When Cousins War on Each Other

Jews and Arabs come from the same genetic root and even today share genetic markers. Their languages have both devolved from a common tongue.

As language evolved, Hebrew survived as the liturgical language of Judaism, before it was revived as a commonly spoken tongue in the 19th century.

Hebrew and Arabic both descended from a common root language, Aramaic. For instance, the Arabic word “al-Kitab” and the Hebrew word “Ketovim” both mean “the book.” Both languages are written from right to left.

After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 C.E., Jews were prohibited from entering Jerusalem and its boundaries until the capture of the city by the Muslims in 638 C.E.

During this period, further Jewish settlement in and around Jerusalem was prohibited, and heavy taxes were imposed on the Jews by the Romans. This policy remained in place for over the next 1,000 years of Islamic rule. The lifting of the ban by Muslim leader Saladin in 1187 allowed Jews to legally return to the city, which contributed to its cultural and religious diversity.

Meanwhile, Alexandria, Egypt became a center of settlement and cultural attainment for Jews.

Arabs continued to live in and around Jerusalem. They became known as Palestinians.

Today, Israelis are practicing mass murder and genocide on their cousins of thousands of years. Before World War I, Jews and Palestinians lived in harmony, and often side by side. The holy places were also found side by side in Jerusalem, along with those of the Christians.

While Israelis and Palestinians are closed related by language and genetics, they are widely separated by tensions about religion. Three religions share parts of a mythology about events that happened thousands of years ago. Many of the prophets revered by Jews, are also considered holy men and women by Christians and Moslems. Even so, only Jews are given full citizen rights by Israel.

This is why many, including a former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, call Israel an apartheid state. Its treatment of Palestinians, even before the current war, which is condemned by many as genocide, including by official bodies and nations, triggered the founding of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS now has global reach and active chapters in dozens of countries.

After the end of the World War I, Zionism, a nationalist movement in favor of a homeland for Jews on land around Jerusalem, gained popularity with Jews. When World War I was over, the Ottoman Empire had to abandon its rule over all the lands outside of Turkey (Türkiye). More and more Jews immigrated to what was called Israel by them. After the Holocaust, by the Nazis, during World War II, the flow of Jews to Israel became a flood. Zionism called for all the lands of historic Israel to be part of a new state for Jews. This did not go down well among Palestinians, many of whose families had lived on the same land for centuries.

With support from Western countries, Jews were able to force Palestinians to relocate to the West Bank and Gaza. Some elected to stay put as second-class citizens within the boundaries of Israel when it became a state in 1948.

The latest conflict has pitted a militarist organization, Hamas, against the Israeli army which is called the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which is supported by European countries and particularly, by the U.S., which provides weapons and other forms of economic aid. The U.S., by written agreement, gives Israel $4 Billion per year. This has amounted to more than $360 Billion since Israel became a state.

The result is that both Jewish families and Palestinian families are losing not only close relatives (their own people) but also many – 29,000 – long lost cousins.

More Cousins: Ukraine and Russia

If you were treated to the Tucker Carlson – Vladimir Putin interview, then you know all about the joint history of Ukrainians and Russians, going back to 862 CE. If you haven’t seen it, click here to see Putin’s review of the formerly close relationship between Kiev and Moscow.

Again, very similar languages are a giveaway that the two peoples (cousins) lived in close harmony for centuries. Unlike Israel and Palestine, they even shared the same religion, the Russian Orthodox Church.

It took $5 Billion for that close connection to shatter, according to U.S. Under Secretary of State. That money was funneled to Ukrainian right-wingers to create dissension in the country, which ultimately resulted in the Maidan coup d’état, in which the elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown. Yanukovych was personally friendly toward Russia, but tried to balance the demands of both pro-Western and pro-Russian Ukrainians.

After the Maidan riot in 2013, two Oblasts (provinces), Luhansk and Donetsk, withdrew from Ukraine and were attacked by the central government. By 2022, the fighting had become so fierce that Russia entered the fighting on the side of the two new peoples republics.

The fighting between Russia and Ukraine has now been going on for two years, with massive support in arms and funding from the U.S., and lesser support from NATO countries. It now appears that Russia will win the military engagement against Ukraine.

However, the Western countries have already won a cultural victory by splitting the solidarity between Ukraine and Russia. It will take years, perhaps decades, for the unity that has been split asunder between these cousins to come back together.

Divide and Conquer in the United States

Splitting the working class has been a favorite tactic of the ruling class, and their favorite organization, the Corporation.

Now corporation leaders raised the stakes of this deadly game to splitting the entire working class.

The billionaire corporate owners mostly run the government by funding election campaigns and having a “revolving door” where government appointees spend a few years in office and then return to cushy jobs high up in their favorite corporations.

When the history of these times are written, will historians, if there are any, look at the dispute between Texas and U.S. officials on the Rio Grande as the first salvo of the U.S. Second Civil War? Will “Eagle Pass,” the site of the border dispute, assume the same historic standing as “Ft. Sumner,” in the First Civil War?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot has announced an 80-acre, “Forward Base,” near Eagle Pass, Texas, which could house as many as 2,600 troops, so we likely haven’t heard the end of this confrontation yet.

Lately, the stability of the U.S. and its economic model, capitalism, have been on shaky ground. A united working class, with good leadership, could probably topple a system that has outlived its usefulness. But a divided working class, with hatred between Trump supporters and those who want Trump banned from further elections, could end the threat to the superrich.

Today, family members are often divided on a variety of issues that could prevent them from acting together for everyone’s benefit. Is our current family and class division an accident, or is it a long-standing plan by the ruling class?

In 1886 during a big strike, Robber Baron Jay Gould, reportedly said, “I could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.” They never give up.

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