I haven’t commented publicly on the current Israel-Hamas-Palestine conflict, as my intellectual focus is more in the environmental/natural science realms and not in the geopolitical realm, though these realms are all connected to some degree. Like many others, I was and am currently horrified at the extreme violence that occurred in Israel on October 7th and has been occurring in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since October 7th. I agree with the thinkers/journalists that stated that it was surprising and suspicious that Israel did not “see” the attack coming despite warnings from Egyptian Intelligence and possibly even the CIA of the USA. I have a bit of a geographical information systems (GIS) background and it is surprising and suspicious to me that the heavily technological IDF did not have a military GIS system in place that would have alerted them almost instantaneously about breaches in the wall around Gaza on October 7th. The parallels of this attack to the 9/11 attacks and subsequent War on Terror have been covered extensively already in the alternative media.

It is encouraging to see that 120 counties of the UN voted for a ceasefire with regards to the current Israel-Palestine conflict in October, despite having the resolution vetoed by certain countries (e.g. the USA). A step for many of us as individuals who feel powerless and want to do something else to de-escalate the current trajectory to a much wider conflict is to take our money out of the defense companies abetting the current conflict. I found this organization online that is working toward this goal: https://www.divestfromwarmachine.org/, though I’m not sure how effective it has been.

The defense companies Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Textron, etc. have all delivered weaponry to the State of Israel as they commit the extreme destruction of the Gaza Strip and even killings in the West Bank (note: I see the State of Israel chain of command as the problem here, not the people of the Jewish faith). Also, the US military left behind billions of dollars worth of these defense companies weaponry in the Middle East that subsequently made it into the black market and then into the hands of militant groups in Syria (confirmed) and possibly even Hamas (speculation). In addition, while some people argue that these defense companies are important in keeping Americans and Israelis “safe” from terrorism, it should be noted that these defense companies and governments have not even treated their own employees very well in the past, especially during the Covid debacle. Many working in these defense companies were forced to undergo mandatory vaccination with the experimental Covid injections, or were forced out of their jobs if they refused. In a similar vein, many ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel were also forced to vaccinate by their government despite their intuitive misgivings of the experimental injections. It has become increasingly apparent to many that these companies and governments have been inflicting harm on their own people without much of a chance for justice for the victims.

Back in 2019, I got out of the stock market and for the past few years I have been trying to decide where best to ethically invest my savings (e.g. solar panel companies, organic farms, food-coop, etc.). It is difficult to ethically invest in this world but anything along those lines seems to be a step in the right direction. If you have a 401k or IRA with some investments in defense companies and want to put pressure on the geopolitical entities involved in the current major conflict to initiate a ceasefire, then taking your money out of these companies will send a strong signal, maybe even stronger than protesting. It is sickening that the stock prices of some of these companies have gone up significantly since October 7th while civilians are being slaughtered and severely injured by aerial bombardment. CNBC actually published an article on this topic a few days ago.

Like I commented before in April 2022 on the Russia-Ukraine-NATO conflict, war destroys or damages natural/real wealth (lifeforms, waterways, fertile soil, etc.) and increases the fake wealth of the military industrial complex (bank account balances, stocks). Also, groups of people have had and will always have disagreements but with modern weaponry (long range missiles, airstrikes by drone, etc.) these disagreements lead to horrific violence that does not seem in any way honorable. Here’s hoping that some kind of peace agreement comes to fruition soon in regards to the current major conflict.