This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Global warming and climate change strike Buffalo NY


Buffalo man digs out his car on Wednesday

Israel demolishes apartment of terrorist

On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished the home of AbdelrahmanShaludi, who had purposely plowed his car into pedestrians on October22, killing two people. This was done following a policy revived byBenjamin Netanyahu of demolishing the homes of terrorists as a methodof deterrence. Netanyahu has promised to do the same to the homes ofthe two perpetrators of Tuesday’s synagogue attack. However,Palestinians claim that the policy is a violation of international lawbecause it uses “collective punishment” of many people for the crimesof one person.

The Israelis point out that they didn’t demolish the entire apartmentbuilding in which Shaludi lived, but only demolished Shaludi’sindividual apartment.

A reporter on al-Jazeera on Wednesday described the history of usinghome demolishing as deterrence. According to the reporter, the policywas used during British rule of Palestine prior to World War II inorder to inhibit Jewish insurgents. Israel began using the homedemolition policy starting in 1967, and it was continued until 2005,when it was ended because it was considered ineffective. However,Netanyahu reinstated the policy earlier this year after the threeteenagers were abducted and killed in the West Bank. Israel National News

Jerusalem becomes a city of fear, in a torrent of mutual hostility

Following Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem, bothIsraelis and Palestinians are afraid to walk the streets. Israelisare afraid that any passing car driven by a Palestinian might changedirection and kill pedestrians. Palestinians are afraid of revengeattacks from Israeli settlers.

Several analysts have pointed out that the conflict between Arabs andIsraelis has shifted. It used to be a political conflict over land,but now it’s become a conflict over religion, and a religious war ismuch more dangerous than a political war.

Former Senator George Mitchell, who was President Obama’s “SpecialEnvoy for the Mideast,” said the following on the BBC on Wednesday(my transcription):

I think one thing that the parties should consider isthe potential that this could spread and branch out in ways thatwere unlikely in the past. There have been two Palestinianuprisings. at that time, there was a relatively stable and quietregion around the Israeli Palestinian conflict. That no longerexists. Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya — you go down thelist of turmoil and conflict, intersecting, overlapping differentroutes, different branches, so many competing organizations thatthe average person has trouble keeping track of them, and anoutbreak of violence this time could spread in ways that was notpossible in the past, and we may not fully comprehendyet.

This is exactly the kind of point that Generational Dynamics makes.As I’ve been saying since 2003, Generational Dynamics predicts thatthere will be a new war between Arabs and Israelis, refighting the1948 war between Jews and Arabs that following the partitioning ofPalestine and the creation of the state of Israel. The mechanism thatall these crisis wars follow is that a crisis war is so horrible thatthe traumatized survivors — both “winners” and “losers” — vow tomake sure that the same thing never happens again, to their childrenor grandchildren. And they succeed, until they all disappear (retireor die), all at once, leaving behind generations of children andgrandchildren who have no personal memory of those horrors, andwilling to cross any line, even if it risks another crisis war, whichhappens sooner or later. Pretty much the only important survivor ofthe 1948 war still left is Palestinian Authority president MahmoudAbbas, who is undoubtedly well aware of what’s coming, but can’t doanything to stop it.

Mitchell continued:

And there is a further fact. Of all the difficultissues between Palestinians and Israelis, none is more difficultor important than Jerusalem. In part because Jerusalem is notjust a Palestinian issue. Jerusalem is Muslim issue. Today ofthe 7 1/2 billion people in the world, 1 in 5 is Muslim, about abillion and a half. In the middle of this century, when theworld’s population gets past 9 1/2 billion, 1 in 3 will be Muslim.They all have an interest in Jerusalem, and it’s in everyone’sinterest not to let this get out of control and dominate theissue. So the dangers are greater. The potential losses on allsides are greater. And to me the incentives of doing somethingabout it should be greater. Will that be persuasive to theparticipants, I can’t say that with certainty, but I believethat’s the case we should be making to them.

Mitchell is making a fundamental error here. He was born in 1933, sohe remembers well the horrors of World War II, and would do anythingto keep them from happening again. But he assumes that because hedoesn’t want war, then nobody wants war. However, that’s patentlyuntrue, as history is replete with leaders who wanted war, thinkingthat they would win easily, and living to regret it. In fact, thereare plenty of people in the Mideast, including both Palestinians andIsraelis, who are itching for a war.

I’ve been writing for years that Sunni jihadists are doing everythingpossible to trigger a war. These groups, affiliated with al-Qaeda andlately the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS or ISIL), seeone shining event that’s guiding their lives — the 1979 Great IslamicRevolution that turned Iran from a secular state into a Shia Islamicstate. Al-Qaeda and ISIS would like to repeat that “success,” andthey’ve tried to trigger a war in numerous countries, and are stilltrying in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There are plenty of young radical Israelis and Palestinians who wouldlike to trigger a war because they hate each other and because eachside thinks they would win. That day is coming, and there will be nowinners. Reuters

Israel approves construction of 78 new homes in Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s municipal planning committee approved the construction of78 settlements on Wednesday, provoking further fury among thePalestinians. Jerusalem Post

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, global warming, climate change, Buffalo,Israel, Abdelrahman Shaludi, Benjamin Netanyahu,Jerusalem, George Mitchell, Iran, Great Islamic Revolution,Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,Al-Qaeda
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