#both militarily and for other reasons

[phoenixyfriend]

Why I think it's important to understand the geopolitical anxieties of Israelis

Oftentimes, it feels like even recognizing that those anxieties exist is viewed as siding with Israel in the current conflict.

And I think that it's... weird, to do that. Dismissing the anxieties wholesale makes it harder to resolve the situation. Addressing them directly is possibly the only way to resolve the situation, because America.

Let me explain.

This will have three parts:

Why the propaganda works

How it affects current policy

How we can pressure the (mostly US) government about Israel using what we know about propaganda

Why the propaganda works

A lot of it is just propaganda, yes, but a lot of it is based in history, and a lot is also sort of self-fulfilling at this point. They have had reason to believe that some of their neighbors want all Jews dead or gone for a long time (see: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen), so it's not that it comes from nowhere. When over half the population is either Mizrahi Jews who fled from nearby countries that were happy to have a place to kick their Jewish populations out to, or their descendants, it's not hard to see that 'if someone else is in charge, we'll have to flee again.'

You could tell the French in Algeria to go back to France, but are you going to tell Mizrahi Jews to go back to the ME countries that they left? Sure, some left willingly, but that kind of wholesale eradication doesn't happen unless there's some degree of systemic discrimination or threat of violence. You cannot send Yemeni Jews back to Yemen.

The threat is real. It is not as large as the propaganda claims. It does not in any way justify nearly 30,000 deaths, half of them children. But the threat is not just imagined.

The fact of the matter is this: the propaganda is fueled by actual violence and legitimate fears.

And unless those fears are recognized and accounted for, Israel cannot be talked down.

Being told that a threat does not exist when recent history clearly shows otherwise is not going to convince anyone. I cannot emphasize this enough: even if the far-right government is replaced tomorrow, those fears will persist.

Israel's current government is violently and militarily opposed to restructuring itself in a way that allows for either a secular democratic single state, or a truly free and independent Palestine in a two-state solution. Due to mandatory army service and large scale propaganda, many have been taught since early childhood that the only way for Jews to be safe is for Israel to exist and to be so incredibly overpowered for their size that other nations won't invade them. The fact that both distant history and more recent, across the world, is filled with antisemitic discrimination, feeds this paranoia. A lot of people are out to get them, and have been since well before Israel was established. The destruction of Judea, the Edict of Expulsion, the expulsion of Jews from Spain, pogroms, the Holocaust, the near-total eradication in Yemen, Jordan, and Syria, and so on... this shit keeps happening. Some of it long ago, some if it very recent.

But it does keep happening, and that is why the propaganda works. That is why the fearmongering has teeth. It has happened before, over and over and over again, and it is being loudly threatened again. The propaganda works in Israel, and it also works in Jewish communities, and non-Jewish people who just happen to hear it, based elsewhere in the world. Like America. (This is important.)

Before moving forward, I need to make this clear: There are Jewish Israeli activists, both within Israel and without, that are vocally against Israel's actions against Palestine. Some are organized, and some are individuals. Some stories even go viral: Israeli-born Natalie Portman's been criticizing Netanyahu for years and politicians have called for her citizenship to be stripped for it. Tumblr loves the story of the Swiftie Twitter that went to jail for refusing to join the IDF, and that's very common; plenty of young people get months-long prison sentences, sometimes multiple times. Right-wing mobs go after Jewish Israelis who speak in support of Palestine in any way, and these things get violent.

(In that same article, it also talks about how Israeli Palestinians are suffering much, much worse under the government's crackdown on free speech.)

How it affects current policy

The thing is, there are only really four ways for this to resolve:

Israel wins. They succeed in pushing Palestinians out of Gaza by killing anyone who doesn't comply, and take it over for themselves. (This is bad.)

Israel is cut off from any and all support from abroad, both 'here, you can help yourself with these guns' and 'here, we will fight your enemies for you,' and is very suddenly at risk of invasion, mass murder, and removal from the Palestinian Mandate by those groups they fearmonger about, the ones that include slogans like "death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews." (This is also bad.)

Israel is convinced to stop attacking Gaza, possibly through the threat of no more support, and settles in to figure out a solution with Palestine, whether two-state or secular single state or whatever, and normalizes relations with neighbors enough that they can start cutting back on their military. (This is the best option.)

A foreign power or coalition of powers invades and forces Israel to stop, and oversees a transition from military state to peaceful state while protecting from outside attack, like was done to Japan and Germany following WWII. (This one is... interventionism is bad, but also almost 30k people have died with no end in sight, so it's starting to look like a real possibility.)

We can all agree, I hope, that the first option is not an option. That is Bad.

I also hope we can agree that the second option is not an option. A number of Israelis may be settlers in the traditional sense of the word, but a lot of them are refugees from neighboring countries, survivors of the Holocaust, or descendants of such. "Just go back where you came from" doesn't work when many of them came from places that were also saying 'go back where you came from' because Israel now existed to expel them to. It's also been around for 75 years now, and some three-quarters of the population were born in Israel. Expelling them all, even the ones that were there before the early statehood aliyah? It's... I don't know. I understand in theory why some activists push for it, but I do think it is fundamentally different from any comparative colonization or settlement.

(Note: I do not include Israeli colonies in the Palestinian West Bank. Those do need to be returned to their owners. Give people their houses and land back.)

The third option is the one that most people, I think, would like to see happen. However, the Israeli government is clinging to the propaganda that they will be eradicated as a Jewish people if they do not forcibly take power where they can, and they are spreading it out among Israelis. Dissent by Israeli Jews may not be criminalized, but the society around them sure isn't receptive to it. The recent invasion of Gaza has also inflamed tensions across the region, which means that even countries which were slowly normalizing relations, or at least.

Netanyahu has not been convinced, and by all appearances cannot be convinced. The only thing that may force his hand is the threat of no more military aid, so he suddenly has to start conserving what missiles he does have in order to fend off a possible attack instead of continuing to hammer on Gaza.

Sounds great, right? This is why we are all (I hope) calling our senators or representatives or whatever your country has to tell them to stop supporting Israel monetarily or with military aid. This is why I keep giving suggested topics for Americans to call their senators about, even if I'm just one voice, and there are much louder ones saying the same thing, but better.

And yet, the Senate passed the aid bill. They snuck it into a Veteran Affairs thing as a last-minute amendment, but they passed it, and any failure in the House will have little to do with sympathy for Palestine and a lot to do with domestic border policy.

So... Americans are also pretty convinced of the whole 'if we stop supporting Israel, they will be invaded and killed off by the Iran-backed militias' thing. Many do feel sympathy for Palestinians, hence the 'Israel, you need to knock that shit off' comments, but they also are genuinely of a belief that the Israeli propaganda of 'we will be overrun by antisemitic Muslim extremist militias and exterminated like in the Holocaust' is true.

Like. Either they fear for Israelis due to the antagonistic forces in the region, or they belong to Christofascist ideologies about how supporting Israel is the way to avoid suffering in Armageddon.

You can't get to the latter on ethics or morality or whatever. You can only rely on ulterior motives (the border things) or telling them 'your reelection is in jeopardy, change your mind or you're going to be voted out.'

The former, though... you can. They believe the things that Israel claims and has been claiming since 1948, with regards to threats.

And if you acknowledge why the propaganda works, you can address it.

How we can pressure the government about Israel using what we know about propaganda

If you say that there is no threat to Israel from Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, or so on, you will be dismissed as an idealist who hasn't done any research. If you say that Israelis should be left to their own devices, you will be viewed as cruel, and if you say they should be removed and the land given back to Palestinians, you will be laughed away (silently, but it'll happen). You cannot convince the American government with these tactics.

What can you say?

Israel is making things worse for itself in regards to these exact threats. Pushing on Gaza is making neutral and nearly-normalized countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia less inclined to get in the way of the 'death to Israel' militias. The campaign is creating a whole new generation of extremists who will join the militias out of a desire to prevent more of these deaths by Israeli hands, and that will only increase the threat to Israel.

Destroying Hamas isn't going to do shit if Hezbollah, Iraq, Iran, the Houthis, and so on, invade. Especially if twenty years down the line, all those orphans that Israel just created these past few months start a new Hamas for revenge because, hi, look how many orphans you just created.

Netanyahu is working against the interests of the Israeli people. He is trying to remain in power, and the Gaza war is a distraction from the charges being levied against him.

Netanyahu has a vested interest in seeing that Donald Trump is elected, as they are much closer than the at best strained relationship with Biden. This is very complicated but if your senator or rep is a Democrat, it is relevant.

Israel's continued offensive is leading to the risk of millions of Palestinian refugees entering Egypt and destabilizing them, which, in an already unstable country in an already wobbling region, is going to risk another war across the Middle East. The US still has not pulled out all troops from the last one.

The US cannot afford, monetarily or in terms of foreign relations, to aid in causing a new regional war.

If Israel slows, halts, and withdraws peacefully from Gaza, tensions will settle enough to avoid possible invasion by those hostile forces they're so worried about. The UN can, if necessary, deploy forces to maintain relative stability until peace treaties are worked out. We'd like to avoid option 4 if possible.

The only way I can see to convince the US government to stop supplying weapons to Israel is to push on the fact that continuing to do so will, due to Netanyahu and his party's actions, put Israel in more danger rather than less.

There are other things to say to your senators, and I'll be making a post about that soon (not today, but probably this weekend; stuff like Michigan, UNRWA, international reputation), but in regards to just the geopolitics surrounding the propaganda, this is it. This is why we have to understand it. Because the way we get the United States government to stop giving aid to Israel to defend itself is by telling them 'this is putting them in more danger due to their head of state's aggression.'

This was very long, but I've seen a lot of misinformation and a lot of generalization, and a lot of it is... not great. Well-meant, sometimes, but not great. I felt it necessary to be very clear and very specific. I'm anticipating a lot of comments to the effect of "you forgot about this" and "but that doesn't excuse their actions" and "well, not all activists believe--" and I know.

I know.

But I've had people say "Nobody is advocating for the removal of all Jewish Israelis" to my ask box hours after I was talking about Yemen, a country that enacted a removal of all Jews and largely under the control of a group that has a slogan about doing just that to the Jewish Israelis.

So let me be very clear that I have seen a lot on tumblr recently, a lot of it extremist, and I'm not pulling any of this out of my ass or making up a guy to be mad at. I may not know everything on this topic--I may not even know much at all, given that it covers centuries of conflict due to the Ottomans--but I've been listening to hours upon hours of news from a variety of sources (Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, and more) every day just to make sure I understand.

Please trust that, even if I get some things wrong, even if I don't cite every detail or generalize just a bit here and there, that I mean well. Please trust that I am making this in good faith and am trusting you to respond to it in kind.

Call your reps. Write them an email. Donate to a Palestinian charity.

It's a slog, but we can make a difference.

[leportraitducadavre]

My interpretation of Itachi's character is fairly contrasting with yours. I pose my arguments against your analysis. I hope I would get a lead unto having an unbiased opinion.

Itachi's position in here between was a rock and a hard place. Having witnessed horrors of wars he chose to the stop war. It wasn't the best decision but even still he accomplished many things.

A new Forth Great Ninja war was prevented. Uchihas plan wasn't to reform the government it was to take control of them. Their desires were clearly reflected in their demands. While half of them was about freedom, the rest was only to control village. This, along with Obito's plan for revenge and war, will definitely start a war.

Madara, with the pact, was foiled for more than seven years long enough for the strong Shinobis like Naruto and Sasuke to grow up and defeat him.

Sasuke's life was saved. Itachi would go at all lengths to protect his brother. Afterall, its only obvious he would be over-protective of Sasuke since both loved each other a lot(as siblings).

The Uchiha's reputation were saved. Imagine what would have happened to the Uchihas after the war. The people were already suspicious of the Uchihas and now we will have never ending persecution and would be branded as traitors, doesn't matter if the coup won or lost. The coup wasn't about reforming anyway.

People in the village got to be safe too.

And despite all these he still regretted a lot enough that he wanted the person he adored the most to kill him. Also, no one here is trying to justify his action. A justification and a reason has a clear distinction. Just because there was a reason it doesn't make the acts were justified. He himself acknowledged that. The writer didn't try to justify nor did Itachi himself. People like, Hashirama and Naruto, appreciated the role he played and praised him as a Shinobi.(being seen as a villan while protecting the people isn't easy, btw). They weren't justifying or glorifying his actions in any instance.

He wasn't an absolute nationalist. He he was an idealist. His motivations most cases(especially while making big decisions)were to 'not beget war' and 'maintain peace'. Doesn't matter if Uchihas managed to control the village it still starts war, death, destruction and countless losses which is exactly what Itachi hated from when he was 4. He also wanted to reform the village by becoming a Hokage. He wanted to wiped out the entire ninja system since ninjas were the ones who were used as a weapon for the Diamoyo start constant wars. The Leaf was sort of obnoxious in the time of Tobirama and Hiruzen's regime. But even still, the Hokages were good and passionate and also the people were innocent.

A new Forth Great Ninja war was prevented. Uchihas plan wasn't to reform the government it was to take control of them. Their desires were clearly reflected in their demands. While half of them was about freedom, the rest was only to control village. This, along with Obito's plan for revenge and war, will definitely start a war.

How do you even know it was prevented? Shisui stating that hidden villages will take advantage of Konoha’s civil war to invade was just a fear that was actually constantly proven wrong throughout the series; when Suna invaded and Konoha was destroyed (forcing it to send their most powerful shinobi out of the village to collect money) no other village took advantage of the situation, not even Kumo or Iwa, two of the big five that were not struggling politically or militarily as Suna, Kiri and Konoha were. Kumogakure even tried to kidnap Hinata while in the middle of signing a peace treaty, yet they did nothing against the Hyüga clan nor the village during one of their most vulnerable state.

Furthermore, you mean to tell me that a civil war (I am using that notion generously because Konoha is a military state with a non-civilian population, specifically trained for combat) destabilizes the military and economic power of a city, yet the complete disappearance overnight of one of the village's founding and most powerful clans does nothing to its structure? Other villages wouldn’t see the absence of Sharingan-wielders as an enticing opportunity to strike? Do you mean to tell me that a village was left without police to control it overnight (and their job is considered super important by detractors), yet the city did not succumb to chaos?

Their desires were clearly reflected in their demands.

What were their demands? Enlighten me.

While half of them was about freedom, the rest was only to control village.

Where do you get this information from? There’s nothing of the sort stated in the manga.

This, along with Obito's plan for revenge and war, will definitely start a war.

Obito’s plan needed the annihilation of the Sharingan-wielders as he didn’t want anyone capable of obtaining the Mangekyou to jeopardize his plan to control the ten-tails, Itachi killing the Uchiha literally allowed Obito to start the war!! 

Madara, with the pact, was foiled for more than seven years long enough for the strong Shinobis like Naruto and Sasuke to grow up and defeat him.

… what? This doesn’t make any sense and has nothing to do with Itachi… you mean to tell me that Itachi killing his clan made Sasuke as powerful as he is? Because Sasuke has always been powerful and has always been Indra’s transmigrant, and as I’ve said, Obito wouldn’t have been able to initiate the war (or at least would’ve been incredibly difficult for him) with the Uchiha clan still alive!

Sasuke's life was saved. Itachi would go at all lengths to protect his brother. Afterall, its only obvious he would be over-protective of Sasuke since both loved each other a lot(as siblings).

An eight-year-old was tortured mentally by his brother through Tsukuyomi by watching his clan and parents get killed over and over again, was left to live alone in a compound destroyed by his brother’s actions, having to clean his parents’ own blood and fend for himself –but at least he’s alive��� the circumstances and solitude in which he grew is abysmal, traumatic, negligent and inhumane, but we don’t care as much about children’s safety as we do children being just alive.

There were other children in that compound, children that knew nothing of and participated not in the coup to which Itachi didn’t extend the same kindness he did his brother.

The Uchiha's reputation were saved. Imagine what would have happened to the Uchihas after the war. The people were already suspicious of the Uchihas and now we will have never ending persecution and would be branded as traitors, doesn't matter if the coup won or lost. The coup wasn't about reforming anyway.

What “reputation”? The Uchiha were always constructed under a negative light within Tobirama’s system, you lot keep saying they were saved from being seen as detractors when there’s not a single panel that states they were planning to change the system as a whole (rather take down the current government, which is not the same).

Furthermore, to think that they cared about the rest of the population's mindset regarding them is so incredibly simplistic I have to laugh at it –they’re the strongest clan in the village, without Uchiha, there’d have been no village in the first place, and they were already aware of the unfavorable perspective in which they were regarded by others, nothing in itself would’ve changed.

The Uchiha being seen as loyal to the village helped no one but the current system as it is, as they’re seen as a government without opposition, it wasn’t about maintaining the Uchiha’s honor, but keeping the fragile credit of the structure and those in power -if Uchiha died in their own terms, then other clans will know about the clan’s discomfort with the current mindset, and those that feel uncomfortable with it might find a group that validates such sentiments:

Kakashi admits to being uncomfortable with the way he's viewed by the system, he even uses plural when referring to ninja ("we ninja") -meaning there's a communal uneasiness with the whole situation.

The fact that the government silenced detractors (Uchiha) by killing them will only deepen further the general shinobi population's discomfort, which is why is imperative to silence the truth.

[On another note, why do you keep using "honor" as an excuse to execute an entire compound of people? The entire clan was decimated and the whole "honor" of the family rested as another responsibility Sasuke had to endure all by himself thanks to "Itachi's love" -they were left with no honor as Sasuke was forced to restore it! Furthermore, they're all dead! What is "honor" gonna do for them? For the massacred innocents at least? They did nothing wrong and were killed regardless, their honorable nature wasn't even being questioned!]

People in the village got to be safe too.

Safe of what? When was it stated they were going to fight against those who weren’t in power? The problem is they rebelling against those they deem their oppressors but not the government refusing to renounce their power in order to keep the “population they hold so dear” safe? They are both willing to kill innocents (so I guess some people in the village weren’t safe, but in your book, they don’t matter as much), and use the rest of the military population to strike against Uchiha (which is also, never actually stated!). The idea of a “within war” was never confirmed as the Uchiha had no chance to strike, no one is to say they weren’t trying to take power through force yet quietly, no one is to know what was their actual plan as that was never brought to light!

The Uchiha are wrong for wanting to take the power but the government isn't wrong for wanting to keep it, the Uchiha are wrong for their methods to seek authority but not the government for defending the status quo. Uchiha having power would mean annihilation, somehow, despite them being against just their oppressors, not Konoha as a whole; while the government seeks to protect the village despite massacring an entire and most important portion of their militia and one of the founders' clans.

And despite all these he still regretted a lot enough that he wanted the person he adored the most to kill him. 

He regretted nothing, he wanted Sasuke to kill him in order to both give him an objective and to distract him from finding out Konoha’s involvement in the Uchiha Massacre, shouldering the entire responsibility of their demisse.

Also, no one here is trying to justify his action. 

But you are, you wrote point after point why he had to kill his clan.

A justification and a reason has a clear distinction.

What distinction? You need to expand on the notions you think are relevant to you own argument. 

Just because there was a reason it doesn't make the acts were justified. He himself acknowledged that. The writer didn't try to justify nor did Itachi himself. People like, Hashirama and Naruto, appreciated the role he played and praised him as a Shinobi.(being seen as a villan while protecting the people isn't easy, btw). They weren't justifying or glorifying his actions in any instance.

What are you even writing? I’m being honest with that question, claiming to have a reason to kill his clan is used as a justification for his actions! I can’t believe I have to explain that to you. He never said he had no justification (their coup was treated as such over and over, everyone took advantage of them wanting to coup in order to both order the massacre and carry it out!!).

How on earth can you write “People like Hashirama and Naruto appreciated the role he played and praised him as a shinobi but they never justified him”, so are they praising him or not? Them positively reinforcing Itachi and praising him for “his sacrifice” (you see, not only he is perceived as a villain, he is a villain, he killed an entire kin -again, innocents included, in order to maintain specific people in power) is justifying his actions under the notion of the “greater good for the village”. 

He wasn't an absolute nationalist.

He did everything for Konoha! He even claimed himself to be “Itachi of the Leaf!” What are you even talking about?

He he was an idealist. His motivations most cases(especially while making big decisions)were to 'not beget war' and 'maintain peace'. 

Yet his actions concluded in Obito being able to control the Ten Tails with almost no real opposition as the only other Sharingan-wielder was Sasuke.

Doesn't matter if Uchihas managed to control the village it still starts war, death, destruction and countless losses which is exactly what Itachi hated from when he was 4. 

How do you know? Do you have an entirely new manga written by Kishimoto about what would’ve happened had the Uchiha taken over the village? Itachi hated Uchiha since he was four because they brought “war, death and destruction” but not Konoha that actually provoked such wars, deaths, and destruction, what an intelligent boy! 

You have to be a troll because, man, “unbiased opinion” my ass. Also, did you just come to my blog with arguments coming from Itachi Shinden? The story not written by Kishimoto?

He also wanted to reform the village by becoming a Hokage. He wanted to wiped out the entire ninja system since ninjas were the ones who were used as a weapon for the Diamoyo start constant wars. 

Funny, under Hiruzen’s regime he would’ve never become Hokage, furthermore, when did he even hinted to want to become Hokage?? Never in the entire manga. Also, the Daimyo did little to nothing when it came to wars, those were all the Kage’s responsibilities! Dear Lord, did you at least read Team 10’s Arc? Asuma’s background literally explains how the Shugonin Jūnishi fought each other because six of them wanted the entire military power of the Land of Fire to be managed by the Daimyo alone while the rest, Asuma included, defended the Hokage’s existence. 

The Leaf was sort of obnoxious in the time of Tobirama and Hiruzen's regime. But even still, the Hokages were good and passionate and also the people were innocent.

Which people were innocent? The children and non-Sharingan wielders that knew nothing of the coup and were massacred regardless? How can you write “the Hokages were good” while they literally ordered the mass killing of people they swore to protect? How can you use “obnoxious” and “good” to describe the same two people?!

Gosh, the fact that you lot (Itachi stans) don’t comprehend that his involvement in the massacre of his own people alongside the protagonist’s endorsement of state-sanctioned genocide, makes the annihilation of an entire portion of a village a plausible option to handle internal disagreements is disastrous.

Committing genocide against the village’s own people sets a dangerous precedent where future governments can see and use such slaughter as a conceivable, even necessary, tool at their disposal whenever they feel threatened, making any clan vulnerable to the decisions of its government and guaranteeing the silence of possible detractors or even the censorship of constructive criticism of the political, military, economic and cultural system.

Jesus.

[serpentface]

Im very curious about the haidamane family. I remember on your patreon you mention couya being very homophobic, but her brother is in a relationship with a man and is supported by the family. How is their sibling dynamic?

Yeah, Couya is homophobic in a mostly setting-typical way, with some additional layers added from how much she hates her brother and dislikes men in general.

As is typical, she sees her brother’s probable dalliances as both mundanely shameful and spiritually weakening her family against curses (via bodily 'violation'), and resents it tremendously. HOWEVER she defends him for much the same reasons she dislikes it so much- denying it and protecting him protects their family from the associated stigma, and wards against curses and other metaphysical harm. All three siblings are politically prominent in the military and it is very important to her that their status and family name is protected. 

Couya isn’t his main protector though, it’s his sister Faiza who really looks out for him. Faiza also has mostly setting-typical feelings about male homosexuality, but she loves Janeys dearly and is personally invested in his safety and honor beyond just protecting the family name. The two of them have spent their entire lives looking out for each other, and Faiza has sort of a complex about being her siblings' protector. And given she is one of the highest status women in the entirety of Wardin (being a likely candidate for the Odomache) her support is the key thing keeping him afloat. 

She’s the only person who actually knows concrete details about his and Brakul’s relationship, which has allowed her to make (very carefully worded) oaths about Janeys’ status without lying. Lying under oath is viewed as exceptionally dangerous in a metaphysical sense (you are lying to God and will be cursed or damned to a dismal afterlife as a wandering ghost), and oaths (ESPECIALLY from a person of her status) are taken very seriously, so her word means a lot. It's just not enough to stop the gossip.

Anyway, their sibling dynamic is basically this:

Three children are born into a politically prominent family by two different mothers, in an environment of constant competition for the merest crumb of parental love. All become highly ambitious and driven to perform well socially, academically, and militarily. Faiza is the oldest and obvious favorite, recieving highly preferential treatment. Janeys is a middle child and disliked by his parents but given privileged treatment as the only male heir. Couya is the youngest, partly illegitimate (born of a different mother than the other two, retains the family name but locked out of key inheritance), is isolated and neglected, and is also just considered to be strange and offputting as a person (she's most likely autistic, and not exactly existing in a supportive social context).

Janeys survives childhood by latching onto Faiza and developing a heavily dependent relationship on her, Couya is isolated and in constant competition with Janeys, not only for the position of ‘second favorite child’ but also for Faiza’s attention. She desperately wants Faiza's affection but is also profoundly resentful of her golden-child status. Faiza comes out of this mess the best-adjusted (relatively speaking) and a supportive figure to both her other siblings, but with a sort of martyr/hero complex about it. 

Faiza and Couya- amicable and practically supportive but emotionally distant, with considerable resentment on Couya’s side.

Faiza and Janeys- very close, supportive and enabling. Janeys is heavily emotionally dependent on Faiza, and Faiza (on a mostly subconscious level) power trips on it. 

Couya and Janeys- mutual hatred, avoid each other whenever possible, constantly engaging in psychological warfare when forced to interact, only support each other as far as it supports the family itself. 

also here, have several paragraphs of clarification on Male Homosexuality In Wardi Culture under the cut. Enjoy:

So yeah, in Wardi culture sexual relationships between men are stigmatized to a degree that is largely situational. It’s less the same-gender aspect itself and more a combination of how masculinity and power is conceptualized, especially irt the body. Men can penetrate in sex regardless of the partner’s gender without it being stigmatized (though there are additional cultural standards about sexual moderation and appropriate expressions of sexuality). It’s widely accepted for men to have sex with male sex workers (or eunuchs, though they are not fully conceptualized as men by this society) so long as they are the active participants. Receiving penetration is the source of stigma, deemed highly emasculating and a fundamental violation of the body.

There are strong beliefs about spiritual implications surrounding the interactions between bodies. Even having a nude body gazed at is disempowering on a metaphysical level, receiving penetration much more so. It is imagined as literally weakening the recipient, leaving them more vulnerable to curses or influence of evil spirits/wandering ghosts. This is also why the highest status roles for women tend to involve celibacy- king-sisters outrank queens, being aunts or sisters and having no children of their own, while the Odomache (the most esteemed role in Wardi society by far, deemed a physical manifestation of God) must remain entirely celibate and cannot even be SEEN naked.

Receiving penetration (and the resulting metaphysical violation) is accepted as the way of things for the average woman (and of eunuchs), and this is assumed as a justification for their reduced status in this largely patriarchal society. Receiving penetration as a man is more of an active choice to be 'violated', and thus wildly questionable.

Though the stigma revolves around penetration, it extends to male romantic relationships themselves (even if they involve no penetrative sex). It’s not frowned upon as something like a ‘sin’ to be punished, rather a profound embarrassment, a failure to successfully perform masculinity, indicative of impotence. It should be noted that the cultural conceptualization of sex itself here revolves around penetration, and other sexual activities are not fully considered ‘having sex’ with the same implications. This also means that there is comparatively little stigma for same gender relationships between women, or eunuchs- at worst, these relationships are more a source of gossip and teasing, imagined as the result of an excessive sexual appetite or unsatisfying male partners. 

So bottom line for Janeys and Brakul: their relationship is considered inappropriate because they are men of equal status, it is obviously romantic in nature, and it is assumed they’re full on fucking (they actually aren’t. Which is a whole other thing). It’s particularly scandalous for a politically powerful figure to be in this position. Janeys receives the worst of it, given that he is smaller, younger, and somewhat more ‘effeminate’ it’s assumed by most that he’s bottoming (Couya totally thinks so). 

[madamepestilence]

A PSA on American Politics

My blog has largely become an America-centric political blog, especially regarding the US 2024 election. I've made a few posts about it, as well as a video essay. (Note: Claudia de la Cruz is no longer a viable candidate; I'll explain in this thread.)

I'm going to speak to y'all directly now.

The Democrats. The Anarchists. The Communists. The Socialists.

Listen to me.

The whole Vote Blue No Matter Who method is only supporting fascism. I'm not sugarcoating it: Biden is a fascist, people who vote for him are voting for fascism, and if you're voting for Biden just because you're scared of Trump winning the election, you are a fucking coward.

I know I'm going to get flak for that, but it needs to be said - I'm not babying Democrats and fellow leftists. We're grown-ass adults and we need to strategize like adults. Both Trump and Biden are fascists; this isn't about, "minimizing the damage," this is about preventing fascism.

So what is my plan? Do I have solutions? Yes, I do, and here they are:

Part I: The 2024 US Presidential Election

Don't vote for Biden. Don't refuse to vote either - anyone who tells you voting is useless is trying to deceive you.

Vote for third party Independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D.. Dr. West is a triple-college-educated self-described non-Marxist Socialist candidate for the 2024 US presidential election.

You may initially have your doubts for a few reasons, so let me assuage them for you.

Whataboutism A: What about Trump and Biden?

Biden is not any better than Trump. Trump openly admits his racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc. because the Republican party no longer needs to hide these factors.

We live in a state in which the Democratic party will constantly try to compromise with the Republican party, and the Republican party has had such a significant portion of their party indoctrinated into the alt-right that it's their political base now.

See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: The Alt-Right Playbook: The Death of a Euphemism

Biden just continues using euphemisms to hide his fascist rhetoric. Biden is also directly monetarily and militarily supporting a fascist apartheid colony -- Israel-occupied-Palestine -- who are committing a holocaust in Palestine.

He has also supported known fascist political figures, such as the known fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Trump and Biden are both fascists - the only difference is how openly they admit their fascism.

We cannot let this system continue. In the modern United States, the American Democratic and Republican parties effectively have the same goals. The Democratic party may claim that it wants progressivism, but it has shown quite the contrary.

Democrats get elected by comparing themselves to the Republican party by being, "not as bad," while Republicans have to come up with increasingly jarring reasons for election - as, the Republican party already achieved their past goals, and have to move the goalposts - and make implications that the Democratic party is not advocating for drastic enough nationalism.

Capitalism and fascism are compatible with each other, as are the primary American politics parties - they are malleable and are merging into fascism. This is the main danger of neoliberalism.

See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: (The Alt-Right Playbook:) Endnote 2: White Fascism

For that matter - I would not be surprised if Biden uses the lukewarm world war occurring right now--

(and yes, I'm calling it that - there are global efforts to support Palestine, embargoes against Israel-occupied-Palestine, polarization about Palestine and Israel-occupied-Palestine, a war in West Asia spearheaded by Israel-occupied-Palestine, Iran is bombing Israel-occupied-Palestine for their genocidal fascism, Iran directly threatened the US if the US retaliates for Iran's anti-fascist action, and even Irish Member of Parliament Clare Daly directly called out Biden for fascism and claimed that Ireland disowned him)

--to declare emergency powers to gain an, "emergency," term (fascist dictatorship). If Trump gets elected, he would also have the possibility of doing the same.

We are entering fascism. It needs to be stopped.

Whataboutism B: What about the Spoiler Effect?

The Spoiler Effect is largely a concern I've been presented with by cowards who want to vote for fascist US president Biden in the 2024 election.

Historically, the Spoiler Effect hasn't really been a problem in the US. Our election system may be the worst election system currently in use, but people have been so focused on the parties they care for that it hasn't really been an issue.

Furthermore, most people have a drastic misunderstanding of how the Spoiler Effect works. People assume that because the Republican and Democratic parties are currently in power that there are no other options.

This is not how elections work or have historically worked in the United States.

When parties have fallen out of favour in the US, they have historically been replaced by different parties. This has happened multiple times.

See: (Wikipedia:) United States presidential election § Electoral college results

and compare to

See: (Wikipedia:) List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin § Timeline

to see the drastic and broad revisionist application of, "Republican," and, "Democrat," to refer to multiple different parties.

If you're completely unfamiliar with the concept of the Spoiler Effect (or are just interested in viewing alternative voting systems),

See: (YouTube:) Primer: Simulating alternate voting systems

With this in mind, and with our collective agreement that the Democratic party does not have the interests of the people in mind, we can fucking replace the Democratic party with an actually leftist party.

Independent leftists, the Communist Party USA, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, even a new leftist party (that might even merge the leftist front into a Commu-Socialist Party) -- any leftist party vs. the Republican party?

It will lay bare to the world once anew what a Leftist vs. Fascist party system looks like.

Remember the drastic contrast between the German Democratic Republic (a real socialist country) vs. Nazi Germany (who, by the way, were masquerading themselves as socialists because it was popular, despite initially building camps for communists)?

Let's not let the fascists in power again. A truly leftist America is the only way to the future. Fuck your moderate politics.

We have a problem right now and we need drastic change right now, not gentle fidgeting while we compromise with fascists and let people suffer in the meantime.

Also See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish

Whataboutism C: What about Gerrymandering?

I'm gonna keep this one short and blunt: Not voting is only going to reinforce gerrymandering. Vote your fucking representatives out and get better representatives. End of.

Whataboutism D: What about Claudia de la Cruz and the Party for Socialism and Liberation?

To be blunt, De la Cruz has not shaken up enough support to cause the national news concern. Dr. West has.

It's even gotten to a point where national news have been trying to avoid discussing Dr. West -- as it keeps increasing support for him -- to instead discuss known fascist candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..

On a secondary note, the PSL has an internal Conservative 5th Column, and has frequent issues with discrimination.

This runs the risk that De la Cruz may be a Republican plant, and even if she's not, the PSL is not currently the kind of party we want to put in power.

Whataboutism E: What about known fascist Harlan Crow?

For those unfamiliar, I've received complaints about Dr. West's campaign receiving funding from known fascist Harlan Crow. The primary person who shook up a stir wanted an explanation from Dr. West, and apparently didn't look for one.

This amounted to... $3,300. That's not much.

Crow donated $500 directly to now-dropout Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, as well as a whopping $100,000 to Chris Christie's political action committee, Tell It Like It Is.

Dr. West only received about 30% of the equivalent donation Crow granted to Christie. Dr. West has a history of interacting with another Conservative, Robert P. George.

During his life, Dr. West's beliefs have not changed and he's wisely using the system he's been placed in -- and taking advantage of smaller Conservative news media as a pinging board to get airtime on national news media -- without being bought out.

Dr. Cornel West actually directly responded to these concerns, having directly argued that any donations he have will not have any strings attached, and that he cannot be bought out.

Whataboutism F: What about poseur politics?

To be fair, I haven't seen a single person bring this up, but I have no doubt this worry is sitting in the back of people's minds. I'd like to assuage this concern pre-emptively.

Dr. West is fortunately not a poseur. Dr. West has a long history of participating in leftist politics, including, but not limited to:

Civil rights protests inspired by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X in his teenage youth

Supporting social spaces in neglected areas such as prisons and churches

Becoming the first black person to graduate from Princeton University with a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) with a dissertation called Ethics, Historicism, and the Marxist Tradition (later renamed to The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought)

Protests and divestment to help free apartheid South Africa

Participating in the Million Man March

Being arrested for protesting the shooting of Michael Brown

Being the senior advisor for 2000 Democratic candidate Bill Bradley, then Green Party candidate Ralph Nader

Obstructing the front of the US State Department in protest of Israel-occupied-Palestine's oppression of Palestine in 2000, including similar free Palestine protests in 2007 and 2011

Being an advisor for 2004 Democratic candidate Al Sharpton

Being arrested for participating in the 2011 Occupy D.C. and Harlem Wall Street protests

Affiliating with the Revolutionary Communist Party USA in 2014 and directly contributing to the formation of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network

Rescinding support for Barack Obama in 2014 after realizing his imperialist tendencies

Participating in 2017 counter-protests against the Unite The Right Rally, in which he directly commented that Antifa saved their lives

You don't have to worry about Dr. West being a poseur. He's been doing this for a long time.

Whataboutism G: What about Project 2025?

If you believe that winning a single election is going to make the fascists spontaneously give up on Project 2025 -- which you're likely basing on the specific year in the project's name -- you are a fool.

They're going to continually attempt it until they succeed. We can't let fascists into power, and this includes Biden.

Vote for Dr. Cornel West.

Whataboutism H: What about Ballot Access?

Dr. West has actually been very intelligent with how he's working for ballot access across the US. However, it's not a magic black box - you as a voter need to actively help him get ballot access.

If you don't know how to do that, Dr. West has a website with an interactive US state map, which include instructions for how many votes are required to gain ballot access in each state.

Dr. West also provided the actual necessary legal documents to gain signatures, instructions for how to get votes from people, and even created political propaganda -- both free and merchandising -- to help raise awareness for Dr. West's political action.

He was also wise with how he's gathering ballot access. In states where Independent candidates have an actual chance of ballot access, he's remained Independent.

In states where it's not really possible, he's either joined a local leftist party, or created a new party called the Justice for All Party, which allows him party backing for ballot access.

With this process, Dr. West has successfully already gained ballot access in 5 states: Oregon, Utah, Alaska, Colorado, and South Carolina.

If Dr. West is creating events, he has a page where he show's he's going, of which he's already done many nationally. Alternatively, if you'd like to create your own, he also has a page where you can host campaign-approved volunteer events.

If you're wondering about how well Dr. West listens to people, he largely interacts with any news media - even if it's small - to discuss his campaign and beliefs. I also reported some broken links on their website, and within a few days all of the reported links were prepared.

Dr. Cornel West will make an ideal socialist president.

Part II: Legislative, Judicial, and Local Elections

We cannot let this start and end at presidential elections. We need to seize power in all parts of politics.

Affiliate yourself with leftist parties - or create your own - and run for local elections. It's become clear that socialism is extremely popular in the US right now, and the US has a rich history of socialism.

See: (YouTube:) Second Thought: America's Forgotten Socialist History

We also need to go past that. We need to seize power in the legislative and judicial branches of the US, in that order. Using those same leftist parties, get leftists elected into positions within Congress and the House of Representatives, and push the US into majority leftist legislative power.

Once this has been achieved, we need to combine a leftist president with the majority leftist Congress and House to pass legislation to create term limits for the Supreme Court.

We can then have further legislation passed for SC Justices to be elected by the common people, rather than fucking appointed by whoever happens to be the current president.

This can let us fill the Supreme Court with more leftists, and having seized all three branches of government, we can begin major modifications to the US Constitution - or even retiring it for a new US Constitution - to initiate the socialist age of the US.

Whataboutism I: What about the history of attempts of Socialism/Communism?

Hakim, a West Asian leftist YouTuber, has excellent videos on what actually caused the fall of the Soviet Union, the mistakes of former socialist attempts, a response to a worldbuilder's assumptions about why (socialist) revolutions fail, and instructions for how new leftists can contribute to modern socialism.

(Also, if you're just looking for more blatantly leftist YouTubers, I also recommend Slavic leftist Yugopnik.)

Also See: (YouTube:) Sisyphus 55: The Revolution Will Not Be Uploaded (Also has a donation fund for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund)

Part III: Micronations

Wait, what?

I don't know how much they're going to really help, but it doesn't hurt to have alternatives in the event the US fully sinks into a fascist dictatorship.

If you lead or participate in a leftist micronation, establish mutual recognition and trade routes with other micronations and work on true independence that doesn't rely on the US's assistance (water, plumbing, electricity, internet, etc.).

Utilize your lack of recognition as a country to have dual citizenship, where you can provide for your citizens, but also, more importantly:

PARTICIPATE IN AMERICAN ELECTIONS.

Being a part of a micronation does not absolve you from your duty as an American citizen to fucking vote. Vote in local elections and vote in national elections. Get. Leftists. In. Power.

Micronations are the backup plan in the event of an emergency as a point of resistance against state oppression.

Prioritize voting in American elections. Vote for leftists.

Vote for Cornel West for the 2024 US presidential election.

[alicent-vi-britannia]

This Code Geass dialogue is underrated

Suzaku and Kallen's dialogue at the campfire is what makes episode 19 great, for me. This is Code Geass. Both Kallen and Suzaku aspire to the same goal: to see Japan free, but they both have opposing belief systems that will lead them to confront each other on the battlefield.

Kallen: Something that almost no one takes into account is that Kallen's goals, unlike other characters, constantly change throughout the series and the reason is very simple: Kallen had no idea what she wants to do with her life. Hence she is, in a way, finding herself, since Kallen's plot line in the first season consists of finding her motivation and defining her objective. Kallen manages to set her goal once she has her motivation. What is that objective? I would say it is liberating Japan, although here she talks about "change the world." But when did she first talk about "wanting to change the world"? Exactly, when she made a promise to her mother while she was recovering from the side effects of refrain. Finding out the truth about her mother and everything that happened in episode 9 gave Kallen a reason to want the world to change. How will she do it? Following the path that Zero has taught him: "the path of blood."

For Kallen, there is no other path to freedom than fighting and she is willing to use any method (meaning taking as many lives as necessary) to achieve her goal, even if she dies in the process, she will have the satisfaction that she did what she believed was right and that marks her first difference with Suzaku, who prefers to live and suffer. Kallen would rather die than suffer. In fact, there is an echo of the conversation she had with Zero in episode 13 when she states that if she doesn't try to change the world her brother's death will have been in vain. This shouldn't surprise us since Kallen then asked Zero: "Is what we're all doing here really going to change the world for the better?" In other words, "is all this worth it in the end?", to which Lelouch replies yes. It has to. Something important appears here that marks another difference between her and Suzaku. Zero's rebellion is based on the premise that he will win. We count on that since Lelouch is the protagonist of his own series and we are the viewers. People in the Code Geass universe don't know this. But Kallen, the Black Knights, and the Pro-Rebellion Japanese choose to believe so.

Suzaku, on the other hand, has no faith. He doesn't believe that Japan can defeat Britannia because it will always be surpassed militarily and technologically. In Suzaku's view, resisting will increase Britannia's oppression against Japan, making living conditions difficult for his people and bringing more death and misery on both sides. However, worst of all is that Zero shows no concern for the lives lost because he is focused on winning his war to prove that he was right. In short, it would be a question of stupid ego. Something that Suzaku already experienced first-hand with his father during the invasion (remember that Genbu was stubborn in continuing with a lost war) and the battle of Narita proved Suzaku right in that sense, since Lelouch didn't think about the people that could hurt. This draws a difference between Zero and Suzaku: meanwhile Lelouch is focused on building the future and obtaining results; Suzaku strives to improve the present and is very concerned about the means. Lelouch believes that the result will atone for his means and the ends will justify it and Suzaku believes that the means will condemn the end and the result will be "a dark regret and a deep emptiness of having nowhere to go", which turned out to be true. These words constituted a self-fulfilling prophecy for Lelouch who, in the end, will be consumed by remorse.

Let's say, then, that Kallen is betting his life on something uncertain. He is taking a great risk that Suzaku doesn't dare. Ultimately, the debate remains inconclusive because there is no mortally correct choice, so to speak. Neither Suzaku can answer Kallen nor can she answer him.

Anyway, this is some of the best dialogue in the series and it needs more love and attention.

PS: I'll have a post up soon showing how Suzaku was very validated at the end of the first season.

[neoatlantiscodex]

High School / ATLAS

A lot of people think about High School, blame it on Rockefeller, trying to create a pliable labour-class to work in the factories.

To be honest, he 100% did do this, but he based it off of British Grammar schools.

Grammar School, which the British Grammar schools are still considered the best schools in the world. Just like Oxbridge (Oxford + Cambridge) are considered the best universities. Grammar Cchool was designed to create the nobility. Literally. As in, not too long ago, you were literally born into a caste, or to say you were born into a family with inheritable privileges.

The nobility were both a martial class, and a managerial class. This is because that one of the only legitimate jobs of the government is to protect you militarily, and Feudalism is essential a military government writ large. It really wasn't until modernity that we had viable alternatives.

They had inheritable land, that they owned because of pledges of military service to the king. They were allowed to keep all of the money they could get out of their fife. This meant that the survival of their workers, and managerial skills, directly benefited them. Compare this to modern corporations, that gain no benefit to your continued existence.

To create this martial, managerial class, they were sent to Grammar School, where they were taught important things, like accounting, Latin, military strategy, the rough equivalent of an MBA, and unimportant things, like how to speak in the secret Frog language. Rugby doesn't just teach you military strategy, but Games are important to keeping your body active.

If you look at standard High Schools, they teach the same thing, but a pale imitation of this. We've even tried to turn Games into Physical Education, and bent backwards in the attempt to add education into the simple act of keeping your body physically fit, (along with the social and psychological benefits). You learn a second language, but in English-speaking countries, this is not to do anything productive, (non-English countries learn English, because it's so useful). We used to learn banking, and now learn abstract mathematics. Which, as someone who was good at, and studied them much further, you aren't going to use it unless you become an engineer or mathematician. Because of the purposelessness, High School doesn't have any way to evaluate it's success. As such, it's basically become a holding pen.

People are going to High School, nowadays, and coming out less prepared for life than when they went in. Same thing with University. Because the most important thing you can do in High School and University is sit still, and not do anything productive.

For some reason, teenagers are feeling a bit unfulfilled by this, and our solution is to shoot them full of drugs.

Historically, once you had elementary school, Elementary Cchool taught you the three R's. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

Catchy, but inaccurate to call them R's.

Anyways.

After Primary School, if you weren't going to Grammar School or University, you... worked. You got an apprenticeship. By the time you are 21, you are a journeyman, whom is marriageable.

Now, we send everyone to University. Which adds another 8 years of education. They come out of University with $50-60,000 in debt. About 10% of the people who come out of University actually work a single day in the field they studied. They come out, never having done anything productive in their life, other than the most basic of service jobs.

And if they had worked those service jobs for those years, would be financially better off, and have more work experience.

So, we're creating Utopia, so, what do we do with schools?

I mean, we can't have teenagers working. Except we can. And in my experience as someone who has to teach teenagers at work, and who is a former teenager himself, the teenagers with jobs are typically better in almost every way than the teenagers without jobs.

Well, what about Trade Schools?! That's the usual alternative.

Well, Trade Schools don't really exist. Most trades have a 3 semester rotation of 2 work and 1 study, or something similar. Trade schools are often literally just university-colleges, or technical universities, that partner with firms to pair students with appropriate jobs in their field. Engineering literally works the same way, and and both engineering nursing requires a practicum after graduation.

But we're running into the ATLAS principle, which comes from Bioshock. In Bioshock, an Objectivist created an Objectivist paradise. The big problem he didn't account for is that he promised that everyone could become captains of industry. "But, in the end, someone has to scrub the toilets."

Every, single, discussion about High School acts as if every - single - person is going to have a storied career, either in academia, or the trades. The unfortunate answer is that most people have jobs, not careers. Your job is to lift heavy thing, or push buttons. The nature of unskilled jobs, i.e. jobs without skills that are rare enough to command a better wage, is a different issue. And it really doesn't matter HOW we accomplish this, we need account for the people who have to scrub the toilets. They need to have housing, and enough money to support a family. On one wage, or as is most common, one-and-a-half. People who don't go into some form of secondary education should not be shamed as failures. They are instead the backbone of the economy. Or, the muscles of the economy? You have a lot more muscle than you do bones. The basement of the economy is fitting, but people might take that the wrong way.

As Forrest Gump says, stupid is as stupid does. Most people think this is an insult, but stupid people can lead productive lives, and brilliant people have lead disastrous lives. You don't need grade 12 to scrub the toilets. Literally, as many janitorial jobs require grade 12, because it was the line in the sand we choose.

And, by the way, this is literally Utopian, as in, it's in Thomas Moore's Utopia. People with free time, and a culture of interest in reading, will create a culture of reading.

If we get a four-day work week, either 4x8, or 4x10, we can have days off, and people can attend secondary education of their choice. Especially with the advent of the internet, you can have masters in their field teaching courses that you need to pay $20/month to view. If a teenager is still living with their parents, a couple days of work a week would be sufficient to cover their expenses, and give them plenty of time for education.

Well, what about people who want to go into a field that actually requires a university degree.

Then they can go to High School. Or have the local university-college offer the equivalent courses. If we cut out the bullshit, and focus only on those who are academically skilled, we could easily cut the time in half.

[noroi1000]

Could I request headcanons headcanons of commander(empress)!reader and gojo,it could be fluff,badass etc and/or a mix of them

An: It's not exactly headcanons, but it's almost like that. It's short.

Commander 6

Well, Gojo as an emperor would be almost the same as a prince.

Especially when he has a queen with him that is you. You are his empress, and you have as much power as you want. Everything he has, you have too.

There's nothing to argue.

You were one of the most wonderful empresses ever to rule with an emperor.

When a decision has to be made, he is the one who comes to you to ask your opinion.

Satoru wouldn't do anything without the consent of his beloved wife. After all, he doesn't want you to be left out of anything.

You still have your responsibilities as empress, but you are also able to help him.

In every possible way.

You help him make a lot of decisions. Therefore, he does not need many advisers. Often a woman's point of view is enough to solve all the problems that have ever been handed to her on a platter.

Because you are very good at all this, he lets you do what you want. Everything they ask you, you know the solution after a while.

Since you also retained your position as military adviser, you can do almost anything with the defense of the country.

As if you were advising yourself on military matters.

Being with Satoru, you deployed military forces your way, unlike before. Previously, other advisers disagreed with your idea of ​​reducing troops in the capital. Now no one said they disagreed because it was just you and Satoru.

By deploying now, there is no place in your country where it is unsafe.

The enemy can attack from any side. But it won't go any deeper into the country because you've placed patrols and troops in strategic locations. Perfect places on the border for attack, defense, traps.

No one would dare attack such a militarily efficient country, would they?

From your experience when you were young, you made armor heavy and light. For women and for men. Different sizes. Various armors to choose from. And it all depends on the convenience of a person, as well as on the preferences for weapons.

After the story of a small town girl who became a captain and made it to the elite spread, then she became commander, adviser to the emperor, then empress, more women were in the army.

Even as sanitary help or any kind of support, but there were more women.

Many people admire you.

Some people hate you too. They are mostly of noble birth. After all, for them, a commoner cannot become an empress and rule the country.

Well, not this time. You're the empress, and you're very happy about it.

Satoru supports you in everything as you support him.

You help him relax. Physically and mentally. You relax his body with just your touch and your voice.

You take away all his stress.

In all the ways he wanted. After all, your emperor deserves the best. Because that's what he gives you.

You still can't get used to people calling you "your majesty"

But at least it's easier than political meetings…

You don't like it, Satoru doesn't like it.

That's why you're both glad that Satoru's Father attends them most often. Even though he is no longer the emperor, he is still the father of the emperor, and also a former emperor. He has the same rights.

You were supposed to handle the spy's case, you had him cut his tongue and let it go to his boss. It didn't matter who he was. The spy won't say anything else.

You took on the case of a killer who murdered for no reason, just for fun. Unconditional death. Kill him as he killed all his 12 victims. Strangling, drowning, setting fire, stabbing, slashing, dropping from a height, cutting off the skin and leaving it to bleed, poisoning. Order according to the person who executes the sentence.

Despite these situations, you also do good things.

On your initiative, schools were established in smaller towns. Conditions have improved.

People love you.

Satoru keeps telling you that you make everything perfect. And that you yourself are an ideal.

You love him.

You are the empress, and you are happy.

Because you can have a family with Satoru, and live happily ever after.

[theculturedmarxist]

I don't know what awful things Russia has done during this war with Ukraine and I don't particularly care. I'm not really interested in contesting them either. It's a war, awful things happen in war, awful things are deliberately inflicted during war, and whatever one thinks of the Russians or their army, that army is going to commit atrocities. It's simply a given.

The reason I push back against the shrill wailing about Russia and highlight the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian army isn't because of some idealization of Russia. It's a capitalist regime and I don't have any love for it. I don't think Putin particularly cares about the Russian people in Ukraine and I don't think his motivations for invading are in any way altruistic. If anything good does result from it, it will merely be incidental.

I highlight the crimes of the Ukrainian government first of all because it's a neo-Nazi government. It doesn't deserve support. It's only a puppet government of the United States which pulls its strings and directs its policy. Furthermore, it's been preying upon its own citizens for years and has been cultivating gangs of Nazis to spread terror among them. The government of Ukraine has been pursuing a policy of genocide against its own people, and collaborating in Nazi violence against them. Worse still, these Nazis' ambitions extend beyond Ukraine, and win or lose the United States will give them the means to fulfill them.

Second, the US and its allies are all loathsome hypocrites. Even if you accept whatever the worst projections of the casualties from all this mess in Ukraine, it won't be but a fraction of the United States' and its allies 30 year world tour of mass death and destruction. Not one of them cares about Ukrainians, nor are they the least bit interested in any sort of justice. The sole and only purpose of their reporting about Russia's crimes in Ukraine is to gin up support for this war that they are waging against it. They are used only as a cynical effort in order to justify inflicting atrocities on the people of Russia. NATO isn't supplying the Nazis of Ukraine with weapons for compassion's sake. They are doing it because the destruction of Russia and the subjugation of its peoples are integral for safeguarding and continuing the unlimited power and impunity that the bourgeoisie of the United States think is their right. Whatever justification for pursuing that end, however factual, will only lead to much worse outcomes than whatever Russia is currently inflicting on Ukraine.

Prolonging this war isn't going to do anyone any good, least of all the Ukrainians themselves. I think there are only three possible outcomes for this nightmare.

The worst case scenario is that this conflict escalates into a nuclear war. The longer this goes on and the further both sides escalate, the greater the likelihood that this happens. If it does, then billions will die in an instant, and then everyone that's left will die slowly. As you can imagine, this isn't a positive outcome for the Ukrainian people.

The less worse case scenario is that the United States wins. What the US seeks is nothing less than the subjugation of all of Russia and the destruction of its ability to militarily resist the US. If they were somehow to achieve this, this would put the US into stronger position to maintain its hegemony by depriving other smaller states of an alternative to its power. It would work to isolate China by cutting it off from a major source of vital resources, as well as removing a major potential ally when the US inevitably declares war against it. What NATO has done in Ukraine they seek to do in Taiwan. If the US is successful in bringing war to China, then without a doubt many hundreds of millions, if not billions of people will die.

The least worse case scenario is that Russia wins. Ukraine will still be in ruins, but currently only Russia has the technological capabilities to repair its Soviet-era infrastructure. The Nazi government will be removed from power or at least greatly diminished in its ability to inflict harm on anyone depending on the political outcome of the war. The United States will have expended a great deal of money and military material, material which it will take years or possibly decades to replace, if it can at all. Failure to favorably resolve the conflict in NATO's favor potentially jeopardizes the entire alliance and degrades its ability to wage war on others. Its plans to wage war on China might be delayed or even postponed indefinitely. Faith in the United States' military supremacy would be severely diminished. Deprived of the resources it expects to extract from Russia, its decline will only continue and perhaps accelerate.

I think these are the only three realistic outcomes because the US, the actual opposite to Russia in this war, has repeatedly refused to even contemplate negotiating an equitable outcome. For them, the only acceptable result is the complete defeat and humiliation of Russia, the removal of its government, and its subordination to the United States. I don't believe it has the capacity to alter this stance in any meaningful way. Even if it was willing, I'm of the opinion that the US isn't "agreement capable." Whatever agreement it did make it would almost immediately renege upon and work to undermine. Even if the Biden administration did engage in a peace deal in good faith, there's no way of knowing whether or not the next administration would uphold it. I think the nuclear deal it made with Iran is a good example of this inability to commit to any agreement in the interests of lasting peace. Unfortunately, I think the only way this conflict will come to a close is by one side or the other pursuing it to the bitter end.

I don't think any of what I have described makes me "pro Russian." I have for years now posted to this blog what I consider good evidence supporting my positions to the best of my ability to understand it. So far, all that's been offered to the contrary has been the raving of zealots utterly convinced of the depravity or inherent evil of the Russian people in part or in whole and the necessity to exact bloody revenge on them. I don't think that's the perspective of anyone that wants to minimize suffering, but only change who it's inflicted upon.

The only true solution to the ambitions of both the US and Russia is for the workers of the world to put a stop to them. Without an international effort based on solidarity, revolution, and the genuine desire for peace, the capitalists of the world and their engines of destruction will continue to prey upon anyone lacking the ability to stand up to them, and that puts us all in the gravest jeopardy.

[exitpursuedbyasloth]

(So I originally wrote the following in a reply to the post screencaped above. I wanted to reblog this as the S3B is premiering in a couple days and I have major concerns over this potential plot direction. However OP blocked me for my reply and I can’t, however they’re my words so I will repost them as I see fit. Including the original post for context only, and I added some additional clarifying comments.)

…that would be pretty terrible, ngl.

Canon Radovid (in the games, he’s like 12 at the end of the books, although his future turn is hinted at) turns genocidal towards sorceresses and other non-humans both for political power, but also because of the festering resentment of the abuse, manipulations, and wrongs he sees him and father suffer at the hands of the sorceress Phillipa and Dijkstra, including his father’s assassination by an elf at the behest of Phillipa. Phillipa controls him throughout his teenage years. That hate festers in him for years until he grows up, and instead of simply getting revenge on those who personally harmed him and his family, he decides the only way to rule was with an iron fist, and turned that fist against all sorceresses, witches, magic-users and non-humans (both because he hates/fears them, but also for political gain, as these things tend to go). He encourages the non-human hate, uses humans superior numbers to overwhelm and destroy groups of non-humans and magic users. He’s relatively militarily adept too. He made sure of that, because he wanted revenge against Phillipa even as a boy. I don’t think the show would abandon everything that makes Radovid Radovid (but then again, Eskel...), I don’t think he’s just going to be Some Guy. So his sadistic bigotry towards and genocide against all non-humans and (most) human magic-users will come into play at some point. And if it does, his relationship with Jaskier will HAVE to factor in somehow, that’s unavoidable at this point. But should this theory OP mentions come to pass (and there is a good chance it might, I have been concerned about this since it the news leaked of who Jaskier would be paired up with), that would mean the show made a conscious choice to have adult Radovid turn villain…cause his boyfriend dumped him? His boyfriend of like a couple months chose his family of 20+ years over him, and that was enough to make him lose it and just start stabbing everything? Or cause he was angry that Jaskier was using him as a shield because Phillipa was threatening him? And Radovid, a grown ass man, cannot handle this? This would put a homosexual relationship at the core of a xenophobic campaign of witch-burning, be the catalyst of it. And they would put that on Jaskier’s shoulders? Because he dumped Radovid?

Why? What does this do but add cheap angst where it wasn’t needed? There is no need to A.) Start Radovid’s xenophobic hate campaign 15 years early (they have so many world-spanning plots they already can’t write well, why add more?), and B.) connect it directly to someone in the main core cast by having them be the inciting incident for Radovid. That’s unnecessary, that doesn’t offer any narrative improvement to the story at all (FFS, the world is bigger than Geralt, Yenn, Ciri, and Jaskier). And is this the reason Jaskier is now canonically bisexual? Was that the only reason they did that, just to make him the casus belli of a genocide? That really would not be the kind of queer rep anyone should praise, and by god, does it feels downright spiteful.

And to be clear, I don’t think every queer story has to be all sunshine and happiness or perfectly positive (something I’ve been accused of when criticizing questionable writing of gay/bi characters in the past). But there is a vast ocean of difference between “Sunshine and perfection” and “Hey! Let’s change this catalyst for this genocide from ‘Paranoid Fascist takes what should have been a beef between him and like 5 people, and turns it into a full scale witch-burning industry and non-human genocide, for both political gain and cause he’s a paranoid xenophobic fascist’ to 'gay prince super bummed his boyfriend dumped him’, and let’s make sure we wait to show the boyfriend as canonically bisexual until the last possible second, just so people wonder if that’s the only reason we even bothered ”. A vast fucking ocean.

I’m fine with adaptational changes that add to or improve the canon material, or are just different but stand strongly on their own. But this? Would be a terrible miserable hateful idea, and is just cheap writing for forced angst (and I honestly would not put it past the Witcher writers, which is the worst part).

How is this good? How would this an improvement? What does this add? How does this stand on it’s own? Why would they take a bloody campaign of witch-burning and genocide that had a believable catalyst already, and retcon it happening because of The Gays? Cause a dude dumped another dude? If they did this, the writers would have to consciously make the choice to change the catalyst of the genocide to ‘a gay guy was like super bummed that his boyfriend left him for a Witcher’. Do y'all see what that looks like?

[mariacallous]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long resisted the concept of a two-state solution, but rarely so explicitly as in the months since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. U.S. President Joe Biden insists, however, that there’s a path forward for an independent Palestine in cooperation with Netanyahu’s government. 

“I think we’ll be able to work something out … I think there’s ways in which this could work,” Biden recently told reporters, referring to a potential postwar deal that could establish a Palestinian state while also overcoming his Israeli counterpart’s objections. 

What Biden seemed to have in mind was a Palestinian state that would be both independent and demilitarized. Axios has reported that State Department officials have already been tasked with looking into what a demilitarized Palestine would look like “based on other models from around the world.” 

There is growing acceptance of the idea in the international community as a possible way out of the current conundrum—namely, by assuaging Israeli security concerns and handing Palestinians a state of their own to end the cycle of violence. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that Australia may recognize a Palestinian state if it was “demilitarized.” There even appears to be backing from some significant players in the Arab world. “We are ready for this state to be demilitarized,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a November 2023 news conference in the presence of the Spanish and Belgian prime ministers. Sisi is a close ally of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which presumably would have been consulted by Cairo. 

But a minefield of diplomatic challenges needs to be navigated to make this idea a success. None of the existing states and territories without armed forces compare the uniquely difficult circumstances faced by Israelis and Palestinians, and none offers a model that can simply be adopted to resolve one of the most intractable conflicts in one of the world’s most restive regions. 

Nearly 40 countries and territories do not have a standing army, and nearly all are relatively small in size and population. Many are island states, such as Grenada, famous for its nutmeg exports, or Dominica, known for its natural hot springs and tropical rainforests. Many have protection from bigger, well-armed states such as the United States, or from NATO for some of those that lie in Europe. 

Liechtenstein, however, has neither a military nor NATO membership, and yet it indirectly benefits from NATO’s protective umbrella. 

“If there’s a war, there will be many other countries that will be crossed first,” Liechtenstein’s ambassador to the European Union, Pascal Schafhauser, told Foreign Policy in his office in Brussels. Tucked between Austria and Switzerland, the landlocked nation coordinates policing efforts with its immediate neighbors and is, by default, protected by militarily stronger neighbors such as Germany and France in the extended region. The roughly 40,000 inhabitants of Liechtenstein reside in a peaceful and prosperous region, and they have not yet found a compelling reason to reverse the decision that led to demilitarization of the country in 1868.

Liechtenstein and Palestine, however, could not be any more different. While Liechtenstein’s geography and equally prosperous neighbors guard it from external threats, the Palestinian territories are cheek-to-jowl with Israel—their arch foe. Furthermore, an independent Palestine would still have to reckon with a meddlesome Iran, which is likely to keep aiding nonstate armed groups—such as Hezbollah and the Houthis—in firing rockets at Israel and challenging the stability of any arrangement.

Costa Rica is often hailed as a paragon of development in the Latin American region. While there are many factors behind its success, at least one of them is widely considered to be demilitarization. Back in 1948, Costa Rica abolished the military, and unlike some of its neighbors, it hasn’t been embroiled in coups and military takeovers since. Instead, it has spent the money that would go toward a defense budget on human development. Unlike Palestine, however, none of its neighbors are trying to invade its territory or instigate an armed uprising. 

The changing internal security dynamics in Costa Rica nonetheless offer a lesson. In a recent paper titled “The Myth of Demilitarization in Costa Rica,” Markus Hochmüller and Markus-Michael Müller highlight the fact that crime is on the rise there, and that there are calls to hand increased powers to heavily armed special policing units such as the Fuerza Especial Operativa. This illustrates the danger that even a basic policing structure could be militarized at a later stage. 

Haiti, on the other hand, is a classic example of how a demilitarized state can be crippled internally by local armed gangs. The United Nations Security Council has once again agreed to send foreign troops to help the government reclaim the neighborhoods and essential infrastructure that have been seized by criminal gangs. 

If Hamas doesn’t agree to disarm, and other armed groups in Gaza are not on board with the final settlement, there are similar worries of continued unrest, not just between these groups and Israel, but also between them and the authorities of an independent Palestinian state. 

The case of the Solomon Islands’ embrace of Beijing shows that even if demilitarized a state can choose belligerent military allies that can reshape broader security dynamics in a region. For a long time, the Pacific nation had been under Australia’s security influence, but midway through 2023, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare met with his Chinese counterpart and signed an agreement to boost policing cooperation that would allow Beijing to train its police officers. 

The Palestinian territories are vastly different from any of these countries, as it fears an imminent threat from its own neighbor, faces disunity over what qualifies as a settlement within its own population, and is the victim of an Iranian agenda to expand its regional influence. 

From the Israeli perspective, being absent on the ground in Gaza could result in another Oct. -like attack by insurgents who don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist. 

Eran Lerman, a former deputy national security advisor of Israel, told Foreign Policy that at best, Israel would accept a “1.8-state solution” with serious restrictions that would keep Palestinians from pursuing their own independent policies in matters of defense. 

“First, we need to retain some sort of control of borders so we can see what’s coming in,” Lerman said. “Secondly, we need to have a say on how many and what kind of arms Palestine can keep and on the size of the police and security forces it can have to ensure it doesn’t turn into a military in the future.” 

Netanyahu has instread proposed a “state minus,” which would include limitations on sovereignty and guarantees to Israel beyond demilitarization, which observers say is more in sync with the public mood among Israelis.

“Would a Palestinian state be allowed to enter into a military agreement with Iran? Or to conduct military exercises with Hezbollah?” said Daniel Schwammenthal, the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute in Brussels. He argued that “Palestine must agree to not enter into defense agreements with enemy states of Israel,” for instance. 

Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst, said the key question from Palestinians’ point of view was not whether a prospective state has a military, but rather the final border settlement. 

“Is it going to be Bantustan or on the ’67 borders? That’s more important,” she told Foreign Policy over the phone from Ramallah, referencing Palestinian fears that Israel intends to keep control of large chunks of the West Bank in a way that keeps Palestinian lands disjointed. “If Israel would not attack, would not invade, if there are international guarantees to that effect, then having a military is not exactly a Palestinian priority, in my opinion,” she added. 

But not every Palestinian may feel the same way. Schwammenthal pointed out that according to a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 72 percent of Palestinians backed Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. He said that proved that support for an armed movement Palestinians was high. 

Sisi, the Egyptian president, has proposed that the security concerns of both Israelis and Palestinians could be answered if a multinational security force was deployed to facilitate the transition. “There can also be guarantees of forces, whether NATO forces, United Nations forces, or Arab or American forces, until we achieve security for both states, the nascent Palestinian state and the Israeli state,” he said back in November. Some Israeli intellectuals backed the idea of a multinational and committed force, but they want to try that out in Gaza first to see if it works.

And all this presupposes that Netanyahu, or any conceivable successor, would earnestly consider consenting to the creation of any independent Palestinian state at all.

[yamayuandadu]

hi!

so wiki claims people of the mitanni kingdom worshipped "indo European" deities. I assume that's just bad pseudo archaeology correct? knowing that, who did they worship then?? I assume they worshipped hurrian deities (since they were hurrians themselves) right?

Weasel words at play! First things first: you are correct that the average subject of the Mitanni state would speak Hurrian, or alternatively Akkadian (or a closely related dialect) or both. That's the norm for the north of Syria and Iraq in the late bronze age. These were also the languages used in the royal correspondence, as evidenced by the Amarna latter corpus, which does include letters sent from the Mitanni court. They consistently use Akkadian, the diplomatic lingua franca of the second half of the second millennium. They reflect a typical "Syro-Hurrian" milieu, with nothing really out of ordinary. Even the name of the kingdom is most likely Hurrian, since -ni is a common Hurrian suffix, as pointed out by Ilya Yakubovich here (not open access but I can post a screencap if so desired). What little can be said about the religion of the area under Mitanni control follows a similar pattern. The head of the pantheon was Teshub most of the other major Hurrian deities show up too though iirc there's a closer overlap with the eastern sources from Nuzi than western from Alalakh, Ugarit or Kizzuwatna. Where do the alleged Indo-European deities come from, then? From a total of one source, where they do not occupy a major position. A treaty between Shattiwaza (Mitanni) and Shuppiluliuma I (Hittite) lists "Mitra-ššil, (W)aruna-ššil, Indra, Našattiyana" among various other deities, but far behind the big shots of the pantheon. Gernot Wilhelm summarizes the issue here and concludes that the royal family alone preserved, for some reason, a small number of traditions which did originate in Indo-European tradition, but how they came to be incorporated into fundamentally Hurrian culture is anyone's guess, and their scope was obviously very limited, otherwise they just include some horse-related terminology and regnal names (note kings still had Hurrian -given- names, as did princesses, let alone vassal rulers). Alfonso Archi more broadly suggests aristocracy rather than royal family might have venerated these minor deities but I have seen no real evidence for this. Worth noting in the past attempts have even been made to check if maybe these aren't just accidentally similar names but that trend did not catch on, iirc the main proponent was Annelies Kammenhauber. So, to go back to the deities: we are looking at a level of relevance below even Kassite deities in Babylonia in the same period. Odds are decent the average Mitanni citizen didn't even know these deities existed, they are not really attested anywhere outside of a single treaty (in i think two copies?) and they seem completely disconnected from the bulk of evidence for Mitanni religion (if it is even possible to speak of such a thing). Once again inflated importance is given to trivia because of PIE "mythology" reconstructions which are largely fanfiction - the connection between languages is indisputable but it's foolish to pretend the entire bronze age Pontic-Caspian Steppe was more religiously homogeneous than the Iraqi Marshlands alone. And the less said about vintage theories where the "Indo-European" Mitanni are presented as culturally and militarily superior to Hurrians and Mesopotamians, the better - I'm sure you can tell where this is going though if you can't, Gary Beckman wrote a good article on somewhat related deeply unpleasant matters. Wilhelm imo summarized the whole issue well when he already wrote in the 1980s that it is a case of assigning "undue importance" to details (see here; note he seemingly abandoned both of the theories he presents there wrt origin of the dynasty).

[mneiai]

Dragon Age Fic: Wicked Games

Ship: Gaspard de Chalons/Cullen Rutherford

Summary: Cullen has received far too much interest for his liking after the events at the Winter Palace, but one offer is too good for the Inquisition to pass up. Arranged Marriage AU.

Notes: Gaspard is a bigoted, warmongering asshole, but there are reasons to make him Emperor and that's what this mostly ambiguous Inquisitor did. I have a feasible second part in my head, but am unsure if I'm ever going to actually write it up.

AO3 Link

XxX

Having been assured that the box contained nothing dangerous and told, repeatedly, by Josephine that it would be extremely rude and diplomatically costly to throw this one into the pile of refuse he’d thrown some of the others into, Cullen reluctantly took it back to his office.

There was no way he was opening it in front of Josephine and Leliana’s prying eyes, just in case it was another of those sort of “gifts” that the Orlesian nobility seemed to think the lonely, tragic Commander of the Inquisition required.

At least it wasn’t a person, again.

The box was sturdy underneath the gilt, even if the colors of House Chalons (and how he hated that he could now recognize such things on sight) helped to conceal that. Heavy, as well, moreso than most gifts he could think of would be.

He wondered if he should take it to Florianne. She’d mock him relentlessly, of course, but she had no power to do anything more than that and her advice may prove useful.(1)

Instead, he set it on his desk, slumped into his chair, and...opened it himself.

Josephine would be so proud of him.

Underneath the layers of high quality silk used simply for padding (he could probably feed a family for a month off of just the packaging) was something metal. When he finally revealed it, he at first thought it was one of those insipid masks that the Orlesians wore.

Yet, the box was too deep for just a mask, and so he picked it up to see what was underneath and realized that it was not, in fact, a mask at all.

It was a helmet. A well designed one, as he looked it over, that would fit snugly on his head (he just knew that somehow even those measurements were out there for his “admirers”) and was of finely crafted silverite, which perhaps did deserve to be carried in a sea of silk. The back was accented with lion fur that almost perfectly matched his cloak.

A note fluttered out, the signature all the confirmation he needed that this hadn’t come from some random cousin and instead was a gift from the Emperor himself.

No wonder Josephine had looked near tears when he'd told her to send it back or throw it out with the trash.

They’d shared exactly one dance at the Winter Palace, hardly unusual given that the Inquisition were Gaspard’s guests and Cullen and he were both militarily minded. No one had made any comment on it and in truth he’d been so relieved to get away from the oppressive throng of nobles that had surrounded him most of the night he had perhaps been more attentive than was appropriate.

Gaspard was a monster, of course, but so was Celene, so were most of the nobles they had been surrounded with and the ones who were not had simply never been given the chance to be so. They all wanted power and dominance.

That was what this helmet was. Cullen’s use of lion fur had amused Gaspard, whose house (among many, many other Orlesian houses, of course, including Celene’s) had lions in their sigil. After, the term “Lion of the Inquisition” and similar had begun to follow Cullen, almost certainly meant to show some connection.(2) This was a claim, just as that was.

He had a sinking feeling his choices were displaying it or wearing it.

Wrapping it up in one of the swaths of silk, remembering only at the last minute to grab the note, he stalked back towards the main Keep and Josephine’s office. She was meeting with Vivienne, going over some political intrigue he was sure, and he bit his lip to keep from groaning.

“Ah, Commander, all is well?” Josephine smiled at him, too innocently to be sincere, and he knew his chance to flee was gone.

He set the helmet on her desk, careful of the ink wells and more delicate looking parchment, and held out the note. “What do I do?”

“Oh my, isn’t that grand,” Vivienne murmured, having taken the moment to unwrap the helmet without so much as a by-your-leave. “From the Emperor, I assume?”

“Does everyone know about-about this.”

She smiled, looking like a dangerous predator without even showing her teeth. “His ‘infatuation’ with you, darling? Yes, It’s quite the talk. It is the perfect distraction from his lack of wife or direct heir, of course, and implies the continued favor of the Inquisition.”

“How could it be favor when it is one-sided?!”

Josephine made a little noise, turning the note nervously in her hand. “Given the power that Gaspard has been amassing, allowing his...courtship is a very simple way to keep his allegiance without cost.”

Just Cullen’s dignity and peace of mind, though both of those were worth little, he knew. He slumped against Josephine’s desk, ignoring the tsking from Vivienne. If anything, he thought she should be relieved he felt she was safe enough to show vulnerability around, but she was unlike most of the other mages in the Inquisition and still saw him as some sort of symbol for the Templar Order.

“And where does such a strategy end, Ambassador?”

She seemed thrown by his question, pursing her lips as she thought up some undoubtedly brilliant and manipulative way to get him to do exactly what she wanted. As she thought, Vivienne took the note from her and looked it over herself, even bringing it up to her nose to take a delicate sniff.

“Why, with a wedding, of course, Commander,” Vivienne proclaimed after her inspection was complete.

He was so surprised he managed to choke on his very breath, pushing back from the desk to collect himself. “What?” he croaked.

Josephine gave a long-suffering sigh. “The form of courting that the Emperor is using...is one that often ends in marriage, that is true.”

“I’m a Fereldan peasant!”

“Who has risen to perhaps the highest military rank in all of Thedas.” Vivienne was enjoying this far too much and he thought of every reason he could use to convince the Inquisitor to take her to the Fallow Mire after this. “Who is dear friends with much of the Inquisition, as well as having been a known acquaintance of the Champion of Kirkwall, the acting-Viscount of Kirkwall, and the Prince of Starkhaven.”

He groaned, gladdened that no one had ever revealed he’d also been a recruit alongside the King, though why Leliana was keeping that information to herself sometimes worried him.(3)

“And there are, of course, your dashing good looks and charming innocence. Why, there is quite the believable rumor flitting around the proper channels that you took a vow of chastity as a young Templar.”

“They think I’m a virgin?!” What the appeal of that was, he could not grasp, though he knew the Orlesians had some obsession with such things given Celene’s reputation (despite the last Empress herself not being a virgin, either).

“Beyond whatever primal urges,” Vivienne wrinkled her nose, “such a thing might bring out in the Emperor, it simply adds to the tragedy of your story, my dear. Few truly believe it, but you do have such a ready blush for anything suggestive.” She waved her hand, probably encompassing how he was undoubtedly blushing at that very moment.

Cullen took a deep breath, counting in his head as he attempted to regain control. This was not the worst situation he’d ever been in, not by far, and he did see the benefits of having the ruler of Orlais wishing to stay their close ally. Now that Gaspard had the throne with no real challengers to threaten him, he did not technically need the Inquisition, and certainly wouldn’t once Corypheus was defeated.

“Such arrangements are purely political in Orlais, are they not? If--if--it even resolved into marriage, we wouldn’t be...that is to say...” he trailed off, frustrated at himself.

Vivienne laughed. “He would certainly expect carnal relations with you, though undoubtedly you could both have lovers of your own.” One of her perfectly maintained eyebrows rose and he blushed brighter, knowing it was in reference to her own...relationship. “From what I understand, you would be unable to give him an heir,” he gave a jerky nod at the assumption, “but there is a chance he would expect you to produce one with the Duchess Florianne.”(4)

“No, that’s--she’s a traitor, she would have had him killed!”

“She’s his little sister and they are Orlesian, Commander, she was offered the world from one who seemed capable of gifting it and she was punished in a terribly humiliating fashion for overreaching. Being the mother of the next Emperor or Empress is the most power she’ll be able to claw back for herself.”

He tried to imagine what he would do if one of his sisters betrayed him so thoroughly and...wasn’t entirely sure. Not that he’d sit back and let either of them help destroy the world, of course, but after she had lost and been punished? Cullen hadn’t even seen them in nearly two decades and he still thought he might find it in himself to forgive them.

Pushing that aside, he pointed out, “She hates me.”

Both women gave their tittering society laughs at that before Josephine explained, “You are one of the few of us she doesn’t mind around her. You are a man of few words and don’t stop her from staring at your...assets.”

“I suppose we couldn’t play them against each other for our own gain through jealousy or the like?”

Josephine gave him a pleased smile even as she shook her head. “That is doubtful, though if you see the opportunity, by all means.”

“You are in a wonderful position, my dear, of having any failures at the Game be seen as adorable, for now,” Vivienne was inspecting her nails, but he knew she would somehow see any emotions he let show.

“’For now’? How long would I have?” Just what he didn’t need, more to learn while they were trying to save the world.

She nodded in approval at his line of questioning. “While dear Josephine and I have made great strides to improve the reputation of the Inquisition, the court of Skyhold is seen as...quaint. It will not be until you are a regular at a court in Orlais that the hourglass will be turned and time will begin accruing.”

“If this even happens,” he pointed out, disliking the inevitability she was treating it as.

“Just adorable.”

He fled soon after that, leaving the helmet and note to Josephine, and refused to say more on the topic except that Josephine should do what she saw fit. His personal horror would not prevent him from serving the Inquisition in every way he could.

There was more than enough work for him to forget about it entirely, coordinating troops and supplies, working out strategies, overseeing training sessions, and interpreting Cole’s horrid notes, along with his own practice and the few social excursions he took to avoid Leliana’s disapproving gaze. That ate through one month, then another.

Cullen didn’t leave Skyhold until near everyone did, their army marching to stop Corypheus from gaining an ancient Elven artifact that he thought only a few of them even comprehended. All anyone had to tell him and most of the forces, of course, was that their enemy wanted something they could keep from him and they were on their way.

It wasn’t until they would be meeting up with their Orlesian allies that the helmet reappeared, sitting like an accusation on the armor rack in his tent. He had a helmet he’d been using, a perfectly serviceable one.

He understood the implications of wearing this one.

Josephine had given him little time to make a decision, a tactic he could appreciate despite his annoyance. His own helmet was missing, he could not go into battle with an unprotected head.

Underneath the helmet was a note penned in Josephine’s curling script, informing him of the finalization of his arranged marriage. He’d never felt farther away from the person he’d once been than as he read that.

Perhaps, he thought with a stroke of morbid humor, he would die during the battle and the whole thing would cease to matter.

When they met the Orlesian forces, Gaspard himself was there with them, shining in his actual Chevalier-style armor and not the cobbled pieces that made up his court attire. Out of the flippery, he looked stronger, more like the warrior he was said to be.

The Inquisitor greeted him, the two exchanging words like knives, before directing the Emperor’s attention to Cullen and graciously leaving them to a brief meeting before the final battle. They were led by an attentive servant into a far too large and ornate tent.

“You make a magnificent sight, my lion,” were the first words out of Gaspard’s mouth actually directed at Cullen since the masque and Cullen spent a full span of a breath imagining punching him in his obnoxious mask.

“One could say battle is my natural habitat,” he replied, flat and refusing to be impressed by anything he saw of Gaspard or those around them.

His hand rested on the hilt of his sword to comfort himself, something he was fairly sure wasn’t normally allowed in front of the Emperor, but none of the guards looked concerned. How easy it would be, to strike this man down, to spare Ferelden and the rest of Thedas whatever awful plans he must be concocting for when—if—the Inquisition disbanded.

Cullen was held back solely by the memory of how mortifying it was to be scolded like a child by Josephine and, more importantly of course, because of the battle they would soon be waging in full.

Trying not to act like a cornered animal when Gaspard drew closer took up much of his energy, even moreso once Gaspard was...adjusting his armor and making sure the helmet fit properly, as though they were fellow soldiers.

“While I am sure your Inquisition stops at nothing for the safety of their Commander, my own healers will gladly see to you, should injury occur.” That was...sweet, Cullen supposed. “I have also arranged a tent adjacent to my own. I am aware that your Inquisition is...spare with its facilities.”

"I have no need for luxuries when at war, your majesty.”

What little of Gaspard’s lips he could see curled into a probable smile. “Indeed, my lion, still such a wild thing. But do allow me to provide for you, it would put me at ease.”

A power play, then, to control Cullen’s movements and actions. Though, the likelihood of a hot bath once he had retired from the field was tempting enough that he thought he would allow it. Especially since Gaspard and his army would be taking orders from Cullen for the foreseeable future and the Emperor surely needed to assert his dominance in some way.

“Very well, as long as it does not interfere with my duties.”

Once his part of the battle was done, there was a hot bath. And delicious, entirely edible food. And a sinfully luxurious bed that Cullen collapsed into after the bath and food and slept like a stone within for four whole hours before one of his soldiers came to fetch him.(5)

He was the only one in the Inquisition command tent fully clean and from the disgruntled look on Leliana’s face, thought it likely he would have to share to avoid any unpleasant reprisals.

The Inquisitor was fine, as was everyone that had gone with her, but Corypheus was still not dead. While that bought more time for Cullen to avoid Orlesian married life, he would have rather gotten married in a fitted gown designed by Vivienne herself than force their people through more battles.

Cullen returned to the tent only to collect the few personal items he had left there, finding Gaspard lounging in a comfortable chair by a table once more covered with food that should have been far too complicated and time consuming to bother with right after a battle.

“It is good to see you well, my lion. Watching you out there, I could not help but acknowledge the truth of your earlier words. You were truly born for battle.” He held out a hand and Cullen reluctantly set his own in it, proud of himself for not tensing even as lips brushing over the back of his hand. “The wait to have you at my side is torturous.”

Maker save him from Orlesian melodrama. “We barely know each other,” he pointed out, instead of the dozens of far more insulting replies he had wanted to give.

The flippant, courtly laugh he received was about what was expected. “Can a heart not burn for one from afar? Can love not strike a man as soon as his eyes fall upon a true prize?”

“I’m a person, not a toy. You may find me disappointing.”

Gaspard scoffed, waving his free hand to dismiss the notion, caressing Cullen’s still captive hand with his other. “I play the Game because I must, not because I find any great pleasure in it. Do you think I yearn for a marriage that would extend it into my household?”

That was true, from his own observations and the large amount of intelligence Leliana and others had collected. “You wish to invade my home country,” he pointed out, blunt as could be.

“It is true, I am...displeased with our current borders, and, yet, there are other targets I could be persuaded to consider.”

Cullen couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous the implications were. “Are you truly going to hold a country hostage for me?”

“Oh no, my lion, that was no threat. It was an offer. An opportunity. Do you think I wish for you to sit idle beside my throne?”

He sucked in a breath, pulling his hand away from Gaspard’s far too intimate touch. How someone could make someone feel vulnerable simply by holding their hand, he didn’t know, but was sure the Orlesians had formal education in it.

“I must prepare to march out with my troops.” His tone was solid, cold, the sort he would have used giving orders back in Kirkwall.

All that did was make Gaspard delighted, by all appearances. “See to your responsibilities. Your dedication only does you credit.”

On his way out of the tent, he had the nerve to grab Cullen’s hand once more and kiss it, lingering over it like he was savoring the feel of Cullen’s calloused, dry skin. For his part, Cullen tracked Gaspard’s departure, eyes inadvertently studying the line of his body, the firmness of his—he looked away with a blush, cutting off all thoughts that followed.

This was all Josephine’s fault.

XxX

Notes:

(1) This is some AU where you can have Emperor Gaspard AND Florianne as an agent. I imagine if Florianne is kept on as an agent especially in a world with Emperor Gaspard, that all the advisers end up using her eventually, albeit very reluctantly in Cullen’s case. She just had such a shit life, I want her to be relaxed and getting Venatori killed for fun.

(2) It is really weird that Cullen has some lion associations, even if the biggest one was just an unused game asset that appeared in one trailer, and then has that slicked back blond hair for some reason in DAI and then Celene is called the Lioness and has that slicked back blond hair. Like just very something-was-planned-early-on-then-trashed-but-the-associations-weren't-changed. Not that I have any idea what any of it would even mean. It's just weird.

(3) In my headcanon of how the hell the Order must actually work in Ferelden, the young recruits train together until they might show enough promise to get transferred to the much-desired Circle posting where they have a better chance at advancement (Cullen), so since he and Alastair are of an age, they would have at least trained together for a time.

(4) So Florianne is actually like 50 some years old and that is incredibly weird to me because neither she nor Gaspard have a legitimate child and that’s kind of A Thing for the stability of a ruler in a monarchy (it was beginning to hurt Celene’s rule as she was getting older), so would be very much something Gaspard would want to have available. Anyway, imagine she’s younger or something because that feels like the only way Gaspard wouldn’t have had a second wife already.

(5) Gaspard may be more practical about war and stuff, but he still has to put on all the airs (and would want most of them despite what he says, let’s be honest).

[horizon-verizon]

Aemond is one of the most popular characters of HOTD I don't think they are failing at anything. And why can't a teenage guy be stupid?

*EDITED POST* (12/22/23)

"Boys will be boys".

A)

Because that teenager is equipped with a dragon and the privilege to use it during a war with little real check on his behavior, and he relies on his own moral gauge. In Aemond's case, we know rests on sexism, high violence, genocidal tendencies, etc. bc the society he lives in grants more moral allowances to men/boys over girls/women.

Aemond is given the responsibilities/abilities of a present-day Western male adult and is treated as a full-grown adult. Why? In Westeros, the age of majority is 16 -- boy or girl. That means the moment you are 16, you become a full adult (even though both can get married earlier). 

Aemond surpasses this age by episode 10. That means that he has more power than a modern, Western 16 year old boy. He has an adult's power, and an adult's responsibility.

This is a feudal society where noble/royal teen boys and young men like Aemond are given weapons and trained to kill/lead armies from an even younger age, which is partly why Lucerys even had a knife back in episode 7. 

If he truly is “philosophical” and reads such books, he would not have even chased Lucerys and should have developed some self control/understanding how to pick his battles.

Aemond:

was militarily trained and very good at killing/combat

can and will be given authority to move whole armies 

is hateful of a particular set of his family

believes his manhood gives him inherent rights and privileges over women or those lesser in station

rides a flying war machine (that he can’t control, why not, after years of riding Vhagar? because he can’t control himself at the very moment when he should have and was entrusted with bringing in Borros, not being the one to start the war as Otto/Alicent did not want [a strategy of image for the Greens]?)

very, too proud to be a man with near-absolute privilege and authority (the canon Aemond)

Point is that Aemond is given so much more power and is more dangerous than any teen boy you have ever comes across. 

Daemon was also 16 when he married Rhea Royce, and he was considered a full adult then as well. However, like all adults of that time, he cannot go against the orders of his queen or king to marry someone he dislikes unless he is fine with exile, execution (if a monarch can find opportunity), or be socially ostracized and deprived of amenities and/or privileges. So for Daemon there is an actual element of helplessness there, while Aemond comparatively has/had always room as Viserys never forces him to do something he doesn't want to do that isn't justified. Before he bonded and claimed Vhagar, Aemond was not unfairly treated or bullied like in HotD, by anyone. And afterwards, he still enjoys the privileges of a prince/male. He had no right (other than the patriarchal oppressive kind) to make Alys Rivers his war prize/sex slave, kill a slew of both children and adult men in the Strong genocide, or flame large sections of the riverlands [more children]; all done when he is 19. Tese are not acts you should pass off as the acts of "a stupid teenage guy", anon. There is no room for that. This all comes from patriarchal, blood purist, classist, dehumanizing entitlement.

"Popularity" does not equal or automatically mean "well-written" or “innocuous”. Popular just means “liked by many” without bringing context, and background information/context changes a lot.

The show version of Aemond is popular for these main reasons:

Some people perceive him as sympathetic character, like you, because of the bullying, presumably for being dragonless by age 11-13 (which never happens nor could reasonably happen in the book/canon lore) and somehow “pure” victims make good characters (spoiler alert: they do not).

His mother, Alicent, is actually the one people like, sing the praises of, or feel represent them and how life never goes their way, boohoo (meanwhile you have power, use it!) and Aemond is made into this person who protects Alicent from harm. Meanwhile, canon Aemond was a misogynist (even against his own mother[as if misogynists men weren’t always automatically hateful of their mothers in many ways]) psychopath only ever out for himself who did many, many heinous things that I will not spoil for you.  

He has been rewritten to be a lot more self controlled than he ever was, so he seems like a suave, amazing warrior with the poise of a “true” prince to some viewers.

The actor is very physically attractive and the wig they have for him is silky and better than most of the wigs there.

Or people actually are that misogynist, classist, and think in blood purity language where how you are born or what is in your “blood” defines who and what you are....forever. Thus Aemond is “relatable” and useful for them. To emphasize how he “loses” so much to the evil slut Rhaenyra. Like what THIS lovely user said in another ask to me.

B)

"Boys will be boys"....is this what you say?

As I already said, Aemond is a misogynist and was encouraged to think himself superior and more deserving than the entire female portion of humanity, especially Rhaenyra and thus who do not conform their behavior or appearance to the feudal patriarchal values of female chastity and "purity". He is not just a "stupid teen". He knew what he was doing at all times and continued because he felt like it or because he felt he was justified.

To change this is to fuck up and reduce the Dance's inherent injustice towards Rhaenyra and the very idea of female rulers/leaders, because that a what the Dance is thematically about.

I would say that the writers have failed to impart the message of the Dance itself and bring the characters and themes to heir true selves. They succeeded in hooking a lot of people through the marketing strategies of misplaced representation, the chemistry between Emma D’Arcy-Olivia Cooke, the beauty of the sets and costumes, etc. 

However, the meaning of the Dance, its focus on how patriarchy and one woman’s internalized misogyny ruins basically the fates of Westerosi women everywhere and from then on, is totally lost because the show refuses to hold Alicent and Aemond accountable for said hatred for people they do not think “deserve” a king/royal privileges because one’s a woman, the others are all children not born to a married couple. 

The Greens = Misogyny/male privilege, classism, and blood purity.

It is because Alicent, Otto, and the others usurped Rhaenyra that the Targ dynasty (of which Aemond is a part of) also lose their dragons until Daenerys “Stormborn” restores them 8 whole generations later. And again, women in Westeros collectively paid the price at Rhaenyra’s loss.

Now, you should have read the article by Seth I linked above, but if you haven’t here are some parts of his review:

AND

Seth is saying that for Ryan to say that we can’t possibly ever find judgement in a person like Aemond. 

But we can, and we should, or we will justify and normalize misogyny, homophobia, racism, etc. at a time where people watching should feel these things’ inherent evil now. You can’t excuse misogyny in a young boy no matter how young. You excuse classism in an 11 year old girl. 

You rather need to snuff those things out before that child becomes a hateful person like Cersei and Robert Baratheon.

But Alicent didn’t. She and Aemond both cultivate it. And that is where Ryan Condal show his green hat. (Aside from so much more, like Rhaenicent).

It is rather because Aemond and the show is so popular -- able to reach so many people -- that it both angers and worries me over how people can be so shallow or shortsighted about these things.

[katenera18]

"ISRAEL AND PALESTINE WAR"

RELIGION

-Several religious factors pertinent to Islam and Judaism dictate the role of religion as the main factor in the conflict, notably including the sanctity of holy sites and the apocalyptic narratives of both religions, which are detrimental to any potential for lasting peace between the two sides. Extreme religious Zionists in Israel increasingly see themselves as guardians and definers of the how the Jewish state should be, and are very stringent when it comes to any concessions to the Arabs. On the other hand, Islamist groups in Palestine and elsewhere in the Islamic world advocate the necessity of liberating the “holy” territories and sites for religious reasons, and preach violence and hatred against Israel and the Jewish people.

 Religion-based rumors propagated by extremists in the media and social media about the hidden religious agendas of the other side exacerbate these tensions. Examples include rumors about a “Jewish Plan” to destroy al Aqsa mosque and build the Jewish third temple on its remnants, and, on the other side rumors that Muslims hold the annihilation of Jews at the core of their belief.

 In addition, worsening socio-economic conditions in the Arab and Islamic world contribute to the growth of religious radicalism, pushing a larger percentage of youth towards fanaticism, and religion-inspired politics.

The advent of the Arab spring, ironically, also posed a threat to Arab-Israeli peace, as previously stable regimes were often challenged by extreme political views. A prominent example was the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who after succeeding to the presidency in 2012, threatened to compromise the peace agreement with Israel based on their religious ideology – even if they did not immediately tear up the treaty.

BORDER

-The modern borders of Israel exist as the result both of past wars and of diplomatic agreements between the State of Israel and its neighbours, as well as an effect of the agreements among colonial powers ruling in the region before Israel's creation. Only two of Israel's five total potential land borders are internationally recognized and uncontested, while the other three remain disputed; the majority of its border disputes are rooted in territorial changes that came about as a result of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel occupy large swathes of territory from its rivals.[1] Israel's two formally recognized and confirmed borders exist with Egypt and Jordan since the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty and the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, while its borders with Syria (via the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights), Lebanon (via the Blue Line; see Shebaa Farms dispute) and the Palestinian territories (Israeli-occupied land largely recognized as part of the de jure State of Palestine) remain internationally defined as contested.[2]

According to the Green Line agreed upon in the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Israel is demarcated by Lebanon to the north, the Golan Heights under Syrian sovereignty as well as the rest of Syria to the northeast, the Palestinian West Bank and Jordan to the east, and by the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Egypt to the southwest. The Israeli border with Egypt is the international border demarcated in 1906 between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire, and confirmed in the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty; the Israeli border with Jordan is based on the border defined in the 1922 Trans-Jordan memorandum, and confirmed in the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty.

TERRITORY

-The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004.[7][8] The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999[9] and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine.[10][11][12][13] The European Union (EU) also adopts the term occupied Palestinian territory,[14][15] with a parallel term Palestinian Authority territories[16][17][18] also occasionally used. The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.[19]

RESOURCES

Israel

-The natural resources of Israel include potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays and sand. Additionally, cut diamonds are one of the leading exports of the country, which otherwise is primarily dependent on crude oil and raw material imports. The discovery of natural gas fields located near the coast of Israel have successfully transformed the nation’s energy prospect in a big way. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 2.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is present within the Karish and Tanin gas deposits, which were originally discovered in 2009 and 2010, respectively2.

Palestine

-Historic Palestine has long had an abundance of natural resources, ranging from fresh and ground water, arable land and, more recently, oil and natural gas. In the seven decades since the establishment of the state of Israel, these resources have been compromised and exploited through a variety of measures. These include widespread Palestinian dispossession of land in the ongoing Nakba, exploitation of water through failed negotiations, and a finders-keepers approach to gas and oil found in our under occupied land.

ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE

Israel

-The people of Israel (also called the "Jewish People") trace their origin to Abraham, who established the belief that there is only one God, the creator of the universe (see Torah). Abraham, his son Yitshak (Isaac), and grandson Jacob (Israel) are referred to as the patriarchs of the Israelites. All three patriarchs lived in the Land of Canaan, which later became known as the Land of Israel. They and their wives are buried in the Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron (Genesis Chapter 23).

The name Israel derives from the name given to Jacob (Genesis 32:29). His 12 sons were the kernels of 12 tribes that later developed into the Jewish nation. The name Jew derives from Yehuda (Judah), one of the 12 sons of Jacob (Reuben, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Yisachar, Zevulun, Yosef, Binyamin)(Exodus 1:1). So, the names Israel, Israeli or Jewish refer to people of the same origin.

Palestine

- The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians, and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL

-The rockets began around 6:30 a.m., Tal Gibly told CNN. Thirty minutes later, she and hundreds of others attending an Israeli music festival were running as Gaza militants fired at them.

The Nova Festival in a rural farmland area near the Gaza-Israel border was just one of multiple locations hit on Saturday morning by the most sustained and coordinated assault inside Israel ever carried out by Hamas militants.

At least 260 bodies would later be found at the festival site, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka. Some attendees were taken hostage, seen in social media videos being seized by their armed captors.

ARE YOU A PRO ISRAEL OR PRO PALESTINE?

-I’m a pro-Israel, because in the first place based on the history and on the bible, Jesus gave the land to Israel. And now the war between the two county is still continuing. Palestine started the war because they were the first one attacked Israel and until now the war between them is not yet ending.

[bopinion]

2023 / 16

Aperçu of the Week:

"With so many things coming back in style, I can't wait until morals, respect and intelligence become a trend again."

(Denzel Washington, US-American actor)

Bad News of the Week:

In recent days, the spotlight has shifted to a country that should have done so sooner because of its problems: Sudan. For 30 years, the autocrat Umar al-Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, led (not to say suppressed) Sudan with a hard hand, it is an unfortunately classic state story in Africa. Since South Sudan's independence in 2011 at the latest, the country, wracked by regional separatist movements, has no longer been a functioning state. After al-Bashir was deposed - by a military coup, of course - the military leadership and the opposition agreed on a transitional government that was supposed to democratize the country and prepare it for free elections. What didn't happen.

Now two factions of the military are fighting each other for power: the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) under de facto head of state General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under his former deputy General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, better known as Hemeti. Both lead the so-called Sovereign Council, which is effectively a military junta. Fighting began when RSF troops took control of the Soba military base south of the main city of Khartoum a week ago. Since then, there has been fighting over strategic locations such as the international airport and the headquarters of state television, and there have been constant explosions and confrontations throughout the city, which have reportedly already claimed the lives of some 500 civilians.

The population is largely holed up in their homes. Without supplies of food or medicine, and often with outages of electricity and water, the suffering of the people is unimaginable. Foreign countries call for a ceasefire and evacuate their diplomatic personnel and some of their nationals. That's it. There is no real leverage, and military intervention is unlikely, given the increasing withdrawal from comparable conflict areas in recent years, such as Mali. Is there any reason for hope? I fear not.

In the future, Sudan will vegetate as a failed state just like Libya or Iraq. Only this time, probably without an ultimately useless intervention by the West. It will be interesting to see whether China, which has been present in the south since the 1970s and is a kind of godfather to South Sudan, will intervene again. This is supported by the fact that China is increasingly buying influence on the African continent if, for example, there are rich mineral resources, as in this case. The fact that they have never intervened militarily, which would probably be indispensable in this case, speaks against it. In any case, it will end badly for the population. Whether with or without China, there will be no human rights, prosperity, democracy, welfare state, domestic peace, education for all, and so on.

Good News of the Week:

What a lot of ranting there is about government and its reluctance to take effective action against, or at least mitigate, the effects of climate change. The four biggest areas where change is needed are industry, energy, transportation and construction/housing. Industry is already on a solid path and reached the set targets - albeit with the help of pandemic-related production reductions - in 2022. In energy (generation), at least something is happening, although too little. There is hardly anything to be seen in the area of transportation, which is not surprising in view of the car lobby, the traditionally conservative ministry and various taboo topics such as a speed limit.

Let's move on to construction and housing. The first part is partly industrial, for example the production of building materials, and partly private, i.e. dependent on the owners - for example the decision to install thermal windows. In addition to private energy consumption, which can also be covered (in part) by photovoltaic systems on the roof, the dominant issue is heating. The majority of German heating systems are still powered by oil or gas. Which, in addition to the dependencies for which we are now all paying bitterly, is above all extremely harmful to the environment. As is always the case when a fossil fuel is burned.

So a paradigm shift is needed here. For example, by replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump. This is currently regarded as the ideal solution because, apart from the operating electricity, which can come from renewable energy sources, it only needs to convert thermal energy. A bit like a refrigerator, but in the opposite direction. The problem is that high peak temperatures are not reached, usually at 40 degrees Celsius is the end. In well-insulated houses that have large radiating surfaces such as underfloor heating, this is sufficient. In poorly insulated houses, where a classic radiator is usually also placed on a thinner wall of all places under an old window, this is often not enough.

Last week, an amendment to the Building Energy Act was now presented by the green-led Ministry of Economics and approved by the cabinet. The key point: as early as next year, all newly installed heating systems must be powered by at least 65 percent renewable energy. This effectively means the death of all oil and gas heating systems, with the latter having a shaky future with hydrogen - which, however, is not yet available at the moment and will be very expensive later on. This leaves electric heating. And the mentioned heat pump, which is more expensive than, say, a gas boiler, combined with cost-intensive building renovations required because of the radiation surfaces and insulation.

This is hitting the population at precisely the time when new construction financing and, above all, rental cost levels are going through the roof anyway. Particularly in areas that are in demand and characterized by an influx of people, such as here in the Munich area, housing is slowly becoming a luxury that often already eats up more than half of the income. For this reason, the state offers subsidies of between 30 and 50 percent for the replacement of fossil-fuelled heating systems. Regardless of whether this is voluntary and proactive or forced because the old system is simply no longer repairable or maintainable. There are also subsidies or at least low-interest loans with repayment subsidies for the accompanying renovation.

The good thing about this is not only that climate-friendly measures and only climate-friendly measures are finally being subsidized. When it comes to mobility, for example, driving a car is still treated in exactly the same way as taking the train. The ambitious timetable is also good. As I said, the law will take effect as early as next year and is not, as is so often the case, just some lax target agreement by the end of the decade. Yes, this will be problematic, as there are likely to be bottlenecks in both heat pump manufacturing and their professional installation. But that doesn't have to matter. Otherwise, we'll end up in an infinite loop like with electromobility: vehicle sales stall because there's a lack of charging capacity. And these are not being created because demand is too low, since not enough e-cars are being bought. Those who only invoke the dilemma of a Catch 22 situation will never get off the ground.

Personal happy moment of the week:

At work, I was able to successfully coordinate that I will have a week off in about two months. After that never worked out last time, because I stayed at home - too close to the home office - this time we will go on a trip. Namely to the "The sea of stone" in the Austrian Alps. Where there is no digital accessibility at our mountain inn. Smart move. Actually, I could have thought of that earlier.

I couldn't care less...

...that Michael Kretschmer from Saxony is now the first German prime minister to call for a stop to the immigration of refugees. Even for former local staff from Afghanistan. Not everyone has yet understood that our society needs immigration to maintain its prosperity. Especially against the backdrop of aging and a shortage of employees, especially in less demanding fields of activity. The real problem, after all, is the lack of integration and qualification. Both are not only a debt to be collected, but also a debt to be brought.

As I write this...

...Ramadan is coming to an end. For the first time this year I have seen it with different eyes. Thanks to my new work colleague Tarek. A Syrian. And Muslim. That reminds me that I have a Koran - fortunately in an annotated version for amateurs - on my bookshelf. Which I will (hopefully soon) read. Because just like the Bible, it is far more than just a religious pamphlet. It defines the cultural basis of whole nations. And this foundation should be known. And respected. Especially to enable one to evaluate dubious spin-offs by oneself.

Post Scriptum

Last week, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel received a medal. The "Grand Cross in Special Execution." As the third bearer after her predecessors in office Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. Of course, there was not only praise in this context, but also criticism. Both justified. In her 16 years in office, she "outlasted" 13 party leaders of the Social Democrats, the primary political competitor of her conservative party, the CDU.

So I'll take the liberty of quoting the current incumbent, Saskia Esken: "Her opponents - from her own ranks as well as from outside - cut their teeth on her integrity and her fine sense of humor." Merkel's "diplomatic skills and empathic wisdom, with which she repeatedly succeeded in forging viable coalitions and compromises on both the national and international stage," she said, deserved special praise. Because: "Especially in our troubled and crisis-ridden times, an almost invaluable skill." Merkel, she said, had therefore "navigated Germany with a sense of proportion through the many crises of her time in office."

[e350tb]

Hitler’s Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich by Ben H. Shepherd

During the Cold War, it was customary to believe that the Wehrmacht of the Second World War had fought an honourable and just war, unlike their comrades in the Waffen-SS - largely with the support of the NATO powers, who needed to make rearming West Germany against a potential Soviet threat politically acceptable. Since the 1980s and 1990s, this mythology has been steadily and comprehensively dismantled by academia, but it retains its toehold in the popular imagination. This is not only among terminally online ‘Wehraboos’ who have a near sexual fascination with Tiger tanks and can tell you the order of battle of Army Group Centre down to the individual battalions; it can also be seen in mainstream culture, be it in the form of the noble German General delivering the final speech in Band of Brothers, or in heavy metal songs about the last stand of the Ninth Army in 1945. So while Ben Shepherd’s Hitler’s Soldiers may not be bringing too much new to the table, it’s not hard to see while examinations of the criminality of the German Army might still be needed.

Hitler’s Soldiers concerns the development of the Heer - the German Army - from Hitler’s rise to power until the end of the war, examining it from both a military and moral perspective. Militarily, I would say Shepherd’s work is competent - looking at his previous works, it would seem he’s focused in the past on anti-partisan warfare in the East, and I did find his analysis of the war on the Eastern Front to be pretty good. As for the Western Front, while it’s certainly not bad, it does fall a bit into the old Monty-bashing cliches. He also cites a statistic that, man-for-man, 100 German soldiers in Normandy were worth 150, and while he does elaborate that wars are not fought man-for-man, such comparisons have always struck me as more than a little arbitrary. It must be remembered, after all, that the Allies were attacking an entrenched enemy, often in very dense country, and that no two engagements are the same. That said, the fact that I’m quibbling over a small statistic and the characterisation of one man instead of going over the book’s entire representation of tactics, strategy and logistics is a point in Shepherd’s favour, surely.

The meat of the book, for me, is its discussion of the growing criminalisation of the Heer, from general to private, and how this came to be. The highest ranking generals, it would seem, sold their souls to Hitler for political gain early on, but this did not turn the army into a Nazi organisation overnight. Indeed, brutalisation occurred for a multitude of reasons and was often unevenly distributed - younger men and elite units, or those in the East and the Balkans tended to be more receptive to ‘Nationalist Socialist Warfare’ then older men or ‘regulars,’ or those stationed in the West. Nevertheless, even the less-Nazified men of the Heer were still assisting the efforts of the SS and Einsatzgruppen, directly or indirectly, in their crimes against Jews and other targets, and were directly responsible for the mass deaths of Soviet POWs. The moral spectrum that Shepherd presents is too complex to do justice to in a short review, so I can simply say that his analysis here is well worth the price of the book on its own.

It’s hard to say I enjoyed this book, given the subject matter, but I certainly appreciated it. I would recommend Hitler’s Soldiers - there’s little new here, but it’s well written and argued, and would make a perfect gift for your friend who’s a little too into building plastic Panzer kits.