War and Rumor of War in the Holy Land

"In war, truth is the first casualty"

- Aeschylus

As we all now horrifically know, the 2023 Israel-Hamas War is an ongoing military conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant groups led by the Sunni Islamist military organization: Hamas. The conflict began on October 7, 2023, with a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel.

Simultaneously, approximately 2,500 armed Palestinian militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in neighboring Israeli communities. At least 1,400 Israelis were killed... including 260 people who were massacred at the "Supernova Sukkot Gathering" open-air psychedelic trance music festival.

It is estimated that at least 150 unarmed civilian hostages and captured Israeli soldiers were also taken to the Gaza Strip, including women and children. More than 1,200 people have been killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel, while more than 1,500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since hostilities commenced.

Israel has mobilized some 300,000 army reservists as it ramps up its war on Gaza following the devastating surprise attack by Hamas militants that killed hundreds inside Israel, including many civilians. Journalist Haggai Matar of +972 Magazine says that while the violence shocked Israelis, the unending military occupation and apartheid set the stage for this conflict. “There is no military solution. These recurring attacks on Gaza bring nothing but death and destruction, and no hope for any of us,” says Matar, a conscientious objector who refused service in the Israel Defense Forces.

"Settlement Expansion in occupied Palestinian Territory violates international law and must cease" This message was delivered by multiple delegates addressing the United Nations Security Council in September, 2023. Pointing to ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements, demolition of Palestinian structures, daily violence and continued inflammatory rhetoric by Israeli Government representatives... a senior United Nations official reiterated to the Security Council, the Secretary-General’s appeal for an end to the occupation and a resolution of the conflict in pursuit of the two-State solution, as members echoed those calls and underlined a need to return to peace negotiations.

The following is an incomplete timeline of the establishment of the State of Israel, as well as the occupation of Gaza and surrounding Palestinian territories under Israeli control.

State of Israel Timeline

May 14, 1948 - On the last day of the British Mandate Israel issues the Israeli Declaration of Independence which declared the establishment of a Jewish state on Mandatory Palestine in the land of Israel to be known as the State of Israel.

May 15, 1948 - Hours after the expiration of the British Mandate of Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Syria invaded Israel (Arab-Israeli War).

February 24, 1949 - The first of the 1949 Armistice Agreements ending the Arab-Israeli War was signed between Israel and Egypt. An armistice line was agreed along the prewar border with the exception that Egypt remained in control of the Gaza Strip.

June 5, 1967 - the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Six Day War or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, from 5 to 10 June 1967.

June 5, 1967 - The Israeli air force destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground over a period of three hours.

June 11, 1967 - Israel signs a ceasefire with its enemies Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Israel retains and occupies the formerly Egyptian Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Jordanian West Bank and East Jerusalem.

October 6, 1973 - Egyptian and Syrian forces simultaneously attacked Israeli positions in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, respectively, on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (Yom Kippur War).

October 25, 1973 - Israel, Egypt and Syria agreed to a ceasefire. Israel remained in control of new territory north of the Golan Heights and west of the Suez Canal in the south, ending the Yom Kippur War.

Israeli Settlement Timeline - This is a timeline of the development of and controversy over Israeli settlements within the Gaza strip and surrounding, occupied Palestinian territories. 

1972 - Israeli Settler population. West Bank: 1,182. Gaza Strip: 700. East Jerusalem: 8,649. Golan Heights: 77. Total: 10,608.

1982 - Israeli Settler population. West Bank: 22,800. Gaza Strip: 900. East Jerusalem: 76,095. Golan Heights: 6,800. Total: 106,595.

1992 -  Israeli Settler population. West Bank: 101,100. Gaza Strip: 4,300. East Jerusalem: 141,000. Golan Heights: 12,000. Total: 258,400.

2002 - Settler population. West Bank: 214,722. Gaza Strip:7,277. East Jerusalem: 175,617. Golan Heights: 16,503. Total: 414,119.

2012 - The end of the Mayan Calendar, target date of Terrance McKenna's Timewave Zero. Unrelated here, but it ties in at the conclusion of this article.

2022 - As of January 30, 2022 the West Bank settlement population alone was 490,493 while the settler population in the Golan Heights was almost 27,000 and in East Jerusalem the settler population was around 220,000.

 

Now, with an ongoing War in the Holy Land, and the rumored imminent involvement of  Lebanese Shia Islamist political party: Hezbollah (Party of Allah)... it appears as if the entire Middle East is poised to plunge into the dark fog of war. The outbreak of open warfare in the Holy Land, invariably conjures apocalyptic visions of Armageddon,  the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for the final battle during the Eschatological End Times.

Such dark imagery is the stuff of nightmares, fanning the flames of prophetic doomsday of Christian and Islamic fundamentalists alike. Such imagery is also a means or mechanism of mind control, designed by a ruling elite, to maintain obedience and docility in an otherwise disenfranchised and disillusioned populace. And it is through means such as these that the predator-dominator paradigm... the Black Iron Prison... persists.

Arabian wind... the needle's eye is thin

The Ships of State sail on mirage and drown in sand

Out in No-man's Land... where Allah does command

What good is spilling Blood? It will not Grow a thing...

- from Blues for Allah, by the Gtateful Dead