One Hundred Years of War. Louis Shalako.

Louis Shalako

 

From 1337 to 1453, the small, poor nation of England plundered her stronger neighbour France. While the ordinary archer had small chance of getting rich, they had a fairly good chance of getting paid. The rich, got even richer. Assuming they survived.

Analogies run dry, once details are examined. There are modern parallels. We don’t plunder these days. Once we get past ideologies, differences of language, culture and religion, most modern wars are fought for economic reasons. World War One was a war of mercantilist empires. All the cheap natural resources, cheap labour. A captive market.

It was irresistible.

Nazi Germany under Hitler looted Europe to sustain a war of territorial, economic and political expansion.

On the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian President Boris Yeltsin guaranteed the borders of the newly independent Ukraine, including the Crimea. In 2014, Russia under Vladimir Putin seized the Crimea. The naval base at Sevastopol is strategic, the basic reasons are economic—think vast reserves of oil and gas under the ground and under the Black Sea, as well as agricultural and mineral production.

In strategic terms, a bastion against the liberal and democratic West.

The Donbas was strategic in WW II, a centre of energy and industrial production, as important then, as it is now. Russia is as anxious to destroy it as they are to possess it. It’s difficult to see Ukraine as an economic threat, with her smaller population.

In terms of productivity, the country was making gains while all Russia could offer was more oligarchs, more economic aristocrats. Ukraine is a moral threat, leaning to western Liberal democracy and seeking to join the European Union and the NATO alliance.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has gone on since the formation of the state in 1948. The Balfour Declaration provided for a homeland for the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

The first Arab-Israeli war was fought in 1948. Five Arab nations attacked and were defeated—with help from the U.S. and others. That’s 76 years of off-and-on warfare. Considering the present war in Gaza, they are well on their way to a hundred years of war. It will never end. The two-state solution is an illusion. Neither side will respect it, bearing in mind hatred, the desire for revenge; the irreconcilable goals of either side.

Even if Hamas, the Palestinian Authority on the one side, and the militant right-wing government of Israel on the other, should suddenly become moderate and pacific in their demands and expectations, they hardly control the more extreme elements in the political environment. Israeli settlers, in a Zionist movement, will continue to expropriate by force, Palestinian lands and their victims will continue to resist by whatever means at their disposal, including what will be labeled ‘terrorism’.

People have the right to resist oppression, tyranny and expropriation of that which is theirs.

Is this really about religion, is this really about good versus bad, or is it just about seizing the land. Gaza is 365 kilometres in area. Isn’t it really about exploitation of something that doesn’t belong to us in the first place? The finer nuances of Biblical theory escape us. Truth is, we just don’t care. We deplore the results of war on our screens.

The two-state solution is unrealistic. Intelligent people espouse it, including the Honourable Marilyn Gladu, Member of Parliament for Sarnia-Lambton. Will the state of Israel accept Palestinians as equal citizens, of a free, open and democratic society, entitled to justice, social benefits, the rights of free people under the awesome majesty of the state and its promise of equity before the law for all persons?

No.

The one-state solution doesn’t seem very likely either, and that really doesn’t leave much else.

Russia will run out of steam. Vladimir Putin is a mortal being. Eventually, he must pass.

The next guy might be worse. Smaller states around the Baltic and the periphery of the former U.S.S.R. have much to fear from this new Imperial phase of Putin’s Russia.

Meanwhile, the price of flour has gone up. The price of vegetable oil is up, the price of corn, wheat, oilseeds and animal feeds, fertilizers, have gone up. The price of fuel has risen, or stayed high, with Houthi rebels attacking ships in the Red Sea, bound for the Suez Canal, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The U.S. sends military aid to Israel. Iran supports Hamas. Natural gas supplies are threatened in Europe. Germany is bringing coal-fired power plants back online, not good when the reality of global warming is apparent.

You and your family are victims, living in a peaceful and law-abiding country and minding your own business. Forces from elsewhere engage in hacking attacks simply to disrupt us—to discourage us, to make life tougher for us all.

It shows up in our grocer’s receipts, at the gas pump, our next tax bill, and in the daily headlines.

We read the news, watch television. Israel pounds Gaza, the home of 2.3 million people. Russia and the Ukraine exchange futile blows. Somebody, somewhere, will have some kind of inspiration, and let the rest of the world have some peace and quiet for a change.

Canadians are truly blessed. We can change the channel or maybe just turn the thing off for a while.

END

The author reached out to the Honourable Marilyn Gladu MP for comment, no reply has been received at time of publication.

Louis Shalako’s audiobook, A Stranger In Paris, is presently free from Google Play.

What are Israel’s Plans for the West Bank. (CBC)

The West Bank: Israel's Other Genocidal War. (Al Jazeera) 

Extremist Settlers Seize Palestinian Lands. (BBC)

Images: Public Domain, creative licenses or fair use.

Thank you for reading.