Armageddon outta here

+BBC Radio 4’s ‘Profiles’ programme is a short (20 minute) look at somebody who is in the news, and yesterday it was the turn of Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister of Israel. It generally gave one the impression that Bennett is the product of a decent education, a proud military record, an entrepreneur (a self-made multi millionaire no less) and a patriot. There was a brief mention of his racism (reference a comment he made about Arabs still in the trees when Jews were building Israel) and his colonial ambitions (further Jewish settlements and annexation of Palestinian land) but those points were generally subsumed in a narrative of his being an unlikely successor to Netanyahu, given that Bennett’s party only won seven seats in the Knesset last time round. The upshot was that due to the complex nature of the new government coalition, Bennett’s extreme politics will have to be put on hold for a while. Phew! What irked me about this ‘profile’ was its presentation of this man as somehow normal, perhaps somebody like our own prime minister who occasionally (in Johnson’s case) lets slip his Islmaphobia in a jokey sort of way but whose government by its actions demonstrates a willingness to tolerate racist policies (a ‘hostile environment’). This ‘Profile’ could have given us a quite different picture of Israel’s new PM which would have been truthful but—tut-tut—utterly devastating. I doubt that would have been allowed. Just as the latest (post ceasefire) bombings of Gaza merited little attention. The filtering and exorcism of the Palestinian tragedy continues at Broadcasting House.
 
+This is too big a coincidence to ignore. Yesterday evening I went for a short walk around the town and noticed that somebody had been plastering the place with leaflets proclaiming the Good News—or the Bad News—I’m not sure which, although if you are one of the Chosen come Rapture it’s bound to be at least a bit of Good News (depending maybe on whether your nearest and dearest are sinners or not). Having just considered the strange case of Naftali Bennett, whose reign given half the chance could fulfil the Biblical prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and hence the End of Times, I can only surmise the worst. As the leaflet says ‘this [the End of Times] is too big to ignore.’ The trouble is, when something is too big to ignore, most people in their powerlessness will do precisely that, as we have generally seen with climate change. Anyway, you have been warned. Prepare yourself and be sure to be fully vaccinated.