If You Like Swiss Cheese, Pretend That's What the Moon is Made Of!
August 2024
Kam Zarrabi

It looks as though all hell is about to break loose in the Middle East; again! Our friend and ally, Israel, retaliated against the brutal, unprovoked attack on a playground in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights area killing scores of young children who were simply playing soccer. Israel retaliated by targeting a Hezbollah leader's residence in Beirut, Lebanon, and assassinating the political leader of Hamas who was in Tehran, Iran.

I recall when the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, made his "infamous" remark right after the October 7th Hamas attack on an Israeli settlement, which started the now ten-months-long war between Israel and Hamas, that "That did not happen in a vacuum!" He was immediately condemned for making that statement by Israel and its Western allies headed by the United States. Didn't Mr. Guterres understand that we and our allies, especially Israel, have never initiated any act of violence or transgression, and that such acts upon our interests have always been unprovoked by groups we have designated as terrorists?!

Yes, Mr. Guterres, the history of Israel/Hamas conflict did start in a vacuum on October 7th, 2023, just as Israel's attack on Hezbollah and Hamas targets have always been retaliatory against those terrorist organization's unprovoked attacks on Israel.

Let's keep on our self-deluding dreaming.

Do we really need to ask why there has been such a history of animosity between Iran and Israel? Haven't we seen clear declarations by the Iranian regime that it intends to wipe Israel off the face of the map? Isn't this a clear sign that the Iranian regime is run by crazy suicidal maniacs who are willing to risk the total devastation of their nation by the might of the nuclear-armed Israel, backed by the United States? Does the Iranian regime have any justifiable reason for such a hatred of Israel, and by extension the United States? What the hell could Iran be blaming us for? Have we not been just protecting our legitimate strategic interests in their part of the world at great cost to ourselves (Ask the ambitious Senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who served a term of duty during our occupation of Iraq.), and to protect the Free World against horrid Axes of Evil, as George W. Bush termed it a while ago? Their hardline radical Islamists have long pulled the wool (the beard) over the public's eye and championed themselves as the defenders and saviors of the nation, only to strengthen their own grip on power.

We should be quite familiar with that scenario! Right here, we have our own version of a cult leader, the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (The Bible: Book of Revelations), wearing a king's crown, riding his white horse, and making vague promises, as the anti-Christ, to bring glory to the nation, in order to promote his own personal ambitions! It is sad that actually one-half of our voting population is lapping it all up! If you think that is weird, watch him when he leans over the microphones during his addresses, tilts his head unsmilingly, opens his mouth, and nothing but garbage begins to pour out. Instead of answering questions put to him, he repeats the same totally irrelevant line of hogwash over and over again, while his supporters cheer along.

Well, OK: enough of all this crap.

Minutes ago, the doorbell rang and interrupted my train of thought. It was a two-man delegation from the Kingdom Hall, the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation here in town. As usual, it was a middle-aged fellow and his apprentice or trainee, smilingly offering to enlighten me and help me save my soul. I said, let me tell you a story: I saw a man who broke his vows and left his monastery, convent or Kingdom Hall, in order to join the academy. I asked him what made him make such a decision; and he replied: When the flood waters approach, one tries to pull his own rug out of the deluge, while the other attempts to save the drowning man.

So, are you two trying to enlighten me so that you may score points with your god and save your own asses, or are you truly interested in my spiritual salvation?

They hurried away without saying a word; I don't believe they understood a thing I said; there were many more doorbells to ring, anyway.

I guess in my old age I am becoming more cynical than I have always been. It may be because I am not afraid of being disliked, even hated and chastised, anymore.

I always liked the old Greek philosopher/cynic, Diogenes. Legend has it that Alexander the Great went to see Diogenes, who was lying in his small cubicle on a sidewalk. Alexander introduced himself by saying that, as the most powerful man of his day he would grant Diogenes anything he wished for. In response, Diogenes asked Alexander to grant his one wish: Move a little; you are blocking my sun!

Alexander later had supposedly said that had he not been the emperor of the world, he would have become a Diogenes!