The Sykes-Picot Agreement and the making of the modern Middle East

 https://theconversation.com/the-sykes-picot-agreement-and-the-making-of-the-modern-middle-east-58780

The mainstay of the plan was that France and Great Britain were prepared to recognise and protect an independent Arab state, or confederation of Arab states – in exchange for Arab help in overthrowing the Ottoman Empire.

Conflicting promises

To get a sense of the broken promises, it’s worthwhile comparing the Sykes-Picot Agreement to two other contemporary documents. These are the McMahon-Hussein letters and the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Sir Henry McMahon was the British high commissioner in Egypt and Hussein bin Ali was the Sharif of Mecca. In letters they exchanged between 1915 to 1916, Britain clearly agreed to recognise Arab independence after the first world war, in exchange for Arab help in fighting the Ottomans.

The Arabs regarded McMahon’s promises as a formal agreement, which it may very well have been. The boundaries proposed by Hussein included Palestine. But this area was not explicitly mentioned in the McMahon–Hussein correspondence.

Confusing the issue was the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which promised British support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. Part of this very short text reads as follows:

His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object…

These conflicting promises remained at the heart of the impasse between two distinct nationalist groups in Mandate Palestine: the Zionists and the Arabs, later to be renamed Israelis and Palestinians.

Sykes-Picot: The map that spawned a century of resentment

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36300224

 The Sykes-Picot agreement conflicted directly with pledges of freedom given by the British to the Arabs in exchange for their support against the collapsing Ottomans.

Sykes–Picot Agreement

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement

The agreement is seen by many as a turning point in Western and Arab relations. It negated the UK's promises to Arabs[9] regarding a national Arab homeland in the area of Greater Syria in exchange for supporting the British against the Ottoman Empire. The agreement, along with others, was made public by the Bolsheviks[10] in Moscow on 23 November 1917 and repeated in the British Guardian on 26 November 1917, such that "the British were embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted".[11][12][13] The agreement's legacy has led to much resentment in the region, among Arabs in particular but also among Kurds who were denied an independent state.[14][15][16][17]

Timeline: Six key moments that shaped Jerusalem

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/18/middleeast/jerusalem-original-series-faith-and-fury-timeline/index.html

By the start of World War I, Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with Germany.

On the other side stood the British Empire, which "badly wanted to control the Holy Land, to bring it under Christian influence at a time of Ottoman Islamic rule," says Bruce Hoffman, the Director of the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University.

As the war unfolded, there was born what at first appeared an alliance, as Arabs in revolt against their Ottoman rulers found support from the British.

In reality, says Ali Qleibo, an anthropologist and writer for This Week in Palestine magazine, Arab rebels hoping to come out from under Ottoman rule "were lured and lied to by Britain. They thought it's simply liberation; they did not know it was preparatory for an occupation."

Britain struck a secret deal with France called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which "essentially divided [the Ottoman Empire] of the Middle East into a British part, including most of Iraq, Jordan and Palestine, and a French part, which included Lebanon, Syria and part of Turkey," Mourad says.

Twitter temporarily suspends Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for vaccine misinformation

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/19/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-twitter-ban/index.html

 The Georgia Republican has tried to make a name for herself being an outsider and a rabble-rouser and routinely uses parliamentary procedures to slow down House floor business, much to the dismay of her colleagues.

But the tactics have helped her win support on the far right. In April, her campaign announced she had raised $3.2 million in the first three months in office -- an astonishing amount for a freshman member.

Israel Warns Unilever Chief Over Ben & Jerry’s Boycott

 https://time.com/6081709/israel-unilever-ben-jerrys-boycott/

 According to NBC News, Anuradha Mittal, the chair of the ice cream maker’s board of directors, said the statement Unilever released on its behalf, which says that Ben & Jerry’s will stay in Israel, wasn’t approved by the panel she oversees, as it should have been.

“I am saddened by the deceit of it,” Mittal said, according to NBC. “This is not about Israel. It is about the violation of the acquisition agreement that maintained the soul of the company.”

In a separate statement, Unilever said it has always recognized the right of Ben & Jerry’s and its board to take decisions about its social mission, and welcomes the fact that the ice cream brand will stay in Israel.

Kuzari Principle

 https://ohr.edu/3577

The Jewish claim to truth is based on the idea that G-d revealed Himself to the entire people at Sinai which was an experience so great and so intense and so unanimously experienced by all that it could not have been made up. This imparted in the Jewish people an unswerving commitment to the belief in G-d. Subsequently they may have lapsed into rebelling against His will, but their acceptance of G-d’s existence was not questioned.

Compare this to other religions’ claim to truth based on the spiritual experiences or insights of one person, or of just a small group of people. This experience cannot be corroborated in any way by others. Of course, the experience may have happened. But the difference is that translating the experience of the individual to a national “belief” is based solely on faith in that individual and accepting his claims despite having no other verification.

As Delta Variant Spreads, House Republicans Keep Spreading Opposition to Vaccines

 https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/71921 

As the dangerous Delta variant spreads, filling hospital beds with unvaccinated Americans and jeopardizing hard-won progress toward ending the pandemic, Kevin McCarthy’s House GOP is doubling down on stoking misinformation and opposition to life saving vaccines.

The increasingly Republican pandemic

 https://news.yahoo.com/increasingly-republican-pandemic-184318917.html

The Associated Pressreported last week that of the 18,000 American COVID-19 deaths in May, only 150 involved fully vaccinated people — and that "breakthrough" infections of vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of the 853,000 COVID-related hospitalizations during the month. Those low numbers suggest the pandemic death rate "could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine," the news service concluded.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of vaccine holdouts. As David Leonhardt points out today at TheNew York Times, the refusers are trending Republican: The average county that voted for Donald Trump is just 34 percent vaccinated; the number is 45 percent for counties that went for Joe Biden. And unsurprisingly, the counties that have a low proportion of vaccinations have higher rates of new cases.
It's here where you have to consider if Tucker Carlson holds the power of life and death — or, at least, good health or ill — over his nearly 3 million conservative viewers.

As failure follows failure, coalition in uphill battle against inexperience

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-failure-follows-failure-coalition-in-uphill-battle-against-inexperience/

 The failures came in quick, maddening succession. One bill after another crashed in the Knesset plenum, sometimes from laughable and embarrassing errors by coalition lawmakers. Some pundits labeled it the worst string of legislative losses incurred by any ruling coalition in the Knesset’s history.

Ben & Jerry’s joins long list of failed 'boycotts' of Israel - analysis

https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/ben-and-jerrys-joins-long-list-of-failed-boycotts-of-israel-analysis-674391 

 The desire to boycott Israel has existed since the country was created in 1948, but what is left of the “boycott” movement today appears to mostly be some privileged activists in the West.

Ben & Jerry’s board in dispute with owners Unilever over remaining in Israel

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-jerrys-board-in-dispute-with-owners-unilever-over-complete-israel-pullout/

 A statement Monday by Ben & Jerry’s that it will no longer distribute its products in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” but will remain in Israel was released by the company’s owner, Unilever, without consulting with the ice cream maker’s board — which had intended to put out a different statement that made no mention of committing to continue doing business with the Jewish state, Ben & Jerry’s chairman Anuradha Mittal told NBC News.

While many companies and countries have differentiated between Israel and its settlements in the West Bank, a complete boycott of Israel by a major Western company has been almost unheard-of in recent years.

Mittal said the board had been pushing for years to stop selling its products in settlements and intended to release a different statement from the one Unilever put out. NBC, which reviewed the intended statement, said it made no mention of remaining in Israel and focused on Ben & Jerry’s commitment to social justice causes.

I grew up in the same community as the star of Netflix’s ‘My Unorthodox Life.’ Here’s what I wished she remembered.

https://forward.com/scribe/473098/i-grew-up-in-the-same-community-as-the-star-of-netflixs-my-unorthodox-life/ 

 Can I call you Talia? The same Talia the young me watched in total awe, dancing and leading her way thru our high school concerts? The Talia that headlined so many local Monsey events leaving her audience in stitches with her comedic genius? The beautiful and graceful and oh so well dressed Talia that walked the streets of Monsey (incidentally, the streets in your first episode are Boro Park, not Monsey, you might want to fix that teeny, tiny error). So Talia, is it ok if I refer to you as that, that girl, the one I remember?

20% of Americans believe the conspiracy theory that microchips are inside the COVID-19 vaccines, says YouGov study

 https://news.yahoo.com/20-americans-believe-conspiracy-theory-115206203.html

A new study has found that 1-in-5 Americans believe that it is "definitely true" or "probably true" that there is a microchip in the COVID-19 vaccines.

The study by YouGov in conjunction with The Economist has found that 30-44-year-olds are most likely to believe this widely debunked conspiracy, with 7% of people from this age group saying that it is "definitely true" and 20% of them saying it is "probably true."

Less than half of people surveyed (46%) said that it is "definitely false."