Excellent video and Commentary on Simcha Jacobovici video

 I saw this on the Simcha Jacobovici video in the comments section. the clip can be found at Facts you need to know.

A crash course on history : 1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state 2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state. 3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state. 4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state. 5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state. 6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state. 7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state. 8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state. 9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state. 10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state. 11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state. 12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state. 13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state. 14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state. 15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state. 16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state. 17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state. 18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state. 19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state. 20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.

Reflections X - Careful Ponderings

You hop, skip and jump into totalitarianism by convincing yourself that you are on the right side of history.

We have reached a point in the west where those with a self constructed sense of guilt are doing what the winners once did, in rewriting history. Their approach is no less dishonest.

The sad reality of war is that it is sometimes the only mechanism to purge society of really destructive ideas.

Unearned wealth is easy to squander which implies that a great deal of priority must be given to new and sustainable avenues of wealth creation.

The great economic lie sold to the populace is that wealth creation and distribution are synonymous.

Reflections IX - On World History

The British Empire was destined for an eventual fission. The island core was enveloped by too many shells that reached maturation quickly. Although the layers were sloughed off in various degrees they could never truly divorce themselves from their source origin.

Most of Rome’s military failures were reminders that it needed to accept its boundaries. Neither the Goths in the North (and East) and the Persians in Asia had any attention of acquiescing to Roman suzerainty. Since they were not a cavalry power (unlike the Mongols) or a sea empire (like the British) their boundaries had natural limitations which deterred expansion.

The history of Rome after the fall of Caesar is an ongoing saga of the debasement of the concept of citizenship. Citizenship is what held the Republic together. It withered to oblivion during the Empire until it had lost all meaning.

Next to its education and judiciary system, cricket must rank as Britain’s greatest export to its Empire (to the world it is football). Many an Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan will agree with this assessment as they sport has so thoroughly enveloped the sub-continent.

Reflections VIII - Human pitfalls

Communists have always hated humour. Their poor understanding of human nature opens up the barbs of the satire so that any reasonable person can see that what they are seriously selling is a parody of itself.

Too many people deny themselves real knowledge by imprisoning themselves in a pre-established narrative.

Being open minded does not necessitate the dropping of critical thought. There is no limit to the amount of stupidity that needs to be filtered out.

Not all opinions are created equal. Most (although by no means all) will in due course be damned by the brutal reality of time. Unfortunately the selection process does not necessarily bias itself in favour of the good.

In a battle of reason and emotion most people will opt for the latter.

Reflections VII - Much needed cynicism

Any radical ideology will in time purge itself based on the notion of doctrinal purity.

Almost as predictable as death and taxes is the certainty of self serving action for human beings.

We have come to a time where the leadership is destroying democracy while at the same time claiming to save it. You can indeed vote yourself into slavery.

No field perhaps has a proportion of snake oil salesmen than that of education which has littering it one failed policy after another, with each one having the distinction at the time of being vaunted as a pedagogical panacea.

Reflections VI - More from the Abyss

If highly motivated one can even rationalize away the very evidence before our eyes.

One needs to ponder as to why so many powerful deities lack the foresight to avoid contradicting themselves in their revealed texts.

Bad ideas need not have to work that only have to create the appearance of working which is why they are often taken up by the masses.

 Prosperous societies with an inordinate amount of spare time on hand will use that time to find new innovate ways of destroying themselves.

 The myth propounded is that the majority of humanity resents totalitarianism. The reality is that they embrace it as it makes decision making so much easier.

 The greatest impediment to any would be politician is a conscious

Reflection V - Human Foibles

One only realizes how timid humanity is when you choose to take a singular stand against a universally acknowledged but popular bad idea.

Toleration in and of itself is not a virtue. In fact it can often be a vice. The distinction is highly context dependent. The worship of toleration in and of itself is an error both philosophically and ultimately morally.

 History cannot be reduced to a series of equations for it is the story of humanity, whose actions are often unpredictable and illogical.

 There is a natural tendency for humans to minimize their work and thought load which is why complex concepts are likely to be oversimplified to the point of being unintelligible.

 To a fool, everything they don’t want to believe in is a lie for a fool is one hundred percent committed to their own truth.

 It astounds me as to how many people feel that they know how G-d works when in reality they are just hedging their bets on different guesses.