Ewok Rebellion Clubbed at Columbia

"The way out is precisely what the campus protests are calling for — a cease-fire."

These days you can visit the forest moon of Endor by going to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida or Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The attraction is called Star Tours — The Adventures Continue and is modeled after the Ewok home moon where Luke, Chewie and Hans helped the furry little Ewoks, who resemble Teddy Bears, blow up the Death Star base in Return of the Jedi.

I thought of the Ewoks when I saw millions of Yemenis pouring into the streets of Sanaa to support Houthi attempts to hinder the US-backed genocide in Gaza. In asymmetrical warfare, they can’t hope to fight the Fifth Fleet, but they can slow it down and make it expend resources. They can make the Emperor use million-dollar SAMs to shoot down $100 drones. The photo above was taken just before a reprisal air strike rained down on the buildings in the background.

The Houthis, one powerful faction in Yemen’s long-running civil war, have framed their campaign, which has included more than 30 missile and drone attacks on commercial and naval vessels since November, as a means of pressuring Israel, bolstering their standing amid widespread regional opposition to the Jewish state. The quickly expanding U.S. response likewise risks pulling Biden into another volatile campaign in a region that has repeatedly mired down the American military, potentially undermining his attempt to refocus U.S. foreign policy on Russia and China.

–Washington Post Jan 20, 2024

It is difficult not to see similarities between college students staging peaceful sit-ins being charged by mounted, baton-wielding police in riot gear and Houthis being clobbered by Operation Prosperity Guardian for blocking shipping on the Red Sea in the reckless hope of opening aid corridors to the starving in Gaza.

Earlier this month Iran attacked Israel after Israel made an air strike on one of its embassies. Israel then claimed a 99% kill rate on the incoming 320 drones Iran sent in revenge. What really happened was that both sides gathered data and Iran got the better of that deal. Iran supplied Israel and the US with the timing and placement of its drones in advance. The goal was never to inflict physical damage and risk escalation. Iran was counting coup.

A later Times report told of a conversation between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the unpredictable Israeli leader was said to have been talked out of further, and far more aggressive, attacks.

— Seymour Hersh

When the Biden Administration tried to cut inflation by opening the spigots on the national petroleum reserve to bring down the cost of gas at the pump, OPEC countered by squeezing production. Destabilizing the US economy is counting coup. The Spirit Riders blocking the Dakota Access Pipeline counted coup. Forcing the Sixth Fleet to spend millions of dollars per day to fight the old wooden boats of Yemenis is counting coup.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir

Gaza: The Sound of One Shoe Falling

In 1992 our organization, Global Village Institute, first visited the Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank. We began providing support and fiscal sponsorship and also supported its Jewish counterpart, the Green Kibbutz Movement, as part of the same Peace Thru Permaculture initiative. On a routine program call this past April 12, our Program Director (I must conceal his name) said:

Hey Guys, I miss this way of meeting with friends. So you are sitting, enjoying your coffee, or whatever you are drinking there, and here we are sitting inside the house, waiting for settlers to attack the town. Since yesterday they attacked many towns, dozens injured, more than 50 houses and cars burned. So it’s a big mess around my area and maybe tonight they are going to attack my town. Sorry to say that. Tomorrow I will tell you if we are here.

There is a common pattern that arises whenever Israel is criticized. The critic is accused of being antisemitic, especially if they are affiliated with BDS — the boycott, divest, and sanctions movement (which originated from the anti-Apartheid struggle and was adopted by Palestine civil society groups at the 2001 U.N. Durban Conference Against Racism). The Anti-Defamation League claims that any critique of Zionism delegitimizes Israel and the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and to have a Jewish State. These claims are baseless, deceitful and shameful. They forget that the Palestinian people are also Semites and should be accorded self-determination.

The nature and tenor of the campus anti-war protests has been at the forefront of both media coverage and congressional hearings on antisemitism and campus free speech. But administrative response to them — particularly calling the police and issuing suspensions — has added a new dimension to the debate.

— Vox

The University of Southern California canceled the commencement speech of its pro-Palestinian valedictorian over campus safety concerns. Columbia, Barnard, NYU, U of Texas, U of So Cal, Emory, and Boston Emerson called in police to arrest protesters. Palestinian students are being expelled without any fair process. And campus protests, as a result, are expanding.

Clearing the Fog

The genocide in Gaza and the ensuing West Bank clearances are not accidents, collateral damage, or fog-of-war incidents. They were orchestrated by right-wing ultranationalists led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. It is following a plan. The cleansing of Gaza did not start last October. It has been many years coming. Ultrazionists have been calling for the expulsion of native Palestinans from the holy land of Israel for decades. Mr. Ben-Gvir said last year that the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank should be given the same treatment as Hamas in Gaza.

But, given the preceding month-long discussion of deep fakes and the ubiquitous corruption of public information on this blog, one has to ask, “How can I be sure I can trust what I know?”

Here, at least, is what I think can be trusted:

Defiling of Al-Aqsa Mosque

On October 4th, Ben Gvir led the thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews that swarmed and defiled the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, which is the second holiest site in Islam and the place where it is said Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Ben Gvir has long called for the destruction of the mosque, to be replaced by a third Jewish temple. The October 4 march was only the most recent of a long series of illegal provocations. This time cordons of heavily armed police escorted Ben Gvir’s mob and cleared a path through Mosque security. None in the Israeli government objected.

Al-Aqsa Flood Massacre

Three days later, on October 7th, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” massacre occurred. It is established that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and presumedly Ben Gvir’s ministry, possessed the plans of this attack, code-named “Jericho Wall,” more than a year in advance, had monitored the training exercises and knew where and how the breaches would occur. Border guards were reassigned away from the breach points. The massacre was code-named by IDF, appropriately, the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.

– The New York Times, Nov 30, 2023

Amnesty International reported video footage showed men in military gear taking away an estimated 253 hostages, including children. Eyewitnesses testified they saw rapes, mutilation, and sexual assaults taking place, some followed by killing. Hamas has denied the stories of rape, torture, and infanticide but the I.C.C. has criminally charged Hamas leaders for the killing and abductions. The I.C.C.’s focus on individuals rather than states differentiates it from the International Court of Justice, which settles disputes between states.

Funding for Hamas

A month before the massacre, millions of dollars were approved to be sent to Hamas through Qatar. In the plan to eliminate and liquidate Palestine, the law-abiding PLO, a UN Observer nation, was an impediment. Hamas was an Israeli asset.

Even as the Israeli military obtained battle plans for a Hamas invasion and analysts observed significant terrorism exercises just over the border in Gaza, the payments continued. For years, Israeli intelligence officers even escorted a Qatari official into Gaza, where he doled out money from suitcases filled with millions of dollars.

– The New York Times, Dec 10, 2023

Delayed IDF Response

On the day of the attack, the IDF’s response was delayed by 8–12 hours. The Air Force took hours to arrive over the area, even though its bases are just minutes away.

Cyberwar

Those are the facts on the ground. Now some unknowns. Suppose, rather than being a militant ultrazionist plot, October 7 was part of a strategy engineered in Tehran intended to goad Israel to commit genocide. The last several months have succeeded in making Israel an international pariah, along with its staunchest ally. It may doom the prospect of a second term for “Genocide Joe.” It may make Trump, RFK or some other outlier the next US president.

Poison Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) are crafted to propagate online misinformation by injecting false details into historical events. This tool enables malicious actors to fabricate news, distort reality, and influence public perception.

— Fortran Tripwire

On MSNBC’s popular cable show, Morning Joe, Admiral George Stavridis, managing director-partner of the global investment firm Carlyle Group and chair of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, praised Ben Gvir and far right Defense Minister Benny Gantz to host Joe Scarborough, saying he had worked beside the men for years and had complete confidence in their leadership. It is now clear on which side of the ethnic cleansing at least some senior staff at the Pentagon stand.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government officials; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative; serious abuses … including unlawful or widespread civilian deaths and harm, enforced disappearances or abductions, torture, physical abuses, and conflict-related sexual violence or punishment; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecution of journalists, and censorship…. [Israeli] law does not include a specific prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment practices, and there were credible reports that government officials employed them….

According to human rights NGOs that conducted visits to detention facilities, detainee testimonies, and local press reports, Palestinian detainees held by Israel were subjected to physical and sexual violence, threats, intimidation, severely restricted access to food and water, exposure to extreme cold without adequate clothing, and regular prolonged periods of isolation.

— U.S. State Dept, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza

On October 23, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced new restrictions for detainees accused of terrorist crimes, including measures to “make prisoners’ living spaces more crowded,” remove beds, and overall worsen living conditions.

During a November 14 visit to a prison where Hamas members who allegedly carried out the October 7 attack were held, Ben Gvir confirmed the detainees were, according to his instructions, shackled in dark cells with seven other prisoners and subjected to harsh living conditions.

— U.S. State Dept, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza

In the week following the modest Israeli bombing inside Iran for its reprisal against Israel for the bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, that same cable show seemed to forget the original provocation and rushed to commend Israel for its restraint and the Biden Administration for deft negotiations. Never mind that the Iranian strike was telegraphed ahead so that the Sixth Fleet, Iron Dome, and allied powers could easily shoot down 320 drones as if they were slow-moving wooden ducks in a carnival stall. Scarborough raved about how Israel’s defensive technological prowess was still the wonder of the world and had restored respect for Israel and silenced the thunder of the anti-Biden, pro-Palestinian faction of voters in the U.S., including the campus protesters. It is now clear on which side of the ethnic cleansing at least some mainstream media influencers stand.

Those expressing nostalgia for the days when there was a unified voice of television news and the way people formed their opinions might try to recall that this is what it sounded like.

If Iranians, Yemenis or Afghans could find a way to put Trump, Kennedy, or another disrupter into the White House and seed chaos, why wouldn’t they? And if they could find powerful partners with the cyber resources to help make that happen…. well, anything is possible.

Just ask Gemini. Or the Ewoks.

The Way Out of this Quagmire

Well, to remind you, I live in Israel, so I see more examples of poor listening than the other way around. There is a saying, two Israelis, four opinions. So unfortunately, I see poor listening everywhere, and even more unfortunately, it seems to be escalating as time goes by. Nowadays, with the televisions, at least in Israel, this is how I see it. So the norm unfortunately became to bring someone and start arguing with them. So if you don’t argue with them, it’s not interesting. It’s all about the arguing and the yelling and who yells stronger and who dominates the conversation. And two people yell, so the one that you hear is the person who yells the loudest.

In the episode of Hidden Brain just quoted, host Shankar Vedanta interviewed psychologist Guy Itzchakov about where interactions go awry, and how to become a more attentive listener. Itzchakov observed that the Middle Eastern culture — both Muslim and Jewish — is especially susceptible to the “who yells loudest wins” fallacy.

He called it a toxic atmosphere. It was also a toxic atmosphere at college campuses last week when Jewish-led Passover for Peace protests were violently broken up by baton-wielding police at the request of university officials. While the Jewish students were indeed protesting extreme Zionism in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the mainstream media quickly branded their protest antisemitic (and violent). This is what you can call a toxic atmosphere.

Vedanta:

And in some ways, this matches what you’re finding in the lab, which is that when we have all these thoughts racing around in our heads, it keeps us from making the kinds of arguments we could have made if someone was actually listening well. That in some ways, the lack of listening or the fact that we feel like we have to shout to get our view across actually makes our own arguments more impoverished than they would be otherwise.

Itzchakov:

It makes the listening almost impossible when we’re in such a state, because when [someone] was speaking, I wasn’t listening to him, I was thinking how I’m going to counter back. And when I was speaking, I saw he wasn’t listening, he was thinking the same. So basically, we were talking past each other.

We both come away with a more rigid attitude. So it wasn’t a conversation, it was an exercise for both of us of how to bolster our attitude. And then people are surprised that people are, that polarization increases and people are becoming more extreme, because we don’t practice listening and we don’t create the atmosphere, the openness that allows listening to happen.

The way out is precisely what the campus protests are calling for — a cease-fire. We all need a time-out. We need rational discourse, not talking points screamed at loud volume.

Here at The Great Change, we are doing our part to try to slow it all down and give us all the space to think. I hope Joe Scarborough takes a few off-air minutes to watch this:

 

References

Bavelas, J.B. et al., Listeners as Co-Narrators, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000.

Carter, Jimmy. Palestine peace not apartheid. Simon and Schuster, 2007.

Itzchakov, G. et al., The Listener Sets the Tone: High-Quality Listening Increases Attitude Clarity and Behavior-Intention Consequences, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2018.

Itzchakov, G. et al., I Am Aware of My Inconsistencies but Can Tolerate Them: The Effect of High Quality Listening on Speakers ‘ Attitude Ambivalence, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2017.

Itzchakov, G. et al., If You Want People to Listen to You, Tell a Story, International Journal of Listening, 2015.

Pasupathi, M. et al., How What We Tell Becomes What We Know: Listener Effects on Speakers’ Long‐Term Memory for Events, Discourse Processes, 1998.

Remez, G. (2021). “But He Was Good for Israel, Wasn’t He?” A Reassessment of the Jewish State’s Embrace of Donald Trump. Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 15(1), 21–39.Thank you for reading The Great Change. This post is public so feel free to share it.

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Meanwhile, let’s end these wars. We support peace in the West Bank and Gaza and the efforts by the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, Government of South Africa and others to bring an immediate cessation to the war. Global Village Institute’s Peace Thru Permaculture initiative has sponsored the Green Kibbutz network in Israel and the Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank for over 30 years and will continue to do so, with your assistance. We aid Ukrainian families seeking refuge in ecovillages and permaculture farms along the Green Road and work to heal collective trauma everywhere through the Pocket Project. You can read all about it on the Global Village Institute website (GVIx.org). Thank you for your support.

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