SvennoJ said:
That's a healthy attitude as long as you apply that to all media. And no doubt Russia has a more positive appearance in Middle Eastern media atm as it's still a semi super power demanding a ceasefire and supporting Palestine. But make no mistake, Putin doesn't do this out of empathy for Palestinians. Prior to the current war Russia had a deal with Israel not to sell weapons to Ukraine and Georgia, for Russia not to sell weapons to Iran.
https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/91073
In 2019, Netanyahu even launched his election campaign with large posters of himself shaking hands with the Russian president. Netanyahu sought to portray himself as a leader of the same standing as Putin—perceived in Israel as the head of a great power—and to convey the message that his close ties with Putin would help ensure Israel’s security following Russia’s 2015 military intervention in Syria. The Israeli leader had long boasted that his alleged “personal friendship” with Putin was key to ensuring limited Russian support for Iran and getting Moscow to turn a blind eye to Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.
Unlike other Western states, Israel did not fundamentally change its approach to Russia following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Israel did not impose any financial sanctions on Russia, declined to send weapons to Kyiv despite repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and failed to name Russia when addressing attacks against Ukraine. Israel was unwilling to sever ties with Russia, and even started to adopt a cooperative approach in the second half of 2023 by signing new bilateral agreements in nonsensitive sectors, such as the cultural field.
Currently Russia sees an opportunity to gain more influence in the Middle East by isolating the USA in the UN and world opinion by appearing to be against genocide, while actively engaged in their own genocide.
The US has made many mistakes in the Middle East, mostly while cleaning up the mess the UK and other imperialist countries left behind. The UK 'gave' Palestine to the Jews to get their support. In 1917, in order to win Jewish support for Britain's First World War effort, the British Balfour Declaration promised the establishment of a Jewish national home in Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Balfour-Declaration
The British government hoped that the declaration would rally Jewish opinion, especially in the United States, to the side of the Allied powers against the Central Powers during World War I (1914–18). They hoped also that the settlement in Palestine of a pro-British Jewish population might help to protect the approaches to the Suez Canal in neighbouring Egypt and thus ensure a vital communication route to British colonial possessions in India.
Britain gained Palestine from the French in the Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-curse-of-sykes-picot-still-haunts-the-middle-east
The Sykes-Picot Agreement launched a nine-year process—and other deals, declarations, and treaties—that created the modern Middle East states out of the Ottoman carcass. The new borders ultimately bore little resemblance to the original Sykes-Picot map, but their map is still viewed as the root cause of much that has happened ever since.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Sykes-Picot-Agreement
secret convention made during World War I between Great Britain and France, with the assent of imperial Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French- and British-administered areas.
And In 1947, Britain handed the 'Palestine problem' to the United Nations, which voted for partition into Arab and Jewish states.
The year after Israel was created
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel
Which led to the Nakba in 1948
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1651256
And thus we have two traumatized populations fighting over the same land. Which turned into an asynchronous endless conflict as indeed the US uses Israel as a way to exert their control over the Middle East.
History teaches many lessons yet also keeps conflicts going. As long as each side refuses to see things from the other side, it will never end. As long as people keep thinking in terms of us and them, conflicts will keep happening. Those seeking power know all too well how to exploit people and blind them with hatred for the others.
The only solution is learning to live together and let go of the past, without forgetting the past. Bring the leaders to justice, but don't hate the people. It's an unfortunate evolutionary trait that anger trumps empathy, a trait that is abused by politics to get people's support.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/confessions-of-a-psychological-first-responder/202304/the-politics-of-anger
https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/327/
Mobilize out of empathy, not out of anger. Anger only clouds judgement, causes tunnel vision and leads to what we're seeing unfolding right now. Netanyahu is using anger to get his way, Trump did the same, Putin no different. The shift to the right in Europe, also fueled by directing anger towards immigrants. And yes, it's very hard not to get angry with everything going on :(
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