of the United Kingdom reasserted British rule over the colonies formerly known as the United States of America.

“In recent days, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller have been advocating a muscular return to colonialism,” the monarch said. “I couldn’t agree more with those chaps.”

“We lost the colonies because our King went insane,” Charles added. “But now the shoe’s on the other bloody foot, isn’t it?”

As for what this change in status would mean for Trump, the King said, “Perhaps he could room with his old chum, my idiot brother.”

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* Right, it was Hamas. But Hamas is composed entirely of Gazans. And the non-Hamas Gazans tolerated Hamas’ constant violence, so it’s on all Gazans, like it or not.

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Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
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Against Their Own Interest – and Syria Stupidity


Reading time – 3:47  .  .  .

A lot of barrels of ink have been emptied in an effort to explain why some American voters – largely rural people – consistently vote against their own interests. This predates Donald Trump, although he has been a beneficiary of it and has exploited it masterfully. My understanding of what appears to be a key driver of self-destructive behavior has largely been focused on the betrayal so many Americans feel. It’s borne of the obvious abandoning of promises made to them by various levels of government officials, especially those in our federal government.

Do you remember all those years of John Boehner, then Speaker of the House, declaring that the number one priority was, “Jobs, jobs, jobs”? The only bill passed to create more jobs while he was speaker was specifically for military veterans, and Boehner had to be shamed into passing that. Where did that leave the rest of our forgotten Americans?

They feel used for their tax money and abused by the system, so they’re angry. They’re naturally attracted to the angriest voice with the simplest solutions. They fear “others” who may be as far away as another country or as near as the closest big city.

And they don’t like immigrants, fearing they’re here to freeload off our public assistance programs. There are yet other ways Trump voters feel ripped off, because they don’t get a benefit from government programs – or at least they don’t believe that they do. Turns out, not surprisingly, that their disaffection is more elaborate than that.

Monica Potts wrote a stunning piece in the New York Times entitled “In the Land of Self-Defeat“. If you’ve ever puzzled over why people do what looks to you to be self-destructive, you’ll want to read this piece.  Potts quotes Katherine J. Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison:

“The way these folks described the world to me, their basic concern was that people like them, in places like theirs, were overlooked and disrespected,” she wrote in Vox, explaining that her subjects considered ‘racial minorities on welfare’ as well as ‘lazy urban professionals’ working desk jobs to be undeserving of state and federal dollars. People like my neighbors hate that the government is spending money on those who don’t look like them and don’t live like them — but what I’ve learned since I came home is that they remain opposed even when they themselves stand to benefit.”

These folks have a “prevailing sense of scarcity,” so spending tax dollars on what to them are non-essentials is craziness. Indeed, Potts’ article was triggered by a hotly contested county issue about a proposed pay increase for a new librarian to $25 per hour. It was defeated. These folks contract their view to a very individual focus – you might call it extreme libertarian – which leaves them wondering why they should pay for that librarian if they and their family aren’t going to use the library.

The comments about immigrants particularly caught my attention and left me with a stark clarity that I’ve had for a long time: Too many of us have forgotten where we came from. By that I mean our immigrant forebears – our grandparents or great-grandparents who came here penniless and unable to understand English. We’ve forgotten their struggles and don’t seem able to glue our ignored past onto the plight of today’s refugees.

And another thing  .  .  .

Many thanks to S.S. for pointing to the tweet. Click the pic

Eliminating ISIS (or ISIL) has largely been accomplished except for a couple of strongholds in northern Syria. It has been done with American money and technology and Kurdish blood and lives.

As of this writing, President Trump has pulled all of our troops out of Syria. The decision was made following only a single phone call with President Erdoğan of Turkey. He didn’t consult with anyone who actually knows something about the situation in Syria. And he made the decision with no consideration of the likely outcomes of U.S. withdrawal.

The Turks hate our allies, the Kurds, and see them as their blood enemy. The U.S. pulling out of Syria will leave the Kurds without protection against the modern army and air power of the Turks, who will almost certainly swoop in and slaughter the Kurds – it’s already begun. And it will leave Syria firmly in the hands of our adversaries, Russia and Iran, and ISIS will be free to rebuild.

Have you noticed how many things Trump does that help Putin and Russia and simultaneously hurt our friends and allies?

This is so bad that even Republicans in Congress are pushing back. It’s a shame that they’re so late in finding their backbones.

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NOTES:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
  2. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling or punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
  3. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Why So Many Are Angry


Reading time – 3:59; Viewing time – 5:42  .  .  .

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was promoted as a surefire way to increase the wages of working Americans and promote the hiring of additional workers. “More than 70% of this [tax cut] will be returned to workers,” said White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reading from official White House notes. It didn’t work out quite that way.

Corporations used far more of their tax savings on stock buy-backs than on anything that would directly benefit workers. The total used for stock buy-backs has surpassed $1,100,000,000,000 and the primary beneficiaries of that are people who are already wealthy.

Let’s try one more example.

After filing for bankruptcy, Sears closed many of its stores and the pink slips they put into workers’ pay envelopes told them that there would be no severance pay for them due to the bankruptcy. Now they’re giving out $25 million in bonuses to top executives. These are atta-boys for the very geniuses who drove the company into bankruptcy.

Want another example?

Wisconsin voters elected to boot Republican Gov. Scott Walker out of office and replace him with a Democrat. The lame duck session of the Republican state legislature then passed a series of bills designed to dramatically limit the power of the incoming Democratic governor and Walker has signed those bills into law. That keeps power in the hands of the people who lost the election and effectively thwarts the will of the people.

This post isn’t about railing against fat cats or Republicans. Rather, it’s about why we citizens are angry. It’s about real grievances rooted in the lives of millions who suffer while the powerful few enrich themselves.

I’m all for capitalism, but it, like anything, can be used to abuse, which is why we have regulations. Sometimes those regulations are ignored by those in power. Sometimes they pass laws that either directly or indirectly pad their own pockets and those of their “donor class,” often at the expense of the rest of us.

One last example.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was President Trump’s first national security advisor. He was lobbying for a foreign government at the same time that he was receiving top secret U.S. national security briefings. What’s wrong with this picture?

Flynn lied about it. Trump tolerated it. How are you feeling about the performance of the primary job of the federal government – to protect our country and ensure national security? Flynn got $600,000 for his deceit.

When it consistently feels like you’re the screw-ee, there comes a breaking point for all of us and we get very angry. Some want to carry torches in the street and burn it all down and they will vote for whoever speaks to their rage. As long as that rage is continuously validated, all other leadership outrages can be ignored, like putting numbers on the forearms of child detainees at our border concentration camps instead of assertively dealing with the crisis of people seeking asylum.

One of the reasons we remain so very angry is the continuing Russian propaganda machine that has permeated our nation. Russia has worked to divide us, polarize us, confuse us, sow dissent and stoke our anger against anything that we used to see as bedrock of our nation. The people in our national security agencies are working to unravel that, but the most important point is that the leader of our country refuses to crack down on the Russians. Rather, he continues to create chaos – distracting, America-defeating chaos – making the stock market tumble, shaking our international alliances and making foreign autocrats applaud.

All of that and more is why so many of us are angry.

One more thing in two points .  .  .

First, the government is shut down. That isn’t about immigration. It isn’t about national security and it isn’t even about a wall. It’s entirely about Trump’s infantile ego. He declared on TV, “If I don’t get what I want, I’ll shut down the government.” (Play the audio below for the recording.) That has absolutely nothing to do with what’s best for our country.

Trump is promising to hold his breath and turn blue until he gets his way. And he thinks that’s what we should care about.

How is that working for you – or for the thousands of federal workers who won’t be getting paid?

Second point: Trump’s tweet that he will swiftly remove our troops from Syria came as a surprise to literally everyone, including our own Defense Department. Trump intends to cede the entire middle-east to the Russians, the Turks and the Iranians and abandon our allies, the Kurds, again. That is past the line of what Gen. Jim Mattis can tolerate, so he’s leaving the Defense Department. That’s shaking up our allies because there are no longer any adults in the room.

Main point: As important as these two issues are, recognize that Trump has effectively changed the national story away from the known 17 current investigations into the Trump Crime Family. Keep your eye on the ball.

Last minute correction: I’m informed that the numbers being written on the forearms of detained kids at our southern border are being written by welfare workers. I don’t know how that makes a difference from the same thing being done by government workers, but I’m told that it does. Just get that if these kids hadn’t been separated from their parents there would be no need for Gestapo-like numbers on their arms or any other form of ID. And get that this tattooing is being done in your name.

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Ed. Note: I don’t want money (DON’T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish that goal requires reaching a lot of people, so:

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Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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