(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Florida's trying to ignore obvious threats; they're closer to hand in Britain • Florida Phoenix [1] ['Diane Roberts', 'Craig Pittman', 'More From Author', 'May', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img'] Date: 2024-05-28 LONDON — Social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and cellphones notwithstanding, Americans often find it hard to be interested in the world beyond our borders. Unless, of course, people that don’t look or sound like us are actually crossing our borders; then, we pay attention. But while the horrors of Gaza have grabbed the attention especially of young people, the U.S. feels comfortably distant from the horrors of the rest of the planet. We have our own horrors, thank you very much. But here in Britain, you don’t have the luxury of ignoring what’s going on in other countries. The distance from Kyiv to the south coast of England is about 1,200 miles, which sounds like a lot until you consider that’s not even Tallahassee to Boston — and those two towns are in the same country. But should Putin prevail in Ukraine, he could get tanks to Warsaw in less than 10 days. Then to Berlin in less than two days. Then on to the shores of the North Sea where, on a clear day, you can see the White Cliffs of Dover. Everyone in Britain understands that if Putin were to strike a NATO nation, there would be a war, and it would be fought on European soil. There are some crazy people in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, but none like the breathtakingly stupid Marjorie Taylor Greene, who thinks Putin would stop his imperialistic march if he takes Ukraine. The memory of World War II, as well as the Cold War, lives on. Bombings When I moved here as a student in 1981, we all worried about a nuclear strike — from the U.S. or the USSR. We worried about IRA bombing campaigns, too — throughout the 1980s, the IRA hit parks, department stores, and, in 1984, the hotel in Brighton where most of the British cabinet was staying for the Conservative Party Conference. It was frightening. I learned not to walk close to a parked white van or stand near a trash can (a favorite place for the IRA to plant explosives). That was a local problem: The global problem, a potential mushroom cloud, was far more nightmare-inducing and felt far too much like a realistic possibility. The USSR had invaded Afghanistan, Ronald Reagan talked of the “evil empire,” and Margaret Thatcher, maybe the most virulent of anti-communists, accused Russia of seeking “world domination.” The British had nuclear weapons, which was scary enough, but Thatcher invited the U.S. to park nuclear cruise missiles at two RAF bases. This did not make anyone feel safer. If there was a war, Britain would surely be hit. Nobody thinks the Gaza war will spread as far as Europe, but it doesn’t feel remote, either. It’s personal to many Americans, I know; it’s also personal to many Brits. And with a general election coming on July 4, the major political parties here will find out just how personal. The U.K. has been involved with the aspirations of both Jews and Palestinians for their own lands for more than a century, what with the British Empire controlling much of the Middle East as the Ottoman Empire lost power. In 1917, the British Foreign Office issued the famous Balfour Declaration promising Jews a “national home.” There’s still debate over whether they meant an independent Jewish state or some kind of autonomous territory in what was then universally known as Palestine. Decades of conflict The Balfour Declaration also said, “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” In any case (and after much messiness) Israel was born in 1948 and the Palestinians were dispossessed. The resulting decades of conflict and death illustrate the problem with using a 3,000-year-old book of stories as a roadmap to statehood. Non-Jewish Americans don’t know much about the background: how the British more or less drew the lines that created Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other nations in the region. Americans have tended to support Israel no matter what. Politically influential evangelicals (lots of them are in Congress, remember) think the Second Coming will kick off with the birth of a red heifer which will (somehow) enable the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, at which point Jesus shows up. Despite Messianic prophecy, U.S. support for Israel is dropping like a stone. Same in the U.K. Turns out genocide is not popular on either side of the Atlantic. But here the sense of historical guilt is palpable across the political spectrum. These reverberations still shake not just governments in the Middle East but here, too. An MP accused of antisemitism could lose his or her seat. On the other hand, if a candidate for office is seen as anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim, he or she might also be in trouble. The Labour Party won big in recent local elections but lost significant support amongst Muslim voters because its leaders refused to call for an immediate and total ceasefire. Ground Zero Back in my dear, unavoidable Florida, Ron DeSantis is simultaneously stomping around trying to prove he’s the most pro-Israel guy on the entire planet while ignoring dangers to the planet. He just scrubbed any mention of climate change from Florida law. A friend in London asked me how this can be: I mean, everyone knows Florida is ground zero for sea level rise, ocean warming, and all the other monstrous effects of promiscuous carbon consumption. Tallahassee just got hit with three tornadoes, the whole state is experiencing the hottest temperatures on record, and predictions are that we’re likely to have a horrendous hurricane season. As an enraged meteorologist in Miami said, “Florida is on fire, underwater, and unaffordable,” yet “state government is rolling back climate change legislation and language.” Good plan, Ronbo. ‘Green targets’ There’s no way you can live in South Florida and refuse to admit the climate’s changing — despite the governor’s pronouncements. You can’t be in Britain for longer than a week and not personally experience the climate crisis. In 2023 and 2024, the U.K.’s had freakishly hard rains, killer floods, and weather so unnaturally warm when it should be cold that flora and fauna can’t figure out what season it is. Major highways are regularly shut down all over England and trains are delayed: They’re under water. Kind of like Fort Lauderdale. You really can’t ignore it. You can’t close your front door and pretend everything is fine. This is a small country. A small country with increasingly destructive storms. Republicans in the U.S. deny anthropogenic warming; the sitting Conservative government in Britain does not. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak even established “green targets” to achieve carbon zero by 2050. Then he reneged on them. Good plan, Rishi. This is one of many reasons why he’s projected to lose in a landslide. Much as I love being here in the U.K. — it’s supposed to be a sort of mental health break from Florida — it’s not uniformly relaxing. Flowers still bloom, cups of tea are still made, princesses still cut ribbons at new shopping centers, and Shakespeare plays are still performed. But too often it feels too much like a front line. The only rational response short-term? Head for the pub. [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/05/28/floridas-trying-to-ignore-obvious-threats-theyre-closer-to-hand-in-britain/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/