Everyone loses in the ‘Blame Game’

Nobody, no non-terrorist government Sunni, Shite, Muslim, Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian wants the Gaza Strip, wants to govern, provide well-being (education, medical services), to enable Gaza Strip residents. 

The UN, the “humane” West, the Middle Eastern oil-rich nations have for decades witnessed, cast aspersions then seemingly ignored the distress of Gaza — a misplaced, abandoned tiny, poverty-dense place and people.

Gaza is the exact land size of Las Vegas having a population somewhat more than Phoenix and somewhat less than Houston. It is one of the most densely populated areas on earth.

Imagine Las Vegas being the focus of the world. Imagine Las Vegas unwanted by Nevada, or California just 50 miles away or by the United States its “home” base. 

Imagine Las Vegas a leper colony with diasporic peoples in 58 refugee camps dispersed about the region — one third of Palestinians have lived in refugee camps for over 50 years. Fifty-five percent of Gaza residents live in eight “refugee camps” in Gaza itself. With 48% under 18 with a mere 3% over 65, refugee camps have been the only home to generations of Gazans.

Occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967, Gaza was Israeli occupied from 1967 until the Oslo Accords in 1993 created the Palestinian National Authority with territories in Gaza and the West Bank. 

In 2005, the last public election in Gaza was won by Hamas — no elections have been held since. In 2008. the Palestinian Authority after an Israeli-Hamas conflict refused to accept Gaza into its constituents — this Authority left Gaza to Hamas, left them untethered to the West Bank. 

A sizable, though not majority Bibi/Sharon segment of Israelis sanctioned illegal settlements in the West Bank, proffered Hamas buy offs, and engaged in Kushner heel and spit diplomacy. No one, no nation is without blame.

Headlines, protests, outrage burns across the globe particularly in the Middle East and in intellectual bastions of words without deeds, without balance, thwarting peace. 

Ambitious, aggressive politicians everywhere seize the platform of terror and brutal militarism for their own gain — their own justifications and fear mongering. Hamas terrorized Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel has promised retaliatory devastation. The world isn’t broken so much as cowardly, fecklessly riveted on blame vs. restorative co-existence.

 

“Our task is not to fix blame for the past, but to fix the course for the future.”

 —John F. Kennedy

Latest News

Packed house hears Hitchcock estate golf course pre-application

Dozens of people crowded into the courthouse at the Washington Town Hall on Reservoir Drive in Millbrook on Tuesday, Oct. 7, to watch a pre-application meeting between Planning Board members and representatives of Centaur Properties LLC. David Blatt and Henry Hay of Centaur Properties LLC described their plan to build an 18-hole golf course with limited membership and residences on the historic 2,000-acre Hitchcock estate.

Photo by Nathan Miller
"This is nothing like Silo Ridge," said Centaur Properties co-founder Henry Hay. "This is Buckingham Palace to a craphouse. It's completely different. It's much higher quality."

MILLBROOK — Dozens of residents of the Town of Washington packed into the courtroom in Town Hall on Reservoir Drive for a standing-room-only regular meeting of the Planning Board on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Well over three-quarters of the crowd were there to listen in to a pre-application meeting between Planning Board members and representatives of Centaur Properties LLC, a New York City-based development company that’s proposing an 18-hole golf course, equestrian facilities and luxury residential development on the 2,000-acre Hitchcock estate.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stanford home market sees nine sales in July and August

Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.

Christine Bates

STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.

At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dutchess County Sheriff’s Report
Village of Millerton offices on Route 22
John Coston

Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Harlem Valley area activity reportSept. 18 to Sept. 30.

Sept. 23 — Deputies responded to 1542 State Route 292 in the Town of Pawling for the report of a suspicious vehicle at that location. Investigation resulted in the arrest of Sebastian Quiroga, age 26, for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree. Quiroga to appear in the Town of Pawling court at a later date.

Keep ReadingShow less
Out on the trail
Nathan Miller

Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.