It does look like Israel will be hard pressed to continue the bombing campaign after the ceasefire ends. If it had successfully driven Hamas out of northern Gaza, it would be easy for the Israeli army to go in and take the whole place, but it seems central Gaza City is still very much a fortress that could hold out for a couple of months.

Since Hezbollah and Iran seem determined to stay out, it seems there will be a stalemate, that is going to be hard on Israel diplomatically and domestically. Both in political and economic terms.

What this might do, is set up a situation where people do have to sit back and begin to think through why the crazies and the crooks seem to be getting all the power.

A thought running through my mind today, that I might try working into an essay, is the role Jewish monotheism has played in Western culture.

Consider that when monarchy started to break down, of which monotheism served as the eschatological basis, with the Renaissance and Enlightment, it wasn't to the ancient Jews and the Old Testament the West turned to, but the Greeks.

There isn't a Jewish Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

The Old Testament is basically history and political intrigues, aka, old news. Yet it is safe to say that Greeks are not inherently smarter than Jews.

I think a big part of it had to do with geography.

Greece is like Europe in miniature. It is a fairly broken up area, where all the city states were fairly well encapsulated in their areas, islands, valleys, etc.

So they could afford political diversity and factionalization.

Remember that Socrates primary attribute was simply the tendency to question everything and everybody. To the point he had to drink the hemlock. Which is the basis of rationalization and logic. When we are forced to think outside the ruts we have developed for ourselves and look at alternatives, the mind opens up and realizes it isn't all one's own rabbit hole/cave.

While Israel, that east coast of the Mediterranean, is relatively open, with few real territorial delineations. Therefore the tribes of that area, like much of Asia, had to develop societies with different priorities.

For one thing, factionalization and division would only invite the neighboring tribes to come calling, killing, stealing and raping. So then the need for that slightly megalomaniacal tribal spirit is a necessary attribute. My God is bigger than your God.

The problem is that while the intellectual descendants of Socrates have gifted us with weapons far more destructive than chariots and bronze tipped spears, our sociological growth has been stunted by political forces. Basically by the needs of our elites to maintain a pliable and cooperative citizenry, thus bowing to that tribal deity/narrative and not arguing over everything. We call them conspiracy theorists now, though they used to be called heretics.

Yet we seem to have reached the end of that rope, as the wheels are seriously coming off that train. Now it's asking questions time again.