Waiting for Gadot...

I probably should (or shouldn't) comment on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. I spoke to my sis about it and she was worried that it would evolve into something very serious - like an all out third world war. I told her I wasn't worried. She asked me why?

While it does bother me that Israel invaded Lebanon, Hezbollah is an antagonist and I think the whole of the Middle East has to just get over the fact that Israel is not going anywhere. They are staying exactly where they are so the whole Islamo-fascist movement has to be dissolved.

But lets face it. Most of us are pretty sick and tired of listening about this issue that we have decided to ignore the Palestinians and the Israelis altogether.

Unless America wants to just swing over to the area and add a few of their soldiers to make everything hunky dory. Hopefully that would mean until those in the Middle East mature enough to stop pointing the finger at each other and work out their problems no one is going to listen to accusations of who has moral authority. Having the Americans there will make sure they play nice.

I'm all for Israeli aggression until Hezbollah is unarmed because the rest of us can't stand the idea of having anyone's religion dictate to us what we can and can't do, what we should or shouldn't do nor do we want to feel bullied or threatened by theocracies that have as part of its ideology hatred of Israel that's bred into its young children.

But the rhetoric is nothing different from what I've been listening to in Southern Ontario for the past 12 years from my friends from this area.

Windsor has probably one of the largest Shiite populations and Hezbollah supporters in Canada. Local politicians are benefiting from this male dominated community that they are no doubt influenced by political attitudes as are the rest of us.

I was influenced by the propaganda until it started getting ridiculous.

My buddy who's a Kurd, loves George Bush and grew up in the Middle East told me about a Canadian guy that came into his shoppe. He was spewing propaganda about Bush, was supportive of al Qaeda and the deaths of the innocent people from the World Trade Centres collapse and the death of our troops in Afghanistan. This guy was supportive of the Hezbollah but liked to patronize his Oakville neighbours by smoking Pot in his front yard. (He's probably just pissed off that the Canadian troops are interfering with the opium production in Afganistan).

The guy, you would assume, was from the Middle East or somewhere sympathetic. He wasn't, he was very Canadian, meaning - he had no background or family ties to the Middle East. He was bent on dogma and ideology alone - the same stuff I heard from unions - like CUPE.

When the 17 Canadian guys from Mississauga were arrested and arraigned on terrorism charges months ago, a guy I was "dating" told me he agreed with the accusation by the ring leader of these 17 that Canadian soldiers were raping Afghani women. As usual this was just indicative of the propaganda he was gleaning from his Sudanese community in Mississauga.

All this from a guy that hates that women get housing because they come from women's shelters. Yes, I agree that women getting housing from the shelter system has grown into a scam here in Hamilton but this guy should talk while he is working for cash and collecting his unemployment insurance benefits and has found some guy from Pakistan to forge a fake emissions certificate and has tried to hide from his grown children that he had a girlfriend, drank alcohol and has friends who traffik in Kat - a narcotic from Yemen or in Pot.

The hypocrysy and propaganda I'm seeing on a macro level with this conflict, I've seen from a micro level for the last 12 years. The stuff above is just a drop in the hypocrysy bucket but eventually it does become tiring. I've corrected my errors in judgement about the men I date, but it has left me quite indifferent to the propaganda wars and the conflicts of the Middle East. It's also given me reason to believe that Middle Eastern men are full of a lot of hot air when they belch their propaganda.

But if I have to lean, I'm leaning with Israel because I want to see if the Hezbollah will get a warhead with nuclear material from Iran, or from another entity. Not that I wish this fate on Israel - they are taking a chance when they invade a country that puts them in danger. But it will prove that Iran was lying all along, wouldn't it?

Even then, I'm not worried that it's the end of days and the coming of the Messiah, the Mahdi or Gadot.

So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish my Oracles of Notradamus...