Thursday, October 12, 2023

Not a Chance

 When I woke up a few minutes ago, I thought I’d been reading an article. It was an intricate, beautifully written article, the kind I aspire to write myself.

It was about many things but ultimately it was about a peaceful world achieved through wisdom, restraint, forgiveness and love.

Peace as an alternative to war. “All we are saying,” as the songwriter wrote, “is give peace a chance.”

But when I shook myself fully awake, I knew I’d been dreaming — an incredibly vivid dreaming but only a dream nonetheless. Because this morning’s headlines are all about war.

Nobody is talking about peace. Instead, voices like that of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has an uncanny ability to say the worst possible thing at times like this, and therefore issued the following statement, “We’re in a religious war here. I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.”

Level the place. Graham’s answer to the unspeakable butchery conducted by Hamas is unconscionable genocide against the Palestinian people whose land Israel occupies, which of course is a root cause of the entire problem.

I’ll list the headlines now but first I want to say that the dream was in being asleep and imagining a better world where decency prevailed.

The nightmare is being awake in a world filled with revenge, where nobody wins and everybody is less for it.

HEADLINES

  • Why Hamas and Israel reached this moment now — and what comes next (NPR)

  • More Bloodshed Will Never Resolve the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Bloomberg)

  • The attack on Israel has been called a ‘9/11 moment’. Therein lies a cautionary tale (Guardian)

  • Israel bombs south Lebanon after Hezbollah rocket fire (Reuters)

  • Israel Retakes Towns Near Gaza as Its Military Readies Major Offensive (NYT)

  • What is Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian enclave under Israeli assault? (Al Jazeera)

  • Hamas terror tactics test Israel’s war strategy (WP)

  • How a secretive Hamas commander masterminded the attack on Israel (Reuters)

  • Israel strikes neighborhoods across Gaza as the war with Hamas intensifies (NPR)

  • Jewish Voice for Peace Calls for Restraint After Sen. Lindsey Graham Urges Israel to “Level” Gaza (Democracy Now)

  • US top diplomat Blinken visits Israel, urges protection of Gaza civilians (Al Jazeera)

  • G.O.P. Nominates Steve Scalise for Speaker Amid Bitter Party Divisions (NYT)

  • Donald Trump Fumes Over True Size of Trump Tower Being Revealed (Newsweek)

  • Tuberville reports former CIA director Hayden to Capitol Police over tweet (The Hill)

  • The right’s war on birth control is already starting (MSNBC)

  • Rep. George Santos faces 23 additional charges (NBC)

  • The Mississippi Is Losing Its Fight With the Ocean (Atlantic)

  • If we protect mangroves, we protect our fisheries, our towns and ourselves (Conversation)

  • A flying car that anyone can use will soon go on sale (Economist)

  • 6.3 magnitude earthquake shakes part of western Afghanistan where an earlier quake killed over 2,000 (AP)

  • The New AI Panic (Atlantic)

  • Adobe's Newest AI Is Like Magic Eraser on Steroids (Gizmodo)

  • The ChatGPT Mystery That My Novel and I Stumbled Upon (Messenger)

  • Leading voice in AI, who worries about its consequences, favors regulating it (NPR)

  • Chiefs Fans Try To Name A Single Taylor Swift Song (The Onion)

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