Patriots and terrorists

 

Only the future will tell whether Hamas was the vanguard of patriotism that liberated Palestine or a band of terrorist. Only the future will tell if Israel carried out a genocide or was the expression of the European democratic garden in the Middle East.

 

The difference between a terrorist and a patriot is the difference between defeat and victory. The difference between a terrorist and patriot is control of the press and the story.

Historians knows it even if they don’t always say it. The Spanish resisters to the French occupier in 1808, those shot on May 2, the people of Madrid who attacked the French soldiers with knives, were terrorist in the eyes of the enlightened occupier. The children of the French Revolution against the “long live the chains” of the Spanish. Democracy against religious fundamentalism like now in the Middle East, right?

In that war of independence, the Spanish also invented the terrorist military technique par excellence: the guerrilla. It could well be said that ww Spaniards are the mothers and fathers of modern terrorism. But we ended up driving out French, so on May 2 Ayuso remind us again that Madrid is Spain for having expelled Napoleon and the Frech people from the country.

Washington, Bolivar or San Martin went down in history as patriots because they won, in the same way that the hero of the black Jacobins of the Haitian revolution. Toussaint Louverture, died forgotten in a French prison. That’s the story. Don´t look for justice in it.

Nelson Mandela is the father of South African nation because the African National Congress defeated, even partially, its enemies. But Mandela, before being the father of the country, was a imprisoned communist terrorist.

The Battle of Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo, was banned in France for years because it told many truths about politics, about colonialism, about patriotism and about terrorism. “Give us your planes and we will give you our baskets” the head of the Algerian National Front respond in the film when Western journalists ask him why they are attacking French civilians in the European quarter of Algiers. Arrested, tortured and executed by French paratroopers. Ben M’hidi was a terrorist. When Algeria was finally free, he became another father of the country.

In these days Hamas has taken a very important step in the eyes of the international community. Yesterday they were unscrupulous terrorists, their human condition was not even recognized. Today they sit at the same table with representatives of the Government of Israel and agree on a ceasefire. It has cost them more than 14,000 deaths, including almost 6,000 children. Worth? That question has never made sense to understand the history of humanity.

All homeland, all political system, even democratic ones, are built on murder. The great victory over Nazifacism was also built with the bombing against civilians in Dresden and with the humiliation of the racial pride of German women to which the Soviet and Jewish intellectual Ilya Ehrenburg appealed, addressing the soldiers of the Red Army advancing towards Berlin. And as a bonus, two atomic bombs form American democracy arrived on Japan.

Hamas once again acquires belligerent status when it is recognized as an interlocutor by Israel to negotiate a ceasefire. Was it worth it? A human arch that is horrified every time social networks show us children’s corpses tells us no, but the history of humanity, which in recent centuries is a history of terrorist and patriots, reminds us that this question does not have much sense to understand history and politics.

Only the future will tell if Hamas was the vanguard of patriotism that liberated Palestine or a band of terrorists fanatical about Islam. Only the future will tell if Israel was a colonial and criminal theocracy that carried out a genocide against the Palestinian people or the expression of the European democratic garden in the Middle East.

But rest assured that the future will be on thousands of corpses, to the grater glory of patriots and terrorists.

David Benavidez overwhelms Demetrius Andrade and cries out for Canelo

 

David Benavidez Knocked out Demetrius Andrade and hit another blow on the table to face the sports star, the Mexican Canelo Álvarez

David Benavidez passed like a cyclone over Demetrius Andrade until forcing him to throw in the towel at the end of the sixth round to retain his interim super middleweight title of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and remain the mandatory challenger of Canelo Álvarez.

At the Michelob Ultra Arena, located at the Mandala Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, “El Monstruo” improved his record to 28-0-0, 24 KO’s and destroyed the self-esteem and undefeated status of “BooBoo” Andrade (32-1-0, 19 KO’s), who was looking for a title in a third weigh division.

The outcome of the contest came after finishing the sixth round. Referee Thomas Taylor approached the corner to confirm the challenger’s condition and one of his trainers informed him that his fighter would not come out for the seventh round.

In what was announced as a clash of styles that could go to the end between undefeated 168-punders, Benavidez had a dominant performance from the second round onward, which increased in fourth round with a Knockdown thanks to a powerful right hook.

Benavidez is widely recognized as the best super middleweight in the world after Canelo Alvarez, undisputed monarch of the division. Immediately after his victory he called for a fight against Canelo to finish determining in the ring who is the best.

CM PUNK returned to WWE after nine years

 

CM Punk reappeared this Saturday in a surprising way at the end of the WWE Survivor Series after nine years absence

 

The popular and polarizing professional wrestling star reappeared at the end of the WWE Survivor Series show on Saturday night in his hometown of Chicago. Punk’s appearance was a complete surprise and very well-kept secret.

After the stellar moment of the evening. Punk’s entrance song “Cult of Personality” was played, and he entered the arena before the program went off the air. Punk, with the crowd roaring in disbelief, knelt in his signature pose and shouted, “It’s clobbering ‘time!

Last August, Punk was fired from the top competition of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), after an altercation with fighter Jack Perry. Punk had been in AEW for two years, a time plagued by injures and severe physical confrontations. Punk was a two-time AEW champion and became the biggest moneymaker in the promotion, despite his problems.

It’s unclear what the plans are for Punk, but his return to WWE is certainly news to the wrestling world. Punk is one of the biggest starts the wrestling industry has ever seen in the last two decades.

“This was one of those stellar moment that came very quickly”, WWE content bureau chief Paul “Triple H”. Levesque said at the post-event press conference. “But we’re incredibly excited about this. It’s been a long time. In some ways, it’s been a long time coming. You can say this about CM Punk: love him, hate him, positive, negative, whatever you want to say. People talk about him all over the place. “He’s a magnet. He is the one who starts a conversation and it’s hard to ignore that”.

Levesque posted a phone with Punk on his “X” (before Twitter) account on Saturday night.

Punk left WWE in 2014 on very bad terms. First he argued that he had health problems, later he received the news of his dismissal on his wedding day. That year, he later signed  contract with UFC where he fought a couple of times, a situation that led him to give up wrestling for seven years, prior to his return with AEW in 2021.

Chris Aman, WWE’s medical officer, sued Punk comments the wrestler ade on a podcast in 2014, where he discussed the treatment he received from Aman and the WWE as a whole.

Punk and Levesque had personal problems during their time in WWE.

Levesque said Saturday that if you were the same person as 10 years ago, “you would be wrong”.

“Everyone grows, changes”, Levesque said. “I am different person, he is a different person. This is a different company. We’re all in the same place, even at the same starting point. What’s next for CM Punk? That’s going to be interesting, right? I myself interested in meeting him”