2026 a Brave New Year

1984 + 42

“In one combination or another, these three super-states [Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia] are permanently at war, and have been so for the past twenty-five years. War, however is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference. This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or more chivalrous. On the contrary, war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries…”

“To understand the nature of the present war – … – one must realise in the first place that it is impossible for it to be decisive.”

“… and the object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war.
(…) The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually the three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all. Everywhere there is the same pyramidal structure, the same worship of a semi-divine leader, the same economy existing by and for continuous warfare.
(…) it is necessary that the war should continue everlastingly and without victory.”

“When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity.

(…) Cut off from contact with the outer world, and with the past, the citizen of Oceania is like a man in interstellar space, who has no way of knowing which direction is up and which is down.”

“The war, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. (…) It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair.”

George Orwell, 1984

Lo and behold, in March 2026 about eighty percent of our visitors are from Asia (China, Singapore…). 10% from North America. 5% from France, 2% from Germany. 1% from Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands. Interesting shift, compared to what it was in 2024 and 2025.

The historical hinge between the continents, Palestine-Israel, has been cruelly battered from the end of 2024 till the end of 2025. The whole gate frame is now burning, from Lebanon again to Iran. There are rising concerns about the prices of oil all over.

Oil prices ‘could breach $100 a barrel within days’ amid supply disruption from Iran war
It already means crucial rising fuel prices and higher transportation fees for millions. They now are above. World economy is at grave risk, has warned the UN chief.

Sadly, this is all trivial, compared to the death of 165 schoolgirls and the maiming of dozens under bombing in a primary school in Southerneast Iran, on the last day of February 2026. Nobody outside their families will know or remember their names. They’ve been turned into fractions of abstract numbers.

July 12, 2026

Trend in visitors four months later : 36% from Asia, 24% from North America, 9% from France, 8% from Germany, 5% from the Netherlands, 2% from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg…

‘Dear God, please forgive us
We know not what we do’
Prayer of a Child, Clapton

‘God does not bless any conflict’: pope issues new rebuke over Iran war
Marina Dunbar, The Guardian, April 10, 2026

Do you know there are no birds left in Gaza City ? No trees either.

Where there used to be palm trees aplenty, eucalyptus, fig-trees, nice gardens where ordinary people would grow their own, now all you have is heaps of rubble, fields of ruins.
What is being done about it ? By the Board of Peace, the neighbours, the European Union ?
Who is blocking reconstruction, and what for ?

One million human beings are still living under tents and makeshift shelters.
Two million have been penned West of the ‘Yellow Line’, into 150 square kilometers of ruins.
You cannot swim either, as the sea is dangerous, heavily polluted from dirty waters, and hundreds of families survive under tents along the shore, in sordid promiscuity.

Access to water ? to electricity ?
Gaza faces deepening uncertainty and a severe humanitarian crisis
Najla M. Shahwan, The Jordan Times, July 4, 2026
Gaza residents say world forgot about Palestine tragedy after Iran war
Al Arabiya, July 4, 2026
In Gaza, thousands of missing people may never be identified
Emmanuel Haddad, L’Orient Today, July 8, 2026

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, armed settlers terrorize peasants, to force them to leave.
103 Nails on the Map: How Israel’s Government Is Burying the Two-state Solution
Matan Golan, Haaretz, June 30/July 1, 2026
UN agency records over 5,330 alleged settler attacks in West Bank since 2023
Yonah Jeremy Bob, The Jerusalem Post, July 9, 2026

What is being done about it ?
EU accused of dragging its feet over ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Jennifer Rankin, The Guardian, July 12, 2026

Is this about Gaza and the West Bank only ?
Are we ‘obsessing’ about one side of the story only ?
We just keep our ears open to all sources, be they from Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the USA, England, the United Nations…:

IDF reservists’ families show high rates of trauma symptoms, study finds
Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad, YNet News, July 1, 2026
Israeli military nearing breaking point without more manpower, IDF warns Knesset committee
Amir Bohbot, The Jerusalem Post, July 2, 2026
Rioting by Haredi extremists has caused NIS 600 million damage to Jerusalem light rail work
Sharon Wrobel, The Times of Israel, July 9, 2026

Parched Jordan fuming at Israeli refusal to renew expired water deal – report
Lazar Berman, The Times of Israel, July 7, 2026
As Its Deal With Israel Stalls, Lebanon Fears Being Stuck in Same Limbo as Gaza
Haaretz, July 8, 2026
Grim homecoming: Devastation greets Lebanon’s war-weary returnees
Nancy Sarkis, UN News, July 8, 2026

Global Economy, Hit by Iran War and Inflation, Faces Sharp Slowdown
Alan Rappeport, The New York Times, July 8, 2026
The World Is Cutting Ties With America. It’s Already Costing Us.
Jon Finer, The New York Times, July 12, 2026

Our assessment, after over a quarter of a century being deeply involved in what was once called ‘the Holy Land’, is that May and June 2026 have been the worst months since the Second Intifada, and some say since 1967. Due to the accumulated pressure of combined scourges in all directions.
From Gaza to Lebanon, to Syria, to Jordan, to Iran…
Take a look at the titles selected from the main media :
https://messageriesdelapaix.org/index.php/2026/05/01/media-may-2026/
https://messageriesdelapaix.org/index.php/2026/05/31/media-june-2026/

Now take a look at July :
https://messageriesdelapaix.org/index.php/2026/07/01/media-july-2026/

October 2023 was the deadliest flood the Land suffered ? The ensuing reaction has been the deadliest manmade earthquake, of unprecedented magnitude, and eruption, ever witnessed in these parts.

The endless Tit 4 Tat is what we get, with the usual trigger-happy deciders, masked actors, and hidden profiteers. Casualties are all collateral in their minds. People do not count, do they ? Human blood is of so little value – as long as it is blood from people who do not count.

All around in the West we have severe heat waves, hundreds dying from them, from Europe to America.
We all suffer from the sweltering heat. The skies have turned fiery and alarmingly pale.
The highest-ranking State servants and the richest could not care less, in their air-conditioned fortresses and limousines. The common people, all over, crawl nervously in angst and misery, wondering when it will end, if it ever does.

On top of that, the fog of war is getting thicker and more toxic by the days – Ukraine, Russia, Iran, US, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel… you name it.

‘When everybody is lying to you, the problem is not that you believe these lies, but that nobody believes in anything. A people who does not believe in anything cannot form an opinion. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. Such a people can be manipulated any way you choose.’ Hannah Arendt

Our task here is to restore this triple capacity – to think, to judge, and to act.

July 19, 2026

A week ago we sent the short update below to a handful of Nobel laureates in the US, the UK, the European Union, Switzerland, Norway.

As the US and Iran “edge closer to all-out war” (today’s New York Times), look at what news a week has brought :

European data record over 10,000 excess deaths during record-breaking heatwave
Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2026

Knesset passes law banning arrests of Haredi draft dodgers, legitimizing ongoing mass non-enlistment
Ariela Karmel, Charlie Summers, The Times of Israel, July 14, 2026

‘They want to break our will’: Gaza flotilla activist tells of rape in Israeli detention
Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian, July 15, 2026

Israel steps up campaign to kill all 5,000 Oct. 7 terrorists; 1,200 were killed on the day, 1,500 so far since
Emanuel Fabian, The Times of Israel, July 16, 2026

In infographics: How 4 months of Israeli attacks and war devastated Lebanon
Enzo Quenescourt, L’Orient Today, July 17, 2026

Bumps at Funerals, Lines in Bomb Shelters: Israel’s Wars Drive Israelis to Drugs
Liron Amir, Haaretz, July 17, 2026

Families in Gaza confront grief, seek stability amid slow recovery efforts 
Rahaf Abu Khadijeh, The Jordan Times, July 18, 2026

U.S. and Iran Edge Closer to Wider War After U.S. Service Members Killed
The New York Times, July 19, 2026