this is just a little bit of historical fiction that i was thinking about as i was having a smoke.

i was thinking about something i typed somewhere, about how any kind of serious cold war monument would have to recognize the struggle of the cuban and angolan freedom fighters against the apartheid regime. that's loaded language. but that's also the correct and necessary language - perhaps toned down only by a miniscule degree. the cubans and their communist allies would need to be recognized as being on the correct side of history in that struggle, however complex the situation may have been.

it got me to thinking that you really have to put apartheid in the context of the cold war, and we never do that, here. so, we don't really understand it, because we don't put it in context. at the bottom line of everything else, the new british empire - and remember that south africa was a reasonably important british colony - had to maintain an imperialist friendly regime in the face of russian interests in the region. finding some way to transition power that was acceptable to the british would have meant ensuring that there were no communist-friendly elements, and that was a non-starter for decades. it's not a coincidence that the anc took over at the same time as the collapse of communism, allowing for eventual effective western co-option in the absence of any meaningful russian influence.

so, then how does that lesson apply to israel? well, it would suggest that any effective strategy would have to remove israel's strategic usefulness to the british imperialists. that is at the core of the issue. the americans will only change their policy relating israel when maintaining control of israel is no longer such a pressing geostrategic necessity. this is related to oil. so, the solution is oil independence - or fossil fuel abandonment.

that got me to thinking about the fracking push in the united states....